Session 18: Sartorii and the Invisibles
Party chilling in the bedroom catching their breath after the Sprite nearly fuckin died (again).
Party decides to continue exploring doors and come back for the attic hole later.
Within the closet is a pile of gemstones. The Sprite casts Detect Magic; there is a magical effect in the room, but it's not coming from the gems.
The Sprite uses Mage Hand to pull a gem out of the room. The moment the gem passes the door, the party makes a Reflex save.
The gem explodes, sending shards flying into the party, damaging Rutana and the Sprite.
This time he tries shifting the pile around without taking anything out of the room. There is nothing beneath the gems.
Egoron and Arwel come rushing down the hall. "Hey, we heard something explode, are you guys okay??"
"We're fiiiine, it only exploded a liiiiitle."
The party closes the door on the closet and leaves the bedroom, continuing exploration.
They get to the halfway point of the hallway and see all the candles gutter out.
The ever-present breeze strengthens to a guttural gale, pushing the party to a standstill. In order to continue, they must roll a Fortitude save...
Sartorii, Rutana, and Arwel are knocked prone.
Xalvador is sent toppling toward the stairs, but Sartorii grabs him before he can fall down the stairs.
Clarence, Egoron, and the Sprite slip into the hall to take shelter.
Alin grabs Rutana, and Susanna grabs Arwel.
Clarence tosses a rope to those still stuck in the gale.
The rest of the party succeeds their Fortitude saves! Everyone funnels into the hallway.
After a brief respite, Sartorii cracks open the closest door.
Shelves containing hundreds of books line the walls of this 20’ x 30’ library. A large oak desk dominates the middle of the room. The legs of the desk are carved to resemble coiled dragons. Behind it is a chair of similar design. In one corner of this library stands an assembled suit of plate mail armor clutching a sword. On the desk is a leather bound volume and what looks to be an iron candelabra fashioned to resemble a hydra with nine heads.
With a perception roll of 27, Sartorii hears something scrabbling atop the bookshelves as she walks in, but she cannot see it.
She inspects the top of the bookshelf where she heard the sound and sees clear tracks in the dust.
Sartorii can't identify them. The Sprite sees they are very much not rat tracks. Clarence backs up the not-a-rat, but it's also not a natural creature.
Rutana takes a look with Esoterica. They're imp tracks!
And imps can turn invisible.
The Sprite informs their friends outside that there's an imp in here, so he's closing the door.
Sartorii investigates the desk. There are two locked drawers, one small, unlocked drawer. Mostly contains writing implements and a silver letter-opener. She takes the letter opener.
She then moves on to inspecting the suit of armor. It seems mostly decorative, but it is full plate armor. It's pretty expensive, however the weapon it holds is a longsword with silver filigree.
Clarence takes the longsword.
The party dismantles the armor and stows it in the bag of holding with the intention of gifting it to Astrafel.
Sartorii inspects the books along the walls.
They cover a decent range of subjects; history, to mathematics, to sciences, to magic, some in a few different languages.
She finds some scrolls!!
Blur
Ghoulish Cravings
Circle of Protection
Feet to Fins
Fireball
Rutana inspects the book on the table.
Leather-bound, with an image of a magic circle of some sort on the cover; round, planetary symbols. An old symbol for the school of transmutation magic.
The imp from the corner says, "I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
Everyone backs away from the table and the Sprite mage hands the book open.
Nothing happens.
Sartorii moves toward the corner. "Hey Impy-kins, what the hell is supposed to happen? Impy-poo?"
The imp attacks Sartorii!!
Sartorii takes some damage, and passes a Fortitude saving throw.
The imp looks up at her with big ol' watery eyes. "But...but the poison??"
"Yeah that didn't go very well for you, did it, buddy. You've got 30 seconds to tell me why I shouldn't retaliate."
"Well you see, it's very simple." And then the imp vanishes.
Sartorii stabs at where the imp last stood, pinning its invisible little neck to the wall.
Rutana takes the book of transmutation spells and stuffs it in the bag of holding.
There are 57 and a half filled pages in the book.
She also stuffs the scrolls in the bag, to be divvied up later.
The party inspects the hydra candelabra.
Clarence points out uhhh guys we have a key with a book on it.
Rutana withdraws the key from the bag of holding and hands it to Clarence, smartest of all.
Clarence opens the first drawer. Within is a little leather pouch that jingles, and a magnifying glass filigreed with gold. He takes them out and sets them upon the desk for the others to inspect.
Sartorii inspects the magnifying glass and notices how the filigree can form a word at certain angles: Ostendo. The Sprite translates it as draconic for show, or reveal.
The Sprite uses Detect Magic. The magnifying glass is magic as balls! The pouch is not. The candelabra has a small amount of magic on it, too.
Within the pouch is 50 gold coins. The Sprite holds up one of the coins for Sartorii to look at through the magnifying glass, but nothing seems to happen.
Clarence opens the big drawer next.
Within is a skull! It clatters around as he opens the drawer.
There seem to only be two skulls left; waning crescent and waning gibbous.
The party stuffs the hydra candelabra and magnifying glass into the bag of holding to be fucked with at a later date.
Rutana suggests saying the magnifying glass's command word.
Sartorii does so. The magnifying glass glows slightly, and the viewport glows light blue.
She crit fails her perception. The Sprite tries next. All the books in different languages now read in Common.
The party had sent about 20 minutes in the room. Upon exiting, Xalvador immediately lets them know that the wind ceased about 10 minutes ago.
They move on to the next room.
The room seems completely bare, but the moment it's opened, something brushes against Sartorii's feet and runs past her. Susanna, Alin, and Xalvador all yelp as it runs past them, too.
A gust of wind blows through the hallway to the north, right to left this time.
Sartorii does spot little teeny tiny mouse tracks.
Sartorii enters the room. The second she crosses the threshold, she vanishes from the party's sight.
"Sartoriiiii, where did you go?"
"I'm right here."
"No you're not?"
She cannot see her own hands. "Oh. I guess I'm not."
The Sprite also enters the room to test if he still glows when invisible. He does not. He climbs into Rutana's pocket.
Sartorii informs the sub-party, "There's a room down here that turns you invisible!"
Susanna: "Well why not?!"
Clarence opens the next door, Sartorii enters to investigate.
This 15’ x 20’ room is adorned with a large four post bed with a canopy curtain. The bed is set with crimson blankets and gold colored pillows. There is also a large wooden dresser which appears to be made of cherry wood. Sitting on the dresser is a fine set of silver grooming items.
They both need to roll Perception upon entering.
DM: "So Clarence, what are you thinking right now? How do you feel?"
He's hoping they get out okay but he's worried because someone is going to touch the next thing they always do.
Sartorii hears this all as if spoken aloud. "What am I supposed to touch?"
Clarence backs out of the room, distressed. He doesn't want anyone in his head. Once he is out of the room, Sartorii can no longer hear his thoughts.
Sartorii shrugs invisibly, then states, "I'm shrugging. I'm indifferent to this."
The party sees a bunch of stuff briefly float as Sartorii picks things up to inspect them. The items turn invisible when she puts them in her pockets so she makes "hompf" noises.
Sartorii leaves the room and taps Arwel on his back. Arwel, who had been busy picking his nose, is taken by surprise. He shrieks loudly, met by Sartorii cackling. He pleads that they take this seriously, but the whole rest of the groups laughs.
Rutana ties a little bit of cloth to the Sprite's invisible staff, sticking out of her pocket.
Clarence opens the next room.
This 15’ x 20’ room contains a bed, dresser and chair, all of unremarkable quality. The item of furniture that captures your attention is the ornate chest resting in the northwest corner. It appears to be made of wood of a reddish hue and is bound in copper. The motif of a horse is carved into the lid.
Sartorii enters and Perceives. There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous, but there do appear to be bugs in the bed.
Sartorii approaches the dresser in the corner and feels incredibly dizzy. She mentions she's not feeling so hot, unsteady.
The Sprite tugs at the edge of Rutana's pocket, urging her into the room. They both also feel very dizzy.
Clarence, wisely staying in the hallway, witnesses Rutana shrink down to five and a half inches tall. He shouts for the party to exit.
The dizziness passes, those within the room see the 20 feet of the room expand to 200. A giant centipede emerges from under the bed to race toward the party.
Clarence fires at the centipede with his crossbow. An arrow the size of a building to the eyes of the miniparty cleaves the centipede in two.
Sartorii and Rutana run for the door, but more bugs pour out of bed.
Clarence keeps trying to shoot at the bugs. Two spiders, and another centipede. He kills one of the spiders, misses the other two.
Clarence calls Susanna and Xalvador over to also try shooting at the bugs.
Xalvador splats the other spider, the centipede is left.
When the centipede comes within 30 feet of the party, the Sprite produces flame from Rutana's pocket and incinerates the centipede.
With all threats eliminated, Sartorii climbs up the chest and looks in through the lock. Within is a metal box and a skill.
The party hashes out a plan to throw in a rope from outside, let the Sprite guide it into place with Mage Hand, and tie it around the chest with Tiny Sartorii's help.
Rutana heads toward the door, and she and the Sprite turn back to normal once she makes it to the other side of the room.
Clarence throws the rope towards the chest. Between Sartorii and the Sprite, they tie the rope around the chest successfully.
Clarence pulls on the rope to drag the chest out. It suddenly becomes a lot heavier when Sartorii returns to full size. She hops off to inspect the chest.
Within the metal box is 100 gold.
Confident they could make it through the hallway before the wind turns back on, Sartorii steps into the hallway and the wind turns back on.
The wind is blowing from the direction of the stairs, so the party presses on anyway.
Sartorii, Clarence, and the Sprite make it through just fine, but Rutana crit fails and goes tumbling down the hall, taking 7 damage.
Egoron, Xalvador, and Suzanna are knocked prone by the wind. Alin and Arwel make it just fine.
Sartorii tries to play the benny hill theme on the piano.
She plays the intro of fur de lise instead.
Gold count so far this session:
150g