|
Virml shudders at hearing the words "lost teeth" as he starts wading around, looking for his, muttering softly, "okay...I have 6 left...does that mean I'm looking for 20? Or would it be 24? I should have paid better attention in anatomy class..."
Locations you can travel to:
- Cartographium
- Heritage Stacks
- Balcony and Mistress Koi
- Scriptorium
|
|
The Cartographium:
The door to this room is open, making the room a deep bog like the nearby corridors. The water’s surface is carpeted with maps made of silk, vellum, birch bark, and sundry other materials.
Purpose hidden
Purpose hidden
|
|
To keep us moving...
The Heritage Stacks:
The door to this room is open, making the room a deep bog like the corridors outside. This chamber mostly contains volumes of obscure and tedious genealogy. The northernmost alcove of this room is hidden in magical darkness.
|
Desini gives S'Slarn a charming smile, holding up the bookmark. "Oh, thisss little thing? Jussst part of a book the Paracountesss asked usss to retrieve for her. I wouldn't worry yourssself about it, sssweetie. Jussst a faction thing, you know what it'sss like?" She gives the Nagaji a wink with her own reptilian like eye.
Moving onto the Heritage Stacks, the serpentine-blooded sorceress casts Detect Magic into the darkness while inspecting the room.
"Oh, this looks to be where our little worm friend came from!"
|
|
Fail
Pass
Fail
Desini delves a bit deeper into that shadowy corner, and finds a heavy codex bound with cured dwarf skin entitled The Darklands Precepts.
The Darklands Precepts is a guide to proper forms of address and correspondence among drow noble families, with shorter chapters regarding drow demonology rituals and other, equally dangerous rites.
The tome is written in Undercommon but designed for use only by drow who know Sakvroth, a form of Darklands sign language. To discourage others from gleaning its secrets, The Darklands Precepts has two defensive features: a permanent darkness effect emanating from it (15-foot diameter, CL 10th) and an alarm that responds to the bearer’s voice. The darkness effect poses no difficulty for readers with darkvision, and even wrapping the book in cloth is enough to block the effect. When the bearer attempts to read the text aloud or speaks at all while carrying the book, The Darklands Precepts creates a ghost sound effect (CL 10th) that simulates the clamor of 40 humanoids shrieking incoherently. The effect lasts only so long as the bearer speaks, and its responsiveness to sound imposes a –5 penalty on the bearer’s Stealth checks, as well as a 20% chance of spell failure when casting a spell with verbal components.
Desini studies the scroll fragment, and realizes that this is not the one that summoned the "worm" from earlier, but rather can be used to summon a Tatzlwyrm that will fight on your side for a few rounds before disappearing (1 Round casting time).
|
|
O S
After trekking up the spiral stairs back to the main level of the archives and through the ankle-high water there, you head out to the relative dryness of the entrance foyer where you received your briefing, then up the narrow stairs to the scriptorium.
As S'Slarn opens the door, a spool of string gets snagged by the doorframe, which in turn knocks over a several ceramic jugs which go flying towards the door, hitting S'Slarn in the face for...
bludgeoning damage and covering him in blue ink (-10 on Stealth checks)
This large chamber is crammed with desks and lecterns designed for copying scrolls and manuscripts. Along the north wall, a tall, broad shelf sags with sheaves of parchment, while near the exit to the south, a stack of ceramic ink jugs stands near wall-mounted racks of quills. Two bays of windows on the west wall offer an impressive view of the Lodge’s greatest landmark, Skyreach Tower, while the eastern windows overlook the library’s main stacks.
Standing next to the desk at the back of the room is , looking over a series of books. Taking up a large amount of space on the floor between you and Shaine is a large crocodile who seems to be sometimes helping Shaine by using its snout to push a tome over closer to the master of scrolls when asked.
When you enter (and S'Slarn gets covered in ink), Shaine looks up and tilts his head to one side. "Oh, was there something you needed, agents?"
*
*
*
*
|
|
"Hmm, I see." is all Shaine says as he looks down and grunts something. The crocodile uses its snout to push a tea cup closer, which the elf picks up and begins sipping from. His ears seem to catch what Chiguya is saying, and he mumbles something noncommittal as he drinks.
|
|
Chiguya twitches, relaxes, and leans close to Oma's shoulder, speaking softly in Tengu.
"พร้อมแล้วฉันเชื่อว่านี่เป็นเหมืองหินแมวของเรา
ดูที่บิตของการเลื่อนในเข็มขัดของเขาและหนึ่งในหนังสือเล่มกองช่วยเหลือล่าสุดฟ ันของเราดำเนินการไปในที่ประชุมครั้งแรกของเราหรือไม่ "
See that bit of scroll in his belt, and the one on the book pile our recent toothless rescue carried away at our first meeting?"
He then nudges Desini with his elbow and tilts his head to indicate the table. Keeping his hands behind Oma, he holds out two fingers then taps one of the previously collected scrolls that are tucked behind his belt.
|
|
Desini, as suspicious as the rest of the group is right now, looks at the scroll on the table and back up to 'Shaine'. "Sir, we believe that collecting the various pieces of a certain scroll is at the heart to solving the current watery problems befalling the archives and...ah, that looks like one of the pieces there on your desk. Would you mind if we...ah, had a closer look?"
Going over the words of her spells in her head, she waits to see how 'Shaine' reacts.
|
|
As Desini speaks, a loud clamor as if 40 people were shrieking incoherently seems to be coming out of her mouth!
All of you can tell that this is some sort of Ghost Sound effect coming from something on Desini's person, but Desini (failed save) cannot hear her own words over the din! Shaine, too, seems affected by the sudden outburst of shrieking - combined with his noticing Chiguya's hand motions, his eyes narrow.
He suddenly shouts out - "No one shall catch me who can't catch my name!" as his form shifts into a who looks to begin casting a spell!
Round 1!
Chiguya
Crocodile
S'Slarn
Nijena
Oma
Diana
Imposter!
Desini (20% spell failure on spells with verbal components)
Round 2!
|
|
vs DC 14
Chiguya's spell catches the crocodile unawares, and despite being normally very sturdy, it slips on the grease and lands flat on its snout!
The crocodile will attempt to stand up as a move action...
...and again as a second move action...
...but hilariously and comically, it keeps slipping on Chiguya's grease spell and remains prone!
Round 1!
S'Slarn
Nijena
Oma
Diana
Imposter!
Desini (20% spell failure on spells with verbal components)
Round 2!
Chiguya
Crocodile (Prone)
|
|
S'Slarn is unable to side-step the crocodile completely, and it will take an attack of opportunity to try and bite him!
(Prone included)
...but misses!
The kitsune, while grappled, will widen his eyes and whisper a three words in Sylvan to the crocodile as a free action, causing the croc to turn his attention away from S'Slarn.
The kitsune grins even with S'Slarn's hands on him and speaks a quick joke as a move action!
"Ever hear the one about the dragon beating his head against the castle wall for a week without end? When the king asked him why, the dragon said 'because it feels oh so good when I stop'!"
For a brief second, S'Slarn was almost going to release his grip and be fascinated by the humor of it all, but he resists!
Stymied by this, the kitsune will try to cast a different spell than he planned on using (no longer confusion) while grappled!
(DC 24: 10 + S'Slarn's CMB + Spell Level)
The kitsune loses the spell, however, and says four more words in Sylvan as a free action!
Round 1!
Desini (20% spell failure on spells with verbal components)
Round 2!
Chiguya
Crocodile (Prone)
S'Slarn
Nijena
Oma
Diana
Imposter!
|
|
Trying to concentrate and get the words of a spell out through the shrieking that emanates from her, Desini moves to get a line of sight to the kitsune.
The kitsune seems to have a wry sense of humour, so she pulls out a small tangerine and a crow feather from her pouch and waves them around in mock seductive movements while chanting (and shrieking).
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Chi gurgle purrs and plucks an undulating chord from his kalimba before his voice fills the room.
"Oho, we are but men with Sylvan tongues
and catch or drown thus seems to be our fate.
I have no use for koi and wat'ry tombs.
Confer with us before it is too late!"
He gazes across the room at the kitsune wrapped in S'Slarn's grasp and caws a laugh. "And you're caught!"
|
|
Desini's spell is lost amidst the shrieking coming from her person as Chiguya's inspiring speech begins.
When Chiguya says the name "Caught", the kitsune's eyes widen in fear as he screams aloud, "No! No not again! Ahhh!!!"
The four scroll fragments your party recovered suddenly fly out of your respective hands and fuse together, combining with the and the to form a complete scroll!
The scroll creates a massive whirlwind in the middle of the room - one that stitches the fragments whole again. As an unseen chorus of voices murmurs Sylvan incantations, the words on the scroll form a vortex that draws the kitsune bard back into his inky prison, along with his riddleborn crocodile ally!
The wind continues as you all hold onto nearby doorframes, desks, and torch sconces as the bodies of the voidworm, the bog nixie, the tooth fairies, the juju zombie vulture, and the two gathlain fishermen come flying out of the archives and get sucked in as well!
Finally, Mistress Koi calmly floats up as the winds slow down from hurricane-force, thanking you for helping her capture "that sly fox", then she voluntarily sucks up all remaining seawater from the archives, leaving them as dry as a Qadiran desert before she swims into the verbal whirlpool, but not before disgorging a few gifts for you all - a potion of haste, a steadfast gut-stone, and several dozen gold and platinum coins! Finally, the script settles back to its original form, and the scroll drops to the floor of the scriptorium, its magic dormant once more!
With so little evidence of the fey invasion left behind, you find that you have some difficulty persuading the real Kreighton Shaine of your version of events. However, the Master of Scrolls is so relieved to find the flood removed that he scarcely cares about the explanation. Shaine allows you to keep the things that you found during your cleanup (Dark Archives characters, see below)
Shaine remarks that he's quite glad you found a means to clean the waters so quickly, because otherwise, he'd been authorized to task you all for many back-breaking hours of bailing, cleaning, and recopying.
Your Primary Mission Success Conditions
To kill or banish all fey-born creatures from the archives!
Your Secondary Mission Success Conditions
You must fulfill three or more of the following tasks:
- Access the Dictionarium without flooding the room (Success)
- Rescue the real Virml before he drowns (Success)
- Capture the kitsune named Caught alive and bring him to Mistress Koi for questioning (Failed)
- Convince Mistress Koi to remove all floodwater from the archives by returning Caught to the scroll (Success - counts as two successes)
I hope you had a fun time with this play by post scenario!
Thanks to Chiguya, you actually finished a day or two earlier than even I expected, so I'll get the chronicle sheets out to you in the next 24 hours or so (plus the Dark Archive PCs have a few more dice rolls to make).
|
|
Chi pulls Desini aside for a brief tet a tet.
He holds out a brightly colored shirt for her to examine.