Action Thread #12: The Lower Valley

[onlyme]

Malone looks around, hoping to discreetly glance out of a window to see if there are combative gaurds awaiting their exit.

[Grognardsw]

Thurinor, elf

Thurinor recovers the snake staff.

"It seems this sorceress is above. She will likely be ready."

He too looks out the window, if any, and then glances up to see if there is a window on the next floor up.

(If there is such a window:)"Perhaps some could take her by surprise by the window?"

"This scroll contains a dweomer to create and throw voice at a distance. I could create the frogress' voice to get the sorceress to come down here and walk into our ambush?"

[onlyme]

also... Malone will grab his sword, afraid that it will attempt yet again to strike the staff serpent before it has transformed completely.

[Sir Clarence]

"That's an excellent idea, Thurinor, and well worth a try."

[ragnboneshopper]

Fairfax looks more closely at the spear and dagger, and Stonjuz looks over his shoulder. The spear is carven with both dwarven runes of magic (as your dwarf friend readily and excitedly attests) and totemic symbols that indicate to Fairfax that the spear was once the property of the last Kharg horse lord. It is a curious combination of dwarven and human workmanship. The dagger is more clearly of dwarven make, it's blade etched in dwarven runes, but it also bears the Kharg horse head on the pommel of its hilt, which is inlaid with gold and silver in a braided pattern. The leather gloves worn by the frogress have no apparent markings, but they are fashioned of extremely supple leather, clearly masterwork quality. "Ply your magic eye over this way, won't you Thurinor?" hints the dwarf.

Meanwhile, Swilbosh casts his one good eye about the room, noting again the few small animals, both living and dead, kept in cages, and similar instruments and vats as in the basement below, though on a smaller scale. On one wall is a familiar enough drawing of a leaping hare with a single horn in the middle of its head. Stepping over the dead frogress, her defense of the tower now proven ineffective, he sees through the open doorway that the stairs continue up to the fourth flour of the tower.

Malone, pulling open this floor's only casement window, sees that it faces northeast. He sees no one in the yard below, though after a moment he makes out the timid bullywug hiding rather dejectedly in a hedge outside the low wall that rings the tower. The light is just starting to wane, the sun not visible from this window but clearly sinking toward its rest on the other side of the tower. Looking farther out, Malone can also see beyond the mountainous walls of the valley. The river, after winding its way through this last muddy valley, spills out through a dense forest and then onto the grassy plains below, where it winds back and forth as it stretches into the hazy distance.

After he picks up the python by the tail and it turns into a rod once again, Thurinor joins his warrior friend at the window, and Malone self-consciously grips the serpent-killing sword, afraid of its acting on its own. But he need not fear; he senses the sword going dormant. Though he can now tell that its thirst for serpent blood had been active right before Thurinor transformed the serpent back into a rod, clearly the sword is unable to act of its own volition. He senses something like disappointment, but this fades into a faint buzz of latent but undirected power. (Ok, try to read all that with a straight face! )

Thurinor sees much the same that Malone sees, but then he cranes his neck upward in case of being able to catch a glimpse of another window above. Clearly, there is not a window directly above him, and he remembers from viewing the tower from outside that the tower's three windows alternated directions. So far, the windows have faced East (2nd floor) and Northeast (this 3rd floor), and the top window (4th floor) should face North. In any case, he can tell that there is only one more floor to go.

The party begins to discuss options. Andrin agrees with at least one of Thurinor's ideas, but no consensus has yet emerged...


So it's not clear on what overall direction you guys want to take, obviously. The way up the stairs appears open. Someone might climb out the window, perhaps with the aid of the magic rope. Such a madman would need to not only climb up a level but also skirt around something like a quarter turn of the tower's circumference in order to get to the fourth floor window. And then there is the suggestion of using an audible glamer to try to lure the — sorceress? sorcerer? how confusing! — to lure whoever he/she/it is down into an ambush.

Actions? Also, let me know who is taking what items, if any, or if you want to examine anything in more detail.

[onlyme]

Malone relays what he sees, and casually mentions,

"OK, lets do whatever it is we need to, and get a move on. The day's a fading away.

[ChubbyPixie]

Ozborn kicks (Van Halen style) in celebration of the defeat of the frog woman. He then begins combing the room for any signs of traps, secret doors, what have you.

"I do like the ambush idea, if you think it will work.Otherwise, if someone could scan the stairs for magical wards, I could try to sneak up there again first and see what is to be seen, then report back downstairs. Do we have anything to make a body invisible?" he gets a crazy, hopeful look in his eye as he glances at Thurinor.

He'd also like to check out the gloves to see if they'd be useful to someone of his profession. He'd like to try them on. Do they make him feel more fighty or thievy?

[Grognardsw]

Thurinor, elf

Thurinor gives his Cloak of Elvenkind to Ozborn. "The more intelligence we have the better for our attack."

The elf then brings his magic-sense to bear upon stairs and room.

[ragnboneshopper]

Malone urges his companions forward in view of the afternoon progressing toward dusk, and all are reminded that night comes early in the mountains.

Ozborn checks about for traps and secrets but finds none. He then slips the gloves off the frogress's hands, finding with some dejection that her fingers are more slender than his own, but he pulls them on anyway. To his surprise and delight, he finds that they stretch and form about his digits to fit perfectly. Plying about the room again, he feels himself more agile, much like a cat, and he's certain these gloves make him not only lighter on his feet but also more nimble with his fingers. (I'll post actual game-effect details OOC, but these are Gauntlets of Dexterity, if you haven't already guessed...)

At Ozborn's suggestion, Thurinor grants the thief the use of the Cloak of Elvenkind. The elf's eyes then go to that vacant place where he can see the magical auras, and in confirmation he exclaims both at the enchantment laid on Ozborn's new gloves and the auras that emanate from the dagger and the spear taken from the frogress. The dagger and spear do not appear to be enchanted with either the strength or the focus of purpose possessed by Malone's serpent-killing sword, but the magic upon them appears beneficial from what he can tell.

With the cloak on, Ozborn, like Thurinor before him, nearly disappears in front of the party's very eyes as he moves toward the stairs, a shimmering ghost of barely-perceptible movement.


So I pushed ahead more quickly than usual since it was important to have some of these item-level questions answered before you could decide how best to proceed. What's next? Any particular actions as you ascend to scout the floor above, Oz? How about the rest of you?

[saalaria]

Swilbosh guards the door onwards, having no skill in the dagger or spear he is not interested in them for now.

[Majik]

Fairfax examines the spear and dagger "With these perhaps we might find away to free my people."
As he looks to the rest of the party he adds in an awed voice. "If you have need of them just say so, but please allow me the honor of safe guarding these relics of my peoples former glory."

[onlyme]

Malone simply keeps a watchful eye, and readies his halberd for an attack.

[ChubbyPixie]

A voice from the air in front of them says "I'll return your cloak as soon as I'm done scouting ahead, Thurinor, thanks. Here I go. Back in a sec... Although if you hear a sound like an explosion or a person on fire, come running..." If the stairs didn't show up as magically warded, Ozborn will creep up them as quietly as possible, looking for traps along the way, then try to peep into the room above to see what he can see.

Gloves of dexterity! I can barely contain my excitement. Ozborn is going to take up piano as soon as this adventure is over.

[Sir Clarence]

Andrin patiently waits for the events to unfold. He's ready to cast another spell if needed.

[ragnboneshopper]

Fairfax picks up the spear and dagger and stows/wields them respectfully as Swilbosh takes up a guard position at the doorway to the stairs leading upward. Thurinor briefly pokes his head through the door to scan the stairs for magic and pronounces the way clear, and then Ozborn ascends, stealthy as he can be in the dimness.

The newly en-magicked thief checks for traps along the way but is certain there are none. Apparently, the sorcerer (sorceress?) that lives here is fairly confident about his defenses lower in the tower, and Ozborn peeks through another open doorway into a room with natural light coming through an open window on the north side and, more dimly, through an opening in the ceiling, nearly 20 feet above in the apex of this high-arched room. Scattered about the room are various odd trinkets that Oz cannot readily identify at first, but then realizes are implements of the craft of divination: divination sticks mostly, in the form of various animal bones polished to a gleaming finish.

But that is not all! The figure of a woman stands in the middle of the room, robed in purple. Her black hair falls around an exotic face that is dark of skin and eye. She gazes expectantly into a long mirror set in a wooden frame, her slender arms crossed and her long fingers tapping impatiently. The mirror is cracked roughly in thirds: the top third is nearly half the mirror and the two bottom thirds are split evenly, left and right. From this distance, Ozborn cannot see clearly into the mirror itself. The woman (sorceress?) seems frustrated with the mirror, and she glances toward the open doorway, right at Oz, with a look of fright on her face, as if she might have heard something.

The thief flinches, ready to call out, but the woman seems not to see him, though she might have expected to. She moves to the window and looks out, then gazes again into the mirror. "If only my rope was at hand," she mutters, glancing upward at the opening in the ceiling.

Move Quietly: [1d100] = 46
Find Traps: [1d100] = 26
Cloak of Elvenkind: [1d100] = 57
Oz intelligence check: [1d20] = 4 All pretty nice rolls!

What's next, Oz? Report back to your comrades, or press your advantage?

Andrin, if you're prepping a particular spell, let me know what it is. That can give you a bonus on initiative so that the spell goes off on the party's initiative count proper rather than after the number of segments indicated in the spell description...

[ChubbyPixie]

Oz wants magic user advice, so he'll creep back down and confer quietly with the others about all he's seen, stressing the odd mirror and the woman's clear desire to access the roof for some reason.

[onlyme]

Malone softly replies to the description...

So, do you think she was hoping to escape us or the ones we defeated?

[Grognardsw]

Thurior, elf

"Let's surprise her, smash the mirror and dispatch the evil sorceress," says Thurinor.

[saalaria]

"Everyone ready?" Swilbosh waits for assent then checks the layout of the stairs and room and last known location of the sorceress with Oz.
"Sssso we go in fasssst (but loud) and hope ssshe doesss not move? Or we ssssneak up?"

[Sir Clarence]

"I suppose that we aren't very good at sneaking, except for Ozborne, so I suggest to get upstairs as fast as possible. Those of us who are only lightly encumbered should go first."