View Single Post
Old 02-28-2019, 07:33 AM   #50
coronatiger
 
Join Date: Apr 2018
Location: Trondheim, Norway
Default Session 10 (2019-02-23)

Thoughts on August 11th

It took an hour to get from the entrance to the part of the city we were tasked to explore. A quick count showed ten buildings, in various degrees of disrepair; some buildings were essentially whole, others were hardly more than a pile of rubble. We decided to proceed with care. Va’lyndra would look for magical traps, while Lady Karita would look for those of a mundane variety.

The first house we checked didn’t have traps of any kind on the two external doors, but the doors themselves were made of wood. That made us cautious, because everything we had found before down here was either made of stone or metal; anything wooden had long since disintegrated. Va’lyndra said we didn’t have to worry, for the doors were made of living wood, whatever that means. She stuck her hand into the doors, removing the locks as the wood shaped itself around her hand. I marveled at how easy some things get when you know a mage!

We spent a few hours in that house, and came to the conclusion that it once had been a concert hall. Kine found a jewel in the crack between two floor tiles. There were several paintings as well. Time hadn’t been kind to them, but they were all covered in clear, smooth glass, which could get a good price back in Garuk.

I discovered that searching for magic took quite a bit out of Va’lyndra, so she mostly rested, watching Lady Karita, Kine and me looking for valuables in an area she had cleared. Olivia stayed with the wagon and animals outside.

The next house also had a door of living wood. This one glowed to Va’lyndra’s eyes, so we decided not to break in before she could figure out what spells lay on the door. As she started her spell-dance, the rest of us took a look at the building. It was larger than the concert hall, but still only two stories. We found a small hole where part of the wall on the second floor had crumbled.

Having no reason to believe anyone would trap the opening, I climbed up and dropped down a rope so Lady Karita and Kine could follow. We took a look around, and found several distinct areas on the second floor. We had entered what looked to be an area of living apartments, prompting me to believe the whole building could be a giant inn for the wealthy. The second area was a huge room filled with paintings, some of them on free-standing easels. The third area was also extremely spacious; this one was filled with statues. The last area consisted of several chambers with stone benches and lecterns; Lady Karita thought they may have been lecture halls. All these areas lay between the outer walls and a U-shaped corridor. On the inside of the corridor, in the center of the building, was a vast domed cavern; a gallery with a stone railing went most of the way around.

We brought three lanterns into the mines. Olivia kept one outside, and Lady Karita and Kine carried one each. Va’lyndra was resting after the spell-casting, keeping Olivia company. The rest of us went to look at the room with all the paintings. We wouldn’t touch anything before Va’lyndra could tell us it was safe, but wanted to get a better look around instead of sitting still. I was walking alongside Kine, looking at decrepit paintings until we found one that didn’t look age-worn at all. It depicted a farmer with a hoe, working in the field. We turned around to tell Lady Karita what we’d found, when suddenly Kine cried out and fell to the floor. I looked around, but couldn’t see much. Kine’s lantern had gone out, and the only light in the room came from Lady Karita’s lantern, which was hurrying towards us from a distance.

Kine shook off the pain and told us she had seen motion at the edge of her field of vision, and turned just in time to see the farmer stretching out of the painting to attack her. I took out my first aid kit and bandaged Kine after first having pulled her away from the malicious painting. Lady Karita looked at the painting, and saw blood in it, dripping from the hoe, as well as spatter on the glass. The farmer’s eyes followed hers.

I took Kine outside to have Olivia see to her, and brought Va’lyndra and a blanket inside. I stood behind the easel and covered the painting. Then we went to inspect the statues, but found nothing of interest there. The glass from the hundreds of paintings would be worth a fortune, however, if we could bring it back to civilization. Kine voiced a concern about flooding the market when I fetched her. Lady Karita and Va’lyndra went to look at the lecture halls in the meantime.

When Kine and I arrived, we learned that Va’lyndra had been attacked by a magic that had tried to choke her, but she had been able to exit the room, leaving the magic’s area of effect. With all the spells she had cast, the attack had left her completely drained, so she had to rest immediately. When she was attacked, she had identified that the magic came from an inscription on one of the stone benches, and thought that if we could destroy the inscription, the magic would be dispelled. Kine and I went back to her wagon, to see if there were any tools there for the job, and came back with a pick.

Lady Karita wanted to attack the inscription, since she hadn’t been affected by the spell earlier, even though she had been in the room when it went off. Maybe the magic only attacked elves. Just in case, I tied a rope around her waist so I could pull her out if she fell. She didn’t go down, but the attack struck her hard. Kine tried as well, and the trap blasted her, too.

I had assumed that a magic trap could be defeated by someone’s strength of will, but seeing the effects of this trap, hurting and choking its victims, I guessed I might have a chance. Va’lyndra may be my equal in lifting strength, but when it comes to fortitude and stamina, I outstrip her, as our run through the hills last week showed. To be honest, Lady Karita and Kine are weaklings compared to me, although they both pack a punch. I’m not stupid, so I tied the rope around my waist before entering. I hacked furiously at the inscription, and after a few minutes, I had crushed the trapped part of the stone bench. I was a bit winded after the exertion, but never had the painful, choking feeling the others described. We searched the lecture halls thoroughly, but to our disappointment, found nothing of value.

As it was getting late, we decided to delay exploring the first floor until tomorrow. Va’lyndra had ascertained that the main door had some kind of password spell on it, but would need more time to figure it out. In addition, she knew there were more spells on the door, and we needed to identify them all.

We brought the malevolent painting outside, and Va’lyndra cast her analyzing spell on it. She determined that an enchantment lay on the painting, allowing a weirdly dimensional creature to inhabit it. I got lost when she pulled out the big words to explain. I think the creature needs to see in order to attack, so by covering the painting, we are safe. Using Va’lyndra’s wood-shaping spell, we could even hide the painting inside one of the doors of living wood. Having survived the millennia, the wood could be valuable in itself, so taking it through the checkpoint may not be suspicious.
__________________
You don't need to spend 100 CP on Status 5 [25] and Multimillionaire [75] to feel like a princess, when Delusion [-10] will do.

Character sheet: Google Drive link (See this thread for details.)

Campaign logs: Chaotic Pioneering / Confessions of a Forked Tongue
coronatiger is offline   Reply With Quote