Mel studies it carefully for a few moments.
The book appears to be untrapped and non-magical. Mel stashes the leatherbound, parchment volume without incident.
"I reckon we crack it open." Hal whispers "It'd be our luck to discover we nicked a por... er poor substitute."
”That what we need?” Kazador asked. ”I’d hate to stay longer than we have to, but it beats a second trip.”
"You're right," Melia says. She extracts the book again and takes a look at it, showing it to the others as well.
"If this is indeed his Book of Whispers, then we still need the secret letters from Faedi's book, and he still has the book of passwords to decrypt it on his person."
The book has some uniformly gray pages, some ripped out pages, and pages of totally uninteresting and mundane looking messages about groceries.
"Well, that's half of it," Melia sighs. "We'll need the decryption key and the loose papers also. The papers may yet be in here someplace, but the key to the cipher is probably on his person."
Mel notes a tiny smudge of ash on a large book on the bookshelf, titled Bartleby's Almanac.
She cautiously takes the book down and examines it in detail.
Mel starts looking through Bartleby's Almanac and finds a hidden compartment inside! It is quite dirty with plenty of ash but also two pages containing messages about the how the price of wool has fluctuated over time in the Bishopric.
"Hmm. Wonder if he sleeps with it? Might have ta come back tonight." Hal muses, and joins Melia in searching until she finds Bartleby's "What'cha got there?"
"I think these must be the secret letters from the other book," Melia says. "Now we just need the key to decipher both halves."
"If we come back and he finds them missing..." Kazador said, with some uncertainty. "We've already got quite abit. Just getting out with this is a win. But without the key to decipher it?" With a sigh he said "I'm of a mind to just hold the fooker up with a hammer to his face and make him give it to us if we can't find it here." Shrugging he added "If we can't find it by skulking about, we do it more straightforward. At least, that's how I'd go about this."
"You may well get the opportunity. But let's be smart about it: we ambush him when he comes back here. We knock him out, grab the book and maybe him with it, then we get out the way we came in."
Melia quickly rattles off a couple of preparations to make and waits to see what her allies think.
After a hurried but quiet discussion, Melia starts making preparations.
With some assistance from the others, she contrives to pull the trap door at the bottom of the escape shaft shut, so that it does not alert anyone going into the cellar that something is amiss.
From her handy haversack, she produces and consumes several of Fyrtor's vile-tasting concoctions.
I really appreciate these, she thinks as she chews through the somewhat stale concoctions. I just wish he would put some sugar in or something. Blech.
After a few moments of crunching away, she feels somewhat stronger, cooler, and a crown of flowers -- snowbells -- winds its way through her hair.
With these in place, she gathers two pouches of silence dust from the group. One she attempts to rig up over the door, so that it will fall when the door is opened.
Finally, she strings her bow and grips it in one hand. In the other she holds the other pouch of silence dust, in case her makeshift trap fails.
"Now we wait, and pray, she says once everyone has completed their preparations.
Ai, Ostara, she prays silently, following her own advice. Let Duke Beaumont be the next one through that door, and not some innocent chamber maid.
[/ooc]
Kazador nodded, as he looked for a place to hide. The last thing he wanted was to be the reason that their ambush failed.
It is well that you are listening intently for after thirty minutes of waiting, you hear someone approaching. Then the door opens and a well-dressed butler walks into the study just as the silence dust falls perfectly all over his surprised countenance!
As the man crosses the threshold Hal's thoughts lash out, guided by a hand where fingers twisted into the crooked sign, and propelled by a word of power the human mind could not comprehend.
As soon as the spell fired Hal forced whatever mouth he currently had to say "Purple Pumpkin!" 'Rather not get hit with what's coming if I pulled this off...'
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The poor, startled butler falls still as Hal takes control!
Hearing the butler blurt out "Purple Pumpkin" (muted by the silence dust in the area), Mel holds off on throwing the second bag of silence dust she had at the ready. That was the pre-arranged trigger showing that Hal successfully possessed the unfortunate person.
Hal's normal body sliding bonelessly to the floor provided another clue.
Melia quickly crosses the chamber, pulls the possessed butler in and softly closes the door. "It worked," she tells him. "But we'd better wait for this silence dust to wear off before you go anywhere." She brushes dust off his shoulders and head, then sweeps the remains off the floor as well.
Straightening, she looks the butler in the eye and says "Sorry about this, whoever you are in there. I'm sure it must be horrible having control of your body wrenched away. But we have reason to believe your boss is a traitor to Iustia, and you were the first one through the door. I apologize for the necessity."
And with that, she gestures Kazador over to help her move Hal's vacant body to a more comfortable (and less obvious) position in a corner of the room.
Nodding, Kazador went to it. As he set Hal down, he couldn't help but marvel at the man's magical prowess. He didn't understand a lick of it, but then again, his own people were similarly defensive of their own runic magic, so the secrecy made sense to him. He was just glad that Hal was on their side.
Hal blearily stared over at his own body, lying recumbent in the corner. "Damn I look old." he mutters, muted further by the silence dust.
"Huh. So..." he starts out loud, goes to switch to an internal voice, then shrugs and continues out loud. he crouch walks over to the knapsack and starts pulling out equipment, including a strange crystal and a book.
"Right mate. I know you're prob'ly loyal'n'all, but we've already got enough evidence your boss is selling out the kingdom ta the elves anyone else'd be in chains. He's goin' down, and takin' people with him."
"Now, I can't have ya fightin' me. We're gunna give you a chance ta turn state's witness and cooperate. Carrot and stick, right? Well, the bad news is the stick's real bad. I'm gunna use magic to rummage through your mind, then summon a Cacodaemon" here he shows the relevant entry in the Saliharion "That should be able to pull out your soul, give me time to do a proper infiltration over the next couple weeks. Does mean if anything goes wrong then your face is gunna be the one the blame gets attached to, which might be an issue if ya got family or somethin'."
"Good news is the carrot's real good too. Somehow, for someone who's killed more people than most professional assassins I know, the Boss is a softy for a redemption story. Work with us and we can give ya a new life far away from here, with a new name and a new face. Possibly even this one, if'n you're attached to it. I gotta tell ya, when I got the same deal I jumped at the chance, and it was the best decision I ever made. I'm gunna get ta see my family after this, and I absolutely will cross my normal moral lines if I get ta see my little girl."
"In fact, Boss, ya want ta give this guy the talk? I gotta start preppin' the spells anyway."
The butler seems terrified by the possession and, while convinced of the truth of everything you are saying, he is no more scared by how you say it than he was already.
He replies to Hal "Perhaps I am willing to cooperate. What would you need from me? I do not know half of what his grace, the Duke, does in private."
Kazador nodded, glad to see that Hal was being his usual competent self. The dwarf kept an ear open, listening for any signs of anyone else approaching. He was certain that Hal would know to ask about what secret nooks and crannies the butler's master secreted items away in, so he felt no need to jump in. Too many chefs would ruin a dish, as they would say.
After echoing the comments Hal starts to answer, enunciating slightly more clearly than normal.
"Your old boss is selling out the country to the Elves. He's got a book that magically talks to one they've got. We've got his book, but it's ciphered. We need - well, we want - the cipher book. We reckon he keeps it on his person. If you can get us the book we can just leave and no-one needs know your part. Otherwise we're thinking we lure him up here and risk killing him in an ambush."
The butler nods, telepathically, and replies "He does keep his little black book on his person at all times. That may be what you want. I do not know how to get it off his person. I would be willing to help disguise you as another servant, help you find some of his clothes, or anything else you can think of that may be useful."
For once, Mel is suspicious. "Hmm," she says, considering. He seems awfully willing to betray his boss to people who have just stolen his body from him, she thinks.
Mel gets very little emotional sense, either way, from Hal using the butler's lips and vocal cords to audibly relay what the butler is telepathically telling Hal. Shockingly.
"For starters, perhaps just some information. What's your name?" Melia asks. "I gather Duke Beaumont is entertaining guests just now -- is he likely to return to this room any time soon?"
The butler replies [i]"My name is Geoffrey Rogers. The Duke is entertaining guests indeed. He is unlikely to return for several hours unless something unusual comes up to draw him here."[/b] While Mel gets very little sense from the butler, Hal can relay that the fellow is absolutely terrified by being possessed.
"If we waited here, would he come up here when the guests leave? Actually... why did you come in?"
The butler replies "He asked me to fetch one of his rare books to show to an interested guest. The Duke enjoys sharing the highlights of his collection. It is possible the Duke will come here when his guests leave. It is also possible he or someone else will check on me if I remain absent for too long."
"Seems to me that sitting tight is our best bet." Kazador mused. "Unless the butler could go to the Duke and get him to come here?" He asked. "Something that would require his personal attention."
"The Duke will no doubt be expecting Mr. Rogers back soon," Melia says. "But there's no guarantee Beaumont himself would come looking if Mr. Rogers fails to show up. I think we should have Mr. Rogers take that book down for his guests to look at and quietly report to him that the drawers of his desk are open, as though someone rifled through it. But Mr. Rogers couldn't tell if anything was missing. That would very likely bring him to investigate."
"So - is that the plan Boss? Take the book, not sit tight?" Hal checks for confirmation, ready to prompt Geoff to point out the book.
"Yes," Melia says with far more confidence than she actually feels.
Hal possessing Rogers walks out of the room
You walk downstairs to find the Duke engaged in animated conversation with a group of men clustered around him listening eagerly to his funny stories in the dining hall.
You wait a couple of minutes for Hal-possessing-Rogers-the-butler to return.
Melia drags Hal's body into the bedroom adjacent to the study, in order to get it out of the way of any potential combat. Then she resumes her position watching the study door. She holds the one remaining silence dust pouch in one hand, ready to toss it in Beaumont's face. She has her bow in the other hand.
Doing his best to impersonate Geoffrey's mental voice Hal snags a tray of drinks, approaches the Duke and waits for a gap in conversation. When the Duke turns towards him he proffers the tray and murmurs "There may be an issue upstairs milord."
The Duke raises an eyebrow and nods slightly. He coolly finishes his current funny story and then follows "Geoffrey" upstairs.
About three minutes later, the Duke walks into the study ahead of Geoffrey the butler. He looks quite surprised at the group waiting in his office!
"Good afternoon, Your Grace," Melia says. Then she glances at the others. "Get him! And don't let him run away!"
Heart beating, Melia tosses the last bag of silence dust at the floor by Beaumont's feet.
Heeding Mel’s call, Kazador lunged at Beaumont. While not the fastest dwarf, he was quite strong. And with his weight and low center of gravity, he was well suited for bringing a taller and ganglier person down to the ground.
Túrion had been very quiet this whole time -- perhaps focused, perhaps wrapped up in other thoughts. But he was ready for this. Raising a rod in his hand, he intones a short spell. Pale green light gathers at the tip of the rod, and a matching light starts to form in Beaumont's eyes.
The butler lets out a tiny shriek of shocck as his master is set upon, only for it to be muffled by the dust.
The savvy and seasoned Aristocrat easily shrugs off Turion's magic but Kazador does manage to grab hold of him in the silence!