Alycron - The Watchers

"if they can understand common, and not just copy us, get two in range of us so I can exercise my will upon them." Samael whispers to trinya so that the little bastards won't know what hit em.

No sight of any of the creatures? Nothing showing up as being magic?

Then Trin will carfully sneak further into the room to peek into the hole. (Keeping a couple of feet away from the edge not not break thru the floor herself.)

Perception: 18

Trinjya makes her way down the stairs towards the hole, scanning for movement as she does though nothing jumps out. Nothing triggers her detect magic at this point either. You peer down into the hole, ensuring not to stand too close to the edge. You see little but the ladder leading down into the darkness, but as you're looking down you hear a familiar voice from below. Horatio's voice echoes up at you, "Something in the hole on the north end!"

Perigord attempts to communicate with the nothic on the pillar, holding his hands up peacefully and indicating an interest to enter the hole while speaking in Deep Speech, then Common.

"What is down there? Can you understand me? Would you be willing to negotiate with us?"

(OOC: I know Trin and Sam already went down but I'm under the impression that they snuck past the nothic, so this is a more direct strategy.)

((Is there anything else in this room? More book shelves or other furniture?))

Trin will sneak back to Samael and whispers:

"I think they are still one level below down that hole, I'll try to lure them out."

She turns and casts minor illusion to make an image of herself right at the edge looking down into the hole. ((So what i'm tying to do is create a tiefling shaped silhuette as close to real life Trin as possible for a cantrip, which is visible from inside the hole, to provoke a reaction.))

Map Link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qWBFfYxhJeFNpwzGA

(OOC - Trinjya and Samael are at the stairs on the right, that curves around and under the platform. The nothic is at the pillars along the edge of the right platform (4th pillar from the top). You can make out that on the far side of the library (left) is a mirror image of what you have seen so far. Several statues, bookshelves, chairs and desks. Given the few magic items and intact books you've found so far, there is possibly more hidden throughout.)

The nothic looks to you Perigord, tilting its head as you question it. The nothic grunts and growls, shaking its head and hands, pointing at the hole, then at one of the bookcases below. 

Trinjya forms the illusion of the tiefling's head peering over the side of the hole.

Suddenly, you see an icy blue ray shoot up at the illusion from down the hole, followed by a dazzling ray. You then hear some high-pitched voices squabbling in a strange language.  

"so, they seek to bait us." Samael whispers

10 int for language check.

It's hard to pick what language echoes from below. It almost sounds like its a mix of words and phrases from several languages, some sounding like things you have said during your exploration here and others unintelligible. 

The nothic at the pillar gnashes its teeth once more and points to the bookcases below before looking to the hole once more with a low growl.

"Bait!" "Bait!" "Bait!" echoes around from around the library and down the hole, and ends in a raucous of cackling laughter.

"Trinjya, Samael! The nothic indicated that bookshelf, it might have something useful!" Perigord quietly calls down, pointing the way the nothic pointed. "Should we come down as well?"

"if the bookshelf is on the way to us, yes. otherwise, stay together and be wary of voices. They tried to use horatio's to bait us into a trap."

Trinjya will sneak over to the bookshelve indicated by Perigord and inspects it. ((She'll try to stay out of sight from the creatures in the hole))

Is there anything in or on that bookshelve that catches her interest? 

Investigation: 19

Trinjya scans the books on the shelf. As with some of the other bookcases you've surveyed, many books look completely deteriorated, with some bindings still managing to hold them together. One book however catches your attention, Aberrants in the Wild. 

Trinjya looks for traps (investigation: 22) and then pulls the book from the shelve and takes it back to the stairs where she opens it and studies it's contents. 

Your investigation of the bookcase doesn't reveal any traps, and as you pull the book from the shelf, several others disintegrate. As Trinjya rejoins the group and opens the book, the pages appear blank. Flicking through the book, all the pages appear that way.

As you all crowd around the book, you suddenly realise that the nothic that has been at the pillar has come closer and joins you in inspecting the blank pages of the book. It grunts something at you all as it points at the pages.

(Someone roll an insight check.)

Insight: 15

((Now I imagine Trin looking thru the book and then turn around to see a Nothic look over her shoulder))

5 insight

(lemme have a crack at it)

Samael thinks over the book and the nothic's reactions, it occurs to you that the nothic's reaction to the deep speech earlier might hold some key here. It would make sense that the mages would want to keep information on aberrants protected with various phrases.

"What's that book? What's the nothic doing?"

Perigord scampers down, crawling to avoid whatever the fake beholders are. He stops about 20 feet back from Trinjya and the nothic.

"perigold, come to the book, speak deep speech, and see what happens. I want to test something."

Perigord warily moves forward, keeping a respectful distance from the nothic and the pit. He places a hand on the book and says, in Deep Speech,

"Can you hear me now, nothic? What does this do, is there a way to activate it?"