Seemingly making a decision quickly, Tellanya claps her hands and moves towards the closest door, leading Stryn as she goes. ”come, Stryn, let us investigate more of this place, there is no danger - in the future we will have investigated everything!”
She moves towards the closed door just north of the vault room and asks the goblin to take a look for traps when he can.
Healed up, but far from alright, Kiley slinks off, finds a corner to curl up in, and tries to get a grip on her mounting terror.
Stryn finds no traps, so the door is opened revealing a somewhat small round room. A five-foot-diameter circle, ringed by arcane runes, sits on the floor at this room’s center.
Tellanya calls to Kiley, "come, Kiley, you liked this circle of runes, you told me that it was interesting." She thanks Stryn and looks around, "hmmm, runes - magical runes?"
"N-no g-g-ghosts," Kiley asks Tellanya as she peeks over her knees and arms at the Shoanti-blooded half-drow.
Tellanya studies the circle of runes and uses her magical sight to determine that this circle of runes radiates conjuration magic of the teleportation subschool. She suspects that it teleports whoever steps into the runes to another location - and that it is possible to teleport back from that location, wherever it may be.
There are no ghosts.
Tellanya says, ”oh Kiley, there are no ghosts at all here, just tunes that teleport a person! I am so curious about going in. I think I did already!” She moves, quickly and hops into the circle.
"W-WAIT! DON'T GO AL--"
Kiley's cry of protest is cut off as she chases after Tellanya and into the circle.
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Henric looks aghast at the runes in the room, then looks to the others still on this side. Finally, he breaks down and laughs. "Well, I suppose there's nothing for it now," the researcher says as he starts heading for the runes.
Tellanya steps right up into the runes and disappears from sight as the runes glow. Kiley runs after Tellanya, and the same thing happens as the Tiefling disappears. Henric goes to follow and steps into the runes...but nothing happens, and he finds himself standing in the circle, not going anywhere.
You find yourselves in a rectangular room, the walls of which are lined with white marble. Another circle of runes adorns the east wall, behind you, and the west wall across from you. Sitting on the west side of the room, looking incredibly sad and lonely, is a single goblin. Upon seeing you, she gets up to her knees in a begging stance and says something. A few seconds later, you hear it come through, "Please, please, please help Munkle! Munkle trapped here and not have food! Please help Munkle leave and give Munkle pickles! Munkle so hungry!"
Tellanya grins as Kiley steps into the small room with her. The tall woman squeezes Kiley's shoulder comfortingly, and winks, "nothing dangerous - see?"
Tellanya then notices the goblin across the room, and waits for the goblin to finish. "Hello Munkle. I do not have pickles, but I may have some food. Would you like it?" She reaches into her pack and grabs a ration, and moves to hand it to the goblin, adding, "though, my sense is that those runes, over there, will allow you to cross back to where you are from. Why didn't you return?" She ponders this, thoughtfully.
Munkle says, "Touch...the writing? No, no, no, no, Munkle no touch writing! It writing that get Munkle trapped over here! Munkle not touch that writing! Bad things happen!"
Munkle's eyes light up and she gives a toothey smile as Tellanya pulls out food. As Tellanya goes to hand the food to Munkle, her hand hits an invisible barrier that prevents the food from getting to Munkle, who begins crying as someone finally offers her food but she cannot have it.
Tellanya says, "hmmm, interesting. Do not fret little Munkle. I know runes can be frightening." She nods, as if agreeing, "they frightened me too! But the spirits will tell me that everything worked out." She pokes at the barrier for a moment, and then turns back to the runes on their side, "care to take those for another spin, Kiley? I am quite afraid to go through now, just like Munkle." She gives an exaggerated wink out of Munkle's eyesigh. "When it works - you will tell the others what we found! They were well known as magic experts, according to the history, and so perhaps they were able to disable this strange barrier."
"Maybe it's restricted to females only?" says Esmaralda, placing her songbird on Henric's shoulder and instructing her familiar to stay there. She then steps on the runes as well.
"Cheep cheep cheep!!! be careful!!" tweets Sunshine.
Esmaralda steps into the ring of runes, and finds that she, also, remains where she is and isn't transported anywhere.
"Maybe the runes only have power for a finite amount of uses per day... or per week... or per century... hmmm... perhaps we need to move on and explore other parts of this underground lair. Sunshine, please stay here and don't touch anything, and contact me mentally if anything unusual happens or if you see anyone."
Cam stretches and yawns. ”I wouldn’t be so hasty. Wherever it takes you might be at capacity, and we just have a situation like seven chickens trying to fit into a six chicken hen house. Just gotta wait for someone to come out. Least we can do is give ‘em a few minutes, if you ask me.”
"Very well."
Esmaralda sits in one corner and relaxes. After a few moments she sings a minor bard song softly to detect magic inside the room. She observes the magic auras carefully.
Kiley finds herself at a rare loss of words as she takes in the strange scene. Seeing Munkle cry, even knowing that she's a Bramblemouth and likely just as wicked as their reputation says, almost brings Kiley to tears.
"Okay, but we may not need to get them just yet." Kiley says softly before turning to Munkle and sitting on her heels so the goblin doesn't have to crane her neck.
"Can you tell us how you wound up on that side of this invisible wall? Maybe we could figure out a way to get you out of there if we know what happened," she says in the voice she often used to soothe young children she'd been asked to watch over.
Tellanya nods, and stands quietly nearby, waiting for Munkle to respond. However, after a moment she looks into the distance, ”the others wondered where we went - maybe the portent was that I went back, not you, so say the spirits.” She hands the rations to Kiley and steps back to the rune on the wall, touching them.
"Uh, alright?" Kiley says as she realizes that Tellanya might be just as strange as Hal. After all, no one could be stranger than him, right?
Cam stretches and yawns. ”I wouldn’t be so hasty. Wherever it takes you might be at capacity, and we just have a situation like seven chickens trying to fit into a six chicken hen house. Just gotta wait for someone to come out. Least we can do is give ‘em a few minutes, if you ask me.”
Henric nods in agreement. "We should at least give them a chance to come back. The Runes were supposed to allow a return trip."
"B..B...Bramblemouth goblins find room and...and...they want know what circle of words does. *sob, sob* They...they make Munkle enter circle. Now Munkle trapped!" The goblin cries even harder.
Tellanya touches the runes on the wall behind them and disappears as the runes glow...
The runes in the center of the room suddenly glow, and Tellanya appears in the circle.
Esmaralda determines the runes are definitely Conjuration magic, and Cam finds nothing else in the room.
Tellanya shakes her head, "hello everyone - I am back. The runes teleported me in, and back. Kiley was chatting with a goblin that is stuck there, and was also afraid of the runes. Stryn, do you understand why? I will not understand goblin behavior when I was inside."
She sighs contentedly, "the poor goblin is hungry, but we can't feed her because there is a magical barrier. One of you will figure out how to get through the barrier, I'm sure!" She blinks, and smiles, and shakes her head, "I will drink some water!" She pulls out her canteen and takes a drink, allowing anyone else to take a trip through the runes if they want to.
Kiley finds herself relating to poor Munkle than she would have cared to admit a week ago. A few unpleasant memories from her time in the Black Rose come back and she wonders if perhaps there was as much difference between goblins and humans as many thought.
"That wasn't very nice of them," she says. "If that's how you got in here, how did you get stuck? Was it that other circle?" She points to the other rune circle on the other side of the room.
Munkle nods. "Munkle no want to touch words, in case words send Munkle to badder place."
Kiley seems to be remaining in the room with the goblin, should anyone else want to join her.
Cam nods as Tellanya comes back out, satisfied that her patience was rewarded.
”Alrighty, my turn to give it a go. See if it’s a point to my theory about capacity.” Cam heads on in, trying out the teleportation for the first time.
"A goblin?" Henric asks, grateful that they were correct in their assumptions. "That seems unusual. Were there any other ways out of that room, that you could see?"
Tellanya shakes her head, "no - though they also had a set of runes to use. They were frightened to use them again."
The runes glow and Cam disappears.
Cam suddenly appears in the room, seeing Kiley sitting opposite a teary-eyed, crying goblin.
"So, this invisible wall's been here the entire time you have," Kiley asks Munkle. She begins to understand that maybe the goblins found something on their side of the hill.
Her speculation is halted, however, when the runes on her side flash and Cam appears.
"Oh! Hi, Cam! This is Munkle," Kiley introduces the little goblin before turning to Munkle and switching to the tongue of the goblin-kin. "Munkle, this is Cam. She looks scary, but she's nice. She's one of my friends and is going to help me get you out." She smiles, hoping that she's reassuring Munkle rather than aggravating the situation.
Cam muses on something for a moment before sheathing her sword. She gives Kiley a knowing nod as a thanks for the introduction. ”Pleasure to meet ya, Munkle. Now, looks like you’re stuck here pretty bad, like a hungry bear in a rabbit hole. Let’s see if there’s anything I can do to help getcha outta there.”
Munkle's get wide as Cam studies the barrier. She knows that if Munkle touches the runes on the back of the wall on her side, she can get out, but Munkle is clearly afraid of doing so. The invisible barrier prevents her from coming over to this side. Cam cautiously probes it, and figures out that this is a Wall of Force. However, as she presses on it, she realizes that it's power has weakened over the years, and it might be possible to destroy the wall itself with a weapon and allow you to at least give Munkle some food.
Esmaralda sends her bird familiar down the hall. "Fly around this maze and come back if you see or hear anyone!"
Cam keeps calm and measured as she tries to talk the goblin through the process. ”Hey little bud, you can definitely get out if you touch those runes back there. Why dontcha try closing your eyes before you do? The important thing about writing is seeing it, after all.”
Henric stands in front of the teleportation rune, seeming to almost dance from foot to foot in anticipation of Cam and Kiley's return.
"Or, we could break the barrier. You said it was weak right? I'm sure the two of us could smash it. Then Munkle could come with use instead of having to go back to the Bramblemouths and getting bullied again," Kiley says before turning to Munkle. "So. would you like to come with us? We'll keep you safe from the mean writing some dusty old wizards left here. I also think we have some pickles back at our camp."
"No, Munkle not want to leave Bramblemouth. They mean, but they famliy." Munkle eyes the runes and then says, "Munkle not want to touch the writing though..."
Esmaralda's finch comes back and chirps, having not found anyone.
Esmaralda asks the others, "Sunshine here has nothing to report; shall we all try the runes?"
Hearing Munkle say that the Bramblemouths are family hits Kiley like a punch to the gut. Guilt floods into her as she realizes what she and the others have done. She pulls out her planson and turns to Munkle, her face white and drawn.
"M-munkle, can you step away from the invisible wall?"
Once the goblin girl is clear, Kiley begins to batter the arcane barrier.
She wasn't going to leave Munkle alone here, and she had to tell her what happened.
Cam helps out Kiley with the breaking down the wall.
Each time Kiley hits the wall with her planson, it flickers and flashes a purply pink color, shuddering as Kiley beats it down. On her fourth strike it flickers rapidly before the magic completely disintegrates, and Munkle desperately dives forwards to grab the food Tellanya had given Kiley for the gobling and begins wolfing it down.