Day 114: Oathday the 10th, Abadius, 4708
I woke up after my four-hour nap feeling refreshed and ready to take on the day. More than that, I felt invigorated. Maybe it was the work that Faunra had done on some of my equipment to further enchant them while I slept, or the going through the battles that we did. I wasn't quite certain what the deal was, but something unique had happened to me, and it happened to the others in different ways as well. One of the biggest things that had changed was that the spell that I had learned from Faunra to create an unseen force to do jobs was now a lot more difficult to create, but now it generated many more of them, at least more than a dozen, and they could be used to actually make things! That was a big enough reason for me to get home and start working on more things. Even if they could only assist me in the more difficult things, multiple hands would make the job much quicker.
This wasn't the only change to the spell, as now they would last for much longer. I guess I'll have to note it in this log when they actually stop being in operation as this could take a while. I accidentally summoned them when I started up in the morning getting ready for the day, so they are relegated to collecting everything that we might come across and putting it in the proper bag. Niddler will be directing which bag. We are going to ensure that nothing that could be made to be a danger to Sandpoint remains here.
Jonathan had determined that he could now do his air bubble trick to greater effect amongst us all, and Dame Rebekah was granted more ability with calling down the servants of her goddess, much in the same way that Faunra had done the day before. Faunra had the biggest leap in capability. She told us that she finally unlocked the secrets behind the teleportation spell, and the spell that Chelger had used in the creation of the fortifications of Sandpoint, creating solid wall of stone. I was amazed by all of the interesting little things that we had just suddenly started grokking, but then again, jumps like this are not at all impossible even back where I was from, just not the same kinds of things.
We got our equipment and everything packed up and shrunk the rooks back down. Tonight, we'd have three rooks to use, so I might be able to have one area where the unseen craftsmen can work without annoying everyone. I asked everyone if we should just wait for Conna or Oriandian to come back to talk to us, and Dame Rebekah noted that we should strike while the iron was hot, so to speak. I asked how we should try to get back to where we were, and Dame Rebekah smiled to Faunra. Dame Rebekah hefted both of the bikes off the ground, like it was nothing. Faunra told Jonathan and I that we should form a line and grab each other. I grabbed onto Jonathan and Faunra, and Jonathan grabbed onto Dame Rebekah.
Faunra said some magic words and I could feel some shredding before we materialize in the room where we fought the hill giant that came out of the dirt. I asked if that happens every time, and Faunra told me that it does not, that it wasn't that common of an occurrence. I nodded and noted that fast transport still had its uses. Faunra laughed and said that of course it does, that teleportation takes a lot out of a person, even skilled casters. We got patched up with some minor healing potions and got situated on our bikes. The Hill Giant was nowhere to be found.
I noted that we should probably prepare as best we can before we head out, because it will probably be a bit of a rough ride here on out. They all agreed, and Jonathan decided to keep watch, as that would enable the three of us to go through the spells and such that would work best for all of us. Faunra invoked her spell to give us flaming ammunition, her spell to fly, her mirror images effect, a force field effect for Jonathan, and a spell to distort the edges around her, making her blurry. I opened up the app on my phone for kirlian photography, created that mirror image thingy that Faunra does, but with one less image, invoked a speed up spell for everyone, and finally invoked a spell to help people know exactly the best place to be for the upcoming combats. Dame Rebekah blessed us all with protection from fire and evil, ignited her sword, and created a silence effect on Niddler when we were all done.
We were all ready, so we took off, with Jonathan jumping in my sidecar. We were about to leave when The giant we had fought the night before in this room materialized out of the dirt. He had some new dark black brands like the hill giants we had fought a few days ago. He swung a great club at Jonathan, missing him and hitting me hard in the chest. He finished off his swing with trying to hit Dame Rebekah, but missing. We were dead certain that he was dead yesterday. Faunra dropped a half dozen arrows into the hill giant, and the giant seemed to be heavily damaged. The Hill Giant tried to swing at Faunra, but missed. Dame Rebekah, reacting in a speed with which I had never seen her before, took the opportunity to unleash a pair of slashes on the giant, spilling its guts on the soil and then cutting off the things head.
I looked over the others and thought to Niddler that he should jump back into the extradimensional space. He did so and I asked everyone what they thought this was. Dame Rebekah said that it reeked of foul magic. Faunra mentioned that back in the old times, there were rumors of a cauldron that can bring back the recently deceased, but in odd ways. Jonathan told everyone that this means that the area might be flooded again with the enemies that we had just defeated. I thought again to Niddler that he needed to come out with a potion. He did so and I drank it. It healed up all of the damage that I had taken, and we got ready to leave, again.
We took off down the hallway away from that room to the intersection. We whipped a right and headed towards the dragons' lair. When we were pulling into the room, we looked around and found that their bodies were gone. We shrugged and rode on to the next room. The former sanctuary of Echidna didn't have the lamias there to attack us, but there was a bevy of undead. The three ogres that we had slain were now blood dripping skeletons, the two dragons that we had slain were now zombies, and the two lamias that we had slain were also zombies.
We didn't notice them until we were in the room, but there were another four zombie stone giants that had been hidden behind curtains on the walls to the sides of the entrance that we came in. I guess part of their orders must have been audible based, or that they were to wait until we had gotten into the room, because they didn't lurch out of their hiding spots until we were fully in the room. That didn't stop Jonathan, as he unleashed might I had not ever seen yet.
Lightning flashed out from him as he lashed out with the biggest lightning bolt there has ever been. It smashed through the two zombie dragons, and the two zombie lamias with hesitation, completely disintegrating the last one. It forked over to the four zombie giants, who were each damaged by it, each to a lesser degree than the last, and then forked back to completely incinerate one of the blood dripping ogre skeletons, leaving only a great club and some half plate armor.
I followed suit with him, energized by the magic that was all around me. I popped off one round each at the blood dripping ogre skeletons, and one each at two of the Zombified stone giants, dropping all four that were hit. Each one with a burning new hole in their head. Faunra dropped the last two with two shots from her arrows apiece. I think we got through the trap that was set much quicker than expected. Or maybe not. Maybe it is just a stalling tactic. I don't even know if those who create undead know if those they created are destroyed. The unseen servants quickly gathered up anything of use and stuffed it into our various different extradimensional spaces.
We moved along the circular path, stripping out everything of need and value as we went. We were mostly just zipping through areas we had already been. When we got to the area where the kobold formerly was, Jonathan slapped my arm and pointed. I saw a pack of five small fey in blood red caps. I knew what they were without anyone saying anything. Redcaps. I even tried to scream it out, but the Silence effect stopped it. One of the Redcaps must have noticed me, because it leapt out with its scythe and tried to hack at me. It also tried to kick me with its hobnailed boot. Both glanced off my armor harmlessly. Those gnomes were dead right back in Windsong Abbey. Armor was a necessity in this world.
Faunra revenged me in this, launching three arrows into the one who attacked me and another three into one of the other ones, gathering the attention of the rest of the group of Redcaps. I pulled my pistol and fired off a round each at the remaining Redcaps. They seemed less than impressed. One of them leapt forward to take another swing and a kick at me, again bouncing off my armor. Dame Rebekah jumped out of the sidecar and charged at one of the ones that I had hit, severing its head from its shoulders. Jonathan focused for a few seconds and launched out a massive bolt of chain lightning, frying each one to ashes. All that was left behind was a single tooth from each. The unseen crafters picked up the teeth, the boots, and the scythes and loaded them up as best they could before we took off.
We followed the rest of the loop until we got to the dining hall. The four Stone Giants that we had disposed of the day before had been brought back much in the same way as the Hill Giant that we had encountered when we first came back into this underground area. We were ready. I had my rifle ready and popped off two rounds each at the two giants furthest from us. Since they were not expecting us, and since this rifle was enchanted to be especially good against giants, I dropped each of them, with another lead jacketed valentine to the cerebellum each.
Faunra followed this up with a series of six arrows split between the two remaining giants. This didn't drop either of them, but then an arrow flew out from nowhere to imbed itself into one of the giant's eye. It didn't die but we could tell it was on it was staggered. It tried to throw a boulder at Faunra, but the boulder was short and to the left of her. Dame Rebekah rushed forward toward the other giant, and charged at it. It tried to stop her with an overhead smash, but judged it wrong and Dame Rebekah ran up the great club, swinging her vicious sword and hacking the giant's head clean off. This left only one of the giants left, the one with four arrows sticking out of it, which Jonathan summarily electrocuted with only moderate thought.
The unseen craftsmen grabbed up everything and we continued around the loop back the way we came. We had not yet seen Conna, but we could only hope that either she wasn't down here or that she had not suffered long if this Mokmurian had inflicted torture upon her. We would avenge her no matter what. We rushed back to the one path that we had not taken after the Lamias yesterday and found a passageway where there were furs hung.
Jonathan stopped us and signaled that there were monsters behind the furs. I guessed that they didn't notice us, so we carefully moved on to the end of the passageway where the murder cells could be accessed. Dame Rebekah and Faunra went down one path, and Jonathan and I went down the other. Jonathan was in the lead, and he encountered what was there first. It was a troll, in armor, with an enchanted ranseur. Jonathan focused up and launched a cold Iron Caltrop into the troll's head. It didn't stop him, and the troll lunged forward with its gangly arms and tried to rake Jonathan before trying to land a bite on him as well. They all missed.
I followed up with a single round from the rifle to the troll. The round burned into the troll and it fell to the floor twitching for a second before stopping. The unseen craftsmen immediately rolled the bodies and carried the stuff back with us. When we got back to the bikes, Faunra and Dame Rebekah were just getting back, with their own loot. We got back onto the bikes and we took off, down the path that we had not yet taken. Dame Rebekah swigged a potion in her side car while we rode.
As we rode down the path, it took on a corkscrew to head down deep into the earth. I was used to this kind of speed, and ended up taking the lead. A fairly tight corkscrew down into the earth, it was almost trivial to just hold the handlebars at a specific pitch and just watch as we descended. It was two and a half minutes of descent at our speed. As the vault altimeter reached approximately eight hundred feet below ground level, the corkscrew ended in a short straight away. By this time, a fair amount of enchantments on us had ended.
Gone was Dame Rebekah's Protection from Evil, and her sun-metal enchantment on her sword disappeared. As did the silencing from Niddler. Faunra's blurring effect had ended, as had my own haste and placement spells. We stopped the bikes and quietly spoke to each other. I asked if it would be wise to try to reapply whatever protections we had that had lapsed, that we could do so with. With just over ten seconds spent preparing, I renewed our haste effect, and our placing spell. Dame Rebekah activated a spell that pulls from the best of both sides of her heritage, and renewed her "Sun Metal" spell.
Faunra cast a spell to silence my rifle, my pistol, Dame Rebekah's sword, and her own bow, since it would be better to save Dame Rebekah's silence spell for when we actually encounter a spellcaster, and then used a scroll to temporarily enhance the edge of Dame Rebekah's blade. The biggest surprise was that Jonathan actually did something, with him generating the field of air around all of us to ensure that we could easily breathe, and then turning invisible. With all of that done, we crept into the new area in front of us.
Almost immediately, I noticed that the construction had changed. This was very reminiscent of the style of construction in Thistletop and in the catacombs below Sandpoint. I expected that this meant that they were Thassilonian. Which means that this level of the facility was MUCH older than the current residents. The oddest thing about this whole construction was that there were no angles. Ever point where two planes met was resolved with a very slight, graceful curve. We decided to park our bikes pointing out, so that we could make a quick getaway if needed. Right in the back near a collapsed section of hallway, but not close enough to be in threat of any further collapsing. We secreted our way along the south hallway next until we got to another chamber.
This next room was extremely odd. Because of the materials (black marble shot thru with silver veins), and the construction (those curves), it was very hard to get an accurate idea of exactly how big the room was. I heard Jonathan's invisible voice beside me telling me that there was a magical trap in the room, and another one of those rune carved giants. I noted that to everyone quietly that this was the case, and we set ourselves up for a fight. We were not quite quiet enough. I blame Dame Rebekah of the clanky pants. The giant was ready for us.
He rushed into the midst of us and unleashed a surge of superfast attacks against the three of us before we could even react. Fortunately for us, his aim was a little off. He would have done superbly against other giants, probably who he was used to dealing with. The dagger that came up from behind him he was not ready for. Jonathan slashed wickedly through the giant in three moves, tearing the body to pieces with the last one. I think his new dagger was more than capable of handling the kinds of stresses he was putting on it.
I moved forward into the room and set to work inspecting this trap. I suddenly got the idea to just stab at it with my machete in a specific way that I remembered seeing in the book that the Tokage's had lent to me a while ago. The magic completely dispelled when I did so. Faunra, Jonathan, and Dame Rebekah all looked at me dumbfounded. Faunra quickly said that we were going to have to discuss this later, and we headed on to the next room quickly. Dame Rebekah opened up the door for us and we looked in.
The room was filled with smoke and a reddish glow that was coming from beneath a cauldron. This had to be what Conna had told us about. The cauldron that could bring giants back, in a screwed up way. We didn't have long to think before a pile of stone crowned with a skull like face emerged from a mound and lurched towards us. Dame Rebekah, being the closest to the thing, rushed in and hit it with a vicious strike. It didn't drop the thing, but it certainly wasn't happy when Faunra unleashed a trio of arrows into it, each sinking further than the last. The golem crumbled into dust with the blue runes around the thing's head faded to nothingness.
That left just us and the cauldron. Jonathan asked if we were going to take it with us. I told him that we should leave it here and continue on, as we didn't know what we would come across next. Jonathan shrugged and we continued on. We opened the door to the next room and were confronted by a blast of cold air. Everyone's breath would have been clearly frosting if it had not been for the field around each of us. Inside the room was several large suits of armor, containing preserved giants. In the center one, however had no head. Instead it had a ragged stump of a neck where its head should continue. There was also an extremely large pile of bodies and bones.
As we stood there looking in, nine human sized zombies pulled up from the pile, and started rushing towards us twenty-eight days' later style. Four of the suits of armor came ambling towards us as well. Faunra and Jonathan lashed out at the ambulatory corpses. Faunra shot off a series of six arrows towards the large zombies in armor. The First one took three arrows to drop. The second one took two arrows to drop, but the third one got hit with an arrow that was coupled with her snowball spell. It didn't drop, but it was rocked fairly heavily with the damage.
Jonathan however, did a lot to clear the decks. He invoked his Sith lightning, and launched it at the two hill giants in armor first, and then the zombies rushing towards us. The first Zombified Hill giant was very damaged by the blast, but still standing. Everything that the lightning touched after that disintegrated. Including seven of the nine humanish zombies that were bearing down on us. That left me, with a single hill giant zombie, and two human zombies. But something didn't feel right. I didn't trust that headless corpse. Back in the region of my old world where I grew up, there was a legend about a headless hessian. I decided to pop a couple of bullets into it after dropping the hill giant with one round. After three rounds that burned into it like blessed fire, it collapsed.
Dame Rebekah took a single step forward and bisected the two remaining zombies with a pair of swift swings. Dame Rebekah looked over at me and asked me how I knew that this was undead. I told her that my old world had a legend about a headless horseman who terrorized a village close to where I was raised. Dame Rebekah looked at me and told me that I had said that my world didn't have any of these monsters. I looked at her and told her that my world DIDN'T have these monsters roaming around, that these were just legends.
Dame Rebekah harrumphed and said that maybe my people should have paid more attention to the "legends" and I would have been more prepared for this. I sighed and said that I'd go back over all of the legends when we got back to Sandpoint, with the both of them, just to find out what they do know of existing here and what they do not. I snidely added that the legends of dragons back where I was from didn't even breath anything but fire. Faunra shot me a playful glance and suggested that we move along. Jonathan started humming the tune to AAR's song. My unseen crafters picked up all of the goods that they could and placed them in an appropriate area.
We went down a narrow corridor, and entered into the next room and saw that there was a large metal entity that looked like a horror version of Oogie Boogie, with a large mouth in his stomach that spewed flames. Dame Rebekah rushed forward and took a swipe at the thing's chest, cutting into the thing's body. I let my rifle lower on the sling and willed my pistol into my hand, sighting up the monstrosity and I popped off three rounds which were less than impressive against it. Jonathan was the real saving grace. He summoned up the ambient aether yet again and shocked the thing with a large lightning bolt, causing it to disintegrate into a pile of crumbled metal.
We went down the next hallway and were in another, longer hallway with a looming ceiling that is decorated with intricate stone supports and beams. To the east, there is a series of doors off the sides of this hallway. There is a lot of rubble blocking off some of the doors. To the West there was an immense bronze double door that bears a large mirrored seven sided sihedron star. It has no obvious hinges handles or locks, save for a tiny star shaped indention in the center of the larger mirrored star. We didn't have the key for this door, so it didn't matter at this point.
We took the only path left available to us in the hopes that we would find this mystical key. Jonathan took the lead and opened up the next door into a strange empty room that was devoid of any actual angles. Everything was made into arcs and curves. I saw a trio of invisible extremely gaunt looking dogs rushing to attack us. I described them quickly and told people that they were coming towards us. It was then where I remembered where I had heard of something like this. At the same exact time as Faunra, we both yelled out "Hounds of Tindalos". Faunra later said that she had put it together from the description and the room's lack of corners.
Jonathan and Dame Rebekah both exclaimed that they didn't know where to target. A hound leapt at Faunra with bared teeth but missed even with her not seeing where it was. I willed my pistol out and took a shot at each. I managed to get a really good shot in at the one had tried to bite Faunra, but all three were still up and living. Jonathan took the signal to drop a chain lightning on the hounds.
The one that had struck Faunra was the first to be hit, and it quietly yelled as it disintegrated into ash and dissipated from this realm. The one that the lightning jumped to was the second hound that I had hit, and it too was killed from the blast, being oddly quiet. Jonathan tried to arc the blast to the last hound but missed as it jumped quietly out of the way. Dame Rebekah tried to swing at it as well, but the hound took full advantage of the fact that I was the only one who could see it and the hound jumped out of the way. It also took the opportunity to slash Dame Rebekah with a claw while it evaded her blade. All of the other attacks against her failed to find an opening against her armor.
Faunra, newly freed of any immediate threats, dropped the remaining hound with two arrows, killing it and causing it to dissipate as well. Again, this canid as well was remarkable silent when it was wounded. I asked Faunra about this and she noted that there were times when the enchantment that quieted my weapons could sometimes transfer the enchantment to quiet those who the weapons strike, but only quiet, never silence. I nodded, noting that this could be a good stealth spell to learn if I ever found out how.
While we were looking around, Dame Rebekah pulled out a healing potion to get her at top shape. I did the same with the remainder of the cuts and bruises I had had afflicted upon me. Faunra took the opportunity to cast a detect magic spell, to sweep the area to check out the final door to ensure that we wouldn't be running afoul any enchantments or traps by opening it, since it seemed like we had been getting to far too quickly in this place. Faunra told us that there was an aura on the door, so we all paused for about ten more seconds. Jonathan focused on upping his force field by burning aether from inside himself. He seemed to be much more imposing now and his force field was likely much more resilient. I focused on getting ready for whatever was on the other side, and getting ready for whatever was behind the door.
As soon as we were done, Faunra told us that it was likely an alarm spell, keyed to warn the inhabitant that the door was opened. Jonathan smiled and we took up stances while he used his telekinetic fury to throw open the door. Inside the door was a cloud of fog, obscuring our vision. Jonathan used his ability to manifest a gust of wind with his blast, and blew away the fog quickly. Then we briefly saw the inside of the chamber. It looked a little like a Victorian surgical theater. There were six five-foot-wide pillars that went floor to the hundred-foot-tall ceiling! That seemed like overkill. Spread throughout the hall was a vast array of books, scrolls, powders, candles, and all manner of arcane ingredients. At the far end, the lectern stage was present, with an immense chair, a mound of furs, even more books on a table, and even an ironbound chest.
And of course, a ten-foot-tall stone giant, wearing goggles of some sort, a spiffy looking robe, with a club in one hand and eldritch energy in the other. Dame Rebekah rushed forward into the room and threw one of her javelins at him. He smiled and did nothing as it turned into a lightning bolt and harmlessly dissipated against the enchantment he had place on himself. "My Servant told me all about you and your abilities before he went silent and you destroyed him.", he said, with a sneer, while looking directly at Jonathan.
Faunra launched a barrage of arrows at the guy, stepping into the room about five feet to get further away from Jonathan and myself. She started swearing and said that she had just noticed that there was magic about him that was blunting the effect of her arrows. I wondered if my magic destroying strike would do any good against him, but I needed to get close enough to get to him to find out. I didn't have long to find out, because I saw the giant lift off into the air, peppering Faunra with three gouts of fire, which all seemed to roll off of her without any effect. With a scowl, he cast another spell to conjure up some extremely thick fog around everything that I could see. My only options were to push forward or try to retreat.
I decided to wade my way forward. Inching along the wall, I found where it opens out. I proceeded out at a forty-five-degree angle, hoping to find the end of the mist. I continued on as far as I could in that direction until I found a cubby hole in the side that looked to be a fairly solid wall. The important part was that it was outside of the fog, and I could just barely see the giant up about thirty feet above where had been, and ten feet closers to where the group was initially, looking down over where I guessed the rest of the group were. I noticed Jonathan rise up out of the cloud, and smile back at the Giant. He yelled out that he hadn't even used fifty percent of his power yet. Then he launched his new kunai at the giant. Then he launched his new dagger as a follow-up.
The attacks were still blunted to some degree by the enchantments that had been placed on this giant. Still, the force that had hit Mokmurian would have been enough to absolutely pulverize lesser beings. He was looking shaky now, like he was losing focus on who he should have actually targeted that first opening salvo. Dame Rebekah stepped out of the mist with enough time to curse and try something that she hadn't really done during this entire conflict. She just waited there, waiting to cast a spell to counter whichever spell Mokmurian was going to cast. Faunra took her opportunity to fly up and simply cast a spell at the giant. She cast a spell conjuring a glob of mud that flung out and struck him in the eyes.
Before I could draw a bead on him, he whipped the mud out of his eyes and glared at all of the obvious threats. Faunra, with her bow drawn and aimed at him, Jonathan having just done massive damage, and Dame Rebekah ready and waiting for whatever he was going to try. He cast a spell quickly, which Dame Rebekah tried to counter. Dame Rebekah succeeded, but the giant only smiled, pointing towards Faunra with an outstretched finger, uttering a word in Thassilonian that I didn't remember that they had.
Disintegrate.
A green ray sprang forth from his finger and lanced towards Faunra. I yelled out NO! as I unloaded on him, not even waiting to see what had happened to Faunra. One round, two rounds, three rounds, four rounds. I didn't even care if he was already dead after the second round ventilated his skull. The last two were just to ensure that he didn't Voorhees us. The giant paused in midair, and then went rigid. He spasmed a few times and then turned to face Jonathan, Dame Rebekah, and where Faunra had been in turn. In a strangely accented voice, sounding Glaswegian for some reason, Mokmurian's ruined dead body spoke and said the following:
"So, you three are the heroes of the age? More like grasping worms to me. Two of you are barely holding your own essence together. One not even from my minion's spell. You are all worms to be crushed back into the earth when I awaken the armies of Xin-Shalast, when the name of Karzoug is again spoken with fear and awe. Know that the deaths of those marked with the Sihedron – those giants that you have so conveniently dispatched for me – only hasten my return. Just as yours soon will. Fools, imbeciles, all of you. You with your abject failure to protect your friend (looking down towards Dame Rebekah). You with your inability to even hold yourself together (looking at Jonathan, now leaking aether out of every pore). You with your failed and weak grasp of the arcane forces that you play with even as you are dying (looking in the direction of Faunra). You all are beneath me in my weakest state. Is this the best that you could manage in the ten thousand years of my absence? Clearly the world is ripe for my return."
With that, the giant slowly fell to the ground as we rushed over to where Faunra was possibly fallen, if she was still there. Jonathan couldn't blow away the fog, because in the odd chance that she had been partially turned into dust, it could cause irreparable harm. We yelled out to her, and weakly, we heard her answer. Jonathan and Dame Rebekah rushed over to her, I stood over the body of the giant to ensure that it would not pull any more tricks. Jonathan invoked his healing power and Dame Rebekah poured the healing on as well with her spells. Soon Faunra was none the worse for wear, except for a large amount of skin that was absolutely devoid of any scarification or history of wounds.
After Faunra was okay, Jonathan used his wind gust powers to dissipate the fog cloud that had hampered us. Then we went about checking this room out and everything that was in it. Among the magic and personal effects (including another extradimensional storage bag!) was the key to that room that we bypassed. We gathered up all that we could and headed back in that direction. We decided to be cautious, but not overly fearful, as if he held the only key, he didn't need any defenses, right?
We got there and Faunra, who was detecting magic now, said that there was an enchantment on the door, but the key seemed to be able to avoid it. We wisely used the key and opened up the door. Inside were numerous glowing crystal lanterns that were hanging on fine chains from a tall domed ceiling. The walls of the room were carved with more runes and sigils, with overstuffed wood and leather chairs and polished oak tables. There was a thirty-foot diameter central shaft that held shelves and shelves of books. It went fifty-feet deep. There was also a three legged clockwork librarian that greeted us in Thassilonian.
It approached us and asked us what volume of lore we would like it to retrieve for us. Faunra asked for any documents that the library had on her home village. The limping construct went to go find what it could for her. When it came back, it had a slim folio on accounts of the reckoning of insurgent villages. Apparently Karzoug had took offense to her village's refusal of the servant that he had sent there and had performed a very wicked set of grand rituals upon all of the elves in her village. The first ritual sent all of the undead into the ethereal realm. A second one harvested all of the elves in their new temporary form to be used in the creation of magic items and spells that require expensive effects. The final ritual then used those souls to put the whole forest into a temporal stasis for thousands of years.
Faunra rushed out of the room with the ledger in hand, all that remained of her village, and it disintegrated as soon as she crossed the boundary of the library into the hallway. The Clockwork Librarian had rushed forward to try to stop her, but its bum leg tripped up its other legs and it fell. Faunra looked horrified as the dust blew away from her fingers, before landing on the ground as powder. She collapsed and started sobbing. Dame Rebekah went forward to help her out. I went over to the clockwork Librarian to see what I could do to help it.
I summoned the unseen craftsmen over to me to help and we all jumped on trying to get this poor thing back into tip top shape. I had honestly dealt with more complex things back in the factory I worked in, but it had been a little while since I had done this, so I worked slowly and deliberately. The unseen crafters all helped with getting pieces removed or reinstalled. After about an hour of work, the thing was in very decent condition. There was lots of minor mending spells in that hour, but there was also a fair amount of getting things back into the proper alignment.
When I was done, I looked over at the others and they were all standing there staring at me. I stood up and apologized to Faunra, for not being there to comfort her for what she had lost, but I felt that the most capable person was already doing the job, and that I would just blurt out something that could make it worse. Faunra stopped me and asked me where I had learned to work on something like that. I told her that back where I was from, we had technological golems that were locked into one place. They could only do a specific series of motions, but operated a lot like the clockwork golem in front of us.
Faunra nodded and the group walked over. Faunra looked me dead in the eyes and told me that we were going to kill Karzoug. I looked back at her and told her that of course we were. I was just trying to get this clockwork fixed so that I could ask it to find information on Xin-Shalast and Karzoug. Faunra nodded to say she understood, and translated it to the clockwork. The clockwork, which I started calling Archimedes, zipped over to the shaft and went diving for the books.
Within a few moments, it had a series of books, all in Thassilonian, about a number of subjects. I touched one of the books and wished that I knew what was in it. Instantly, information started to flood into my mind. It wasn't anything in depth, but it was a good summary of the books details. I looked to the others and declared that Xin-Shalast was a legendary lost city, rumored to be hidden somewhere in the Kodar Mountain, and that it had Gold streets and Gemstone buildings, and sat under the gaze of a mountain that could see. Faunra asked if I had learned anything else. I touched another book and wished the same again.
I started listing out facts, that Xin-Shalast was the capital city of an empire called Shalast, one of seven that made up Thassilon. I added that it was supposed to lay at the headwaters of the sacred River Avah, which the Varisians believed lead to an earthly Desnan paradise. I touched another book and focused again, and continued, with telling them that Xin-Shalast was ruled by the Runelord Karzoug, but that the primary architects were giants, who were ruled by Rune Giants like the one we saw in Hook Mountain.
I breathed in for a second and saw that they wanted me to continue. I touched a different book and declared that the Spires of Xin-Shalast were said to stand upon the mythical mountain of Mhar Massif, and that this legendary mountain pierced the skies about the Kodars, and was said to be the tallest peak in the range. I touched another book and continued, with telling them that this book said that Mhar Massif was said to serve as a bridge to strange realms beyond Golarion, to the nightmare dimension of Leng, and that this was said to have infused Mhar Massif with dangerous and eldritch energies.
Jonathan perked up when he heard the word Leng, but didn't ask for further information or make any other movements. Faunra asked me if there was any more information on Karzoug, so I thanked Archimedes and asked her if she could have him get more books on Karzoug specifically. The clockwork librarian rushed off with the other books and came back as quickly as it could with a pile more. The group looked at me expectantly, and I touched the first one.
I started spitting out information about a man from thousands of years ago. I told them that Karzoug was the Runelord of Greed, and that while he was an Azlanti Human, he was said to be the most gifted manipulator of Transmutation magic in all of Thassilon, and lived for hundreds years before this book was written. I touched another book this one talked more about his allies and armies. I told them all how Karzoug's armies were composed of giants, blue dragons, denizens of Leng (again, Jonathan stiffened), Scarlet Walkers and Lamia Harridans.
I stopped for a second to let my mind catch up to all that I was learning. These were only summaries of the books, but it was much more information than I was used to getting in the few short seconds that I was. When I touched the next book, I was overwhelmed with information and I let it spill out of me like so much verbal diarrhea. I told them how Transmutation magic was originally associated with wealth, but that Karzoug had corrupted it into greed, and that his mastery of greed was uncontested. I added that his skills in illusion and enchantment were said to have atrophied. I added that magical weapons known as "dominant" weapons would be particularly potent against Karzoug, yet there were no records about how to make one or of someone successfully attacking a Runelord with one of them.
Faunra asked if there was any more information about Karzoug. I touched the next book and let everyone know much of what was in it, that Karzoug was always warring with his neighbors, but none so much as Alaznist, and that Karzoug built immense statues to watch over Alaznist's lands while Alaznist built Hellfire Flumes, like what was in Sandpoint, to prevent Karzoug from invading, and that as the war intensified, the Runelords developed methods in which they could escape the world and the violence, to ride out the cataclysms that they were bringing forth.
With the last book touched, I asked for a few minutes to rest before I check out any other books. I let myself collect my thoughts, and listened to the party discuss what they thought should be the next move. Dame Rebekah wanted to secure Sandpoint against any further invasions. Jonathan wanted to hunt down the allies of Karzoug to make him weaker. Faunra wanted to get the "Dominant Weapons" to ensure that we had every advantage we could against him.
I started going over what he had said, and repeated "only hasten my return" loud enough for the group to hear. They all looked at me, and I explained my frame of thought. I didn't think that we should delay too much in pursuing Karzoug, but that attacking his supporters only makes him come back quicker. Dame Rebekah asked me what my point was. I noted that we needed to find a way to get everything we needed with minimal casualties, to give us as much time as possible, and that means research. To properly research this information, we need to be back home. We can't take these books with us, as Faunra unfortunately found out with the ledger of her tribe's end of days. We needed LOTS of books and material to make copies of everything. Dame Rebekah asked how we would do that.
I answered the same way that we got all of us to Janderhoff and then Korvosa. Faunra smiled and noted that we would need a decent offering for the Star-Flies. I asked her how much, and she said that she would look over the items to see what we could offer that they would like. I agreed to this, as did Jonathan. Dame Rebekah asked how we could have everything copied, and I told her that the Clockwork Librarian should be more than capable. If not, I would work with Faunra to get a copy machine enchanted for the guy and then he could unbind each book, make a copy, and then rebind them. We could also transfer some of our own personal libraries for inclusion here.
We all agreed on the idea, and decided that it would be for the best if we ensured that this area would stay secure. We decided to lock the door again and take the key with us. Faunra asked the Librarian if they could make copies if we provided them with equipment to do so. The Librarian said that they would do so, but didn't know why it would be needed. We noted that we needed to refresh the books so that they would be safe for momentary removal. I asked how many blank books it would need to make copies of everything. The Librarian told us that there were twenty-four thousand four hundred and ninety-one, I mean, ninety documents here. That many books would more than suffice. I gulped as two hundred and forty thousand gold was a stiff price. Everyone else agreed, and said that maybe it would just be cheaper to get a quick transportation method. Faunra said that she could teleport us here and back every day if needed.
We all agreed that this would be the wiser path. We thanked the Librarian and told them that we would be back soon to talk with them more and maybe bring a person back with us to investigate the facility further. The Librarian thanked us and went about its duties. We locked up the door behind us and headed back through the rest of the complex to make our way back to the top of the corkscrew. When we got to the top, Faunra closed off the tunnel with her Wall of Stone spell. She ended up with what she estimated was a six-inch-thick wall.
We met back up with Conna and Oriandian after we came out of the pit, back at the surface level. Conna asked us if the deed was done. I told her that it was, and asked her if her people would be willing to return to wherever they had been before Karzoug had inflicted Mokmurian's treachery upon them. They both looked a little perplexed and asked what I meant. I told them that Mokmurian was a servant of a Runelord by the name of Karzoug, who was looking to come back to this realm and expand his dominance over giantkind again, and Mokmurian had given himself to the Runelord in order to attain his power.
Conna looked at me wide eyed and asked what they can do to stop it. I told them that going back to their regular lands will help, and helping to keep a curb on the more nefarious tribes wouldn't hurt. I asked the two of them if we still needed to take care of the current steward of Conna's clan. Oriandian shook his head and smiled, saying that he had dealt with that already. I told them that we would be taking over this valley and that any who trespass into this valley may suffer for it.
Conna nodded and asked how they could get in contact with us if it was needed. I told her that she could come peacefully to Sandpoint, or leave a message at the watch tower at the end of the valley. I asked them both if they could spread word that the current inhabitants have one week to pull up stakes and start the move back to their home territories. Conna said that they would pass this message along. I thanked her and asked Faunra where we should head next was. Just then, Jonathan, Faunra, Dame Rebekah, and I all got messages from our sending stones.
Apparently there had just been an earthquake in Sandpoint. I wished Conna well and told her that we would be heading back into the fortress now. We all went in and Dame Rebekah lifted up both of the bikes and Faunra teleported us back to my house in Sandpoint. We got ready and sent back to our respective others that we were back in Sandpoint. We rushed to the Garrison to find out what the issue was. When we got there we saw that there was a large sinkhole in the ground to the north of the Garrison. Jonathan, Dame Rebekah, and I all assisted in removing sections of wall to help get the town guard who were trapped out. Luckily, not many people were injured, and Dame Rebekah's curative magic healed them right up.
We told the town that they needed to not enter the pit, because it could be dangerous. We got the guard to erect barricades while we went to talk to the Mayor and the Sheriff. We got directed to the Cathedral and headed that way. When we got there, Father Zantus was tending to the injured who had been delivered to the cathedral from around town. After stabilizing those who needed immediate help, Father Zantus took us back to a meeting room with Sheriff Hemlock and Mayor Deverin. Mayor Deverin asked us to give a recounting of the events at Jorgenfist. We did so, and they listened to everything with incredulity.
When we were done, they asked if the Valley was in a stable condition. I looked around and we all agreed that it should be okay for now. The Mayor and the Sheriff both looked Father Zantus and waited for him to speak. Father Zantus lowered his voice and cleared his throat before speaking the following:
"Of course, we're all very pleased to hear of your great successes. Sandpoint owes you a huge debt of thanks for continuing to ensure its safety yet again. And while I'd love to welcome you back to a safe and sound Sandpoint, and give you time to relax back to your businesses and pursuits, you've doubtlessly heard about the new problem. Just about an hour ago, the ground collapsed just north of the Garrison, right in the middle of Tower Street. And while we thank you for helping to recover those who were temporarily trapped underneath the rubble, we are worried about what might be down there. We know that there was an evil temple underneath our town and don't know what else could be underneath it. Now the Sheriff has offered up his men to go search for what might be down there, but I was hoping that you might want to help us with this."
Mayor Deverin spoke up, saying that the town wasn't that well off, but that this was worrying enough, what with the knowledge that the "Old Light" was actually a magical artifact know as a 'Hellstorm Flume" means that we just can't let this sit and ignore it. I told the mayor that I definitely agreed, but that a LOT of our resources were expended in the assault on Jorgenfist, and that it would beneficial to the town for us to go in fresh, as long as none of the towns folk enter, we would be willing to head in at first light, once we had a chance to recover our spent energies.
Father Zantus asked Sheriff Hemlock if his crew could keep a watch outside the pit until our group could come back and be prepared. Sheriff Hemlock said that of course his men could do so, and that this wouldn't even be an issue. We all agreed to meet up in the morning. The Mayor thanked us for arriving back promptly, and I told them that they have Faunra's continuing mastery of the arcane to thank for that. We all left from the room, as Father Zantus was heading back to work on the wounded further, the Mayor had to draft some emergency declarations, and the Sheriff had to organize the watch.
Our group headed to the Barghest, where Jonathan added a Dire Bear pelt to the already existing decorations. He had the staff whip up something and our respective loved ones came in shortly thereafter. Once they were all there, we all started telling the story, each boosting up another's contributions, while downplaying our own. Then we told them all about the miraculous find that was the Thassilonian Library that we had found, and were now the caretakers of. Savah suggested that we get Brodert Quink over there and have him do a thorough investigation of the find. We all agreed and told them that when we had calmed things down, we would do just that.
After a few hours, we all decided that we would retire to our individual houses. Now that Faunra had the ability to teleport up to four people at a time, she could get to places much faster. She did however decide that she wouldn't need to keep a spell like Overland Flight Memorized, especially with the speed at which our bikes run. Faunra told us that we would go take a visit to Magnimar when this sinkhole business was done, and we could look into getting better gear or improving what we have. We all agreed and ended our day, eventful as it was.
When I got home, I checked in with Veronica and Ivan, and got Niddler back to see his chickens. The twins were doing just fine, and were working on the projects that I had left for them. I got the unseen crafters to work assisting them, with six assigned to each, and the final two working on making a mechanism for a rudimentary copier. The true mechanism would be magical, but a way to automate binding books after the copying would be fun as well.
Savah and I retreated back to our bedroom and I noted to her that there was an enchantment that we ran across that decreased the amount of time that you needed to sleep. I asked her if she was interested in that, and she noted that she didn't exactly like the thought of spending less time with me. I smiled and noted that there was nothing that said that we HAD to not be in here more than the four hours to sleep. Savah smiled at that and we went to bed.