.png "English"){kind=small}
The Ruined Tower
Click to expand previous episode recap
With fierce martial coordination, the party pursued and eliminated the surviving giant rats before they could flee deeper into the ruins. Turning their attention to the blood-spattered nesting grounds, Niles discovered a rusted iron coffer hidden beneath decades of foul debris. The box remained tightly locked, presenting a tempting but dangerous mystery.
As Niles reaches toward the corroded ironwork of the lock, Thaddeus raises a stern, cautionary hand. "Hold your tools, halfling," the wizard mutters, stepping past the fighters. Closing his eyes, he begins a low, rhythmic incantation, tracing an elegant geometric sigil in the stale air. As he speaks the final syllable of his spell, his gaze snaps open, his pupils flaring with an ethereal azure light. Through his magically enhanced sight, Thaddeus observes a faint, pulsing crimson glow humming maliciously along the iron seams of the coffer—a lingering, unstable abjuration glyph left behind by the tower's long-dead master to incinerate intruders.
Sensing the volatile arcane trap, Niles carefully ducks back behind Elanna's heavy shield. Thaddeus moves forward alone, carefully extending his gnarled oak staff toward the pulsating glyph. Whispering a countermeasure, he makes an intricate series of precise gestures to unravel the magical lattice. For a tense second, the air tastes of sulfur, but with a sharp Arcana flourish, Thaddeus successfully grounds out and dissipates the ancient trap, causing it to pop and vanish into a harmless hiss of fading blue sparks. The chest is safe to handle.
With the magical ward entirely dismantled, Niles confidently steps back up to the chest and unrolls his leather toolkit. He slips a slender tension wrench and a custom-filed lockpick into the rusted mechanism. Closing his eyes to focus entirely on the feel of the ancient pins, his fingers manipulate the iron guts of the lock with master rogue precision. Within moments, a resounding, mechanical click echoes through the stone clearing. Niles pushes back the heavy iron lid, revealing a decaying velvet-lined interior. Nestled inside is a weathered, moldy leather pouch filled with minted gold coins alongside a securely sealed crystal vial containing a swirl of thick, glowing lavender liquid.
• Thaddeus: Arcana Check to Defuse Glyph. Roll: 17 + 5 modifier = 22 (Success!). Magical trap safely dissipated.
• Niles: Sleight of Hand / Thieves' Tools Check. Roll: 14 + 4 modifier = 18 vs. Lock DC 15 (Success!).
• Loot Recovered: Old Coin Pouch (35 gold pieces), 1 Unknown Magical Potion (Thick lavender glow).
0 comments:
Post a Comment