Mara noticed Julius' frustration; she went over to him and said, "Daddy, help Julius focus his mind," and cast a spell. Afterwards she returned to hold Sara's hand.
Dervak is looking under the desk, I suppose. He doesn't have a lot of experience in offices.
Mara looked at the woman in the pool of blood and said, "I wonder how she would react to positive energy? I could try to 'heal' her."
Theophilus nervously takes a step behind Dervak.
Perhaps, we should cover her?
He pulls out a handkerchief, tossing it at her.
Anyone got a sheet?
Theo's handkerchief lands on the woman's shoulder. Seeing this Sara's countenance instantly changes from sadness and fear to mischievousness. She says a word that sound slippery and tainted and moves her fingers in odd angles.
Her shadow's hand stretches and grabs the handkerchief, moving it to over the woman's face and nose. The mist leaking from her finds new egress past the edges of the cloth.
Julius nods at Mara in thanks and tackles the desk again. "Sit tight, guys-this might take a while."
Rowan is just taking things in at this point. He moves slowly and deliberately, trying to keep Sara, who he has not met, and the woman with the mist in his sight. He stops outside the blood, but within 30 feet of either Sara or the woman (if possible).
Mara moved close to the edge of the pool of blood, and examined the woman from different angles. She looked for the tiniest hint of movement.
There is no movement from the woman other than the constant stream of iridescent fog issuing from her mouth and nose.
After a few minutes the lock yields to Julius' attempts. Julius finds a magnifying glass, two vials of alchemist's kindness, a vial of smelling salt, two vials of soothe syrup, 4 doses of antitoxin, 2 doses of opium, a scroll of fox's cunning, two scrolls of remove paralysis, a greater talisman of beneficial winds, a lesser talisman of warrior's courage, a third unidentifiable talisman, a magical candle that is feather light, a magic block of sweet smelling incense.
Finally Julius finds Losandro's Journal. Glancing through it he finds it is a concise record of Losandro's daily duties and observations. It would take some time, , to go through its contents.
Theo whispers,
What an odd thing!
He then takes the stairs up to the library.
"Do we want to take the time to go through the journal and all those books upstairs? It's okay with me but I think Mara's spell will wear off. I can still fight without that, just might get hit more, but maybe it is worth it to know what is going on."
Mara offered her opinion. "Let's explore a bit more, before we spend a lot if time looking at books. I'm going to try something." She approached the immobile woman from the best angle to avoid getting soaked in blood, and touched her with healing magic.
She examined the woman, trying to figure out if she was alive or dead.
Mara approaches the woman and feels suddenly very sleepy.
Mara fights through it and heals the woman, she looks less pale but still remains motionless spewing and the seemingly endless mist.
Theo glances through the books but he doesn't know anything about the titles there.
"Mara, are you okay?" Dervak takes a step towards the creepy woman, longspear raised, as the shaman seems to stumble.
He lowers it as Mara recovers.
Not unless I have to.
"I felt very sleepy for a moment there!", Mara replied to Dervak. "Her complexion improved when I healed her, so she might be alive. I don't know what sort of magic is affecting her."
She searched the woman, checking for things like keys.
In her pockets you find a ring with numerous keys.
Mara pulled back from the woman, brandishing a set of keys. "These ought to come in handy!"
She considered what they had found so far in this room. "She must be Administrator Losandro. I could try healing her some more, but I have no idea if that would revive her.
"It feels like I'm constantly fighting off sleep when I'm near her; I worry that I'll eventually succumb. Does anyone have some rope? If I fall asleep, you could pull me away from her, and revive me with the smelling salts if you can't shake me awake. I wouldn't mind trying one more bit of healing."
"No," says Dervak nervously, "I don't think that's a good idea. Who knows what can happen if her mist makes you fall asleep? I think you should back away."
Mara sighed. "Perhaps you're right, Dervak. Maybe we should see if we can find the Nurse's Station. After the protective spells have run out, we can read her journal; that might give us some more ideas about what happened to her."
She called out towards the upper floor. "Anything interesting up there, Theo, beyond lots of books?" She moved to the eastern door, and listened for noises beyond.
Theo glances through the books noting that it will take a little bit to sort through everything. He does soon realize that the titles here are beyond him,
Mara hears distant muttering.
Mara addressed the others, "Alright, everyone ready to move on? Sara, stay close to me!" She grasped the male doll figure and muttered a prayer. Then she opened the door, allowing others to go first.
Not finding any gremlins, goblins, or gargoyles in the library
Not even Colonel Mustard holding a candle stick!, the Hatter rejoins his friends.
Nothing but books.
Winking at Mara, the gentleman cast Guidance on himself.
This dark hallway is empty except for a smashed lantern. Six doors lead from it, including the way you came.
Mara cast another light spell on her borrowed falchion, and made her way down the hallway. She stopped and listened at the first pair of doors.
Standing beside Mara, Theophilus mirrors her.
The muttering is louder. In the northern door Mara hears "I as in intestines," a pause and then, "Good now you're getting it, we'll teach you your letters yet!." To the south you hear paper violently being tossed about.
Mara looked to the others; she put her finger to her lips with one hand, while pointing to the north door with the other. She took out her wand and waited for everyone to get into position.
Dervak stands at the door, ready.
Mara cast bless and then opened the north door. Beyond racks of cluttered boxes and sprawling collections of haphazard junk fill this dusty storage room. Three people dressed in yellow rags and a crude flame drawn on their forehead hold improvised weapons at the ready. One Apostle stands above a collection mismatched dolls and a small chalkboard.
Theo points at the closest target.
Hiding in the closet? How nice!
And he starts Cackling.
"Who are you? Do you serve the King in Yellow?"
Dervak doesn't attack yet, but guards his friends.
Theo points at the closest target.
Hiding in the closet? How nice!
And he starts Cackling.
The cultists look at Dervak and scream "Zandalus sees!" Murder in their eyes.
Dervak moves in attacks the one in front of him.
Sara stands behind Theo absentmindedly tugging on the well dressed man's clothes. The Apostle in front Dervak slowed down for a second by Dervak's attack attempts to returns the favor.
The far one rushes Dervak but is cut down. The third one abandons his dolls, attempting to strike Dervak with a broken shelf.
The door to the south opens with a bang. The handles of dozens of drawers from the faces of numerous matching cabinets. Many of the drawers are open and their contents-volumes' worth of stray parchments-blanket the floor.
Two more Apostles take their opportunity to attack Mara.
Dervak is surprised at how adept these lunatics are with their improvised weapons. He uses his tusks to gore the one he hit before (another 8 points to that one, for a total of 16) then steps to the side to let another ally into the room.
"Aagh!," Mara cried, as the door opened behind her, and a cultist hit her with a crowbar. She swung back with her falcion, and steped to the side to let Rowan in.
Theophilus continues to Cackle, as he targets another maniac.
The scrappy cultist behind Mara dodges the falchion, But the tusk is unavoidable.
Julius moves into the room next to Dervak and swipes his rapier at the guy in front of him.
Rowan steps forward in front of the door and attacks.
Flurry of blows
The one savaged by Dervak woozily strikes back and then falls over, the other follows suit ignoring the dandy Julius.
On the south side both go after the imminent threat of Rowan
Sara continues to hid behind the hatter shadow casting long down the hall.
Rowan dodges their obvious attacks again with a kick to one and a spinning elbow to the other.
Flurry of blows
The kick knocks the one straight ahead down and out cold, Rowan tries to redirect the elbow to the one standing around the corner but the door frame gets in the way.
Mara didn't want to advance into the southern room, so she waited for Julius to move forward.
Julius steps forward to let Mara in and swings out again.
He grimaces. "Guess I'm still getting warmed up here..."
Dervak feels the pain of the hits, and channels that pain into a furious gore of the foe in front of him.
Mara moved up and healed Dervak, who was badly wounded.
Theophilus continues to Cackle, as he targets another maniac.