4. The Spires of Ravenloft

[Zhym]

Date: Nouluna 4, 1221
Time: 10:12 PM
Weather: Thunderstorm
Moon: Full
Location: Castle Ravenloft, North Tower Room
**************************************

Tumbler, mortified by his rare mistake, rolls out of the gas cloud. "I should shave me beard in shame for making a mistake like that!" fumes the dwarf.

Fendt commiserates. "Don't take it personally. It happens even to the best of us. By the way, I don't suppose you saw a mace or armor in there?"

Tibbius is less sympathetic. "Maybe a ghoulie would have helped?" he asks with a grin, mocking the dwarf's recent insistence that "a spell or invisible ghoulie" would be useless.

Vorkath backs away from the cloud. He looks for a door up to the roof, but doesn't see one.

The cloud does not seem to be expanding, and, though vile, isn't so thick as to block vision.

I wouldn't require Tumbler to save again if he re-entered the cloud.

Status: Agrippo: 38/52, Vorkath: 28/36, Tibbius: 14/22, Randolph: 4/4, Iluq: 21/34, Tumbler: 24/39, Robert: 16/27
Effects: Log of Everburning (Robert): 8.8 turns; Levitation (Robert): 1d4-2.3 turns

[Computer +1]

Tumbler gives Tibbius a hard look. Its my mistake so I will go back in if no one else has the stones to.
With that he pops back into the cloud to retrieve whatever is in the chest.
He moves quickly as his bravado may end up with him dead.

[Zhym]

Date: Nouluna 4, 1221
Time: 10:20 PM
Weather: Thunderstorm
Moon: Full
Location: Castle Ravenloft, North Tower Room
**************************************

Tumbler shoots Tibbius a hard look and pops back into the cloud to retrieve the contents of the chest. The chest is locked, but the locksmith's sinuses do not betray him this time. He unlocks the chest with his customary skill. Inside he finds several items, all of which he lays out on the wooden bed:

• Fendt's mace and suit of chain armor
• One bottle of an iridescent milky substance, which Fendt recognizes as his potion of invisibility
• Two flasks of a translucent sapphire-colored fluid
• A crystal vial filled with a clear liquid
• A shining platinum sword hilt and guard
• A blackened silver ring with an empty gem setting
• A small jar of pitch
• A stoppered glass bottle holding something that looks like a preserved body part

You gather around the bed. You've seen potions in different colors and containers, and it's no surprise to find some in a trapped, locked chest. But the other things are puzzling. A hilt without a sword? A ring without a gem? A jar of pitch? Some kind of body part? What is Strahd planning?

When Agrippo nears the bed, everyone hears a clattering noise behind him. Looking down, you see that his sword—the one he keeps around in case he has problems with this spear—has broken in two. The hilt lies on the ground, while the blade remains in its scabbard.

Suddenly, the platinum hilt Tumbler found in the chest leaps into the air and fuses itself to Agrippo's sword!

Agrippo draws his sword to look at it better. The blade that he thought was forged of ordinary steel is now glittering crystal with edges like cut glass, but stronger than the finest alloys. The sword glows with a dim blue light.

Surely this must be the weapon of light that Madam Eva foretold!

SunSword.jpg (56.21 KiB) Viewed 449 times

Status: Agrippo: 38/52, Vorkath: 28/36, Tibbius: 14/22, Randolph: 4/4, Iluq: 21/34, Tumbler: 24/39, Robert: 16/27; Fendt: 15/15
Effects: Log of Everburning (Robert): 8 turns; Levitation (Robert): 1d4-3 turns

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt "Ah so you did find my things that is two that I owe you for now Tumbler." then as the thing with Agrippo's sword happens his jaw drops in awe.

[Grognardsw]

Vorkath, paladin

"Thank the True God, we have found the sword!" exclaims the Faith Hunter. "Agrippo how does the blade feel in your hands? Does it impart words in mind, or seem to have power you could activate?"

"Can any of our arcanists identify these other items? Perhaps they are magical and can help our cause against Strahd."

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt does nod yes to Vorkath "I have but one identify spell memorized and one detect magic before I'd need to spend a night studying my spellbook. Which is the most important you wish me to check for magic and identify?"

[Zhym]

Detect magic is an area-of-effect spell, so Fendt could check everything on the bed for magic. Identify only works for a single item, however, so you'd need to pick which one to identify.

[OGRE MAGE]

Tibbius

Step a side boys and let me take a look.

Tib will look over each item carefully to see if he can discern anything from them before any spells are cast. If he cant.....he reluctantly puts them back down as he has no spells left that will help in ascertaining what any of this actually is.

[MonkeyWrench]

Iluq stands to the side, letting the others figure out the meaning of the items, he makes sure that nothing sneaks up on them from the doorway.

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt casts Detect Magic upon all the items on the bed. "Lets see what we have here."

[Stirling]

"ha, the sword-that-was-broken shall be made anew!", Agrippo grips his new fangled sword by the hilt and whistles quoting from some tolkienesque literary piece and practicing a few swipes and lunges at Vorkaths rear. "Okay so Mr Fendt is free to join us for now but I don't think some out of towner should follow us with a potion of invisibility to hand. Who knows who he'll backstab first!!". Agrippo will sheath the sword for now and moves to the spiral staircase. "Strahd was last seen down here, lets go this way and show him our welcoming commitee"

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt again wounded by Agrippo's words "Right the non thief will stab your back..... I'm not an assassin. I'm sure your paladin here can detect if I am evil or not. Pardon if you aren't actually a paladin Vorkath was it? I just thought that you were based upon what I've seen so far."

[Grognardsw]

"No, he is not evil," says Vorkath of Fendt. "Yes I am a paladin of the True God. Let us see what your magic sense tells of these items before going down the stairs."

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt "Indeed that is what I am trying if I can at least sort out what is or is not magical that might make it easier for me to decide if I need to cast identify on anything."

[Zhym]

Date: Nouluna 4, 1221
Time: 10:30 PM
Weather: Thunderstorm
Moon: Full
Location: Castle Ravenloft, North Tower Room
**************************************

Tibbius looks at the pile to see what he can discern without casting a spell. The sapphire liquid is obviously a potion, but he doesn't know of any specific uses for pitch or whatever body part that is. Tibbius and Fendt: Roll an Int check at -4 on a d20 to see if you can identify the body part.

Fendt casts detect magic on the pile. The potions are indeed magical. The clear liquid is not. The ring has a barely-detectible aura of enchantment.

Agrippo, flush with excitement from his sword upgrade, heads toward the stairs. Vorkath cautions him to wait until the magicians have inspected the items before moving on.

Robert's levitation spell expires.

Status: Agrippo: 38/52, Vorkath: 28/36, Tibbius: 14/22, Randolph: 4/4, Iluq: 21/34, Tumbler: 24/39, Robert: 16/27; Fendt: 15/15
Effects: Log of Everburning (Robert): 7 turns

[GreyWolfVT]

Fendt hums for a moment thinking "Well this is a bit of a choice the potions are showing signs of magical properties the ring does faintly but the clear liquid does not.... Well the potions we can alway identify later on another day or figure out what they do simply by trying a very small sip of them. I think I will attempt to identify the ring does anyone object to that?" Fendt holds off on his spell incase there is better logic than his from perhaps anyone?

INT 12[1d20 -4] = 18-4 = 14

[Grognardsw]

Vorkath, paladin

"Perhaps the sword would be most valuable to identify, given its importance in Madame Eva's prophecy," puts forth Vorkath. "The ring is missing its stone, so we can surmise it will lack its true power. Does anyone have a loose gem we could insert in it?"

[GreyWolfVT]

Looked at Robert and Fendt's sheets nope no loose gems.

Fendt "That is true, but Master Agrippo would have to actually trust me to do so."

[OGRE MAGE]

Tibbius

INT check [1d20] = 8 -4=4

What the......

[Stirling]

"sorry out of gems", Agrippo will tap his pocket and then think, "wtf...thieving gypsies must have nicked them at Madam's camp!..."

Agrippo will turn to the staircase, eyeing this new fella Fendt with some suspicion. "my pardon if we come across gruff and cuthroat, well that we are! but we seek a young maiden and this counts' doom."

I am presuming that since we are at the top of the tower the only way is down the staircase.