We started where we left off, wounded with books and ghoul gore scattered about the library. Xeelie and TerStegan had a handful of hit points and Oakwood had a bit more. The question was to run or heal a bit and then run. However, Brian told us we saw ghostly footprints walking through the battlefield. We thought they were from an Otari spirit. So, the question became to follow them or not. It was now or never. Two were for not and two were for following. Clarisa was not online yet to vote. TerStegan broke the tie by going so the rest followed. I think Brisco managed to cast his Goodberry and get a few hit points into some of us.
We followed them through the restricted section where we saw a dangerous looking undead knight. It ignored us so we avoided it. Someone made a recall knowledge and determined it was too powerful for us. We went down a level, concerned with so much left unexplored on level 3. We came into a natural cavern with a lake and a platform built over it. There was one other door and some land between the lake and the walls. The spirit walked to a rogue ranger sort of guy who turned towards us. There was also a giant wolf on a bed. The dude started barking and growling when Oakwood asked if he was Otari. The spirit then went across the water. At this point, TerStegan said he had gone far enough and we went back up. We’ll have to figure that guy out another day.
Back to heal or flee. We reached a consensus pretty quick to do 10-20 minutes of healing before deciding that. But where? We wanted to avoid active monsters and gore and get out of the way. We decided to head to the secret teleportation room however when we went down that hall, we ran into that morlock ghoul that loaned us those books. Augrael. He had questions about the sounds of battle, our wounded state and such. Xeelie was still disguised as a ghoul and tried to talk to him. He guided us to the guest reading room but he was becoming more suspicious and wouldn’t leave us alone. Oakwood noted the stairs up and suggested we just leave him. We did. Once up, we went to that level’s secret portal room and healed up some. Still wounded and at least 3 of us infected with ghoul fever, we decided to go home. Oakwood led us through to level 1 and out. Back at home, Brisco did Treat Disease on all of us. That gives you a +2 on your next save. No one missed it. We got a long rest or two and headed back down.
The next discussion was where to re-enter level 3. We decided to go the way we came last time so that we wouldn’t have to face another barricade and potentially raise another alarm. However, that was communicated poorly to Brian who placed us at a different entry point. We decided to just bust through but neither strong guys could do it. So, we went back up to level 2, around and back down to where we wanted to be in the first place. 2 hours of effort and we were back to where we stopped last time. We could see someone had moved some books. We wanted to go to the restricted section but decided to search this area first. Finish it off. We had a half dozen doors of potential doom to face.
The first door was to the workroom. In there was a ghost (not a haunt) who was busy repairing books. However, on closer inspection, she was going through the motions but not able to actually touch anything. Xeelie talked to her a bit but she seemed single minded. There was a door that led to her bedroom but we decided to avoid a confrontation and hope there was nothing of interest in there. Next was the repair room full of supplies. We searched it and TerStegan found 2 scrolls of mending and one of hypercognation. Next was Belcorra’s office. We actually had the key for that one. We picked up an everburn crystal in the first room and ran into a fey in the next. He was adding illustrations to a book on torturer. Laughing to himself. We tried to talk to him but he ignored us. From there were stairs down and a washroom. We searched the book shelves in the main room and found a scroll of ghost weapon and formula of make undead. We left the fey and moved on.
Next was the north hall. The first door required a key we found in the sofa cushion in the office. In there was what appeared to be a private library. Visions of knowledge and/or cash danced in our eyes. However, there was a big wooden construct in there. When TerStegan stepped in, it moved to attack. Brisco changed his mind a couple times and ended up firing a cantrip. Oakwood waited for TerStegan to get out of the way. When TerStegan hit it, it did a reaction splinter attack. That crit for 30+ points. Oakwood moved in and missed twice. It went, firing a zero range AOE hail of splinters which crit TerStegan and Oakwood for 30+. And then attacked and hit and crit. And like that, TerStegan was reduced to a couple of hit points. Panic. It had an AC of 25, 5 points of damage resistance and +15 to hit. Our Leaf Druid tried to talk to it, plant to plant, but determined that it was a mindless guard. However, he did learn that if we left the room, it probably wouldn’t follow. (Like that wasn’t the plan.) Xeelie cast her fast healing focus spell on TerStegan and got out. He grabbed Brisco and got out. Lastly Oakwood left, closing and locking the door behind him.
We healed up again. We found another wash room and a room that was under construction. Or was 500 years ago. The next room was surprising warm. In there was a Vengeful Stove. It had fire attacks with reach and 13 points of damage resistance since it was an iron stove. And couldn’t be critted. We had no choice but to grind through it. We got battered. Oakwood hit it twice (with crits that didn’t count) and one of the features of flurry of blows is that if both hit, they count as one for the purposes of damage resistance. That finally finished it off. We searched the ashes and found a copper ring with a song bird engraved on it. Xeelie fast identified it and it was a ventriloquist ring. +1 deception and once per day ventriloquist spell. TerStegan took it for now but it might be better to sell it. At that point, it was getting late so we decided to finish off a few more doors and hit the restricted section next time. We went into the safety office which had sand and buckets to put out fires. Next was the break area which had some beds and a bunch of body parts served up on a table. We did 10 minutes of focus point healing and headed for the restricted area. But first, Augrael showed up again so I guess we have to deal with him first.
