You've been here before... (http://youtu.be/8swmRbWbnHA)
The frozen wind lashed at your exposed flesh like a scourge, but you've been far too exhausted to even flinch as it stole off with precious warmth. You've been climbing this steep incline for hours, maybe days, you cannot be certain in this dark place. You've seen neither sun nor moon nor a single star in the sky, only endless rolling black stormclouds and the gray haze of mist that streamed down this mountain like water. You were drowning in darkness, but you could not stop to rest. Its been so long you've forgotten your purpose of coming here, but something was lurking out there just down the slope waiting for you to crumble. If you stopped now, you'd die for sure. The only way forward is up, the only open path was ahead. When you started this journey you knew it would be difficult, but even now the thoughts of surrendering to the perils behind you teased at your mind.
Keep going. Keep pulling yourself up. The slope was nearly vertical and impossible to merely walk, only crawl or climb. The wind intensified as if trying to push you down and away and the ground was slippery with ice. A few dark splatters of blood was smeared on the rock face and you could not tell if it was yours from an unseen gash you could no longer feel or another's.
Almost there. Your hand closed around a rock and pulled, dragging you up onto a ledge. The slope evens out, this is what you wanted, you found it! You found...
Watching the chaotic exchanges silently, Ptembridge eyes each of the merchants, as well as the knight, watching their tics and motions. When the various books are waved in front of his face, he snags a mapbook and quickly glances at it, comparing it to landmarks he knows.(click to show/hide)
The Worried Knight: This man is clearly worried about something, probably the whole event you walked into and the reason he came here. The answers he found were... unsatisfying, but to be honest he is running out of options. Looks like he's trying to decide something important.
Red Mapmaker: Both businessmen are trying to turn a profit, but profit seems secondary to whatever unknown feud is going on between them. The prices are probably inflated but it doesn't seem to be out of any malice. Maybe costs are running high?
Blue Bestiary Author: Both businessmen are trying to turn a profit, but profit seems secondary to whatever unknown feud is going on between them. The prices are probably inflated but it doesn't seem to be out of any malice. Maybe costs are running high?
But is it useful?...: A quick look over reveals the map to have the effect of a masterwork skill tool when it comes the checks involving navigation and area lore (typically Survival, and sometimes a few Knowledge skills). It is potentially more useful to the untrained. Even a commoner,with enough reading, should be able to use this to good effect. The most interesting thing seems to be that it includes historical trivia and dangerous areas rich in shades (though going into no detail on the matter of the monsters there).
It is however a bit sparse. Most of this is likely known to you with little new information other than being a handy guide and the trivia. It is noted the maps become more and more vague and distorted the closer to Mt Throne it gets with several places effectively filled in with HERE BE DRAGONS. Your skill in cartography tells you the answer: Since the darkness hit information to and from the area has been scarce and those that have traveled there tell that the landscape itself has been changing. Because it is altering at a rapid rate (geographically speaking) maps have become unreliable. Cities seem to retain their positions and shapes, but some have told how they passed through jungle where there should be desert, or marshland where mountains once stood. Unmarked creatures get lost easily, while marked creatures seem to be less effected by abnormal terrain springing up. They call the area where the last of accurate information has been obtained the 'Event Horizon'.
Mechanically speaking its a Masterwork Skill Tool that only applies to "Area Lore" checks. Checks may be used untrained provided 24 hours of ownership so you don't need to refer to the book every time.
The maps are well made and placed in a waterproof leather case and durable parchments. The thing looks like its made for travel at least. There is a small amount of runes on the spine, perhaps it has a subtle magical function?
1He may be a foreign devil, but Mr. Sirrus seems to have a firm grasp on goblin. Achenar is wisely not trying to make the attempt.
I can make this happen, you only need to say the word, honorable samurai, and long live the empress.
Your trip will be unhindered by bandits and beasts, reaching the edge of the forest where the number of trees thicken. Before you is a verdant tangle of bushes, vines, and tall trees whose cover is enough to blot out much of the sun, leaving a thousand slivers of light pouring through the canopy. Horses may have difficulty trekking through the undergrowth, but it is up to you how to proceed.
MOTH FOREST (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGYjQn4pBaM)
You may wish to search for clues of movement and activity. There isn't obvious signs of humanoid activity on the outskirts. Currently temperature and wind is stable and mild. There is the faint smell of pollen in the air.
<OK, I have a few thoughts. First: Lady Akemi, could you heal our new friend here like you did me a bit ago?<I'm certainly up for tossing those items into the "pit." However, I would think that they might be less susceptible to such things if those are part if their natural defenses.
Second: I have some alchemical sleep gas, and smoke grenades. Let's fight fire with fire: We'll open up tossing those into their "pit". If one or two of you sneaky types want to deliver them, it might be for the best.>
Bombs away! The dancing and plotting is interrupted by twin grenades launched into the sky releasing clouds of sleep inducing fog. But the gods of fortune were not smiling today as only a single creeper fell victim to the fog (http://www.minmaxboards.com/index.php?topic=13693.msg242915#msg242915), though several others got rather dizzy as fatigue briefly washed over them.
Miter the Green Creeper is sleeping!
"I will be ok. Once I am free I can stand and run. ...but I've brought shame on my house. Please, let us not speak about what has transpired. Not even killed in battle proper..."
"Fine! Retreat to Dragon Tower, let them have their 'prize', she's no good to us now."
At Berid's aimless query, Ptembridge adds a detail: "The sinkhole isn't just a matter of 'fun and profit.' We know a threat has emanated from there, and we know that the creature's rod fell there as well.If you sit down and think about it, really, when isn't it a matter of 'fun and profit'? And if it isn't, either change it so that it is, or don't do it. I'm not saying it can't be anything else, too, but at the very least, it should be those. Am I right, Axejack?
And a horse.
I suspect we could resolve much through that pit."
Berid
Ptem
Akemi
Matsu
Mannequin
Axejack
Berid takes his own advice and - after nocking an arrow, just in case - moves to the door, checking with Matsu and AxeJack to make sure they're watching, and then opens it, stepping behind it rather than standing in the opening.
To Lord Manus and Lady Marlowe.
As per our agreement, I have finished the last of the maintenance of the crop fields. I will, however, be going to the authorities concerning your behavior in this matter if I do not receive my paycheck, and I will report about your "visitors" you keep sending into your mansion. The lack of living farmers is still a problem as the constructs still do not follow my commands, and in spite of cutting down on headcount pay conditions continue to degrade supposedly due to your "economic struggles". Bullshit, the war on the shroud's been hard on everyone but it is no excuse for what you've been claiming. I am sick of this. I hope your mindless wooden automatons will suffice, because I won't be here anymore. I quit, I'm leaving first thing tomorrow morning. This is m-a-aah, what's that noise?
Obtained IRON MAN KEY.
Obtained SILVER EAGLE KEY.
Obtained INVISIBLE KEY.
Ptembridge had a much less grim task at hand. Running his hands over the door he found no traps, and in fact discovered that it wasn't even locked. As the door opened, a large gust of wind burst forth as if under high pressure, and that high pitched noise abruptly lowered to a much more recognizable tune of a distant gramophone playing a classical track of music. And the interior... was normal. The lights were on, and the place looked to be well kept for and clean. Before you was the main foyer (http://www.priceypads.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Foyer.jpeg), a large room with two levels, a pair of staircases leading up to the catwalk that was the second floor. Signs of opulence lined the walls, and a large chandelier hovered above. From the front door, visibly, there were doors to the left and right, as well as a door on the second floor straight ahead. On the second floor, there were again doors to the left and right, but strangely the 2nd floor door on the left was broken, sundered by some large force.
There was a squeak of surprise, and the birdman's eyes focused on a surprised looking and filth covered rat standing upon one of the tables in the room and looking out of place in this land of richness. It immediately scurried off the table and behind the support wall holding up the stairs, possibly into a door or hall you can't see. What was that about?
It's too faint for human noses (not without a larger Perception, say DC 25) but if anyone has Scent they can smell food. Also, chemicals. A strange combination to be sure.
Thinking that the arm beast might not be undead, Matsu decides to try and probe its mind. Whether this is a good idea or not remains to be seen...(click to show/hide)
Rat swarms dealRolled 1d6 : 4, total 4damage and DC 12 Fort save vs Disease, and DC 12 Fort vs Distraction against Axejack.
Rat swarm 1 provokes for entering Axejack's square.
Rat swarm 2 provokes for passing through Axejack's reach.
Snake-hand charges Axejack, provoking for passing through Axejack's reach. Also it missed.
MAP (http://beta.ditzie.com/63323/54ec68f7ca791)
Ptembridge, Matsu, Akemi, Berid, Enemy, Axejack
Ptembridge is now through! Act!
Ptembridge, Matsu, Akemi, Berid, Enemy, Axejack
Ptembridge pushes to the other side into a very dark place. You can't make out your environment even with your low light vision. Of course, you do own a pair of nightvision goggles (http://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Nightvision_Goggles_(3.5e_Equipment)) don't you, so it's safe to assume you'll put them on.
As the grin tinge of your surroundings greet you, you find yourself in a dark doppleganger version of the mansion you're in. Your friends, or Akemi and the Scissorman, are nowhere to be seen in this lightless land. It won't take much exploring to realize that the floorplan of this place radically alters from what you remember of the house.
You smell a bad smell, not unlike what you smelled outside the house. Burned flesh, long burned out likely but ever present in the air with the faint odor of oil and smoke. There are several dark stains on the walls and floor and...
Oh, chains on the ceiling. With dismembered hands hanging from them. And you're pretty sure one of them just twitched.
You can't NOPE on out of here, the portal appears to be gone on your side there. What are you gonna do?
(click to show/hide)
Before I reply, any place Berid is looking specifically, or just in general?Hole in the ceiling
I think he means the other shaft, the elevator-less one that is above where the broken glass is.Yeah, but they both go up... and once we're on the floor we "want" (which... is pretty random since we have no idea where the F we're going), making doors seems easy enough. :P
Also, because Eiji is way too eager to hit "post", there's one other possibly important detail in the room. On the opposite side of the trapped door you opened, there is another one of those filth-drawn marks, but this one is different. This one is...:o (This is Matsu's face after seeing that... of course no one else sees his face, because it is behind a mask...)
...this is The Mark. The mark on your bodies.
You return back to the main foyer which remains unchanged. The entrance to the house is still blocked off by that quintessence slime stuff, but even though you know how to deal with it now, it wouldn't do you much good. From what you can tell, the outside is nothing but a swirling miasma of fog and chaos out there. And you can't help but feel there is something outside there looking in.
Drossel will lead you to the left side on the bottom floor, a door you didn't enter previously.
You enter a large regal dining hall, and recall you have seen this room... from above. Indeed, lining the upper walls was a catwalk the party briefly came across shortly before choosing to enter the room with the elevator. Upon the long and fine mahogany tables lay dozens of plates, with the crumbs of a now old and rotting meal. On the farthest end is a shield plaque, and to the right is an open door.
The place looks like it was occupied once, and that there were people here who all left suddenly mid-meal in an orderly fashion.
There is a curious orange sign scribbled next to one of the plates. You've seen something like that before, at the entrance of the mansion before you went in. You know, the one warning you not to go inside. This one reads:
"Don't trust the food. Love, Faith."
Drossel heads for the door and enters a hallway. The left is the hall curls around the corner. Before you, a door. And to your right are two things. One is another door set into the side of the hall. And the other is a pile of wood chips that was once a door, apparently ripped off its hinges, and a literal pile of mannequin bodies in various states of destruction. It looks like a combination of bludgeoning and hacking from something.
It's another orange sign. This time on the wall next to the pile of bodies.
"When music is played, these things get up. Well, maybe not now. Don't play the music. Love, Faith."
You enter a library which has become messy. Many books have been removed and not replaced, littering the ground with pages open to various bits, and a few stolen away by the rats themselves. There is a comfortable looking couch with table, writing implements, and a fireplace which is not lit. On a wall, a golden decorative longsword hangs on a frame. In the corner, a record player sits. It appears to still be in working order. Drossel will take a moment searching for two specific books here. One is a book on religion and philosophy. The other appears to be an atlas.
"Alright, let's go."
You enter a room with chests and lockers, and a curiously out of place statue of a regal looking man. Knowledge Nobility.
There's not much to do here other than investigate the chests, currently closed. A set of stairs leads upwards, and when he opens the next door there is a hall and an opening to your right. It's then you realize where you were.
God damnit guys, you just ended up right in the hallway where you got tangled up in webbing and fought the scissorman.
(http://i61.tinypic.com/2akd1z4.png)
Looks like you were really close to where you needed to be. Directly ahead was a short hall, and stairs which went down again. Way down. It might be the lack of lighting in this area, but these stairs seem to go down forever. By the time you're finished walking you're gonna have calf muscles the size of Buicks. At least this has been a quiet trip so fa-
CRACK!
For lightweights like the rat and spider, the stairs were fine, but apparently it was not structurally sound enough to support the combined forces of dorf and doctor, and their two hapless followers. Drossel isn't out of the clear either, since while he won't need to make a save vs stairs, he will need to dodge you if you fall on him. Reflex saves vs stairs to the face!
"Prepare for Madness!" Matsu announces over the telepathic link... and then he tries to force contact with the mind of the Scissorman...Sadly you do remember that the scissorman is undead (the snake-arms weren't, but no telling if these new gian hand companions are mindless or not... they at least appear alive).(click to show/hide)
The blast that the spider let out against their main enemy was impressively aimed, yet not so impressive in its intensity. The cackling laughter that accompanied the purple flare was not, however, so meagre.(click to show/hide)
One more appendage still stood before the dwarf before he could move in and start severing Scissorhands' hands.(click to show/hide)
Matsu decides that he needs to keep that scissorman away from him at all costs. He tries to push the creature down with a psychokinetic thrust of energy.(click to show/hide)
(click to show/hide)
The front of the house has a large and fine mahogany double door, with the sound of distant thunder rumbling somewhere from behind it. Upon the door there is a message inscribed in chalk.
"This place is bad. Proceed with caution, even then preferably not. Love, Faith."
The welcome mat at the base of the door has been disturbed, as if something was removed from underneath it. Clearly you're not the first to arrive here. And if you have the means, you might be able to pick up on footprints as well. The most recent one indicates several people have been here, including at least one with larger feet than normal. Maybe a dwarf.
Nearby is that well which was set upon a makeshift hill of dirt that seemed out of place. It smelled of smoke, and there was a wooden door relieved of its hedges at the side of the well, a round smoked out area on one side which seems to suggest it was used as a cap for the well, and whatever fire occurred within. The smoke has dissipated there, and small twinkling embers can be found below in the well.
Moving around the house, Wystan can find two alternative entrances. One is merely a back entrance, which one has to scale a fence to enter the back garden, and then the back door. Alternatively there is a small stable with a large door, presumably for holding a cart and maybe horses. It's silent in there. This large door is locked, but could potentially be breached to let you in.
Wystan is quick on the case, heading towards the front door. The door isn't locked, but an incredible pressure seems to be holding it shut. A strength check will be required to get it to budge, DC unknown.
"Is.... is ev'rything alright? My god what happened here!"
CRACK! The ground began to actively shake, and fissures began to appear spooking the horses. Regardless if he intended to or not, your driver and his cart and making a hasty retreat. Unfortunately it's also stranding you on rapidly destabilizing ground. Make a DC 15 Reflex save, lest the ground start liquefying under your feet and sinking you knee-deep in the ground.
This is after Drosselmeyer removes a few items he claims are his. If you wish to dispute, you can take it up with him. It doesn't appear to be very much.
17,000 gp in various material goods (4250 gp each, or 3400 gp if you share with the newcomer Wystan).
Scroll of Regeneration
5x Potions of Cure Light Wounds
Potion of Remove Disease
An Unmarked Potion, requires identification. It's clear, bubbly, and smells vaguely of apple and an sweet but artifical chemical.
4x Vials of Quintessence, enough to coat a Tiny object. There is not enough quintessence here to give the doctor any problem.
A pack of two mysterious pills, requires identification. It's pale blue and purple, and radiates strong psychoportation.
A small black box. Within is a still fresh, still pale and pupilless set of eyes. They twitch with the remains of their muscles glancing this way and that. This item needs identification, or someone to test it out. The eyes can also be identified with a Knowledge Dungeoneering check.
A Note in a Bottle (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Note_in_a_Bottle_(3.5e_Equipment)). It came up with a lot of half written and scribbled out letters, all which seem to be letters of apology to Lady Marlowe, never finished.
An ioun torch and an ioun shade (http://Ioun Shade (3.5e Equipment)), a matching pair!
Sovereign Glue (only 1 ounce remains).
Some dice, carved from bone. They aren't magical or anything, they might have been a lucky charm.
A Belt of HealingMIC.
Some high grade magicite. Keep it with you, a proper craftsman can upgrade you a free +1 weapon.
A Blood Pin Hilt (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Blood_Pin_Hilt_(3.5e_Equipment)) not connected to anything.
A Nighthide Cape (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Nighthide_(3.5e_Equipment)), otherwise not magical. It has one hell of a collar though.
Eyes of the Dwarf (https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Eyes_of_the_Dwarf_(3.5e_Equipment)).
6x Masterwork Knives, each shaped a bit different and apparently specialized for medical tasks.
A stone knife, which has the Accursed Mark on it. It requires identification.
A map which seems to no known location you know. It has a city on it, and some... undefined blobs marked with nonsense scribbles and waves.
And a lifetime supply of finger bones. Why are through so many bones in this vault?