"Better than making assumptions though. On the other hand, she may have been somewhere she wasn't supposed to be. She was looking up Auburphex."
Selena picks up the book the woman was looking through and tries to recall what she knew of it. She is a white witch herself and may have heard something of the past foe.
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Bulvi steps back as the woman is peppered with arrows. "Trying to talk has led to another corpse. Can anyone spot anything of use here or shall we move on."
"What, you mean besides all the books?" says Quasit. "I mean, jeepers, there must be hundreds of them in here. Who knew being an evil witch would take so much study? I figured you just sacrificed a black cat at midnight and kissed Asmodeus above the tail and you were pretty much in the club."
Quasit can't help but shoot Selena a satisfied little smirk after saying this, but quickly and with greatly affected nonchalance moves on to pull a book off the shelf at random.
"I wonder if any of these have pictures?" she says, riffling quickly through the pages.
Then she notices the key on the woman's belt. "Hey, is that the same sort of key that guard captain had?"
"Well here is the problem Quasit..." Bulvi picks up one of the closed books. "This takes time to read, time which we don't have." Then he places it on top of another closed book "Multiple books get heavy and bulky fast. So it's more which if any do we burden ourselves with? Now a potion of healing is lighter, less bulky and has a more obvious immediate use... if you want to take all these on the way out and can find say a wheelbarrow I will gladly help."
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"Well yeah, I know we can't read them all, but maybe we can at least look around for books titled 'Portals and How to Close Them' or 'Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Saving Baba Yaga But Were Afraid to Ask.' And we can safely ignore all the other ones about 'How to Kiss Asmodeus Above HIs Tail' and 'How to Serve Man'."
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on her there are 2 dark red potions
1 red/orange potion
1 key that looks like your key
1 regular key, a scroll
a masterwork greatsword
masterwork throwing axe
a cloak
and 65 gp
Selena the book doesn't reveal much, it doesn't seem the lady had found what she was looking for.
the room itself doesn't hold anything of current immediate value
"I never objected to looking for incredibly specific titles... I'd settle for a map of this place truth be told."
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Quasit gathers up the two keys. As she tucks them away, she looks thoughtfully down at the slain woman, her face mostly without expression. Then she looks over at one of the omnipresent mirrors. She kneels down again, dipping her hand in the pool of blood around the woman, then goes to the mirror and smears her hand around, leaving her reflection occluded behind a paint job of gore.
"Nervous yet?" she says to the mirror in an intimate voice, with a trace of both teasing and menace.
Then she wipes her hand off and starts to head for the door along the north wall of the library, but stops before she gets there and pulls down a book of children's fairy tales that is sitting incongruously among the histories and academic works. She smiles, remembering something, then stuffs it in her bag for later.
Selena looks around with detect magic while remarking on Quasit's sacrificing cats comments "Why would anyone sacrifice a cat? That makes no sense, and forget evil, that is just monstrous."
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Sakitu continues looking through the room. With a shock she watches Quasit smear blood on the mirror. "What are you doing?" Without knowing it she takes a step back and away from Quasit.
Quasit looks back at Sakitu, looking rather grim and serious. "Sending a message. If that witch is watching us, I want her to know what all this is costing her. We're here because she came after us. She sent those fey monsters and kidnappers to Taldor through her magic portal along with all this miserable winter weather. She sent soldiers to kill us back in the village. And her people are still dying defending her tower and her plots. If we have to murder our way through dozens of lives to get to her, so be it. But I want her to know we're still coming. We're not giving up. And at the end of the day, that blood is on her hands." As she says this, she is working to wipe lots of blood off her own hands, with middling success.
She pauses a moment, then shrugs and adds in a lower voice with a less grim expression. "Plus it seemed kinda badass. You know, to mess with her mind a little."
Bulvi replies quietly "I think you mostly messed with Sakitu's... and mine- a little."
"This other key might help us get closer to where we seek, if we are fortunate." Bulvi stays alert, always concerned more foes will come through the mirrors.
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Quasit seems a little nonplussed at the shock of her comrades and looks back toward the gory mirror again as if to try and reassess what's she's done. She can't help but shrug a little bit. "Huh. OK. I'm sorry I guess, I didn't mean to freak you guys out. I was trying to freak out witchypoo."
"See, back home this sort of thing was pretty standard between the various gangs. We'd try and intimidate each other so things didn't always have to come to blows. My brother Nardo had a real flair for it. I remember this one time they sent someone after our dad..." She stops herself and looks toward Sakitu again, then licks her lips and musses her hair. "Actually, there's no reason to go into details. Just suffice it to say that making the message disturbing was just part of the game, and the more disturbing it was, the better it worked."
She crosses her heart and holds up her hand in pledge position. "I promise I won't do that anymore. After we brutally stab someone to death, I'll respect their spilled bodily fluids."
She's smirking a little, as if trying to lighten the mood.
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to keep things moving
the 2 potions are Cure Moderate wounds
the Red/Orange is Elixir of Fire Breath
Scroll you don't know
Cloak is Cloak of Resistance +1
there is a door in the far right room, and a set of double doors in the area with the table, and the door you came in with the table
Selena quirks an eyebrow, "People get freaked out about that? My mother's response was always the same lecture about cleanliness and presentability. Blood, mud, or other stuff, it didn't really matter what it was."
Bulvi decides to bite his tongue. "The single door to the right next perhaps?"
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Sakitu tries not to think too much about what Selena is saying. She's grateful to Bulvi when he suggests they move on. "Yes, that door sounds good." She tentatively looks at Quasit and smiles weakly. She has become a good friend and Sakitu doesn't want to lose that, but her recent actions were a little disquieting. Sakitu would get over it but it might take a little time.
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"Lead the way Bull. That door looked clean to me." says Quasit.
Glancing back at the now gory mirror, Quasit decides to change the subject. "You know, in a weird way, we may have lucked out here. Downstairs it was clear that those soldiers had led us into a trap, but up here it doesn't seem like people are aware of us or expecting us. Which is good. Whoever is using these mirrors for scrying, it isn't the people lounging around up here on this level. And whoever it is, didn't bother to warn people here on this level that we were loose in here. It might be the first break we've caught."
"And it looks like not all these mirrors can be used for teleporting through. Remember how that one downstairs lit up when the key was near it? These mirrors aren't doing that right now, and we've got another key on us now. I'd bet most of these mirrors just serve as possible scrying windows, and only a few are used for portals. I mean, I think we can safely assume that if they could just port through any of these mirrors, they'd have done it already while we were fighting the goat girl or the dragon lady."
Moving up behind Quasit Bulvi stands at the corner to cover her.
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Quasit looks back at the others grinning from ear to ear.
"Found it! This mirror should take us to the next level!"
Though she speaks in a stage whisper to her companions, it's clear she's so excited that she's practically giggling. She takes a moment and tries to get herself under control, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, her hands before her, palms facing down. Then she speaks again more calmly, but still in a stage whisper.
"Before we go through the mirror though, we should check out what's in this room here. In case we need to come back through this way in a hurry."
Quasit will go to the door and open it cautiously, peeking inside.
Bulvi stands back not wanting to ruin Quasits stealth but stays ready to counterattack any foes. "I'm with you."
Bulvi keeps near Quasit ready to come to her aid. He gives the others a reassuring nod. He stays alert for signs of ambushes, traps and secret doors.
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the chest isn't trapped, the regular key opens it with no issue
It contains 1 foggy pink potion,
Three cloudy white potion,
a pair of silver bracers traced with figures of dragons worth 250 gp,
a jeweled scepter worth 175 gp,
an agate worth 50 gp,
and three blue quartz crystals worth 100 gp each,
as well as 256 gp, 473 sp, and 894 cp.
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Quasit's eyes go wide as saucers and her mouth gapes open dumbly for a long moment.
"Jeepers..." she finally manages to say, then digs her hands into the heaps of coins and lets them run slowly through her fingers. "Have you ever seen so much loot? A person could live on this for years." She looks back over her shoulder at the others, then grins broadly and begins to snicker with pure glee.
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Quasit steps aside and lets Sakitu see the chest.
"Saki, you are now a RICH Amazing Fox Lady!"
She picks up the jeweled scepter. "Look at this thing! I mean, who actually HAS scepters, aside from kings and stuff? I think I'll use it for ordering my servants around when I get home."
She holds it out at arm's length, pointing to some imaginary servant by the wall. "Silence, low scullion! Bring me my cucumber sandwiches, and a cushion for my feet!" she commands to the imaginary person. Then she giggles and fingers the scepter a bit as well. "In a pinch you could probably bonk someone on the head with this thing too. I bet those amethysts hurt."
"I have a scepter. Was my grandfather's once." Selena stated as though it wasn't an amazing thing after all. She casts detect magic once again as she looks at the items. Barring any magical auras, she'll pick up the bracers, tracing her finger over the dragon designs.
"He had a rather unhealthy hobby of smithing, as my mother puts it. He made a lot of trinkets of electrum. Tried enchanting a lot of them, but he never got more than cantrips to hold."
"It's a shame you didn't bring it Selena, we could have bribed someone or bought something useful with it." Bulvi nods approvingly "This will all be worth a lot but we shouldn't stay in one place too long. I'm concerned guards will show up looking for us."