Mr. Owl's page

"Hello again! We didn't mean to interrupt your... spot of fishing, I guess, but we were wondering if there was anything you would now about that scroll you fished up or this here map? Elsewise any avian wisdom you could grace us with?"

"You mean that fish you scrolled up and took with you? No. As experienced a fisher as I am I have not seen its like before or since." says Owl sagely.

"ACK! YOU'VE FOULED MY LINE!" cries the owl at Stefan.

"IT'S A BIG ONE! IT'S A BIG ONE! ALBATROSS! GET READY TO CLUB WHEN I GET IT CLOSER TO THE BOAT!" shouts the owl. "DIDN'T I SAY THIS WAS A GOOD SPOT!?"

"That is a blatant misconstruction of the facts. What about that big one I landed just a few minutes ago, hm!?" shouts Mr. Owl.

The party trudges up the stairs once again awash with sea water from above. As they climb they can hear Owl shouting in excitement over the roar of the water, presumably to the Albatross.

"HAHA! DIDN'T I TELL YOU!" He's holding his spear now with a line attached to the end. The other end of the line is in water near the stairwell. As he sees you emerge his exuberance turns into disappointment, and he says: "Oh, it's you again."

"HAHA! I told you! Didn't I say!?" he cries to Albatross, while tugging on a line tied to the end of this spear.

Then Owl looks again and suddenly looks disappointed. "Oh its just them." he says and tosses down his makeshift fishing rod in disgust.

There's a roaring waterfall tumbling from the mezzanine above.

The water and debris in this chamber is like a shallow bog.

"Oh-"

"You're the ones who want to talk to that monster. Maybe your friends should have thought about that before going up and getting themselves swallowed." says Owl.

"Do we look like 'Blubberans' to you?" says the angry, and fearful Owl.

"Perhaps someone opened a floodgate?" says Owl.

"High tide?" offers Owl.

"Better you than us!" says the Owl without hesitation.

Remember, diplomacy usually takes a minimum of a minute to use, and often much more time.

There is water coming down the stair as well but, because it is a metal grill stair most of it just splashes though to the dark sub-basement below. Like the mezzanine has a rail that most of the water pours though so there is only about an inch or two of water up there. None of this hampers anyone's movement (though stairs just by themselves are difficult terrain).

And finally, the stairs on this floor have an elevated two-step stone riser that keeps the foot or so of water your PC is standing in on this floor. Otherwise it all would have drained into the basement, which folks can see (by looking down through the metal grill stair) has about 3 or 4 feet of water in it at present.

"I warned them to be quiet...." says Owl. The dread on his face is clear as he looks up at the waterfall.

"Fine! Take it if you must, just let us fish." says Owl and hands it over.

Now what?

Rectitude wrote:

Re-engaging the owl and albatross, New friends, we seek the character you described earlier. Where did you last see it?

"Yes, please give us these information! This person that you described is obviously responsible for the grief of this big fish that is pouring water into the library!"

"Well, he's sort of about size of your troglodyte friend." Owl says nodding to Fentar.

At this point (about three spaces beyond Hostile--and that's not counting combat), diplomacy is really not an option anymore.

"Hmph! Go up there like your friend, and get swallowed. I'm sure with enough big jobs like you it'll get full, and leave us be."

"Now get off our boat, you pirates!" commands the glittery Owl addressing a stone column.

Bernard, don't you think they already hate you enough...?

"I hope you choke on it, you thieves! Albatross, if you can see them throw the scroll at them in disgust." says Owl bitterly.

No, its still only difficult terrain rather than double-dog difficult terrain. The entangled condition though does add on some additional effects.

"AK! THEY GOT ME TOO!" cries Owl looking(?) for somewhere to land.

END COMBAT!?

"There's no need to shout about it! So what, you aren't giving up are you?"

"WHAT!? I CAN'T SEE!"

"The Big Sleeper...."

fly (not move half speed): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

The Owl does better, and while it looks like he was about to soar off into the library, he stops short, and casts a familiar spell (color spray Will DC 14) upon Bernard. and Xusius (and Albatross).

"Taste the rainbow." snarls Owl.

"AK! I'VE BEEN WINGED!" cries Owl as Bernard's arrow finds him.

"Sure friend, OVER MY DEAD BODY!" hoots the Owl, raising his little spear in defiance.

Kolris catches Derkhan's signal, and notices the bit of paper. Reminded of Virml's fragment of the poem, Kolris calls out to the pair.

"Say... we have a bit of a poem, that I think might be about you two! How did that go now?" Hoping that it feeds their vanity, Kolris reads it aloud to them... but only the part about them, for now.

The Name of the Fox wrote:

"Cross! Cross was the owl at the albatross

For catching the bulk of the fish
So the owl cast deeper, awaking a sleeper
Who made of both feathers one dish."

"Amateur doggerel." says the Owl. "To think that you would think that that has anything whatever to do with us. Hrumph."

Knowing less than nothing about the natural world, Pau confronts the creatures. ”You there! Do you two know anything about the flooding of our library? We are here to stop all this and dry the place out. Owl, have you caught anything interesting,” he calls out, hoping the dumb poem applied here.

The Albatross hides a smile behind one wing, while the Owl bristles and shouts: "Of course I haven't what with big job, ninnies like you tramping around, and scaring all the fish!"

"That is quite a catch," Derkhan says to Mr. Albatross. "Beware, though. Books here could be as dangerous as the Sleeper--if not more so."

"Bah! We've been fishing for so long that no one alive can tell us anything about the sport that we don't already know." scoffs the Owl.

Derkhan notices a bit of scroll suspiciously similar to that bit Verml showed the party in the reading room amid the Albatross's catch.

"How should I know? He's just another big galumph like this lot." says Owl. "Jumping about in our fishing spot, scaring away the fish."

"I would have caught that much, and more, if it weren't for you lot, and that ninny dog-cat fellow tromping all about the lake here, ruining our fishing spot!" yells the Owl, who is promptly shushed by the Albatross. Both give a nervous look back and up at the waterfall.

Owl shoots him a look, and continues. "Anyhow, after some consideration I decided it best to move to deeper waters and cast our lines there. So off we went. Almost immediately I got a bite, and after a long, and terrific battle, I was finally able to reel the beast in."

Owl pauses for a moment reflecting with pride upon the memory. This goes on for quite a while until the Albatross clears his throat meaningfully.

"Where was I? Oh yes. The Sleeper. One of our lures or sinker must have awaken it from the deep. A huge monster fish as big as the sea itself came galumphing up out of the depths, and SNAP! swallowed us whole."

"Just whoo is telling this story, aye!?" bristles the Owl.

Normally, it is one diplomacy check per character until something in the scene significantly changes. Always lead with your best argument!

"Oh, alright! So Mr. Albatross, and I were out fishing one day long ago on a Toilday afternoon."

"I'm not exactly sure I should, considering how they've acted." says the Owl with an air of aloof indifference. At least he, and the Albatross do not seem unfriendly any more.

"Albatross! That one was mine, and you know it!" grouses the other.

"Shhh. Do you wanna get eaten? shushes the owl. He turns his head 180 degrees, and looks up at the waterfall nervously.

You'll need to make a Diplomacy check to learn any more from them.

Both small fishermen stop look at one another, and gulp. “The big sleeper.” they say in frightened unison.

"Probably about half o' hay copper's worth." grumbles the Owl.

Derkhan bows before the Gaithlain.

"Greetings to you, beings of the First World. You have found our library in a rather sorry state, I am afraid. I am Derkhan."

Auspicious start.

"Aye, and I'm afraid you're a Derkhan too." says the Owl. "And the place seems to be gittin sorrier all the time."

"STOP STOMPIN' ALL AROUND!" exclaims the Owl.

"YOU'RE SCARING ALL THE FISH!" they finish in unison.

He chuckles when he sees the small creatures. "Gathlains," he begins, stoically describing the creatures, as if reading a text. "Fey creatures; from the First World, obviously. Those leaf-wings allow them to fly. Mischievous, capricious, and discordant, even for fey." He gives a glance over at Jezu. "It's said that even gnomes find them to be a bit extra."

GM awaits Lezu's reaction to "even gnomes" line.

"Aye? And do those pinty ears tell you that you're A GREAT CLOD-HOPPING NINNY!!" shouts the owl.

"Albatross! That one was mine, and you know it!" grouses the other.

"Just look at that spine will you. I'm mounting this tome over the mantle in the den." says the owl proudly.

As we have heard, the worm’s got by the bird

Who gets up so early a-dawnward,
But what of the bird who, deceased and interred,
Becomes food for the worm worming onward?

Handouts (pg 2) updated.

"As I remember it, I was the one that caught them." says the owl.

The two begin to argue over who caught what.

"Perhaps it would be wise to move away." says the owl quietly.

"And whoosh, here we are!" finishes the owl in a loud rush to get his words in.

There's a sudden increase in the amount, and the force of the water falling from the mezzanine for a moment. Then after a moment it returns to the a more regular flow again.

"Yes, quite, 'we'. Well, there we were in the gut of the big sleeper, the fishiest fish there ever was. And being trapped in its guts we could tell." the owl begins again.

"The uhh... you were mentioning something about the water. Because she's been spanked?"

"Oh yes, the water. Well, there I was-" starts the owl.

"Yes, we want to help you!"

This sentence has the same effect as a very loud fart in a very small elevator.

"Listen lad, who's helping whom here, hmm?" says the owl. After a moment he adds, "Uh, now what where we talking about?"

"Don't be such a feather head! That's what they call reverse headology. This is a woman of character! Obviously she's been spanked before, and it's left an impression upon her. We can tell you all about the water!" says the owl.