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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2266257" data-attributes="member: 5808">At last!Part the One-Hundred EighteenthIn which: a fifth-level party explores their first constructed dungeon.  Oh, the memories!Casting detect magic again (as she is nothing if not an unending source of detect magic), Lira finds no particular auras associated with the constructed man, but she does notice a lingering one in all of the walls.“What do you think it could be?” Eva asks.“Probably part of whatever he does to move the tower.”Thatch meanwhile finds a door at the back of the dining room, and—with some caution—opens it.  He discovers an empty kitchen, with a half-prepared meal on a large wooden table in the center of the room.  A large stone hearth takes up most of one exterior wall where a fire is made-up and ready to be lit.The first rush of exploration over, the party takes the time to note four holy symbols—one for each of the four gods—hanging in the foyer, along with a large oil portrait of a scowling man with dark hair and a black goatee. “Do you think that could be Petros?”  Annika asks.Kiara frowns.  “He doesn’t look very friendly.”“Friendliness,” Anvil reminds her, “is not required.  Merely rectitude.”Kiara looks at him blankly.  “Huh?”“Hey guys!” Thatch calls.  “Over here!”Thatch has ventured behind the main staircase and discovered a door tucked back on the left side.  He is obviously quite pleased with himself.  “I thought the sitting room looked a little short.”The door shows signs of damage, but opens easily when Thatch turns the knob. Beyond, a wooden staircase descends into the darkness.“Well,” says Eva, “that’s odd.”“I would have said ‘staircase,’ but we can call it ‘odd’ if you want to,” Lira offers, ever the diplomat.  Eva gives her friend a withering look.Reyu clears her throat.  “I believe Eva is referring to the fact that it would seem impossible for a moving tower which we entered at ground level to have a basement.”“Oh,” says Thatch.  “That.”Lira does not seem disturbed by the revelation.  “I point out that we are in a magical moving tower made of stone… and you are bothered by it having a basement?”###Wisely, the party decides to take some rudimentary precautions before tromping down the steps into a wizard’s basement without an escort.  First, Lira casts message so that the party members descending the stairs can easily communicate with those still above.Anvil casts light on his staff.  In the bright, cool glow the party can see that the stairs are coated in a thick level of dust, with no tracks leading up or down.  Thatch hefts his sword.  “Let’s go.”Thatch descends.  Followed by Anvil.  Followed by Eva.  Benedic stands at the top of the steps as a message relay between the three of them and the rest of the party who are waiting in the foyer near the main doors.(Note: Yes, we really sent our rogue down the stairs third.  Some parties detect traps by searching for them.  We take an alternate method.)The steps descend straight down before curving away to the left when they reach the back wall.  Thatch has just reached the turn when he puts his weight down on a step that goes >click<. “Umm…”  Bolts of electricity are suddenly shooting up and down the stairs.  Eva manages to dodge the worst of them, but Anvil and Thatch are not so lucky.  Fortunately, although they are a bit singed by the experience, neither is grievously wounded.  They pause on the steps while Anvil heals Thatch and himself.  He also lights a candle, and drips a small pile of wax on the offending step so that they can avoid treading on it again.As he bends to drip the wax on the step, Anvil notices it, and several others, have mounds of dust that do not look like the result of natural accumulation.  He files this observation away with the not-alive man in the dining room, the basement, and other things to ask Petros about when they eventually locate him.At last, they are ready to begin their descent again.  Turning the corner, Thatch finds that the basement itself is pitch black.  Fortunately there is enough light from Anvil’s staff that he can see the last few steps in front of him.  Cautiously, he descends the last three, and, with a small sigh of relief that no more electrical bolts seem to be forthcoming, puts a foot down on the flagstone floor.The instant he does so, Thatch feels a sudden >whoosh< of energy rush past him.  It almost feels like it does standing next to Anvil when he’s turning undead.  For not the first time, Thatch is happy that he is not undead.  Happily, none of the party members are either, and so they are unaffected by this countermeasure.Thatch immediately makes his way over to a door that stands ajar on the other side of the room.  By the time the rest of the party has made the descent (without triggering the trapped step again), he is already emerging. “It looks like some kind of study,” he reports.“We should probably be careful before we just go around just opening up doors,” Eva suggests.  “You know, in case there are more traps or something.”Thatch ducks his head.  “Oh.  Yeah.”Anvil takes the opportunity to look around.  The stairs let out into a large open space with four closed doors leading—presumably—to other rooms.  The walls here are bare gray stone, adorned only by a large mirror that hangs on one wall.  Curious, Anvil walks towards it, wondering if it perhaps conceals a safe or secret panel behind.  At several steps away he catches sight of his reflection in the glass.  He suddenly feels something reach out and grab him, and then… nothing.###Eva is startled by the sudden >whoosh< filling the basement room, followed by a loud clanging clatter.  She whirls, just as Annika, standing nearby, gasps.  “Don’t look at the mirror!  Something tried to grab me!”Eva feels no urge to look at the mirror.  She’s too busy staring at the pile of Anvil’s clothes and equipment lying on the floor in front of it.</blockquote>

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