Nub indicates "I think we should all keep in mind, from what I could make out about the teleportation circle it's possible that we may be able to return here, but there's no guarantee. The enchantment that makes it possible to activate the circle with a word is powerful and difficult to achieve, and I don't really know its original intended purpose. I think that it's part of the original makeup of the castle, and the castle is very old. It's definitely not something the Cult of the Dragon put here." [Wink.]
"Well, what could go wrong? They probably don't think we know the word, know how to come through, and wouldn't be expecting us. Plus, it seems to be the only option. I've never teleported before, so it'd be fun to try!"
OOC: Soar is, again an optimist, and wouldn't come up with cautions here. But I also don't know what else we're meant to do here so I'd vote trying the circle. We're supposed to find out with the Cult's doing with the treasure, and this seems to be the only way to do it.
Nub casts Detect Magic as a ritual over the treasure, to try and find if anything is magical and will ritual cast Identify on anything he gets a ping from. He will then suggest that they go to the central tower again.
Absolutely no magical pings from any of the treasure.
You enter the central tower. The ground floor appears to be guest bedrooms. One has been occupied and recently, and hurriedly, vacated - you would guess by the mage Azbara Jos. The first floor above that is much the same, though dustier and seemingly not used recently.
The second floor has been converted into an astrological observatory. In the centre of the room, pointing through an open window, is a device that resembles a large telescope. Nub, your Detect Magic, though coming to its end, is still active, and you get a strong sense of divination magic from it - it is a powerful artifact, whatever it is.
"Should we try to look through it? Maybe it shows the lodge? Or some other place? Or maybe it just points into the swamp. I'll take a look." Soar looks around the room from where she stands for anything else of note, any places that seem disturbed, anything that might contain something hidden. Assuming nothing, she walks up to the telescope and looks through the looking end, if there is a looking end.
Soar, you look around but don't see anything that catches your eye. You look through the device.
The image is blurred at first but rapidly clears; this seems to be a magical device, and though it may also function as a regular telescope, at the moment it is pointed at the sky but is showing something quite different. A swamp. Most likely the Mere of Dead Man where you stand. An area of blighted land, poisoned and acid-drench, dead trees all around. Kobolds standing guard wearing black armour, looking around; they are small in the image, but what they are guarding is not. In the centre of the image, slumbering atop a mound that rises from the swamp, a large adult black dragon.
"It shows a very big black dragon. Sleeping, guarded by some kobolds. Somewhere in the Mere, lots of acid and dead trees around it. That statue was a black dragon, right Jalt? The skull one?"she looks a bit longer, seeing if anything changes. Then she steps back and turns to the group. "I don't know about taking on a black dragon right now. But maybe it'll come here when it wakes up. Shall we head to the teleportation circle?"
As Nub casts his spell for ten minutes, Soar continues to look through the device, and the black dragon continues to slumber.
Nub, this is a Farseer of Illusk, a device well over a hundred years old created by a venerated order of stargazers of Waterdeep. The device is used for observing and studying heavenly bodies but it can also be used in a manner similar to an arcane eye spell, to view any location within fifty miles.
Your investigation unfortunately does not give you much information about its sturdiness - it looks a bit fragile, and that's all you can say.
Nub reports what he has learned from the spell and indicates "So at least we know that the dragon is within fifty miles from here, not on another plane of existence. The device does not appear to be trapped, but it looks a bit fragile. Nate are you happy to try and remove it? I can assist you, but you seem to have steadier hands. We might try to get some more information first. We could possibly try to see what the three escapees are doing, or look at what is on the other side of the portal, or even just look around where the dragon is."
[From the identify spell does Nub get the sense that he can specify a person/place and it will jump to them? Alternatively, can one move the eye 30 ft, like in the spell?
Also, with Nub's training to come after the cult, I assume that he would know that black dragon = acid breath type?]
You can jump to a place if you are familiar with it, e.g. if you have seen it before, but not to a person. You can also use it to move as per the spell. I imagine that Nub and Jalt would both know that black dragons have acid breath, yes.
Jalt, you can see that the dragon does not appear to be chained.
Nub indicates "I think we should all keep in mind, from what I could make out about the teleportation circle it's possible that we may be able to return here, but there's no guarantee. The enchantment that makes it possible to activate the circle with a word is powerful and difficult to achieve, and I don't really know its original intended purpose. I think that it's part of the original makeup of the castle, and the castle is very old. It's definitely not something the Cult of the Dragon put here." [Wink.]
"Well, what could go wrong? They probably don't think we know the word, know how to come through, and wouldn't be expecting us. Plus, it seems to be the only option. I've never teleported before, so it'd be fun to try!"
OOC: Soar is, again an optimist, and wouldn't come up with cautions here. But I also don't know what else we're meant to do here so I'd vote trying the circle. We're supposed to find out with the Cult's doing with the treasure, and this seems to be the only way to do it.
Nate agrees with Soar "yeah... they probably don't know we know the password, so we will at least be able to surprise them. Probably......"
Nate would be on board with all of us standing in the portal and giving it a shot.
Are you headed to the teleportation circle right now?
Soar's up for going, but I don't want to jump ahead of Nub and Jalt. Nub wanted to check out the telescope (does the telescope seem new or old?).
Looks old and a bit fragile, but you can't tell for sure from here.
Nub casts Detect Magic as a ritual over the treasure, to try and find if anything is magical and will ritual cast Identify on anything he gets a ping from. He will then suggest that they go to the central tower again.
Absolutely no magical pings from any of the treasure.
You enter the central tower. The ground floor appears to be guest bedrooms. One has been occupied and recently, and hurriedly, vacated - you would guess by the mage Azbara Jos. The first floor above that is much the same, though dustier and seemingly not used recently.
The second floor has been converted into an astrological observatory. In the centre of the room, pointing through an open window, is a device that resembles a large telescope. Nub, your Detect Magic, though coming to its end, is still active, and you get a strong sense of divination magic from it - it is a powerful artifact, whatever it is.
"Should we try to look through it? Maybe it shows the lodge? Or some other place? Or maybe it just points into the swamp. I'll take a look." Soar looks around the room from where she stands for anything else of note, any places that seem disturbed, anything that might contain something hidden. Assuming nothing, she walks up to the telescope and looks through the looking end, if there is a looking end.
Soar, you look around but don't see anything that catches your eye. You look through the device.
The image is blurred at first but rapidly clears; this seems to be a magical device, and though it may also function as a regular telescope, at the moment it is pointed at the sky but is showing something quite different. A swamp. Most likely the Mere of Dead Man where you stand. An area of blighted land, poisoned and acid-drench, dead trees all around. Kobolds standing guard wearing black armour, looking around; they are small in the image, but what they are guarding is not. In the centre of the image, slumbering atop a mound that rises from the swamp, a large adult black dragon.
Soar describes what she sees, awed, pushing past fear. We haven't seen any blighted trees like this during our trek through the Mere, have we?
No, you haven't.
"It shows a very big black dragon. Sleeping, guarded by some kobolds. Somewhere in the Mere, lots of acid and dead trees around it. That statue was a black dragon, right Jalt? The skull one?" she looks a bit longer, seeing if anything changes. Then she steps back and turns to the group. "I don't know about taking on a black dragon right now. But maybe it'll come here when it wakes up. Shall we head to the teleportation circle?"
Nub indicates "We should try and take this with us. It would be extremely useful to be able to know what the dragon is doing at any given time."
Nub then ritual casts Identify on the telescope to figure out any details and then looks to see if it is safe to remove. Investigate 24
As Nub casts his spell for ten minutes, Soar continues to look through the device, and the black dragon continues to slumber.
Nub, this is a Farseer of Illusk, a device well over a hundred years old created by a venerated order of stargazers of Waterdeep. The device is used for observing and studying heavenly bodies but it can also be used in a manner similar to an arcane eye spell, to view any location within fifty miles.
Your investigation unfortunately does not give you much information about its sturdiness - it looks a bit fragile, and that's all you can say.
Nub reports what he has learned from the spell and indicates "So at least we know that the dragon is within fifty miles from here, not on another plane of existence. The device does not appear to be trapped, but it looks a bit fragile. Nate are you happy to try and remove it? I can assist you, but you seem to have steadier hands. We might try to get some more information first. We could possibly try to see what the three escapees are doing, or look at what is on the other side of the portal, or even just look around where the dragon is."
[From the identify spell does Nub get the sense that he can specify a person/place and it will jump to them? Alternatively, can one move the eye 30 ft, like in the spell?
Also, with Nub's training to come after the cult, I assume that he would know that black dragon = acid breath type?]
Is it chained? Jalt asks I find it odd that a dragon would be guarded by Kobolds. Jalt walks up to the telescope to get a better look of the situation
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
"Ive heard it both ways."
You can jump to a place if you are familiar with it, e.g. if you have seen it before, but not to a person. You can also use it to move as per the spell. I imagine that Nub and Jalt would both know that black dragons have acid breath, yes.
Jalt, you can see that the dragon does not appear to be chained.
Yeah if there are controls of any kind Soar would help Nub try to figure out how it works - happy to be a second set of hands...
Nate's eyes widen as he learns about the black dragon that they see through the telescope and generally what they are seeing through it.
"Hmmm... I wonder if what we are seeing through the telescope is this 'lodge' that the note referred to?"
"Yeah, sure I can try and remove it." Nate would try and examine it and try and determine the best way to remove it.
(What check to make to try and remove the telescope?)