The library seemed to be the best hope to find their secondary quest, "I'm in the mood to do some reading. Shall we make our way to the library, lord knight?" She eyed the kobolds over her shoulder. It would be a shame if they had to dispose of the critters.
The kobolds seemed to pay you no mind as you left them behind, apparently satisfied that their Fire Speaker has seen you. The library door, old as it is, appears to be stuck shut, probably due to swelling from the surrounding moisture.
Nori steps aside, fully expecting the knight to handle this challenge.
Sleggar eyes up the door, produces his prybar and takes 10
Child's play Nori. No amount of moist wood can keep me out of a library. i wonder if they have any interesting texts on the diabolical in here.
No stranger to libraries, despite his muscles Sleggar was actually something of a scholar, Sleggar tries to get a feel for the organization of the books to see if anything interesting might be kept.
Sleggar easily pushes the moldy door aside, as if it wasn't even there. As you enter, the musty smell of old wet paper assaults your noses. Three rounded alcoves in this chamber contain the rotting remains of scroll shelves, honeycombing from floor to ceiling. Scattered amid the compromised shelving are damaged scrolls, and a number of still-sealed scroll tubes. A glimmering trickle of water seeps down from the ceiling in the northwest corner of the room. You torchlight flickers a bit and then goes out. Sleggar lights the next one and also notices that as the room lights up again, the northeast corner wall is nothing but rubble and with a bit of work, you could probably go into the next room. Maurit's map says nothing of what could be in there.
Sleggars puts on his work gloves, shrugs, and begins moving rubble.
Nori glances at Sleggar out of the corner of her eye, letting the big man go to work. She busies herself peering over the sealed scroll tubes, looking for any kind of marking or signet seal.
Nori glances through the undamaged scrolls and notes that at least a dozen of them have the markings of House Damask, the House that the Qadiran man said he belonged to. While she marvels over her find, Sleggar digs through some of the rubble and as he does so, he notices a very bright light shining through from the other side. The more he digs, the brighter the light gets and it seems to be moving towards him...
Noir snatches up the scrolls and spins around to cheer at Sleggar, "I found them...!" she starts to exclaim until she sees him illuminated by something on the other side.
Sleggar looks at Nori puzzled Found some what? Some...trouble? Oh the thingy we were sent for, I almost forgot.
As Sleggar turns back and confronts the light he looses his whip What the hell is going on ?
As Sleggar clears more rubble, whatever the source of the light is helps him with the last of it, a big pile of it being brushed aside as whatever it is moves towards you.
Once the rubble is clear, Sleggar finds that whether his eyes are open or closed, all he can see is bright light. Nori is able to shield her eyes quick enough and just past the light she can see some sort of creature moving towards Sleggar.
"Sleggar!" She cries as she sees the danger in the light. Nori leaps in and grabs the knight, attempting to pull him away from danger.
Nori runs up and grabs Sleggar, moving him behind her. He lashes around for a moment, unable to see. Drawing his mace, he swings it in a wide arc, but fails to hit anything.
The creature moves up towards Nori and attempts to grab her. As she struggles, her eyes meet the creature's and she too sees her vision fading into a cloud of white light. Just before it does, she notices several kobolds watching from behind her...
Nori attempts to wrest herself free from the creatures hold despite her new impediment.
Sleggar will use his whip to try and grab onto a point behind him and walk away from the source of light to try and regain use of his eyes.
Nori struggles against the creature but its grip is powerful and she is unable to make any headway with it.
Sleggar feels for his whip and draws it up, snapping it in a direction in the hopes of grabbing on to something. It catches, but as he pulls, he is not sure what it is he has caught on to.
Nori hears the sound of something hitting the creature as it growls in pain. Its anger squeezes her tight, limiting her movement further.
Sleggar continues to walk in the direction of his whip and feels for some clue as to his surroundings.
Nori continues to struggle. She attempts to slip free, twisting her body in which ever way that she can to try and escape from the obscured attacker.
Nori can't seem to get away from the creature. It has her wrapped up tight.
Sleggar makes his way along following his whip. He feels nothing around him until he kicks over something that clangs on the floor.
Nori feels herself being dragged away somewhere...
NORI Where are you!? Sleggar will shout while lifting whatever he knocked over about his head, ready run toward her voice.
Nori cries from the floor, "I'm here! Not like it helps!" She continued to struggle, kicking at her attacker.
Sleggar runs toward the sound of Noris voice, ready to bash whatever he runs into with whatever he is holding
Nori continues to attempt to escape from the creature's grasp to no avail. Sleggar picks up the item his foot kicked, a cylindrical wooden thing that has a good heft to it. With his new weapon in hand, he moves as fast as his blind eyes will let him, occasionally tripping over the rubble on the ground. His head turns as a sound whips past his ear. Both he and Nori hear an object hit something, flesh maybe, and then suddenly Nori is freed from the clutches of the creature. Not long after, she feels a clawed hand touch her gently as it speaks.
"We know you not really want give Fire Speaker this home. This our home. He take from us. We help you with creature. You help us with Fire Speaker. Yes?"
Sleggar hears this as well, but neither of them can see who is speaking.
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Nori twitches as the thing caresses her cheek. Unable to see, she is at its mercy for the moment, "And who are you? What do you want with this place?"
Sleggar will grunt and say "We are..you are... what's going on?"
"Tarka I am called. We, our tribe, lived here long after place destroyed. No one comes to claim. We take, make home. Then, Fire Speaker come. He make us do dangerous things. Tempt city people to come out. Cause trouble. We don't want trouble, only to live here. "
Nori listens to the tone of voice. She was no good at lie detection, but maybe there'd be a hint...
...and as far as she could tell, it was telling the truth.
"So you want us to do your dirty work?" Nori snickered. She hoped to keep the thing talking while her vision returned...and fished a shuriken out of her clothes as subtly as possible.
If Tarka noticed the shuriken draw, Nori has no idea. "We are simply not strong enough when he can make fire come from the statue. You can see past his lies. You are strong. We can take you to safe place to rest until your sight returns, then we can take back our home."
Sleggar shrugs. Politics as usual were nothing too new to him How do we know you didnt sick that thing on us just so we would be endebted enough to you to agree to this?
It is difficult to tell what kind of face the creature is making since he cannot see at the moment, but if the creature speaking was human, Sleggar would sense a change in her tone. Tarka is a kobold however. "We admit we knew of the creature, but it is not ours to command. If you will not help us, we will show you the way out, but warn to not send others. Fire Speaker may not be so welcoming of them."
Nori listens to the exchange, "Whats in it for us anyway? What do we care who rules this place?
"If Fire Speaker has his way, he will make tribe strong and send to fight tribe in city. Once they are defeated, he will want to fight surface dwellers next. We want strong tribe, but only to protect self. We no have quarrel with other tribe. Or you." Tarka makes a sound that only a kobold could truly understand. "Your sight should return within the hour. This place of writing is only safe for the moment. We must return to his side so he not question us. If you wish to help, we will be ready. If not, the marks on the walls will lead you out, but I beg do not return if you leave."
With that, you hear the sounds of her and a few others leave, like the raking of claws on the flagstone. You also think you hear them dragging something...
Balls. That does sound like something the society would have interest in Nori. They tend to like having access to ruins like these. Fiine, fine. Let's just get it over with Sleggar says grumblingly
Nori lays there on the cool stone floor, not bothering to climb to her feet until her vision returned, "Aye... favors with the Society would be required if we intend to climb in their ranks."
Sleggar gives nori a stare as his vision returns So back to kill Fire-Speaker then?
Probably another half hour or so passes as your vision slowly returns. Unfortunately, all Sleggar can see is the slight glow of fungus growing on the walls of the library. Nori can see a bit more as her reptilian eyes adapt to the darkness. At the moment, the two of you are alone in the room. The rubble to the east has been mostly cleared and other than a slight drip of water, you hear nothing in the immediate area.
Nori peers around, rubbing at her eyes as the vision returns. A thought occurs to her and she stands. She examines the area that Sleggar had been digging and where the creature had come from. What had they taken?
It appears to Nori that all of her gear is intact, but the thing she does notice out of the ordinary is that the body of the creature is no where to be found.
Nori shrugs and secures the scroll case. She glances to Sleggar and begins to head back the way they came, "so how shall we approach this contract then?"
Sleggar shrugs Well, we have been down to Fire-speakers lair so we have a decent idea of his numbers but going about this 2 versus that, what like 10? That doesn't seem smart.
Sleggar appears to consider his options for a long moment before continuing Those little creatures seemed to have a plan. Perhaps we should reach out to them somehow. Perhaps draw something? I have a knack for linguistics, might be able to disguise a message for them with my chalk on these stone floors. I will tell them to meet us back here when they get a chance, until then I say we recuperate.
In the dim light, Sleggar does what he can with some of the surrounding rubble to make a symbol he thinks the kobolds will understand. It takes some time for them to respond, you have heard movement throughout the area, but nothing ventured close enough to see. You have probably cleaned your armor ten times by the time Tarka comes in the room.
She steps in as Nori puts the last of the scrolls you have collected into your bags. Again.
"I trust your vision has returned? Your symbol here on the floor was reported to me by the others. Though it is crude, we understand you wish to speak? I thought our agreement was clear. You help us kill Fire Speaker, we leave city alone."
Nori crosses her arms, "Oh it was clear. What wasn't clear was how we're supposed to slaughter almost a dozen creatures wholesale just the two of us." She paced the room, slowly circling Tarka, "We figure you've been around this place for a long time and know its ins and outs. Surely you have a plan on how to eliminate your competition."
The kobold's ears flare back, as if you had offended her. "The others of my kind will not hinder your fight against the Fire Speaker. They are loyal to me and only await the Fire Speaker and his reign to be brought to an end." She pauses, knowing the predatory look in Nori's eyes too well. "Once he realizes we have betrayed him, the Fire Speaker will engage us in the fight as well. We will fight to defend ourselves. Other than his magic, you need only worry about the statue he commands. The flames from it have claimed many who disappointed him."
Sleggar nods slowly trying to appear as deliberate as possible So this would be us fighting just the Fire Speaker? Tell us, when is he most likely to be alone? We will ambush him at that time.
Tarka nods. "A wise idea. He is rarely alone, but there are some moments when he retires to his chamber to rest. Usually in the morning time. He begins his rest by praying to the flames. That would be best time. "
Nori nodded, "I may be able to sneak into position and take him out silently. My blood and blade should do the trick. If not, I will draw him to you Sleggar." She drew her sword, "How long until morning?
Tarka says, "Sun comes up in a few hours. We can keep safe if you wish to rest for the night."
Sleg gives a solemn nod. Assassination was a new one.]
Do it to it