Why are you here then? What is your purpose? I am Riley. Well met! He gives the skeletal fowl a slight nod of respect.
"CAAAAAWWW!!!! Clean the wax out of your ears! I said I'm in here 'cause I's VAL-U-A-BULL! CAAAWWWWWW!!" The bird squawks loudly, flapping it's bony wings in a small bit of anger. Then it calms down. "I'm Maggie. You may not be very observant, but at least you've got manners. CAAAAWWWWW!!"
Still smoldering from the blast, Mahb is in no mood to mince words. Her hair caresses the cage, flexing the bars with a mind to crush the entire structure and the bony bird within. "You best get to proving how 'valuable' you are, Maggie. If you ain't lying, you'll earn some consideration from us - like setting you free of that cage. O' course if you've no value to us... we're gonna turn you into bone slivers and dust or just leave you here to heckle the walls." The hag shrugs, eloquently showing she doesn't care which way things go.
"CAAAAWWW! Oh noes, it's going to leave me here or break my poor brittle bones! CAAAAAWWW CAAAAWW! Woe is meeeee!! CAAAAAAW!" The bird drops to the bottom of the cage and walks back and forth, shaking as if in terror. "CAAAAAWWWW! How will Maggie ever get free?!?! CAAAAWWWW!" The bird then turns and bites pecks at the steel cage with it's beak, sparks fly and bits of metal fall to the ground. "CAAAAAWWWW! Cage not keep me in fool, to keep thieves out! CAAAAWWWWW!! I's VAL-U-BULL!" The bird hops up a foot and back onto the perch, clacking it's beak in humor. "CAAAAAW!"
Mahb doesn't look displeased with the result. "Wrong answer, birdie. This'll be good practice." Her hair flows through the gaps in the cage, trying to catch the bird. She leaves her hair to the task and looks at her allies. "If you got a problem with me crushing this useless magpie to dust, best tell me now."
Mahb's hair wraps around the bird, which does nothing to stop it, not even attempting to dodge.
You squeeze the bird, but something is not right when you do. It's like squeezing an anvil. There's no give in the bird's bones at all, not even the tiniest bit.
"CAAAAAWWWW!!! Help! Rapist! Molester! She's touching me in my special parts! CAAAAWWWWW!!!!" The bird cries out.
Mahb eyes the bird closely, trying to confirm what the spark-raising beak and its curious resistance to her hair, tells her.
The more you look at it, the more convinced you are it's a construct of some sort, not an undead. Despite it's fragile appearance, not even the thinnest of the bones on it's wings gives even the slightest when your hair squeezes it. Looking, the beak made a spark when it took a chunk out of the steel cage, it looks like it cut one of the bars in about a quarter of the way through with a single peck. Not a lot of damage, but bone shouldn't be able to take a chunk of out metal like it's butter like that. Unfortunately, you don't recognize what kind of construct it is, it's completely unfamiliar to you.
The hag hrmphs as her hair withdraws. "You're right, birdie; you are valuable... We can sell a construct like you for some pretty coin. Or do you got some value beyond that?"
The bird clacks it's beak in amusement. "CAAAAAAWWW!!!! I'm VAL-U-BULL, but when it comes to selling me, I'm freakin' PRICELESS! CAAAAWWWWW!!!!" It clacks in laughter again. "CAAAAAAWWWWW!!! To those with the wit, I'm valuable beyond words! For those with no wit, which is most mortals, especially those that blow themselves up opening the door, I'm almost certainly just a pretty birdie to look at." The bird clacks it's beak repeatedly in laughter. "CAAAAWWWW!"
The hag seems certain, "You are all talk and no proof, bird... so I'll take coins for your prattling beak and count myself the richer."
She starts examining the stand the bird cage rests upon and the room itself, looking for anything else that is hidden.
"CAAAWWWW!" The bird responds, amused.
Cathran lets Mahb take the forefront in addressing the bird--she holds her bardiche at the ready for the foul thing, until Mahb reveals that it is a magical construct, and not undead. She still finds it unpleasant, though.
"My word, you are a foul little thing," Cathran scoffs. "Will you tell us anything actually useful? Maggie, was it? Perhaps if we ask nicely?" Cathran poses, ripe with sarcasm.
"CAAAAWWWW!!! Goody two shoes pointy eared half-breed. I've told you plenty of useful things. CAAAAAWWWW!!!!" The bird responds, preening. "CAAAAAWWWWW!!!! You're just not listening or using that thing between your ears for something other than keeping your pointy ears apart. CAAAAAWWWWW!!!"
Rubbing her forehead in exasperation, Lineera offers. "The thing seems downright determined to say that it's valuable but I don't get the impression it's speaking of coin. ...I know I wouldn't pay for it. Maybe it means something else than a market price. It's made very certain to use that word, valuable, never rephrasing it. Val-u-bull, bull... Bull? Llub-u-lav..." Lineera keeps muttering to herself as she attempts to examine the crow, see if she can't discern something else about it.
"Well, I had taken its appalling pronunciation as simply a further nuisance--but perhaps there is something to do with a 'bull'? Maybe we can trade it to a minotaur. Or perhaps it can serve to help us avoid any further fiery blasts--no point in all of us getting burnt up when this little bird-thing seems able to tough it out just fine."
Lineera gets the feeling it's telling the truth, that it is valuable, yet priceless at the same time. There are a lot of magical items that are valuable yet can't be bought or sold. Lineera suspects the bird can't be bought, can't be sold. Given or taken maybe, but she's not sure. But something can be valuable while not having a price tag.
Lineera can tell that the bird is fantastically crafted. There's not a single mistake in it's form. It looks exactly like an undead raven.
The bird falls of it's perch, cawing in laughter.
I think your priceless Maggie...come with me. I could use a friend. No touching your special parts. I promise. Riley is especially entertained by the bird. He wonders why the others are so agitated. He walks over and taps his shoulder to allow the bird to jump on if he would like to.
Lineera strokes her chin. "Valuable and priceless... no, valuable but priceless? I'm starting to think this thing is talking to us in riddles you guys. And Riley, best not go trying to stick that thing on your shoulder before we actually know what's going on more fully. But I'm thinking there's more to this than a pile of gold. Think about it, would you actually buy this thing? But it's 'valuable' but priceless, that can mean it's worth a lot of money, true, but it could also be saying that it has no price because it's monetarily not worth anything. It may be good for something else though."
Turning towards the skeletal bird, Lineera asks, "Alright Maggie, we had a bit of a rough start, but let's bury the hatchet shall we? Can I get a hint? What makes you valuable but priceless?"
The bird looks sideways at Riley, and shakes all over. "CAAAAAWWWW!!! You're too a goody two shoes like pointy ears. CAAAAWWWW!!!! Goody two shoes are boring! CAAAAWWWWWW!!!" The bird's head rotates completely upside down and it looks at Lineera. "CAAAAWWWWW!!! And where hatchet get buried? In Maggie's head? CAAAAWWWW!!!" The beak clacks up and down. But the bird does seem to calm down a bit at Lineera's words. "CAAAWWWWWW!!! Maggie valuable. Maggie priceless. Maggie no have price, Maggie no be sold. CAAAAWWWW!!! Priceless... CAAAWWWW!!!" Maggie does a little bone rattling dance on the perch. "Maggie tell you things already, but you do not hear Maggie." The bird says, again sounding irritated.
The bird may not be able to speak more plainly for some reason.
Mahb was halfway out the door, ready to press on with the search and ignore this diversion when something in the bird's tone vaguely draws her interest. "What do you want, bird?"
"CAAAAWWWW!!! Maggie not want anything. Maggie never want anything. Maggie is Maggie. CAAAWWWWW!!!"
"So you want to be trapped in this cage, in a locked room, and left alone all the time?"
"Perhaps a different question then." Lineera switches, hoping to not rankle the machine any further. "You're Maggie, and you're valuable but priceless. Since we know what you are, how about what do you do? Know any neat tricks? Any juicy secrets you know?"
"CAAAAAWWWW!!! I don't want anything, half-wit. Didn't I tell you that? I've been here for six hundred twenty three years, forty two days, eleven hours, fourteen minutes and eight seconds... nine seconds... ten seconds... CAAAAWWWWW!!!" The bird ruffles it's bones in annoyance.
Turning to Lineera, the bird rotates it's head around again, looking at her upside down. The empty orbs seem to blink. "CAAAAWWWWW!!! I do all sorts of things. I know lots of tricks too. I don't know secrets, that's not my thing. CAAAAAWWWW!!!"
By the way she dismisses the bird, it appears Mahb has definitively concluded the construct's only worth is monetary. "Eva, do you have any more of those healin' pots? I'm heading back upstairs to keep searchin'."
Lineera, as she's slowly accepted the thing as not anything that violates her beliefs, has begun warming to the fake corpse slowly. "So... if we let you out, and take you with us... You'd be okay with that? And if told you that you needed to be quiet at times, is that okay? Do what we ask?"
"CAAAWWWW!!!" The bird flaps it's wings, but it's beak doesn't open a millimeter, other than the single caw.
Cathran emits a weary, but grateful, sigh as the strange animated thing stops talking. "I think Mahb has the right of it. We should tend to our wounds and head back upstairs. Eva, may I use that wand?" Cathran asks. She activates it for herself and Mahb, offering charges to any others who need their burns soothed.
"I suppose you will be coming with us," Cathran address to Maggie, picking up the iron cage and heading out and up the stairs with the witch.
Cathran grasps the top of the cage, and nearly sprains her shoulder trying to remove the bird from its perch. She reddens slightly, in frustration and embarrassment, but quickly regains her composure. "Did you say earlier that you can bite through these bars, Maggie? Care to give it a try now?"
The bird clacks it's beak a couple of times, and pecks at the bar a couple of times. A few bits of metal drop down. It would probably take a few days for it to chip it's way through enough bars to climb out. The bird looks at Cathran, nudges the bits of metal toward the edge of the cage, and then hops back up on it's perch.
"I think we should leave Maggie here til we're finished."
There is a very complicated and complex looking lock on the door. Riley tries to pick it, but fails on his first attempt.
Lineera sees this and makes a little 'Oh!' sound. "Try again Riley!" She reaches out and touches Riley, and a small bit of divine energy inspires him.
Riley's second attempt succeeds, but by the end of the 20 minutes it takes, sweat is pouring off the thief, and when the lock finally snicks, he nearly collapses as the tension flows out of him.
The bird blinks. "CAAAAWWWWW!!!! You did it?" The bird looks up in the air suspiciously. "CAAAAAWWWW!!! Someone's playing games again... CAAAWWWWW!!!!" It says to midair, but it hops down off the perch and stands in the doorway looking around at the assembled. "CAAAAWWWW!!!! Who wants to try to carry me? CAAAWWWW!!!" It asks suspiciously.
Mahb takes another tap of the wand to heal up and then heads up-stairs to continue the investigation, leaving the others to deal with the bird and cage.
Fatigued, Riley reaches out and allows the "bird" to climb up onto his shoulder if it wants to. I freed you...I'll take you.
The bird turns his head upside down to look at Riley, and he shudders. "CAAWWWWWW!!! Ewww! You're a goody two shoes! CAAAWWWW!!!" The bird shuddering sounds like an (small) explosion in a bone factory.
I freed your silly ass. Well, pick somebody then.
Lineera shakes her head at the construct. "Well, since it's not in breach of my beliefs... it'd be quite the fetching accessory to me, don't you think?" Lineera winks impishly at Riley as she attempts to snatch the construct out from under him. "Besides, I did all the heavy lifting here anyway." Lineera teases and another clap on the shoulder. "Though honestly, nice work there. But, since it seems it would like a lovely lady to be with, what do you say, Maggie? Care to ride on my shoulder?"
"CAAAAWWWW!!!! As long as it's not a Goody Two Shoes. CAAAAWWWWW!!!"
"All right then, let us head upstairs--I will help Riley keep an eye out for any more traps. Ready?" Cathran asks, moving toward the door.
No traps are found on the stairs leading up to the 3rd floor. However, vines are growing down them, making the curled staircase up from the 2nd to the 3rd floor difficult terrain, slowing everyone.
Looking out into the area of the 3rd floor reveals an open area covered with vines. There are purple black vines with scythe shaped seed pods growing along the back wall. Green and red vines grow along the walls and over the floor in the main area of the floor, which looks like some sort of worship chamber. An alcove holds a round altar. Behind the altar are two small coffins, one pink, the other blue, both covered in vines.