Erik Soong's Call of the Netherdeep

"What ... is this place?"

Sky looks concerned ... or maybe bothered.  Either way, it's becoming clear that whoever is operating down here -- the Clasp? -- has been doing so, unimpeded, long enough to decorate.  That's not a good sign.

Morgan's bat's perception: 5
It has blindsight if it can help, and Morgan's detect thoughts is probably still up (it lasts 10 minutes). 

Nivi reaches the threshold of the room first, stopping and waiting for the rest of her companions to catch up.  By reflex, she telepathically asks Shiv to take a pass through the room, wondering if the grumpy owl will refuse her, only to grimace, remembering he is not with her currently.

Now fully in the light, she notices Ylis and Jacaranda taking steps to check the discs and the murals respectively.  Nivi nods in approval.

"Damn if I trust any of this demon shit.  Literally."  Nivi glances with distaste at the stinking sewer tunnel behind her, then ahead again.  Her voice is an angry mutter.  "Discs might summon demons.  Hungry paintings might come out of the wall at us.  Got to get to Desu and end it.  Guessing she's so focused on her hit.  Taking out the Taskhand.  Hasn't figured out that making a deal like this doesn't end well for her any more than for us."

She takes a different tack than the others and performs a quick breathing exercise she and her siblings had been taught as children in a high elven household.  Though Alend and especially Tara had been far better at it than she.  Focusing on her tenuous connection with the Weave...

Nivi uses her once-a-day High Elf ability to cast Detect Magic to discern the existence and school of any magic within 30' (10 min duration).

(OOC: Do I sense any Celestials, Fiends, or Undead in this room?  60' radius.)

Ylis looks down the small room and past the next flight of stairs. She can see that there is some flickering torchlight in the next room. This torchlight is what normally provides some illumination to the tiny room that they are standing before now, though Sky and Ylis’ radiant light is doing the lighting of it now.

Ylis clicks the ball bearing at the disc. It lands perfectly with a metallic snap, indicating that whatever the disc is, it is also made of metal. After it impacts the disc, it bounces away, down the next flight of stairs, then drops into a larger room where it impacts what sounds like stone, out of sight.

Randa examines the murals. They are not painted on. They looked to be shaped from the stone itself. Though not carved. The hungry people look almost pulled out from the stone. Stretched. You see an inscription on the murals on either side. They read: INSIDE OF THEE RESIDES YOUR KEY. SHARE OF SELF AND PASS.

DM: Randa please give an Arcana Check.

DM: Morgan, you do not detect any thoughts from a Creature within 30ft, beyond those you have brought with you and your familiar can detect nothing that is Invisible.

DM: Sky cannot detect any Celestials or Undead within 60ft. However, he does once again detect that Morgan’s familiar is a Fiend.

Nivi spreads her senses beyond her mortal coil and extends into the Weave. She can absolutely detect a combination of Transmutation and Necromancy on the murals. The discs contain powerful Evocation magic. Looking at the murals in this new light, she also notes that the eyes of the people in the mural are looking hungrily at the party. Not in their direction, but directly at the heroes.

Nivi's pale green eyes seem to stare into the middle distance for a moment until she gives herself a shake.

"Metal discs, they... we do the wrong thing here and I think they blast us.  And the wall paintings.  Not paintings.  People, only changed.  Turned to stone?  Undead, could be.  You able to tell, Sky?  Call me crazy, but they're watching us.  Not just facing our way, but watching US, sure as shit."

Ylis charges her spear with the Moon Weaver's grace and steps into the room. She calls out, "I am Ylis, protector of the innocent! Shield against fear! Hater of cow poop!" Then she cuts her finger and lets a drop of blood fall on the first metal disc.

(1 hp damage recorded)

"Whatever is going on here, Nivi ... my deity is not indicating there are fiends nor undead here, not within my range.  But they could be any number of other things.  I can't detect constructs, for example.  Nor aberrations."

Ylis’ blood impacts the metal disc and it immediately is… consumed? It appears as though the disc absorbs it like a sponge, leaving no trace. The people on the mural appear somewhat sated, though this effect only lasts a moment. Ylis is no longer being tracked by their eyes, though the rest of the party still is.

Ylis charges her spear with the Moon Weaver's grace and steps into the room. She calls out, "I am Ylis, protector of the innocent! Shield against fear! Hater of cow poop!" Then she cuts her finger and lets a drop of blood fall on the first metal disc.

Nivi watches the harengon with sardonic curiosity, her hand on her rapier, readying her thunderous cantrip, hoping for the best, but expecting...

Ylis’ blood impacts the metal disc and it immediately is… consumed? It appears as though the disc absorbs it like a sponge, leaving no trace. The people on the mural appear somewhat sated, though this effect only lasts a moment. Ylis is no longer being tracked by their eyes, though the rest of the party still is.

Nivi's grin deepens.  "Really?  Demons and Clasp all over, and it's down to touchy feely crap that my stupid sister used to call 'being vulnerable'?"

"Whatever is going on here, Nivi ... my deity is not indicating there are fiends nor undead here, not within my range.  But they could be any number of other things.  I can't detect constructs, for example.  Nor aberrations."

She tilts her head to turn her lopsided grin at the goliath.  "Huh.  Good to know.  Guess if we got mind flayers or such down here with the demons, then we're just plain boned."  Turning back, she calls out in a low voice.  "Nice work, Killer Bunny!  Going quick's your thing, yeah?"

She lopes after the harengon, drawing her own blood with a quick pierce from her rapier (without the thunderous booming this time).  Almost, she lets the crimson drop fall on the first disc as Ylis had, but with a quick dart, Nivi steps to the second one, and it drips down to the metal there.

Her voice rings out in an accent that passes for that of a highborn elven lady.  "I am Niva'ele Farstrider, and indeed I have strayed far from the noble Farstrider way.  Once a fixer and a Blade like Desu, the Clasp shunned me for... being too chaotic.  For slaying those they did not wish dead.  A blade without a hilt.  And yet for that exile, I find myself thankful now, knowing what has become of the Clasp beneath Bazzoxan.  This mad abyssal pact."

(1hp piercing damage taken).

Morgan very much prefers his blood staying inside his body. He has heard too many stories about blood, fiends, and pacts... and none of them ended well for the donor.

He hesitates before cutting himself, studying the four disks more carefully. He looks for any differences (marks, symbols, anything) that might suggest they require different offerings.

(perception: 23, investigation: 16)

Nivi's drop of blood is similarly consumed and the gaunt people in the murals see a moment of their sunken eyes and hollow cheeks fill before they return to their hungered state and watch the rest of the party. They no longer track Nivi. 

Morgan carefully examines the discs. They are, as far as he can tell, identical. They have a slight recess in them to contain whatever might be dropped onto them and the stones on the ground are cut away to make space for them. These discs seem to be connected to some cylindrical object that runs into the floor, based on Morgan's keen examination of the rough-cut stone where the discs have been placed. It seems that the discs are designed to absorb an essence and then transfer it through these cylinders that are nestled in the ground. He can't see how deep they go as the stone floor is in the way, but based on the visible response of the murals, the cylinders transfer that essence to the murals in some way.

Jacaranda doesn't even attempt to understand what this is, but she trusts her ' daughter' so digs an arrow head into her forearm sluicing blood onto the first disc then shaking it vigorously to splash blood onto all four at once.

( -4 hp)

The people in the murals are momentarily satisfied, but soon after, their hunger returns. Morgan notes that despite the much larger volume of blood given, the people were no more satisfied, nor satisfied for any longer period of time than when it was a single drop. 

Randa is now ignored and those who remain are watched. 

"I don't know if there's a way to get by them without sacrificing our essence," Sky says to Morgan quietly, sounding a little unhappy about it.

"Well you could just walk through and see what happens." 

Ylis shrugs. 

Morgan sighs.

"I doubt they'll come out of the walls to ask for a dance. But if they do, it'll cost us much more than a tiny drop of blood," he says, trying to convince himself.

He sighs again.

He disinfects his dagger with a spark of sorcerous fire, then pricks the tip of his finger and lets a drop of blood fall onto one of the disks (preferably one not used by the others, -1 hp).

Randa shrugged and began to walk through the area to the other side....

The people in the mural express temporary relief and turn to who remains. 

Randa freely navigates the room. She reaches the far end of the small room without issue.

Ylis joins Randa and looks down the steps. Is the room somehow blocked off from view? Are there occupants? Where is the light coming from? Any sounds or smells?

Ylis Perception check 15