16.06.2020 - Shui - The Mimic Room

• Selmyn got help with binding Cog's soul
• The Defectors
• Evil
• Skinny
• Arrogant
• Pointy ears
• Looked sickly, harrowed
• Elves
• Has seen no elves in the city
• Shui knows:
• Elves are persecuted
• Believed to be too tainted with the feywild and magic
• Made them a scapegoat
• Never heard of the Defectors
• If you know the right people and pay a lot of money, or if you know the way, you can find them
• Very secretive and strange
• Terrorist evil scum
• Leaflets going around. The monks are always saying that elves are bad
• The Defectors hate the path and the emperor
• Apparently burning people and houses, causing havoc and unleashing magic
• She can help us find them if we really need them, but it comes with a price
• She literally can't tell us what, magical contract
• If we need help we can ask her, but she can't promise she can help
• At the academy we can find a safe haven, as long as we find some truths etc.  (non magical)
• We try to get out of the academy
• Shui remembers because she is good at multitasking reading and knowing where to go
• We arrive at the suspicious tunnel again (presumably)
• Sound seems dampened in this tunnel
• As we pass an open door, there is a sigh of disappointment
• Twig apologises to the door
• Hai peeks inside
• 5x5 room
• Completely empty, as if it has been scraped clean, not a dust spec
• Feels a light breeze, even though there are no windows/other doors
• The wind seems to come from the tunnel, into the room
• The rest looks in
• Shui notice a light shimmer at the far wall
• We go towards it
• Notches on the shimmering wall, as if someone has been counting.
• 19 notches
• As Twig touches it, he sinks into it, as if it was flesh
• Looks like stone though
• Shui investigates
• It's not only the far wall that is fleshy, but all of them
• There's liquid by the door
• Twig tries to push the wall
• It has some give, cracks appear, but can't push through
• Hai tries to push (since Twig insists Hai is the stronger one)
• Twig looks through the cracks
• Acidic smells
• Bookshelves on the other side
• Liquid in the inside of the cracks, acid
• Twig hears footsteps in the tunnels
• Twig heals himself, then tries to use shape water to help him open the door
• Shui helps push as well, and opens it enough for Twig to push through (he takes acid dmg)
• The other walls in the book room are solid, while the one he went through has thick, green and brown fur
• Twig tries to hold the cracks open with a crowbar, it hurts the room, shoves some books there. One labelled The Door
• The person reaches for the door
• We go through, but Shui's foot gets stuck. The person notices, then Twig and Hai pull her through
• Twig opens the book called The Door, it moans? screams?
• Twig casts Pass Without a Trace
• The Door has teeth, it's written in Draconic, and is about portals
• The use of portals, best practices, what to avoid
• Shui starts reading it, and taking notes
• Hai investigates the room
• The shelves seem to be categorized into schools of magic
• One of them is just about The Door, or Doors
• One category is magical beasts (only furry books)
• Seems to be a collection of tomes of magic
• Twig listens through the wall, and hears footsteps before they abruptly ends. Thinks they're still in the room
• Hears the door being slammed shut, the wall rumbles (as if being hungry)
• The Door tries to shut
• A sharp scream or shout of surprise, then a crunch from inside the room
• A humanoid shape passes across the wall
• Shui starts theorizing about mimics
• The door bites twig as he tries to put it down
• Hai is checking all of the books for a secret exit, and gets attacked by the bookshelf in the Door category. It grapples him with it's tongue. It's trying to swallow him
• Shui casts Chromatic Orb (fire). "Drop him!"
• Twig summons a flaming falchon and attacks
• The bookshelf gets of a good bite on Hai
• Hai Misty Steps to the other side of the room
• It's suddenly a normal bookshelf again
• Twig crits with flameblade, it moans in pain and two small books jump out to attack him
• He moves away, but the Bookshelf crits him, KO and is dragged towards it
• Chomp, and Twig is down 2 failed death saves
• The booklings goes after Shui
• Hai runs in to Cure Wounds Twig
• Shui casts Scorching Ray on all enemies
• Booklings die, but not the Bookshelf (barely holding on, but still trying to eat Twig
• Twig turns into a giant toad and swallows the now dead Bookshelf
• Is a doorway where the bookshelf was
• The wall is purring
• Hai opens the door, it leads into the tunnel (to small for giant toad)
• Shui tries to grab as many books as possible (trying to look for spellbooks, and avoiding the magical beasts section)
• Gets 10 books
• Many written in elvish
• Twig turns back into Twig, but starts throwing up gold coins (349 gp) (Will poop gold coins for the next days)
• He grabs them
• Twig pets the Wall
• Shui gets Hai to carry some books as well
• He gets 10 as well
• We take a short rest, to cast Detect Magic to look for magic books
• A lot of magic in the room
• A lot of the books
• Shui makes sure the books she brings are all magical
• Twig pukes 6 gp more
• We venture forth into the new tunnel
• Hai casts Light on a torch (making it fire-colored, also the entire torch is glowing, not just the top)
• Leads to an upwards spiral staircase
• Reaches a door without a handle
• (Shui crit on investigation) and manages to open the door (opens inward)
• Opens into the office of Dormin Halfwit. It's empty  of people
• We stealthily head into the office
• Shui knocks over some stuff, making noise and breaking a contraption
• The door automatically closes behind us
• Twig is looking for papers/letters
• Finds some tabloid magazines
• Shui hears activity outside of the office, but they don't seem to react to the noise she made
• There's a balcony about 6m above the ground
• We can reach places not out in the open with Misty Step, but we'll have to og onto the balcony to do it
• Hai and Shui are discussing what to do through Message
• Twig is a spider, prepared to climb down
• We open the door for him, and he starts his decent
• We look through the keyhole on the office door
• People walking past
• Hard to see
• Halfwit walks up to the secretary and asks her to lunch
• She says they're not expecting guests anytime soon, with a smirk in our direction
• They leave
• We wait a bit, then leave. Trying to act natural
• As we head out the academy gate, we run into Halfwit and Gretchen
• Asks about our day
• "If you happened upon some knowledge, take good care of it"
• "If you find something that doesn't belong(?), I could always take it of your hands"
• Says it's important we guard each other
• Winks at Shui as he leaves
• Shui spends her afternoon in a trance with Mystra, trying to learn Arcanist's Magic Aura
• Not successful
• Tried to ask about Fu, and the explanations mash together, incomprehensible
• Actually starts focusing, and then she manages to actually learn the spell
• Hai reads through some of the books we brought back
• Some are tales of wizards, and not spellbooks
• But still magic aura (script infused, arcane lock etc.)
• At least one of the books contains a genuine description of a spell
• Alarm (Will take 2 hours and 50 gp to learn)
• Tells of a paranoid drow by the name Varith Abborel
• Was persecuted by the city, but it might just have been paranoia
• He was always hungry
• Got satiated whenever he set up a new alarm spell
• Twig goes to his guard shift
• Tracking a group of burglars
• They break into mansions of minor nobles (including the Drakes), and then disappearing
• Guards haven't been able to figure out how they got in
• Twig finds broken rooftiles
• Alerts the other guards, and they all go up to the roof
• Some discussion leads to Twig finding out there's a magic tracker
• Also they will ask a Black Brother to accompany the investigation unit to protect them against possible magical attacks
• Twig has been incorporated into the investigation unit, and can forget about his other guard duties
• Not really a lot of unnatural and wild problems. The path suppresses that kind of stuff
• Talking about the terrorists the Defectors, blowing up peoples homes etc.
• They are not the burglary type, they prefer to send a message
• The guy Twig was talking to is Duford, the lead investigator

Next session: Remember to cast Arcanist's Aura on Twig each day. Also maybe deal with what she talked to Mystra about when in trance