The skum once again dodges the flames. As Bhookaaj tries to tumble his way past, the skum seizes upon the opportunity and delivers a long scrape on his back. As the party closes in, with Ebirah and Rhyfedd wounding it, the skum tosses aside its glaive and instead attacks with claws and teeth. Upon seeing Lorelei's divine magic it becomes enraged, forcing Ebirah aside and against the wall with a claw while its jaws clamp down near his neck.
Seeing Ebirah fall, Valdern turns slightly to Lorelei. "Don't worry about the lad, just make sure mister creepy here doesn't get his claw on you." He then stabs again at the skum, this time with better precision.
Even though it was painful, Bhookaaj flanks the skum and srikes it with his short sword:
Stepping up to take Ebirah's place, Rhyfedd flanks the creature with Bhookaaj.
Lorelei moves by Ebirah and offers up a quick prayers as she casts a healing spell upon him.
Ebirah moans as Lorelei brings him back.
Stabbed on both sides by Bhookaaj and Valdern, the skum finally falls dead when Rhyfedd slams into it twice with ghostly fists.
The rest of the room loops around the full circumference of the tower. On one end, another ramp slopes up to the third story. On the other end, there is another table with a stool; and a stone plinth with a metal bust of a woman with a gem in her forehead that has a clockwork interior. The statue stares at a number of bookshelves that are almost entirely empty, sharing only a total a five books.
Leaving the doors alone for the moment, Elia perused the titles of the titles of the books. There was also a certain temptation to see if the clockwork bust could be wound up.
"That sign says 'Lower Level Tank and Observation Deck'", says Bhookaaj pointing at the the plaque above the double doors.
"This thing looks interesting", he says looking at the clockwork bust.
"I wonder if it talks too?"
He then carefully inspects it to see if there might be some way of activating it.
For whatever its function is...
"Lower level tank and observation sounds interesting. Why don't we check out that room next?"
Elia finds that two of the books are bound metal sheets without titles. The other three are normal paper and ink, without any indication of how they withstood the passage of time. One is labeled in Azlanti, "Basic Spellbook" while the others seem to be scholarly textbooks, titled "Unlocking Ioun Stone Resonant Powers" and "Applications of Ioun Matrixes in Structures."
The clockwork statue's activation looks to be tied to the key inserted in its neck.
Bhookaaj, not being the most cautious person about, tries manipulating the key in the clockwork statue's neck to see what happens.
"These will bear further study," Elia said, tucking the books into her pack for the time being.
When Bhookaaj turns the key, the statue's eyes begin to shine, projecting a square of light onto the floor in front of it. It speaks in Azlanti: "No recording in active gem." There is a soft click, and the gem in its forehead comes loose.
Bhookaaj grabs the gem.
"It said 'No recording in this gem'.
"Maybe if we find other gems in here, this head can read them?
"I guess we should look for more gems like this one."
Upon the nearby table there is a dark blue gemstone that loks about the right size for the statue.
The glaive the skum wielded has a magical aura, and it also carries a ring of keys.
Bhookaaj will put the blue gemstone in and sees what happens when he activates the talking head...
"Ughh-oooo," Ebirah lets out upon being able to give the glaive a calm and collected once over now that it wasn't being used to chop him up.
The statue begins to speak in a voice very different and definitely more human than the previous voice, with an accent that sounds like a blend of the accents of a dozen groups around the Inner sea region.
We have successfully apprehended the spy and placed him in a temporal stasis chamber. However, we are unable to get through the magic that veils his true appearance or allegiance. He has displayed powerful sorcerous capabilities as well as psychic or otherwise intrinsic magic consisting of illusions and mental control. Because of this transport to the Compass is too dangerous and we are instead commencing renovation of the top level of this tower for housing and interrogation. The most likely explanation is that he is an Elf from Celwynvian, however his abilities are a very close match to those our aquatic enemies are hypothesized to posses, which has caused much speculation. Until such time as we have uncovered the truth and dealt with any threats that arise from it, I strongly reccommend against sharing any information with the general public. End log.“
"Oh. This is interesting. There is, or was, an elven spy on the top level of this building.
"He was a strong mage or sorcerer with mind control abilities.
"They thought he might be from Celwynvian, wherever that is.
"But he has abilities similar to some sort of aquatic enemies."
After thinking about it a moment: "Maybe that explains the Skum in this tower.
"They might be controlled by this spy, or trying to free him for some reason.
"It was kept secret, which is probably why our statue friends didn't know about him."
"It also said the spy was in some kind of stasis chamber. That means that that spy could still be alive. Just imagine the wealth of information a spy could give us. This could absolutely amazing!"
"That's assuming he is friendly. He might not be."
"Spies usually aren't. Spies imprisoned for thousands of years much less so."
"His master's have likely been dead for thousands of years. Just present ourselves as the dominant peoples after the Azlanti died off and he might be willing to work for us."
Ebirah nods. "Unless he was the master."
"Of course, he could be just plain nuts!
"Might not even be an elf from the sounds of it."
Ebirah nods.
The doors to the room are locked, fortunately they are opened with one of the keys the skum carries.
The interior room is dominated by a massive glass tank full of clear water. The tank extends up through the ceiling into the next floor. A door leads into the tank, although how it could be opened without releasing the water is unclear.
"Is this part of the stasis chamber? Was the spy an elf like me?" Ebirah asks while admiring the tank.
Lorelei walks up to the tank and taps on the glass, trying to peer upward into it. "I wonder how high up this tank goes?"
"If the Skum had a key to get in and out of this room, the contents of that tank might not be safe."
Bhookaaj then busies himself with inspecting the rest of the room for anything of value:
Ebirah nods. "Though that's a given, being a spy that warranted... all this."
Bhookaaj finds that the room is otherwise bare.
While everyone was exploring, Valdern was trying to understand the magical enchantment on the glaive. "Can't tell for sure what it is, but there is powerful magic on this weapon." He drags the weapon with him, following the group. "It is nice enough that I might just see if I can learn to use it." As he walks into the central room, he looks at the large water tank. "I don't like this. Unless there is some magical power here, that water should spill out the moment someone opens the door." He concentrates for a moment, trying to discern any magical aura.
Valdern finds an aura of moderate abjuration on the walls and doors.
Elia likewise cast a detect magic spell, eyeing the tank thoughtfully. "I wouldn't rule it out," she said, "But it might be better to follow the ramp up before trying that door."
"Yes, I'd much rather try to find a way into the tank from an upper level instead of trying that door. We don't want to risk flooding the whole lower level."
"That is a nice contingency to have if we need it though."
"Funny we still can't see anything in that tank."
Lorelei shrugs. "It could be empty"
"It certainly looks that way!
"Why not go further up?"
The third story of the tower is just a single room. The tank rises out of the floor in the center and rises into the ceiling. There is a another, much smaller tank that is empty and has a blanket hug over its open door. Sitting on the floor are two humans, who rise to their feet once they see you. Their skin is eerily transparent and wet-looking, with their hair clinging to their heads. One is a woman in a blue robe, and the other is a man in armor. They leave their weapons one the ground, and the woman speaks with obvious relief in her voice. "Are you from the second group?"
The woman is Eliza Haniver, a scholar Rhyfedd did not know very well. One day she came back to the colony after scouting some ruins with a mysterious but charismatic man with dark hair and purple eyes, who stayed for a small period of time and then left without a trace.
”Are you Eliza?” Ebirah asks in return to the woman.
She nods. "Yes, we're from the first group."
”Oh! Then pleased to meet you! I’m Ebirah, Eagle Knight candidate. Did everyone relocate to this tower at some point? You’re the first two from the first group we’ve met.” Ebirah happily says, glad that there was survivors.
"What happened to the two of you? How did you get past those skum and the traps to make it this far?"
"Skum? We've been kept prisoner here, I don't know where everyone else is or how.. this.. happened." She gestures at her transparent face.