"You seem like you've had quite enough. What is this sealed chamber you speak of?"
"Most intelligent for a boar I am thinking, and the sealed chamber would be worthy of investigation also don't you know?"
"Tha'd be best off with more water to my way of thinking. Tha dost'na need more booze like. Tha'll only throw up on feet again."
"Shh... it's secret. Well kind of. It;s where he has his most important 'speriment. It came back in the evening covered in like foam 'n' blood, and it was wanderin' round the chamber and then it wandered off into the shubbery."
"What, the pig?"
"Huh? Wha? Yeah, the boar." she replies, "Pretty but not too bright" she says patting Macmoor's cheek.
"At least I'm not lying in a pool of my own vomit, hoping a magic pig won't come and find me, sweetie. So what was this experiment of your late master? What was he trying to do?"
Healaugh tunes his hurdy-gurdy.
"Tha'd best tell on, Yara. Reet strange happenings, seemingly. Playing summat'll make tha feel better, think on."
"Nothing's going to harm you,
Not while I'm aroud ..."
"Demons'll charm you with a smile, for a while,
But in time...
Nothing can harm you
Not while I'm around..."
Healaugh sings on relentlessly, taking a golden opportunity to display his hurdy-gurdy skills.
The girl looks like she is about to retort to Macmoor, but Healaugh's singing captures her attention and she is rapt.
"That's real nice..." she murmurs, "He was making a creature, a monster, in the chamber down the hall. He always kept the key on his belt. I never saw it but he told me how well he was doing."
Ynyr quietly leaves the room, partly to look for the key, but partly because he's had enough of Healaugh's morose baritone.
Ynyr remembers that Ghadmyr picked up the keys and braces himself for more music.
Ghadmyr produces the keys the group found. "Were these the keys?"
"Oh yeah... that's them..." she replies.
Healaugh continues to play as he asks "Monster now. Strange lad your Shinvar must've been, think on. Did he describe it. Boastful like?"
"Something about showing them a thing or two. I dunno who. He didn't tell me everything."
"Perhaps it's time we took a look for ourselves."
"And that is a good idea is it not, Ghadmyr. While Healaugh is singing so soothingly."
There is a hint of desperation in Ynyr's voice, as though he can't take much more music.
Ghadmyr heads in the direction indicated by the girl to check out the locked chamber.
Ghadmyr leaves the room and proceeds south, then east down the corridor. He comes to a stout iron door, set in a wall of extremely tough, well, cast stone.
Ynyr follows him.
Healaugh brings his song to a close. "Th'art reet good audience, our Yara. Don't know when I've been so well received. Now then, I'd best help our lads or happen they'll get in trouble like. Is owt else canst tell me to help?"
Seeing his companions at hand, Ghadmyr fits the key into the lock and opens the door carefully.
The door opens into a room filled with many pinpoints of coloured magical light, reflected in walls of a dull metal. In the centre of the room is a large glass tank filled with a bluish fluid. A large creature is suspended in the liquid. It appears to be a creature that some of you recognise as a bulette.
As soon as Ghadmyr unlocks the door, a whistle sounds once from nowhere.
Ynyr looks extremely dubious.
"It seems likely that he alarmed the place so that he would be alerted if someone opened the door. Hopefully that's all it is."
Dubious of his own hopes, Ghadmyr scans the room for traps or other hazards.
Ghadmyr notices in his investigation that the bulette creature has certain draconic traits as well, not normally seen in this beast. He spies no traps in the vicinity of the tank..
After a sort while, the whistle sounds again.
Ynyr looks at the ceiling for the source of the noise.
... and Healaugh looks at the door itself.
Neither of the old friends spots anything untoward, apart from the sheer bizarre nature of the room itself.
The whistle sounds again.
Ynyr thinks laterally, and tries another tack.
Like Ynyr before him, the penetrating noise befuddles him thoroughly.
Ghadmyr examines the door we are peering into. Does it look like, if we were to close it behind us, it would automatically lock?
"Look, nevermind the door. If something comes, I'll kill it. In the meantime, what's that in the jar?"
Ghadmyr takes a closer look at the jar. What is it from a natural viewpoint?
Ghadmyr inspects the container more closely. His knowledge of the natural world being phenomenal, he is able to deduce that it is a bulette that has somehow had the attributes of a red dragon added to it. He notes spines and frills that normally occur on the latter, as well as what appears to be a gular pouch, presumably for the belching forth of flame.
"Eee. Nasty piece of work. Read tale like this when I were youngster. Madman mixed up beasts for fun. Turned on him int end, which were right and proper, think on."
"Eee. Nasty piece of work. Read tale like this when I were youngster. Madman mixed up beasts for fun. Turned on him int end, which were right and proper, think on."
"Well now, and this is very possible, is it not? Could it be that this boar we are seeking has was once something else and is now seeking to break free of an enchantment having turned on this Shinvar?"
"Perhaps the boar will return to this place."
The whistle sounds once more.
Healaugh looks again. "Can't be doing with that. Brigid-lass alone knows what noise will bring down on us."
"Right, that dreadful sound is going to give me a headache."
Healaugh deduces that the whistle is a magical alarm created via ritual, similar to several common warding spells.
It seems to sound every minute and has no source as such, seeming to come from everywhere in the room. He thinks it may have been triggered by opening the door.
The whistle sounds again.