20210525 - Run 9

The party has decided to go up the stairs, away from the mushroom smell. The stairs are ornate and covered in lush carpeting; we go up a level and D.va immediately starts rolling around on the carpet on the next floor. Light streams in the windows. D.va gets up and moves to the windows, starts to go after the tassels on the drapes, and is interrupted by some throat clearing and someone saying “Welcome” with the subtext of “Why the fuck are you about to claw up the drapes”.

The speaker is a Tabaxi with a beautiful collar and nice clothes, who says “Welcome to the guest house. I’m afraid that our other staff is not currently available, but…” Upon questioning, the tabaxi says his name is Kartho.

Kartho seems like a stuck-up butler; we talk, he starts extracting information from us without us getting much from him so I try to get the paladin and warlock upstairs. Kartho summons a pair of other servants(?), a human-shaped construct and a halfling-shaped construct. Kartho tries to set up rooms for us, but is terribly sorry but doesn’t have food for us so we need to use our own rations; he then asks us for news about the wizard Felginor, which is a bit fucked up, but Chad says we’re here to see how the wizard is doing. He manages to fool Kartho into thinking we’re here to just look in on Archtilaeus, and Kartho practically sags in relief.

At some point we find out that Kartho doesn’t age, and he finds out that we *do* and calls us ‘barbarians’. Relations get better, we keep talking, and at some point Kartho apologizes for his manners and says that our rooms are ready but if we want there’s also a “sitting room”, and gestures at a door that we didn’t notice before. 

We go into the sitting room and keep talking. Kartho is interested in the alarm; I manage to put his mind at ease and he doesn’t blame us for it, somehow. I ask about the little soldiers in the throne room and we discover that we basically cast Shatter on Felginor’s minis. D.va and Kartho then talk for quite some time about various things - the state of the world outside the towers, and so on.

At some point, Kartho says “…. So, it’s all gone, is it?” “Yes.” “and the wizard?” “We’ll help him if we can.” He and D.va have a bit of a moment, and then, choked up, he says “Well. If there is anything that would make your stay more enjoyable, please let us know.” “We’ll try not to trouble you.” Kartho gets a bit of a desperate look, which is quickly suppressed, and replies “No, this is why we are here. If you need anything at all, you need only ring the bell.” A handbell we had not quite noticed before, metal and crystal, becomes apparent. It’s very clearly extremely expensive, just resting there on the side table.

D.va asks about a library that guests may use. “It is generally customary for guests who require the library to visit with the Great Wizard, but without his invitation that would be difficult.” He seems like he’s going to try to get us in somehow. Caleb starts looking at the coffee table books in the sitting room.

[went to get food] D.va notices silver collars on the other servants as well and casts Detect Magic on them; detects Enchantment.

Caleb asks Kartho for some books in Fala after seeing some of the coffee table books written in Fala. 

The space above the main tower - the main logistics hiub, apparently the black hole in the middle is an elevator - is Felginor’s alchemy lab. There’s an observatory on top of Felginor’s ‘private tower’. 

Five towers

- Private tower

- Central logistics tower

- This guest tower

- Other guest tower/audience chamber

- Tower which is primarily devoted to arcane workings / rituals / large scale magic / “big bad mojo”

The wizard’s library is in the wizard’s personal tower, along with the wizard’s quarters.

Central logistics has supply rooms, kitchens, servants quarters, and alchemy lab on top.

This guest tower has the wizard’s botanical gardens, herb gardens, grow operation - all downstairs, and also nice public spaces and guest quarters. (Grow operation is down with the mushrooms.) Has a roof patio - think Seaport condo “roof deck” on a green roof.

Audience tower has a garden on top.

Ritual tower has rando ritual shit. Big Magic. “Is its own security system.”

We learn that the alchemy lab can be accessed by a specific door in the central logistics hub. After a long rest, we send Nyla and Caleb in to try to break into it (it has an arcane lock on it, we think) Actually we all go in; I manage to handle it this time and I use a little bit of secret arts acupuncture to get D.va and Caleb to be able to handle the nausea.

Caleb takes about 45 minutes of hammering on the door with D.va’s pickaxe, and finally breaks a hole in the door, along with a bunch of the blue smoke caused by the breaking of a spell. D.va sends a mage hand through the door to open the door, and the door is now open - and doesn’t really close cleanly anymore, as it turns out. It’s still smoking and crackling a bit.

We see a set of stairs going up to the presumed alchemy lab, and have finally gained some access to it.