As the final reflection shatters into pieces, the shells around Requine and Adrian burst open. Every piece of glass scattered about the room swarms towards the walls, resembling a dozen streams each flowing rapidly into the mirrors that surround the room. After a few seconds, they are all gone, the bright blue lights dim, and the room is much the same as when they entered it.
A recess in the wall on the opposite side from which you entered caves inward and forms an open doorway. The door from which you entered remains sealed. On the other side of the open doorway, you can glimpse a well-lit room, and a number of mirrors standing on daises.
Everyone gains 100 XP! You all can have a short rest and use healing surges and what not.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Pieter takes a moment to clean his blade and checks it for burrs while watching the others before sheathing it. "More mirrors in the next room. Wizards have all of that magical power at their hands but never seem to have any taste." He sniffs disdainfully.
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ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
You're able to get a very good view of the room just by peering inside. The room is illuminated by glowing stones fixed into the walls. At the Northwest corner of the room there's a pedestal on which a white orb sits at about waist-height. At the Southeast corner there is another orb, this one black. There are six mirrors sitting on low daises, only a foot or so off the ground. It appears that the daises are notched, and sit on a mechanism that can be rotated. You figure this mechanism allows the mirrors to be orientated so that they can point in any direction. The mirrors are all double-sided, reflective on the front and the back. As you look at them you notice that they seem almost impossibly clear. In fact, you can't even see the plane of the glass, they look almost like they are doorways opening into other rooms.
Cursory glances also confirm that there don't seem to be any sort of traps. It looks safe to enter.
You dwell on the mirrors and the construction of the temple. It appears as though you are sort of traversing the challenges of this place backwards. You started inside a room which held some sort of wondrous artifact, and are going back out of the door. It's strange, almost like all the challenges on the way in had been reset. Perhaps someone had intended to trap you in there.
If you had to guess, you'd think that with all the mirrors and the talking statues and the twisted reflections, that this was some sort of temple honoring Self Knowledge. It wasn't something you knew a whole lot about, but it did sound like something a bunch of stuffy pedantic wizards would do.
It is pretty clear that the mirrors and orbs present some sort of puzzle. You'll have to orient the mirrors correctly in some relation to the orbs, but first you ought to figure out what the orbs do. And the mirrors.
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LudiousI just wanted a sandwich A temporally dislocated QuiznosRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Ludious steps into the room and peers into a mirror. "The last set of reflections weren't our own. I don't trust these wizard's tricks. They meddle too much in godless magics. Wielding powers that weren't divinely given."
You peer into the mirror and at the reflection of yourself. It is incredibly clear and life-like. It is recognizably yourself, you do not feel the unease of staring at another being masquerading as you. Only the unease of looking directly at yourself, as though you are having an out of body experience. You can see every detail as distinctly as though there were no mirror there at all. In fact, as you edge closer, you imagine you can almost feel your reflection exhaling.
Arian
You closely examine the white orb. As you peer into it you notice that it is not entirely opaque, but a swirl of slightly translucent cream glass and pearly substance. You feel welcome towards it, and the nearer you get to it the more you feel the presence of Kord's power passively surging through you. You are compelled to touch it. With just the lightest tap of your finger you feel a divine energy surge through your body. From the tip of your left finger, across your shoulders and chest, and down your right arm and out to the tips of your fingers, you feel the power flow in one continuous stream. A creamy aura climbs along your body along with it. When you let go, it's gone.
Adrian flicks a a piece of mirror from his armor and peers into the next room. His insects gravitate towards the two orbs and begin to flit around them curiously.
"Hrm. I suppose we need to combine the two lights to move onwards. But wouldn't that just open the door that I'm standing in?"
Adrian grabs a hold of the frame of the mirror. He notes as he pushes that it is large enough for most regular sized humanoids to see their entire bodies. With a little effort, the mirror clicks out of the groove it was in and slides 90 degrees. It clicks into place and does not move.
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LudiousI just wanted a sandwich A temporally dislocated QuiznosRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
I am staring at the mirror on B3. Approaching from B2
Ludious continues to stare in the mirror, in awe of the realness of the reflection. He places one clawed hand in front of him and attempts to step through the mirror.
You experience a very novel sensation as you step into the mirror and through yourself. When you have passed all the way through, you emerge back where you were standing, but facing the opposite direction.
You test the mirror. If you simply attempt to stick your hand through, you can reach through the mirror and back out again, half of your forearm juts right back out at the point where you would've contacted the mirror, facing the entire opposite direction. It looks like it would be incredibly painful, but you feel nothing strange. You attempt it at an impossible angle, and it seems that you simply pass through yourself and the equipment that you're carrying.
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ChanusHarbinger of the Spicy Rooster ApocalypseThe Flames of a Thousand Collapsed StarsRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Watching Ludious, Arian has a bit of an idea:
"I felt a surge of energy when I grasped the white orb. If we are able to angle the mirrors correctly, perhaps one could touch both orbs at once and make a connection."
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Allegedly a voice of reason.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Pieter examines the white orb, seeing if it's a light source or merely white.
You see that the orb is not the source of any light, nor does it seem like it is translucent enough for light to be shone through it. It strikes you as incredibly silly that you would have to check to see if something was a light source. That should be incredibly obvious and you would've clearly noticed it in the initial description of the room.
As you begin to approach the orb you feel a sense of foreboding. It is not strong, but you are fulfilled with unease regardless. The orb is a uniform pure black color. You reach out and touch it. You are filled with a feeling of dread as cold, dark energy passes from the fingertips of one hand, through your body, to the fingertips of the other. Memories of your most horrible experiences and darkest moments tease at the edge of your mind. You let go and the sensation ceases.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Pieter goes to the mirrors and begins fiddling with them, turning them this way and that way.
Rotate B1 45 degrees counter clockwise, rotate B3 45 degrees clockwise and rotate E3 and 5 the same way.
You shift the mirrors into place without incident. Now the white sphere can be clearly seen through the mirrors from the position of the black sphere, and vice versa. You can suddenly sense a new sort of impalpable magnetism between each of the orbs and the mirrors they sit next to.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Pieter slides to stay away from the line of sight of the mirrors and the walls.
Solleb grumbles under his breath, something about damn wizards and minding their own business.
He then grabs the black orb in his left hand, and pushes his right hand through the mirror towards the white orb, stretching to place his hand on top of it.
As his hand reaches through the mirror closest to him it emerges from the mirror on the other side of the room, as though his body had made the journey that light would take through the reflective surfaces. His short dwarven arm-span is just long enough to reach across and touch both orbs at once.
The sensation is immediate, and incredible. Energy flows from both sides, from his right it side it is a dark, malignant energy, and from his left a gentle, warm power. His mind is thrown into chaos, as strong memories churn in his head. He relives moments from his youth, both of great joy and great sorrow. He relives the greatest pain he has ever felt and the greatest sorrow he has ever felt. But among all these memories he recognizes there is one he does not. He recalls slinking through a dark corridor, his amorphous, slime-covered body inching along cold stone. He feels excited, and hungry. So hungry, but not for flesh. It disturbs him that this memory, among all the others, feels the most unrecognizable, and yet the most real.
His attention is quickly diverted, however, as he feels the various sensations and memories in his head vortex, mixing and churning together. Eventually he comes to a moment of calm. It is an extremely serene moment, the kind that a dwarf like Solleb does not come across often. He feels a sort of acceptance of his past memories that he never has before.
After a moment, he removes his hands from the orbs. The doors on either side of the room slide open. When Solleb peers down at his gloves, he realizes that they've been changed fundamentally. Imbued with some sort of magical power.
Solleb receives Gloves of Piercing!
Gloves of Piercing Level 3
These enchanted gloves can be activated to ignore an opponent’s
resistances for a short time.
Item Slot: Hands 680 gp
Power (Daily): Minor Action. Until the end of the encounter,
your attacks ignore any resistance of 10 or lower.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
edited July 2010
Pieter peaks into the next room.
Perception: 1d20+613 And apparently I can't make a perception check to save my life.
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LudiousI just wanted a sandwich A temporally dislocated QuiznosRegistered Userregular
edited July 2010
Ludious stands beside Pieter and peers in as well, leveling his reptilian gaze across the next room.
You see a much larger chamber. It is well lit, like the room you are standing in, with glowing stones set into the walls. In the center of the nearest portion of the room is a large pool of reflective metallic liquid surrounded by four pillars. It bubbles gently. Throughout the room are over a dozen humanoid-sized mirrors sitting on low daises, exactly like the ones in the previous room. There are a few narrow corridors, on the other side of which is a large, sealed door.
Or, at least, it's sealed for know. The visitors that Adrian heard coming seem to have arrived. There is loud pounding coming from behind the door. From the sounds of their muffled draconic squealing, it sounds to be a group of kobolds. You can not tell how large.
You realize you have a number minutes before the kobolds break into the room. Just enough time to prepare and position yourselves, and set the mirrors in the ideal orientation.
Map:
Worth noting when combat comes: you can orient a mirror you're standing next to as a minor action.
The insects bravely sacrifice themselves, as the liquid bubbles up around them, coats them in reflective material, and then drags them under the surface.
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ThomamelasOnly one man can kill this many Russians. Bring his guitar to me! Registered Userregular
Pieter disappears. In the mirrors (B5 and B13), anyone who looks can see what appears to be a brownish, tanish blur.
Meanwhile, Pieter feels himself rushing through a blurry tunnel, though he is no longer moving his feet. The effect is incredibly disorienting, but he has a difficult time moving, and he can't seem to find anyway to make himself stop.
Posts
Correct?
PSN: Corbius
EDIT:
A recess in the wall on the opposite side from which you entered caves inward and forms an open doorway. The door from which you entered remains sealed. On the other side of the open doorway, you can glimpse a well-lit room, and a number of mirrors standing on daises.
"Aye. What is with wizards and mirrors? Who votes we just smash em all as soon as possible?"
PSN: Corbius
You're able to get a very good view of the room just by peering inside. The room is illuminated by glowing stones fixed into the walls. At the Northwest corner of the room there's a pedestal on which a white orb sits at about waist-height. At the Southeast corner there is another orb, this one black. There are six mirrors sitting on low daises, only a foot or so off the ground. It appears that the daises are notched, and sit on a mechanism that can be rotated. You figure this mechanism allows the mirrors to be orientated so that they can point in any direction. The mirrors are all double-sided, reflective on the front and the back. As you look at them you notice that they seem almost impossibly clear. In fact, you can't even see the plane of the glass, they look almost like they are doorways opening into other rooms.
Cursory glances also confirm that there don't seem to be any sort of traps. It looks safe to enter.
EDIT: Fixed for accuracy.
You dwell on the mirrors and the construction of the temple. It appears as though you are sort of traversing the challenges of this place backwards. You started inside a room which held some sort of wondrous artifact, and are going back out of the door. It's strange, almost like all the challenges on the way in had been reset. Perhaps someone had intended to trap you in there.
If you had to guess, you'd think that with all the mirrors and the talking statues and the twisted reflections, that this was some sort of temple honoring Self Knowledge. It wasn't something you knew a whole lot about, but it did sound like something a bunch of stuffy pedantic wizards would do.
It is pretty clear that the mirrors and orbs present some sort of puzzle. You'll have to orient the mirrors correctly in some relation to the orbs, but first you ought to figure out what the orbs do. And the mirrors.
Insight against reflection: 1d20+7 15
"Bah. Wizards and their tricks. I have a mind to take my axe to this whole blasted setup."
"Let me tell you the first rule of dungeons: Axes solve anything."
PSN: Corbius
PSN: Corbius
You peer into the mirror and at the reflection of yourself. It is incredibly clear and life-like. It is recognizably yourself, you do not feel the unease of staring at another being masquerading as you. Only the unease of looking directly at yourself, as though you are having an out of body experience. You can see every detail as distinctly as though there were no mirror there at all. In fact, as you edge closer, you imagine you can almost feel your reflection exhaling.
Arian
You closely examine the white orb. As you peer into it you notice that it is not entirely opaque, but a swirl of slightly translucent cream glass and pearly substance. You feel welcome towards it, and the nearer you get to it the more you feel the presence of Kord's power passively surging through you. You are compelled to touch it. With just the lightest tap of your finger you feel a divine energy surge through your body. From the tip of your left finger, across your shoulders and chest, and down your right arm and out to the tips of your fingers, you feel the power flow in one continuous stream. A creamy aura climbs along your body along with it. When you let go, it's gone.
"Hrm. I suppose we need to combine the two lights to move onwards. But wouldn't that just open the door that I'm standing in?"
He trails off and clears his throat loudly.
"I'm going to fiddle with this mirror over here, see what happens."
Adrian crosses the room and begins to turn a mirror, his swarm latching on to the pedestal and seemingly helping to push.
Adrian grabs a hold of the frame of the mirror. He notes as he pushes that it is large enough for most regular sized humanoids to see their entire bodies. With a little effort, the mirror clicks out of the groove it was in and slides 90 degrees. It clicks into place and does not move.
Ludious continues to stare in the mirror, in awe of the realness of the reflection. He places one clawed hand in front of him and attempts to step through the mirror.
You experience a very novel sensation as you step into the mirror and through yourself. When you have passed all the way through, you emerge back where you were standing, but facing the opposite direction.
You test the mirror. If you simply attempt to stick your hand through, you can reach through the mirror and back out again, half of your forearm juts right back out at the point where you would've contacted the mirror, facing the entire opposite direction. It looks like it would be incredibly painful, but you feel nothing strange. You attempt it at an impossible angle, and it seems that you simply pass through yourself and the equipment that you're carrying.
"I felt a surge of energy when I grasped the white orb. If we are able to angle the mirrors correctly, perhaps one could touch both orbs at once and make a connection."
You see that the orb is not the source of any light, nor does it seem like it is translucent enough for light to be shone through it. It strikes you as incredibly silly that you would have to check to see if something was a light source. That should be incredibly obvious and you would've clearly noticed it in the initial description of the room.
PSN: Corbius
As you begin to approach the orb you feel a sense of foreboding. It is not strong, but you are fulfilled with unease regardless. The orb is a uniform pure black color. You reach out and touch it. You are filled with a feeling of dread as cold, dark energy passes from the fingertips of one hand, through your body, to the fingertips of the other. Memories of your most horrible experiences and darkest moments tease at the edge of your mind. You let go and the sensation ceases.
You shift the mirrors into place without incident. Now the white sphere can be clearly seen through the mirrors from the position of the black sphere, and vice versa. You can suddenly sense a new sort of impalpable magnetism between each of the orbs and the mirrors they sit next to.
He then grabs the black orb in his left hand, and pushes his right hand through the mirror towards the white orb, stretching to place his hand on top of it.
PSN: Corbius
The sensation is immediate, and incredible. Energy flows from both sides, from his right it side it is a dark, malignant energy, and from his left a gentle, warm power. His mind is thrown into chaos, as strong memories churn in his head. He relives moments from his youth, both of great joy and great sorrow. He relives the greatest pain he has ever felt and the greatest sorrow he has ever felt. But among all these memories he recognizes there is one he does not. He recalls slinking through a dark corridor, his amorphous, slime-covered body inching along cold stone. He feels excited, and hungry. So hungry, but not for flesh. It disturbs him that this memory, among all the others, feels the most unrecognizable, and yet the most real.
His attention is quickly diverted, however, as he feels the various sensations and memories in his head vortex, mixing and churning together. Eventually he comes to a moment of calm. It is an extremely serene moment, the kind that a dwarf like Solleb does not come across often. He feels a sort of acceptance of his past memories that he never has before.
After a moment, he removes his hands from the orbs. The doors on either side of the room slide open. When Solleb peers down at his gloves, he realizes that they've been changed fundamentally. Imbued with some sort of magical power.
Gloves of Piercing Level 3
These enchanted gloves can be activated to ignore an opponent’s
resistances for a short time.
Item Slot: Hands 680 gp
Power (Daily): Minor Action. Until the end of the encounter,
your attacks ignore any resistance of 10 or lower.
Or, at least, it's sealed for know. The visitors that Adrian heard coming seem to have arrived. There is loud pounding coming from behind the door. From the sounds of their muffled draconic squealing, it sounds to be a group of kobolds. You can not tell how large.
You realize you have a number minutes before the kobolds break into the room. Just enough time to prepare and position yourselves, and set the mirrors in the ideal orientation.
Map:
The insects bravely sacrifice themselves, as the liquid bubbles up around them, coats them in reflective material, and then drags them under the surface.
Meanwhile, Pieter feels himself rushing through a blurry tunnel, though he is no longer moving his feet. The effect is incredibly disorienting, but he has a difficult time moving, and he can't seem to find anyway to make himself stop.