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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Rybaer" data-source="post: 372829" data-attributes="member: 118">Session #13.2 – SurveillanceBright and early the next morning, the group met up with Jonas.  He led them up to his cramped and crowded study.  From out of the corner, the wizard dragged a tall rectangular mirror of exceptional quality.  He wiped a few cobwebs away with his sleeves and cleared room for everyone to gather around.“Okay,” Jonas began.  “I can try scrying a couple times today.  While you will probably see color and light coming from the mirror, the spell will be attuned only to me.  Therefore, I’ll do my best to describe what I’m seeing.”Jonas cast the spell and the mirror darkened.  He peered into it for a moment before coming to the conclusion that the area he was looking into was pitch black.  Zalman offered up the darkvision goggles he’d made during their previous stay with the Thunder Guild.  With those on, Jonas was able to give them a description of the scene.“Okay, I see the Shadow.  Looks like he’s sleeping.  He’s on a pallet on the floor of a smallish square room.  No window, just one wood door.  There are lots of blankets or lengths of fabric hanging off the walls…but not tapestries.  Where the bare walls are exposed, they appear to be cut stone.  Everything has a dingy appearance to it.  I’d say he is underground.“Next to the Shadow are some clothing and gear and a couple weapons.  There is a pair of small chests along one wall.  Near the door is a small bookcase, mostly filled with curios but there are also a dozen or so books.  The only other piece of furniture is a small table with two chairs.  On the table are a half-used candle, a couple more books, and a plate and goblet.”Nigel asked for clarification on the weapons, but was disappointed when Jonas was unable to describe his stolen long sword.  As the Shadow was sleeping, there was little else to gain from further study.  Jonas answered further clarifying questions and then ended the scrying.“I guess it’s no surprise that he’d be sleeping during the day,” Zalman said.  “Try again later this afternoon, then?” Nigel asked.  They debated the best time to try again and settled for about an hour before sundown.  If he were sleeping now, he’d almost certainly be awake by then.  For the rest of the day, the group went about their own personal business – training, studying, and tending their gear.In the early evening, the group all reassembled in Jonas’ study to listen in on the next scrying session.  Jonas cast the spell and immediately reached for the darkvision goggles.  “Still in the dark,” he said.  “Ah, he’s awake, though.  He’s still in an area of cut stone, but now it looks more like a hallway…a dead end, more specifically.  The hall turns a sharp left and I can’t see much.  On the dead end side, there is a crack in the wall about a foot wide.  The Shadow is pulling on a chain, dragging something up though the crack.  Okay, looks like he just pulled a bucket out of the crack.  He’s unhooking it and carrying the bucket away with him.“He’s walking down the hallway now.  It looks to be about thirty or so feet long.  At the far end, it turns left again.  There is a door on the right side of the hall and a stairway branching off to the left.  He’s taking the stairs and they go up.“Okay, top of the stairs and it’s another hallway.  Several closed wood doors along the length.  He’s taking a right into the hallway, and then another right down another short hall to a door.  Everything here is the same cut stone construction.  Looks dank and old.“He’s going through the door now, and it looks like a small room with another door.  There’s something in the ceiling, too.  A trap door leading up, maybe?  The Shadow is going through the other door.  Hmmm…okay, another room.  This one is a bit bigger, rectangular.  It’s got lots of barrels and shelves full of sacks and jars and such.“The Shadow just grabbed something off a shelf.  A plate.  Ah, I see.  This looks like storeroom full of food.  He’s picking through various containers and filling his plate with a variety of dried foods.”The scrying spell’s duration expired before the Shadow finished putting together his meal.  The group had Jonas reconstruct the layout of the place as best he could from memory.  They probed for more detail.  The Shadow was fully dressed and carried his gear and weapons with him, so it was possible that he did not feel entirely safe in his hideout.  They had seen no signs of anyone else with the dark elf, so he may not have assembled a new band of thugs since the group had killed off his previous bunch.“This may just be his breakfast,” Bommer said.“I agree,” Rurik said.  “We need to try to get a look at him while he’s outside so we can get some sort of a reference point.”“Jonas, can we try this again tomorrow?” Nigel said.  “Are you limited to doing this twice in a day?”“Sure, we can do it again tomorrow,” Jonas said.  “And I’m afraid that twice in a day is my limit.”After a brief discussion, they decided to wait until just after sunset the following day before trying to scry the Shadow again.Shortly after dinner the next day, the group again assembled in Jonas’ study.  Hopes were running high that they might learn something more useful today.  The wizard positioned his mirror and cast the spell.“Drat,” Jonas said.  “It’s dark again.”  He slipped on the goggles and then cocked his head in a puzzled expression.  “He’s not there,” Jonas said, “but my scry locked in on a tight spot.  Looks like a vertical shaft, only a couple feet in diameter, with metal ladder rungs fixed into the side.”“He’s probably invisible,” Nigel said.  “He likes to do that a lot.”“Well, I guess that shouldn’t be too big of an interference,” Jonas said.  “It doesn’t seem to interfere with the scry finding his position.  He seems to be at the very top of the ladder rungs and there is a trap door of sorts.“Ah, okay, he’s opening it, though very slowly.  It looks like it opens into a box of some sort.  Not very big, but there’s enough room for him to pull himself up inside it.  Okay, I see that he’s pushing up on the top of the box…must be a lid.  Very tiny crack, but there’s actual light coming through it now.  Pretty dim.  “Okay, he’s lifting it up now…probably climbing out.  Interesting.  He’s inside a room of sorts, though much of it is nothing more than stone rubble.  There’s an open doorway leading into an outdoor courtyard.  I think he’s probably checking it out as he’s not moving very much and is being exceptionally quiet.  The courtyard is in poor condition.  All flagstones, but lots of sizeable weeds growing up through the cracks.  I can see a couple doorways and a well.  Not much else to speak of.  The sun just set, so at least he’s not in some far away land.“Ah, he’s on the move now.  Not fast, but purposeful and very, very quietly.  Moving through the courtyard, around to his left.  Ah, there’s an open doorway leading to a shallow dirt ramp down.  That leads into a very heavily wooded area less than a hundred feet away.  Looks like he’s following the road into the woods.“I’m looking backward as he’s moving to the woods.  The place he came out of looks like a very old keep or stronghold.  It’s not big at all, but it does have heavy stone walls and a couple towers.  It’s built up on top of a small rise.  Was probably fairly defensible in its day, but now it doesn’t even have a front door.“Drat,” Jonas said.  “Spell just expired.  Want me to cast the next one now and follow him?”“I’d say we give him a half hour or hour before we try again,” Nigel said.  “Otherwise, we’ll just get to watch him hiking through the woods.  If’ we wait, we might learn his destination.”“I agree,” Zalman said.  “An hour?”  Everyone nodded in agreement.  “Jonas, could you possible sketch what the building looked like from the front?”“Sure, though I’m not much of an artist.”“We already know that the Shadow and his band were known to do most of their banditry to the southwest of Water Break.  We encountered them between High Hill and Unicorn Valley.  It’s pretty reasonable to assume that he has a hideout in that region.  It’s all heavily wooded, so there are plenty of places to hide.“Now, that cavalry patrol we hooked up with shortly after our first encounter with the Shadow should know that region pretty well.  I’m thinking that one of them might be able to recognize this old keep and point us in the right direction.”“Good idea,” Nigel said.  “I’d still like to know more about what he’s up to these days so that we can best plan how to ambush him.  If we can’t hit him by surprise, he’ll almost certainly be able to slip away with that teleporting trick he tried on us last time.”“I’ve got a Dimensional Anchor spell all prepared for that,” Rurik said.  “But we still have to keep him close for it to work.”“Good.  Let’s see what the next scry can tell us,” Nigel said.  They passed away the next hour debating the best ambush tactics with the personnel and spells they had at their disposal.The fourth scry gave them something they hadn’t quite expected.  It appeared that the Shadow was taking advantage of the last bit of dusk to do some fishing.  Seemed that the dark elf liked fresh food once in a while, and by the look of it he’d had a little bit of luck already.  The pond he was fishing at was modest in size, perhaps two hundred yards wide, and was surrounded by heavy woods.“Whoa!” Jonas suddenly said.“What is it?”“I think he just spotted the scrying sensor,” Jonas said.  “He’s looking right at me and just drew his sword.”“Is there anything he can do about it?” Amill asked.“No,” Jonas said.  “Unless he’s a wizard, there’s little he can do to harm the sensor.  He probably doesn’t even know what he’s seeing.  If he’s smart, though, or has spent much time around wizards, he might be able to guess what it is.  It’d be safe to assume that he now knows someone is looking for him.”“How’s he reacting to it?” Zalman said.“Well, he just seems to be holding his ground,” Jonas said.  “Oh, he did go invisible again.  I think he’s just waiting to see if something happens.”The spell expired without the Shadow moving more than a couple feet.  This last scrying session, they felt, may have done more harm than good.  They now had a small pond as additional reference, but the Shadow might have been alerted to someone scrying on him.Deciding to work off Zalman’s recommendation, the group made plans to leave early the next morning.  They would cut southeast through the hills until they hooked up with the road between High Hill and Unicorn Valley.  From there, they’d continue on to Unicorn Valley and the patrol’s way station there unless they came across one of the patrols sooner.  Maybe the description and drawing of the ancient keep would be the link to finding the Shadow. Next session:  I'll actually get to the "lots of heads" bit.</blockquote>

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