[IC] Kung's Island

[Grimaximus]

Grim plants his feet on the roof to attempt to pull Jim up, (athletics 6, boo) but with the extra weight of the swarm of creatures doesn't manage to bring him up on his own. He stands firm with the rope so hopefully they can both make it up quickly.

[whiteflash]

Jim takes a deep breath and forces himself to keep climbing. He makes it to the top and turns around.

"Thraesous! I'm clear! Get out of there!"

[Pyrophilios]

Jim reached the roof without incident while Thraseous' Drake began to attack the swarm. Thraseous meanwhile fled across the jungle along the wall until he reached the rope to climb up and join the others on the roof.
The swarm surged for a moment but then concentrated on the Drake.

Spoiler

Show

Swarm merges again and attacks the drake:
(1d20)[5]+8, damage (7d6)[26], if crit (7d6)[23]

[Grimaximus]

(In Draconic) "Your Master is safe Noble Drake, Take flight and join us up here"
Grim rolls the rope back up and stows it after Thraseous and Jim are both safe on the roof.

[gryffydd65]

Thraseous in draconic Thank you brother come join us safely on the roof. he turns to his comrades Thank you as well

[Pyrophilios]

Now that the whole team was on the roof, they all saw the row of windows that looked a bit like the teeth of a saw. Moving close to them, a large hall was visible with various apparatus in long arrays. This had to be the shop floor of the glas factory.
Though the glas was clear it was hard to make out details below with the suns glare reflecting of the glas. But as far as the team could make out, there was no movement on the ground 15ft. below.

There were panes that had a mechanism to pivot them open at their center. Either finesse or brute force likely would work to open one of them - the former more complicated but ultimately a lot less prone to draw attention.

Spoiler

Show

Thieves' Tools DC 15 to open the panes without destroying anything

DC 10 strength test to force one open

[whiteflash]

"The loud way's probably easier... but I'd rather try it the quiet way, and call smashing it Plan B. Grim, you ready?"

[Grimaximus]

“I concur, the quiet over the loud, unless the later becomes necessary. I am ready to assist when you are ready.”

[whiteflash]

"Good to hear. Let's see what we can do..."

Jim pulls out his Thieves Tools, waits for Grim to get his out if he hasn't already, and goes to work.

(1d20+7)[23]
(1d20+7)[9]

Edit: Yup, we're in.

[Pyrophilios]

The old mechanism was - as most other things on this island - in surprisingly good repair. With only a little bit of grinding, the window opened up.
The smell from below was dusty with a hint of decay. Below, polished tiles gleamed while workbenches were covered with dusty papers, discarded tools and, in some cases, broken glass ware. There was no sound to be heard from below.

[Ramsus]

Lael Liadon High Elf "Astrologist" AC: 18 HP: 59/59 PP: 12 PIv: 19 PIs: 12 Conditions: Temp HP: 3 Concentration: -- After looking through the window for any dangers for a minute or so, Lael tosses the rope into the room and climbs down and begins looking around from inside.

[Pyrophilios]

Lael found herself in a spacious hall - about 60ft x 90ft - with four doors to the south and three gates to the east. To the north a massive vault door loomed. To the west was the outside wall they had climbed.
Row upon row, the room was filled with workbenches, stocked with various fine tools. The southern section was apparently dedicated to lens crafting with grinders and polishing maschines, while the northern part was dedicated to production with large kilns, stocks of various kinds of sand as well as forms and tools for glas blowing.

One door to the south and one gate to the east stood open.

Away from the jungle above, inside this place an eerie silence prevailed.

[Grimaximus]

Grim climbs down after Lael and takes a look around. He wonders to himself that there must be something more to this room. (Casts detect magic) Focusing within he channels magical energy inward and his eyes flash white, Grim then paces around the room to see what arcane traces might be left by the mad wizards machinations.

[gryffydd65]

Thraseous climbs down the rope and starts to help with the search.

[Pyrophilios]

Three sources of magic are immediately apparent:

The vault door has several thick strands of magic flowing over and through the construction. [Arcana DC 16]
The kilns also have magic auras, although severely subdued, almost dormant [Arcana DC 10]

Finally, there appears to be an invisible sphere hanging under the ceiling that pulses steadily with a low, but clearly perceptible kind of magic [Arcana DC 12]

[Grimaximus]

Grim roams about the room eyes still white pointing out sources of magic as they are found. Once he has scanned the entire room he focuses on the three points unable to ascertain the nature of the magic. Frustrated “someone try to check these out, something is interfering with my understanding of their nature” he is uncomfortable with this “feeling”

[Ramsus]

Lael Liadon High Elf "Astrologist" AC: 18 HP: 59/59 PP: 12 PIv: 19 PIs: 12 Conditions: Temp HP: 3 Concentration: -- Lael gets Grim to describe what he's sensing in more detail and tries to puzzle them out. Spoiler Show Arcana for vault door: (1d20+9)[27] Arcana for kilns: (1d20+9)[25] Arcana for sphere: (1d20+9)[25] After thinking about it for a bit Lael says, "I believe the vault door is warded somehow. It would be really hard to break or force open I think. The kiln is just very fireproof, I guess the glass making they did here requires a lot of heat. The other thing" she says without looking at it, "is a sensor for a scrying spell of some kind. So someone or something can see us. Or maybe hear? Or both." then she shrugs. "Unless someone has some very powerful dispelling magic they can do, not much we can do about it aside from leave the room."

[whiteflash]

Jim Walker
Human Paladin of Treachery
AC: 16 HP: 66/68

Jim climbs down after the other two and looks around. He listens as Lael explains they're being spied on. "Uh..." he says quietly. "Is there any way to guess who's spying on us? Could it be a rival adventuring party? Or some wizard who's descended from one of Kung's apprentices?"

"Oh, hey... is it possible to tell if the probe's pointing at anything in particular? Could it specifically be watching the Vault Door?"

[Pyrophilios]

From its position, the party was able to infer that the sensor was able to supervise the whole room - and likely a permanent installation as the magic showed to be self sustaining.

[Grimaximus]

"let us hope that no one is actively monitoring. We need to find a way into that vault, but I cannot dispel magic only detect its presence." As he is moving around thinking and inspecting, Grim pockets some of the fine tools into his bag.

He then walks over to the open door to the south to investigate(5) (&perception 1(not natural))

"This door seems to be clear and safe, I don't detect anything in the area."

[Pyrophilios]

Beyond the open door to the south Grim found a short corridor that led to a door with an ornate plaque. In the old language there stood "Master's Post".
The door to that room was also slightly ajar and revealed an office: 20x30 ft with the smaller side facing towards the shop floor. In it a row of steel cabinets filled one whole side. In the middle and towards the other side of the room, a large desk dominated the floor. The desk was empty aside from a large 2x3 ft tall mirror. to it's left and right life like statues of humanoid flames made from finest marble stood.
A second door to the east sat closed. A single, everburning light hovered beneath the ceiling. It was very dusty and appereared to not have been disturbed in a very long time.

[Ramsus]

Lael Liadon High Elf "Astrologist" AC: 18 HP: 59/59 PP: 12 PIv: 19 PIs: 12 Conditions: Temp HP: 3 Concentration: -- Having followed Grim, Lael considers the statues and mirror and says to the others, "I think there's a good chance those statues are going to come to life and attack us if we go in there. But there might be something important to find too. The room is labeled 'Master's Post' and all."

[whiteflash]

Jim Walker
Human Paladin of Treachery
AC: 16 HP: 66/68

Jim follows Grim and Lael, and takes a look at the office for himself. "The statues... might move? Are you basing that on anything you can see, or just on Kung's reputation as someone who doesn't care what is and isn't possible?"

"And... do either of you know what the mirrors might do? (If there's any magic in them at all, and Kung didn't just use them to check his hair?)"

[Grimaximus]

After Grim scans the room, from the door way, for magic as he did before, he is getting a strong feeling that he fully understands the nature of the magic from the light(16) and the statues(20), but is unsure about the mirror(9). He does not seem to notice any physical traps (6).

[Pyrophilios]

The light was quite obviously a simple evocation effect. The interesting thing was that apparently it could be turned off and on through some kind of trigger.
The two statues took a bit longer to analyse, but afterwards Grim was quite certain that they were a kind of defense system. Not a trap per se, but they contained powerful evocation magic as well that could be directed outward. There was no obvious trigger though beyond a thin stand of magic, connecting it to the mirror.

The mirror itself was a confusing mess of dozens of strands of energy. The only thing Grim could determine was that there was strong divination magic in there.

[Ramsus]

Lael Liadon High Elf "Astrologist" AC: 18 HP: 59/59 PP: 12 PIv: 19 PIs: 12 Conditions: Temp HP: 3 Concentration: -- Considering the magic of the items, Lael realizes the mirror is the controlling mechanism and tries, "Mirror, disarm the traps."

[Pyrophilios]

The mirror replied in the monotone voice of a construct: "Command not recognized. Please restate. Here is a list of valid first level commands:
-Factory Status
-Defense Status
-Access Status
-Report Status

Please choose."

[whiteflash]

Jim Walker
Human Paladin of Treachery
AC: 16 HP: 66/68

Jim raises his eyebrows and turns to Lael. "Uh... okay, this is weird. Um... I think we want the second one?"

[Ramsus]

Lael Liadon High Elf "Astrologist" AC: 18 HP: 59/59 PP: 12 PIv: 19 PIs: 12 Conditions: Temp HP: 3 Concentration: -- Lael's eyes go wide. This is some really involved magic for sure, so exciting! Exactly the kind of thing she'd hoped to find! Then she registered she'd been spoken to, "Y-yeah! Um.... Defense Status!" she calls out.

[Pyrophilios]

The mirror replied:

"Defense Status: Active. Doors locked. Guardians active. Active Lifeforms five.
You are not authorized to change the defense status of the facility without a badge of authority. Please present your badge of authority."
The mirror showed a gleaming little golden shield with two crossed swords embossed on it, slowly turning in place.