Arrian was a bit stunned at the odd appearance and nature of the room and thus was late in warning Zeldrith not to interact with it.
Zeldrith successfully makes the wand levitate to his hand. Meanwhile, Arrian ponders about the room and concludes that there must be a levitation spell locked in place in there. He cannot tell whether this is intentional or not. He cannot think of any outer plane effect that could be going on, although the red electricity pulsing escapes his grasp. It could be anything from part of the levitation spell to just plain reflections of the runelord of wrath.
Donimah looks around at the room, eyes wide with awe, her mind racing as she takes in all the details and tries to puzzle out its aspects, from the ambient magic to the composition of the walls' metal.
"Understatement of the year but this room is unsettling in a place that is the definition of unsettling. The maggots suggest at least some living creatures made it in here. Although I don't know how the raven did."
Persephone glances into the Levitate Chamber. The Varisian chuckles.
Not a bad idea for a closet though.
Juriya looks around, still hair-not-fur on end from the dogs, trying her best to regulate her breathing wgile observing the rooms around her.
Ano takes one look into the bizarre room, bluntly hisses, “No thank you,” and backs away.
Both Donimah and Juriya reach the same conclusions as Arrian. Donimah, however, is able to think back and remember that she once red a footnote that said that some Thassilonian mages liked to levitate to think.
Arrian is too weirded out by the room to learn much about the dead raven or the maggots.
"This...may have been a meditation chamber," Donimah says. "Some mages of Ancient Thassilon liked to levitate as they thought, finding that freeing themselves from mundane gravity was liberating to the mind. I'm nowhere near powerful enough to do that on a regular basis."
As Zeldrith recovers the wand, she gingerly steps towards the book, eager to read it but knowing well that some foul creature could burst forth the moment she crossed the room's threshold.
"This...may have been a meditation chamber," Donimah says. "Some mages of Ancient Thassilon liked to levitate as they thought, finding that freeing themselves from mundane gravity was liberating to the mind. I'm nowhere near powerful enough to do that on a regular basis."
As Zeldrith recovers the wand, she gingerly steps towards the book, eager to read it but knowing well that some foul creature could burst forth the moment she crossed the room's threshold.
Arrian risks Donimah's wrath by grabbing her shoulder, "Don't go in there. I'm surprised something horrible didn't happen when Zel used magic to collect the wand."
"Which is why I suspect me going in should be fine. Besides, I'm sure you and Ano are strong enough to kill anything that comes out," Donimah says nonchalantly as she removes Arrian's hand from her shoulder and presses on.
Persephone takes a longer look at the maggots and such. The Shaman nods.
I believe that.....
"... On a regular basis? So that means you can do it?" she asks as she grips her rapier as tightly as possible as Donimah walks into the spherical room, steeling her nerves for combat -- just in case.
Persephone determines that this raven has been dead for a week. There are no other points of entry in this room.
Donimah enters the room and nothing attacks her. Instead she is affected by a levitate spell, and starts to float. She easily wills herself to float towards the book and takes it. She quickly realizes that it's written in Abyssal.
This is a bestiary about horrible beasts. It has references to Lamashtu.
This also a holy book to Lamashtu.
As Donimah enters the room, Zeldrith steps up to the entrance, raising his eyebrows as Donimah becomes untethered from the pull of gravity. As she looks through the book, he steps into the room himself, moving to examine the bottle of wine. "If this bottle's been around since Thassilonian times, it might be worth something to the right collector - maybe that storyteller Brodert? I can read Thassilonian - a bit of it, anyhow - so hopefully, there's a label on this thing."
Zeldrith looks at the wine label and sees that it is written in Taldan. It's a Varisian red, not known for its quality. In fact, an orc that Zeldrith knew in his company used to drink this, especially due to its easy monetary access.
Zeldrith's brow furrows as he peers closer at the wine's label. "Wait a minute - this was bottled a few years ago! Old as this place may be, there's someone still here - not those 'sinspawn' warriors, I think. Someone who still uses this place, still lives in this crumbling ruin - and whatever they're up to, I doubt it's good for Sandpoint."
"Can't make heads or tails of this book... it is in Abyssal though, I can tell by the script... well, unless someone's trying to hide their message by coding it into Abyssal's script."
[ooc] Assuming we all get a look at the book. [/ooc)
"Can you guys float back here when you want or do I need to get my rope?"
Arrian has no knowledge of Abyssal nor linguistics.
Ano raced over and shrieked at Donimah, “Don’t go in there! What if it’s a trap, or you’re stuck?
Donimah has already stepped into the room by the time Ano reaches her, floating into the air nonchalantly and turning around.
"It's fine, Ano. This is just a harmless levitation enchantment."'
She demonstrates by floating about the room before retrieving the book and being joined by Zeldrith. Looking into the book and thumbing through a few pages makes her grimace a bit. She couldn't read the words, but the shape of the words on the page made her stomach turn slightly, like the text itself was inherently malevolent.
She tries to draw information from the book's context clues and see if there are words she recognizes.
Failing to do so, she floats back to the entrance and gently touches down before crossing into the hall and letting gravity reclaim her. She shows the book to the others and almost immediately understands why she reacted to the text the way she had.
She takes a sharp breath in through her nose and turns back to the room.
"Zeldrith? I hate to reinforce stereotypes, but this text appears to be written in the Chthonian language, and I suspect you might understand more of it than we do."
When Zeldrith identifies the wine as modern and the resulting implication that someone's recently been down here, her eyes widen and she grimaces again.
"I have suspicions."
"As do I - the girl who is supposed to be dead."
It takes a bit for Ano to register who Donimah and Arrian are talking about. Once she realizes who they’re referring to, her ears flatten. “Absolutely not. No way. I-I know her, she would never. If she did she would have told someone.”
"Ano... with how long it's been... it may be wise to reassess what we know of her," Juriya says, making sure to whisper as she considers the possibility. Oh, this... this is certainly not good.
"Does anyone here speak Abyssal? We might know more if we could read this book."
To Juriya, "I don't know Abyssal; just Orc and Goblin."
To Ano, "I hope not but it's not looking good."
When Donimah returns to the rest of the group, Zeldrith follows close behind, glancing nervously around the strange circular room again as his hooves once again land on the crumbling stone slabs of lost Thassilon. "Thank Desna - I'm not great with heights, though I probably should have thought of that before I went." He shakes his head, looking apprehensively back at the room. "Still, at least we're out of there - and none the worse for it. I don't think so, at least."
As the group asks about the Abyssal language, Zeldrith takes a curious peek over Donimah's shoulder, furrowing his brow. "Some sort of strange script, you said? What do you mean? It's right there, plain as day!" He glances around the group, coming to the logical conclusion somewhat slower than most of the rest of the motley group. "Oh! This is one of those sorts of things like the 'psykill' visions! Give me a minute..." Snatching the book out of Donimah's hand, he rifles through it, skimming the pages. After a moment, he blanches, and he turns the pages slightly slower. Perhaps another minute passes before he firmly closes the book, shuddering. "Desna's name, I didn't realize humans had so many colors on the inside... It's a book of monsters, for monsters, full of pictures of people dying in horrible ways - apparently, the goddess Lamashtu considers such agony to be holy somehow." He tucks the dark tome safely away in the satchel slung over his shoulder. "Well, I think the Sandpoint Cathedral would like to get hold of this. I don't quite know what they would do with it, but I'll hazard a guess it involves a lot of holy fire."
The wand is of Shocking Grasp with 28 charges left.
The scroll is of Burning Hands (CL 3).
"Can't make heads or tails of that scroll. I swear ocassionally linguistic insights are useful in reading magic, but it serves you better when you actually uh... have experience in non-alchemical magic, to base it off ofl" Juriya says as she eyes the scroll, having shifted into the chamber and began floating at this point... flailing at the new sensation, but she quickly rights herself and exists the chamber.
"It's a scroll of a spell named 'burning hands.' It's unfamiliar to me but perhaps one of our arcane casters knows about it."
The catfolk gives Juriya a near offended look. She gave Arrian the same glare when he agreed with the kitsune. “You didn’t know Nualia. She would have detested this place from the first glance, if she even had the chance to come down here.”
Once Zeldrith mentioned Lamatshu, Ano added, “The demon goddess? Yeah, that settles it, it’s not Nualia. Not at all. Most likely someone impersonating her, or possessing her body.”
Donimah opens and closes her mouth a few times at Ano's vociferous protest before finally saying "I hope you're right, Ano. For her sake and for yours."
Almost as soon as Arrian identifies the scroll, Donimah's eyes snap towards it and she clearly is trying to rein in her impulse to bark "Gimme that!" and snatch it.
"I'd...very much like to copy that spell into my grimoire. But if you feel it would be better expended more immediately, in whatever other battles we encounter down here, I'll defer to your judgment."
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Persephone glances at the scroll.
Quite familiar with the spell. Donimah, you will find it quite liberating.
The Shaman shakes her Varisian curls sadly.
Whomever orchestrated this endeavor has to be halted and brought to justice. These findings, discoveries are extremely worrisome.
Arrian falls back on old habits when dealing with Ano and her temper: change the subject and pretend nothing happened.
"Time to go check some of those other paths we skipped earlier."
"Agreed. Let's check the other paths."
The group remembers that there are two unexplored paths in the dungeon. A stairway going up from Alaznist's statue and a corridor going east just south of that.
Donimah follows Juriya and Arrian.
She tries to remain aware of their surroundings, lest the opportunity for another ambush present itself.
Ano keeps her senses on the highest alert as possible.
Juriya is... oddly perceptive at the moment, even though she's known as fairly scatterbrained most of the time.
As Arrian walks first up the stairs. After a few steps, the group clearly notices that there is a round room with a fountain in the middle. Water ripples quietly in this circular stone pool, the rim of which is lined with skulls.
However, Ano reaches over Zeldrith and stops Arrian going further. She sees what appears to be a floating head with bat wings lurking in the shadows waiting to ambush.
Juriya points it out, silently to everyone else, not even muttering a word as she's kind of freaked out. She's expecting oozes and slimes (high Dungeoneering), not whatever on the Material Plane this thing is, and tries to rack her brain on whatever that horrid creature is.
Ano’s ears flatten and she slowly pulls out her rapier. She has no earthly idea what that thing is supposed to be, but she has a feeling that it’s dangerous.
Donimah nods at Juriya and Ano's warning.
As Ano reaches across him, Zeldrith freezes, his hand going to the hilt of his longsword as he looks at the catfolk for instructions.
This is a Vargouille. You've once read about them when you were younger and used to have nightmares about them.
Assume you don't have enough time to explain the following 2 paragraphs to the party.
These hideous monsters come from the fiendish outer planes, where they flop and flap through strange and haunted skies in constant search of fresh souls to torment. In these nightmare realms, Vargouilles play a role similar to that of a raven or vulture, although they augment these roles with a malevolent delight in causing pain and anguish that no scavenger bird could ever hope to match.
Vargouilles attack by swooping in on their opponents, shrieking them into paralysis, and then biting them with rows of razor-sharp teeth. When multiple Vargouilles take up a common cause and fight as allies, they overwhelm their victim with bites and shrieks, tearing it to shreds.