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When Jazaka finally begins to feel weary again, they head back to their nook for Jazaka to rest and relearn her spells. Upon waking, she heals Ekan almost fully.
They then head toward the unexplored passage to the east of the circular one that led to the sphinx . They'll head south at the first split
Jazaka idly flips through Expecteth as she dozes off (Ekantaking first watch). While Ekan rests, Jazaka will use up all her spells to heal herself.
Jazaka takes a few moments to think over recent events before answering "I do not know...however I ssssusssspect that he learned ssssomething from that book the ssssphinx gave him. The creature ssseemed quite nervousss about giving it to him and wanted it back quickly."
Jazaka and Ekan quickly and quietly make their way through the long curving hallway and away from the sounds of their late companion being torn to shreds and the mutterings of the crazy sphinx. Skipping the unexplored branch to the east, they head back to the part they had previously been exploring, looking for a nook or cranny that they can hole up in to get some much-needed rest.
Jazaka turns to watch Thangardt get hit, then moves around the corner.
Realizing their attempts at coming to a peaceful understanding of the sphinx have fail as it licks it's lips, all three attempt to disengage, hoping that they will not all become its next meal.
"I...we...uh...usss..." Jazaka stutters for a moment, "I mean....we didn't intend to insult one...ssssss..sss..sss...such as yourssself......Pleassse forgive ussss puny short-lived mortalssss....what hope could we posssssssibly have to meet the sstandardsss as one sssso powerful and learned as yourssssself? We only wisshhh to explore thissss place ssso foreign to usss and learn from thosssse who live here. Perhapssss we can at leassst provide ssome entertainment for yourssself? And you can alwayssss eat ussss later if we continue to fail?"
Jazaka also stares daggers at Thangardt as they slowly backs away from the sphinx, "We were having a nisse discussssion about that riddle. Why did you have to jump in an ruin it?" Then to the sphinx as she reaches about as far back as she can still see him, "Pleassse ignore our rather tactlesssss companion. He apparently can not conduct himssself in a sssivilized converssation."
Jazaka and Ekan exchange worried glances.
"That ssssseamsssss ssssomewhat.........clunky." Jazaka says after a moment of contemplation. "Perhapsssss it could work......but I don't like it. Let's work on a different approach for awhile and come back to death." "Time? Every day beginssss with daytime. Dusssk is the firsst time you ssssee nighttime. daybreak can't come if time sstopss and midday is the center of daytime. Daisssiess take time to grow and cold can be ended with time - either waiting for daybreak, a fire to grow, or the season to change."
"Hmmm...an interesssssting proposssition. But how doesss it work with 'And daybreak wouldn't come without--What midday centersss all about'?" Jazaka and Ekan both pause for a bit to ponder this last piece.
"And one that will require sssome thought to teassse out an ansssswer...Sssssomething like ssshadows perhaps?" Jazaka muses, getting caught up in the sphinx's obvious excitement. "Dawn beginsss with ssshadowsss, and ssshadows are centeresss them under thingssss at midday. Though they're not really the firssst thing ssseen at dusssk. I sssuppose daisy could grow in ssshadow but they sssertaintly won't 'end all cold'...no - too much doessssn't fit." "Darknesssss perhapsss? Dawn beginsss with darknesss and one knowsss it'sss dusssk beacause the darknessss begins coming back. Midday issss indeed centered about the darknessss of night. I don't know how daissiess grow from darkness though. It doesss not end cold - it makesss it colder. Definitely not in the ssssun. It isss ssstill around during the day underground and possibly in deep allywaysss and vegitation and the like.
Jazaka continues to watch the sphinx for any signs of aggression or clues as to what might help them stay on his good side.
Jazaka sighs and carefully addresses the sphinx, "Mighty sphinx, I fear we sseem to have gotten off to a bad start. A very bad decission on our part. I humbly besseech you to allow us to try a more ssivilized introduction. I am Jazaka and these are my companionss Thangardt and Ekan. We have ssuddenly found ourselves in this place and does not sseem to be quite what we were expecting."
Jazaka scowls at the sphinx while trying to parse through what he said and decide how much she wants to push him to actually try to answer her riddle. She gestures to Ekan to go ahead.
"Well..the 'b' and the 'r' actually form a slightly different sound, so 'broom' isn't really a type of room because it has a 'br' and not an 'r' sound'. But if you want to stand by your...uh...less-than-sound answer, I shall pose you a second riddle." "When you need me, you throw me away. But when you're done with me, you bring me back. What am I?"
"What kind of room has no doors or windows."
"Well I agree that footprints is indeed an answer. If you require an explanation - One cannot enter a foot print (at least not your own or not without significant size-changing magic). But one leaves them in any type of reasonably soft ground. Or ground that's covered with something like dust. And even if one does enter a footprint, it is after it has been left, thus the footprint is still left without having entered it." "If you'd like a more philosophical answer, then perhaps something along the lines of memories that is left on people one has interacted with in their life. Again it is not generally possible to 'enter' a memory but they can definitely be left. Although it could perhaps be argued that one has to metaphorically enter someones memory (i.e. life) before being able to leave memories of themselves. So I still believe that the first answer of footprints is much cleaner."
Taken a bit by surprise at finding him just inside the big room, Jazaka gives the androsphinx quizical looks. "Um, sorry we were very uh..overawed..by your magnificence. Perhaps you could repeat what you were saying when we so rudely ran away?"
"Just give us a moment Ekan. Thangardt, that's an Androshinx. Although they can be rather uh...eccentric...they're usually pretty nice. So I think as long as we don't upset it again we'll be fine." The three of them head back to the Androshinx (walking all the way around the west side of the book pile again).
Seeing Thangardt turn and run is too much for Jazaka on top of the Androshinx's roar, and she turns to follow him, quickly outpacing him, only recovering herself when she's reached the northe segment of the passage leading into this room.
Jazaka adopts her most formal (and leasssst hissssy) accent. "Fire iss not alive but will grow. It definitely conssumes air and can be drowned out by water. A boat is another posssibility, though more of a sstretch. It appears to 'grow' when the sails are put up and I think ssinking could be considered drowning. The part that'ss a stretch is considering its ssails filling with air to be breathing" "Are you the one who has left all thesse papers with riddles and possible answers around? The riddle about what has a head, tail, no legss, and is brown - while a coin is an interesting answer, calling a copper coin 'brown' doessn't quite feel right. Especially when there are legless animals like a snake or a fish that could be brown."
"Thangardt, hush! There'ssss sssomething elssse alive here." Jazaka hisses at Thangardt. Then amends under her breath "Well, perhaps 'alive' iss not quite the right word."
As they hit the west wall and continue northward, Jazaka frownes, feeling like she's missing something. After dwelling on it for a moment with no insight she shrugs and continues watching for anything that might be interesting or hazardous.
While Thangardt is musing on the riddles, Jazaka (who also speaks draconic) studies the hieroglyps.
"Fissshessss alssso have no legssss. I don't ssee how any water or earth basssed thingsss could breath or drown. A boat perhapsss? It could 'grow' buy putting up ssails. And 'breath' when the ssails fill with wind. It certaintly drownsss when it sssinks."
After taking a few moments of musing on the note, T pockets it and the three continue around the room as before.
Jazaka, having spent the last few minutes watching Ekan try to ignore several injuries, pulls a small bottle off of her belt and hands it to him. "Drink this - it should help."
The three continue up the passage, T in the lead, then J then E, each keeping the next just in sight (J and E moving up to investigate anything T sees that is potentially of interest). They go left at the first fork .
Seeing Ekan sucumb to the flames , Jazaka uses her second spell to cure him ( ), bringing him consious again. "Thangardt, you don't seem burned at all? How is that possible?" Both Jazaka and Thangardt wrack their brains for why that may be the case.
Jazaka gets an amused glint in her eye, "So, Ekan, it would seem that exploring a library full of knowledge is in fact a productive use of our infinite time?" After he only scowles back at her, she gestures in the direction they just came, "Well, then, lead the way."
While Ekan takes some time to steady himself and get his breath back and Thangardt plays with his mace to accustom himself to it's new size-changing, Jazaka casts cure light wounds on herself ().
"Uh...A....A BOOKS just tried to BITE ME! The hell...."
Jazaka, recognizing the wisdom in Thangardt's precautions, walks over to the book, turns around, puts one arm across her eyes, and bends down to pick it up behind her back. After waiting a moment for something to happen, she opens her eyes and flips through the book, but quickly shuts it with a sigh. "No, there's nothing in this one either." Having investigated everything that had grabbed Thangardt's attention initially, the two of them continue along the corridor (Jazaka in the lead with Thangardt a step behind her), past the not remotely suspicious or ominous pile of books at the end of it.
While waiting for Thangardt to fail to disable the effectless trap and read his book, Jazaka takes a closer look at the shelves near her.
Jazaka sighs and returns her books to a shelf, "It seems like these only have a mystical effect once. Shall we?"
Jazaka studies the shelf in front of here while waiting for Thangardt to catch up. "This looks interesting," she picks up Disnooddleing
They begin to short out who has which books, only to be surprised by the colorful orbs.
Thangardt tries to read Disnooddleing while Jazaka tries to read Maximize Thine
Jazaka slows down and looks back at Thangardt a bit surprised "Oh, yes of course. My apologies Thangardt. I seem to have gotten carried away...." She trails off as she stops to look at one of the shelves near the pile of books.
Jazaka begins following the passage straight ahead of her, excited to get to the middle of the library.
"Thangardt, there's a library up here! I'm going to take a closer look." She begins to follow the path closest to her.
"Ekan, we ssshould at leassst ssee if the ladder leadsss to anything before you go galavanting onwardsss." Jazaka walks to the ladder to take a closer look at it. Assuming she thinks it's sturdy enough to support her: "Thangardt, I will sssee whatsss up there if you will check down thissss well?" she says as she begins to climb up.
"Ekan, you really need to relaxsss a bit. Thissss took all of two minutesss and I'm sure the godss intend for usss to usse them ssssseing asss they put them here. Perhapsss asss a final trial or preperation before the Arean." she says irritably as she and Thangardt follow Ekan, keeping him just at the edge of Jazaka's vision.
"Thangardt, are you ok?"
"Ekan, this may well be part of the Arena, are you really going to just stand there scowling?" Jazaka says as she follows Thangardt to the center of the bowl and briefly considers her options. "Well, if I'm going to do this, might as well go big..." and picks up a twelve sided die.
"Thangardt, you should come up here." she says as she steps up to the rim of the bowl. "The top is actually a giant bowl and there's several pairs of dice. I'd like to know what you think of them." While waiting for them, she contemplates if she has any context for them, particularly for the lizard gods she's familiar with.
But she cuts him off before he can get two words out, "Plus, the gods clearly intend for us to walk through through this passage first. It would be improper to ignore their wishes by blindly moving towards the Arena." Although not sufficient to convince Ekan that he wants to spend time looking around more carefully, this argument is enough that he slows his pace so as not to get out of sight of his more inquisitive companions as they slow down to look more closely at both the golumns and the statues and the sculpture.
Upon seeing the sculpture up close, Jazaka immediately begins climbing up it. "Look Ekan," she says as she briefly pauses to shoot him a with a wry smile, "this is even intended to be climbed."
Although Ekan seems quite content to move straight through this room in this quest to reach the Arena, Jazaka and Thangardt are becoming interested in their odd and unexpected surroundings. "Ekan, it will not hurt to slow down for a few minutes to look around this room. We will have all of eternity in Valhalla. Delaying the Last Challange will not hurt anything."
"SseeeSeeesSeee It ssseeemsss we have sssome time to reflect on our livessss and how well we ssserved our godsss before we take our ssstand in the Arena. It would ssseeem there are two optionssss open to usss. We can either explore thisss mountain from the outssside or follow the tunnel into the mountain. I perssssonally believe that the arena musssst be at the end of the tunnel." |
