Howdy All!
Okay, some results from Scrying. Hatori succeeded with all his efforts, thanks to his supreme mastery of the scrying arts, as it were. Noku had one failed effort, and two successes. Here is what I had y'all doing>
Hatori:
Yuan-Ti (1) -- This fellow seemed to be doing what Zenako occasionally occupies herself doing -- cleaning and making minor repairs to armor, and sharpening/oiling/otherwise caring for weaponry. The yuan-ti has a set of ashigaru armor, a scimitar, a daikyu and quiver of long arrows. He doesn't appear to notice the scrying sensor. At one point he is briefly joined by the other Yuan-Ti, who takes some equipment off his hands and gives him more stuff to work on -- evidently this Yuan-Ti is the official armorer/weaponsmith type of the group...
Yuan-Ti (2) -- An hour and change later (i.e. the standard gap that separates all the scrying attempts, one from another), focus in on the other one -- who appears to be practicing combat moves with scimitar and large shield, with daikyu and quiver over his shoulder. However, shortly after you focus in on him, he seems to notice the sensor -- he looks up, points at the sensor and says something in some language that you cannot read on his scaly lips, and shortly thereafter the sensor blinks out... The yuan-ti himself did not seem to be casting a spell, the blinking out was about a round or two later.
Both yuan-ti appear to be half-bloods, appearing mostly human but with strangely flexible torsos and scales instead of skin. The learned among you believe that yuan-to come in various combinations of humanoid and snake-like features, perhaps there are bloodlines or something that determines those, these two appear to be similar to each other anyways.
(Minor annoyance -- yuan-ti appear not to exist in either the 3.0 or 3.5 SRD online...must be non-open-license monsters.)
Hannya (2) -- Seems to be engaged in a game of Mahjo with the first Hannya and a couple of Dark Nagas (the latter seem to be using Mage Hand or some similar magic to gather, sort, and play their tiles). Nobody seems to notice the scrying kibitzing... Watching the game, Hatori gets the impression that the Hannya play carefully but not too smartly, and are losing to the Dark Nagas, who play very well. The game is still progressing when the sensor fades normally.
Giant Constrictor -- Appears coiled up -- a coil that is perhaps 10-12 feet in diameter (claiming that 15'x15' 'face') -- which its head resting on top of the coil, eyes lidded, tongue occasionally flicking out to taste the air... Body is about 1' in diameter! Maybe more... This may be a bigger than normal giant constrictor -- but then none of you are that familiar with giant snakes. Anyways, suspect that it may have even more than normal HD.
Dark Naga (1) -- When first focused upon, seems to be coiled up next to a stone pillar, watching something 'off-screen' as it were. But almost immediately, its head turns to look in the direction of the sensor, then for a few seconds it bobs and weaves somewhat hypnotically and hisses something -- and the sensor blinks out.
Rokuro-kubi "D" (call the sisters A, B, C and D, the first letters of their names, say), Magoun's gal -- Strange, she appears to be kicking some refuse -- bones and ragged furs -- towards a corner of the chamber. Then she gingerly presses he foot down on top of the small pile of stuff, and suddenly the floor gives way, a trap door evidently sprung -- the trash falls into a pit and disappears, the trapdoor then closes, and she then scuffs her feet around a bit to smudge out the evidence of the trapdoor's existence. Then she steps away from the corner area and starts doing some stretches and other exercises, and the sensor fades while she is engaged in that activity.
Alleged Guardian of the Jade Yari -- seems just the same as before -- a cloaked, hooded figure seated on a dim flagstone floor, with phosphorescent lichen crowing in the cranks, with the haft of a spear across his knees, no visible skin or features. Doesn't seem to be breathing or moving...
Noku:
Hannya (1) -- Appears to be meditating, perhaps preparing spells, this scrying was done around sundown so maybe this Hannya has set aside the sunset hour for her daily prep... Pretty boring, but a couple times a snake crawls across her lower (serpentine) body, in one case a medium sized constrictor, in the other case a large viper. Both times she seems to absentmindedly reach out to caress the snake as it passes.
Wang-liang -- 1st attempt to scry him failed, but not wanting to fail in his duty, Noku perseveres, and the second try works. The Wang-liang appears to be in conversation with some hazy off-screen companion. The Wang-liang doesn't seem to notice the scrying -- but after only a short period of time, the sensor blinks out anyways.
Both Hatori and Noku:
While scrying -- or back-seat driving for the other guy -- evidently your scries have covered a decent percentage of the area of the chamber. You have some general observations, as follows:
There is indeed a quartet of stone pillars, at the corners of a 15'x15' square area in the center of the chamber, in line with the ends of the alcoves, as Magoun described. The pillars are about 1' in diameter, clearly structural in nature and carved with generic patterns -- they were probably part of the chamber from its original construction. The area that the giant constrictor is coiled up in is that area, except offset 5' towards the corridor entrance, i.e. closer to the two southern pillars...
There appear to be three minor globe areas. Each appears to be centered along the front edge of an alcove ledge, offset slightly to the right when looking at the alcove from the middle of the chamber. The globes' boundaries do not quite reach the pillars nearest them.
You have noticed a couple of piles of apparent food supplies, including carcasses of animals, stacked about midway along the south walls on each side of the entry corridor.
There appear to be 4 wells or cisterns, located next to the western and eastern walls, centered about 2-3' from those walls and 7-8' from the north and south walls respectively. Put another way, the cisterns do not block access to the side alcoves, but are just beyond the two ends of each of those two alcoves. (The GM will draw those on the map, just giving a general idea here in case they lead to more questions or whatever.) Next to the cisterns are crude wooden buckets with ropes attached to them. (Two of the cisterns, the NW and SE cisterns, appear to be just within the boundary of minor globes, the other two do not -- this reinforced the estimate of the center points of those globes being to the right of center as it were.) The cisterns extend up about 4' from the floor.
Also in the four corner areas, ranging over an area of about 10' x 10' for each group (in the air between the pillars and the corner walls), there are sets of 4 floating torch flames without the torches, which you both recognize as the results of a Dancing Lights spell -- evidently made Permanent by the HNO to provide dim but plentiful illumination for the chamber as a whole. And there are probably similar arrangements for the corridor as well, a couple of glimpses of the end of the corridor didn't show any significant extra shadows in the corridor. You would guess that, at least from the far alcove, that there are lines of sight and effect all the way from the alcove to the end of the corridor near the stairs -- or partway down the corridor at least, for creatures not at the center of the alcove.
Both of you noticed that the Hannyas were wearing a selection of jewelry, including earrings, clasps, pins, rings, etc. The Rokuro-kubi had what appeared to be a nice silk kimono, katanas, and some jewelry as well. The Yuan-Ti did not appear to be decorated in such a manner, but may have had some 'body-paint' on their scales...
Question -- during these scries, are any other spells being attempted through the crystal ball? If so, bring that info to the game and I'll resolve them at that point.
And that is all for today -- gotta go back home and finish prepping...see ya Sunday, 1 PM at the Standley residence!
:-() -- Ernie III / DrakaraGM