Anders - WTF?

[The_Universe]

-Mages were spying on us and tried to cast something on us in the tower (Did anyone get the spell? I know Jansten saw them, but...?)

Mordenkeinin's Disjunction [sp?] was the spell cast at you...though the question remains if you, or merely your general area on the tower, were the targets.

-The tower was sabotaged and drakes powder placed at it's base thus in a timed explosion causing the tower to fall

Agreed. How was it sabotaged? Knowledge architecture or Knowledge History might tell you a little bit more about the tower when it was standing....

-One of the mages in his fright said Anders was behind it all

So either this mage is a really good liar, or he was telling you the truth. Anders position and company when you found him would seem to suggest that the Loremaster told you the truth (at least what he knew of it).

-The guards from the Council were sent away from the building by Anders

That's a verifiable fact.

-Anders was in a room with draconids

The Reavers you fought were undead, not draconids - they had similar capabilities to the warriors that Edriss had in his service, but those were not (as you recall) undead. These are probably just a more powerful version of the same thing...

-Anders is in a room with barrels of drakes powder

Actually, he appeared to be in the Exchequer's chamber, surrounded by chests that you would guess (in a normal circumstance) would include gold, jewels, etc.

However, since one of them exploded (and the remainder are on fire) you can bet that not all is as it appears.

 

[Xath]

Um....did the undead appear to be threatening Anders, or following him? Just double-checking.

Well, we know 2 baddies who use undead. I say we can safely rule out Big Blue because 1. AB was on the tower with us, and 2. The undead were using Kega'rin, which are a known weapon of Tain's forces. 3. Anders worked for Tain, so that's not much of a stretch.

Perhaps he was planning to blow up the noble's council as well? Unless the chests were on fire, they wouldn't be detected.

Mordenkeinin's Disjunction [sp?] was the spell cast at you...though the question remains if you, or merely your general area on the tower, were the targets.

Or perhaps both. The thing is, the disjunction couldn't have been too crucial to the tower falling because it never went off. Unless....that's what held the tower together. Maybe the reason the top 6 floors fell as a whole, instead of crumbling, is because the disjunction didn't work. Perhaps the stability of the tower was protected by magic. But mithril is strong anyway, so it would take quite the explosive power to bring down a tower with a metallic exoskelleton.

Bardic Knowledge: 37 Knowledge History: 30

So either this mage is a really good liar, or he was telling you the truth. Anders position and company when you found him would seem to suggest that the Loremaster told you the truth (at least what he knew of it).

They seemed to be too freaked to be lying, but we'll be able to question them later.

It's pretty unlikely that the leger for the vaults has entries for drakespowder in, drakespowder out, etc. That kind of thing would be madness - why would you keep drakespowder in the kingdom's vaults?

It is a controlled substance. Maybe someone already moved the gold and jewels out, then planned on sabotaging the building so that they could get away with the loot scots-free.

If he was behind the tower explosion, shouldn't he have been running? Hiding?

He would have known that we'd instantly be after him. He didn't take good enough precautions to keep that information from us. If someone else was actually behind it, we just did a good job at making it more difficult for us to find out.

 

[The_Universe]

Um....did the undead appear to be threatening Anders, or following him? Just double-checking.

Following.

Well, we know 2 baddies who use undead. I say we can safely rule out Big Blue because 1. AB was on the tower with us, and 2. The undead were using Kega'rin, which are a known weapon of Tain's forces.

Many orcs use kega'rin. There are several wielders among your own blackorcs, and a few orcish soldiers that have eschewed more traditional infantry weapons for their ancestral blades.

3. Anders worked for Tain, so that's not much of a stretch

true.

Perhaps he was planning to blow up the noble's council as well? Unless the chests were on fire, they wouldn't be detected.

Well there would be a noticeable difference in weight - drakespowder is relatively light on a per volume basis. Gold is very heavy - like lead.

The chests are piled up like he was getting ready to move them somewhere, and wherever the drakespowder that blew the tower came from, he had to have moved it from there to the tower long before today.

Or perhaps both. The thing is, the disjunction couldn't have been too crucial to the tower falling because it never went off. Unless....that's what held the tower together. Maybe the reason the top 6 floors fell as a whole, instead of crumbling, is because the disjunction didn't work. Perhaps the stability of the tower was protected by magic. But mithril is strong anyway, so it would take quite the explosive power to bring down a tower with a metallic exoskelleton.

You saw the inside the tower...it wasn't all mithral. And it was awfully tall... Good hypothesis about the dysjunction. Perhaps you weren't the targets, just an incidental attack? There were only 2 mages near you, but you saw more in the floors below...

Bardic Knowledge: 37 Knowledge History: 30

The tower is held together (at least in part) by ancient magic. Disjunction alone would not have caused the tower to fall...but in concert with powerful explosives? That might have shaken things up like you saw.

It is a controlled substance. Maybe someone already moved the gold and jewels out, then planned on sabotaging the building so that they could get away with the loot scots-free.

If every one of the chests before you explodes, it will damage the room, teh floors above and below, and probably at least part of the council chambers...but it won't destroy the entire building.

He would have known that we'd instantly be after him. He didn't take good enough precautions to keep that information from us. If someone else was actually behind it, we just did a good job at making it more difficult for us to find out.

Either that, or he simply assumed that anyone on the tower would die, including his saboteurs? Disjunction doesn't have a very large radius, so there must have been multiple casters...

Quite probably, if this was the case, the casters could not have known all that they were doing...with the explosions timed so quickly, Anders must have been counting on his allies to die...or Anders wasn't behind it all.

You're right, though - you pretty much screwed the pooch on finding out more for sure.

Still, that's what deduction is for.

 

[Xath]

Deduction

Ok. I've been wracking my brain, but I cannot fathom what we're supposed to be deducing from this room here. Perhaps I'm overlooking something. I don't know. Kennon, can we get a complete description of what the room looks like? Maybe that'll give us clues.

I know you're pushing us to look at the deductive reasonings as to what Anders was doing, but either I'm brain dead or missing something or you can see something I can't because you know more about what's going on.

Whatever it is, I can't see it.

 

[The_Universe]

Ok. I've been wracking my brain, but I cannot fathom what we're supposed to be deducing from this room here. Perhaps I'm overlooking something. I don't know. Kennon, can we get a complete description of what the room looks like? Maybe that'll give us clues.

I know you're pushing us to look at the deductive reasonings as to what Anders was doing, but either I'm brain dead or missing something or you can see something I can't because you know more about what's going on.

Whatever it is, I can't see it.

Yoy may not have all the clues. I know what's going on because...I know what's going on.

Is there a difference between what Anders thought he was doing, and what he actually was doing?

What was it you said to me when we first talked about the explosions... "But....all that treasure!"

The chests were closed. There's no evidence that Anders had any better idea what was in them until the first exploded than you did.

 

[Xath]

Yoy may not have all the clues. I know what's going on because...I know what's going on.

Is there a difference between what Anders thought he was doing, and what he actually was doing?

What was it you said to me when we first talked about the explosions... "But....all that treasure!"

The chests were closed. There's no evidence that Anders had any better idea what was in them until the first exploded than you did.

Ok. If Anders didn't know what was in the chests, then he thought he was moving treasure. But you said it yourself. There's a noticable difference in weight between drakespowder and gold. So if the chests were weighted...

If Anders knew what he was doing than why move the drakespowder. You said yourself, there's not enough there to do anything really signifigant. So why take the time to move it out?

And if Anders thought it was treasure, and it was supposed to be treasure, then where is the real treasure? Who took/moved it? How long has it been gone? Why is it not in my pocket?

 

[The_Universe]

Ok. If Anders didn't know what was in the chests, then he thought he was moving treasure. But you said it yourself. There's a noticable difference in weight between drakespowder and gold. So if the chests were weighted...

If Anders knew what he was doing than why move the drakespowder. You said yourself, there's not enough there to do anything really signifigant. So why take the time to move it out?

And if Anders thought it was treasure, and it was supposed to be treasure, then where is the real treasure? Who took/moved it? How long has it been gone? Why is it not in my pocket?

He did have some strong, undead servant-types with him. He may not have been personally moving them.

Maybe someone wanted Anders out of the way, too? Dead men tell no tales, and Anders may not have been meant to reveal who his master was.

Nothing more expendable than a bunch of corpses.

 

[Xath]

So, from the way the tower played out, we can assume the mages were all supposed to die. Except those disjunctioning the lower levels would have had plenty of time to escape. Most mages would have been able to at least featherfall their way out of the tower, or gaseous themselves so they wouldn't be hit by the rubble. Assuming all of the mages would die makes alot of A-S-Ses out of the Us and M-Es.

And we've proven that in this world, the phrase "Dead men tell no tales" is not applicable. Speak with Dead isn't that hard to cast. Perhaps a more apt phrase would be "Dead men tell more cryptic tales than live ones most of the time." Someone was leaving alot of holes in their plan.

Also, unless they were counting on us to use a fire spell, how would the chests have exploded? I suppose the undead could have done it. We should check them for fire-starting materials.

 

[The_Universe]

So, from the way the tower played out, we can assume the mages were all supposed to die. Except those disjunctioning the lower levels would have had plenty of time to escape. Most mages would have been able to at least featherfall their way out of the tower, or gaseous themselves so they wouldn't be hit by the rubble. Assuming all of the mages would die makes alot of A-S-Ses out of the Us and M-Es.

Then perhaps the explosion was delayed, the explosives misplaced, or the spells interfered with or miscast. There's no reason to assume that the mastermind wanted a delay to allow escape in the tower's fall.

And we've proven that in this world, the phrase "Dead men tell no tales" is not applicable. Speak with Dead isn't that hard to cast. Perhaps a more apt phrase would be "Dead men tell more cryptic tales than live ones most of the time." Someone was leaving alot of holes in their plan.

They can only tell (cryptically) what they know. If what you're coming to suspect about Anders is true, then even he really didn't know what was going on.

Also, unless they were counting on us to use a fire spell, how would the chests have exploded? I suppose the undead could have done it. We should check them for fire-starting materials.

The reavers did display the ability to create blasts of abyssal fire, seemingly at will. That would probably have done it.

If any of them had any arcane power, "spark" is just a cantrip.

 

[Xath]

Ok. So the question is, Who is pulling Anders strings? How do they contact each other? And is that person currently in Caer Albion?