" So someone or something has taken it and hidden it? Perhaps one of the shadow things? Or someone.......compelled.....to do so?"
" Who else has been in this room?"
(Care to make a survival roll for tracking? Meredith may roll with advantage following her 20+ Investigation roll.)
"Well," Ebder answers, "Varnyr, of course. And Gailby has here place there," (a small table and chair I forgot to mention, with children's & a few school books and a coloring book neatly stacked on it with writing and watercolors implements. No Shemshime book on it, you will have already determined). "And when he dares to take on my, erm, untidy working habits, Crinkle kindly straightens out the mess. Or he comes in if the fireflies need to be fed. Although I try to teach my daughter how to take care of herself, so that when not at work, she and I share chores in our rooms downstairs. Share," he continues with a wink, aside but loud enough for Gailby to hear, "meaning that I do almost all of it while she eats peanut butter sandwiches."
"That's not fair," she interjects with a pout. "I do make my bed every morning." Ebder's eyes widen a bit and with a warm smile pasted on his face, his eyes swivel to you conspiratorially with an emphatic 'nope' expression. He shrugs, then answers, conciliatorily, "Of course you do my Gailby, forgive your pa for jesting." He smiles with unconcealed paternal warmth. The moment passes quickly however as he sighs. "In a world where so many strange things can occur at any moment, we must try to laugh when we can." But you see that he fails the struggle to keep a light mood.
Erudisia now returns, finding Varnyr and Crinkle in the main reading room with the huge open book statue hanging over the table by its somewhat rusty chains, Varnyr's head down on her crossed forearms, Crinkle's big dark eyes rather motionless, the golden amber light of the fireflies entrancing him as he slowly follows their slowly drifting movements. Approaching the Bindery, Erudisia finds the others within and hears the last of Ebder's words in answer to Meredith.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries //Dev Horndin Curious Critters
With those shadows being mentioned again, Bellstops her search and takes the time to go deep into her arcane knowledge to help figure out what they might be and what the 'black out' was.
Meredith has already very carefully checked all the books. She had identified one stack as the three books from Varnyr’s list. The fourth book from the list, Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme, should have been at the bottom of that stack.
She returns to it now, a look of deep concentration on her face. Modeling her motions after her imagined movements of whoever took the missing book, she lifts up the three all at once. 'Not too heavy. But I’d need to put them down to get to the bottom book,’ she thinks. She turns, looking for a place to put them down. Nowhere on the crowded table. She bends to place them on the scrap-covered floor. Only now does she notice a square-edged depression in the mélange of cuttings, which perfectly fits the bottom book’s edges.
She takes a moment to carefully study the floor from this angle. Footprints? No. People have been all day in and out of this room. Only boot and shoe marks Meredith herself has made, or Bell’s or the others. No way to tell anything older. Dead end.
The bard stands again, her jaw set, her complete focus on the spot where the books had stood. What is she missing?
The bindery, like the other rooms, is lit by firefly lanterns. Usually, just the lanterns, although now, a few individual fireflies, freed accidentally during the fight with the shadows, drift through the chill air. And now one floats nearby, right in front of Meredith, then passes and lands atop the handle of a pair of scissors. And that is when the bard spots something unexpected. Directly under the firefly, in a tiny space between two large books, something which before was hidden reflects the firefly’s subtle light. It is inches from where the three books stood, and with them there, the reflection would have been impossible to see. But now…
Meredith reaches in and cautiously feels with her fingertip, drawing back the little object into the open.
A button of shiny brass.
“My button!,” Gailby squeaks when she sees it. “Pa! My button! It’s been missing for weeks! Why didn’t you tell me you found it?”
“Daughter. I didn’t find it. I had no idea it was there. What... how...” His confused expression is sincere and his eyes bulge, as if this tiny discovery were alone going to push his anxiety over the edge. “But it’s been missing for tendays, hasn’t it, Gailby?”
He turns to Meredith, regaining some composure as he explains. “She has a collection. Buttons. All shapes and sizes. This was one of her favorites, apparently. Certainly bigger and shinier than most of them.”
“Yes! It is my favorite! And hidden there the whole time? Daddy, why did you take it?”
“No. Gailby, I did not.”
“But why is it on your worktable?”
Ebder gestures helplessly.
But Meredith hears not a word of this conversation, for she is lost in thought (the result of her Crit Survival roll), reliving the details of a particular memory. An uncle back home.
“Watch now, here they are,” Meredith’s uncle would say. This was when she was seven or eight. “They certainly like the peanuts and gristle I leave for them. And since I feed ‘em, almost every day, watch. This is how smart they are. They’ve got good manners and a sense of pride, some say. I say, they know what they like and there’s honor among thieves. Bribery in the animal kingdom, hawhaw!”
Meredith watched as the pair landed, then hopped over to the food. But before eating, the male placed beside it something shiny. They then helped themselves to the peanuts and gristle. Soon, they were off again. “Let’s look!,” her uncle said, and the pair rushed to the shiny thing, still where it lay. Her uncle picked it up between beefy thumb and forefinger, smiling.
A button.
Two black pairs of wings rustled away and the visitors' calls diminished over the hilltop…
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries //Dev Horndin Curious Critters
With those shadows being mentioned again, Bellstops her search and takes the time to go deep into her arcane knowledge to help figure out what they might be and what the 'black out' was.
Arcana Check: 22
Bell knows in her gut that the song -- more and more voices raised intoning the same chant -- and the shadows and the coldness and the flickering darkness -- more and more energy drawn from the material plane, away, elsewhere -- are all branches of a single tree. A dead tree if the metaphor is drawn to its logical conclusion. This is a necromantic conjuring. Of what, the young wizard can only guess at. But of one thing, she is certain. Something, somewhere hears the song. And it is coming.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries //Dev Horndin Curious Critters
Meredith smiled at the father and daughter, " I think your button was returned in exchange for something else shiny......"
" In my country are many birds.....but the fan tails are the smartest.....they learn everyone's faces and they never forget a slight......but they love shiny things and will even trade food or the like for them. The fan tail is a big glossy black bird with a strong beak and clever eyes.....do you know anyone around here who might fit that description?"
" Can you take me to Crinkles dwelling?"
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(Care to make a survival roll for tracking? Meredith may roll with advantage following her 20+ Investigation roll.)
"Well," Ebder answers, "Varnyr, of course. And Gailby has here place there," (a small table and chair I forgot to mention, with children's & a few school books and a coloring book neatly stacked on it with writing and watercolors implements. No Shemshime book on it, you will have already determined). "And when he dares to take on my, erm, untidy working habits, Crinkle kindly straightens out the mess. Or he comes in if the fireflies need to be fed. Although I try to teach my daughter how to take care of herself, so that when not at work, she and I share chores in our rooms downstairs. Share," he continues with a wink, aside but loud enough for Gailby to hear, "meaning that I do almost all of it while she eats peanut butter sandwiches."
"That's not fair," she interjects with a pout. "I do make my bed every morning." Ebder's eyes widen a bit and with a warm smile pasted on his face, his eyes swivel to you conspiratorially with an emphatic 'nope' expression. He shrugs, then answers, conciliatorily, "Of course you do my Gailby, forgive your pa for jesting." He smiles with unconcealed paternal warmth. The moment passes quickly however as he sighs. "In a world where so many strange things can occur at any moment, we must try to laugh when we can." But you see that he fails the struggle to keep a light mood.
Erudisia now returns, finding Varnyr and Crinkle in the main reading room with the huge open book statue hanging over the table by its somewhat rusty chains, Varnyr's head down on her crossed forearms, Crinkle's big dark eyes rather motionless, the golden amber light of the fireflies entrancing him as he slowly follows their slowly drifting movements. Approaching the Bindery, Erudisia finds the others within and hears the last of Ebder's words in answer to Meredith.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
Meredith Tracking/Survival Roll- 24
Bell
With those shadows being mentioned again, Bell stops her search and takes the time to go deep into her arcane knowledge to help figure out what they might be and what the 'black out' was.
Arcana Check: 22
Meredith has already very carefully checked all the books. She had identified one stack as the three books from Varnyr’s list. The fourth book from the list, Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme, should have been at the bottom of that stack.
She returns to it now, a look of deep concentration on her face. Modeling her motions after her imagined movements of whoever took the missing book, she lifts up the three all at once. 'Not too heavy. But I’d need to put them down to get to the bottom book,’ she thinks. She turns, looking for a place to put them down. Nowhere on the crowded table. She bends to place them on the scrap-covered floor. Only now does she notice a square-edged depression in the mélange of cuttings, which perfectly fits the bottom book’s edges.
She takes a moment to carefully study the floor from this angle. Footprints? No. People have been all day in and out of this room. Only boot and shoe marks Meredith herself has made, or Bell’s or the others. No way to tell anything older. Dead end.
The bard stands again, her jaw set, her complete focus on the spot where the books had stood. What is she missing?
The bindery, like the other rooms, is lit by firefly lanterns. Usually, just the lanterns, although now, a few individual fireflies, freed accidentally during the fight with the shadows, drift through the chill air. And now one floats nearby, right in front of Meredith, then passes and lands atop the handle of a pair of scissors. And that is when the bard spots something unexpected. Directly under the firefly, in a tiny space between two large books, something which before was hidden reflects the firefly’s subtle light. It is inches from where the three books stood, and with them there, the reflection would have been impossible to see. But now…
Meredith reaches in and cautiously feels with her fingertip, drawing back the little object into the open.
A button of shiny brass.
“My button!,” Gailby squeaks when she sees it. “Pa! My button! It’s been missing for weeks! Why didn’t you tell me you found it?”
“Daughter. I didn’t find it. I had no idea it was there. What... how...” His confused expression is sincere and his eyes bulge, as if this tiny discovery were alone going to push his anxiety over the edge. “But it’s been missing for tendays, hasn’t it, Gailby?”
He turns to Meredith, regaining some composure as he explains. “She has a collection. Buttons. All shapes and sizes. This was one of her favorites, apparently. Certainly bigger and shinier than most of them.”
“Yes! It is my favorite! And hidden there the whole time? Daddy, why did you take it?”
“No. Gailby, I did not.”
“But why is it on your worktable?”
Ebder gestures helplessly.
But Meredith hears not a word of this conversation, for she is lost in thought (the result of her Crit Survival roll), reliving the details of a particular memory. An uncle back home.
“Watch now, here they are,” Meredith’s uncle would say. This was when she was seven or eight. “They certainly like the peanuts and gristle I leave for them. And since I feed ‘em, almost every day, watch. This is how smart they are. They’ve got good manners and a sense of pride, some say. I say, they know what they like and there’s honor among thieves. Bribery in the animal kingdom, hawhaw!”
Meredith watched as the pair landed, then hopped over to the food. But before eating, the male placed beside it something shiny. They then helped themselves to the peanuts and gristle. Soon, they were off again. “Let’s look!,” her uncle said, and the pair rushed to the shiny thing, still where it lay. Her uncle picked it up between beefy thumb and forefinger, smiling.
A button.
Two black pairs of wings rustled away and the visitors' calls diminished over the hilltop…
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
Bell knows in her gut that the song -- more and more voices raised intoning the same chant -- and the shadows and the coldness and the flickering darkness -- more and more energy drawn from the material plane, away, elsewhere -- are all branches of a single tree. A dead tree if the metaphor is drawn to its logical conclusion. This is a necromantic conjuring. Of what, the young wizard can only guess at. But of one thing, she is certain. Something, somewhere hears the song. And it is coming.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters
Meredith smiled at the father and daughter, " I think your button was returned in exchange for something else shiny......"
" In my country are many birds.....but the fan tails are the smartest.....they learn everyone's faces and they never forget a slight......but they love shiny things and will even trade food or the like for them. The fan tail is a big glossy black bird with a strong beak and clever eyes.....do you know anyone around here who might fit that description?"
" Can you take me to Crinkles dwelling?"