The sight of Boros find seems to invigorate Miranda further and she bounces around to get a good look at it even as Varuzhan makes his own evaluation. "Oh shiny! Twenty feet in the air on a nail you say? No that can't be normal... Wonder why anyone would put a ring there!" Once it is her turn to examine it she gives it a swift but proper lookover from every angle. Hmm. Let's see, have I seen any rings of this sort before?
Then she hands over the ring to the next curious person and considers Boros words. It wasn't all too difficult to figure out what he meant. Idly rubbing her neck she nodded. "Sounds good. And how did you end up twenty feet up in the rafters ...?" Then she turned her attention back to the lock.
Boros chuckles softly as he rises back onto his feet and steps away from the gate, trying to ensure that a trap with a wider reach doesn't catch everyone clustered around the gate in a convenient bunch. "Climbed up the wall like a spider, o' course. Had to do some careful fishin' with the tip o' my rapier to get it loose after, then back down."
Alas, the ring was not magical, but of very delicate craftsmanship. The amount of detail put into it was amazing, and the trio of jewels adorning it are the real deal, as well. Probably worth a good 200 GP.
Just before your journey upward, you did hear a "click" from the lock...which not only triggered the trap, but unlocked the gate as well.
Behind it, you find what must have been the area for killing, back when this building was a butchery. The stone floor is slightly angled, with a drainage pit at the end for the blood to collect, both cracked from age. It would seem this area was sealed off after the building was turned into a livery, as there is a heavy unbroken cover of dust on all surfaces.
The moment one of you steps inside, a text manifests on the opposite wall, written in blood, simply saying:"GO AWAY!", with a few lines of blood starting to run down the wall from the letters without those diminishing in color or intensity.
From back at the campfire, you can hear your agitated gnomish host argue with someone none of you can see, seemingly justifying his actions:"But they brought FOOD - Yes yes yes, you do, but this is different! - No, you couldn't understand! - Maybe they can help you! - It is not too late! - Yes, I will! - I would never!...", while Rexus, Juliette and Lily look at each other trying to decide wether to try and calm him down.
He waves Nissim closer with a worried look. "While Lily, Juliette, and Rexus keep our temporary host engaged and fed, I think we should all stick together for any more searchin'. Next time, there might not be help close by if we spring another o' these traps," he says with a worried glance at the empty noose swinging overhead, quite aware of what could have happened.
Nissim nods in agreement. "Yes, it seems this place will require more focused attention than we have been giving it so far. I for one did not expect this to involve anything more than moving some trash about and blowing dust off old junk. But obviously it isn't going to be such a casual affair."
"That ring is old!" Miranda continues and explains "Well, not super old, but old enough to have a collectors market. I know of a guy if you are interested Mr spider..."
After the ring is examined and the lock is checked for further foul play Miranda jumps to the door and slowly pushes it open with an exited grin on her face. But the grin quickly fades away once she sees the message and the room itself. That certainly is a pro-ghost point! With a little bit of worry she frowns at the message. "That feels a bit rude doesn't it?"
Hearing a little detail about the ring, Boros frown thoughtfully for a bit, then shakes his head. "Let's hold off on that for a bit. That ring surely wasn't where I found it by chance. Further, it might be related to what Rexus was lookin' for in here." He tucks the ring back into his belt pouch, then follows the others into the room beyond the once-locked gate.
As he catches sight of the message that appears, Boros stares at the bleeding wall with a raised eyebrow. "Really? That the best ya can do, Livery? Tell us to piss off like we're a bunch of wee youngsters in here on a dare?" He snorts in annoyance and shakes his head slowly. "Shoulda have given that a try before ya nearly strung up our friend here that nasty little trap," he says while pointing at Miranda. "But since there's a trap, there must be somethin' worth lookin' at beyond it, so here we are. We'll take a look, for as long as we please, and ya can bleed at someone who cares."
Clearly, Boros is more than a bit upset at Miranda having been caught in that trap, and is willing to express his displeasure with whoever or whatever he feels is responsible, even if that is ramshackle ruin that may or may not be haunted; truthfully, Boros rather suspects the cracked gnome of having engineered this as a means of maintaining his hold on his claimed territory.
"Yes! That's the spirit!" I mean surely no-one would trap just nothing would they? Still, she wasn't all too keen to take a look inside that room. Someone with keener eyes can do that first! "But should we look at that other thing first? Before we forget?"
"Yeah, more parlor tricks," agrees Varuzhan. "The real danger are these traps, not just some words." Though in truth, he was feeling a little more cautious now that he'd seen the message. "There was an oven with a body in it. Definitely NOT something I'd expect from this place and I saw something else inside. You might be the best person to reach it, Miranda. Let's get that, and I'll then lead the way into here."
He peers in from this vantage point in the meantime in case he can see anything interesting.
-Posted with Wayfinder
"Mmmmhm. A body in an oven you say? Better damn well make sure to don't close the hatch on me then!" Miranda noted, not entirely happy about crawling into such a space. But then she was also curious as to what was in there ... With a shudder she continued. "All right, lets do it real quick."
The bloody message on the wall creates more skepticism than apprehension in Nissim's mind. It's almost as if the building protests too much.
Nissim takes out a sheet of parchment and folds it in half. He walks over to the letters and holds the paper below the running blood to catch some on the paper.
Will this act as blood does, or no? If this is an illusion, I doubt the caster responsible would think so carefully as to plan for the blood to be taken from the wall and run correctly.
The blood does, indeed, run over the paper, staining it in the process. Shortly after, the trickets of blood streaming down from the letters reach the floor, continuing on towards the collection pit, but getting lost in diverse cracks running across the formerly smooth stone.
As Nissim takes a closer look at the bloody message on the opposite wall, Boros almost wants to shout out in protest, seeing Nissim casually walk into the room after what happened to Miranda, but before he can speak up, the determined witch already reached his destination.
From his earlier check of the livery, Boros also points out that the dimensions seem off, and Varuzhan, staying put, takes a closer look at the dim slaughter rooms walls. They have been smoothened, so that they can be cleaned more easily, a requirement of basic hygiene. But over the years, the smooth surface on all of them has cracked and splintered. The one to your right(left on the map) seems off. While time also played it's tricks on it, some of the cracks there make up a pattern that could be a door, if one knows what one's looking for.
Over at the oven, Miranda also sees the glimmering silvery object the person in the oven is grasping, after it is pointed out to her.
Even though she's small, the place was not made for TWO people to have place inside(matter of fact, it was probably not made with the intent of any people inside), and getting in there would not be easy, since you also have to get closer.
.
Meanwhile, the Gnome seems to have calmed down. Flanked by Lily, Juliette, and Rexus, he approaches from behind:"It's okay. The livery wants you here, now. It...wants you to cleanse the taint. Here, not that you need it!", he extends a dirtied hand and offers a complex iron key, "You kind of already opened the gate it is for, but well, it's a gesture. Also, I never was there. Livery told me it's dangerous and I should stay away. Oh yes."
"Hmm..." Miranda mumbles and leans into the oven. Should I ask Boros if he can use his spider tricks again? Maybe sling a web? She chuckles softly at the thought, gathering some courage from it. Still - she didn't really feel like crawling up into an oven with an dead body. Whatever caused the first one may want to add another! If it's still around. Or if it's a ghost? So before she crawled into a place designed to heat meat for consumption she'd like to try some other things.
"All right, let me see if I can reach it from here first ..." she nodded to herself and concentrated to manifest a Mage Hand spell. With a bit of luck she might be able to simply fish out the silvery thing!
Boros follows close behind Miranda as she goes to inspect Varuzhan's discovery in the oven. Looking over the body from well outside the oven, Boros is struck by the fact that the object in its hand is unburnt, and he points this out to the others as soon as he realizes that detail. "Whatever that charred bit o' person there is grippin', it didn't go through the fire with its owner. Anyone bets on whether or not it was placed like I'm more and more certain that ring was," he asks, voice filled with growing certainty about his guess.
"Now this IS interesting!" Nissim says to nobody in particular. "This blood is either real, or a very complex illusion. Not a simple visual trick at all."
"The next question must be is it triggered, or a conscious reaction to our presence?"
Nissim steps back to avoid personal contact with the blood and sets the paper aside to dry. He begins wracking his brain for possible causes of spontaneously bleeding walls as he watches it spread.
Given everything he's seen Varuzhan is leery of the oven suddenly shutting its door and turning on, or something equally horrifying as Miranda tries to retrieve whatever was inside. Of course, he wasn't about to share that thought out loud. He watches silently for any sign of imminent danger, with the hope that he might be able to intervene before it happened.
It seems, however, that Varuzhan's active imagination is leaving him distracted.
Nissim is wondering about the blood, when Juliette(with Detect Magic active) steps next to him and helps out:"It's creation magic. It's real blood, but magically made...you guess is as good as mine as to whats behind this."
Just then, the letters flow into each other, momentarily showing another message, before reflowing into the "Go Away".
Boros meanwhile inspects the oven Miranda is to crawl into, while Varuzhan contemplates possible dangers.
Miranda herself attempts to get the object free with telekinesis, but it's stuck fast.
Eventually, she resorts to crawling in there. Brushing against the dead body, it seems to move, and when it's head jerks towards Miranda in a sudden motion, she voices a short shriek that puts both Boros and Varuzhan on edge.
Touching the shining object, an unbidden vision comes to her.
When you snap back to reality, your perception allows you to find the spot it was retrieved from.
While it's very dark in here, the silvery object seems to be a sort of key in a overall shape that could very roughly be interpreted as a bird. There is a slot at the end of the oven where it would fit.
Nissim arches his eyebrows at the surprising new message in Elven. After it disappears, he turns to Juliette:
Varuzhan is spooked as the body seems to move. "Alright, time to clear out of that oven. I'm going to take that damnable body out first."
Assuming Miranda complies, Varuzhan will attempt to extract the body from the oven. .
Hearing Miranda's shriek, Boros immediately leaps to assist her, but finds that Varuzahn is even faster off of the mark, easily getting to the open door ahead of the gunslinger.
Seeing Varuzhan's actions, Boros moves to offer his aid to the task. Though the tight confines of the oven limit what he can do, Boros is able to brace Varuzahn and give him a bit more leverage as he struggles to get the charred remains out into the open.
"*That* was unpleasant!" Miranda chuckled nervously from within the oven. Reluctantly she tears her eyes from the corpse and studies the silver prize. "Hmm... I think it's a key. Let me try something - just make sure the oven doesn't close!"
Miranda calls out and crawls deeper into the oven towards the keyhole. Once Varuzhan and Boros has hopefully extracted the body - and made bloody well sure the oven can't close - she'll try and fit the key into the slot and turn. But first a quick look for more nasty surprises! Who would trap the inside of an oven? Hmm. Better safe then sorry!
Juliette shakes her head at Nissim's question:"No, I do not. Why? Did that change in pattern mean anything??", when suddenly the gnome, quickly followed by Rexus and Lily appears behind you, not making a sound on his approach:"Pattern changed? No good. Patterns must be exact, oh YES! Things will come apart if we stand for this. I won't let a lying haunt unravel what I have accomplished.", approaching the opposite wall wielding his pan like a weapon.
Varuzhan pulls on the body's remains, with Boros's help, and most of it breaks free. The head and the arm that held the silver object remain in the oven, the head rolling for a second or two, facing away from Miranda when it comes to rest.
Miranda checks the inside of the oven, her darkvision greatly helping in the pitch-black environment she is in, but, finding no surprises this time around, decides to fit the object into the key-slot and turn it. Inside the oven, you can hear a faint echo of a mechanical click as something seems to slide into place. With the oven transmitting the sound and it echoing inside, it's hard to pinpoint a direction.
Nissim is starting to get a very uneasy feeling about the situation in the livery. He says nothing as the gnome interjects and then wanders back off. But he watches Lily and Rexus very carefully to see if there is anything about the behavior that seems uncharacteristic of them.
The strange sound from behind the wall will have to wait for just a moment, too many things to think over all at once.
As he does so, he asks Juliette in Halfling: "Praat jy hierdie taal? Ook het jy niks oor loslaat glad ken?"
So the gnome is aware of the blood wording, as well as the change in message... He mentioned a haunt... Could it be that both messages are actually attempts to aid us?
"Ja , ek verstaan jou nie, maar ek is bevrees ek weet niks nuttig." Juliette answered back.
She was a little confused why Nissim felt the need for avoiding others understanding them, but still this place was more them a little odd.
"Ek vra , want dit patroon verandering op die muur was 'n ander boodskap in elfse . Daar word gesê dat " Vlug , of die dood van die kabouter voordat hy moorde julle almal ! " Dit is 'n baie direkte en persoonlike aard van die boodskap nie?"
"Ek is nie seker of die kabouter is bewus van die inhoud van die boodskap in elfse , maar hy lyk om te weet dat dit verander . Nou , die vraag is of ons die boodskap vertrou of nie . Die kabouter genoem 'n valse spook. Dit sou nuttig wees om meer oor die aard van sulke dinge weet of dit is wat die vervaardiging van hierdie boodskappe word."
After the key is turned Miranda attempts to bring it out with her. It was a very pretty key (and seemingly important!) so it would be courteous to show it to the others. Also she'd like to take a closer look at it but preferably not inside an oven ...
All said and done Miranda emerges a bit sooty from the oven and sits down right next to it, a bit drained by the experience. *Phew* she sighed and glanced at the charred remains. "Poor thing. That wasn't a well-thought out hiding spot! Anyway - that silver thing was a key. There was also a slot for the key further in; probably how he/she ended up inside..." Miranda takes a quick pause to catch her breath and get back to her feet. "Then someone whom wasn't supposed to find the key noticed her/him inside the oven and turned it on. Ouch. But whomever *that* was I'm betting they didn't find what the key opened. Let's see if we are luckier?"
Motivated by the prospect of finding whatever secret the key had unlocked Miranda started looking around again. Hmm. Must be pretty old - and this was probably the last thing that happened before the place was abandoned ...?
"Intriguing. A keyhole in the back of an oven? Certainly a clever way to hide something." Varuzhan attempts to study the body they've dragged out to see if he can identify anything interesting about it, such as the race or how long it's been in the oven. . The body seemed pretty badly burned, though.
The strix stays close to Miranda wherever she decides to go. He looks around the oven room one more time, just in case anything in this room might have changed here given Miranda's recent use of the key.
"Clever, with some *uh* flaws!" Miranda adds and glances at the charred remains again with a shudder.
Frowning thoughtfully at the oven and the secret it contains, Boros begins to leave the small shed. "We should rejoin the others at that room with the bleedin' walls. They need to know what we found here, and maybe they've learned somethin' about that room."
As he leaves the shed, Boros directs his attention to the rest of the Livery and pauses for a moment. He then looks back at Miranda and Varuzahn with a curious expression. "But before that, we might want to do a quick check o' these other stalls, and the room that I didn't search, just in case there's any other little bits hidden inside, like with that oven."
"Sure, that's fine," agrees Varuzhan. At Boros's request, Varuzhan searches the room Boros didn't search (A1b, I think). . "Who knows what other secrets this place holds."
He also does a quick scan of the other stalls (single roll, if that's okay): . He really doesn't have too much patience for that task, however. "Alright, we can't stay here all day. The most interesting part of this living building is still the place where Miranda got roped."
As Varuzhan searches the room that Nissim examined previously, Boros assists by using his ears--which are surprisingly keen after years of exposure to gunfire--and hands to check for anything unusual, such as hollow spots, or more potential keyholes.
When the search moves to the stalls, dimly lit by the fire at the other end of the building, Boros is able to add his eyes to the process. Though not as good as Varuzhan's by any means, they're still quite good for a human, and Boros uses them to their utmost. Still, the dimness does encourage him to use his ears and sensitive fingers as well, for any extra advantage to be had. Varuzhan's impatience during the search of the stalls is obvious to Boros, however, and he makes a mental note to go over them a second time later, if needed.
Hoping to get out of the gnome's hearing range for a minute or two, Nissim says to Juliette:
"Well, This is all very mysterious and interesting. But I have no idea what it all means. Shall we check on the others in the other room and see how they are doing?"
With that, he starts toward the shed and Boros, Miranda, and Varuzhan.
"We'll find out soon enough! I hope ..." Miranda grins and joins the survey of the last few places, but seem a bit less upbeat then earlier. Maybe I should rest a little? Nah, can't miss this!
Her tired psyche doesn't seem to do much to really hinder her curiosity and the tiefling is determined to look in every nook and crevice for hidden secrets!
The gnome, holding for a moment near Nissim and Juliette when they start chatting in Halfling, shakes his head and walks back to the food. Grabbing whats left, he then walks over to the other stall and squats down in front of his rat skull totem crosslegged, muttering to himself while eating.
Miranda, meanwhile, exits the oven and takes a closer look at the silvery object again. It is, in fact, formed like a Bird, but there's a sliding part that changes it's form and turns it into a cloak clasp, or something that could be word as an amulet.
Further, Varuzhan deduces that now, it indeed radiates magic, but cannot quite find out what kind of magic it is, at the current time. Deciding to take another look later, and rather check the remainder of the livery again, he heads off towards the previously-already-checked rooms to see if something was missed.
As it turns out, even Varuzhan's eyes, used to dim light, are not much better than those of a gnome with a torch and weeks of free time. Even with Boros and Miranda assisting, he finds the room Nissim checked earlier to be picked clean if there ever was something to find. With little patience, he continues towards the stalls, but finding the gnome uses some of those as his personal storage, and not wanting to anger their host, mostly just checks them briefly.
Nissim and Juliette can't help but notice that the blood from the wall seems to flow with greater intensity, the weak flow from before turning into a more steady one, still disappearing in the cracked floor. Just as you turn to head to the others, motioning for Lily to come with you behind the back of the gnome, the two of you hear...something, from below.
If Nissim takes a moment to bring Haunts up with Lily, she will briefly respond:"Most haunts I heared about were reactive. It's...unlike them to seem aware of their surroundings to that extent..."
"Neat." Miranda notes when the dual function of the silver-bird-key is revealed. Thinking that perhaps the one in the oven have something in common with the writings on the wall - and that the ghost may be annoyed if she pocketed the silver thing - she instead clasps it to the front of her dress. Probably isn't dangerous since the one in the oven could use it. Unless it curses you to be baked to death ...
When they rejoin the others Miranda briefly describes what they found. "There was a body and a key in the oven; also a slot for the key. I used that - anyone noticed any difference?" She'll also test the body - blood - ghost theory and head to that room, holding up the silver bird. "Can you see and hear me? Was it you that saved this?"
Nissim, Juliette, and Lily join the others in the oven shack. Nissim is wearing a serious and thoughtful expression on his face. "How does it go in here friends? Have you found anything? "
After hearing of the burned body in the over, and the silver key-clasp, Nissim takes on a more intense and excited look. "Tell me everything, every detail may be important!
Boros, Varuzhan, and Miranda go through the events and their experiences in the room carefully explaining the discovery of the body in the oven, Miranda's vision, the keyhole and the silver key's use in it, and the noise it produced from somewhere.
Afterward, Nissim adds Juliette's and his experiences with the bloody wall and the gnome, highlighting the change in the message to "Flee, or kill the gnome before he murders you all!" in elven, the increase in blood flow from the wall afterward, the blood's disappearance into the floor, and the sounds they have heard beyond the the room, behind the wall and floor. Also the gnome claim of a lying haunt, and a reminder that he claims the building wishes to be "cleansed". He adds that according to Lily, what they have seen is not typical of haunts, which do not act in a conscious or changeable manner. Miranda's vision is more in line with what would be expected of a haunt than the wall messages.
After all this has been laid out, and everyone is updated on what the party knows, Nissim adds:
"I have some ideas on what is going on, although they admittedly involve speculation in several places. But here is my thinking for you to consider.
First, the noises we have heard as well as you are due to movement behind the wall or perhaps beneath it. A passage opening up or closing perhaps.
Second, The person whose body you found in the oven was murdered by the gnome. The reason why he would do so are not clear, but it could be to gain access to the passage behind the wall.
Third, there is a conscious spirit of some type, capable of communicating with us. It is either truly warning us against the gnome, hoping to use us for revenge, or both. I tend to think the warning is genuine since the message in elven suggested two courses, fleeing or killing the gnome. If revenge were the only motivation, it would simply have urged us to kill the gnome.
Finally, the gnome cannot enter the place beyond the wall, either because he fears the spirit, or because he is prevented in some way by it. The gnome wants us to eliminate the spirit so he can get in, and likely he will kill us after we have served out purpose.
Like I said, it is a speculative set of ideas, but it is the best hypothesis I have which can account for all the things we now know. I suggest we treat the gnome as very likely treacherous and extremely dangerous. I would also like to question him about exactly how he thinks we could cleanse the building. Anyone else have alternate ideas, or other suggestions?"
Varuzhan listens in on Nissim's summary. He interrupts quite forcefully as Nissim accuses the gnome of murdering whomever was in the oven. "That doesn't make sense! You're telling me that the wall wrote a bloody message that says 'Flee, or kill the gnome before he murders you all?' And now you trust a wall? A bleeding wall, for that matter? And one that started off by saying "GO AWAY"? A squatting gnome that's happy its finally getting some decent food seems damn more trustworthy than that bloody wall."
Varuzhan seems impatient with continued chatter on this subject. "I agree there's some secret passage, and we need to go find it instead of wasting time on interrogating a gnome. We should check out the area with that wall and see what we can find. We'll probably find the truth by acting, instead of musing on the meaning of unclear messages."
As Nissim summarizes what the group knows, along with what he suspects, Boros listens with a slight frown. There's something they're overlooking, he can feel it, but he can't initially figure out what it is. Then, finally, it occurs to him and he mentions it in a hushed voice to the others. "Let's assume that daft little bugger is a killer, then, and responsible for the poor wretch in the oven. Why didn't he wait for the bones to cool and claim that little key for himself after?"
Boros then nods towards the gate and the dangling noose before it as he continues, "And then there's that nasty bit o' work. No expert on the subject, but I can recognize quality work when I see it, and that wasn't set by some raggedy-arsed street rat with nothing but what he could scavenge. Otherwise, he'd have rigged this place to hold off a damn siege."
He then glances carefully toward the fire, making sure that their possible killer of a host is still working through his meal. "And last point, that voice o' his. I know crazy folk and voices in their heads aren't exactly unknown, but based on what he was tellin' us, if it's truth, his is awfully consistent about keeping folks out o' here in particular. Why?"
"Your ideas are not incompatible with mine Miranda. Gnomes are long-lived. The bones may be old, the Silver Ravens were active over 60 years ago correct? But the gnome cannot be discounted by that."
Nissim shrugs at Varuzhan's and Boros's protests.
"As I said, my idea is speculative, not conclusive. Also I am not suggesting that we act as a court of law. Whatever did happen is our concern only to the extent it bears on our accomplishing our goal safely."
"Do I believe the messages on the wall without reservation? Certainly not. But I do think there are good reasons to believe the gnome is a serious danger to us. It does seem certain that the gnome and what ever consciousness is responsible for the messages oppose each other. I do believe the gnome is insane, and is happy to have the food we've provided. But that doesn't mean he has no other motives in mind."
"My suggestion is simply that we do not assume the gnome is not a manipulator or enemy on faith, and that we watch him very carefully because the possibility he plans to betray us is a serious one. Otherwise, do as you wish with the wall. I myself do want to talk with the gnome to see if he has any advice on how the place could be "cleansed"."
Boros chuckles grimly when Nissim suggests keeping a watchful eye on the gnome. "Aye, the gnome needs watchin'. But only so many eyes to go around while we're tryin' to figure out what Rexus is lookin' for in here at the same time," he says with a frustrated sigh, stretching to loosen the muscles in his back, shoulders, and neck. Shaking his head, he gestures to the gated area. "But ya sound like ya have a plan, so while ya have fun tryin' to make sense o' crazy, I guess myself, Miranda, and Varuzhan while get back to tossin' this place for anythin' o' interest."
Before Nissim leaves, however, Boros stops him for a moment and nods in Lily's direction. "And if ya have the chance, see if ya can talk with her for a moment as well. Somethin' seems to be botherin' her, has been all day from what I can tell, but I don't think I'm the person to figure it out," he finishes as he release Nissim, a note of concern in his voice.
"As long as all you're doing is talking to the gnome." says Varuzhan, still seemingly upset about the situation. "I don't want you laying a finger on him, though. We're now guests in his home, and there is no way I'm just standing idle if you harm him, or any other residents of this place, for that matter!" Varuzhan looms threateningly as he says this. You think he's pretty serious about his words.
"Juliette." Varuzhan calls out to the noblewoman. "Keep an eye on Nissim here and make sure he doesn't misbehave. As Boros suggested, I'll go with him and Miranda to investigate further."
Varuzhan immediately leads the way into the room of interest. With a prayer to his ancestors for keen vision, he looks for anything of interest, particularly anything that might have changed or opened up after Miranda used the key. . "I know there's gotta be something here. Can you find it?" He asks the others, as he searches.
Once more, Boros turns his efforts to helping Varuzhan search the Livery. Though the bleeding wall is still doing its thing, he doesn't let it distract him as he carefully probes various nooks and crevices under Varuzhan's direction.
Nissim finds Varuzhan's attempt to what? intimidate him? very bizarre. And fairly irritating. His first impulse is to retort in some similar fashion, but there is no value in that. Instead he catches Varuzhan's eyes and holds them in a steady gaze. Speaking evenly and without raised voice, he replies:
"If there is some reason why you do not believe my purpose is as I have stated, perhaps going forward we should consider working apart from one another. Personally I do not see how, given our circumstances and the particular dangers we face, both at this moment and from our new government in general, partnerships that are not based in trust will benefit anyone."
Nissim lowers his estimate of Varuzhan's steadiness and reliability a couple of notches, and his estimate of the strix's ability to consider multiple possibilities in complex situations considerably.
He pauses for a moment to cast Heighned Awareness on himself, then turns to Lily. "If you wouldn't mind coming as well, a person with knowledge of religious subjects would be very helpful."
Nissim goes to the other room and finds the gnome. He says to him as approaches. "We have discussed it, and have come up with no ideas about how this building might be cleansed. Do you have any suggestions on how we could this this?"
On Nissim's invitation to come along, Lily nods:"I will help as I can. But all of this...it's bigger than we are. What happened yesterday at the Plaza. That...thing...I can't forget it. There are people precious to me in this city...and since I learned that Thrune all but isolated us from the outside world, I grew more and more worried for them. I am simply not sure what to do. There's much at stake for our city, for our individual liberty, but my personal stake seems even higher. I...will have to think about a lot of things after we are done here..."
She then accompanies Nissim and Juliette towards the Gnome, whom Nissim addresses. Sitting on the floor in front of the rat skull pile, mumbling to himself, he seems to be ignoring him, while the dogs growl and prevent anybody from stepping closer.
After several uncomfortable seconds during which Nissim ponders what to do next, the gnome suddenly moves his head over to look at Nissim, keeping his motionless upper body almost perfectly aligned with the pile, only moving his neck and head to glance sideways, answering with a slight delay as if waiting for a prompt:"Thats really very simple. You find the source of the taint. Then you get rid of the source, oh yes. But if I knew how, we would have done so already, wouldn't you think so, too?"
Meanwhile, Varuzhan, Miranda and Boros, joined by Rexus, re-visit the former Slaughter Chamber. Blood is still flowing, and it's still disappearing in the cracks of the floor. Having noted the outline of a door earlier in the right-hand wall, after Boros pointed out that the dimensions seemed off, it doesn't take long for Varuzhan to find a hidden door there.
Miranda quickly scans it for traps, but feeling a bit groggy, lets the Gentlemen open it. The room beyond seems to have originally been designed for extended slaughterwork, taking apart animals, with wall-mounts for tools and implements. It's more recent(if that word is applicable) use seems to have been that of an office. There's a few crates and barrels that seem pretty standard for storage, but most prominent is a large wooden table at the northern wall, with 2 chairs, an writing set with some blank paper, and a closed book, the title of which is covered under a thick layer of dust, as most everything else in the room.
The second, very noticeable feature of the room is the gaping hole in the backside offering passage downwards via very narrow stone stairs. The mechanism seems to be damaged beyond repair, and judging from the dust covers and other subtle aspects like difference in color, you can quickly deduce that it must have operated, likely for the last time, a short while ago. You heavily doubt it would close again if you tried to use the key a second time.
Juliette nods when she is told to keep an eye on Nissim to make sure he doesn't do anything stupid which may put all of them at risk.
"Eliminate the source of the taint? But what could the source be?" Juliette asks, thinking aloud. If the walls want us to flee or kill the gnome, that must be the taint, but what is the source? "Perhaps if we destroyed the body which the others found in the oven?"
Nissim comes up empty of anything new talking with the gnome.