Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.
Enchanted Trinkets Complete--a hardcover book containing over 500 magic items for your D&D games!

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="haiiro" data-source="post: 2191586" data-attributes="member: 1891">The map room doesn't have its own light, except for the little bit provided by the glowing motes -- but it seems to almost amplify your torchlight, making the whole room bright and pleasant.While Marduke continues to survey the map from above, Cupric takes a closer look at the runes on the wall -- and Tuggle, Artemis and Tal all hop down onto the map itself.Taking a deep breath, Tuggle blows the dust off of the model of Selgaunt -- and finds that it may not be a model of Selgaunt. The familiar arc of the River Arkhen is there, as is the wide bay that opens out into the Sea of Fallen Stars, but this city is much smaller than Selgaunt. Tuggle's no historian, but he's heard of Chancelgaunt: the city that was built on that site, and later grew into the Selgaunt of today. It's quite possible that this is a model of Chancelgaunt.The model is very detailed, but it doesn't look as though it's supposed to show the city's actual buildings -- more of an "artist's interpretation" than anything. Leaning in closesly, however, the gnome notices something unusual: there's a faint glow showing through the buildings -- as if the model city is resting on top of one or more glowing motes.Artemis starts off by looking for the hatchery cave along the Starbound River, but the cave doesn't appear to be on the map (which shows only major geographical features). There are, however, two motes very close to one another on a site that's right along the river -- and about the right distance from Selgaunt to be the right spot.When Artemis joins Tuggle over by the model city -- which is substantially larger than all of the other cities, as if carved on a different scale -- the sorcerer points to the spots where light is leaking out of the buildings, suggesting more motes below. Surveying the area around Selgaunt, Artemis sees seven more lights: the large one that represents the tower, as well as three along the coast and three others inland, all within (guessing based on the size of the map) perhaps ten miles of the city itself.Also standing on the map, Tal takes a look at one of the other model cities -- what should be Ordulin, Sembia's capital city. He blows the dust gently from its tiny rooftops and peers intently at the buildings. Without a deeper knowledge of Sembia's history, Tal can only guess that the model represents Ordulin at least a hundred years ago. There's definitely a sense that the models are out of place, although it's hard to pin down -- they just don't look like the work of the room's (presumably) Netherese builders.Up on the walkway, Cupric is having some unexpected trouble with the runes. After several minutes -- during which time the others have finished looking at the map and the cities -- Cupric is able to decipher the inscription:"As the mythallar was for Ioulaum, so this nexus will be for us. The web of doorways is our secret path to power."Leaning back against the walkway's railing, Cupric tries to tease more information out of this short phrase. Meanwhile, the other Follies take a solid ten minutes or so to thoroughly search the chamber -- finding only one thing that they hadn't already noticed: all of the other cities on the map appar to have motes under them as well, just like Selgaunt.During this time, Cupric hums a few ballads to himself, letting his mind relax as he sifts through the knowledge that is his heritage. (Cupric only: [spoiler]Ioulaum is one of the greatest human archwizards in history, and perhaps Faerun's longest-lived creature: a Netherese arcanist who trained over three thousand other wizards, and was skilled in leading arcane armies to battle. His most famous battle was the "Excursion to Extinction," a campaign to wipe out the orcs around Netheril that used magical gates to block the humanoids' lines of retreat -- allowing Ioulaum's army to wipe out over 140,000 orcs. He is also famous for creating the first mythallar and Netheril's first floating city.Mythallars are somewhat similar to the elven mythals, and were created to allow Netherese arcanists to easily create permanent magical effects within a localized area. Having seen the mosaic room, Cupric can now say with certainty that the tower involves at least one mythallar.[/spoiler]When the other Follies are done searching the chamber, they join him in staring at the runes. The dreamborne nods once more, with an air of finality, and turns to his companions.OOC: Although the room's atmosphere isn't one of danger, I didn't want to assume that anyone would touch or move the models. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" />- Tuggle's Spot check to notice the glow under the model city: [20]+2=22.- Cupric's Decipher Script check for the runes on the wall: [12]+10=22. There was a circumstance bonus built in as well, for being familiar with the other inscriptions in the tower.- Cupric's Bardic Knowledge check on "Ioulaum," and his Knowledge (arcana) and Knowledge (history) checks on "mythallar" were as follows: BK: [15]+12=27, K(a): [9]=7=16, K(h): [1]+8=9. Results above in the spoiler text.</blockquote>

Verification