"Did I tell you already about that Song of Silver that is mentioned in these papers? But the song itself is nowhere to be found in them. It's frustrating!" Rexus tells.
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"No noble house would care about the guys working at the holding house. As a noble you only care for your helpful relations. Or you do some charity. But I know of no noble house that has ever spent a dime on the dottari." Rexus tells.
"There are many, why do you ask?" Rexus replies.
"This Song of Silver sounds like a key element, that you should persue." Rexus tells.
Rexus slowly follows from the gallery of empty frames, stepping carefully over the bodies of the zombies and the asmodeam redactor. As Saul offers his condolences he freezes in shock. Turning around he stares at the burnt corpses until he notices the rings. OOOOoooooo!" Rexus breaks down sobbing, falling on his knees. He takes the burnt hand in his. "Mother, nooooooo..."
"I have a little hope, that maybe my parents are here somewhere." Rexus replies, looking at the dead man. Though he doesn't think, that a dead Asmodean is a good sign.
Rexus reaches into his shirt and takes off the key he wears around his neck. "Try this." he tells Zea while holding out the key to her.
"My guess is as good as yours. From the outside it looks like it is in a state of disrepair. But not worse than the livery we were at earlier."
"The Sacred Order of Archivists is a secret society of Iroran scholars headquartered in the Chelaxian city of Kintargo that protects and preserves the written word from the revisionist historians in the government and the Hellknight Order of the Rack." Rexus explains.
"Ah, yes." Rexus clears his throat. "Hocum’s Fantasmagorium. The structure was the passion of a struggling stage magician and salesman named Braedan “Hocum” Azperex. The man had the building constructed a year after the Chelish Civil War ended, with the goal of “bringing whimsy and joy back to Kintargo.” His plan was to have the Fantasmagorium serve as a museum of fantastic oddities and “authentic” magical phenomena. His charm and showmanship transformed the bizarre concept into a minor success for many years, but when the exhibits (many of which were either grossly exaggerated or utter hoaxes) began to lose some of their novelty, the Fantasmagorium struggled to make ends meet. It finally went out of business 20 years ago, and Hocum died not long thereafter—the building has remained shut down and something of an eyesore ever since." "Or so I was told. All but the current state of affairs I didn't see myself of course. And this closed down building was then used by the Secret Order of the Archivists, an order my mother belonged too. I believe that is the reason Thrune burned down our estate. But as the Fantasmagorium didn't burn down, they have not known and we might find more information about the Silver Ravens or other knowledge helping us bring down the tyrant." "And maybe, just maybe, my parents were not at home at the Night of Ashes and are hiding there." Rexus adds.
"I've never been there myself. I only know that this key..." Rexus pulls a fine chain with a key out of his shirt "opens a lot of doors in the Fantasmagorium." "Or do you mean the history of it, before it became a secret hideout?"
"Why the Fantamagorium? I don't know why they chose it." "And You're good guys, but I'm not sure what my mother would think of me giving away the secret location of their Order. But I make no progress here and neither do you. I trust you enough now to share that with you. As I'm hoping that this will bring us some kind of breakthrough for the rebellion and do more good than damage." Rexus replies in a semi dramatic speech.
Rexus is torn. Of course he wants to go with the group. But it will be at night, during the curfew. What if they meet some thugs, or the dottari? "I, ... yes I want to come along." he states. More trying to persuade himself than anyone else.
"You're most welcome to aid in this task. If you're fluent in Strix, Celestial and Elven and are trained in deciphering unknown languages, then we could become a wonderful team." Rexus replies. "But when will we go and check on the Fantasmagorium? Rexus inquires. It looks like he wants to come along. Saul: It is obvious that he expects to find more than some papers.
Rexus can't sit still anymore. He tells this big secret, and they just go on about their daily routine. He reaches into his shirt, pulling out the chain with the mithral key. Kneading it in his hand he walks up and down in his room. Should he have told it earlier? Is it to late already? Maybe my parents were not at home during the fire and they hide there?
"It's at Hocum's Fantasmagorium." Rexus whispers. The Fantasmagorium is an old building in the Red Roof district, that is no longer in use. An eyesore in the city.
"Wait!" Rexus calls after Saul and Fhingle. Taking them aside he tells. "This translation is hard and reveals little so far. But there is a secret... you know, my parents,..." he looks nervously around to be sur eno one listens in "or to be precise, my mother Porcia Victocora, was a member of a secret group of historians called the Sacred Order of Archivists. It was for sure for this reason that she and her estate were targeted for destruction by Thrune. But the archivists used a building as their stronghold. I'm sure there is more about the Silver Ravens to know there." "We must be careful to not blow the cover of them, when going there but we must try to contact them. Would you do this, if I tell you where to find them?"
"Lucky you. To me it makes sense, I spend an hour on transcribing it, only to find out at the end of the page, that my assumptions were wrong and I have to start over again." Rexus replies with a sigh.
"Jackdaw appears in the texts now and then. But no details about the person. No race, no gender - almost like a ghost." Rexus explains.
"It is frustrating. Page after page of history - which is really interesting - but so far nothing that would help us with our own rebellion." Rexus states.
"You could go and buy another notebook, for my notes and the final translation. I don't have the time to get out myself, I need to work more on the papers." Rexus suggests
Casamir explains what happened at Windsong Abbey from the start until the Pathfinder group arrived to sweep through the evil invaders. He tells that Ardathanatus is behind all that and that he still roams freely in the abbey.
"No I'm fine... but if you could get me another pot of coffee?" Rexus replies to Fhingle's offer.
Fhingle:
You notice a page on the desk that looks different from the rest. Though you can't read it just like the others. Rexus informs Fhingle on his progress which is taking up speed and he actually managed to decipher some pages.
"My parents were part of the Sacred Order of Archivists, and I suspect that they were targeted by Thrune’s agents for this reason." Rexus answers. "I wonder what the other buildings burned for."
"The house didn't have a basement." Rexus replies. He looks disappointed. "You can say my parents had that coming. But it is a great injustice nonetheless."
Rexus already sits over the documents again. He tells how fantastic all these papers are and an invaluable treassure for every historian interested in Kintargo, and the Silver Ravens in particular. He propounds over words and dialects and entanglement of the languages in a way that would talk everyone but Salonius to sleep in a short time. On the papers written in common you can see that he isn't even past te introduction text. But seeing the partial interest Rexus changes the topic. "You know that the Victocora estate burned down in the night of ashes. I tried to find out if my parents were there at the night of the fire, but couldn't get in because there were dottari guards patrolling every time I tried. Would you go with me and help me find out what happened that night?"
Rexus joins the group with some of the docments. "This is really interesting." he tells. "but it will take weeks to translate all of this into something readable." Rexus has dark rings under his eyes. Obviously he is more interested in the documents than in sleep. But he has no new insight to tell you about what is in the documents yet.
"I can stow away these goods in my room for you." Rexus suggests.
Rexus scribbles text in his notebook while checking the words and trying to get meaning into the sentences. "We won't find out, before we crack the code!" he tells.
Rexus asks to see what you've found in the basement and where exactly, and looks at everything with wide eyes. He casts a spell to check specifically what it is that you found and his eyes grow even wider. He sorts through the items, appraising every single one of them and tells "That cloak is magical, and this cloak too, and this armor, and these silver ravens are too magical!" Moving on to the documents he pulls out some of the scrolls. "These seem to be magical writings to be cast by reading." he explains a bit overcomplicated. But the most he is excited over the hundreds of pages of secret information. Spreading the first few pages on the table he tells "We must find out what this means!"
On the first floor you find Rexus again. As he sees you dragging the boxes along he leaves the entrance he's guarding alone and comes to see what you brought. Taking a look at it he is really excited. "This must be what my mother wrote about." Looking at the papers he exclaims "That's marvellous. This seems to be some kind of code! It uses Elven, Celestial and Strix. Can we go back to the Longroad Coffeehouse, to take a closer look at those?" |