Part 8: Mystery at the Tower

[Custom_Hobby]

By the way is Rogon with us? He should have noticed if he was.

But not on search. That's okay, you missed acheck by +2 so I was humming and hahing over letting you think you spotted something odd then deciding it was nothing, but now I can just let you spot it on the way down again :). Do you realise that you had to make 3 stonecunning checks going up those stairs? :p I'll turn that 18 into a 20 on the way down then :).

So what do I see?

[Balgin Stondraeg]

By the way is Rogon with us?

Nope.

So what do I see?

It's not important yet, you can wait and see :p.

[Rod the Worm]

Sorry, Rogan headed back to see how the Abbot was getting on and begin burying the bodies.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Sorry, Rogan headed back to see how the Abbot was getting on and begin burying the bodies.

And since there's rather a lot of bodies, I'd recommend you take a look at the list of corpse locations in the notepad thread and decide which ones you'd liek to tend to first. You don't need to tell me now. You can tell me when the others get back to the abbey which hopefuly won't be too long yet (although you never know).

[Custom_Hobby]

So what does Aurum find?

[Keeper]

When Raul reaches the top, he'll have a good search around, and a good look at the window at the top, and then a good look at the windows on the way back down again.

Does anything look different look down at the walls and floor from up here (apart from the perspective)?

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Raoul inquisitively takes a close look at the window of the man with gems and then moves on to the second window. When he looks at it something catches his eye and then it's odd again. It's almost as if something flickered into existance for a moment and then was gone again. However, when he turns his head back, then yes, there it is again.

Now what could have caught his gaze? After a few moments he observes that the piece of glass representing the water in the bowl seems to change in appearance depending on the angle he views it from. Stepping a little closer he observes that through it he is looking directly at the hillside above the quarry and yet there's something else. Why, there is the workshop where they found Jondyn dead drunk, there the mill, there the distillery and there the storehouse. All is as it was before and yet there is something else. A large pair of stone double doors rest on the hillside above the quarry. They have been set flush into the hillside and moss has grown over the doorframe in some places.

When he moves his head ever so slightly to the side the doors have gone and yet, when he views the hillside through the "watery" glass, there they are. Curious, he moves his head about a bit to view it from different angles. The doors are not painted on the glass as they would remain in the same place, but follow the laws of perspective as if they really do exist.

[Keeper]

Raul points out this effect of the doors to the others.

"We should probably meet up with the others, and see if these door exist for real back down there, too.  I don't understand magic too well, but I think this could be a clue.

Raul then looks at the window with the man with the gems again. Raul wants to know what he is doing with them. 

Any chance of a better angle screenshot, or is that not possible?

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Any chance of a better angle screenshot, or is that not possible?

I'm afraid not :(. Unfortunately there's only 4 cameras in the tower 3d scene. 1 is in the doorway on the ground floor. 2 is on the ground floor behind the crystal formation. 3 is halfway up the tower and 4 is near the water bowl window on the top floor. I could take some more screenshots that show the platform at the top if that helps 'though.

[Keeper]

That's OK - thanks anyway, Balgin :)

[Custom_Hobby]

Was that what Aurum was going to notice or was that something else?

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Was that what Aurum was going to notice or was that something else?

Was the stained glass window an unusual piece of stonemasonry? :p  "Stoned glass windows" would definitiely be interesting, wouldn't let in the light much....

Actualy he's got a nagging feeling something didn't feel right down below but he tramped up here with the others anyway with the intention of checking it again when he gets back down again.

[Custom_Hobby]

"Ok so are we headed back down to go check on what he just saw?" Aurum points down the stairs with his axe and looks at everyone else hoping for an answer. "There is something I want to check when we get down there anyway?" He waits a second for an answer and if he doesn't get any he heads down the stairs to check.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

At the bottom of the stairs, as people are leaving the tower, Aurum's eye catches an irregularity in the shadows on the floor. There, a spot behind the basin full of crystals. he heads over and pokes and prods about a bit and discovers a square stone trapdoor fitted into the floor. Unfortunately he cannot find a means of openning it on this side.

[Custom_Hobby]

"Wait a minute guys. I think I found a trap door. Help me see if we can open it." Aurum uses his axe to see if he can force it open.