Karl staggers, larger patches of skin flaking off and falling to the floor leaving behind large, angry patches of flesh.
Uhnnn, he groans, before fishing two bottles from his kit, unstoppering and downing them in succession.
While the phials take some edge off of the pain, the ranger remains much the worse for wear.
Duuuuh.
Karl recovers enough to have a look over the crates. He shrugs at the strange, feathered creatures but helpfully offers, Ugh, not sure what those feather things are, but they and the snake have been dead for at least a fortnight. Looks like they maybe starved, ran out of food that is. Someone forgot about 'em. He frowns, unsure. If that mummy that got me had a few weeks unleashed, would it've stayed in that coffin? I think who or whatever opened up these crates maybe did it recently.
Karl looks around the room for tracks, or unusual features.
After spending some time exploring the room, the group finds enough scuff marks to determine that between three and six booted figures were in this room roughly two weeks ago. They appear to have entered, spent a considerable amount of time around the crates, then exited again.
All of the figures were humanoid, and based on the tracks you find, they were closest to human or half-elf in terms of height and weight.
"Outside of a few odd looking creatures, I say we continue onward. There appears to be nothing else of interest within this room."
Yeah, Karl nods wearily. Let's have a look upstairs before we head down below.
This large room is crammed with crates and boxes. The cases all contain curios like animal bones, stuffed birds, and more mundane preserved creatures.
There is another room to the west containing more crates and exhibition materials such as wool and thread. Inside this room, you find a staircase leading up and out of the museum.
Professor Rokannon nods, ready to go downstairs. He concentrates on Detect Magic as he does.
The staircase leads to a door opening on a narrow ledge on the cliffside towering over the museum. The ledge meanders upward, leading you along the edge of the cliff. Luckily, the pathway never gets narrow enough to cause you any problems. Still, as the ledge leads along the waterfall, then continues along the wall of the deep valley, there are more than a few moments of trepidation.
The pathway runs around a large rock and turns to the left, revealing four large iron towers. The towers are almost identical, and they are arranged in a geometric square pattern. The towers appear to be 30 feet in diameter, and 40 feet high. Several walkways 30 feet off the ground connect the towers together.
In the center of two closet towers, the pathway ends at a small staircase leading down. At the base of the stairs, a large iron door rests behind a stone frame. From your vantage point, you see no other entrances or exits into the towers.
Observing the large door, "Well, shall we simply walk in? That is, of course, if it is not locked."
Professor Rokannon frowns and closes his eyes in concentration for a moment.
"Hm. No enchantments that I can detect."
Karl wearily follows the others as they make the traverse to the towers, his demeanor markedly different from normal.
Ah, let me have a look before you open it up, Morb'ry. I've had enough nasty surprises for one day.
Karl takes his time examining the stairs and the door, satisfying himself that it is safe to proceed before attempting to open the portal.
Morbury nods, backing away to allow the ranger to inspect the door properly.