[IC] The Cult of Brannulv

[Xihirli]

"Ela hahayam," Lana said in Aquan, shrugging.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara plays with Breasel in her hands while her closed elbow held her staff, following along with Lana and Ghiso as they head up to meet with Zarron.

[Izzarra]

Spoiler: DC 10 Investigation check

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The Golem cannot fit through the only door in the room.

Spoiler: OOC

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I am going to call that a complication and award a point of inspiration to Taara for going through with it. This point of inspiration expires after the next long rest.

[Zergrinch]

Zarron waits for the others in the room with the potions. When they failed to follow, he becomes somewhat antsy and is heading back down when he sees everyone follow.

"What took you?"

[Valmark]

"You missed the cutest scene in the world" Ghiso said with a matter-of-fact tone.

[Zergrinch]

Zarron stares at Ghiso. He's fairly sure the man was involved in whatever transpired but didn't want to talk about it. The half elf shrugs and walks into the room with the floor trap, making sure to actually avoid it.

He reaches out towards the orb and touches it lightly with a fingertip.

[Xihirli]

"Hey, Zarron!" Lana said cheerily. "Kill anything while we were away?"

[Valmark]

Ghiso followed after him, shield in hand avoiding the trap that he remembered only because Zarron avoided it. He stood by his side ready for what the sphere could do.

[Zergrinch]

"Hey, Zarron!" Lana said cheerily. "Kill anything while we were away?"

"Nope! Did the statue try to chase after you or something?" he replies, while nonchalantly kicking away the corpse of the cockroach he had stepped on a few seconds earlier, hiding it from the druid's view.

[Xihirli]

"No, he just needed to be left alone!" Lana said with a smile.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara kind of blushes when Ghiso says the scene was cute, and looks off to the side. It was not so cute, including what came before it at least. But maybe it seemed that way to Ghiso? She just smiled instead of saying anything, giving her more time to give bellyrubs to the weasel in her grasp.

[Izzarra]

After Zarron touches the sphere nothing happens.

Now that you are in the little room you see there is a discarded bit of parchment behind the pedestal. It is crippled up and brittle.

Spoiler: OOC

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Those of you with proficiency in arcana recognize that this is probably a spent spell scroll.

[Valmark]

Ghiso fronwed looking at the piece of scroll.
"This... Was not left here for long" he told the others as he Ritualized Detect Magic "At least not as long as other things abandoned here. The sphere doesn't seem to be enchanted with the same school of magic as the scroll though" he studied it for a bit, also checking if there were still the same sources of magic upstairs as the day before.

Ghiso took his time, taking back Breasel from Taara twice to consult with it (which involved an intense staring session and a lot of sniffing) before giving it back and carefully prodding the sphere without lifting it up just in case.

[Izzarra]

After spending close to half an hour examining the aura of the sphere, Ghiso is able to determine that it is not half filled with smoke, but with fog and the aura is connected to the fog in the valley below.

Spoiler: OOC

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The parchment has a faint remaining aura of evocation magic.
From what you can tell the magic in the sphere is based on the Fog Cloud spell, this does not necessarily mean that it is duplicating the effects of Fog Cloud as it is written in the rules.

At Ghiso's current position he does not detect any magic from upstairs, because the majority of that floor is outside the range of detect magic.

Does anybody do anything while Ghiso is examining the sphere?

[Valmark]

"This sphere..." Ghisi said after a while "I believe it keeps the fog in the valley- though I wouldn't know exactly what kind of magic it is. I do believe shattering it should end the effect, but I have no guarantee that it's advisable. Even simply moving it could activate a trap" he told the others "Or the fog inside could even be harmful. Any idea? My first istinct would be to use the pole to knock it down from a safe distance"

[Xihirli]

"I could turn into something," Lana suggested. "And just run into it."

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara freezes when Breasel is taken from her grasp, then returns to playing with it when the weasel is returned. Realizing she is kind of hogging him, she holds Breasel out at arm's length with both hands to offer it to someone who wants to give some belly rubs.

"Maybe we should check the last floor first." she says simply while doing so.

[Valmark]

"Oh. Actually let's do that. The sphere shouldn't walk away while we explore the next floor" Ghiso nodded "Keep the animal form for later if possible, we haven't ruled out a trample" he decided to head upstairs.

Then he stopped, and looked back.
"Evocation in the scroll. That's usually energy, including heating stuff up and cooling it" he said, going to fetch the magical tablets they found the previous day. When he had them he went back to the sphere and tried using the heating one placing it against the sphere.

Spoiler: Ooc

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My knowledges on the subject are actually pretty terrible so I'm rolling Nature, 13.

What I'd like to know is what exactly would happen if one were to cool down fog (so the water in the air) or heat it up.

If that roll isn't enough Ghiso will just try to put the cooling tablet against the sphere. Fog machines need to heat up to produce fog, so maybe cooling the sphere works.

[Izzarra]

Ghiso balances the heat stone on top of the sphere and speaks the draconic word for "hot." It begins to glow a faint red and heat up. The fog inside the orb begins to decrease and looking outside you can see the level of the fog slowly begin to lower.

[Valmark]

Ghiso looked outside, humming softly.
"I'm not thrilled at the idea that somebody could come and make the fog reappear after we leave, but for now that's solved. I must confess... I didn't expect it to work that nicely. Upstairs now?"

[Gluteus_Maximus]

"Yes, certainly." Taara agreed, nodding. Being the shortest of the party, she tiptoed to place Breasel back on Ghiso's shoulder. "Did Breasel like my playing? It is very fuzzy and warm, so I enjoyed playing with him." she began to do stretches; her arms, curled up to hold a weasel, needed some of that.

[Xihirli]

Lana spoke in Sylvan, asking the weasel if... wait. Curses. "I keep forgetting your weasel is a lie."

[Valmark]

"Yes it did" Ghiso said as Breasel jumped back on his shoulder "Says y- wait, what?" he turned to Lana "Breasel's not fake! It is a sterile but otherwise perfect rapresentant of its peers! No, even better then its peers! Normal weasels don't speak or cast spells, after all although I tecnically would be the one doing the casting" he explained, and the True Weasel made some sort of... Skittering indignant sound, hiding into Ghiso's pocket. The helf turned to go upstairs at a faster then usual pace.

[Zergrinch]

Zarron spends a few moments watching the fog lower. When the others leave, he does as well, but as he exits the door, he tosses a rock on top of the pressure plate and immediately dives to the floor with hands covering his ears.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara giggled. "Come, Lana, it may not understand your speech but it is as real as if you became a weasel," she winked at her, "It is funny when Ka... Ghiso explains things like this, though."

She runs to catch up with Ghiso. "I like Breasel. I think I will call it Brie for short. Or maybe Easel?"

[Valmark]

"Mmm... I like the second one. Put the Easel into True Weasel" he looked down at his familiar peeking from the pocket and nodded.
"Says that Brie sounds better then Breasel and that I shouldn't be allowed to name anything else anymore. I think you've spoiled it a bit too much" nonetheless he reached out to rub the weasel's tiny head.

[Gluteus_Maximus]

Taara laughed again. "No, I think that is too far maybe. You gave it a name, and I wanted to give it a nickname. I gave Lana a nickname, well, a few actually, and "Ghiso" is a hard name to give a nickname for so I wanted to give your weasel a nickname. If it were named anything else I would not have named it Brie. It was a team effort" she looks down at the pocket weasel- super adorable. Reminds her of Lana walking through her hair as a spider...

"By the way, what does spoiled mean?"

[Xihirli]

"When food goes bad," Lana said, seemingly having forgotten the context from the discussion about the fake weasel.

[Valmark]

"Heh. Ghiso's an hard name in general- it means 'Cast Iron' in... Uh... An obscure language Father knows. Knows a lot more then I do" he chuckled "When talking about living beings, spoiled means somebody that is getting what they want without lifting a finger, more or less. In excess this could lead to people being self-centered and pretending to be serviced by others- for example, a 'spoiled princess' could be someone that never had to do anything in their life and constantly bosses around people, feeling entitled to command them and get everything they want. One could expect them to throw a fit if they don't get what they want always. It doesn't have to be bad though. And in this case it was more of a jab at Breasel criticizing me after getting petsies for most of its life as a familiar then me addressing a real flaw" he explained.
"Meanwhile, 'spoiling' someone generally means making them happy with no real work on their part. Not a bad thing unless in excess. Hence 'spoiled it a bit too much'"

[Xihirli]

"I've never heard that phrase before," Lana said. "'Spoiled princess.'"