Seemingly overnight, a new tourist attraction pops up on the edge of the city: a large stone tower and a small man promising "a safe tour of the home of Carneith's mad wizard, Mordecai the Red!" Townsfolk have vanished and an angry mob outside of the Mage's College demand answers.
"What do the dirt farmers want now?" Mordecai grumbles as he peers through an illusory wall separating the rabble from the wizard. "Hrm. Another wizard tower? Suldir! (where is that arrogant elf..) SUldir! (He scored a 93% on his last Advanced Divination exam and..) SULDir! (foolishly believes he can slack on his studies..) SULD-"
You interrupt the Archmage as he is pacing near his lectern in the Introduction to Nobility and the Great Houses of the World classroom.
"Ahh! Suldir, yes, go and see what the peasants are blathering about. Can't have another wizard setting up his tower in the middle of the city. Oh and tell him he must apply like all other prospective students, the College is not accepting any charlatan claiming to wield arcane magic without a proper entrance exam!"
You leave the young wizard to his prattling and set out as he instructed.
Talk with the citizen's outside the College.
Head to the tower across town.
The angry cries of the crowd of peasants pressed upon Suldir the need to take care of this, especially before his Master lost what little patience he had and somebody turned into a frog...or worse! Suldir straightens his cloak and flashes a quick smile to himself before throwing open the doors.
"Down with the Wizards!!" "My Grandma was in that tower!!!" "Arcane is Unfair! Divine is Up There!!" The crowds chants rained havoc upon Suldir's ears, "A couple centuries of calm forests and Elven communities will do that to you afterall" Suldir thinks to himself.
People of Carneith Hold!! The tower was the work of another not connected with the mages here! I, Suldir of the woodland realm, have taken it upon myself to investigate this tower and your loved ones!
Arriving outside of the large stone tower, you find yourself face to face with a small spindly man in an over-sized red robe and a long grey beard that is suspiciously fake.
"Greetings, you seem like you have a good head on your shoulders," squawks the man. "By the look of that sword, and the tome by your side I'd say you are quite intelligent, dashing, and authentic!"
The flattery catches you off-guard and you respond with a smile and nod. As you go to introduce yourself, the man squawks again.
"Well, look at the time. Tours closed, come back again. Bye!" The man disappears in a cloud of pink smoke that leaves you coughing and teary eyed. The smoke clears, and you are alone with the solid oak door of the tower in front of you.
Finish introducing yourself (it'd be rude not to), then knock on the door.
[Spell] Knock on the door.
The door creaks open ominously. Inside, a small stone room with a spiral staircase on the leftmost wall greets you. As you inspect the threshold for any obvious pit traps, you are satisfied the room is safe to enter. With one step over the threshold, you look around the cramped circular room, as the door slams behind you.
"Welcome!" A voice booms, "To the home of the Mad Mage, the Wonderful Warlock, the Splendiferous Sorcerer!" Above you, a magic mouth cast into the stone ceiling speaks to you. "We begin our tour by placing two gold in the bowl before you." Just then, a small wooden bowl floats seemingly from nowhere into the center of the room and rests upon the floor. "Chop Chop! Haven't got all day! Two gold's the price!" The bowl shakes and rattles on the floor as the voice continues berating you.
As you stand inspecting the area, another voice, similar to the magic mouth calls out. "I said no tours today! Begone. You're not welcome pointy ears!" A cloud of pink smoke bursts out of thin air across the room near the stairs, wholly unnecessarily.
Place two gold in the bowl.
(Reflex Suldir walks briskly past the bowl and speaks towards the old con man's voice, "Please you should really call this off before my master loses his whaaaa-??!" As Suldir stepped on the stairs he foolishly wasn't expecting the gold pieces to activate the correct gravity on the stairs. Suldir falls up them bashing himself on the walls and stairs the entire way up the stairs.
As Suldir comes to at the top of these stairs he notices that he is in a strange looking laboratory, with bottles and beakers and the like everywhere. They all seem to be bubbling strange liquids and foaming.
You glance over the sets of alchemical glassware, metals, and unknown substances and notice a small notebook bound in sheepskin. With no markings to indicate it's use, you decide it best to leave it alone, a trick you learned from the Mad Wizard. As you search the room, his distinct 'instruction' voice echoes in your head, "A wizard will have no less than forty-three explosive runes in his workshop, typically bound to easy to spot tomes and scrolls. Don't touch them or you'll be dead! (mumble mumble)."
Across the room lies a small wooden door, built for a gnome or halfling perhaps, a peculiar architectural design in an otherwise normal-sized room. Before you can investigate, a voice calls out again.
"Alright, that does it! If you won't leave, then I'll be forced to make this tour un-BEAR-able!" With that, an incantation sprouts from thin air and conjures a grown brown bear in the now cramped alchemy lab. You draw your sword as it growls and strikes the air in an attempt to intimidate you. Defending it's next maul, you ready your attack and conjure an arcane shield to protect yourself. Strike after strike from your black blade lands upon the beast's hide, all the while the voice begins a long, monotonous droning.
"Here. we. find. the. fabled. wizard's. lab.. In. this. lab. many. children. are. boiled. alongside. scorpions. and. goblin. teeth. (snicker)." The bear's claws rend at your arcane barrier in futile attempts to cleave your skin, and the black blade guides your next attack into the beast's neck. Severely wounded, the beast's ferocity wanes.
Slay the beast. Then continue the 'tour'.
Let the beast live. Then continue the 'tour'.
The bear draws away limping and moaning, Suldir sheaths the blade while dropping to one knee and nodding his head towards the animal. He knows that the beast had been dragged here and was only fighting out of its instinct. Whatever strange magic user had brought it here for this purpose obviously had no respect at all for the life of this bear. Suldir steadily backs away from the beast and heads upwards now a bit more careful of the stairs.
Again the monotonous voice fills the chamber as you open the door at the top of the stairs; a strange, quaint room filled with folded shirts, pants and robes and the scent of fresh mountain air. "This. way. you'll. find. the. wizard's. personal. haberdashery.. Few. know. of. the. pain-staking. time. and. effort. that. is. spent. by. the. mad. wizard. converting. people. into. linen. shirts.."
Suddenly, one of the shirts form a wrinkle in the twisted shape of a face. As you blink in bewilderment, the face mouths "help me." You pray the article of clothing is merely an illusion rather than the other alternative and move further into the room.
"(snicker) While. pressing. the. linens. the. Crimson. Conjurer. enjoys. the. screams." Several robes cry out in a overly-dramatic fashion.
"You don't expect people to actually believe this drivel," you exclaim. "Witches baking children into pies is believable, but a wizard sewing them into garments is preposterous."
The stifled gasp indicates that you struck a nerve with your mysterious adversary hidden somewhere in the room.
Search the room for further clues.
Suldir searches about the place knowing that his adversary is not one of direct confrontation. Turning over a coat rack a desk is hidden behind it, somewhat dusty looking and of foreign make.
"Nothing but an old desk there, true horror lurks just around you!" The voice exclaims.
"Hmm...yes likely.." Suldir says as he leafs through some of the papers and looks over a few of the tomes inside.
"Now listen here, Wilson is it? Illusion magic was your specialty back at the Whitecliff academy, but I do believe that maybe you have fallen into some hard times recently and have decided that swindling people with your tricks and sullying another wizards name is worth your time."
Suldir slowly walks into the center of the room feigning distraction as he continues his speech, telepathically telling the blade to keep an eye open for any sudden moves.
"That is all well and fine, but let me offer a friendly warning, that you have picked the absolute worst person quite possibly on this continent to attack their reputation. Wizards can be quite prickly about those things, and I have seen the Red Wizard turn a man to ashes for far far less."