The Valiant Never Taste of Death but Once

General Summary

“In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” Jabennim Rinklnaf, 189 A.U.

In a walled city in the South, there lived a Grippli, Ser Croakington, and a Conrasu, Iago Lichtenhelm. Ser was the partial owner of Croakington, Croakington, & Associates, a law firm. It is here that he collected taxes and, when deemed necessary, chased down those who defaulted on those taxes. His strongarm and assistant (and sometimes fetcher of coffee) Iago would accompany him on these missions.
On one fine morning a lieutenant of the Royal Queen's Guard stopped by to inform the two individuals that their presence had been requested by none other than the princess, Falaern Rozumin. They gathered their things and made their way to the palace with the guard. Soon, they met with the princess herself, who tasked them with a secret mission: to track down a librarian who may have information regarding a fugitive in the Lorasian Empire. Supposedly this librarian, Martyn Dewhep, was supplying information and books to the fugitive Wesley P'dash. The princess gave the duo a single-use messaging stone to use when they had retrieved as much information as they could.
The investigators then left the palace and sought out the library. A helpful dwarven hot pie vendor who opereated his stand across the street gave them a little information regarding the recently reculsive librarian. He had closed his business and blocked the doors. He had recently seen him enter the buidling through a back door with five other individuals and none of them had emerged since. Following this lead, the two inspected the back entrance and found a locked door. They were able to open it by fixing a sigil above the door. Three waterdrops, eached nested within the other. The innermost waterdrop was turned upside-down. After fixing it, the door opened. Within this space they found a few bookshelves and another door that led further into the library.
They were soon attacked by a mimic bookshelf, which caused the party signficant damage, leading to one of them to nearly die. The mimic eventually escaped outside of the building and entered into the streets of the city. After resting outside, the two returned to the chamber and found a locked door. Next to the door was a shelf and on the floor below it were four leather-bound books, empty, with four stones in the spine: an emerald, a nephrite, an opal, and a pearl. After a few failed attempts, they -- quite by accident -- discovered that the correct order of the books on the shelf was Opal, Pearl, Emerald, and Nephrite to spell the word "OPEN." Inside this chamber was a chest...and five bodies.
One of the bodies suddenly burst apart to reveal a blood ooze, a terrible creation borne of dark alchemy and the blood of four individuals fed to a fifth. A hectic and terrible battle ensured, leaving Iago on the floor, barely alive. After a quick healing potion, Iago was revived. Inside the chest they found a cowering Martyn.
Martyn eventually revealed himself to by the father of Wesley, whose real name was Sylas Dewhep. Sylas had been visiting his father in the city for some time, learning darker and darker spells and growing himself as a spellcaster. He had, in turn, taught his father dark necromantic practices to keep himself safe, such as the creation of the blood ooze. Additionally, he knew he was working with a powerful noble family in the Lorasian Empire, the ancient House of Luthyra.
The two began to cart Martyn back to the palace to be interrogated, but before they could barely leave the library, he was shot dead through the neck with an arrow by a mysterious individual on a rooftop. The figure disappeared before the two could do anything. The two adventurers contacted the princess via the stone to tell her of her of the news. She seemed shocked by the news that was shared with her. She told them to return to the palace where they would receive payment and further instruction.

One of the horrifying creations that attacked Ser and Iago.