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"Excellent work Yanndu."
*** I am uncertain. Her behavior was abnormal, but that is entirely because my experience with undead has typically been to have threats of my death be rapid and the dominating topic of conversation. I do doubt she she affected by the charm, but we should be careful. I have been under compulsions before and it is difficult, if not impossible, for me to determine if I'm under one myself. ***
Watts moves to study the area as well to add his input.
"I do wish to claim I'm under a mental effect of some nature though to explain my ongoing issues with cartography. I know the area from my research on Ancient Osirion, but can't find any landmarks that I can't recall from my texts."
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Sihir notices that the maps indicate several dozen unlabeled locations, including numerous points throughout the deserts of northern Garund, half a dozen scattered throughout the Barrier Wall mountain range, two in northern Geb, another four in Katapesh, one each in Nex and the Mana Wastes, and one coastal site now submerged just north of Osirion. These sites don't hold any special significance to you at the moment, but they most certainly would be worth reporting to the Jeweled Sages.
Inspecting the double doors reveals no traps. The doors are locked per the guards and wards that enchant these passages, but it is a trivial task to bypass them for adventurers such as yourselves.
Pools of pure elemental water, earth, and fire occupy this chamber. The elemental presence has warped the stone in the room, giving the surface immediately surrounding the water pool a spongy texture, growing strange crystals near the earth pool, and sending veins of pulsing magma rippling through the flagstones near the fire pool. Several metal scoops and flasks stored at narrow workstations between the pools allow a creature to extract and mix elements. A brief inspection of the pools reveals that each of them act as a permanent diagram of magic circle, and are intended for the use of summoning and binding elementals. The runes surrounding the circles show how to conjure fire, water, and earth elementals by using the material from their respective pools as a focus, and material from the other pools as a binding agent. They appear to have been used already today, but enough material remains to use the pools once more before they will need time to refill.
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Sihir looks about the chamber with keen appreciation.
"Why no air circle...?"
"...Ah! Because one is unnecessary! Interesting - the crude elegance of Ancient Osirian alchemy. From Earth, Fire, and Water, can be distilled most anything else, if combined properly. To begin with, combine Fire and Water, then filter through Earth, and purest elemental Air is released. Take the same formula, and add another part Water, and by these means, one might get ice."
"The Fire itself, is of course purer and more powerful than any common alchemist's fire. With the right sort of vessels to collect it, we could...."
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Upon seeing the pools, you hear Yanndu thinking the following, ***...impressive...***
Yanndu applies a dose of vermin repellent (4 hours) to himself, then drinks a vial of antiplague (1 hour), a vial of soothe syrup (1 hour) and a potion of delay poison (3 hours). He hands over the four empty vials (with their stopper) to whoever is doing the harvesting.
***...I won't be throwing things around in battle, but those of you with good aim could use four additional bombs...the fire mixture is...quite potent...handle with care...***
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"I disagree. These elemental pools act as inward facing circles, which suggests they are intended for a planar binding ritual, which is extremely ill-advised as it would take time, require the use of dimensional anchor magic and would result in the elementals in question seeking revenge against us thereafter."
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"I have met some number of bound elementals in the tombs. If any had ill will, it seemed to be from their bindings lasting centuries. Still, I will admit I have little experience in such calling. It may be the case that I only have seen the results of successful callings without the many failures that required to find one amicable to the terms."
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"I am an Illusionist, not a Conjurer. Never cared for Conjuration, actually. Why borrow from other realities, and often at such a heavy price, when one can create reality?"
"That said, the Ancient Osirian methods we see here are so very strange! Worthy of some study on those grounds alone! I think I could conjure something if we had good reason...although it would take all the Fire presently in that circle, so no poor man's fireball. An elemental would be far more useful."
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"I'm not sure if I understand the idiom. It is rather costly both in training and resources to be able to call on any sort of fireball."
"Both summoning and elemental explosives would serve some need. I wish I could say which would be most useful. I know I favor the explosives, but I believe this is an area where I must admit my bias. For magic of a more immediate nature, I prefer to hold it in reserve until I'm confident of the need. The summoning is far more powerful if we can find a clear and immediate use for it."
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This neatly kept office seems as though it once doubled as living quarters. A basin in the northwest corner continuously refills with watter, and an ancient cot stands nearby. Magical illumination provides bright light, and a tidy desk and workbench holds ancient quills and dried-up ink. The desk's drawers are locked.
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Watts attention is drawn by the desk before the dragon draws his attention to the flooring.
"Yes. I see it as well. Excellent job Riddlywhipple. A secret space for storage perhaps? It is curious why the resident here would need such a covert space to hide any materials so deep into the sage's sanctum."
After giving a brief amount of attention to the loose stone Watts removes the stone to inspect the contents beneath before turning his attention to the desk. Both are inspected carefully for hidden traps before he begins work to unlock the drawer.
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No auras radiate within this room aside from the Guards and Wards that permeates the hallway.
Inspecting the flagstone reveals no traps, and it is fairly easy to slide out of place revealing a concealed toolkit.
The desk appears to be free of traps as well, and Watts goes about unlocking the desk. The lock is of average quality, and Watts is able to spring it without damaging the desk. Within is a small set of documents that inventory many of the statues contained within this building. An invaluable reference for preserving the history contained within.
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Ramesses detects no evil.
The journal, written in Ancient Osiriani, records 20 years of the Amethyst Sage's work in archiving and recording lost treasures while wrestling to maintain his own identity when exposed to the sage jewel's memories. Several letters sandwiched between later pages describe, in brutal detail, multiple Qadiran raids in which the invaders killed or captured sages or sympathizers. The final year of entries is encoded. While it would likely not be an incredibly difficult task given your expertise, the sheer volume of encoded entries would make it a very time-consuming task, taking at least a couple hours.
~~~
Opening the door into the attached room reveals an unsettling sight. The spell of burnt flesh still permeates the chamber. Now-indecipherable runes drawn in blood long since reduced to powder line the floor. The walls are slightly cracked and in several places even seem to bow outward as though pushed apart by a powerful force.
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"It looks to be authored the the Amethyst Sage themselves. Large portions within detail the decline of the order. The final entries are encoded. I'm certain I could decipher them, but it would take some significant time. My own wards will fail by then. I do not have concern for that though as I have other spells to take their place. I'm quite happy to be able to take some time to review these documents, especially with aid."
Watts looks at the burned room with a mix of dismay and curiosity. As he studies the cracks and in the walls he is repulsed again by some minor repugnant discovery.
"Despite what you might believe, this is from nothing recent. A powerful magical ritual was performed here. I can't say whether this was the intent or the ritual failed in some way. I'll take it as a saving grace that the spirit of the victim does not appear to still haunt this place."
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While I'm as interested as you Watts to learn what's encoded, I believe it would be best to hold off until a later time. Hmm...it's been sometime you say?
I'd have to agree, I guess being in a sealed off tomb, the remnants of powerful magic just lingers...I wonder if we may later discover what or better yet whom caused this.
Ramesses eyes the walls carefully to see if they may collapse.
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The investigator sighs as he imagines the script flow through his mind. "It seems proper to wait for a proper time to uncover those secrets."
"As to this room, it is difficult for me to gauge when this occurred. This seems familiar to the entryway where the flora persevered despite lack of resources to do so. The remnants here could very well originated millennia ago."
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This hallway twists and turns in the fog. Intricate hieroglyphs line the corridors. They seem to detail the contents of the library, however after a few turns they repeat themselves, and Watts pushes through to the other end of the hallway where you find yourselves in a room identical to the entryway.
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Watts is severely confused as he processes the situation. He moves to the other doorways to confirm location and mentally tries to map out the area.
"I feel my lack of training in the area of map creation is hampering myself. It is difficult to say if the catalogs are safe, the magical wards that secure this entire area make it difficult. Despite my intent to not double back, this is the same entryway we started in."
"There may be ways to bypass the ward, but it may just take time to fully explore them. There is certainly useful information to be gleaned from inside there though. It will just be chance that we will successfully navigate it."
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Through careful analysis of the walls, Watts does make more progress though the hallway, but as he notices runes vanish he calls to the party.
"I fully admit I am unable to fully trust my senses here, but if I were to believe these walls reflect an inventory kept current by magic, then there there is currently someone removing items from the library this very moment!"
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Ah! I’m having trouble studying these runes but just by appearance of where things were I’d have to agree that we are at a near identical spot as before. Simone is playing tricks on us you say? Why go through so much hassle if this place has been untouched for so long? We need to dispel this wars and find out who is behind this and for what purpose... Ramesses will be using Perception to kind of take a snapshot of the room and see if he can tell what’s being taken.
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It is difficult to discern a pattern in what is disappearing from the catalog, and you aren't sure when it started. Ramesses does his best to remember a few names that have vanished for later reference.
The hallways continues twisting and turning, until you find yourselves at a staircase covered in sticky web. Again, this seems to be yet another aspect of the Guards and Wards spell, and nothing new.