Escape from Castle Amber - IC

[Toliudar]

There is elegant pewter silverware at each place setting. The mushrooms are hot, but not painfully so, and quite delicious.

[Proven_Paradox]

If Duran was confused before, he's hopelessly lost now. He says, "It's quite good, but... it's not real, is it? If this is an illusion, it's the most elaborate one ever wrought!"

[North]

Tyz

The halfling sniffs at the mushrooms. Everything smells good so he digs in. To no one in particular he says Any chance of getting ale?

[Diarmuid]

Jonah

Jonah is still somewhat uneasy about the whole thing. He had never really enjoyed mushrooms altogether, but the dish did smell good. So as to not appear insulting to whatever host was playing these games, he poked around the mushrooms and simply picked a few pieces of salad onto his fork and nibbled at them, all the while intoning to himself silently, "None of this is real, none of this is real..."

[Toliudar]

Despite Jonah's intoning to the contrary, the salad is crisp and tasty.

Tyz' question seems to draw the attention of one of the servants, who glances back and shakes his head, a bit sadly. The servants are now departing the same way they came in.

The twenty-four guests are now raising a significant clatter with their enthusiastic eating. The conversations have regained their former fervour - the five men are having to raise their voices slightly to be heard by each other.

[Erelith, Oberon - what are you doing? Any further actions, anyone?]

[GimliFett]

Oberon

The faetouched makes a show of eating his meal, but in actuality ingests nothing. After a few minutes, he leans towards the man next to him and inquires, "How long has it been since your family last entertained?"

[Toliudar]

Jean Louis didn't come into the room with you. Would Oberon like to address the question to the male guest seated next to him at the table?

[GimliFett]

OOC: Ayup, Toli. Edit forthcoming... It's the "[ ]"

[Toliudar]

The man next to Oberon completely ignores him. And not in a "I outrank you so much that I can barely spare you the time to tell you how much I outrank you" way, but in a "You're completely outside of my perception" way.

[North]

Tyz

Tyz belches loudly after downing a wine glass. As much as I like free food, whats going on here the halfling calls out.

[GimliFett]

Oberon

Face slightly flushed from irritation at being ignored, the faetouched sniffs and turns to Duran. "It seems not all of the guests exist in the same reality, I guess."

[Diarmuid]

Jonah

The bard finds himself more and more impressed with whatever power is capable of creating such grand and elaborate illusions. Though more and more he considers all of this being a grand dream they are all being forced to share a more plausible explanation.

With an idea, he begins to try to listen in on some of the ghostly conversations. Perhaps whoever was behind this would leave some kind of clue by the languages used or the topics discussed that he could use to glean more information about what's going on.

Listen - (1d20+3)[7]

If he cannot understand what they are saying, he will cast Comprehend Languages.

[Toliudar]

Erelith tucks into the salad and mushrooms, finishing his plate and washing it down with a bit of wine.

Jonah is able to determine from a few stray names that the topics of conversation tend to revolve around the Glantri court some 100 years ago. No more current references are heard. There's very little of large-scale politics - mostly the pettiness of who is "in" and "out" at court.

As servants come to clear the first course, all but Oberon begin to feel a bit woozy, but this clears up after a moment. A second set of servants arrive with a plate of roast beef with hearty dark bread and green beans, served with pitchers of cold lager.

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Jonah: Your dexterity goes up by 2, and your strength down by 2.
Tyz: You are cured up to your full hit points.
Duran: Give me a fortitude save vs poison.
Erelith: Your dexterity goes up by 2, and your charisma goes down by 1.

[GimliFett]

Oberon

Oberon again continues the pretext of eating. He keeps his eyes vigilant, observing the comings and goings as well as how his companions are faring. "Wonderful meal, isn't it?" he inquires of his friends.

[North]

Tyz

Mmm...Lager...... The halfing digs into the meat and bread and washes it all down thoroughly with lager.

[Toliudar]

The beer is frosty-cold and slides down invitingly.

[Proven_Paradox]

oshi:

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Fort Save: 1d20+9=18, and that includes the dwarven bonus. Not bad...

[Toliudar]

Duran:

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Duran feels a bit nauseous from the mushrooms, but as they have time to digest, feels all the better for having eaten them. From now on, he has a permanent +2 circumstance bonus to saving throws versus poisons.

[Proven_Paradox]

As the nausea hits him, Duran quickly drops the silverware and leans back in his chair, trying not to be sick. After a moment, he considers the possibility that being sick is exactly what he needs to do, but by this time the feeling has passed. He turns to Oberon and says, "In hindsight, eating that was not wise..."

OOC:

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How close are we? If we're all in a group, I'd like to try to get some discrete messages to the others, but I'm not sure if we're even on the same side of the table.

[GimliFett]

Oberon

The faetouched winks at his friend and nods towards his own plate. "That is why I am not eating or drinking, Duran Duran. Merely making the pretense," he whispers conspiratorially. "Until I have a better idea of why we're here, I'm not taking any chances, non mon ami?"

[Toliudar]

The five are all down at one end of the table, with Erelith at the head (or foot) of the table, and the others to either side of him. It's not difficult for Duran to speak fairly discreetly to the others. As far as he can tell, none of the other guests are hearing or seeing them anyway, although the waiters are noting and serving them.

[North]

Tyz

Really? This stuff tastes great, you gonna finish that. Not waiting for an answer the halfling reaches across and grabs Oberons lager and downs it in one fell swoop.

[Diarmuid]

Jonah

The bard swoons a bit in his chair, and places his palm down on the table to steady himself. He is unsure of what has happened, but he realises that his armor is weighing more heavily on him than before.

Not bothering with any pretenses, he pushes his plate away from him and pushes his chair back from the table, though he remains seated. He doesnt bother keeping his voice down as the illusory guests dont seem to be taken any note of them at all,

[color=blue]"There is indeed some foul magic afoot here, I would suggest refraining from consuming anything else."

The strange change in his body makes him a bit nervous, and nervousness led to rashness. With a quick arcane gesture and a few words of power, he attempts to interrupt on of the other guests by moving their plate away from them.

Cast Mage Hand and push someone's plate away as they are reaching for food.

[Toliudar]

Oberon's lager goes as smoothly down Tyz' throat as well as his first did.

Jonah's hands flare briefly with magical power. He gestures towards the plates of the guest next to him, but finds nothing tangible for his mental "hand" to touch. He has better luck when he turns his attention to Erelith's plate, pushing it away from the wizard's eager knife and fork after several bites.

[Proven_Paradox]

Not being one to take chances, Duran leans forward and speaks quietly in spite of the fact that none of the other 'guests' at the table seem to notice them. "I've not readied it today, but starting tomorrow, I'll be preparing a blessing that allows me to create food for us. 'Tis straight from the Soulforger, so unless the magic of this place is strong enough to interfere with the might of the gods themselves, it'll be safe to eat."

[North]

Tyz

The halfling looks at the others confused. But its so tasty!

[Toliudar]

DM Action:

Erelith reaches out and seizes one final forkful of the roast beef before Jonah's spell pushes it out of reach. He jams it into his mouth, chewing cheerfully.

Absolutely. It's a bit underspiced for my tastes, but not everyone can handle the heat.

As he chews and swallows, Erelith beams happily. Servants appear again at the doors, and move quickly to clear plates as the main course finishes. Erelith's eyes glance briefly at Oberon, and he murmurs.

Oh. I hadn't thought of that.

Erelith pitches forward, his head banging onto the table, just as a nimble servant removes the remnants of his meal, and his plate from the centre of the table. Other servants are removing other plates at the same time.

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North, give me a fortitude and a will save for Tyz.

[Proven_Paradox]

"<Moradin's Beard!>" Duran shouts in Dwarven, quickly moving to Erelith's side and lifting him off the table, checking to make sure he is still breathing as he goes.

[North]

Tyz

Not every one can handle their beer. Mmmmm.....beer.

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Fort Save = 15 Will Save = 9

[Toliudar]

Erelith's breathing is shallow but steady. It seems his body has gone entirely limp.

Tyz:

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You feel completely full, and also like the world is a beautiful, warm and magical place. In short, you're very drunk. I'll let you decide whether you're a happy drunk, or...