Stella would smile at Anion and takes his hand squeezing it reassuringly and would step foward looking at the book.
"Pleasure to meet you Oscar. It seems you already know our names so I will drop introductions. How may we help you and who is this Lady you speak of?" Seeing her Halo dim she concentrates on it again making it light up. (As per light)
Saturday, the Temple in the Archives, it is approaching noon
Anion is trepidations, but Stella’s smile and Rovasi’s lack of fear are just enough lubricant to ease him closer to the book.
Asbques remains near the wall, some distance away, and Aureth stays back a step or two, unwilling to placate the book’s demands.
The words that appear on the left page of the book fade away and reform rapidly, the text takes on a more casual script.
”Anion, yes, come closer, good. My lady is still quiet. I can only imagine she is determining the proper course of action, so while I wait for her to inform me of what I am to tell you next, I will answer a few of your questions. How’s that? Help, me, well, no I shouldn’t. Promise me you’ll keep it too yourselves, no I can’t ask. Oh, alright. You see, it has been so long since I’ve been closed and opened a few times, and well, the spine, it becomes stiff and it aches so. And I do love to have my pages flipped quickly, if you don’t mind, just make sure you’ve put me back and left me open when you are done. She can become angry if people disturb her things.”
“As to the Lady I speak of, well, she expected you would not know who she is. Behind me is the sarcophagus that was prepared for her when she died, and you now stand in the room specially constructed to ensure that she would not lie there for all eternity. My lady is the Lich baroness it’Dupree MonStropidious, and she is delighted to have the pleasure of your company. She lived four hundred years ago, and died, well, that is a matter of a technical definition of some complexity, but she now resides in a place of deep mystery and…wait, yes, I think she is ready to speak. Please stand by.
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Stella would smiles quite charmed by the book. It was obvious he had been lonely in her mind. Reaching out she ran her fingers over the edges of the pages. When their was a pause in his "speech" Stella would flip through his pages and would open and close him as requested running a finger down his spine along the leather.
Opening him back and putting him back in place she smiles brightly. "The Lich Baroness it'Dupree MonStropidious? Has anyone heard of her?" Wracking her own brain wondering if she had heard it somewhere.
"Oh, she is ready to talk to us? Aureth, Asbques you want me to relay what she says?" She asked them cheerfully. She thought the book was fascinating and wondered how she could make one herself. A book that talked back could be interesting to work with. Not only that as a long distance messenger. Her and Asbques could keep in touch.
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Rovasi looks at the book with excitement and just a tinge of worry.
"Oh, lich, how interesting. All things she must have seen. I wonder what she might want with us.
The book is now "silent" for what seems to be a long time, maybe several minutes to half an hour
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Aureth will pop his head back into the room and say "You guys still messing around with that stupid book? There's a lot more stuff to see!" Then he will go back outside.
when the book senses that Aureth is "leaving" it suddenly springs to life again, with bold words written across the left page, and for the first time, a symbol appears on the right page. The symbol is a plain dark skull
DO NOT LEAVE THE CATACOMBS AT THIS TIME OR YOU WILL SURELY DIE!
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Moving over to the book she glares at it. "Stop being cryptic or I will close you. She chortles a little at the pun.
The warning vanishes in an instant
"My lady wishes for me to inform you,”
Words, in a small innocuous script begin to appear on the page
”that she has become aware of a significant event that has taken place in the city where you live, and that at this time it is most likely that everyone you know, everyone you hold dear to your heart, is dead, or in such a state that they wish they were.”
”An invasion has been undertaken by forces of two great evils in the universe. They have come together for a reason that is unfathomable, but their presence and systematic destruction of the city above you is clear.”
When these words fade there is a long pause
Words, in an elegant script appear,
”Forgive me, I am getting somewhat emotional. Ahem, yes my lady, please go on.”
An image of a powerful and elaborately dressed Goblin Crone appears on the right page
”This is an image of some being calling herself, ‘The Goblin Queen of Korgin Rugg Mearoth’ and she leads an army of tens of thousands of creatures who have invaded the city from the northwest.”
The image fades and is replaced by a repulsive image of a decaying multi-colored dragon like monstrosity that is part zombie and part machine
”This is an image of the Necrodreagonomechadon, a creature not of this world who leads an army of abominations against the natural world. They have appeared simultaneously all over the city. Apparently gated in through the work of spell casters working in secret for no one knows how long.”
”These armies will destroy the city. A powerful spell of eternal darkness has been dropped upon us, and there is nothing I can do to lift it.”
”But, this was once my city, and I will not see it fall. My ability to see through the shroud that has dropped is limited. I cannot be certain there is much, if anything that you children can do. But you must try, and the first thing you must do is find me.”
”I cannot tell you where I am, for this is one of the things that I ensured would provide me with protection. I hid myself, even from myself. But I am here, below the city, somewhere. Within my palace are the tools and the help you will need to drive the Necromechadons back to their universe, and defeat the Goblin Queen.”
”At this time it is unsafe to venture away from these catacombs, which are protected from me and from our enemies by magic more powerful than even I understand. If you are in trouble, try to return to this place, as I believe no one who is not of the right heart and mind can set foot within these chambers.”
”There are watchers, there were watchers, in the city. Powerful creatures with the ability to see through even the strongest illusions. One of these was a guest of the principal of your school. You must wait until I tell you it is safe, and that may be a while, but when it is, you must hurry to find his house, your principal’s house, and talk with the watcher. Maybe she can tell you how to find me.”
”remember, it is always safe here. Nothing that has fallen upon the city can harm you while you are here. Good Luck Children. I look forward to meeting you when you have found me.”
The words fade, and the book is silent.
Stella would read the words out loud to everyone so even those not looking would hear.
Only after she was done did she pause letting the words sink in. "I....if this is true, then this is horrible."
Looking somewhat more ambivalent but conflicted Absques chews her lip in thought.
Aureth is going to start moving down the hall directly south from the entrance to the room the group is currently in.
Looking back. "Aureth, where are you going? I agree we need to do some thing but if it is as she says we are safer down here. Let us go through these rooms and find things that are useful to us."
She looks at Anion. "Can you stay here and tell us if the book talks some more?" Smiles brightly and turns to the others. "Let's start a systematic search together." She knew she had checked out a room by the entrance already. She wondered if he was going into that one or another. Her light was dimming on her halo and she concentrated lighting it back up before heading out to see where Aureth was heading.
"I just wanna see what's down here. It'll be fine."
Stella would smile and blushes slightly. "I, just don't want everyone to seperate to far. We don't know what is down here. Can we stay together for the most part? I don't mind following your lead I just want to stick together."
Saturday, the Temple in the Archives, it is approaching noon
Aureth begins exploring down the southern passageway just outside of the special chamber where the book was found.
Meanwhile, Anion agrees to stay in the chamber and keep an eye on the book and call out if any new messages appear.
Stella follows Aureth, to as far as the intersection outside of the door to the chamber, and wonders if Absquez and Rovasi will follow. Aureth is brave enough to venture some thirty feet away, but it grows dark as he does and he realizes he does not have a light with him.
Rovasi looks over Asbques, "But what if we split up?"
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She looks thoughtfully. "There is something behind this wall. I want to know what."
Aureth will cast light and keep moving.
"Asbques, Rovasi, are you two coming or not? Aureth is moving further away." She called out now stuck between the two groups.
Edit
Stella would follow him knowing her sister would either follow, or like usual keep poking at something out of curiosity. 'It wasn't a bad trait, but it is always interesting to see the results.' Chewing on her lip she kept stopping to look back part of her hoping the other come. This gave Aureth plenty of time to see what had caught his eye.
When Aureth summons a glow of illumination, he sees just a short distance down the passageway ahead of him and there appears to be a chamber that must be some kind of Armory, for he can see weapons and armor reflecting the light.
Being told not to pry was all the encouragment the young teifling needed to do just the opposite. However frustrated with her failure she finally gives up and follows the rest out.
"Alright, I guess we'll do the safe thing. Hey Aureth, you see anything fun up there?" Rovasi will attempt to dash past the others to get to where Aureth is.
"Ummmm.....looks like swords and stuff! We should definitely check it out!"
Stella would follow Aureth as soon as she saw the others coming out following him into the room with the weapons and armor. Looking around she moved through it using her Halo as her light source and would examine some seeing if anything caught her eye. Dusting off pieces if needed.
Saturday, the Armory in the Archives, noon
At first it appears that Aureth has discovered a vast treasury of weapons and armor. He approaches the room carefully, and as he steps down, one step into the room he begins to think differently. Stella follows him and occasionally darts a glance over her shoulder, eventually seeing her sister and Rovasi are following.
The chamber here has a low ceiling, and the walls are also lined with alcove, deep places that are cut laterally in the walls where bodies where once interred, but there are no bodies here now(?)
The chamber is cluttered, but not as badly as you have already seen in other places. There are dozens of displays of suits of armor, each one with one or more paper tags attached in various places. There are tables with small weapons, racks with large weapons, and the alcoves are filled with helmets, shields, and parts of armor, parts of weapons (hafts and heads of various devices).
Unfortunately, as Stella and Aureth look closely, it becomes immediately clear that these are all museum pieces and they are either masterwork reproductions (in materials not suited for their actual use) or in some cases, ancient relics showing rust and wear.
It would hours to examine everything here, but there is a chance something is not exactly what it appears to be on first glance
Looking around the room with a discerning eye the tiefling scoops up a thin looking curio before her eyes alite on a real prize. The shine in her eyes reflects her greed and she's rushes to scoop it up as well.
Rovasi looks the room over. When he see Asbques find a great item, he seems a little disappointed. "Lucky,Looks like you..." he trails off as he sees something. "Well, hello" he says hopping a little to reach it.
Stella searched deeper into the room hearing the others exclaim in delight at something they found. Her eyes scanned various things as she looked for something that suited her fancy.
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Seeing a small bead among the items she dusted it off and picked it up. It looked very familiar and she called out to everyone after using detect magic to see it was magical. "Everyone, I found something of use. I think I recognize it but can someone identify it to be sure."
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Aureth rummages through what appears to be a workshop table and then picks up a wrench, saying "My mom used to have one of these. it turns into tools, like this" Aureth speaks the command word and the wrench turns into a hammer.
"That's cool. I believe this is a campfire bead. I've heard them described and saw one in a shop once. I have not learned how to identify items yet though. Sister, have you found anything. What about you Rovasi?"
Holding up the pearl she smiles as she feels the power thrumming through it. "Just a trinket." Her prevarication doesn't cover her excitement in the least.
Rovasi shows Stella the Snapleaf, "I found this, looks pretty cool. I'm not sure what it does, but it seems useful. Oh wait there's a spell for that."
"So, you figure out what it does?"
Smiling at her sister she shook her head. 'If she is that excited about it, it must be something really nice and gives her an edge.'
Turning she listened in as she looked for anything else useful out of the decrotive items. Surely they had some kind of weapon or armor. Not that armor really helped with casting at all. "If this room has these little treasures, maybe there is more to be found down here."
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Saturday, the Armory in the Archives, after noon
It is not difficult to identify the objects you find, as they are all tagged with a small slip of paper, telling you what they are. Exactly how they work, is a matter of your Knowledge Arcane roll, if you want to take one now, if you roll 10+ (CL required to craft the item), you know how to work the item, and what it does. If you do not have Knowledge Arcane as a skill, maybe a friend can help you out! Alternatively, you can use Detect Magic, Knowledge Arcana, and Spellcraft to decipher the items secrets
Remembers some of the simpler lessons he has learned and casts a spell that he hopes will reveal the secrets of the item he has found. He studies the object, and sees a swirling colored sheen surrounding the object. The color, as he recalls is supposed to be an indicator of the school of magic associated with the enchantments held within the object, and he studies the object more closely.
Rovasi’s spellcraft roll reveals the properties of the Snapleaf to him
It seems as if time has no meaning as the four of you rummage through the rest of the things in this room. There are so many curious objects, each labeled with a a name, and often a few numbers, but even though you are fascinated by the armor and weapons you examine, it becomes evident that most, if not all of these things do, in fact, belong in a museum and are better suited to being on display rather than being put to practical use.
at least an hour passes, and then, while some of you might want to continue examining the objects in this room, some of you are becoming bored
Rovasi gets bored a bit more quickly than the others and stops looking for new things and wanders around the room, hiding under tables trying to scare people. When he runs into Stella he says, "Soooo, should we go check something else out?"
"Yeah, let us go look around some more. I will come back later to look to see if anything is worth salvaging." Smiles and would move with him heading out. "Maybe we can go down the other tunnel. Absques you want to come with?"
"We should keep heading in this direction. We'll prolly find some more neat stuff...hopefully some books!"
Saturday, the Armory in the Archives, after noon
Heading back to the north the party pause and checks in on Anion.
He shakes his head, indicating there has been no new word from the book.
Trudging further to the north the four young students discover another large chamber.
This room is filled with tables, and every table is covered with books stacked no higher than four or five at a time. Why?
Because these books are huge
Each volume is easily twenty inches or more in each dimension and a good four inches thick. The bindings are all of the thickest leather and reinforced with wood. There are perhaps three hundred such books in this room
Stella would look around and see if these large tombs had titles as she looked around and glanced down the hallways, making her halo glow again as it started to die.
There are no titles, either on the covers or on the spines, but as you look more closely, you noticed tiny slips of colored paper occasionally sticking out of the books here and there.
She would touch one of bookmarks and would open the book to that spot to see what it said.
Rovasi wanders around the room looking for something that interests him.