Wading through the room doesn't result in much more to be found, all of the materials focusing on maps and such. Your next destination is one room over, also open at this time and completely waterlogged as well. Above the chamber door lies the sign, Heritage Stacks. Looking at the less drenched titles you see things such as The Genealogy and Heritage of Taldan Royalty during the Shining Crusade. It looks incredibly dry for being so wet.
More interesting is the large sphere of darkness residing in the northern alcove.
"npalatable!” Spat the fat, flesh-fed wyrm
Upon lunching on sons of the judge;
Then he made of the father a rather fine sauce
Thereby showing he bore him no grudge.
|
Sabert follows along behind the others, traipsing from one drowned and sodden room to the next, but very much glad that the door Aura unlocked did not, in fact, conceal a crocodile. However, that still leaves him to wondering where in the nine hells the damn thing may be.. He runs through the list of things so far described and materialized from these scraps of parchment in his head (and to anyone standing nearby): The owl and albatross things, the worm thing, the supposed fox and the giant fish thing.. This is all getting way out of hand!!
Grabbing hold of this latest parchment in his turn, he reads it carefully. "Well.. just imagine what horror this is going to bring about.." he mutters, all trace of his usual fine mood being slowly washed away by the hour and the cold wet of the archives.
|
"Sabert, you're close enough. Would you please lend me your bed roll or cloak so we can keep this covered? Besides, I would hate for you to catch a cold wearing that thing. You are drenched to the bone. I believe the enchantment of my cloak could have unforeseen consequences, or I would use my own, of course."
This book is clearly emanating a darkness effect to Fethril's eyes, but its the material binding the book that is less obvious. It's cured leather, but it has a smoothness unlike domesticated animals of any sort. In fact...this feels like humanoid skin, but its difficult to tell through without looking at it properly.
James and Kelris give a massive shove, Sabert doing his best to help, and push the door open, letting a great flood of water come out of the room to join the water already in the hallways.
A thin waterfall drops from a grate in the ceiling fifteen feet above, creating a curtain in the doorway to this flooded room. Beyond, mounted animal heads glower from virtually every inch of every wall. Stuffed specimens also lurk beneath the dark water, their antlers, horns, and claws breaking the surface here and there. In the eastern corner, a large gilded cage sits mostly submerged, its waters thick with embalmed birds bobbing at the surface.
Inside the cage is a rather beat-up and nearly toothless Virml, the hapless Pathfinder who caused this mess. Floating around the cage are two tiny and deranged looking fairies, each wielding pliers and attempting to take the last of Virml's teeth. Seated atop a stuffed gorgon head is a third fairy, this one with green skin and webbed hands and feet. Crammed into its maw are all of the teeth taken from Virml, which it gnashes viciously at the man now and again.
"Lady Gormandelle!" one of the tiny fairies cries. "We found more gifts for you!" You realize the fey creature is pointing at you...
Aura's dagger whips just above the green skinned fey and clangs off the stonework before falling into the water with a splash.
The creature doesn't appreciate that and makes arcane gestures while looking in the elf's direction.
Kelris wades through the water and swings down hard with his halberd, crushing its tiny body and killing it instantly.
James cuts down Lady Gormandelle, leaving her a bleeding wreck floating in the water. The final tooth fairy screams in fear and looks ready to fly out the door.
Sabert takes aim and fires his bolt scraping along the tooth fairy as it heads towards the door.
Virml looks despondent, wet, sore, though much happier now that he's not being tortured.
Virml has a terrible case of mush-mouth, partially because of the beatings, partially because most of his teeth are missing. He describes coming to the underflow archives to find some information on the fey when he read a riddle and released a fox-man.
He must have been a magic user because Virml found himself unable to look away from the kitsune's glorious mustache. The fox-man kept muttering about getting a rematch while finding tomes on the fey. When he had found what he needed he trapped Virml in the cage and used a scrap of parchment to summon these creatures as everything started flooding.
He expresses his gratitude, as well as he can anyway, for saving him from a watery death and promises to make it up to you when he can.
The fairy releases a little "ugh!" before falling into the mire.
|
"If we split up, we should move in even groups. Sabert and I can stay here and look for the rest of the poem, and you three go find the fox creature. Vimrl, can you show us the books the Kitsune was looking at?"
As she says what she does, Aura purposely turns her back on Vimrl to face the others and uses pathfinder hand cant to indicate that *this* Vimrl might be the kitsune.
Virml indicates that the Kitsune took all of his materials with him for study.
|
|
Sabert blushes as the team argues about who gets him in their group, and he finally steps forward. "As flattered as I am, I fear I must support Fethril in this claim. I would hate for something to happen to one group because they ran into something that was able to overpower them. We all have our skills and specialties.. but we work best as a team rather than individuals. As for where we should go, I think we should continue to look for the poems. We were told that this is the only way to bind the creature.. if this is true, confronting it without the poem sounds like folly!"
The group makes one last pass through the overflow archive understacks. With scattered parchment and books everywhere searching is difficult. Unfortunately you don't find any more scraps of parchment similar to the four you already have. Your final searching place down here is where you found Virml in a cage. You quickly review where you got the first four pieces. The first was given by the Virml from upstairs, the second retrieved from the owl headed fey after beating them in combat, the third found stuck to the door of this room with a dagger, and your most recent found floating in one of the rooms. Yet it seems there are no more to be found down here, despite your best searching.