The librarian struggles beneath La Siréene. He cranes his neck towards the main entrance hall. But caught up in her robes, he can't see a thing...the effort proves futile. He grows still. He looks up to the ceiling, past La Siréene's shoulder. The expression on his face is anxious and wan.
"I don't know. I haf ta go investigate."
With her friends coming back through the panel, La Siréene extracts herself from the librarian, and helps him to his feet.
"By all means. You have given all assistance I required. Thank you."
La Siréene evens out her crumpled robes, and equips her new belt, replaces her headband on her skull and releases the Ioun stone in its orbit around her.
"You have indeed assisted us, sir. Please be careful!"
The Mechanical Man reaches behind him and closes his head, then turns around.
Both arms now stand free, with his scythe somehow attached to a new articulation, arcing backward over his shoulder.
"If anyone requires medical assistance, I have now been equipped to replace the Doctor."
La Siréene turns to the construct.
"Indeed? Could you deal with the aftereffects of the snake venom that struck me in our last battle?"
"Possibly. Could you describe the effects you are feeling?"
Attribute damage? How much?
"It was the same venom I use. The effect weakens ones vitality and overall condition. I resisted it early, however, so in this case it is not directly lethal."
"It sounds as though it imbalances the humors. Some form of black bile. Given a day or so I should be able to correct the imbalance through diet and exercise. Alternatively I can simply inject some this essence into your gall bladder - neutralising the black bile - and the effect should be removed immediately."
As he speaks the Mechanical Manservant draws a syringe with a six inch long steel needle.
"By all means, go ahead with the injection."
The tower is being attacked...
"Sandru is right. This is not the time to tinker with any kind of medical process. We should find out what is going on".
"Then" starts the Mechanical Manservant, stabbing La Sirenee with the the needle in a blindingly fast, practised looking move "I will be quick."
okay to use a potion of lesser restoration?
damage repaired
"Ahhhh... Excellent. Thank you, sir." La Siréene gives the mechanical manservant an appreciative hug.
La Siréene turns to Quinn and Sandru.
"You are eager to investigate, Quinn, darling? Eager to help, dear Sandru? Well, of course. Let's. But we will have to rest before we face the doctor. I admit that I am... drained, by the night’s events."
The Manservant freezes for a second "Thank you... you're most welcome, ma'am."
Ianez follows through the panel quickly, looking around to ascertain the damage and calling on his training in constructions.
I look around and see everyone looks fine. Let's move! We can rest someplace else, less... obvious.
The librarian departs back to the entrance hall where his desk is located.
"Soon we'll need to confer as a group about our findings in the bookstacks, to know the next step as to how to proceed," Phoebe reminds everyone. She peers vigilantly around the room. "But I didn't like that quaking either. I think the situation here is becoming unstable."
Ianez looks around worriedly. "I fear the foundation may have been affected. Look at how the floor has shifted. I don't trust this place now--let's get out of here."
"Easier said than done," the librarian says, returning to the room. "I checked the entrance. There's been a cave-in! The entry corridor has collapsed. Huge boulders..." He spreads his arms wide to emphasize the point. "It would take days to dig yourselves out. You cannot leave that way. You're stuck."
De only way out now is through the secret room with the Osirion artifacts. Dey seem like nice folks. I even feel sorry for them a little. But I cannot risk them finding it.
"Given time I should be able to get us out faster than that - but it would still take a day or so. Is there another way?"
"There must be--at the very least, we could attempt to abseil down from one of the windows."
The librarian hedges, shuffles his feet, and appears to be having an internal argument with himself. "Another way? Um...no. No." He drops his head, looking up at you from furrowed brow. The effect is unsettling.
"The monastery windows are high up. They were modified. Narrowed. And in other ways..."
A shadow passes across the whites of his eyes. "No... Sorry. I think we're trapped in here."
I turn to the fire oracle, my back to the man. Don't worry Phoebe, stay calm... don't incinerate that place. I'm sure we can find a way before the fire is uncontrollable.
I give her a wink.
The librarian's eyes flash in disbelief.
Phoebe, please flame on and show the man.
"No! Wait..." Caromarc jumps in quickly.
Blackacre steps forward with Caromarc, and extends a hand toward Sandru. He makes eye contact with the librarian, and his eyes narrow. Now, my good man, I am SURE you can think of at least ONE way out of here. Perhaps a way of which we are not supposed to know? You can rest assured that, if asked, we will not tattle on you.
As he speaks, the inspector steps slowly toward the librarian, keeping his eyes locked on the islander. His stance is firm, not yet aggressive, but to those who have seen his temper it would appear that that could change at any moment.
The building is rocked once again by another tremor.
The librarian in turn narrows his eyes at Blackacre. He glances worriedly in the direction of the cave-in, comes to a hard decision, and turns back to your party. "Best not waste time. Haf ta save our necks. I'll show you another way out."
He leads your party back out to the main hall with the daggers. He approaches his desk, opens a drawer, and retrieves a key inlaid with gold and lapis lazuli, with the bow in the shape of a sphinx. He delivers a swift kick to a lever under the desk. Beneath him, materializing as if from nowhere, a tile on the floor starts to glow bright blue, revealing a ghostly trapdoor. Motes of dust float in the haunting, watery light.
"After me," says the librarian. The tile falls away! Your guide drops through the floor and waves for you to follow.
Under the floor is a hidden mezzanine. The passage is dim. The air is musty and cool. There is plenty of room to stand; even so, the space has a cramped, claustrophobic quality. On one side of the passage, there's an unusual length of wall; it's not gray stone like everywhere else. It is made out of pure unalloyed gold, inscribed with hieroglyphs of palms, crocodiles, jackals, and hawk-headed people. Jewels are embedded in the wall, including rubies, blue sapphires, black star sapphires, alexandrite, aquamarine, carnelian, lapis, moonstone, and tigereye.
The librarian halts at the wall, admiring it reverently. "This chamber was brought and reconstructed straight from Osirion, land of the Pharoahs. Tis where we curate our collection and exhibits on the subject of religion. Sort of like a museum." He points to the wall. "The materials used to build this chamber are impressive, worth a huge fortune. In the room beyond, one sarcophagus has a false back. It opens into a corridor that leads out the back way."
"Let's not waste anymore time."
The monk moves forward towards the sarcophagus and inspects it.
The archaeologist looks longingly around the chamber. I knew they had to have a section on theology! Some other time.... His expression changes from scholarly desire to determination, and he follows the police officer to the sarcophagus.
Blackacre gazes at the wall. Amazing...
After ogling the wall in wonder, he turns to the librarian. The room beyond, you say. I wonder how we are to get into that room...
He rubs his stubbled chin thoughtfully. I am sure it will not be necessary to knock down this gorgeous wall. Might there be some purpose served by that key you removed from your desk?
As he raises an eyebrow at the librarian, he lets out an almost comical Hmm? in a rising pitch.
The monk begins to mutter some arcana words as he enters into the room. His magical senses tells him that this wall is no ordinary wall.
"There is strong magic coming from this wall. Master Caromarc, Lady LaSireene, you are more verse in the acrana. What do you make of this wall?"
"Hmmm?" Caromarc stops studying the mural, casts detect magic and looks again
Ianez also casts detect magic and studies the wall, occasionally commenting on his findings to Caromarc (i.e., Aid Another).
I start to inspect the wall...
The librarian gives a deadpan stare at Blackacre. "This wall is very old. I will tell you a story about it."
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"A long time ago, there lived an Osirion magistrate who was a powerful magic-user, very handsome, and very wealthy. He lived in a big house, and had many wives and concubines. But he was revenge-minded and had a horrible temper. One of his concubines was the fairest woman in all of the land. She walked down to the river every sunset, at the height of the Season of Inundation. She sang lullabies to the green bottle-flies and the cranes.
"One day, a young man happened upon the concubine at the river. He fell in love with her at first sight. He bent to one knee and professed his feelings. She fell in love with him too. For you see, they were soul-mates. They saw each other secretly for a year and a day. At the end of that time, the young man proposed they run away together. But the concubine told him she was pregnant with a child by her husband, and that she wouldn't leave him. Her lover pleaded, but she refused. She told him she wouldn't come to the river anymore or see him ever again.
"The next evening, in despair, the jilted suitor went to the magistrate's house to try and convince the concubine one more time. But the magistrate intercepted him at the door. The suitor told him his purpose. The magistrate flew into a rage, struck him down, and killed him. The concubine was sad when she found out about her lover's demise. But soon she gave birth, and consoled herself in the company of her husband and their infant child.
"Soon afterwards, thieves broke in and attacked the magistrate's house. Many of his wives fled. Some were harmed. But the magistrate gathered his concubine and their child, and retreated to a secret chamber he had created at the center of the house...a room without any doors, that could only be accessed by magically passing through the walls.
"They waited until the robbers had left, and it was safe to leave their hiding place. The concubine left the room, passing through the wall first. But what she didn't know was that her lover, with his last dying breath, had laid a curse on her household. When her husband tried to follow her from the chamber, his hand emerged out the other side of the wall, but the rest of him was stuck. The wall malfunctioned, and he and their child were trapped inside it!
_____________________________
The librarian points to the wall in front of you. "This is that same wall. It's still cursed. There is only one way to enter the chamber. You simply touch the wall and pass through it. However, there is still the possibility of the wall malfunctioning. The only way to guarantee safe passage is to have this key...which is a magic key...in your possession." He waves it. "The key can only pass through the wall once per day. Which means for the purposes of our escape, only one of us gets to use it. Everyone else has to take a risk."
"Of course, the person who gets to use the key is going to be me." A ghostly blue light passes over his features. "Oh, Sandru. You asked my name, but I never told you." He leers, his mouth filled with brown teeth, and gold, and silver. "If you survive this, the only name you need to know is Anaphexia. De one who bested you? A disciple of Norgorber."
In a quick motion, the librarian dashes to the wall!
_____________________________
As a swift action, Ianez invokes his preternatural luck before snatching at the key.
Ianez grabs for the key, but trips over his own boots. Quinn dives for the key, but overreaches and crashes into Ianez. The librarian ducks out of the way. Ianez's attempt to disable the wall is unsuccessful. Even more horrifyingly, he is surrounded by an amber glow and absorbed into the wall!
You are cut off from the rest of the party. You cannot hear them through the wall.
"People! It's his key. Let him through!"
Does Caromarc believe that the MM can try to break the wall, and not be affected? Also, given it takes an hour to make a mutagen, can I assume that when he made his potions MM also made a mutagen? Okay either way.
And yes, you can assume MM made a mutagen.
The Manservant's attempt to disable the magic wall misfires. Amber light flows out of it, encircling him, and sucks him into the wall!