Shiny smiles. "As a hobby? No! As a profession, of course. Didn't you know you were traveling with Shiny Oakshaper, wood carver and parole officer?"
He scans the sky for the raptor again. "Plan hasn't changed... let's keep moving."
Printable View
After walking for over an hour and fumbling through the terrain, the party finds itself skirting along a natural stone formation among the deep woods as they travel towards the great bird stone...
@MiriamSpoilerSomething is amiss about the stone wall where you are...SpoilerNo Peaking, for Miriam! :smallamused:SpoilerIt doesn't feel real.
Spoiler
I'm trying to be better about what some characters know that others do not.
Spoiler[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
[roll5]
Miriam continues "Well, I was hoping one of you could carve me a new wooden holy silver. I have grown tired of the one I am wearing. It is not really .... me and it reminds me .... well, let's just say I would like something less flashy."
As the group moves toward and along the wall, Miriam suddenly stops. She raises her shield and mace and says. "the wall .... something is not right ... it does not feel ..... real."
As Miriam points out her concerns, the party examines the area more closely...
@MithrilSpoilerAt second glance, there is something odd with the stone. You are entitled to a Spellcraft check.
@KurtSpoilerYour Dwarven senses tell you that this stone is odd, not true.
@Ntalia, Shiny, ValenSpoilerYou cannot detect anything odd about the stone. At all, it feels completely real to all of your senses.
Spoiler
[roll0]
[roll1]
[roll2]
[roll3]
[roll4]
Miriam picks up a stone and throws it at the wall that was not there.
The stone bounces off of the wall, making a loud crack as it skips off the wall...
@MithrilSpoilerThe stones sound didn't correspond exactly to what you witnessed.
@Everyone ElseSpoilerThe stone bounced and sounded as it should.
Spoiler
Listen
Miriam[roll0]
Kurt[roll1]
Shiny[roll2]
Natalia[roll3]
Mithril[roll4]
Valen[roll5]
Valen watches on, perplexed, "What are you on about woman?"
What does she know that I do not?....
Natalia shakes her head in confusion; now Kurt and Mithril can both see what Miriam does and she, Valen, and Shiny cannot. Embarrassed over her complete lack of perception anyway, Natalia offers, "Search for traps? Trip over...What I can't see, may still...stumble on?" She looks to her friends and adds, "Tell...Where to start...please."
Spurred on by her comrades' awareness, Natalia begins searching the area for anything definitively out of place.
SpoilerBet I'm going to continue rolling horribly. *Sigh*
Spot: [roll0]
Search: [roll1] plus Take 20 for 30 around the immediate suspicious area and anywhere that Kurt, Mithril, or Miriam tell her specifically to check.
"Hmmmm..." says Shiny thoughtfully, before something suddenly clicks in his mind. "This wall reminds me of something- I think I may know what it is."
"You see, I was once exploring the countryside around my home village when I came across a farm. And on that farm was an old gnome tending to his livestock, who when he saw me offered me a meal in exchange for some help mending a fence. I was about to decline when I saw his three daughters walking up behind him, each one prettier than the last- and I saw fit to accept his offer. I'm sure you can imagine how that evening went, except this one had a twist- turns out the old gnome farmer was a retired warmage. So needless to say, at the crack of dawn I found myself sprinting off the property, dodging fireballs and lightning, as naked as the day I was born."
Shiny contemplates for another moment. "You know what, never mind, I suppose that's not really related to this situation."
After thorough searching and immense concentration, Natalia finds nothing but a rough rock wall.
SpoilerThat was funny Admiral! Gotta love Shiny.
Miriam looks at Shiny and feels outraged at the gnome joking abut such grave things "Do you really think that joking about stealing a woman maidenhood is funny, gnome?"
Then seriousness returns to her face and she addresses the group "The wall is not real. I think it is hiding something else, a different barrier. Why and what are questions to be answered but what worries me is that this kind of magic and planning is usually above the typical orc raiding tribe."
Having said that she spends a lot of time looking at the wall, especially in the zone that does not feel right to her. She will poke various areas that look not real.
Little by little, she expands her search and spot area trying to a find a proof to convince her friends that the wall is not real.
Spoilertake 20 on spot and search
Valen, still skeptical feels the stone and looks closely, "It looks and feels real."
Spoiler
Spellcraft[roll0]
"If it is a spell, it is far beyond my understanding. Wizardess, this is more your expertise?"
As Miriam begins to search the wall, its her sense of feeling that most clearly detects the illusion, for if looks back it takes her just a second to realize that what she can see, smell, touch and feel is not truly there. Most of what she searches is pretty close to what she sees, but after a few minutes of searching the large area of wall she finds a place that clearly is being covered. Its an opening, a 3' crevice running obliquely into the rock face.
Even if powerful magics weren't being used to mask this entrance, it would have been difficult to detect...
SpoilerMiriam Spellcraft[roll0]
Miriam is at a loss for what kinds of magics could have done this beyond some powerful forms of illusion.
Mithril had been sitting back observing Miriam's experiments. She walked up to the odd wall and placed her hands on it. "What are you?"SpoilerSpellcraft [roll0]
Also casting Detect Magic with a Spellcraft roll to determine school of magic
Spellcraft [roll1]
@ MithrilSpoilerAs you open your Wizardess'sight, you are bombarded by the largest and strongest aura you've yet encountered. It's a swirling mass of strong illusion...with sensory response. It's well beyond your abilities, and you also detect another spll permeating the first, holding it together, withstanding the ravages of time. Both spells are of at least the 5th circle of magic.
Spoiler
This is a Permanent Mirage Arcana
Mithril staggered backwards, eyes wide "This is more powerful than anything I have seen before. A wizard of some power created must have created it. There are two spells involved, some sort of illusion and one that has allowed it to last this long." She shook her head in disbelief "It is a false image, designed to make our senses believe the opposite. I fear the power of the one who cast it."
Following Mithril's lead, Valens eyes glow as he peers at the stone in front of him...
"It is powerful, but I can decent little about it."
Spoiler
Spellcradt[roll0]
Natalia frowns, worried. Whoever did this was good. Normally she would have expected to find an oddly repeating pattern, an imaginary growth of lichen in the wrong place, something not right.
"...Too much to handle?" she asks. Whoever did this must be extremely strong, especially to make Mithril stagger like that.
"It is a little overwhelming, seeing magic that powerful. I can not hope to reach those levels for a while." Mithril walked back toward the wall "Is there anyone behind here? How thick do you think this wall is?"
Natalia mulls it over, and then comes up with a thought as to who the caster could be. "Faker, trickster...Hooded half-orc? Or...Puppetmaster? Control with magic and words...Like Shiny?"
It bothers her. She knows it's fake now, she trusts Mithril and Miriam and Kurt, but she can't make the fakery vanish from her vision.
Mithril looked at the illusion and shrugged Well it can't hurt the situation
She raised her hand and knocked three times, "Hello? If anyone is in there I would like to talk. I mean no harm, I am just curious as to who you are and how you did this." She felt a little foolish talking to a wall, I hope no-one thinks me mad
Natalia pauses as another thought strikes her. "If...Made to last...Last from when?" Thinking hard about any powerful mages in the area that she's heard of, Natalia is suddenly stricken by the memory of a long-dead staff displayed on a tavern wall.
"Hidden haven of...Max's blood?"
As Miriam slips her hand into the gap, Natalia mentally staggers for a moment as her subconscious is finally convinced this isn't real. Now the illusion looks strange--it's still there, but almost as though it's an image overlaid onto the landscape. Cautiously Natalia reaches up to touch it. Not only does her hand pass through the image, but the part that she touches fades out more than the rest of the powerful spell. And there's something else too--she can't feel the colors of the rough stone like the real cliff face around it. What powerful magic, to confuse even her miswired senses.
"Woah," she says as she finally sees the small gap it was hiding.
SpoilerZman, is this okay?
Mithril doesn't receive a response from he wall...
SpoilerCoffee, that was fine.
While waiting for the others to examine the wall, Natalia quickly marks the bottom of the rock face, right by the edge of the illusion, with a line of chalk which the tall grass quickly covers. You'd have to be looking for the line to find it. She then quickly sketches what the area looks like while saying, "Hidden...Orc path? Or...No...Old magic...Monuments from people long gone..." She trails off, trying to remember the name. "Max's...Alabastor! Alabastor's Grotto?"
She peers inside cautiously; feeling a slight rippling somewhere as her head passes through the illusion. Or maybe it's just her imagination.
Mithril stared at the wall. "Shiny, it's like your tricks." Nervously she pushed at the wall, No not a wall, an illusion to see if she could pass through. Muttering a prayer to Boccob she attempted to step through.
Natalia stops Mithril before she can go too far inside the cavern. "Tricky guards for a tricky place. Foresight runs...deep down as at does long...in time."
As Mithril walks through the Illusion into the Pitch black of the cave entrance, Natalia attempts to warn her to be careful, the concern is touching... She makes it a few steps, her hand on the wall before she feels the opening widening, still pitch black, the light and her companions behind her.....
Spoiler
Attack[roll0] vs AC 15
Damage[roll1]
Grapple [roll2] vs [roll3]
Mithril disappears into the black....
@Those with DarkvisionSpoilerYou can see something wrapped around Mithril's neck, constricting her, and pulling her to the left.
@NataliaSpoilerYou hear a sudden exhalation as Mithril steps into the black...but you aren't fast enough to be able to act...
@MithrilSpoilerAs you step into the dark you feel a sudden thick constricting on your neck... Just as suddenly the constricting tightens and you are ripped further into the dark and drug along the rocky bottom....SpoilerYou have taken 12 damage and cannot speak
???
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Opposed Grapple(Move)[roll0] vs [roll1]
Constrict[roll2]
Mithril can be heard struggling as she is drug into the dark....
Spoiler
Initiative
Thing
Valen
Miriam, Natalia, Kurt
Shiny, Mithril
We are on Valen's initiative...