Pizazz's Myth Drannor

One more for luck: 16

Thyrius picks up the trail left by his brother's words: "My understanding of necromancy and all things undead, provide me with some practical magical use, but I'd be lying if I said I was a scholar of the school or an expert of any kind. That said, whatever "of the right type" is supposed to mean may be tested in a few different ways. If the test simply asks for a spell of such school, I am sure a few of us would be considered experts for the purpose at hand. Let us not forget we barely needed any spells to pass through the initial 8-step ritual locking the entrance of this grand magical tower." He thinks for another second and ads: "I wonder if we have activated the "test for conjuration expert" version of this room, since that is the door we traversed."

Thyrius then spends some time in the triangular room, just making sure none of the books have a more prominent standing than the others, or if the tome he is looking for happens to be here an it stands out among the mess.

-> Perception check: 10

Nuzej sticks his foot out from the anti-magic sphere, testing to find the exact boundary. When he finally does, his toes rapidly turn grey and solid.  He pulls back his foot quickly... and the grey fades away.  His toes tingle a little bit but seem ok for the moment. 

Meanwhile, Thyrius heads into the library.  He begins digging around in the detritus and remains of frozen books and scrolls looking for anything that may stick out.  After a few minutes he hasn't found anything, but figures he could probably spend a good hour or two sorting through the mess to really get a good look at everything.

Thyrius rejoins the others: "Everlast's words imply we are not yet at our desired destination, so what we seek must not be in this side-library."

Thyrius stepped out of the anti-magic field to quickly check this side-library, so he'll attempt to say the above mentally. If no party member is on the other end of the line, he'll instead reenter the anti-magic field and whisper those words quietly to the party. The goal here is to not share these words with either Everlast or Dragon-man.

"I thought he meant the previous room. The one with the sits." Mirica remarked it quite absentmindedly, more concerned with Nuzej's conditions. "Very sorry, Nuzej. The curse - or whatever it is - had taken roots. Once the field drops (and unless you can use something suppressing magic) you will turn to stone, as it happened with Russle back in Myth Drannor. I will restore you, though, I promise that."

Mirica could not help with the search for magic items and, considering she had to keep the field going, any kind of search. So, at the moment she was less of a helping hand and more of a field generator.

Tic wanders into the room with the spindle and walks around the outside, examining the thing.  Then he walks back into the main room with the seats and, staying sure to avoid Mirica and the field, wanders over to the library.  He begins casting a ritual spell to detect magic. In the meantime, everyone else sort of just mills about, unsure of what to do. 

Nuzej talks to himself while keeping well within Mirica's field. Likewise Mirica stands there, a glorified field generator. Though, without her magic assistance, for the first time in a long time, the cold begins to seep into her bones, her fingers start to go numb, and her nose and ears start to pinch in the icy weather.  The furred Xemnez stands nearby, in his own head mostly, perhaps still amused at the thought of himself as a specific kind of necromancer.  Simaal stands nearby, silent and pondering, mostly keeping his eyes on Danvoleye. 

Danvoleye enters the spindle room and looks about, and then goes over to the library. He seems to try and keep an eye on everyone at once, but with Thyrius over there, and Tic over there, he seems to settle on simply 'patrolling'.  He also walks over and examines the rotating star field in the middle of the room.  He stares intently at the stars for a time, before focusing on one in particular.  With a bit a perturbed look, he grunts and walks over to examine the chairs. Once done there, he goes and checks the double doors that lead to the balcony, but they seem locked and don't give to a quick test of strength, so he eventually takes up a position to one side where he can watch silently. 

Everlast "stands" to one side, unmoving aside from his eyes, and looking as patient as a mountain.

Tic finishes his ritual, and examines all of the room for magical auras.  He seems to marvel at the aura of the spindle, and says, "You know, this thing looks surprisingly similar to those magical disturbances that we'd been battling. At least from a magical aura perspective. Though...its as if all the chaos of the magical disturbances has someone been locked into a nice tidy box. The chaos has been....mastered."   From there he heads into the library with Thyrius.  The two spend a few minutes digging through. Amidst the remnants of protective magics that have since failed, but still coat almost everything, Tic is able to pick out one item in particular. 

He digs out a scroll case, whose protective magic is still in place, and pulls out a scroll.  He examines it for a time, his eyes growing wide, and then shoves it away.  He looks meaningfully at Thyrius for a moment.  

Once done the two return to the main room.  It's been nearly 30 minutes since the field was created.

Tic voices out loud what everyone is thinking, "What now?"

"I wish I knew. Looks like the thing we are searching for is not here." Mirica's teeth began to chutter and she pulled the hood of her cloak (which, until now, she considered purely decorative). "We have half an hour of the spell, after that, Nuzej will turn into stone. Meaning, that we need a safe spot to rest until I will be sure my prayers about restoring him to life will be heard." She looked at their "spiritual guide". "Everlast, I am not asking for the secrets of the tower, just yes or no information. Is there another room in this tower where Iriolarthas kept his magical items?"

"I can move around, bringing different parts of the room into the field, like those doors over there. But unless everyone thinks it is worth it to continue the search, I'd say we call Toc and teleport from here to the Ten Towns."

Everlast politely smiles at Mirica, “My orders prevent me from revealing the city’s secrets to outsiders.”

"Mn. Well for one, I wouldn't call it mastered if it yet need to be contained at all. Nor would it be something to toy with either." Xemnez admits after a pregnant pause, seeming to finally come out of his own head once more. "That said, we might not have much choice in that, or the time to parable for long." He sighs and tousles the back of his main in budding frustration. Then seeing the double doors to the back of the room(?), he pads on over to give them a knock, curious if by some chance the High Magister or whatever's magic yet extending to them(y19p).

If in fact there were no such doors or should they have already been open, then he instead finds himself wandering back to the eight aligned chairs, rubbing his chin in further thought. "Worth a try." He mutters, before sitting down in one and focusing on the glowing mass across the way.

Simaal looks around wandering and doing his best to keep an eye on the dragon man, while also looking at writings and the like. Since he doesn't know what he's looking for he is simply mentally cataloging things of potential interest for now. He wonders if he dies, would the magic stop, but then that seems a bit drastic try.

Xemnez walks over to the doors.  They have a prominent key hole, but otherwise appear locked and...fairly impervious to mundane attempts to force them. They obviously lead to a balcony on the outside of the tower.

Otherwise, he sits down in one of the chairs. Nothing apparent happens. Then he stares meaningfully at the star field. The star formations are like none he's seen, likely they belong to the stars around this world. Not that he knows much about such topics. Still though, as he looks, he does see one strange star...a dark star that shines with a dark light, however counterintuitive that may sound.  The dark star seems to stare back at him, until a shiver runs up his spine and he looks away. 

"Unless someone can dispel this, I will suffer the consequences of my own foolishness," Nuzej says. "Let me be of use until then. I know evocation. We could try that door. This field may complicate it. We should try to tell Toc. To my great shame. He may have a solution. Or at least a place to store me  until I can be dealt with."

He tries to look around for anything useful. He still doesn't know the book we're looking for.

Investigation: 15

Listening to Nuzej, Thyrius asks Tic to relay the details of their current situation to Toc. He then notices his brother's interest in the star chart and looks at it himself. Perhaps, it holds the answer to this riddle. He asks Nuzej and Mirica to come closer so they can have a look at the star chart as well. Perhaps the answer is more related to the arcane or theological sciences than what the black cat can tell.

-> Investigation check? 21

Nothing in this place screamed "religious" or "warshiping" but Mirica gave it an honest attempt and looked around in the hope to recognize anything. (Religious: 4). Then, trying to steer away from the condensed and "tamed" chaos (the last thing she'd wanted is to find herself in the middle of the anomaly) led Nuzej to the balcony doors and once they were sufficiently covered by the field, tried to open them. Should the attempt fail (Miricai is strong enough to use a considerable force (Athletics: 20)) her next question would be "Are we even sure the door is not simply locked? Anyone has ...um... lock-opening tools by any chance on him?"

Tic nods to Thyrius, passing the information on to Toc.  Tic says out loud, "Toc's on his way." 

In the meantime, Thyrius examines the star chart, with the same result as his brother. The stars are not familiar to him, but he also notices the strange dark star. It's almost as if he can hear whispers coming from it, though...whatever the whispers are saying are incomprehensible to him.  The fur on the back of his neck stands up straight and he gets a distinctly uncomfortable feeling from looking at that star. 

He's startled by a loud *SLAM* and spins around to see the double doors open partially. Mirica stands there, pushing the door open after having broken the lock. Beyond the door, much as you'd assumed, is a large balcony that offers an excellent view of the city. From here you can look down on a full half of the city below. The shambling forms of a myriad of undead wandering about the city streets far below makes the place almost feel inhabited again. Icy cold air flows across Mirica's skin as a bit of a natural breeze has formed at this higher point in the cave. Otherwise, the balcony doesn't seem particularly interesting.  

Toc emerges from the darkness of the passage that you all took to get here.  He glances over at Everlast first...then at Danvoleye, before approaching Nuzej.  "I hear you're faced with a 'hard' problem."  He smiles.  "It's the best I could come up with on my way over.  Alright, well, emerge from that anti-magic sphere and I should be able to help you."  He seems to 'get ready'. 

It has to happen at some point, this sphere will only last another fifteen minutes...so Nuzej steps out of the sphere.  Starting with his feet, he begins to turn to stone. Toc begins summoning magic to cast a spell...while the stone crawls it's way up Nuzej's waist....and then stops.  Toc pauses.  And waits.  The stone has...stopped.  It's reached the same spot it was at before Mirica immersed him in her anti-magic sphere. It must have halted the process from continuing, but...also never gave his body the chance to push the magic away.  With a lower half made of solid rock, and an upper half that can move.....Nuzej feels extremely weird feelings from his middle section. 

Toc looks at him, "Well. That's not as bad as Tic made it out to be. I think that if we find a cart, the others can wheel you about and you'll be just fine!"  He grins again. Then makes a mock 'i'm so hard done by' look, and casts his most powerful spell. Magic swells from the elf warrior, washing across Nuzej, and the grey of his lower body fades away. Toc smiles, "You'll be pleased at how low my rates are. The bill is in the mail. I suppose I may as well remain with you for the time being."   He looks about, and then says, "Is there a library in here?"  Tic nods, "Yes, I'll show you about but there's not much left intact."   The two head off that way. 

Xemnez and Thyrius hear Tic's mental voice, "Done, no need to worry anymore, thanks." 

Eventually they return, Toc looks a tad crestfallen, "Everything in there is ruined. Something must have disrupted the magic protecting all of the writings. I'm going to go look at this floating shard...no need to wait for me." 

He leaves Tic behind and heads into the room with the grey spindle.

"Well, someone is in a good mood. Who knew that learning about the whereabouts of liches phylacteries can be so uplifting. Yet again, can be a matter of taste." Mirica dropped the anti-magic field (that was almost over anyway), exhaled happily, as the cold vanished for her, and invited everyone to enjoy the view of the city. "If there is some flight left in someone here, can you check if there is a room above us?"

Nuzej, chastened and humbled after a roller coaster of developments, thanks Toc sincerely, knowing the cost. "I... am certainly in your debt. Thank you." he turns to Mirica. "You as well. Thank you."

He offers to take 10 minutes to reinstill the telepathic bond. He also offers to confer flight onto anyone who wishes it. He's happy to go, though he's a bit hesitant to become a burden again should he miss another trap.

He offers to accompany Toc to look at the floating shard.

Tic walks up to Thyrius and says, "If you're so inclined, I can enable you to fly for a few minutes."  (If he's up to it, Tic casts fly on Thyrius.)

Thryrius welcomes Toc's arrival and is glad to see that Nuzej is healthy again.

Thyrius had been working under the assumption that there was indeed a room above them, and that this strange star chart had the answer to the riddle on how to reach it. That said, perhaps Mirica and Tic were onto something here. Thyrius accepts the offer to fly and moves out of the balcony and up the tower, hoping to find a way up for the others too. With any luck, he'll find another balcony in the upper levels.

Thyrius floats up as quietly as he can.

-> Stealth check: 21  

"Though it hardly need be said, do mind and note any warded entryways as well brother." Xemnez request, finally recovering from his stint staring at the star. "Especially of the antimagical variety. Can't have you falling and landing among the undead." He says in common, before then growling something more incomprehensible to most in the room. Turning to the others adds, "Noone else, uh.... Noone else look at that star map thing. There's something wrong there. Something..." He shakes his head. "Trust it is not worth it. We've already got enough to deal with as-is." He further asserts, before with that stepping up to watch his brother's progress from the balcony on the current level.