"I agree with Miss Rissi, we shouldn't split up." Looking around the building, Kufieno says. "It looks like there are only two doors. Perhaps I can jam the lock on the upper door."
There are no trap doors leading down.
Moving up the stairs, you see that they come out to a landing on the second floor and continue to go up. The door on this second-floor landing is unlocked and when you peek inside you see a large storeroom filled with stacks of timber, firewood, and other finished lumber products waiting for shipment. A network of pulleys on tracks covers the ceiling, ropes dangling here and there to aid in the shifting of inventory as needed. Machinery churns along the south wall while nearby two chutes fitted with winches allow lumber to be hauled up from the holding pools below. Four openings in the ceiling lead to the upper floor; chutes extend through each of these from the log splitters in the room above. Under each opening is a collection bin.
Four human men work in this room, shifting inventory around and getting it ready move up and down the building for further processing or shipping. They smile meekly and give you a nod of recognition but continue their work unheeded.
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"I agree, let's stick together for now.", the paladin recalling some children's horror stories involving boogeymen and axes.
"Good sirs,", Miana politely asks, "where is the manager of this establishment?", hoping to be directed to someone who may know something or be a person of interest after the doppleganger-esque incident.
The man begins, "Well, if you want to talk to the person in charge...." but as he approaches Miana, Lucian, and Seal note that he is reaching for a weapon hiding under his shirt.
Lucian blesses his companions with Desna's luck.
The three men draw war razors from behind their backs and move in!
---
"Actually, I was looking for the lil dwarf's room. Hey, don't pull yours out! I don't like the 'Show me' game."
After Seal realizes that there are blades in the men's hands, he quickly punches one of them in the face with his cestus while dancing to the left like a boxer.
Lucian gazes at one of the men and whispers.
"By crime you abide, crime you shall commit."
Miana kicks one of the assailants and Seal finishes him off!
The rat casts ear-piercing scream, ,
She targets the lumberjack east of Miana, and then retreats a bit.
Rissi blows the man's eardrums! He grunts in anger and whispers, "Bless these deaths, Father Skinsaw," and waits for his pal to move into flanking against Seal.
blue: 9 dmg
Kufineo moves to flank with Seal and attacks the man with his shortword.
Lucian moves into the room to help his companions, drawing his morningstar in the process despite the obvious pain from his burnt hands. He attempts to bring it down on the cultist's head.
Kufieno deals a blow to one of the men and Miana finishes them both off!
Each of them had leather armor, a hand crossbow with 10 bolts, a masterwork war razor, 20 gp, and a skinsaw mask.
Aura faint necromancy [evil]; CL 3rd
Slot head; Price 1,500 gp; Weight 1 lb.
This hideous mask resembles a patchwork, deformed face, with one bulbous eye, a grimacing mouth with long teeth, and a flat nose. When worn, the mask fills the wearer’s mind with hideous whispers and images of murder and violence. It heightens the wearer’s ability to sense fear. He can smell the cold sweat brought on by terror and hear the thundering beating of a frightened heart. Further, fresh blood glows brightly to him, to the extent that he can see the shimmering traceries of living circulatory systems pumping away in the bodies of those around him. These enhancements grant +2 competence bonuses on Perception checks made against creatures that aren’t immune to fear. Further, the ability to plainly see the map of targets’ arteries and veins grants the wearer a +1 profane bonus on damage with slashing weapons made against living creatures. Wearing a skinsaw mask leaves hideous mental scars; when the mask is donned, the wearer takes 1 point of Charisma damage as his thoughts become tangled with images of murder.
Rissi explains to Miana. "Father Skinsaw is one of the aspects of Norgorber. For those who worship secrets: he is the Reaper of Reputation, the Gray Master for thieves. For poison users he is Blackfingers. For those who delight in murderer Father Skinsaw."
"These masks are intrinsically tainted with evil, maybe the temple of Abadar would give us a reward for bringing back these so that they could be destroyed? I don't see myself wear one of these..."
On the second story, you find four more men pretending to be lumberjacks who attempt to fight you but with similar results.
Also in the closet in the northeast corner of the second floor you find two dozen robes. A barrel at the southern end of this closet contains a fair amount of loot; the barrel currently contains three bags of 100 gp, three potions of barkskin +3, a beautiful crystal decanter set with an obsidian stopper, worth 300 gp, and a tiny wooden box containing three poorly cut diamonds, worth 200 gp each.
"All these *chhh* fools of small minds, but where is their *chhh* master?" Rissi ponders.
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Miana sighs as she shakes her head. "... and I knew that. To be thrown off from surprise attackers is no excuse. I'll have to read another one of your books later.", Miana, disappointed in her mental failure despite successfully fending off the Skinsaw cultists.
After exploring the upper floor, Miana nods at Rissi's inquiry. "That is indeed a good question. Do you think there is a secret room or a clue we may have missed?"
"There did appear to be more levels. Evil is often beneath us; both figuratively and literally"
A thick layer of sawdust covers the floor of the po level, mounded nearly a foot deep in places. Workbenches sit here and there in the room, their surfaces cluttered with saws, hand drills, planers, and other woodworking tools.
As if waiting for you to show, a stern-faced elf in red and purple robes of a city official stands with a shortsword drawn and a wild look in his eyes. He doesn't speak, only moves to attack!
Justice Ironbriar is (obviously) a Magnimarian judge-and a fairly well-known judge, in fact. But in the courtroom he is known as being fair and no hints of strange behavior have ever surfaced about this seemingly straight-laced civil servant.
Lucian extends his burnt hand toward Ironbriar, and speaks a short prayer. "Let Desna's starlight show us the path and cleanse you from evil!"
The elf justice seems dazzled by the spell but still makes a swift movement and suddenly copies himself, causing a duplicate to appear nearby! He then calls out, "Father Skinsaw, prepare them for sacrifice! They will be a gift to her...." A burst of negative energy then radiates from the elf!
10 dmg, dazzled 1 rnds
"It looks like he's under some kind of spell, a charm maybe!" yells the Varisian teenager.
Lucian then utters a short prayer to Desna, asking her to bestow her grace and luck to him and his companions.
Seal covers his ears after being blasted by the negative energy.
"AAAAHHHH!
Seal charges the man in a wild rage with his blade over head. As he brings it down, at the last moment he turns the blade sideways in an attempt to knock out the man.
Kufieno casts a spell, targeting the man's holy symbol(?).
Seal moves in and pops the man's image! Miana kicks but misses. The justice grips his holy symbol even harder as it burns into his skin!
13 dmg, 11 nl, dazzled 1 rnds, -1 from prayer
Rissi shrugs off the brunt of the negative energy but skitters back none-the-less.
"He may be charmed, but that does not stop him from also *chhhh* being a wicked murderer!"
She summons a ball of fire underneath him.
The justice avoids Rissi's flame ball and steps away from Seal. He whispers to the dwarf, "Lay down and take a nap."
13 dmg, 11 nl, -1 from prayer
Seal shakes his head at the suggestion as the rage carries on. He moves past the man to cut off any further retreat. The dwarf then swings again to try and knock out the man.
Seeing that their enemy is impervious to many of their magical attempts, Lucian gets closer and draws his morningstar while doing so. Reaching their opponent, Lucian decides to hinder him with his attacks, but he fails to do so.
Seal gives Justice Ironbriar a nasty bruise with the help of Lucian!
13 dmg, 24 nl, -1 from prayer
Rissi waits, intending to launch magic missiles if he dares to cast a spell again.
Miana strikes out in an expert display of style, however her punches only meet his chain shirt or his quick-moving buckler.
13 dmg, 24 nl, -1 from prayer
Kufieno moves up next to Miana and conjures a snowball, throwing it at the elf.
The elf easily dodges Kufieno's snowball! He takes a step to the side and once again creates a copy of himself while calling out to Father Skinsaw!
13 dmg, 24 nl, -1 from prayer, 1 image
Seal releases a low growl then calls out to his companion.
"Thunderpuss, down the stairs."
He then steps back up to the priest, resisting the urge to right his blade. Seal maintains his composure and tries to knock out the judge once more.
Whoosh goes an image!
Kufieno moves up behind Lucian and waits for Seal to step into a flanking position, then stabs with his longspear!
Rissi disrupts the man from creating a copy of himself and Seal knocks the elf unconscious!
A large footlocker in his office is filled with oddments that Ironbriar has collected from his many victims over the years. A fair number are of a historical nature, including books, sea charts, etchings of vast rock formations and dolmens accompanied by maps, several pamphlets discussing a “forgotten” school of magic known as the Alchymyc.
There is also a fine painting depicting a city carved from a vast frozen waterfall with towering ice cathedrals and domes (this painting is worth 200 gp).
Near the bottom are several books. The first of these is a wizard’s spellbook emblazoned with two entwined snakes (one red, one green) that contains the following spells: blink, cat’s grace, chill touch, enlarge person, fox’s cunning, grease, haste, lightning bolt, mage armor, magic missile, scorching ray, shocking grasp, shrink item, spider climb, and web.
The second book is an old and beautifully f iligreed tome containing numerous hand-drawn illustrations and titled The Syrpents Tane: Fairy Tales of the Eldest. The book presents tales of the Tane—the most feared of a group of notorious fey known as the Twisted, goliaths of war and madness dreamt and stitched into being by the Eldest. The Tane are said to be terrible to behold, and the stories speak of them stumbling into mortal lands, where they ravage kingdoms by creating firestorms, crushing keeps with their feet, and eating dragons. Specific Tane described include monstrous creatures like the Jabberwock (a thing of scales and fire and crushing fury), the Thrasfyr (also known as the Dreaming Hill of the Dark, a chimeric monster wrapped in chains that the book claims took part in the Three-Thousand-Year War of the Eldest), and the Sard (the Storm of Insanities, a thing of boughs and briars and misery, an ancient Wychwood Elm given life and hate by the Eldest). This f ine and rare tome is worth 500 gp.
Finally, a slim volume near the bottom of the chest serves double-duty as a ledger and journal for Justice Ironbriar. He’s recorded everything in the journal in a cipher he painstakingly invented himself using a mix of Draconic, Elven, and Infernal characters.
The journal goes on to reveal that someone Ironbriar refers to as “Lovely Xanesha” has stolen his heart and provided him with a new method of murder. There’s not much information about Xanesha in the journal, but the book does reveal that he’s visited her dozens of times at a site in northern Magnimar called the Shadow Clock.
The ledger also indicates that Ironbriar has received payment from the Red Mantis for delivery of “Vorel’s Legacy.”