The Forgotten Wish

"A mystery worth investigation, certainly.  Perhaps at a later time, though.  A less somber moment."

Slick listens to Oren, but will wait until Pallen has finished his transition to stone before letting go of the man's hand. He'll give Pallen a light pat on shoulder and say quietly,

"Rick hopes Boss Pallen will see Boss Pallen's wife again."

He'll take long breath then turn and say,

"Rick is ready to go the basement! If Friend Oren saw the entire building, Friend Oren can lead the way, yes?"

Oren will certainly wait to begin the next step of moving on in the structure.  “It’s been here for years. It will wait as long as we need it to.”  He is concerned about making sure Pallen is taken care of with patience.  And seeing Rick take that lead just makes Oren truly smile.  

(Can I have a raw d20 roll from Oren?)

Nuria stands there in shocked silence when Oren returns and gives his story. On one hand, at least she's not the only one that sounds mad now...but also it's only proving to her again that one of her worst fears may actually be real. Her large dark eyes turn to Khond when he mentions investigation. Why would they want to dig deeper into this? Shouldn't they just leave? At this moment, all Nuria wants to do is curl up into a ball and hide somewhere. The fact that Pallen is turning to stone right in front of her isn't helping her fear.

All she'd wanted was to be more than a petty thief...now look at the mess she's in.

Roll 18

Having returned to the others Asimi was able to listen to Oren's experience, though she didn't fully understand this place. Parts of what he went through seemed to line up with what she had experience already.

Speaking up, she began to add what little she knew, "There's a furnace in the basement. I was given a chunk of some beast's horn to feed into it, and when I did was when the building began to come to life," Pausing to think for a moment she eventually shrugged her shoulders, "I know not who or what the horn belonged to... Though, I suspect I can hazard a guess," Her voice devolved into a mumble at that final part before picking back up again, "That furnace is almost certainly the "heart" of this place as you say."

"I had not explored any further within the basement, however" The elf admits, "You were all already inside once it had started."

Unlike the others she seemed rather unbothered by the fact someone was dying next to her, more bothered by the idea that could be her next should things continue the downward path they've already been taking. But at the same time she seemingly showed an unwillingness to move without the group, "Do you know how much time we have left?" She asks Oren, "The fragment I was given was tiny, and if that's all the fuel this structure has then it probably doesn't have much left."

"Something had Him on a strict limit too," She concluded in reference to Comedy's sudden exit before shrugging again, "Regardless, that's all I know."

(Is the current conversation happening within earshot of Pallen?)

((Rick is waiting for full petrification before he says/does anything.))

(I'm assuming it is? From my impression we're all just kinda standing around him but I might have misread something somewhere.)

Looking over at Asimi and he asks, "Strict limit?   What do you mean by that?"

"He only appeared once I had fed the furnace," Asimi begun to explain, "There was no one else besides these statues when I first arrived here. You saw how he vanished and appeared again near the end, yes? I don't know if you noticed, but he was unable to move very far from where he stood."

"And," She continued, "If his real corpse truly is somewhere else then I suspect what we saw was somehow connected to this building. But that's just my theory," The elf concluded, "There's so many unknowns I could very well be wrong."

(The role of DM oft requires me to balance the line between just shutting up and letting the story play out, and occasionally prodding at things that a player may have missed that a character likely would not. Sometimes it's unclear which option to take. Hence asking for a particular d20 roll, but with Asimi making the connection however, Oren definitely would recall something. With that said...)

Presumably, Oren either has the tact to usher a few people away from Pallen, or simply waits with the others for the inevitable. Although in the latter case, one is likely left to wonder just how long this could be. Were they speaking mere minutes? Hours? Was the poor elf going to be here for days before this disease eventually takes him?

Lucky, the question of how long any of them were willing to wait before eventually needing to do something doesn't even need to be posed. Pallen has closed his eyes for a while, strangely peaceful now that he's accepted he is willing to do this, if it means one day being with his beloved again. And in the first few minutes what can perhaps be blamed to their imagination instead becomes more obvious as what little skin of his is visible starts paling, or rather, turning gray. After a period of perhaps only a mere ten minutes, there's a soft gasp. A little chuckle passes from his lips, as if recognizing something in that very last moment. His eyes open again, and he turns to his right, to the elven woman sitting beside him.

His visage freezes there, and no longer moves, turned to stone.

Just after, Oren of course shares what he's discovered, and just the vague interpretation he got from only a cursory look at the "brain" of this building. Asimi after a moment pointing out how Comedy seemed to have a time limit of some kind.

At which point Oren does recall that one of the many things he did notice while interacting with it, was that the "heart" he described only had enough energy left for thirty minutes or so.

Twenty, now.

with that proof from Asimi, Oren explains what he felt of a time frame of 20 minutes left for the heart of the building.  Does he understand what that means might happen at that point?

"Shall we start looking for that way down now?"

Sylvera had been watching Pallen intently, partially tuning out the conversations around her as she witnesses the older elf turn to stone. She stares at him for a few moments, her expression cold stone-like as she contemplates what the sickness will be like for her. She hopes that it never comes to that, still unable to fully grasp everything they just witnessed and failed to learn. 

Then she suddenly turns her attention back to Oren and Asimi, speaking as if she didn't just watch someone die. "Magic you say?" She spits the first word out as if it tastes bad, eyeing Oren for a few moments before saying, "Show me then. I would like to experience it for myself." She waits expectantly for Oren to show her this strange rock, all the while continuing to speak (whether they start moving or not) "We should turn this place inside out. Whatever there is to find here I will see it found." She looks to Asimi, "Once that is finished we can search for the corpse. That seems to be the best option for now." She eyes the other elf, still expecting her to ask about payment. 

Asimi gives the stone remains one last blank look before turning her attention towards Sylvera and nodding, "Understood, when we're finished just say the word and I'll lead us to it," She still doesn't make any mention of pay, as if a lack of it wasn't much a concern to her, "I... should be able to piece what I remember together."

Shifting towards Khond she nods again, "If we're done here, I can show you the way down," She says, ready to move whenever the others are.

(so just to confirm, who is going where? Sylvera wants to go back to this strange stone, the remainder explore the basement? Oren can give instructions to get to the room if he doesn't want to show.) 

Breldo is still unsure of the strange new elf, he'll join the group being 'led' deeper into the building by her.

Oren nods.  "Well, I think the 'brain' crystal will only be powered for a short while yet, so we should probably go there first if you want to see it working.  Then the other places?  I don't think it matters if the building will be 'powered' for the rest."  

Oren will take Sylvera and whomever else want to see it, to the crystal rock.