35: To train them is my cause!

[Ebiris]

[14:00] <@Ebiris> After the phantasmal smell and moans cease, the elf in your group moans herself and doubles over, clutching her stomach. "Aiee..." she trails off into strangely enunciated gibberish in Glenn and Lucie's ears, although Rudy's study of Cimmerian trade dialect allows him to understand her simple complaint of, "I am extremely hungry at this moment!" A feeling that Rudy can currently relate to very well.
[14:01] <@Ebiris> So can Myra, for that matter!
[14:02] * @Lucie looks around. "What's wrong? What happened?"
[14:03] <@Rudy> Rudy manages to avoid doubling over, but he can't quite stop himself from clutching at his stomach as well. "I'm.. real starving. This place, it just has that effect-" He blinks, and eyes the room once more. "Well."
[14:05] * @Lucie glances into the room with its tiny corpses. "Yeah. Yeah, I can see that. Place is filled with echoes, isn't it?"
[14:06] <@Ebiris> Retreating from the charnel prison, Zani flees back towards the Western double doors before she starts reaching around and rooting in her backpack. "It is cursed, this place," she repeats in a civilised language, pulling out a parcel of wrapped white paper. She opens it up before her eyes widen, showing it so everyone can see the mouldering partially disintegrated collection of fruits. "My food has gone bad!"
[14:08] <@Rudy> "That happen to you, Lucie?" asks Rudy, reaching for a flask of fresh water and tasting just a little bit.
[14:08] <@Ebiris> The water tastes brackish and foul on Rudy's lips!
[14:09] <@Lucie> "No, I feel fine. Given the circumstances. Maybe Rudy can summon something edible later?"
[14:09] <@Rudy> He spits it out a moment later! "You.. you're joking, right? You really want to try eating one of those things? I'd take my chances with rotten fruit over something like that!"
[14:10] <@Glenn> "Hopefully we don't have to stay long enough for that," Glenn comments with a frown. "Should we keep exploring then?"
[14:10] <@Ebiris> Zani disgustedly throws aside her lunch, now trying her waterskin of booze with a careful sip. "The potato wine is still good..." she comments dubiously afterwards.
[14:11] <@Lucie> "Least we won't be thisrty, then. Yes, let's keep moving. We're not so firhgtened just from being hungry, are we?"
[14:11] <@Rudy> Rudy grunts. "Sturdy stuff. Look, I am. We're only a day out from Salerno, so I think we can tough it out. Can't summon something edible, but could sure get something to go fishing for me, right?" He nods. "This place is tricky, but it doesn't look like it's gonna kill us."
[14:11] <@Glenn> "As long as we don't get hit by some spell that makes us want to eat each other. I wouldn't put it past this place, Lucie..."
[14:12] <@Ebiris> "Bad to drink on a empty stomach," the elf notes, screwing the cap back on and replacing it in her pack. Her stomach rumbles, but she seems determined to continue nonetheless.
[14:13] * Glenn is now known as Merc
[14:13] * Joins: Glenn (~k@c-98-197-243-233.hsd1.tx.comcast.net)
[14:13] * ChanServ sets mode: +o Glenn
[14:14] * @Lucie shrugs. "Only way to find out is to keep going, right? Rudy, send Myra on?"
[14:14] <@Rudy> "We've still got the eastern passage to explore," notes Rudy, staring back towards the foyer. "I hope to at least find some reason for all this. Myra! Onwards!"
[14:14] <@Ebiris> Myra dutifully advances through the Eastern double doors...
[14:14] <@Ebiris> OOC: how long you going to wait on her?
[14:15] <@Rudy> OOC: Was going to follow her, actually, just she goes first
[14:16] <@Ebiris> Following Myra, the group proceed into the next area...
[14:16] <@Ebiris> This room is wide, and would seem spacious if not for the low ceiling that lends an oppressive weight above your heads. It is mostly dominated by two long  tables with benches on either side running along its length, the tables slightly askew and one of the benches tipped over under its parent. Atop the tables  lie filthy and cracked shallow bowls and dull grimy wooden spoons. A single door to the North lies ajar, while another door on the East wall at its South  corner is wide open and half off its hinges. Two more robed figures lie dead here, both between the tables.
[14:17] * @Lucie strolls by the bodies, ever scanning for useful magical remnants.
[14:17] <@Rudy> Myra dutifully searches the bodies, whilst Rudy opts to stumble towards the southeastern door, wondering if Maya was responsible for the door's state.
[14:18] <@Ebiris> Lucie sees no magic at first, though as she passes the bodies she feels something lightly striking off her back and clattering to the floor - everyone else can see it was a spoon that flew off a table under its own volition. As that happens, the oracle begins to feel magic building throughout the room...
[14:20] * @Lucie whips around. "Who did that? Wait, what's happening here?" Lucie looks around for an obvious source for the magical surge.
[14:20] <@Ebiris> "The spoon, it moved on its own!" Zani exclaims, pointing at the cutlery at Lucie's feet.
[14:21] <@Glenn> "It's just a spoon," Glenn notes as he starts moving towards the northern door. "We probably disturbed the air or something, nothing else is trying to kill us yet, right?"
[14:21] <@Rudy> "It's haunted, this whole place! But like the other times, it'll just be a passing thing! Won't it?" Nonetheless, Rudy quickly beckons Myra closer!
[14:22] * @Lucie leans down, picks it up. "Something going on in this room. Can't be sure what..." (OOC: is this a thing spellcraft could be applied to?)
[14:22] <@Ebiris> OOC: it could but you need 3 rounds to analyse the magic
[14:22] <@Lucie> OOC: I'll take that, assuming nothing new happens to interrupt me.
[14:23] <@Ebiris> As Glenn, Rudy, and Myra move about the room, the spoon vibrates out of Lucie's hand while all across the tables plates and cutlery starts to levitate off the surface! They don't merely hover, however, instead starting to fly around the room at great velocity, unerringly seeking out the living to strike off of in a storm of furious tableware!
[14:23] <@Ebiris> OOC: reflex saves all
[14:23] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+10 Zani
[14:23] * +Hatbot --> "Ebiris rolls 1d20+10 Zani and gets 19." [1d20=9]
[14:23] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+3 why can't all my saves be will
[14:23] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+3 why can't all my saves be will and gets 19." [1d20=16]
[14:24] <@Glenn> roll d20+9
[14:24] * +Hatbot --> "Glenn rolls d20+9 and gets 15." [d20=6]
[14:25] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+6
[14:25] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+6 and gets 21." [1d20=15]
[14:27] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+2
[14:27] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+2 and gets 16." [1d20=14]
[14:28] <@Ebiris> Reacting quickly, everyone manages to duck or dive out of the path of the barrage, plates and utensils whipping past them and ricocheting off walls hard enough to come partially apart in showers of splinters! But they're not ceasing to move, instead turning about and floating up as if to go for another pass!
[14:28] <@Ebiris> OOC: lets roll init here
[14:28] <@Ebiris> roll 1d20+10 Zani
[14:28] * +Hatbot --> "Ebiris rolls 1d20+10 Zani and gets 29." [1d20=19]
[14:28] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+5 me
[14:28] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+5 me and gets 18." [1d20=13]
[14:28] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+ and myra
[14:28] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+ and myra and gets Error: Check syntax." [1d20=16]
[14:29] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+6
[14:29] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+6 and gets 12." [1d20=6]
[14:29] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+5 and myra
[14:29] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+5 and myra and gets 23." [1d20=18]
[14:29] <@Glenn> roll d20+4
[14:29] * +Hatbot --> "Glenn rolls d20+4 and gets 24." [d20=20]
[14:29] <@Ebiris> OOC: All of you go before the haunt does, so feel free to just go ahead and act
[14:30] <@Ebiris> With wide eyes, Zani darts back the way she came and around the doorway for cover!
[14:30] <@Glenn> "...okay, I'll admit I was wrong about the spoon!" Glenn quickly says as he retreats fast back towards the entrance to the room, at least the one they came from given the multiple doors.
[14:31] <@Rudy> Rudy backs past the unhinged door, with Myra there to stand in front be an inhuman shield!
[14:31] <@Lucie> Not to be left behind the others, Lucie retreats as well!
[14:33] <@Ebiris> With most of the party retreating the way they came, Rudy alone advances... finding himself lost in pitch blackness without the benefit of Lucie's glowing mace to see by. The tableware continues to careen around the dining room for several more seconds, blasting itself to fragments on the walls as it fruitlessly spends its wrath before the shattered debris falls lifelessly to the rough stone floor, its fury spent!
[14:34] * @Lucie peers back inside, takes a few cautious steps into the room to make sure the unrest is done with for now.
[14:34] <@Rudy> Rudy can certainly produce his own light, and he does so on the ring on his finger. Although it always seems to have some darkish tint to it that makes it as eerie as anything...
[14:35] <@Ebiris> Nothhing manifests to harm Lucie, and the magic appears to be fading. On Rudy's end now that he has light to see by finds himself in a cavernous corridor. This long hallway has an unfinished feel compared to the earlier areas, the cave walls smoothed and supported by brickwork but only sporadically and without the plaster covering from before. Four irregularly and widely spaced metal doors lie on either side of the hallway, recessed deeply into the rock. The second one on the left lies ajar, two robed corpses lying nearby.
[14:36] <@Rudy> "It's safe in here!" calls Rudy, heading forward to glance into the open room.
[14:37] * @Lucie follows Rudy. One door's as good as another, really. "I'll believe that when nothing tries to assault our senses."
[14:38] <@Ebiris> Rudy finds a small cramped cell with a few filthy rags bundled up in one corner and a bucket full of ancient refuse in the other. From the ceiling above the bucket a trumpeted brass pipe protrudes.
[14:38] <@Ebiris> Zani follows along with Lucie, her stomach occassionally making pained growling noises.
[14:38] <@Rudy> "Would Maya's home count?"
[14:39] * @Lucie casually tries the other doors to see if they're unlocked--this hallway gives her the distinct impression of a prison area. "Might be, Rudy."
[14:39] <@Ebiris> Lucie finds all the doors are locked and refuse to move for her.
[14:40] <@Glenn> "I can't help but wonder who thinks this stuff up. Attacking utensils? Really?" Glenn mutters as he follows behind Zani and Lucie.
[14:40] <@Ebiris> As she nears the last two doors, Lucie can also see another wooden door further down the corridor leading East, held shut.
[14:40] <@Lucie> "Whatever's left here doesn't think, Glenn. It just...acts out." Lucie kneels and cvhecks the corpses for a key.
[14:41] <@Rudy> "You're presuming that was intentional on the designer's part. If it was me, I could create much better obstacles to intrustion," notes Rudy, with a pained grimace. "I think we should wreck this place when we're done here. Might get a chance to do some indoor bombing after all, Glenn."
[14:42] <@Ebiris> Aside from the habitual wicked looking ornamental daggers, Lucie does indeed find a large copper key lying under one of the punctured corpses... oddly the other doesn't look like it was bitten to death by Midolin, instead ravaged by a horde of tiny biting creatures.
[14:42] * @Lucie picks one of the metal doors at random, tries the key on it.
[14:43] <@Ebiris> Opening the door opposite what's presumed to be Maya's, Lucie finds it furnished identically, but for the decomposed corpse of a young boy - at least presumably a boy, what little hair remains is rather short, laying on the rags.
[14:45] <@Lucie> "Pity Maya didn't have the presence of mind to break the rest out with her when she left," Lucie observes. "Expect we'll find the like in the rest of these cells too."
[14:45] <@Ebiris> "Should we check?" Zani asks. "Should we... do anything for them?"
[14:46] * @Lucie shrugs, opens up the other doors if Zani's curious. "Nothing we can do, is there? Unless you want to haul all the bodies out for burial. And the cultists are all dead too, so no one to bring to task for all this."
[14:47] <@Rudy> Rudy shifts uneasily on his heels. "Maybe we should do something. Cremate them, or.. I don't know. Those stories about the unburied dead haunting from beyond true? This place is giving 'em real credence."
[14:47] <@Lucie> "Wonder why these ones were kept separate, though," Lucie adds. "Troublemakers? Or just hard to control?"
[14:48] <@Rudy> "You tell me. Would you let someone like Maya roam free if she's got any reason to hate you?"
[14:48] <@Glenn> "Might just be a number of cells, and they didn't want to keep them all near each other in case one broke out, that they they couldn't break out in a very large group all at once."
[14:49] <@Glenn> "If that's the case, we're likely to find more cells around here and there as we explore."
[14:49] <@Rudy> "These could also just be for the ones who actually have.. Eidolons," muses Rudy.
[14:50] <@Ebiris> Lucie finds most of them are similarly occupied, except for the ones on either side of Maya's which are empty, and the last one on the right... does have an additional occupant. Beside the dessicated and skeletal corpse lying foetal on the rags, she sees a pale blue glow, which resolves as she focuses into a luminescent and transluscent scorpion-like insect with four legs and two large pincers, a long curling tail arching above its body. At the sound of the rusted door creaking open, it turns on skittering limbs to face Lucie, a disturbingly human-like head nestled into the chitinous recess between its claws, its expression one of tortured agony.
[14:51] <@Lucie> "Oh my--" Lucie backs away swiftly!
[14:52] <@Ebiris> As Lucie backs away into the corridor, the ghostly eidolon matches pace with her, skittering into the corridor... without its legs actually touching the ground, she notices. It raises its claws and clacks them soundlessly, a gummy toothless mouth moving as if to speak or scream yet still without sound! Zani gasps at the sight as it exits the cell, a hand going for the curved dagger at her hip.
[14:54] * @Lucie bumps into the opposing wall. "Wait! I--I can't hear you. Can you understand me? Stay back, please!"
[14:54] <@Rudy> "Myra, stand ready!" yells Rudy, grasping his bow! "Gods, there's always another level of horror!"
[14:54] <@Ebiris> OOC: make a charisma check, Lucie?
[14:54] <@Ebiris> OOC: disease penalties don't apply
[14:55] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+5
[14:55] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+5 and gets 13." [1d20=8]
[14:56] <@Lucie> OOC: will gladly spend a hero point to boost that if possible. Must communicate with the monster!
[14:56] <@Ebiris> OOC: go for it
[14:56] <@Ebiris> OOC: +4 for 17, right?
[14:57] <@Lucie> OOC: yes, I'd rather take the bonus than risk a reroll
[14:58] <@Ebiris> The creature skitters forward, backing Lucie into the wall... but something passes between them in an instant as their eyes meet, and it leans back on its for legs, lowering the two intangible yet cruelly barbed pincers. Its maddened expression becomes less prominent, as if it is relaxing. Still its gummy mouth moves soundlessly, disturbingly human eyes gazing beseechingly at the oracle.
[14:59] <@Lucie> "I can't tell what you want...Can you understand what I'm saying? Can you nod or give me some sign?"
[15:01] <@Ebiris> The ghostly and deformed giant arachnid straightens its legs for a second, raising its body higher above them, before they relax and bend once more, leaving it back in its previous posture. Its mouth turns slack, no longer attempting to speak.
[15:02] <@Lucie> "Okay, I...think I'll take that as a yes." Lucie points to the cell the creature came from. "Was that your master in there with you?"
[15:03] <@Ebiris> It repeats the same motion it just made, eyes screwing up painfully and gumming its lips.
[15:04] <@Rudy> "Ask if it wants us to bury his boss," suggests Rudy, eyeing the creature. "Myra never seemed to want to do anything but what I tell her or to freak me out or to eat things. I dunno what these things want on their own, specially when they're dead."
[15:05] <@Ebiris> "Maybe they all need that, to rest in peace?" Zani suggests with a look back the way you came.
[15:05] * @Lucie nods, looks at the creature again. "He's gone. I'm sorry, but you don't have to watch over him anymore. Do you want us to lay him to rest? Would that help you to...move on?"
[15:07] <@Ebiris> The creature looks stricken, its legs quivering underneath it and lowering its claws as if to thump the ground while its face contorts into one of ineffable despair, phantasmal tears running down its miserable cheeks and its mouth moving as if it were wailing and crying.
[15:07] <@Ebiris> OOC: roll sense motive, Lucie?
[15:08] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+12
[15:08] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+12 and gets 22." [1d20=10]
[15:08] -> *Lucie* You're not sure - it is a ghost monster - but the way it's acting... you think its facing something it knows must be done but can't bring itself to agree with for some reason.
[15:10] <@Lucie> "There's nothing else to be done. This place is empty. The ones who tormented your master are all dead. You...want to follow him, don't you? There's no reason to stay here anymore. LEt go."
[15:11] <@Ebiris> OOC: make another charisma check? No disease penalties again
[15:11] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+5 Hatbot be kind
[15:11] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+5 Hatbot be kind and gets 22." [1d20=17]
[15:12] <@Ebiris> The creature quivers and shakes miserably, and moves as if making the greatest of effort as it... raises itself up on its legs by straightening them, and then collapses back down bonelessly, its phantasmal body evaporating into glowing motes that float upwards and vanish away into the ether...
[15:13] <@Rudy> "You said these things were what, spirit images?" asks Rudy, eyeing the vanishing lights. "Reflections of a person's deepest darkest thoughts or something like that?"
[15:14] <@Ebiris> Zani glances dubiously between Rudy and Myra at that.
[15:14] <@Glenn> "Yes," Glenn agrees. "I'm a bit surprised to see it last past his owner's life..."
[15:15] <@Rudy> "You know, I'm just gonna go with the theory that you're wrong."
[15:15] <@Rudy> "I think we'll all be happier that way."
[15:15] * @Lucie grinds her teeth for a moment. "Well that was something. Not real sure, Rudy. Could tell the place was haunted, for sure. My guess'd be whatever's left here is stuck in the throes of their last moments."
[15:16] * @Lucie glances at Rudy. So, anything happens to you, think Myra haunt your gravesite?"
[15:17] <@Rudy> "No way! Myra'll go avenge me. Won't you, Myra?" asks Rudy, turning briefly to the abomination.
[15:18] <@Glenn> "Well, if she did come about from a night of drunkeness for you, she might just go to a bar and become a phantasmal drunken lush when you die..." Glenn guesses.
[15:20] <@Ebiris> For some reason, Myra turns to focus her mutely monstrous gaze upon Lucie after Rudy's question.
[15:20] <@Rudy> "So don't get any ideas, Lucie."
[15:21] <@Lucie> "What? I was just asking a question!"
[15:21] <@Rudy> "Yeah, I know all about asking questions," replies Rudy. "Questions like 'Hey, that's a nice place you got there, friend! Be such a shame if something happened to it, right?'"
[15:22] <@Lucie> "Dammit, look what we're surrounded by, what just happened. Can't help but wonder, right?"
[15:24] <@Rudy> "I- I know! I'm just.. you know, I can't handle something like this all straight," replies Rudy, shaking his head. "It's still not as bad as Griffin Reef. That was some crazy experiment for finding power, too. Lunatics, all of these seekers."
[15:26] <@Ebiris> "The first price for power is sanity, right?" Zani asks with a wry smile that's offset by her stomach rumbling and prompting a grimace right after.
[15:26] <@Lucie> "Yeah. Almost too bad we won't find any of 'em still alive." Lucie hefts her mace, catches it the other palm with a meaty thump. "Let's keep going, see what other horrors they got up to before Midolin ate 'em."
[15:28] <@Rudy> Rudy directs Myra towards the wooden door near the end. "Not one worth paying, you ask me. Unless it was the power to stop all this from having ever happened. I mean, you see enough of this stuff, you'll probably go mad on your own." He reaches for his head. "Gonna be hard."
[15:29] <@Ebiris> Myra opens the door to reveal a circular room with a domed roof, mouldy brickwork dominating over natural caverns once more.
[15:29] <@Ebiris> A boxy operating table dominates the center of this grim laboratory. Crossed with iron restraints and encircled by a gore-encrusted gutter, the macabre device sprouts various cranks and levers, yet is too small to even accomodate an adult. Along the walls stand several tables strewn with all manner of alchemical accoutrements and torturous or surgical implements - blades, braziers, screws, forceps, needles... their contents giving way to age and the elments, with rusted iron tools, beakers of purpled glass, and deep pools of wax from countless melted candles. Several brass pipes protrude down from the  ceiling directly above the table. To the North another wooden door lays shut.
[15:31] <@Glenn> "I suspect that I don't want to know what's behind that door given the contents of this one..." Glenn mutters as he looks between all of the instruments in this one and the northern door.
[15:31] <@Ebiris> "It's horrible!" Zani gasps, a hand covering her mouth.
[15:32] <@Ebiris> *It is
[15:32] <@Rudy> "What were they trying to do?" yells Rudy, angrily lashing out with a boot at the nearest rickety-looking object. "Torture kids until they're so fucked up, the only thing they can think of is a nightmare? A nightmare they make real?"
[15:33] <@Lucie> "Or figure out what is makes 'em able to summon monsters." Lucie walks right on across the room, figuring there's little point in examining the equipment closely.
[15:35] <@Ebiris> As Rudy kicks over a brazier that falls apart and tumbles to the ground with a clatter, the light seems to grow dimmer in the room, and two shadowy figures manifest - one on the table, and one looming over it. There features are indistinct and hazy, but the appearance of a small child and a cowled monster-faced man become apparent on some level, the figure starting to thrash and whimper as restraints are heard being tightened...
[15:35] <@Rudy> "This place was here to make summoners, right?" replies Rudy. "Not like Maya was whipping out a servant when she left, was she? We ain't born, we must be made- oh, gods..."
[15:36] * @Lucie takes an experimental swing at the cowled figure's head.
[15:39] <@Ebiris> The phantasmal figures are too indistinct to make out sharp detail, but the glint of a blade is visible in the cowled man's hand as he leans into the child... he speaks in a tone that would be soothing, but for the words coming out a cacaphony of gibberish. The child's cries rise in pitch until Lucie swings at its tormentor's head! Her mace goes right through, but the figure straightens and turns from the child to face her. "Ahh... a new subject," is heard clearly rather than the gibberish, bulging black eyes regarding her over a nose that might as well be a beak, a mouth full of rusted blades leering as its hand reaches for her chest with an implement that morphs between surgical scalpel and one of those cruelly serrated ceremonial blades over and over!
[15:39] <@Ebiris> OOC: will save, Lucie
[15:39] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+6
[15:39] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+6 and gets 24." [1d20=18]
[15:41] <@Ebiris> Lucie feels the blades penetrating her body, so cold, so sharp! She feels that she might die! But her mind rebels at the sensation - it's not real, it's merely an illusion, a powerless figment of a nightmare long over! As she masters her fear, the cowled phantom fades away into mists along with its trapped victim, the light level returning back to normal...
[15:42] <@Lucie> "Go crawl back to whatever hell's claimed you," Lucie snarls at the figure as it vanishes, shuddering a little despite herself.
[15:43] <@Rudy> "I know this is a horrible thing to say. But those kids are better off dead than they would be still stuck here," states Rudy, with a voice devoid of doubt.
[15:43] <@Ebiris> "I think so as well," Zani nods, her black eyes wide with shock.
[15:44] <@Glenn> "I just wish those kids had all managed to make it out..." Glenn adds, shaking his head.
[15:45] <@Rudy> Rudy starts towards the door at the back, shaking his head. "They must all have been from shitty places. Salerno's closest, so I bet there's more than a few from there. Nobody's got time to chase after ever missing kid..."
[15:47] <@Lucie> "Sure. Folks disappear all the time in the slums. No fuss about it if the parents are no one important."
[15:47] <@Ebiris> "Kidnapped or bought, yes?" Zani nods grimly, following Rudy as he goes to open the North door. Several open trunks spill piles of books across this dusty room. Stacks of tomes, some apparently quite old, stand in orderly stacks and haphazard heaps, surrounding nearly every foot of floor space except for long and pitted writing desk and plush tall armchair. Upon the desk itself lies an open book, seemingly partially written judging by the half complete page besides a melted down candle.
[15:48] * @Lucie heads for the desk to take a look at what was in progress.
[15:48] <@Rudy> "And then there's that crazy mage you guys ran into, isn't there?" wonders Rudy, with a glance at Zani. "You hadn't been passing through, who knows how much worse that could've got? Hermann was right. You open your eyes, and it's a world of shit."
[15:49] <@Rudy> Rudy joins her, eager and fearful all at once.
[15:49] <@Glenn> "I was a street kid myself. I think I can appreciate the old man that picked me up a whole lot more and trained me up in his trade a whole lot more now...he wasn't a father figure by any stretch of the imagination, and in some ways I wasn't more than a guinea pig to him...but he still treated me alright in the end," Glenn comments, saying a bit more about himself than he meant to, as he keeps
[15:49] <@Glenn> trying not to think of what could have been if he'd been one of those picked up for experiments here...
[15:51] <@Ebiris> "I almost feel guilty, my childhood was... my family is rich," Zani mutters awkwardly in response to Glenn, looking down guiltily as Rudy and Lucie both pore over the partially completed tome, taking some time to figure out just what it's all about.
[15:51] <@Ebiris> Its fundamental conceit is that magical potential exists in all people, and that experiences in formative years determine how it may be implemented - if at all. Passing mention is given to the scholarly controls of wizardly magic, and the miracles of faith produced by fervent worship and discipline, but the  primary thrust relates to the concept of Eidolons, the spirit images of people that can be made manifest as powerful physical constructs. The theory runs that extreme trauma and threat at a young age can unleash this Eidolon as a self defence mechanism. Further manipulation once it is brought forth can warp it further, eliciting desired traits. Whole not explicitly addressed - the author seems to be going for a detached and scholarly tone - the implicit  assumption throughout lies towards creating an army of such creatures, with their supposed 'masters' being broken and subjugated into serving the cause of  the author.
[15:51] <@Ebiris> Something of particular interest is a later chapter dealing with ways to empower the Eidolon at the expense of the Summoner - in effect sacrificing the Summoner's mind and vitality to improve the traits of the Eidolon vastly beyond the ordinary limits of training. The process is unfortunately dangerous, having cost at least one promising young Summoner's life, but another has shown vast improvements in the power of her serpentine Eidolon, and her enfeebled  and confused state makes her even easier to control.
[15:51] <@Ebiris> Should Rudy be interested, enough information is given to make the procedure reproducible using drugs and alchemical substances coupled with certain painful bodily trauma.
[15:53] <@Rudy> "I didn't want to actually be even half-right," murmurs Rudy. "So it's all done with purpose. I guess if these things really are reflections, then fucking someone up only twists it further. Like you said, insanity is a step to power. And some people didn't even get to choose."
[15:53] * @Rudy slams a fist on the table. "At least have the guts to do it to yourselves!"
[15:54] <@Lucie> "Yeah, well, a lot of people don't." Lucie turns away, scans the piles of books for anything that looks noteworthy.
[15:55] <@Ebiris> "They wanted an army of monsters, with broken children holding the leashes?" Zani shudders. "It is even worse than the dragons you Prannerians treat so casually."
[15:55] <@Ebiris> There are scores of books on magical theory and the nature of religion and otherworldly creatures, coupled with others on anatomy and psychiatry, the results of decades of study from dozens of scholars the world over. Quite innocent, even if their knowledge was clearly put to cruel use here...
[15:55] <@Lucie> "Probably the point," Lucie says. "They wanted monsters to fight monsters. Why raise an army but to fight another?"
[15:56] <@Glenn> "At least the experiments are over...that's something at least, even if it'll never help the children that have already suffered under this."
[15:57] <@Ebiris> "If any of them survived they would have come back for this material if they planned to try again, not left it, yes? So they should all be dead," Zani nods hopefully.
[15:57] <@Rudy> "Over? That's optimistic," notes Rudy. "It happened here. And something was going on in Anowia, too." Rudy heads to the desk, rifling through it to see if there are any letters or correspondance. "Could easily be going on someplace else."
[15:58] <@Lucie> "Quite a library here," Lucie notes. "I wouldn't have left it behind if I was in their place. Wouldn't mind taking what we can out with us. Of course, the cult's research can all get burned."
[15:59] * @Glenn grimaces. "Ugh, I hadn't considered it happening elsewhere. Or maybe I just didn't want to."
[16:01] <@Rudy> "I'm gonna hold onto it," states Rudy, after a moment's contemplation.
[16:02] <@Ebiris> The library seems purely for research materials rather than correspondence, although Rudy does find one letter with its reverse being used as scrap paper for drawing arcane diagrams - the writing appears to be a letter from Kivan Gardner to Jellica Hawthorne - it is unfinished and relates to a request for funding for arcane study vital to Pranneria's future well-being, though is perhaps expectedly scant on details.
[16:02] <@Ebiris> OOC: roll knowledge nobility if you have it.
[16:02] * @Lucie shrugs. "Suit yourself. Figure you can do something useful with it? Guess it would be a shame if all the subjects died for nothing."
[16:04] <@Ebiris> *vital to Isernia's future well-being
[16:04] <@Rudy> "I like to keep my options open," replies Rudy. "I ain't into pain or nothing. But y'know, last few weeks- hard to go through all that and to keep thinking it's all fine to just keep tooling around with parties and crap." He taps the book on the desk. "Plenty of maniacs out there. Might mean one that takes another maniac with a crazy pet to deal with. I sure hope not, though."
[16:05] <@Rudy> *meet one
[16:06] * @Lucie nods, takes a last glance at the shelves. IF any of the books in particular stand out as being interesting she'll grab them, but it's kind of hard to pick one out of all this.
[16:08] <@Ebiris> The books seem pretty similar to the stock of Orimander's Emporium... one however does stand out as being germane to her interests. It's titled 'Diseases of Mind and Soul'.
[16:08] * @Lucie is of course quite eager to take that one with her.
[16:10] <@Rudy> "I ain't really thinking there's much more to see," notes Rudy. "Learned what I wanted too, hateful as it is. You guys?"
[16:10] * @Glenn feels a bit odd looking for books to take, but at the same time feels obligated to look for any alchemical texts amongst these, and joins his companions in perusing the collection of books.
[16:11] <@Lucie> "Want to be thorough," Lucie says. "Make sure there's nothing left behind here might give some stray wanderer a reason to look into starting all this again. Think we only passed the one room back in the mess hall?""
[16:11] <@Rudy> "Probably the kitchen," notes Rudy, obliging to check it out nonetheless.
[16:12] <@Ebiris> Glenn sees a couple that could be relevant to his interests. 'Recipes of Suffering' and 'Alchemic Medicine'.
[16:14] <@Ebiris> Heading back, a small kitchen is revealed, an iron stove, wooden countertop, and several barrels standing as testament to its purpose. The barrels have burst over the years, spreading their contents over most of the floor and having been overtaken thoroughly by mould and rot to render their original contents unrecognisable. Several rusted knives, ladles, pots, and pans hang from hooks above the countertop.
[16:14] <@Rudy> "Knives. Bet it's the knives," notes Rudy, eyeing the implements warily. "Come flying at us any second."
[16:14] <@Ebiris> OOC: roll perception?
[16:14] <@Lucie> "Yep, that's a kitchen," Lucie observes. "Almost surprised they didn't find a way to make it an unholy den of suffering."
[16:14] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+12 myra
[16:14] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+12 myra and gets 14." [1d20=2]
[16:14] <@Rudy> roll 1d20 rudy
[16:14] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20 rudy and gets 20." [1d20=20]
[16:14] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+11
[16:15] * @Glenn grabs the medicine book easily, though he hesitates briefly before also grabbing the first book. Just because it's named that, didn't mean he'd use it like it was probably used in this facility. And he could always destroy it if the knowledge within was all distasteful. That done, he follows after the others.
[16:15] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+11 and gets 19." [1d20=8]
[16:15] <@Ebiris> Despite looking at the knives, Rudy happens to see movement out of the corner of his eye amidst the rotten spilled food. Lucie notices it as well, as if something were moving inside it...
[16:16] <@Rudy> Rudy fires a bolt into the rubbish, determined to get the jump this time!
[16:18] <@Ebiris> Rudy's bolt punctures a white spherical mould colony, causing it to rupture apart and spill its contents... a horde of cockroaches. They come spilling forth in a great wave, too many to have all fit within that small pile of rotten food, thousands and thousands of them coating the floor in a tide of black, crawling up the legs of all those who managed to fit into the kitchen, under and over clothes and rising up their bodies with unholy speed!
[16:18] <@Ebiris> OOC: fort saves for Rudy, Myra, and Lucie. It's a small kitchen so Glenn and Zani are outside since they never rolled perception
[16:19] <@Lucie> roll 1d20+3 +4 more if this is disease
[16:19] * +Hatbot --> "Lucie rolls 1d20+3 +4 more if this is disease and gets 12." [1d20=9]
[16:19] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+4 me
[16:19] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+4 me and gets 7." [1d20=3]
[16:19] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+4 myra
[16:19] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+4 myra and gets 15." [1d20=11]
[16:19] <@Ebiris> OOC: Myra can act normally, Rudy and Lucie are nauseated
[16:20] <@Rudy> Rudy starts to fidget and to swat ineffectually at the bugs swarming up his clothes; Myra helps, none too gently, and in no way does she contribute to a calm state of mind.
[16:21] <@Ebiris> "Aiee! Do you have alchemist fire, Glenn?" Zani turns towards the resident alchemist as she sees the horror unfolding in the kitchen.
[16:21] * @Lucie drops her mace, smacks at her clothes, tries to kick the creatures off her legs, stomps on a few. "Oh gods, they're everywhere! Dammit, Rudy!"
[16:21] <@Rudy> "I'm leaving! Fuck this place and everything in it!" cries Rudy, starting to hightail it to the outdoors!
[16:23] * @Lucie kicks her mace out into the mess hall and scrambles after it, scratching wildly under her clothes along the way. If Glenn wants to torch the kitchen, he's welcome to it!
[16:23] * @Glenn nods as he grabs one of his bombs and lobs it into the room, trying to avoid hitting his three companions (though Rudy might be hard to miss with all his moving around!)
[16:23] <@Ebiris> OOC: roll an attack vs the swarm, Glenn?
[16:23] <@Glenn> roll d20+7
[16:23] * +Hatbot --> "Glenn rolls d20+7 and gets 11." [d20=4]
[16:25] <@Ebiris> The kitchen goes up in flames as the three cockroach covered heroes come flying out of the door, flailing madly and shouting recriminations at one another! The insects clinging to their bodies are unhindered by the explosion, continuing to crawl and writhe upwards, covering their torsos and going up their necks! With his mouth wide open to describe his feelings towards this place, Rudy feels several of the hideous many-legged bugs crawling over his lips and into his mouth! Lucie is in similar straits, and the less said about Myra and her prehensile mouths the better! And yet just before anyone is choked or forced to crunch down on an unsavoury bite, the cockroaches vanish utterly without a trace!
[16:27] <@Rudy> Rudy manages to come to a brief stop, at which point he shakes his head. "Still leaving," he announces, departing in a huff.
[16:28] <@Glenn> "Following right behind," Glenn mutters, not wanting to be the one covered in cockroaches next time, and shudders a bit at the idea of thousands of little legs crawling over his body. Ew!
[16:28] * @Lucie spends a long moment catching her breath and shivering uncontrollably before stalking out after Rudy.
[16:28] <@Ebiris> Zani mutely follows Glenn - mute aside from her rumbling tummy - and the foursome retreat unimpeded back to their boat, finding it as they left it.
[16:30] <@Lucie> "Anything we can do to close this place up permanent?" Lucie says once back at the dock. "Make sure no one blunders in here again. Got a bomb can blow the roof down, Glenn?"
[16:31] <@Rudy> Rudy wracks his brain to think of some way to speedily crumble the whole complex!
[16:31] <@Ebiris> OOC: architecture, Rudy?
[16:31] <@Glenn> "I don't know that I can bomb the place down in one shot...it's a pretty big place, all things considered. Maybe if Rudy points out where to bomb? I still have enough for a couple of more bombs..." Glenn answers
[16:31] <@Rudy> roll 1d20+9
[16:31] * +Hatbot --> "Rudy rolls 1d20+9 and gets 29." [1d20=20]
[16:31] <@Lucie> "Well, the doorways at least would be a start."
[16:33] -> *Rudy* The place is of recent and sound construction, what supports there are made of brick and stone rather than wood. It would take far more than Glenn's little firebombs to bring it down. The front room with its tall and unbuttressed ceiling is the main architectural weak point, coupled with the massive weight of the cliffs above bringing it down should case enough of a chain reaction to take down most of the rest, but it would require a huge amount of physical force nonetheless.
[16:34] * Kozzz is now known as Kotono
[16:34] <@Rudy> "We'd need more than what we have with us," replies Rudy, shaking his head. "It'd be dangerous, too. We'll just have to leave it... but we at least divested it of the important knowledge."
[16:35] * @Lucie nods. "Well, anyone else does find this place, likely they won't be as determined as us and they'll bolt at the first sign of trouble."
[16:35] <@Glenn> "I'll just do like Lucie suggested and block off the entrance at least then," Glenn says.
[16:36] <@Rudy> "Good luck. Those are stone doors," notes Rudy. "Don't think your bombs would be enough."
[16:37] <@Glenn> "Worth a shot, if nothing else. You sure there's nothing left you want in there in case it does cave in, right?" Glenn asks, wanting to make absolutely sure before he tosses a pair of bombs.
[16:37] <@Rudy> "I know enough to know I don't wanna know much more, I admit."
[16:38] <@Lucie> "Shame about all those books, but I'm not eager to go back and haul them all out. I say go ahead."
[16:38] * @Glenn nods, and lobs a pair of bombs at the entrance. It probably won't do much, being stone like Rudy said, but hopefully it does cave in.
[16:38] <@Ebiris> OOC: roll damage?
[16:38] <@Glenn> roll 2d6+6 bomb1
[16:38] * +Hatbot --> "Glenn rolls 2d6+6 bomb1 and gets 16." [2d6=6, 4]
[16:38] <@Glenn> roll 2d6+6 bomb2
[16:38] * +Hatbot --> "Glenn rolls 2d6+6 bomb2 and gets 15." [2d6=3, 6]
[16:39] <@Glenn> ooc: and splash damage on them is 8 if that matters.
[16:39] <@Ebiris> The doors are actually wood, but they don't catch fire easily, being of sturdy construction. The blasts rattle them a bit off their hinges and leave the wood scorched and splintered, but its certainly no impediment to the overal structural stability of the caves.
[16:40] <@Glenn> "...ah well," Glenn mutters.
[16:41] <@Lucie> "Guess we'll just have to hope fear keeps people out if anyone does find this place. And make sure no one in the city's like to look for it. Likely no one is if it's still empty after all this time, but may as well look into the names in that letter just in case, right?"
[16:41] <@Ebiris> Zani clambers down into the boat and gamely takes an oar. "But before that, I want to buy a big meal when we get back!"
[16:42] <@Rudy> "There's something just fucked up that we're still hungry after looking at that," notes Rudy, having Myra take the other. "It's on me."
[16:42] * @Lucie climbs down after her. "Fine by me. Hey, got any of that booze left? Could use some about now."
[16:42] <@Ebiris> "Be more hungry after rowing all night," Zani notes glumly as the group gets ready to cast off.
[16:43] <@Ebiris> The elf then nods and hands Lucie her waterskin.
[16:43] * @Lucie takes a swig, returns it. "Better, thanks. Can spot you a turn at the oards if you like. Not hungry yet, myself."