Tauriell who searched the ship and still holds all these items in her hands replies "Hey, let go off my rapier."
"Look, you have to carry me back and as long as you do so I take everything and when we're on land again you get your things back okay? " Niamh climbs onto Tauriell's back and takes all the things. "Go ahead!"
Tauriell puts the rapier in her belt, the buckler on her arm and the brooch in her pocket. "You use your hands to hold on to me. I'm fine carrying this stuff myself."
She then starts swimming back to the Crow.
Looking at the seaweed she asks herself where the entrance is.
Then she asks Niamh where the entrance is "Where do we come back in?"
"Ha, I could also hold on you with my legs. But if you prefer carring these things by yourself." Niamh looks around.
"I don't know. But it is beautiful down here, isn't it? Do you have some beeswax or something like that?"
"Great." Tauriell replies searching some more.
"Ah. There it is." Tauriell swims closer to the Crow. But as she is close to the entrance she changes the direction and from below swims up to the window trying to scare the others.
"I feel ignored." Niamh tells Tauriell. "You ignored all my questions!"
"Yikes!" Gwenhwyfar jumps back as Tauriell suddenly appears in front of the window.
Giggling she adds "Look Abomentolor. There is a mermaid trying to lure you into the sea."
"Yeah. Not going to happen. I'm waiting here for that mermaid to come out of the water." Abomentolor replies.
"It is a good thing that you noticed that." Tauriell replies. "Now you just have to learn to recognize when you are ignored on purpose and shut up."
"You know, if you ignore me I have to give the 'aids' a bit more unignorable." Niamh says.
"Be careful what you try here. You know what my aids towards you are!" Tauriell warns Niamh.
"These are no aids!" Niamh replies. "If I remember right it's called positive punishment."
Tauriell swims back to the entrance and climbs up the stairs. "Terminal stop here. Get off now."
"Thank you." Niamh says and climbs off. She walks to her backpack and instruments to see if everything is still there. "As you didn't answer, you don't have beeswax, right?"
Tauriell walks up to the observatory where the others wait. "Would someone please dry me." she asks.
"The ship seems to have nothing to do with our mission. No hints and no shard. But I found a new mithral weapon for me." she draws the rapier and does a few thrusts and slashes in the air. "So if someone needs a mithral short sword. I could spare that."
"Also I found this buckler and a brooch with the letters L. B. on it. Everything else was rotten."
Tauriell thinks about it and as the buckler doesn't even show the slightest signs of rust but isn't made of special material like the rapier she casts detect magic.
"This seems to be a magically enhanced buckler. The rapier is not." In the corner of her eye she notices another magic aura. "Jimmy, your ranseur seems to be magical too."
"I will!" Niamh says and mumbles her word and makes her gesure to dry herself and Tauriell.
"Does someone have beeswax?"
"No. I'm sorry but I don't have beeswax. What would you need that for?" Gwenhwyfar asks.
"I forgot to put my leather armor out." Niamh replies. "Now I need to oil it." She thinks a moment and then adds. "Do you think my slimy butter spell would do that too?"
"Wouldn't it become rancid if you grease it in butter?" Gwenhwyfar asks.
"That's why I'm asking. I guess I have to buy some beeswax when we are back in the Manor. When are we going to kill Lord Baz?"
"Who wants a buckler?" Tauriell asks.
And as no one replies she adds "Then I will try if it is an improvement. At least as long as I'm forced to use a one handed mithral weapon it should be fine."
"Can we leave now and see to it that this devil plague comes to an end?" Abomentolor presses.
"How is everyone doing for magic?" Jimmy asks at large
"My magic is still useless so I have a lot of it left." Abomentolor replies.
"I used one spell so far. I'm fine." Gwenhwyfar replies.
"I'm running out of identify spells. I guess that means we have to call it a day." Tauriell jokes.
"I'm almost full." Niamh says and takes a swallow of the magic water.
As Niamh can't feel any different she looks into the bottel and thinks about her discovery.
The expression of her face changes to dissapointed and she closes her water skin again and packs it away.
"Do you have a spell against the aftermath of poison, Gwenhwyfar?"
"What do you mean? Should I check on you if you have some ill effects." Gwenhwyfar asks
"As these things out there were biting me I got such a miserable feeling and ever since I feel a bit weak."
Tauriell gives herself a facepalm. "I forgot to bring the reefclaws. I'll be back in a few minutes. Tauriell hurries down the stairs and into the water. She swims back to the ship and gets the two critters.
"Sure. I prepared the spell a few times for just this occasion." Gwenhwyfar explains and casts lesser restoration on Niamh.
"Thank you. I feel much better now." Niamh tells Gwenhwyfar and heals her 'normal' wounds herself.
Once Tauriell is back she asks Niamh to dry her again and hands Gwenhwyfar the reefclaws. "These will make a fine meal." Tauriell explains.
"That's nice of you I guess." Gwenhwyfar replies as she is unsure what to do with these things now.
"Perhaps we should clear out one or two more rooms and then head back?"
Niamh mumbles her spell and makes her gesture again and Tauriell is dry.
"Can we put these crustaceans somewhere to pick them up later. I don't feel like carrying 40 pounds of food with me for fighting." Gwenhwyfar suggests.
"Just tie ten together and hang them over the arm of this red marble statue." Tauriell replies.
"Would you please do that?" Gwenhwyfar asks handing Tauriell the reefclaws back and then some twine.
"How about you hang them over the arm of the fire spouting statue and reactivate it. Once we're done with this dungeon the reefclaws are done too." Abomentolor jokes.
Tauriell takes her backpack and all her stuff and then leads the way to the statue. She hangs the reefclaws over the spear holding arm. "Runelord Azlanist holder of sea food."
"Let's see what the rest of this dungeon has to offer." She walks back down the stairs and then into the next unexplored room on the same level.
A pillar stands at either end of this wide room. The northern pillar is carved with the image of a beautiful woman wielding a ranseur. The southern pillar depicts seven robed men and women, their features eroded with the years. Each of them holds one segment of the seven-pointed star. Strange runes are carved into the floor.
the Runelord of Wrath, while the south pillar shows the seven original runelords after they sundered the Shattered Star.
Tauriell reads the runes. "It says: Does true power lie within the one or the many?"
"And these pillars depict our already known runelord Azlanist on one side and the original seven runelords after breaking the sihedron into seven pieces."
"I guess in this dungeon there was only one of the two answers welcome. Who wants to guess which one?"
"Me! The first answer was welcome, right?" Niamh asks curious.
"Yes Niamh. You're right. But asking such a question only makes sense if there is someone interested in the answer. Do you think someone stood here and you had to give the correct answer as a pass phrase?"
"So it is a rhetorical question, correct?"
Gwenhwyfar sits down on the floor to write down everything Tauriell explains and to draw a picture of the pillars.
"Maybe it's like the fireball trap. If you pass without giving the right answer you're hit with lightning or something." she suggests. She casts detect magic.
"But it's aura is transmutation magic. On both pillars. I would have expected divination and evocation."
"Maybe. Then it would have been just a reminder." Tauriell replies to Niamh.
"I'll check if it's a trap."
"I don't think it's a trap." Tauriell explains.
"Let's go on. This history lessons are boring." Abomentolor says and walks through the pillars down the hallway.