Mahb grunts, "If this was my trap, getting close to the skeletons or weapons would set it off... and I'd put a nasty surprise in one of them lockers. We can't control any of that, so let's make a deal. If anything jumps out at us, we get the hell out of this room and handle it in the hall away from those blood-sucking plants. Agreed?"
"Sure, I'm wondering if maybe we can drag out the cases and open them out there instead. If they are trapped, may be better to open them away from this vampire lichen."
The lockers are covered with lichen, yes. They are also bolted to the floor.
"Hm, well unless we have tools for this, don't think we're moving these any time soon." Lineera then takes out her aspergelium, "Think I'm going to start pounding these guys' heads in." And with a call out the door. "Hey Riley! I'm looking for a strapping young man full of wit and guile, do you happen to know any?"
"If our friend Riley cannot open them," Cathran starts, "I may be able to bring a more direct solution to their latches from a safe distance" she suggests with a gesture of her bardiche.
Let me see Mon Amie!
Riley heads over to the lockers.
Eva pulls out a vial, "Well I did prepare one of my extract to detect undead today. So we could see if any of these skeletons are undead, but this will only last a few minutes."
Riley carefully exams the first footlocker, and very carefully disarms a very well made spring thrown blade trap. The trap is, unfortunately, broken in the process.
Mahb pats Riley on the shoulder, "Ain't that a naughty trap."
Lineera lets out a sigh of relief as the trap is disarmed. "Well, I'm glad we didn't have to resort to smashing it open, effective though it may be. And I think it's probably a good idea for us to not use that just yet, Eva. This place really is starting to seem like it's abandoned. At least this floor."
Riley hits the other two lockers.
Riley's nick name doesn't do him any good with the next to lockers, he finds each has a nasty spring blade trap. He tries to disarm them as he did the other, but the mechanics are different on each one. The second he merely fails at, but the third one flings several 3 inch long, 1 inch wide, blades out with enough force to drive them an inch deep into wood.
Unfortunately, it's not heading for wood, it's heading for Riley's chest.
Well...it hasn't been a very good day for me. Someone want to open the lockers?
Riley sits in a safe spot and curses his luck, wrapping the new wound.
Riley tries to dodge, but slips on the lichen, and falls back as both blades hit him dead in the chest.
Then there's an involuntary motion toward the blade, as bright crimson blood on the blade explodes into a bright crimson Lichen that grows with astonishing rapidity.
Eva rushed over to Riley, pulling out a flask of acid as she did. "This might hurt some, but I'll patch it up after." Unstopping it, she poured the acid on the Lichen.
The acid burns into Riley's chest, but it also burns off the lichen. Riley continues to bleed, but now it's a normal bleed, and will seal over with healing.
Pocketing the now empty flask, Eva pulls out another cure potion and holds it to Riley's mouth. "Drink."
Once Riley has drank the potion, she gives him a smile. "That's better. How about I help you with that last trap. Less mishaps likely that way."
Cathran levels a steely gaze at Riley's acid treatment--although there is a very slight wince to be seen, if one looks for it. "The longer we stay here, the more I grow to dislike this place," she quietly growls. "If we plan on trying to circumvent these other traps, let us have more acid at the ready. Or you could try to apply it to the vampiric weed itself. In either case, we shall stand by with aid," Cathran asserts. "What was in that first locker that you managed to open, by the way?"
Riley chugs the potion and thanks Eva. Holy crap. What is this place!
Lineera frowns "Next time, maybe we should just torch the room and douse it after. This are metal lockboxes after all. Are you okay Riley?"
"A deathtrap." Eva's face is all straight and serious before breaking out into a smile with a laugh. "And torching it is an option as long as you are not concerned with anything that's fire sensitive."
Lineera face doesn't really cheer with Eva's joking. "I still think it's better than dying over some paper. Whatever's in those boxes can't be worth as much as our lives. But... I guess can we at least clear the lichen away from the lockers before we go any further?"
If there is a way to clear it out, I can go back to opening the locks.
Riley attempts another trap on a box.
Riley disables the trap that he failed to previously. Fortunately, as there were 3 more blades in the trap. It looks as if the trap can hold 10 blades.
"That could leave us with a dead end if we destroy everything. What if what's in these lockers leads us to the children? Or possibly a way to wake them up? If we are careful, I'm sure we'll be alright. We just weren't as careful as we need to be."
Riley attempts to open the four locks that are not trapped.
Next he tackles the last trap. If successful, he attempts the last two locks.
Riley takes a couple of minutes and quickly goes through and unlocks the six foot lockers.
Inside the 6 footlockers are 6 uniforms that are in surprisingly good shape. They look as if they had been packed in it recently. The uniforms are all the same, and all have the same chevron on the arm.
Additionally, there are...
6 coin purses with a total of 423 gp, 178 sp, and 223 cp
6 silver MW daggers in black leather sheaths, each engraved with the same chevron.
6 cloaks, also with the same chevron on the back.
Those uniforms and chevrons look familiar...
Those uniforms and chevrons look familiar... You're sure you've seen them recently, within the last 6 months.
Those uniforms and chevrons look familiar... You're sure you've seen them recently, within the last 6 months. Oh, right, the mercenaries at the bar where you met, the ones that were handing out the pictures of the weird pointy hat people asking if anyone had seen someone like it.
Lineera lets out a low whistle when she sees the arrayed money. "Not bad pay for grunts. It's strange though, the silver daggers would indicate that they're hunting undead, not serving it. I mean, I guess I'm a necromancer who's armed to fight undead, so it's not unfathomable, but still. Maybe there's someone else in here than us? Hopefully friendly? These clothes seem rather new, and if they're hunting undead they may well be on our side."
Mahb eyes the corpses on the beds. "Or they were on our side..."
Unfortunately, Riley is too exhausted from the damage to notice anything.
I would like one of those fine silver daggers if no one minds.
"Yeah, that's possible. If that's the case, they didn't decompose naturally though. Given the age of the clothes, there'd still be something left of these guys, especially if they got stabbed, the lichen would've sucked them dry, keep the corpses from rotting quickly.
And go ahead Riley, even if we all wanted them, there's enough to go around."
Cathran wrinkles her brow. "Perhaps there is a more active hostility in this place than the emptiness of this floor would suggest." She looks from the uniforms to the self-impaled skeletons on the bunks and back. "If they were pursuing the same foe we chase, we should be careful. In any case, these daggers may come in handy--hopefully they will be of more use to us than their former owners," Cathran suggests, picking up one of the sheathed blades.
"Let us ascend the tower stairs--and be ready for vile traps and evil workings. Are we ready to face what may come? Perhaps we should tend to our wounds first--Eva, do you still have that wand?"