Dragon of Icespire Peak ***CLOSED***

"You are very welcome Vaxis," Tink nods and smiles before turning to Tabesha'l.

"I'm always excited to experiment! Especially to find out ways to harness the arcane to further enhance the mechanical. As to the puzzle on how to lift multple people up at once...," Tink trails off as he considers the questions, "This solution may not be rooted in the arcane, but I think it should provide a sufficient solution. I could fasten ropes to Whisker here and loop it around one of the beams to mimic a pulley. Then provided we have the a weight of equal measure, we would be able to provide sufficient force to lift Whisker up with us. The same method can be applied to ensure each of us are lifted up to the top. I could possibly fashion a pulley of sorts given the time."

Minsys smiles and swiftly turns and starts running the the door.  He drops his maul low in a two handed grip as he does so.  At the last moment he swings his arms, shifts his hips and aims for where he assums the catch is on the door.

Attack: 27 Damage: 13

Tabesha'l smiles as she listens closely to Tink's technical considerations, then eventually points at the rest of the group:

" It would seem as if our companions have chosen a more... direct approach, albeit I think it may prove just as efficient. Shall we ?"

She gives a little curtsy, indicating the artificer should walk on ahead.

"Oh," Tink looks a little dissapointed, "Well I guess there is always time for testing all this out later. Onwards then."

Tink walks over to where Minsys is bashing down the door, "Perhaps I can try to open it? I'm am pretty skilled in opening things."

The mostly rotten doors tear off of their hinges and burst into the entrance hall in a shower of wooden splinters

"Knock, knock.  Anyone home?" Minsys calls out through the door."

Vaxis nostrils flare, frost seeping out, ready for anything. What will our adventurers find? More cultists? Or perhaps sweet old grandmothers, baking cookies.

Vaxis may never know.

" Hum, ah yes. Quite the stealthy approach, as always. Interesting." Tabesha'l says somewhat mockingly as she sends her Familiar another telepathic command.

" Creature ? Thou hath surely noticed that our party is intent on announcing our presence to whoever - or whatever - is inside these walls. Do be a dear, and do thy utmost to scout the location of hostile elements so as to avoid them unleashing woe upon our brave but mayhaps overly confident frontline fighters, yes ?  That will be all for now... unless thou decideth to try a few of thy tricks on our opponents of course. Feel free to be creative, as always."

Once again the mischievous smile sprouting from her lips is bordering on cruel as she finishes her command, before she turns towards the entrance with an innocent look.

The house remains eerily quiet after Minsys' sturdy "knock." After a few moments, Tabesha'l's familiar contacts her telepathically with a report on his findings inside the house: "Mistress, the northwest corner of the house, to include both floors seems to be clear of danger - dusty floorboards and moldering furniture seem to be the only occupants, although I dare say it could be possible that it is infested with mimics...now wouldn't that be fun, yes?"

Tabesha'l smiles at the familiar's comment. " Indeed. I thank thee, Arvi."

For a second, a cold shiver goes through her spine as she entertains the idea of keeping that information to herself. Now, having her group stepping forward to encounter mimics without being aware of the risk would be a great trick to play, wouldn't it ?

She grits her teeth as she realizes with a hot flush that this is not her, but her demonic familiar's influence ! Could Vaxis be right about it ? She soon shrugs it off, as she sends her Message towards the dragonborn:

" Do warn Minsys of the possibility of hidden mimics on the northwest side of the house: both floors on that side seems quiet from what my demon says, but as you know they are distinctly untrustworthy beings ! Do be careful..."

Minsys peers through the doorless portal to find a long, wide hall with a stair on the north side. Nearer to him than the stair is a doorway leading into the circular room at the northwest corner of the house. Its door has also been smashed in. From the main doorway, he can see the remains of the shattered door as well as broken remnants of chairs and side tables.

To his right, the south side of the hall features another smashed down door, leading out to what appears to a courtyard. At the far end of the entrance hall, Minsys can see through another doorless doorway into what appears to have been a dining room at one point. The furniture there has been smashed to bits as well, and the thought suddenly occurs to Minsys that for a female elven wizard to have (once) owned the place, there sure was a lot of smashing going on...which in his personal experience (and often to his dismay) is typically not how female elven wizards like to handle things.

As he stands their observing his surroundings, not a sound is heard, save for the light breeze tossing the trees to and fro in the forest behind him. No answer comes forth in response to his brash greeting.

"Yah, everything's been smashed.  Don't think the Elf lady did it.  Going in to look." He says.  He then hefts his maul and makes his way into what he expects is the dinning room.

Tink stops to look at the broken door and sighs, "That could have been an antique you know."

Then with a shrug she follows after Minsys with Whisker by her side.

As Minsys, Tink and W.H.I.S.K.E.R. walk cautiously through the front hall, the floor boards creak loudly under their weight and W.H.I.S.K.E.R.'s feline-esque claws clack loudly across the floor as she follows her creator into the manse.

As they enter the doorway to the room at the far (east) end of the entry hall, they find that the walls are covered with crude drawings in blood that depict boars chasing stick-figure humanoids. A smashed wooden dining table lies in a heap in the eastern half of the room, surrounded by six broken chairs. Amid the ruined furnishings, Tink sees something half-buried in the wreckage that appears more metallic than wooden, but she can't quite tell what the object is. A fireplace dominates the south side of the room. Minsys sees five small twig figurines resting on the mantelpiece that look oddly familiar, but he can't quite figure out why...

Connak moves up as much as possible, trying to stay in a position to attack any creature that attacks his party.  He'll also be keeping a watch behind, the way they came.

Vaxis and Tabesha'l hang back on the portico while Connak moves into the entryway, as if covering his reposition like a tactical strike team. From where he stands in the center of the hall, he can see clearly into the circular parlor, which is well lit from the sunlight beaming through three large bay windows at the front. The room is strewn with broken furniture — the remains of chairs, side tables, and a wine cabinet. A moldy circular rug covers most of the stone floor.

Connak can also see up the stairs to the second level, which is shoruded in shadows, although he detects some faint ambient light source emanating from coming somewhere deeper in the upstairs hall beyond the top of the staircase.

To his right, Connak can peer through the smashed exterior door into a large courtyard, which features several stone columns at the far end, where it opens up into the side yard. He can see the branches of a large tree that he judges must be growing in the center of the courtyard, but from where he currently stands, the exterior walls are blocking his view of the trunk of the tree.

Ahead of him, Connak sees Minsys and Tink in the dining room. Minsys is looking at something to his right while Tink is standing in front of another pile of destroyed furniture. As far as he can tell, no immediate threats are present and the manse remains quiet outside the creaking of the floorboards.

Minsys leans in a bit to see what the little stick figures are.  They looked familiar but how.  He reaches forward and touched one and then picked it up.

Investigation 18

While the rest of her party advances carefully into the ruined mansion, Tabesha'l feels a little pang of emotion at the thought she is about to enter a place where, Ages of Men since, her very own grandmother lived and breathed ! Even though the stories about Aerydesia are chilling, she can't help but wonder what sort of a woman she was. 

Bringing back her attention on the present moment, she sends a message to Arvi:

" Creature, thou shallt carry the might of my own Arcane and use it to feel the presence of Magic within these ruins. Go forth as I cast it presently !"

Tink carefully moves through the room with Whisker in tow, looking for clues and any possible traps that might have been laid in this place.

Investigation 23

Minsys looks closer at the straw figurines and realizes that they are crudely dressed to look like him and the others in the party! The one representing Tabesha'l has a small pointed wizards hat, the Vaxis doll has been painted a brilliant silvery-white and those of elven descent have exaggerated longer ears. One carries a bow which he believes must be Connak. Picking up his own figure, it is painted green and has only some patchwork burlap cloth around its waist similar to the legless breeches he is currently wearing.

He stares at it for a moment and slowly the doll's "head" begins to twist towards him and the frozen face of twigs animates and begins to scream as tiny arms start to chop at his face!

ROLLING INITIATIVE:
5 - CONNAK
20 - TINK
13 - TABESHA'L
4 - MINSYS
9 - VAXIS
12 - TWIG BLIGHT 1
11 - TWIG BLIGHT 2
6 - TWIG BLIGHT 3
9 - TWIG BLIGHT 4
20 - TWIG BLIGHT 5