RED OAK: Beyond the Mirror

[Woe]

"Oh good, I'm glad you're staying with us." Tiana says.

---------

Once everyone is through, is it possible to turn the mirror so it is flush with the wall? The idea is that anyone else who tries to enter from the other side cannot, because they don't have enough leverage to push away the rock from the mirror.

Alright, let's see what's going on around here. Chests to open!

The coin box is in a sack, right? It's made of wood or metal? If it is a wood box, they'll smash it open (opposed to dealing with the lock), and smashing while it's in the sack (with no one nearby, etc). Kilian thinks it's all overly paranoid, but he doesn't disagree.

Anna and Freya can check for traps on the other chest as well. Freya is hoping to get a few pointers from Anna as she does.

[Longman]

I don't recall the coin box being in a sack. Did I say that?

Anyway - - you can put it in a sack and smash it open before you go through. It did contain coins, and nothing else, no traps or anything. There are 100 coins (10 pounds), some of a very pure looking gold, and they look like Old Sader, and are probably worth about 200gp in base metal value and maybe more to a collector (Brant). Tiana checks them for dates or signs of when they were deposited, but to no avail. All she knows so far is that Sader was a kingdom in this part of the world before the goblins came, so they are probably 8th or 9th century.

Freya, as senior thief, approaches the first chest. It has quite a complex looking lock and her 'urban' setting disadvantage definitely kicks in here. She has literally no clue where to even start.

Anna steps up. When she sees Freya peering over her shoulder she tries to hide what she is doing so the elf can't see. She doesn't want her best party trick being learned by the other contender.

But she can't find any indication of traps either.

The second chest is similarly locked - - again, neither thief has any idea if there any traps here. Both are certain that the keys on the table look like door keys, not keys to the chest locks.

'So, I guess we can try to pick the locks?' Anna offers. But, these old ornate chests look like they obviously contain something pretty important and there is an air of ancient, forgotten magic about the room.

[Woe]

"You're the best at this, Anna. You try first."



What about the mirror? Can it be relocated?

[Longman]

You know, it never occurred to me that you would turn the mirrors in on themselves and I have been wondering if it would create some kind of freaky reality feedback loop. I decided to roll for this randomly.

It doesn't. (Shame.)

While re-hanging the mirror backwards - which is a bit tricky and involves lots of fiddling about with rope and wire - Tiana notices that the runes on this one say the opposite of those on the other. (Glade of Spires to Pass of Hounds). The rest is all the same.

You don't know what someone on the other side would see when they looked into the first mirror because there is no one there to tell you. You are all through in the magician's room.

Anna steps forward to the first chest, her face flushed with pride - especially if that was Talin speaking, above. She succeeds! Click!



The chest pops open and reveals two large TOMES, one on top of the other. If they aren't spell-books, Kilian is a monkey's uncle. In fact, rarely in the history of D and D has a party ever seen books that were so obviously spell-books.

You can tell mainly because the top one has Salenish magic runes embossed into the leather front cover - and quite a few of them are moving.

Yes, that's right. The runes are scuttling around in the corners of the cover, switching places with each other, and she even sees a few runes slowly changing into other ones. It's pretty disturbing to look at.

It's been about 2 seconds since she opened up. She can see the book underneath has the same kind of cover, but she can't see if it has moving runes too. She can also see some quills, parchment, and what looks like a small felt case, down the side of the chest.

Now what happens?

[Woe]

You know, it never occurred to me...

"Wow. That looks very powerful." Talin observes.

"And dangerous. Mighty dangerous. Don't go reading no magic books, boy. Ye will turn yeself into a toad, or worse." scolds Kilian.

"You're right, Kilian. I will look at these later, when it's safe. And speaking of safe, we should put this gold in a safe place too, don't you think?" With a twinkle completely unbecoming of an elf, Tiana loads up the sack of gold into the first chest, placing it carefully on top of the spellbook. She tries not to laugh as she sees Kilian's crestfallen look on his face.

"Nice job Tiana! What's in the second chest?" Talin asks.

[Longman]

Anna opens the second chest so fast that you doubt it might even have been locked.

Click.

4 More books. This time no wriggly magic runes. Just plain old Salen text. They look like notebooks. You haven't opened them yet. Also, some more quills, bottles of ink, a magnifying glass, a monocle, and some bookmarks, and an abacus.

See my note in OOC.

[Woe]

"Wow, you're getting really good at that!" Talin says a bit too enthusiastically. Out of sight of Anna, Freya looks at Tiana and rolls her eyes.

"Hmpf. Looks normal enough to me." says Kilian dismissively.

Tiana looks at Abigall. "What do you think?" she asks of the mousegirl.

Let's see... chests, kinda check. Robot, kinda check. Keys are probably quick, which means a combination of "listen to the doors" and look at the chest loot a bit further.

What time of day is it? Noon?

[Longman]

Yeah, about 12pm, August 30.

Listening at the doors - Anna and Freya can't hear anything at either one. Freya thinks there might be a distant rumbling sound out of nboth doors but it's not much of a clue. They are both pretty certain there isn't anyone immediately on the other side of either door.

Both doors have small knob handles, and key holes below. They appear to open inward.

PS - you've still only had a look at the covers of the notebooks so far. What do you do with the second chest?

[Woe]

Lunchtime!

I was looking for a reason to stop for a bit.

The magical tomes will stay locked up, as does the gold (to Kilian's disappointment). Talin will pick up the keys, and after a thought, offers them to Freya. He'll also add the oil to the group loot (how much oil?). Assuming nothing magical in the second chest (Abigall?), Tiana will look at one of the notebooks and see if she or Talin can make out the topics. Kilian will scrutinize the golem more, see if he can figure out how it works. He's still considering bringing it back. Can he see any way of giving it commands (a USB port maybe)? Assuming the doors are locked, Freya will match keys to keyholes.

And eventually, one of the secret doors. Forward ho!

[Longman]

2 pints of oil. In porcelain containers. The lamp is actually pretty good quality too.

Nothing magical in 2nd chest, except for mild spells of preservation on some of the objects. Judging by the illustrations, the books seem to be about -

Making robots - including smaller 4 legged ones, and other larger ones that look like large walking cages. This one turns out to contain some spells, which you quickly ignore.

Sylvan creatures, with illustrations of various types - dog-men, otter people, mouse-men, bee and wap people, griggs (grasshopper folk) and many others. No apparent sign of any lycanthropes. One spell.

How to make zombies and skeletons, with spells, and a section at the back that looks like it is about how to raise the dead, or possibly, turn oneself into a lich. Head to tell.

Various Dwarven runes, transcribed into Sader. Illustrations of a long hallway, with many inscriptions on ancient dwarvish, that have been carved onto stone shields and hammers, set into the walls. No spells.

There's a good indication that there were originally more notebooks in this chest - it would certainly fit more of them.

Kilian has no idea how the robots works. Nor Tiana. No entry holes. The illustrations show the 'life' fluid being placed in two containers within the body - hand and head. For the cages, there is one reservoir, and fr the robot dogs, it is head only. There is a small amount of this stuff left (1 more pint) with the spare parts. Probably, the spells activate them.

Meanwhile, Freya finds that indeed, the keys - which are identical - look like they would fit the secret doors, definitely. Freya can't see any traps and so can open one.

Which one?