Gornak will hold his nose and pick any of the valuable stuff from Aldern's body.
"Burning this place to the ground sounds like a good idea, but we might want to have some townsfolk standing by in case the fire looks like it might spread. And maybe we could find some clues as to what happened with Aldern somewhere in the house."
Psionic foci can be regained, and duration effects wear out as you reconvene around the two corpses. The stone door to the north-west still sits ajar.
"I'd like to examine this unfortunate and grim place before we destroy it."
Also, the next time Gob gets back to his tribe, he sends a few (3-5) emissaries to inform the dead goblins' tribe of their fate-and Gob's (exaggerated, of course) role in defeating Aldern, and explain the Aldern-ghoul's role in murdering them. Then have the messengers retreat home, attempting to avoid a fight. This is to establish knowledge of Gob's new presence, make him seem fearsomely powerful, & maayybee lay the groundwork for future relations with other goblin tribes.
Alright, lets check out that room behind the stone door.
Gob detects magic as needed.
Vaclav follows the others toward the stone door. As he passes each ghoul he buries his mace in its chest, starting with Aldern.
Assuming someone has a light, Gornak leads the way through the door (once Gob is done with his detect magic).
Vaclav can provide light. And spam resistance and guidance.
You peer through the door to the room beyond. This damp cavern contains several items of furniture. A rickety table sits in the middle of the cave, its damp surface cluttered with all manner of what appears to be garbage: empty bottles, bits of clothing, crumpled bits of paper, and more, lying in neatly organized rows. A painting leans against the far side of the table, facing a large leather chair that sits nearby. This chair’s high back and cushion are horribly stained by smears of rotten meat and its arms are sticky with blood. A smaller table sits against the southern wall, its surface heaped with silver platters, fine porcelain plates, and crystalware. The “food” on these plates and platters is rotten meat, in some cases humanoid in source, and in all cases writhing with maggots. Thick, rotting blood gels in the crystal. Yet the horrific stench of the room seems somehow even thicker and more overwhelming than this gruesome display can account for on its own. The stench seems strongest to the west, where the cave’s wall has been overtaken by a horrific growth of dark green mold and dripping fungi. At the center, a patch of black tumescent fungus grows, its horny ridges and tumor-like bulbs forming what could almost be taken to be a humanoid outline. What appears to have once been an exquisite puzzlebox the size of a man’s fist lies smashed on the ground at the fungoid shape’s feet.
"What in the gods names is that?" Thanadros point to the horrendous fungus.
"I don't know, but I think Aylmora's right. We should burn this whole place down. "
"I still think we should investigate a bit more first. Find out how all this transpired in order to prevent future horrors. Let's search the place for journals, notes, and the like, and any portable wealth we can make off with. No reason to burn that. Maybe some good can come of its use."
Perception to search Aldern
Perception to search around fungus (covering face with cloth first)
Perception to search table
Perception to search cave
Aldern has no further equipment than that mentioned.
"We will find nothing of good use here; the dark-tressed, bony-footed daemon that planted the seeds of this abomination in the Foxglove garden will see to that. Even mundane goods may bear some taint. Send it to the gods on a flaming pyre. Salt the earth and ban habitation here for a generation. Let men of good intention come on this day for a score of years to pray that the evil be abated. Let Gozreh scour it inevitably clean. Then some good may once again come from here."
"I agree, Brother Vaclav. Let me give Gozreh some help," Aylmora snarls just before unleashing a blast of fiery energy at the humanoid outline in the black fungus.
Will save plus whatever Vaclav's spell spamming provides
Gob's eyes glaze and he looks at the fungus ravenously. He starts to approach it, clearly intending to eat it.
Thanadros searches the room as well, excluding the fungus and giving it a wide birth. When he hears aylmora he spins and pulls his bow on reflex
Gob feels suddenly compelled to regain his fallen shadow by eating the fungus, but as he reaches for it Aylmora's blast of sears the wall and consumes it, and Gob falls back from it, dazed.
Amidst the drawings is a letter, one not written in Aldern's hand:
Aldern—
You have served us quite well. The delivery you harvested from the caverns far exceeds what I had hoped for. You may consider your debt to the Brothers paid in full. Yet I still have need of you, and when you awaken from your death, you should find your mind clear and able to understand this task more than in the state you lie in as I write this.
You shall remember the workings of the Sihedron ritual, I trust. You seemed quite lucid at the time, but if you find after your rebirth that you have forgotten, return to your townhouse in Magnimar. My agents shall contact you there soon—no need for you to bother the Brothers further. I will provide the list of proper victims for the Sihedron ritual in two days’ time. Commit that list to memory and then destroy it before you begin your work. The ones I have selected must be marked before they die, otherwise they do my master no good and the greed in their souls will go to waste.
If others get in your way, though, you may do with them as you please. Eat them, savage them, or turn them into pawns—it matters not to me.
—Your Mistress, Wanton of Nature’s Pagan Forms
A small silver key ring worth 10 gp sits on the table amid the rotten meat, with two keys on the ring. The larger of these two is a tarnished
iron key set with a round opal worth 100 gp. The smaller key is made of
bronze and has an unusually long tang ending in a set of three notched blades. The head of this key resembles a roaring lion.
"GOB!" Vaclav's warning shout is too late to help the blue goblin, but Aylmora's searing blast has plenty of time. The cleric rushes up to his small friend and hauls him to his feet by the collar of his breastplate. "What were you thinking?!"
It is only later that Vaclav reflects on how powerful Aylmora has become. That she is now a match for any of the others, mighty Gornak, crafty Gob, and keen-eyed Thanadros. Sandpoint is fortunate indeed to have four such heroes. They seem almost wasted in this backwater. How different the Mindspin campaign would have been with them along. We might have secured the valley, cleared the threats, brought a vigilant peace to the frontier....
Gornak blinks as Aylmora throws flame around. "Hey -- what the -- look out for Gob, will ya?" he sputters.
"I...I don't know... Suddenly, I felt as though the fungus was my shadow...m..my shadow had ran away and a ravenous hunger overtook.me. More than my own biology. I felt the only way to get it back was to eat my shadow. The fungus. Some sort of compulsion..." Gob clears his head and sifts through the muck on the table, silently poinring out what he and Thanadros both saw before reading the letter and passing it to Thanadros and the others. "These keys-could they be to the estate in the letter? And this portrait...what city is this?" Gob wipes some of the carrion off it to spare Aylmora further anger.
"That looks like Magnimar. Grand Arch looking toward the seacleft, I believe."
Gornak peeks over someone's shoulder and reads the letter.
"A Sihedron ritual?" Gornak gulps nervously as he fingers his necklace. "You don't suppose this thing is going to turn me into a ghoul, will it?"
Aylmora contents herself with watching the fungus burn as her friends examine the various items discovered.
"Sounds like we need to take a trip to Magnimar," she comments, overhearing their discussion regarding the letter.
Gornak peeks over someone's shoulder and reads the letter.
"A Sihedron ritual?" Gornak gulps nervously as he fingers his necklace. "You don't suppose this thing is going to turn me into a ghoul, will it?"
"The letter speaks of wasting the greed of men's souls. The ritual s some kind of sacrifice to harvest greed. I think you will be quite safe Gornak.,,, Especially if you don't let anyone cut the symbol into your chest."
Aylmora contents herself with watching the fungus burn as her friends examine the various items discovered.
"Sounds like we need to take a trip to Magnimar," she comments, overhearing their discussion regarding the letter.
"Yes. It looks like this Mistress Wanton engineered Foxglove's fall. Hopefully her agents are still at Foxglove's house. And the Brotherhood. I can't help but wonder about this harvest -- of greed? Magnimar is full of avaricious men."
"How far is this Magnimar from here?" Thanadros asks as he pulls an old looking wand out of some mold and clutter from the floor, wiping it clean.
"A few days journey," Vaclav replies distractedly. Seeing the wand he has started praying for Erastil to lend him arcane vision.
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
DC of the checks is 15 + item's caster level so 1st, 9, none, 6, 7, none, 3rd.
Gob casts detect magic as well, and makes checks too.
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Plus any cantrip-spamming bonuses, if any.
It is a Wand of Knock with 18 charges remaining. Nothing else in here resonates of magic stave vestiges of the mould and puzzle-box.
"The letter speaks of wasting the greed of men's souls. The ritual s some kind of sacrifice to harvest greed. I think you will be quite safe Gornak.,,, Especially if you don't let anyone cut the symbol into your chest."
Gornak looks guilty. "I'm as greedy as the next guy -- probably more! What if that turns me into something awful like the Count? After all of the gold and jewels and stuff we found, I haven't given any of it to my pa, and after all he's done for me. I don't even know what I'm saving it for! Maybe I'm just afraid he'll spend it on something foolish, but I owe him something, don't I?"
"And what are you spending it on? Weapons and armor to defend the city? You're being to hard on yourself. Still, maybe a small gift to your father would be good."
"Gornak, the letter says that this mistress chose the victims. No doubt for excessive greed. But if it will set your mind at rest put aside the medallion and tomorrow with Erastil's guidance I will examine it and you again for the taint of evil."
Aylmora reaches up to give Gornak a reassuring pat on the shoulder. "I don't think you have anything to worry about, Gornak. You're one of the most generous and least greedy people I know. Sandpoint is lucky to have you around. We're lucky to have you around."
"Thanks for making me feel better, folks. When we get some free time, I'll definitely fix up my pa's house; it's definitely seen some better days. So, is there anywhere else we should look in this place before we burn it down?"
Gob takes 20 on Perception to search everything. (32 or 33 after leveling up.)
There is nothing else in the chamber or in the Vent outside, but you passed several side-passages along the way.
In one of the side-passages near the landing you find several picks clearly used to widen the passageway, including one +1 heavy pick. In the side-passage that the ghoul-bat came from you find a carnal-house of old corpses, and the shaft of a well leading up to the surface. Scattered around the cave are the remains of several hapless individuals. Most appear to be Varisian nomads, but one stands out by his gear and it does not take long to work out that this is what happened to the notorious bandit Shaz “Redshiv” Bilger (he's been infamous for the last decade raiding caravans along the lost coast road). There is a 500gp reward for his head (not the rest of him) in Magnimar. On his person you find a pearl ring worth 300 gp, a +1 adamantine longsword, a hat of disguise, and a scattering of 56 gp. Also on him is a handy haversack containing all the incense and other sacred gifts Vaclav was carrying to Sandpoint when he was robbed.
Vaclav isn't much interested in exploring all the nooks and crannies of the cave. He is however interested in the bodies and arranging them for a proper send off. Given the recent history of this plot of land, he blesses the bodies and suggests they be taken upstairs and that a pyre for them be built on the ground floor to insure their consumption by the flames.
Vaclav also quickly identifies the sacred goods that had been in his charge before their theft. "Although I paid Father Zantus for their loss, these are still the rightful property of the Cathedral. "
Thanadros shrugs and then grabs the adamintine longsword and uses it to take the Redshiv's head.
"Now what? Do we go to Magnimar? We have both this head and that painting and the clues point to going there..."
"I think we do. We should return to Sandpoint first to report to Hemlock and Father Zantus. Then we go."
Gornak wants to make a last check through any rooms we haven't visited to make sure that there aren't any living creatures left in there. Did we check all the rooms?
"Then let us rest up, restock and resupply for the trek to Magnimar then. Shall we leave in three days? How far off is Magnimar? Should we procure horses or see if there is a caravan to join?"
You checked all the rooms in the cavern system. In the house itself, no, but a thorough search would take time. You have not searched the ground floor, and a brief rummage shows only one valuable item: a beautifully embroidered silk bladed scarf worth around 100gp in the mouldering library.
Gob makes drawings of all the windows in his journal, and notes book titles too while the others search.
There's no time pressure now. Vaclav is willing to help Gornak search the rooms before firing the mansion.