Smiling down at Iverna and mumbling, "Your not dead."
Quickly standing up to swing at the last worm.
Letting out a rumbling growl and slamming his fists into the worm
Don’t have time for a big post, but that will kill the worm.
Before I drop the rage, what is our healing situation? Better to heal quick with the rage song up...
"Well, whyever I'm not dead, I'm guessing I owe you some thanks. Shouldn't have let my guard down like that."
Iverna wobbles to her feet.
Snorri breathes heavily, more from relief than exhaustion. "That was far a closer call than I liked. Let us agree that stealth is not our strongest suit, shall we?"
Stooping to get his eyes at the level of the closest door, he peeks through the closest door .
Reaching out to help steady Iverna, "I'm just glad your still alive."
Looking around, "Besides Iverna is anyone else injured? Glenda you are a better healer than me."
Snorri looks into a room of ruin. This may once have been a library or scriptorium, but now it is a pile of broken furniture, rotting parchment. The wall opposite the door is covered with a tile mosaic depicting the night sky, with the stars set in precious stones.
"Allow me."
"Dasur, you may want to take a look at this room. I would guess that they found a way to see the stars even from here."
With the danger passed, Dasur lowers his staff. He stands before a gutted worm, pondering the irony of the situation considering Iverna was in a similar state seconds before.
The wizard is leaning down, poking the remains of the worm when Snorri calls him over. "Iverna's stealth may not have been the issue. Perhaps these worms possess senses beyond our own. Even the larva in the eggs yesterday seemed to be drawn towards us, as if their hunger for flesh is all-encompassing, all-consuming. I would need to perform some experiments to be sure, but it would be safer for us to assume the worms do not "see" us, but "sense" us." He drones, as if completely ignoring Snorri's words.
Standing tall, Dasur steps over the dead worm and walks straight towards the indicated room, stepping through the door without a hint of caution. "This is most impressive." He comments, free hand stroking his oily, single-braided beard. "I doubt anything of value remains, but could you all assist me in searching this room for anything of arcane value? Given the prowess of these gnomes, I believe there are arcane secrets to be uncovered here. I wish to know how they managed to see stars through several miles of solid rock. I suspect some form of divination magic at this point."
Torvi will cast detect magic and take 20 looking for things.
Perception 27
Torvi and Dasur detect a faint aura within a crumbling mass of fungus covered fungus that may once have been a writing desk. Digging within, you find a perfectly preserved teak box. Within are several pens, brushes, inks of several colors, including a vial of glowing ink. The dweomer seems to be a simple one that preserves the box and whatever is inside.
The mosaic is recognizable as the sky you are accustomed to, but there is nothing about the date that stands out to you as important.
The gems are a variety of jewels, primarily diamonds but also rubies, emeralds, and sapphires.
”Store your chewing leaf in that box, and it will not go stale on you.”
Dasur brushes bits of rotten mushrooms off the teak box, examining its dweomer. He opens the box slowly, finding the hinges to be perfectly smooth, as exxpected. "Ah, this will be very useful. I will not have to worry about writing supplies for quite some time." He says, tucking the box under his arm for the time being.
Leaning on his staff, the wizard looks up at the stars for a few moments. "I cannot tell if these are summer or winter constellations, but I do recognize several patterns. This appears to be the same night sky we are used to on the surface."
"Thus, we can conclude the gnomes had a way to pierce the rocks above and truly look at the stars." Dasur drones, standing up straight before lifting his staff to point at the various gemstones dotting the wall. "I can see many diamonds here, as well as some other colored stones. I wish to extract them for use in my research. Their refraction patterns may reflect the history of this once great civilization."
"If you think it useful, go ahead. Be careful, however, Torag wouldn't appreciate such craftsgnomeship to be defiled."
”Why does the Father of Creation give a plug for their workgnomeship?”
"Because every diligent act of creation is also an act of worship."
Nodding and pointing to Glenda, "That. It does not matter who did it only that it was made and made well."
Iverna wanders the room, touching the odd bit of trash. "Well, maybe they shouldn't have built it under a volcano and then abandoned it. I mean, they may have been good at crafting things, but they weren't much for making plans. Besides, there all dead now. I say if it will give Dasur more knowledge to kill whoever did this to them, go for it."
Dasur doesn't seem to be giving much respect to anything as he smashes the mural with a hammer, catching a diamond that pops out. "Indeed, Iverna, this may have been a poor place for a settlement." He agrees, striking the wall again and prying loose an emerald.
"Though I do not argue the act of creation is considered a form of worship for Torag's faithful," smash ""I have to question if the All Father himself would give this mural more than a passing glance." smash
"There is little creativity involved in this piece, other than the substitution of gems in place of stars." smash "Its beauty did not stem from the mind of the artist, or the materials used," smashsmashsmashsmash "but from the intrinsic and unchanging constellations."
Bits of tile rain to the floor, nearly drowning out Dasur's lecturing.
The full-time wizard part-time jeweler is careful to keep the gems seperated by type on scraps of paper, not wanting the harder diamonds to scratch the ruby and sapphire corundums or the much softer emerald beryls. "If there was any true merit to this piece it would be the gnomes went through great lengths to observe the stars, which we take for granted every night on the surface." He says while brushing dust off his hands below the completely destroyed mural. It would seem Dasur is the harshest of art critics.
He takes out his jeweler's kit and begins examining the emeralds through a loupe. "Oh yes, this will be very useful. These softer beryls are particually vulnerable to rapid changes in time, but revert to their previous states quicker. If I compare them to the diamonds, I should be able to build a correlation... ah, I'm getting ahead of myself."
The dwarf safely stores the gems and picks up his staff. "Shall we explore the next room? This is very exciting." He says, though his voice was the same monotone as always.
Torvi nods, ”hmmm, yes, probably some more priceless gnomish artifacts that need rescuing from obscurity.”
Iverna paces around the room, growing increasingly agitated. "Look, are we here to explore stupid gnomish curiosities or are we looking for a path to Dammerhall. These gnomes were obviously stupid, and whatever they thought or found led to nothing but death and destruction. Let's move up the mountain and see if there is a way down. This place is stupid."
The tiny gnome storms out of the room and out of the observatory completely. Perhaps her near death experience has affected her more than was first apparent.
Erebos, on the other hand, seems intrigued. He moves to area e and pushes the door open.
"This appears to be the stairs to the higher levels. I suggest we seek the secrets of whatever these gnomes were looking at."
"Iverna," calls Glenda, and heads off for the gnome. "Don't go too far, we should be back soon," she says.
Dasur takes a moment to obsessively pack away the gemstones in his belt pouch, only looking up as Iverna storms out. "I agree with Erebos, but it is dangerous to be alone. Please bring back Iverna quickly, Glenda."
Ambling over to the door Erebos opened, he peers up at the staircase. "If this is an observatory, their astrological instrumentation would logically be located on the highest floor. HOwever, we should wait for Glenda and Iverna to return before proceding."
"In the meantime, we can continue to explore the ground level. The worms seem to hunt in packs during their smaller stages, which reduces the chances we will encounter more on this floor." Is his justifaction for moving east and opening the nearby door.
This room is even more ruined than the scritorium. The worms have tunneled through the tiles, the floor, and even through the walls outside. There are slime trails, and mud. There is no apparent magic in this room.
”With all due respect wizard, do you always spout dumb things? First it was metal that floats, and now you insist the astrological stuff has to be on the roof! If they were observing the sky from through three leagues of stone, what does it matter if they stick that stuff in the basement?”
Snorri winces as Dasur smashes the mosaic. The wizard's logic is solid, but he nevertheless whispers apologetic prayers to Torag and, for good measure, Desna.
As Iverna moves out, he strides after her, slightly incensed. "Iverna, whatever you think this place holds we all just did our best to keep you alive against overwhelming odds, and it was no small feat! It strikes me as exceptionally rude and ungrateful to place yourself in jeopardy so soon after by being alone among predators. As the underwater vessel carried us here, this place might house essential intel or artifacts, and as such it's worth exploring. There is no shame in fear, but you've seen that we'll do everything we can to protect you, so stop making us worry and come inside with us!"
Silently seething while Dasur destroys the mosaic. Turning coal black with a dark crimson dripping off of him like draining lifeblood. Tilting his head and watching the gnome finally speak up.
But the so called future king has to go and try to ruin things. Stalking towards him leaving a trail of thick inky ectoplasm behind him as he moves up behind Snorri. Leaning in to mumbling in his ear, "The gnome is right though. And she also is having to watch the mad mage destroy her peoples history. Grave-robbing typically does not sit well with anyone."
Stepping next to Snorri, "Also you have never died so make no assumptions there would be king." Turning to glare at Nalnear with a raised eyebrow.
Letting out a tired sigh, "Sorry for whatever he said Snorri."
Walking over, "We can stay with Iverna if she needs a moment."
Dasur looks at the destruction in the room, shaking his head. "I underestimated the worms ability to bore through inanimate objects. They appear to have the ability to tunnel through stone. I wonder, can they not swim in water?"
Turning to face Torvi, the wizard tilts his head in confusion. "But Torvi, there is no basement."
”Basement, no basement, my point is that it needn’t be on the top floor.”
"You are the one mecking about in the tower full of carnivorous worms, Lord Snorri. It seems to me that every time we have anything to do with gnomes, bad things happen. As long as we stay on the path of dwarven steps, things go well. Feel free to investigate my people staring at the ceiling for gemstones or whatever. I'll wait here."
"Yes, that is correct." Dasur says, stroking his beard. "But the question is, did they develop these ideas of astronomy independently, or was it brought from the surface? If it was developed independantly, then it would not matter where the observations devices were located. If the ideas were brought from the surface, it stands to reason the builders would seek to recreate a surface observatory for the sake of familarity. I believe the latter is more likely."
The wizard seemed perfectly happy arguing semantics with Torvi while waiting for the others to return from outdoors.
Iverna will return to wait in the entryway, but she puts her tiny foot down on exploring any further in the observatory.
”Shall we?”
"Suit yourself if you despise this place so much. But stay safe."
Snorri reaches Dasur, axe at the ready. "Let's check upstairs, then."
Glenda says to Iverna, "This is bothering you a great deal. What are you feeling right now?"
"I'm feeling that I've spent my life entire trying not to die for gnomish stupidity. And now I'm surrounded by gnomish foolishness, and it nearly killed me, and it is distracting you people from your own dwarvish nature. Was it gnomish foolishness that pushed back the orc army at Fasturvalt, or was it dwarvishness. I just think we should try to get where we are going and not stop to look at every bit of gnomish fancy."
Erebos turns toward the stairs and quickly springs up them. "The gnome isn't completely wrong, we should find what is to be found here and move on. Our destination lies below." He quickly disappears up the spiral staircase, and no screams echo back down to indicate that he has found trouble.
Leaning against the wall and waving, "Stay safe."
Glaring at the group from the other-side of Iverna.
Dasur nods to Snorri as he re-enters the observatory, then takes the staircase up after their friendly drow wizard. "I suspect there is great magic involved in the operation of this place of learning. Ah, if we could discover the head astrologist's spellbook... what a find that would be." He says, mostly to himself.
”Onward!”
Erebos' voice echoes down the stairs. "There seems to be not much threat up here. Some offices, maybe, and one big room on the top level with a brass contraption. Something I'm sure Dasur would like to poke and prod."
Dasur quickly makes his way up the stairs, following Erebos' voice. "A brass contraption? I would not be surprised if it is some manner of light-and-magic focusing instrument, similar to the devices I use. I have called the the study spectromancy, but perhaps I am not the first to discover the similarities between the optical properties of light and the flow of ley lines."
Pushing open the door at the top of the stairs , the wizard glances around slowly before proceeding to the next door directly ahead , casually pushing it open with his staff. "Is this the office you mentioned, Erebos? I will look for any preserved documents relating to the operation of the instrument you mentioned." The wizard calls back to the dark elf before re-activating his detect magic cantrip and scanning the contents of the room.
Snorri moves next to Dasur, not understanding much but hopeful that some useful trinket lies among the rubble.