Cherry Berry inspects the soil. They find scraps of meat that have rotted so much even the ghouls don't like it anymore, as well as bones, intestines, and other unpalatable remains. It's pretty macabre, but it makes good fertiliser.
Fuin pulls out a rag and begins wiping mushroom pulp off the head of his meteor hammer, giving Kvit a confused frown. "Why? Uh, we opened a door and they attacked us? I mean, I guess we could have just closed the door, I dunno if giant mushrooms can open doors or not, but they can murder people apparently so chances are better than average. Regardless, we didn't know there was nothing helpful in here at the time. Seems smart to clear everything dangerous, no? Even if they don't have anything, er... useful."
Fuin turns to Kka and waggles his fingers. "Here, lemme help."
He places a hand on Lough's wounds, closes his eyes, and murmurs under his breath. Faint blue light pours off his palm like vapor, seeping into Lough's wounds and healing some of the damage.
He then returns to cleaning off his weapon, letting it become somewhat meditative as he contemplates the necessity of the fight, and whether, perhaps, Kvit in fact might have a point.
Kka gives Kvit a slightly bemused look. "Uh, Kvit? Whaat we saw when we opened the door waas two killer mushrooms about to smaash us into pulp with their long tentaacles, and if that didn't work for them, they'd haave happily poisoned us to death instead. But hey! If you waant to take a shot at sweet talking the next batch, I'm sure we can arrange for you to have a few minutes alone with them while the rest of us wait outside singing kumbaya <Ark, ark>."
Then, with a more serious look on her face, she turns toward the grisly remains of the mushrooms' last meals. "You never know when we might have to maake a quick escape through a room, so I behooves us <ark!> to make sure we clear out anything dangerous we come across as we work our waay through this place."
*Sigh* "It is good fertilizer, but it might be hard to move."
"Kka, talking things out has prevented several fights for us so far. But you are right about the quick exit."
Kka shrugs at Cherry's remark. "True enough, but in those cases the 'baad guys'...," she uses claws to make air quotes, "...were willing to chaat a little before trying to kill us. These mushrooms didn't look very talkaative to me." She looks down at the mycological remains, and with a laugh, adds, "<Ark, ark!> I don't even see a mouth on them anywhere; I wonder how they were plaanning to eat us?"
Fuin snorts as he flicks off mushroom goop from his kerchief and stuffs it back in his pocket, quickly wrapping the chain around his arm once more. "As mulch, I expect. Fungus grows on rotting things, right?"
Kvit shrugs and keeps his thoughts to himself. Though he does offer something. "Well, in any case, if anyone inhaled anything or got infected with any mushroom goop, I can make some anti-plagues or antidotes tomorrow morning. If you feel off, don't keep it to yourself."
Kvit watches Kka inspect the door "Need any help there?"
Kka checks out the next door and determines it safe.
Whatever this room’s original use, today it serves as a horrific shrine. A rotting heap of fleshy material that seems to be composed of equal parts eyes, mouths, and skin lies in a stinking mound in the middle of the room, surrounded by two dozen tiny humanoid effigies crafted out of small bones and tangles of knotted hair.
Cherry Berry thinks that this heap of skin, mouths, and eyes is a fresher worm-like corpse like the one you found a level above. They've clearly been worshiping the worm-thing as a deity of some kind.
Kka enters the room and examines the heap, taking a special interest in the tiny humanoid effigies. When Cherry goes on about it being like the worm corpse above, Kka narrows her beady eyes and frowns; she's not convinced. "Worshipping, maybe, but thaat doesn't look much like the dried husk of the giant worm we haacked to pieces upstairs".
Once the group is done trying to figure out meaning of the obscene and rather smelly contents of the room, Kka works her way over to the other door. "Pretty sure this door leads baack to the library. We should go check out whaat's behind some of the other doors."
Kvit covers his nose as they enter the next gruesome room, though he seems less and less bothered. "I don't think we have seen these small effigies yet. Sometimes these are used for occult purposes to represent others."
Fuin makes a noise somewhere between a "harrumph" and a gag. "Not gonna lie," he croaks, holding his forearm against his face to block out more of the stench; the half-mask he wears isn't helping much. "So far, this place is pretty damn awful."
Having no knowledge of religions outside Desna--and even that is only enough to do his daily ablutions and a handful of prayers and hymns--he has no input about the shrine, other than it's pretty freaking heinous. Who worships worms? he thinks exasperatedly.
Putting herself in the ghouls' position, Kka recognises this thing as a Gibbering Mouther, an amalgamation of flesh, tentacles, eyes, and mouths. These ghouls would've prayed to it as "pure flesh." The effigies around it would represent all the cult members gathered around the Mouther in worship. Kvit can indeed confirm that fact.
Even before stepping into the room, the stench is almost palpable, but the full force hits as Kka makes her way inside and closer to the pile of rotting flesh...
... she halts in her tracks as if she'd been slapped. Her hand clamps around her beak and she turns away for a moment, barely keeping her stomach contents in place. Muffled through her clamped beak, she says, "Oh boy. Da's preddy bad, guys"
After a few seconds, her olfactory system gives up and shuts down completely under the unrelenting assault. "This ain't no worm, Cherry, this thing here is a Gibbering Mouther, and those little guys around it are probaably effigies of the Caanker Cult ghouls we've already run into. I think we caan add this place to the list of rooms we'll need to torch later. Now let's get outta here before we melt."
She makes her way through the other door as quickly as she can and back to the relatively clean air of the main library.
Cherry sighs. "I was so sure as well."
"Do we even have that much fire though?"
Fuin steps into the room behind Kka, breathes in once, says "NOPE," and turns on his heel out of the room.
He swallows back down some of his breakfast as he hurries out.
Kvit shudders a bit when he realizes this isn't just another pile of dead flesh. "gibbering mouthers... I agree, If we can find a way to just burn this entire complex down, we'd be better off. I think there is too much stone here for that to be effective. Though I don't quite understand the effigies. Sure they are obviously meant to represent the ghouls worshipping this thing... But to what purpose."
He follows Kka out. "anyway, let's get out of here immediately."
He moves towards the storage and belcora's office. "storage next? Or is that just going to be more corpse storage?"
Kka shrugs at Kvit's suggestion. "The Repair Storage room is as good as any to check out next." She moves over to the door in question and gives it a looking over.
Kka checks out the door and thinks it's safe to open up.
Shelves on the wall here contain iron sorting racks, jars, and all manner of bookbinding tools.
Despite Kvit's predictions, no corpses or any other foulness jump out at you. A quick comb through the tools makes it immediately apparent that (ironically) these tools are in too bad a state to be of any use. You do find two 2nd-level scrolls of mending and a scroll of hypercognition, though.
Kvit is not at all upset about being wrong this time. "Huh, well I guess we had to get lucky at some point. These scrolls might come in handy, though everything else in here is too ruined to be of use as far as I can see."
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Fuin, glad he wasn't the only one relieved to not find more horrors, nods. "Seems like a lot of this place is in rough shape. Which makes sense, I guess, considering the new tenants aren't really the 'neat and tidy' types." He does not mention how creeped out he is by the place. He supposes it's good they're clearing it out, seeing as at least a couple of the creatures thus far seem to have plans for the townsfolk, but good grief has it been gross work so far. "One room with daffodils," he grumbles. "Maybe in a nice porcelain vase. Without any corpse juices on it."
Kka looks over the room and picks up the scrolls. She gives them a quick glance but quickly passes them on to Cherry. "You'll probaably maake better use of these than me."
"How about we try Belcorraa's Office next. Maybe the old girl will be haard at work in there and we caan finish her off once and for all. <Ark!, ark!>"
"To be honest I hope not. I don't think I am going to like this woman."
"Pish posh!" Fuin counters cheerfully, affecting a surprisingly convincing Taldoran accent. "I'm sure she's a lovely lady. Bet she serves us tea and biscuits. The biscuits will probably be made with the blood of the innocent, but it's the thought that counts."
For all his joking, he has unslung his meteor hammer and it hangs from his long, slender fingers in ready.
Kvit looks on at Fuìn and Kka cracking jokes as they are about to potentially face the most serious threat they have met yet. "Have you two gone insane? If Belcorra is in there in any fashion we need to run immediately."
"And I won't be waiting to see if you all are following"
Fuin 'tsk's Kvit. "If she's in there, and she's as bad as you all say she is, I'm not running. I can't imagine someone that sinister has no plans on Otari, it being as close as it is. And I'm pretty fond of some of the people there, not the least of which is Wrin. We'll deal with this Belcorra character if it comes to that, which we have no guarantee that it will--at least not yet. But run if you need to. I told Wrin I'd help and that's what I plan to do." He shrugs and turns back to the door, waiting for Kka to give the all-clear to head in. Surprisingly, there's no vitriol in his statement, nor judgment. Gods know he's run from plenty of fights.
"Plus there's the 'been dead for 500 years' bit. From what I know about her, she was human . . . don't think those guys live that long. Well, undead do, but the stories of the Roseguard said she was human when they fought and killed her. Oh, and the Roseguard killed her, so . . . I mean, pretty sure she's dead?"
Kka is a little surprised that her throwaway joke about Belcorra being in her office is being taken so seriously by some of the group. "I waas joking, guys. If Belcorra were anywhere on this level, we'd haave heard about it by now. But, yeah. Like Giyozaara says, she's long dead. I expect we'll be dealing with a ghost or some other naasty form of undead if we do ever cross her paath."
The monkey's paw keeps twitching...
"So where next? I'll admit to being a little lost down here."
Kvit mutters under his breath "where next? to our deaths apparently"
"Listen, I am not saying we aren't here to help, but it will do us no good to rush in thinking we can handle anything. We still don't know what's powering the Gauntlight. If Belcorra was that powerful she could be a lich or something for all we know. Just don't get cocky."
He stands up straighter as he sets his staff on the ground, ready for the door. "Whenever you're ready Kka..."
Kka checks the door but finds no traps. There's a small corridor behind the door leading to another untrapped door.
This office is brightly lit by several glowing lights in a chandelier hanging above a desk and chair. Mirrors hang on the north and south wall, although both of them are cracked badly.
This area is in remarkably good shape. At least, in as much a 500-year old office can be called "in good shape." A thick layer of dust signifies nobody has entered this room in a long, long time.
Giyozara detects that the source of light in the chandelier is magical, and you can easily identify it as an everburning torch.
Fuin remains in the hallway, keeping an eye on their backs while those with better eyes do their work.
Kka looks around the room and then looks up when Giyozara points out the magical illumination. "Nice. That's worth a few gold right there." She frees the everburning torch from the rest of the chandelier and stuffs it into her backpack.
She then moves over to the other door and gives it the usual once over.
Kvit is relieved that Belcora was no where to be seen. Though a little miffed that Kka and Fuìn got him all worried about it in the first place.
"Well, unoccupied, that's a bit of good news. Anything in the desk?"
Kvit checks the furniture for anything useful.
"This is a nice room, or I guess was a nice room?"
'Well, it isn't storage for dead body parts, so it's nicer than most of the rooms here, even if dusty."
"She went to all the trouble of concealing this room, let's look around."
You go over this room thoroughly, but there's nothing of value stashed away anywhere, so you press on. The door on the other end is clearly locked with an oversized lock. Going through your key ring, a key you found two levels above matches the lock, and the door opens smoothly.
This room looks exceptionally comfortable, with a thick carpet, bright light from a glowing chandelier, and soothing incense. Two overstuffed chairs sit opposite a low table stacked with books, while more books sit on a set of shelves to the west. A softly gurgling fountain carved to resemble a mossy skull leaking water sits in the northwest corner.
In one of the chairs sits a winged creature the size of a child. Most unsettlingly, its eyes seem to emit light, and there's even a hint of a glow underneath its skin, as if it is lit from the inside. It holds a book too big for it to properly handle in its lap and is clearly making childish annotations in it. When the door opens, the creature looks up and yells, "Don't disturb Shimmergrin! Shimmergrin is having fun drawing dead people!"
It throws the book to the side and its wings start to flutter, clearly making ready to attack.
Fuìn
Kvit
Shimmergrin
Cherry Berry
Kka
Giyozara
Fuìn and Kvit may act!
Identifying this thing is a Nature check.
As the chain of his meteor hammer slides down his arm and into his hand, Fuìn mutters, "Time to make a living, I guess," and slides into the room, whipping the heavy dark iron ball at the creature.
♦ Draw meteor hammer.
♦ Stride 15 ft.
♦
Kvit moves into the room, behind Fuìn. He addresses the creature. "I assume you're Shimmergrin? That's no way to treat a book by the way. "
He picks up the book telekinetically and hurls it at the fluttering creature.
Fuìn's hammer comes down hard, connecting with its face. Teeth go flying, but Shimmergrin seems up for more. Then his own book flies against his face as well, and now he's really mad.
Shimmergrin gets up from the (for him) oversized chair, provoking from Fuìn, but he ducks under it.
His wings lift him off the ground, and as he zips towards Kvit, he seems to blend into the light in the room and turns invisible, until he appears again attacking from Kvit's side.
Fuìn
Kvit, 19 damage
Shimmergrin, 22 damage
Cherry Berry
Kka
Giyozara
Everyone may act!
"I hope this helps"
◆◆
◆
Kka curses her slowness off the mark and the loss of the concomitant advantage of surprise. Seeing Fuìn in the room behind the creature, she waits for her ally to distract it before she steps forward and slashes at the creature a couple of times.
Fuìn steps into place and unleashes his meteor hammer on the creature once more, but the ball sails wide. Debating whether to raise the defenses or try again, he decides to proceed with caution. The strange semi-invisibility is making him wary. He utters a word in a strange, spidery tongue that seems to vibrate in the air. A shimmering disc of shadow appears before him, as if to ward off potential attacks.
♦ Step.
♦
♦ Cast shield (+1 AC).
Kvit shouts in pain and stumbles back against the wall to steady himself. "Argh-eak" it ends in an embarrassing squeak noise.
Gripping his staff firmly, he raises his own shield of force, a blue transparent semi-sphere surrounds him. "Get this thing off me!"
As he nears unconsciousness he almost instinctively claws out at the creature like a cornered beast, but his hands are cold already, like death.