As the creature sees Seinto attempt to parley, he frantically points to the light pouring under the northern wall and scrubs his eyes once and again.
Seems he would like you to shut off the light, and that his eyes are painfully sensitive to it.
The less than 4 feet tall creature has pale and moist flesh, and his eyes are milky white. You can smell a foul stench of sweat and spoiled food coming from his cloths. It would seem he never cleans or changes this outermost layer.
The cloths are almost same as the burned ones found over the piano's chair.
Other than the 3 doors in the south, there are no other doors in the rest of the walls, just a library outlining the room. You can see though bright light pouring from the point in the north where the creature is pointing.
The rest of the library is in a mess, like if someone has been registering it recently looking desperately for something.
|
"Turn down the light back there, it pains this fellow"
Ketill asks the creature "Do you speak this language?"
in infernal / abbysal / draconic, khellish and orc
"Wait a minute, I think I have something that I can use"
Ketill holds up his hand to the creature, signaling it to wait and then starts rummaging through his pack. He retrieves a book from it and starts leaving through its pages. After he has found what he is looking for he starts reading a specific page carefully and then mixes an extract and then drinks it.
He then points to the creature and touches his own ear, trying to signal that he can understand it.
"Do you understand me? Shut off that light please. It's hurting, hurting! I need to find the notes. That doll killed my friend! You came from there, is she still there? Shut off the light please!"
You just heard rubbish from the small creature.
|
|
"It seems friendly enough for now, but I also thought that regarding our fellow Pathfinders upstairs. Let's not assume anything. Can someone try to dim the light back in the other room?
The creature says he is searching for notes and that the dead person there was his friend. Unfortunately I can not speak in his language but I do understand what he is saying. If you go to dim the lights then also look around for these notes."
Ketill gives a thumbs up to the creature and points to his companion who goes to turn down the lights
|
Orik smiles as his axe does the trick on the door. "An'tha's how wae oopen lock'd doors in my hoome lan'."
When the open door revels a smelly creature, Orik scratches his beard, but can't understand a word that creature is saying. Once Ketill begins to make contact, Orik looks for the light source in question and covers it with his shield, dimming the brightness enough so the new stranger is more comfortable.
"Carefully, wit' tha' un, Ketill! Anythin' tha' smells tha' fooul cain't bae friendly to oos." Considering his own words, Orik takes a quick sniff to check his own state of hygiene.
The creature looks at Orik, it would seem with something like a smile in his face. He then looks at the cleavage under the library where the light is pouring under. "Please, switch off the light."
Ketill translates the words for everyone to understand.
When Donneld lies down in front of the light, he clearly sees the light pouring from a crack under the shelves of the wall library. Understanding that is weird and upon prior experience of libraries that hide things, the intelligent beast takes a closer look.
Donneld says "There is a secret door behind the library master Norman."
Bolger registers the room in search for notes. There is plenty of them, so he has no idea what might be wanted.
His attention is taken though by two scrolls which are easily identified by the casters in the group as a scroll of comprehend languages and a scroll of darkvision.
After looking for the notes, Bolger approaches the northern wall and easily corroborates Donneld deduction.
Bolger checks for the library finding no traps on it.
|
|
"Hey wee fella where's Miregold? M-i-r-e-g-o-l-d!" shouts Orik in the time-honored tradition of just talking louder when someone doesn't speak the same language. He blow his breath out in frustration at the Dark Folk.
"Gae ahea' an' oopen t'wee secret door, eh? Maybe t' missin' Pathfinder's back 'ere."
The dark creature looks angry at Orik, then covers his eyes and starts jumping in place pointing with his finger to the light. It is clear the bright light is painful to his eyes.
"Stop shouting stupid creature! My boss have Miregold. That stupid human is paying for his treason. You aren't his servants, aren't you? We killed all of them, of course you are not. You are probably looking for him because he fooled you too, isn't it? Please, switch that light and I will... help you."
Norman or Orik, no one really knows well whom exactly, pushes the library opening the secret door to a new room. For what you see there, this should be Skeldon Miregrold's secret laboratory.
Burning, blinding light explodes from a large circular alcove in the northeast corner of the room. Within, an elaborate arrangement of mirrors, prisms, and similarly refractive materials stands carefully positioned by calipers, strings, and wires marking its precise settings. In the opposite corner dangles a three-dimensional mobile of various sized metal spheres. A complex frame surrounds the spheres. The length of the frame is etched with numbers. A broad work desk divides the two alcoves.
Once you enter the secret room, the light is so intense that Norman and Orik get blinded rounds.
Seinto starts looking for clues very carefully. It takes him some minutes to analyse the whole room, but he easily finds the following:
The desk contains Miregrold’s personal journals. One of them lies open, revealing his latest entry, a passage concerning his growing suspicions that his former associate, a dark stalker named Zoathrias, has returned to murder him and steal his aureolyte crystal.
Perhaps I’m just paranoid, but I feel the need to recount several queer goings on that occurred over the last week.
On three separate occasions, when I returned to the excavation site, I discovered the sunrods in the device prematurely drained and the chamber bathed in thick, unnatural darkness. Initially, I’d thought there might be something wrong with the device, so I tried the same combinations upstairs on the prototype.
Nothing happened, at least nothing resembling what was going on downstairs.
Vitrios offered to stay onsite, to keep an eye on the device and see if he could track down the reason for its malfunctions. The next day, we found him unconscious, barely breathing—it seems he’d suffered some sort of vermin bite. My mistake to leave him down there alone.
I’m not sure it was accidental. I’m still waiting for the alchemist’s report, but the symptoms looked similar to the effects of Black Smear poison. Zoathrius used to use a device called a spider-biter when he‘d knock off guards. It was a quick, snapping spike-thing, which he’d coat with the same toxins he’d polish his blades with. Poxing dark folk. If I could gut ‘em all… I keep telling myself he’s never getting away from that aboleth I left him with, but if he did, I’d be the first person he’d come looking for. Me and the aureolyte. By now, he must know I gave him up for the crystal.
It has to be paranoia. There’s no way.
Still, it’ll give me an excuse to throw a killswitch on the prototype just to be sure.
Instead of the glimmer, coruscation, fulgor, taper, effulgence pattern I’m using to get the daylight effect, I’m going to switch the taper and coruscation sunrods, which should overload it, creating some seriously intense blinding light, but not enough to cause an explosion. The same patterns should also work on the main device.
-Skeldon 4709
Others contain some pretty damning evidence concerning Miregrold’s past robberies, the spoils of which he sold to fund his research, and his misuse of Pathfinder Society funds.
When Seinto inspects the journal, he uncovers a few dog-eared pages that concern dealings with dark folk and includes notes about their weaknesses.
The aureolyte in the device is shedding very bright light. The sundrods around will required Disable Device knowledge in order to be removed. The sunrods have rings of different materials around.
Continuing his careful search, Seinto finds an unlocked chest stashed beneath the venture-captain’s workbench. It contains a masterwork light crossbow, five sapphires worth 40 gp each, 10 pp, and 50 gp. Additionally, there are several alchemical items, a vial of alchemist’s fire, an acid flask, and two vials of antitoxin.
|
|
"Wait a moment folks, the creature says it will help us if we turn down the light and that his boss has Miregold and is punishing him for betrayal. Apparently the dark folk killed Miregold's coworkers for that betrayal."
Ketill browses through the books "This is interesting!" he then looks at the creature and tries to determine if it is one of the described dark folk.
"Bolger, can you remove those sunrods? But first record the order in which these sunrods are inserted, the journal says something about a main device. For our little friend, I could use my innate ability to create darkness around it, but I would like to have your consent before I do that"
Ketill takes the alchemical items
"I think we would be wise to let Orik and Seinto drink the antitoxin, that way they will have improved protection against poison."
Ketill observes the creature, perfectly matching to the description of a Dark Creeper.
You find some additional notes over the desk relative to the device functionality. They list the following numbers and names. The numbers correlate to slot locations labeled on the device’s blueprint.
Number Name Material
1; coruscation; electrum;
2; effulgence; bronze;
3; fulgor; copper;
4; glimmer; magnetite;
5; taper; graphite;
The sunrods have rings of different materials around.
Those rings have been already consumed.
Instead there are rings inside a drawer of the desk. The rings contain writing explaining how to place them on the sunrod. The writing is in an estrange language, but Ketill can magically read them with ease.
Each ring must be placed in a specific position that correlates with a slot along the shaft of the sunrod. The positions are as follows:
Material Position
bronze V
copper III
electrum II
graphite IV
magnetite I
The metallic rings in the drawer, you can very easily identify with an Appraise or Craft (alchemy) check, and they seem to match each with one of those materials cited in the notes.
Bolger's firt attempt is hampered by the light conditions, but he then takes his time to patiently move the wires and mirrors to carefully retrieve the stone in the machine.
The retrieved mineral shines with a deep light, and by the journal descriptions it shall be the aureolite.
As the light stops pouring into the library, the dark creeper giggles and pronounces some arcane words touching his blade.
A dense curtain of shadows starts emanating from the metal sinking everything into darkness. All sources of normal light get magically covered making the world black and white for all those with darkvision.
All of you without darkvision get suddenly hit by a wall of blackness covering your eyes. For more you open and close your eyes you see nothing.
|
|
Orik, directly next to the lying little creeper, makes an attack with his war-axe using his shield to shelter those adjacent to him from the little assassin.
"It's a lyin' wee Dark Folk! O'course it is! S'bad as tha' ligh' is, it may stoop 'im if yae cain get it back oon. Try pootin' them sunroods back in't, eh?"
The Dark Creeper tries to sneak attack Otis but he perfectly sees him.
The creature steps towards the center of the room, getting cover behind the small walls between the desks.
Bolger focus all his attention on his ears. He gets a good sense of the direction where the creature is, although not exactly knowing were.
The little halfling fires his sling without hesitation hitting the poor creature which screams in pain.
Guided by the scream Norman pushes Donneld whom perfectly sees the creature trying to hide behind the desk's wall. The eidolon bites surely into the Dark Creepers skin, teeth penetrating the body easily, which falls unconscious to the floor.
The darkness aura still pours from the creatures blade, but the combat is over. In his body you find a dagger and black poison for two uses. He is still breathing.
|
|
Ketill sighs as he stands over the dark creeper "So much for trust, avert your eyes" as he trusts down his naginata, eyes closed to prevent the flash of light from blinding him.
After the deed is done Ketill almost reverently places the dark body in a corner "it did not know how to act otherwise"
He stands up and is all businesslike again "Lead the way Orik"
While the group collects and makes a copy of Skeldon notes, Orik, followed by Ketill go into the next room. What they find is another storeroom, this one full of excavation materials rather than recovered relics and art.
Once the others join, what the advanced pair discover is a narrow passage leading south from the musty storeroom.
Beyond, an arching, iron tripod rises from the center of the room, spanning a narrow hole in the packed dirt floor. A wooden-handled winch holds a thick chain that leads down into the darkness below.
A watery reflex can be seen approximately 20' below. The chain seems docked to a stalagmite next to a platform floating over the water.
The winch seems impossible to move at this point without freeing the chain from below. Descending the chain though will be a dangerous feat as there is no wall for supporting feet during the descend.
|
|
"Donneld, are you able to take me down there so I can free that chain or can you do it on your own?" Norman asks his dragon.
"my body can twirl around the chain, without a problem, but I might lack the dexterity to unhinge the chain." the dragon says in a bored tone.
"Well if I have to go down, perhaps someone with some rope can tie and hold me , so I don't fall.... well only if its really required." the gnome says with false bravado.
Norman pushes Donneld to go down the chain. The eidolon climbs with ease while the gnome grabs strong to its back. After half a minute, the gnome is in the platform inspecting the chain end.
A makeshif platform stands between a series of limestone
stalagmites protruding from a seemingly endless subterranean lake. Only a small pool of light illuminates the platform, falling from the hole in the cavern’s ceiling above and holding back the thick darkness stretching in all directions. Three ornate ivory gondolas foat nearby, tethered to one of the planks forming the haphazard platform. A rope tied to the tallest stalagmite stretches taught into the darkness to the south.
You observe someone has disabled the rudimentary lift by securing the end of the chain to a stalagmite emerging from the water’s surface. You miss the required skill to repair the jammed apparatus. But if anyone did, the rest of the party could go up and down without having to climb.