LogFAQs > #907075442

Entry 19: My Quiet Friend

Further down the hall, beyond where the smith's wife had been preserved as a natural corpse, the group led by Leone the Cat stumbled upon a secondary study. This one was well hidden and the door had been locked. Even missing a hand, however, Leone was well practiced in the breaking of locks. After the breaking of the seal there was a quiet creaking. The door had swung open softly on its own.

Apparently the hinge had been damaged and only the lock had kept it in place. Still, that alarming feeling of having the portal open on its own, had put them all on edge. Enoch, now, was staring into the darkness of the corridor that led away from this reading room. "Did you hear something there? In the dark?" He was almost breathless at that time.

Jen Lowell barely had time to shake her head 'no' before Leone pushed forward into the next room.

Materials were scattered across the desk in a somewhat organized fashion, almost as if the texts were still in use. There was a collaboration of letters, self-taken notes, sketches of various things, as well as old books. The most bizarre of all was that the paper was not worn and dated in this research room. It was the first thing Leone noticed.

However, compelled to see what these passages contained, Leone neglected to mention that fact. Instead, he went to the side desk and raised his stump -- wrapped in bandages -- before grimacing and lowering the arm he could no longer use. His free fingers came second and brushed across the wooden desk before finding the letter he sought to read.

"Xetni, it says," Leone mumbled to himself. "The formless God."

What was that? Who had been studying such a thing here? What did they hope to obtain from such ends? Surely the notes here contained more information. Perhaps the mystery of this place could be involved. Perhaps he would learn of the involvement of the Thieves Guild and if his brother was implicated in any of this madness.

If that were the case, of course, Leone would have a difficult time deciding how he felt about it.

Be it one thing or another, life in the city was rough. Some liberties with law and morality were needed. That was... a truth that needed to be accepted. But this kind of madness? Releasing beasts from below the crust of the world for strange ends... incomprehensible reasons... it was difficult to know how he felt of such things. They were almost unknowable.

It should have been, Leone realized a moment too late, that he first warned the others that the laboratory was still in use. Without that caution they weren't prepared when the thing came creeping. That noise which Enoch had heard, led here by its still walking master, broke the scene with a chaotic flailing. Leone felt something hard and heavy and wet strike his head. And by the time his gaze awoke he was hanging over the railing in the arms of the fleshy monster.

'This is bad!' Enoch's last words rung in his head, something he had heard in the darkness. Then the sound of Enoch smashing into the wagon from above. So in the end the wanderer had fled. Would anyone come for him now? Oh... Probably... His quiet friend would come for him, as she always did.

As horrors stormed the halls below Torrin fell back a half of a step... and then found his courage. This time wouldn't be like the last time. Not again. He couldn't let it keep happening every time these monsters appeared. After all he had come here knowing the purpose of the mission, and the dangers. If he wanted to lead these people than he needed to lead!

"Fakeru, Kidd, get up there as fast as you can," Torrin commanded them quickly. "If you can safely pry him free, then do it!" As Torrin moved back now, it was more of a strategic retreat. He was moving to the wagon where he could access the supplies and help form a defensive barrier.
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~* Now I only see your dull imposter ~*
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