With difficulty you tear your eyes away and force yourself to look elsewhere in this unfriendly hall. You see columns rising to the roof, each wound round with creepers and fungi which give off an unwholesome, pallid light. Ahead you see another door, identical to that by which you have entered, and before it there stands a desk on top of a plinth of green stone. A creature sits at the desk, huddled over the open pages of a ledger upon which it is writing with a feathered quill pen. As you draw closer it stops scrawling and places its quill into a nearby pot of ink, fashioned from the crown of a human skull. The creature raises its hairless head and stares at you unblinkingly with its solitary eye.
‘Who seeks an audience with He?' it croaks, hoarsely. 'State your name, brother, and your purpose here.'
You are standing in the antechamber of Arch Druid Cadak's throne hall. To enter the hall itself and, hopefully, discover where the deadly virus is being cultivated, you know that you must first persuade this creature to allow you to pass.
(My options are to say I came from the battlefront with urgent news, I am an agent from the last lands with urgent news, or use Animal Mastery, which I do)
It resists. I roll a number and get a 3, which would normally fail, but I add 3 for Kai-Surge and 2 for having more than 20 EP right now. It defeats my control, but it is dazed, and reaching for a magical item. I choose to use my bow. It dies from the arrow. I search the desk and papers but find nothing but a lever to enter the throne room door. Alright, here we go.
Quote:
You flick the lever and turn to approach the throne room door. There is a faint rumble and the great metallic portal slowly glides open to reveal Arch Druid Cadak's private domain.
The room is little larger than the antechamber, however its furnishings and appointments are lavish in the extreme. Ornately carved furniture, inlayed with gold and precious gems, lines walls hung with priceless tapestries and paintings. At the centre of the chamber stands a great black chair, sculpted to display demonic creatures paying homage to the Cenerese. Glowing orbs hang suspended from the ceiling, bathing the chamber in a multi-hued light which is continually changing in colour and intensity.
Although your eyes and your Kai senses tell you that the chamber is empty, you are reluctant to pass through the door. A stench of pure evil is flooding out from this room, wafting over you like an invisible sea that seeks to soil and corrupt all it touches. Fighting back your nausea, you force yourself to cross the threshold and search the chamber before its owner returns.
Of all the precious items which crowd this room, your eye is attracted to three that seem to stand out from the rest. The first is a large crystal sphere which rests on a table beside the great chair. The second is a tapestry, the largest of them all, which hangs directly opposite the door. And the third is a gold statuette which rests on a shelf to your left.
(I do not have Telegnosis)
You are sorely aware that time is running out. It can not be long before either Cadak returns to his chamber or the Cenerese discover that they have an intruder in their midst. With this thought in mind you set about searching the throne room for clues that could reveal the whereabouts of the lethal plague virus you have come to destroy.
(Which do I search, the globe, the tapestry, or the statue? I choose the statue and find a Gold Key, which I pocket)