"We are a curious lot, aren't we?"
Sydney nods in agreement with Valeria's plan. "I am sure these items are all very nice, but dealing with disease can be a real nightmare."
To Hargus the thing simply replies "You must still return what you have withdrawn."
When Sveng jokingly asks about coming back one by one the thing stares at him for a moment then just notes "You still only get one item for the group as a whole to withdraw..."
"I feel certain that you have had people in the past leave with items and not return them. Tell us what some of them are. If we run across them in our adventures we could return them to you. Would there be some sort of reward for that?"
Valeria roll her eyes at all the bartering and double speak...
I am truly, hopelessly part of a band of 'adventurers' now...
She smiles as she inspects the wand of remove disease, before handing it over to Piri, "Here Piri- I do believe you're the only one of us who can use this flawlessly yes?"
Valeria looks at the others to confirm her understanding of party abilities, in the event that she is wrong...
When Piri asks about the missing items Factor 12 replies "Yes another wand and an amulet are currently missing. Should you return them your reward would be the satisfaction in knowing that you have done the right thing in returning something that belongs to the archives collection..."
"I don't know about flawlessly, but yes, I can operate the wand." Then in hushed tones to the party alone. "Have we found an amulet or wand thus far. I think the Karma might be worth more than the item itself if we were to return it."
"What capabilities did the wand and amulet have?"
"The wand produced an electrical charge. The amulet toughened the wears skin against attacks." Factor 12 replies.
"We will keep any eye out for such items, then, and if we find them, will endeavor to return them to you. Do you know who checked them out?"
Or keep them for ourselves since there is no reward. Sveng smiles pleasantly and nods along with Hargus.
Obviously irritated, but your not sure by what Factor 12 simply states "They were not given freely..."
"The wand for now. Come all, we have more to do." He says with a smile.
Pointing to the door Piri asks, "Factor 12, what is immediately beyond that door?"
With the party's general consensus, Piri heads toward the door.
He points to the door to the other room, "That is the reading room, a quiet, secure place to study."
Heading back to the L-shaped hallway, you turn past the statue in the corner of the hall, and see the only door you've yet to check to the east, where the statue points its scepter. Piri moves up to the door, but as he does, about 25 feet back he notices something odd as he passes down the hallway, and everyone else can see them too. Seeming out of nowhere bloody circles quickly appear on the walls and door of the hallway, as if seeping out of the walls itself. The circles appear oddly similar to the ones you had seen previously at first glance.
Sveng starts backing up. "Well, that's rather ominous. Sydney, any idea what they might be?"
Hargus looks at the bloody circles seeping out of the walls, then looks at the others and says, "Erm, are we sure we want to investigate this? Those circles are a little...creepy."
Piri looks at them and recognizes them to be very similar. "I don't think they are runes of any kind that I recognize...I too, would defer to Sydney on that. I'm not sure what can cause something like that or what it might be warning us of."
Hargus stares entranced at the circles for a little bit, before he suddenly cries in pain and clutches at his head. He falls to his knees and holds his arm where the cut from before was as though it pained him greatly.
Piri briefly falls to his knees in pain then gets up. "Well, I have some clarification of what we are about to face. Apparently this giant rat is a high level magical experiment gone bad somehow. This rat is probably capable of spell casting. Probably has a high intelligence."
"Well, let me take a closer look..."
"Wait!"
After your vision returns to the present you realize there is no magical meaning or function to the circles. Whatever is causing them is not of a magical nature.
Sydney reels from the experience, but then stands up straight.
"For those that didn't understand Piri, I believe we all had the same vision of a man failing in his summoning experiment. It appears he channeled the energy into a large rat. I cannot explain what this means, but clearly if we come across a large rat, be extra wary."
Taking a cue from her fellow adventurers, Valeria says, "These strange circles appear to have a.... negative effect... on your complexion gents. Stop staring at them."
Valeria steadies her breath, closes her eyes, and with her right hand touching the wall, attempts to find the door at the end of the hall and a keyhole in it, seeing that they have a key!
"That is our second warning about such a rat creature. We should treat any we come across with great caution." And a mailed fist.
Valeria navigates to the door careful not to look at the bloody circles, when she feels around she notes that there are in fact two key holes, not just one. The one key they have does fit into one, but it seems that to unlock the door it requires both keys at the same time.
Valeria returns and says, "Let me guess: one of the items we could have borrowed instead of that wand was a key?"
Sveng gives a wry smile. "Ah, caution over risk taking leads us to walk off more of our dinner." Two keys though, why so much security? What is behind this door? Or what is trying to be kept in so desperately? "Piri, can you pick the second one, or should we temporarily swap our lent item?"
Sveng frowns after Piri examines the lock. "Well, key it is than." Should have trusted my instincts.
"Avoiding looking at the circles, Hargus says, [b]"Agreed. We need the key to advance, therefore the key we shall acquire."
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Sveng runs back and swaps out the wand for the key, after unlocking the door and opening he goes to swap out for the wand once again, then everyone is ready to enter. Once everyone is ready Hargus opens the door the rest of the way. Wide stairs descend into this tiered, circular chamber. Chairs stand in odd positions throughout the room, collected into circular patterns, even outside of the greater circular patterns of the hall itself. Circular gouges mar the surface of the wooden walls and floor here, some left to stand alone, while others are multiple circular scratches overlaying one another, joined by lines and scrawlings. The greatest concentration of circles gathers on the ceiling, some forty feet above, where multicolored circles inscribed with artistic fanaticism surround a five-foot-wide hole in the ceiling.
Valeria marvels at the auditorium and sends her dancing lights around the room to view it all before returning the lights towards the center.
"This appears like a lecture all or something along that purpose... the room acoustics seem to have been optimized to reduce the effort of the lecturer..."
Hargus entered into the lecture hall and looked about, staying on the top tier but moving off to the side a bit to scan the room.
"Yeah, it's awful pretty," Hazel says, looking unimpressed. She takes a few strides forward down the stairs, looking around for an exit.
Piri enters the auditorium with and moves to a point where he has a good view of the hole in the top and the entrance across from him. His dark-vision allows him to see a little more than the human members of his party.
As Hazel walks down the stairs see sees a door in the eastern wall. Then out of nowhere you hear a voice in an odd language. With the chambers natural acoustics, obviously meant to amplify sound and carry it throughout the chamber, you can't pinpoint where the voice is coming from.
"நீங்கள் மனிதர்கள் ஆர்க் என்ற ஹையோஃபான்ட் இராச்சியம் மீது சண்டையிடுவதற்கு தைரியமா? வட்டங்களின் விருப்பத்திற்கு எனது முக்கியமான ஆராய்ச்சிக்கு உதவுமா? ஸ்தாபிக்கப்பட்ட தலைவருக்கு முன்பு வணக்கம்! தொடக்கமும் முடிவும்! உங்கள் மீறுதல்களினிமித்தம் நான் உங்களை மரணத்துக்கு ஒப்புக்கொடுக்கிறேன்!"
"You mortals dare to intrude on the kingdom of the Hierophant of the Arc? Interrupting my important research into the will of the circles? Bow before the Archduke of Tangencies! The beginning and the end! For your trespasses I hereby sentence you all to death!
Great, more foreign languages. I really should stop neglecting that field of study. "Anybody understand that?" He whispers.
"This is a dialect of Draconic. As best I can tell it is a warning, it says, "You mortals dare to intrude on the kingdom of the Hierophant of the Arc? Interrupting my important research into the will of the circles? Bow before the Archduke of Tangencies! The beginning and the end! For your trespasses I hereby sentence you all to death! but I cannot tell from where it is emanating, but it seems to have sentenced us to death."
There is quiet for a moment as Piri explains and then another single, sharp word echoes throughout the chamber. "கில்!"
A squaking skittering noise starts to echo throughout the chamber as if hundreds of tiny creatures are moving around somewhere, but it is hard to pinpoint exactly where.
"My friends I'm sure you recognize that word...Kill, prepare yourselves."