We were on our way back to the Mayor when Orias decided to try opening the book again, and succeeded! Huzzah. We then decided it was a bad idea to try and read it in the rain, so we went inside. The book is in some strange language that none of us know. Eorin casts comprehend languages and looks at the first page. He sees the words "Keeper Baskerwhel, Keeper Krove, Keeper Hyve, Keeper Mrshan, Keeper Myre" and they appear to be added more recently than the rest of the text. Eorin then begins bleeding from his eyes, ears, and nose and becomes weaker (takes 1 Con damage). Orias figures out the language the book is written in is not of this world and Eorin closes the book. Eorin ransacks his memory about these keepers.
This is what he knows!
Keeper Baskerwhel: Glem Baskerwhel is a hunchback hermit who lives in the Wrythe, about a day's travel east of Carrion Hill. Well known as the Carrion Hill potion maker and visits the city often and stays with his friend Arlend Hyve who lives at the Elm Way Church (located in Carrion Hill).
Keeper Krove: Waldur Krove is well known as the warden of Krove's Asylum. Full of the crazies too dangerous for regular prison (think Arkham Asylum).
Keeper Hyve: Arlend Hyve is an authority on regional history and lore and dwells in an abandoned church of Aroden (a god who is now dead). He is rumored to dabble in black market poisons and drug trade.
Keeper Mrshan: Sulm Mrshan is a goggle eyed man who recent moved here from Illmarsh. He owns and lives in the house in the Slipper Market that was destroyed this morning.
Keeper Myre: Rupman Myre is a middenstone baron. He owns a large vat house in the Filth along the riverbanks. He's rumored to be involved with necromancy.
Eorin tries once again to look through the book, discovering that the second half is a spellbook. He sees half of a teleport object spell before he starts bleeding from the eyes and decides never again. Eorin heals himself with lesser restoration as Illythan decides to take a crack at it and suffers similar effects as Eorin.
We go back to our carriage and Eorin casts Protection from Evil. We noticed, before going in, that there are other people bothering the Mayor. One of them has the royal seal of Ustalaav. Eorin tries once again to study the book, and figures out he has to use the other books they found to de-code it. The other books mention Sunless Grove and the Keepers of the Oldest. They also mention this book, or rather, what it's a copy of. It's a copy of the Pnakotic Manuscripts. Eorin and Illythan wrack their brains as to if they've heard of the Pnakotic Manuscripts before, and can't think of anything. Orias, on the other hand, recalls that it is a book related to the Old Gods. The kind of Gods that would probably be more comfortable in the dark depths of the sea back when people believe that Aboleths created humans. ((OOC Note: from now on the book will give +4 on all knowledge skills pertaining to conjuration magic or the Gods and magic of the Old Ones. It's also a spell book that we can now use with crazy ass awesome spells. To use without risk of con damage, must learn Aklo.))
Eorin studies the book for 9 hours, and learns the book is written in Aklo. The first page reads "May we, the Keepers of the Oldest, prevail over the scourge of simplistic thought and lesser men" then the 5 signatures. One section of the book is a lengthy discussion of how to use rituals to open key portals in key locations - it's heavily annotated. He deduces that the keepers were hoping to open a portal in the Sunless Grove to contact Spawn of the Dark Tapestry and enhance their knowledge of arcane secrets. A section near the end cautions those who would attempt this ritual: a warning that forcing open such rituals draws forth the spiritual essence of the casters and that any entity contacted by the portal can make "hideous use of this essence by consuming it and growing more powerful in the bargain, such that only the end of such essence can challenge the intruder's rights upon your world."
Orias concluded that to kill the intruder, the easiest method is to kill the casters that summoned it b/c then it won't get stronger. Or we can try to kill it before it can kill those who summoned it and absorb their essences. We think it's already killed three of those that summoned it, and therefore has consumed their essences already. One of the corpses we found earlier had a hunchback, perhaps Keeper Baskerwhel. Armed with this information, we decided to head to the Mayor to let him know what's going on.
There are a bunch of angry villagers asking what he's doing about the monster. A strange traveler with a monkey that was on the boat with us is here for some reason. Tall-ish man with white hair, dark clothing, and the seal of Ustalaav on his mantle is there also. The Mayor looks very pleased to see us and gets all the angry villagers to leave so he can talk to us. The man from Ustalaav remains. We tell the mayor the situation, and all the people we suspect of summoning the monster are. They all live in the southern part of the town, and the Mayor sends the Crows to clear the streets leading there. The Crows have confirmed that the monster is invisible. The Mayor directs us to question one of the Keepers and bring them to the jail (rather than killing them).
We decide to go to the Elm Way Church first, hoping to kill two birds with one stone (not literally). We begin to search the church, finding a few empty rooms before coming across a locked door. Orias picks the lock and we go in, finding a trap door with a ladder leading 20 ft down. We go down the trap door and find a large room with a tunnel leading away. There are tables with alchemical equipment on them. We see someone hunched over a table working on something - he gives a muffled yelp at seeing us (we blame Illythan). He has a strip of leather covering his mouth with runes on it. Orias cast light and we see that the man has a rapier (that in the dark looked bizarrely like a knife) and a crossbow, which he shoots Illythan with. We subdue him and tie him up. Kyle takes some bottles and ammo off his person. We wake him back up, and he seems freaked out about speaking. The runes on the leather are gibberish, but he tries to bite off his own tongue when we remove it. Eorin ties the leather back on and we hand him pen and paper. We learn that he's Hyve. He tells us it's already killed Baskerwhel and Mrshan. He tells us the rest of his friends are in the tunnel that begins in this cavern. We set off through the tunnel, bringing Hyve along with us.
The tunnel opens into another cavern with water and fungus everywhere. One of the fungus has tentacles and attacks. More fungus appears and attacks us. While we're engaged in combat, something invisible bites Hyde and then appears to beat him to death with tendrils. We then begin to notice a very familiar, awful smell (aka holy crap the monster is here and we can't see it). Orias figures out where it is, only to have it run away really freaking fast. Orias figures out it heading for the docks. We finish killing all the fungus monsters, though Orias is severely injured (some of his flesh rotted away where he was struck by the fungus). At one point during the fight, Eorin cast Death Knell, and it seemed very natural for him in a very strange way. Orias draws the conclusion that Eorin may have a vampire or a lich in his ancestry, but decides to keep that information to himself.
It's become clear that Hyve lied to us when he said his friends were in this tunnel. There's nothing but skulls, fungus, and a very nice longsword. Orias figures out that it's a mithril aberration bane longsword. We promptly give it to Kyle. We find a key on Hyve's body. It has "N" carved into it. It might be a key to one of the other locations. We exit the church. Standing in the rain with a very hideous man holding an umbrella for him, is the nobleman from Ustalaav with two of the crows. He hands Kyle a staff of healing and leaves. The Crows are surprised to see Kyle's new sword. It belonged to Sergeant of theirs who has been missing for several months, and there's a reward if Kyle will stop by the guard station later.
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