The Unseen Servant forums

...

Irakas, Miss Cleo, Toldren and Egburt push against the stone, oval door and it swings open into a hallway constructed of polygonal masonry. Toldren’s light shows the hall curves to the south and ends at a door on the north wall of the ritual chamber. The hall also continues north, but the door blocks half the passage.

Foul continues with the fifth key. The window flickers, returns to the view, and the dark outside border offsets two more feet towards the center. A sliver of clear window 40ft wide by 2ft high remains, obscuring most of the view beyond. Another high pitch whine ramps up and then subsides.

Foul feels a tingling sensation all over her scalp, and Sitrus feels his feet change from hooves to dwarven clod stompers, and then back to hooves.

Toldren’s forehead tightens, and his horns begin to smooth but soon return to the bony points. Miss Cleo’s vision goes blurry and changes from the perspective of her hands to her eye sockets. The brief change ends, and she is looking from her hands once again.

MAP:

Actions?

Current hit points:

Irakas 5
Quangah 3
Foul 3
Bugg 2
Egburt 2
Toldren 1
Sitrus 1
Miss Cleo 1

...

Sitrus enjoys wiggling his toes for a few moments before losing them again. "You can have everything I got if I eat it," he says to Foul. "Most of it I found bumming on the beach."

"Hey, try that fifth key again. There's got to be a way to get that picture to stay." He heads back to the altar to double check that they didn't miss anything. Maybe there's something there he can switch or hold while Foul operates the key.

Irakas says, "Should we head north or go back to check the other passage? Since we are here, it would make sense to me to head north."

Miss Cleo shakes her head violently, trying to rid her mind of the weird feeling of having her vision switching back and forth from her hands to her face. She holds back the vomit and moves south to the closed door.

"Mi tink dis door lead back to da big room." She tries to open the door form this side.


Foul does as she is told by the surfer, not having a clue as to what is really happening here. She takes the 5th key back out of the slot and reinserts it when Sitrus gives her the nod to do so.

Toldren grimaces with the flickering reality of his new horns. But he and Egburt stay focused on moving the door with Miss Cleo.

Responding to Miss Cleo, Egburt offers, I'll be fine with coming back to a room we already know. And the next time we run screaming, we will have a better idea where to head.

...

Sitrus moves back to the altar, while Foul manipulates the 5th key. He looks for anything resembling a dial, lever or switch, but cannot identify anything that would meet these descriptions.

Foul turns and removes the 5th key. The window flickers and returns to the view with the 2ft darkened border. A slight buzzing sound accompanies the process of turning the key back to its insertion position, but removing it does not produce any corresponding sound.

Irakas presents his argument for a journey north, beyond the open side door. He detects another door at the end of the corridor, spotting it using his infravision.

Miss Cleo, Toldren and Egburt attempt to open the southern door. It bumps open, into the altar room but then closes back against the door frame. They appear to lack the combined strength necessary to open the door over its center of gravity.

MAP:

Actions?

Current hit points:

Irakas 5
Quangah 3
Foul 3
Bugg 2
Egburt 2
Toldren 1
Sitrus 1
Miss Cleo 1

...

Miss Cleo looks at the others with her disturbing hand eyes, wondering if they can get a little more help with the door over here.


Foul looks at Sitrus again, ready to insert the 6th and final key as soon as he is ready.

"Do you think there needs to be a sacrifice tied to the alter thingy before this thing works the way it should? Think we could find any volunteers for the job? Hey! Where did everyone else go?"

Irakas moves to help Miss Cleo with the door.

Sitrus looks pretty confused. "Man, I was sure that fifth key would do something. I was starting to feel funny and all tingly in my toes."

He perks up to the idea of a sacrifice. "Maybe we can try a corpse first, and see if that works."

He grabs a nearby corpse—preferably an evil acolyte—and dumps it into the altar, stabbing it for good measure. If nothing immediately happens, he will splay himself on the altar and face the window as the key is turned.

"Be careful turning the key, I don't want to get hurt or anything."

...

Irakas joins Miss Cleo, Toldren and Egburt pushing against the door. With their collective effort, the door opens away from them into the altar room where Foul and Sitrus mingle before the large window.

Sitrus moves a corpse onto the altar and stabs it a few times. Blood begins to drip out onto the shrine, but there is no observable change or occurrence. Sitrus then splays himself on the altar and faces the window. He signals Foul to turn the key.

Foul inserts and turns the 6th key. It stops rotating, but there isn’t a sound, feeling or change in the window’s view or clarity.

Actions?

Current hit points:

Irakas 5
Quangah 3
Foul 3
Bugg 2
Egburt 2
Toldren 1
Sitrus 1
Miss Cleo 1

...

Foul thinks about this situation for a second.

"Oh wait.......I forgot to reinsert the 5th key before inserting the 6th."

The old hag pulls the 6th key back out and then replaces the 5th and then the 6th key in that order. She tries to time it perfectly with the others returning to the room.

...

Absent-minded Foul removes the 6th key and reinserts the 5th. Turning the 5th key causes the window to flicker, offsetting the dark border inward two feet. Once again a high pitch whine ramps up and subsides. The window’s view is now 40ft wide by 2ft high.

As before, Foul feels a tingling sensation all over her scalp. Sitrus feels his feet change from hooves to dwarven clod stompers, and then back to hooves. Toldren’s forehead tightens, and his horns begin to smooth but soon return to the bony points. Miss Cleo’s vision goes blurry and changes from the perspective of her hands to her eye sockets. The brief change ends, and she is looking from her hands once again.

When Foul turns the 6th key, the window goes dark. A higher-pitch whine ramps up and then makes a snap and popping sound. Foul’s entire skin tingles and her hair begins to grow back. Sitrus’ looks down at his bare, dwarven feet. Toldren no longer has horns on his forehead and Miss Cleo’s eyes disappear from her hands. She reaches up to feel her eyeballs complete with blinking eyelids set into her eye sockets.

Actions?

Current hit points:

Irakas 5
Quangah 3
Foul 3
Bugg 2
Egburt 2
Toldren 1
Sitrus 1
Miss Cleo 1

...

Toldren feels his now smooth forehead in puzzlement. What did they do?

Egburt and Toldren look for a way to prop the door open in such a way they can release it in a hurry if they need it closed again in a hurry.

Sitrus wiggles his toes enthusiastically. "Hey look, I got my feet back! Hang ten!"

He notices that most of the surviving party is not with them. "Let's get some of the others in here and see if the key works on them too."

He saunters off through the northern door to go find more mutant party members.

Miss Cleo blinks about 50 times as she stares at her plain ol' hands again.
"So much for me makin a little extra coin now."

She looks around at what has transpired with the others, wondering if it was their actions that caused the changes.
"Wha is dis ting den? Da unchaos machine?"


Foul is still quite confused by the function of the keys and window. She speaks to Sitrus as he walks away from the group again.
"Do you think that the person on the alter has to be alive in order for this thing to work on them?"

If the others have nothing to add in this strange place, she suggests trying the northern passage next.

"Better safe than sorry," Sitrus calls back. "If we use it again, let's just to do exactly what we did last time."

Foul will pull out all of the keys again if the group decides to move on from this room.

...

Egburt and Toldren prop open the stone door using one of the club weapons from the cultists.

Sitrus greets his comrades at the northern door and notices their mutations have vanished as well.

Miss Cleo is both happy and disappointed by her transformation. She laments the lost opportunities her special hands may have provided.

Foul waits to see what the others decide, before removing the six keys.

MAP:

Actions?

Current hit points:

Irakas 5
Quangah 3
Foul 3
Bugg 2
Egburt 2
Toldren 1
Sitrus 1
Miss Cleo 1

...

"A sacrifice, eh?" says Quangah to himself. "Gentlemen! Subdue Bugg the elf!"

Poor Bugg quakes with fear.

Miss Cleo looks on with her eyes wide at Quangah's comment, not sure if he is being serious or not.

"Maybe we can fine a nudder poor soul like dis one in ear before we go killing one of our own?"

She points at the dead thing that was strapped to the alter when we first arrived.



Foul sees no reason to argue, as long as it isn't her on the chopping block.

"Well, if you think it will work......climb aboard."

She leaves the keys where they are until the group decides what they should do next, mostly just glad that she wasn't nominated for the job.

Guys, I am open to suggestions as far as where we go from here. Further north, maybe?