The squeaking seems to move further down the staircase; just out of view around the spiral as you stand waiting before the locked bars. Whatever it was, it doesn’t appear to have noticed the two of you as of yet.

Turning to make your way back up the steps, you halt as the music from deep below comes to a sudden climax; a crescendo of discordant whines and metallic squeals from instruments you cannot even begin to picture in your mind’s eye. Suddenly, without warning, you find that you are not in fact facing the upward end of the staircase, but are about to descend further. You don’t remember turning around or proceeding to the edge of the steps to take the next spiral down, but you are there none the less. Trying to make sense of it, you attempt to shake yourself free from whatever disillusion led you to this point.

---

I’ll need a Wisdom Saving Throw from both of you.

Bartimaeus nodded at Yshtar's resolute answer. "Come," he said, beckoning upwards, "let me show you what I have learned of that which is below us."

Then the symphony climaxed, and his mind reeled.

---

OOC:
14:34, Today: Bartimaeus rolled 18 using 1d20+4.  Wisdom save.

19:49, Today: Yshtar rolled 10 using 1d20+2.  wis save.

Bartimaeus is able to turn away from the sound, but Yshtar soon finds herself enthralled by the ghastly melodies emanating from further down the staircase. With the squeaking subsided, there is no sense in not going just a bit further...

Just to have a peek...

What could it hurt, after all?

Yshtar suddenly begins descending the steps, overcome by an urge to both disprove her companion’s fears as well as to see with her own eyes the source of the haunting, now suddenly beautiful sounds from deeper down the inverted spire of one of Tideswallow’s oldest crypts. After reaching the next landing another hundred steps down, you are greeted by another locked gate of iron bars. This one you can see a bit further into, making out row upon row of sealed coffins tucked into small inlets in the walls. Stacked a dozen or so high and with barely a foot between each, you can only guess at how many must be interred here; with the hallway beyond stretching on and on into oblivion. There is another spiral of steps continuing downward, where the music is growing ever louder.

Ever stranger.

Ever more enticing...

---

One more Wisdom Save from Yshtar. You can still free to function on this landing, but the effect of a failed save will happen when you try to leave it, going up or down.

Bartimaeus saw his companion descend and knew she was enthralled; he quickly reached out as she walked down.

   "Lord of Truth, pierce the cloud cast and
   Restore to clarity the mind of this poor soul,
   That she may better fulfill her service to you
   Through thy humble servant."

Down she went -- heedless of his blessing? -- into the abyss.

~~ Must I follow? ~~

...

~~ Mustn't I? ~~

Down he followed, the Litany of Clarity on his lips.

---

OOC:
Guidance on Yshtar.
15:38, Today: Bartimaeus rolled 1 using 1d4.  Guidance.

Nuts! But +1 is better than not, I suppose?

Guidance again on me.

"Can't hurt to go a bit further down now would it?"

Yshtar mumbled to herself as she ventured forth down. This was fascinating. Who knows how many years have passed since anyone came here before me? She continued down.

09:31, Today: Yshtar rolled 10 using 1d20+3.  wis save if charm advantage.
09:31, Today: Yshtar rolled 4 using 1d20+3.  wis save.
This message was last edited by the player at 08:34, Sun 18 Oct 2020.

In reply to Yshtar (msg # 26):

With the music pounding louder and louder in your ears, you barely notice Bartimaeus’ attempt to assist you in turning back. Your mind is made up. You NEED to see this through now. For your own knowledge.

You trace the first few steps downward as though in a trance. Then, you are suddenly at the bottom. You don’t know how far you walked or how long it took, but you have found your way down to another landing which most certainly had not been the mere two or three steps away that you had taken. Your mind is suddenly your own once more... But those music is so very, VERY loud here.

From Bartimaeus’ perspective, Yshtar begins walking away, descends just two steps, and vanishes into thin air as a set of sickly green runs ignite on the step below her boot. You recognize these to be teleportation runes, of an incredibly similar design to those you found in in the cave out in the harbor.

Bartimaeus examined the runes.

~~ Who's to know where she's gone? To the College; to the reef. To him. To spinal. ~~

He sat down at the top of the stairs, and meditated.

    "Lord of Knowledge,                    Rothfield is not raw malice
       Pierce the Veil.                    Rothfiled is playful malice
    Lord of Wisdom,                        He bids his victims dance
       Fill the Void.                      He desires his victims despair
    Lord of Discernment,                   Ere he destroys them.
       Illuminate the Darkness.            Despair not, be not destroyed
    Lord of Insight,                       Dance for his amusement
       Clear the Path.                     He will desire you dance the more
    Lord of Comprehension,                 To fail in courage and faith
       Dispel Uncertainty.                 Is to earn contempt and stoke wroth.
    Lord of Cognition,                     To flee is to die.
       Bless Thy Servant."                 To follow is to live.

Bartimaeus stood. "Void that Calls: I follow. Bless Thy Servant."

He stepped forward.

The journey was unimportant, the destination was. Maybe Tymora brought her her by chance or was it her destiny?
"What do you want?"
The power that brought her here was definitely more powerful than she was. She had absolutely no intention to go any further now. Unless... She did want to know what the being behind the doors might be without having to interact with it. So she opened her third eye one more time.

OOC: Divine sense, uses left: 1/4

In a flash, Bartimaeus finds himself transported to the same location as Yshtar. You both now stand before a massive set of stone doors, carved right into the wall of the catacombs. They do not appear to be locked, but are currently shut to you. A thundering symphony is playing just behind the,. To the left of them, more stairs descend in a wider spiral. To the right, their twin ascends back up the way you came.

Yshtar’s divine sense radiates out beyond the door, catching hold of something... troubling. Undead, for certain. But the mass of them is so gargantuan that it registers in your mind as something more bizarre. A veritable sea of undeath, rather than any discernible being. You’ve never encountered anything quite like it.

Bartimaeus jumped in front of Yshtar, blocking the doors; his arms spread wide, torch in one hand, crosier in the other.


His face grimaced in exertion, willing her to resist the enchantment.

Fascinatingly evil. Yshtar's taste registered the foul mass of the undead with her synesthesic senses as overtly ripe and rotting apples. She could almost see maggots writhe in the apple while ugly black flies buzzed around it in droves. She exhaled and shrugged off the vision as she closed her third eye. She put her hands on her hips. So here you were waiting for me? Him? For how long? Before the woman in shining armor could do any brave, foolish or logical thing the priest of Oghma appeared behind her. He quickly ran between Yshtar and the door and used his telepathic powers again. She smiled at him as nothing he could say or do would diminish the dark radiance of what shone from beyond the door. And who do you think you are? Then she carefully and silently mouthed a few words so Bartimaeus could understand it but her voice wouldn't carry over the music.

"I think I've found your archlich. Let's go."

With this she turned back and after making sure Bartimaeus followed her she started the journey upward.

In reply to Yshtar (msg # 32):

Without issue you are able to turn around and begin your ascent back up the long, winding spiral of stone stairs. The air remains a vile mix of tomb-dust and decayed air; but you persevere until you once more reach the last of the two familiar landings with the locked bar doors. You had passed several others on your way up, ones that were clearly skipped by the teleportation runes, but you oddly can’t seem to recall them by the. It is as though you walked the whole way back up here in a daze or a dream. All you are sure of is that a great deal of time has passed. Your bodies are exhausted and your minds hazy. But at least you are back on familiar ground now.

The teleportation runes lie a few steps above the ones you are currently on. You have no idea if they will activate again once you try to step on or over them...
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:14, Tue 20 Oct 2020.

Bartimaeus took a silver piece out from his purse and flipped it across the runic step onto the landing.

In reply to Bartimaeus (msg # 34):

Nothing.

The runes appear to be inert. Deactivated. Or not reactive to inanimate objects. You’re not positive...

He turns to Yshtar and says, "Would that I could take you with me."

And with a word Bartimaeus disappears in a puff of silvery mist, and reappears in the same standing on the landing above.

---

OOC:
Cast Misty Step to get past the runes.

Yshtar shrugged. Does she feel lucky?

"The other option is to dance with the dead and we don't want to open that door now do we?"

Then stepped over the runes as far as she safely could.

In reply to Yshtar (msg # 37):

As you step over the runes... they remain inert. Whatever had activated them the first time around does not seem to go off now. You are able to step across them without issue and are soon beside Bartimaeus on the landing.

Bartimaeus blessed himself in gratitude when the runes remained inert, and turned to walk up the next flight of stairs, hopefully out of the mausoleum, cemetery, and Roe.

He wondered what time of day it was.

---

OOC:
Guidance on self

"This went well enough. Your archlich didn't want to kill me after all."

Yshtar remarked slightly relieved after nothing happened as she jumped across the teleportation runes. Honestly this encounter was a bit harrowing but both herself and her companion escaped with their hides intact for which she gave a silent prayer to Tymora.

"The question remains: Why didn't it kill you when we were just a door away?"

She went onwards and upwards fully expecting Bartimaeus to give his usual cryptic explanations about some Portals are only meant to be opened from outside and not from inside.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:02, Wed 21 Oct 2020.

Bartimaeus waited until they were stepping outside the mausoleum to reply.

“He would not want to kill you because you are insignificant. As am I, no offense intended. But...” and he paused. “I think he would not have killed, or more likely: trapped my soul within the prison of undeath, because there is ... there is as yet insufficient dramatic tension to make for a satisfying narrative conclusion to the movement.” He turned to look at Yshtar without a trace of irony on his face.

“Whatever he is: lich, ascended aberration, vampire, whatever, is incidental compared to the metaphysical Truth of him. First and foremost he is a storyteller. And I fear this means whatever successes we may have in the future will be if not aided, then not maximally inhibited, in no small part because tragedies are the more tragic for the hope of success preceding the heroes’ destruction.

“Yes, I think he recognizes himself as a villain. He embraces it. He is the canvas upon which intrepidity and valor display their worth. For a storyteller, the darker the evil the brighter shines the light, and he desires lights to shine brightly indeed: so much the better for his compositional inspiration.

“So you see: there’s reason not to kill us. It would make a tedious story.”

Bartimaeus looked around and breathed deeply.

“Shall we visit Milo before I am cursed with some Gnomish mischief?”

"How generous of him to tell tragic stories for all of our benefit. Now that the three of us are so acquainted can you please tell me a bit about him as go to Milo?"

The experience and the travel all day left Yshtar a bit tired and she was looking forward to her bed.

"Once we return to the inn, certainly. Let us maintain a degree of discretion in public, shall we?"

Bartimaeus led the way to Milo's Junk Shop.

---

OOC:

DM, haven't heard from you, so I suspect we're in the clear? Shall we go ahead to the Town Square and interact with Milo, is there something you'd like to do in the Roe, or shall we FF directly to back in the Salty Seaman?

What time of day is it, by the way?

Yshtar, do you want me to write everything out, or can I just point you towards the threads in the Bard College where we interacted with him?

In reply to Bartimaeus (msg # 43):

The two of you return to the surface without issue. From there, it is a simple enough matter of making your way back to the more populated portions of town. The night sky overhead has become black and cloudy, the stars now obscured by the overcast weather. A storm appears to be rolling in...

In reply to GM (msg # 44):

Back to the Salty Seaman, it is!