Crusty Magic

We all carefully stepped into the room and took a look around. Nothing seemed amiss ...  adding to our fear that we were intruding.

The room seemed normal enough. There were cushions and chairs to sit on, a few tables around the room with various books ... a cursory examination revealed them to be mostly cookbooks. On the wall to the left of the front door was another door which was locked. Across the room was an archway into what appeared to be the kitchen. There was a small fireplace on the kitchen wall to the right of the arch.

As we looked around the room, Ariana's cat wandered as well ... sniffing here, rubbing there ... generally doing cat things. Seeing something interesting on the mantle of the fireplace, she jumped up to investigate. And in the process tripped some sort of magic spell. The fire poker sprouted leg and sprung to brilliant and energetic life. It took its first swipe at the cat, but was unable to connect as she jumped out of the way. Seeing the danger I grabbed hold of the handle and rushed outside all the while trying to keep the thing from wriggling out of my grip. Once I got outside, I drove its pointy end into the ground with all my strength. Unable immediately free itself, it soon succumbed to several bashings from Dane's mace.

Before anyone tripped another trap and without touching anything, we carefully went through the room while detecting magic. There were several more items including the curtains pull cord, a book, and something inside the kitchen stove.

The kitchen was a mess with various ingredients strewn about as if a pantry had exploded. Everything from flour, to some kind of red sauce, to a hundred different spices were represented from floor to ceiling.

Two doors led off of the kitchen, one across and to the right of the archway from the living room, which seemed to be a door to the cellar, and the other to the left into another room ... a dining room actually.

Page 35

Next