[DM]
You keep making the runic symbol again and again resetting that ominous counter but after a while you realise that there does not seem to be a way out. Sure, you could possibly continue this constant reset while perhaps Siax forced the door open but a part of your soul pushes you to stop.
Idris, as a young man you chose Savras as your deity, partly because you were expected to make a choice and the rites of Savras did not seem to be all consuming like some of the other chosen faiths your family members espoused. But truly, in your heart of hearts, you thought you suited what he taught. Many saw you as the talented but naïve noble son. Good with a blade and a word but that’s all. What they didn’t realise was that as much as being a Doryu defined who you were it was your curiosity that drove you. There seemed to be so much outside the keep you grew up, from people, to monsters, to miracles and you wanted to know more about them. So, a god with a focus on knowledge and truth appealed to you. It was that curiosity, that urge to know what would happen that made you calmly sit on the single chair in that room and face the large statue looking down at you, book in its hands. The runes counted down 3…2….1 and the world as you knew it ceased to exist.
[WHAT COMES NEXT WILL BE FOR IDRIS’S EYES ONLY]
Meanwhile outside the chamber Siax and Effie stare at the door with horrified expressions as the light coming through the door intensifies and the tower starts to rumble. A voice echoes in a language long dead that sounds familiar to your ears Siax and says something that sounds urgent. What you previously thought were decorative grooves in the walls of the tower now start glowing with ever shifting hues of purples and greens. A loud grinding noise starts, coming not from the room that Idris had been trapped in but far above, on the fourth floor of the tower. Arya, now half way up the stairs, reaches and grabs the wall as not to wall as the tower shakes. Pine, your contemplation outside interrupted as you turn to look as the tower starts moving as if it was something alive.
Siax realises with a start that you're hearing the spoken version of the language your badge and the stone you found have on them. It almost sounds like Elvish but none of the words make sense. It seems the people who spoke this language were behind constructing this tower.
[DM]
[While what occurred in the chamber is not know to anyone but Idris, I'd like for y'all to see one of the rolls stemming from the IC chat I'm having with Kiziro... @Idris Doryu (Kiziro) please roll 1d100 with advantage. Highest value will be result, lowest will be chaos. Then add any extra energy you're willing to sacrifice. For context the higher the.... Well not better.]
Idris Doryu (Kiziro) — Yesterday at 16:57
[I rolled.. 90+59 and... 49]
[Siax]
Siax would like to start heading and running to the 3rd floor. Hes on route to find out what the grinding noise maybe on the fourth floor. Sensing the urgency from the female voice.
[DM]
Try as you might Effie sees no evidence of a locking mechanism. The only thing that looks different since Idris activated the tower are the grooves that have lit up go across both doors almost like a bar but you don't see any way to disable it.
[Effie]
Then Effie would follow Siax up the stairs.
[DM]
Pine looks up at the humming and shaking tower and for a brief moment you see the ruined parts of the fourth floor appear. They are translucent and you can see the clouds behind them.
The tower extends beyond the fourth floor, allowing you to see the fifth and sixth floors above them a thin spire extending far into the sky. However the vision lasts only a moment and the translucent parts fade.
Siax dashes up the round stairs, heedless of danger, and quickly makes it to the third floor. It's dark here, the only light coming from the missing wall but it's bright enough that you can see most of the rooms here are collapsed and buried under the rubble. The noise seems to be coming from up above, the fourth floor. The staircase you used to go to the third floor continues upwards to it.
Effie, you abandon the door and rush after Siax, quickly catching up to him standing at the entrance to the third floor.
[Arya]
Now I'm up to speed with everything I think😅 Was there a stronger light from the room Idris is in? And if so does that indicate there is a gap between the door and wall and/or the floor?
[DM]
[Yes a flickering light, as if there was fire. The door itself has been partially rundown and as such it has a gap between it and the floor]
[Arya]
[Would a mouse be able to squeeze through?]
[DM]
[Yes with some effort. Mice can squeeze through a gap as small as 10mm amazingly. It would be acrobatics with advantage, mouse has a +1 to it. ]
[Siax]
Siax keeps going up heading for the noise and looking out for any immediate danger on the way through.
"Effie! I think the noise is coming from the floor above! Maybe we can turn off what evers happening from there! "
[DM]
@Siax (Darren ) you dash up the round stairs, headless of danger and quickly make it to the third floor where you intended to go. It's dark here, the only light coming from the missing wall but it's bright enough that you can see most of the rooms here are collapsed and buried under the rubble. The noise seems to be coming from up above, the fourth floor. The staircase you used to go to the third floor continues upwards to it.
@Effie (Annika) you see Siax attempt to go further up the stairs, freeze, walk back down and then proceed to act like he just got to the third floor.
[Siax]
"Effie! I think the noise is coming from the floor above! Maybe we can turn off what evers happening from there! "
[Effie]
"What the..." Is all Effie would say as she sees Siax freeze and walk back down, then as he repeats the same sentence again she'd probably assume he was pranking her and say mockingly "Ha, ha, hilarious." followed by a "Now come on, we need to focus!" [Siax gets a Bardic Inspiration die, a d8] And she'd rush up the stairs next to him.
[DM]
@Effie (Annika) you abandon the door and rush after Siax, quickly making it to the third floor, which was your intended destination. Peering out you see that it's dark here, the only light coming from the missing wall but it's bright enough that you can see most of the rooms here are collapsed and buried under the rubble. The noise seems to be coming from up above, the fourth floor. The staircase you used to go to the third floor continues upwards to it.
[As this is a more complex scene here is the current position of the pc's.
1st Floor: Pine observed the tower and headed in, almost being crushed by some falling debris.
2nd Floor: Idris, inside the room. Arya standing Infront of the door.
3rd Floor: Siax and Effie are exactly where they were trying to go.]
[Pine]
Pine would startle, fur standing on end at the sudden explosion and falling rubble, leaping back away from it. The flumph, it seemed, was the least of his worries. He had been in far too many collapsing buildings, usually instigated by Idris's actions. Frankly, he'd much rather be almost anywhere else, and only the safety of his companions, and the task with the Fae kept him from immediately trying to find an exit.
As such, with his sight looking out for any souls, he would call out for Siax and Idris, hoping to at least find out where they were.
[DM]
[Your stonework trained eyes can tell the structural integrity of the tower seems to be stable so far. No chance of collapse]
[Pine]
If he didn't hear from the pair, he would do a quick search for them on the ground floor, looking out for any lost souls as he does. Methodical but not lingering without reason. Not finding anyone, he would then make his way up the stairs to the first floor.
[DM]
You see Arya standing in front of the double doors looking intently at the gap at the bottom of it. You see flickering light spilling out from it, throwing intense shadows around the library.
[Pine]
He would look to Arya, frowning around. "What's going on?" he would ask, the rumble of his voice sounding as haunted with those multiple tones as the tower was likely to be. "Where are Siax and Idris?"
[Arya]
Arya turns to Pine: "Idris is in here and can't get out but I think I could squeeze through the gap beneath the door to see what's going on. There was a voice from up above, Siax and Effie ran to investigate." She would then turn into a mouse and try to get inside the room.
[DM]
You scramble through the tiny opening, slowly but surely making your way to their side. Alas, as you popped you head in the chamber a secondary blast was enough to shift the doors, enough to slam down upon you trapping you there. The pressure however wasn't enough to kill you, simply trap you.
You look ahead but your senses are clouded by the acrid smoke that is filling the room.
[Pine]
Pine, seeing this, would quickly search the rubble nearby for a wedge of stone in order to lever the door up enough that she could get in or out. He would also, he would check on what side of the door the hinges were, wondering whether they might be the way to get the door open, or whether, after getting Arya out, he would need to crack a bit of stonework in order to get the door out.
"Idris?!" He would call, loudly, hoping for some response, seeing how critical the situation is by how he sounded.
[Idris]
Idris would not respond. Whether he is unable to or chooses not to you do not know.
[DM]
Due to your training with the dwarves you look around and fine a rock that would fit. However the door looks heavy and I'll need an athletics check. You do not see any evidence of hinges.
[Pine]
Searching the rubble nearby, Pine found a likely piece of stone and then slotted it in the crack under the door, pushing it hard before using another piece to slam it deeper. Pine knows what it's like to be trapped under a falling building, and doesn't want Arya to suffer the same fate. As small as she is, that door must seem like a mountain. Pine doubles down on levering the door up enough.
[DM]
You bring to bear your full strength, aided by the pounds of dwarven steel you war in the field. You succeed at lifting the door a tiny amount, enough to free Mousrya.
[Pine]
Assuming that Arya seemed to be fine, Pine would dig in his bag for his masonry kit while eyeing the stonework around the door. He had no compunction about ruining it further, but he knew enough to leave the lintel in, as he did not want the wall above to crumble. But if he could crack the stones by the side of the door, it should lever out. With Idris not responding, and too aware of how little time they had often found themselves between life and death, he wasn't going to waste time with a half-hearted attempt to salvage stonework. He would search for the best location in which to make cracks that would split the stone.
[DM]
It would not be impossible, but looking at the thick walls around you this would be a multi hour project.
[Pine]
With dismay, Pine would look at those walls. He had known they were thick, after having seen the rest of the building, but he had thought that perhaps with the clever use of wedging, he could get those stones out by splitting the huge blocks. But the ancient elven architecture held firm against those plans. He gripped the tools for a long moment, but had to admit to himself that it was not going to work as he'd thought.
[How long has it been since Zatharius's construct left the tower?]
[DM]
[Only a few minutes, he's probably on his way or maybe knocked by the blast into the petrification aura]
[Pine]
[Just checking. Pine would know that any rituals would take the wizard 10 mins, so he can discount help from that quarter. Every single ritual that Pine has done takes that long.]
[DM]
Mouse-Arya looks ahead to see that the chamber has been mostly ruined. There are shelves of books lining each side of the room, fire spreading quickly from one to the other but thankfully most of the smoke is being sucked out of a large hole where the windows used to be. Dominating the chamber is a large statue of an Elven woman. Her features are graceful but something about her expression feels alien. Cruel. Whatever is happening here seems to have animated the statues as you see her mouth move and the sound of that strange Elven you all heard before ringing out in a clear and sharp voice. In her stone hands sits a book and as she speaks a light emanates from it, forming a line that looks like liquid in midair. The line goes too Idris, who is sitting on a chair, looking up with wide eyes.
The first thing you notice is that Idris's arm is on fire. The next thing you see is that he appears unconscious, blood pouring from his mouth, eyes and ears. Before you can react his body jerks, and his hand raises to his head. Divine light springs out and his eyes suddenly clear. But he does not look your way, instead he continues peering into the light. As if sensing that he is awake once more the light starts flowing with an incredible speed, from the statue to the still burning Paladin. Idris's eyes go even wider. With your great insight you see that he is in great pain but there's something else there. Is it... awe?
The paladins body spasms and fresh blood pours out of his mouth, whatever he had just healed having been injured from this strange light. His consciousness wavering, you see that healing light flashes again keeping him somewhat whole. You now realise that he must have been doing this the whole time, keeping himself alive under forces that would have killed a normal person twenty times over. The light in Idris's hand fades now, his divine energy fully exhausted. It's now that Idris screams, a horrible yell of pure primal agony.
<------------------------------------- THE END - FOR NOW ----------------------------------------->
You keep making the runic symbol again and again resetting that ominous counter but after a while you realise that there does not seem to be a way out. Sure, you could possibly continue this constant reset while perhaps Siax forced the door open but a part of your soul pushes you to stop.
Idris, as a young man you chose Savras as your deity, partly because you were expected to make a choice and the rites of Savras did not seem to be all consuming like some of the other chosen faiths your family members espoused. But truly, in your heart of hearts, you thought you suited what he taught. Many saw you as the talented but naïve noble son. Good with a blade and a word but that’s all. What they didn’t realise was that as much as being a Doryu defined who you were it was your curiosity that drove you. There seemed to be so much outside the keep you grew up, from people, to monsters, to miracles and you wanted to know more about them. So, a god with a focus on knowledge and truth appealed to you. It was that curiosity, that urge to know what would happen that made you calmly sit on the single chair in that room and face the large statue looking down at you, book in its hands. The runes counted down 3…2….1 and the world as you knew it ceased to exist.
[WHAT COMES NEXT WILL BE FOR IDRIS’S EYES ONLY]
Meanwhile outside the chamber Siax and Effie stare at the door with horrified expressions as the light coming through the door intensifies and the tower starts to rumble. A voice echoes in a language long dead that sounds familiar to your ears Siax and says something that sounds urgent. What you previously thought were decorative grooves in the walls of the tower now start glowing with ever shifting hues of purples and greens. A loud grinding noise starts, coming not from the room that Idris had been trapped in but far above, on the fourth floor of the tower. Arya, now half way up the stairs, reaches and grabs the wall as not to wall as the tower shakes. Pine, your contemplation outside interrupted as you turn to look as the tower starts moving as if it was something alive.
Siax realises with a start that you're hearing the spoken version of the language your badge and the stone you found have on them. It almost sounds like Elvish but none of the words make sense. It seems the people who spoke this language were behind constructing this tower.
[DM]
[While what occurred in the chamber is not know to anyone but Idris, I'd like for y'all to see one of the rolls stemming from the IC chat I'm having with Kiziro... @Idris Doryu (Kiziro) please roll 1d100 with advantage. Highest value will be result, lowest will be chaos. Then add any extra energy you're willing to sacrifice. For context the higher the.... Well not better.]
Idris Doryu (Kiziro) — Yesterday at 16:57
[I rolled.. 90+59 and... 49]
[Siax]
Siax would like to start heading and running to the 3rd floor. Hes on route to find out what the grinding noise maybe on the fourth floor. Sensing the urgency from the female voice.
[DM]
Try as you might Effie sees no evidence of a locking mechanism. The only thing that looks different since Idris activated the tower are the grooves that have lit up go across both doors almost like a bar but you don't see any way to disable it.
[Effie]
Then Effie would follow Siax up the stairs.
[DM]
Pine looks up at the humming and shaking tower and for a brief moment you see the ruined parts of the fourth floor appear. They are translucent and you can see the clouds behind them.
The tower extends beyond the fourth floor, allowing you to see the fifth and sixth floors above them a thin spire extending far into the sky. However the vision lasts only a moment and the translucent parts fade.
Siax dashes up the round stairs, heedless of danger, and quickly makes it to the third floor. It's dark here, the only light coming from the missing wall but it's bright enough that you can see most of the rooms here are collapsed and buried under the rubble. The noise seems to be coming from up above, the fourth floor. The staircase you used to go to the third floor continues upwards to it.
Effie, you abandon the door and rush after Siax, quickly catching up to him standing at the entrance to the third floor.
[Arya]
Now I'm up to speed with everything I think😅 Was there a stronger light from the room Idris is in? And if so does that indicate there is a gap between the door and wall and/or the floor?
[DM]
[Yes a flickering light, as if there was fire. The door itself has been partially rundown and as such it has a gap between it and the floor]
[Arya]
[Would a mouse be able to squeeze through?]
[DM]
[Yes with some effort. Mice can squeeze through a gap as small as 10mm amazingly. It would be acrobatics with advantage, mouse has a +1 to it. ]
[Siax]
Siax keeps going up heading for the noise and looking out for any immediate danger on the way through.
"Effie! I think the noise is coming from the floor above! Maybe we can turn off what evers happening from there! "
[DM]
@Siax (Darren ) you dash up the round stairs, headless of danger and quickly make it to the third floor where you intended to go. It's dark here, the only light coming from the missing wall but it's bright enough that you can see most of the rooms here are collapsed and buried under the rubble. The noise seems to be coming from up above, the fourth floor. The staircase you used to go to the third floor continues upwards to it.
@Effie (Annika) you see Siax attempt to go further up the stairs, freeze, walk back down and then proceed to act like he just got to the third floor.
[Siax]
"Effie! I think the noise is coming from the floor above! Maybe we can turn off what evers happening from there! "
[Effie]
"What the..." Is all Effie would say as she sees Siax freeze and walk back down, then as he repeats the same sentence again she'd probably assume he was pranking her and say mockingly "Ha, ha, hilarious." followed by a "Now come on, we need to focus!" [Siax gets a Bardic Inspiration die, a d8] And she'd rush up the stairs next to him.
[DM]
@Effie (Annika) you abandon the door and rush after Siax, quickly making it to the third floor, which was your intended destination. Peering out you see that it's dark here, the only light coming from the missing wall but it's bright enough that you can see most of the rooms here are collapsed and buried under the rubble. The noise seems to be coming from up above, the fourth floor. The staircase you used to go to the third floor continues upwards to it.
[As this is a more complex scene here is the current position of the pc's.
1st Floor: Pine observed the tower and headed in, almost being crushed by some falling debris.
2nd Floor: Idris, inside the room. Arya standing Infront of the door.
3rd Floor: Siax and Effie are exactly where they were trying to go.]
[Pine]
Pine would startle, fur standing on end at the sudden explosion and falling rubble, leaping back away from it. The flumph, it seemed, was the least of his worries. He had been in far too many collapsing buildings, usually instigated by Idris's actions. Frankly, he'd much rather be almost anywhere else, and only the safety of his companions, and the task with the Fae kept him from immediately trying to find an exit.
As such, with his sight looking out for any souls, he would call out for Siax and Idris, hoping to at least find out where they were.
[DM]
[Your stonework trained eyes can tell the structural integrity of the tower seems to be stable so far. No chance of collapse]
[Pine]
If he didn't hear from the pair, he would do a quick search for them on the ground floor, looking out for any lost souls as he does. Methodical but not lingering without reason. Not finding anyone, he would then make his way up the stairs to the first floor.
[DM]
You see Arya standing in front of the double doors looking intently at the gap at the bottom of it. You see flickering light spilling out from it, throwing intense shadows around the library.
[Pine]
He would look to Arya, frowning around. "What's going on?" he would ask, the rumble of his voice sounding as haunted with those multiple tones as the tower was likely to be. "Where are Siax and Idris?"
[Arya]
Arya turns to Pine: "Idris is in here and can't get out but I think I could squeeze through the gap beneath the door to see what's going on. There was a voice from up above, Siax and Effie ran to investigate." She would then turn into a mouse and try to get inside the room.
[DM]
You scramble through the tiny opening, slowly but surely making your way to their side. Alas, as you popped you head in the chamber a secondary blast was enough to shift the doors, enough to slam down upon you trapping you there. The pressure however wasn't enough to kill you, simply trap you.
You look ahead but your senses are clouded by the acrid smoke that is filling the room.
[Pine]
Pine, seeing this, would quickly search the rubble nearby for a wedge of stone in order to lever the door up enough that she could get in or out. He would also, he would check on what side of the door the hinges were, wondering whether they might be the way to get the door open, or whether, after getting Arya out, he would need to crack a bit of stonework in order to get the door out.
"Idris?!" He would call, loudly, hoping for some response, seeing how critical the situation is by how he sounded.
[Idris]
Idris would not respond. Whether he is unable to or chooses not to you do not know.
[DM]
Due to your training with the dwarves you look around and fine a rock that would fit. However the door looks heavy and I'll need an athletics check. You do not see any evidence of hinges.
[Pine]
Searching the rubble nearby, Pine found a likely piece of stone and then slotted it in the crack under the door, pushing it hard before using another piece to slam it deeper. Pine knows what it's like to be trapped under a falling building, and doesn't want Arya to suffer the same fate. As small as she is, that door must seem like a mountain. Pine doubles down on levering the door up enough.
[DM]
You bring to bear your full strength, aided by the pounds of dwarven steel you war in the field. You succeed at lifting the door a tiny amount, enough to free Mousrya.
[Pine]
Assuming that Arya seemed to be fine, Pine would dig in his bag for his masonry kit while eyeing the stonework around the door. He had no compunction about ruining it further, but he knew enough to leave the lintel in, as he did not want the wall above to crumble. But if he could crack the stones by the side of the door, it should lever out. With Idris not responding, and too aware of how little time they had often found themselves between life and death, he wasn't going to waste time with a half-hearted attempt to salvage stonework. He would search for the best location in which to make cracks that would split the stone.
[DM]
It would not be impossible, but looking at the thick walls around you this would be a multi hour project.
[Pine]
With dismay, Pine would look at those walls. He had known they were thick, after having seen the rest of the building, but he had thought that perhaps with the clever use of wedging, he could get those stones out by splitting the huge blocks. But the ancient elven architecture held firm against those plans. He gripped the tools for a long moment, but had to admit to himself that it was not going to work as he'd thought.
[How long has it been since Zatharius's construct left the tower?]
[DM]
[Only a few minutes, he's probably on his way or maybe knocked by the blast into the petrification aura]
[Pine]
[Just checking. Pine would know that any rituals would take the wizard 10 mins, so he can discount help from that quarter. Every single ritual that Pine has done takes that long.]
[DM]
Mouse-Arya looks ahead to see that the chamber has been mostly ruined. There are shelves of books lining each side of the room, fire spreading quickly from one to the other but thankfully most of the smoke is being sucked out of a large hole where the windows used to be. Dominating the chamber is a large statue of an Elven woman. Her features are graceful but something about her expression feels alien. Cruel. Whatever is happening here seems to have animated the statues as you see her mouth move and the sound of that strange Elven you all heard before ringing out in a clear and sharp voice. In her stone hands sits a book and as she speaks a light emanates from it, forming a line that looks like liquid in midair. The line goes too Idris, who is sitting on a chair, looking up with wide eyes.
The first thing you notice is that Idris's arm is on fire. The next thing you see is that he appears unconscious, blood pouring from his mouth, eyes and ears. Before you can react his body jerks, and his hand raises to his head. Divine light springs out and his eyes suddenly clear. But he does not look your way, instead he continues peering into the light. As if sensing that he is awake once more the light starts flowing with an incredible speed, from the statue to the still burning Paladin. Idris's eyes go even wider. With your great insight you see that he is in great pain but there's something else there. Is it... awe?
The paladins body spasms and fresh blood pours out of his mouth, whatever he had just healed having been injured from this strange light. His consciousness wavering, you see that healing light flashes again keeping him somewhat whole. You now realise that he must have been doing this the whole time, keeping himself alive under forces that would have killed a normal person twenty times over. The light in Idris's hand fades now, his divine energy fully exhausted. It's now that Idris screams, a horrible yell of pure primal agony.
<------------------------------------- THE END - FOR NOW ----------------------------------------->