Razyll awoke and began to repack his backpack and sleeping roll while he chewed at dried meat and bread. He bared down on the dusty roll so that it would be as flat as possible in his backpack.

"Okay, that was a little more horrible than I expected, but-at least that is behind us."

"Alright, lets continue." Arialis said with a nod after she gathered her things.

Faeli nodded and began to gather her things as well.

The group walks down the hallway past the (now cleansed) zombie pits to find yet another split. To their left the hallway leads to what was once a set of spiral stairs leading deeper into the complex but some kind of collapse has completely blocked it with debris. While it might be possible to eventually excavate such a process would takes weeks if not months depending on how deep the staircase goes.

The main hallway continues South to a pair of closed doors. Opening them up reveals an odd scene. The strange room is circular, about 15' in diameter. Several objects float in the room lazily in space: a ragged book, a scroll, a bottle of wine, a dead raven with a floating halo of maggots around it, and a twisted iron wand with a forked tip. Yet perhaps the most unnerving aspect of the room is the walls, for they are plated in sheets of strange red metal that ripple every once in a while with silent black electricity that seems to coalesce into strange runes or even words far too often for the effect to be chance. It appears to occasionally form similar patterns to other runes they have seen all around this dungeon but what they specifically mean or what their purpose is escapes everyone's grasp.

Razyll attempts to examine further the odd room, avoiding the raven, maggots, and iron rod.

Razyll takes a step forward and immediately feels a force acting on his foot raising it straight up. Before he can begin to process it his foot and leg raise up past his flexibility point and he ends up tilting backwards, stumbling back into the hallway behind him. Whatever magic is keeping the objects in the room floating is both fast and strong. One would have to be very quick and agile to enter the room smoothly...or just take a running leap.

"Razyll!" Tristen watched in awe as the cleric rose in the air. "Are you hurt? Can you move? Trying to come back this way." He fished out his rope, "Hold on. I'll toss you my rope." He tied off one end to a torch before he flung it across the room.

Faeli smirked as the mischievousness bubbled up within her. She took a running leap as she grabbed Tristen's rope as she bounded into the room.

"Faeli, wait!" Razyll said as he gestured as is the motion of his arm could halt the silly gnome's momentum.

Arialis looked at Faeli and sighed softly. "Well crap, cannot let her be over there alone." The agile armored elf would sheath her blades and then follow the gnome.

[OOC: If it helps Arialis does have both Acrobatics and Athletics.]

Soon enough half the party is floating around inside the chamber. The only danger seems to be bumping into the floating maggots. Otherwise it was just a matter of getting used to moving around when your body had no weight.

Those who didn't jump in were treated to the sight of their brave companions flailing around trying to swim through the air. Luckily with a rope to anchor them they eventually were able to figure out a system for moving around inside the chamber.

What do you guys want to do here?

Faeli makes a note of the strange forming runes before she maneuvers herself around the room attempting to examine the book first.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:16, Sat 26 Mar 2022.

She will follow along with Faeli. "Did I not tell you to not be so reckless you silly gnome?" She said as she looked over her friends shoulder at the book. "Anything interesting in it?"

The book is remarkably well preserved, in fact it has to be magically preserved somehow. Actually examining it though proves difficult as it is written in some kind of script that nobody seems to know how to read.

Still there are plenty of pictures and they present a gruesome outlook. Based on the rituals and symbols depicted, it appears this is some kind of prayer book written in service to Lamashtu. It also contains some kind of Bestiary as it has pages of woodcut illustrations of fantastical monsters and how savage or dismember humans.

While the contents are quite gruesome, the book probably has significant value to the right collector given its size, contents, and perfect mint condition.

Razyll looked over Faeli's face. He knew that the relationship between Desna and Lamushtu wasn't the best but he didn't know how it would affect the gnome.

Faeli recoiled from the book, "Eeew"

Arialis growled a bit, being a follower of Desna herself. "Bag it, we'll take it back as more proof of what's going on." She said her voice a low, even tone.

Razyll moved to bad the items (in separate sacks if he was able) so that the little gnome wouldn't have to touch them. He slowly touched the book in such a funny why that one might have expected him to be touching something hot or very cold (expecting pain or some type of curse).

Besides it being a particularly gruesome and vile book glorifying the ways mythical monsters can slash, tear, and dismember humans the book doesn't seem to have any other properties.

"You may enjoy floating around. Do you need to examine the area some more?" Tristen held on to his side of the rope. "You can pull yourself back using the rope."

"Let's move on." Arialis began to pull herself back to the others.

Moving through the hallway the group sees a circular stone pool on the floor with water rippling quietly. The rim of the pool is lined with skulls. Past that is a staircase leading upwards but collapsed stone blocks the way up.

"Well, that's not ominous or anything." Arialis said as she looked at the pool. "Hey Faeli, can you cast Detect Magic in here?"

Tristen looked at the blocked staircase. "I suppose that would have lead back up to the surface. But with all of these tunnels, I'm not sure we are still beneath the factory. Do you think that we're under the town or away from it?"

"Away from it I am sure." She said with a nod.