Mystery of Saromen Fro

The young mage's eyes are drawn to the top edge of the tower almost immediately, as he can see wisps of green light swirling lazily in the air around the high balcony - almost like colored smoke that is weaving in and out of itself.

As he clears his mind and unlocks his augmented sight, he can see the rifts and sharp edges sliding and colliding against one another. Shifting his senses to the planes and frequencies that are most often undetectable, he can feel the crackling tension even here at this distance. The distortion aura must be potent indeed there at the tower.

The gravity of this situation begins to take hold of Damanandros. He can already tell that whatever arcana is in that tower is more powerful than any other magic he has ever encountered before.

SURPRISE AND SNEAKING
Sometimes an encounter occurs when characters are attempting
to sneak up on, or get past, monsters without being detected.
The Judge can resolve these situations through the interplay
of surprise rolls and hearing noises throws with varying risk
depending on how alert the monsters are.
If the monsters are actively watching an area, any characters
attempting to sneak through the area will be detected
automatically. Most monsters cannot sustain this level of
alertness for more than a turn and will lapse into passive
watching (see below). However, constructs and undead are
always considered actively alert.
If the monsters are passively watching an area, but aren’t in a
state of high alertness, the Judge should make a surprise roll
when the characters attempt to sneak past or up on them. If the
monsters are surprised (normally on a roll of 1-2 on 1d6), the
characters can move for one round without being detected. If the
opponents are ready, then the sneaking characters are detected.
If the monsters are distracted (e.g. by conversation with friends
or a loud noise elsewhere) or otherwise not looking, the Judge
should make proficiency throw to see if any of the monsters
hear any noises (normally an 18+ on 1d20). If all of the monsters
fail this throw, then the sneaking characters can move for one
round without being detected. If at least one monster succeeds
on this throw, it hears something which gets its attention. But that
doesn’t mean the sneaking characters automatically got caught.
The Judge should now make a surprise roll, as described above.
Under normal circumstances a passive monster can be snuck
up on 33% of the time (2 in 6), while a distracted monster can
be snuck up on 90% of the time (because it has a 15% chance of
hearing something and a 66% chance of detecting the characters
if it hears something). If the monster has the Alertness
proficiency, it will be surprised only on a 1 in 6, and will gain a
+4 to Hear Noise. The Alertness proficiency therefore reduces
the chance of sneaking up on a passively watching monster
down to 16%, and of sneaking up on a distracted monster to 75%
(because it has a 30% chance of hearing something and an 84%
chance of detecting the characters if it hears something).
If the monsters are watching an area that is dimly lit or otherwise
offers some concealment, a thief (or similar class) may attempt
to hide in shadows. If the thief is successful, the monsters don’t
see the thief – they are effectively distracted, as above. The thief
will be detected only if the monsters hear him make noise. If
the thief successfully moves silently, he cannot be heard. Thus a
thief sneaking through a dimly lit area can get past virtually any
monster if he successfully moves silently and hides in shadows.