Session Date: 8/19/2023
We stand outside the door to the next room. I recall this is a D’ziriak that is a creature native to the Netherworld, not the First World (which is what we’re in). The D’ziriak is extremely colorful, which is in opposition to the plane’s monochromatic palette. Four arms, two legs, and termite-like abdomen, and the person is 7’ish tall. There are ladders connecting the two floors of this library, with a balcony on the second floor. A firefly chandelier are in the top. There are two doors into the library: one to the east, one to the south - the south is where we’re entering. There’s also two doors on the east.
This is Valentine’s first time seeing a D’ziriak but he has his own special senses and vibes. Valentine is aware they are female. The Chronicler speaks to Valentine in his mind in clicks, then switches to Shadowtongue and tells us to leave and leave her to her art. Valentine asks what her art is. She asks if we’ve seen the portraits in the gallery and explains that those were hers, to which Valentine looks back at us and says that she painted the portraits. Hiera asks how the Chronicler put them in a fight they wasn’t in, and Valentine tells the Chronicler that the work is impressive. She explains her paintings are tricky and there’s a lot of magic involved, and this area allows for magical malleability she can’t manage in her home plane.
The Chronicler was hired to be the court historian for Kaneepo the Slim. Valentine goes ahead and translates their entire conversation for the benefit of the rest of us, as long as the Chronicler doesn’t mind too much (she doesn’t). Valentine can tell that she isn’t a believer in Kaneepo, she’s just an artist that’s hired for a job. She asks what we do for Kaneepo and Valentine explains we’re here to clean while Opal pretends to pull out gloves to act like we’re janitors. For some reason the Chronicler believes this, and Valentine asks what the Chronicler is paid in and she explains she’s paid in experience and exposure.
She gets all up in Hiera’s business and gawks at them, then looks at Valentine and says she wasn’t sure who this person was but when she saw that the painting in the gallery had updated itself she was looking forward to seeing them. She realizes now who we are. She asks how we are going to deal with Kaneepo and Valentine says that’s a problem for later. She decides not to attack us - we’re weird, for sure, but we don’t seem to pose her any threat. She explains she’s only here to capture important moments.
Valentine and Chronicler gets a little weird because she says that all of Valentine’s sides are his good side and starts sketching.
The Chronicler decides that we are not her problem at all and she lets us look around. Opal finds the tomes on all of Kaneepo’s research and everything that he’d amassed in his learning. The collection as a whole is worth a great deal and some are not as important, while others are in poor condition. Everyone outside of Opal sees an ancient scroll on blights, a copy of curses foul and fel, and a beautiful copy of the guide to elves. We also find a spell book inset with tiny pieces of glass that has the following: mirror image and two second level occult spells of my choice.
Valentine asks where Kaneepo is and she explains he’s in the throne room to the east and we will have to meet so many people on the way there. She explains the southeastern door is faster to Kaneepo, but every door is weird in their own ways. She says the northeastern door is upsetting - there’s an absence to it that Kaneepo is trying to fill, but it’s still empty as of now. The west door is her studio, she explains. Valentine asks if we can see her studio and she agrees: it’s big, with a painting in progress. The picture is of Kaneepo in a wooden throne with dying elves writhing in pain.
The supplies in the studio are ordinary enough but there are a few bottles of what seems to be glowing goo that looks dangerous. Opal asks if that’s paint and she explains it’s embarrassing because it was harvested from her glands - they’re basically flash bang grenades. Opal trades a drum for the vials. We go back to the library and head to the northeastern door, the unsettling room.
It looks like a noble’s bedroom. There’s an odd stillness to it, and a layer of dust where it seems that nobody has ever slept or been here. Opal looks at the crystals in the north of the room and finds a dog made of onyx, feeling odd about it. He can tell that it’s magical and he figures out it’s a wondrous figurine: onyx dog. It can be activated by setting it on the ground and speaking its name, causing the statuette to turn into an actual living creature.
Ria listens at the door while Opal plops down on the bed. Ria can smell (old) blood through the door. Ria opens the door and steps into the room. Inside is a stained operating table with a gutter around it, leather restraints on the table. There is an alcove to the NE of the room holding a bed, a door exiting on each cardinal direction. On the west is a table with operating tools.
Valentine was stabbed in the stomach and the bitch yells “YOU!? KANEEPO CHOOSES YOU OVER ME!?” And is wearing a a surgeon’s outfit and supple leather gloves. She stabs Valentine twice and when Ria runs next to her, she slips between shadows to appear next to Hiera, who had knocked her shit off of her tool table. Opal threw a goop bomb at her and hits her with it. We all go up around her and start attacking.
In the middle of combat I realize this is a shay - she can move through shadows and could counter attacks if she was concealed, but the goo goop makes it to where she isn’t concealed. She has an action to give her a second reaction and counter attack is a reaction. She can also fly if she ever takes a gaseous form. Her movement doesn’t trigger reactions, too. She’s made of shadow and her form wavers. She’s native to the shadow plane.
Combat finally ends when Opal breathes fire on her and she finally drops dead. Opal resummons Zircon (dismissed when Opal fell unconscious). Viktor tells us that there is something and we find the corpse disposal.
We were told about a missing Oaksteward: we find a sketch that shows her. We can tell that she was torn apart by this bitch we just killed.
The bedroom is the heir’s room - someone that doesn’t exist yet, but Kaneepo wants to exist very very much.