"We just dropped her at home a few minutes ago, she should still be up. Perhaps we should all go and have a drink to catch up."
Qorin steps slowly around the back of the party, until he has a clear line to Adivion. He focuses his senses on the stranger, attempting to catch any whiff of evil about the man.
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"I've taken lodgings at The Laughing Demon. It's... eccentric, but the food is filling if not quite up to the standard I am used to in Caliphas," Adivion answers Dantrian.
"I'm sure Kendra has had a trying day and I do not wish to put upon her when the sun has set. I'll call for her in the morning to see how she is, she was very close to her father and I'm concerned that she'll take his death badly," he then replies to Qorin.
"Well, the hour is late and I don't wish to tarry much longer. I bid you good night and perhaps we shall meet again before I depart for the capital," Adivion gives a small bow before ambling away, his staff tapping along with his footsteps as he heads towards town. You give the grave of Petros Lorrimor a quick glance over but nothing seems untoward.
The false crypt is only eighty feet or so further on. It is a freestanding granite mausoleum, the roof of which has been decorated by a couple of leering gargoyles. A single stone door with a rusty looking look sits on the south wall.
Gabbi having stayed quiet at the back of the group with the interaction with the stranger gives out a sigh when he leaves and moves over to look at the mausoleum. Gabbi carefully walks around the crypt giving a good look over. "Anyone good with braking into locks or stone doors? I am sorry I'm not sure how useful I'm going to be."
Lysa shakes her head no at Gabbi's question. "Lockpicking is not a skill normally taught in Pharasma's temples."
Lysa studies the door and the ground in front of it, trying to determine if anyone has entered it recently.
"I might have some luck in bypassing the lock."
"Ah. It seems this lock is here just for show. See? The mechanism has been melted, likely with a powerful acidic agent. The way stands open." Dantrian stands beside the door, inviting the group the enter.
Ebon enters and stands on the space where his picture is already situated.
"Hrm, tombs have been known to be trapped, and I'd figure this one is no different. Typical, really."
Ebon also checks to see if there is any kind of creatures lurking about.
You see no signs of a trap, but you do see some footprints in the decades-old dust. Oddly, there are no dead interred within the crypt, despite it's exterior implying that it must have stood here for decades if not longer.
Qorin draws his falchion as soon as Dantrian says that the lock was burned with acid. Without hesitation, he steps into the crypt ahead of the others, scanning with his darkvision for any threat. I have felt a sense of danger since I reached this town, and now we find that at least one other, possibly two, have been to this tomb before us. These others may be smarter, but I don't know how much use their intelligence will be in a fight.
"Whoever burned the lock may still be here," he whispers softly, readying his weapon and advancing slowly into the room ahead of the others. "From now on, we must trust one another with our lives. I will not leave any behind."
"The culprit may also be eighty feet to the west and six feet down, but you are wise in your caution. Lead on then."
Lysa pulls out her morningstar and casts Light upon it. Then she'll follow the others into the crypt.
With everyone but himself and Gabbi having entered the false crypt, Dantrian will nod to the bubbly girl, "Come along then, Gabriela, if this place isn't as false as we're made to believe, we may have need of your unique talents." And with that, Dantrian will enter the building and proceed to some seemingly divinely pre-ordained position within the dark chamber.
If the person who broke in is still here how did they put the lock back. Much more likely that the professor already got everything and we are wasting our time.
Gabbi smiles up at Dantrian and follows him in "I doubt it but if this Way were the ones that broken they might have left a surprise I guess, I suspect the traps Ebon Highroost mentioned are more likely."
Ignoring the remarks of the others, Qorin moves slowly towards the lefternmost door ahead of them. He pauses as he reaches it, to give those who are good at such things the chance to inspect it for traps.
Ebon's keen eyes pick out that the footprints lead through the left door. Upon opening, he sees that they lead to a solitary stone sarcophagus against the north wall.
Ebon draws his shortbow and slowly notches an arrow.
"I don't like the smell of this place."
Ebon glances around to the rest of the party as he moves slowly up next to Qorin to the right of the door space and peers around as it is opened.
"The footprints lead through this door and toward the sarcophagus in the next room." He glances over to the hulking Half-Orc to his left.
"Ehem, I think it'd be best if I'd let you go first."
Qorin glances at the others and steps carefully through the door, nodding to the Tengu. I don't like the smell of it either, but if there are tools we need here to stop the Whispering Way, there is little choice. Without speaking a word, he advances slowly, following the track through the dust as closely as possible as he moves towards the sarcophagus.
Qorin reaches the sarcophagus without incident; the room beyond is empty save for dust and the sarcophagus itself. The signs of increased activity are shown in the dust around the stone coffin.
Group Init:
Mob Init:
Lysa carefully follows Qorin as he makes it to the sarcophagus.
Dantrian filters in behind Qorin, old habits kicking in as he pays attention to the dust in the corners, the lintels over the doors, and the ceiling.
"Hmmm. Perhaps the church left the supplies within the sarcophagus itself? That's a tad morbid."
"It would be a decent enough hiding place though and one unlikely to be disturbed by the townsfolk. We should at least check in it while we are here. I'll pray for forgiveness if we are wrong."
Lysa steps up to the sarcophagus and attempts to move the lid enough to peek into it.
"Be at peace," he says to Lysa as she pushes the lid aside. "The Professor's journal called this a false crypt, so there is no cause to believe that there are remains to disturb."
Gabbi pushes the main door out closed to stop light escaping then not wishing to be the only one left behind in the dark she follows the rest through the second door but hangs well back.
Ebon walks in with the rest and watches behind the group as everyone faces the sarcophagus.
The lid of the sarcophagus moves deceptively easily and clatters to the round with an almighty bang. Before the party can search the interior of the sarcophagus, however, two giant centipedes appear from behind Gabbi.
One rears up and darts forward, attempting to bite the poor girl.
It sinks it's maw into the tender flesh of Gabbi's shoulder.
The second centipede dashes forward towards Qorin and lashes out at him.
Fortunately it hits his armor and glances aside.
As the sarcophagus lid the moved aside the tension grows, Gabbi leans in to see what is inside. The large clash breaks the tension and she gives out a sigh. At that moment she felt a tingle on the back the leg. The scream she lets out starts as fear but ends in pain.
Stumbling back away from the creature she focus's her fear on the creature, casting cause fear.
Gabriela feels something course through her veins but as quickly as it starts, it stops.
The centipede's feeble mind understands only the base desire to flee from this suddenly fearsome opponent and flees into the far corner of the crypt.
Qorin feels the clash of the centipede's mandibles against his leg, and slashes reflexively at the repulsive creature with a downward slash of his heavy blade.
"Inheritor guide my blade," he growls under his breath.
The unfortunate creature that had attacked Qorin is severed neatly between two of its chitin plates and it thrashes in its death throes.
About to search the sarcophagus, Lysa quickly turns around as she hears Gabbi's cry of pain. Watching as Qorin slices one in two and the other running off in fear, Lysa hurries to Gabbi's side and touches her with her free hand and casts a healing spell. "Gabbi, are you ok?"
Ebon is stunned at the stealth of the creatures that seemingly eluded them.
"Of all the damned creatures to appear..." He says as he draws an arrow back and shoots it at the centipede in the corner.
Dantrian hears the scuttling of dozens of legs a moment before Gabbi's cry of pain. His eyes narrow as he sees the giant insects scrabbling across the floor.
As the one that bit Gabbi scurries into the corner, Dantrian pulls two vials from within his vest, a larger ceramic vial and a smaller, fragile glass one. With a deft motion, he uncorks the ceramic vial, slips the glass one inside it, corks the larger one again and then throws it at the centipede.
The combination results in the flask shattering and a sudden burst of flame engulfing the area around the centipede.
HP: 10/10
AC: 14 (11 T / 13 FF)
CMD: 13
F/R/W: +3/+3/+0
Bombs used: 1/4
Prepared 1st Level Extracts (1+1): enlarge person [ ], open [ ]
Qorin leaps after the fleeing centipede, raising his wickedly curved falchion over his head and swinging it down hard at the vermin.
Dantrian's bomb explodes, barbecuing the centipede from the outside. Insde the sarcophagus you find:
- 12 silver arrows
- 4 sun rods
- six flasks of holy water
- 10 +1 arrows
- 5 +1 ghost touch arrows
- 2 +1 undead bane arrows
- 5 potions of cure light wounds
- 2 potions of lesser restoration
- 1 scroll of detect undead
- 2 scrolls of hide from undead
- 1 scroll of protection from evil
- 1 thin darkwood case decorated with the an image of a scarab with a single eye glaring from its back (the same as the purple book the Professor left you)
Inside the case are three objects, a spirit board with an odd looking paddle shaped something like an arrowhead and four iron and glass vials containing tiny, churning clouds of vapor.
"Bah. Bothersome vermin."
Dantrian kneels down beside the one cloven in twain by Qorin, prodding it experimentally with one of his daggers, attempting to identify the specific type of centipede and whether it's particularly venomous or not.
"Let's gather everything up and head back to Kendra's house. We can more closely examine the items there. Hopefully no one is about to pay any mind to all the noise we just made."
"I agree with Lysa. There's no sense standing around pawing over a looted coffin."
As Ebon says this he eyes the numerous different kinds of special arrows with a lusting smirk and a gleam in his eye.
Still kneeling beside the neatly bisected centipede, Dantrian offers his response without diverting his attention from the insect's remains, "Indeed. A sound plan. Let us hope that Gabriela's forethought in closing the door behind her prevented any passersby from overhearing the brief struggle."
He rises then, and turns to cache to see if anything is left for him to carry.
Dantrian turns to Qorin, an appraising arch in his right eyebrow as he gives the half-orc something more than passing attention for the first time since being accosted by the townsfolk earlier in the morning. "You are not a man to be trifled with, clearly. It seems those fool townsfolk were more fortunate than I'd initially thought; one shudders to think how they might have faired had you been forced to draw that excessively large sword earlier today."
Qorin wiped his blade on the carapace of the centipede, and inspected in carefully before sheathing it, and gathering his share of the Pharasmin Priest's cache to bring back to Kendra's.
"It seems better that we leave, if we are all well?" He turns to Gabriela, having heard her pained scream, and is only a little surprised to see her looking unharmed.
He paused to listen to Dantrian as they left the crypt, and chuckled at the description of his weapon.
"Excessive for one who carries bottles of fire, perhaps, but it suits me. I could not have turned it against the villagers unless they had gone so far as to cause harm in their ignorance. They were fools, but they believed they were doing good." He gave a small smile. "Sometimes, simply possessing a big blade gets the job done. Tonight was one of the times when it was good to know how to use it."
"I feel much better, thank you Lysa. Reaching around to where she had been bitten. She smiles at Lysa and speaking quietly "Totally healed, did it rip my dress all?"
"We'll have to be careful getting, I don't feel like get caught carrying this out of the graveyard." Gabbi moves back to the dorr out and pulls it open a crack, "Lissala have a quick look outside and let us know if the path is clear, and be careful." The bird flies out returning shortly with a report.
Gabbi gives out a sigh as the door is shut behind them and they are finally safe. "Why do you suppose the lock was broken and foot prints in the dust but the cache was still there? Did the Professor, or someone else take a few items and leave the rest or did someone add some things to the cache?"
Gabbi has a look over the found items "I can't use most of these I'm afraid and the few I can use anyone can and I suspect will be able to use to greater effect if we get in trouble. I have used a spirit board before, but not of this design." She says brightening up a bit.
As Gabriela asks questions about the hidden cache, Dantrian's expression darkens. He plucks the professor's journal off the desk, flips it open and points to a particular passage. His irritation and impatience are clearly evident in his imperious tone, "I suppose it might be because the Professor 'slipped in and slipped out with a few borrowed items.' It's obvious the Professor was there and replaced the lock so that, to a casual observer, the crypt would still appear secure."
Pfah. Perhaps she is Szabo's daughter. He rambled on without thinking with an alarming frequency as well.