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Faliana freezes up as the talk of docs and control and all sorts of things starts flying about. That is until Fritannia, who loves a good scandal steps in. The spirit in the best imitation of Faliana's speaking voice very calmly starts to explain. "He's right, the golem's under control of that not good snake thingie and is wrecking everything in the place he's even heading this way! If we don't use the discs the entire place may crumble down in a few days if not hours"
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Fritannia gives a massive huff. "I hate working with people being controlled, so bloody inconsistent!" Before turning to face Juliet and giving her a peace of her mind. "I'm not sure a slit in the wall with an angry snake creature is the a safe place to be storing things especially ones you consider 'very important.' Expecially as you seem to have no care about how to retrieve them from that room!"
While her back is turned, Fritannia gestures frantically to Arletta tfor her to pass on the bag and disc. Once the spirit has it she edges slightest the left and slings the bag on her shoulders. Taking out her longspear she rushes the stairs to the orb.
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Brady looks up at Monty in confusion as he stands. He holds his arms out in front of him, hands up in peace. "Monty, what's gotten into you?" He shakes his head, a look of real concern on his face.
"You've got to calm down, my friend. This is a critical time right now. Dale's right; we've got an hour, and we're wasting it with this petty display of yours. The first thing we need to do is get the disk to a safe place, then we need to figure out what our next steps are to stopping that monolith!"
He nods at Fritannia's Faliana speech, but lifts and eyebrow in question when she says "use the discs," but generally accepts her gist.
"The only way we can make that plan is if we all calm down." Brady is looking straight at Monty, with a very concerned look.
Then he turns back to Arletta. "Okay, the disc then?" Out go his hands again in expectation.
Monty does his best 'look over there!', and Juliet turns back towards the other room with a worried look... but quickly realizes that she has been tricked, when she hears the endless pounding of the golem has not changed or moved. But it’s enough of a distraction for Monty to scamper away from her immediate ire, as he disappears out of the room.
"So unprofessional!" She says, her angry look fading somewhat to annoyed exasperation now that the vanaran is gone.
As Faliana steps in, trying to back up Monty's outright lie, Juliet does not seem to be buying it at all.
"Nonsense." She says, dismissively. "Listen, you can still hear it. It has not moved at all. The golem is harmless."
Clearly whatever compulsion she is under has affected her view of the Monolith and whatever it is doing
"And what is this about evil snakes? There are no such things here! Everything in Starwatcher Tor is perfectly safe, there is only the loci spirit that inhabits these ruins, and it entirely benevolent!" She shakes her head, clearly not agreeing with any of what Faliana is saying.
Whatever compulsion(s) are affecting her, have biased her viewpoints on a few things!
You can guess that the attempts to bluff her are failing due to the subjects chosen bumping heads with these compulsions forcing Juliet to think otherwise!
"And we know this place won't be here long!" She adds, "That's why we're working so hard to study it, while we can! And you people are not helping!"
She turns her attention back to Arletta. "So, where is it?" She asks, impatiently... only to catch a face full of bright rainbow colors!
With no warning, a vibrant spray of colors shoots out from inside the tent, catching not only Juliet, but Brady, Faliana, and Dale as well!
Juliet and Brady, looking into her tent catch it full in the face. Both of them suddenly stagger, reeling in confusion! Dale couldn't turn away from something new, and watches it radiate out with unabashed curiosity. Suddenly he can see nothing at all but the afterimages of light, as he staggers too. Only Faliana manages to turn her head in time, or perhaps Arletta was not trying to hit her with the brunt of it...
Arletta, a small wand in one hand, and her satchel tucked securely under her other arm, gives a panicked squeal, and darts out of the tent and makes a break out into the far room!
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Fritannia rolls her eyes slightly, muttering, "This is why I hate dealing with the dominated, they don't see what's right in front of them."
Her look of exaseration turns into a small smirk that the spirit quickly wipes form her face. In an imperious air she stares at Juliet. "Only the benevolent loci spirits? I channel and deal spirits. On a daily basis. As a living. I can tell you, in no uncertain terms, that there is something more here then just 'benevolent loci spirits!' But you seem to not be aware of what is happening right..."
When she gets cut off by the flash of light from the tent behind her, Fritannia's rebuttal gets cut off short. It takes the spirit a second to guess what happened, but a broad smile crosses her face when she does. Watching Arletta run off Fritania gives a whistle. "She's a tricksy one! I like her!" Wolfish grin in place she draws her longspear and gives chase after the woman, intent on keeping anyone from attacking the girl. When she gets in sight of Arletta, she calls out, "Just keep going! I'll hold everyone else off and if you can try not going near the crack!"
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"Juliet, you're talking crazy again! The monolith is a clear danger, and Monty was bitten by one of these snakes outside! A poisonous one, too. I know he's been acting a bit 'off,' but that doesn't negate the very real snakebite!" And where's he gone off to now? It's going to be tough to write favorably about him in my own report; he's become completely unhinged. Maybe this has been coming; we should have read the signs. He's been unpredictable almost this whole trip, now that I think about it. Charging into battle ahead of everyone else, climbing to places that we couldn't support him. We were thinking it was just his tactics that were wonky; the whole man is wonky! I may have to recommend an evaluation by a Venture Captain....
Brady's internal monologue is broken off by the color spray that stuns and blinds him!
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The paper that slips out of Fali's pack has quite obviously been opened and closed a few times and at first glance it is obviously a letter. It is addressed to Anavi and a glance at the bottom shows it is from Moke.
As expected the contents start out as a love letter, with Moke talking about how beautiful the other spirit was, how her eyes seemed to shine in the moonlight that streamed though the window of the museum, how her hair flowed so elegantly when she used her weapon to fight off the demons and so on. It proves to be a sappy read until it starts getting into what Fritania would likely call 'salacious' territory and Moke starts to describe, in great detail, what he would like to do to Anavi if they both had bodies. He wraps the letter up with a plea for the other spirit to wait for him at the boneyard if she should move on first, and the promise to reciprocate.
At the bottom, in a different handwriting, seems to be Anavi's start of a reply, including some embarrassed but intrigued comments about some of the more unusual things Moke would want to do.
While Juliet, Brady, and Dale are dazed by the light show, Arletta scampers through the door, and down the hall to the right. Faliana quickly follows, close on her heals. Arletta doesn't go too far however, as there is not far to go, stopping just around the second corner, back pressed against the wall, her breath coming in quick gasps as she peers back around the corner towards the broken doorway and Faliana.
The other archaeologists in the room, looked up in confusion as the two women ran by, not sure what to make of any of it, but none of them chase after.
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Juliet is only stunned for a few seconds before coming back to her senses.
"What in the gods name..." She says, as she shakes her head to clear the last of the bright flashes. "Has the vanaran's madness infected everyone today?!"
She immediately marches into the next room, though sees no sign of her errant employee, though the others point to the door where Faliana is standing.
For some reason, her attitude seems to change slightly, as she suddenly shrugs instead of going after Arletta.
"I thought she was getting better... but clearly she is feverish and out of her mind. I told you the sphere was bad, you people need to start listening!" She seems miffed, but not nearly as miffed as she was moments before.
She points at Tad, standing nearby. "They say you're a healer. You find her, make sure she's alright. I have better things to do then chase after her, we have important artifacts to catalog!"
Apparently not even enough to chase after Arletta now.
Perhaps the compulsions at play even there?
"Oh," She adds, before going back to work. "Keep that darn monkey away from us. We're trying to work here!"
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A short while later, both Brady and Dale start to come to their senses as well, though they can't see much beyond the bright afterimages burned into their eyes. Though even those clear before too long.
They glance around the camp site, and realize they are all alone. Everyone is gone.
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Dale blinks his eyes a few times, then rubs them, then blinks some more before pausing. "Well, I'm not quite sure. Magic maybe? Very effective whatever it was... hey where'd everyone go to?" He pokes his head into the tent to check on the girl and maybe he'll get lucky and find the disk.
"Nobody here either. Hrm. My first hypothesis is 'womens issues'. What else could explain all this?" He shrugs his shoulders and wanders out of the room to look for the others.
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Fritannia has an absolute hoot as she and Arletta run through the archeologists' camp. She sitters to a halt past the doorways and waves at Arletta around the corner. She stops and stands guard at the door in case Juliet decides to extract retribution. When it becomes apparent that the woman won't come after them Fritannia takes the delicious moment to give her a few rude gestures. Done with that she comments, "Okay Fali, dear, it seems that things have settled down, and the boring that you seem to like is about to settle in..."
Fritannia's sharp smile then slowly loses its edge as her face goes slack. For a beat it stays that way before Faliana's calmer presence tinged with a bit of curiosity and anxiety slides into place. Ashava please let Juliet not remember that, or at least forgive us...
She turns to Dru. "Dru you okay? You've been rather quiet lately..."
When Tad approaches, Faliana greets him with one of her biggest smiles. "Oh, of course you can check up on her! It's good to see you are still being you. With everyone being so odd, I'm glad you haven't changed. If you hold on, I'll go introduce you."
With one last worried look at Dru, Fali turns and moves down the hallway to Arletta. She gives a sheepish wave as she gets in closer. "You're safe it seems that Juliet isn't going to be coming after us in here." Then with a slightly abashed look, she continues, "Sorry if my actions back there surprised you. You remember what I said about channeling spirits... That wasn't a lie, I really do. And the spirit I am channeling today is... Well to put it in a few simple words Calistria with a playful twist."
She gives the other woman a smile and before gesturing down the hallway towards Tad. "But more importantly, our gentle cleric is worried that you might have hurt yourself in your escape. He's really sweet and I don't think I've even seen him hurt a fly. His name is Tad."
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Tad comes close enough to Arletta to talk softly to her, but not close enough to be threatening. (He also hopes the fact he's only 2 feet tall helps!) "Are you hurt? I will not touch you unless you want me to, but the Lady of Light will help me heal you if you were injured when you rushed into here."
Arletta looks at Tad suspiciously and waves him away. "I'm fine." She says, brusquely.
"Though I may be out of a job." She adds, with a heavy sigh. "But I didn't know what else to do."
"Where are the other two?" She glances back down the hallway. "They won't be out for long. I think this place has gotten in their heads too."
"Will the disc really help? You said you needed it." She looks at Faliana hopefully. "I didn't want to give away if it could help fix everyone."
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Faliana's brows knit together as she watches Arletta driving Tad off. I really hope she isn't becoming too dependent on me.
She then moves up closer and tries to give the woman a comforting pat on the shoulder. "I wouldn't worry about your job, I will fight Juliet over it if she decides to fire you after this is all over. But you're right the disc might be more important right now. I think it will help but I don't know for certain. We would likely use it in that room over there, I'll let you decide if it's worth letting go of your disc for, seeing as you've gone through such lengths to protect it..."
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Juliet gives Dale a resigned sigh. "This entire place has interesting things to study and so little time to study them all!"
"Which is why all your interruptions have been so vexing!" She adds, with a cross look.
"Most of the information has been in the form of murals." She adds, waving at the walls. "They liked to use pictures to inform, so its been important to study those closely."
"Most of us are experts in the Azlant, not the Ghol-Gan, unfortunately." She sighs. "Which is why Arletta taking ill has set us back. She's the language expert."
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As Faliana talks, Arletta nods slightly, but she never quite takes her eyes off the hallway, and eventually Brady comes through the door, heading back to the others.
"Oh no." She says, interrupting Faliana's words. "Here they come again."
With a noticeable effort, she hauls her satchel up hugging it close, and points her wand towards where he is about to come around the corner, as she backs down the hallway.
"What?!" She exclaims, looking towards Faliana and Dru. "I warned you not to do that! You didn't tell them?! Now it's got them too!"
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Faliana hangs her head in shame. "I didn't tell Brady, he's the half-orc, about it in time, and Dale snuck back and took a look after I had already warned everyone else not to mess with it... But seeing as they've already looked in the slot, I think I will ask them if they can dig out the other two discs. It'd be a great way to double check if they've been influenced at all."
After a second of silence, Faliana looks back at Arletta, "You wouldn't happen to be any good with languages, would you? There was soemthing we couldn't read earlier, even our resident genius..."
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Faliana's eyes go wide as Brady says an exact parody of what Juliet had been saying. Shit! Shit1 SHIT! She then gives Tad a look, while pandering to Brady. "Um, no reason. Uhhh, why is it the safest place if I might ask... And just out of curiosity, what was in the crack?"
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Tad, we might be f#!#ed here. Tell me there's something that might help with this!
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Dale walks into the room scratching his head a bit "What is everyone doing out here? Weren't we going to come up with a plan to deal with that golem? Or at the very least, find those disks? You know they're super important here right?" He looks at everyone like they've forgotten the importance of the matter at hand.
He shakes his head at Faliana "We'll be FINE if we get back to dealing with that GOLEM and finding the DISKS!" He throws his hands up in the air, changing the subject. "Arletta, could you at least come translate the writing in that last room? Juliet said you were a whizz with languages and I've never studied that one." He continues to gives Faliana and Tad weird looks. What's up with the innuendos... they must not trust that girl after the tent incident...
Arletta looks totally out of her element at the moment, as her wand goes from pointing at Brady, to pointing at Dale, to pointing at others at random, unsure who's a pod person and who's not!
"You're not listening." She says again, almost sobbing. "The crack is bad! They would end up further under the influence of this place if they went back!"
"Do you see the others back here?!" She reminds you, and you realize that Juliet and the other archaeologists are clearly far more affected then Dale or Brady are, as the later can at least wander back here and know the thing in the central room is probably not friendly.
"It was only because of the sphere, that I'm not with them." She sobs.
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"Okay... so how about we check out that sphere when we check out those writings ok? Sound like a deal?" Dale does his best at working around their current road block in what he hopes is a timely fashion.
This whole place is bonkers! But that thing in the crack WAS pretty scary. But maybe with some better light and a wider view I could figure out exactly WHAT it was...
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Faliana freezes for a bit as Dale catches onto her words. In the back of her head one of Fritannia's coldest laughs echos. I told you, didn't I? I told you they would betray you in the end. I told you trusting people would ended up with you getting stabbed in the back!
It's not until Dru's impassioned words does Fali finally break free of Fritannia's spell. Nodding full-heartedly at Dru's words, Faliana adds, "That is unless we have to get the discs that we're put in there out, and only then do we talk about that thing... But Dale's right we should try taking Brady by the sphere, and you too, Dale. Hells, with the amount of mental manipulation going on around here I have to wonder if I've been affected at all."
Before she starts herding the possibly brainwashed to the one thing they've heard is effective at handling it, Faliana turns back to Arletta. "Arletta, if you want to you can come with us, but if you'd rather not possibly run into Juliet again, we really could use someone to take a look at the writing in that room. Knowing Dale he's probably got a solution for it, but I'd rather not leave it up to someone who's possibly being manipulated to be our only source of translation. Don't worry about the golem, it's not paid any attention to us yet, and if that changes at all, you run and get me immediately!"
Faliana then ushers everyone back down the corridor to the closed doors leading to the camping area. "Alright, anyone with the know-how to together these doors open? I'd rather not march through Julie's kingdom and then do something that further angers her. Sneaking in is so much better."
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Tad mourns that Brady seems to have lost his grip on reality. He hopes Faliana and Dru are having the same thoughts he is. "Let's go look at that sphere first thing. Maybe with all of us working together we can get it figured out?" And maybe Dale can be convinced to touch it, and maybe Brady can 'accidentally' get pushed into it."
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Faliana freezes as Dale peirces through her hints at Tad. In the back of her head, one of Fritannia's coldest, cruelest laughs reverberates. "I told you, didn't I? I told you they would eventually betray you. I told you not to trust people because they will always stab you in the back!
The medium stays that way, until Dru's impassioned warning finally break Fritannia's spell. Nodding emphatically at them, Fali adds, "Except for when we possibly get the discs out of the crack, we should stop talking about it. Dale is also right, we should porbably take Brady to the glowing stone. Dale you as well. Hell, with all this mental manipulation going around, I have to wonder if I'm even being controlled."
Faliana puts a hand on her longspear and non-threateningly starts to ushering the men down the hallway. A few steps in she takes a look back at Arletta. "Arletta you ca come with us if you want, but if you don't want to run into Juliet again, we really could use some one to translate the writings in there. I'msure Dale has something up his sleeve, but I'd feel a lot more comfortable if we had a second pair of eyes read it over."
Faliana then herds the two possibly mentally comprimised men to the one thing they have heard helps, the stone. She makes sure to take them to the closed set of doors. "Alright, anyone got any ideas on how to open these? I'd rather not stompback through Juliet's kingdom to then do something that angers her. Instead I say we sneak in the back way."
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"Okay, so everyone has gotten really weird and stressed out here. If Dale and I go to the sphere with you, will you all calm down and let us deal with the real problem at hand?" Brady moves along as Faliana suggests, but his demeanor makes it clear that he thinks this is a waste of time when there are more important things to do.
The door back to the archaeologists camp site, is much like the other doors in Starwatcher Tor... made for giants... and made of stone. It is not so easily opened by folks your size. In the end, it takes a concerted effort by Dru and Brady to finally swing it wide enough to pass through.
You do not seem to draw any attention by doing so however, and have easier access to the eastern stairs going up to balcony with the sphere, up above. The stairs ascend at a very steep incline and are very narrow, making it seem almost like climbing a ladder, then ascending stairs.