Session 6: Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme
General Summary
Rowing away from the furious tyrannosaurus, the burning ruin of the camp, and the trap-laden House of Man and Crocodile, you take a moment to collect yourselves. The roars of the scarred T-rex fade into the distance, and further upstream Azaka points out a trio of feathered hadrosauruses. “Those honkers have an excellent sense of smell, and would certainly be more perturbed if there were any predators around. Perhaps this is a good place to make camp, although I think we should be on the opposite bank from the Rex. That one won’t be happy you blasted it in the face, tortle.”
Making camp that night, Douglass takes first watch. Instead of keeping watch, he instead attempts to tame his pet axe-beak, beetle, and flying snake with magical communication and food items. Convincing the axe-beak he’s its new mother, he relaxes the bird. The beetle just wants a log to lay eggs in, and the flying snake isn’t convinced Douglass offers it much freedom (or flying mice), and resists. During the second watch, Rahlg’n studies his weapon, remembering lessons on martial magic with Al’dzilwan. As his tired mind drifts, something clicks, and feels magic twist through him and into his yklwa. Perhaps some of the old Eldritch Knight’s lessons did stick after all.
During the final watch, Chomsky notices a pair of lamp-like, yellow eyes from the jungle. Thinking it may be more Su-monsters, he wakes Rubi. When she blearily looks around, the eyes are gone with a soft rustle of disturbed undergrowth. She doesn’t much appreciate being woken up, and goes back to bed. The only sounds for the rest of the night are the whine of fireflies, the call of night-birds, and the sounds of sleepy adventurers turning over in their tents.
In the morning, Chomsky tells Azaka and Douglass about the creature, and sure enough, finds some tiger tracks where the eyes were seen. Azaka seems concerned, but brushes it off, saying that tigers generally won’t approach the open flames of a campfire. Likely, John Notagnome seemed like more trouble than he was worth.
The party seemed dubious, and Azaka eventually ushered them on, saying they were wasting daylight. Within half a day’s row through steaming jungle, the party arrive at Camp Vengeance. The smell hits them before they get close. Piles of charred remains smoulder outside the walls, flayed animal carcasses swarm with flies, and the stench of death and disease permeate the fetid air which buzzes with mosquitoes. Suddenly you feel as if the daily applications of disgusting, greasy, insect-repelling salve was a healthy investment…
As you draw close, Undril Silvertusk stands up in her canoe. “I can’t believe it… This is worse than I thought. Those are likely Templar bodies being burned…” Abarl – formerly Burg-Quott (the Greater) – says something cruel and immediately gets whacked by an oar-wielding Rahlg’n. Undril nods her thanks to the Goliath. Tying off the canoes, you approach the gates. Two guards stand atop the rampart, overlooking a stagnant moat, sharpened stakes, and the sluggish Soshenstar river. After being challenged by the guards, Undril steps up in front of the party and asks entry.
The gates open to a scene of pestilence and desolation. Sick soldiers groan in moth-eaten, mildewed tents. Pools of stagnant water and mud fill the courtyard, unable to drain due to the construction of the ramparts. The only livestock left are four sickly, emaciated goats. As you approach the command tent as directed by the guards, a Chultan guide, Lorsa Bilwital, greets Azaka. After a short exchange, she warns the party about Commander Niles Breakbone. Sure enough, as the party approach the command tent, you can hear him berating one of his scouts.
“Do you call this a report, Rygor? I’d expect this from those fucking Chultan guides, but what you’ve given me violates all established military protocol! What I need now is actionable intelligence, not guerilla tactics against undead! They’re mindless, shambling husks! And we’re Templars, not a misfit group of rebels!”
The scout’s gravelly voice responds. “We’ve been friends for years, Niles, you know I wouldn’t make these recommendations unless I deemed them essential!”
“That’s COMMANDER BREAKBONE, Rygor! These recommendations are preposterous, even without factoring in the state of our supplies and the health of our men! Get those scouts to come back with some accurate fucking maps, re-write this report, and don’t come back until you do!”
Rygor storms out, a striking, older scarred half-elf with short-cropped white hair. He passes the party, pauses, and wishes them luck before leaving to talk with some of the Chultans and his scout team.
Entering the command tent, Commander Breakbone gives the impression of a man who would not respond kindly to excuses. His white handlebar moustache meets with his mutton-chops, and carries himself as a seasoned – if enraged and frustrated – military commander. Undril stands to attention, her fist across her breastplate. “Sir! I come bearing missives from the Order, Sir!”
“Excellent! Good work, Templar.” He starts poring over the missives as he barks at the party “Are you the relief effort?” The party say no. “No matter. You, Goliath!” He points to Rahlg’n Istvaan. “That’s a Presidio insignia. I’ll have need of you and your party. You arrived by boat, correct? Take these missives and my sick men back downriver to Port Nyanzaru. You leave today.”
Naturally, the party refuse, and Commander Breakbone is furious. “You would dare refuse direct orders during a military emergency?! If you refuse these orders you will be put on trial for insubordination, and be hanged, or else tied to trees for the zombies and carnivores to deal with you!”
Undril immediately intercedes. “Sir! With all due respect, please allow these brave souls to pass. They are on a most vital mission. If you would please read that last missive, Sir.” Breakbone opens the letter, scans it, and looks at her. “Death Curse? Affecting all those who are resurrected?” She nods. “These adventurers took me up the river with no request for payment or reward. They seek to end the Death Curse, and the Order states that any opportunity is to be taken to aid that. I believe Captain Firebeard was once resurrected, Sir. Is he here, Sir?”
Commander Breakbone takes two guards, the party, and Undril to the hospital tents. Men and women, warriors of all races lay sick and shivering, covered in flies, bites, wounds, and in varying states of delirium. The acolytes trying to heal them are barely able to stand, their healing magic wavering. One dwarf stands out from the rest, his shock of red hair dulled and his face emaciated, as if slowly mummifying. You recognise the effects of the Death Curse on the resurrected. Breakbone indicates his soldier. “We’ve dealt with Mad Monkey Fever, Throat Leeches, Shivering Sickness, everything. But our healers couldn’t identify Captain Firebeard’s illness. If you can help him, and help around camp, I’ll allow you safe passage.”
To that end, the party completely revamp the camp. Douglass makes prodigious use of his Mold Earth cantrip, sloping the interior of the camp and allowing drainage ditches without compromising the defenses. He also digs a channel to allow the moat to flush. His Yacha beetle, renowned for its healing properties in defending against illness, ended up in a thin broth for the soldiers, who begin to look noticeably better after drinking it. Douglass builds a small shrine in the dirt for its noble sacrifice.
Rahlg’n uses his Goliath strength to move heavy materials and add to the defenses, while Chomsky and Rubi put on a variety show to restore morale to the troops. Rubi’s can-can goes a little off beat, but that only helps enhance Chomsky’s voice and uku-slay-le performance. Abarl just hangs around (unless I forgot something? Pls remind me).
As the day ends, Commander Breakbone thanks you for your hard work, and recommends staying up at the tower nearby to avoid potential illness. He would clearly prefer the defensive potential of the ruined arcane library to be used by his troops, but it is instead held by scholars from Candlekeep who are attempting to restore it, and the Order of the Gauntlet were firm in allowing them to do their work, which rankled the Commander to no end.
Over the course of an hour, night falls. You approach the overgrown ruins of the arcane library, the edifice of which is carved with ancient murals of Omuan design. Azaka announces that she will stay with Lorsa tonight, in Camp Vengeance. She does not seem keen to approach the ruins.
As she leaves, the light of the moon begins to glow on the horizon, and you’re reminded that this is the last night of Urktal, the night of The Feast of the Moon – a harvest celebration when it is said that the power of the moon is strongest. Drawing closer, two purple-robed, armoured guards bearing the sigil of Candlekeep on their tunics challenge you, casting a bright light above you and illuminating the jungle.
Upon explaining that Breakbone sent you up here, they let you through, telling you to seek Senior Scribe Varnyr. You descend through the trap door – a much more recent addition – through to an immense, circular room. You cannot believe your eyes, but the room is lit by quite possibly over 9999 fireflies, both in jars on hooks, and flitting around the room.
An elderly elven lady stands on a lady, adjusting a flower pot. “Ebder, are you back?”
A voice calls from below. “I never left!”
“Oh?” The elf turns around. “Ah! Visitors! I’m Senior Scribe Varnyr, I’ll be with you shortly. Oh, would you mind bringing that stack of books downstairs to Ebder? Thanks so much.”
Walking out, John Notagnome picks up the books, and Abarl feels a dark scratching at his mind. His devil-sight shows him that the rooms are lightly suffused with magic to protect the books from the jungle rot, but nothing else pops out. Still, the scratchings take him to a basket and pulley system overlooking a lower level. Hanging from old, worn chains over the lower level, an immense stone sculpture of a book, pages flapping and inscribed with Omuan script.
Abarl looks in the basket to find two dolls – One holding a paintbrush turned into a scythe with a piece of paper, the other missing its feet. Immediately, his danger sense tingles, and he begins a desperate quest to uncover the Mystery of the Missing Feet.
The rest of the party take the books to Ebder, a dishevelled, anxious man with greyed hair and ink-stained hands poking through the stained sleeves of his purple robe. “Keep your voices down, I just put my daughter to bed” he says, not looking up from his work. When asked, he sighs, and says the books are for K’Tulah, giving directions to find her.
Heading downstairs through a long, dank corridor only lit by one jar full of fireflies, and through a kitchen smelling of bacon, you find a small hallway full of doors. Opposite K’Tulah’s room, you see a child sleeping peacefully. Peeking in, you notice amid the chaos of a child’s room, several scratchy, colourful drawings. One, a woman with a scythe, cutting of a man’s feet and ear, blood gushing from the wounds. Another, a dog biting off a woman’s hand. Yet another, a boy drowning in a river. In each, a black shadow looms behind the subjects in the drawings.
Disturbed, you knock on K’Tulah’s door. A chipper, female tabaxi greets you, happy to have new visitors. As soon as introductions are made, she launches into a rant about her research on local folk magic, trying to ignore the increasingly menacing requests for the location of some feet from Abarl.
After looking through some of the rooms (including Varnyr’s room which is almost a small library in itself), Varnyr comes to greet the party and apologises for being so inhospitable, and indicates two sleeping chambers – one private (taken by John Notagnome), and another more communal one with an overflow of pickled goods. Behind Varnyr, an old, grumpy kenku called Crinkle holds a tray of food for you. Eating, you talk briefly with Varnyr – who soon bids you goodnight – and the old kenku, who compulsively rubs her hands as if washing them, chastises Abarl for playing with Gailby’s dolls. Her voice comes out in snippets of conversations, sounds, and words cobbled together in perfect mimicry. At one point, Abarl says something in Primordial, and Crinkle responds in a voice that rumbles like grinding stone and crackles like fire. She clearly prefers to be left alone.
While everyone is retiring to bed, Rubi and Chomsky poke Rahlg’n like a pair of kids who can’t sleep, waking up their dad. Rubi casts identify on the gilded crocodile teeth, and discovers that they are the Teeth of Katam, a creature that may have been anything from a powerful were-crocodile, a nature spirit, or a god. He opts to hold onto the teeth, worrying about a curse.
During the night, Chomsky wakes up to humming from Gailby’s room. As his normal gnomish self, he casts invisibility on himself, and sneaks in. Gailby sits in a little yellow hooded cloak, her curly black hair escaping the hood. She’s drawing more of those pictures, kicking her legs back and forth, and humming to herself. He leaves, dispels his invisibility, knocks, and introduces himself to Gailby. She’s delighted to have a new friend, her wide smile missing a tooth. She thinks his head looks funny because he’s a gnome. Kids, right?
He asks her about the song she’s singing, and she says she made it up. She seems unsure about that, but proud of it. When asked about her drawings however, she gets quiet. In a moment of candour, Chomsky admits to being in trouble with his parents and promising to introduce her to his sister tomorrow. Gailby opens up about the drawings, saying that she “sees dead people,” and has done for two days now. She seems upset but didn’t want to worry anyone with her bad dreams, or get in trouble for them.
Bidding her goodnight, Chomsky returns to bed. In the morning, he wakes up, as all of you do, with a melodic tune in your head. Everyone sits around the table, some of you begin humming a tune. The same one Gailby was humming earlier. Ebder is writing as he eats, and soon gets annoyed. Eventually, he starts humming too. Everyone realises they’re all humming in unison, and as concern starts to mount, you hear the hatch to the outside slam shut, and bolts slide across the door.
Varnyr comes downstairs humming the tune. In her calmest voice and struggling to repress the song, she tells you about when she arrived at Candlekeep over 600 years ago. During that time, the Avowed were worried about a ‘singing madness’ breaking out in an arcane library far away. A book merchant had been afflicted with it, and was put in isolation after several Avowed began singing as well. “I don’t know what happened to the others, it was such a long time ago… I have alerted the Avowed and sealed the exit to stop it from spreading.”
K’Tulah objects loudly at this, visibly distressed by being trapped in here. Ebder is mildly annoyed and just wants silence to work. Varnyr is unsure what stopped the curse, “but perhaps you can find an answer in all this” she says, waving to the stacks of books.
Rahlg’n and Abarl search through manifests, hypothesising that something cursed may have come in during a shipment. During this search, Abarl experiences more scratchings at his mind, and a point of darkness pulls at him. In a pile of books, one calls out to him. As he reaches out a clawed hand, the voices and scratchings grow louder and louder. He grabs the book, a vision of a perfect white circle on deepest black flashing across his vision, and the scratchings silence. Rahlg’n asks what he’s found, and Abarl gives a non-committal answer, before pocketing the book. A boon of sorts, from a mad god...
Chomsky and Rubi visit Gailby again, and Gailby is delighted by the two-gnomes-in-a-trenchcoat act. She mentally pockets that idea away for her rebellious teenage years. She doesn’t know anything about the song, being more interested in showing off her toys, but suggests asking Crinkle. Crinkle is in the kitchen preparing lunch, whistling the melody absent-mindedly. She is immediately dismissive, and grows irritated when questioned, telling the party to stay away from Gailby and her. Rubi and Chomsky hear humming from K’Tulah’s room, and the occasional swearing.
On the top level, Douglass, Abarl, and Rahlg’n continue poring over manifests, asking Varnyr about anything that can help, and anything on the death curse while they’re at it. She indicates a book on necromantic rituals. They also ask about the rooms off to the side – the bindery – where Varnyr spends most of her time, and the scriptorium, where Ebder storms off to, clearly annoyed by their echoing voices. Rahlg’n examines the bindery, leather scraps, wood shavings, tools and racks of neatly-arranged contraptions cover the workbench. Looking at a ledger of books and their necessary repairs, he notes that Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme needs a spine replacement, but is conspicuously missing from the table.
Suddenly, a piercing shriek echoes through the cellar, coming from the scriptorium! It’s Ebder, and everyone begins crowding around him. He lays stiff, cold, and unmoving. His wide eyes are panicked as he hums the cursed melody loudly. Gailby is shaking him, screaming and crying. “DADDY, NO! PLEASE STOP, YOU’RE SCARING ME!” Douglass examines him and determines that it’s not a poison, although his pulse is rapid and weak. Abarl’s devil-sight shows that Ebder is radiant with a mix of necromantic, enchantment, and abjuration magic.
And so is everyone else.
Several shadows appear out of thin air, reaching out. Douglass blasts one into nothingness with a moonbeam spell as the others close in on Chomsky, the only person singing at this point. And then, as they reach him, they disappear.
They carry Ebder out of the scriptorium, and he falls limp, no longer humming the melody. They place him on the central table, and as this happens, books fly off the shelves, striking everyone. As everyone picks themselves up, a rich baritone comes from the firefly room in the scriptorium, matching up perfectly with the melody.
“See a mother scything wheat,
Forgotten husband sleeping near.
With one swing she took his feet,
Another, she took his ear.
Why?
Thinks it a game,
Avoids the blame,
SHEM...SHIME…
SHEMMM...SHIIIIME…”
Opening the door to a room packed with cases of fireflies, Rubi and Chomsky find a scratched message on the floor: “FINISH THE RHYME!” In the scriptorium, Abarl lifts a tapestry. Scrawled on the wall are the lyrics that are currently pouring into their minds and out of their mouths.
The singing continues, and John Notagnome moves a paving stone to find two skeletons, one hole in its skull – likely executed – and its singing! As the melody finishes, rather than repeat again, the skull stops moving. Now everyone in the room is singing the words.
John turns around, and Chomsky sees his father. “You’ve always been a disgrace to the family name, Chomsky. Selling our fine weapons as CUTLERY for larger creatures?! I should have never trusted you to manage our marketing department! And you killed our family’s butler and thought you could just run away to Chult? As if nothing happened?! Pathetic.”
Next to him, Chomsky’s mother. “I wish I never gave birth to you! You’ve ruined our family! You put your sister in danger, and now she’ll die here!” His friends and loved ones all appear in rows, jeering and accusing him. All his worst fears, of being loathed and reviled by those he care about – played real in front of him. And Rubi… his dear sister Rubi, who means the world to him... She stands there, disgust and hatred twisting her gnomish features. “I wish you were never born! You’ve ruined my life! You brought me out here to die! You’re a snivelling excuse for a brother!”
Everyone else only sees blurry outlines and hear ethereal, malicious whispers. Rubi looks up, worry clear on her face. “Chomsky! What’s going on?! What’s happening?”
Chomsky looks down. It’s not his sister and her trusty shoulder harness he’s sitting on! Who is this? He has to get away! He loses balance and falls, ejecting from the harness and scrambling into the corner as this conjuration of pure malice marches towards him. “GET AWAY! PLEASE!”
A stinging slap brings him to his senses. Rubi, worried and getting ready for another backhand stands in front of him. “Are you ok?” He regains his feet, visibly shaken and trying to get it together.
Throughout all of this, Abarl stands open-mouthed. His assistant! How?! This is getting out of hand! Now there are two of them! Everyone else takes this in stride, but as the only person here who didn’t know the truth about John Notagnome, Abarl is thoroughly flabbergasted.
The room grows colder, and K’Tulah, who was in the scriptorium watching this slumps against a wall, rocking back and forth, singing madly. Suddenly, her ears go flat and she bolts. Douglass tries to stop her and gets battered down. She bolts for the exit, and Varnyr give chase. As everyone is struggling to make sense of this, the air around you grows thicker, prickling your nerves. Your muscles jerk and get yanked around as if on strings, and as you sing uncontrollably, you attack your friends, a prisoner in your own body!
Crinkle and Gailby flee downstairs, and Rahlg’n gives chase, suspecting the kenku may have something to do with this. He catches her and puts her in a choke-hold as Gailby screams and cries up at him. Rahlg’n tells Crinkle to show him her room, and she agrees, trying to keep Gailby safe. She unlocks the door, and enters a spartan room filled with larval fireflies clinging to every surface. An engraving of a goat wearing a crown adorns the northern wall.
Above, Douglass chases after Varnyr and K’tulah, and hears Varnyr scream. Abarl joins him to find him staring at K’Tulah covered in blood on top of Varnyr, singing loudly, tears streaming down her face as her hands shred the elderly scribe. Abarl casts Tasha’s Hideous Laughter, incapacitating the tabaxi and making the scene all the more horrifying as the crying, blood-soaked tabaxi begins laughing uncontrollably. Douglass quickly hog-ties K’Tulah and heals Varnyr, who is barely breathing. The ragged claw wounds knit together as his druidic magic takes effect.
Meanwhile in Crinkle’s room, Rahlg’n interrogates a terrified Crinkle while Gailby cries, begging for him to stop. Suddenly, darkness envelopes the room s all the fireflies stop glowing at once. A crash, cries, screams. Rahlg’n can’t find where it’s coming from, and there is a sudden, sickening crunch. And then he hears Gailby singing...
The fireflies begin glowing again, revealing Gailby standing over the battered body of Crinkle, a bloody book with a dented spine in her hands. Weeping openly, wide-eyed, and terrified, she sings while walking slowly towards Rahlg’n. “Shem… shime… Shem… shime…” He grabs the book off her, grapples her, checks Crinkle is still breathing and runs upstairs calling for help.
Chomsky and Rubi are shaken into action by the bellowing Goliath yelling for aid, and run downstairs to help Crinkle. Chomsky uses some healing words he picked up in bard school to stabilise her, and she regains consciousness.
Going back upstairs into the middle floor, thunder rumbles outside. Rahlg’n begins singing, drops the book, and despite trying to resist the curse, flings Gailby at Rubi! Rubi is knocked down, but Gailby is knocked unconscious. Rahlg’n, singing through gritted teeth, pulls out a hand-axe and strikes, but is narrowly deflected by her quick Shield spell! Seeing her sister in danger and still shaken by his visions, Chomsky fills Rahlg’n’s mind with Dissonant Whispers right as he regains control and throws away his weapons, making him run all the way down to the kitchen in blind panic. The lingering discord from the whispers helps him resist the curse, and he catches a breath, leaning against the door.
Meanwhile, Abarl begins singing, and attacks Douglass! He lashes out with his claws and misses, and Douglass flees. Unable to resist, Abarl gives chase. Abarl throws out eldritch blasts at him while singing, straining to keep himself in check. Panicked, Douglass sets up a trap with his Immovable Rod and some rope, which Abarl nearly steps over. In a last push of willpower, Abarl forces himself to trip, allowing Douglass to tie him up.
The fireflies flicker in their jars, plunging the room into darkness before returning unsteadily. Thunder rumbles again, the large stone book rattles in its chains overhead as Rubi crawls over to the book Rahlg’n dropped.
It’s a pop-up music box book of gnomish design. The title… Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme.
Opening the book, the music box plays in exact time to the music in their heads, and tiny wooden cutouts appear and rotate. One, a woman cutting off a farmer’s ear and feet. Another, a dog eating that same woman’s hand, a steak laying uneaten on the floor. In another, a boy falling into a river and drowning. In each cutout, a ghostly figure hovers over the characters in the story. Only the 4th cutout doesn’t open, jammed like the mechanism, which seems to be looping only part of the song. Finish the rhyme… and maybe this all ends…
Rubi pulls out her tinker tools, repressing the urge to sing that cursed melody. She quickly examines the mechanism. The metal cylinder of the music box is askew, and some pegs are broken, causing it to loop before the song completes. She slots the metal cylinder back into place. As she does, Shemshime whispers into her mind, searing her psyche and making her cry out in pain!
Chomsky races to her side, concerned. She tries again, replacing another component of the mechanism. She’s ready this time and resists, although it causes her great pain. A third and final time, and an even greater psychic backlash strikes her, nearly rendering her unconscious. Her eyes, ears, and nose begin to bleed heavily. “Rubi! Your face is going Ruby!” Chomsky says, healing her with his bardic magic.
As she drops the book, it snaps open. The final panel pops up along with the others: a girl grinding the spirit under a millstone. The book plays from the beginning, and a new stanza works its way into your mind in perfect time to the melody in your heads:
“See a daughter grinding grain,
Wish the spirit’s time was through.
Trap set for the Shadow Bane,
her millstone killed it true.
Why?
Caused all the pain,
Can’t avoid blame.
It’s name?
SHEM...SHIME…
SHEM...SHIME...”
Meanwhile, the scenes in the book transform. The cutouts spin around, and you see tiny cutout figures of yourselves in a facsimile of the library, complete with the large book sculpture hanging over the middle level. In one, Chomsky trying to get away from rows of indistinct figures while Rubi shakes him and Ebder lay paralysed in the background. In another, Rahlg’n foundering in the dark while Gailby beats the elderly Crinkle with a large book. Another shows K’Tulah ripping out Varnyr’s throat while Douglass and Abarl watch. The last one shows Rahlg’n attacking a prone Rubi below the sculpture of the book while Chomsky readies a spell, and poor Ebder still lay paralysed on the table. In each image, a ghostly figure hovers above and behind you.
As the song ends, the book trembles, its’ mechanical inner workings squealing to a halt for a moment before whirring back into life. You hear clicks, and shadows burst forth from the book like steam from a kettle, collecting along the ceiling until wisps of darkness form the outline of a vaguely humanoid figure with coal-red, glowing eyes. Shemshime.
The song starts again, stronger this time. It’s all you can do not to sing the rhyme at the top of your lungs! Reaching out a shadowy, clawed hand, the figure tries to grab Rubi, who is still next to the book. Another reactionary flashing Shield spell protects her, and allows some people to get a few hits in. Douglass readies another moonbeam spell, and blasts the shadow creature with radiant, silvery moonlight, withering the creature into nothingness...
Who then reappears right where it was...
Chomsky casts a spell, and sings a magically charged song to try and resist the singing curse, successfully melding the phrase “Destroy the book!” into the lyrics. Queue Abarl, who recovered from his madness, eldritch-blasted through his bonds, and ran in. Quickly casting a firebolt on the book, he blows it to smithereens. The creature and book evaporate into smoke. They’re gone but for some fragments of wood and metal.
But the music hasn’t stopped…
The smoke condenses, and surges into a nearby bookcase. After a moment, the book pops out again and opens. It’s Shemshime’s Bedtime Rhyme. And Shemshime appears above it, erupting from the mechanism like roiling smoke.
Rubi looks at the book, her lips tracing the final stanza of the rhyme… “trap set for the shadow bane… her millstone killed it true…” She looks up to see the giant stone book swaying in its worn iron chains. “THE SCULPTURE! BRING IT DOWN!” Rubi gets up, throws the cursed book under the sculpture (at Rahlg’n’s feet), grabs Ebder off the table, and pulls him out of harm’s way. Shemshime surges over to the Goliath who is standing over the book, and opens a somehow deeper void where it’s mouth should be. The wailing cacophony of screams, whispers, and wails fills Rahlg’n’s mind body with pure agony. Fighting off the creature, he runs, jumps onto a bookcase, and leaps onto the scultpture. With a mighty roar he pulls on the chain, which breaks, making the sculpture heave and sway. The shadow creature hisses in rage beneath him, before its attention is pulled away to Douglass, who is already completing a spell. He launches an Ice Knife into the remaining chains, shattering them.
The 1500 pound sculpture crashes down on the creature, who shrieks in rage and terror as it’s crushed beneath it.
The clockwork book skitters out across the floor. The gears wind down, and the music stops. As the dust settles, there is quiet at last. No music, no singing, only the crumbling what’s left of the sculpture, relieved sighs, and a groaning Rahlg’n who rode the sculpture down.
Then, as everyone watches, the cutouts flip around to their original images, you hear the click and grind of gears, and the book closes with an echoing – and final – thud.
And now, there is only silence.
Report Date
21 Oct 2021
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