Kaul snaps out of his daze, just as Corliss' defending the group's decisions;
"Hur. Hey Groomle. Always a sight fir dead eyes her-hur-hur... Blackboots has the right o' it. Book was causin' problems an' might contain ways fir Ol' Kauly to exact vengeance on them Mantis basterds. So we'd tryin' de-cypher it like."
The brute grins mirthlessly;
"Don't you worry none. Iffin' its Ding readin' the book, 'e's more likely to send it mad! Our-hur-hur!"
"Hmmmm..." is the Groom's only response as he gives Corliss and Kaul a long skeptical look. "Now where exactly are Dingus and Jim? I think I need to hear a straight story about this trouble."
"Jim...Jim... does the name King in Jade , or Emerald Scales mean anything to you? I can hear chanting and music from somewhere".
+ Applicable knowledge
At Groom's query, Kaul merely shrugs his no-neck;
"Below decks. Ding's probably tryin' to get Jimmer to change 'is wardrobe!"
the Groom leads the way down the stairs to the officers quarters and to Dingus' door. He knocks smartly and a moment later Belinna appears in a fine silk robe with a cutlass ready. She looks questioningly at the group. "Evening, Groom. Is it the cultists?"
the Groom looks more confused. "No, captain. Kaul said Jim and Dingus were down here."
Belinna shakes her head. "Well, no. They took my quarters on the main deck for the night so as to be ready for the cultists. Hold up, I'll come with you." She shuts the door and reappears promptly properly dressed and armed. "Dingus does have some nice robes in there," she muses as she follows everyone back upstairs to the Captain's Quarters.
*******************************************
Elsewhere, Jim and Dingus continue to carefully descend as the sorcerer muses on the names. Strangely, the spiraling wooden stairs are now damp stone though neither adventurer remembers the change and a sound from below grows audible even to Jim though he thinks it sounds like the wind or an ominous hissing.
"Never heard of them. Why?" Feck, this is strange.
Dingus pulls up short and stops for a minute fussing with his attire.
"Wait! Jim! I believe they are waiting for me. I believe that my ancestors are waiting for their king. I believe I might be the King in Jade".
The scaley sorcerer then stands tall fixing his robes and starts forward. "Follow me and you should be safe... Do I look Okay"?
At the door to the Captain's Quarters, Corliss knocks very politely on the door before throwing it open so the more competent among the party can swarm in and make sure things are as they should be (or face the danger if things are off).
the Groom steps into the quarters first spotting the Book of Dreams open next to Jim who lies head down on the desk. Dingus hisses sleepily on a nearby couch with the serpent coiled on his chest. Everyone stirs awake as the crew enters.
Jim lights up his sword and tries to dodge.
Just as Kaul and Dibbets file in behind the Groom and Belinna, Jim suddenly leaps up and back from the desk with his blade crackling in his hand!
Dingus quickly pulls forth the glowing dagger, and looks around in bewilderment. "Where are they! Where are my worshipers? Why aren't they chanting anymore?". Richard slithers to the deck in confusion.
Corliss is the final one to press into the crowded room and see the strange tableau: Jim stands warily back from the desk that holds the open Book of Dreams. His magic sword is bared. Dingus sits on the couch holding a jade dagger which shines with a fading light. The sorcerer is going on about worshippers and chanting or some such sacrilege.
"Uh-oh," Corliss whispers to Cap'n Belinna. "I think this means Dingus knows ye tried on some o' his robes!"
Corliss considers trying dispel magic but is uncertain the spell can do anything here. So he tries something different.
"Halloo, Jimmer, Dingus!" he says in a loud, jocular voice. "Storytime be over!" And with those words, he tries to close the Book of Dreams.
Corliss acts swiftly and shuts the suspicious tome. the Groom nods with approval and peers more closely at it. "This isn't the same book, Kaul. That was the Book of Secrets; this says, Book of Dreams. Now where did this come from?"
He picks up the book and looks at Jim "You OK, Mate?" he asks.
Jim glances down at his torn sleeve and tattered pant leg, but he doesn't see any blood or ripped flesh. He blinks a moment before answering...
Jim starts to say something, stops and closes his mouth, and resheathes his sword before continuing. "I think so? The book took our minds somewhere, like a dream of the ship. We fought a shadowy dog...I was barely holding my own against it 'fore Dingus lit it up."
the Groom points to the words carved in the darkwood cover of the compendium. "That might be your answer right there, Jim. May I look more closely?" the Groom says, though it he doesn't wait for a response. He brushes a damp hand against his jacket, though that does little to dry his perpetually clammy grasp, before picking the book up and idly paging through.
"Book of Dreams. Looks to have some Desnan rituals in the back here. She being concerned with dreams and travel, I wouldn't be surprised if this book itself may have somehow drawn your dreaming selves into the Dimension of Dreams, which overlays the Ethereal Plane unseen and unfelt all around us. Lucid dreamers however, and sometimes those in an altered state say, may find themselves adrift far from the shores of the wakening world."
Kaul casts a beady eye o'er the tome;
"Hur. So what's the point in 'eadin' to this place o' Dreams? Lessen there's coin there... or murderin' to be 'ad..."
Dingus finally comes completely to his senses, and quickly snatches his hand away from his dagger.
"Aw. I don't really have a group of worshippers? It's really not time for my reign as King of Jade? Bummer".
"And I would have thought there would be plenty of gold and bloodshed in your dreams, Kaul. Just can't bring the gold back. Though..." the Groom pauses eyeballing Jim's torn clothes. "Could be that there's something about the Book that's thinning the veil between the Dreamlands and here."
"Sorry Jim--we didn't hear nothin' up on deck, no hounds bayin', no clothes tearin'...nothin'," Corliss says in an apologetic tone.
The Taldan shrugs. "Maybe I'm wrong about what happened to the bookseller, or maybe you can hear the hound once it's made the kill? Just as well you didn't find out, if that's the case. Now I'm wondering...." He steps away from the others and draws his rapier, looking for traces of blood.
At the prospect of his dreams being made reality, Kaul rumbles a chuckle;
"Hur... Maybe Ol' Kauly should nibble some potent cheese and drift into slumberland. See what comes callin'..."
Dibbets' however tempers his murderous mates malicious mood with a wry comment;
"Be careful what ye wish fir matey... Remember the tongue incident? Jes' sayin'..."
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Belinna's brows knit over large almond eyes. "I dreamt of a dog's howl. I dremt that I was on deck singing down the moon and then I saw Jim and Dingus and, uh, then I heard a frightful howling just before I awoke."
Jim nods. "Aye, you were in that place as well, though I don't recall much more."
Jim's hesitancy is transparent.
Corliss stays out of the conversation, grinning his crooked smile.
'Singin' down the moon'--Is that what the kids call it these days?
Being a fighter and not a lover, the innuedo bypasses Kaul who flashes a hard stare at the chucklers lest they are directed at him...
... until he's snapped out of it by a sharp and stinky elbow from below.
Dibbs' festoons the brute with a colourful description of what had transpired, all whilst wearing a leery grin;
"Feckin' Nugget ye! They're talkin' about knockin' boots mate. Hammock sharin' like... Y'know - the eel and the clam!"
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[dice=Sense Motive check]1d20 + 7
Jim nods. "Aye, you were in that place as well, though I don't recall much more."
[dice=Untrained Bluff check]1d20 + 1
Jim's hesitancy is transparent.
"Oh I remember. I remember well...". . Dingus then replicates his earlier hip thrusting dance.
The Taldan clears his throat in the awkward silence that follows. "Groom, anything else you can tell us about this book? I was trying to figure out some of the earlier bits when its magic overtook us."
The half-elf seems a little flustered, but quickly gathers herself. She rolls her eyes. "Very funny. So why don't you get to work taking care of this mess while I check on the rest of the crew." Belinna leaves shaking her head.
the Groom ignores the joking while he studies the book. "This appears to be a collection of apocryphal Desnan texts and rituals with a record of their retrieval by the author and his partner. I think this Stone mentioned here is located in Freeport and is causing the troubles you hinted about. You'll have to fill in some details about how you came upon this though. Do you know where this Stone is and do you know anyone that might be able to conduct the peculiar occult rites mentioned herein?"
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Jim leans back in his chair. "There is, as you might expect, a sordid tale behind our obtaining the book. Our newest crew member, one Moses, used to lead a gang of miscreants who sold shiver. Their supplier was this spider cult we've been crossing paths (and swords) with of late. One of the gang members, Raynaldo, decided that the cult might have more interesting things than shiver on hand, and he decided to relieve them of some of their goods--including the book. This turned out to be a fatal error for Raynaldo, as the cult took a dim view of his initiative.
"Before the cult caught up with him, though, Raynaldo sold the book to a bookseller near the Freeport Institute. Last night, though, the aforesaid bookseller took a read through his new find--" Jim taps the book. "--and had a rather more fatal encounter with the shadow hound than mine and Dingus'. I spoke with his daughter and managed to charm the book from her...or at least convince her that she wouldn't be safe with it in her possession. So that's the story."
Corliss fidgets at Jim's tale, no doubt reminded of all the troubles he had with phantasmal webbing in the mist.
the Groom listens closely, still except for an occasional bead of condensation dripping from his stringy hair. "This spider cult you're mentioning now. Tell me more about that. The other book, Book of Secrets, mentioned the dead necromancer had been in conversations with a figure called the Spider. Could be the cultists were trying to recruit him. Maybe the author of this Book of Dreams was trying to learn lost dream lore from the dead? Still more questions than answers."
"A web more tangled than Corliss' knotwork I'd reckon." the Groom sniffs though it's unclear if it humor or derision.
"This book is dangerous enough. I'd not leave it aboard lest one of the crew sail into treacherous shoals of sleep and never wake again. Where is this cult now?"
"I'm not sure. We fought some of them earlier, though."
Kaul chuckles at the thought of more mayhem;
"I says let 'em come. Me and Lopps'll gladly send 'em to their Spider God or whatnot. I means, worshippin' an skitterin' bugger... they needs to up their ante!"
As Groom's words sink in, he flashes his jigsaw shark grin;
"Hur... Now yer talkin' Groomy. Find their nest an' kill 'em all..."
Loppers axe head slides into view and bobs in agreement...
At Kaul's proclamation regarding the Spider Cult, Dibbs' shakes his matted mop and launches a loogie with a grimace;
"Aye Nugget. Worshippin' a Coco-nutter makes far more sense like..."
Casting his wizened features to Groom, the grubby oracle poses a thought;
"What ye reckon Groomy? Maybes the skull can give us some scraps?"
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Dingus seems to be pouting a bit at the loss of his potential empire, but perks up at the thought of converting... I mean routing out a Spider cult.
"I'm with Kaul".
"You have me rapier...an' spells," Corliss chimes in. "Though both be likely to be more potent after a good night's sleep."
"I doubt you'll get a 'good night's sleep' with this book around." the Groom lift the Book of Dreams up and points it at Corliss accusingly. "Well, get this Moses up here, Jim. Trying to make sense of this garbled yarn is like sailing into a headwind."
Moses is retrieved and proves a valuable witness under the Goom's inquisition. "So this spider cult occupies an old manor on the outskirts of Scurvytown and there's a hidden passage there from the Grunt. From what Moses says, the old man that runs the place, Asnaan, might know more than he let on."
"I'd not recommend keeping this book on the ship, I don't know that we have any advantage against attacks from the Dreamlands and we might lose crew next time. Doesn't seem like we have any leads at the moment so might be worth circling back to the Grunt. That or never sleep peacefully again."
"I don't think all the dreams were so bad. In fact a couple of them were downright pleasant... still I don't want to wake up with Jim's sword imbedded in my gut. Where do you think we could keep it safely? A lead box at the bottom of the sea"?
"As if the merfolk did not have enough trouble," the Groom gives a gargling laugh. "I would not be too hasty to get rid of the book; we still don't know much about it other than that the cult wants it back. Being mostly a collection of ancient Desnan rituals, I don't see it as being innately evil, just a tool that we might be able to wield against the cult."
"Dingus and Jim have shown that they are well equipped to defend themselves in the dreamlands so let's just get it away from our mates and head to the Grunt. I have a feeling that if we sleep there and are transported to the Dreamland again, at least we are close enough to make a move against the cult"
Corliss nods so he won't seem stupid in comparison to his fellow Besmaran.
The group isn't overly tired yet having slept late and only participated in some light investigatory work so they lead the Groom back to the stench-filled alleys of Scurvytown. No one delays their trip and in fact activity on the Street of Dreams seems quite subdued. The few folks they see move wearily and barely lift their heads at the strangers' approach. Up the stairs, at the entrance to the Grunt, there is again hesitance to allow Kaul into the establishment, but the bouncer relents upon being reminded of Asnaan's debt to the group. At least, it was that or the Groom's deadly glare that causes him to back down.
Asnaan is found on his bed still stricken, but able to communicate easily through the letter board. As the Groom reveals the recovered Book of Dreams, Asnaan appears quite interested, his hand shakes as if it would move to touch it if he could. Instead, the planchette slides over the board spelling words which the Groom reads aloud.
"This is the book that was stolen? Do you mind if I have a look? I mentioned that I have learned through my experimentation with altered states how to travel beyond this conscious realm. In fact, due to my stroke, this ability may become my only refuge from my physical limitations."
Dingus carefully scrutinizes the man before agreeing to turn over the book.
Sense Motive
He then looks to the others for affirmation.