[LOG] The Ziggurat Part 2
The team spent a night overnight up in the periodical section trying to figure out what to do about the library and the blue-winged angel they encountered in the stacks. Pascal, a trained librarian and researcher, finally pieces together that something is bound in the foundations of the building. Something big. Something important. And they find it... but not without a real fight with one of Amber's forgotten enemies.
Note: This adventure is not complete! How the outcome is handled is completely up to the players.
Pascal, being experienced with long nights (and days, multiple) in less-than-mundane libraries, has worked to set up a small camp on this floor. Where several aisles of stacks converge some bedrolls have been laid out, allowing easy access to a number of books and, more importantly a good line of sight for anyone coming in. He sits on his own right now, a stack of books next to him as he pores through them for any clue about the nature of this ziggurat.
Liam sits on a bedroll among the stacks by Pascal with a big pile of art based magazines and periodicals from somewhere in Shadow. Or multiple Shadows. They all seem different with different styles and approaches, but they are all glossy magazines. Perhaps the glossy magazine is ubiquitous in Shadow. Like ice cream sandwiches. He peers up at the windows and the roof every once in a while looking for the blue winged thing. Then he peers at what Pascal is doing.
Taran has little experience of such libraries, but he has quite a lot of experience of camping in unfamiliar and unsafe surroundings. And while the others read, he stands a quiet guard, watching and listening for danger's approach.
It is very quiet in the periodicals since the blue winged intruder flew up through the skylight.
Melina has fallen into a uneasy slep on one of the bedrolls. she tosses and turns. Still half asleep she ccalls out for her brother "taran!"
"Calm, Melina," Pascal says quietly. "We're still here in the library... I think I may have chosen the wrong direction."
Liam looks up from skimming the art of a million worlds and blinks when Melina cries out.
Taran murmurs, "Be still, sister. I am on watch. It is safe."
Melina blinks and sits herself up looking confused followed swiftly by embarrased "I dreamt it took you" she explains quietly
Pascal closes his book and stands, starting to roll his bedroll. "An angel won't take him," he says quietly. "They're merely servants of gods, while we strike out at gods themselves."
Liam changes periodicals he is skimming. "Do you think I should work on sculpture made entirely of fudge? There's a whole fudge fine art magazine here." He looks up at Pascal as he stands.
"Dirk would never forgive you for the price paid in Melina's waistline," Taran replies dryly. "If the winged creature returns again, Melina, then I will battle it again. So I am trained to do. In the meantime I believe keen minds are yet required."
Liam hmms mildly. "I think I could take Dirk if it came to him versus fudge."
Melina smiles a Taran "You know me to well for I was just thinking I would surely eat it and upset you liam
Pascal shakes his head slowly. "Mm, fudge is good," he says, "but I don't think what we want is here. I mean, there's a /lot/ I would like to read here, but what we want is down below."
Liam scrambles up to standing, leaving his fudge art magazine behind. "Downstairs? You find a useful reference?"
Taran tilts his head. "Only that three-times-three symbol," he notes. "Kite, perhaps. Like and unlike the triskele."
Melina hms "how do you know..do you recognize the catalog system? to Pas. Then to taran "what does it signify?"
"We don't know," Pascal says simply, finishing packing up his own bedroll. "There's something down... below the basement, actually. Something important is in the foundations. Damned if I can figure out /what/." He looks up to the others and smiles slightly. "This place is ancient," he says. "Beyond belief. Any number of scholars have come here and tried to explain it. Conflicting descriptions, though. There was one particularly repressed young priest who tried saying it was..." He pauses. "Well, let's not go there. There's something powerful in the foundation. Let's leave it there."
Taran shakes his head. "I do not know enough about the Kites to say. They are similar in many ways to Lyonnes, but similar words do not mean the same things to both peoples. A triskele is the symbology of the natural world, in Lyonesse. The unity of earth, sea, and sky into All Things. But that was three-times-three, and ...I do not think it means the same thing."
"Do you think that angel thing we saw earlier is after whatever is buried in the foundations, Pas?" Liam asks. "Because if so, it's probably down there trying to get to it."
Melina hms "and it claimed we wish take it because we were Chantris? Do you think this means it once belonged to the house?
"We don't know that the thing in the foundations is the modethurm," Pascal says picking up his staff. "But it's as likely as anything else... it would have had to find another way in, though. I haven't seen it pass back this way."
Taran frowns. "There are certain...things...which it is given to Chantris to hold and to bind." He looks around them, then to Pascal. "Do you think one of them is here?"
"This place has hundreds of windows," Liam says. "It flies. Probably trivial to get back in."
Melina nods 'but perhaps there are not windows in the basement"
Pascal shivers. "If there is one, we're in way over our heads, Taran," he says. "Let's... just go. Down to find out."
"Lets take the stairs to the lowest level," Liam says. "Maybe there is access to lower points from there."
Taran mmms. "Perhaps," he says. "I am not a Librarian but I am an initiate. And I know ....enough... of our House's heritage to know it can be done. Let us just hope it is lesser rather than greater, if it comes to it." He looks to the others. "If whatever makes this place what it is, is in the basement...surely that is where we must go?"
"If it's a, a, a thingy," Liam says, Liam who is not an initiate at all, and doesn't have loads of reference, "then we probably don't want an angry blue angel to walk off with it."
Pascal looks over everyone else. "It's a thing," he says. "Probably some artifact. In any case, everybody, follow me down."
Melina nods 'if this thing has been loosed from chantris care, whatever it is, it is duty to recover it
Taran just nods. "Well. Until we find it, whatever it is, we will not know. So - shall we seek?"
Pascal nods and starts out, taking Liam's hand to lead him along as he goes to the stairs and starts walking down. "Keep close," he says. "I'm not sure how deep this is."
Melina follows carefully and wordlessly
The stairs down are easy enough to find. Heading down into the Library is a little like going on a trip through the history of the universe. The top level of the basement is just a library basement crammed with older books that are not currently on display that look like they will one day be mystically filed by some missing librarian. Down lower the books turn uniformly into scrolls and statues until it is piles of clay tablets piled on stone tables in corners illuminated only with torches. The temperature plummets as the group descends into the basements and, presumably, into the actual mountain on which the ziggurant is perched. The bottom floor feels more like some kind of ancient temple and storage room than a library, but a library it is, with bits and shards of tablet and papyrus scrolls on tables.
The room is actually quite large and the floor is made of the stone of the mountain. In the center of the room is a great seal that may be, at some remove, the seal of Chantris. It is covered in scratch marks as someone or something tried to either open it or dig through it.
Otherwise, the room feels strangely peaceful.
"The lower levels are older?" Pascal murmurs to himself as they walk out into the bottom level. "But, what are we seeing... Ahh. Is that our X?"
Liam clears his throat and says, "X, once in a while, marks the spot."
RPG: Taran declares that he has the Lesser Word: Guardian (WOP-LW) gift. Use '+gift WOP-LW' to view the gift description. Last edit: 12 months ago.
RPG: Taran used the following +declare targets: Liam
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Gift: WOP-LW - Lesser Word
Summary: Permanently possess a Lesser Word
Cost: 0
Powerbits: aspect type-magic
Prerequisite: CHA-PC
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A Lesser Word of Power has escaped, and taken up permanent residence in this character's head. The character is influenced by whatever the Word is, but as result, gains access to abilities related to that Word. Each Word is unique to its bearer.
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Taran sheathes his sword, approaching the seal with care. "...This must be repaired," he says slowly. "Whatever is bound - it should remain bound."
"Easy as that?" Pascal asks grimly as he walks forward toward the seal. "How was it made in the first place?"
Melina watches unconsciously folding her hand as if in prayer sensing solemnity in her brother's actions even if she does not understand them
Liam comes closer to the seal and then he gets down on one knee. "Marks. A knife or a sword. Trying to get the paint up?"
"Possibly," Pascal says, looking over the seal itself. "First, an assessment as to how bad the damage is." And then, critically failing his check against Genre Savvy, he steps over the edge of the seal, to inspect damage toward the interior.
Taran all but barks the order. "DO NOT BREAK THE SEAL! We may not have the power to bind again what is held here if it is loosed - and if it is loosed whole *shadows* may be affected! Pascal, study the seal! No one step on it! No one break it!"
As Pascal steps on the edge of the seal, just the edge and no more, it starts to hiss like a boiling teakettle. Air shoots out around the edges of the seal. HISSSSS
Melina stays put but does visually inspect the seal from her position
Pascal gets an 'oh crap' look on his face as he starts trying to pull away from the edge. "Speak up faster! Paint, do we have paint?"
The seal apparently is painted over a hairline fracture in the stone floor. Slowly, the entire seal on stone a foot thick rises out of the floor in response to Pascal's foot, revealing, slowly, slowly, a dark passageway down.
Taran *hisses* as the floor opens. "Curse of the Dark One," he swears in Lyonne. Then, to Pascal, "You must lead the way. If something is loosed, it will fall to you to contain it. On. Your. *Life*. Let us pray this was just the outermost barrier and the true power remains contained." He looks over to the other two. "There is *power* here. Power enough, very likely, to shred *Amber* if it is loosed. Try to exercise caution."
Melina actually turns her back to the opening eyes scaning the room feverishly
And from out of the gloom, the glint of silvery blue eyes and the scrape of wings on stone. And a voice says, "... the Modethurm. You have opened the Modethurm, Chantrissss......"
Pascal looks over his shoulder at Taran. "Calm down," he says, apparrently calming himself as it is revealed to be, oh, just a passage. "A door has opened and..." He trails off as the creature speaks. "Oh, bugger. Let's try to get to it before it does... do you think you can take it out?"
Taran draws his sword, moving forward. "Whatever is here, creature, it is by Chantris bound and by Chantris it shall be held. I suggest you depart. Approach and I must force your regret."
The blue winged angel creature comes out of the gloom, its sword in its hand, and a clawed hand open in a grasping movement before it. "It is mine. I found it. I will take it. I neeeeeeeeed it. I neeeeeeeeeeeed it for my peeeeeeeeeeeeople."
Melina asks "who are your people?" Leave it to mel to try to converse with a blue hissing sword weilding angel
Pascal looks up at the approaching creature, then to the stairs. "Melina, don't talk! Run!" he says, starting to dash off down the new passage to himself. He's rather nimble on the spiral stair, actually!
Taran squares off against the winged creature, sword raised - but he is a guardian, not an attacker. "I cannot gift you that which is bound by Chantris," he says. "That is neither my place nor my power. Depart in peace and I will offer such aid to your cause as I am able that is within the bounds of honor and right. Do battle with us and gamble that you will only lose your life for all your effort."
The blue winged being leaps up on one of the tables, spilling ancient clay tablet to the floor where it shatters in a thousand pieces. "Give me what I came for Chantris," the thing hisses. "It is not yours. It is mine. I found it. I found it here. It is MINE."
Melina hollers after her cousin "Do you ever have any other damn advice" but takes off after him down the stairs
Pascal winces as he hears the distant shadow of things breaking overhead. "Yes!" he calls back up to Melina, "but right now, we need to secure this... /thing/. Taran can fight."
Behind Taran, Pascal and Melina clamber down the stairs to a very small, rough hewn chamber. The only light down here is what they bring with them and perhaps a glowing Liam. The only thing down here is a sort of lecturn made of stone and one piece of parchment. On the parchment is written a single word.
Taran winces as the creature destroys priceless knowledge. "And so you prove unworthy of sympathy or aid. A house of knowledge - but you seek no understanding, no wisdom. Only power. Come and fight me for it, creature, if you dare!"
Pascal lets out a slow hiss as he sees the parchment and slowly starts walking for it. "Why would we have something like this out here?" he asks as he approaches the podium. "Melina, Liam, what is the status on the creature?"
Liam peers up the stairs and says, "Uh... about to fight Taran, I think."
The blue winged angel unfurls its wings. "You know nothing, Chantris!" It cocks its head to the side and says, "Give me the Modethurm and you may have this entire building. So much here for Chantris. You like books, yes? Your kind loves books. I give you books. You give me what is so very small."
Melina nods "angry an uncooprative" she walks over to the podium
The bit of parchment is just lying there. Being parchment.
"Look upon my soul, creature," Taran growls. "You sense what is here? *Look. At. Me.* Do not think to lie to me." That sword remains at the ready. "You cannot have the power that is here. Chantris holds it and Chantris keeps it."
"I need it to restore my people," the blue angel hisses. "It will bring them back! It will bring back my people!"
If there is one fault Pascal has, someone was lying to you. It's not one fault he has, but several. At least a thousand. At the top of the list is curiousity. He very carefully reaches out to the podium placing a hand next to the paper. "Let's... Chantris. This would be safer there," he says as he looks down at it once, to see what the modethurm is.
Melina snatches the paper up without looking rolls it and stuffs it in her tunic
RPG: Melina challenges a difficulty of 15. Melina chooses Resolve. Melina completely fails.
Taran shakes his head slowly. "You destroy priceless knowledge in the blind pursuit of power. If you are representative of your race I cannot mourn their loss."
Melina reaches out to touch the parchment and draws back shreiking in pain, her face turning bright redeyes wide open
"I found it! The shiny! It is mine! My power! My modethurm!" The blue winged angel leaps forward, spraying more pottery in its wake. "And now you will GIVE IT TO ME!"
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve and the gifts GKN-KG, PAS-CH, SKL-GU, and SKL-WM. Taran almost succeeds.
Pascal just stands, staring, unable to move for a little bit. Before he reaches over to push Melina away absent-mindedly.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 12. Liam chooses Grace and the gifts BLD-OB and STY-SW. Liam fails.
As the winged creature finally swoops down to the attack, Taran raises his blade to the ready. Blades clash and clang without effect or result, but it does look impressive. And dangerous. And the 'angel' is not without options, arcing back up into the air, past the reach of Taran's blade.
Liam comes up out of the grotto with the Word, leaving Pascal and Melina behind and in time to see the blue winged angel coming at Taran. He makes a noise of surprise and then tries to help Taran by flanking the thing. As the thing arcs up and attacks Taran, Liam tries to jump it from the side but it merely flings him off, leaving a gash across the chest and flinging him across the room into the wall. WUMP. THUD.
The blue angel screams in anger when it is thwarted by Taran. It comes in and dives again, meaning very much to gut Taran like a fish.
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve and the gifts GKN-KG, PAS-CH, SKL-GU, and SKL-WM. Taran succeeds.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 12. Liam chooses Grace and the gifts BLD-OB and STY-SW. Liam succeeds.
Melina doesn't need pushed away, she jumps away and more or less continues to do so as if walking upon coals. her eyes are wide and she looks desperately to Pascal before her eyes lose focus entirely for a moment and tears run down her face
Liam is sitting down on the floor, battered and bleeding. His hand scrabbles around for purchase and finds a fortuitous find -- or perhaps a Pattern inflected find -- a ceremonial dagger, still sharp after these millenia, knocked down when the blue winged angel thing was on the table. He pulls the dagger and with a rush of energy leaps on the back of the thing and shoves the tagger between shoulder and wing joint. The angel flips him off again onto the floor but the dagger stays in.
It's an opening that the Graal Knight knows well how to take advantage of. He waits, keeping his post by the passage downward, until the reeling creature is near enough. This time when the creature's blade flashes out, Taran parries it. And in a sweeping arc, liberates the 'angel' of a wing. "Flee now," he growls, "And I will not pursue. Continue this battle and I shall also. You may not have the secrets of Chantris."
The blue winged angel thing screams. It screams in agony. It screams in rage. It screams in denial, of being denied its dearly sought after shiny. Who knows how long it has been scrabbling to get that seal to open. Years. Centuries. It does not give up so easily. Even though it is down a full wing, it attacks Taran again. "MINE," it says.
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve and the gifts GKN-KG, PAS-CH, SKL-GU, and SKL-WM. Taran almost succeeds.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 12. Liam chooses Grace and the gifts BLD-OB and STY-SW. Liam almost succeeds.
Taran is nowhere near as powerful as a one-winged angel, and as it charges he finds himself only able to deflect a direct attack away from himself, away from the downward passage. "You may not have it!" he snaps. "Accept this!"
Liam is still bleeding from the gash across his chest. He reaches out and grabs objects off the table, broken already beyond repair, and tries to throw them at the blue winged thing, but they bounce off to no real effect.
The blue winged angel sneers, "It is mine! You will die, Chantris, and it will be mine!"
Pascal steps away from the podium, looking down at his hands, curling and uncurling them slowly as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. "No," he says quietly before turning away from the podium forcibly and for the stairs. "No!" he yells up the stairs at the creature. "It is not yours, fool being! It would destroy you, utterly. This is ours, and you are no match."
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve and the gifts GKN-KG, PAS-CH, SKL-GU, and SKL-WM. Taran succeeds.
Melina is recovered enough to follow but still somewhat out of more stumbling than walking after pas upon the stairs
Taran straightens proudly as Pascal's declaration carries up the stairs. "We are Solaris, creature, the blades of Chantris." His blade parries the creature's as it strikes, twisting to force the creature's blade-arm wide. "Remember our name," and his own mirror bright blade sweeps across at neck height, taking the creature's head from its shoulders in a streamlined slice, "in your next life. Go in peace."
The body falls THUD at Taran's feet. It is dead.
Liam stands there, breathing heavily, with one arm across his midsection to keep the bleeding in. He glances over to the open seal and says: "Pascal! Melina!"
"I am well," Pascal says as he walks up to the top of the stairwell. "Liam, sit still. You are injured, and running will do little good." He glances to the creature on the ground before Taran. "A shame... the Vanir are..." He stops and shakes his head. "Taran, we need you to go down and secure the parchment. Do not read it, and look after your sister. I'll try to help Liam."
Liam splits blood out on the floor in one hot stream of spittle and blood.
Taran pales as Pascal mentions a parchment. "Bright blades," he breathes, understanding at once. "That will be the power here then." He takes a trump from a pocket, holding it out to Pascal. "Contact Celeste. Let her pull Liam and Melina through while I get the parchment. We will hopefully all be able to go home quickly that way. And the parchment will be safe in Amber. ....Safer, anyway. None of you may speak of what is found here! To speak of it violates the Chantris Duty - remember that!"
Melina emerges behind Liam. She does not have a scratch on her but is clearly not herself. she looks to Taran helplessly for a moment before taking a seat on tge floor
Pascal nods simply, reaching out to take the trump from Taran. He's rather very eerily calm about it. "I could have... but yes, a more experienced hand is better than any knowledge."
RPG: Pascal studies a Trump.
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve. Taran fails.
Pascal stands in a strange temple-looking place. "Celeste, this is Pascal," he says calmly. "A Vanir injured Liam badly. We need someone to help treat him."
Celeste appears suddenly, grasping Pascal's hand.
Melina rises slowly to her feet, stll looking a bit dazed
Celeste steps through with one hand already working her medic's bag loose from her belt and looking around to get her bearings.
It's an ancient room with stone walls, ceiling and floor. Arrayed on tables are ancient looking scrolls and clay tablets, some now broken on the floor and in pieces. In the center of the room is a strange thing -- a dead blue winged angel, beheaded, and missing a wing, with a dagger sticking out of one shoulder. Behind Taran, who stands over it with sword bloodied, is some sort of portal, open. The room is full of a... feeling. Of something very warm. And it is very strange because while the clay tablets are clearly ancient and written in a strange tongue, it is effortless to read and understand them. Liam is standing off to the side looking dazed from being flung into a wall and bleeding from a good slash across the midsection.
Taran eventually emerges from the lower corridor, pale. "....I cannot take it," he says, breathing heavily. "And the seal is broken. It *must* be guarded. I at least must remain to see none come to take it. Duke Cyrus must be informed. That creature is not likely to be the last to come seeking. And the knowledge here ...should not be lost."
Pascal pulls Celeste into the room with a calm countenance that one would seriously not expect on a man with his lover bleeding next to him. "Thank you for coming, Duchess de'Mandrake," he says, tucking the trump away.
Celeste looks up and notes Taran's condition with a frown but kneels next to Liam, "You'll need a Karm to seal that if that's what I think it is." she opens her bag with one hand while the other presses against the wound to hold pressure.
Melina is herself looking dazed , though not a mark is on her as she moves to stand next to taran as he remerges
Liam makes a little sucking noise when Celeste presses on the wound but doesn't move to stop her.
Taran nods to Celeste. "That may be but it is not my decision to make. Liam is injured, and Melina needs rest. Pascal and I will remain and guard this place until it is decided, but Duke Chantris must be informed...and Liam will be able to inform and guide when he is well." He smiles a bit sheepishly. "Always I seem to call you when someone is bleeding, my lady. I am sorry for that. This one," and hie indicates the beheaded one-winged-angel, "was unfortunately persistent."
"Unnecessary," Pascal says as he walks over to the passage - or, more precisely, the seal that opened it in the first place. "We will want to open and remove it soon. For now... closing the door and a check on it should be enough." He touches a spot on the seal and the door starts to lower. "We will also want to recover as many books as possible before we try moving it. The ziggurat will be destroyed then."
Celeste murmurs softly, "I'm sorry, sweetness,...I'll get you fixed up." she looks up to Pascal, "Not near as bad as it looks but he's done for at least two days." She eyes Taran, "Yes. You do." she confirms crisply, "Your handy work? Well done." her attention returning to patching up Liam.
Liam moves his hands away to allow Celeste to patch him up. "Two days? Sad." But he doesn't have a whole lot of punch to it. "Are you sure we cannot just leave whatever it is down there here and let the library stay?"
Taran blinks at Pascal. "....How did you ...?" he asks, surprised, then shakes his head. "Nevermind. If it restores the protections that is good enough." He winces at Celeste's rebuke. "...In my defense, most of the time I can simply visit?" he offers. "And aye. Mostly mine." He bends to withdraw the dagger sticking in the creature's corpse. "This is Liam's, however." He brings it over to press into Liam's hand, blood and all.
Liam takes the dagger from Taran and says, mildly, "Killin' is not usually my thing but sometimes you have to do what you have to do."
Celeste murmurs dryly as she continues to tend to Liam's wound despite her hands now being covered in his blood, "You can, but you don't, and this is hardly the time and the place. You look pale." she remarks without looking up from her work, "Are you hurt?" She blinks at the winged thing than Liam, "Damn sweetie."
"I'm absolutely certain," Pascal says, walking back over to Celeste and Liam, sitting by them. "It's not entirely secure, Taran. We still will need to make sure there is some defense. I can come back on my own to make sure... but help from other librarians will be necessary." He looks over Liam slowly. "Would you like me to get you something?"
"Just out of here," Liam says mildly. "Out of the basement. Back upstairs so I can lie down. I'm feeling very tired all the sudden."
Celeste murmurs evenly, "Tapering off of adrenaline and blood loss will do that. Just let me stop the bleeding...and I'll carry you upstairs...or is this someplace I'm not supposed to be?" She stitches swiftly and efficiently,, closing the gash before biting off the thread and bandaging so Liam can be taken someplace more comfortable, "There."
Taran takes a deep breath and steps back. "...You can be here, my lady, but without a guide I think you are likely to get lost. As Pascal has said it is a place for Librarians. We have been following him."
Pascal looks around. "Not in this place," he says. "The upper levels are safe. I will help you with Liam. Coming down here would be... a very bad idea indeed."
Liam just looks immensely tired. "It's somewhere you can be. You can read all the books."
Celeste nods to Pascal and looks to Liam, "It's going to hurt like hell sweety, I'm sorry." she looks up to Pascal and nods pausing to resling her bag to her belt. She hehs, "I have all the knowledge I can handle, thank you sweetness. I'd rather get you settled and cozy, eh?"
Taran takes Melina's hand. "I will guide Mel," he says quietly. "We can return to our last camp. Yes?"
Pascal nods his agreement, stepping to help Celeste with Liam. "Agreed. Up we go."
Note: This adventure is not complete! How the outcome is handled is completely up to the players.
Pascal, being experienced with long nights (and days, multiple) in less-than-mundane libraries, has worked to set up a small camp on this floor. Where several aisles of stacks converge some bedrolls have been laid out, allowing easy access to a number of books and, more importantly a good line of sight for anyone coming in. He sits on his own right now, a stack of books next to him as he pores through them for any clue about the nature of this ziggurat.
Liam sits on a bedroll among the stacks by Pascal with a big pile of art based magazines and periodicals from somewhere in Shadow. Or multiple Shadows. They all seem different with different styles and approaches, but they are all glossy magazines. Perhaps the glossy magazine is ubiquitous in Shadow. Like ice cream sandwiches. He peers up at the windows and the roof every once in a while looking for the blue winged thing. Then he peers at what Pascal is doing.
Taran has little experience of such libraries, but he has quite a lot of experience of camping in unfamiliar and unsafe surroundings. And while the others read, he stands a quiet guard, watching and listening for danger's approach.
It is very quiet in the periodicals since the blue winged intruder flew up through the skylight.
Melina has fallen into a uneasy slep on one of the bedrolls. she tosses and turns. Still half asleep she ccalls out for her brother "taran!"
"Calm, Melina," Pascal says quietly. "We're still here in the library... I think I may have chosen the wrong direction."
Liam looks up from skimming the art of a million worlds and blinks when Melina cries out.
Taran murmurs, "Be still, sister. I am on watch. It is safe."
Melina blinks and sits herself up looking confused followed swiftly by embarrased "I dreamt it took you" she explains quietly
Pascal closes his book and stands, starting to roll his bedroll. "An angel won't take him," he says quietly. "They're merely servants of gods, while we strike out at gods themselves."
Liam changes periodicals he is skimming. "Do you think I should work on sculpture made entirely of fudge? There's a whole fudge fine art magazine here." He looks up at Pascal as he stands.
"Dirk would never forgive you for the price paid in Melina's waistline," Taran replies dryly. "If the winged creature returns again, Melina, then I will battle it again. So I am trained to do. In the meantime I believe keen minds are yet required."
Liam hmms mildly. "I think I could take Dirk if it came to him versus fudge."
Melina smiles a Taran "You know me to well for I was just thinking I would surely eat it and upset you liam
Pascal shakes his head slowly. "Mm, fudge is good," he says, "but I don't think what we want is here. I mean, there's a /lot/ I would like to read here, but what we want is down below."
Liam scrambles up to standing, leaving his fudge art magazine behind. "Downstairs? You find a useful reference?"
Taran tilts his head. "Only that three-times-three symbol," he notes. "Kite, perhaps. Like and unlike the triskele."
Melina hms "how do you know..do you recognize the catalog system? to Pas. Then to taran "what does it signify?"
"We don't know," Pascal says simply, finishing packing up his own bedroll. "There's something down... below the basement, actually. Something important is in the foundations. Damned if I can figure out /what/." He looks up to the others and smiles slightly. "This place is ancient," he says. "Beyond belief. Any number of scholars have come here and tried to explain it. Conflicting descriptions, though. There was one particularly repressed young priest who tried saying it was..." He pauses. "Well, let's not go there. There's something powerful in the foundation. Let's leave it there."
Taran shakes his head. "I do not know enough about the Kites to say. They are similar in many ways to Lyonnes, but similar words do not mean the same things to both peoples. A triskele is the symbology of the natural world, in Lyonesse. The unity of earth, sea, and sky into All Things. But that was three-times-three, and ...I do not think it means the same thing."
"Do you think that angel thing we saw earlier is after whatever is buried in the foundations, Pas?" Liam asks. "Because if so, it's probably down there trying to get to it."
Melina hms "and it claimed we wish take it because we were Chantris? Do you think this means it once belonged to the house?
"We don't know that the thing in the foundations is the modethurm," Pascal says picking up his staff. "But it's as likely as anything else... it would have had to find another way in, though. I haven't seen it pass back this way."
Taran frowns. "There are certain...things...which it is given to Chantris to hold and to bind." He looks around them, then to Pascal. "Do you think one of them is here?"
"This place has hundreds of windows," Liam says. "It flies. Probably trivial to get back in."
Melina nods 'but perhaps there are not windows in the basement"
Pascal shivers. "If there is one, we're in way over our heads, Taran," he says. "Let's... just go. Down to find out."
"Lets take the stairs to the lowest level," Liam says. "Maybe there is access to lower points from there."
Taran mmms. "Perhaps," he says. "I am not a Librarian but I am an initiate. And I know ....enough... of our House's heritage to know it can be done. Let us just hope it is lesser rather than greater, if it comes to it." He looks to the others. "If whatever makes this place what it is, is in the basement...surely that is where we must go?"
"If it's a, a, a thingy," Liam says, Liam who is not an initiate at all, and doesn't have loads of reference, "then we probably don't want an angry blue angel to walk off with it."
Pascal looks over everyone else. "It's a thing," he says. "Probably some artifact. In any case, everybody, follow me down."
Melina nods 'if this thing has been loosed from chantris care, whatever it is, it is duty to recover it
Taran just nods. "Well. Until we find it, whatever it is, we will not know. So - shall we seek?"
Pascal nods and starts out, taking Liam's hand to lead him along as he goes to the stairs and starts walking down. "Keep close," he says. "I'm not sure how deep this is."
Melina follows carefully and wordlessly
The stairs down are easy enough to find. Heading down into the Library is a little like going on a trip through the history of the universe. The top level of the basement is just a library basement crammed with older books that are not currently on display that look like they will one day be mystically filed by some missing librarian. Down lower the books turn uniformly into scrolls and statues until it is piles of clay tablets piled on stone tables in corners illuminated only with torches. The temperature plummets as the group descends into the basements and, presumably, into the actual mountain on which the ziggurant is perched. The bottom floor feels more like some kind of ancient temple and storage room than a library, but a library it is, with bits and shards of tablet and papyrus scrolls on tables.
The room is actually quite large and the floor is made of the stone of the mountain. In the center of the room is a great seal that may be, at some remove, the seal of Chantris. It is covered in scratch marks as someone or something tried to either open it or dig through it.
Otherwise, the room feels strangely peaceful.
"The lower levels are older?" Pascal murmurs to himself as they walk out into the bottom level. "But, what are we seeing... Ahh. Is that our X?"
Liam clears his throat and says, "X, once in a while, marks the spot."
RPG: Taran declares that he has the Lesser Word: Guardian (WOP-LW) gift. Use '+gift WOP-LW' to view the gift description. Last edit: 12 months ago.
RPG: Taran used the following +declare targets: Liam
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Gift: WOP-LW - Lesser Word
Summary: Permanently possess a Lesser Word
Cost: 0
Powerbits: aspect type-magic
Prerequisite: CHA-PC
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A Lesser Word of Power has escaped, and taken up permanent residence in this character's head. The character is influenced by whatever the Word is, but as result, gains access to abilities related to that Word. Each Word is unique to its bearer.
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Taran sheathes his sword, approaching the seal with care. "...This must be repaired," he says slowly. "Whatever is bound - it should remain bound."
"Easy as that?" Pascal asks grimly as he walks forward toward the seal. "How was it made in the first place?"
Melina watches unconsciously folding her hand as if in prayer sensing solemnity in her brother's actions even if she does not understand them
Liam comes closer to the seal and then he gets down on one knee. "Marks. A knife or a sword. Trying to get the paint up?"
"Possibly," Pascal says, looking over the seal itself. "First, an assessment as to how bad the damage is." And then, critically failing his check against Genre Savvy, he steps over the edge of the seal, to inspect damage toward the interior.
Taran all but barks the order. "DO NOT BREAK THE SEAL! We may not have the power to bind again what is held here if it is loosed - and if it is loosed whole *shadows* may be affected! Pascal, study the seal! No one step on it! No one break it!"
As Pascal steps on the edge of the seal, just the edge and no more, it starts to hiss like a boiling teakettle. Air shoots out around the edges of the seal. HISSSSS
Melina stays put but does visually inspect the seal from her position
Pascal gets an 'oh crap' look on his face as he starts trying to pull away from the edge. "Speak up faster! Paint, do we have paint?"
The seal apparently is painted over a hairline fracture in the stone floor. Slowly, the entire seal on stone a foot thick rises out of the floor in response to Pascal's foot, revealing, slowly, slowly, a dark passageway down.
Taran *hisses* as the floor opens. "Curse of the Dark One," he swears in Lyonne. Then, to Pascal, "You must lead the way. If something is loosed, it will fall to you to contain it. On. Your. *Life*. Let us pray this was just the outermost barrier and the true power remains contained." He looks over to the other two. "There is *power* here. Power enough, very likely, to shred *Amber* if it is loosed. Try to exercise caution."
Melina actually turns her back to the opening eyes scaning the room feverishly
And from out of the gloom, the glint of silvery blue eyes and the scrape of wings on stone. And a voice says, "... the Modethurm. You have opened the Modethurm, Chantrissss......"
Pascal looks over his shoulder at Taran. "Calm down," he says, apparrently calming himself as it is revealed to be, oh, just a passage. "A door has opened and..." He trails off as the creature speaks. "Oh, bugger. Let's try to get to it before it does... do you think you can take it out?"
Taran draws his sword, moving forward. "Whatever is here, creature, it is by Chantris bound and by Chantris it shall be held. I suggest you depart. Approach and I must force your regret."
The blue winged angel creature comes out of the gloom, its sword in its hand, and a clawed hand open in a grasping movement before it. "It is mine. I found it. I will take it. I neeeeeeeeed it. I neeeeeeeeeeeed it for my peeeeeeeeeeeeople."
Melina asks "who are your people?" Leave it to mel to try to converse with a blue hissing sword weilding angel
Pascal looks up at the approaching creature, then to the stairs. "Melina, don't talk! Run!" he says, starting to dash off down the new passage to himself. He's rather nimble on the spiral stair, actually!
Taran squares off against the winged creature, sword raised - but he is a guardian, not an attacker. "I cannot gift you that which is bound by Chantris," he says. "That is neither my place nor my power. Depart in peace and I will offer such aid to your cause as I am able that is within the bounds of honor and right. Do battle with us and gamble that you will only lose your life for all your effort."
The blue winged being leaps up on one of the tables, spilling ancient clay tablet to the floor where it shatters in a thousand pieces. "Give me what I came for Chantris," the thing hisses. "It is not yours. It is mine. I found it. I found it here. It is MINE."
Melina hollers after her cousin "Do you ever have any other damn advice" but takes off after him down the stairs
Pascal winces as he hears the distant shadow of things breaking overhead. "Yes!" he calls back up to Melina, "but right now, we need to secure this... /thing/. Taran can fight."
Behind Taran, Pascal and Melina clamber down the stairs to a very small, rough hewn chamber. The only light down here is what they bring with them and perhaps a glowing Liam. The only thing down here is a sort of lecturn made of stone and one piece of parchment. On the parchment is written a single word.
Taran winces as the creature destroys priceless knowledge. "And so you prove unworthy of sympathy or aid. A house of knowledge - but you seek no understanding, no wisdom. Only power. Come and fight me for it, creature, if you dare!"
Pascal lets out a slow hiss as he sees the parchment and slowly starts walking for it. "Why would we have something like this out here?" he asks as he approaches the podium. "Melina, Liam, what is the status on the creature?"
Liam peers up the stairs and says, "Uh... about to fight Taran, I think."
The blue winged angel unfurls its wings. "You know nothing, Chantris!" It cocks its head to the side and says, "Give me the Modethurm and you may have this entire building. So much here for Chantris. You like books, yes? Your kind loves books. I give you books. You give me what is so very small."
Melina nods "angry an uncooprative" she walks over to the podium
The bit of parchment is just lying there. Being parchment.
"Look upon my soul, creature," Taran growls. "You sense what is here? *Look. At. Me.* Do not think to lie to me." That sword remains at the ready. "You cannot have the power that is here. Chantris holds it and Chantris keeps it."
"I need it to restore my people," the blue angel hisses. "It will bring them back! It will bring back my people!"
If there is one fault Pascal has, someone was lying to you. It's not one fault he has, but several. At least a thousand. At the top of the list is curiousity. He very carefully reaches out to the podium placing a hand next to the paper. "Let's... Chantris. This would be safer there," he says as he looks down at it once, to see what the modethurm is.
Melina snatches the paper up without looking rolls it and stuffs it in her tunic
RPG: Melina challenges a difficulty of 15. Melina chooses Resolve. Melina completely fails.
Taran shakes his head slowly. "You destroy priceless knowledge in the blind pursuit of power. If you are representative of your race I cannot mourn their loss."
Melina reaches out to touch the parchment and draws back shreiking in pain, her face turning bright redeyes wide open
"I found it! The shiny! It is mine! My power! My modethurm!" The blue winged angel leaps forward, spraying more pottery in its wake. "And now you will GIVE IT TO ME!"
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve and the gifts GKN-KG, PAS-CH, SKL-GU, and SKL-WM. Taran almost succeeds.
Pascal just stands, staring, unable to move for a little bit. Before he reaches over to push Melina away absent-mindedly.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 12. Liam chooses Grace and the gifts BLD-OB and STY-SW. Liam fails.
As the winged creature finally swoops down to the attack, Taran raises his blade to the ready. Blades clash and clang without effect or result, but it does look impressive. And dangerous. And the 'angel' is not without options, arcing back up into the air, past the reach of Taran's blade.
Liam comes up out of the grotto with the Word, leaving Pascal and Melina behind and in time to see the blue winged angel coming at Taran. He makes a noise of surprise and then tries to help Taran by flanking the thing. As the thing arcs up and attacks Taran, Liam tries to jump it from the side but it merely flings him off, leaving a gash across the chest and flinging him across the room into the wall. WUMP. THUD.
The blue angel screams in anger when it is thwarted by Taran. It comes in and dives again, meaning very much to gut Taran like a fish.
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve and the gifts GKN-KG, PAS-CH, SKL-GU, and SKL-WM. Taran succeeds.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 12. Liam chooses Grace and the gifts BLD-OB and STY-SW. Liam succeeds.
Melina doesn't need pushed away, she jumps away and more or less continues to do so as if walking upon coals. her eyes are wide and she looks desperately to Pascal before her eyes lose focus entirely for a moment and tears run down her face
Liam is sitting down on the floor, battered and bleeding. His hand scrabbles around for purchase and finds a fortuitous find -- or perhaps a Pattern inflected find -- a ceremonial dagger, still sharp after these millenia, knocked down when the blue winged angel thing was on the table. He pulls the dagger and with a rush of energy leaps on the back of the thing and shoves the tagger between shoulder and wing joint. The angel flips him off again onto the floor but the dagger stays in.
It's an opening that the Graal Knight knows well how to take advantage of. He waits, keeping his post by the passage downward, until the reeling creature is near enough. This time when the creature's blade flashes out, Taran parries it. And in a sweeping arc, liberates the 'angel' of a wing. "Flee now," he growls, "And I will not pursue. Continue this battle and I shall also. You may not have the secrets of Chantris."
The blue winged angel thing screams. It screams in agony. It screams in rage. It screams in denial, of being denied its dearly sought after shiny. Who knows how long it has been scrabbling to get that seal to open. Years. Centuries. It does not give up so easily. Even though it is down a full wing, it attacks Taran again. "MINE," it says.
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve and the gifts GKN-KG, PAS-CH, SKL-GU, and SKL-WM. Taran almost succeeds.
RPG: Liam challenges a difficulty of 12. Liam chooses Grace and the gifts BLD-OB and STY-SW. Liam almost succeeds.
Taran is nowhere near as powerful as a one-winged angel, and as it charges he finds himself only able to deflect a direct attack away from himself, away from the downward passage. "You may not have it!" he snaps. "Accept this!"
Liam is still bleeding from the gash across his chest. He reaches out and grabs objects off the table, broken already beyond repair, and tries to throw them at the blue winged thing, but they bounce off to no real effect.
The blue winged angel sneers, "It is mine! You will die, Chantris, and it will be mine!"
Pascal steps away from the podium, looking down at his hands, curling and uncurling them slowly as if it was the most fascinating thing in the world. "No," he says quietly before turning away from the podium forcibly and for the stairs. "No!" he yells up the stairs at the creature. "It is not yours, fool being! It would destroy you, utterly. This is ours, and you are no match."
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve and the gifts GKN-KG, PAS-CH, SKL-GU, and SKL-WM. Taran succeeds.
Melina is recovered enough to follow but still somewhat out of more stumbling than walking after pas upon the stairs
Taran straightens proudly as Pascal's declaration carries up the stairs. "We are Solaris, creature, the blades of Chantris." His blade parries the creature's as it strikes, twisting to force the creature's blade-arm wide. "Remember our name," and his own mirror bright blade sweeps across at neck height, taking the creature's head from its shoulders in a streamlined slice, "in your next life. Go in peace."
The body falls THUD at Taran's feet. It is dead.
Liam stands there, breathing heavily, with one arm across his midsection to keep the bleeding in. He glances over to the open seal and says: "Pascal! Melina!"
"I am well," Pascal says as he walks up to the top of the stairwell. "Liam, sit still. You are injured, and running will do little good." He glances to the creature on the ground before Taran. "A shame... the Vanir are..." He stops and shakes his head. "Taran, we need you to go down and secure the parchment. Do not read it, and look after your sister. I'll try to help Liam."
Liam splits blood out on the floor in one hot stream of spittle and blood.
Taran pales as Pascal mentions a parchment. "Bright blades," he breathes, understanding at once. "That will be the power here then." He takes a trump from a pocket, holding it out to Pascal. "Contact Celeste. Let her pull Liam and Melina through while I get the parchment. We will hopefully all be able to go home quickly that way. And the parchment will be safe in Amber. ....Safer, anyway. None of you may speak of what is found here! To speak of it violates the Chantris Duty - remember that!"
Melina emerges behind Liam. She does not have a scratch on her but is clearly not herself. she looks to Taran helplessly for a moment before taking a seat on tge floor
Pascal nods simply, reaching out to take the trump from Taran. He's rather very eerily calm about it. "I could have... but yes, a more experienced hand is better than any knowledge."
RPG: Pascal studies a Trump.
RPG: Taran challenges a difficulty of 12. Taran chooses Resolve. Taran fails.
Pascal stands in a strange temple-looking place. "Celeste, this is Pascal," he says calmly. "A Vanir injured Liam badly. We need someone to help treat him."
Celeste appears suddenly, grasping Pascal's hand.
Melina rises slowly to her feet, stll looking a bit dazed
Celeste steps through with one hand already working her medic's bag loose from her belt and looking around to get her bearings.
It's an ancient room with stone walls, ceiling and floor. Arrayed on tables are ancient looking scrolls and clay tablets, some now broken on the floor and in pieces. In the center of the room is a strange thing -- a dead blue winged angel, beheaded, and missing a wing, with a dagger sticking out of one shoulder. Behind Taran, who stands over it with sword bloodied, is some sort of portal, open. The room is full of a... feeling. Of something very warm. And it is very strange because while the clay tablets are clearly ancient and written in a strange tongue, it is effortless to read and understand them. Liam is standing off to the side looking dazed from being flung into a wall and bleeding from a good slash across the midsection.
Taran eventually emerges from the lower corridor, pale. "....I cannot take it," he says, breathing heavily. "And the seal is broken. It *must* be guarded. I at least must remain to see none come to take it. Duke Cyrus must be informed. That creature is not likely to be the last to come seeking. And the knowledge here ...should not be lost."
Pascal pulls Celeste into the room with a calm countenance that one would seriously not expect on a man with his lover bleeding next to him. "Thank you for coming, Duchess de'Mandrake," he says, tucking the trump away.
Celeste looks up and notes Taran's condition with a frown but kneels next to Liam, "You'll need a Karm to seal that if that's what I think it is." she opens her bag with one hand while the other presses against the wound to hold pressure.
Melina is herself looking dazed , though not a mark is on her as she moves to stand next to taran as he remerges
Liam makes a little sucking noise when Celeste presses on the wound but doesn't move to stop her.
Taran nods to Celeste. "That may be but it is not my decision to make. Liam is injured, and Melina needs rest. Pascal and I will remain and guard this place until it is decided, but Duke Chantris must be informed...and Liam will be able to inform and guide when he is well." He smiles a bit sheepishly. "Always I seem to call you when someone is bleeding, my lady. I am sorry for that. This one," and hie indicates the beheaded one-winged-angel, "was unfortunately persistent."
"Unnecessary," Pascal says as he walks over to the passage - or, more precisely, the seal that opened it in the first place. "We will want to open and remove it soon. For now... closing the door and a check on it should be enough." He touches a spot on the seal and the door starts to lower. "We will also want to recover as many books as possible before we try moving it. The ziggurat will be destroyed then."
Celeste murmurs softly, "I'm sorry, sweetness,...I'll get you fixed up." she looks up to Pascal, "Not near as bad as it looks but he's done for at least two days." She eyes Taran, "Yes. You do." she confirms crisply, "Your handy work? Well done." her attention returning to patching up Liam.
Liam moves his hands away to allow Celeste to patch him up. "Two days? Sad." But he doesn't have a whole lot of punch to it. "Are you sure we cannot just leave whatever it is down there here and let the library stay?"
Taran blinks at Pascal. "....How did you ...?" he asks, surprised, then shakes his head. "Nevermind. If it restores the protections that is good enough." He winces at Celeste's rebuke. "...In my defense, most of the time I can simply visit?" he offers. "And aye. Mostly mine." He bends to withdraw the dagger sticking in the creature's corpse. "This is Liam's, however." He brings it over to press into Liam's hand, blood and all.
Liam takes the dagger from Taran and says, mildly, "Killin' is not usually my thing but sometimes you have to do what you have to do."
Celeste murmurs dryly as she continues to tend to Liam's wound despite her hands now being covered in his blood, "You can, but you don't, and this is hardly the time and the place. You look pale." she remarks without looking up from her work, "Are you hurt?" She blinks at the winged thing than Liam, "Damn sweetie."
"I'm absolutely certain," Pascal says, walking back over to Celeste and Liam, sitting by them. "It's not entirely secure, Taran. We still will need to make sure there is some defense. I can come back on my own to make sure... but help from other librarians will be necessary." He looks over Liam slowly. "Would you like me to get you something?"
"Just out of here," Liam says mildly. "Out of the basement. Back upstairs so I can lie down. I'm feeling very tired all the sudden."
Celeste murmurs evenly, "Tapering off of adrenaline and blood loss will do that. Just let me stop the bleeding...and I'll carry you upstairs...or is this someplace I'm not supposed to be?" She stitches swiftly and efficiently,, closing the gash before biting off the thread and bandaging so Liam can be taken someplace more comfortable, "There."
Taran takes a deep breath and steps back. "...You can be here, my lady, but without a guide I think you are likely to get lost. As Pascal has said it is a place for Librarians. We have been following him."
Pascal looks around. "Not in this place," he says. "The upper levels are safe. I will help you with Liam. Coming down here would be... a very bad idea indeed."
Liam just looks immensely tired. "It's somewhere you can be. You can read all the books."
Celeste nods to Pascal and looks to Liam, "It's going to hurt like hell sweety, I'm sorry." she looks up to Pascal and nods pausing to resling her bag to her belt. She hehs, "I have all the knowledge I can handle, thank you sweetness. I'd rather get you settled and cozy, eh?"
Taran takes Melina's hand. "I will guide Mel," he says quietly. "We can return to our last camp. Yes?"
Pascal nods his agreement, stepping to help Celeste with Liam. "Agreed. Up we go."