"Is wind clad like sky-clad? Because, I've got to say, I do a naked people discount." Valda apparently considered for a moment. "Even at your aunt's age, it's all good."
Looking around the library, Valda added, "I dunno what they were up to. They were leaders in the supernatural community, but that's all I really know. And in fairness, there's no evidence the place is haunted. Just stories."
The library soon reveals an inordinate number of books, on most subjects up to the 1920's. It also reveals a door to the south, a stair case to the upper level, and a locked room to the rear that Vfalda doesn't have a key for.
"It's like sky-clad with invisibility and flying like the wind added in which significantly raises the chance of surprise naked people...pretty much why my mothers rarely do outdoor parties even with their lovely grove..." Nurai explained in an amused tone to Valda's response before considering the rest of what she and Regina had said, "It does seem with the stories that the books placed in the other room could be for show to play up the supernatural angle for some reason...but some things only come out when they think there is enough shadow to hide in..." said with a glance to the windows.
Nurai looked around the room further, encouraging the zoog to look around particularly at the locked door and the staircase.
"Oh, finally! A locked, mysterious door. And I've just got the key. Bets on what's inside? Secret werewolf lair? Old holding cells populated by skeletons? The Necronomicon? Lace corsets?"
Whirling around Geidihr, Aurora brings the svartalf-wrought, adamantine tip against the keyhole and thrusts, aiming to sever the lock.
Surprisingly, perhaps, the lock held. As Aurora looked closer at the metal now visible where the paint had been scratched away, the metallic sheen was strangely similar to that of her own spear.
Solomon smirks at Aurora's "key" and helps himself to the lock, producing a set of picks from a pouch on his bandolier. "Now now Aurora, let's have a little respect for the property." he says with a smirk as he sets to the task.
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"If it's too much trouble, I might be able to melt it out of the wall." Regina noted as Doctor Solomon got to work. Given enough time, she could use acid to melt through anything up through stone, and while metals were still beyond her, she could usually get around those. ...Eventually.
Jennifer rolls her eyes.
"Just use the frickin' spear and bust the wood around the lock."
Doctor Solomon *tsk*s at the others. "Destructive lot, aren't we? Let's be gentle with this fine estate, and see if we can't exercise a bit of patience and enjoy the ambience." He pulls away from the lock for a moment to gesture to the library at large. "Read a book?"
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"I can think of half a dozen dirty innuendos for that phrase, but hey, I'd rather not blunt the tip. Who uses adamantine locks anyway?"
Nurai watched the action at the locked door for a moment in amusement before returning her attention back to the odd shelf, commenting on things in Aklo to the zoog.
"I believe I have another door here in this bookcase, bit stiff though...want a look?" Nurai called out, looking over her shoulder to the other and then to Valda. "Any of the stories mention secret rooms? Some ghost tales I know involve walling off and odd windows, though these bookcases are big enough..." she continued as she returned her attention to the bookcase, directing the zoog's attention over the shelves. With so many other obvious ways out of this room, one so hidden was...interesting at least.
Solomon manages to get the lock open, albeit it with some work. Inside was what amounted to a small cupboard, maybe ten feet. Perhaps, once, it had even been used as such. However, it soon becomes apparent that the door is not a simple one. The heavy lock is only the start of the defences, as behind the wooden front is an adamantium back. The hinges seem to be made of the same metal. And the frame. Given the stuff is rarer that platinum, you're probably looking at several hundred thousand in terms of the metal.
If you could find a seller, of course.
In fact, Solomon is reasonably sure the only reason that he was able to pop the lock was it, unlike everything else, seems to have aged.
Inside the small cupboard is a standing stone of some kind, maybe six and a half feet tall and foot in diameter. Writing is scrolled in several tongues in a twisting pattern around, inlaid with gold. Whatever it is, you can see it is magical when the zoog glances over and it lights up. Enough room to walk around it is present, allowing the whole of the stone to be read.
Translation will be difficult, but possible.
Prevent it spoiling and falling from grace.
No sanctuary here for the angel that falls.
But betrayal that intention and we do as we must.
This ground is neutral, thou shalt not divide.
Know that this as a fortress, forever denied.
In these blessed halls, they shall have nothing to fear.
Nurai checked the obvious choices - lantern folders, books, the lights switches - but if there was an obvious way through the secret door, it didn't present itself.
Translation will be difficult, but possible.
"This will be so easy, it shouldn't even be possible," Jennifer says, pulling out her spectacles of understanding.
She begins to read the stone aloud:
Creatures unseen be known to this place.
Prevent it spoiling and falling from grace.
Creatures unkind be denied these walls.
No sanctuary here for the angel that falls.
Creatures of welcome intention we trust.
But betrayal that intention and we do as we must.
Creatures of order and chaos abide.
This ground is neutral, thou shalt not divide.
Creatures of purpose against humankind.
Know that this as a fortress, forever denied.
But the children of man shall all be welcomed here.
In these blessed halls, they shall have nothing to fear.
"It's amazing that each of these different sayings in six different languages all rhyme when spoken in English," she says, impressed with whomever wrote theses verses.
"...Well, it's optimistic. We should be nice?" Regina suggested. She did tend to lean in favor of anything that welcomed the children of men - she fell into that category herself, after all. Maybe it was for the best she hadn't been melting things...
"It's only odd if it wasn't written in English and then translated," Valda considered. "If it's like 2000 years old and written beyond the stars, then it gets odd. Most likely, though, it was made by the folks who lived here. A lot of spells like this, the ones with a long term or permanent effects, get written in poem and ryhme. Rule of cool has been around forever." She tapped the stone. "Still, not sure why it was locked away like this. You could pass it off as some kinda artefact. Not to anyone with serious knowledge, but for most..."
"It sounds as though it's meant to be some kind of magical ward." Solomon suggests, shaking his head. "I'm no stranger to the unnatural, but my rational mind prefers to deny the existence of outright magic."
He turns to Jennifer as he puts away his picks. "That was some impressive translation, Jennifer. You must be quite the scholar."
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Still smiling, Nurai quietly comments, " 'Children of man'?" quietly with raised eyebrows clearly having an opinion on such wording but not strongly enough to go further with it. Being a woman with several mothers and very little human blood, it did feel like an easy gotten around loophole -- especially if made by leaders of a 'supernatural' community. She made a similar face at the Doctor's use of the word 'unnatural' among other comments but said nothing.
Turning her attention back to Valda, Nurai said, "Rule of cool with the rest of the set-up might suggest it's there to look impressive -- or with it radiating like that, the locked room might prevent it being detected doing whatever it is it is doing..."
Curious, and having not made progress with the secret bookshelf door, she moved closer to the psuedo-artifact. Nurai held the zoog tight with one hand and made slight gestures with her fingertips with her free hand, talking in Kazakh under her breath...
Aurora felt a small shiver coursing down her back as the poem mentioned the "creatures of order", but ignored it, instead raising an eyebrow at Solomon's denial of magic. Don't show off, girl. It's not proper.
"And of course, it could be that it was sealed for some very good reason, and we just opened the first seal binding Nyarlathotep. One way or another, this seems to just be a ward against enemies of humankind and those with ill intentions. Did you mention a secret door somewhere?"
Regina looked at Doctor Solomon for a moment. "...How is it rational to deny something that exists?" she asked, a little confused. But then, she could shoot cones of fire from her fingertips basically at will - it was a lot easier to believe in magic when you could do it. For now, they just needed to press forward, especially because those rhymes suggested an entrance of some kind...
"You be noticing some funny looks, doc. That would be because, in my case, I violate the laws of thermodynamics on a daily basis, and ignore the laws of gravity as it suits me." Valda shrugged. "If magic ain't real, then I have some awfully funny stuff going on in my life." She watched the zoog for a moment, and added, "Case in point."
Nodding to Auoura, she added, "That is a good point. Most likely it's just hidden from rubes, or it wouldn't have a door, but let's close it up again in case it prevents the Necronomicon escaping or something." Considering for a moment, Valda asked, "I wonder if that's a real book...the evil version, I mean."
Moving to the hidden door, Valda tapped at the wood. "Sounds like something is back there. Good eyes, Nurai. Any ideas how to get in, anyone?"
"Well, I can melt it as a backup plan. ...Maybe try something else first, though." she didn't want to wreck anything that was friendly to humans, after all, and her talents mostly consisted of "blast with physical power", "blast with energy", "blast a bigger area", and "put herself in a funny-looking suit that resisted energy". Opening things by methods other than destroying them wasn't really among her talents.
Nurai chuckled, petting the tiny zoog, "They're perfectly natural, and I perfectly naturally pulled them out of a shadow across dimensional barriers as one of my mothers' did before me to naturally light up the naturalness around us." Nurai replied with a smile as she walked towards a small book.
"I checked the usual secret door mechanisms and got nothing. No locks or spells that I could see...though this little book is radiating naturalness" she said, looking it over, trying to get an idea of what magic nonsense as she considered the old book...
He turns to Jennifer as he puts away his picks. "That was some impressive translation, Jennifer. You must be quite the scholar."
"I must be," Jennifer mumbles as she puts away her perfectly ordinary glasses in an expensive, titanium glasses case.
Solomon shakes his head as his companions harass him with their supernatural and magical capacities. "And I thought the psychic convention in London last fall was strange..."
It turns out the book itself - Anecdotes of the Great Accountants, Vol VII - is completely mundane. A single sheet of paper has been slipped into the book. At first, it appears to be completely blank, until the Zoog's eyes light it up and letters flash into life.
Ax ntq mzld rgzkk xnt dmsdq
As to what those letters mean...
Valda tilted her head. "OK...so, whose good at puzzles?"
"By our name shall you enter..." Regina mused. "Pretty basic one-letter substitution. ...Anyone see a name around here? Someone who made this, maybe?"
Nurai raised her eyebrows, "Do I want to know why you were at a psychic convention?" she asked Doctor Solomon.
Upon lighting up the coded text, Nurai petted the zoog in appreciation while the creature continued to look around interested in everything else. Considering what Regina said, after being impressed with the speed, Nurai added "...or maybe a name on the pages it was stuck between?" with a shrug. "Though what and if we want to enter is also in question..."
Aurora chuckles. "Ah, Doctor, I have not yet begun being strange... Quoth the Raven-"
The black bird on Aurora's shoulder is quick to caw "Nevermore!" in reply.
"Jokes aside, it says our name, right? So we can assume it's something about either a group of creatures, uhm, angels, for instance, or a group of people, perhaps a society of sort? Like those Hermetic Society folks? Or something more mundane? A passphrase is something by whose name you enter... Mellon! Swordfish! Password! 123456!"
"Miss Simmons, what was the name of the society that once owned this estate?" Solomon asks as he ponders. "It may have been mentioned in one of my father's journals..."
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Valda glanced at the bird. "I keep forgetting about speaking animals. It always throws me. Especially when you find out they can cheat at poker. I lost my pants to a monkey, once. I liked those pants."
Nodding to the doctor, and noting his lack of willingness to discuss pshyic conventions, she turned to the bookcase. "The Fever Forest Preservation Society." She glanced around. "What? It's on all the documents. But given the lack of opening and the sillyness of putting a door locked by your name in a public room...I'm guessing not there only one."
Watching to see if Nurai found the answer in the book (she didn't, sadly) Valda sighed. "OK...since Auoura went through all the common ones in this day and age, and I don't know the equivalent of Swordfish for 1920's magical hacking, we can either explore, destroy or hit the books." Looking around the library, she added, "The books may take some time."
"Yeah. Lord of the Rings wasn't even out in the Twenties, but it was worth a shot. Give me a voice if we want to smash through, I'll check out the door we haven't gone through."
Heading back, Aurora tries the north-facing door in the second room they explored.
The building appeared to have been a greenhouse. Technically, it still was - more so than most. Plants thrive everywhere, in great blooms of green with splashes of wild red and violet here, deep blue and golden yellow there.
The path has been most engulfed but leads around the glass building in a twisting trail. A door can just be spotted over to the east, if you look very carefully along the path, showing the equally overgrown rosegarden outside.
"So, uh, if I had a trapped and maybe-haunted house, I'd probably have a deadly plant lying in wait in the greenhouse..." Regina mused, looking at the growth and colors. "Is anybody good at putting out fires?" What? She was just asking.
"I am." says Aurora, looking at the door. "Were you around Fever for that freak snowstorm in July 2010? That was me."
She approached the door, opening it. "Mind having a look around?"
Solomon lets the others explore a bit while he examines the supposed secret door and tries to ignore Aurora taking credit for dramatic weather.
His gloved hands trace the shelves and books, looking for any indication of a catch or a book on a pertinent subject. "A name..." he recites to himself idly.
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Regretting not being able to stay and review the books, Jennifer tears herself away in case somebody starts a thing with something violent. She wouldn't want to miss that. And the books will still be there later. Unless there's a fire. Hmm.
Wait, there actually was someone good at putting out fires? Excellent. ...Although on second thought, just using acid to melt away the plants - without setting them on fire - would probably be a smarter course of action. Fortunately, the acid didn't linger around, so it ought to be fine once a few seconds had passed. "Well, just let me know if you want me to clear out the greenhouse." she noted.
Nurai put the magic page back in the book from where she had pulled it out and placed the book aside as she saw some of the others start to leave the room. Holding the zoog gently, cooing at it for a moment in Aklo, Nurai looked to Valda and followed her lead as to what they were up to next.
The zoog seemed to continue to be content with the affection and space for the time being.
Valda nodded to Solomon as the Doctor researched, heading to the greenhouse with the other ladies.
Looking around, she said, "I'm not picking up anything magical, so I think we're OK. But this is going to take a month of Sunday's to trim." Looking at the mass of plant life, she added, "Even non-magical plants are probably dangerous here. They've been left long enough to develope culture, and possibly the Best of Queen on CD. Does anyone know a good Druid interested in doing some extreme gardening?"
What does grab your attention is a book that seems out of place - Anecdotes of the Great Accountants Part II. Given it was the same series as the note that was found earlier...
"We've got another problem." Regina said, a warning tone in her voice as her eyes flicked over the area and a thick sphere of ether, rapidly shifting between different elements, enveloped her hand. Unlike the little flickers from before, this was enough to actually attack with.
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"We've got another problem." Regina said, a warning tone in her voice as her eyes flicked over the area and a thick sphere of ether, rapidly shifting between different elements, enveloped her hand. Unlike the little flickers from before, this was enough to actually attack with.
Jennifer looks at the new girl's weird ball, then looks into the nursery where the girl's gaze is directed. Not seeing anything, she looks back.
"Another problem? Are you feeling like supplying any details, or are you going to stick with cryptic, unhelpful warnings?"
Nurai pondered Valda's remarks, "I don't think I know a druid into that, but my Yaye Azy does wonders with plants and loves a challenge though with centuries of experience, I imagine she might find this relaxing more than anything as long as she felt up to traveling this far from home and her tree."
Nurai glanced over to Regina as she makes the magical ball appear, then started looking around the greenhouse slowly...
"It does seem to have gotten suddenly darker...and colder. Odd, I don't normally feel the cold...
Cold is nothing to Aurora's skin, but Regina and Nurai's warnings bring her senses to the edge. Once again, Geidihr appears in her hand. "Either fimbulwinter is upon us, or something's not right. Sól varp sunnan, sinni mána, hendi enni hægri of himinjǫður."
The room temperature rises around the spear-wielding girl.
Outside the greenhouse, snow begins to fall. Although you can still see a blue sky above a mass of dark cloud is rapidly rolling over the building.
The windows, stuck between the cold of the outdoors and the heat from Aurora, quickly begins to fog.
A squicking noise drags Valda's head up, as something scarwls on the window panes above your heads. Get. Out. Now.
"Soooo...fimbulwinter...that would be the start of the whole end of the world thing, right?" Valda considered. "Hope not. Most of my stuff is on this world. Also, me."
What was it that Miyu always told her about dealing with this sort of thing...?
Oh. Right. 'Don't take @#$% from the supernatural.'
"...Think that tablet thing was referring to the house, or somewhere else? We might be safer if we just stay inside, but if not..." she pondered for a few moments, then raised her hands and focused for just a moment. A cone of acid about three times as long as she was tall shot out of her fingertips and across the plants clogging the way to the door they'd seen - aimed to stay away from everyone else, of course. Hopefully, that would be enough to start clearing the path - and it wasn't like the acid would be sticking around. Since the trouble had started once they'd begun going in this direction... best to see it through to the end, yeah?
"Now you're being helpful," Jennifer states as she takes point heading towards the door.
Solomon calls out, "Hello there. Valda? Jennifer? I may have found something."
The acid melts a bath to the door with ease, plants withering under the stream. Jennifer reaches the door, and can feel the cold radiating in through the thin sheets of glass and lead.
Before she can reach the group hears Solomon calling.
"Is it worth taking a look at?" Regina called back. 'Something' was, after all, an extremely vague statement to make.