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Crown of Souls: Part 3 - Further Investigations
We had just finished dining with Domini. He wanted proof that he could trust us.
We dithered about what to do and what to offer and whether to just sneak around the castle while he was expecting us to be locked up, but we just decided to wait until the next evening.
The next evening he basically told us that he is keeping Chance as insurance of our trustworthiness. Of course, he didn't say it in so many words or even admit it at all. Chance is "sick" and he wouldn't let us see him to verify that he is even alive.
He gave us an amulet and told us to go to Garnet, which is under magical siege, and fetch him some jewels. We left, rode north for about half a day, and then sat around healing ourselves.
That evening, Marcus and Bolas walked back to the keep to scout about and see when the guards pass and suchlike things. Marcus decided to climb a tree to get a better view and got attacked by a reptile/monkey/chameleon creature which seemed to be very intelligent. He was nearly killed, but luckily Sanjian decided to go back and see why they had been gone so long and Bolas and Sanjian chased the thing off.
That next morning two of the things attacked our camp, disguised by the snow. It didn't take too long to kill them, especially with the help of Theo's hideous laughter spell, but they did quite a bit of damage. So, the group decided to go somewhere safer to heal up -- Tel Akbar.
Ah, remember that amulet? Well, Theo had been working on figuring out what it did, but it wasn't until after we were in Tel Akbar that he found out it allowed "someone" to see everything we are doing (and probably hear as well).
So, we put it in a lead box. We healed up.
We wanted to go to Tufeldoor to open the box and make it look like we were going to complete our quest, but when Theo opened a portal there, we saw a very familiar-looking very large black winged creature.
So, we "accidentally" dropped the box and the amulet fell out, while we said something to mislead Domini and make him think we were still headed to Garnet (I don't remember exactly what right now).
Then we bought monk's habits and zipped back to Domini's... well, we tried to.
We thought it would be safest and best to zip back to the top of the tower, our former cells, but it turned out that was trapped and Theo got zapped by lightning. After much debate and healing Theo up, we tried the library (figuring it wouldn't be trapped) and got through. Theo tried to take the book he wanted and it was poisoned. Luckily he had finished writhing on the floor by the time Loren walked in.
Loren didn't seem especially surprised by the number of monks in the library. We walked out, but not all at once.
There were four of us since Bolas decided to stay in Tel-Akbar (being too bulky to look like a monk).
We explored the hallway and found some empty bedrooms and decided to meet back there in a while.
Then we split up: Sanjian and Taren in one group and Theo and Marcus in the other.
Theo and Marcus went to find the crown and our stuff. They found a pantry with casks in it, one of which contained blood. They also found an unused chapel in which a creature coalesced out of the mist that they believed to be a vampire. They felt an unnatural fear in this room.
Taren and Sanjian went to find Chance. We headed to where Taren knew the dungeons to be, but Sanjian was unable to open the locks on two locked doors. We didn't want to draw attention to ourselves, so we decided to do some other exploring.
We found an unused bedroom with an empty bed frame which would later become our new party rendezvous point (safer).
At the end of one hallway, we found a large room with tables covered with beakers filled with colored substances. a laboratory type room... On one table there were parchments covered in broken glass, one entitled "The Powers of the Crown of Souls"... This was obviously not a place monks would normally be found, so I figured if we were found there we would be killed on site. Sanjian searched the room for any other signs of the crown or our things. Since he saw no sign of them, we decided it was time to grab the papers and go. Taren grabbed them, wearing gloves, and the entire section of the room dropped. Sanjian was left facing a new section of floor. Taren was in a small room with no exit. The papers said something to the effect of "Muahaha you are going to run out of air and die. DIE DIE DIE!!!"
Taren stone shaped her way out. Sanjian related his discovery that the beakers are filled with colored water. We quickly left and began acting monkish again.
Although the trap made a very loud noise which our companions heard, no alarm has apparently been sounded.
We all met together in a group and then went on exploring.
We found a room which seemed to be Loren's with a large black chair in the middle, a circular room with a domed ceiling, around the fringe of the floor was wood, but the sunken center was of lush green carpet. Small bookshelves to either side of the chair, also a shelf on the side of the room. Two worn gold coins and a magnifying glass on one shelf, on the other only a green scaled, platinum book entitled something having to do with the Crown of Souls. The shelf on the side of the room contained a crystal sphere. A quilt with strange symbols on it sat on the footstool in front of the chair. The quilt and the crystal ball radiated magic (according to Theo).
Sanjian stepped forward onto the green rug and fell unconscious. We could find no cause and could not detect any poison.
Not wanting to be found in such a situation, Theo cast invisibility on Sanjian and Marcus carried him to our deserted room. THeo stayed there to meditate for an hour so that we would have an escape route. He has the book about the Crown of Souls, but fears the consequences of opening it.
Marcus and Taren returned to the room across from the one I just described. A short hallway, apparently a dead end. We looked for secret doors, but found only a strange brick. Examining further, we found a lever on the ceiling. Marcus stood on the brick and pulled it.
We crossed the hall and found that the room had changed. Where the sunken center of the room had been was now a circular stairway descending downward. Taren started down with a rope around her waist (so Marcus could pull her back in case of emergency), the twelfth step contained poisoned blades hidden in the thick carpet, but Taren was unhurt due to her amazing constitution. She used her hammer's handle to detect any further blades. When they reached the bottom of the stairs, there was the chair, looking as it had before, and a door.
Taren mentioned that the door could be poisoned, but Marcus put his hand on the knob and writhed in pain (yes, it was poisoned). So then Taren tried the knob (using her glove and the hem of her monk's robe) but it didn't even turn. Marcus, seeing no hinges, suggested pushing on the other side. it worked.
We passed through that door then another into a laboratory, a real one this time.
We found a lever that made the stairs rise again. we found some papers written in a language Taren can't read. Taren took the papers (a little more carefully this time).
We put everything back and left, we passed by Sardock (the weaponmaster and captain of the guard) who was heading in the direction of the false laboratory.
So that's where we left off. We haven't found any of the three things we are searching for and we have explored quite a bit (I left out a lot of less interesting parts).
Taren is the only one uninjured at the moment.
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