The Library
Harrow walk directly to the library, takes a seat, and begins to flip through aged tomes. He barley seems to register the world around him as his withered hand turns page after page, quickly scanning the contents. On the other side of this large room is the Darkonian gentleman, who seems to be examining a bookshelf, just casually browsing through the titles. His two men stand guard around him as he picks up a book, flips through a page or two, then puts it back down. The artwork on these walls depicts a caravan of warriors, going off to some adventure or another.
30 comments:
Ducking his head through the doorway, Haldis sees both Harrow and the Darkonian man in the room. His eyes glint for a split second on Harrow, and then again about the room. Seeing the artwork, Haldis scans it for any information that may suggest a clue. Perhaps the way the soldiers are facing, or what they may be carrying.
Well, there’s no way to know for sure which way the soldiers are facing, there are no real identifying geographic markers in these paintings, but you do notice two strange things about them. First, there is an owl somewhere in every painting. Second, in each of these paintings, somewhere the soldiers are carrying what looks like a folded up tripod, though it seems to be facing away from you in all cases.
As you examine the paintings you hear a loud crash. Your head whips to its source, and you see that a large bookcase has fallen on top of the Darkonian gentleman, and the two redshirts.
Aleks enters the room at a run (probably right behind Tom). If no one has done anything, he casts Sever on the bookcase, splitting it down the center in both directions.
Presumably he won't be the only one trying to free the trapped people.
Together you manage to get the bookcase off of the Darkonian. His two guards are dead, but somehow or other the gentleman came through the incident unscathed. Even as he gets up he begins to ramble, “There, there was someone there. On the other side, pushing it down.”
Is there anything hidden where the bookcase used to be? A door, tunnel, anything? Or was this bookcase not against the wall?
This was a free-standing bookcase, there's nothing behind it.
"There's no one there now, sir. Did you see which way he went, or what he looked like?"
Tom rushed in and helped get the bookshelf off the man, I was jsut too slow to post.
"What do you mean, there was someone there? That makes no sense, there's a wall there," Tom says, half expecting an answer. He walks up to the wall, taps it a few times after sheathing his sword, and then, oddly enough, sniffs it.
As soon as the bookcase collapses around the gentlemen, the giant Haldis gates over to it and hefts the chunks high into the air as Aleks severs it into smaller pieces.
Glancing towards the two bodies, then towards the gentleman, Haldis' eyebrows raise slowly, and as the man exclaims his sight of a "person" behind the case, Haldis glares towards the wall to see if anything may appear out of the ordinary.
OOC: Sorry for the delay in posting, I was at work until late and it would seem that my changes to the code on this sight has prevented my browser from updating as quickly as comments appear.
OOC: P.S. - Has anyone used the search bar? Does it look good, has it helped at all now that more and more posts are beginning to show-up?
OOC: There is a small gap between the bookcase and the wall, quite possibly enough for someone to go behind.
IC: The wall seems completely normal. Slowly, the other guests, and Daryl, begin to migrate in.
Daryl, who manages to gather what happened, speaks up first. “Besides the other servants, we’re the only ones in here. This house has been warded from magical entry, no teleporting in, no phasing through walls, we even put up special wards around the door for this evening, designed to dispel magical disguises.”
During the panic, Rennac walks into the room, and after assessing the situation and listening to Daryl, speaks up, "When you say 'warded against magical entry,' what precisely do you mean, would something, like say a clone spell still work? Otherwise, how could someone simply dissappear?"
The giant steps away from the downed men, and deftly moves to each of the other bookcases between the internal wall and the one that fell and is now shorn in two.
Taking each of the bookcases, one at a time, Haldis flexes his massive arms, and is able to pivot the remaining bookcases far enough away from the wall to determine if an assailant still hides within the room, or if a secret entryway is obscured behind.
"Hmm... This is very peculiar. I can say that I, for one, have an alabi, and several witnesses to it. I was in the other room when the bookcase fell. Hold on a tick... Several people left who did not come in here, correct? Who were they? Did the person look like one of them?" Tom asks. He is obviously trying to think harder than he should, judging by the expression on his face. Creative, yet not too bright, his master always said.
“Why yes, a clone spell would still work, so long as the clone actually walked through the entrance himself, and was not teleported in. So, for example, you can not summon a clone into this house, but theoretically someone could make one while in here, so long as he had all of the components that he’d need.”
As Tom makes the suggestion, the other guests immediately look around to each other. Eleni is the first to speak up. “I was examining another chamber at the time, far down the hallway. Of course, the point is moot, as our friend here pointed out, there are plenty of ways for someone to push down a bookshelf, without having to be present to observe the act.”
Edwin speaks up next. “I was looking for one of Uncle Theone’s hidden rooms, I thought that if he left any sort of clue as to where he went behind, it would be well hidden.”
When Ella realizes that all eyes are on her, she manages to squeak our, “D-dragon room.”
Daryl speaks up again. “I will interrogate the servants, make sure that they all have alibis, but there are only a handful remaining, I dismissed most of them for the night once the meal was prepared.” With that, Daryl leaves.
"All right. Apart from the servants and Daryl, only Edwin, Ella, and Eleni can't verify their whereabouts. I'm not saying you did it, just that no one saw you not doing it. The servants seem more likely, but sir, why would they want to kill you? And I don't think I ever caught your name."
“Didn’t catch my name, do you not recognize me?” He pauses, then resumes when he registers your blank face. “I am Lord Roshab, a Darkonian noble, and quite an adept businessman if I do say so myself. I export wool primarily, and import horses from Nova Vasa. And I’d think that the reason for killing me would be obvious. We’re all after the prize, aren’t we? Well, what better an opportunity than to pick us off while we’re all in one place? The fewer competitors, the better one person’s chance of winning. I can only assume that they chose me to go first after carefully analyzing who would have the greatest chance of succeeding.”
Oh, and there’s no secret door that you can find there.
Haldis examines the walls, and finding nothing turns to leave the room. He seems to pay little attention to the conversation and wanders up the stairwell to see what rooms may exist on the higher floors.
"And you think you have the best shot? Maybe you're right. Maybe I should just do the job for them, on spec, as it were..." Aleks starts running his hand over his knife. "I think I sincerely hope you don't win. You haven't even said a word about your dead men. You're on your own.
"What was that about a Dragon Room? Ella, would you care to accompany me back to that room with the fascinating name?"
"I'm interested in this Dragon Room as well, but I also believe that it would be hard for the bookcase to simply fall over without leaving evidence of being pushed without the use of magic. For that reason, our primary focus should be on the magic users present, myself included of course."
ooc: Maybe I'm not useing the search bar properly, but I can't seem to get it to hunt down the things I want. I search for, for example, "Ruz," "Ruzakeeel," and "Ruzakeel," and find a grand total of 1 result. Interestingly, that result is from a comment halfway down the Golemachy scene, not from the actual text of the characters entry, where I know Ruzakeeel is mentioned. I don't know what's going on.
As to how it looks, just fine.
"What do you mean? Wouldn't magic leave evidence, and hands not?"
ooc: I had assumed that the bookcase had been against the wall, but that error was corrected. Is that what you're thinking too?
“I’d like to see you try.” Roshab says, in response to the threat, reaching for his chain. “My men knew the risks coming here, and as I said, there can only be one winner.”
Ella’s turn. “Uh…yeah, it’s right upstairs, where the giant went.”
As the giant walks up the stairs, he finds that this wing of the second floor seems to be dominated by mostly bedrooms. Apparently these are guest rooms, they all seem to have a fine layer of dust over the contents. However, as the hallway comes to an end, there is a large oak door, with painstakingly detailed carvings in it. Two dragons appear to be doing battle, symmetrically wrapped around an eclipsed sun. You wipe your eyes and re-examine the carving. Did one of the dragons just blink?
"well, without magic, how could someone tip over the case and then simply disappear? I'm sorry to break off conversation, but I would like to see this 'Dragon Room.'"
Haldis pushes the double doors open, ducks through the portal and pears within.
The discussion having died a violent and untimely death, Aleks stalks off towards the Dragon Room.
Ella runs upstairs, probably going back to the fabled “Dragon Room,” that you’ve heard so much about in the last two posts. Roshab smirks in amusement and goes back to his books.
Not typically. A spellcaster has the potential to get more information from an item, using a ritual or more powerful spell, but the spell that you know is just a substitute for not being able to see the magic itself.
Tom follows into the Dragon Room, still pondering who has been trying to kill off the competition.
Post a Comment