After gathering up her blank, some clothing and arcane supplies, Circe walks with the guys around to the side of the building that their balcony is on.
"See you guys up in your room. This is so much easier than trying to sneak past the dorm guard. Also, you guys might give some consideration to appearing drunk when you enter the dorm. It will help to explain why you are all out so late."
With one last wave and a little jump, Circe quickly flies up to the balcony, quite glad that she was already in her flying outfit with its pants rather than her usual school uniform with its skirt.
lol. It's not a guard. It's just some apprentice kid at a desk.
The aqueducts have a system that filters down to where they create fountains and other pools for public use. You don't have to go all the way up unless you want to fully immerse yourself.
Akydi looks over at Al "Uh, you look and smell horrible. No hiding you weren't in a battle lookin like that. Let me clean you up" With that, the tattooed youth waves his hand dramatically over Al
Al nodded when he Circe asked him if it was alright to sleep in his bed before Aky jumped in and finished for him. He could hardly blame him, she really was a joy to talk to. It also was no big deal though since he helped him out with the blood.
"Ah, thanks! It's not quite a shower but it will help out until I can get one." With that he threw a strong arm around Aky's shoulders and gave him a friendly squeeze. "I believe the lady said we should act a little drunk. Shall we?" He took his arm back, threw his head back and roared in laughter so that the apprentice would hear them coming.
Aky laughs as well "I believe I can do that" He says quietly.
Then more loudly he begins to sing "Troolaloolaloora, Troolaloolaloo!!"
The rail thin apprentice at the front desk looks up from his book long enough to give you both an irritated look, but he does nothing to prevent your drunken stumble to your room.
When you return you find the dwarf sound asleep and occasionally snoring. Next to his bed is a tankard with what's left of it's contents spilled onto the floor. Though there wasn't much left in the cup when it tipped.
You're welcome to talk/plan/connive or just go to sleep. I need to know where the human skin books are being kept when everyone goes to sleep. It's about three hours until sunrise.
Hemlock sniffed a bit as they all made plans,"Going to head back to my room and take a rest. This roaming around at night interrupts my sleeping habits and can make me cranky or worse, prone to accidents. I'll see you all later in the day where we can discuss next steps. Maybe over some lunch?"
Hemlock, aren't you in the same room as the others or do you have a private room?
To all: ill have some plot development tonight when I have time to write it up. Feel free to interact and ask questions in the mean time.
Circe is glad to see all the guys come back up into their room without any incident and is pleasantly surprised to see that Al has all that gore and blood cleaned off of him. Circe wearily sits down on Al's bed and drops her backpack on the floor beside it. Taking out the bag that they found she looks over to they guys. "If you guy don't mind, I'd like to put the books back into the bag for the rest of the night. I don't feel good about leaving them out in the open and I think it'd be a lot less creepy to try to read them during the day."
Hearing Circe wants to shelve the books right away, Hemlock interjects,"They aren't creepy to me, of course, if they starts bleeding when opened, yes, THAT might be a bit unnerving, but if Dash gives them the all-clear I'd like to read them. I can't rememeber Dash did you say they were good or not?
"Also how do we want to approach investigating this? Do we do it on our own or bring in others that we think we can trust? If we go it alone what's the next step?"
"Hemlock, another reason to sleep first is so that I can prepare another casting of dispell magic in an attempt to open them. If you want to try to read them without disabling the locks and any traps on them, I will promise to keep you away from the anatomy and dissection classes if you get turned into a toad or something. Also, if they start bleeding when opened I am leaving the room."
Circe takes her boots off and tries to get comfortable on Al's bed. Regardless of what else the guys decide to do, she is determined to get some rest. "Al, do you want one of the pillows from your bed?"
Al gathered his items he needed to clean himself and grabbed a towel. Magical cleaning was one thing, but he felt like he might need a scrub. "No, I do not need one, I assure you. I will not even be sleeping for a few hours yet, so help yourself. I do not think I will be able to rest until the rest of the student body is up and around, or I can talk Lorth into keeping an eye out for us."
You recall the books are magically locked and presently the magic phrase to turn the extra-dimensional space on/off is unknown. You need UMD to blindly activate it for the on/off function. Then you can just hide the bag anywhere.
Circe attempts to activate the bag again so that she can hide the books in it. "I'll try to prepare some useful spells after I've gotten some sleep. Then we can figure out the bag and the books later on." If no one stops her, Circe will put the books back in the back for the rest of the night and then stick the bag under Al's mattress.
Circe successfully places the skin books inside the bag and after some fiddling it's suddenly very much smaller on the inside then it was.
The night passes uneventfully. You all wake at your at whatever schedule you deem to be normal. Circe can sneak out with relative ease (still need a stealth roll though.)
So will you be going to class, skipping, investigating as a group, separating, flee the city screaming, tell someone about the secret area? I need a rough plan of what everyone intends to do. Then the S**t will hit the fan...er...then absolutely nothing will happen. Continue normal protocols, citizen.
Plus Identify and Dispel Magic x2 (one for each book).
Al, what do you keep under your mattress?
Dash is sitting on the floor stretching (a part of his nightly and morning routines) as he says "Well the outsides look fine, but there could be things inside. Which is why we need Circe to be able to cast some spells. I'm pretty sure I can open the locks if I have some time. A few minutes maybe. As for sleep, I could use some as well, but we can switch off watching, Al."
As Dash is speaking, one of his joints cracks rather loudly, before he says, "Ooooh. Actually, that'll work out nicely. That way you can have a bed and keep watch, and Lorth can enjoy his drunken stupor."
I'm not sure what the official rules on sleep and spellcasting are. If someone knows for sure feel free to enlighten me. For the sake of this game i'm fine if the caster gets around 8 hours plus prep time.
"I could cast a few alarm spells. One on our door, window and then the bag itself. That would help us sleep at night"
That'll do it. You manage to find a series of odd glyphs on an interior thread. They're difficult to see as the glyphs are sewn into the thread using the same color. You write the glyphs down on a scrap paper and after consulting your blank (gnomish to common translation) you relize that you know the magic phrase.
In Gnomish-
"I solemnly swear I am up to no good" - opens the extra dimensional space.
"Mischief managed" - Closes the extra dimensional space
You don't have to speak and understand gnomish to use the bag. You can just memorize the phrase.
Stealth to sneak out later 1d20+4
(I guess there will be some interesting rumors regarding Circe sneaking outa the guys dorm?)
Yup. Trollop. ;-)
You stayed up all night?
In the morning, Circe practices the fine art of changing her clothing while still under the covers and hopes the guys are still mostly asleep while she is doing it. Getting outa the bed when done with a faint blush on her cheeks, she will then commune with Rae and prepare new spells for the day.
That done, she'll say good morning to the guys if they are up and then figures out the secret of the bag.
"Well, I think I got the bag figured out. Do you guys want to check out the books now or after our classes?"
Akydi wakes shortly after Circe does, but after she is done changing. "I could get used to waking up and seeing a beautiful young lady" He says with a big grin.
Circe blushes at Aky's comment and remarks in a tired voice: "You just may have to get used to it. I'm not sure when I'll feel safe alone in my room again, so I may be crashing here for a bit. It's either that or find someone to stay with me at night."
The seer coughs a bit at her last comment, clearly distracted. "Uh..yea, staying here is a good idea"
Al, what do you keep under your mattress?Plus Identify and Dispel Magic x2 (one for each book).
Al agrees with Dash on a schedule of keeping watch and imposes upon the dwarf if need be when he wakes up to stick around for a while and keep an eye on things. After his shift is over, he falls asleep on the rug he keeps next to his bed and is likely still sleeping even in the midst of all the talking going on.
Circe looks at Aky with a bit of concern, not sure of the reason for his distraction. "You guys don't mind me staying here for a bit do you?"
Circe looks at the others to make sure none have any objections to her continued nocturnal presence and notices that Al is still sleeping. Looking outside the window and seeing how high in the sky the sun is, she sighs and nudges his side with her bare foot to wake him. This reminds her that she also needs to find her boots. "Al, wake up sleepy head. Do you happen to see my boots under your bed?"
Aky grins again "Hells no I don't mind you stayin here, for as long as you'd like."
Dash is crouched on a stool that is slightly withing the shadows in the corner watching as Circe gets up and begins conversing with Aky. He hops down from his perch with a thump, hoping to startle one of them when they have their backs turned and says "Of course we don't mind you staying, Circe. In fact, I insist upon it. However, you may want to work on how you get dressed. At points it looked like there were two people under there. A guy could get the wrong ideas."
Dash chuckles a bit at his own joke as he sheathes his sword. "I think I might need another quick nap to recharge before we tackle those books though. I'm feeling a bit rundown from all the excitement last night and I had to watch over you little babies sleeping. Also, you gotta kick him a bit harder than that to wake him Circe." With that, Dash pushes Al with his foot, hard enough that the bigger guy rolls from his side to his back.
Hemlock is asleep in his bed unmoving despite the talking and moving around, his hair matted and tousled. He looks different, almost normal without his glasses. With a snort, he wakes groggily."Do I still have my skin?" He gets up out of bed still half asleep, wearing little more than a nightshirt and goes to wash his face and hair, he kicks the nightstand as he gets to the basin and swears in some nasty language.
Once done, he turns around to see Aky, Dash, Al and Circe all there getting ready. Apparently unperturbed he is without pants, or perhaps still asleep, he makes a waving motion, "Morning all"
He then sits down and proceeds to finish dressing, blinking once then twice as he finishes, "Ok. So What's the plan for today? I can go to Master Hanabil and inform him we have a secret necromancers lair under the morgue, but then if HE is the necromancer that might turn out bad for me. Also, I'm hungry. Breakfast?"
Oh right, It is the weekend. I rolled. So no class today.
Al gets a furious look on his face and instantly his claws are out and he makes a poorly aimed slash at Dash's foot that kicked him. Dash is far too nimble to be caught by such an attack, but Al gains his bearings quickly and his face softens. "Oh, hey Dash. We did not have any plans this morning did we?" He says. The claws are gone just as quick as they came.
Starting to lean up on his elbows, he looks up and sees Circe there and for a moment it doesn't register. And then he gets a little embarrassed from staring at her for a few moments. Then he looked down and saw her bare feet on the cold stone. "Morning, Circe. Where are your boots?"
Aky laughs at Hemlock and Al's morning tomfoolery. Then he notices something under the covers of his bed and pulls out Circe's boots. "Now I know why my back is sore.". He says with a chuckle.
The first time you see your Blank you realize the cover is not as you left it. Upon opening the book you see every page is the same.
The word Answers on the top of the page and a simple but well made map below.
It shows the Academy and the main road leading West. Then a drawing of "grandpas nose," an unusually shaped rock formation. About half a days ride from the Academy. From there the road is dashed and leads a few hours NW ending at a small hamlet labeled "West Elm."
You won't know this until you do it, but the next time you close your Blank after looking at the map the Blank reverts to whatever you were looking at previously.
The combination of being startled by Dash's sudden movement and then embarrassment at his comment about dressing arrangements causes Circe to throw her pillow at him in exasperation. Of course she misses and the pillow lands a good foot away from him.
Then watching how Dash wakes up Al, Circe is glad she didn't kick Al very hard since she is no where near as nimble as he is and wouldn't have avoided any claws. "Good morning Al and I don't know."
When Aky finds her boots, Circe looks a bit confused. "Now how did they get over there? I swear I don't usually just toss things around when I get undressed."
Circe will take a few quick little steps on the cold floor to fetch her boots and then another few steps with a jump back onto the bed to sit down and put them on. "You guys really need some more rugs in here. Your floor is freezing."
When Circe dumps out the remaining contents of her backpack in her search for her hairbrush, her blank tumble upon the bed. When she picks it back up to return it to her pack, she notices the cover doesn't look like the setting she had left it on. Curious, Circe picks it up and flips through it quickly.
"Uhm, guys? My blank is doing it again. It's telling me a message again." Circe holds her blank up so that the others can see what it says.
The word Answers on the top of the page and a simple but well made map below.
It shows the Academy and the main road leading West. Then a drawing of "grandpas nose," an unusually shaped rock formation. About half a days ride from the Academy. From there the road is dashed and leads a few hours NW ending at a small hamlet labeled "West Elm."
**Cues dramatic music**
"Oh good, I missed it the last time it gave you a warning."
Hemlock studies the blanks instructions and raises an eyebrow,"So your mysterious benefactor who tells you to trust no one wants us to wander out of the Academy for..." He makes air quotes, "Answers?
Hemlock snorts, "All of this sounds way too suspicious. While I think we ought to go, I'd say we go completely prepared for ANYTHING including that this is trap, but for the life of me I can't imagine anyone would want to take the lot of us hostage. Maybe its witch hunters?"
Dash just laughs at Al and Circe both when they attempt to hit him. In response to Circe's comments about the rugs he says "Well, Al swims in a freezing cold river on a regular basis, Lorth's people live underground, Hemlock practically lives in the morgue, and I'm from the plane of shadows. Cold doesn't bother us. You'll just have to learn to suck it up like Aky does."
With the appearance of the strange blank Dash immediately converts to a more serious demeanor. "Well, that can't be good. I'm with you Hemlock, this is suspicious. I say we try to examine these books a bit before heading out there though."
At Dash's comment that she just needs to suck it up like Aky, Circe throws her hairbrush at Dash. She then grumbles under her breath about pink rugs.
During the conversation about the blank, Circe will take some paper and a pencil out of her backpack and try to copy the map and what the blank says. After that she will activate the bag again and take the books out. "Shall I go ahead and attempt to dispel the magic on the books or do you want to try your thing first Dash?"
Dash,
You know the locks on the books are very well made and magically reinforced to boot. You'll have to bring your A game if you want to get them open. Just let me know what your plan is to that end then proceed.
"Well, I suppose if we are headed out of town we might be beset upon by wild animals and we can make rugs out of those. The ones in town are far too expensive for my tastes. If you are going to spend time working on books, wake me up when you are ready to leave." With that he rolled back over and tried to get a little more sleep.
"Oh eewww. Al, I don't want a rug made from a dead animal. That'd make the room look like Hemlock's little trophy room. I was thinking a nice woven rug in a pretty geometrical pattern."
When Al rolls back over, Circe nudges him with her foot again. "Al, you should stay awake and pay attention. What if something goes wrong and we accidentally set off the trap and summon something evil that wants to eat our souls?"
Hemlock snickers to himself at Dash's comment, "LIVES in the morgue." and busies himself making a check of all his ingredients, making sure they are all accounted for and catalogued. "Whatever you do, do it. Or else I am going to head down to the kitchen for a strip of pig and some honey biscuits. I don't work well on an empty stomach...' His mind wanders off and he mutters to himself again "I wonder if the amount of digestion affects the efficacy of a potion? If you've had eggs before ingesting a potion of fire breathing is it helpful? I've got to make a note to try this."