Feeling ready and all players in place, Shim cast Silent Portal on the bathroom door and then Connal and Dizzy (with crowbar) forced the door open. Right afterwards Shim fired off a Summon Monster spell, and got 3 giant rats. They made some noise and we quickly pushed the door closed as 3 of the cannibalistic dwarves laughed and gave chase. They turned the corner and followed the rats into the large chamber. This allowed the party to quickly leave the chamber and set up an attack on the last 2.
Feeling the pull of its master, Wilhelm’s Lynx ran out and Connal with it, the two of them hitting the front of the line and taking the fight to the dwarves. Connal took a hit to his arm, their stone tomahawks ignoring his armor, and his arm was bleeding pretty bad. There wasn’t much light and the blows were not that good. Wilhelm fired from the gantry and seeing 2 of the dwarves returning, Eoghan shot one of them, drilling it in the forehead!
As they stumbled past, Dizzy emerged from the bathroom and backstabbed one of them. From that point on, the battle went against the dwarves as one by one they were taken down and killed. The group went through their stuff and took the tomahawks for now. From here we regrouped and went south to the large chamber. It was pretty big, large enough that a single light source did not illuminate the entire thing.
While walking about, we deduced it might have been a dining hall at some point, but no furnishings or shelves remained. 2 doors, heavy old oak, were on the south wall. One of them had LOTs of blood stains about 3 to 4’ up, along with some stray hairs caught in the frame. There was also a puddle here, ovalish, 6’ diameter, about 15 feet or so in front of the 2nd door. There were no wet marks on the ceiling or anywhere else that would explain why a puddle would be here.
The thought was to listen to both doors. Getting closer, Dizzy was able to hear a faint echo from the first door, with the blood stains. The 2nd door though was different, the echo was not true, it was an opposite response to whatever was said – and it seemed to be coming from the puddle. We tested the depth of the puddle and it was at least 5’ or so deep.
The thought was to open the first door without using any of our hands. An Open/Close spell and then a pry open with a long metal bar seemed to suffice. There was a kitchen through there, over, countertops, a mess – nothing there as of now, some more blood stains all over the door jamb. Couldn’t quite see the rest of the room. The thought was to have Dizzy test out the 2nd door. He grabbed the handle – there was an inrushing of force – and he disappeared – a large bubble of air burbled up from the puddle.
As for Dizzy – he was about 4’ below the water, a 6’ oval hole over his head, and sinking. He cut his rope ladder free and kicked hard again and again, swimming up to the surface –and broke free gasping and panting. Right in the oval puddle. He was helped out and once he had his bearing, let the group know of the water. Not wanting to fuck with it, we instead went to the now partially opened bloody door, that we referred to as the “murder door”. We figured, let’s pull the hinge pins on it. So working from outside and not touching the inside of the door, Dizzy disabled both sets of hinges until the door fell over on its face. We dragged it aside and then carefully entered the kitchen.
And the Murder Door leapt up and down, flopping on the floor like a fish. Each of us who passed the threshold had the door bounce about. Problem solved. We looked over the kitchen carefully. The other side of the “water” door was here, the ground wet around it. No echo on this side. Beyond was another closed area and on checking it out – it was the location's pantry. Now it was empty – some old onion skins, dry rotted burlap scraps, ruined and warped shelves. A couple of bones.
We figured we might use this area to hide some bodies if need be. But on leaving the kitchen, the murder door was moving and bouncing about. It also looked like it was stretching and reaching, hands and off body parts poking from within. Like something was inside the door and trying to break out. Looking at the puddle, Connal used the 6’ metal rod to push the murder door with its reaching hands and stretching skin, across the floor of the dining hall and to the puddle – shoving it over the lip and letting it fall into the hole! It sunk rapidly and outside of a few bubbles – it was quiet after that. Problem – solved!
We went back to the drop down past the bathroom and figured we’d have to check that out next. We set the rope and Connal went down to the water to take a look around. The water was calf deep here and there was a minimal current. He followed it east where the passage went south, some mounded detritus and then another fall of water down there – or he could go straight ahead and the gloom showed it eventually turned north. Not liking any of it, he returned to the party, shared what he learned, and talked about what to do next. Buffalo had given Wilhelm some advice on what to do to face the Black Brother, Hastez. He would have to go and find the Inserrat here and if he could face them, they would be able to give him something to better be prepared against the Black Brother. But the group did not want to go into the water.
There was some talking as we were hanging out by the cannibalistic dwarf area of maybe going back to the Library and seeing if Edgar Narrymur was around – when there was a weird rippling sensation and a few moments later – Edgar flew down the elevator shaft, crashed into the lift cursing, “Where the hell did THAT come from?!” and then sauntered over to us. “You called? What prayer can I answer.”
What?
On talking to Edgar, we learned that the divine aspects who were stuck here had no worshippers in the area so were starved for attention. Once a day if someone in the nearby vicinity calls one of them by their adopted true name, they have a chance to hear it and come. (In his world he is Raven, as Telltail is Coyote, and so forth…) He did want some given offering and then he was willing to hang out and talk. As for the Inserrat, they would need to be captured – three should do it. As they are attacking one, someone else comes up behind and pops them in a sack. Also, the cannibalistic dwarves were called “Ve’Estan”, and were divine fragments and aids to Hastez. The Cree Negishi? The fast things – they were the same but for the Red Brother, Hastel.
We had some other conversation and interaction. Discussed the possibility of getting the Brothers to work for us against Jubilex but it was inconclusive. Hastez makes 17 of his Ve’Estan at a time, and Hastel makes 7 Cree Negishi. When the last are killed, they feel the need for followers so make new ones. The ones that remain as their numbers dwindle are more looked after by the Brother Warriors. We know there are only 5 Ve’Estan left and assume the same is the case with the Cree Negishi. We did ask what kind of things “Coyote” might like, getting a litany of body parts as the answer.
After he left, we decided to do the same thing and call for Telltail. He too arrived unconventionally quickly, also commenting on the misplaced lift. “That’s new!” He was given some Ve’Estan parts to eat, and was happy to stick around, popping kidneys and organ as he answered more questions. We knew he was always honest in his answers – but either misplaced names or transposed things now and again. We decided on talking to him that he knew where everything was – maybe we skip the 2 brothers and try to get Hiawatha as an ally.
The great hero is not a god, but is in some ways stronger and better than some of the gods who do remain. He could not deal with the strange land here and lack of sky, and on getting teased and abused by Ursa, vented his frustration on the great Bear and tore his skin free, wearing it as a cloak ever since. Ursa wants it back but Hiawatha has gone into hiding, every so often someone catches a glimpse of him. Does Coyote know where he is?
Well, strange that – Coyote COULD know where he is. But if that ever happened, Ursa would then find Coyote and beat the fucking skit out of him to get the location. And Telltail had no interest in getting temporarily murdered by the Great Bear. So Hiawatha is one of those things he chooses not to know. BUT, he did tell us that Hiawatha was currently NOT in any room that we had already fully explored. Fully.
Finished, we thanked him and he asked if we were going to use the dead Ve’Estan. We said now so he coaxed them to rise and like dead marionettes, they stood up and followed him. He went to the lift, looked it over, smiled, and said, “I think I’ll go down for a change.” Taking his dead trio of Ve’Estan with him.
Yeah. Totally do not trust that guy. It was about 1:45 AM on Firemonth the 7th. Our sleep schedule is all fucked up so we have about 4 hours to kill next and we were discussing going back to the 2nd floor and maybe checking that area out again.
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