Tierney reaches into his pouch-belt and produces a small vial that he holds out to Revion. "If there are more confrontations then we need to be at full strength. This is a draught of healing." Tierney's speech pattern is odd and it is difficult to gauge him accurately based on it.
Kiana joins her companions, and mostly keeps her own counsel. She doesn't trust any of the new people, so she keeps a watch, mostly going along with this due to her companions going along with it.
However, she does finally break her silence. "If things are calmed down, I'm going to get the halfling."
She goes out of the building and finds the halfling, telling her things seem to have calmed down now.
Kiana spits a curse word. "Alright, no more splitting up then. You, follow me." She leads the halfling back in. "Alright, no more splitting up, Gedeon is gone, and short and red says a nasty looking shadow creature carried him off into the city."
Gedeon? Oh yes, the red-haired man Tierney thinks. He is too embarrassed to admit that he lost track of the man during the approach to the building and the fray that ensued.
"If the creature was sufficient to overcome Gedeon and make off with him then it has probably slain him or will do so soon."
Now realizing that his words might have come across as cold to some here he adds "Sorry".
Tierney gestures at the coffin and makes a lifting motion as if opening something. Then he silently mouths the words "surround it first?".
Apparently being interrupted in checking on Adharc, and now a flash of worry about his erstwhile companion Gedeon, Helac is swept with the group as they rush into the room originally behind the door covered in a piece of the Draconic Prophecy, which was in turn, blasted from its hinges when the halfling was resurrected.
Looking around the room, Helac is filled with a sense of foreboding.
That's some creepy whispering there, and are those runes?
Looking a little closer at the crack between the floor and the pedestal, Runes... and a switch, by Bauble. Good... substitute sensory organ.
Does it, say anything fun like "Eat at Joe's"?
Helac closes his eyes and thinks, Lessons of Patience.
No, Eroh. It's more of the Draconic Prophecy we saw on the door before it was blasted off its hinges and the mess with the ghosts started.
On the wall it says "And so two...one not mortal." while here on the pedestal it says "Descending is Arising from another view." Couple that with the bit of the Draconic Prophecy on the door to this room which said "Where the body is lain, two shall arise." I'm starting to think it is not a reference to the Quori as I previously believed.
Out loud Helac will intone, Where the body is lain, two shall arise. And so two...one not mortal. Descending is Arising from another view.
Raising the halfling was a trick to raise whatever this is, he says, gesturing at the coffin, or at least... that is my guess as to what... the fake Deenya was doing.
That is, of course, unless the halfling is now immortal and this... whatever is mortal. Glancing in the halfling's direction, Do you feel any different, ma'am? Any... bizarre urges you wish to discuss?
So, the prophecy is inconstant? That doesn't sound useful.
The Draconic Prophecy is a complex network of symbols and messages, which are believed to contain knowledge of all events in the world.
The prophecy manifests in fragments like this one seemingly at random. Dragonmarks are prophecy symbols as well, though what they mean is a mystery. Each fragment contains too little context to understand without spending thousands of years studying the prophecy, so only immortal creatures, like dragons, and possibly the undead elves, ever gain a deep understanding.
The prophecy is nondeterministic. It consists of conditional predictions and so is altered by people's choices. It also alters constantly, making perfect prediction of the future impossible even if you had complete knowledge of the prophecy (which no one does). Immortals who understand the prophecy sometimes try to use it to influence the future, by creating situations which the prophecy says will trigger circumstances the manipulator wants. Needless to say, this is extremely difficult.
So if you have a ridiculously long life span, and you don't buy into the belief that influencing Prophecy is a sucker's bet with too many variables involved, I imagine it could become an interesting pastime, this sticking your nose in to manipulate others.
I'm a rock. Could I live forever? Eroh asks, in a snarky mental tone.
No. You'd have to live first, my Bauble. Helac projects in kind.
Spellcraft
Perception
"I never learned anything of the Draconic Prophecy; I always thought it to be more fraud than fact."
"This is certain, however, there is something attached to the coffin below" Tierney adds while pointing to the hidden switch in the crevice between the floor and the bottom of the pedestal under the coffin. It seems to be connected to something inside the pedestal (or inside the coffin?) that is in the DC 20 Perception spoiler.
He also announces the presence of the whispering that emanates from it as he moves to the side of the coffin.
Well, Minitash, there was some on the door that is now gone. The shards of prophecy... seem a cat who will wander at will.
Shifting his gaze to the halfling he response, Forgive me, miss. That was more... what passes for humor in this head. Helac shakes his head slightly. No. Though I congratulate you on your return to... the material plane, I think it was managed in this place at this time... for awful purpose.
Though much like a forest may grow from a battle field, good may rise out of bad, so... I would say use this second stab at life to the fullest. Helac gives her a little half smile, then returns to his examination of the smaller set of runes near the switch.
"I think that an ancient force is returning. If this is ancient Sarlonan it occurs to me that these people we have been following are the main source of helping this power to make its way here."
-Posted with Wayfinder
Nik'o's question intrigues Tierney and he momentarily forgets the coffin as he waits for Revion's answer.
Helac looks at the halfling, then back to the coffin, then back to the halfling and back to the coffin. Are you suggesting that this coffin could actually hide a series of tunnels into the city we saw from the roof?... that is much less troublesome than what I was imagining.
To flip or not to flip? That is the question.
Oh, go ahead and flip the switch, Boss. What's the worst that could happen?
Death.
So? A little death only ever killed anybody once.
Eroh... I... that... what?!
A look of consternation and shock war on Helac's features.
Eroh. You are a Horrible advisor.
"Shall we open the whispering coffin?" Tierney asks the others.
I... suppose. answers Helac, from down on one knee, still examining the the smaller glowing runes and the crack between pedestal and floor.
However, I would ask... switch first or lid first?
Kiana snorts. "If you're going to flip switches or open coffins when there's voices from inside, do me a favor and wait a moment." Kiana flies up to the farthest she can away from the coffin, yet remaining where she can easily fly out if things go bad. From afar, she calls down. "Ok, you can flip switches and open coffins now, I'll carry word of your horrible gruesome deaths back to the lady with gold coins who hired us, you may be sure." She draws a pair of arrows, one on the string, the other held between her knuckles.
"Does anyone have rope to bind the coffin shut while we hit the switch? This way it might foil any traps inside."
It's still Bolted to the coffin!
Wait... it's a Warforged Rakshasa?!
You are... the oddest construct I have ever seen. Helac says after taking a step back. Though to be honest... I cannot remember having seen many.
Kiana shrugs, and relaxes a few millimeters, after kicking the coffin lid to one side as it flies toward her, as if it were an every day thing.
Perception
"Its feet are stuck to the coffin! Stay out its reach!" Tierney exclaims. He stands ready to strike if it takes offensive action but otherwise he waits.
Helac's voice becoming a little quiet he adds, That depends... on what kind of animating force is in that thing, Nik'o. It could be... more weird than it looks.
Helac takes his morningstar off his belt yet again.
Projecting to his temporary circle, Helac states Nik'o. Tierney. Revion. I have no more inner energy with which to invigorate or regenerate... not without real rest. Just... informing.
"This thing would cost too much money to be just for show. There must be something valuable, in one sense or another, nearby."
Tierney steps back so that he is nearly behind the figure.
Kiana shrugs. "I have never seen anything with feet bolted to a floor lead anything anywhere."
"No, it tells lies to unnerve us" Tierney replies. All the same, he cannot help but recall his father on his deathbed, wasting away.
Sense Motive
I think it might just be a machine, Boss.
Nonsense. How would it know Gedeon, whom it has never met nor seen, has been carried off? It could not be privy to those things unless there was some animating consciousness.
Looking a little grim, Helac responds to Nikolai's question. It does not matter what it says, Nik'o. None of that is... currently relevant.
Taking another step back, Helac concentrates on the area of the construct and tries to sense if there is any poison.
Helac's eyes flash for a moment like points of silver fire while a rainbow-flash of light sweeps away from him to about arms length and dissipates. The construct and the coffin it stands in are briefly slicked with a translucent, shimmering ectoplasm for just a moment before dissipating as well.
Thinking to himself, I really should spend a little time learning the recipes for antiplague and antitoxin.
I cannot sense poison on this thing... but that is somewhat inconclusive.
"It somehow knows who we are and things about us. Either that or it is guided from afar. Either way, our enemies have some measure of us."