Nale’s means of breaking out of the illusion made me laugh out loud, too-- in a library.
I wonder how large this particular Gate is. So far the largest we’ve seen is Dorukan’s, which was a good 30 feet high and several feet wide, and the smallest was Soon’s (pre-shattering, of course), the size of a single sapphire. Assuming that the Gate actually is on the inside of that octagonal structure (and I wouldn’t put it past Girard to have put it somewhere else entirely), I’m guessing this one is somewhere in between.
The thing in the middle has doors on alternate sides, as far as we can see. 8 sides, probably 4 doors. I’m guessing that the room has the same pattern of doors.
re: the wall-illusion: I anticipate some fun poked at the fantastically detailed illusions of the dungeon they’re in and how those didn’t work, but Elan’s wall–simple and to the point–did the trick.
There might have been plenty of first-level illusion spells around if the Draketooth clan wasn’t killed. First-level spells have a pretty short spell duration.
The image actually shows five walls; a sixth (the ‘fourth wall’) is implied. I find it difficult, myself, to imagine more than that based on what is actually shown… the angles of the walls don’t seem to admit the possibility of seventh and eighth walls (to the left and right of the image). My opinion is that the room must have six walls, although it appears to only have five. Which is odd because the central area clearly has eight. Some kind of numbers game, or Platonic Solids reference?
Ancillary question: I assume someone not the target of a Sending (like the LG) will still see/hear it, possibly giving away the OOTS’ concealment, right?
The description for sending specifies that it targets “one creature,” but doesn’t explicitly say that other creatures in the area can’t perceive the sending. It’s from the evocation school, and is not a mind affecting effect, so the image is likely “real,” in so far as its an actual, independent phenomenon (and, thus, likely visible to any observer) and not something happening in Haley’s mind that only she can perceive. The fact that she’s the only one reacting might indicate that she’s the only one who can see it, or it might simply be an indication that she’s the only one in the party in ranks in Spot.
It’s also worth noting that the spell description for sening doesn’t say anything about creating a little hologram of yourself, but that’s probably artistic license. IIRC, the gag from way back where Nale kept running out of words in his message because he wouldn’t stop gloating worked the same, and was specifically identified as a sending spell.
And ninja’d by Der Trihs, making most of my speculation moot.
It’ll be tough on Roy, deciding whether to intercept the Linear Guild or deal with Xykon before he can arrive. He’d probably be tempted to split the party if it weren’t for that long storyline in which they were, well, split up.
And the situation’s so tense, he hasn’t even had time to process seeing Durkon as a vampire…
That pre-empts my next question, which was going to be “What happens if Hinjo sent a group message to the entire Order?” Because that message would have been cc’ed to Roy, Haley, Elan, Belkar, Vaarsuvius - and Durkon.
I’m assuming the SG is making contact to share the news about Xykon, because the sender has blue robes. But does it even make sense that Haley is the target of that sending? Shouldn’t it be Roy? Maybe Haley is getting a sending about some non-Xykon subject specific to her?
