Tauriell turns back and shoves Gwenhwyfar back into the tunnel. "That room is filled with a toxic and flammable gas. If we go in we will be poisoned."
"Flammable?" Abomentolor asks his eyes glowing with excitement. He holds his breath and moves into the room casting spark.
The whole air in the room ignites and burn off in a single round of bright crimson flame.
Abomentolor stands there and watches as the cloud of flame spreads through all of the room. But the fire is too much. Even for him.
"Ha hot."
"That is better than those lousy fireballs Lini sells." And looking at his burns he simply shakes it off. "Totally worth it!"
As there is nothing else to find in this room the group walks on. One by one they cross the bridge and come back to the crossing where the excursion started.
"Ok. We did a round trip and Abomentolor got to burn a slime and he set a huge sewer fart on fire. Does that count as success?" Tauriell asks.
"Yep." Abomentolor replies.
"At least no one got hurt." Gwenhwyfar says but corrects herself "At least not too much and not by monsters."
She uses her healing hex on Abomentolor.
The group moves on to the large room where they first encountered the derros. There is one way left. The large spiral stairs downwards.
The spiral stairs in the middle of the room lead down much farther than any other room here — after descending for nearly 400 feet, they suddenly end at an open gulf, exiting into the roof of a large cavern filled with all manner of deadly fungi and creeping oozes. It’s an 80-foot drop to the floor below.
Gwenhwyfar starts her documentation by making a rough sketch of the layout of this level.
She then paints a picture of the dead shriezyx that lies at the top of the stairs to the shard's former home.
But it takes several tries before it looks like a shriezyx and not like a large dung beetle
Then she draws pictures of the Sihedron shrine. One of the whole room seen from the door.
Another one showing only the sihedron altar with the star carved into it's top.
Last she lays on her back to copy the scenes depicted at the ceiling.
Tauriell goes for a stroll and sits down at the bottom end of the spiral stairs. Sending dancing lights into the dark she tries to discern something. But it doesn't help. The bottom is too far away. So she casts her scroll of daylight on some pebble and throws it in.
She sits there for some time watching the unreal scene. As the light goes out again she walks up again and collects the everburning torch in front of the balcony. The she looks for Gwenhwyfar.
"Are you done? Can we go back?"
Gwenhwyfar flips through the pages of her journal and decides she has pictures of everything she needs. "Yes. We can go back."
The group marches back through the sewer. Gwenhwyfar counts the steps to the door and notes them down. From the other side she makes a sketch of the door and notes the distance to the sewer entrance.
Once outside she makes another sketch of the entrance itself.
.
"I guess the Crow is now the best documented part of Magnimar." Tauriell jokes.
"Lets go back to the meeting house. I don't want to fall in disgrace with Mrs. Heidmarch. She seems to have a rather sour mood towards Niamh. It's not necessary to extend that to the rest of the group."
"I'll buy us some grilled meat on the way. There was some diner on the way." she offers.
On the way she buys a grilled pork knuckle for everyone.
Gwenhwyfar tries not to look guilty as Tauriell talks about Mrs. Heidmarch.
As she receives the grilled pork she says "Thank you. It's nice to have a delicious meal without standing in the kitchen first."
"That's ridiculous." Abomentolor says on receiving his meal. "That's far too much for me!"
"You don't have to eat it all at once. and if you don't want to eat it all you can share it with Niamh." Tauriell replies.
As the group is back at the Manor Gwenhwyfar goes to the meeting house to check where the meeting will take place. From Wumbrout she gets the information that it will be held in the Lounge.
She prepares the room by laying out her journals and notes. She also fetches the four statues from the guest house and places them on the table too.
She then sits down and makes a few additional notes about which statue stood where in the Crow.
She writes down some more information about the shards they already got and what effects they have on the wearer. Both if activated and also the curse they bear if not.
Tauriell puts most of her stuff in her room and give Carl and Ernard a grilled pork knuckle too. Then she also comes to the lounge. She takes a seat on a couch. "It's nice how you do all this documentation stuff. I like the results." Tauriell recognizes Gwenhwyfar's work.
Abomentolor walks to Niamh's room and knocks. "I have here something for you." he calls her through the door.
Niamh stops playing and opens the door. "What is it?" Niamh asks and looks at Abomentolor in curiosity.
Abomentolor holds out a half gnawed off grilled pork knuckle. "Tauriell said I should share that with you."
Niamh looks at it and smiles. "Oh thank you. Tell her with many thanks back." She says and closes the door in front of Abomentolor's nose.
"Ok. You don't like it then?" As no answer comes from inside the room he walks to Tauriell and tells her "Niamh didn't want it. I guess it has something to do she never eats meat."
"She told me to bring it back to you."
"Who would have guessed that. Then feed it to Brutus yourself." Tauriell replies.
Niamh comes out of her room to join the others. She takes a seat across from Tauriell.
"Good idea. Maybe he will stop sucking up to Niamh if I give him that thing." He walks back and throws Brutus a bone so to speak.
Then he cleans his hands with prestidigitation and places himself on a comfy chair in the meeting house lounge.
"I hope you behave this time. You know I still have the sack I bought especially for you." Tauriell warns Niamh.
"Phhhhhht!" Niamh makes and looks a bit grumpy. "She has just too weak nerves"
Just as the clock strikes four Mrs. Heidmarch enters the room. "Good afternoon."
She looks over the room and places herself besides Gwenhwyfar. She picks up a statue and looks it over. "Lets start with what you have."
Gwenhwyfar starts showing Mrs. Heidmarch her notes. "I'm not sure where we were last time. I guess at the upper part of the crow. But as we have the statues now we go through it again..."
Gwenhwyfar explains the layout of the crow as far as she has maps of it and where the statues stood. She shows the pictures she drew and points out the statue that belongs to it.
"... and this one throws fireballs. Tauriell disabled it but I guess she could undo that. And that other statue here had a magical ranseur in it's hand but that Jimmy put to a better use."
She continues to the lower level to describe the sihedron shrine and the altar in it and shows the pictures. Also that of the shriezyx.
Last but not least she shows how all that is connected to the sewers in Magnimar.
Putting the statue down Mrs Heidmarch explains "I'm really impressed. For one about what you found and second about the quality of your documentation. I'd like to borrow your journals to copy them again."
Looking at the statues again she asks "You know the time this shrinking works is limited? Please make sure the statues are not standing on a table when it ends."
"Oh. But we wanted to get them to Randolf Burston III today anyway for him to sell them. So we have to make sure to do that before the shrinking ends. We just wanted to ask you first if you're interested in them." Gwenwhyfar explains.
"This one throws fireballs and this one had a magical ranseur you say?" Mrs. Heidmarch asks turning the statues in their place. "Did you check them all for magical properties? I mean besides the obvious fireball and the weapon?"
"No, I didn't think of that." Gwenhwyfar replies and casts detect magic.
"It looks like these two are indeed magical. This one has an aura of abjuration and evocation. The other one divination. But I can't discern what exactly it is."
"If you don't mind I would like to have these two for further examination and as exhibits for the show room. Please contact Wumbrout Brios about where exactly to place them."
"If no one else wants to add something to Gwenhwyfar's deliberations I could elaborate how to proceed." Mrs. Heidmarch suggests.
"Please warn anyone that you might send into the crow that there is a friendly dweller still residing there and that he will gladly help if asked." Jimmy says remembering Lockerbie
"As of now I'm sending no one. And if the need arises I'm going to send you." Mrs. Heidmarch replies.
"And as long as the shards are not all found I will not tell anyone that the Crow even exists. And with the sihedron shrine placed there we might actually need that place again. Therefore I ask you to keep that a secret also."
"Now that you mention it." Tauriell remarks "When I concentrate on the shard of greed I can clearly see the Manor like from an elevated point in Magnimar. If every shard is linked to the next one in this way then there is one more shard out there betraying our position at any time."
"From a positive point of view that means your next shard has no chance of hiding from you." Mrs. Heidmarch considerates.
"On the negative side this could lead to a race if anyone finds by accident one of the other shards. But the chances are slim that someone finds a shard and actually knows what it is and also knows how to activate it. You should be able to tell if the curse led you to think about the next shards or if it simply drove you insane."
"Don't remind me." Tauriell replies rolling her eyes.
"I won't." Mrs. Heidmarch replies.
She then continues to explain what she found out. "I wrote a summary of what I know about the remaining shards so far." She gives Gwenhwyfar a note.
In any event, I’ve learned the sequence of the remaining five shards, along with their associated ioun stone, skymetal, and rumored powers — those shards are as follows.
Shard of Lust: Associated with enchantment magic; made of a djezet alloy; pink and green sphere ioun stone; allows limited mind control and enhances ability to react to sudden danger.
Shard of Gluttony: Associated with necromancy magic; made of inubrix; pink rhomboid ioun stone; increases ability to withstand damage and grants the power to absorb the health of foes.
Shard of Envy: Associated with abjuration magic; made of noqual; dusty rose prism ioun stone; enhances defenses and the dispelling of magic.
Shard of Wrath: Associated with evocation magic; made of siccatite; deep red sphere ioun stone; allows the creation of bursts of fire and enhances weapon damage.
Shard of Sloth: Associated with conjuration magic; made of abysium; incandescent blue sphere ioun stone; allows the summoning of monstrous minions and provides insight and focus to spellcasting.
"As Tauriell already told me the next shard is somewhere at te Lady's Light I asked a contact of mine and you can go there by ship. I secured you a passage there on the day after tomorrow. The ship leaves at sunrise so make sure to go on board in time. They won't wait for you."
"I suggest you read up on the Mushfens to decide what kind of gear you're missing. And the most important thing to consider might be that you're out of civilisation there and won't be able to get back to it. At least not without travelling for a week."
Then she gets her pouch and places a pink and green sphere ioun stone on the table. "This one is for the Shard of Lust. I need more time to raise funds to track down and buy the other ones needed."
Jimmy sits and listens attentively
"Haha! We count as grown up now and have to do our own researches. We'll be responsible for our own survival in the wilderness. That will be fun." Tauriell says.
"I guess that's all. You're doing a great job so far. Keep up the good work."
She collects Gwenhwyfar's journals. "I'll send them back to you tomorrow at latest."
"I'm going to send Wumbrout Brios to you about the statues. Good bye." She leaves the group in the lounge.
Wumbrout Brios comes in a few moments later. "Hello." He looks at the statues. "Which two statues shall I take?"
"The one with the missing ranseur and the one that throws fireballs." Abomentolor replies pointing at the appropriate statues.
"Yes sure, fireball." Wumbrout replies and takes the statues with him. He places them in the show room carefully to make sure they stand correct once the spell wears off.
"So now that this meeting is out of the way what are we doing? Planning for a camping trip? Or do you prefer to let ourself be surprised by nature." Tauriell asks.