12: The Muse Veiled

[Sierra]

<El-Cideon> Our heroes remain engaged in battle with a group of malicious marble statues. One lies in rubble at Eliaphas's feet, two menace Corben, and a fourth is hidden behind a storm summoned by Madeline.
<El-Cideon> OOC: C is up
<Corben> With a mighty roar of defiance, Corben seeks to turn the statues that dare challenge him to scrap!
<Corben> roll 1d20+20 4pa
* Hatbot --> "Corben rolls 1d20+20 4pa and gets 36."12 [1d20=16]
<Corben> roll 1d20+15 4pa
* Hatbot --> "Corben rolls 1d20+15 4pa and gets 29."12 [1d20=14]
<Corben> roll 1d20+10 4pa
* Hatbot --> "Corben rolls 1d20+10 4pa and gets 14."12 [1d20=4]
<El-Cideon> OOC: first two hit
<Corben> roll 1d20+20
* Hatbot --> "Corben rolls 1d20+20 and gets 38."12 [1d20=18]
<El-Cideon> OOC: yep
<Corben> roll 2#2d4+16+8
* Hatbot --> "Corben rolls 2#2d4+16+8 and gets 53."12 [2#2d4+16+8 = 26, 27]
<Corben> roll 2d6 bleed
* Hatbot --> "Corben rolls 2d6 bleed and gets 4."12 [2d6=2, 2]
<Corben> roll 2d4+16+8 normal hit
* Hatbot --> "Corben rolls 2d4+16+8 normal hit and gets 29."12 [2d4=3, 2]
* El-Cideon changes topic to '6Corben: 119/137, Eliaphas: 102/102, Madeline: 66/96(-1wis)|' Corben > scholar statue > Madeline = Eliaphas'
<El-Cideon> roll 1d20+5 acrobatics to not fall down in sleet storm
* Hatbot --> "El-Cideon rolls 1d20+5 acrobatics to not fall down in sleet storm and gets 22."12 [1d20=17]
<El-Cideon> Corben's foes are reduced to chips of stone and stray broken limbs, while the remaining foe carefully tries to maneuver out of Madeline's conjured storm. The robed archer makes it to the edge of the downpour, seemingly too focused to do anything else.
<El-Cideon> OOC: M & E
<Eliaphas> A target appears, and Eliaphas shoots the remaining two bolts in his clip at it!
<Eliaphas> roll 1d20+12
* Hatbot --> "Eliaphas rolls 1d20+12 and gets 29."12 [1d20=17]
<Eliaphas> roll 1d20+7
* Hatbot --> "Eliaphas rolls 1d20+7 and gets 12."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> OOC: first hits
<Eliaphas> roll 1d20+12 crit check
* Hatbot --> "Eliaphas rolls 1d20+12 crit check and gets 17."12 [1d20=5]
<El-Cideon> OOC: denied
<Eliaphas> roll 1d10+1+1d6+1d6
* Hatbot --> "Eliaphas rolls 1d10+1+1d6+1d6 and gets 11."12 [1d10=7][1d6=2][1d6=1]
<Madeline> The statues proved surprisingly nimble, and so Madeline is forced to fire her own volley of lethal arrows towards it's stony form!
<Madeline> roll 1d20+20 msdsrs
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 1d20+20 msdsrs and gets 26."12 [1d20=6]
<Madeline> roll 1d20+20 msdsrs
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 1d20+20 msdsrs and gets 24."12 [1d20=4]
<Madeline> roll 1d20+15
<Madeline> roll 1d20+10
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 1d20+15 and gets 19."12 [1d20=4]
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 1d20+10 and gets 29."12 [1d20=19]
<El-Cideon> OOC: all but the 19 hit
<Madeline> roll 1d8+14+1d6+1d6+1d6
<Madeline> roll 1d8+14+1d6+1d6+1d6
<Madeline> roll 1d8+14+1d6+1d6+1d6
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 1d8+14+1d6+1d6+1d6 and gets 27."12 [1d8=4][1d6=3][1d6=2][1d6=4]
<Madeline> roll 1d8+14+1d6+1d6+1d6
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 1d8+14+1d6+1d6+1d6 and gets 22."12 [1d8=2][1d6=1][1d6=4][1d6=1]
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 1d8+14+1d6+1d6+1d6 and gets 28."12 [1d8=8][1d6=3][1d6=1][1d6=2]
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 1d8+14+1d6+1d6+1d6 and gets 27."12 [1d8=6][1d6=4][1d6=1][1d6=2]
<El-Cideon> The statue's hardy construction resists the damage from Madeline's arrows at first, but there are just too many of them for it to stay together. The final shot strikes its chest and shatters it, the rest of the statue tumbling to the ground thereafter.
<El-Cideon> OOC: free act
* Eliaphas takes a moment to reload his crossbow and cast a few spells to improve his performance, a sad necessity at his age.
<Eliaphas> OOC: Greater Magic Weapon on crossbow/bayonet, heroism on me
<Corben> "If the statues attacked," Corben voices, "then they are protecting something? Something important?"
<Madeline> "The fountain itself, perhaps," posits Madeline, studying it briefly with magical discretion.
<Madeline> "Only the weapons here seem of interest," admits Madeline, glancing from statue to statue and moving to inspect one's bow and another's sword.
<Madeline> roll 2#1d20+18 scraft, bow, sword
* Hatbot --> "Madeline rolls 2#1d20+18 scraft, bow, sword and gets 53."12 [2#1d20+18 = 29, 24]
<Madeline> "Not so useful, though," she replies, straightening up.
<El-Cideon> OOC: incidentally, make a will save, Corben
<Corben> roll 1d20+6 what
* Hatbot --> "Corben rolls 1d20+6 what and gets 24."12 [1d20=18]
<El-Cideon> OOC: carry on
<Eliaphas> Deeming everything sufficient now, Eliaphas crosses the plaza to the next clearing, advancing onwards...
<Madeline> Naturally, Madeline trails after him.
* Corben brings up the rear.
<El-Cideon> There is a long pool occupying the majority of this next area, clear, still water filling a white-tiled depression deep enough for one to swim in if so inclined. Columns sculpted in the form of comely men and women hold up an awning over it. The hedgerow rings this clearing as well, a break in the wall far along the eastern side. You can faintly hear music coming from this direction, something like...chimes, or something stringed and plucked.
<El-Cideon> A roof of sorts can just be seen over the top of the hedge in that direction, you see, peaked, wooden, and painted green.
* Eliaphas nods his head towards the sound of the music and hefts his crossbow. "Careful, magic is easy to hide in song," he warns, starting in that direction.
<Madeline> "Should we plug our ears?"
<Eliaphas> "Can do better than that, but stay within twenty feet or it won't work," Eliaphas mutters, casting a spell on himself to silence all sound in the vicinity.
<Corben> Ready though he is to defeat fell magicks with his strength, Corben decides to conserve it and stay to Eliaphas's right.
<Madeline> Madeline's response goes unheard, and she ends up just nodding her head and following along.
* Eliaphas leads the way through the gap in the hedgerow.
<El-Cideon> The stone figures in this plaza turn out to be mercifully inanimate. When you reach the break in the wall, you find a short set of steps leading up into a gazebo, raised just enough for one inside to have a good view of the pool area. There is a woman inside, one you recognize from the gallery--pale skin, an antiquated sort of beauty, hair rippled blue and white as a busy noon sky and floating in its own private breeze. A mantle of mist shrouds her body from sight now, however, allowing just a silhouette. She's busy hammering a melancholy tune on a dulcimer, eyes closed, and seems oblivious to her visitors.
<Eliaphas> The muse... she won't be able to disregard their presence once Eliaphas comes within twenty feet of her, and he elects to do just that rather than shooting her out of hand. Perhaps foolish, but after meeting the Duchess he's willing to extend a slight courtesy on the off chance other inhabitants aren't blasphemously evil.
<El-Cideon> The moment the magical field silences the instrument, the woman's eyes flinch open as if she were slapped. She drops the hammers on the instrument, then quickly stills the strings even though the raucous noise this would normally make can't be heard under present circumstances. She stands up, says something that's lost in the silence.
<Eliaphas> Since she's not immediately attacking, Eliaphas decides it safe enough to risk dropping the silence field - they can attack her before she starts up any magical music, hopefully. "The muse? Or do you have a proper name of your own?" he enquires in his gravelly voice.
<El-Cideon> "Oh, that's better," she says in obvious relief, one hand to her chest. "Please don't do that to me again, it's like falling into a black abyss." Her voice is high and lilting, alive with a tune waiting to spring to life. "My name? The closest approximation would be Brilliant Crystal Blue Sky Canopy...but mortals generally choose one. I'm not bothered which." An apologetic smile. "I find myself in need of new bouncers, I assume?"
<Madeline> "Regrettably. Were they in place to defend against minions of the castle's ruler?"
<El-Cideon> "Mostly Larchmont," she says, wrinkling her nose. "He'd have me live in the theater with the rest of his cronies if he had any say in it. The threat of violence was usually enough to keep him away. My apologies if the statues troubled you--they weren't meant for outsiders. The rest of the denizens here readily ignore me, as I do them."
<Eliaphas> "And the Duke?" Eliaphas asks, wanting to know where she stands on their ultimate target.
<Corben> "Why are you even here?" Corben asks. "Are you a prisoner?"
<El-Cideon> The day's performance apparently at an end, she pauses to stow the instrument in a wooden box which she places under the bench that rings the gazebo's interior, where it has similar company. "Employee and patron would be the more proper relationship," she says when finished. "Originally. I was contracted to Lady Romanja's family for many generations. I came to His Grace's household when they married. Technically I'm in service to him, though one would hardly know it from how rarely I perform for anyone. The Duke himself hasn't stepped out of his tower in centuries...but until I'm formally released from service, I can't leave either."
<Corben> "His wife died a long time ago. If that doesn't release you, what would?"
<El-Cideon> A furtive look around, as if to reassure that there are no unseen listeners. "Someone could always kill him," she says, hastily adding, "not that I would advocate that sort of thing."
<Madeline> "Perhaps we should discuss how such an event might come to pass, not that we would have anything to do with it," replies Madeline, leaning lightly on her bow.
* Eliaphas snorts agreeably.
<El-Cideon> She laughs lightly. It's only a little forced. "Of course not. Armed adventurers visit us all the time for peaceful purposes."
<Madeline> "We are not as easily bested as those who have come before," replies Madeline. "If you can educate us on matters of the castle and the Duke, it would be greatly appreciated. This Larchmont, for instance."
<El-Cideon> Again she looks as though she's bitten into a lemon. "Ernest Larchmont. Like you, an elf," she says, with a nod to Madeline's ears. "Some interest in the dramatic arts drew him into human society. He directed the theater here before things went bad--the Duke's mother and Lady Romanja both were great patrons of the arts--and he still does, despite rarely having an audience. Curious that he's still alive, even an elf should be decrepit by now. He'll snatch a few of the more talented youngsters for his troupe each raid."
<Eliaphas> "His performances tend towards the macabre and grisly, I take it?" Eliaphas asks dourly.
<El-Cideon> "Only when the script calls for it," she says. "He is very serious about every performance being true to life. I've seen some of the actors be so thoroughly drilled on their roles as to lose sight of their identity."
<Madeline> "I confess that I have trouble believing his performances could be true to life in any way..."
<El-Cideon> "He's very dedicated," she says grimly.
<Madeline> "Is he dangerous?"
<Corben> "Does he have any minions who are?" Corben adds to that question.
<El-Cideon> "Only if you've drawn the lead in a tragedy," she says, with utter seriousness. "Or if you try to interfere with his work in any way. He's a practiced sorcerer and the seasoned members of his troupe are more of the same. Most of them are human. He used to have a pair of pixies attending him, but he lost them in a bet some years ago."
<Madeline> "A bet?"
<El-Cideon> "With Kisantha, the librarian. It was some nonsense about swaying someone through the higher passions engaged by the dramatic arts versus...baser impulses. The subject was a woman, so he thought he couldn't lose." She manages a mean little smile at that. "You all must have names, I presume? You've yet to introduce yourselves, you know."
<Madeline> "Madeline," replies Madeline. "Is this Kisantha as unstable a person as Larchmont? To bet on lives..."
<Eliaphas> "Eliaphas Crane, Inquisitor of Norusk," the older man nods his head.
<Corben> "I am Corben," he follows suit with the introductions.
<El-Cideon> "She's the closest thing I've had to a companion here since the painter died. She wants to leave at least as much as I do, so a certain amount of camaraderie is obligatory. That doesn't mean she isn't dangerous. I don't delude myself into thinking she cares about me, we're merely in similar straits. She *might* be of assistance if she thinks you can actually accomplish what you came here to do." A nod towards Eliaphas. "But he wouldn't like it much. She's a demon."
* Eliaphas frowns darkly. "No, I wouldn't... but Duke Varas is my highest concern," he grumbles.
<Madeline> "Speaking of the Duke," adds Madeline. "Where and how can we find him? He is the keystone of the whole castle, in a way. And, of course, he must be the one holding Elswith..."
<El-Cideon> She nods, sits down on the bench with her hands folded in her lap. "Reaching him is your main obstacle. The lord's tower has been locked off for over two hundred years. He grew weary of intruders disturbing him. ...Or of his underlings bringing their squabbling to his quarters, if you ask me. You won't even find the tower--or see it--without one of the tokens he handed out to his principal lieutenants."
<Corben> "Who are they?" Corben asks. "And what do these tokens look like?"
<Eliaphas> "The fallen priest Randolf?" Eliaphas asks hopefully. He seemed important in the Duke's fall, and is already dead!
<El-Cideon> "I wouldn't know what they look like," she says, voice thick with weary bitterness. "He certainly didn't give one to me. I haven't even seen him since he retreated upstairs. ...But there should be four, at least. One for the steward of each wing of the castle. I don't think Randolf had one--I didn't see him going to the tower much. All too happy to keep busy with his bloody ceremonies. So...Captain Vorela downstairs, Bloody Mary over in the guest wing, Maxwell over southside...Curator Bulin had the fourth, but he's been gone for ages. My suspicion is that Larchmont killed him and took it. They never liked each other."
<Corben> "Mary? The jailer?"
<El-Cideon> She shakes her head. This doesn't seem to have any effect on the willful meanderings of her hair. "No, the jailer's usually one of Maxwell's cronies. Mary...she was the Duke's surgeon back during the war. Among other things. Enemy commanders had a nasty habit of dying in their sleep on the eve of battles. Afterwards, she minded the castle's guest wing and infirmary. She's a ghost now, brimming with vengeful spite. All she cares about is slaughtering Brislovians."
<Madeline> Madeline manages a dry laugh. "So our guess was wrong," she manages. "What powers does she have, as a ghost?"
<El-Cideon> "I couldn't properly say. I avoid the eastern corridors. Truth be told, I rarely leave the grotto at all. Kisantha keeps better track of the others than I do--she's a natural schemer. All I know from hearsay is that Mary's kills tend to live on as spirits chained to her halls."
<El-Cideon> "Oh," she adds, as if forgetting something. "Lady Stanja's like to have one of these keys as well, but I wouldn't expect to see her outside the tower. Dedicated to guarding her father from outsiders, she says." The muse doesn't sound entirely convinced by this. "But if you can coax her out somehow, there's one more for you. I think there's some trick to them that you'll need one for each of you if you want to get in or out of the tower."
<Eliaphas> "What about Maxwell?" Eliaphas asks, glancing back the way they came. Since they've already covered much of the South wing.
<Corben> "What of the Duke's dead wife?" Corben asks at the same time. "Of what value is she to the Duke or his daughter?"
<El-Cideon> "Maxwell Argot," she says, suppressing a shiver. "Wizard. Him and his apprentice marched in here with a squadron of wooden soldiers some centuries past, demanded an audience and melted down guardsmen until they got it. I don't know what he said to the Duke, but ever since he's spent more time in the tower than any of the others--His Grace took away the harpy's key and handed it over to him. They weren't happy about that but, well, they rarely are. Most of the monsters you'll see walking the halls are Maxwell's work--the breathing ones, at least. He prefers living servants. I can never decide whether this is a mark for or against him." She shakes her head.
<El-Cideon> "The Lady Romanja..." Her eyes go wide. "Wait, you know of her? Have you seen her?" She rises again, looking fearfully to the shadows as though expecting ambush by some dread phantasm.
<Eliaphas> "We've encountered two incarnations, one inside the enchanted painting in the gallery, and her reanimated shell up in the clocktower," Eliaphas confirms.
<El-Cideon> "She's still in the clock tower, isn't she?" she says with a tremble in her voice. "You didn't...disturb her, did you?"
<El-Cideon> "Wait--" she remembers something else. "You went into the *gallery*?"
<Corben> "Yes. Why is that a bad thing?"
<Eliaphas> "We were forced to kill her maids... as far as disturbing goes, we did notice an ominous feeling when we pressed her on certain subjects of her nature, and chose to relent."
<Madeline> "As for the gallery, we did indeed. It seems escape from the portraits is possible- a fact perhaps unknown to all others who vanished within."
<El-Cideon> "Which one? Oh both of them." She runs a hand through her hair, lets out a suppressed breath. "The gallery's been ignored since a few of Larchmont's gang disappeared in there. The talk is that the paintings grew...hungry, since Ewan died. Maybe it's not so bad as we thought, but...we don't like to take chances here." A rueful smile. "There is no problem in Mistvalken that the residents can't solve by pretending it's not there."
<Madeline> "If only Mistvalken itself could be solved in such a manner."
<El-Cideon> "Lady Romanja, now..." She looks at Eliaphas. "It's a mercy you didn't press her further, then."
<Corben> "What happens if you do?"
<Eliaphas> "What would have happened if we had?" he asks, curious.
<El-Cideon> She hesitates. Her fingers flutter, clasp together as she searches for words. "The Duke tried to call her spirit back, in the early days just after the castle slipped into its own little world. He got something else." She winces at the memory. "Most mages will agree there are other worlds beyond our own, no? There are spaces in between them, unformed things that live there, they--well, by the time it was suppressed, Mary was dead and most of the rest were near it. His Grace couldn't bear to destroy the shell that wore his wife's face, so he shut it up in the tower." With force and a voice filled with fear: "Do NOT, under any circumstances, wake it up."
<Madeline> "Her unconscious power felt vast indeed," murmurs Madeline. "It is not something we could best, no."
<Eliaphas> While Eliaphas briefly contemplates her value as a weapon of last resort, he discards it quickly - even if capable of murdering much of the castle, it clearly was still no match for the Duke, and thus wouldn't help. "No good can come of it," he agrees gravely.
<Corben> "And if the shell is killed without being awakened?"
<El-Cideon> "Please don't even think about performing experiments on her," she says to Corben with wide eyes. "Just leave her be."
* Corben isn't sure something like that can be left behind in the event they kill the Duke and release the prisoners, but it is something that can wait until their goals are met, at least.
<Eliaphas> "What about the Duke and his daughter? Since ultimately we will have to confront them, what can you say of their abilities?" Eliaphas changes the subject.
<El-Cideon> She sighs, wanders to the gazebo door to look out over the still waters. "Duke Varas is a sorcerer of supreme potency, but I've seen naught of him since he hid himself away in the tower. His 'gift' of unlife he passed on to Father Randolf. Go meet him if you want a taste of what that brings with it, though I don't envy you the meeting. His daughter..." A brief, cynical laugh. "If such she is, she's not Romanja's child, I know that much. A queer creature, somewhere between death and life--it took her a century to grow to adulthood. Look for an ugly woman in armor, there aren't too many of those around. She has none of His Grace's talents, trained under Captain Vorela instead. She spends most of her time up in the tower though, one presumes playing with her pets."
<Corben> Yet more of the undead. That creature will be cleansed along with her father, Corben vows!
<Eliaphas> "Randolf has already passed to Norusk's judgement," Eliaphas takes some small pleasure in stating.
<El-Cideon> A vindictive smile. "A promising start. Perhaps you have it in you to end this after all."
<El-Cideon> ----------------------