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Message: <blockquote data-quote="rootbeergnome" data-source="post: 1170716" data-attributes="member: 3462">The second part of the 1st session!The party camps just outside of the swampy area where Barom the Disenchanted is said to live.  The night passes uneventfully and the next day, after much trudging through mud, leach infested waters, and algae, the party comes upon the huge tree with windows that could only be Barom’s house.  The huge tree is growing right in the center of a large bog, its huge roots are exposed and coming up over the water level like a mangrove tree and there appears to be a small dock built beneath the roots where a small boat is tied.  There are small windows in the upper tree, but it is too far away to see anything in the windows themselves.  The party is standing on a small dock where it is assumed that the boat is usually moored if the occupant of the house is away.  “Well, no since in wasting time, someone has to swim out there and get the boat.  No reason we should all get wet.”  Nerius says as he begins taking off his armor and clothes.Sadune looks worried “Are you sure that is such a good idea?” Nerius smiles “Of course it is, I’ll be fine, I can swim like a fish.” Nerius dives in with a knife clenched between his teeth.  Sadune takes off his sandals and short robes and quickly dives in after him.On the way over Nerius bumps into something, but keeps swimming.  Sadune who is following him, bumps into this same thing.  It feels… like a tentacle that is smooth and slimy and about as thick as a man’s arm.  It kind of half-heartedly wraps around Sadune as he swims past.  Sadune immediately freezes except for the least amount of treading that will keep him afloat.  In the distance, shrieking can be heard.  “Shrieking Eels!!!  I know that sound anywhere, the only other thing that has a singing voice that horrible is Korigahn!”  Says Cualth, who looks a bit worried but smiles at his joke nonetheless.Sadune, realizes that the thing isn’t moving and pushes it away.  It is a dead eel that is floating around in the bog.  It is not much decayed, indicating perhaps a fresh kill.  Sadune tries not to think about what other nasty things in the water could have killed the eel and might think of him as something good to eat as well.Nerius reaches the dock, and helps Sadune up as well.  Sadune unties the boat and begins rowing back to get the others.  Nerius follows a small set of stairs that appear to have grown that way, up to a small doorway, just as he begins to knock, he notices that the door is not completely closed.  “That’s odd.” He decides to wait for the others.Just as Nerius is having a hard time fighting the urge to open the door and explore for himself, the rest of the party arrives.  Nerius calls into the house “Hello!  Anybody home?”  But there is no answer.  The others look worried.  “Ah, he’s probably just asleep” “Or dead.” adds Cualth.“Well, we can’t just stand here, we came to get this thing for Marquette, so let’s do it.”  Nerius pushes open the door and the party files into a small foyer with a rug, a painting of a woodland clearing with a deer in it, and a small table.  There is an odd ticking device standing against one wall, it is shaped like a large box with a circular face at the top that has numbers all around it’s edge.  There are pointing hands, one long and one short, that are pointing to different numbers.  On the front of the object there is a glass window and inside can be seen a pendulum swinging back and forth, seeming to make the thing “tick.”  The party puzzles over this object only briefly and Sesseress believes it to be a time keeping device of some sort.  They quickly decide to explore the rest of the house.  They follow the stairs that lead up out of the foyer and into a large living area.  There is a living room, a fireplace, a kitchen area, a laboratory area, and another door near the back.  There are no walls to separate the different sections in the circular shaped room.  Sesseress decides to wait near the door, and the rest of the party begins exploring different areas of the house.  Nerius, Dajsan and Cualth all check the door near the back of the room that leads to a bedroom.  Within the bedroom, there is a large metal door built into the wooden wall of the tree.  Upon the door are several glowing runes.Meanwhile, Sadune and Korigahn are looking about in the house.  There are several paintings hanging on the walls and one unfinished painting.  All the paintings are signed “Barom.”  There is a traveling cloak and boots that are still there, and there are muddy footprints on the rug near the hearth, but it is unknown if the others in the party left the muddy prints on their way to the bedroom.  Sadune is checking around the area of the hearth when he notices a small wooden pipe sitting next to a reading chair.  He reaches down and picks it up, and is slightly startled when a bit of coagulated blood drops out of the pipe and onto the carpet.  “I believe I may have just figured out what happened to Barom.”The others are in the bedroom, pondering the runes on the door.  It appears to be a large vault, and they are guessing that the chest they seek for Marquette is within.  “Well, I don’t think we have to worry about Barom coming back and wondering why we are rummaging around in his house.” Says Sadune as he enters the bedroom as well.  “Oh, why is that?” Nerius is trying to puzzle the symbols and the riddle on the door.  “Because he is probably dead or at least kidnapped.” Sadune shows the others the bloody pipe.  The others look a bit worried but continue their efforts with the door.The door has a pentacle drawn on it.  On the pentacle, the tips of each star are a different color.  There is a red, blue, black, yellow, and a white tip.  The middle of the pentacle has a drawing of an angry face.  At the end of each point on the star there is a sort of lever, a handle to grasp and turn, built into the metal door.  Below the pentacle there are three outlines of keys drawn side by side.  Below the keys there are several words, that do not appear to make sense. The words are as follows:-----------------------------------------------------------------------------GSV  GLIGFIVI  WRW  UOZB        IVGSV   NVHH  SV  NZWV                 IILOW  YVM  RM  OZEZNVG  SRH  VMW       IV,VIISRH  ZHSVH  DVIV  KFG  RM  ZM  FIM         VIIGSIVV UZVM  LMV  TRZMG  WRW  GIZEVO     (the symbol for “whole” is here)ZG  VMW  LU  WZB  GSVB  IVHG  ZMW  FMIZEVO            VIAnswer each riddle please, from the answers, come the keys.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------The party begins to puzzle over this and decides that perhaps it is a code of some sort.  Nerius, Sadune, and Dajsan quickly begin to decipher it.Nerius, after much decoding and attempting different combinations of words, realizes something “It’s the alphabet backwards.”  “What?”  the others look puzzled.“The Alphabet, if you write it out, and then write it out again starting from Z to A beneath the first alphabet you get the code, and you can translate it.  Ok, lets see, they should translate out to this.”THE TORTURER DID FLAYTHE MESS HE MADEOLD BEN IN LAVA MET HIS ENDHIS ASHES WERE PUT IN AN URNTHREE FAEN ONE GIANT DID TRAVELAT END OF DAY THEY REST AND UNRAVEL“But what about the numerals?” asks Dajsan.  “I’m sure they mean something too.”“Yes, it’s some kind of logic puzzle.”  reasons Cualth.After much debate, Sadune decides to try something.  First he turns the handle at the tip of the red point, it locks into place and the party holds their breath, waiting for something to happen.  Sadune looks at the others, shrugs and turns the blue point handle as well.  The handle locks into place, and just as it does so, a brilliant flash of electricity courses through Sadune’s arm causing him to grip the handle tighter for a moment.  He cries out and falls to his knees, injured but still conscious.  “Well that wasn’t such a great idea.” Cualth quickly calls upon the power of the green and fills Sadune’s burnt arm with life energy, making it nearly good as new.  “There, all better.”The handles then both turn back into their original positions with an audible click.  “I think I may have it.”  Nerius looks excited.  “The numerals are the position of the word.  So the first word is ‘FLAY’ and the second word is ‘MESS,’ but what could that mean?”“Flames, the first word is flames.” Says Sadune, rising from the floor.  “AH! Yes, and the second word is Lavender.  Lava end urn, it makes lavender.”  Says Nerius.“Then, the third word…well the symbol for whole is there so if you add three faen plus one giant, that makes ‘Four’ and the next word is ‘Rest’ so that makes ‘Forest’” Dajsan looks pleased with himself.“Ok, so they are colors then.  So to make the colors we combine the colors right?  So to make ‘Flames’ you need orange, that is Red and Yellow.”  Nerius turns the red tip handle and the yellow tip handle.  The first key emblem on the door lights up and the handles then lock back into place.  “Then to make Lavender we turn blue and red, that makes purple.”  Dajsan points this out and Nerius turns the appropriate handles, lighting up the second key.  It is easy from there to determine that the last part of the puzzle is the color green for ‘Forest’ so the party turns the blue and yellow handles.  The final key emblem lights up and there is an audible tinkling noise.  There is a loud “CLANG!” and the heavy metal door creaks open.  Within the safe there is darkness and the party suddenly is distracted by a voice from the doorway.  “So, you got it open eh?  Good work, we could never have done it without you!”  The party turns to see several men dressed in leather armor and armed with swords.  Their leader, the speaker, wears a red kerchief around his neck and smiles triumphantly at the party while adjusting the grip on his blade.  “Now stand aside and let us into that vault!”</blockquote>

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