Igor lifts amulet and dangles it before his oversized eye, obviously mesmerized by it... , 'Pretty pretty thing... I can see... magic... and... something else... is it Hells? Nah... Abyss? Nah... can't tell...' With sad look on his face, creature puts it on the table.
[sblock=strange amulet]
Light mithril chain is linked to triangular piece of strange grayish metal that seems virtually weightless and partially transparent, as if it does not entirely belong to this world. Single extremely complex silver rune is etched in its center, its meaning unknown.
Item radiates aura of powerful magic, but it seems its magic is dampened somehow, as if something is missing from it.
[/sblock]
Obviously upset, Igor starts pulling various items from his bag - cracked crystals, broken chunks of metal, squashed beetles... on and on goes the junk while he grumbles to himself 'where is it... scroll...'. Finally he pulls out large scroll tube and slowly unwinds scroll from it.
Deep rumbling of arcane words echoes through the room, Igor's voice gaining power as he goes through the scroll, even as mystical glyphs materialize in the air around him, glittering in dark purple radiance.
[sblock=arcana DC 20 or religion DC 20]
Igor is obviously reading ritual scroll, magic has clear signature of conjuration and divination.
[sblock=arcana DC 25 or religion DC 25]
Analyzing it more carefully, you are fairly sure ritual is 'Consult Mystic Sages', yet there is something bit unusual about it - it is definitely arcana ritual rather then religious one. Also it carries more then tinge of necromancy about it - almost like being keyed to some actual dead sages rather then extraplanar ones one would expect from that ritual.
[/sblock]
[/sblock]
As Igor utters last word of power, room seems to darken and he lifts amulet high - 'Speak to me! I command you! Tell me what is this thing!'. At first nothing seems to happen...
[sblock=Insight DC 20]
While you cannot see anyone else in the room, you are certain you are no longer alone here. Concentrating, you can feel tingle of magic around you...
[sblock=Perception DC 25 or detect invisibility or equivalent]
Seven shadowy forms float in the chamber, set around you in the circle, ghostly forms of men and women robed in gray, old, hunched and long dead... you can hear faint whisper coming from them: 'Ask... one question for you, one and no more...'
[/sblock]
[sblock=Arcana DC 25]
Magic is obviously active and while you cannot see entities summoned, you are fairly sure they are spirits or ghosts of mages and scholars of the past, long dead and buried. They were likely called by the ritual to answer question.
[/sblock]
[/sblock]
And then Igor screams, clutching his oversized eye as if someone or something poked it. With gurgling scream, he falls on his back, beer and junk falling on top of him. Scroll itself ignites with emerald flame and disappears before you manage to react and arcane glyphs disappear with rather unspectacular 'plop'...
[sblock=Arcana, Religion or Insight DC 25]
You can feel backlash of magic in the room. Even without knowing the ritual itself, you are fairly sure it backfired. Not an unusual thing either, for looking at Igor, you would judge his magical talent at level of junior wizard, not someone capable of performing proper divination ritual, scroll or not. Looking at wreckage, you are quite sure perfectly good ritual scroll was just wasted.
[sblock=Arcana, Religion or Insight DC 35]
While Igor's ritual performance was certainly bad, you felt something during the moment ritual backfired, as if someone or something else was responsible. Not sure how, you can remember voice - you heard it, but it was not directed to you - 'Ugly and unworthy, begone you thing, you are not fit even to join The Failed'.
[/sblock]
[/sblock]
As he stops mewling on the floor, Igor rises up slowly, still clutching his eye and points toward the table - 'I... I did wat I could, you take it from here... it is magical as you saw... and EVIL! Perhaps librarians can tell you more... or priests... or one of these accursed rituals... after all IAC didn't hire you for me to do all the job, right?'. After realizing what he just said, he suddenly stiffens - 'Erm... sorry, I didn't mean it that way, you know... eye and all... if you need more scrolls, I am sure IAC office will sell you few for a fair price - you see this one was funding we received for up-front. Bloody sages were useless, they said 'po...', i bet that was 'poke' before they poked me in the eye.'
[sblock=DM/OOC]
Considering your little buddy failed and quite miserably too, It is now up to you to find out more about the amulet. Consider this an open ended skill challenge - I will give good ideas bonuses to skill rolls (and penalties to bad ideas), as long as you have credible explanation, most things can work.
Also considering pbp format, I will be using 'scenes' approach in situations like this one : 'scene' lasts for flexible amount of time, during it you can post, give ideas... please add skill rolls and results will be resolved on first-come-first-serve basis (though please keep number of posts reasonable). After some time has passed, let's say 24-48 hours, 'scene' will get an update and so on. Feel free to discuss / put suggestions in OOC thread (and/or do any in-character discussion here)
Btw, considering you are in controlled / nonhostile environment atm, feel free to do any shopping, resupplying...
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