Hope cursed as she missed her target again and sent another ball of condensed gravity lancing out at the spectral figure.
Though Hope and Ruby miss, Fio and Triel connect with their attacks, tearing the shade to shreds!
Two smaller reading rooms to the southwest contain preserved wooden chairs and tables. The first contains no further objects of interest, but the second holds a grisly tableau—a pair of ancient skeletons with leather cords around their bony necks.
The main hall continues to the east...
Screaming Moon uses his Healing Hex on himself
He then uses a wand to heal Triel
"...well. That was unpleasant." Triel grumbles as the ethereal mist around her fades away.
After the healing, Screaming Moon looks in at the strangled skeletons.
From the doorway, he examines the scene, then casts Detect Magic to scan the room.
"Odd. I wonder if these were former priests or victims."
There are no magic auras in the area. There don’t seem to be any traps or hazards.
Fioralba reaches out and places a reassuring hand on Triel's hip, "Thank you for putting your body in harm's way. Your dedication to this mission is impressive."
As Moon scans, so does Fio. "I'm not picking up anything here." After a look to Elanna that it's safe to proceed, she nods in agreement and says "Let's press on."
The hall to the east eventually opens up into another room. An immense mosaic of the rune of wrath is inlaid in the floor before a rusted iron desk in a curved alcove to the east. Hallways lead to the north and south, and a relatively recent set of humanoid tracks are visible in the dust leading both north and south.
Seated behind the desk is a metal humanoid figure, corrosion covering every inch of its orange-tinged form. An unusual, wide slot is built into its chest.
When Fioralba moves on down the hall, Screaming Moon shrugs. If they aren't curious, I suppose I am not as well. There was likely nothing of interest in the room anyways.
Reaching the mosaic at the desk, he peers at the humanoid and wonders at why the peacocks didn't even attempt to explore the desk.
Quietly, he waits for someone to choose a direction.
Elanna examines the figure carefully, trying to work out what on earth it is and more importantly, how it works.
The urge to make a snide remark rises in Triel's throat, only to be bitten down on and swallowed. "...thank you." She finally says as she examines the metal figure.
The construct is some kind of clockwork, though Triel is unsure what kid. The wide slot in its chest seems to be some sort of "key" that will activate it. Its traditional winding mechanism is corroded beyond repair--Elanna guesses it doesn't have much juice left in it, and likely will go forever inert only a short time after activating. She could wind it down completely with her thieves' tools and render it inactive if she chooses.
After it's explained what's going on, Fioralba looks to her sister and asks "Are you going to deactivate it permanently or shall we press on?"
"Better safe than sorry." Elanna replies, using the motto that the sisters ignore far more than they follow. She spends a few minutes loosening cogs and springs until the mechanism is simply a load of corroded junk with no remaining power.
"Good, no chance of someone leaving us a nasty surprise now." She says with a nod. "Lead the way Ruby."
As they walk she glances at Hope, with a sneaking suspicion in her mind that the other woman's vacant glance suggests less than innocent thoughts distracting her...
With the defeat of the spectral creature Hope continued to follow the group. The voice was back again, talking to her, trying to convince her to alternately destroy things or claim Ela for her own and never let her go. She was trying to ignore the voice but it was hard, as usual, and it left her vacant gaze largely fixed on Elea's shapely butt and the curve of her body as she worked on the device.
When Ela looked back at her Hope's eyes fell on her's and she found herself suddenly blushing furiously. Hope wasn't quite sure why she blushed but, at least momentarily, the voice was silent. Hope quickly looked away in embarrassment and continued to follow the group when they continued on their way.
Ruby Meadow looks at Elanna, then toward the hallway to the north.
"I am happy to be in the lead, but I am not trained in the detection of traps. I fear that what I miss might endanger the party. Perhaps you could walk beside me and point out what I miss?"
Meanwhile, Ruby Meadow reaches into her pack for her foul smelling Mutagen and drinks the mixture, grimacing at the taste. When the transformation to her more bestial shape is complete she begins walking to the north.
Triel leans over to Fi.
"Oh, she's got it bad." She whispers into her ear, nodding at Hope.
Fioralba turns to Triel and nods twice before raising her hand to hide her return whisper of "Indeed. I'm not sure what to do about it."
Eight heavy oak doors line this narrow corridor, four of them shut, four ajar. Beyond each is a small reading room, empty save for a desk and chair. Light shines from a small globe fixed in the ceiling halfway down the hall, illuminating floating motes of dust. A large carving of a human face looms from the wall at the western end of the hall. The dust on the floor here has been disturbed recently, and splashes of blood mar the floors and walls. Three shattered human skeletons lie on the hall’s floor.
The face in the west wall depicts a man, his visage adorned with a drooping blindfold covering only one eye, his jaw hanging open in bewilderment. The exposed eye is an empty socket, and the stone around the edges is chipped, suggesting something was pried out of it.
Searching closely, you find that the sculpture is in fact a secret door, but the mechanism for opening it is quite complex.
Triel briefly feels an undoubtedly self-destructive impulse to stick her hand in one of the carvings' mouths.
Ruby goes to the closed doors and opens them, verifying that nothing is in any of the rooms.
Screaming Moon approaches the skeletons, attempting to determine how long it has been since they died.
All of the rooms are empty, even those behind closed doors. The bones of the skeletons are ancient—it seems likely that these were once skeletal guardians that the Peacock Spirit cultists destroyed recently.
Elanna sets to her, very careful, work.
Thankfully the door doesn't seem to be trapped, just difficult. Luckily Ela has a lot of experience dealing with difficult people things, so she is able to coax it open with some soft touches and threatening words.
A desk of lacquered wood sits against the north wall of the cubical chamber beyond the secret door. An illusory flame flickers in a lamp on the desk, casting dancing shadows on the wall, while several books and an ancient-looking but still intact leather pouch sit on the desk.
The ancient-looking pouch is a handy haversack that contains 600 gp worth of moonstones and a sheathed dagger of venom. The books on the desk crumble to dust if touched, save for one. This book, upon closer examination, is revealed to be not a book at all but rather a sculpture made from iron and ivory. The sides of the book, where pages would be, are a set of complex gears. It seems like it would have fit in the slot in the chest of the clockwork you disabled, though its purpose now will likely remain unknown.
Triel approaches the Handy Haversack and opens it up, taking the most interest in the sheathed dagger.
"...well. This reminds me of home."
Screaming Moon eyes the magical dagger with distaste, but says nothing. The haversack itself and the gemstones get an appreciative nod, but the book sculpture barely even gets a glance.
Likely some bit of forgotten knowledge is stored in that device. Judging by the people who created it, the world will be better off that it can never be accessed
Moving over to the desk, Screaming Moon does glance with curiosity at the illusory frame to see what image it is projecting.
Afterwards, he suggests. "That appears to be everything in this direction, unless we missed another secret door. We may as well go back and check out the southern hall."
Fioralba takes note of everyone searching through the sack and loot and asks "Anything of value or interest we should be aware of?"
To Screaming Moon she frowns and shakes her head, "Multiple secret doors sounds unlikely, but not unheard of. I agree, let's doubleback and head south. "
She adds "Keep your eyes open on the way back for things we missed."
Searching carefully on your way back, you discover another secret door hidden behind the rusted clockwork. The secret door opens into a small room. This oddly shaped chamber is lit by a flickering globe of light that hovers at the peak of the domed ceiling twenty feet above. Bookshelves are built into the walls, and several dust- covered tomes rest upon them.
Of the books that remain, most have not been preserved with magic and crumble to dust when touched. A collection of preserved books detailing the complexities of magical research survive, though. This group of 10 books is worth 2,500 gp as a set, and they grant a +5 bonus on Knowledge (arcana) checks if they are referenced.
Two magic books survive as well: a blank blessed book and a clay golem manual.
When Ela went to work on undoing more locks Hope couldn't help but watch her. She knew that Ela didn't seem interested in her anymore, not after she attacked that bandit that Ela started to go off with. She knew she had screwed up and, while Ela didn't seem to completely hold it against her the other woman didn't treat her quite the same either. Fortunately Ela didn't seem to mind when Hope watched her so maybe it wasn't all bad.
With nothing else in this room Hope followed everyone as they filed back out and stumbled on the hidden room with all of the books. Hope knew what books were but she didn't know how to read them. She'd been working on reading before she was taken but after so many years had passed for her, more than should have, she had lost what little progress she had made.
When they found a few of the books intact Hope went up to one of the magical tomes and carefully opened it. Her eyes looked over the pages but her face quickly fell as she found she couldn't read it. It didn't help that, to anyone who knew the language the book was in it was obvious that Hope was holding it upside down and seemed unaware of it.
Ela can feel Hope's gaze on her, and even though she knows that encouraging the girl will only lead to more pain, she can't help but glance back with a sly wink.
Ela feels oddly drawn to the dagger that Screaming Moon seems to be eyeing so cautiously and picks it up, sucking in a deep breath as she does so. "This just feels so natural." She says, tossing it between her two hands with ease.
"Mind that you don't prick yourself with that." Triel points at the dagger as Elanna starts tossing it around.
Fi misses the entire conversation on pricks because she is absolutely engrossed in the ten book set.
"I need a moment." she says in a distracted tone, waving in the the groups general direction.
She sets down on the ground and begins to flip through the book, slowly, attempting to soak it all in. When someone mentions it's time to go, she shoos them off without looking up "In uh, in a minute. Just a minute."
After managing to pry Fio away from the books, you continue south, where you come across another apparent battle site. There are three wooden doors at this oddly shaped intersection, in addition to a narrow hall headed south. The floor is set with an abstract circular mosaic, some of it fading but most of it still brilliantly colored. The remains of what may have once been a four-armed humanoid built of bronze plates and iron gears lies in pieces on the ground, while splatters of blood decorate the floor nearby.
A search of the destroyed construct reveals a swath of fabric clutched in one hand—a brightly colored bit of red material that you immediately recognize as having been torn from the hem of Viralane Barvisai’s red skirt.
Anyone who examines the tracks in the dust can see that several humanoids have moved through the doors to the west, east, and north, but that no one has traveled south in a long time.
As he examines the tracks on the floor, Screaming Moon peers toward the south with interest. "Is anyone else curious why they didn't go to the south? We should assume that they knew something that we don't.
Likely there is a trap or other known hazard that way. Or, perhaps they found the entrance they were looking for in one of these other directions."
He shakes his head, then peers at the other two doors. "Which way we go depends on our objective. If we want to catch up with we should follow the tracks. My guess would be east."
Fioralba examines the fabric and confirms, "Definitely belonged to Viralane."
Looking at Moon, Fi nods. "I concur. We are behind them and thus we should follow their movements until it is determined that it is the incorrect path. I say we go east."
You open the door to the east. Whoever occupied this space tried to decorate it to kindle memories of the forest. Four large pots now bear only long-dead plants, woody remnants surrounded by swaths of dust. A red metal desk is at the north end of the chamber, and a black iron door leads to the east. Lying before the desk is a bedroll next to a small stack of books.
A tall and slender man with short dark hair sits at the desk, taking notes from a book he is reading. He wears a gleaming mithral breastplate and a green-and-blue feathered cloak. He looks up as you enter, then he gives a cry and jumps up from the desk, reaching for a pair of rapiers at his waist. "What ho, trouble has found us!" he shouts loudly.
Before you can react, the man rushes to the east door and raps on it three times in quick succession! He draws his paired rapiers and holds them up in a defensive stance.
Hope was caught off guard by the man who quickly jumped to his feet and ran towards the doorway but she wasn't going to let him get away without being hurt after he alerted those in the other room they had shown up. She quickly sent a ball of gravity lashing out at him.
Ruby rushes forward, swinging her greatsword. "Looks like we finally caught up to the Peacocks. Either that or this fop has an extremely odd style of dress"
Screaming Moon nods his assent. "Watch Viralene! She'll try to Charm you. Though, we can always hope that construct that got a piece of her dress took her head off with it."
Concentrating, Screaming Moon summons a patch of webs to ensnare the rapier wielder.
Triel sighs and focuses inward, causing a blue nimbus to outline her form before entering the fray.
Elanna, not run to rush in, moves across the room as quickly as she can and presses herself to the wall so that anyone coming through the east door won't be able to see her immediately.
Not wanting to expend any serious magic on the injured man, Fi tries to slice him without getting in the way of her allies.
+ Touch of Fatigue DC14
Screaming Moon ensnares the man with his hex. Still, he manages to parry Fio's attack and twist enough to prevent Hope from landing a critical hit. Between the blast and Ruby Meadow's powerful slice, though, the man is very badly hurt.
He grits his teeth and stabs out with his twin rapiers, scoring one critical hit on Ruby!
Hope was annoyed the guy managed to survive her strike but she still hit him so that was good. She pulled in one more ball of gravity, adding extra force,
Triel steps up and swings her scythe...
Screaming Moon moves behind Ruby Meadow, flicking his wrist to produce a wand and healing the warrior.
Smiling wickedly, Ruby swings again, pivoting above the rapiers in a downward slash.
Moving into flanking, Fi takes note of the tremendous strength Ruby puts behind her attack and declares "Oh my Gods Ruby, are you trying to butcher the poor man? Such ferocity!" She then reaches out to tickle their foe with a delicate flick of her wrist that sends her scimitar slicing into him.
+ Touch of Fatigue DC14