Chapter 07: You See What You Want To See

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Session Number: 30
Date: Sunday 29 November 2009
Venue: Alain's
PCs & Players:

Emily Ftr3/Rog2 (Craig) (kills: none)
Enok Rgr5 (Alain) (kills: none)
Rowaine Pal5 (Craig) (kills: none)
Troll Wiz5 (Densial) (kills: none)

XP Awarded: TBC

Short Version

It's an illusion, hiding a tall tower. Troll gets the party inside.

Long Version

Rowaine clarifies that the central hole is circular, about a foot deep, and just wide enough to accommodate her hand. She looks for any irregularities in the hole's surfaces and finds relief symbols around its circumference at the bottom. The symbols line up with those about the central ring and the ones beneath the lintels.

Enok thoroughly searches the uprights, looking for any hidden features. He finds a rectangular panel in the first upright he searches. He finds a corresponding panel on the other upright. He calls Emily over and she sets to work trying to open the first panel.

Half an hour later Emily has opened the panel. In that time the others have identified that each upright has four panels (one on each visible surface, about 2 ft above ground level) and two can be seen in each lintel - 120 panels in all.

Emily moves to work on the panel in the opposite face of the upright while Troll investigates the opened panel. He looks for any mechanisms within and sees one - a round object. He reaches in and pushes it. Nothing happens. He screams and flails about in jest. Rowaine sees this and tackles him to the ground, winding him. Troll seems to think it was worth it.

Troll then reaches in and pulls at the round object. Out pops a rod about 2 ft long. Rowaine examines the ends of the rod, looking for any markings. She sees some - a series of 12 symbols about the circumference of one end. She studies the symbols and compares them to the disc underneath the lintel. The symbols match.

Half an hour later Emily has opened the second panel and Troll removes a second rod with a different set of symbols. He looks into the hole and can see through the upright. Emily begins opening a third and fourth panel while Enok climbs to the top of the lintel overhead. He sees one, two, three… eight more panels!

After another 30 minutes the party have opened four panels, are now in possession of four rods with at least 188 more panels unopened. Enok checks whether the rods can be joined together - they can. Now he looks more closely, the rod ends have male and female joints, allowing them to be stacked together.

Faced with seemingly endless possibilities, Troll gives up and suggests that he just try placing a rod into the central hole. The party reluctantly agree. At first nothing happens. Rowaine tries twisting the rod in the hole. She listens for anything beneath her and looks at the structure whose disc matches the rod. She hears an audible 'click' and the passage beneath the lintel becomes hazy, purple and indistinct. Troll throws a dagger through and retrieves it from the other side. The haze disappears when the rod is removed. Troll looks at the symbols beneath the lintel. They have changed.

The party are perplexed, faced with what seems to be a huge, indecipherable combination lock. Rowaine even starts to think that it has something to do with the black rod that she carries, the vessel that contains Krag's soul. Increasingly however, things do not stack up. Symbols that used to be different are now the same. Enok finally looks at his feet for a pile of platinum pieces - and miraculously finds exactly what he has been looking for. Rowaine looks for the unthinkable, and finds it. The incongruities are finally too much for their overwhelmed senses and the image of the stone circle gently fades away. Rowaine and Enok help Troll and Emily see through the illusion.

Instead of a stone circle, there now stands a circular tower. Its base encompasses about the same area as the illusory stone circle. The tower gracefully narrows as it rises, then blossoms into a rather grand affair at the top, 60 ft above. There is a single door in the tower's base surrounded by green stone. Troll reads an elven inscription above the door that bears his family name.

Troll knocks at the door but there is no answer. He then speaks his family name aloud. Mist coalesces into a humanoid form beside the door.

"You claim to be of the family Roulae," the figure says in elven.

"Yes," replies Troll.

"I need proof… Give me your hand."

Troll extends his hand towards the vapourous figure. The chill touch of his hand is suddenly broken by a sharp pain. Troll reflexively jerks his hand back; his palm bears a single drop of blood.

[Craigo] Snicker… Ferg has used this form of identification before (quite a long time ago now!)

"It has been … so long. Your wish?"

"We wish to enter," Troll says.

"Very well. Enter."

With that the door swings open.

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