The agents begin to search the room for clues and papers relating to the Ruby Phoenix.
As the resourceful Pathfinder's comb through the room, G'look walks by one of the glass panels along the railings, in it's reflection, he sees himself, only staring at a spot in the middle or the room. G'look follows the gaze and sees Mely near the spot his reflections seems to be watching. G'look's reflection starts to laugh as Mely steps on a very well concealed wire ending a jar of smoking liquid falling from the ceiling. The vial breaks and splashes the area with a green bubbling substance which forms a caustic cloud.
REF save v DC 24.
Fail = 12 damage, Success = 6 damage
1 CON damage.
The vapors begin to wilt the pages of the various books. Sihir can tell that the books will not last long in this toxic cloud.
You do not recall any specific knowledge of wether illusory magic has any less or more effect on these particular outsiders but surmise that it would effect them in similar ways to other like planer beings.
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Thinking back to the trick that he was taught by the denizens of the plane of air, G'look conjures a gust of wind to disperse the cloud.
Here is the language from the chronicle:
Foe of All Winds: Striking into the depths of the Plane of Air, you’ve defeated the resurrected champion of Hshurha, the Duchess of All Winds. Word spreads of how you defied the will of a demigod, and as a result, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on all Diplomacy and Intimidate checks made against natives of the Plane of Air.
In addition, your time on the Plane of Air has granted you some means of control over its natural powers. Once per adventure, you can check a box that precedes this boon to cast gust of wind as a spell-like ability (CL 6th). If you have two or more Air Affinity boons, you can instead cast wind wall (CL 8th). If you have three or more Air Affinity boons, you can instead choose to cast wind walk (CL 10th).
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The caustic liquid and cloud surround Mely, causing her to yelp in surprise as she stumbles slightly from the wire. As she moves away from the initial burst of acid the parts of her clothing that have been doused flicker with an unseen resistance that absorbs the impact of the trap. G'looks wind then rushes over the area and she spins around to give the little Grippli a thumbs up. "Good thinking! You get rid of this cloud! I'll grab what I can just in case!"
She starts humming to herself and digging through the books to grab what she can in case the cloud can't be removed.
Mely avoids most of the acid, but does get a little singed from the splashing liquid as some of the party succumbs to the caustic vapors.
The party scrambles to protect the precious documents! Thinking quickly, G'look is able to summon a gust of wind. The air swirls, sucking the fumes with it as G'look is able to blow out the smoke, dissipating it harmlessly.
G'look's actions give the Pathfinders a bit more time to search the room. Mely finds several useful documents, all dealing with poetry, that she deposits in the bag of holding. She finds one particularly interesting book. She examines the cover...
As you hold the book, a powerful force invades your mind. You hear in a loud booming voice that seemingly comes from nowhere to "Put this book down and move along!" You fight against the suggestion even as your hand moves of tis own accord to put the book down. Your mind, however, is too strong and you shake off the magical compulsion and are able to take possession of the tome. You see the title reads The Eagle's Twin Hearts in Tien.
The agents finish their sweep of the room and continue their search of the library. They continue down the stairs to another section of the library.
A three-tiered pyramid towers above this section, the sides of each tier draped with ancient maps and flags. A gleaming scythe blade juts out from between two bookshelves in the southwest corner, and the floor beneath it sparkles with fragments of shattered glass.
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Mely will continue to do what they were sent here to do. She wanders along after Rogar, keeping her eyes on the books, shelves, and various other knick knacks after getting over a strange urge to NOT take a book she's certain they wanted to bring with them. She'll move cautiously to the pyramind to get a better look maps there. "Oh, not much more obvious at all. But I'm going to volunteer you to go set this one off. I wasn't particularly happy with the last one."
She does her best to keep Rogar between her and the apparent trap.
The group wanders this section of the library, seeing titles relating to historical battles and theories of warfare. As they peruse the books, Mely spots a wire along the ground. Following it, she sees it leads upward toward the mounted scythe.
The party avoids the area Mely directs them to and continues to search.
The agents, now aware of the trapped area, move quickly to recover any valuable books and documents.
G'look first moves to disable the scythe trap, which he is able to do so easily after enhancing his senses through chemistry. The scythe itself radiates magic.
G'look, Maldrek and Sihir recover several useful tomes on the subject of warfare and they deposit them in the bag of holding. One book, titled Designing Walls and Ditches to Resist Siegecraft is on Ho Jin's list. G'look notices something unusual about the book...
The cover includes a pale green map of a walled city, which can be identified as inlaid with viridium. Extended exposure to the inlay is hazardous, something the Grippli thinks any agents who examine the tome should be aware of.
The agents believe they have exhausted the materials and continue their systematic search of the library.
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"I do not, I'm afraid. It may be best to do as you say and leave it in the bag." Mely gives the book a wide berth after G'look's warning and moves onward to the next portion of the library. She holds up their kobold drawn map before her as she goes, tries to keep an idea of where they are. "This says there's something about a pile of dirt with a hand sticking out of it in this corner... unless it was moved like the smoke bucket..." The second part comes out after a small, concerned pause.
She'll start checking the shelves from the safety of behind Rogar's back for any sign of surprises, and then for any of the tomes from the list they found.
Using caution, G'look wisely places the irradiated book into the bag of holding. Sihir is confident the party will be protected from the materials harmful properties.
The group finds the next section of the library.
The medicine section overlooks most of the library from an elevated platform in the back corner of the building. The backs of the bookcases are plastered with anatomy diagrams and shadowboxes containing a wide variety of neatly labeled pressed leaves and flowers. Carefully preserved skeletons hang near some of the diagrams.
Mely does not see anything unusual and does nor see any trap where the map would so indicate. She does see a pile of rather expensive looking books in that spot however. Nearby, she catches another image in the glass railing, an older Tien woman with graying hair and glasses. She stares intently at the pile of books
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"We should probably check that pile of books,it looks expensive." She motions towards the particular group she noticed and furrows her brow. "But one of the mirror monsters is staring at it too, so she may be up to something. We should be careful."
Mely doesn't immediately step forward, however. She's still very willing to let someone else take the brunt of the next possible trap after falling in a river and being doused in acid. She'll continue to search for any sign of traps from safely behind somebody else.
Rogar bravely advances to the stack of books, intent on securing the area. As he steps near the polished railing, he feels his foot sink a bit into the stone floor. Rogar looks only to see a large bucket tipping over spilling a massive amount of densely packed dirt all over him. In the dirt, he sees a disturbingly high number of ants angrily spilling from the dirt.
***ROUND 1***
G'look
Rogar (-13 hp)
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Ant Swarms
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Sihir
Mely
Maldrek
Rogar is unable to avoid the falling dirt. He is buried under the weight of the soil.
***ROUND 1***
G'look
Rogar (-13 hp, entangled)
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Ant Swarms
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Sihir
Mely
Maldrek
G'look flies toward the swarms, hoping to aid his distressed fellow agent.
The ants seem to sense Rogar's vulnerability and move fervently over the held fast warrior. Rogar suffers an innumerable amount of small bites that take a terrible toll on the veteran fighter.
***ROUND 1***
G'look
Rogar (-55 hp, entangled)
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Ant Swarms
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Sihir
Mely
Maldrek
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"Rogar! MOVE!" Mely shouts out with a surprising amount of command in her voice, then follows up the first shout by pointing a finger at the swarm of ants and yelling again. "The Duke of Thunder smites you, you... you dumb bugs!" Her wide eyes spark with electricity and a moment later a bolt of lightning surges from the ceiling into the mass of bugs at a point that won't hit Rogar.
Mely calls upon her divine power to aid Rogar's plight! Rogar can feel the divine grace of Ranginori pulse through him, urging to free himself from the clotted soil. The power of the Thunder rains down lightning on the swarming ants.
Mely can see that the electric bolts fron on high singed a few books as well as ants.
***ROUND 1***
G'look
Rogar (-55 hp, entangled) +16 to next save to escape dirt pile
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Ant Swarms (-12, -12)
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Sihir
Mely
Maldrek
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Sihir makes a startled grimace; he had not been particularly prepared for this, clearing swarms and preserving books tending to demand opposite methods as they do. Still, he's good at improvising: He calls a deceptively gentle drift of frost down upon the nearer end of the swarm.