Before Zentromya enters, Ardjena begins a slow procedure in which esoteric chants alternate with precise movements of the arms and body, like a slow and mysterious form of arcane dance. The apprentice, when she finally stops, begins to stare carefully, in every direction... finally declaring: "I feel no other magical protections, only the Guards and Wards that permeate the structure... Evidently, the trap you have set shooting was the only one. Or the others are masked with specific procedures" she shrugs. "All we have to do, is try".

The winged gold-furred miniature she-elephant then lowers the door handle with its trunk, opens... and in fact nothing strange happens.

The door gives access to a room with precious inlaid wooden furniture: a desk, a chair, a bed...

Zentromya flies inside and still no harmful effects disturb the exploration. You see her turn her head, in wonder, towards the west wall (which you don't see until you enter yourself).

"On the table..." Ardjena, who is maintaining concentration on his spell, warns "On the table, one of the scrolls is magical. Perhaps it is better not to touch it, for now. The rest seems safe..." and, considering that the celestial, after all, entered with impunity, the apprentice also comes in. She follows Zentromya's gaze towards the west wall... and you see her open her mouth in wonder: "K-Kylth? No, this is magic too... It's an illusion... But it doesn't look like a trap. It probably has a different purpose".

Anyone else curious enough to come in?

Roxana quietly slips in after Ardjena, looking about the room. (Perception: 7)

Before entering, the girl from Longsaddle had already noticed that the room was furnished with precious inlaid wooden furniture: a desk, a chair, a bed...

Now, in the room, she notices that on the west side the room is open and overlooks what appears to be the square of a large city. An imposing marble statue in the center of the square seems to portray the same person carved on the double doors of the corridor and the people of the square point to and talk about it, clearly in admiration.

There are many notes scattered on the desk.

Aidwyn takes Solitude's hand "But I couldn't look myself to the mirror, or look at you again knowing that I could have prevented someone to get hurt and did nothing. Not to speak about what they were talking about... but it warms my heart knowing that you wouldn't allow me to do anything too foolish... " she smirks and winks to her. 

"I am not comfortable being you who risk her life Zentromya, specially when it is you who is more capable of healing us but I will be right at your back to try and help you. " 

Aidwyn holds her breath while the little winged elephant proceeds into the room and finally relaxes, and follow her and Roxana.

"It seems that we were worriying for nothing..." she says relieved.

( perception: 19 or Investigation 15 if more pertinent ) 

Aidwyn's accurate search  yields a magic scroll (the scroll Ardjena pointed out as radiating magic) plus hints about the experiments performed by Kylth:

"Angels, Demons, Devils...they are the closest creatures to gods. How much power must their essence contain? Ah, if only such essence were easier to extract... Distilling their blood did not work... nor drying and pulverizing their skin... But I certainly won't give up! There are still so many processes one can try..."

"Their name... Their real name gives me power over them... Maybe that, by knowing their real name, consuming their essence will be more effective!"

"I distilled the essence of the angel Mebhael, the angel whose real name I finally discovered, and made Saibren drink it... I told him to concentrate on his name while he drank it... Meanwhile I uttered that name, I commanded the essence to transmit its power to Saibren... but all I got was that the idiot threw it up after a few minutes, shaking with violent retching! And what's more, now that stupid elf can only speak in rhyme! Ardjena... Maybe I should have made Ardjena drink it! That girl is my best apprentice... And yet, precisely for this reason, I am reluctant to risk her! No, no... Until further experiments shed more light on the matter, I will continue to grant Saibren the honor of testing my brilliant insights".

"Weak, too weak! My current prisoners are to blame! What essences can I extract from this scrap of the multiverse? It's time to try more powerful creatures! I have long since gained considerable experience in the containment of extraplanar creatures... What can possibly go wrong?"

"That man was a monster" says Aidwyn after reading the notes. "For what I see here he was able to kill, or at least hurt an angel... and you and your other companions... for I guess that this Saibren was another apprentice... you were just another test subjetcts to him. I really hope that he has find his final doom for the world is better without him."  She passes the notes to Roxana and the others.

When they are passed to him, Rash stares at the notes in disbelief.

"What in the Nine Hells was he trying to accomplish?" the half-orc mumbles. "Well, I'll give him one thing... it's not easy to piss off the Seven Heavens, the Nine Hells, and the Abyss all at once... but it looks like he found a way to do it."

"Sabrien?" the apprentice leans over to read the still legible notes too "Yes, of course, it was another apprentice, an elf... And yes, of course, Master Kylth was incredibly focused on his goals... Indeed, what he did to the angel Mebhael wasn't good at all. Looking back on it now... after what you made me think about... I think it shouldn't have been done. But people are not 'test subjects'!" she takes the opportunity to show that she is trying to keep in mind the she-hollyphant's lesson "I and the other apprentices were..." as she continues reading, however, she seems to get a little sad "Well, maybe Master Kylth didn't have a quite precise idea of Sabrien's infinite value".

Evidently wanting to focus on something else, the young girl with freckles points to the magical scroll: "I know a ritual to identify that... but it requires a very expensive material component, a real pearl... and at the moment there isn't any I have it with me. Would you know how to get it? It's a purchase that remains forever afterwards... the pearl is not destroyed during the ritual".

Quote from OisinmacCameron >>

Spira follows the others into the room and looks around.  When Ardjena asks about pearls, she replies at first, "Well, there's pearls and pearls.  Now, Oba ... or perhaps y...  "  She trails off, clearly distracted, then shakes herself back to the business at hand.  "I don't imagine any of us has an actual physical pearl on them at the moment ... it's not the sort of thing one carries about offhand.  But I'm sure the Harpells back in Longsaddle would have access to one.  If you don't remember  any secret caches of components here that we could check, probably the best thing will be to bring you and this scroll back there before we try meddling with it.  Had the Fuzzy Quarterstaff been founded when you last remember?  It's a magical tavern, I'd hope they have rooms you can use as temporary quarters while you're figuring things out."

"But, Ardjena, when you first came in you looked at that wall and called out your master's name."  She points to the wall and inspects it more closely herself.  "Did you actually see him?  Or anything around him besides the wall?"

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Perception 16

Investigation 15

 

 (edited for ambiguity ;)

"Yes, the Fuzzy Quarterstaff..." Ardjena smiles slightly "I remember it! They had recently inaugurated it... What a name! The memory of Douthal Harpel and his attempt to grow a beard with a spell will defeat the ages - oh, actually," she corrects herself "it has already defeated them, I forgot that centuries have already passed for all the other people".

"Kylth is him" the apprentice points her finger towards the illusion that replaces the view of the west wall (the square of a large city, where people point to and talk about an imposing marble statue in the center of the square, clearly in admiration ) particularly towards the statue. "He is the person represented by the statue".

Spira's eyebrows shoot up in amusement at the colossal size and fragility of the wizard's ego, amusement which she tries her best to conceal from Ardjena.  "I see.  Can we take it that this is simply an illusionary portrait then?  That this is not in fact a portal to an actual city where they have a statue of your master in the central square?"  She approaches the wall near enough to reach out with her quarterstaff and probe to see if it goes through.

Roxana nods in response to Spira's question. "Yea, that'd be really strange." After a pause, she adds, "It's pretty strange even if it is an illusion."

"Yes, it's an illusion Spira, see?" Ardjena comments, as the tiefling's quarterstaff fail to go trough "Not only would a portal onto a real city be a bit unlikely... and I don't know of a city whith a statue of Kylth at its center... but also the people's behavior is a bit repetitive... Plus, look at the clothes! They are of the same style that was in vogue in my time... the style has changed in the meantime, I can see it from the way you dress... no more shoes with narrow and slightly raised toes , for example... It is a permanent illusion that follows its own program, much like Elky. But while Elky had the function of managing visitors - within the limits of its possibilities - this... had to have another purpose".

"It seems that we've learned what we can from this chamber... should we move on?" suggests Aidwyn to all.

Spira sighs.  "I always wish those shoes hadn't gone out of vogue.  My feet are so big and ugly, and these shoes do absolutely nothing for them."   Gaer, standing slightly behind his sister so she can't see him, signals everyone frantically to not mention the fact that the vestments she wears under her mail hide her feet completely never mind the fact she had boots on under that last time you noticed.  After a moment she goes on, "It's a little sad actually.  That he felt he always had to be that worshiped statue.  Worshiped but never touched.  Never knowing a kind human voice, a gentle caress or a shake of the hand at the end of a long day.  Just adulation and fear."  She sighs again.  "No, I think you're right ... there's nothing more here we need, or want.  And at least we've found one piece of arcane writing to keep Colin happy.  He's the Harpell who did the divination for us, Ardjena, and he asked us to salvage what wizardly knowledge we could in return.  We couldn't make head or tail of the library in its current condition, but perhaps with your knowledge you could help us quickly triage what's readily gotten together and most worth saving.  And we'd be grateful if you'd help us check the remainder of what we haven't explored, just to make sure we're leaving nothing useful or dangerous behind."

Ardjena, who furtively wipes a tear from her eyes (is it because of what Spira said about her own big and ugly feet? Or because of the consideration she made regarding Kylth?), seems happy to be able to prove herself useful: "I will definitely help you to recover what is of real value from the library! You know, I studied it until yesterday... However, it is probably better to keep that stage as the last - we will probably emerge loaded with tomes, manuscripts and incunabula, so it is better to explore the rest first , while we still have our hands free".

"I've just been in my room..." the young girl with freckles summarizes "That leaves the room of the other two apprentices, Saibren and Lorat, and the room of the elite guards, Eriana, Trokin, Setmon and Luruxa. Maybe" she decides "we have a better chance of finding something interesting in the guard room. The other two apprentices won't have had much..."

The apprentice thus leads you back to the immense hall and approaches the ajar door, but still remaining at the prudent distance of several steps. She naturally intones a short formula and a ghostly duplicate of her hand appears... which opens and pushes the door until it opens completely. With a confidence that betrays long practice in the young student of magic, she reweaves the invisible threads of the Weave and an unnatural pink light illuminates inside, allowing everyone to see that it is a 15' x 15' room. There are two beds against the west wall, two more against the east wall, a chest against the south wall and, in the middle, a small table with two stools. A glaive pokes from behind the chest - looking at that weapon, for some reason, makes you shiver...

In contrast to the chaos that reigns outside the door, the beds are made up neatly, with the sheets pulled tightly over the mattresses and the blankets folded neatly at the foot of the beds - even if the thick layer of dust that covers them betrays the long passage of time.

The chest is connected to the ground by a thick veil of cobwebs.

Spira glances uneasily over at the glaive and chest.  I remember a certain 'soldier of Avernus' who desperately wanted us to find his glaive for him.  He departed a little precipitously and didn't have time to look for it ... I wonder ... "  She begins a slow chant in Elvish, and her eyes gradually grow even more almond-shaped and catlike and begin to glow a deep, soft green like moss in the most unspoiled depths of a unicorn's grove.

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Casting detect magic; she will begin at the glaive and chest and scan the room.  She will spend an action on each item she finds to see the aura that reveals its school of magic

6

The first magical aura that stands out to Spira's magical senses does not come from the glaive... nor from the chest... but from the guard's room itself and the related school turns out to be Abjuration.

However, looking casually into the devastated big room, the tiefling cleric accidentally perceives a second magical aura, of something... something confused among the immense mass of debris - and this aura, however, does not seem linked to a particular school of magic (OOC: for the spell detects the school 'if any').

"Well, there's abjuration magic coming from the room itself ... some sort of ward against the captives, I'd imagine ...," says Spira, 'but nothing more in here.  The glaive is apparently just a glaive, or else the room supresses it.  There's something out here, though, amid the debris.  Not getting a school though."  Continuing to concentrate on the spell, she will try and track down the glamour she saw under the debris, filing away in her trained investigator's memory the location and landmarks in the vicinity of any other magics that become visible as she moves.

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Investigation 20