<span style="font-weight: bold">Misha/Caronna Norc /Valeani</span><br/><br/>OOC: Feel free to act anytime pacattack! PS... can you make some kind of physical description or post an image of Caronna in particular or Zinny's in general... I'm flying a bit blind here...<br/><br/>There's a – tiny – windowledge, which you can just-about manage to perch on, with some assistance from your claws and the occasional balancing wing-beat. Within, you can see tall oak bookcases, their shelves sagging beneath the weight of ancient tomes. Several Emerald Claw warriors surround a Zinny in a shifting battle that presently seems to be one mainly of manuver, gradually closing down the larger humanoid's options... one of the Emerald Claw wields a whirling, bladed chain, that the Zinny has so-far managed to dodge, or at least avoid becoming utterly ensnared by...<br/><br/>As you watch, one of the Emerald-Claw is sent crashing hard against a bookcase, which rocks back and forth before barely settling back onto its base...<br/><br/>Naturally enough, for the protection of the books the windows don't open – in order to enter, Misha will need to break one...<br/><br/>Valeani's able to make some progress, but it swiftly becomes clear that the windows are conventionally inaccessible. Lacking a spiderwalk spell, nor sufficient time for hammering pitons, the most practical method would be for Misha to tie a rope, or for a grapnel to be tossed through one of the windows [Window AC15, in the current windy conditions. If the window is not already broken, a DC20 athletics check will also be required], which would render entrance relatively simple [DC15 climb or acrobatics check, taking a full-round once the rope is attached].<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Linda and Tubz + anyone accompanying them</span><br/><br/>The  front  doors  part  to  reveal  a  stately  interior hall some 40 feet high. Six enormous marble columns bear the visages of what appear to be hobgoblin kings, presumably from the Dhakaani Empire. Tapestries hanging from the ceilings depict idyllic meadows and blood-soaked battlefields. What is likely the most recent addition to Vorgaard’s collection is a chilling rendering of a frozen field of corpses in the Mournland.<br/><br/>On the floor beneath the Mournland landscape lie the corpses of two men in steward’s livery. One has been bludgeoned, whilst a crossbow bolt sprouts like a sapling from the other’s neck.<br/><br/>Tall stained-glass windows line the walls. Those facing the eastern wing of the house reflect the red glow of the blazing fires raging there, and the doors to the north and eastern wings can be seen ahead and to your left, both sets already backlit by flames and beginning to char and smoulder. The route west towards the library still remains free from flames, at least, so far.<br/><br/>As Linda's tail slithers through the main doorway, she can hear heavy footsteps crumping besides and behind her. Glancing behind, she seems to see nothing, but the traces of smoke already beginning to fill the room seem to swirl strangely, as if something large and invisible that'd entered through the door you'd opened were dashing behind one of the rooms pillars...<br/><br/>If you pause to search the steward's corpses... you find each possesses a masterwork dagger, a sum of gold totaling 37gp, and, upon the body of the elder of the pair, a small bunch of skeletal keys...<br/><br/>[OOC – note that the entrance hall's western door does not lead directly to the library, but rather to an intermediate chamber, something you can easily recognise from the general shape of the building exterior.]<br/><br/><span style="font-weight: bold">Odette</span><br/><br/>“Gah! Unf!” Odette protests, as Ryla's tum works on her, and then, as Xarces begins his massage... “Ohhh,” she groans. “D-dura's an Emerald Claw agent, Dura 'ir Matellan, infiltrating the Dragonmarked Houses in Adderport for the Emerald Claw, making contacts amongst the Pirate Princes and subverting the Merchant Lords...” Odette moans, “she hoped to do the same to my father, through me. S-she was so beautiful, so seductive... she can raise the dead, heal the living... anything, she can do anything... made me lick her dragonhide boots... she showed me things... such things... how to<span style="font-style: italic">eat</span>girls, in ways they'll like, in ways they<span style="font-style: italic">won't</span>,” Odette shudders, and not in distress. “They squirm so sweetly,” she moans. “She wanted us to get the Orb... the Dragon's Eye... I don't know where the orders came from. Maybe she does. You devoured her soldiers on the road or here... she's drawn on some followers of the Blood of Vol... and I hired some mercenary mages for her. Ogres... they slew Vorgaard... he quite exhausted them, and they couldn't extinguish the fires of the battle... they were supposed to be here with us, they said they would be... waste of gold...” Odette half-snarls, like she's been shortchanged over tea and cakes...