The High Street

Adran and Ishi avoided any further damage.
Morik takes 5 fire damage from the cone of steam, but avoids the explosion when he destroyed the second-to-last mephit.

As round three begins, Elowin looses another arrow, striking the mephit for 5 piercing damage!
Ishi trots up and attacks, slicing into the steam monster for another 7 slashing damage!
Despite all this, the lone remaining mephit remains completely focused on Adran, clawing and scrabbling at his pack.

What do the rest of you do?

ROUND THREE, continued

Elysia rushes up and slices the mephit with her rapier for 9 damage.
The mephit explodes in death.



Adran, Elysia, Findal, Ishi, and Morik must succeed on DC10 DEX saves to avoid taking the fire damage.

Morik and Findal each take 5 fire damage. The others manage to dodge it.

The acolytes pick themselves up and dust themselves off. "I'm so sorry!" the older one apologizes. "We were bringing the statue in to the temple to have the curse removed. Thank you so much for taking care of the problem! Please, come inside now, or whenever you need healing. We will be happy to pray for your health whenever you are in the High Street."

The party can avail themselves of this offer of healing now, or return later. The priests of Bealdor might also be able to help with other, more...complicated issues.

Or you can move on; the directions to Tykus' Tower are now quite clear.

A drizzle starts as the party finally arrives at Tykus' Tower, which turns out to be a circular tower rising from the top floor of some row houses: it's a walkup apartment!
"It looks like a tower, doesn't it?" Findal says, "It was Tykus' little joke to call his townhome his little tower."


Findal Dinfizzle Findazzle leads the way up some stone stairs to the imposing front door on the third floor, where the six of you crowd around the little gnome on the narrow landing. Findal raps firmly with the heavy brass knocker in the shape of a dragon with a ring in its mouth, but there is no response. Findal looks sheepishly up at you.
"I guess he's not home." Findal raises his hands placatingly at your looks of irritation/disappointment. "But I'm sure he'll be back soon, and he wouldn't mind if we wait for him!"

The gnome sage tries the door and is both surprised and relieved to find that it opens...

...and then he gasps in surprise!

The apartment is one vast studio room, with what were once pieces of varied luxurious furniture arranged artfully around the room, and the walls were lined with bookcases and cubbies to hold an impressive library. But the huge window overlooking the harbor and the sea has been smashed in, most of the furniture has been flipped, the shelves have been pulled down, there are papers and books strewn everywhere, bits of clockwork devices lay scattered and broken on one side of the bed, a terrarium sits on a shelf on the other side of the bed, and the rain coming in has soaked the rugs and papers near the window. You see all this with a glance. Findal stands, just inside the door, his mouth opening and closing wordlessly, like a fish.

Anyone who wishes to can examine different items in the room, or can look for clues throughout the room by performing an (INT) Investigation check.

Ishi walks through the room, looking at the shambles of the room, peering at the flipped furniture, and examines the glass. It's clear to him that the room was tossed by multiple people, but there's no sign of a struggle or combat: no hair, no blood, no slashes or punctures from stray weapon blows. His boots crumble the littered papers on the floor, then squish in the rugs as he approaches the window, and then crunch in glass shards as he examines the windowsill. Assessing it, Ishi believes that the window was broken inward from the outside, probably to allow burglars entry.

Elowin agrees with Ishi's assessment, and further observes that the water in the rugs has wicked across half of the floor, though the light drizzle and negligible wind is barely coming through the window. But it's only just starting to smell of mildew. From this, she deduces that:
- people broke the window and entered the home from outside two or three days ago
- they turned the place upside-down, looking for something
- they were particularly interested in documents, as all the books have been torn apart and papers have been scattered as if each one was scanned and then tossed aside. Some of the clockwork devices might be worth something, but they were left where they fell, suggesting that the burglars weren't looking for small items to pawn for cash.
- having finished their job, the burglars went to the front door, unlocked it, and left, closing the door behind them.
This suggests that either Tykus was led out peacefully or was absent when this all happened.

Findal finds his voice at last. "I doubt very much that Tykus would have surrendered to anyone who was destroying his home and desecrating his records like this."

Elysia's interest in the terrarium draws Adran over, too. They observe that the terrarium wasn't touched - probably because it doesn't contain any papers. Instead, it has a small puddle, some rocks, and several mossy branches for decoration. Looking more closely, Adran sees movement in the glass case: there is a small, hungry newt struggling feebly in the bottom of the terrarium at the edge of a little water feature. "Oh!" Findal says, distracted by the discovery of the animal. "That's Jeffery!" Adran opens the lid, reaches in, and his fingers brush against something solid in the muck of the water. Intrigued, he pulls it out: a small bronze key. Intimately familiar with mechanisms like these, Adran immediately recognizes this object as a winding key for a clockwork device.