The door the ettercap left through seems to open onto an unusually dark storage room with a few odds and ends on its shelves. When you attempt to step through it, though, you find yourself emerging back into this same lecture hall--through the same door!
"Sure, take a look. And if whatever they did to me is going to kill me, just lie and give me a bottle of booze, will you, doctor?"
Luckily, the spiders' handiwork isn't going to claim her life anytime soon. What might, though, is the immense amount of frustration she experiences when the ettercap mocks them. "Yeah, laugh it off! Real funny! You just wait!!!"
Alessandra, after staring at the doorway for a few seconds walks through it backwards.
As she moonwalks back into the lecture hall she gives a shrug. "I thought it was worth a try..."
Alessandra indeed moonwalks right back into the same room.
Gabbi raises her eyebrow at her sister. "So you did read that book," she says with a grin. She turns to look towards the northern door. "Then let's go that way."
Ulrich finishes up inspecting Elka, then follows along to witness Alessandra moonwalking. He'll activate his detect magic spell to give the doorway, then the room a thrice-over.
"So not only are we being toyed with, we are also being watched. I should mention, that I am suspicious of illusion magic playing a role in all of this."
Ulrich doesn't find any active poisons or diseases. The spiders' venom seems to have run its course.
This long room has a narrow table with several comfortable-looking chairs around it. A few shelves contain pottery, serving dishes, and heavy books. Doors lead out from each direction, including several doors standing in the east wall.
Two small humanoid constructs made from wood are in this chamber. Bizarrely, each one has three hands emerging from each of its arms. They draw heavy crossbows and point them in your direction!
Having met nothing but aggression so far, Gabriella responds with violence. She aims and fires her crossbow before they can. Her haste put off her aim, though, and her shot goes high.
"We don't have to fight!" Alessandra says, slightly too late, but maybe Gabbi pulls the shot deliberately? "We're here to restore the rightful owner of this place. There's no need to fight against us!."
The constructs respond by firing upon Ellie! One scores a good hit!
"I don't know if wyrwoods can have hands like that. Be careful, they might be up to something."
He takes out his crossbow and looses a bolt at the westmost Wyrwood.
"No negotiating during a fight!" Gabbi shouts at her sister as she takes another shot at the constructs.
"OW!"
Ellie responds to the attack by charging into melee.
Seeing one of the wyrdwoods take a hammering from her team Allie rushes the other and attempts to grapple it!
"That's more like it," Gabriella mutters to herself with a grin as she reloads her weapon.
Elká moves in after her companions, but the weight of her armor proves to be a major constraint and as a result, she lags behind. The slayer uses the opportunity to study her target, gauging its defenses and the way it moves in combat.
All of your attacks hit. The wyrwood Alessandra snatches struggles in her grasp. Both draw short swords and attack, the dhampir taking a hit.
Ulrich casts Touch of Fatigue and transfers it to Kamosh to fly over and hit the Wyrwood struggling in Alessandra's grasp.
Alessandra grapples harder with the creature, wrenching its arms and biting hard at the creature's shoulder joints.
Elká knocks over the chair that stands between her and the wyrwood. The chair isn't the only thing she's about to knock on over.
Ellie continues her attempt to reduce the enemy to matchwood splinters.
Alessandra's bite tears the wyrwood's neck free of its shoulders. The construct slumps in her grasp, becoming inert.
Kamosh pecks the remaining creature, though as it a construct, it is immune to fatigue. Ellie and Elka manage to destroy the wyrwood with a pair of powerful strikes!
The two pairs of extra hands on each scrivener are obviously attached recently and clumsily. They look like they were taken from other wyrwoods.
Gabriella takes some time to check the doors along the eastern wall. By their appearance, they lead to storage rooms or cells, but she wants to make sure.
The doors to the east lead to personal chambers, each containing an armoire with functional clothing and a bed with personal effects. Each room has a single bed, neatly disassembled and stored behind the armoire. There doesn't seem to be anything of value in any of them.
The west door opens onto a kitchen that contains a wood-burning stove, a sink, and a small pantry with shelves holding dried foodstuffs. Tidy but dusty, this room hasn’t been used in some time.
"So... where next then?" Allie asks, "These all appear to be dead ends."
Gabbi points towards the northern doors. "That way, I guess," she says.
"Jackpot!" Yells Ulrich with glee. He flips through the books, eager to read each letter or symbol. "There is so much knowledge within these tomes, most of which are spells that I have never studied."
He seems to have forgotten about the illusions and laughter.
"Later, Ulrich. Once we've restored the scribe and received our stamp as a reward, we can indulge in ..." She pauses and her eyes drift over to the Lore Warden. "Whatever we'd like to indulge in."
A round table dominates the north end of this large room, with many mismatched wooden chairs around it. Stacks of handwritten notes, books, and dice in various denominations litter the stained wood.
More than a dozen doors exit from this room, most of them identical, narrow wooden doors to the north and east.
Four more wyrwoods sit around the table, but they quickly get to their feet when they see you! None of them appear to have hands...
"Stop those intruders! We will prove our loyalty!" one shouts.
"Do you want to lose your heads as well as your hands?!" Gabbi snarls at the constructs as she readies her crossbow. "Back in your seats or we turn you into cordwood."
She gives her sister a knowing glance.
The wyrwoods seem nonplussed by Gabriella's threats. They continue to advance on you...
"...or we could give you your hands back." Ellie offers the peaceful option. "The ones who have them don't need them any more." Not so subtle threat.
She waves her flail. "Your choice how this goes."
The constructs hesitate. "We don't really want to fight. If you give us our hands back and promise to let us leave in peace, we will stand down."
Ellie shrugs. "Uh, fine with me. But who's still here that we should know about? And how do we get through the room back there? Every time we try, it sends us to where we started from."
"Hands first, then we will answer questions," another wyrwood says testily.
"...or we could give you your hands back." Ellie offers the peaceful option. "The ones who have them don't need them any more." Not so subtle threat.
She waves her flail. "Your choice how this goes."
Gabbi shoots Ellie a sharp glance, but doesn't say anything to her. Her gaze turns again towards her sister.
Seeing an accord reached Alessandra hurries back to the previous room, gathers the various hands and returns again with an armful of hands... She helps to distribute them, offering magic where needed.
The wyrwoods seem relieved to have their hands reattached. "Thank you! When Mrs. Pedipalp was awarded control of the waystation, only Frellyh and Wallinar supported her immediately. The rest of us were killed or demoted from scriveners to clerks. We were forced to 'donate' our hands, 'that the best scribes may write faster and bettter.'
"Now that Mrs. Pedipalp has ousted Salighara, she has control of the Dream Gate. We've heard about it, but never seen it. She used it to call a creature called Colulus, a nightmare ettercap who has been terrorizing everybody in the scriptorium! He's likely the one warping space around the storage room preventing you from entering. If you can defeat him, you should be able to get in there, though there's not really much of value inside. He's just doing that to freak you out."
Ellie grips the handle of her flail. "Well, it's working. I do not like this place. Where do we find Colulus? And do you know who or what Mrs Pedipalp is?"
"Colulus has free rein of the scriptorium. There's no telling which shadow he might jump out of to give you a fright! Mrs. Pedipalp was Salighara's research assistant. She looks like an old woman, but I wouldn't be surprised if that's just a disguise. Unfortunately, there's not much more I can tell you about her."
Elká tries the word colulus and grimaces. Her tastebuds confirm it to be an apt name for a creature so disgusting as that damned ettercap. "I'm sorry all of you had to experience this. Not that I know how you experience things like this, since us mortals would be long dead by now, but yeah. Eh, and this Pedipalp, she can't transform into a chest or door, right? Yeah, we've seen some shit."
The wyrwood scratches its head with its newly reattached hand. "I don't believe she can do anything like that. We've never seen her do that, at any rate."
"I have heard of ettercaps before. They are a mix of man and spider, and use web traps, and venom to their advantage. They are fearsome creatures, but also quite cowardly. If there is one lurking here, we must be very careful not to step unwary of their lair."
"Can you tell us about the rest of the scriptorium?" Alessandra asks, "Layout, where important things are? If you can tell us where the gate is and so on then we can sort out Mrs Pedilpap and this ettercap quickly."
The wyrwood points to the southwest hall. "That passage will take you through the gardens to the tower. The Dream Gate is at the top. You'll likely find Mrs. Pedipalp there--and Colulus will probably find you first!"
Elká chews on her gum as the wyrwood thing speaks. It all seems so simple - they could simply move forward, beat the two foes to snot, and reclaim the Dream Gate. "Maybe we need to come up with a way to lure Colulus to us so we can take him out. Or, perhaps, bribe him. Yeah, bite me, but I really do not fancy the idea of having to face the two of them at once. Say, mister Wyrwood, is there anything in this place that Colulus loves or holds dear? Like say, a specific book?"
Gabriella watches the 'clerks' suspiciously as they relay what they know.
The wyrwood shakes its head emphatically. "Colulus is a creature of literal nightmares. The concept of holding something dear is completely antithetical to his being."
Nodding at her sister's point Alessandra turns back to the constructs. "Thank you for your help. We'd like you to come with us, to show us the way. If we run into Colulus you can say we forced you to come but I think it would be better for everyone if we stay together, establish trust."
The wyrwoods look at each other. They each grab a die from the table and roll it. The one who rolled the lowest number nods in resignation. "Very well. I will go with you. Are you ready to proceed?"