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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Lars Frehse" data-source="post: 818864" data-attributes="member: 1674">A clever device- part 1A week later, they stood in front of the gates of Mithril again. In the middle of their journey along the Codrada Corridor, they had been attacked by a pack of proud. The initial onslaught of the lion-centaurs had been rough, and the speed of the beasts allowed no escape, but after a tough battle, the friends defeated the titanspawn and Trepat had taken their fangs in order to have a necklace crafted out of them.When the Paladins at the gate saw Jan, they waved them through and once inside, the friends split up. Jan went to his headquarter to make a report and the other three headed directly to Azatan.The calastian bookmerchant was as friendly and as confused as ever. The store was still a chaotic mess- the whole room was full of books, some of which were piled up to the ceiling of the room, and in order to cross it, the friends had to squeeze themselves through small corridors which lead past the towers of books. After Azatan had offered his guest places to sit by clearing books and cats from chairs in the cramped room and after having made them tea he inquired how he could be of help.First, Trepat offered him two of the books which they had recovered from Mailvaz’s tomb. Both seemed to have no academic use for them, one being a collection of immoral stories and the other one being pornographic in nature, and so they handed them over to the excited merchant. He cracked the books open, put his nose between the pages to smell them and then leafed through the pages, looking at the quality of the writing and the material, all the while muttering to himself.After having thoroughly examined both tomes, he slammed then shut and said:“ I will give you 1.500 pieces of gold for both. What do you think?“Surprised at the high value of the books, they nodded in agreement, accepting the offer without haggling. After all, they had come to trust the man after their past adventures and furthermore they still wanted him to help them.Chel Azatan promised them to give them the money on the next day- obviously he didn’t keep that kind of money in his house- and then it was Niklas’ turn to tell him what kind of knowledge they had come for. The merchant listened intently. It was clear that for some strange reason the eccentric Calastian was especially fond of the monk, even though Niklas lacked in manners and had the tendency to make other people feel uncomfortable in his presence. When Niklas was done, Azatan hugged himself, bit his lower lip and moved his upper body back and forth on the chair, humming deeply as he was lost in thought. Then, suddenly, he jumped up and stepped to one of the piles of books with the dreamy certainty of a somnanbulist and pulled one heavy leatherbound book out of it.He returned to the small stool on which he had been perched all along, leaving the more comfortable chairs to his guests, and before he turned his attention to the matter at hand he excused himself for being such a bad host and refilled their cups with more tea. Then he cracked open the book and after leafing through it for a minute he suddenly stopped and nailed a line in it with his outstretched right indexfinger.„Hah!“, he cried out: „I knew it. Yes, you were right- the three heads are indeed three entrances... And I can even tell you where each of them is! The drowned head is in the swamps close to where Mullis Town was built. The burning head is on the island of Cyri and the howling head is in the howling valley in the Kelder mountains!“„Great!“, Niklas said, ready to get up and shake hands: „This will be...“.„I am sorry, but I think it is not of as much help as you think“, Azatan interrupted him: „You see, it says here that each of the heads will only open if the proper riddle is solved. And unfortunately, I don’t know what those riddles are...“.Niklas sat down again: „That’s too bad. Do you know anyone who might know the riddles?“.„No... That is, yes, there is one. An elf who had been cursed by the gods. He is called the „Keeper of Secrets“ and he lives under a mountain of iron near the coast of the village of Louitz at the northern coast.“.Trepat saw that Azatan seemed lost in thought again and asked: „Why had he been cursed, and what kind of curse is it?“„Oh, he had been investigating the secrets of the gods. Then, at one point Hedrada warned him, but the Keeper, who was then still known under a name that is long forgotten now, kept on disclosing the gods’ secrets. Worst of all, he told others, and so Hedrada punished him with the help of Enkili. A more than unusual case, that the god of order would work together with the god of chaos, but probably the Keeper had enraged both gods- and as you know, nothing bonds quicker than a common foe“.The Calastian chuckled a little about his own joke, and then continued: „So, Hedrada imbued the heretic with the knowledge of all secrets and at the same time, he cursed him in a way that he would never be able to tell any of the secrets he knew, giving him the mocking title „Keeper of Secrets“ on top of it. As bad as this may be for the Keeper, this means that he would know the riddles you are looking for, even though he won’t be able to tell you the solutions, since they are most likely intended to be secrets.“.Niklas nodded and said:“Thank you, so we will go to his mountain. Is there anything known about the entrance?“„Yes“, Azatan answered, „the entrance is underwater. And close to the entrance, for almost a hundred yards, the water is constantly boiling. But don’t worry! I have already thought of a way how you can overcome this obstacle as well! One moment, please!“.Again, he got up and after climbing over a pile of books, he procured a leaflet from a shelf behind the pile. Coming back, he flipped it open and handed the book over to Niklas so that all of them could take a look at the illustration in it. It looked like a laying down iron barrel with lobster like claws in front of it and small iron legs under it. At the front of the strange item, there were two tubes which were shaped a little like crabeyes.„This my friends, is the apparatus of Kwalish! You could crawl in there and make it through the boiling water alive- which is what distinguishes it from a real lobster. A real one would certainly turn quickly into a nice dinner under such circumstances!“.He chuckled again, and then continued: „ As it happens, I know where Kwalish had been to for his last expedition. The apparatus is most likely still there, on the ground of the ocean!“.</blockquote>

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