Veronica pauses when Vishara speaks to her, not immediately sure how best to answer the question.

"I won't lie, most of the vampires where I come from are... a serious problem," she says after a moment. "But... I'm also not like other vampires. I was never turned the way other vampires were... I was born like this after my mother was attacked by a vampire and managed to escape with her life. I suppose that is probably why I don't suffer from the worst effects that commonly are associated with my condition."

Lori happily gets her fill of the fresh food, unsure even of when her last meal really was. "So where exactly do we sleep anyway Bryn? Second floor is off limits, so do we just find an open space on the floor?"

"Pretty much as you say young mage," The bartender replies, cleaning up whatever is leftover on the serving plate. He pulls out a collection of mugs, pouring ale for any who want it. "We move the tables to the sides of the room and camp out here on the first floor. Everyone pretty much has their own spot, you'll find some open space okay."

It's difficult to tell what time of day it is from within the strange, seemingly extradimensional space the tavern appears to occupy. There's no windows from which daylight can enter...But as things wind down and you spend a few more hours relaxing on the first floor, you begin to feel tired. Bryn also keeps a large hourglass behind the bar, and as it nearly empties the top half you see everyone moving the chairs and tables to one corner of the room.

Most of the patrons begin laying out bedrolls, blankets, and pillows while a few go around dousing the vast majority of lamps that light the area. The bartender himself sets up on the floor behind the bar.

There's enough space for the four of you to set up near the stairs to the second floor. It seems others do as much as they can to avoid that area. And so after settling in, you spend your first night in the Disjunction...

The next morning you're among the first to stir awake. Seated on a barstool that he's pulled over to your group is the little halfling boy Bryn had pointed the day prior, Mouse was his name. You'd guess his age to be around nine or ten. He's got blond curly hair and a bit of baby fat left that gives him a cherubic looking face. The clothes he wears are patched trousers with suspenders and a loose shirt, big enough to have been made for an older human child. He has a wooden toy sword slung at his hip, and he's currently hunched over a large book laid out in his lap.

"Oh, morning!" He says excitedly as you wake up and begin to look around the tavern.

"Well hello there, young man," Veronica says with a friendly smile (well, as friendly a smile as is possible when you have fangs) as she props herself up on one elbow. "What brings you to our corner of the tavern?"

Kai rubs the sleep from his eyes as he sits up, disappointed to see the tavern's walls still there. A part of him had hoped that when he went to sleep, he would awake back home. But it wasn't so. "Morning," he says in reply to the kid. "Reading about anything exciting?"

The young boy freezes for a moment, briefly shooting a glance down at the pages of his book. He looks back up, returning the vampire's smile in earnest. "I came to help you, you're the group of heroes here to save us from the Vanishing Keep!" He says, holding up the book for you to see. The cover is titled "Tales of Etharis," likely the name of the land he originally came from.

He pulls the book back for a moment, flipping through the pages until he finds what he was looking for. "See?" He turns it back to you, revealing a faded illustration. It's made up of four figures, and while they don't look exactly like you, it's hard to pass up that there are some striking similarities. And the items they carry are extremely familiar and personal to you:

• One with arms outstretched, covered by a dark cloak that with flaps reminiscent of bat wings.
• One wielding a finely crafted longsword, alight with a powerful glow.
• One carrying a translucent staff, holding their hand out to project a shimmering field.
• And another cradling a glowing pendant hanging from the neck, shining with a godly radiance

"I've seen the boy Gerund talked about, he lives on a mountain in the attic!"

Veronica sits up fully, taking a moment to study the page... that cloak... it looks so familiar...

"That... is something," she says. "I remember I used to have a cloak just like that..."

She looks at the helpful young lad so eager to help them. If something were to happen she doesn't think she could ever forgive herself.

"May I see your book?" she asks gently.

Lori's eyes widen some as she looks over the page, but she doesn't comment on it. As if this place needed to do anything else to freak her out. Still, she smiles at the young boy. "Thanks for the tip and confidence Mouse...It looks like you'll be able to help us by filling us in on this place!"

Likewise, the magus is not comfortable taking the boy upstairs with them. But if he wants to be give them information...

The halfling boy turns his attention to Vishara, thinking for a moment before replying. "He has dark wrinkly skin, curly brown hair and a big gray beard! I saw him with a big black walking stick."

Mouse is hesitant to give his book up, pulling it away at first. Then, sheepishly, he hands it over to her. "Just be careful with it. It's my favorite book."

"I wanna do more than just sit down here! Pleaaase, let me come with you! I don't want to be stuck here forever either...I want to go back to my friends."

"I promise I'll be very careful with it... and I'll give it right back to you when I'm done," the vampire says soothingly.

She carefully pages through the book, looking for any insights that might improve the team's odds of success. She still isn't sure what to tell Mouse about whether or not he can come with them... on one hand, she wants nothing more than to keep him safe. On the other... he seems to know more than anyone else at the moment... and she doesn't want to hurt his feelings. Veronica makes a mental note to try to find something for him to do that sounds important but keeps him out of harm's way...

Kai does his best to keep a straight face at the sight of the sword etched onto the page of that book. It shouldn't be possible, but none of this should have been in the first place.

That doesn't sound like a kid at all...An old man and a big walking stick, some kind of mage perhaps? He mulls over the information they've been given will Veronica flips through the book. 

"You're doing more to help us than most have already Mouse...Do you think you could keep guard over our things? And maybe keep on the folk down here, see if any of them act suspicious while we head back upstairs. You won't be stuck here forever, if we find a way out, we'll come for you."

There wasn't much for Lori to unpack in the first place, she didn't even have a bedroll with her for starters. Thankfully the tavern was an acceptable temperature, and she was able to use her empty backpack as a pillow. As she packs her things away again, she listens to the conversation with Mouse. When the subject turns towards this "boy" who crawled away through the attic, she lifts her staff for the boy to see. "Did his walking stick look something like this?"

Veronica nods in agreement with Vishara, handing back the book once she's finished satisfying her curiosity.

"I certainly hope we're dealing with a friendly sage," the vampire says. "But... at this point, I wouldn't be all that surprised to find an evil mage up there waiting to punish anyone who attempts to escape. Mouse... how did you happen to meet this person? Can you tell us about what happened?"

Veronica:
Leafing through the pages, you find it to be a collection of legends and folk tales from this land of Etharis. At the beginning you do find the Vanishing Keep, which Mouse had referenced earlier. It's a story that bears striking similarity to your own situation. The heroes in that tale escape by defeating the physical embodiment of the keep, which had been masquerading as one of the "victims."

Kai:
Make a persuasion check.

The boy nods vigorously as Lori presents her staff. "Yep! But it was all black and sort of gnarled at the top. I didn't really meet him though...I woke up one time and saw him creeping up the stairs so I followed him! That's how I figured he lives in a mountain in the attic. I saw him climb through the skylight."

Persuasion: 25

Mouse looks like he might be disappointed for a moment, but its fleeting as Kai mentions the prospect of a double-agent in the tavern. "Just like the story..." He breathes, eyes going wide. "You got it, I'll keep my eye out!"

His voice goes quiet and he leans in, "Personally I think it might be the dwarf, Gerund. No one should be able to drink as much as him and stay upright!"

Kai raises an eyebrow, glancing across the tavern to look for the dwarf. "That would definitely be quite the disguise. We're counting on you Mouse."

He picks himself up from the floor at last, stretching as he does so. "Are we ready for another trip upstairs?"

Veronica, always the cautious one, takes a moment to check if there's anything else they could do to improve their odds of survival, but eventually she is forced to face the reality that they have no idea what they're dealing with and, by extension, have no way to gauge what would or would not be useful.

"I don't think that there is anything else we need to do here... so yes, I suppose I'm ready to return and see what else this place has in store for us."