Mirror Mirror

Soon enough, Josiah returns to collect the group and beckons them to follow. The group moves up the vast staircase to a great hall whose only occupant is a young woman looking out one of the many vast floor to ceiling windows. When she turns, each member of the group catches their breath. The Lady Stehelen is beautiful beyond words. She is tall and graceful and seems to be young in years, around 20. The group had been expecting someone of more years.

The group inspects their new magical booty that they have acquired from the heist they have pulled at Minreth's Magic Store. They have almost more treasure than they can carry. Thank goodness they have also acquired a 'bag of holding'.

Once the adventurers have inspected, shared out and attuned with the items they wish. Talk moves to what actions are next. They first issue a sending to Onthar Frume of The Order Of The Obisidan Dagger, warning him of some sort of plot to either kill or capture the Lady Stehelen. Onthar tells them not to tell anyone else within The Order, he is not sure who he can trust.

The group decides they should perhaps go to Lady Stehelen personally and warn her as well as offer their services.

The group takes the rest of the afternoon to disguise themselves as best they can. They are a recognizable group and there is a good chance that The Order Of The Obsidian Dagger will be in search of them. After all they did just annihilate a very expensive store within the walls of Baldur's Gate. Yeava makes herself over as a homeless woman while Azalea dresses up as a farmer with the halfling, Saraphina, dressing up as a pig.

The others look on at this odd choice of disguise, as Saraphina's job of becoming a pig lacks in many fundamental ways. Saraphina though is very proud of her disguise as she struts about on all fours performing for the group. Someone, deciding the disguise will get them all caught and killed, performs a bit of magic making Saraphina seem more pig-like. Oorr cloaks himself and uses makeup to reduce the very noticeable beak from underneath the cloak's hood.  Artemis is no where to be found. Has she fled in fear of reprisal from Yeava, no one knows.

The Lady Stehelen
500 XP

They move off towards the upper city. Getting past the guards at the gates to the upper city is a venture in a very convincing act of Azalea passing herself off as a farmer who has a magical talking pig which she wishes to sell to one of the nobles, Lady Stehelen perhaps. Once the gullible guards are passed the some of the group discards their disguises and approaches, after some false turns by Oorr, the manor house of Lady Stehelen.

The clean themselves up as best they can and Yeava dons the garb of The Order before knocking upon the doors to the manor. They present to the servant who answers the door, Josiah, the letter they have discovered as proof of their desire to warn and protect the Lady. After having to wait outside for a few minutes, Josiah returns and tells them that the Lady Stehelen will see them.

They enter a great mansion with a large foyer with a grand staircase flanked by two dragon statues. Josiah ushers them into a waiting room and instructs them to wait here. Within the room are many curiosities. Saraphina casts detect magic and many things in the room come to her attention. There is a glass orb upon a pedestal, within which there is a swirly mass of grey mist. The shelves of the room contain a treasure trove of items which glow magically to Saraphina's magical senses. A set of dice, a couple of daggers, a doll and an oddly colored cube which is divided into smaller cubes, each side almost a completely different color.

The group resists their urges and does not attempt to tamper with anything. Out of fear or respect, it is not clear.

Meta Game Spoiler

DM Note: What!? Nothing. You don't tamper with anything that was odd and cool? Arrgggghhhh

They each take turns in laying out the events which had occurred and the threat that the Lady Stehelen now faces from the Children Of Gwynt. Yeava politely asks if she would submit herself to be within a spell of Zone of Truth, so they may move forward with little doubts. She agrees but it soon turns out to be a huge circle of sharing as each person is moved to come close to the Lady and they all give out their truths. Some very personal. Some sexual. Some odd, as in the unlikely bonding of a noble born lady and a "pig".

The group finds out over the course of the zone of group love, that the Lady Stehelen is in fact a Steel dragon. Born of a father she never got to know because the Order Of The Obisidan Dagger had killed him. She was born and raised by scholars in the city of Sigil, the world between all worlds. She has vowed that she will disband or destroy The Order.

Meta Game Spoiler

"see Steel Meets Steel

The group agrees to help her.

The Plan To Enter Ondine's Tower

She shows them to her private library. When they enter they see a luxurious room with several tall mirrors on stands. She perhaps has a way into Ondine's, the leader of The Order, protected tower. But she will need their help. She places a necklace around the neck of Oorr. On the necklace is a small metal version of one of the larger standing mirrors. When Oorr approaches on of the mirrors he no longer sees his reflection but that of the room from a different angle, from a different mirror. Lady Stehelen encourages him to step through. He does and emerges on the other side of the room stepping from a different mirror.

The mirrors are tied to one another. If they can place one of the mirrors in Ondine's tower then whoever wishes can cross through one of the mirrors here and travel to the other, inside the tower.

Oorr says he can get it into the tower.

Plans are made and supper is eaten. The group is shown comfortable quarters within the Lady's manor. The group finds accommodations within the servants quarters, save for Azalea who is invited into the Lady's personal chambers. The two of them are not seen for some time.

During the night, Oorr gives in to his passion of reading and seeks out the manor's library. He peruses the titles but adheres to the house's rules of not removing any of the books from the room.

Meta Game Spoiler

DM Note: What the hell guys. No one is touching anything anymore?!? What now that you've ripped off an magic store you're lawful again?

The Violation Of Sarra

In the morning, Oorr takes one of the mirrors and places it into the bag of holding. He flies off towards the Order's keep under an invisibility spell. He alights upon Ondine's tower and then dimension doors into the main entrance room, which he had been in before. Finding no one there he moves up the staircase and into the corridor. Finding an out of the way corner, he places the mirror.

He then moves from door to door and listens. The first room is empty but the second room has the sounds of struggle, crying and gruff laughter. Oorr decides to not press his luck. He activates the mirror and steps through it back into the Lady Stehelen's manor. There he tells the group of his findings and they step through, back into Ondine's tower.

They cautiously approach the door, from which there are sounds and they move in. Inside they find a familiar face, Sarra, the barmaid from the Goblin King's Inn, is lain on the table being abused by several men. Her face streaked with tears and her clothes in ripped tatters. The group moves quickly to strike.

Brual Monks
5,300 XP

The men they face are clothed in simple straps of leather and bear no weapons. They are heavily muscled though and as they clench their fists, their fists glow with a fiery light. The fight is tough, with the fighting monks peppering the group with multiple fiery fist blows which knock some of the group off their feet leaving them stunned. Soon enough they are victorious. Azalea rushes to search the bodies but these are monks who carry very little upon themselves. Hiding behind a barrel she finds her old lover, Sarra cowering. She comforts the halfling but not too much. Azalea warns her that she has moved on. The halfling doesn't seem to register that as she clings to the dragonborn. Weary and worn they move further up the tower.





The Rotating Chamber
1,000 XP

Finding themselves at the top of the stairs, they enter a large round chamber. This chamber is much larger than the tower should accommodate. In the center of the room is a circular pillar which can be reached by four bridges. Upon the central large pillar are four bronze bowls surrounding a blazing central brazier. As they cross the bridge to the central pillar, the room gives the slightest perceptual jerk as the entire chamber begins to rotate with a barely audible grinding of stone sound. Yeava runs back to the stairs to find that the way back down is now block by solid stone which moves slowly.

The group moves from bowl to bowl trying to decipher the odd writing within. Yeava recgonizes it as infernal and translates for the group:

Bowl 1:

While you live we cannot part

I must live inside you

Locked within

Bowl 2:

No legs to dance

No lungs to breathe

No life to live

Yet I do all these

Bowl 3:

Light enough to rise in air
Strong enough to crack stone
Gentle enough to soothe skin

Bowl 4:

Light as a feather
Yet cannot hold for long

The characters puzzle over the words until, after only the barest of moments. Oorr shouts: blood, fire, water and air. Oorr moves to the third bowl and blows on it. The bowl begins to emit light and that light begins to travel down the pedestal until it covers a wedge shape, a fourth the size of the chamber. They begin to fill each bowl with fire, from the brazier, water from a canteen and....whose blood to use? Oorr sets down the bag of holding and pulls out the mirror again, setting it down on the stone. He activates it, goes through and shouts for someone to bring him a chicken. Minutes later, Josiah returns with a chicken which they sacrifice above the last bowl.

The chamber rotates until a new set of stairs appears below the stair opening. The characters descend.

Meta Game Spoiler

DM Note: That was waaaaay too easy. Damn you Oorr. Damn you to RPG puzzle hell. I'll get you next time. That took all of, what, a minute.

Ondine
6,500 XP

The group descends the stairs, this time entering a vast room whose center is filled with a magical circle. On the other side of the room is a well dressed man in robes of The Order Of Obsidian Dagger. He greets the characters he has met before and introduces himself to those he hasn't. He is Ondine, the leader of The Order. What could they possibly want. 

The group makes their accusations to which Ondine refuses to confess to. He is quite sure he doesn't know what they're talking about, but he is more than willing to defend himself. Which he does. The group is already aching from their previous encounter and the healing is starting to run out.

The group throws all they can at their enemy as Saraphina roars with anger and charges towards him. It is then that she notices, crawling up from the numerous piles of bodies, skeletons, each with four arms rising to attack her. In the meantime, Yeava feels a presence in her mind and somehow she feels that perhaps Ondine is not the enemy they thought he was. She begins to yell out to not attack him and refuses to attack Ondine herself. Later the same thought passes through the mind of Azalea but she shakes it off and continues her attacks. Spell after spell is tossed about the room while Saraphina is doing poorly fending off multiple attacks from the four armed skeletons surrounding her.

Suddenly someone, Oorr perhaps, shouts out to Azalea that perhaps she has the skill to turn and take control of the undead skeletons. She does. And the tide of the battle turns very quickly. The skeletons stop their slashing of the halfling Saraphina and turn on their master.

Soon enough Ondine falls. Before the sounds of battle completely subside, Yeava is pawing at the dead body looking for treasure. She is not going to be left out of finding awesome stuff this time. The skeletons are soon made back into a pile of bones and the rest of the group begins the pilfering.

In her panic, Azalea finds very little until she comes across a long locked chest. She tries briefly to pick the lock but resorts to simply battering at it until it breaks. Within is a javelin imbued with magical energy. Finally, she has scored.

Oorr, meanwhile is looking at the magical circle in the middle of the floor and determines that it is a teleportation circle. He activates it and is transported to a land high up in the mountains. All around him he can see small settlements and a large castle. He quickly teleports back and tells the news to the others. 

Oorr then sets up the mirror again and this time brings Lady Stehelen back through into Ondine's tower. She asks them what they are to do now?

Explore the other side of the teleportation circle? Destroy The Order or perhaps, take over The Order? 

Yes, they all sound good.