Elizar's form wiggles and shudders under the axe blow. He wails in pain, then lets out a mournful sob.
His howl is cut off as his body loses all form, falling to the ground in a slippery, liquid, mess.
Elizar is no more.
Ashlyn lets out a whimper. "Elizar..?"
She concentrates really hard, then shakes her head.
She waggles her finger at the skum. "Don't pick on him! He's been through enough!"
Jenner curses the treacherous footing, but blinks when Elizar is No More. "Thank the bloody gods," he mutters into his beard before saying more loudly, "Ashlyn, now, I know this must be a difficult time for you, but ultimately, you'll be better off--"
His further attempts at offering somewhat uninformed Advice are cut off by the need to focus on his attack.
Jenner lashes out, landing a solid blow! The skum turns in shock, clutching its chest as the axe falls from its hand.
The skum sinks slowly to the floor...
Searching the skum's body locates his magical axe, which is clearly a relic of times gone by, as well as a potion of cure light wounds and a set of four different keys.
The central part of the room is walled off, the door bears a plaque saying:
There is an elaborate lock, with the key in it, and the door is unlocked.
The majority of the actual books have disintegrated over time, although a set of three paper tomes and two etched plates have survived remarkably well. (Examination under detect magic shows that they have all been treated with an unguent of timelessness.) They appear to be treatises on ioun stones and how to integrate them into weapons and even into buildings through a structure called a 'matrix'.
The only other thing of interest is a clockwork bust of a woman's head, with a small slot in the center of its forehead. Next to the bust lies a small blue gem.
----------------------------
Sarine lets out a sigh of relief as the skum falls, clearly tired from their battles so far. "Good work, Jenner. Hopefully that was their last guard. Now let's see what we can find around here...something has to explain all of this."
As their search of the room begins, Sarine translates the wording on the plaque for those that can't read Azlanti, "It says 'Lower Level Tank and Observation Deck'. I wonder what they were observing?"
"That's interesting," Sarine states as she picks up the blue gem. "This gem holds a recording of some sort. Maybe the bust will tell us what it says?"
Ashlyn looks very upset. As Jenner kills the monster she looks around.... When she's sure it's safe she whispers something to herself.
"Oh, no need to worry, Jenner. Elizar's died plenty. I can bring him back tomorrow. It's just... strange being alone." She chuckles. "Well, I'm not alone, alone. I'm with all of you. But Elizar's always with me, you know? Even if you can't see him, I can hear him. But when he dies again, he goes quiet for a time. It's... odd. Quiet."
She sighs deeply, then looks around.
When she sees the magical objects she concentrates... Then frowns... "Elizar what do you think this-- Oh. Right. Never mind." Ashlyn blushes. "I'll ask him tomorrow..."
At Sarine's words Ashlyn smiles. "Good idea." She tries to put the blue gem into the bust.
"Yes, he is very noisy," Aurelian agrees. "Aurelian can barely get a word in edgewise when he is here, crying like he is a girl whose boyfriend is more interested in Aurelian than in her..."
He waits to see what the pretty stone head says.
"....this... is a fine axe," Jenner says of the one the skum had wielded, obviously charmed by it. "Look how she shines. Maybe Evie will know what spells are on it."
One can almost chart the expressions that flit across Jenner's open face as Ashlyn says that Elizar will, in fact, be back. Surprise segues to disappointment and then to a forced cheerful smile.
"Ah... well... ah... that's... good-- oh, yes, let's see what happens with that little rock, ha!"
Once inserted into the head the gem glows brightly before the statue speaks in the long-lost language of Azlant.
The recording goes on to explain that the spy that was recently captured was not, in fact, an elf as originally thought. Unable to determine his race, and since he was both resourceful and dangerous he was imprisoned in temporal stasis until a decision about his fate could be made.
The recording also contains the musings of an apparently senior member of the Spindle Solution, musing that this spy might be linked to the 'Veiled Masters' which the Solution had recently discovered as some sort of previously unknown aquatic race, attempting to control the Azlanti. The speaker notes however that the general public remain unaware of this and speaks of 'securing the prisoner even more firmly, to avoid an escape and public panic'.
With that, the room seems to have exhausted all its secrets (unless you want to take the books).
Ashlyn translates what the statue says for everyone, then points at the doors. "Let's check it out."
Aurelian nods -- "Maybe we will find this spy here?" he suggests -- and proceeds through the doors Ashlyn pointed out.
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"It doesn't seem like this place was a prison, though. More like a study facility. Those Masked Ones that it mentioned...could that be these creatures we've been fighting? They're very...fishy."
Inside the doors is an octagonal walkway, softly illuminated and surrounding another chamber with transparent walls and apparently full of water. This cistern or tank appears to extend up into the next floor, although there is a stone ceiling 15 feet above the walkway on which you stand. On the east side of the tank is a transparent door, complete with opaque handle.
Aurelian looks around.
"Perhaps they liked to swim?" he muses. "Or had a dedicated drinking source?"
He looks around, nonplussed at the lack of challenge in the room.
Nothing dares the wrath of Aurelian Fache as the room remains boring and uninteresting...
"If those fish folk we've been fighting are the ones being talked about, then they've been here a damned long time, I'd think. Or maybe it's the descendants..... I dunno. Damn, these tanks give me the creeps. D'you suppose the fish folk stayed in them when not trying to kill us?"
Jenner detects magic on the door and the tanks, but is ready to follow Aurelian through the odd doorway if nothing pings.
"It sure seems like these creatures might be the sort the Azlanti were talking about. The Azlant lived so long ago though...almost anything could be different. The tanks don't seem to be in use though."
Finding nothing in the tank, Ashlyn shrugs. "I don't see anything. Let's head up to the next level."
Aurelian shrugs.
"We may as well look in the tank," he says, opening the door.
Opening the tank door does nothing. The water stays within the confines of the tank, clearly held there by some magical means. The tank extends up to the next level but with no guarantee of an exit on the next level it seems a dangerous path to follow.
Moving up the ramp once again the group reaches an almost entirely open level. The center of the chamber is dominated by the vast tank of water that you investigated on the lower floor.
However, next to the tank is a smaller, also transparent, chamber with a small door. This one contains no water however and a blanket is hung casually over the open door. Nearby are some damp looking blankets and the remains of a meal.
Standing in front of it are two figures, one heavy-set older man with grizzled grey hair wearing a breastplate that was once fine but now is pitted and hard-used. The other is a woman, with lank red hair, and she speaks first, waving the man down from his posture of alert defensiveness.
"Have you killed the skum downstairs? Are we free?" She asks in slightly thick tones, as though she has a bad cold.
"Yes, Aurelian Fache and his friends have killed it," Aurelian replies. "But who are you?"
"I'm Eliza, and this is Rayland. We're settlers, from Andoran. We came to found a new colony on the island. I'm a historian and Raymond was the colonies leader. When I discovered this place I told him and we came to see it together. But we must have set off some sort of alarm, by the time we got up here that huge skum warrior had woken up - we managed to hide but we've been stuck here for..." She pauses, looking distressed. "I don't know how long..."
Then her face brightens. "But if you've killed him then we can go!" She smiles at Aurelian and then seems to realise something. "But who are you?"
"I am Aurelian Fache, swordsman par excellance. We are also settlers, from Andoran. It is good that we found you, for the rest of your colonists have disappeared. Perhaps you can tell us what happened?"
That letter Jenner found, it said to trust Eliza...
Ashlyn smiles. "Oh, good news at last! Thank goodness you're alright. I'm Ashlyn! And this is -- " Suddenly she stops and looks a little sad. "Well, usually my friend Elizar is with me but he's too hurt to come out right now." Ashlyn smiles again and continues. "When we arrived there was no one left at the colony at all! And then we found such ominous letters and..." Ashlyn pauses, not entirely sure if she has said something she shouldn't have. "And now we've found you!"
With a bright smile she asks, "Do either either one of you happen to know what became of Silas? He killed your priest and the poor fellow is terribly upset at being dead. He could really use some closure." Ashlyn nods as if she understands exactly how he feels.
Ashlyn points at Rayland. "Oh! You're Rayland! Leader of the colony, yes?" She grins widely. "I'm so glad I've found you! I've been speaking with Silas, and he's really upset you murdered him. He's terribly unhappy about being dead. He could really use some closure." Ashlyn nods as if she understands exactly how he feels.
Aurelian's jaw drops as he looks over at Ashlyn.
That ... was not subtle. She is like a hammer when she should be a slicing razor.
He lets his hand drift to his blade's hilt, just in case he's forced to draw against the possible murderer.
Despite Ashlyn's spectacular lack of subtlety Rayland barely seems to react, simply looking at the young woman and giving a grunt that might be acknowledgement.
"Oh that's terrible!" Eliza exclaims, "Silas is dead? And thinks Rayland killed him? Well I'm sure that's just not true! You'd never do something like that, would you Rayland?"
He simply grunts again.
"Oh, Silas was quite certain." Ashlyn smiles, then looks at Rayland with a worried look. "Wow, you aren't reacting right at all! What's wrong with you?"
As Ashlyn's accusations begin, the questions that Sarine was going to ask die on her lips. She had been trying to forget about the ghost she'd fled from at their arrival on the island. We'll have to resolve this somehow now that she's brought it up, though...
Aurelian looks at Ashlyn and then back to Rayland.
She may be right. When Aurelian Fache kills a man, he lets everyone know, because of course that man must have deserved it. If Aurelian Fache were ever accused of killing a man he did not, he would deny it, because he does not need credit for people other people have killed.
"Can you not talk?" he asks, an easier question for the previous colony's leader.
Rayland speaks in a slow and immensely hoarse voice, each word coming slowly.
"I can speak. Will help Silas, when home."
Eliza turns back to the group. "This confinement has been very hard on him, I'm sure you can understand. After we were captured it's been difficult for both of us. I coped by talking too much." She gives a rueful smile. "Rayland didn't talk at all... We rather got used to it."
Aurelian's suspicions remains.
"How long did you say you were here then?"
"We got trapped by the skum." Eliza says, her face twisting somewhat. "I don't know how long it's been really - there's no way time of telling time up here!" She gestures expansively at the complete lack of windows.
"I just want to get outside and see the sky again!"
"This is very monstrous!" Aurelian Fache says, looking around at the others meaningfully and making no move to head for the exit.
"Oh, my!" she exclaims.
"Let's leave this place," says Sarine. "Being in here isn't doing any of us any good." She pauses for a moment, however. "What is in that tank, though? We should complete our investigation before we leave."
"I don't know." Eliza says. "When I first came here it was closed but when I tried to open it some sort of alarm went off, that's what started this whole mess."
It is a children's book, and the monster was defeated by the hero in a game of cards very similar to Last Azlant, where Aethagarn out cheated the beast so...
Ashlyn snaps her fingers. "Oh! It reminds me of that book I read once! It had lovely pictures!" Ashlyn smiles. "Did either of you happen to ingest any strange blood?"
After waiting for their answer, she asks, "Would you mind if I fully submerge you in water? I'm curious if you can breath it." She smiles, apparently thinking this is a perfectly normal thing to ask a person.
This is a silly question, Aurelian thinks. Even Aurelian Fache cannot breath water.
Aloud, he merely mutters to Sarine.
"Did you not hear how Aurelian Fache thinks what happened to these people is?"
He tries to emphasize monstrous a little bit more for her benefit.
She is a good swordswoman, if not very refined, but ... perhaps this is not a good idea?
"Yes, Aurelian. I noticed. The butchered man downstairs was a good clue," Sarine says as she brushes him off before turning to her object of interest.
"If that tank is alarmed there must be something valuable in it. We should find out what that is," she says as she moves to tear the blanket covering the tank away.
Jenner looks back and forth between the ... colonists... and his fellow teammates...
"Aye.... monstrous deeds afoot," he mutters into his beard. "I say we get these poor folk back out into the sun, as they've been long from it, and you likely need rest as well, folks, a long hard rest... where it's safe. Have you been hurt at all?"
He divides his gaze between the water and the two colonists, watching for any signs of danger.
As Sarine whisks the blanket from the tank a glowing symbol is revealed which pulses with a sickly green light. Both Eliza and Rayland blur slightly, two identical copies stepping in and out of each other as Rayland draws his sword and Eliza shrieks. "Fools! Now you die for the master!"
Rayland steps up and unleashes a barrage of strikes at Sarine with his longsword and his heavy spiked shield!