IC The Thirteenth Moon: Night of the Blood Moon

The man begins to sob as a subtle chime rings in everyone's ears. You are uncertain from where it came, as there are no chimes or metal objects from which it could have originated.[sblock=Psicraft DC 11, automatic for Alise]The chime was a psionic display, indicating the use of psionics nearby.[sblock=Psicraft DC 16, automatic for Alise]Alise just used a psionic charm upon the man.[/sblock][/sblock]As the man sobs, he steps closer to Alise and whispers, "Oh my, I never intended for anything bad to happen. I don't want to get into trouble, so I'll be perfectly honest with you. I have a secret room upstairs which is concealed by that bookcase over there. I have been letting the room to a short elf and several of his companions. I don't know anything about him, aside from the fact that he and his friends have been arriving for the last month every Wir and Sar. You see, the elf paid me a considerable sum to remain anonymous. They usually arrive together or in groups. I always suspected they were up to some silly nonsense, but I never expected them to be involved in anything illegal, until tonight that is. The elf arrived early on New Year's Eve with a purse full of 50 gold Galifars and told me to keep quiet should anyone come asking about him or his group. It seemed very questionable, but I took the money anyway. Taxes have just been so high recently! But I cannot keep the secret. I don't want to go to prison! You'll find the elf upstairs with his companions now. Once you've arrested them, I'll happily testify against them."

The man moves slowly over to the bookcase and pulls one of the books out. The book appears to be fastened to the bookcase and there is a small click as he snaps the book out. "The passage is open now," the man says. "All you need do is pull the bookcase back. But be warned, it makes a fair bit of noise. They might hear you."

Dorius hastily copies down the man's words, then offers the notepad to him. In his best officious tone, Dorius says "If you'll just sign this statement, sir, we'll proceed with the investigation immediately. Now, is there any other way into the secret room upstairs?"

The man looks to Alise when the pad is thrust in front of him, clearly maintaining his distrust of the rest of the party besides the telepath. However, he does answer Dorius' question, "No, only one way in, aside from the window, but it's three stories from the ground floor."

"Thank you, sir.

I should lead the way" Brad says.

"The window ... someone needs to go keep watch outside. They could try to escape that way."

When the others are ready, he'll pull back the bookcase.

Brad pulls back the bookcase which causes a good deal of creaking and moaning. After that all is silent, eerily silent. The landlord cowers in the back corner of the room as Brad leads the way up the staircase which switchbacks inside the narrow passage hidden within the wall. You take care to soften your steps, but the noise of the bookcase moving has likely already given you away. When you arrive at the top, you step out into a room oddly vacant. There is a circle drawn on the floor in brown smudges. Strange sigils are drawn at four equidistant points on the circle. Atop each sigil is a smoking black candle. The red moonlight coming from the window is the only source of light in the room, and it casts haunting reddish shadows upon the walls.

Lining the walls are several bookcases with various strange artifacts that barely reflect the soft red glow of the moonlight. You see a few books on the shelves, some parchment and gilded scrolls, a decanter, several flasks, and more than a few bones, including a humanoid skull. A few tables and chairs also line the walls, as well as a couple of cots and a chest of drawers.

[sblock=Spot DC 17]There are four cloaked figures hidden in various niches around the room. You can tell one at least of them is clutching a dagger by the faint glint it makes from the reflection of the moonlight.[sblock=Spot DC 23]You can make out a fifth figure hiding in a corner. The individual is short, not quite short enough to be a gnome or a halfling, but short enough to possibly be the "short elf" you have heard about. This one clutches a wand in hand. You can also tell that each of the others is armed with a weapon of some kind, mostly bludgeoning weapons such as clubs and a mace or two. One has a dagger, as noted above.[/sblock][/sblock][sblock=Alise]Your psicrystal speaks to you telepathically as you climb the stairs, Invisible! They have all suddenly gone invisible! You sense this is a falsehood, but not entirely inaccurate. More likely the individuals are simply hiding in the room.[/sblock][sblock=Religion DC 15]The circle upon the floor is a circle of some sort of divine magic.[sblock=Religion DC 20]The sigils are symbols associated with the Blood of Vol and represent "death," "blood," "power," and "favor" respectively.[/sblock][/sblock][sblock=Arcana or Bardic Knowledge DC 15]The sigils are arranged in lunar cardinal directions which appear to associate with the blood moon.[sblock=If you also succeeded on Religion DC 20]The "blood" sigil is facing lunar north, the "death" sigil is facing lunar south, while the "power" and "favor" sigils face lunar east and lunar west respectively.[/sblock][/sblock][sblock=Spellcraft DC 21]The circle is part of a ritual which grants the recipient of the ritual the benefits of a divine favor spell for 24 hours.[sblock=Spellcraft DC 24]As above, but you notice that the ritual also grants the recipient the benefits of a divine power spell for 24 hours as well.[sblock=Spellcraft DC 25]This is perhaps the most horrifying revelation. The recipient of the spell is the subject of a contingent slay living spell. The terms of the contingency are not immediately apparent.[sblock=Spellcraft DC 26]You determine that if the recipient is attacked in melee at any time in the next 24 hours, it will trigger the contingency, targeting the attacker with a slay living spell.[/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][sblock=detect magic round 1]You detect the presence of magical auras in this room.[sblock=round 2]There are four magical auras in this room, the strongest being moderate power.[sblock=round 3]The circle radiates several dim magical auras indicating recent magic has been discharged from it. In the corner is a short figure shrouded in the magic of four magical auras, one faint, three moderate.[sblock=Spellcraft DC 16]The weakest magical aura upon the figure in the corner is divine favor.[sblock=Spellcraft DC 19]The second magical aura upon the figure is divine power.[sblock=Spellcraft DC 20]The third magical aura upon the figure is slay living. This spell does not appear to have been discharged.[sblock=Spellcraft DC 21]The fourth spell is contingency. If the recipient is attacked in melee at any time in the next 24 hours, it will trigger the contingency, targeting the attacker with a slay living spell.[/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][sblock=Search DC 12]The smeared substance around the circle appears to be dried blood.[sblock=Search DC 15]The candles are of an unusual make. They are not wax, but some other sticky substance.[sblock=Search DC 20]There are a pair of elongated fangs in the center of the circle. They are not very large, and probably come from a humanoid of some type.[sblock=Local DC 12 or Bardic Knowledge DC 15]These fangs do not come from any normal humanoid.[sblock=Local or Bardic Knowledge DC 20 or Religion DC 15]These fangs come from a vampire![/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][/sblock][sblock=Hero Point!]You may expend a Hero Point to automatically gain a sudden insight which allows you to automatically open one spoiler block, but not sub-blocks beneath it. This choice may be made either before or after you have rolled any relevant skill checks.[/sblock]

Brad drew his sword on the way up. He looks around cautiously (ooc: total defense).

"The window?"

"Ambush! My crystal says they're still hiding in here."

Alise holds back behind someone and tries not to get hurt.