Chapter 13 - Azurpenia's Prison

[Zhym]

Angus nods with approval at Chet's new path. "Moseying the one way that we know ain't gotten people killed," he says, following along. "Ain't got no complaints with that plan."

[AleBelly]

The party, led by Chet, proceeds through the arch to the east of the room, taking leave of the blue winged lady. What they see is astounding. The room is a sphere, 70' in diameter. Its walls are made of smooth grey stone, again with a slight blue tinge. From the entry arch, stairs lead 30' down. The room echoes with Chet’s footsteps as he heads this direction.

DM rolls dice

The others, new to the scene, hang back while they make sense of it. The bottom of the stairs departing from their entry point are joined by two other staircases, forming a jumbled knot that hangs in the middle of the room. As a further insult to the physical laws governing the world, one set departs the jumbled knot straight down. Those taking these stairs would be upside down! The other set of stairs, which Chet and Tempus previously took, turns left at the knot. Chet notes that the chalk arrow Tempus previously drew pointing to the left is no longer there. These stairs also lead to a reinforced wooden door.

Along each set of stairs are hung, at 10' intervals by sturdy welded iron rings, burning oil lamps. The lamps along the "upside down" stairs seem to also hang upside down, as if gravity was pulling them up!

Across from their point of entry, several in the party spy two bodies, motionless, against the far wall. From the party’s vantage, they are up against the wall sideways, though they appear to be held there by gravity. One appears to be a lizard humanoid, another a finely attired, extremely pale human. Both have grievous stab wounds in their backs, likely the cause of their demise. Nothing else can be gleaned about the two bodies from the stairs.

Actions?

Date: 16 Culling, Year 42
Time: 17:51
Conditions: 54F, calm, room echoes loudly
Known Spells in Effect: None
Light bearers: Series of lamps along stairs
Intended Direction of Travel:
Injury Status: None

[Zhym]

Angus gives a low whistle. "You told us about this place, but damned if it ain't a sight in person. Best watch our backs, though."

He takes a few steps down, uncoils his rope, and holds it so that it hangs loose underneath the stairs. If nothing interesting happens, he'll take a few more steps, rope still dangling.

[CAI4]

Chet looks at Angus. "You ain't seen nothin' yet!" he grins.

But the monk's mirth is soon replaced with concern as he sees the chalk arrow missing. "Someone's been here" he says, holding is spetum aloft. "I wasn't here that long ago. Somebody changed it."

Chet reaches the knot of stairs, then climbs around to the stairs heading to the left - the path he has traveled before. He begins climbing those stairs.

[tkrexx]

one set departs the jumbled knot straight down. Those taking these stairs would be upside down!

The lamps along the "upside down" stairs seem to also hang upside down, as if gravity was pulling them up!

Another hollow, rasping gasp issues from Hyde. That! The short, shaggy Half-Orc points to the obvious anomaly, That ain't right, no. I think maybe we hadn't ought go that way. Get me to that door, hah? I can bust that no problem, yeahh. The wooden door seems the only thing in this room he is certain of.

[Nuke66]

Galan follows Chet, tryin to keep up

[onlyme]

Dandelion likewise follows. She isnt quite sure whether she should be holding her trident up, down or out as she progresses.

[Zorroroaster]

Arnulf huffs, waving his arms around.

"What are you all goggling at? Seriously, it's just your average, garden-variety extradimensional spheroid expressing non-standard gravitational characteristics. I mean, really. Save the wet pants for something that's actually amazing."

He pauses.

"Who am I kidding? I'm just as freaked out as the rest of you. Do you see those guys? My brain is like, whaaaaat?"

He prepares to follow along after Chet.

[AleBelly]

The party makes their way carefully down the stairs, many still marveling at its architecture. Voices echo and reverberate off the walls.

They watch Chet clamber over the jumbled stairs, only releasing the railing of the stairs he descended after gripping another railing.

Angus trails a rope as he descends. It obeys the same gravitational force he does, and when he reaches the jumbled stairs, it drags on the ground, seemingly pulled to the middle.

Chet reaches the reinforced door, and though Hyde offers to bash it in, the monk is able to simply open it. Light spills in to the dark room beyond the archway. Those close to the door can hear faint singing.

Actions?

Date: 16 Culling, Year 42
Time: 17:54
Conditions: 54F, calm, room echoes loudly
Known Spells in Effect: None
Light bearers: Series of lamps along stairs
Intended Direction of Travel:
Injury Status: None

[CAI4]

Chet holds his finger to his lips, and speaks in hushed tones. "This is where the baby was crying. It's a really good time to put wax in your ears!"

[Zhym]

"Now, just hold on there, Chet," says Angus. "We ain't in no hurry. I aim to pause a moment and investigate them poor fellows on the wall. Floor. Ceiling. Whatever. All we need to do is find the right place to dangle the rope down to them."

[Zorroroaster]

"Exactly. Let me get my head around this place before we go any further. So, there's three staircases. Chet, did you try the upside-down one the last time? I wonder...watch out folks...little experiment here."

Arnulf digs a few coppers from his coin purse, and throws them one at a time in different directions. He attempts to observe each coin's path through the air as closely as he can. He throws one towards the bodies on the opposite wall, one down past the stairway that goes the wrong direction, and one up towards the ceiling, just for fun.

[AleBelly]

"Exactly. Let me get my head around this place before we go any further. So, there's three staircases. Chet, did you try the upside-down one the last time? I wonder...watch out folks...little experiment here."

Arnulf digs a few coppers from his coin purse, and throws them one at a time in different directions. He attempts to observe each coin's path through the air as closely as he can. He throws one towards the bodies on the opposite wall, one down past the stairway that goes the wrong direction, and one up towards the ceiling, just for fun.

From where does he throw the coins?

And Chet did not explore the upside down stairs...

Upon a little exploration, the PCs on the jumbled intersection of stairs find that their footing is pretty insecure without a railing of some sort, as if gravity is behaving strangely. However, once they set foot on the stairs, those stairs suddenly feel "up," even the upside down ones.

[Zorroroaster]

Well, we followed Chet up the stairs that went left from the central knot, so I suppose he throws them from somewhere near the door at the top of those stairs. He would be keen to repeat the experiment from other locations if possible, but not if it was unsafe. (As in, if it felt dodgy on the stairs near the center, he'd not likely let go of the railing down there just to throw some coins around.)

[AleBelly]

I'm going to assume the group shut the door behind them. Please let me know if this isn't the case.

Arnulf, possessing the curious mind of a wizard, pulls some coins from his purse and experiments. From the stairs just below where Chet is standing, he holds a coin over the side of the stairs and releases it. The coin heads straight downwards, pinging loudly against the stone below. The coin bounces off the curved surface and comes to a rest at the point deepest from Arnulf's viewpoint, which happens to be where the two motionless bodies are situated. After a couple more trials, holding coins from various heights and then tossing them up from the stairs, Arnulf sees that the coins follow the same trajectory no matter how he releases them, and they all come to rest near the bodies. The coins continue to make noise, the pings reverberating throughout the room. Angus and others below are astonished to see the coins fly right by them. It is quite a sight.

Very crappy descriptive diagram:

sphere room.jpg (14.64 KiB) Viewed 283 times

DM rolls dice

Intrigued, the wizard proceeds down to the bottom of the stairs, joining Angus on the jumbled knot. Here, the behavior is less uniform. When coins are dropped near the jumbled knot, say about knee high, they simply fall onto the knot. But both Angus and Arnulf find the footing to be unstable. They and the others, by careful trial and error, find that they can stand comfortably, but any movement is best done in a crawling manner. More coin experiments confirm this. If dropped from waist high, they may fall to Arnulf's feet, but a couple fall up to the ceiling above, likely because this is the closest wall to the coin. If Arnulf throws them up into the air with force, they continue on their trajectory, bouncing against and coming to rest against the ceiling above.

It all is mindblowing, and those prone to motion sickness become a bit queasy...though this condition is nothing serious.

Based on his observations, Angus is pretty confident that standing directly below the bodies and throwing the rope upwards would allow the rope to reach them. But this would require letting go of a railing. It should be navigable. Reaching such a point will require a climb check with 90% chance of success

Zorro, please deduct 7 coins of your choosing from inventory

Date: 16 Culling, Year 42
Time: 17:57
Conditions: 54F, calm, room echoes loudly
Known Spells in Effect: None
Light bearers: Series of lamps along stairs
Intended Direction of Travel:
Injury Status: None

[Zorroroaster]

Arnulf shakes his head as if clearing his ears.

"I feel like we're in one of those trippy black and white lithographs, hey? With weird geometries in 'em. See? Aaaaashhhherrr! Excuse me, I seem to have a cold."

He watches Angus fiddle with the rope, and his eyes grow wide.

"Wait a sec. What would happen if you tied the rope to the railing, tied something heavy to the other end, and threw it towards the bodies? Perhaps it would stay there and allow you to climb down to them? Or up. Or over. You get the idea."

5 silver, 2 copper deducted!

[Zhym]

What if Angus took a step or two onto the stairs Arnulf was throwing coins from? Could he just lower the rope to the floor (wall, whatever) next to the bodies?

[AleBelly]

Yes.

[Zhym]

"Who's got the grappling hook?" Angus asks. "Galen, was that yours? Mind if I borrow it?"

Streamlining things: Angus will take a step as indicated, set the hook on the stairs, and lower the rope down. If someone else will keep an eye on the rope or hold it, Angus will climb down. If someone else wants to climb down, Angus will hold the rope.

[enn.in.me]

Yenny has the largest grin any of you all have ever seen as she watches the coins and the rope and all the shenanigans. "Wow. Phenomenal. If only. Wow. This is great."