14: Eclipse

Guiltag 21st Pflugzeit

So after following the tunnel you had come to some bookshelves in a sort of alcove and the tunnel continued around a bend towards a bright light source. Max was wearing the grey librarian robes and so you sent him forward to have a look. After rounding a few bends and passing a few book-filled rooms and branches in the tunnel, he decided he was getting too far ahead of the rest of you and went back to bring you up with him.

And round the next bend you could see that it was lighter and you paused to listen carefully. Heinrich decided that there were a good number of people in the next room shuffling about and probably reading quietly. So you sent Max in for a look, and he could see about fifteen people in a large well-lit atrium. Most of them were at desks reading, some were carrying books around, or reaching for books on the high shelves, and there was one behind a counter checking books out using those copper pendants.

Max also counted twelve passages leading off the atrium and one of them led to a spiral staircase that rose sharply upwards. He came back to report this and you decided Balden should say the Ritual of the Tooth to see what direction Egg was in. After the ritual, the tooth wormed its way a lot faster in one direction and from his look at the atrium Max guessed that the egg was to be found down the fifth passage on the left.

You decided you needed a distraction to get the non-robed people through the atrium and so you set fire to a bookshelf with the oil from your lantern, and it wasn’t long before the dry books became a raging fire. Max went to the atrium and shouted ‘Fire!’ and everyone told him to ‘Shhh!’

But it wasn’t long before an air of panic swept through the room. Some of the readers rushed to the fire and tried to beat it out with their robes, some fled up the staircase, some ran around trying to save books. And you were able to make your way through the atrium and down the passageway. After a few twists and turns and passing side chambers, you reached a larger chamber with some doors in the walls.

As you went, Balden noticed that a number of mirrors had been set up around the atrium and along the passage leading to the spiral staircase, and if he looked at the right angle he could see the sun reflected from far above. And he saw that the moon was starting to move across the sun and begin the eclipse. And so the people in the chamber would be able to monitor the progress of the eclipse.

In the middle of the chamber was a stone altar, with Egg asleep on it. There were the four cloaked ninjas guarding her, and the big guy, and the wizard, who had got the better of you at Goffman’s house, and they were with a smaller, studious looking fellow wielding a shining dagger.

You readied your weapons and demanded they handed over Egg. But the studious guy looked quite calm and introduced himself as the head librarian. He patiently explained that they needed to kill Egg in order to save Marienburg. He explained how they had been researching the issue for hundreds of years and they were quite certain of their findings.

You told him that there was another way, and that Goffman had discovered it, and you asked him to let you try your method. He said that there was only one chance and if your method failed the city would be destroyed so they couldn’t risk it. He said that Goffman might be well-meaning but his desire to save the girl had got in the way of his rational thinking.

This felt like an impasse and things were getting a bit tense when suddenly six black-clad axe-wielding thugs started charging towards you down the tunnel. You recognised them as cultists of the Brotherhood of the Forgotten One. And you were sandwiched between the librarians and the brotherhood.

So it was time to fight. Balden charged at one of the ninja-librarians but he avoided the blow, and Heinrich shot an arrow at another one, getting a direct hit and shattering his jaw and killing him. And still annoyed about being called idiots by the brotherhood, Max fished out the blunderbuss from beneath his robes and fired at them as they advanced through the tunnel, four of them suffering the full effect of the weapon. And Kris rushed towards the head librarian and got him with his boathook, tripping him up and he fell to the ground, dropping his dagger.

Balden then got a good hit on his ninja, meanwhile the others fought back. Kris got badly wounded by one of them, with their strange hollow blades that they had used to put you to sleep at Goffman’s. But Kris said a prayer to Manann to save him from the effects of the poison, and that seemed to do the trick.

The big guy approached Heinrich for a big guy face off. He seemed a bit overly confident and didn’t charge in, just sort of sauntered up to him. So Heinrich shot an arrow at him and hit, and the big librarian started to bleed heavily.

After the devastating blast from the blunderbuss only one of the brotherhood had the guts to press Max, the rest hanging back in fear. And so Max shot him with his pistol, killing him.

The wizard by the altar was doing something, gathering a ball of white magic ready to power a spell, and so Kris hit him and managed to put him off, and the power dissipated.

With the eclipse now at about a quarter full, Balden had another go at his ninja. He hit him, and then, praying to a dark marsh spirit for help, or something, hit him again, and managed to kill him.

The last ninja had been hovering around the head librarian to protect him, but seeing a couple of his colleagues go down, he legged it, disappearing through a door on the opposite side of the chamber.

Two of the brotherhood managed to summon up enough courage to charge the unloaded blunderbuss and they attacked Max but he avoided both blows and he struck back killing one of them. And the big guy was still advancing towards Heinrich, despite all the blood, and so Heinrich drew his sword and finished him off. And then Kris killed the wizard.

Despite you being heavily outnumbered the fight was going incredibly well. The head librarian got to his feet and calmly tried to talk everyone into trying to resolve this peacefully, but that ship had sailed. And then lying on the altar, Egg woke up, had a look around and screamed. The head librarian immediately fell over and hit his head on a bookshelf and blood began to run from the wound.

You could see in the mirrors that the eclipse was now about half full and you were running out of time. Balden began to invoke the ritual of the tooth and made his way towards Egg. Heinrich went to help Max hold off the remaining brotherhood who were desperate to get to Egg, and Kris finished off the last ninja.

And then Balden finished his ritual and, hopefully following Goffman’s instructions, stabbed Egg with the tooth. Instead of injuring her, however, the tooth seemed to merge with her body and disappear, and he felt a ripple of power run through her, and then a massive bolt of power exploded from her body, leaving her unharmed.

But the shock wave pushed the already wounded Kris and Heinrich to the floor. Then it blasted against the walls of the chamber. The odd stone fell from the walls and the ceiling and smashed against the floor, and then more stones fell as bits of wall collapsed and water began to drip and then spurt through gaps in the stonework.

And suddenly the water was up to your ankles. The remaining brotherhood fled to the central atrium. Balden went to Kris to heal him while Max went to Heinrich and tried to lift his head out of the water.

When you had got them to their feet again, the water was up to your knees and rising quickly. You wondered whether to try to run to the stairs in the central atrium. But you decided that the fleeing ninja must have gone somewhere and so you went through the door he had used, carrying Egg with you.

You found yourself in the head librarian’s office. You shut the door behind you but the water kept gushing under it. And as there was no sign of the ninja you looked around for the exit. While Kris grabbed the box of petty cash in the desk, instead, Balden managed to find a mechanism to move one of the bookshelves and behind it were some rough rock steps leading upwards. And so you rushed up the steps and after a steep climb found yourselves on a small island a couple of hundred yards off of Tempelwijk.

You could see the water bubbling as the underground library beneath the sea collapsed, and bits of detritus, shelves, and books floated to the surface and were swept away on the tide.