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Message: <blockquote data-quote="spyscribe" data-source="post: 2317763" data-attributes="member: 5808">Part the One-Hundred Twenty-FourthIn which: any lingering hopes for Thatch’s efficacy as a rogue are well and truly put to rest.The next morning, the party cautiously ascends the main staircase to explore the upper levels of the tower.  On the second floor they find six doors arrayed around a “U” shaped mezzanine overlooking the stairs.  In one corner, a spiral staircase leads upwards to a closed trap-door.The party decides to start on the opposite side from the trap-door and work their way around.  Moving slowly and checking for anything that might be magical along the way, the party discovers a water-closet followed by three empty bedrooms.Behind the fifth door, they find a corpse lying on a bed.The figure is a human man, probably in his thirties.  He wears black plate mail adorned with a holy symbol that identifies him as a Guardian of the Barrier, and he holds a sword which radiates slight conjuration magic.  The body has obviously been laid to rest by someone, with care taken to fold his hands over the hilt of his sword.  He appears to have been dead for some months.  He also does not especially resemble the man in the portrait downstairs.Anvil goes down to the basement to bring Gemil to see the corpse and find out if he knows who this person might be.“Ah ha!”  Gemil says, cackling slightly when he sees the corpse.  “Sir Cyrus Immodan.”“Who is this Sir Cyrus?” Anvil demands of the skull.“He has long been a companion of Petros.  Seems to have a way with dispatching undead with that sword of his.”  Gemil glances around as best as he is able.  “I’m surprised you haven’t run into Appius anywhere around here, now that I think of it.”“Who is Appius?”“The butler.”“Big guy?” Thatch asks, holding a hand above his head to demonstrate.  “Big fists?”“That would be him.”“We killed him.”“Oh… I doubt that.”Eva quickly looks behind her.  “Why’s that?”“In order for you to kill him, he would have had to have been alive first.”Anvil gives Gemil a hard stare.  “If you are going to be snide, you can go back to the basement.”Gemil sighs.  “Very well.”  But he refrains from further comment.The party checks the last door which is another empty bedroom, and then heads for the spiral staircase leading to the next level.Thatch goes first, getting about halfway up before…(Yes!  It’s our patented trap-detection system once again!)An ear-splitting alarm sounds, followed almost in the same instant by a web enveloping the entire staircase.“It’s okay!  Thatch shouts over the noise.  “I’m not stuck, just--- What the heck was that?!?”The “that” in question is a tiny green pellet-like object that comes shooting down from above and >splats< into a chink in Thatch’s armor where the arm piece meets shoulder.Thatch shakes his arm, trying to dislodge it.  Whatever has hit him burns like acid.Forget this, Thatch thinks to himself, and with a mighty wrench to one side manages to throw himself over the stairs’ railing and out of the web.  He lands with an audible >thump< and immediately rips off his armor and starts dousing himself with the decanter of endless water.“Oh!” says Amelia excitedly, “an acid arrow!  That’s a very popular spell at the academy,” she adds.“Yeah,” replies Thatch, shoulder still smarting, “it’s just great.”Eventually, the burning sensation in his shoulder fades, and Anvil is able to restore the young fighter to full health.Reyu lights the web on fire, clearing the staircase once again, and the party stops to consider their next move.“Well,” Eva suggests, “maybe I should check and see if there are any more traps.  You know, for starters.”Thatch agrees that this is an excellent plan.The group waits while Eva makes a through inspection, but she eventually concludes that Thatch has found every trap there is to find on this particular set of stairs.  The trap door, however, is stuck fast.Thatch climbs up again, carefully avoiding the trapped step this time, and pounds on the door, both with his hand and his sword hilt.“It’s not moving at all,” he reports.“Could be arcane locked,” Lira suggests.“What do we do about it?”“Well,” Lira thinks back to what she knows about the spell.  “At the Mages’ Academy, it’s the same spell they were using to keep the students in the North Dormitory.  So, you can get through it by just breaking the door into pieces.”“Or,” Annika puts in.  “I could cast knock.” She shrugs.  “It seemed like it might be useful today.”“Oh, well, I guess that would be the other option then.”That is the option that the party decides to employ, and so Annika climbs up beside Thatch, and knocks open the door.Thatch then pushes the door up and open, but he does allow Eva to poke her head up through the opening first.Eva climbs up to the next floor, and a few minutes later calls down with the all-clear.###The top level is divided into two rooms, joined by an open doorway and a large stone hearth.  One room is taken up almost completely by a large bed.  The other is lined on all sides—except for the wall taken up by the doorway and hearth—by bookshelves.  In the center of this room is a large desk, and on it a leather journal, still open to its last entry—dated a little more than two months prior.But most interesting is an object on one of the shelves: A large gem that pulses with an inner, greenish, light.  Under Lira’s detect magic, it radiates necromancy.When Gemil sees it, he lets out a gleeful cackle.  “Ah ha!” he crows.  “I suspect Petros took a page from my book.”</blockquote>

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