"Depends on what you mean by time sensitive." Cherry says.
Gesturing towards the swamp, Cherry continues. "There are some people, and I sort of use the word loosely, out there that are really up to something the town here will not like."
Cherry gestures towards the group. "But it seems like we need to be at our best to handle what is going on there. So yeah, there is a reason to hurry, but taking our time is just as important."
As Giyozara spits out a rotton tooth.
"I uh, I don't feel so good. If we want to continue, maybe we can stop by the local temple of Serenrae and see if any of the priests happened to memorize remove disease today."
You all go to a local temple of Erastil to get help. Fellow priests wave at Cherry Berry as they walk by and make small talk with them. They're all impressed how Cherry Berry went from messenger to actual combat experience. The only point of reference these clerics have is your performance in the cemetery, but they're still very amazed.
Eventually, go you see a priest and ask for a Remove Disease. "Oh, did you catch something in that cemetery a while back? Sometimes zombie rot takes a while to kick in, good thing you came to us for this. Let's see what we can do for you."
After the casting, the cleric touches Giyozara, but nothing happens. Gyozara has the same grey pallor he had before, though it's well hidden under his makeup. The priest mumbles an excuse. "Oh, I'm sorry, sometimes these diseases are tricky to purge. Let me try again..."
After this time, Giyozara's face returns to a healthy shade of white. The cleric claps in her hands and says, "Well, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. Normally we require a donation of 13 gold per casting to the church's coffers, but since you all helped us out so much, let's make it a nice round 20 gold, okay?"
You thank the cleric and make your way back to the Gauntlight. It's a 30 minute walk, but you've trod quite a well-worn path by now. When you get close, you feel a charge of magic hanging in the air. It's faint, but the more magically inclined among you can certainly sense it. It's like the air before a thunderstorm, heavy with anticipation.
For Fuìn: you approach the ruined lighthouse. The main building is on a small island, though several smaller buildings are standing on the mainland. As you approach, you see a sabre-toothed frog the size of a pony guarding a half-decayed corpse. It eyes you and moves closer to the body.
There's also a small pouch lying next to the lighthouse, which Lough instinctively walks towards and picks up. It has several mushrooms in it and the message "King Lough is back! King Lough is back! Hooray! We were about to charge into the human village to look for whoever kidnapped King Lough, but he's safe and sound! We will gather more mushrooms and dragonfly wings, as the king demands! We miss the King though, can we visit you sometime soon? We lowly subjects would be greatly honoured if you did."
Fuìn peers over Lough's shoulder and glances at the note, then raises an eyebrow at him. "Looks like you have a fan club! Is there, uh... a thing, with the dragonfly wings? Do they like... eat them, or something?" He scratches his head, causing the ball of his meteor hammer to thump against his leather vambrace.
"Thank you so much, I didn't want to turn into a ghoul. We . . . may have need of a few more castings so if it isn't too much trouble, maybe have a few of your supplicants keep a cure disease memorized just in case? There . . uh. . . . there may be more ghouls down there. We'll let you know when we completely clear that floor."
When Fuìn seems a little confused by the note, Kka says, "It's a long story. Lough's basically adopted a bunch of mitflits who wanted to attack Otari and is trying to redirect their energies. I'd have cut the evil little buggers down where they stood, but the big man here took pity on them. So, yeah; I wouldn't put a lot of importance on the whole mushroom and dragonfly thing."
Turning to the rest. "So what now? Do we visit the mitflits or head straight back down to the library and keep hunting for ghouls?"
Fuìn frowns behind his half-mask. The tengu's statement feels dismissive, but as the "new guy," he decides not to stir the pot. Besides, he doesn't have all the details. Maybe she has a point.
"Doesn't matter to me, either way. I'm just curious to see the insides of this place." He peers around at the lighthouse excitedly, occasionally glancing at the massive amphibian to make sure it's not trying to come near them.
|
”Turns out I am immune to pixie mud” Lough clarifies ”I feel responsible for them, as I believe that despite their violence and cruelty, that they otherwise mean well” as if that makes sense, our paranoid hero smiles ”I would like to check up on them yes!” he looks toward Kka askingly with puppy dog eyes...
Kvit sighs. "Alright, let's go see your "subjects". Then we can get on with the tour."
To Fuìn he tries to think of more places to show or things they've seen. "Do you know anything about teleportation circles? We've found a couple, one on each floor, so far. Though they seem inactive for now. If this place goes much deeper we may need to try and get them working so we can escape more easily when needed."
He blinks and almost says 'tele-whatnow?' but, remembering that Kvit seemed to think he's smart--or at least learned--he shakes his head. "I, erm. Don't know much about them. I'll keep an eye out for anything that looks like it might activate them."
Like you know what that would look like, he mentally chastises himself.
Fuìn takes the proffered elixir from Kvit, giving a "cheers" motion. "Thanks. Bottoms up!" He quaffs the concoction and immediately blanches. "Oof. Kinda tastes like orange juice from an old boot." He raises his hands defensively. "Not that I'm complaining! Anything that can help stave off whatever those ghouls are carrying, I'm happy to have."
Kka looks at her vial of antiplague with some trepidation. "I heard somewhere that taking this stuff can actually give you the plague sometimes." she glances over at Kvit. "You tested this thoroughly right? I'm not going to grow an extra beak or something?"
Scrunching her face up she downs it in one. "Yuck! Orange juice? My feathered fanny! More like bog water that's been filtered through the guts of several cats. Isn't there a way you can make this stuff taste better, Kvit?"
Her face still grimacing in distaste, she says, "Come on then, let's take care of the little gremlins before we head downstairs again."
Kvit listens to the complaints as he offers the last one to Giyozara. He smiles wryly, not offended by the comments on taste. "Listen, if I made it taste good to you, it'd probably wouldn't deter the plague. But if you'd rather have a sugar-water placebo. I could do that." He winks mischievously.
He sort of shakes the vial in front of Giyozara. "Alright then, drink up, we don't want a repeat."
"It seems that each floor plays host to a different kind of creature." Cherry explains. "So hopefully we are done facing ghouls. The pre-treatment is still a good idea though."
Cherry looks over Kvit. "I don't suppose you have anything for Blossom End Rot do you? Not for me, I am asking for a friend."
Fuìn pulls a piece of jerky out of a ration tin and chews on it to get the aftertaste out of his mouth. "Right. Better safe than sorry, and all that. Shall we?"
You follow some tracks left behind by the mitflits (there's a pretty well-worn path by now) and after an hour you see a bear and an an unhappy-looking morlock squinting against the daylight walking after four mitflits running through a swampy field. When you get closer, the mitflits spot you and come running hooting and hollering. They stop right before Lough and fall to their knees, prostrating themselves in front of him, their faces hitting the mud. They're all talking over each other in an unintelligible mess of Undercommon until one with a crude prosthetic arm sees Lough's silver arm and says, "Look! The King has the same arm as me! King Lough has taken pity on me and shares in my suffering! All hail the Great King Lough!"
The others start cheering and grab dragonfly wings from their pockets, throwing them over Lough like confetti.
The morlock stays a few steps behind the mitflits and keeps a wary eye on the bear, who in turn is looking at the morlock like it's lunchtime. "Hooray for King Lough, I guess," the morlock says.
Kka rolls her eyes at the odd gathering of characters but then fixes her blood-red orbs on the morlock and the bear. "Jeez Louise! As if these little buggers aren't bad enough. What's the deal with the morlock and the bear?" She calls out to the morlock. "Hey, you! Have we met before? You morlocks all look the same to me (and even better dead). And, what about the bear? What's the story there?"
Fuìn grunts with mild amusement at the mitflits. "Ah. So that's what the wings are for." He pats Lough on the shoulder. "Guess it's more interesting than confetti, if nothing else."
He glances uncertainly at Kka when her tone with the morlock is immediately confrontational. He was planning on keeping his mouth shut for a while, being the new guy, but he draws the line at poking the bear. Almost literally! he thinks exasperatedly. He leans in to Kka and mutters, "Uh, maybe we shouldn't provoke a guy with a pet bear if we don't need to?"
Kka frowns as Fuìn whispers to her. She looks over at the morlock and bear again. "Looks to me like our new morlock buddy here is far more worried about the bear than we are, and if the bear tries anything, well then... that'll be one less bear in the world and morlock, if I've got anything to say about it."
The morlock shuffles and takes a few careful steps away from the bear. "Uh, we were building a death-weapon in King Graulgust's lair, and you spared us, remember? I escaped with my friend and met these lunatics, and we teamed up. Until they got paranoid and stabbed my partner to death in the middle of the night. I'm just following orders here."
"Yeah, and Bernard is my friend," one of the mitflits yells. "He tore off Gigix's arm, but then I tamed him with the spiky stones King Lough gave us. Besides, the mushroom-eyes gave him a new arm, so all is well."
Gigix rubs his much shoddier-looking mechanical arm, which basically consists of a few sticks, held together with twine and rubber bands. Bizarrely, it seems to have a butterfly net at the end instead of a hand.
"I miss my old arm," Gigix says, "but mister mushroom-eyes has lots of replacement parts for my hand. There's one for picking my nose, one for scratching myself in impolite places, and one that launches javelins!" He mimes aiming his butterfly net and shooting it at a distant target.
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To the one with the bionic arm, Lough smiles, and with a slow chop of his own prosthesis, touches both of the tiny creature’s shoulders, first one then the other, and says ”You then are the Protector of your friends here, Gigix. A responsibility you must keep!”
He grabs some of the dragonfly wings and crumples them in his flesh hand, then opens a compartment in his sterling limb, and depositing them, closes it shut, and a furnace sound emits a low pitch, followed by a discordant ringing. He explains ”Runs off of, um, life essence. Little bits in these scraps here. Thank you. Got to keep my half a heart going because I don’t want to die again. Oh no, not undead. I actually feel great, and am fully alive. Turns out you can be only a little bit dead and so long as you are not mostly dead, well, can come back to fully alive”
He turns now to ”Morlock. You are now under protection of the Mitlfit Men. Do stay near to them less you take needless risks”
And back to ”Gigix, tell us more of the mushroom eye. A friend or foe of We the Otarians?”
Kvit side-eyes Sneakers. "Is this weird? I feel like we should stop this but..."
Sneakers whispers but louder than he should. "Uh yeah, this whole situation is weird but I guess it's not hurting anything."
Kvit coughs
Heading back to the slurk and the entrance, Kvit waves to the others. "Alright, let's get underway already. Oh! Lough, tell them to look for little red flowers with purple leaves. If I'm going to be going through this much antiplague, I'm going to need a lot more."
”Whelp, we’d best trudge down to the ghoul level.”
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The mitflits ohh and ahh as Lough reveals what the dragonfly wings are for. They all salute and promise to gather more wings. Gigix immediately takes the leadership position and waves his butterfly net-arm around like it's a conductor's baton. The other mitflits follow eagerly and the morlock shrugs and does what he's told.
The mitflits are an odd bunch, but you get the impression that living on their own for a while has helped them grow, somewhat.
You retrace your steps and go down several sets of stairs to reach the third level of Belcorra's lair. From what Fuìn can see, the upper level is mostly ruin, the second level is the servants quarters, and the third level is a giant library, with books on rickety shelves on nearly every wall.
If you go down the same way you went earlier, in the first room you find the remains of Augrael, the morlock-ghoul who wanted to be left alone. Seems like quite a fight went on here, with the opposing team clearly winning. What's left of Augrael is clearly ripped to shreds by claw-like weapons.
Kka looks down at the shredded remains of the morlock-ghoul Augrael and frowns. "Um, wasn't this guy alive the last time we came through here? Well, maybe alive isn't the best choice of words in this case. Looks like there's still some nasties down here to take care of, so everyone stay on your toes." She looks down at her hooves and snickers to herself "<Ark, ark>"
She does a quick look around the room to make sure nothing else has changed and then says, "Why don't we head back to the main library and check out some of the side rooms we skipped the last time?"
"Not surprised they killed him. They seem to take an insane disintrest in anyone who doesn't devotedly follow their cult. Weapons out everyone. . . Let's do what Kka said and hit some of those side rooms."
Kvit looks over the carnage with an impassive face. "He should have left to the surface with the mitflits. Keep your eyes peeled."
Kvit heads back to the main library with Kka to look around. He idly picks up and puts down various scattered books as he waits for Kka and Lough to do their thing.
"Alrighty then! Off we go ghoul hunting." Kka heads to the main library with the rest of the group in tow. She picks one of the doors they haven't already opened and gives it the usual going over before moving aside and letting Lough lead the way in.
Kka inspects the door but doesn't find anything unusual. Cherry Berry and Kvit take a look as well, and notice that the door seems to be locked. They don't find any traps, however.
Kvit retrieves his own set of thieves' tools and prepares to help Kka sort this out.
Fuìn inspects the carnage of the dead ghoul with equal parts dismay and interest. This kind of wild violence is outside his wheelhouse; back home, all manner of gruesome rituals were performed, but every cut was deliberate, every ounce of agony measured and marked as a currency spent toward worship of the Midnight Lord. At one time, he'd thought that was the pinnacle of grisliness.
Guess not, he thinks, his stomach turning a little.
He turns from the scene to follow the others down the hall. When Giyozara calls for weapons out, he instinctively looses the chain wrapped around his forearm. In a swift moment, a length of sturdy chain made of some dull gray metal hangs in his hands. It may be plain in appearance, but the pocked, black iron ball at the end exudes a kind of primal menace, a simple instrument with a simple goal of violence. Despite his cheerful demeanor, the ugly weapon seems somehow right draped over his long, slender fingers.
He feels an itch at the nape of his neck as the others fiddle with the lock. He feels the urge to move, to scrap, to get his blood flowing again. It's been so damnably long since he got in a fight. Months, at least. He feels guilty admitting to himself that he misses the rush of adrenaline, but miss it he does.
Still, he has no doubt a fight will find them soon enough (especially if whatever killed that ghoul is still lurking about). He forces himself to tear his eyes away from the progress on the door and keep an eye out for danger.
"Sorry Fuin, someone should've clued you in. There was a . . . well a nice ghoul in the room when we first came down here. He was like those mushroom-eyed guys above, only he was a ghoul. Some sort of abnormality meant he didn't crave living flesh as far as we could tell. Too bad the other ghouls seemed to have gotten to him." Giyozara informs their new friend as they continue to search.
Kka examines the lock. "Finally! A lock worth picking. Should have it open in a jiffy." She gets to work, desperately trying to ignore Kvit's suggestions as to how to do her job.
<Click!>
"There we go. Told you I'd have it open in no time."
Kka picks the lock and lets Lough open the door.
Three worktables line the walls of this room with a single stool near one of the tables. A skeleton wearing a light blue librarian’s robe lies in a heap beside the stool.
A female spirit sits on the stool, miming the act of repairing pages and binding the books, her hands uselessly passing through the bottles of glue, loose pages, and books. She's so caught up in her job that she doesn't notice her new visitors. After some moments, she looks up from her work and startles as she sees you.
"Hell- Whoah, who are you? Why are you here? I haven't had visitors in ages, and you don't look like librarians to me."
She hunches over her books protectively.
Giyozara rolls his eyes with a ‘not again’ look in his eyes, and begins again with the ghost.
”Whoa, whoa, whoa, we have no desire to steal any books guarded by one so dedicated. We are simply . . . Trying to figure out the state of things. Perhaps you could maybe tell s your story? Help us understand the current way things are?”
"Yes, yes." Cherry states. "It looks like you might need some help though. What are you trying to repair?"
Kka looks around the corner, spots the ghost, and slumps slightly. "Sheesh. Another dang ghost! This place is haunted to the hilt." "At least it isn't attacking us yet. Maybe the smart ones can send it on its way like the last one; hopefully without the all the flying furniture."
The ghost relaxes as she sees you mean no harm. "M-My story? I'm just a librarian, like all of us here. I'm just repairing the books, but there's a never-ending stack of them. It feels like forever since I last took a break. I just hope that my shift is over soon."
Her hands keep working as she speaks, even while she's looking at you, reaching for tools she can't interact with and performing tasks she must've done over and over again while in life.
She frowns. "I remember the other librarians getting kinda loopy for some reason. At some point, I felt frightened, then this bitter taste in my mouth, and then just endless stacks of books. I-I don't remember much more than that, to be honest. Must be because of boredom, I guess."
As you look around the room, there's an empty bottle of arsenic on the ground next to the skeleton. Giyozara knows that arsenic is often used in book binding.
Kvit looks around the room for other skeletons or ghosts. "I'd say that your shift is definitely over. What kind of books were you repairing?"
Sneakers pokes around the room and cheekily asks. "You don't have any unrequited love or crushes or anything unresolved like that do ya?"
"Hey, listen, why don't you knock off a bit early-if you feel like it of course! We'll see about finishing up the rest of the books. Looks like you could use a break. You must be almost hallucinating . . . a stack of never-ending books to bind, how silly. I mean, it must be terribly real to you of course, not trying to say it isn't a problem, but that just shows how much of a break you need."
Not wanting to make a poor impression, Fuìn carefully wraps the meteor hammer's chain back around his forearm so it's no longer in-hand and looking threatening. He then folds his hands in front of him and thinks pleasant, non-threatening thoughts. The idea of fighting a ghost is... not a pleasant one.
Kvit looks around the room for other skeletons or ghosts. "I'd say that your shift is definitely over. What kind of books were you repairing?"
"You know, just whatever books they bring in. Books are books, it's not like they all have different techniques or something."
Sneakers pokes around the room and cheekily asks. "You don't have any unrequited love or crushes or anything unresolved like that do ya?"
The spirit looks at the talking rat with a quizzical look. "No, I don't think so. Why would that be important?"
"Hey, listen, why don't you knock off a bit early-if you feel like it of course! We'll see about finishing up the rest of the books. Looks like you could use a break. You must be almost hallucinating . . . a stack of never-ending books to bind, how silly. I mean, it must be terribly real to you of course, not trying to say it isn't a problem, but that just shows how much of a break you need."
[dice=diplomacy?]1d20+9
You see her image shimmer as she tries to resist her own programming "A break would be nice I guess, but then I'll return to my work and only be reminded of how much I still have to do. Better to power through this last bit before I go home, I think."
Everyone except Fuìn has had enough experience with ghosts recently that you know that ghosts tend to have an emotional focus they're occupied with. Resolving that focus will put that spirit at rest. It's clear that this lady's obsessed with her work, and simply removing it from her sight will probably ease her mind.
Kvit whispers to sneakers as he surveys the room. "Just keep her talking for a minute while I try moving some of this out of sight."
Sneakers whispers back "What? I was joking,.what am I supposed to talk to a million year old ghost about? Err, fine whatever." The small rat scowls as he jumps onto a chair and climbs to the top of the back. "Ah, well, uh, it's uh, important to have uh, healthy relationships outside of work time..." He falters a bit as this wasn't his strong suit.
Kvit gestures his hand at the rat in a 'keep going' manner. He scoops up fragile books as quietly as he can and puts them inside cabinets or brings them out of the room as he finds room.
Sneakers looks around to the others for help. "Yeah, like, I'm always telling Kvit here he needs to get a girlfriend. Maybe spend less time in dusty old ruins- I mean libraries."
Kvit glares at Sneakers as the subject is turned to him but says nothing.
Sneakers continues to try to keep the ghost occupied. "Oh, I know! What's your type?! Do you like short furry gentleman with whiskers? Or maybe tall strong men with definite fixer-upper vibes? Or uh, maybe you swing a different way. Tall, dark, feathered, uh good with sharp things. " He looks to the others again. "Help-me-out-here"
Kka overhears Kvit's whisper to Sneakers about moving stuff out of sight and she nods in response. "Good idea. I'll get some of these books out of here while she's not looking."
She then sneaks into the room and grabs as many books as she can find while the librarian is distracted. Books in hand, the tengu quietly sneaks back out to the main library before dropping her load out of sight of the ghost. She returns for another run.
"Here, many hands make light work."
Giyozara will begin doing some bookbinding and handing the completed books to others to take out of the room so they 'can be filed properly.'
"While we work," Cherry says, supporting someone with Guidance.
"Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and your hometown. As a priest of Erastil, I am always interested in how other towns handle themselves. After all some communities do thing better than others, and sharing these ideas can improve everyone."