The man smirks when you mention Claysure. "I went by that name, yes, but my true name is Azmur Kell. My wife Rima has been missing and Aeteperax taxed me with winning some items for him in ransom. I was understandably upset when I didn't win them."
"No, I do not believe this is the same Aeteperax but it is a clever pseudonym, drawing on the fears of the people from the stories they have heard their whole life about the ancient Aeteperax who once terrorized the region."
Indeed, very clever. Well, let's get to it.
"Yes, onward."
"Sounds like a plan, Alice," Kurth says. "I'll follow you as soon as the rest are ready."
Alice finds the stairs that lead down to the basement level!
To the south you find that fire has long ago immolated the contents of what was clearly once a dormitory.
To the north you find small individual cubbies filling this in-tact dormitory, each smaller than five feet by five feet. The dust is thick on the floor here. In the back of the dormitory are stairs leading up.
Well, if there isn't anywhere else to look on this level we must choose up or down. I would choose up. Out of habit the wizard will scan the area for magic.
"Alright, let's take the stairs up."
The party heads up the stairs to the bell tower gallery to find coils of thick rope and three large bells. There is no ceiling-merely the steeple of the monastery's bell tower high above, accessible via a spiral stair to the south. A long rope dangles down from above, attached to the great bell sixty feet overhead.
Moving to the south where a door moves into another room, the party finds a wooden veranda running around the edges of this atrium. A large planter, overgrown with various shrubberies and plants, grows in the center of hte area under the open sky.
Slithering in the room is a large snake with a woman's torso and head; she is lost in rapturous stargazing but upon hearing the door open she turns in shock and says, "Oh! Pardon me, but have you heard word from Szangi? He's not emerged from his lair since his last visit to that little human village, and I worry for the dear!"
Szangi? Harsk thinks to himself, making a mental note to remember the name.
"No, we've heard nothing from him. And I thought he liked to go by Aeteperax? Don't wanna end up like that half-orc, now do we?"
"Uh, yeah. Haven't seen him. What do you think he's doing in his lair, anyway?" Kurth asks, resorting to the tried and true method of hiding his own confusion by asking more questions.
"No! I meant Mighty Aeteperax! Don't tell him I said that! Wait. . . who are you? You are here to hurt him, aren't you! I'll kill you, and then he'll have to acknowledge me!"
"Hey now, just cause you're an old lady snake-lady don't mean I ain't gonna a whack you with this sword" Kurth says, before charging in and doing just that.
Harsk follows behind Kurth. When he reaches the fighter, Harsk places a hand on his shoulder and calls out, "Your protection is needed again, Torag! Let me help bear Kurth's burdens."
Kurth moves up and leaves a series wound on the naga. Alice then brings the naga down!
Thaena wears a necklace that Milloy determines is a necklace of adaptation.
"Gotta say, I feel a little bad about killing the old lady, even if she were mostly snake," Kurth says. "She did seem more'n a little crazy ... Reminded me of my own grandma, I guess."
"Who do you reckon oughta wear the necklace?" he asks, then prepares to follow Alice further up the belfry tower.
I could use the necklace if no one else wishes to take advantage of it.
The other room on the third floor proves to be a large bedroom furnished with only a single large bed before a wall of empty bookshelves. A shallow bathing pool sits opposite the bed, its tile basin empty and dry.
Wedged between the headboard and mattress you find a dusty, plain-looking cap that functions as a buffering cap.
---
You work your way up the stairs to the belfry to find a human woman with potions and vials hanging from her belt and bandolier waiting for you! As Kurth reaches the top stair, she lobs a vial around the bell towards the fighter!
Milloy moves up the stairs and then casts Glitterdust!
The woman avoids the worst of Milloy's glitter!
"Seems we found our alchemist!" Harsk barks as he gets burned from the exploding chemical. He carefully makes his way around the side of the belfrey.
He lets out a bellowing shout, "I command you to halt!"
"Damn you woman! Mind the boots!" Kurth yells, before using his slippers of spider climbing to run up the west wall to engage the woman.
Alice's arrow ricochets off the bell and Kurth moves around to get closer, followed by Maffei. The alchemist spits and sputters but is unable to react!
Milloy casts
"Well, if you like fire so much, have some of mine" Kurth says, before stabbing the pyro woman with his sword.
Milloy and Kurth begin beating up on the poor misguided woman!
34 dmg
Harsk rushes around, drawing his warhammer and moving into a flanking postion with Kurth.
Harsk moves in with his warhammer out!
34 dmg
Alice puts another pair of arrows into the woman as Maffei makes her way around the room. The woman quickly drinks a vial from her bandolier and turns invisible!
59 dmg
"None of that now - you've still gotta take this medicine," Kurth says, hacking and slashing at the woman.
If she goes invisible, he slashes again at the square where she was before.
"Not so fast, missy!" Harsk takes a swing at the alchie as she drinks her extract.
Harsk brings his hammer back up and down again, trying to hit the wily alchemist.
Kurth deals her a nasty blow as she tries to drink her extract and she falls unconscious before she can finish drinking it!
cure serious wounds, gaseous form
2nd
barkskin, darkvision, invisibility, vomit swarm
1st
bomber's eye, cure light wounds, shield
Well done! I have no idea what she was up to next but I didn't want to find out.
"Eh, a little blood suits you - nothing wrong with a woman who knows how to gut her enemies," Kurth says. "S'pose we ought to take a good look around up here then head down to the basement?"
Kurth finds nothing else of interest up in the befry.
After the normal searches are made with the tools at the party's disposal, Milloy will take the formula book with him. He'll take the cloak and the other potion if no one else does. He then will suggest the party moves on to the next part of the building.