Bell will attempt another Mind Sliver driving a disorienting spike of psychic energy into the mind of the mouse/orb before it can scamper out of range.
{game log} 3 pts psychic damage (( and the subtract 1d4 from the next saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn... is active )) Save INT 13
Looking over her shoulder to make certain everyone is okay, Bell will rush forward to try to keep this menace in sight.
“Squeak!,” Bell hears in her mind, as the mouse stumbles and rolls head over heels on the tile floor. Her Mind Sliver worked. But the mouse picks itself up and darts onward.
Erudisia stumbles after the others. With one weak hand she swipes at nothing you can see, in the direction of the shelf that deals with humble phylacteries. A Gust of chill wind spills books to the ground, seeking to get ahead of the mouse, and to slow it down with difficult terrain, if not squash it outright.
Erudisia’s spell causes a row of books to fly off their shelf and onto the floor, creating a cul-de-sac. The mouse’s tiny claws scrabble on the tiles to keep from being smashed by the falling books or itself smashing into the heavy tomes. Into this opening, Little One leaps, slamming down both fists onto the ground to smash the tiny rodent. He stops where he is, and when you reach him, you see a sour look on his face, watching as a puddle of blue goo expands on the tiles in front of him. The Gingwazim is dead. Little One is covered in ectoplasm from his chin to his belt, and his hands, when he raises them, pull up sticky streamers from the goo-soaked jumbled pages and covers splayed on the floor.
“What is the meaning of this???,” you hear from the doorway through which you entered the library chamber. You turn and see Valna Oxalonthrinn, the Keeper of the Emerald Gate, standing imperiously at the end of the stacks, her staff glowing with arcane energy, her liquid blue eyes blazing. Shadi is there too, but, you infer, too shell-shocked and intimidated to speak.
Bell steps up close to Little One and casts several repetitions of Prestidigitation to clean all the orb goo off. Unintentionally, some areas of grim also have become clean and neat in the operation.
After being done with fussing over Little One, she will go over to Erudisia. "Are you injured? Let me see if I can help." Totally ignoring the Keeper of the Emerald Gate while she attends to the needs of her companions.
Erudisia can only take in the mess and the arrival of the Keeper with dull eyes. Her every thought seems disadvantaged, and her usual alacrity of thought and manners … deficient.
The bookshelves rise up off the ground toward a stretching ceiling, except, that’s not it at all. She has fallen into a slump in the middle of the bookshelf’s and even lowering her gaze from the ceiling seems a Elminsterian feat.
She feels Bell’s cool hand on her forehead.
“I fear,” she says in response to the wizard’s question. “I fear that I am not well.”
(Erudisia is at 5 HP out of 17. She has one level of exhaustion - disadvantage on all ability checks.)
Bell listens to Erudisia's words and turns to glare at the Keeper. "We don't have healing magic yet! Be useful and HELP." She fusses about to try to get Erudisia at least into a semi reclining position. Prestidigitation to warm 'Disia's clothing so she won't grow chill.
"Help first. Explainations and apologies afterward."
The high elf’s gaze lingers coldly on Bell for a long moment. She does not move from her spot but turns the focus of her attention, more softly, upon Shadi.
“What is the meaning of this, Shadi.”
“Umm,” Shadi says, “I was carrying a new book offered by a Seeker, from the gate to the catalogers. I got distracted. I could have sworn the book told me to read it. I did, an interesting chapter regarding the necessary details involved in spellcasting. I don’t even remember what happened next exactly. It transformed into a blue orb, and I was so sure it was going to... to kill me...”
Suddenly, the Avowed priestess who had squashed the cockroach now comes huffing into the library, takes in the scene, and, jaw popping open, looks to the Keeper.
“Another Gingwazim,” the Keeper says firmly. Then to no one in particular, “Where are they coming from?”
The distant, emotionless expression you usually see her wearing now returns. You may understand that she at first thought the commotion had been your doing.
“They need help. To the temple.” She motions to Erudisia and Little One, who has not stood up from the place he leaped to. He seems not to have the energy. The Avowed priestess offers an arm to Erudisia.
Meredith catches up with Erudisia before she has gone up a single flight of stairs toward the temple. The bard's healing spell relieves HP damage but not the exhaustion. Rest and relaxation will be needed before Erudisia feels like herself again, and the same holds true for Little One, although he soon rises and brushes himself off.
Bell smiles at Little One, "I did what little I could. I know you would do no less it the tables were turned." She stands in place, watching as Erudisia and Little One are directed to the House of Healing. Once they are out of sight, she turns to the Keeper of the Emerald Gate.
"Lady, I apologize for my abruptness earlier. My friends were attacked physically and magically; their welfare was paramount."
Bell will then go on to explain all they had discovered and experienced from their own 'goo book' and what Little One had said about how the book ended up in their hands. And, now, after hearing Shadi's story, it only reinforced what they feared. Somehow, the library is being 'infected' with these Gingwazim shape changing / essence eating goo things. AND, specifically how Bell's detect magic effort detected nothing just before it changed from book to orb.
"... and as we voiced the fear that the library might have more Gingwazim on the shelves, we heard a scream and ran toward the sound... only to find Shadi being attacked by another Gingwazim. I am hoping against hope there are those in Candlekeep of higher ranks of knowledge and magics that can weed out this infestation inside Candlekeep."
Bell's energy winds down and she goes silent; awaiting the penalty of her brash actions.
“Miss Whether, I would not be surprised that Detect Magic did not detect the gingwazim. The spell is not triggered by magical creatures, but only by the effects of arcane efforts. A magic ring. A magic ward. A magical portal. Yes. But you yourself can cast spells. Do you glow when you cast Detect Magic? No. The same goes for creatures which possess magical abilities.
“But, infestation…,” the Keeper continues thoughtfully. An unanswered question.
”Shadi, the gingwazim that attacked you… the book into which it had transformed. It just came from the gate?”
”Yes, My Lady.”
”And the other one…,” she looks to Little One. “Ludmilla, the priestess who just left with your friend, said you brought it from the gate, today?”
”Yes.”
”So both arrived today and immediately needed to feed. And this is following several weeks when poor weather kept pilgrims from reaching our gates…”
Meredith and Erudisia have by now returned to the library chamber.
“I need to bring this breach to the attention of the Keeper of Tomes,” Valna Oxalonthrinn says. The Avowed adjuducants at the gate have a record of who entered, when, and how many have entered today. Go. I will meet you at the Emerald Door in twenty minutes.”
She strides off, her fine green and black vestments swishing.
Bell sighs. "I suppose we should run and tidy up our mess in the other room as best we can and then rush to our rooms to gather our staffs, bags, and what not... for I feel we are about to get thrown into the deep end again."
Patting each of her companions on their shoulder or arm (depending on heights), she moves off the be standing at the Emerald Door in 19 minutes!
Erudisia removes a key from beneath her neckline where it hands beside her dragon chess piece. A small but heavy brass key, she offers it to the others as she sits in the room.
“I have much of what I need,” she says, wearily, “but even the temple has not quite cured this necrotic malaise. I fear I have just enough to make it to the Emerald Door. Would either of you be so kind as to collect anything you think we need? I’m afraid I caught only little of what the Keeper said.”
Where she sits, her eyes are heavy lidded and she looks near to sleep.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
Meredith spies it running beside the library shelf labeled “Pigeon Feather - Phylactery“! No one else has to make a perception check this round.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
(Other players can take turns however)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell will attempt another Mind Sliver driving a disorienting spike of psychic energy into the mind of the mouse/orb before it can scamper out of range.
{game log} 3 pts psychic damage (( and the subtract 1d4 from the next saving throw it makes before the end of your next turn... is active )) Save INT 13
Looking over her shoulder to make certain everyone is okay, Bell will rush forward to try to keep this menace in sight.
“Squeak!,” Bell hears in her mind, as the mouse stumbles and rolls head over heels on the tile floor. Her Mind Sliver worked. But the mouse picks itself up and darts onward.
(OOC: other attacks?)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Erudisia stumbles after the others. With one weak hand she swipes at nothing you can see, in the direction of the shelf that deals with humble phylacteries. A Gust of chill wind spills books to the ground, seeking to get ahead of the mouse, and to slow it down with difficult terrain, if not squash it outright.
Erudisia’s spell causes a row of books to fly off their shelf and onto the floor, creating a cul-de-sac. The mouse’s tiny claws scrabble on the tiles to keep from being smashed by the falling books or itself smashing into the heavy tomes. Into this opening, Little One leaps, slamming down both fists onto the ground to smash the tiny rodent. He stops where he is, and when you reach him, you see a sour look on his face, watching as a puddle of blue goo expands on the tiles in front of him. The Gingwazim is dead. Little One is covered in ectoplasm from his chin to his belt, and his hands, when he raises them, pull up sticky streamers from the goo-soaked jumbled pages and covers splayed on the floor.
“What is the meaning of this???,” you hear from the doorway through which you entered the library chamber. You turn and see Valna Oxalonthrinn, the Keeper of the Emerald Gate, standing imperiously at the end of the stacks, her staff glowing with arcane energy, her liquid blue eyes blazing. Shadi is there too, but, you infer, too shell-shocked and intimidated to speak.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith snatches a book off the shelf and pitches it at the mouse, trying to track where it goes.
Attack: 8 Damage: 1
Perception- 21
Meredith turned to face Valna Oxalonthrinn.
" Apologies for the mess, Ma'am. Candlekeep appears to have an infestation of Gingwazim."
" Again I apologize that our pest control measures are somewhat untested."
Persuasion- 5
Bell steps up close to Little One and casts several repetitions of Prestidigitation to clean all the orb goo off. Unintentionally, some areas of grim also have become clean and neat in the operation.
After being done with fussing over Little One, she will go over to Erudisia. "Are you injured? Let me see if I can help." Totally ignoring the Keeper of the Emerald Gate while she attends to the needs of her companions.
Erudisia can only take in the mess and the arrival of the Keeper with dull eyes. Her every thought seems disadvantaged, and her usual alacrity of thought and manners … deficient.
The bookshelves rise up off the ground toward a stretching ceiling, except, that’s not it at all. She has fallen into a slump in the middle of the bookshelf’s and even lowering her gaze from the ceiling seems a Elminsterian feat.
She feels Bell’s cool hand on her forehead.
“I fear,” she says in response to the wizard’s question. “I fear that I am not well.”
(Erudisia is at 5 HP out of 17. She has one level of exhaustion - disadvantage on all ability checks.)
Bell listens to Erudisia's words and turns to glare at the Keeper. "We don't have healing magic yet! Be useful and HELP." She fusses about to try to get Erudisia at least into a semi reclining position. Prestidigitation to warm 'Disia's clothing so she won't grow chill.
"Help first. Explainations and apologies afterward."
The high elf’s gaze lingers coldly on Bell for a long moment. She does not move from her spot but turns the focus of her attention, more softly, upon Shadi.
“What is the meaning of this, Shadi.”
“Umm,” Shadi says, “I was carrying a new book offered by a Seeker, from the gate to the catalogers. I got distracted. I could have sworn the book told me to read it. I did, an interesting chapter regarding the necessary details involved in spellcasting. I don’t even remember what happened next exactly. It transformed into a blue orb, and I was so sure it was going to... to kill me...”
Suddenly, the Avowed priestess who had squashed the cockroach now comes huffing into the library, takes in the scene, and, jaw popping open, looks to the Keeper.
“Another Gingwazim,” the Keeper says firmly. Then to no one in particular, “Where are they coming from?”
The distant, emotionless expression you usually see her wearing now returns. You may understand that she at first thought the commotion had been your doing.
“They need help. To the temple.” She motions to Erudisia and Little One, who has not stood up from the place he leaped to. He seems not to have the energy. The Avowed priestess offers an arm to Erudisia.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith slaps her forehead, "I'm an idiot. I remembered this from a tome I read yesterday....but I got distracted by....uh, stuff...."
She hurried over to Erudisia and whispered in her ear, " You are a brave and clever woman and no ball of goo will keep you down."*
Then she took off running towards the temple....
*Cure Wounds:- 15 hp to Erudisia.
Meredith catches up with Erudisia before she has gone up a single flight of stairs toward the temple. The bard's healing spell relieves HP damage but not the exhaustion. Rest and relaxation will be needed before Erudisia feels like herself again, and the same holds true for Little One, although he soon rises and brushes himself off.
"Thank you for clean mess," he says to Bell.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell smiles at Little One, "I did what little I could. I know you would do no less it the tables were turned." She stands in place, watching as Erudisia and Little One are directed to the House of Healing. Once they are out of sight, she turns to the Keeper of the Emerald Gate.
"Lady, I apologize for my abruptness earlier. My friends were attacked physically and magically; their welfare was paramount."
Bell will then go on to explain all they had discovered and experienced from their own 'goo book' and what Little One had said about how the book ended up in their hands. And, now, after hearing Shadi's story, it only reinforced what they feared. Somehow, the library is being 'infected' with these Gingwazim shape changing / essence eating goo things. AND, specifically how Bell's detect magic effort detected nothing just before it changed from book to orb.
"... and as we voiced the fear that the library might have more Gingwazim on the shelves, we heard a scream and ran toward the sound... only to find Shadi being attacked by another Gingwazim. I am hoping against hope there are those in Candlekeep of higher ranks of knowledge and magics that can weed out this infestation inside Candlekeep."
Bell's energy winds down and she goes silent; awaiting the penalty of her brash actions.
“Miss Whether, I would not be surprised that Detect Magic did not detect the gingwazim. The spell is not triggered by magical creatures, but only by the effects of arcane efforts. A magic ring. A magic ward. A magical portal. Yes. But you yourself can cast spells. Do you glow when you cast Detect Magic? No. The same goes for creatures which possess magical abilities.
“But, infestation…,” the Keeper continues thoughtfully. An unanswered question.
”Shadi, the gingwazim that attacked you… the book into which it had transformed. It just came from the gate?”
”Yes, My Lady.”
”And the other one…,” she looks to Little One. “Ludmilla, the priestess who just left with your friend, said you brought it from the gate, today?”
”Yes.”
”So both arrived today and immediately needed to feed. And this is following several weeks when poor weather kept pilgrims from reaching our gates…”
Meredith and Erudisia have by now returned to the library chamber.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith clocked the last sentence as she reentered, " So likely it began today? How many have entered Candlekeep today?", Meredith blurted
Everyone shakes their heads, without an answer.
“I need to bring this breach to the attention of the Keeper of Tomes,” Valna Oxalonthrinn says. The Avowed adjuducants at the gate have a record of who entered, when, and how many have entered today. Go. I will meet you at the Emerald Door in twenty minutes.”
She strides off, her fine green and black vestments swishing.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell sighs. "I suppose we should run and tidy up our mess in the other room as best we can and then rush to our rooms to gather our staffs, bags, and what not... for I feel we are about to get thrown into the deep end again."
Patting each of her companions on their shoulder or arm (depending on heights), she moves off the be standing at the Emerald Door in 19 minutes!
Erudisia removes a key from beneath her neckline where it hands beside her dragon chess piece. A small but heavy brass key, she offers it to the others as she sits in the room.
“I have much of what I need,” she says, wearily, “but even the temple has not quite cured this necrotic malaise. I fear I have just enough to make it to the Emerald Door. Would either of you be so kind as to collect anything you think we need? I’m afraid I caught only little of what the Keeper said.”
Where she sits, her eyes are heavy lidded and she looks near to sleep.