25. Mosaic Room

This room is a mess. Stacks of colored glass shards lie on woolen rags beside several wooden buckets of a gray pasty material, mortar or plaster perhaps. A man is on his knees facing the north wall, rocking back and forth. As soon as you enter he glances back at you, showing a worried, dirty face with a scraggly beard. Then he turns back to the wall, saying absentmindedly, "I had to move the duke over, but did I leave enough room for her?" The man is named Cauliff, and he's an artist hired to redo the mosaics in this room. The wall he is facing once had a full-length mosaic but now most of it is bare, with patchy remnants of plaster and mortar on it. A well- executed image of the duke is at the east end, right hand stretched out as if reaching for another's hand. Empty spaces around it show that it was moved and not fully completed yet. If approached, the man is quite crazy. It is useless to talk with him unless he is cured of madness (which will happen if the threat of Khaadk is eliminated as described in the GM's Information section, page 2). If left alone, the man picks up a trowel and spreads mortar on a section of wall, then begins putting pieces on the wall. "She's a pretty woman, isn't she?" he mutters. As he works he carefully constructs the image of a huge green gem. Then he blinks, says, "That's not her! Who did that?" Peeling the pieces off the wall, he slumps to the floor on his knees, rocking, and muttering, "I had to move the duke over. Do I have enough space fo