"Maybe Penkus was a Lotus Dragon. One of a gang led by someone that Vanthus favours as he rises through the ranks, replacing Penkus."
Bedu grins at Gavin at the thought of pie and coffee. He likes the thoughts of a flail whipping, a bullet penetrating and even hair strangling. His eyes widen at the moving wall and the chests they find. The halfling tests for the presence of magic on or around them.
"Looks like a treasure vault. I think we should let our resident experts in traps deal with them first..."
"There is magic. A presence large enough to reach out of the middle chest. It may not mean much to you warriors but the magic is from the school of conjuration. If there is a magical trap here I do not know."
As Erick mentions the possibility of the chests being a vault, Gavin steps forward thinking, I could maybe buy my parents a bar with what's in those chests, intending to fling open the nearest chest.
Hand hovering over the lid, another thought enters Gavin's mind. Conjuration, conjuration, perhaps one of these chests will summon something if they are opened. Or, they could be trapped.
Stepping back, the Chel turns to Kutsya. "Do you think you could do that trick with your hair to fling open a lid - whichever one Bedu says is magic?"
Gavin strides forward and glancing back at the rest, a mix of apprehension and excitement on his face, starts with the left chest and tries to flip them each open, hoping to find enough gold and gems that his share will buy his parents a new bar...
"To break quietly is a diificult thing, especially when it may have a fragile bottle or two inside. Good luck with that. Maybe Erick can destroy the lock quickly and easily? Then the bounty belongs to us even if we are tuck in this place of shambling and scrabbling danger"
Tessa nods. "Either that or we continue on to return later, hoping to find some keys or other means to open them?"
"I'd suggest taking the hinges on them off, like we did with the door. We should check the corpse first and make sure it doesn't have any keys or anything."
"Right. I'm on it."
Tessa proceeds to search the corpse for anything useful.
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The late Penkus possesses a dagger of masterwork quality. you can also notice he has a fine gold ring and a suit of masterwork studded leather armor, although you may want to clean them before you wear or sell them.
You come to the conclusion that not only Penkus does not have the key to the chests, but he was probably unaware of the secret room, otherwise he would have probably hid there instead of barricading the door.
Also, the secret room looks untouched for at least a century, unless the zombies have the keys, seems there is nothing down there old enough to have walked into the room.
Chances are the keys are lost forever.
Despite the sorry state of the rest of the complex, the chests are as good as new and crafted magnificently.
You have no doubt that with the right tools you could slowly and carefully dismantle the chests without lock-picks of violence.
But for the current situation, taking off the hinges would be both hard and futile, with the lid securely locked all you can hope to obtain is a narrow opening on the back of the chest, probably not big enough to put your hand in or let the content slip out.
Gavin grabs the handle of a chest, if there is one, and if not, crouches and lifts from the small side of one of the chests, near the bottom. He's trying to get a feel for just how heavy these chests are, and whether they could be swam or floated out of here, through the caves we came from.
"Let's retrieve the useful stuff off the corpse then. I don't suggest anyone put on the armor for now, not until it's cleaned. If we can't carry the chests out, we'll come back for them later, same with the liquor. It appears there's no exit form here, we need to head back. I'm not too comfortable carrying this stuff back through that fast water and spiky bits. I think we need to come back with a small boat and retrieve this stuff later."
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The first chest is pretty heavy. As soon as you move it you can hear a metallic sound, looks like it's filled with coins.
The second chest is lighter, much of the weight seems to come from the chest itself. You can hear some coins but the sound is kinda muffled.
The third one is the one the magical aura comes from.
As soon as you move it you can hear glass.
There seems to be some kind of potions inside.
All in all the second chest can probably be moved safely.
The first one is a little heavy for that, it could be moved but is going to be hard and whoever holds into it runs the risk of getting dragged at the bottom of the sea.
The third one is not too heavy but it has to be moved carefully if you want to preserve the bottles, something you probably wont manage in the powerful currents of the sea cave.
"That sounds like glass chinking in that last one. The Dawnflower blesses us with the knowledge that vials and phials, flasks and bottles may lie within. What I can say is that the last one holds something else, something highly magical that may help us here and now, a conjuration. I was never a good burglar and I do not have the tools. I am cursed! Had I listened then the chest may give up its secrets like a generous whore."
Bedu kicks out at the wall, in petty frustration at his own lack of skill.
"Bedu, no need to be angry! I say your lack of burgling skills is testament to your character! I also say we come back for all the chests, with a locksmith, at a later date. We've got a boat, provided we can get back topside, that poor Mr. Rosk more or less willed us when Vanthus tumbled his corpse into this smuggler's paradise. Heck, when we get back, we could even buy a canoe and winch it down here, and then use it to move through the cavern and avoid the urchins! Otherwise, Id' say our only option is to smash the chests here and now."
Tessa shakes her head reluctantly. "I seriously doubt once we get out of here any of us are going to want to come back in here again. Buuttttt I'm not seeing any other way to crack these babies open to see what they are hiding. I say we move on and get the hell out of here first. Once we have our feet kicked up on Vanny's chest we can talk about coming back."
"That sounds like a plan to me," Gavin says, a little reluctantly, as he turns to leave what could be his parents' bar sitting in those chests. "I especially like the part about propping our feet on the Lord Vanderboren's chest." Sighing, the young man again begins to take off his armor for the return trip back through the urchin caves.
Assuming there is nothing to pursue down this path, she will begin to move with Gavin back through the water. As she does so she begins to count off the various thing she plans on inflicting on Vanny.
She scoffs at Gavin, "And ppulleeeazzzz don't call him LORD anymore. I plan on stripping that title right off his bloody chest!"
From the corner of her eye she catches one of the spiky urchins and grins wickedly. "Say. Do any of you think we can pick one of those up? I'd absolutely llovveee to shove it down Vanny's throat when we meet next."
There is one forlorn halfling walking away from the chests, but Bedu cannot see an easy way to break into that magic box.
"I do not like this and I shall come back for this treasure. It is well earned by all of us. By all that is true."
"Well, let's put everything in the secret room and hide it... and smooth away the scrape marks at least."
Erick does this to the best of his ability, including moving the liquor cases into the room. He'll gather up handfulls of dust and spread them around as evenly as possible wherever he can, and then sit down in front of the door, to make it look like someone sat there, rather than walked around in and out of a door. The spaces the crates were get's dusted as well. No reason to make it easy.
Gavin helps Erick hide the goods, before heading back to the room before the urchin cave.
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The party travels back through the currents of the sea cave.
Kutsya really looks incredibly adept at swimming, especially for a dwarf.
But more or less all of you start to feel the fatigue and the hunger. You wonder how long has been since you are holed here.
Probably the sun have set for a while now.
To keep company to your tiredness and hunger there is something new.
Dread.
You realize you explored the whole western part of the complex, even found a secret door, but still nothing that even vaguely hinted to an exit.
As a matter of fact doubt creeps into your minds.
Zombies were never part of Vanthus plan, they are merely its product.
Bedu sits with a cheap green bottle and a napkin. He gets out a packet of hard bread and cheese and begins to eat. The silence is unusually loud while others decide where next.
"Alright, let's go back to the room on the other side of the urchins. It's a nice defensible room, it's got a door we can prop in place and it means any other undead that want to come at us have to get through the water first. If we don't find an exit tomorrow on the eastern half, we can see if our resident swimming expert can find an exit underwater. That pool is ocean water, it has to have a way in." He nods at the pool where the body was found amongst the crabs.
Gavin nods. "The thought of spending the night down here fills me with dread. But, I suppose there's no avoiding it. I've got some hardtack and jerky, if anyone needs any food for tonight."
Once back in the room, Gavin removes his rope from his pack. Taking the rope, he loops it around the eastern door, finding whatever places he can do so - the hinges, the knob if there is one, and his pack, which he lays on the ground by the side of the door that opens. He then ties his mess kit and iron pot to the rope, so that if anything runs into the rope the movement will set the utensils and pot jangling. Then, unrolling his bedroll, he removes his armor and lays on the bedroll. "I guess we should set a watch for the evening? I'll go first."
"I'll have a bite of something if you don't mind. Thank you kindly." she says as she walks over to Gavin and takes some of the offered food.
She takes a bite of the food and after swallowing a bite offers, "I'm up for second shift when you're done Gavin. Hopefully it's a quiet night and a boring watch."
She sits down and begins to clean her blade from the days exploits.
"Got some military rations, if anyone needs one. Always carry a weeks worth on me, just in case. Don't taste like much more than cow patties, but they'll keep you alive."
Bedu eats his food, then offers to help Gavin and Erick eat theirs. He enjoys every mouthful but his share is soon gone. "There is a magical horn that is supposed to pour with food and drink upon command. My stomach thinks of it often."
The halfling willingly takes a watch hoping that when their saviours come it will be on his watch. Then he wakes up from that pleasant dream and takes his turn.
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you eat and you sleep, although not well as you might have wished.
Nobody taking watch noticed anything strange. As a matter of fact you noticed nothing at all.
No zombie, no giant crab, no other strange abomination came even near to visit you. the only company you had is the sloshing sound of salt water on the cave.
you reach for the other side of the cave again... ready to explore further.
Tessa stretches after a restful night on the cold, damp, hard floor in this dungeon of death.
Ok, so not so restful after all I guess.
Once everyone is gathered and ready she makes for the north-west door and listens at it. If she doesn't hear anything threatening she will attempt to open the door.
Erik moves to the first door that he can come to and listens for motion or noise.
Bedu finishes getting wet and backs up the others, armed now with his shield and scimitar. He swishes them from side to side as he waits for Tessa to finish with the door.
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Tessa opens the door but all that lies on the other side is bare moldy walls and filth. A few crates lies in a corner of the room that Erick opened.
But they have been smashed into pieces and scavenged long ago.
You can also see in their desperation, whoever scavenged these crates, eventually resorted to bite the wood itself.
But there is definitely nothing of interest in these two rooms..
Meanwhile you hear some moaning in the east. Not terribly near, apparently not even coming your way. but still you know more of those undead lies ahead of you.
Head over to the third door, listen close.
Following behind Erick, Gavin stops and raises his flail, ready to strike if something comes through the door...
Tessa approaches with Gavin and Erick, listening as well. If nothing can be heard she will once again open the door, weapon in hand ready to strike.
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Tessa opens the Door and the door after that in a very small corridor.
She reaches for a room. a wood pillar resisted all these years and supports the slightly domed ceiling.
On a corner of the room you see one of the undead as he ravages on one of the giant crabs. seems like he managed to kill one and he is now greedily eating his flesh.
Even as Tesse barges in, weapons at hand, the undead pay no attention to her, completely focused on his meal.
Tessa looks in and observes... another thing that is dead.
Great! I am really not prepared for this!
Tessa realizes that poking it with her rapier isn't going to get very far if its like the last thing that was already dead. She whispers, "Some undead thing in the corner. Obviously I can't hurt it with my rapier so I am going try and grab it and hold it still for you."
Tessa jumps out and reaches her arms out to grab the undead but slips on a patch of moss on a tile and totally botches the surprise assault.
Gasping as Tessa slips on her way to grapple the zombie, Gavin slides around Erick, and sprints to the other side of the column in the room, swinging his flail at the enemy.
Bedu slips in after Gavin and slices as the zombie's legs with his curved scimitar. But he manages to knock the crab shell instead.
Erick leaps forward and brings the 9-ring sword up in an arc that cleaves the zombies head from it's shoulders, sending the head to bounce between Tessa's feet. "If we're done playing now?" He asks, just a bit smug.
As Erick totally annihlates the zombie, Tessa looks down at the head between her legs and claps her hands as she says. "Glad we could distract it for you - well done gang. Good plan."
Bedu puts away his small scimitar while Tessa applauds. "Undead again. My spells worst enemy so I was taught. Thank the gods that one of us can deal with them. Distraction ha!"