Lola accepts the rune thankfully, ”I hope we will not have cause to use this.”
Lola has her spear out, resting on her shoulder. ”un laberinto, yes? With some traps? Perhaps Coral should lead, with Vlad and me next, and Damian and Marya protecting Feena? And we would do well to follow a wall and search carefully as we go.” She puts her finger to her chin as she drops down her mask for exploration and fighting.
”Remember, if we meet any of the... undead, let me have a moment to speak to them. Many are lost souls - if we can direct them on a peaceful path with reason, we may not need to fight at all.” Somehow Lola seems sincere, though everyone can’t imagine how she’s managed to make progress speaking to the undead in the past.
Coral nods. "Lost souls. Most of them didn't choose to have that happen to them. Here in the Boneyard we can just direct them to their final rest? You can do that, Lola?"
The halfling sounds both grateful and sad.
"Left is fine with me. Let's see what we find."
Lola thinks for a moment, ”déjame pensar - most of my success has come from speaking to the incorporeal undead. The fleshy ones tend to feel more anchored to the material plane - I haven’t tried speaking to any in the boneyard.” She closes her eyes as if in pain, ”correction - I have. Mierda. This place... okay.” She takes a breath, her dark eyes shining behind her mask, ”The corporeal undead - sometimes if you can convince them to let themselves depart, they just fall apart into pieces. Magic can bind their souls to the flesh vessel, but will can overcome that magic.”
”If they were good in life, it’s easier. Villains like to stick around and cause mayhem, but there’s no way to know if, por ejemplo, a ghoul that was turned used to be a kindly fellow or a serial killer.” She shrugs, ”but I once, once talked one down. Realized what he’d done and took control of his own body back, in the hope that Pharasma would look kindly on him. Flesh unspooled and turned into a bag of bones, and he was gone. Buried the bones in a consecrated graveyard and the thing didn’t combust, which is a damn sight better than most ghouls get.”
Damian listens thoughtfully to Lola's explanation. "How interesting. Most faiths would have us see the undead as abominations to be destroyed on sight. I am both perturbed and comforted by the idea that some of them might be reasoned with and may depart of their own will, such as is left."
He strings his bow as he speaks, glancing to the left and right as they enter the building.
Detecting no problems, Coral gives the word and Vlad opens the double doors. Inside, several glass cases stand around this room or are mounted on the walls, each bearing several ancient sheets of parchment or a yellowing book. Each case is lit with only a small dim candle that casts flickering shadows around the room.
This gallery contains several notable works, including copies of pages from the Concordance of Rivals and an agreement with a contract devil in excruciatingly small print. Most of the cases bear small latches that open easily, but the contract case is locked.
Coral peers in at the agreement with the contract devil, trying to read it.
She has excellent eyesight, but no training as a lawyer, nor can she read Infernal, so it probably makes no sense to her.
"Well, we are not here to loot the place. BUT, we were told do dispatch Mrs. Pedipalp 'in any matter we see fit', which might require utilizing some of the resources of the Scriptorium to do so. And offering to return anything unused afterwards. Can I get one of you eldritch specialists to take a look in here?"
Marya glances through the case, detecting magic but not opening it and certainly not picking anything up. Her eyes linger on the contract and she scowls. ”G*##~*n devils and their g$$&$!n contracts. The worst kind of scum. Demons will at least have the decency to just try to kill you. Devils want to ruin your life and afterlife with bureaucracy.”
Feena was glad they could all agree to deal with this Mrs. Pedipalp, she sounded like she had gone very bad, or maybe always was and just hid it well, either way she needed to be taken out if they were to get their pass out of this place. As they pressed forward into the scriptorium and looked at the things in the cases Feena came over to the contract when it was mentioned and looked at it. She looked over the writing and, while it was very neat and orderly, she didn't recognize the script. hearing it was the devil language, and that it was in such good shape, made her think this was incredibly important.
Feena looked at the others and said, "I don't know the language it is written in yet but I do have an idea that might work." With that she cast a simple spell, a variation on the one that let her see magic, and tried reading it again.
Feena is able to translate the words that she can see, but she can't see enough of them to make out the details. While the contract is partially visible inside of the locked case, any attempts to read it in its entirety would require extracting it from the case.
Coral sighs. "Vlad... there are more elegant solutions. I can open the case if needed. Feena, should I get it?"
Lola nods, ”certainly, open the case. Grab anything we can, it all may be a clue.” She shrugs, ”I only know celestial, of the planar languages, lo siento.”
Coral tries to open the case, but despite her best efforts she is unable to get past the lock on the case.
Coral continues working on the lock.
Feena considered whether she wanted the contract taken out to examine but an attempt to pick was made before she responded. "I think it is best if we leave most of what is here alone unless it looks like we will need it. And we will take nothing from here when we are done until we have permission." Her tone was quite adamant as she spoke, an unusual thing for Feena thus far, "It isn't right to steal from a library or a museum and I won't be a part of it."
Coral shrugs and stops working on it. "Okay."
|
Vlad looks askance at Feena. "Normally, I wouldn't mind taking anything from this strange place, museum or no. But I do worry about angering our patron. If she is upset by us taking something, she may not give us her stamp, deal or no."
He shrugs. "Perhaps she will feel generous if we succeed and allow us to take it later."
Damian nods at Feena and Vlad. "I think that is a good approach. Besides, nothing good ever comes from fiendish deals."
Marya stretches, refreshing her light cantrip absentmindedly. "Well, let's get on then."
Deciding to leave this room alone for now, the group backs out and moves to the closed door the south. Coral declares it free, so Vlad opens it.
This room has a narrow peephole in the door and a single stool. When the door to this room is opened, a small humanoid creature flops out onto the floor! It seems to have been constructed out of wood, and has a vaguely female countenance. It also appears to be quite dead, with fresh blood leaking from numerous wounds!
Lola doesn’t know what the thing is, other than a construct. ”Odd, this being was exsanguinated, but it appears to be a construct. This would seem to be a paradox. Most constructs can not bleed, right?” She strokes her chin.
Marya jumps to attention, her hand immediately moving towards her healer's kit as soon as she sees blood. She only slowly begins to pull her hand away as she starts noticing the bites.
"It's a f@~*ing swarm. I guarantee it. Keep an eye out."
"This is very odd. Be careful." Damian briefly closes his eyes, calling upon the Dawnflower's guidance on the party.
Coral is disturbed, but has no good answers here. She knows nothing about the strange small creature.
"I hope you're wrong about that swarm, Marya. Had enough of those. Still, should we move on down this hallway?"
Moving west, corridor opens into a large, dim room that contains a dozen wooden desks topped with hinged lids, each with stacks of paper and well-used inkwells. The desks are arranged in neat rows. A lectern stands at the front, facing the desks. Spider webs stretch from desk to desk and up to the walls and ceilings. Wooden doors stand in the north and west walls.
A creature stands at the lectern. This strange humanoid looks like a gangly, distorted caricature of an ettercap, with spiderlike fingers and an enormous wicked grin. It glares menacingly at you before dissolving into a swarm of spiders and retreating through the door behind it. As it does so, a dozen bright-red spiders the size of cats spill out from the desks and begin to skitter towards you!
Four spiders each crawl up the legs of Marya, Vlad and Coral. Marya only gets bitten once, Coral twice and Vlad four times.
Lola: 1
Damian: 1
Coral does have Combat Reflexes, so if these spiders are Tiny she should get AOOs against them as they enter her space.
Coral resists the poison, and tries to skewer one of the spiders climbing over her.
She is distracted and probably misses.
"Feena, roast them! I can take it!"
Then she takes a step so she can once again try to skewer any that come after her.
Marya feels her strength being drained from the poison and curses to herself. She begins inspiring her allies, trusting that the power of Iomedae's inspiration will protect everyone from further poisonings.
As the spiders swarm half of the group, Damian swiftly steps aside to make room for Feena's flaming spell as he calls upon Sarenrae's blessing.
The freakish bug monster and it's spider friends drew a scream of terror from Feena. Her horror became even worse when the spiders came her way, swarming over her friends and biting them, as if they were coming for her next. She didn't hesitate when Coral said to roast them and bravely moved forward as she chanted and then sent a gout of flame washing over Vlad, Marya, and Coral.
She doesn't get a good jump, but inspired by Vlad's fearlessness and Marya's sword, Coral dodges the flames.
Lola merely pokes at one with her longspear past Feena's form.
But the little creatures are seemingly too quick, and Lola isn't paying enough attention, too distracted by Feena's lovely display of fire.
Coral only manages to injure one of the spiders as they swarm her and Vlad seemingly is immune to whatever poison they possess. Lola pokes harmlessly in between her companions as both Damian and Marya help bolster the team's chance of surviving these tiny pests.
Feena's blast clears the spiders off both Marya and Vlad, but Coral's spiders see what's coming and get clear from the bulk of the blast. It still manages to kill off the one spider that she stabbed earlier and after the fire fades away only three spiders remain on the rogue.
Only one of the remaining spiders is able to find skin on Coral, two of them getting caught up in her armor.
Marya is hit by the full blast of the fire, the strength sapping poison distracting her and slowing her movements. It's a vicious cycle, as the pain of the fire keeps her from being able to push through the poison.
She continues her inspiration though, hoping Iomedae's power will help her manage this poison before it builds up more.
[ooc]+2 sacred bonus on all attack rolls, saving throws, and skill checks until her next turn
Coral keeps her head and stabs at a spider.
The spiders are dangerous, but at least they are a familiar hazard. Something grounded in reality.
If she can move clear of them (so they take AOOs trying to climb on her again) she will do so.
Lola grumbles a bit at having missed, and moves into the room, giving herself a bit of space, and stands near Coral, trying to spear another one of the annoying spiders.
Seeing the success of her spell and the fact that her companions weren't too badly injured by it Feena could only hope they put the flames out quickly. Having done what she could Feena stepped back from them and gave them the space to deal with the remaining spiders themselves.
The party smashes the remaining burning spiders to bits, quickly ending the assault from the poisonous foes.
"That horrid spider-swarm-ettercap went west, I think. Let's take it out before it sends any more spiders after us."
Coral draws her remaining splash weapon (the alchemists' fire), and heads up to the dais behind the lectern. Once everybody is ready, she opens the west door.