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Forrest looks at these two Fey and smiles. This time I'm prepared. Should it come to that. He does not draw his cold iron rapier, but keeps one hand close. Speaking with the captain on the boat, I saw that the carrot often worked better than the stick with his sailors. Let's try that. The Halfling takes two steps forward into the bog and speaks up. "Hello, my dear Fey! Happy to meet you in this fine lake! We are just here to look around, but perhaps we can help you both catch some fish, first! " He speaks with his usual swagger, but this time his cheeks are flushed red with a blush and a smile, not anger and a growl. He stands up straight, speaking in the tone he used to use on nobility.
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Brock looks around the room, sardonic smile on his face as he takes in the destruction.
Hearing Rooks words he grumbles, "Gah, far, at leadt we are prepared this time" gripping his cold iron pick and thinking on the cold iron ball in his buckler gun.
Deciding that fighting far still is a tricky prospect, he steps up to help Forrest try to sweet talk the strange creatures.
"Yes fish, or perhaps something more interesting, as there is much happening in this room. No need to tackle it all by ourselves."
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Danicka jumps as Rook speaks to her. "Y-y-yes. Of c-c-c-course!" she squeaks, clearly still terrified of Needle. She takes her hands off of her eyes though, but flinches, still worried the monster bird might pluck her eyes out.
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Danicka lifts up the skirt of her shabby, plain dress, revealing her bony ankles and scrawny calves. She quickly gathers the lower fabric and ties it in a knot at the side of her knees, shortening her skirt so it doesn't get soaked, then does the same on the other side. She scrunches up her nose as her flimsy cotton shoes get soaked and her feet get wet, but doesn't move to take them off.
"Brr..." she mutters. "Water's cold."
She grabs her broom tightly in her hands, moves into the room and looks around.
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Yaiho looks down at the water and when Danicka comments that the water is cold, he smiles mischievously. He lowers his large left hand into the water and then splashes Danicka with water.
"Refreshing!"
He then looks at the fey creatures, not sure what to make of them. But lets Forest and Brock start talking to them.
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Danicka lets out a shriek as she's soaked by Yaiho.
Wet and sputtering, her teeth begin to chatter. Somehow she blushes in embarrassment, despite the chill.
"Y-y-yaiho!" Danicka squeals. Looking akin to a soaking wet cat, Danicka tries to kick water back at him. Unfortunately, her little cotton shoe goes flying right off of her foot. It lands in the water at Yaiho's feet.
Danicka blushes brighter. "Oh, shucks." she mutters. She carefully stomps through the water and retrieves her shoe in mortification.
"D-d-don't move!" she tells him. Then she puts a hand on Yaiho to steady herself while trying to put her soaking wet shoe on with the other hand.
Neither of the fey notice Needle slink off towards the drain, they're far too distracted with their bickering. He hovers over the drain, and tries to find a way to unclog it. Unfortunately, it seems the only way to do so is to immerse himself completely in the water, and that seems an awfully dangerous prospect for one so small and a current that will only get stronger.
Between them, Danicka and Rook know pretty much everything there is to know about gathlains.
Unlike the majority of fey, gathlains have no special defences or immunities. They can fly poorly, but other than that, they have no special abilities of note. Although, the majority of gathlains tend to be sorcerers, and are able to incapacitate a person with laughter with only one touch. They also have the ability to entangle people and to make difficult terrain easy to traverse. Their only weakness is for games, especially if they think they can't lose.
"What the... Go away, this our fishin' spot!" The owl shouts indignantly as Forrest approaches, but the ex-butler's smooth words give the albatross pause for thought. "Maaaaaybe you could help..." He says, eyeing the halfling's fiery red hair and mutton chops with interest, "But what do you know of fishin'? You look more like a fireman to me."
The owl stands up and points accusingly at both Brock and Forrest, "You're scarin' all the fish away!" But the albatross hushes him, "Shhh! She might hear you—I don't want to get eaten!" They both fall silent for a moment, glancing nervously all around room. Finally the albatross says, "You can help fireman. But you..." He adds, looking at Brock with narrowed suspicious eyes, "You just want my scroll-"
"MY scroll!" The owl interrupts, "And you're not getting it. Be on your way and leave us to fish in peace."
Both fey erupt with laughter at the goings on nearer the door, pointing at Yaiho the owl splutters. "You're funny! I like you." To which the abatross says, "No she's the funny one! Look! HER SHOE FLEW OFF!" They both fall back on their makeshift boat, holding their sides.
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Forrest walks slowly towards the grate. Don't want to disturb the "fish". How would fish have gotten in here anyway? Or fey, for that matter? He speaks in soft, calm tones. "Fireman? Oh... The hair... sure. Fireman. So, tell us about this scroll. I want to make sure I can keep it safe. From, fires... "
Meanwhile, when he gets to the grate, he attempts to unblock it.
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Suddenly realizing the fey, Danicka looks around nervously and blushes brighter.
"I... am... funny..." she stammers. "And... so is he." She pats Yaiho on the arm.
"Even funnier than you two, I bet..." She smiles awkwardly. "Want to play a game? It's a funny game."
Danicka looks at her companions with big wide eyes, clearly looking for help and out of her element with this whole trickery thing. "We can play for information, and a scroll. If we win, you give us your scroll and tell us everything you know about this place and what's happened here. If YOU win, I'll give you one of my scrolls, and tell you anything you want to know about..." her voice trails off, clearly unsure what they might want to hear about. "Ev... every-th-th-thing I know about... humour? Or..."
She stammers nervously. Unfortunately, Danicka loses her balance at this moment, slipping and falling onto her bottom with a giant splash.
"Eeeek!" she shrieks, as she gets soaking wet.
"Oh... shucks..." she squeals. She tries to stand up, but with a sopping wet shoe in one hand and a soggy broom in the other, it proves quite difficult. She slips and slides and accidentally whacks herself in the head with her own broom.
"Ow..." she moans from the floor, looking red as a tomato.
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Arin tries to pick up where Danicka trailed off.
"Yeah, humor..."
He addresses the Gathlains directly...
"They made you laugh pretty good, eh? If you can make the two of them laugh just as much or more, you win! Easy, right? You look like a funny couple of fellows."
He gestures to Danicka and Yaiho. "What do you say?"
The owl eyes Forrest suspiciously as he walks slowly across the room towards the grate, but the albatross seems to have taken a shine to the halfling. "Well, if you must know, some smarty-pants dogcat dropped it." He says, and the owl indignantly notes, "Splashed down into the fishin' hole, SCARIN' AWAY THE BESTEST FISH."
"Sssh! The big sleeper will hear." The albatross chides, and they both start looking around nervously again. Eventually, they both hold the soggy fragment of a scroll up for Forrest to see. "Anyway, we fished it out fair and square. Finders keepers!" It looks an awful lot like the fragment Virml gave you in the lobby. Brock watches this conversation closely, but fey are tricky creatures, and he has absolutely no idea what to make of these two. He does, however, seem to convince them that he won't just steal their catch, making them more comfortable in showing it off to Forrest.
After some more laughter at all the splashing around, the owl and the albatross huddle together to confer quietly for a few moments, considering Danicka and Arin's proposal. Eventually, they seem to come to a decision, and the albatross turns to address the challengers. "Normally the challenger must accept the terms the challenged. But we like the Fireman, and you two look funny, so we accept." They both stand confidently on their makeshift boat, placing their fishing rods down carefully. "We have a joke, but we'll only tell it to the Waterlady and the big funny tree over there." They point at Yaiho. "We'll whisper it in your ears, and if both of you laugh, we get your scroll. If not, you get our scroll."
They are both so distracted that they fail to notice that the water level is starting to drop.
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Forrest slowly backs away from the newly cleaned drain and back to the group. Hopefully Danicka can dance away from the Fey like she did on the bar. Who knew a wizard could be so flexible? He makes it back to the group and breathes a sigh of relief. "A dogcat gave you the scroll? That was very nice. How big was this dogcat? "
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"A joke? Oh, my..." Danicka mutters. She stumbles to her feet. "Oh, dear... Hmmm..."
Too worried is she over trying to think of a joke on the spot that she doesn't pay much attention to the fey.
She wanders over to them nervously, wracking her brain for something funny to say.
"Okay... I'll try to keep a straight face..."
Prickles follows Danicka towards the fey, growling loudly at the strange beasts....
As Yaiho and Danicka approach to take part in the challenge, the albatross quickly answers Forrest's question. "The dogcat was bigger than you, smaller than him" He points at Yaiho, but not to be outdone, the owl says, "No, the dogcat was smaller than him, and bigger than you!"
The pair can barely contain their mirth as the challengers stand in front of them, anticipating a prize. The owl leans in closer to Danicka and whispers, "How do you give an octopus the giggles?" The albatross leans closer to Yaiho. "Give it ten-tickles!" They both start laughing at their own joke, and feign unbalance, reaching out to touch the challengers for stability...
Danicka instinctively flinches away from the owl's hand, Prickles growls, and the owl almost falls into the ever lowering water. Yaiho, however, gets brushed by the albatross' outstretched hand and starts laughing uncontrollably.
With only one of the challengers laughing, the fey are mortified. "We lost!? It's all your fault!" The owl yells at the albatross, "How is it my fault!? The big tree is laughing!" He replies huffily. After several minutes of bickering, they reluctantly hand over the scroll fragment. It's at this point that they realise the water has lowered to such a level that they can no longer fish. The two fey sit down, cross their arms, and sulkingly refuse to speak with you any further. They just stare at the floor full of soggy puddles and paper, occasionally muttering under their breath that it's all the other one's fault.
Water still spurts and gushes sporadically from the mezzanine above, but the stairwell down no longer resembles a dangerous whirlpool.
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"Eeek!" Danicka shrieks as the fey tries to touch her. "You really ought to ask permission before grabbing a lady, you know!" she scolds them.
As they roll around pouting, Danicka looks at them sadly. "Now, now. There's no reason to pout. Everyone loses sometimes." After a moment she admits, "You were quite funny."
Then she stands and puts one hand on her hip. With a 'stern look,' which currently makes her look like a soggy scarecrow, she tells the fey, "Now we didn't just play for a scroll, did we? We also played for information. You need to tell us everything you know about this place and what's happened here." With a waggle of her bony finger, she adds, "And no lies, now."
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Rook watches the entertaining encounter and laughs as the fey's raft slowly drops along with the water level.
He takes a walk through the area looking for anything valuable and spots some gold! Or rather paper worth gold!
"Looks like we already found some extra payment. These scrolls look salvageable." he mutters picking up the scroll of bull's strength and a scroll of comprehend languages before attempting to slide them into his pack without the fey spotting him.
He then waits for the group to come back together to share the news quietly.
"These scrolls are definitely salvageable. Would you like to hold on to them Danicka? Your skill with scroll magic is obvious."
The fey wince, they obviously hoped Danicka would forget about that part of the deal, trying to salvage a tiny victory. "Wasn't it always like this?" Asks the pouting owl, to which the sulking albatross adds before Danicka can get any sterner, "We only just arrived after a harrowing journey through the belly of the the Big Sleeper."
"Hush! She's still upstairs, I don't want to be eaten." The owl interrupts, and the pair fall silent for a moment, looking towards the stairs. "Oh yeah, then the dogcat ruined our fishin' and dropped the scroll you practically stole from us. We fished it out fair and square as the dogcat slipped down the stairs there. Slick as snail snot. Crafty and quiet."
Neither of them notice Rook doing some fishing of his own.
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"Oh, my! That does sound harrowing! You're lucky to have come out of it alright." Danicka exclaims.
Then she turns and moves over to speak with her companions.
"Shall we head upstairs to meet this s-s-s-sleeper first? Or down to face the d-d-dogcat?"
She clearly looks nervous and scared of both options.
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Danicka blushes bright red as she takes the soggy papers from Rook, and slips them into her equally soggy pockets. "Poor things are in poor condition, but they'll work fine. Thank you, Rook." She smiles shyly.
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Arin considers some of the odd things that the bird fellows spoke since they encountered them. It makes him particularly more curious about the sleeper.
"One of the scroll fragments described these birds. I wonder..."
He ponders a bit more.
"Maybe this is a stretch but what if these gathlains were manifested from this scroll somehow. Do you suppose this "sleeper" had something to do with that? If we woke him up would they... cease to exist?"
He shakes it off. "Eh, maybe this is just nonsense. All the same, I would like to go meet the sleeper first." He looks around at the group expectantly.
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Forrest smiles at the whole encounter, glad that he didn't have to fight another fey. That last one really got under my skin... He looks up at his scary friend. "I agree. DogCatMan first. Then naptime."
The fiery halfling walks up and pats Danicka on the shoulder. Whispering, "Don't worry. The DogCat will be less scary than Rook's brain."
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Danicka contemplates Arin's words. "...You might be onto something, Arin. I think you--"
At Forrest's whispered comment, Danicka's eyes suddenly go wide. She pales, and says no more, looking very worried. She shoots a nervous look to Rook, and then looks around for Needle, trying to determine the terrifying beast's location...
As the others head off to the spiral stairs, Danicka lets out a squeak and follows.
Flooding from the library above has turned this storage chamber into a treacherous bog. Rising above the black lake, the flat tops of many rows of shelves create a makeshift maze of causeways. The occasional squirt of seawater still gushes down the spiral staircase from above, cascading down the steps. Rook and Yaiho can see that four narrow corridors channel rivers of seawater off into the darkness. The rest of you, however, cannot see much further than the first stack of shelves for if there was ever any light down here, the water must have snuffed it out.
As you descend the staircase, a faint golden glow blooms from deep underwater near a bookcase to the east, followed by a pleasant tinkling noise.
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"A bandit king, a sultry lass, heck... a tribe of ogres. Anything but more riddles and magic mumbo jumbo, please."
Brock growls as he follows the group to find this dogcat thing, hoping for a straightforward monster to murder, but gearing it was only going to lead to more senseless tomfoolery.
As they go along he wonders if he can get Rook to cook up something to slip into Danicka's drink when this was all over, just to get her to let her hair down again, because that would amuse him to no end.
I suppose she would take exception to that and... damn, when did I actually start caring what she thinks?! What has happened to me
As he trudges along with the group he ponders the cracks in his once hard she'll of cynicism and if that was a good or bad thing. Good, certainly, for the world as a whole, but good for him? Certainly a question to ponder, but he shakes his head and shelves the question for a long sleepless night or boring hours on the road.
Back to the present, he grips his pick and keeps a keen eye out for the next ludocris magical mayhem that was sure to manifest.
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Danicka heads down the slippery steps nervously, nearly slipping multiple times. By the time she nears the bottom and she's in water up to her knees, she shivers.
"Oh, sh-sh-shucks! It's so deep... I'm n-n-not a very good s-s-swimmer..."
Be brave! Be BRAVE!
After a few panicked breaths Danicka heads further down the stairs. By the time she's in waist deep water she squeals loudly. At the bottom, she's in water up to her neck. Seeing Forrest climb atop a book shelf, she urges Prickles to do the same. Although he manages to get up onto one without much trouble, Danicka has great trouble. Neck deep in water she tries to hoist herself out of the water and up onto the shelf, but her wet dress weighs her down and she doesn't seem to be making any progress.
Hearing Yaiho mention magic, Danicka looks around. "It's so d-d-dark down here..." she stammers through chattering teeth. "Does anyone have a l-l-l-light source? I have a c-c-c-candle, but that won't help m-m-much."
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Rook bursts out into laughter as he checks the chalkboard.
"I am going start liking this nuisance living in my skull!" he adds while patting the little dino.
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Rook thinks on Arin's train of thought as they descend.
"Arin...he is right. This riddle is coming together like a formula and...what is that?" he says spotting the glowing in the dark thanks to his inherited vision.
He climbs on a bookcase to stay out of the murk.
"No light source here. Never really needed it...but those Wayfinders they give hand out!" Rook says digging through his pack and pulling out the wayfinder and handing it to Danicka.
He starts to laugh as he remembers his command phrase, "Stupid Minotaur!", and then it begins emitting light as the spell.
Lit by a shining Arin, and the Wayfinder clipped to Danicka's robe, the room seems almost peaceful. The golden glow by the shelves gently twinkles and hums as you get closer, almost inviting you to grab the treasure that awaits in the depths of the pool. Even with Yaiho's help, Danicka is still struggling to get up onto the bookcase with Prickles, and Arin bobs patiently in the water behind, waiting for a little help himself.
Suddenly the peace is violently broken by a loud splashing from behind. A strange bird, unlike any avian creature you've ever seen, erupts from beneath the surface of the water and flies towards the ceiling. Its massive beak opens, loosing a hunter's cry and the stench of the grave. Its eyes seem to fixate on Yaiho, and it swoops down to attack. Meanwhile, a tiny iridescent worm-like creature slithers through the air from between the books on the stack next to the strange glow. It shoots out just as the bird flies over Yaiho's head and crashes into the bookcase at a frightening speed, just too late to catch the worm.
The idiotic bird plops into the water, dead from a broken neck, and the worm starts flying toward Yaiho. As it flies, it seems to distort the air around it as if from heat.
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[ooc]ONGOING EFFECTS / ENVIRONMENT
[spoiler=Deep Bog]A square that is part of a deep bog has roughly 4 feet of standing water. It costs Medium or larger creatures 4 squares of movement to move into a square with a deep bog, or characters can swim if they wish. Small or smaller creatures must swim to move through a deep bog. Tumbling is impossible in a deep bog.
The water in a deep bog provides cover for Medium or larger creatures. Smaller creatures gain improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves). Medium or larger creatures can crouch as a move action to gain this improved cover. Creatures with this improved cover take a –10 penalty on attacks against creatures that aren't underwater.
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Brock hops on the nearest book case as the bird commits suicide (or moronicide, not sure which).
Watching the tiny worm he raises his buckler, hoping his powder isn't too wet and takes aim.
"What is that thing? Silver or Iron? Danicka?"
He readies an attack if it comes at Yaiho, planning to fire the cold iron barrel unless someone tells him to use silver.
I hope my powder isn't wet
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The water in a deep bog provides cover for Medium or larger creatures. Smaller creatures gain improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves). Medium or larger creatures can crouch as a move action to gain this improved cover. Creatures with this improved cover take a –10 penalty on attacks against creatures that aren't underwater.
As Danicka and Arin scramble up the bookcases, Forrest and Yaiho get themselves in defensive positions, ready to strike should the worm become aggressive. Danicka lets Brock know that voidworms are very resistant to electricity and sonics while Arin starts his Abyssal babbling, giving his allies the blessing of his mysterious patron.
"Mmm he he! I wonder how bird tastes," the worm mutters in a soft, hoarse voice, "but why start with bird when I have such a selection in front of me? I'm going to taste the rainbow!" The two-foot long worm, slithers through the air towards Yaiho, licking its 'lips' with a barbed tongue. Despite its agility, it fails to dodge the massive maul bearing down from above. It flies off the head of Yaiho's hammer, disappearing into the water with a satisfying *plomp* sound.
Seconds later, Yaiho can feel the worm flying up his trouser leg, slithering up until it pops out of the neck of his breastplate. It slaps Yaiho in the face with its wet tail, then curls around the back of his neck and looks around at the surrounding Pathfinders. "Hmmmm, this one's feels too tough... I wonder what that one tastes like? It looks much more tender..."
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The water in a deep bog provides cover for Medium or larger creatures. Smaller creatures gain improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves). Medium or larger creatures can crouch as a move action to gain this improved cover. Creatures with this improved cover take a –10 penalty on attacks against creatures that aren't underwater.
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Yaiho swings his maul at the worm as it gets too close to him.
When he feels the tail of the worm slap him, he feels weird for a second but barely breaks out of the mental assault the worm used against him.
With the worm coiled around him, Yaiho bites down on the worm with all the force he can muster.
Yaiho swings his massive maul at the worm just inches from his nose. However, the angle is just too awkward, and he is unable to connect as the worm ducks under and slaps him on the face. Then, with the worm coiled around his neck, Yaiho tries to bite down on the elusive creature, but it swiftly slides around to the top of his head, out of reach of the half-orc's razor sharp tusks.
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The water in a deep bog provides cover for Medium or larger creatures. Smaller creatures gain improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves). Medium or larger creatures can crouch as a move action to gain this improved cover. Creatures with this improved cover take a –10 penalty on attacks against creatures that aren't underwater.
The worm shoots down the back of Yaiho's neck, disappearing into his breastplate as Brock's pick approaches with his pick. A split second later, it slithers out of Yaiho's sleeve and wraps around his forearm, positively gleeful. Nothing can outrun a magic missile, however, and the voidworm is walloped by a blast of energy from Danicka. It looks to be in really bad shape, but the worm simply looks up at the wizard with her gnarled looking wand pointing outstretched, and giggles.
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The water in a deep bog provides cover for Medium or larger creatures. Smaller creatures gain improved cover (+8 bonus to AC, +4 bonus on Reflex saves). Medium or larger creatures can crouch as a move action to gain this improved cover. Creatures with this improved cover take a –10 penalty on attacks against creatures that aren't underwater.