Dervak looks at the grisly scene. He speaks with a tone of admiration. "He died well. A man of his years? No weapon but a boot? And taking two of those cultists with him. Gorum will be pleased with him if no other god claims him."
Dervak says a brief Gorumite prayer, likely involving banging weapons and shouting. "I do not know how he lived, but he died a warrior."
Theo picks up the boots. The gentleman sizes them up before presenting them to Dervak.
I suspect that he would be honored if another valiant warrior wore them.
"Huh. Good idea."
Dervak tries on the boots to see if they fit.
After the group searched the rooms, Mara said a prayer and returned to the hallway, looking into the room with the strange glow.
The boots are a little small for Dervak, but could be adjusted by a cobbler.
Pale paint peels like scabs from the walls of this spacious chamber. A bent desk guards a broad hall stretching away to the north, while curtained frames shroud the room’s eastern quarter. The place smells intensely of rubbing alcohol. On a stool burns a lit hooded lantern, however the flame does not flicker as it should. Looking into the lantern you see that the flame is cold and weirdly paralyzed.
Rowan is oddly quiet during the exploration. After the ghoul, Rowan switches to his hand axes.
Rowan wants to analyze the frozen flame. He wants to scour his knowledge, and wants to try to light a bit of tinder with it.
Mara looked at the lantern. "What is that, Daddy?", she muttered under her breath.
She concentrated on the flame, trying to determine if this was some sort of magical effect.
Mara sees the barest hint of evocation magic, something like a fragile light spell. When Rowan touches the lantern to open it, the flame unfreezes, gutters out, and dies.
Theophilus smiles as Dervak tries out the new boots.
I may be able to make some adjustments next time we sit a spell.
Following along, Theo will cast Detect Magic, also, in order to compare notes with Mara.
"That was really weird!", Mara exclaimed after the flame unfroze and died out. She looked through the desk to see if there was anything of interest there.
Theo had nothing to add. The desk holds nothing but paper and ink.
Theophilus wonders over to the curtains.
1,2,3!
And he pulls them open....
Outside as if in response to Theo booms with a sharp thunder crack, above the heavy sound of rain can be heard. If someone looks out a window they see the rain is greenish yellow as it drizzles down the pane. Two doors exit the room, the one to the west blocked by rubble and the one to the south locked. You know the southern door leads outside into the fog.
Julius looks out the window, and back at Theo. "Now, how'd you do that? You got some weird lightning powers you never told us about?" He grins, clearly kidding.
The gentleman doffs his hat grandly, taking a bow that is low to the ground.
Gratitude, my most humblest of gratitude!
With that result, Dervak might fail to notice that Julius is joking.
Theophilus is powerful! A follower of Gozreh, maybe? With him at my side we will slay this Zandalus and the Shred-man.
Mara looked around the room and opened the western door. The area beyond was blocked with rubble; she thought it could be the same rubble they'd seen next Admitting earlier. She looked out of the glass door on the south, and saw the same path where they saw the ghostly figure. There didn't seem to be much more to see here.
"I'd like to have another look at Losandro," she said to the others. She went back up the corridor to the Dayroom, though the bloody door, and back to the Administrator's office.
She examined Losandro again, to see if there was any change from earlier. She was careful not to get too close yet, lest drowsiness overtake her.
As far as Mara can tell Losandro has not moved nor become more damaged since she saw her last.
When Mara moves into the opalescent mist emanating from Losandro's mouth and nose she suddenly becomes extremely sleepy, falling over unconscious.
"Mara!" Julius rushes in, trying to pull Mara out of the mist. He's hoping that his elven blood will protect him from whatever knocked her out.
Julius manages to pull Mara away from Losandro without too much trouble. He is unaffected by the strange sleep effects. Mara can be woke fairly easily.
"Mara! Are you okay? What happened to you?"
Mara sat up and blinked for a moment, disoriented. Am I awake, or is this the dream?
"How long have I been out? It seemed like hours! The yellow fog was pursuing me, and I had to keep moving to stay ahead of it. I met my mother — she told me, 'Losandro's mind has leaked away, and her body is but a malfunctioning conduit.'
"Dervak, was there any more of the tonic that you used on the bleeding body in the Dayroom? I fear that the administrator is beyond saving."
"It's been like thirty seconds, Mara. You collapsed and then we got you out of there. Was there anything else you saw in that dream? Something that might help us?"
Mara did her best to relate a summary of her dream to Julius.
Mara said a prayer, and then moved next to Losandro to apply the same medication that Dervak had used on the bleeding corpse in the Dayroom.
"Oh my god, she just ran in there..."Julius mutters to himself as he goes in to pull her out again.
"Julius, it does not affect you? Get Mara out of there and then give the woman the medicine. If it doesn't work, then your sword. You know it has to be done."
Julius nods. "Good point, Dervak-not sure why we didn't think of it before." After pulling Mara out, he goes back in with the medicine and tries to administer it to her, his sword already drawn just in case.
Mara wanders in an endless cloud of yellow vapor. Shapes form and vanish in the mist, fleeting, unsettling things that refuse to be focused upon. After what seems like a lifetime, an exhausted-looking man with a ponytail of straight, white hair stumbles through the fog, a look of desperation on his face. He passes by Mara yelling "We're all lost here! We'll never escape!" Rushing away he continues to rant, "What have I done? What have I done!?"
The medicine has no apparent effect on Losandro.
"Right." Julius calls back. "So that didn't work, should I get on with the stabbing?"
Theophilus stands mouth silently moving; no words forth coming. The gentleman's blue eyes follow the movements of Mara and Julius; face stone still with rapt attention.
"It is only merciful, Julius. Best to do it. I am sorry."
Julius deliver's a death blow against the helpless woman. The body once rigid, slumps over in a heap no longer spewing the multi-hued mist it once did.
Mara bowed her head in sorrow that she hadn't been able to save the Administrator. She didn't know the woman, but for her to be drained in such a way seemed horrifying.
Dervak will wake Mara. "Are you okay? Did you have more dreams?"
Mara replied to Dervak, "I dreamed that I was wandering in the fog — that sickly yellow fog. I seemed to wander forever. An exhausted-looking man with white hair in a ponytail passed by me. He was ranting: "We're all lost here! We'll never escape!', and then, 'What have I done? What have I done!?'"
"Well, those seem like pleasant dreams...can we not do that again? I think we can safely say after two attempts that the weird gas makes you non-elves pass out."
Theophilus looks around at the others, as he pats his forehead with a handkerchief.
Now where shall we look?
"We could spend the remainder of the day in the library, and then go after Zandalus' gang in the morning," Mara suggested.
"Awwww yeah, more reading!"
Splendid idea! I wonder if I might find a new banana bread recipe. I seemed to have forgotten mine...
With the help of Winter you find the following
Folklore attributes many disappearances and spates of bad luck in the Thrushmoor region to the Briarstone Witch, an elusive crone said to inhabit Briarstone Isle. The first reports of the Briarstone Witch date to the early 4000s, soon after the founding of Thrushmoor by a congregation of psychopomp-worshiping homesteaders. These tales attribute many good works to the witch and present her as a figure who helped the settlers survive their hard early years. Some tales refer to the witch’s servant, called the Tatterman or Shredman.
The Briarstone Witch was not a legend. She was a Kellid interested in lesser-known cults and occult knowledge. As she shared her esoteric knowledge with Thrushmoor’s settlers, she joined them, and as she exhibited her power, she eventually came to lead them. However, in 4050, the report of a Pharasmin inquisitor accused the people of Thrushmoor of engaging in “perverted rites in mockery of Pharasma and her servants’ names.”
Encouraged by the Briarstone Witch, the people of Thrushmoor split from both the church and the national government. When emissaries of the state marched to retake control of the town, they found the entire population had disappeared. Although a few gruesome stains marked buildings across the empty town, no other evidence of the people was ever found. The unsettling event became known as the Thrushmoor Vanishing and hundreds of years passed before Thrushmoor was resettled.
Theo finds no Banana Bread recipe, but does find a document containing the instructions for construction of a machine for making a wide variety of bread, including banana bread. Anyone with a rank in Engineering will recognize that many of the materials and techniques prescribed are either gibberish or assume a wildly different engineering context. Additionally the compactness of the machine seems impossible. The document feels out of place in this library.
Theo proudly presents the particular paper, providing proof positive his sanity!
"I don`t know what to make of the Briarstone Witch, or the Thrushmoor Vanishing," Mara said, as she put the book she had been reading back on the shelf. She was tired and it was getting late.
"I'm ready to go back to the chapel and turn in. That seems like the only place I can sleep these days that doesn't involve disturbing dreams. I need proper rest before we confront Zandalus!"
She looked briefly at the strange text that Theo produced. "This must be a work of fantasy. A machine that makes bread? We've seen some strange things in the last few days, but this is surely the most outlandish!"
Dervak is pleased that his rudimentary training in Religion has paid off.
"The Tatterman? Shredman? Was he the witch's servant, or really the master? Either way I think he is the figure from our dreams. But maybe we will have to fight this witch too, or her spirit. She got the town to follow her and then slaughtered them all? While mocking Pharasma? Those are both very bad things. It could be that her soul did not go where it was supposed to go. Even if you do not worship Pharasma you should respect her."
Dervak glances at Theophilus's discovery, but can't make heads or tails of it. "Sorcery? I will have regular bread. Maybe you can sell that bread in Nex or a place like that."
Winter adds, "Briarstone Isle has had a history of weirdness. If this Tatterman is here do you think it is in league with Zandalus? Does it have a purpose?"
Sara tries console Theo, "Don't worry, great things are often misunderstood."
Theophilus smiles at his companions. The gentleman then pats Sara on the head.
Geniuses are often misunderstood, my dear. But never worry, because friends are friends anyway!