Roleplayer001

Botanist And Bards

In the end, Isabella didn't find much of interest in that room nor an answer to her fundamental question. It didn't take long before the party began searching the bookstacks near the music room for them to find whole books detailing out what appeared to be songs written on pages. A couple of those later, and Valora told Izzy that it was time to go. And she was right - this place was fascinating, but without a translator it was also largely pointless.

Just as the group began to leave, Izzy would hear Valiant's voice enter her mind. "Something's strange here ..." A couple of seconds passed as he sensed Isabella's curiosity. "... the air or something."

The sword didn't seem to know why though, as it didn't respond to any further questioning. As they left the room though, the gem in the center lit up brightly and six streams of light flew into the satchel the Princess was carrying. The princess would feel a strange warmth in her backpack before dark streams flew out of the books, hit the walls, and dragged dark, ethereal figures out before them made of twisting shadow and smoke.

The first had long hair that seemed to be of various different shades of darkness - in her hands was a flute and in her shadowy face it was easy to distinguish the violence she intended. She had beaming red eyes that seemed to contrast with the somewhat simple ethereal dress she wore. Small streams of light went across her skin like tattoos.

The other figure had a long longsword similar to Valiant in length - and upon brief observation even in features. Dark plates covered the figures body, revealing him to be some sort of knight. A cape drifted behind his back dramatically, and as he lifted his sword to a hostile pose he waited for a moment, observing each of the companions as they prepared themselves.

Something gave the sense they weren't here to negotiate.

Ancient Piracy

1 Day Later
The crew found themselves out at sea early in the morning, and midday by luck they managed to stumble across the shipment from Carthage to Crete. Fifteen minutes ago the pirates began trailing them in a ridiculously slow pursuit - the sail had no slack as whatever gods controlled the wind decided to take noontime off, so both ships ended up in a chase so comically slow that the initial excitement of having spotted their prey had long since died down. Those working the oars were going as quickly as they could, which at least was faster than the larger merchant ship ahead of them could manage.

And Amen was sick of Epiz's puns. 'Potrates', he said with a gleam in his eye. If he wasn't so damn useful Amen would have tossed him overboard.

It would likely be at least a couple minutes until they finally managed to catch up. Rys would feel a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, Kid, excited? Nervous?" Amen was a little curious about his own crew, but more importantly he wanted to get away from the annoying man.

Ancient Piracy

Will post in the guild by tomorrow night - meant to do it today but got caught up in cheesy anime.

Botanist And Bards

Leaving the constellation behind, the party decided to head downstairs. The area was comparable to the one upstairs - a few smaller rooms with a large central library. In the center was the gem that one could see from above.

One of the four smaller rooms held mannequins of various sizes posed in strange ways - a couple were lifelike and realistic, while others were more cartoonish or even fantastical. Bins in the side held what appeared to be components to construct one's own mannequin, and various art supplies were containing within.

The second was a another reading hole similar to the one upstairs. The third was more interesting - it held various pieces of jewelry from over the ages. The room began simple, with dates beginning in the negatives heading towards more positive numbers as the jewels grew more and more extravagant.

The final room was more botanical in nature - various vines, plants and flowers grew within. Although it would be hard to make out from within the main area, there were a couple small iron cages being held on the table. Shelved in a corner were small sacks that each had a well-drawn and descriptive name of a plant within.

Ancient Piracy

Alright, I'll move us into the next scene.

Botanist And Bards

Isabella would hear the moving of gears in the background after the dial remained in its position for a while. The sky above shifted slightly, rotating in the night sky as the moon began to creep into view, going from a new moon gradually to the next stage. It was rather obvious that the stars were backlit by something, the 'night sky' above them shining brightly even as they sat there.

Ancient Piracy

He laughed. "I must have misspoke. He parted a sea so you could walk through it. When Pharaoh pursued, his army was drowned as the water closed in. But no, neither me nor any of my close ancestors were able to walk on water to my knowledge."

He pointed towards the water though. "If you'd like to give it a try though, I'm interested. There's a nice sea right there." Neriad's finger returned from directing Rhys towards the Mediterranean after a second, a smile crossing his face. "I hope you can at least swim though."

It was fairly important for their business after all.

Botanist And Bards

As the group of them began to explore the library again, they would find all the books just as they had been left. There was another little room nearby - a quick inspection would reveal that it appeared to be a studying hole, where a few basic amenities for the most dedicated of students could use. There were a few notebooks laying around here - but a quick flip through the writing would reveal that the little hole was likely used by a singular person.

On the opposite side of the balcony there were a couple other rooms to be looked into. Another one of which appeared to be oddly filled with various weapons, similar to the one upstairs - however the yellowish blades were clearly some sort of bronze. Various glaives, spears, swords, shields, and other weapons were put on display in the room. A more thorough examination would reveal that the weapons were likely there to be examined rather than used based on the way they were mounted on the wall.

The final room had another table in the center, and a constellation being held up by some sort of mechanical mechanism. If the princess decided to enter the room, she'd see that the table in the center were really several large dials. The first set the furthest out seemed to have the numbers one to 50. The second dial went from one to seven. The third dial really was a set of four smaller dials, each going from one to ten. There was also a staircase nearby heading downstairs towards the crystal and more of the library if Izzy was finished examining the upper story.

Ancient Piracy

Neriad laughed a bit at Rys' comment. "Ruler? No!" The man found it a bit funny the Egyptianophile didn't know about this basic piece of lore. "Long time ago, Moses, a former prince of Egypt, freed our people from Pharaoh through a series of plagues. We walked across the red sea to the land we now call home."

He raised an eyebrow. "I suppose he could be considered a ruler, but he passed away from this world long ago. My people are merely the decedents of his efforts."