[Nexus] Serious Plots 3 - Too srs for my shirt

[Slii Arhem]

Time Tower

As soon as Reinholdt touches the watch an ornate brass door appears in the wall atop the stairs. Oddly enough, only Reinholdt should be able to see it. The watch itself is also speckled with the sand, so he may have to brush it off gently if he wants to carry it around.

The room is completely inert now. With no one able to cross the flagstones the statues and clock don't move any more.

[Zefir]

Time Tower

"What your doing?"

Mr. C asks Reinhold walking down the bowl, yeah for walking walls and glass

[Reinholdt]

Time Tower

"Guess I'll need this for further in." Reinholdt says, pulling out a handkerchief to wipe the silver watch clean. He's sure not going to lick it clean.

"Getting a puzzle piece, I believe." He tells the lizard.

It's then time to float up to the door and look it over for sneaky traps or riddles! If there are none that he can find, he'll just go for the open it and head in part.

[happyturtle]

Wedding

Ilpholin eyes Darcy's tail, watching it intently, before unraveling her own tail and going to catch Darcy's tail with a mischievous grin.

Darcy's tail is caught! She "Eep!"s and goes bright red.

[Slii Arhem]

Time Tower -> Level 2

There is nothing obviously sinister about the door, and Reinholdt will find it swings open easily enough. To the other four adventurers in the room it will appear as if he vanished into the wall with his new watch.

For Reinholdt:

Spoiler

Show

Beyond the door are more stairs, doubling back so that the room he enters into is directly above the one he left, leading to a short hallway that opens on a massive circular room. In the middle of the hallway is another pillar, this one with a plaque on it. At the edge of the hallway there is a skeleton propped up against the wall, and above its skull is more writing, what looks to be a series of numbers crossed out. The skeleton is missing its left leg from just above the knee, femur cut clean through.

Day week month year, pick your path and end with cheer.
Step too lightly and you'll end up dead.
Take too many and down you'll head.
Complete the test, go through the paces, and up you go to higher places.
Second, minute, hour, day. You have this long, so don't delay.

Just ahead of where the hallway ends there is a thick glass wall keeping anyone from heading straight into the center of the maze, and another one beyond that. There look to be six concentric circles in total. At the very center, there is a spiral staircase heading upwards to the next floor.

In each glass wall there is an opening, all currently lined up and leading straight to the staircase.

[Reinholdt]

Wedding

Ilpholin snickers and starts tail wrestling. "I've got your taaaaaail." She says in a sing-song kid like voice.

Time Tower

Will get to this when I'm not distracted and others had a chance to catch up.

[Halae]

[Wedding ==> Adir's Room]

Harnel nods, "Alright, Give me a minute to find him."

At this point, Harnel is going to search for Adir, looking for him at his room first, and if he isn't there, he will search the rest of the Tower.

[Time Tower]

Assuming nothing is stopping him, Tarn is going to follow behind Reinholdt, despite the catboy's vanishing. He figures whomever made this place wasn't building puzzles just to kill people in the passageways. He swipes a watch as he goes, so that he's not just walking into a wall.

However, he does not the lack of movement from the evidently broken automaton. were they really that fragile?

[Morty]

[Wedding]

Having decided to look around for Adir himself, Wenomir runs into Harnel. Are you looking for Adir? He asks the half-dragon.

[Slii Arhem]

Time Tower

The watch swiping was a smart move, although he'll find that the grains of sand clinging to the watch are rough and irritating to bare skin. Hopefully he was wearing gloves.

The statue Tarn was dismissing so easily stops grinding, stuck on something under the plates. If one were to take it apart they might find most of a leg jamming the gears under the breastplate he had his hands on not moments before.

And Tarn ascends to the second level without much harm done. He'll see the same things Reinholdt does, and is welcome to do with it all what he will.

[Halae]

[Wedding]

"I am," Harnel says, "I'm a bit worried he's getting cold feet."

[Time Tower]

"I hate riddles," Tarn says. the first thing he does is move over to the body to check anything he can find out about it. Perhaps what sort of thing cut its leg off, and if there's anything of use on it.

[Morty]

[Wedding]

Wenomir rubs his chin. Yeah... that wouldn't surprise me. My cousin had to be almost dragged to the altar at the day of his wedding. Hopefully it won't come to that, but we should find him anyway.

[Halae]

[Wedding]

"I hope it doesn't. Anyways, he won't be in his room; he shares it with Sakura. Maybe the arena?" Harnel suggests, walking in the appropriate direction.

[Morty]

[Wedding]

Might as well try there. He could also have hidden in the forest... Wenomir scratches the back of his head as he follows Harnel.

[Halae]

[Wedding - Around Watch]

I suppose the pair of them, if they don't find Adir in the arena, will be searching around the Tower looking for him. there is no escaping them!

[Slii Arhem]

[Time Tower]

"I hate riddles," Tarn says. the first thing he does is move over to the body to check anything he can find out about it. Perhaps what sort of thing cut its leg off, and if there's anything of use on it.

The cut is clean, looks like it was done by a bonesaw. There is a small pack next to the skeleton's left hand, but everything in it is more worn than you would expect. In fact, given the age of the tower, this man should not have even had the time to decompose this far.

The saw is nowhere on this floor, and most of the equipment is both generic and in poor condition. Above the poor man's head are the tell-tale numbers.

406
405
400
HELP!
There are more, but they are far too faded to read.

It is obvious what they are written in. No pen around, and the "ink" is dry and flaking.

[Murkus]

Wedding - Sakura's Room

"Now how'd she get a husband like that?" Vorla asks, smiling and joking. She chuckles a little. "She seemed nice, anyways."

Wedding - Sarget

"That's good. Where are they staying? Somewhere safe, I hope." Erik looks up at Watchtower, perhaps having at least heard of it. "This line of work tends to attract enemies."

Wedding - Dominic

"Well thanks." Gramps says, looking at the magical 'healer' with a furrowed brow. The people here are just so strange. "They take a lot from tone, I'm afraid."

The girls in question are still hiding. Well, at least one is. The one amidst the flowers seems to have disappeared, ducking away while Dom was looking elsewhere.

Wedding - Mia

Mia might find herself bothered by one of Adir's siblings - a short, muscular fellow with tan skin and bright eyes. His smile isn't quite as broad as Adir's, but it's just as uplifting. His antlers - scaled for a humanoid head - seem to curve inward. "Hey. Friend of Adir's?"

Of course, once he gets close and comes around to sit beside her, the young buck sighs. Adir said there would be girls, but not that the girls would have clothes.

Wedding - Around Watch

The two warriors won't have to search long - they'll find Adir skittishly adjusting his tux in one of the lower hallways. He might've been heading outside, or he might've been finding somewhere to have a panic attack.

"Oh, um, hey guys."

Time Tower

Legion, upon watching the others, surmises that taking a watch is the way forward. She retrieves a pocket watch, and if the glass 'sand' is in large enough chunks, she might even end up pricking her fingers. In any case, the Lady quickly slips her hand from the bowl and proceeds forward.

Once there, she observes the situation and sighs, thinking how much easier it would be if she could just bust through everything. But it's never that simple.

Legion walks past the others, taking care to tread slowly and heavily, before examining the opening in the glass wall. Checking it's size and trying to discern a purpose, mostly.

[happyturtle]

Wedding

Ilpholin snickers and starts tail wrestling. "I've got your taaaaaail." She says in a sing-song kid like voice.

Oh, it is ON! Ilpholin is far better at physical combat than Darcy, but she's only had her tail for a day or so. Darcy has a lifetime of experience using her shapeshifting! This conflict will be quite intense and could go on for some time before either yields.

Except wedding, and the wearing of dresses that haven't been altered with tail holes. "Nuh-uh, I got yours!" Darcy says, pulling back playfully.

[Gullara]

[Wedding - Sakura's Room]

"She is, and a great friend. If it wasn't for her I might not have ever thought of marriage." This is either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your point of view.

[Wedding - Sarget]

"I imagine so." Not that Sarget has seen much sign of that since he's been here. "Sakura tells me Adir plans to have a home made for them in the woods near here."

[Slii Arhem]

Time Tower

Legion, upon watching the others, surmises that taking a watch is the way forward. She retrieves a pocket watch, and if the glass 'sand' is in large enough chunks, she might even end up pricking her fingers. In any case, the Lady quickly slips her hand from the bowl and proceeds forward.

Once there, she observes the situation and sighs, thinking how much easier it would be if she could just bust through everything. But it's never that simple.

Legion walks past the others, taking care to tread slowly and heavily, before examining the opening in the glass wall. Checking it's size and trying to discern a purpose, mostly.

Time Tower - Level 2

The sand only remains on the watches in small flecks that are merely irritating to the skin on their own. Unless she ran her hand through the sand she should be fine.

The opening is large enough for a person to climb through, with smooth edges and a perfectly round shape. Should Legion actually step into the outermost circle of the room to get a closer look at the hole, several things will happen at once.

For Murkus:

Spoiler

Show

Legion will feel everything speed up around her as she enters the room, all sensation coming to her over three times faster than normal. It is clear that time is muteable in this room.

She can step back into the hallway if she wishes, or continue on without attempting to solve the riddle first.

The second thing that happens is that all the holes in the circles change place at once. The one Legion stepped up to examine shifts to the left by a precise number of degrees, the next one further in shifts right, the next left, and so on and so forth. By the end of the movement every hole has changed place.

Of course, none of this happens if Legion remains in the hallway.

[Reinholdt]

Time Tower

Reinholdt frowns and moves over to the skeleton to examine the numbers, particularly looking for 7, 30, 31, 365, and multiples of 60.

"I believe we're supposed to walk around the circles a certain number of steps before stepping through the gap, then walk around some more and repeat. Make sure you count your steps! And be prepared to fall to the statues."

Reinholdt considers....

"Try going... sixty, sixty, twenty-four, seven, four, twelve." He suggests.

[Wedding]

Ilpholin giggles.
"Nuh-uh!" And scoots closer cause Darcy does have hers and her muscle isn't as strong as it could be yet. But she pulls back anyways!

In a very mature fashion. Cause these two people are adults doing mature adult things.

[happyturtle]

Wedding

How mature and adult are we talking here? There are children present!

Ilpholin might feel a second tail grabbing hold of hers. Darcy cheats! =O

[Reinholdt]

Wedding

They're tail wrestling and giggling. There's no maturity here. I lie to feel better.

Now if they weren't in public, maturity levels might get ramped up a fair bit. >>

"Hey that's cheating!" Ilpholin protests.
She sadly, has no counter other than to try to grab the other tail with her hand and gently pry it away.

[happyturtle]

Wedding

So you're saying giggling and tail wrestling wouldn't be happeng in the R-rated version of this scene?

Tail 2 is grabbed! It releases Ilpholin's tail and wraps around her wrist. "Got your hand!"

Cessie really needs to walk in on this scene.

[Reinholdt]

Wedding

>>
It would, it'd just be... more... R-rated. Or something.

"No faaaaaair." Ilpholin whines. She uses her other hand to grab Darcy's... mmm... can't grab that. Or that...
She goes with a gentle ear grab with no pulling. "Got your ear!"

And then pauses for Cessie.

[Zefir]

Time Tower

Mr. C follows by taking another watch. You ask how? He use his toung aiming for a free spot of the watch and when he got it he shakes the sand away and throws the watch around his body. Beeing so little maybe bad, but he still isn't dump.

"Up. Up and away." are the magic words so that wings grow from his golden armor and he is able to follow them fast. As he reaches them and all whats visible he asks the others.

"Could someone tell me what these numbers mean?" he points at the one the skeleton draw.

Wedding - Mia


Currently she wears her priestress robes and a bit behind her is MDM. She nods.

"Yes Adir and I work in the same place, sadly I don't know much about him. I'm Mia Mechanicus and you?"

[billtodamax]

Wedding - Dominic

"Well thanks." Gramps says, looking at the magical 'healer' with a furrowed brow. The people here are just so strange. "They take a lot from tone, I'm afraid."

The girls in question are still hiding. Well, at least one is. The one amidst the flowers seems to have disappeared, ducking away while Dom was looking elsewhere.

Yeah, I figured as such. Most people hang around for a little while before making a excuse to leave. A valid, sensible excuse to leave this crazed psychopath.

My names Dominic, I'm WATCHTOWER's doctor. He says as he walks over to Gramps, gliding swiftly across the clearing with murder in his eyes.

[Morty]

Wedding - Around Watch

The two warriors won't have to search long - they'll find Adir skittishly adjusting his tux in one of the lower hallways. He might've been heading outside, or he might've been finding somewhere to have a panic attack.

Hey there Adir, Wenomir says. We were just looking for you. Getting nervous?

[Halae]

[Wedding - Three Men In A Hallway]

"Everybody's starting to get worried about you out there," Harnel says, smiling.

[Lady Serpentine]

[Time Tower]

Lellienth, naturally enough, grabs a watch as well, which reveals at least that she's a drow, and possibly her gender, if any of the people here can tell that from the brief glimpse of her hand they'd have caught.

Once it's safely stowed away in a pocket, she says, softly, "Olath Wenress, mrigg ussta menvis wun nindol k'lar, whol l'i'dol zhah velkyn dal uns'aa."

Any drow speakers that can hear her will likely be able to understand that it means "Dark Maiden, guide my path in this place, for the way is hidden from me."

As she's a priestess, Lellienth's prayer may have some small effect - guiding her to look somewhere she wouldn't normally, or making her notice things she usually would be unable, or at least unlikely, to. Or it might not.

[Slii Arhem]

Time Tower - Level 1

((Hint scumming eh? Well I suppose just this once.))

Lellienth, being the last person on the first floor when she does this, will notice two things.

For C'nor:

Spoiler

Show

There is a discarded hacksaw, rusted to uselessness and covered in dried blood, in a far corner of the room between two of the statues.

The clock face on the ceiling, although it seems engraved, is actually a separate piece of brass. When she sees the size of the next room, she may deduce that they are the exact same dimensions.

It is a shame she hadn't moved upstairs before casting such a useful cantrip, but perhaps even this small amount of information will be helpful.