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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Whizbang Dustyboots" data-source="post: 3736899" data-attributes="member: 11760">"In any other set of circumstances, we'd have a hard time explaining to the bishop why Lothian's statue has been rendered twain," Emmerson says as he examines the statue. "Shall we go back down the corridor?""Yeah, I think I saw a bedroom in there before getting pounded in the face," Tucker says, taking point again and heading for the open door at the end of the hall.The door is silently ajar as the group approaches it.Emmerson can see Tucker walking toward the door, but as he follows, a piercing headache threatens to split his skull in two. He closes his eyes, trying to shut out the pain, but it increases every step he takes."That room," he winces. "The evil is almost overwhelming.""I'd imagine," Tucker says, sniffing up a rivulet of blood back into his nose. "But after getting punched in the face by my god, not much else is going to surprise me today."Despite Emmerson's feeling, the bedroom is unassuming. There is a wide, simply made bed, a bookcase, a large desk and worktable for the restoration of manuscripts and there's an upright clothes cabinet.The room is dark: The small high windows leading outside are completely covered with black ivy."This is about as defensible as we're going to get," Emus says from the doorway, his axe in his hand. "Is it where she hanged herself?"Looking up, Emus can see a series of wooden beams perpendicular to the floor, beneath an arched roof. It's not hard to imagine that the abbess hanged herself from one of them.Behind him, Hazel raises her lantern over the dwarf's head, scanning the room."Anyone see the book?" she asks.The group glances around at the books in the room. None of them appears to be the black book from Bufer's vision.Behind them, Emmerson makes it to the doorway before throwing up his breakfast in the hallway, along with a few flecks of blood."That's good enough for me!" Emus barks. "Cast that spell, y'all!"Bufer slips his pack off his shoulder, sets down the altar case and sets about preparing his portable altar for the ritual."All right, I'm going to be doing this in Gnomish, so unfortunately it's going to sound like gibberish to most of you, but I'm hoping that'll hold true for whatever I'm exorcising here, too; maybe it won't tumble to what I'm doing until it's too late. Yes, I know it's probably a vain hope, but it's better than nothing."Now, if I'm wrong," he says, lighting candles, "Then once I get going whatever it be holding sway here is going to show up right quick and do its best to convince me to stop, most likely by ripping my entrails out and showing them to me, and that's just to start. I need to be able to finish the ritual and that's where you lot come in."Oktav Grosskopf nods absently at Bufer's remarks as he attempts to tug free of Flower's claws."Where is the book, though?"Tucker checks the shelves, then under the mattress.The mattress, full of long-rotten straw, yields nothing but dust and shreds of blackened straw. The bookshelves contain books that would likely have sent Katadid into fits of ecstasy, but none of them appear to be the book that Bufer described after his vision.Bufer hesitates, and looks from Oktav to Emmerson and Vonmora."What do y'all think? Keep looking for the book, or start now and hope just being where the evil's strongest is enough? The book did seem pretty important, but if we can't even find the damned thing ...""The abbess must have had a hidden drawer or something where to store items for her eyes only," Emmerson says."Well, search the room, then!" Emus barks. "We're too close to be worrying about making a mess, now!"The group throws themselves into the search, checking behind furniture, pulling themselves up to look atop the beams and looking under furnishings.Beneath the bed, Emus finds it: A trap door, set in the stone floor. A tarnished brass ring appears to be the means of opening it. The bed turns out to be hinged, and it lifts easily up against the wall."Wow, I can't believe I didn't see that," Tucker says with disgust. "Can we get some light in there?"</blockquote>

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