"Rose Mallet? You can call me Rose, or Mallet. That's not aa dead name, is it? Who are you? What are you doing here?" the woman says, the crusty rasp slowly disappearing from her voice.

Corinne eyes Rose with worry, “Oh, my dear. You look almost as road worn as we do...” her eyes spot and register the symbol of Lathander, and she makes a mental note to be wary....Priests don’t typically view people such as herself with anything but open hostility, but she keeps that from her face.

The pale, raven haired courtesan brushes some dirt and fairy viscera from her now nearly destroyed dress and goes to help the limping person. “I am Corinne, a pleasure to meet you, Rose Mallet.” She smiles, her eyes sparkling as twin luminous pools of moonlight.

Veska appears to consider Rose's question seriously before nodding. "No, I don't believe it is. We are also probably not dead, we came here with the town of Roslar's Coffer, but a pair of psychopomps informed us we were no more dead than before. So we are looking for stamps so we can leave the Deadlands." One of her lights darts in close and she listens to the apparently silent glowing ball for a moment before nodding. "Oh yes, and Mictena thinks we are deluding ourselves and are really dead. Which I suppose is always a possibility, but not really anything new."

"Roslar's Coffer was -- is -- my hometown," Rose says. "I woke up in a casket. Ervin Roslar's casket. But then the psychopomps seem like they told me the same thing they told you. Did you find stamps? What are they?"

Veska pull out her stamp from the teeth place and holds it up. "Yes. We assisted in filicide, and the local queen gave the stamps to us in return," she explains seriously. "We are going to the Scriptorium for the next one."

Greydon would watch the exchange between Mallet and Shi respectively. They'd wait quietly before speaking up once more to add some detail to Shi's direction. "We were able to obtain some information from the psychopomps that have lead us thus far.

The Dead Roads: the roads from the Boneyard to mortal worlds, rely on a complex bureaucracy. They’re maintained by Barzahk the Passage to allow Psychopomps to come and go, but creatures of non-psychopompological nature need authorization to prevent abuse. Specially appointed bureaucrats control way stations along the routes, and can offer a stamp on your body to pass freely. Without a stamp of passage, beings tend to ‘slide off’ the Dead Roads. The stamps give Barzahk the notification that mortals are permitted to use the Dead Roads to cross from the Boneyard to the Material Plane, as a psychopomp would.

The route to Roslar’s Coffer passes three way stations: the Palace of Teeth, a manor called Nine-Eaves, and Salighara’s Scriptorium. Apparently we need to stop at all three to make our pilgrimage back to Lastwall.

We've just completed the Palace of the teeth." They'd then gesture towards Shi. "And Scrptorium shall be next." They'd add a nod.

As you continue marching on, you eventually arrive at Salighara's Scriptorium. This sprawling wood-and-stone structure looks like a misplaced university building, with a grand entry on the southeast corner and a tall tower to the northwest. A path from the road leads directly to the entry. Standing outside of the Scriptorium is a purple-skinned psychopomp with a dour expression. She introduces herself to you as “Salighara, a scholar and scribe of no small repute among the esteemed psychopomps.” Before you get the chance to introduce yourselves, Salighara starts speaking, having already deduced why you're here.

 “If I might hazard an educated guess, you seek to leave the Boneyard and return home to your world. To do so, you need my approval. “I know why you would want to leave—Mictena has set her sights upon you as abominations. She wants to see you well and truly dead. I know all this because, frankly, she told me. Mictena came to me a short time ago, explaining that I would be well advised to see you slain. I’m a creature of logic and process, and Mictena’s pleas were more impassioned than logical. In fact, I outright refused, insisting that I had more critical work to do. She was not well disposed to that response. My current field of study is dreams, and how mortal dreaming intersects with their fates and their desires. Don’t assume I’m going on a tangent here—my conversation is scrupulously intentional, you’ll see."

"My chief assistant and associate researcher, Mrs. Pedipalp, had been using my research equipment for her own studies into nightmares—things that terrify mortals. I wouldn’t abide by it, and although I knew she coveted my Dream Gate, I’d assumed her distractions were mere... frippery. Well, after I declined Mictena’s offer, it seems she went right to Mrs. Pedipalp. The rattletrap ousted me and appointed my assistant. My assistant! Mrs. Pedipalp is now master of the scriptorium, my staff, and my Dream Gate. An outrage! Well, her time as my assistant is finished. I will make this deal with you—if you enter my scriptorium and dispatch Mrs. Pedipalp in whatever manner you see fit, I will give you the stamps you need to continue on your journey home."

Veska listens closely to Salighara's story, tilting her head. "Hmmm. Into a land of nightmares? Then I suppose it is time for someone accustomed to fighting them," she murmurs thoughtfully, her eyes turning white as her form begins to shift and change.

Pain burning through my body. I still can't see the one responsible for the arrows buried in my torso and leg, but I can see the man looming over me, the glow of possession in his eyes. The words that exit his mouth are not spoken by any being of this world, but a creature of nightmares that has taken his mind for its own. "You fought well, for so long. But you little mortals always fall in the end. It's not your fault. You're just so...breakable." He raises a crystalline blade, and brings it down across my neck.

A moment later, the woman in front of you now has light skin, dark hair and sad golden eyes. She gives you all a restrained smile, her attention seeming half somewhere else. "This is Lahuna," the changeling introduces her new form before turning back to Salighara. "Can you give us directions to Mrs. Pedipalp?"

Lahuna:

"I imagine that she would be taking up residence in my Research Chamber so that she can study the Dream Gate."

Mallet almost asks the group, "do you have any extra stamps from the teeth place?" but they move along faster than she can reply, so she falls into line behind them, slowly, wondering if she should dart back to the teeth place herself and find a stamp of her own. She fingers the amulet of Lathander, saying a quick prayer. "I know I've never prayed to you much. We've had a bit of a professional relationship. But if ever was a time there was that I could use your help, it's now. If you can even hear me." She double trots it to catch up to the people who seem perhaps kind. 

Mallet blinks at Veska/Lahuna. For almost a minute. Then looks back to the psychopomp. "If you were to go inside to dispatch Ms. Pedipalp, how would you do it?"

"And how does one get to the Research Chamber?" Lahuna adds after a distracted moment.

(OOC: If it's easier for you RK, you can just refer to her as Shi in OOC stuff. That's her original name and one you won't have to worry about changing :D)

Mallet: "Violently. Other than that, I can't advise you on this, since I was not created for violence.

Lahuna: "Simply pass westward through the Writing Room, north through the garden, and then pass west through the hall and go up the stairs until you reach the top."

Mallet looks at the group. "Well, if we get hurt, I can try to heal us. Hopefully that still works. I better get to work on my stamps, I'm already behind. Um, actually, Salighara, I had a question. I woke up in someone else's casket, and when I got out, I was here. Do you know how that might have happened? Is that normal? It seems illogical to me."

"I do not. As illogical as it is for living mortals to be in the Boneyard, new arrivals is not my department."

Lahuna smiles faintly. "The dead can walk the world of the living, why not the other way around?" She shrugs.

"The dead belong in the world of the living as much as the living belong in the Boneyard, which is to say, not at all. Do you have any more philosophical musings to dispense?"

Lahuna smiles faintly, the slightest of edges to her expression. "Tell that to vampires," she says simply before turning and starting towards the Scriptorium.

1

As you enter the Scriptorium, Salighara etches a glyph onto Lahuna's hand, giving her the ability to cast Revivify once, although she instructs you that it must be used within the next 72 hours.

Area E2

Two wooden doors, deeply carved with images of quill pens and open books, stand to the east and west of this entry hall. The double door to the west has frosted glass windows that reveal only shifting shadows behind them. To the north is an alcove with several empty coat hooks. Another door stands to the south, and a sharply angled hall leads to the southwest.

Area E3

This room has a narrow peephole in the door and a single stool in the room for a valet or attendant, which you can tell that the scriptorium has had neither of those in some time. When the door to this room is opened, a Small wooden humanoid flops out onto the floor, leaking blood.

Make a Medicine check.

Lahuna examines the sigil on her hand curiously, an intrigued expression on her face, until a bloody someone flops out onto the floor in front of the group.

Medicine: 12

Lahuna is able to determine that this creature was killed by a bunch of bites from spiders. However, you also determine that the creature is some wood-based construct that shouldn't have blood. Upon that realization, the blood vanishes and you gain 1 Clarity Point.