Fuìn looks around, feeling a little useless. He glances at the skeleton, wondering if there's any evidence of the woman's death on it, but he's no physician. He wouldn't even know where to begin. Still, his eyes work well enough, so he scours the room for anything of interest.
The ghost hesitates as people start moving her books around all of a sudden, but Giyozara's careful handling puts her at ease.
"Oh, uh, well, there's this girl I liked back at home, but I was too shy to approach her. I'm the quiet type, you see, and she's an actress. She performs in the town's plays, and-" a bzzzt of static suddenly drowns out her voice as her form glitches out and disappears for a few seconds.
She appears right in front of Cherry Berry. "Well, my hometown's far away, until Lady Belcorra ordered a specific book from my father's bookshop," she continues, as if nothing happened. "It's a nice shop, it's called.... Hmm, you'd think I remember my father's own store..."
Her form grows hazy as Kvit and Kka carry out more and more books.
"Anyway, Lady Belcorra asked for this book and requested a delivery. Normally we send it by post, but she insisted it was to be guarded personally. She paid extra for it, so I went as a courier, and she appreciated my skills, so I became employed here. It's a bit curious how she has a whole underground library, but-" another crackle of static buzzes through her words as she glitches out and reappears elsewhere again.
She tries to hold a conversation, but the more books you carry out and/or fix, the more erratic her form becomes. When the room is empty of books, she glitches out one final time and does not reappear.
Fuìn finds a key , a gold paperweight worth 10 gp, and a jeweler's loupe that detects as magic.
Kvit looks around waiting for the ghost to reappear. When it seems like it won't be coming back he relaxes a little and addresses Sneakers.
"Listen, good job, but I'd appreciate it if you didn't try hooking me up with ghosts or any other undead. Thanks."
”I’m really starting to hate this Belcora. So far that’s three ghosts that her workplace has created. And we are on what, floor 3? Of how many?”
When the ghost librarian finally blinks out of existence, Kka relaxes. "That went a lot easier than the last one. I think we're beginning to get the hang of this." She then pockets the paperweight and looks at the jeweler's loupe...
...but shrugs and tosses it to Kvit. "No idea what this is, but I'm guessing it's more up your alley than mine."
Kka then moves up to the other door in the room and gives it the usual examination.
Kvit fumbles a bit as he tries to catch it. After nearly dropping it he takes a closer look.
As he puts his eye up to the loupe he smiles. "Ah, excellent. This is a crafter's eyepiece. I'm not sure how much time we will have to craft things at our current pace, but this will help when we do."
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Fuin pats Kvit amiably on the shoulder. "Don't be so negative! Everybody's got to take a day off once in a while. I'm sure it'll come in handy before you know it." The nonchalance in his voice sounds a bit forced; it's not like he's never seen weird stuff before--especially considering where he grew up--but he supposes you never forget your first ghost.
He looks over the key, and after testing it in the door they just unlocked and finding it fits, he drops it in a pocket and forgets about it. At Giyozara and Kka's comments, he frowns. "Wait, this isn't your first ghost? Did you... have to fight the other ones?" He suppresses a shudder at the thought of fighting what essentially boils down to spooky air.
While she works the door, Kka responds to Fuin. "We ran into some ghostly kobolds on the surface, but they weren't a big deal. And Spookywisp was only pretending to be a ghost. Otari's ghost doesn't seem that big a deal either, as long as we avoid following it to our dooms like mindless zombies." Here she snaps a quick look at Lough, before returning her attention to the door.
"Nah, the only real ghost we've come up against so far is Azrinae's girlfriend, just around the corner. We managed to avoid fighting it, but she went out with a bang that nearly killed us." She pauses to think. "I don't think we're done with ghosts yet though. Sounds like Azrinae's probably still floating around down here somewhere, and the Ghost Queen Belcorra herself is almost certainly behind everything that's been happening."
Kvit is a bit surprised at Fuìn's pat but not off-put. Their group so far had not really developed that sort of comradery yet over the last couple of weeks. "True." "Or we'll be forced to take time off to recover from more ghoul fever..." "Hear that? Get your wishlists ready everyone. Though, I'll need the plans for most things." He tries to keep things positive.
"I really need to get some feelers out on getting us some ghost touch runes soon as we get back..."
"So we'll have to face her eventually, is what you're saying."
He sighs and puts his hands on his hips. Well, you wanted to do something with your newfound 'gift,' he thinks wryly. Guess you'll get your chance.
"Won't that be fun," he adds with forced cheer.
Kka laughs at Fuin's comment. "<Ark, ark!> I wouldn't worry about too much bub; we'll all be long dead before it comes to that... <Ark, ark!> Several times over probably."
"No need to be defeatist, Kka." Cherry says, "Look at all the good we've done here already. We've protected the town, put a couple of ghosts to rest, and made the some inroads in finding out what is going on here."
Kka checks the next door and doesn't think anything's wrong with it. Lough opens the door.
A small, cramped bed is wedged awkwardly into this room, as the walls are lined with sagging bookshelves.
The bookshelves are filled with books, and after checking the contents with Morlibint's list, you haul 2 bulk worth of valuable books with you (10 gp total).
Not particularly heavily burdened, Fuin happily offers to carry the books. He grabs the 2 bulk and stuffs them in various pouches and pockets on his backpack. (Gently, of course.)
Stepping back out into the hallway, he motions down the eastern corridor at the intersection. "Have you been down this way yet?"
When Kka sees Fuin stowing the books, she says, "You really don't need to load up on them just yet. We can come get them on the way out... along with a bunch of the other books while we're at it, assuming Morlibint'll pay us something for them too."
Kka glances down the corridor that Fuin is motioning towards. "Nah, we haven't gone down there yet. How about we try the first door here, let's see, uh... 'Safety'? I wonder what that's about." She goes over and checks the door before letting Lough go through it.
"Maybe its safe to open? Cherry asks cheerfully.
Kvit rolls his eyes at Cherry's comment. "I highly doubt that..."
He moves to near the door to assign with any devices should Kka want his help this time. Though he seemed to get in the way more than help her last time.
"Though Cherry might be right. If this is labeled from the library's heyday, then it might be safety tools for the books, fire blankets, and buckets of sand. Sad that we are half-hoping for a non-descript broom closet already..."
He starts a half-hearted chuckle and then leans on his staff and coughs.
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Several buckets of sand and a number of large barrels crowd this cramped storeroom. A simple wooden case with a closed lid is attached to the back of the door.
If you open the box at the other end of the room, you find that it holds a magical wand.
Fuin nods at Kvit. "Called it. Guess we might as well check this one." He nods at the door by Cherry marked 'Reading Room.' "Might be more valuable books in there, if nothing else!"
Kka picks up the wand and frowns at it. She hands it to the cleric. "Cherry, any idea what this is?"
She then looks down the corridor to the two doors at the end. "The closet wasn't very exciting. I wonder if those doors down there have anything more interesting behind them." She heads down to the door at the end and looks it over.
"Oh, that's a wand of Quench." Cherry seems very enthusiastic about this spell. "It makes a vapor that will put out non-magical fires, some magical ones, and could really hurt anything made out of fire. It's a Primal spell, so unfortunately I cannot use it."
When Cherry mentions that the wand is useless to them, Kka seems unfazed. "No big. I'm sure someone back in town will be happy to take it off our hands... for a price. We'll use the dough for something useful. Hold onto it until then."
"Right, sorry. Ten minutes down here and I'm already getting turned around."
"I think there is a way to trick a wand like that to function, but it's a little unreliable and you still have to have some ability. Anyway, we can figure that out later. Let's not let a boring room get our guard down. I'm ready to keep looking."
"I am studying Druidcarft," Cherry admits. "I wasn't planning on getting into casting, Erastile provides what I need, but it is a possibility some day." Cherry shrugs and puts the wand away for now.
Kka checks out the eastern door and doesn't detect anything unusual about it. Lough opens the door.
Three plain beds have been awkwardly stacked against the west wall of this room, leaving room for a single low table. The foul smell of rotten meat hangs in the air.
Looking through the room, the beds haven't been used in a long time, but it's clear that food used to be consumed here until recently. Small scraps of meat lie about, but you can't find anything larger than bite-sized leftovers.
Kka looks about the room but doesn't find anything of value or anyone that needs killing. "Huh! Another boring empty room. Let's try this one next." She checks out the door to the Scrivener's Office.
Kka deems the Scrivener's Office door safe and opens it.
While this room may have once served as a writing studio, today its condition has been all but obliterated by dozens of tiny swatches of skinned flesh marked with tattoos. Judging by the workspace on the table in the middle of the room, these tattoos have been placed postmortem, with a swath of pale skin stretched over the desk sporting a half‑completed image of a sinister woman.
The room isn't currently occupied by anyone. Looking around, you find 2 bulk worth of books about tattoo artistry and historical tattoos that Morlibint is interested in.
Kka looks over the pieces of skin and books in the Scrivener's Office. "I've always liked the idea of getting some tattoos, but my feathers would kinda spoil the effect. <Ark, ark>." She then goes back out into the main library and over to the next door. "Repair Storage eh? If the rest of these rooms are as empty as the last two, we'll be done with this level in no time." She looks the door over.
"Maybe you could use body-paint instead?" Cherry suggests. "Some Leshy use that, depends on the type."
Fuin's face falls when he flashes on the fiendish flesh formation, but he does his best to recover quickly. "Never got any myself. I always kinda rebelled against skin alteration, even the basic stuff like tattoos. I'm from Nidal," he adds, as if that explains everything.
Jumping on Cherry's thought, he adds, "Ooh! Or you could dye your feathers in patterns. That'd be pretty cool. Might ruin the whole 'stealth' aesthetic you've got going on though, depending on the color scheme. I mean I guess you could cover it up when you need to be sneaky, but isn't showing it off kinda the point?"
He ponders for a moment as he keeps one eye down the hallway. Maybe it's time to get over that, huh? he thinks idly. It's not like tattoos are the same as... well, the other stuff. The mutilation and whatnot. A tattoo is probably safe.
He pauses a beat and glances back into the previous room, his stomach turning a little at the scene there. Yeah. Tell that to these poor schmucks.
Kka laughs at Fuin's comments. "<Ark, ark!> "stealth aesthetic"? That's pretty funny. But you've got a point about not wanting to stand out. Plus, dying these black feathers is a lot harder than you might imagine and the thought of covering myself in paint gives me the ick. <Ark, ark!> Nope, I think I'll stick with the all black look for the time being."
Kvit stares at the macabre scene. He says outloud, more to himself, than the group at large. "What was the point? Just a hobby? Or were these meant to be something..."
He examines them more closely, deep in thought.
---
Sneakers doesn't appear to want to enter the room, though he speaks up when they start talking about dying Kka fun colors. [b]"Hey, we've seen enough ghosts and ghouls down here. You could get away with dying them white!"[b/]
Kvit examines the drawing stretched out on the table. It seems to be made of human skin, and someone has been tattooing on it recently. Though it's only half-finished, you see a striking resemblance to the wooden golem you encountered yesterday...
It doesn't seem to hold any particular purpose, other than just being decorative.
Kvit turns to follow the rest out. "They just look decorative. Not that I approve of tattoos or, well, this whole room, but I don't think it's anything to worry about."
Kka is about to head over to the Repair Storage when she notices the two doors heading out of the Scrivener's Office. "Hold on a minute. There's a couple of doors here we should check out first." She gives them the usual looking over.
Kka checks the two doors and deems them safe. She then opens the one to the west.
The desk in this office has been repurposed into a messy butcher’s block. Bits of decaying pale flesh lie strewn about the room.
Kka cracks the door open and looks inside. "Boooriiiing!" She gives the room a cursory search, then goes over to the other door and looks it over.
Kka checks the room. You might expect a cleaver of some kind, and there's definitely notches where one was thrown into the wood, but the occupants of this room might've taken it with them.
The next door looks safe, and you open it.
The heaps of slowly decaying morlock bodies hung and stacked here reveal this former bedroom’s current use as a meat locker.
Kka, with you skills of medicine you know these corpses are in a far state of decomposition. You see the telltale signs of blueblisters on these bodies. This is a disease that slowly rots away your flesh while you're still alive (or dead, in this case). At first you only feel sick, but in the later stages of the disease it'll eat away at your health as well. You might want to be careful when examining these corpses or you'll expose yourself to it as well.
Kka opens the next door and peeks inside. The smell hits her first. "<Gurrk!, Kraaap!> She quickly clamps her free hand around her beak to block the stench before absorbing the grisly view that presents itself to her. She automatically recoils at the sight of the rotting morlock bodies and their prominent blue-hued blisters. Stepping back, she slams the door closed. "Do NOT Go in There. Wooo!" She then hunches over and takes several deep breaths to clear her sinuses and try to stop herself from retching.
Finally composing herself, she straightens up and heads back out to the Scrivener's Office. "I don't know who this Scrivener guy is, but he definitely has some strange hobbies". Bracing herself for more horrors, Kka takes a glance behind the other door.
...
Kvit stares at the hanging bodies. More intrigued than he should be and curious what the point of the room was. "Hmm, maybe that they are afflicted by whatever causes the ghoul fever. Maybe I should check it out closer."
He sees Kka moving off quickly to the next rooms. "Ah, or we could just keep moving on."
Kka checks the next door and it seems safe. There's a long corridor behind it, terminating in another door.
Kka looks down the corridor at the dim door in the distance. "Sheesh! This place goes on forever." The door is a little too far from her more burly companions for comfort. Turning to Kvit, she says, "I'll go check the door. You get the others over here in case there's a bad guy behind it." She wanders down to the end and looks over the door, but doesn't open it .
Fuin stares at the hanging bodies, somehow managing to look even paler than usual behind his bandana mask, and wondering if maybe he bit off more than he can chew with this job...
Can it. You need the money if you're going to disappear properly. Just because those chain-loving maniacs haven't found you yet doesn't mean they won't. Suck it up and get moving!
He sighs and momentarily considers popping into the corpse room to check them, since he's got the antiplague coursing through his veins, but decides it's not worth the risk. He doubts anything in there is actually worth risking death for. He finally follows Kka down the long corridor, still keeping an eye out for threats.
"This level does feel bigger than the others." Cherry says to Kka.
"We should do something with the bodies though." Cherry says. "I know they probably weren't nice people, but that is not the way to treat a body."
When several members of the group decide to ignore her advice and look into the room with the bodies, Kka clacks her beak in admonition. "<click, click, Clack!> If you guys want to go messing around in there that's up to you, but the blue blisters on those bodies are seriously bad news. Unless you want to end up like one of the corpses in there, I'd stay away from them." She pauses to think before adding, "Maybe Kvit could torch the whole room from the doorway and turn it all to ash, but for the time being I'd just leave it alone."
Fuin raises his hands defensively. "Hey, I didn't go in!" He rubs his chin. "Cherry brings up a good point, though. Maybe we can give them a funeral pyre at some point. Y'know, without actually going in. Not sure how to ventilate the smoke... but we can worry about that later. Kka is right, we should at least make sure this level is free of danger before dealing with it."