Gameplay

For Sylvana:

The name "Janar" doesn't ring any bells.

For everyone:

The voice replies to your questions by saying "please, let me out, I've been stuck in here for ages!"

I'll assume that you'll want to open the door at some point, so I'll give you a description of the room beyond. I'll assume that you're acting with a high degree of caution, on alert for any trick or ambush.

Opening the door reveals a mid-size rectangular room. The east wall is occupied entirely by a huge floor-to-ceiling bookshelf, full of ancient-looking tomes. There is a small ladder on the south side of the bookshelf.

Built into the west wall is what appears to be a large ornate fireplace. The fireplace is not lit. In front of the fireplace, there is a comfortable-looking armchair, and a rectangular wooden table. At the centre of the wooden table, there is a transparent crystal orb, mounted on a small golden stand. There is a skeleton sitting in the armchair, wearing dusty blue robes. The skeleton appears to be inert and unmoving.

There's an iron chest pushed up against the south wall of the room. Near the chest, in the south-west corner of the room, there is a chest-high stone pedestal, with a large golden cage sitting on top of it. The cage resembles a particularly sturdy-looking birdcage. The cage currently contains a small imp-like creature, roughly humanoid in shape, but bearing the wings of a bat, the tail of a scorpion, and the warty green-black skin of a toad.

The imp hisses "get me out of here! I've been trapped since the old bastard dropped dead!"

What do you want to do?

For Holg:

The imp replies that if you let him out, you can have any of the wizard's treasures. He's not sure what will happen if you touch it, he claims that he's "not a wizard, so how should I know".

For Jaws:

You shake the skeleton out of the chair. It falls to the ground, as you might expect. As you pick through the bones, you note that most of them are too dry and brittle to be much use, but the femurs could serve as a pair of daggers, if properly sharpened and worked. I'll assume that you want to get started on this process. As you search, you also uncover a keyring with three keys on it, and a pouch of fragrant dried herbs.

For Osstaer:

Looking through this room and the previous room, you see what was described previously. Inspecting the potion shelf more closely, a few of the bottles, jars and small items catch your eye. You see the following:

- A glass jar full of purple-blue spores, and what looks like cut-off pieces of some kind of fungus.
- A glass jar full of orange-red powder, mixed with some bits of what looks like insect shell of the same colour.
- A glass jar full of dark liquid, with wisps of thick black smoke coiling around inside the sealed jar.
- A glass jar full of some kind of preserving fluid, with a few fat maggot-like creatures floating around in the liquid.
- A glass marble, with wispy white smoke inside. .
- A small, stubby candle, made of purplish-black wax.
- A jar of greasy white ointment.
- A large preserved birds wing, with golden feathers.

What do you want to do, players?

For Jaws:

You begin work on the bones.

For Hiro:

I forgot to mention this in the previous post, but when you put the goblet down under the amphora, and took the coins out of the stone treasure chest, the statue gave another rumble, and more red wine began pouring out of the amphora. It overflowed the goblet you placed down, and splashed onto the floor in front of the statue. The goblet is sitting there, full of red wine.

For Asha:

The magician's bag is just full of dried fragrant herbs. As for keyholes, you see a one on the golden cage containing the imp, and one on the iron chest at the south end of the room. Both of these containers appear to be locked, and have a matching key on the keyring.

For Alvin:

You take the tinderbox and candles, and light two of the spirit lamps, putting one near Keeper. The new room doesn't seem to have any traps that you've noticed.

For Yvandra:

You listen at the northern door. You hear no sound on the other side, and there is no sign of traps. With this considered, I'll assume you want to open the door, revealing the room beyond.

For Keeper:

After searching, you find no hidden doors, just those previously described.

For Hiro:

You'd have to carry the cage in both hands, holding it close to your chest for leverage. It has a ring handle on top, but with the imp inside, it'd be too heavy to carry in this way.

For everyone:

The northern door is opened. Inside, is a rectangular room. There's a blacksmith's work station built near the far north wall. A variety of blacksmith's tools (hammers, tongs, chisels, etc.) hang on the north wall, and built into the north wall itself, there is a small furnace with a connected chimney. In front of the furnace, there is a wooden anvil stand, with a well-worn anvil sitting on top.

On the eastern wall of the room, there is a dusty weapon rack, covered with cobwebs. The weapon rack contains mundane-looking melee weapons (spears, maces, axes, swords, daggers, etc). You don't see any ranged weapons. There is another weapon rack on the north wall of the room, to the left of the forge. It looks much the same as the first one. There's an iron quenching trough towards the south-east quadrant of the room. The quenching trough is full of stagnant water.

There's a full suit of plate armour in the south-west corner of the room. It is standing in place, likely mounted on a stand of some kind. The armour is dusty and covered in cobwebs, like it hasn't been moved or worked on in years. There's a closed wooden door on the west wall of the room.

What do you want to do?