The Voiceless Presents: Library of the Lion (Inactive)

Game Master Peter Maidens

”Unfortunately, since the loss of my sight, I have had trouble keeping track of where each particular book is stored. But this room contains some of the most valuable books that the Collegium owns, so it is most likely that occult knowledge such as that which you are seeking would be stored here.”

"Now that's even odder... I can't see any magical auras within the bookshelf at all. It must be something more mundane... Well, let's see what we can find." As Vors begins his low, meticulous search for traps, Tessara follows behind, searching in each shelf he clears as safe.

Knowledge (history): 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (16) + 8 = 24

"This looks like it may be helpful... it's not about the shadow fey themselves, but a war relic of Zobeck's past that may be a useful force multiplier." Tessara copies down the relevant information onto her own papers, then resumes her search.

I'd like to try to use that clue again, that will give me another text or clue if there's one left in the room.

S-shadow fey? Uh,o*uurp*h,my. That sounds kinda outta our depth.Stenne scratched at her chest,uncomfortable at the mention of the dark fey.

Tessara gives Stenne a puzzled look, concerned that she might have had a bit too much to drink... but on glancing back down, spots another promising text! "Indeed it is, but we must do our best to gather what we can on them nonetheless... and this looks quite a bit more useful."

Hurriedly copying the information on shadow fey society, Tessara calls out across the room to the others, "George, Cavasin, any luck?" I've found a couple of valuable tidbits over here."

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Know.Religion: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (18) + 4 = 22

Cavasin is stirred from a dusty old tome that caught his eye with its embossing of a holy symbol on the spine. "Oh, sorry. I think I might have found something here? I'm not sure, I'm just parsing the information within."

While Tessara and Cavasin study their findings, Vors searches the room for any on topic books.
Perception: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (12) + 5 = 17

As Iliyana finishes unlocking the last shelf, she approaches the cabinet with the books she thinks might be of interest. ”This is the last shelf. Have you decided wether you would like me to open it?”

Vors turns to the party. "I believe our search would be incomplete without inspecting that shelf. What do you think?"

"I agree. Whatever might be the source of that strange breeze, I'm sure without any magic behind it, it wouldn't be a danger to us. Probably just a cracked ventilation shaft."

"I suspect the same, noble elf. Tis worth investigating. It could even lead to other environs. Iliyana, please do."

Cavasin finally pulls his interest away from the spiritual text, then returns it to the shelf. "Apologies, I can't see this being useful to the task at hand, now that I've had a chance to peruse it."

The priest saunters over to the others inspecting the breeze.

"Very well. I too am quite interested with the content of this shelf, I have never opened it."

Hey guys, I will be making another post later tonight. Got half way through it then got interrupted with an all day event. Hang tight.

Iliyana walks over to the shelf and removes the keys from her pocket. She puts the keys into the keyhole and turns it. You hear a small click as the lock turns. Placing both hands on the glass doors of the shelf, Iliyana opens the shelf, exposing the books within to fresh air for the first time in decades.

Then, suddenly, the books take on a life of their own. As the doors open, the covers fall away from the books, and the pages take to the air in what sounds like a waterfall.

Initiative rolls
Cavasin: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (6) + 1 = 7
Vors: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12
Iliyana: 1d20 ⇒ 4
Tessara: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 2 = 18
Stenne: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Prince: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7
Books Swarm: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (1) + 1 = 2

Turn order
Everyone!
Iliyana
Book Swarm

Surprise Round
The books erupt from the cabinet and engulf the area in front of the cabinet (10 foot square). Iliyana, Vars, and Tessara are caught in the swarm. The swarm engulfs them, the flapping wings of the pages slice into their skin leaving deep crimson gashes.

Iliyana, Vars, and Tessara take:
Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 5 And bleed for 1 damage at the beginning of your turn until you succeed at a DC15 Heal check.

Everyone may now act!
Also, Iliyana, Tessara, and Vors get an extra attack of opportunity as the swarm enters their space if they choose to use it.

Having no means to fight a swarm and seriously wounded Vors must retreat. He runs to the exit. "If you have no means to fight this, flee!"
He attends his wounds heal: 1d20 ⇒ 1

do we have a map with tokens?

Reacting to the flurry of activity, Cavasin takes a moment to scan the room with his eyes.

Are there any lit torches in the room, or sconces, braziers? Any source of fire?

Vors: Yes, map is in Roll 20. I have moved your character Vors. You actually made it out of the room into the hallway.

Cavasin: There isn't much for light in this room. It is kept fairly dark to preserve the books. The closest source of light is coming from out in the hallway, but you are not sure if the wall sconces would light anything on fire, since they are clearly magical in nature.

1d20 ⇒ 17
1d8 ⇒ 1

Stenne stopped the reflexive reach for one of her bombs due to the fact she doubted fire or ale would be justified in such close quarters with allies and she doubted using on valuable books would be easy to clean up. She wasn't supposed to even be here!

Instead,she struck out with her Morningstar,smacking at the fluttering tomes.

Oi,is it a good idea to use flame in a library. I've got bombs but it could turn into a conflagration that engulfs the entire place!she warned.

Cavasin braces himself, then grunts out; "Blade or blunt, our weapons likely won't fare well against a flittering mass of seemingly sentient papers! What are we to do!?" his tone is certainly heightened, but far from panicked.

Momentarily stunned by the avalanche of paper, it takes a moment for Tessara to realize that the pages are animated! Staggering back out of their reach, she tries to stop her bleeding by putting pressure on her worst of her cuts. "What on Golarion..." she gasps, blood soaking into the darkening satin of her gown.

Heal check to stop the bleeding: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (17) + 1 = 18

Knowledge (arcana) to identify the entity: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (9) + 8 = 17

"Cavasin, help..." the elf murmurs, starting to wobble from the blood loss.

I'm not sure if the swarm threatens. If it does, she only takes a 5' step out of it (as the map now shows); if not, she retreats out the door, to just beside Vors.

Also not sure if she rolled the right knowledge check, if a different one applies please let me know.

And what kind of action is the Heal check to stop her bleeding? If it's a swift or free action, she'll also draw her sword after she moves.

Tessara: The swarm doesn't threaten, so I will move you out of the room. The heal check is a standard action.

Cavasin: did you want to take any particular action or just talking?

Prince: You there? I will give you until tomorrow to make a post. If there isn't a post tomorrow morning, then I will take over control until you reappear.

Cavasin rushes to the aid of the swarmed-upon Vors and Tessara, then spontaneously casts cure light wounds on the caster.

He gives a pained look to Vors. "Ladies first and all, but it's more that her magicks may turn the tide in our favour..."

Healing: 1d8 + 1 ⇒ (3) + 1 = 4

Move: moving NE, then SE
Standard: casts cure light wounds

"Understood, you are correct, priest."

Cavasin: did you staying in the room or going out into the hallway with Tessara and Vors?

OK, it looks like I will be playing Prince for a little bit.
Prince:
Seeing the mass of papers flying out of the shelves and then everyone start running for the door, Magniventris flees towards the door as well. ”Ah! Don’t leave me in here alone!” Magniventris takes up a position so that Tessara is between him and the door. ”What do we do?”

"Iliyana! Get out of there now!" Vors readies himself to close the door when all are safely out of the room.

Moving one space up-and-to-the-right, then one space down-and-to-the-right. (NE, SE = northeast, southeast) Hope that clarifies.

Iliyana screams as the pages come flying out of the cabinet, covering her with cuts. Covering her head as best she can, Iliyana starts running for the door. ”Oh gods…” she mutters under her breath as she runs.

Seeing the damage wrought by the animated books upon those present,Stenne sucked her teeth.Oi,get clear! Looks like its time for some open flame.

Stenne reached into her apron and withdrew a small glass bottle,squeezing it to infuse it with an arcane spark to turn the dormant chemicals into a volatile bomb.

She retreated as far as she dared,gauging where she'd maximize the area of effect against the swarm and minimized the splash to her allies.

1d20 + 3 ⇒ (12) + 3 = 15Attack
1d6 + 3 ⇒ (4) + 3 = 7Fire Dmg,Splash DC13

Breathing a sigh of relief as Cavasin's magic seals up many of her smaller cuts, and helps knit together the larger ones, Tessara lifts an arm reflexively to shield herself from the blast of flame. Still, she watches closely to see if Stenne's morningstar or bomb do any real damage to the mass, before deciding how to act.

Reflex save if she's in the splash zone: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7

Does Tess know anything at all about book swarms, or even swarms in general? Immunities or resistances in particular?

Stenne, I think you used two standard actions, the first time hitting them with your mace, the second time throwing the bomb. Luckily, you get an attack of opportunity when it moves into your space, so I will say that the mace attack is that attack of opportunity and your bomb throw happened first right after everyone moved out of the way (I assume you wouldn’t throw a bomb at your own feet).

Tessara: Well, you are about to learn that they are susceptible to fire. But so is the rest of the library. You would probably also know that piercing isn’t going to do much to them. I would guess you had a basic understanding of swarms in general. As far as the “book” part of the swarm, you know that they aren’t magical. How else can you animate something?…

Book Swarm:
As the party runs for the door, the swarm of pages moves following the group and surrounds Stenne, slicing into her.

Damage: 1d6 ⇒ 1 And bleed for 1 damage at the beginning of your turn until you succeed at a DC15 Heal check.

Round Recap:
The group runs out the door, leaving only Stene standing in the room. Fearlessly, Stenne throws a bomb towards the swarm, dealing a significant amount of damage; many of the pages explode into flame and fall to the floor smoldering. (You can tell that the bomb did more damage than it would have had the swarm not been made of paper.) As the flaming pages fall to the floor, the swarm envelops Stenne, who takes a swing at it with her mace, destroying a few pages in the process. The pages of the swarm dig into Stenne’s flesh as the pass.

New round! Everyone may act!

Her mind racing for a solution, or at least an explanation as to how these books are moving without any magical animation, Tessara jumps to the conclusion: We need more time to formulate a defense.

There's only one door to this room, right? Does it open inward or outward?

The door opens into the room. Based on where the swarm is, you think there would still be time to close the door before the swarm could escape, but it would mean that you are closing Stenne in with them unless she moves out.

Tessara shouts inside over the buzz of fluttering pages, "Deepmug, over here! Get out of the room, and I'll seal the door to buy us some time!"

Delaying action until after Stenne acts. If she gets out the door before the swarm does, Tessara will close it and cast hold portal.

I'll also delay, in case I need to plant my shield for defense, though I doubt that'll do much against a swarm.

Stenne?

Blood ran into her right eye,painting her vision pink. Stenne started at Tessara's shout. She turned on her heel and trundeled her way out of the swarm of fluttering papers for the open doorway as fast as her stumpy limbs could manage.

Withdrawing. Full run to where the others are.

Honestly, to think of all things she expected to get sliced up by,sheets of pressed wood pulp were definitely not one of them.

The moment Stenne bursts into the hallway with blood and shreds of paper fluttering wildly through the air, Tessara shoves the door closed behind her and shouts the incantation to her spell, "להיות חתום נגד אויבי!"

Four flares of green light appear at once, one at each corner of the door. In synchrony, each one shoots along a different edge of the doorframe to its opposite corner, forming a perfect closed rectangle of light around it, which burns bright for a moment and then fades, just as the swarm crashes loudly against the other side of the door.

After a beat, Tessara breathes a shaky sigh of relief, then turns to the others. "Okay, that'll buy us a minute at most to come up with a battle plan. Iliyana, do you have any idea what that book swarm is? It's not magically animated... have you ever heard of such a creature infesting or guarding the archives?"

1d20 + 6 ⇒ (3) + 6 = 9Heal

Hissing,Stenne dabbed a scrap of cloth to the laceration bisecting her brow after soaking it with the alcohol from her flask to stem the bleeding and disinfect the wound.

It soaked the cloth crimson,unabated.

While they hurriedly discuss the situation, Tessara provides what help she can to the still-bleeding Stenne.

Heal assist on Stenne: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (15) + 1 = 16

Tessara's assistance finally stopped the bloodline,which Stenne grunted her thanks.

Vors attempts first aid on himself to stop the bleeding
heal: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 2 = 21

Breathing heavily, the blood soaking into her clothes, Iliyana mumbles "I.. I don't know for sure. If they aren't magic, they are probably..." Iliyana bends over and shouts out in pain as she tries to take a step. "Agh! I... I am losing a lot of blood." Iliyana says as she tries to apply pressure to the gash on her side.

Heal: 1d20 ⇒ 11

The blood starts to soak through her clothing, giving no signs of stopping. Iliyana stumbles down to one knee. "I must... get back to my room..."

Seeing the caretaker start to collapse, Tessara leaps to help support her! "Probably what? Iliyana?!" Her eyes darting to their warpriest, the elf cries out "Cavasin, help! She's bleeding out!"

Stenne tanks at the blind woman's clothing,attempting to render aid. 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12Heal