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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3700025" data-attributes="member: 11760">Tucker's unease doesn't wane as he watches Bufer, Emmerson, Emus and Oktav praying after they wake."Thanks for the nap time," Hazel says quietly as she joins him. "So, all quiet?""I ... don't know. Emus said he saw a nun in the attic over there, right? Do you think they're likely to be on our side, what with their Mother Superior going nuts and murdering them? That they might want revenge on her?""She closed the attic door to keep y'all out!" Emus snaps, as he climbs to his feet. His tone suggests Tucker has taken one too many blows to the head."Maybe that was the abbess herself," Hazel muses out loud. "Did you get a good look at her, Emus?""Yep, sure did," Emus says, counting off on his thick fingers. "She looked like a human female; she was dressed like a nun; and she slammed the attic door shut and DISAPPEARED!Now finished with their prayers, Bufer watches as Emmerson casts a spell over their collected booty.He stares at the pile of loot collected from Artos and his minions a long moment before pushing the cloak, greatsword, long sword and dwarven war axe aside."Not the oil?" Bufer asks, uncorking it and sniffing it."No. The long sword and war axe are the same sort of magic. The cloak and the greatsword are different, but I'm not sure how.""Well, I hope the girlie-ghosts don't get offended, but ..." Tucker pulls off his studded leather armor and picks up the half plate. "I'd say it's nothing they hadn't seen before, but they were nuns, after all, so there's a whole bunch they'd never seen before."Re-armored, he compares his antique longsword to the magical one claimed from the skeletons, and chooses the latter."Let me see that stuff, Bu-""No names, Deputy," Bufer chides. "We dunno who -- or what -- might be listening. I think Shillelagh's right: We ain't likely to find ourselves any allies in this godsforsaken place."Listen, I've been thinking and praying on what I saw when that book took hold of me yesterday, and what I keep coming up with is this: Somebody from Ptolus sent that black book to the Mother Superior knowing it woud corrupt her. That's what led her to kill the others, and that's what drove Artos and them what attacked us yesterday, even after death. Whatever taint holds sway here, I'm betting that's the source of it, and if we really want to cleanse this place for good, we gotta find it, and cast the spell right there, where it's taint is strongest."He looks up at Oktav, who sits across from him on the library floor, hugging his knees tightly and rocking slowly back and forth, his face pale, his eyes wide and wild."That sound about right to you, Redshirt?" Bufer asks."That sounds right to me," Oktav sighs. He looks 10 years older since the morning. "Do you see the book anywhere in the library?""You said it was black leather, right?" Hazel says, searching the shelves. "If we don't see one here, it might be in one of the boxes in the attic. Didn't get a chance to go peeking about in them.""I doubt it's either, to be honest," Bufer says, even as he joins Hazel in scanning the shelves for the volume he saw in his vision. "If I were a betting gnome, I'd lay money that the Mother Superior kept it close, or more accurately, it kept her close, if you catch my meaning."I think we're more likely to find it where she bided most of her time, or where she'd feel the most safe." He glances up at Oktav again. "Where do you think that'd be, if ye had to harbor a guess, lad?""The church?" Oktav rubs his forehead viciously. "The library? Her quarters?""Well, that narrows it down, some," Bufer sighs. "Well, we've been in the church, and we been in the library. How about it, beanpole? Did Artos' journal give you any directions? Could we find the Mother Superior's quarters and make a beeline for it, if we wanted to? Or are we going to have to blaze our own trail, here?""We need to collect the gear Ha-- Lumberjill and Shillelagh left in the attic across the way before we move on," Tucker interjects. "It's going to be dark soon, and even if we move fast we're going to need that lantern." He starts walking across the open grass toward the dormitory."Artos's notes are maddeningly sparse," Emmerson says, following. "But if abbeys are like priories, the abbess could have very well had her quarters away from the nuns' dormitory. We'll need to carve our own path."The rest of the group follows them across the cloisters, peering into the shadowed halls overhung by the black ivy.Although the shadows are dark, it looks as though there are at least six doorways or doors tucked into the shadows of the east and south walls, three in each wall.The black ivy conceals the roof of the abbey completely, but guessing from the height of the ivy, it seems likely that, at one time, every wing of the abbey once had an attic area.</blockquote>

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