"Oh, nothing. I'm just wondering what ioun stone you will get from Mrs. Heidmarch." Gwenhwyfar answers cunningly.
"That is a wonderful thought you have there." Tauriell says with excitement on her face. But let me check first that I forgot nothing here.
There are two doors which lead to two chanbers. One holding the sleeping place of the derro and some of her personal belongings.
3 vials
The other is used as a storage.
Any gear taken from the prisoners
several bags of coins ,
a lens ,
a scarab ,
and a wand
Tauriell packs the rest of the stuff also. Some she stuffs in her clothes, some more in her backpack and the silver and copper coins she pours in the blanket.
She then tries to get up and carry the blanket. But with over 50 pounds of coins it is too heavy. She manages to drag it over the floor with some strain. "Let's go. I have everything."
With the blanket in tow she leaves the room. At the stairs she lifts it up one stair at a time. Through the room it is easier to drag it behind her. But on the way through the sewer the blanket rips open and the coins pour out.
Tauriell immediately stops, puts down the blanket and picks up the coins from the floor and out of the sewer. She takes up the bound blanket and staggers forward with it. Two more times she pauses to pick up dropped coins. Finally she gives up and leaves the coppers and silvers that fall out now and then in the sewers. But she looks really miserable.
Niamh stops the playing. "Are you sure you can carry that all by yourself?" She asks Tauriell a bit perplexed.
Gwenhwyfar walks after Tauriell. It breaks her heart to see her in this condition but she also knows of no way to help her in that situation.
"Yes, that's all mine. I carry that myself." Tauriell replies glaring at Niamh. She continues to stagger to the secret door.
As she reaches the exit out of the sewers it gets even harder as she has to lift all that weight up a stone ladder in the sewer wall. It takes her several tries until she has pulled it up with the rope and some more time to recollect everything tat fell out.
After a walk through Magnimar back to the Manor that feels like it takes forever she drops the blanket at the door of the Manor House.
After sitting on the stair for a minute and catching her breath Tauriell picks herself up and knocks at the door using the heavy brass ring hanging in the mouth of a brass lion head.
After a few moments Margaret opens the door and looks puzzled at the overloaded elf and her flea market collection. "Good afternoon. What can I do for you?"
"Hello Margaret." Tauriell replies lifting up the heavy blanket again. "Mrs. Heidmarch has an ioun stone for me. I need to see her."
"Would you please leave your 'collection' here in front of the door. I'll see if Mrs. Heidmarch has time for you." Margaret replies.
"No. I can't do that." Tauriell replies clinging to the blanket and looking at Margaret with suspicion.
"Then I suggest that you wait here and I inform Mrs. Heidmarch about your request. Mrs. Tauriell it is, right?" Margaret asks and on confirmation closes the door.
After a few minutes Mrs. Heidmarch opens the door with a pouch in hand. As usual dressed with her elegant and practical blue green dress accompanied by a matching necklace and earrings. "Good afternoon." she greets all and to Tauriell she adds "You wanted to see me?"
"Yes. I'm here for the ioun stone to my shard." Tauriell explains fetching the shard out of her blouse. She holds it with both hands so Mrs. Heidmarch can see it but has a tight grip on it. Seeing the jewelry at Mrs. Heidmarch makes her sick again. It can't be that she doesn't have such a display of wealth herself.
Mrs. Heidmarch looks at the shard, at Tauriell and all the stuff she brought. She then opens her bag and searches for the matching stone in it. She then hands the pale blue rhomboid ioun stone to Tauriell. "Here it is."
She waits anxious what the elf will do and what the activation will cause.
Tauriell snatches the stone from Mrs. Heidmarchs hand. She admires the perfect form of the stone and the deep blue color. The word precious comes to her mind. Nervously she tries to put the stone into the matching indentation and after two or three tries she manages with her shaky hand to put it in.
As the ioun stone falls into place it shortly glows brightly and fuses with the shard. Tauriells face brightens. First to a relaxed smile then an excited smile. "My precious!" She sees in her mind the power this shard gives her and a vision appears in front of her inner eye. A statue of a woman holding up some kind of torch residing over the sea.
But with the activation also the curse of the shard fades away. The absentminded happyness gives way to her awareness of what she has done the last hour. How she greedily grubbed everything of worth. How she muck-raked for some copper. How she suspected everyone of wanting to take her stuff. How she stared at Mrs. Heidmarchs jewelry.
Every visible emotion vanishes from her face. Like stone. She looks at Mrs. Heidmarch, her own dirty hands and the shard in them. She drops the shard as if it were some disgusting slimy rat. A single tear runs down her cheek. Hectically looking left and right she sees the opening. A path leading out of this situation. And she runs.
Down the way to the gatehouse, out on the street, down the street on the well known path. She runs and runs. People jump out of the way but she doesn't really notice them. Until she finally reaches the sea.
Taking a deep breath she comes to her mind. What should she do. Jump in and let the weight of her weapons pull her down? She walks along the shore towards Underbridge. There in the shadow she finds a spot behind some abandoned building where she can sit on a stone in the foot deep water. She washes her hands and her face. She maniacally tries to wash the dirt from her clothes as if it would wash the last hour out of her life.
As the blouse is torn by her effort she finally stops. She slides slowly down into the shallow water lying on her back. Staring at the Irespan from below she lets the small waves that roll on the shore here play with her hair.
Mrs. Heidmarch looks after Tauriell. Once she is off the manor grounds and it becomes clear she won't be back soon she bends down and picks up the shard. Holding it out to the rest of the group she asks "Who will keep that for now?"
"I will go to search her." Niamh says and turns around to follow Tauriell. As she can't see the elf anymore she asks some people if they saw a red haired elven girl and in which direction she ran to.
As Niamh asks almost everyone on the street she manages to find one here and there who has seen an orange haired elf running through. It is relatively easy to follow Tauriell's way to the shore. But from there on no one took notice where she went.
Niamh jumps up and down looking for an orange haired elf.
But she sees nothing. So Niamh just chooses turns to the right side and walks along the coast looking for Tauriell while walking.
"If no one else volunteers I would take it." Abomentolor says looking if someone objects.
Finally in some dark spot at the shore in Underbridge Niamh finds an elf floating in the water.
She walks toward Tauriell. "Tauriell? How are you doing that? If I would try that I would drown!" Niamh tries to get Tauriell's attention.
Tauriell is startled and sits up. "What?" she asks as she frees her ears from the water.
"How can you manage not to sink? That's kind of amazing." Niamh puts out her leather armor and starts walking into the water until she stands halfling-knee deep in the water with her trousers soaked with water.
"It's magic." Tauriell replies.
"Also the water is not deep enough for me to sink here as you should have noticed by now." she adds looking at the halfling standing besides her.
"Whoops." Niamh says grinning and sits down next to Tauriell. "It reaches only my belly." She determines and smiles over her whole face.
"So what are you doing here. Was it to dry at the other places?" Tauriell asks.
"Oh, I just wanted to join you." Niamh says looking at her fingers and then at Tauriell agian.
"Okaaay."
"Then make yourself comfortable." Tauriell suggests and lays herself in the water again watching at the Irespan.
Niamh carefully tries to lay herself onto the water. "Oh look. It works!" She says happily and looks onto the top. "Could we swim a bit out? The view here is rather boring, don't you think?"
"I'm fine lying here. But don't hold yourself back because of me. Swim a round if you like." Tauriell answers.
"But you have to come with me. Because I can't swim. And I won't use the scroll of underwater-breathing for learning how to swim. So you have to come with me and save me if I should drown." Niamh thinks for a moment and then adds "Better you save me before I am drown."
"You go and try swimming and I'll see if I save you when you start drowning." Tauriell replies. "As an alternative you could try to learn swimming where the water is deep enough to swim and not deep enough to drown."
But after thinking for a moment she realizes that Niamh won't give up. So she unbuttons her blouse and her pants takes them off, throws them on the shore and runs into the deeper water. Jumping in head first.
As she comes up again her swimming is not very successful. "How about you save me?" Tauriell asks spitting out sea water.
At the Manor
__________________
As no one else cares to take the shard Abomentolor takes it from Mrs. Heidmarch. "Thank you." He concentrates on the shard and is excited about it's power as well as the vision he gets.
"Does anyone know a huge basalt statue of a woman holding a torch?" He asks looking around. "Because that is where we are going next!"
"Next we go to the guest house. And tomorrow I need to go back to the Crow as I haven't made any drawings from the room we found the shard. Nor any maps."
"And we need Tauriell and Niamh back before we go anywhere." Gwenhwyfar disagrees. "I guess we take this stuff with us?" she adds pointing to Tauriell's backpack and the blanket full of stuff.
"I will grab that, don't forget we also need to tell our guards we are done. And I believe there are still some rooms we haven't cleared yet. We also need to decide what to do with our friendly ghoul. Actually on that note, Mrs. Heidmarch, what is the society's stance on undead that aren't actually doing anything evil per say?
"As a Venture Captain of the Pathfinder Society I can say for sure that we won't welcome him or her as a member." Mrs. Heidmarch replies. "If that undead of yours proves to be a nuisance to you I cold recommend a book or two about solving that."
"I don't expect to induct him into the society. Just wondering if the society had a set stance on undead."
"We see them as a threat to be dealt with if encountered during an exploration or expedition. Therefore the books about that topic. We are not the church of Pharasma." she explains further.
"And what about undead that are actively helpful to the society?"
"Subtlety is not your thing, is it?" Mrs. Heidmarch inquires mildly annoyed.
"I don't care what you do with it. Invite it to a beer if you must. But if it starts eating the bar patrons after being seen with you I'll personally throw you out of the Society."
In Underbridge
_______________________
Niamh tries to swim towards Tauriell.
She paddles through the water like a dog her head back to hold her face over the water and to not loose her hat.
"It looks like we both could use some training in swimming." Tauriell says. "But I could use your help with something else. You're good with people, aren't you?"
"Well pardon me for trying to ensure I do what is best for the society." Jimmy says irritated himself
"Sometimes I am. Most times people look annoyed. But yes, I want to help you." Niamh replies with a bright smile happy that Tauriell thinks she isn't useless at all.
"That is good to hear. As long as you are gathering knowledge and do what is necessary to reach that goal without making enemies for the Society you're fine." Mrs. Heidmarch replies to Jimmy.
"Then let's get out of the water and find Liza Jane. I guess she lives somewhere in the Docks or in Beacons Point." Tauriell tells Niamh.
With a few strokes she is at the shore. Putting her clothes back on she says "I also could use a new blouse. This one is ripped apart."
Niamh follows Tauriell out of the water and puts her armor on. "Lead the way." Niamh tells her.