Immersive Ink

Hearing Ulric speak his name draws the attention of Armando, who has been resting against the doorframe lost in thought. He joins the others in the chamber just as the halfling finishes slaking his, er, their thirst at the fountain.

Looking down, Armando notices the kneeling figure of the nun. With a certain measure of trepidation, he endeavors to examine the nun more closely in the light of the lantern. Perhaps he will notice some clue to her forlorn encystment in this chamber...

He also looks at her feet.

"Oh, Desmond," sighs Josiane despairingly.

"Oh, Mondes," she adds, by way of being polite.

Then she steps back to watch in case the Hobbit explodes or anything...

Armando pads into the now filling room d6 his sharp eyes snapping here and there...

The poor, dead nun has her arms folded in front of her, as if in prayer. Her slight form has withered as the flesh dries leaving her simple robes over-voluminous on her frame. Armando immediately spies that she is sitting upon her feet (in a pair of worn cloth slippers), and that she clasps something close to her breast... almost completely hidden among the robes. A sheaf of paper, is it?

Desmond goes ahead and slowly empties the rest of the bowl into the basin below so it can be moved easier. He passes it to the Gustave to stow into his backpack.

"We might want to refill our waterskins here. Or..." He pauses as he suddenly has a thought. He cups a hand under the stream of the fountain and brings it under his nose. Then he smells the water to see if it smells fine or is brackish. If it smells fine, he gives it a quick taste to se if it tastes any different when not drunk from the silver bowl.

Armando leans in to discretely pluck the paper from the nun's hands - ideally without upsetting the delicate balance that keeps her remains from tipping over.

"Wait."

There's that special voice again.

Josiane is examining the staff, a vaguely-suspicious frown casting a shadow across her pretty face.

"Something is... wrong here," she says softly; "The book is of value unquestionably, but it is a mere facsimile; no artefact. And this staff..."

She pauses to study the ding in it more closely. Does this look to be an intentional part of the design or more like the result of an accident?

"You probably really shouldn't have drunk the water..." she offers quietly as an aside to Desmond/Mondes as she does so...

Mondes throws Josiane a scowl, "warya sayin'? These perty ar-tee-facts ain't real?"

He spits on the ground in front of the silver bowl.

Desmond examines the bowl more closely to see if it is even silver...

Desmond empties the bowl into the stone receptacle below it with a steady gush...

Meanwhile Armando artfully extracts the paper from the dead nun's dry fingers, finding it to be a sealed envelope.

Josiane examines the staff more closely; now that she considers the situation, perhaps the whole of it is overly gaudy? The ding in the Symbol appears simply to be poor craftsmanship. There is a tiny taint of rust about the mark, imply the Sign of the Enigma mustn't be pure silver...

"I don't get it," Desmond mutters, "Why would they have such a fancy chapel, locked up nice and tight, filled with fakes and a... and a dead nun?"