"..give me..."
"Now listen everybody. We should take time to collect our thoughts and minister to our wounds as quickly as we may. But, please, everybody give me a wide berth. If you keep your distance, this skull can do nothing. Let's just hope that they don't have the means to sneak up behind us. I will try to keep near enough so that you can help me if needed."
"...a moment.", Reason pants out.
TRK is exhausted.
For Rev
Gobi ties up the orc and then takes a moment to collect himself and he helps the rogue knight with his healing powers
The companions take a moment to breath before deciding their course of action.
"Well then, what should we do with 'im?" Gobi says to the others
Arianwyn gets down on his haunches and looks Brainpeeler directly in the eye, having slapped him awake.
"What shall we do indeed? Tell us, whelp... I trust your mistress is expecting us? What folly... to take orders from a woman of the elven race. Surely Gruumsh has foresaken you for such a gross perversion." he says coolly.
Brainpeeler opens his single eye and his mouth curls in an unappetising sneer.
"Gruumsh's Bride knows all about you. Defiling filth..." for a moment it looks as if he will say no more, but suddenly a torrent of words pour out.
Giant
"You'll bring her that skull your fancy slut's holding. You'll beg her to take it by the time she's done. She will tell stories of your end at Gruumsh's table while your bodies live on in agony to hear them. Putrescent muck to speak her name."
Then his jaws slam shut.
Arianwyn laughs heartily, "Such eloquence; truly this mortal world holds many surprises. Very well, you shall live. You see, unfortunately for Kyleth, we know all about her too. We shall bring her the skull indeed, and watch it burn to ash."
Brainpeeler fumbles for his wand but can't break free of the ropes.
"I will feed the Maw. My blood is meant for better things than you." Rank, bloody spittle lands on Arianwyn's hand.
"Oh dear..." Arianwyn says softly as he stands up, "Another mistake."
He then kicks Brainpeeler in the stomach.
"Well now, my friends," he says breezily, wiping his hand on a piece of cloth, "Mayhap we shall find what we seek through yonder portal."
Brainpeeler passes out in his rope bonds.
A short stretch of corridor greets you. Directly in front of you stand a pair of heavy doors, work-scarred, but solid. From beyond them comes the sound of machinery at work. To your left, shortly before the double doors is an elaborately locked single door with a small sign pinned to it. It reads "Manager".
"There is little likelihood, methinks, of our prey being in such mundane surroundings as a manager's office. Shall we examine it?"
"Might as well take a look"
A cursory examination tells you that the fancy lock is just window-dressing. It's a fully functional lock, just not one that's in use.
The door swings open and reveals a length of corridor. Here a considerable attempt has been made at style and home comfort. The rough wood walls are hidden by tapestries of some value. Thick carpet muffles your footsteps. A pile of crates at the end of the short hallway seem to be labelled and appear to be containers for something of value rather than the crude boxes you saw in the forge area.
Beside each of the two doors on the left hand wall stand two chests, each of magnificent workmanship. The doors themselves are adorned with yet more elaborate examples of the locksmith's craft. Silence prevails. You might be in another world.
Having finally caught his breath, Reason heads for the crates to examine them.
Reason recognises the seal on the crates as coming from the university at Namarth. Clerics of Ioun have long had a special affiliation with the mages there and recognise them as scholars of impeccable distinction. If these crates contain books from Namarth, this is treasure indeed.
Hands trembling, Reason attempts to pull a lid off of a crate.
Within the top crate lie a set of six shallow boxes. Reason guesses that they contain scrolls. The packaging is extremely careful and two of the boxes are marked with runes of protection to keep them from being jolted. Such care suggests the extreme value of the contents.
Whiteclaw will keep an eye on a door.
Gobi is going to be very intrigued by books from clerics, he heads over by reason to investigate as well
The dwarf and the tiefling look remarkably like children in a toy shop as they bend their heads over the boxes of scrolls. Even the most cursory glance at the material tells them that the sages of Namarth have sent copies of some of their most ancient and valuable records to this frozen waste.
Reason rootles a little deeper and extracts a single sheet of parchment. He reads it silently, eyes widening.
Parchment
The sheet is a meticulously detailed catalogue of the contents of this crate. These scrolls concern the history of orc clans, the nature of landscape and a solid body of work on the spread of contagion. Somewhere in here there is a scroll of Remove Affliction. Sorting through this crate will take 20 minutes to remove the contents and stow them somewhere else.
Arianwyn covers the other door , not trusting anything to do with Kyleth.
"Umm.. So far we seem to be able to handle the skull without any problem. Perhaps we should take all of these crates back, and make sure that they are stowed safely, before carrying on. After all, we wouldn't want to chance losing something irreplaceable in our upcoming battles."
Reason looks around hopefully.
"'Without any problem,' says the one who was screaming on the floor ten minutes ago," Vel answers acidly. "Let's do our job. Loot all you want on the way out."
"I agree with Vel. Once the enemy is dead, we can take all the time we need to go through the spoils. But every moment we waste is one more she has to prepare."
"aye, this dwarf agrees whole heartidly.. or heartily whichever. Even if I believe some of this stuff might help. why do you suppose they're gathering all of it?"
Reason sighs and reluctantly acquiesces to what he knew was the necessary course.
Before departing the room, however, he quickly searches the crate for the scroll listed on the inventory list.
TRK stands guard while the others do their shopping.
Reason finds the scroll he is looking for among a set of treatises on demonically induced diseases.
G2