Okay, this ran a bit long but it is finally done... whew. The choices at the end may have gotten a bit Byzantine but I prefer to give you options so here you go.
Chapter 4: The Incantation?
"So what's the plan boss?" Gareth sits next to you in one corner of the librarian's office.
Every now and then he steals a glance at Brigit when he thinks she is not looking. She sits cross-legged, the very picture of innocence, playing with her mystery cube across the room. As you sit there you have to grin as she quickly glances up and you realize that she is doing the exact same thing as well.
"Well, we have to search the library. I need you and our large friend to guard our escape while the rest of us search the building for this damn inscription," you sigh and rub your temples, "I will take Brigit up to the Head Librarian's office to look for leads and Miosguinn can take Amena to search the planar theory section, I want to know a bit more about what this ritual will do."
"You sure that is a good idea?" the veteran scratches the back of his head and gives the rogue a sidelong glance, "I mean can we really trust either of them alone?"
You don't tell him that you do not really trust any of them yet; instead you nod and continue, "Well the way I see it Miosguinn is just as dependent on us as we are on him. He will not betray us if it will get him killed as well and he has been nothing but an asset so far. As for the girl we know nothing about her and I think it is time to do a little investigating."
Gareth laughs at that, "Sorry boss, but you are not the most sociable person I have ever seen. You're as likely to piss her off as to win her over, nah scratch that you will definitely piss her off."
"Well fuck you too then," you mumble grumpily before a sly grin spreads across your face, "Actually I was thinking of asking your girlfriend to help me out."
You remember once seeing a beet in the south of the Province, damn thing was the deepest red you have ever seen, almost purple even. Right now though Gareth is giving that beet a run for its money.
The blushing warrior finally manages to stammer out a reply, "M.. m.. my girlfriend?" You gesture to Brigit who notices you both staring and gives you a friendly wave.
"Uh... yeah, Brig.. Brigit is great with people, has an easy charm to her like she won't judge you no matter what you have done..." Gareth just sort of trails off, you should probably change subjects before he bursts a blood vessel.
You ask him a few questions about what sort of defenses will be needed to secure the front door. The poor man begins to breathe again as he answers you, his analytical mind turning to the comforting task of confronting hordes of hostile monsters. Another ten minutes roll by and he has a whole plan of battle set out in case of attack, you bid him good night and go to check up on Brigit.
"Hey, Brigit," you wave to the girl as you approach. You wonder if you should not help things along a little between them, would be good for morale and you will probably all die down here anyway. Also if you give her good news she will be more likely to help out, at least that is what you tell yourself.
"Oh, hi Derryth. I was just workin on this puzzle box. Wanna try?" she holds the box up for you to examine it, "I am just not havin much luck tonight."
"Well, I can imagine it is difficult to solve if you spend half your time looking at Gareth."
She lets out a small gasp as her face flushes; you continue, "Kid I will give you a tip, if you want something in life you have to just take it. Let the guy know, I can pretty much guarantee that he feels the same way."
She beams at you and jumps up giving you a hug, "I will go talk to him right away."
You catch her arm as she tries to move past you, "Don't suppose you could hold off for a few hours? I need your help with something first, but after that I will make sure the two of you are not interrupted."
She hesitates for just a moment before agreeing, "Good, I want to find out what is going on with Eris and Amena is the best lead we have, but-"
She cuts you off, "But you are afraid you will screw it up," she gives you a big grin.
You frown, why does everyone just assume you will fail to win her over?
You grumble, "You know what, you and Gareth are perfect for each other, you're both assholes," she laughs and gives you another hug to cheer you up and the two of you head over to one of the side rooms where Amena is bossing Ithapi around.
When she sees you enter the room a frown momentarily crosses her face but it disappears as Brigit pushes past you and introduces herself to Amena. With Brigit present to keep the conversation moving in the right direction the three of you quickly fall into an easy and natural conversation as Ithapi takes a nap in the corner.
Turns out the girl has spent almost her entire life in the tower with Eris and tales of the outside world intrigue her greatly. After a few hours of regaling her with tales of your daring exploits, suitably embellished by Brigit, you feel the girl may just be open to telling you more about her mistress.
"Amena, I was wondering how exactly you came to live with Eris?"
At the question Amena tenses up a little but Brigit comes to the rescue, "Please Amena, you don't have ta tell us anything secret but we would really like to get ta know ya better. Ya know so we can become friends and all."
An idea pops into the rogue's head and she turns to you, "Oh I know maybe she can join our Circle when Eris leaves! Please Derryth," Brigit pleads and it looks like Amena is very interested in what you will say. You are not quite sure whether this is an act or a legitimate request, either way it is a definite "in" with Amena so you make some generally positive if noncommittal comments, just enough for Brigit to work with.
"Oh I know, we can have a proper interview and everything," she hops up and drags over a small desk and three chairs, she motions for Amena to sit on one side of the table while the two of you sit on the other. Ithapi opens one eye at all the noise before giving the three of you a dismissive snort and going back to sleep.
Brigit grabs a piece of board and some paper and begins to write, "Name please."
"Umm.. Amena, but you already know that," replies the slightly befuddled apprentice.
"Place of residence?" Brigit continues in her best "professional" tone.
"The umm... actually the tower does not have a name..." the poor girl looks quite confused and a bit uncomfortable by all of this so you decide to step in.
"Actually Brigit, maybe you should go talk to Gareth, I should be able to handle this interview from here," Amena looks quite relieved when Brigit agrees, hops up and skips towards the door. On the way she gives you a quick wink, the archer has given you an opportunity, now you just have to exploit it.
"So Amena how about you just tell me about yourself and what you can do, I won't pry too much, I promise," you give her a disarming smile and it seems that her earlier distrust of you is largely gone.
She fidgets a little, "Well, my earliest memories are of the tower and my mistress. She scared me as a child but she was in every way a mother to me. She gave me my education in manners, and the proper skills of a servant. She fed me, and clothed me and protected me from the shadows and the other dark things and as I grew older she brought me Ithapi to be my guardian and minder."
When you ask about him she gestures at the sleeping maul, "He is sworn to loyal service by the laws of his people and he has been nothing but kind to me through the eight years I have known him. Eris saved him from the shadows when he was but a maulet and she raised him to be my guardian and to aid me in my exploration of the ruins."
"So the shadows were already present when you were a child?"
"Yes, they have always hated me and my mistress. They are death made manifest and mistress constantly warned me against leaving the rune paths when I was younger. In fact this is the farthest I have ever been from my mistress, I am in truth a little scared."
"So then this incantation we are looking for must be awfully important to your mistress to risk such a charming apprentice?"
"Yes, it is very important, she needs it to go home and a whole circle of mages to help her cast it. I..." she hesitates for a moment," I do not know what it does, I think it is a spell to locate her world but I will not know till I see it. She is very happy to be returning home but she says I can not go with her. She says I would not survive her world, she says that she loves me and worries about me... I... I do not know if I should believe her... I... I just worry you know?"
You know exactly how that feels, in fact you are having trouble thinking of the last time you did not worry, about your choices, your allies, your friends perhaps, but it is sad to see such worry written on the face of one so young. You decide to change topics, it is clear that she will not just betray her mistress but she may know something else that may be useful.
"You are Eris' apprentice but the Fetch are all priestesses, how did she teach you magic?"
Her face brightens a little at this, a topic near and dear to her heart, "Oh, the tower has all sorts of books on magic, and history, and theology, and all sorts of things really. She would let me study them when I was done with my chores. My mistress kept the most powerful ones out of reach so I could not hurt myself and the rest was just hard work and patience. With nowhere to go and nothing much to do I read a lot."
The two of you spend the better part of the evening talking about magic and you even show her a few basic spells, Sort, Polish, even Create Fire. Nothing truly dangerous but helpful nevertheless. As you teach the kid she gradually warms up to you and in return she shows you how to create shadow repelling runes of light and how to use them to locate the hidden rune paths. You will need to practice it to really get much benefit from the spell but the ability to push back shadows will be quite useful down here.
With a warm smile you move to adjourn your little magical conference, "Well Amena I will run your application by the rest of the Circle when we get back but I will say it looks good, and I would personally love to have you join the Circle," you are not sure yourself whether or not you are lying to her, you may yet end up fighting her after all. Still no point in alienating her, and if she thinks she has a future with the group maybe she will choose you over her mistress... maybe.
As you head back to the side room you are sharing with Brigit you find the door barred, Miosguinn chimes in with an amused look on his face, staring at you over the top of a tome he is reading, "Your friend took the soldier in there a couple hours ago, I doubt they will be out till morning." He promptly goes back to ignoring you.
Great, well you will just have to use Gareth's bedding tonight. As you head over to where you last saw his pack Miosguinn speaks up again without raising his eyes from his book, "He took his things with him I am afraid. Looks like you are on the ground tonight..." and of course the old mage does not offer you his bedroll, chivalry truly is dead.
You mumble to yourself, something about "ungrateful assholes" and "docking their pay" as you pull a couple benches together and attempt to get some sleep. It is the worst night's sleep you have had in years...
-------------------------------------------------------
"So spill it kid, it better have been worth it," you rub your sore back as you and Brigit climb the stairs to the third floor and the Head Librarian's office.
"There is nothing to tell, we just talked..." she trails off a certain dreamlike quality to her voice.
"Not for almost eight hours you didn't," you cut in, you feel horrible and the idea that you suffered for nothing is driving you near to rage, "If I suffered for nothing-"
She does not let you finish, "We talked and he held me and it was beautiful Derryth, I can not thank you enough," she stops you on the second floor landing and gives you another hug.
You ignore her, warming to the subject a little you continue, "I swear kid, if you are not lying then the two of you wasted a perfect opportunity. Frankly I am a bit disgusted with both of you right now," you look over your shoulder and give her a grin.
Two stairs behind you she pokes you in the back and with a light laugh starts in on you, "Why do you keep calling me a kid anyway, there is like five years tops separating us?"
"It is as much a state of mind as anything else kid, those five years were spent in crypts and bars and libraries," you shudder at the thought of the libraries, glad that Miosguinn and Amena are suffering through the stacks instead of having to do it yourself, "Those five years represent experience, maturity, wisdom, kid maybe some day you will-"
You stop in mid-sentence as an arrow flies right over your head and skewers a three foot millipede that was attempting to ambush you. Seems that Brigit is paying just a bit more attention than you are, she grins at you, "Umm thanks Brigit," she gives you a nod and the two of you continue up the stairs.
"So what are we looking for anyway?"
"Not the faintest idea, it will be magical so we should be able to sense it if we get close enough and it will probably be in old Bruig but beyond that I will know it when I see it. Oh and before I forget do not touch anything without asking, some mages like to booby-trap their hordes and not all of the traps are physical in nature."
Fifteen minutes later the two of you are in the librarian's office, "Well let's have a look, shall we."
Everything looks fairly standard but then a mage would not leave their best items out in the open anyway. You check under the rug for trap doors, you check the draws of the librarian's desk for switches, you try the bookshelves and the busts, the lighting fixtures and the chair legs, nothing absolutely nothing... and then you see it, a small hole in the back wall. It may be a vault perhaps but how to open it, "Brigit, want to take a look at this hole, any ideas on how to open it?"
"Good thing you brought me along, I can have this open in no time," Brigit examines the hole and reaches into her pack, she pulls out a metal cylinder and presses it against the hole, the cylinder opens and a semi-solid liquid pours into the lock, with a word it solidifies.
With a confident smile she turns to you, "See us kids are good for something after all old lady," she immediately turns the handle before you can tell her to wait.
Instinctively you grab her and dive out of the way as a bolt of magic tears across the room and burns a hole in the far wall.
Lying on the floor next to you she gives you a sheepish smile, "Umm thanks Derryth."
You grin, "No problem, now we are even. So want to loot an arcane vault?"
"Do I!" she replies, all excitement and irrepressible energy.
"Ok, but be careful and no grabbing anything magical unless I say it is ok."
The vault is full of magical items, and you find what you think is your prize on the top shelf at the back. It is a small tablet covered in Old Bruig, and it is definitely a powerful planar spell but you will need to examine it further to be sure. Maybe Miosguinn will have some ideas as well. You slip the tablet into your pack and turn to see Brigit attempting to leave with a handful of magical items. As she strides confidently to the doorway she walks right into an invisible barrier and falls to the ground, blue runes appear around the door.
"What was that?" she asks as she shakily gets to her feet.
"Well based on the writing over the door there the room is sealed," you get closer to the runic inscription to continue reading, finally you turn back to Brigit, "Ok, looks like we can remove three items without setting off the barrier. It is actually an ingenious system to prevent large scale robberies while still allowing the mage to take out specific pieces."
Brigit looks a bit disappointed that she can not take everything, "Any way to disable the runes Derryth?"
You rub your chin and put a hand on your hip, "Hmm... if I had the time, Miosguinn and I could probably bypass it but it would take a few days at least and I don't really trust Eris to leave our people unharmed that long. We may be able to come back after we help Eris but who knows what could happen between now and then."
She nods, accepting the limitations, "Well alright then, I want this bow that shoots fire arrows. I am almost out of regular arrows after all those shadows, after all."
Okay, with Brigit's bow and the incantation that makes two. You can take one more item with you, surveying the room you eventually settle on an item to grab and with that the two of you return to camp.
When you return you are greeted with two types of news, bad and terrible. Seems Miosguinn and Amena ran into some trouble in the main stacks, they were attacked by a horde of overgrown arachnids and Amena was bitten by a spider before Miosguinn's calls for help attracted Ithapi to chase them away. She has a slight fever and for some reason refuses to be left alone with Miosguinn, she might be slightly delusional. Gareth has been treating her but he could definitely use a hand to cure her.
You give her the once over and improve on some of Gareth's treatments but he did a good job. She will be fine to walk and Ithapi can carry her if need be but she will not be casting for a few hours at least. Seems the two of them were not able to find anything before the spiders attacked them.
You have Miosguinn examine the tablet, sure enough it is the incantation you are looking for. It is not a full spell, instead it is used to locate another plane of existence and provide an anchor to actually open a gate. Eris must need it to find the "address" of her dimension, it really is her ticket home. Of course this means she must know the actual spell to open a gate already, and if you give her the incantation she could always return to your world. It may not be a good idea to let her return to her people after all, can you really trust the Fetch?
In addition Gareth has another problem to report.
"Seems we were right to guard the doorway, some of those sightless creatures tried to force their way in an hour ago. There were about a dozen of them and we broke them easily but they will probably be back and in greater numbers," the Veteran looks to you for direction.
Ok, choice time. Some of the choices are dependent on others but a request was made to properly plunder the library and I want to give you the opportunity to try. You have been gone two days, it will take one day to get back for those that are wondering.
1. You grabbed an item from the vault, what was it?
A. A glowing blue sword with lightning bolts etched into the hilt and blade.
B. A large round shield made of gold, it has a stylized depiction of a Fetch on it. When Brigit accidentally pointed it at you, you felt terrified.
C. A large black book, bound in dyed human flesh. Thing gives you the creeps but radiates power.
D. A collection of scrolls written in old Bruig, you recognize the symbol of the Heron Guard upon them, looking at them gives you a sense of calm and serenity.
E. An old but plain map written in old Bruig with a small notebook. The notes claim that the book leads to the resting place of one of Wyrd's Dreams. Surprisingly you think it may be genuine.
F. A little blue stone, an attached note claims that it allows the user to indefinitely breathe under water.
H. A tablet in a language you can not read, attached notes suggest it may be of Callieach origins but that can't be right, can it?
I. Some sort of gold cup, probably not good for much right?
2. Stay or Go, you need to commit yourself now. (If you pick 2A then pick two choices from 3, if you pick 2B then pick a choice from 4)
A. Stay; you want that treasure, consequences be damned
B. Leave; monsters outside, a wounded kid, and an impatient Fetch, best to leave for now
3. If you stay who does what? Derryth and Gareth will choose parties to the best of their abilities but what should be their focus? (Pick two)
A. Focus on getting the vault open
B. Focus on searching the rest of the Library for more treasure
C. Focus on defending the front door
D. Focus on something else, freeform
4. If you go there are a few options to pursue.
A. Go out the front door, you may have to fight your way past the creatures.
B. The map notes the location of a side exit on the other side of the building, you could try to use it.
C. The map also notes an exit through a passage in the basement level, it would probably let you avoid the creatures entirely.
5. Now that you have the damn thing what do you intend to do with it. You probably will not have much time to figure this out when you get back so it is better to have this all sorted out now.
A. Honour your end of the deal, give the incantation to Eris.
B. Honour your deal but do not let Eris learn the incantation, she won't like trusting you but you will not give her the ability to return and she will have to live with it.
C. Destroy the incantation, you can not risk her betraying you.
D. Corrupt the incantation and dump her out in the space between the stars where dark things will consume her and her secrets.
E. Honour your deal but corrupt the tablet just in case; if she agrees to let you cast it then proceed as in B, if she refuses then default to D (hopefully you can remember the exact incantation from memory as you will not be able to use the tablet to cast the real spell)
F. Other, freeform
6. With Amena temporarily incapacitated now would be the perfect time to kill her and Ithapi, but after getting to know her last night do you really want to murder them?
A. Yes, we must deprive Eris of every asset we can.
B. No, the kid is not an enemy and you will not just go around murdering people.