Dean Kreighton Shaine's page

Xavier opens his mouth to speak, but then closes it and thinks for a second. "I honestly couldn't tell you what was going on if I tried. I think the scroll was recreating the events that were written on it, but I'm not completely sure."

Once the senior pathfinders are gone, Xavier turns to the party and says, "Well, I'm going to go get drunk. Anyone who wants to come along, drinks are on me."

"Well, then I guess there is nothing left to do but begin the clean up operations."

Shaine hands Xavier a human-sized mop and bucket.

Zahd stares wide-eyed at the madness and chaos that occupied the past few minutes before quietly commenting, "I like this new job."

"Aherm The issue that we had was this here scroll; somehow it got torn into a bunch of pieces and summoned a bunch of few and... suffice it to say, now that we've got it in one piece, things should be good. Unless Mistress koi is still around, in which case... wait, actually..."

Zahd will pick up the scroll and jog into the archive searching for Mistress Koi in her original location

As Zahd rushes off Shaine turns the remining party members and says "Well!?"

After it is all over, and reality reigns again Shaine returns to the ground floor with the others and with a strange fox-headed man in custody. In his hand, Shaine holds the rest of the missing scroll fragments. He does not look kindly upon the party.

"We caught this--" Shaine begins but is cut off as the scroll fragments fly from his hands. The fragments the party carry with them do likewise swirling up into the air upon an unseen dust devil. They glow with an eldritch light and fuse into one as they do the fox-faced man smiles and shrugs, flowing like neon quicksilver from grasp of the two women assigned to hold him.

The fox, now liquid light seems sucked into the floating scroll along with one or two other lances of similar light drawn from adjoining rooms. There's a loud noise like someone reciting the words: Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-Ekki-PTANG. Zoom-Boing. Z'nourrwringmm!

And in the wake of all that, the scroll, now quiescent and again whole flutters to the ground, just a long piece of parchment.

Shaine turns to the party "I repeat, well?"

With no report forthcoming the dean sends them off again, perhaps to search the downstairs lobby once more.

A town-crier outside calls the hour as "2" when, remarkably Kreighton Shaine the same master of Scrolls the party left upstairs not five minutes before strides through the archive's street entrance flanked by by Zarta Dralneen (now in slightly more appropriate attire), and a number of senior Pathfinders bearing mops and buckets.

"Well?"

"We believe that Virml here-"

??? The dean looks about, but there is nary a Virml to be seen.

"...accidentally used a summon spell which released several fey. One of them took his place, why we don't know but we think whoever it was is looking for something. We would like to search the lobby then the scriptorium. The other Virml may have left some clues."

"Fine. Go down and have a look, and I'll straighten up here."

"Don't be silly man. Hurbert doesn't bite and he certainly doesn't talk." Shaine then considers for a moment. "Wait. I maybe lied about one of those.... Nevertheless, show some back bone man. Say what you are going to say, I'm terrifically busy just now."

Something seems off about the way that that Dean knows all this stuff. Boomer starts to approach by way of the albino alligator.

Looking bored the alligator looks up at Boomer.

"Well? I'm waiting." says the Master of Scrolls looking back at his pile of paper. "Do you have a report to make or not?"

"That one is quite telling indeed, as it seems more of a double entendre. A wyrm dining upon a judge and his sons, making the judge himself a sauce while boring through the man's remains. You'll note that all the riddles seem to involve eating." calls the dean from 30' away behind his desk.

"Honestly, if you are going to insist on standing 30' away, you'll have to speak up." snaps Shaine.

"The fourth fragment I don't understand at all."

"Oh? Which one was that?"

It's true. It is difficult to determine which fragment goes where in the order as the edges all seem to have been be cut sheer. That, and of course there's a large bit of the puzzle still missing even though the party is certain they have looked everywhere in the library and catacombs below for it.

Back upstairs, in the scriptorium.

Shaine rubs the bridge of his nose and looks up from a pile of texts laid out before him as the party files in past the demolished pile of ink pots.

"I suppose you are back with your report. Well, don't leave Hurbert-" (he motions to the albino alligator) "-and I in suspense. What have you uncovered? Have you solved any of the fragment riddles you've collected?"

"Well, there you go. Best get back to it and leave me to get back to my own work here." says Shaine turning back to his paperwork.

If it's ok with the GM, I might have had Zahd recall this info earlier and directly relay it to the party. If not, that's also ok.

That's fine.

"That all sounds--err, interesting(?). What about that scrap of paper that started the whole thing? Any leads there?"

"Doth your crocodile bite?" asks Virml nervously looking at the big scaly reptile.

"No."

Boomer nods at the others' reports. "This whole th..th...ing is a real mmmm...ess. Figuratively a....a..and literally. Where did the V...V...Virml that came up from the stacks gggggo after we went in?"

"Well wherever he is, he wasn't here when I arrived. We should probably call for a general alert and sequester the Virml you have with you in the meantime. Just to avoid any confusion."

Shaine pinches the bridge of his nose and finally looks up from the mess of papers, and books spread out upon the desk before him.

"I take it you are here to make your report. So what have you learned about our little 'plumbing problem'?"

"Come in. It's... open...." says the Master of Scrolls without looking up from his place bent over a cluttered desk at the far side of the room.

As if on cue, a second ink avalanche sends the few remaining stacked ink pots to the floor in front of the doorway.

"Mind the broken crockery." says the Dean after the last pot falls.

"Hm. Fentar, have you ever considered work as a wizard's crocodile?"

"Oh. Why so it is!" says Shaine loosing his previous trail of thought, and all interest in the other Pathfinders.

"I suppose that wraps things up well enough for now." says the Master of Scrolls going through the pile with mounting interest. "Go on. Get some sleep. I'll see you all on the proper morrow." Without looking up he waves them all off with one hand, while flipping through pages with the other.

THE END. I should have Chronicles up this weekend.

Shaine's not no body, but he's not nobility either.

"It's not 'nothing'" snaps the Dean, patently ignoring Tofang's question. "It's, what I presume to be your bag. You brought it in with you earlier after all."

Shaine prepares to conjure what one with skills in the arcane would recognize as divinatory magic when...

"What's that?"

hoping for a circumstance bonus on the following Sleight of Hand if he successfully redirects attention? .... passing the book, still wrapped in the sack so it doesn't make noise

This is probably best done later, since Shaine is not likely to go through everyone's things, Kolris could just wait an hour and hand it to Zarta around the corner and down the block out of sight. That, and your rolls.... Inspiration to me always seems to be a case of overkill (I know more about kobolds than anyone--even kobolds), or totally underwhelming. Normally I would just say that Kolris is smart enough (Int 20) to just do that avoiding the need to roll and pass the item in front of Shaine, but this seems more like a Wisdom thing (Wis 7) so, give me a Wisdom check (DC 12). I Kolris makes it you can just hand the Darklands Precepts to Zarta later, otherwise Shaine's likely to say something like "What's that?".

If it comes to it, other folks can help with the distraction if they like.

"...finding more scraps of this scroll and different foes that the fugitive left behind to harry us. We rescued Virml, and after ensuring we'd found all the clues, returned here. We looked for you, Dean Shaine, and found the fugitive posing as you up in the Scriptorium. We figured him out, caught him, and returned him to the grodair upstairs that was the source of all the water. She was flooding the library in order to float him up to her!"

"When we presented Mistress Koi with the fugitive she'd been seeking, she drew in all the water and left."

"You don't say?" says Shaine, mentally weighing the improbable tale Kolris has spun (Cha 7--It's almost as if you were trying to get his Int to 20 ;)) against the evidence (or lack thereof) at the scene.

Not a second later the entry doors open as a dozen Pathfinders lead by Dean Kreighton Shaine and Zarta Dralneen burst in all awkwardly dressed in fisherman's hip boots, and laden with wooden buckets, and tin pails.

The two leaders seem to be noisily arguing with each other. When Shaine finally sees the seemingly never flooded room, he says "Oh?" and he, and Zarta both noisily drop their armloads of buckets on the stone floor.

Confused, they look up to the party on the mezzanine for answers.

Hannar gives a full account of all that happened, to the best of his knowledge, and promises to give a full report. He then follows Yangrit and does just that.

"Hannar, what's happened to your mouth?"

Deluge grabs at his snack bag defensively when Pau starts asking about sharing food. Not something Deluge is inclined to do. Well, he does like to share his fermented goat's milk - he is a brewer after all.

The keening voices about him grow slightly louder.

"You guys can dinish up here, right? I'm going to just head back to bed."

At least that is what he tries to say, but the damnable book in his backpack turns it into a cacophony.

"Deluge, what's that noise?"

Not a second later the entry doors open as a dozen Pathfinders lead by Dean Kreighton Shaine and Zarta Dralneen burst in all awkwardly dressed in fisherman's hip boots, and laden with wooden buckets, and tin pails.

The two leaders seem to be noisily arguing with each other. When Shaine finally sees the seemingly never flooded room, he says "Oh?" and he, and Zarta both noisily drop their armloads of buckets on the stone floor.

Confused, they look up to the party on the mezzanine for answers.

"Alright, you've got me." Says Shaine his face growing fuzzy until...

Why did I leave Derkhan bold? I'm sayin' Jezu has run off to fetch Zarta Dralneen, because honestly time is thing for me and he hasn't been about for two weeks.

reflex v burn: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (14) + 6 = 20
reflex v entangle: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (9) + 6 = 15

The bag strikes but the old but limber elf rolls over on the ceiling twirling his cloak* as he goes avoiding the worst of the gooey napalm, which sticks to the painted ceiling making it look like one one of the gnome figures depicted there's hair is on fire.

Shaine gains a concealment from ranged attacks.

Shaine crawls toward the center of the ceiling where he works a bit of magic and draws Tofang's attention to the flame-headed gnome.

Tofang Will save (DC 16) or be overcome with gales of laughter.

1d2 ⇒ 2

The albino crocodile spins on Fentar incidentally slapping its tail out at Derkhan--who manages to avoid it. The reptile locks its jaws around one of the Nagaji warrior's legs. It then lifts itself up with its legs and tail and rolls wrenching Fentar from his feet and throwing him to the floor.

From the ceiling Shaine winces.

gray croc bite v Fentar: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (15) + 5 = 20 damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (7) + 4 = 11 grab?: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (17) + 11 = 28 additional damage: 1d8 + 6 ⇒ (4) + 6 = 10 trip?: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19 hit

tailslap v Derkhan: 1d20 + 0 ⇒ (14) + 0 = 14 damage: 1d12 + 2 ⇒ (8) + 2 = 10 miss

"Ouch! That's hot!"

Well, I was waiting (about 24 seconds of game time) to see what the other half of the party was doing but apparently they are all fascinated as well. ;) But time is a-wasting.

"Well, I wish I could say any of this was interesting but by all the slack jaws and vacant staring I can tell it isn't so."

Shaine moves and readies, keeping his eyes on Fentar (who looses his fascination--at least in game terms), and Kolris.

The dean backs up to the wall and begins scaling it backwards, and before anyone knows it he's high overhead. He nods to the albino crocodile across the way and faster than what seemed possible the thing is up and at Derkhan, who gets a wonderful view of its teeth before they snap at him.

gray croc bite v Derkhan (CHARGE!): 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 5 + 2 = 9 damage: 1d8 + 4 ⇒ (5) + 4 = 9 miss

Time passes as the party shouts across the room at one another.

"Well, the loser clearly thinks highly of himself, but doesn't know when enough is enough, right? In the end the loser only knows something that he should have known better than to seek. Know?" Kolris deliberately misuses the questioning homonym at the end, continuing to try to provoke a reaction from who or what he is increasingly believing to be a fake Dean.

"Fascinating. But do you even know what order it goes in? These are just so many sheared bits of vellum. It's obvious which one goes first but as for the rest...."

"But, that's just an educated guess; we clearly don't have the whole thing yet. You wouldn't happen to know where there's any more of it, would you Dean?"

"Are you sure? This stuff doesn't even really show edge differentiation its like chopped worm where all the pieces have grown back."

Apparently, this goes on for a while with Shaine coaxing out (like a dentist with pliers over a bound crocodile) the party's thoughts on the matter at hand.

"Very, very interesting indeed. So you can use the bits of parchment to summon the characters set down in the texts, but what do you suppose this part means, aye." muses the Master of Scrolls.

May the winner wear gold while the loser eats crow

Knowing nothing save that which he knew not to know.

"That's what it says, but what does it mean, aye? And then there are these other pieces."

As things did not go shortly Jezubot delays for now.

"I thought that was what I assigned you all to find out." Shaine says irritably. "I have been focusing on other options, and really how could I come to a determination when you all have at least some of the pieces. I am beginning to reconsider your communal fitness for this organization. Now being the blasted scroll up here and let's have a look together, or apart, if one or more of you is going to fetch help."

He slides a piece of the scroll* out from between a pile of books and slaps in down upon the cluttered desk.

* Remember these are all written in Sylvan. No one has translated the newest one yet.

"He's not terribly swift is he?" Shaine comments upon the wayang's retreat from the room.

Continuing to keep his focus on trying to get a read on Shaine, Kolris offers what he thinks is a very reasonable diversion.

"We're not really focused on the riddle at the moment, Dean Shaine. While we certainly have bandied about some ideas, our concern is the fact that we found the real Virml stuffed into a cage downstairs. He would have died had the water level risen above a certain level." He raises an eyebrow. "It certainly concerns me that you're not concerned about a mimic roaming the halls of the Grand Lodge."

"A mimic you say!?" Shaine looks shocked.

Tofang is very confused.

“I believe that it is time for us to inform other Pathfinders of this situation. There has to be a solution. You please stay with him and I go fetch some guards and articulate our accusations!“

"Yes, you are right. You three-" he points to Jezu, Tofang, and Rectitude, the three Pathfinders closest to the door, "head down and find out what Zarta is up to. She's taking to long as it is."

TWMIGM: was that spell-casting? Do observers get a chance to identify it?

Supernatural ability. It's activation just requires the user to talk, and have body language.

"That it, let's all calm down now, and try to get to the bottom of this together. Okay?" Shaine takes a steps before continuing. "Now what have your investigations uncovered? For instance, this mysterious, rag-tag parchment full of riddles--what does it mean?"

assuming the things infront of jezu are short....

Do you mean philosophically or topographically? They're not, either way; Jezu is gnome and like most of Absolom the furniture here is human-size, and the things on Fentar's side of the room have grown complicated, so now what?

"Listen, I am a very busy lore master here, and can't be expected to know the backstory of every ambulatory, unpotted plant, and troglodyte enrolled in this institution. If you have nothing to report, I would ask you to be good enough to stop posing a distraction to me, and get back to work."

Fentar walks over to Shaine, "It's a real mess boss. There was a fey with all the wrong teeth who tried to kill us all, and this giant fish. Eurgh, it was grim."

Once he is standing next to the master of scrolls, Fentar grabs hold of the man.
"We're dealing with an excellent mimic so, tell me, when did we first meet, Kreighton Shaine?"

Shaine looks down at Fentar's hand grasping his robes and then back up into the Nagaji's eyes. "Um, downstairs in the lobby?"

"Ooh, that's exciting!"

Derkhan will detect evil on Kreighton Shane.

Kolris follows Fentar into the room, and is immediately shocked when the nagaji grabs their Venture-Captain by the shoulders. He's not... no... the lack of care about the inks; I mean, that's soooo Shaine! But his own words of just a moment ago echo back.

Kolris Isimlothe wrote:

"hmmm... but no crocodile; where's the crocodile?..."

A light goes off behind his eyes. Brilliant deduction, Fentar. Why didn't I see it sooner? He studies Shaine's reaction with deep interest as he begins moving along the wall opposite the albino gator, his hand tickling the guard of his rapier.

Quick Note: Sense motive (like Diplomacy) can take time.

Shaine plastered against the big window with his head bowed says: "Let me guess, I gave you a bad grade in some class. Is that it?"

Shaine pinches the bridge of his nose and finally looks up from the mess of papers, and books spread out upon the desk before him.

"I take it you are here to make your report. So what have you learned about our little 'plumbing problem'?"

"Come in. It's... open...." says the Master of Scrolls standing over a desk at the far side of the room. He doesn't look up.

As if on cue a second ink avalanche sends the few remaining stacked ink pots to the floor in front of the doorway.

"Mind the broken crockery." says the Dean after the last pot falls.

"Perhaps you should go back down and try to find the rest of it before giving me your full report." says Shaine irritably.

"Interesting, Shaine how did you happen across that piece anyway?"

"No doubt it was among the bits that Virml brought to the meeting."

And there is that mention of a crocodile. A crocodile in the poem. And in this room!

While the others start rearranging the poem, Deluge offers a question.
"Say, Mr. Shaine, how did you come across that crocodile there anyway?"

"I thought I explained that already. I am a 'wizard'. We all have alligators, or crocodiles." says the dean as if schooling a particularly slow student.

It makes perfect sense to Deluge now--even if he doesn't understand a word of it.

Why does he seem to no longer be in such a rush to end this? Impatiently, Yangrit comments: "If you are finished looking at them, we should take them to the giant fey fish lady. That is the reason she is flooding the place: so she can find them more easily. We have reason to believe that she will stop once she has all the fragments, so we should deliver all of them to her as soon as possible."

"If your 'big fish thingy' as Deluge calls it is actually a fish wouldn't it find things easier in water?"

”How did you get a fragment? Let one of our spellslingers take a look at your scroll. Maybe they can figure something out about it. Do you have any others?”

"It must have been in the pile of books and paper that was recovered earlier." says Shaine. "But certainly have a look perhaps your friends can make some sense of it."

Assuming folks come up to the desk to take a look....

Pau begins collecting the fragments of the scroll and moves across the desk from Shaine.

Shaine looks them over. "Hm, Yes."

1d20 + 10 ⇒ (9) + 10 = 19

Pau notes that the Master of Scrolls seems to have another portion of the scroll in the collection of damp papers and and arcane tomes spread upon the desk. He can see a bit of it sticking out of pile near the top.

Hannar moves into the room dragging Virml with him. "This is the guy we found downstairs locked up."

"Yes, of course, Virml." says Shaine as if discovering a hair in his soup. He very quickly moves on though. "Have any of you come to any conclusions about about the scroll, or its fragments, or how they might relate to the problem at hand?"

Unconcerned about the motionless elf, Deluge chime in.

"Well, um, we gave away some of the fragments to the big fishy thing. It really, REALLY wanted to have them. We do have a piece left, though I at least was planning on handing it over to see what happens. I'm hopeful that once it has all the pieces it will swallow all the water and go away."

"'Big fishy' thing you say?" he lets it hang. "And did your investigation shed any more light upon the fragments themselves?"

”Um, sorry, didn’t know you were working in here. Uh, nice view, eh,” Pau stammers as a large drop of blue ink falls from the bridge of his nose to the now colorful floor. ”I’m not good at the magic stuff, but either there are two Virmyl’s or one is an impersonator and I’m not sure which. One of you smart ones get up here and explain all this,” he barks at the others.

"Oooh-kay."

Xusius moves forward while making sure he stands next to Pau.

He speaks to whoever is impersonating Kreighton Shaine.

"Zou might as well give us ze rest of ze scroll, impostaire! Zou are ze one who impersonated Virml earlier. Now we zall put an end to zis farce. Both zou and zour Sir Crocodile zall not accomplish zour fiendish plot!"

"Attack ze crocodile, Pau!"

"Hold that thought. I would like to hear from the others first." Shaine says and quickly casts a spell at the elf.

Xusius Will save (DC 17) or be paralyzed.

Does Dean Shaine look/act like the real Dean Shaine?

"Now, hold on. Maybe he is a doppelganger, or maybe he is not."

"Yes, maybe I am not. Perhaps I am a powerful Pathfinder wizard and loremaster, your immediate superiors, who is feeling a bit put out just now."

"So, Dean Shaine, how do you intend to prove to us that you are who you appear to be? ... Also, please explain the crocodile." She gives the oversized white reptile the side eye.

"What!? Did I not just say I was a wizard? We all have crocodiles, my dear. Granted not many are as impressive as this one, and most are um, dee ee aye dee, stuffed and hung from wires in our laboratories, but that's beside the point. It has been a very trying evening, and I would like to hear what you have found."

Shaine pinches the bridge of his nose and finally looks up the mess of papers and books spread out upon the desk before him.

"I take it you are here to make your report. So what have you learned about our little 'plumbing problem'?"

"Come in. It's... open...." says the Master of Scrolls standing over a desk at the far side of the room. He doesn't look up.

As if on cue a second ink avalanche sends the few remaining stacked ink pots to the floor in front of the doorway.

"Mind the broken crockery." says the Dean after the last pot falls.

"Don't be silly. What wizard librarian memorizes such spells without need? I'm not an undine you know." snaps the Master of Scrolls, but then suddenly brightens. "That said, there is a short lip around the stairs leading down, so perhaps the lower vaults have been saved some of the damage."

A shallow bog's worth of water (like the water in the next room) is about a foot deep. This particular body of water is filled with books, and sheaves of paper.

Rectitude looks out over the water and debris. He uses his telekinetic powers to move some books to the "shore", saving what he can.

"Had you been here earlier, Rectitude, you would know that that is precisely what I am asking you to find out. Now, I am off. Perhaps to prepare an underwater breathing spell. Grrr."

"winner", is this a challenge of some kind? A contest? Is there a known critic of this place? Who would be likely to trap this place as such? Rectitude loses himself in the memories of his past lives for a moment.

"That fragment is maybe centuries old. Whatever contest is described on it is long past winning."

Tofang is still slightly confused.

"What kind of strange challenge. My knowledge is extensive so I will surely be able to help but ... well, I will help. Where do we start?"

In a gesture reminiscent of Gwendolyn's from earlier, Shaine points to the eastern doors with the puddles in front of them and says "Start there. I have a lot of organizing to do."

Archive Map

Kreighton Shane is no artist (even less so when he is angry), but he can give a rough layout of the place. The main level is basically just this reading room antechamber, and the huge open book depository that is the chamber to the east.

I am not going to draw just one big room for you." he says tartly.

There is a mezzanine area near the back wall with more books on it. The spiral metal stair that leads up to it also corkscrews down to a sub basement.

It too, is full of books, shelves and very narrow walkways in-between. This level is shaped like a Desnan butterfly which he draws a rough outline of, and contains some specific, closed-door, storage areas which he will note on his rough map.

"And that's it."

Shaine snatches the parchment, looks at it critically, and hands it over, saying “It appears to be one of the rhymes from the parchment. It’s an odd trifle of Varisian doggerel, scripted in Sylvan. There’s nothing remarkable about it—”