Meredith holds an arm out for Bell, conscious that only months ago a similar action would have had her semi-catatonic, she smiled as she said, " Shall we promenade, Askim?"
Though she still had to admit Bell was breathtaking in her own way.....she.....
Meredith swallowed hard as all the emotions linked to her devastating loss......and her seeming helplessness to reverse it....came washing back over her.
Bell was practically stumble footed as she tried to tippy toe down the thick carpeted hallway from their room. She practically tripped herself until Meredith made a shushing motion and demonstrated how to carefully plant her feet to be safe and quiet. The long hall was whisper quiet though, if one passed very close to other room doors, some muffled voices could be heard.
Bell thought to herself, 'Trying to be stealthy while also looking casual was harder than she imagined -- or read in some of those adventure stories she read between classes long ago.'
Thoughts of 'those days' brought a smile to her face.
Passive Perception: 11 Passive Investigation: 13
Erudisia, Meredith, and Bell wait until the sounds of guests settling in for the night mostly quiet down. The clock strikes 11. The three tiptoe along the hallway, whose lighting has dimmed to a subtle candlelit hue, toward the Lounge. When they arrive at the door to the Lounge and peek, they see Saeth exiting the Lounge through the doors to the massage rooms.
He casts one last look around, not suspiciously, just… he thought he heard something (Bell!). But you are able to freeze and pull back out of sight so that you don’t think he sees you. You hear the door close behind him and a minute later, you continue into the lounge.
When you turn the corner to enter the big room, you see the white-tunic wearing stylist, back to you, bending over a mop and bucket. He is just finishing tidying up the room, where used glasses have already been washed and replaced on shallow shelves behind the bar, and everything is clean and serene. Ambient, soft music comes from nowhere. Wordlessly, the staffer picks up the bucket and exits the lounge. A moment later, you hear the front door of the Lobby open and close. It seems he did not hear you. Or at least, paid you no mind.
After waiting for his return, which doesn’t happen after several minutes have passed, you continue into the lounge, then reach the door to the lobby. You enter the lobby, which is unoccupied. Here Meredith and Bell continue straight across to the door to the Garden while Erudisia turns right, passes the registration desk and enters the hallway behind it with changing rooms to either side, and reaches the door to the Pool.
Erudisia tiptoes to the door to the Pool and quietly slides it ajar, and peers through. If the others have waited she’ll wave them on if there is more worth investigating beyond the door and the coast is clear.
Belllooked at Meredith and nodded as she pushed on the door.
STEALTH: 10
The heavy door groaned, a sound that seemed terribly loud in the silent lobby but, was actually not noticeable from ten feet away. Bellheld her breath, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird, as she slipped through the narrow gap into the moon-drenched landing. The air was cool, smelling of old stone and fading lavender, a stark contrast to the stifling humidity from the steam room.
Making certain Meredith was still with her, she moved into the shadows. Bell's spine itched. It felt like hundreds of unseen eyes were in the dark, watching as they crept toward the garden.
Perception: 12
The neglected garden ahead was a riot of untamed, luminous flora, whispering secrets in a language of rustling leaves. Shadows played tricks on her eyes, turning twisted, thorny rosebushes into looming, skeletal guardians, while ethereal blue moths danced in the dense, misty air. She felt the cold, dewy leaves brush against her skin, a welcoming, yet slightly menacing, touch as she stepped deeper into the overgrown maze of vegetation.
Indeed, the garden seems less than perfectly maintained. It is more a courtyard than a garden per se, you sense, although it is edged with bamboo shoots extending up into the darkness, holly, lavender, lilies of the mountain, and, curling along the wrought iron bars of a white 5-foot tall surrounding fence, ivy. An earthen path makes a loop around a central patio whose mosaic pattern depicts Sune. Two stone benches border the entrance under overhanging brightly colored canvas sheets which provide shade and raincover.
Various iron weights for strength training, wooden poles, and heavy sacks are organized near the benches. An embroidered sign on the wall above this area bears this message lit by moonlight:
“Remember to replace all items, Dear Guests”
(Meredith: your high rolls tell you there are no natural dangers in this space. Whoever is maintaining the gardens is doing a lackluster job.)
Erudisia
A floor of polished white marble surrounds a large central pool of steaming turquoise water in this large, open-air bath. Stone pillars stand along the outside wall, sculpted with relief carvings of Sune and separated by frosted windows. Pale moonlight angles down from above into this ceilingless space.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries //Dev Horndin Curious Critters// Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure
"Sune is called Lady Firehair where I am from. She supposedly appeared as an exceptionally beautiful, red-haired woman and encourages her followers to seek beauty in all things, foster romance, and live life with passion. I suppose lifting weights and getting fit would be a plus for her?"
"But, I am not feeling anything off or special about this garden... perhaps if I do a ritual. "
>>> Bell will take 10 minutes to attempt a ritual of Detect Magic
Erudisia sneaks into the pool-house. She looks for any other entrances she might be surprised by, and she looks for the source of the water or any drainage channels. She looks for any source of steam, and should she find nothing behind the pristine pool and marble poolside it appears to be she will put first her hand into the water to feel the temperature, then if not too hot or cold her face under the water to look for any strange items or arcane clues under the surface of the water.
" You have never been to a gym in your life....how are you just as strong as me?", Meredith laughed.
Bell was silent for a moment and then a wide smile lit up her face. "Remember, I came from a small community where my family lived on the edge of woods and hill country. I spent most of my early years working the homestead. Chopping and carrying firewood. Working the soil and tending plantings. Plus all the regular house chores."
She looks around again to see if she feels anything special or out of place. "If I spent all my time reading books at Candlekeep I suppose I would have to start exercising to stay healthy. After our 'visit' to the big city; dunking into ice cold waters; chasing rogues and thieves... a scholar has to stay in shape!"
Bell determines through her Detect Magic ritual that the garden is entirely without magic of any kind.
Meredith:
Just a reminder of what Ilmar earlier said:
“You are in the main building, the Bath House, the original temple, built around a healing hot spring which is the back room, the pool.”
“Behind the pool are the shrine and the tower. The shrine is the original offering place to Sune, fallen now almost back to nature after years of disuse.
The tower holds the painting studio, and the rooms of Morganna and Saeth, Azirssa — the physical coach I mentioned before — and Greensong, the blind wood elf who is the spa’s chef d’cuisine. Her bloodhound Morty is always by her side…”
Erudisia
There are no other entrances to the Pool Room. Steam rises from the water in the room’s center which gives off a fresh mineral scent. The depth seems to be about 10 feet, although refraction makes it difficult to tell. The water seems to be a perfect turquoise shade, at least, the fine mosaic tiling is turquoise and gives that impression to the liquid. The spring’s point of issuance and drainage channels are not apparent. Perhaps hidden from view at the bottom. The feeling in the room is serene and magical, heightened by the chirping treefrogs beyond the frosted glass, the moonlight, and Erudisia’s own graceful fey motions.
Erudisia kneels beside the pool and puts her hand into the water. It is warm and feels refreshing to the touch. But before she puts her head under, she thinks she hears… something? A whisper? And spots something surprising out of the corner of an eye. An enormous luna moth, perched, immobile, on a bench near the edge of the pool, a few feet to one side of her. It seems to be almost transparent, oddly. As Erudisia looks more closely, suddenly, a splash of water exactly on the back of her head. Another sound, coming from the water itself. A gurgling giggle? When Erudisia looks back toward the moth it is gone without a trace. The water splash came from the pool, but the pool contains only water, gently rippling.
Bell walked about the area for a minute or two before coming back the Meredith. "Mere, I tried to detect magic and I am getting nothing here. Not a twinge. Unless you found a spot to investigate, maybe we should go back and help Erudisia?"
“Hello?” Erudisia whispers. If there is no reply she tries again with her head under water. “Hel..lo?”
No reply. Erudisia puts her face in the water and calls her greeting, her own breath bubbling and tickling her cheeks as it rushes to the surface. After a long moment of silence, the Moonshae lady notices a change in the light, as if a shadow lingers under the moonlight, and then she sees, a few feet in front of and beneath her in the water, the luna moth again, floating, submerged, motionless, just within reach. Perhaps she reaches out an arm toward it.
Suddenly, Erudisia is pitching forward, cannonballing into the pool, shoved from behind by a wet touch. The luna moth disappears again. The water feels tingly and warm and would be soothing if it wasn't now obvious someone was playing a trick on her. When she comes up for air, treading water in the middle of the pool, a beautiful woman's face is hanging over her, the complexion somewhere between turquoise and kelp, kelp also being the color of her long hair hanging wetly to frame Erudisia's face. The woman's eyes are glowing with humor, her pearly teeth shining in a lovely smile. Her entire body, clothed in a toga of pearlescence, hangs in midair above the pool, as if she is lying on an invisible shelf a foot or so over the water.
"Hel...lo!," she says. "Oopsie, you fell in!"
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries //Dev Horndin Curious Critters// Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure
Erudisia changes her armour to resemble a swimsuit. Moonshae enough, she knows better than to show outrage. Her face serene, she speaks up to the floating woman.
“How capricious. May I have your name? What manner of creature are you?”
Bell walked about the area for a minute or two before coming back the Meredith. "Mere, I tried to detect magic and I am getting nothing here. Not a twinge. Unless you found a spot to investigate, maybe we should go back and help Erudisia?"
Your passive perceptions are high enough so that, as you exit the garden and return to the lobby, you hear a splash from the direction of the pool.
Erudisia
“Haha,” the woman says like a bubbling brook, her face hanging mere inches from Erudisia’s, “Thank you. A girl bound for eternity to a healing spring has to have fun somehow, doesn’t she?”
She smiles again and, gently extending a hand, moves an errant strand of wet hair out of Erudisia’s eye.
“You’re beautiful already. No wonder you waited until darkness to swim. You would tempt any who see you…”
“I have owned many names… call me Cyrena. I am called a naiad by the people of dry land.”
“Well met, Cyrena, naiad of the healing spring. You are most beautiful, and I have never met a naiad before.
“Are you older than the shrine to Sune here? What do you think of this place?”
Erudisia begins a gentle sculling on her back, trying to match to an extent the recumbent pose of the floating creature (and create a little more space between their faces). She tries to recall what she can about naiads.
[not sure which of these rolls may be appropriate] [Nature: 12] [Arcana: 11] [History: 23]
The naiad swims through the air inches above Erudisia. She seems innocent to the existence of the phrase ‘personal space.’
“Many summers upon summers of eons and years have I lived in these waters.” She suddenly makes a barrel roll and disappears into the water to one side of Erudisia. Any part of her underwater becomes invisible to all sight. But Erudisia feels a rush of water immediately beneath her, and then Cyrena rises again on her other side, but now, only as high as the delicate woven moss belt she wears around her waist.
“Though the spring’s issuance changed when my friend came to build the flowered walls and windows and this pool for her guests, you surface dwellers, to enjoy…
“We have an agreement. Or had an agreement.” A slight indentation of concern dots her brow. “I have not seen her in recent seasons. Not since…”
She trails off, her face turning in the moonlight toward the door to the pool room, which, though closed, shows, from the level of the pool’s surface where Erudisia and Cyrena are, two pairs of feet blocking lamplight which would otherwise make a line under the decorative doors.
“Someone is here…,” Cyrena says, the dot of concern now replaced with a leveling of her eyes which is not at all friendly. When Erudisia looks back from the door to where Cyrena was, the naiad has disappeared, and there is a stirring of the waters under Erudisia, then stillness.
Bell and Meredith
You reach the door to the pool room which is closed. You thought you heard Erudisia’s voice and another female voice through the door, but now, only a gentle play of liquid, as if a single person were swimming.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries //Dev Horndin Curious Critters// Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure
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Erudisia, Meredith, and Bell wait until the sounds of guests settling in for the night mostly quiet down. The clock strikes 11. The three tiptoe along the hallway, whose lighting has dimmed to a subtle candlelit hue, toward the Lounge. When they arrive at the door to the Lounge and peek, they see Saeth exiting the Lounge through the doors to the massage rooms.
He casts one last look around, not suspiciously, just… he thought he heard something (Bell!). But you are able to freeze and pull back out of sight so that you don’t think he sees you. You hear the door close behind him and a minute later, you continue into the lounge.
When you turn the corner to enter the big room, you see the white-tunic wearing stylist, back to you, bending over a mop and bucket. He is just finishing tidying up the room, where used glasses have already been washed and replaced on shallow shelves behind the bar, and everything is clean and serene. Ambient, soft music comes from nowhere. Wordlessly, the staffer picks up the bucket and exits the lounge. A moment later, you hear the front door of the Lobby open and close. It seems he did not hear you. Or at least, paid you no mind.
After waiting for his return, which doesn’t happen after several minutes have passed, you continue into the lounge, then reach the door to the lobby. You enter the lobby, which is unoccupied. Here Meredith and Bell continue straight across to the door to the Garden while Erudisia turns right, passes the registration desk and enters the hallway behind it with changing rooms to either side, and reaches the door to the Pool.
Do you enter your respective doors?
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure
Erudisia tiptoes to the door to the Pool and quietly slides it ajar, and peers through. If the others have waited she’ll wave them on if there is more worth investigating beyond the door and the coast is clear.
Bell looked at Meredith and nodded as she pushed on the door.
STEALTH: 10
Meredith continued to let Bell lead, though with as Nighblind and tired as Bell seemed that was seeming like less and less of a good idea....
Meredith scanned the garden for wildlife, dangerous plants and hidden secrets.
Nature-15
Survival-16
Bell and Meredith
Indeed, the garden seems less than perfectly maintained. It is more a courtyard than a garden per se, you sense, although it is edged with bamboo shoots extending up into the darkness, holly, lavender, lilies of the mountain, and, curling along the wrought iron bars of a white 5-foot tall surrounding fence, ivy. An earthen path makes a loop around a central patio whose mosaic pattern depicts Sune. Two stone benches border the entrance under overhanging brightly colored canvas sheets which provide shade and raincover.
Various iron weights for strength training, wooden poles, and heavy sacks are organized near the benches. An embroidered sign on the wall above this area bears this message lit by moonlight:
“Remember to replace all items, Dear Guests”
(Meredith: your high rolls tell you there are no natural dangers in this space. Whoever is maintaining the gardens is doing a lackluster job.)
Erudisia
A floor of polished white marble surrounds a large central pool of steaming turquoise water in this large, open-air bath. Stone pillars stand along the outside wall, sculpted with relief carvings of Sune and separated by frosted windows. Pale moonlight angles down from above into this ceilingless space.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure
" Spot you?", Meredith says to Bell with a grin.
She looks around for any defined or obscured paths leading away from here....perhaps to a gardeners shed or the like.
Bell looks about confused, "What spot? Where?"
Passive Perception: 11
"Sune is called Lady Firehair where I am from. She supposedly appeared as an exceptionally beautiful, red-haired woman and encourages her followers to seek beauty in all things, foster romance, and live life with passion. I suppose lifting weights and getting fit would be a plus for her?"
"But, I am not feeling anything off or special about this garden... perhaps if I do a ritual. "
>>> Bell will take 10 minutes to attempt a ritual of Detect Magic
" You have never been to a gym in your life....how are you just as strong as me?", Meredith laughed.
Erudisia sneaks into the pool-house. She looks for any other entrances she might be surprised by, and she looks for the source of the water or any drainage channels. She looks for any source of steam, and should she find nothing behind the pristine pool and marble poolside it appears to be she will put first her hand into the water to feel the temperature, then if not too hot or cold her face under the water to look for any strange items or arcane clues under the surface of the water.
Bell was silent for a moment and then a wide smile lit up her face.
"Remember, I came from a small community where my family lived on the edge of woods and hill country. I spent most of my early years working the homestead. Chopping and carrying firewood. Working the soil and tending plantings. Plus all the regular house chores."
She looks around again to see if she feels anything special or out of place.
"If I spent all my time reading books at Candlekeep I suppose I would have to start exercising to stay healthy. After our 'visit' to the big city; dunking into ice cold waters; chasing rogues and thieves... a scholar has to stay in shape!"
Bell & Meredith
Bell determines through her Detect Magic ritual that the garden is entirely without magic of any kind.
Meredith:
Just a reminder of what Ilmar earlier said:
“You are in the main building, the Bath House, the original temple, built around a healing hot spring which is the back room, the pool.”
“Behind the pool are the shrine and the tower. The shrine is the original offering place to Sune, fallen now almost back to nature after years of disuse.
The tower holds the painting studio, and the rooms of Morganna and Saeth, Azirssa — the physical coach I mentioned before — and Greensong, the blind wood elf who is the spa’s chef d’cuisine. Her bloodhound Morty is always by her side…”
Erudisia
There are no other entrances to the Pool Room. Steam rises from the water in the room’s center which gives off a fresh mineral scent. The depth seems to be about 10 feet, although refraction makes it difficult to tell. The water seems to be a perfect turquoise shade, at least, the fine mosaic tiling is turquoise and gives that impression to the liquid. The spring’s point of issuance and drainage channels are not apparent. Perhaps hidden from view at the bottom. The feeling in the room is serene and magical, heightened by the chirping treefrogs beyond the frosted glass, the moonlight, and Erudisia’s own graceful fey motions.
Erudisia kneels beside the pool and puts her hand into the water. It is warm and feels refreshing to the touch. But before she puts her head under, she thinks she hears… something? A whisper? And spots something surprising out of the corner of an eye. An enormous luna moth, perched, immobile, on a bench near the edge of the pool, a few feet to one side of her. It seems to be almost transparent, oddly. As Erudisia looks more closely, suddenly, a splash of water exactly on the back of her head. Another sound, coming from the water itself. A gurgling giggle? When Erudisia looks back toward the moth it is gone without a trace. The water splash came from the pool, but the pool contains only water, gently rippling.
Updated map:
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure
Bell walked about the area for a minute or two before coming back the Meredith. "Mere, I tried to detect magic and I am getting nothing here. Not a twinge. Unless you found a spot to investigate, maybe we should go back and help Erudisia?"
“Hello?” Erudisia whispers. If there is no reply she tries again with her head under water. “Hel..lo?”
No reply. Erudisia puts her face in the water and calls her greeting, her own breath bubbling and tickling her cheeks as it rushes to the surface. After a long moment of silence, the Moonshae lady notices a change in the light, as if a shadow lingers under the moonlight, and then she sees, a few feet in front of and beneath her in the water, the luna moth again, floating, submerged, motionless, just within reach. Perhaps she reaches out an arm toward it.
Suddenly, Erudisia is pitching forward, cannonballing into the pool, shoved from behind by a wet touch. The luna moth disappears again. The water feels tingly and warm and would be soothing if it wasn't now obvious someone was playing a trick on her. When she comes up for air, treading water in the middle of the pool, a beautiful woman's face is hanging over her, the complexion somewhere between turquoise and kelp, kelp also being the color of her long hair hanging wetly to frame Erudisia's face. The woman's eyes are glowing with humor, her pearly teeth shining in a lovely smile. Her entire body, clothed in a toga of pearlescence, hangs in midair above the pool, as if she is lying on an invisible shelf a foot or so over the water.
"Hel...lo!," she says. "Oopsie, you fell in!"
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure
Erudisia changes her armour to resemble a swimsuit. Moonshae enough, she knows better than to show outrage. Her face serene, she speaks up to the floating woman.
“How capricious. May I have your name? What manner of creature are you?”
Meredith sagged, " Yeah...your probably right..."
Bell and Meredith
Your passive perceptions are high enough so that, as you exit the garden and return to the lobby, you hear a splash from the direction of the pool.
Erudisia
“Haha,” the woman says like a bubbling brook, her face hanging mere inches from Erudisia’s, “Thank you. A girl bound for eternity to a healing spring has to have fun somehow, doesn’t she?”
She smiles again and, gently extending a hand, moves an errant strand of wet hair out of Erudisia’s eye.
“You’re beautiful already. No wonder you waited until darkness to swim. You would tempt any who see you…”
“I have owned many names… call me Cyrena. I am called a naiad by the people of dry land.”
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure
“Well met, Cyrena, naiad of the healing spring. You are most beautiful, and I have never met a naiad before.
“Are you older than the shrine to Sune here? What do you think of this place?”
Erudisia begins a gentle sculling on her back, trying to match to an extent the recumbent pose of the floating creature (and create a little more space between their faces). She tries to recall what she can about naiads.
[not sure which of these rolls may be appropriate]
[Nature: 12]
[Arcana: 11]
[History: 23]
Meredith pointed towards the pool and moved quickly there with Bell.
Erudisia
The naiad swims through the air inches above Erudisia. She seems innocent to the existence of the phrase ‘personal space.’
“Many summers upon summers of eons and years have I lived in these waters.” She suddenly makes a barrel roll and disappears into the water to one side of Erudisia. Any part of her underwater becomes invisible to all sight. But Erudisia feels a rush of water immediately beneath her, and then Cyrena rises again on her other side, but now, only as high as the delicate woven moss belt she wears around her waist.
“Though the spring’s issuance changed when my friend came to build the flowered walls and windows and this pool for her guests, you surface dwellers, to enjoy…
“We have an agreement. Or had an agreement.” A slight indentation of concern dots her brow. “I have not seen her in recent seasons. Not since…”
She trails off, her face turning in the moonlight toward the door to the pool room, which, though closed, shows, from the level of the pool’s surface where Erudisia and Cyrena are, two pairs of feet blocking lamplight which would otherwise make a line under the decorative doors.
“Someone is here…,” Cyrena says, the dot of concern now replaced with a leveling of her eyes which is not at all friendly. When Erudisia looks back from the door to where Cyrena was, the naiad has disappeared, and there is a stirring of the waters under Erudisia, then stillness.
Bell and Meredith
You reach the door to the pool room which is closed. You thought you heard Erudisia’s voice and another female voice through the door, but now, only a gentle play of liquid, as if a single person were swimming.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Chierhy Nbenbe in Culuril's Strixhaven Adventure