As the elf in residence, Nia would feel almost obligated. She would step forward. “I am called Nia” On Thu, Sep 18, 2025 at 6:00 PM bss via Emerald Flame < emerald-flame@lists.incorporeal.org> wrote:
On Wednesday, September 17, 2025 1:51 PM Stuck Ey via Emerald Flame wrote:
Dax would have poured over books (sounds like you already took that into account). With the ominous shadows he would take out a weapon, scanning about, trying to keep his fear in check. Taking some books with them and returning later seems like a good idea?
[Relative positions are getting weird; I am going to adopt Mike's cardinal directionality for sake of convenience, as I don't think I'd specified any to this point, which I should be better about... anyway, you've been in the library, now heading north to escape the shadows.]
You all make a quick exit from the library chamber, the shadows up against the walls growing as you leave, until you cannot discern what's going on in the darkness as you progress, the room beyond the range of Gegren's floating torch. Dax has a couple books he quickly snagged in tow, maybe they'll be of some value later, but for now, the secrets of library remain a mystery for another time.
Traveling roughly 200' from the library, the corridor you exit from reaches a staircase in the eastern wall, spiraling downward, deeper into the dungeon, but it seems to have suffered a collapse, as it is clear from the corridor that you could go only a few feet down before encountering a significant pile of rock and rubble, of unknown depth. The corridor turns to the west from there, and you soon reach the foyer, an open area supported by modest stone archways. The sight and space of the foyer was probably impressive, once, but time has again turned miscellaneous wood fixtures to crumbling piles, and a couple murals not more than a faint echo of existence.
The main entrance to the foyer seems to be buried in earth; you note that it does not seem to have been subject to a collapse of the structure, but rather buried, swallowed by the land around it, or perhaps the structure slowly sank into the ground, for some unknown reason. This area still rests on a small tilt as the rest of the structure this side of the chasm.
It seems the foyer continues ahead further east, and also leads to another chamber to the south, but before you can take a closer look in either direction, a strange arcane automaton hovers into the foyer, presenting itself before your party. It is made of disconnected bronze panels, held together by some swirling arcane force in its center, the plates spinning rapidly and creating something vaguely humanoid in shape, but with no legs or discernible features of its "face". It would not be out of place as an interesting output of a magitech mage's tinkerings, but you get the sense that, like the rest of the area, it is quite old.
It "speaks" to you in archaic Elven, "your name?" -- bss (Brian S. Stephan) | https://bss.zone/ | GPG: 0x80895FCB_______________________________________________ Emerald Flame mailing list -- emerald-flame@lists.incorporeal.org To unsubscribe send an email to emerald-flame-leave@lists.incorporeal.org