And cut it in two he does. Almost. The worm recoil as the sharp blade strike, mixing some strange ooze with the water. Sam's stab, as a result, misses, because he cannot clearly make out where ooze stop and the worm starts.
---
Salena
Jaquilin
Kaylee
Ragnar
Sam
Theleb
---
Worm (20)
---
Jaquilin fires a magic missile at the worm. It strikes unerringly, and the curious worm stops moving...
There is little of direct value here, except for two watertight scrollcases. Each holds a magical scroll (circle against chaos)
|
Ragnar looks at the worm's carcass with satisfaction, a slow smile coming to his face. He moves forward and kicks some of the worm parts around, looking for anything of interest.
"Yes, it definitely feels as if something is here, but we can't seem to find i for some reason," he agrees with Salena after a minute or so.
The party wades out of the stacks, to the upstairs chamber. The door to the room is unlocked.
Jalena opens the door, and sees a rack of ink vials topple over froth corner of her eye. With a big crashing sound, the vials fall on her, covering her in ink.
The large chamber is crammed with desks and lecterns designed for copying scrolls and manuscripts. Along the north wall, a tall, broad shelf sags with sheaves of parchment, while near the exit to the south, a stack of ceramic ink jugs stands near wall-mounted racks of quills. Two bays of windows on the west wall offer an impressive view of the Lodge’s greatest landmark, Skyreach Tower, while the eastern windows overlook the library’s main stacks. The twenty-foot-high coffered ceiling bears an elaborate mural with stylized representations of ten long-dead gnome priests of Desna.
In the back of the room, Kreighton Shane is looking over some ancient tome, a crocodile at his feet.
Kreighton has a scroll fragment under his belt, and another is lying on the desk in front of him
That is actually not Kreighton Shane, but somebody else in disguise...
Ah, deception, you've seen through it! Let us see face to face 'Kreighton' says as he changes back into the guise of a fox.
You have the honour of standing face to face with the greatest bard and riddle solver that has ever lived. the man says, boastfully.
I was trapped, for lost a riddle-contest. The riddle on this darned scroll, I cannot solve it, and the faerie king locked me up as punishment for it: he told me my name, and it shackled me. None shall catch me who can't catch my name!
What about you, have you come to challenge me?
Who is the last to dine? My guess was the worm, since it feeds upon the flesh of the dead, and it had me imprisoned. So what is the real answer! This is the conundrum I have been trying to solve!
|
Jaquilin scratches her head at this situation, attempting to piece together the riddle in her mind, but nothing appears as she is stuck.
"We heard you wanted revenge for your entrapment. I'm tempted to help you, if you can hand us over the rest of the scroll peices. they we can understand the riddle." Jaquilin states, keeping her mind set on the mission. "I am certain we could perhaps solve the riddle if we put all our minds together on this."
What? NooooOOo!
As soon as Theleb voices his dismissal of guessing games, the fox flinches and starts screaming as if the world is about to end. The scroll fragments starts moving on their own, stitching themselves back together and pulling in the crocodile, then sucking in the fox, leaving only the curved piece of paper on the floor.
|
|
Jaquilin smiles and gives a nod
"Ahh, I believe I understand..." she states, uncertain at first "Perhaps people are normally inquisitive and so the sheer bluntness of Theleb was enough to re-banish him. That, or something he just said solved the riddle." she goes over, picking up the peice of scroll left behind and reading it silently in her mind to see if anything there reveals it."[/b]
"At my school we learnt a lot about outsiders, especially Devils. If you can learn their true name, you gain full control of them. Perhaps Theleb accidentally said his true name?" she suggests, still not certain about her conclusion.
The full text of the scroll now available to the pathfinders, they can see the full riddle.
|
|
Jaquilin thinks for a moment, looking at the riddle that trapped the bard.
"The Crocodile. It was the last to dine because it ate the birds that would clean it's teeth." she states, seeing her way around this, but still not understanding how Theleb's words defeated the bard in the first place. "My theory is that perhaps he refused to play the game with him and that's what had trapped him where he made his life on telling tales and riddles? That's all I can make of this, but let's talk to the fish and save these poor scrolls and archives from being ruined permanently."
"We have defeated the bard. He wanted us to help solve the riddle that trapped him, but my companion here said no and that somehow trapped him again, but none of us are certain as to why. Is my theory correct and Theleb refusing to take part was what worked on him?" she asks with a gleam of hope that she may have gotten this right...but clearly forgotten she cannot speak it's language, so looks to Kaylee to translate.
Baffled, the party returns to the fish upstairs.
What? Who are you?
The fish seems to have a hard time remembering who the adventurers are, but then she sees the scroll.
Ah, you have the scroll! Did you speak the name of the fox to capture him? That's all it took, find out the name of the fox. If you say - err - what was it again? If you do, then the scroll will return to its former state. I can step in as well, I'll clean up this water, then return to my home. You should probably also catch Owl and Albatross.
|
|
Staring at the parchment, Kaylee makes a snap determination, showing her high intelligence despite the vapid way that she speaks.
"Guys! His name was 'caught'! See, how the letters at the start of the rhymes spell out 'caught'? And then Theleb, he accidentally said the name, and solved the riddle! I know we would have gotten it eventually, but Theleb made a happy accident and EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!!"
Kaylee starts jumping and dancing around happily, waving her pom-poms in the air, and in doing so jumps over to Theleb and gives him a big kiss on the cheek. "Great job, sweetie!"
Then she remembers she was supposed to be translating, and translates both what the fish said and what Jaquilin said in response.
|
|
"Wait, 'Caught' ? His name is 'Caught'?!" she says looking back over the scraps of paper and groaning "This is why I don't like dealing with Fey. Their games get very irritating and are so very stupid." she states, clearly irritated that she didn't figure it out, but smiles down at the clever human "Well done for figuring this out. Now...how do we catch those birds?"
The birds, although they are reluctant to go into the scroll, have little choice. As soon as the scroll comes near, it transforms into a whirling vortex of words and riddles, sucking up the two.