the Party makes simple work of the zombies and any remaining undead creatures.
with undead all destroyed you can finally examine the room. the room is lined on all 4 sides both on the walkway and below, with small crypt doors each about 3 feet apart the ones that have been opened already you can tell that the each door opens to a seven foot long opening.
the bodies of the NeMoren family are laid to rest here. The crypt doors are labeled with the name of the inhabitant.
there are a total of 72 crypts in this room starting on the upper level at the southwestern wall nearest the door are the crypts of Kragor's sons. The tombs then proceed through the generations clockwise around the room, with the last chamber in the southern wall of the lower level.
23 crypts are unlabeled and remain empty (awaiting the next generations that will never come.
The crypt in the southwest corner of the lower level reads Peytro NeMoren, but his body does not rest inside. beside that lies another empty crypt labeled Amelia NeMoren.
However that name has been scratched out (as by vandalism) and written in blood is: "Always Lissette"
searching the room the party discovers three onyx gems and a blank piece of parchment that looks as though it once contained a spell inscription.
Standing up from where he was wiping his flail on the remnants of a zombie's shroud, Bazan No idea, and no idea how she and amelia are connected either. Any ideas what these are for?
Devana crosses the room slowly. As a theoretical magician, she loves graves. Not as much as authentic written documents, but this can tell a lot about the family which buried their dead in here. She had no idea that the NeMoren family had been that old. She picks up gear along with pen, paper and ink which she was about to unpack as the fighting started and starts taking notes on the name plates.
As she notices the empty parchment she picks it up without comment - any lingering aura is probably long gone, but it might be worth having a sorrow examination of the surface of the sheet to find out what was on it. She slips it into a scroll box.
The destroyed undead on the floor are virtually forgotten until she almost stumbles over one. In her usual neutral, precise tone she asks: "Has anyone been hurt?" It seems doubtful whether she actually cares, since she doesn't bother to look up but instead examines the undead - a zombie - with curiosity and tries to estimate how long it must have been undead and who it might have been in life by its clothes and equipment. Finally she casts a spell and has a thorough look at it.
On Sarosha's comment she steps closer. "I don't know" she takes notes on that particular inscription plate. "But it seems that some people have been locked in here and seemingly found their death. Or maybe undeath... Possible that the grave was desecrated as some kind of revenge." only briefly she takes her eyes off the wall panel to indicate the direction of the dead bodies on the floor. "Nothing to proof or falsify this theory at this point, though."
She looks around in the now illuminated hall: She will probably have no time for a proper investigation of the place. Putting her gear away she asks: "Shall we have a look inside to see whether the body of 'Amelia' is still inside and in good condition? I am curious what the meaning of all this is." She pauses and looks for a way to open the crypt chamber.
Rickard sets the metal head of his greataxe down on the stone floor with a thunk. Leaning against the wall with his hands atop the pommel.
"So maybe this whole thing is a scam and they just send out hundreds of keys to people and then lock them in here to build an army of monsters. Not a bad scheme."
the blood is as best you can tell definitely humanoid.
the handwriting seems to be very close. as far as you can tell.
also there are no lingering auras but you have figured out that the parchment was definitely a used scroll.
you catch a very faint (possibly nearly blocked) magic aura behind one of the closed crypt doors
looks like it was a scroll of Animate Dead
opening the door to Amelia's crypt is easy, it was not locked nor sealed. and it is empty.
So do we crack open the rest of these crypts and check there aren't any more unpleasant things or do we check the next room? Either way I'll have a look for any surprises.
+1 trapfinding
"Whatever is in this graves, the crypt was originally created to honour the dead and celebrate their memory; the memory of a history laden family. It's possible but I doubt we find more undead in here, because having their corpse walking around is not a good way to celebrate a loved one. But I would still prefer to refrain from opening further graves unless with the sanction of Pharasma's clergy... I opened this one only to find out whether it had already been desecrated."
Devana's face seems briefly a bit unsteady. There is a fight going in with her. The wizard's curiosity is fighting the woman who has decided to change her life. It's not that she's superstitious - the dead themselves don't care what you do to their graves, because the are dead - but it just feels right to honour their memory.
"Given the circumstances", she points briefly at one of the destroyed undead, "I will report this to the next cleric of Pharasma anyhow. I despise necromancy. It's such an unclean magic for people too lazy to create an actual construct, but still in demand of something to do their work for them. I prefer the purity of raw, clean energy."
Bazan spits on the floor when Devana mentions necromancy.
"Ok Chelaxian, odd though it is to be agreeing with one of your nationality, I do. Even if not from a practical side. Which room next then?
I would suggest we protect our exits first."
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Sarosha gives Bazan a brief look of disgust.
Our spitudinous friend is right, we should make sure we're not trapped between enemies front and rear. We should go back and check the first two hallways we bypassed.
She gives a meaningful glance at Bazan.
And I'll thank you for showing a little more respect for the sanctity of this final resting place.
"Sorry love, habit! Head back and try the one on our right first?"
Abedezar retrieves the darts he threw and returns to his readied state, a dart in each hand and his Kukri held in his tail.
People other than old Tenzekil listen to me and even consider what I suggest, even a Chelaxian! It feels so odd being treated as an equal.
"I'll go check out the next door back towards the entrance, hang back a little cos I don't need the light and we don't want to signal our presence to any other nasties, having the drop on them would be good."
Devana adjusts her dress and follows Bazan up the stairs, but halts at the corner of the hallway hand holds her dagger with light spell on it behind her back.
Bazan seems to have some reservations regarding Chelaxians, which is not surprising if he ever had any business in Cheliax. She wonders whether this will become a problem at some point, however. Orcs are hardly civilized, dumb creatures. It remains to be seen how civilized and trustworthy a half-orc can be.
Then again, the half orc still might surprise her. Back home in Egorian, however it was nothing but a cesspool of intrigues and lies behind masks and false smiles. One could argue that orcs were more civilized than her own people, for all the wonderful chelish operas and beauty, since at least the orcs didn't hide what they really were.
She covered her face in the half-dark to hide a smirk at that thought. As though she would ever abandon her love for the art and culture of Cheliax. Its own culture, not what the devils wanted to use it for.
She forced herself to focus on the here and now. This vault was dangerous enough without misplaced paranoia in the face of the far greater threat. She peeked around the corner and tried to follow Bazan's shade in the dim light from beyond the vault door, ready to step in if anything attacked him. When he disappeared around the corner she just stared into the dark, waiting for a signal.
Bazan searches the doorway. and finds no apparent traps, his examination indicates that this door seems to be of elven design. the wood used in its construction is not native to this island.
the door has no keyholes to peer through and there appears to be no method to even lock this door.
Bazan tests the door gently, slowly and quietly opening it enough to take a quick peek into the room.
moving forward now:
The door open rather easily. it was unlocked. a quick examination shows that the locking mechanism as well as the latch have been damaged preventing the door from locking again.
the door was forced open from the hallway like someone was breaking in.
see previous spoiler plus you think those bent crowbars were used here
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Inside the room appears to be approx. 40 foot by 40 foot square. the walls are a polished white marble.
in each of the four corners are what appear to be small trees planted in pots. the trees each are about 3 foot in height.
the branches and the leaves actually glisten off your light source like they are made of either crystal or metal.
in the center of the room is a circular pool with dirty stagnant water. there is a low wall around the pool. from the doorway you cannot tell the depth or if there is anything in the pool.
across the room directly opposite the door,is a statue of a pirate captain.
This appears to be a statue of Captain Jayce Nemoren. more commonly reffered to as Jayce the Three fingered swordsman.
Bazan signals everyone forward.
"Looks like this room was a tribute to Captain Jayce Nemoren the 3 fingered swordsman, let's see what we can find in here"
Following Bazan, Rickard takes up the second position, taking a sweeping look around the room.
Seeing a crystal tree, Rickard feels that familiar tug of curiosity. He walks up to one and plucks a leaf from it.
Devana follows with measured steps, holding her glowing dagger out. Once she enters the room she measures each step carefully, trying to figure out whether the next floor tile she steps onto differs in any way from the last.
She looks at the trees with curiosity - she was under the impression that trees usually need light to grow, but she doesn't really know a lot about plants.
Carefully she approaches the statue, to see whether there is any inscription or so, but she halts when Rickard plucks a leaf. "Is it real?" she asks into the silence.
when Rickard approaches the tree, he sees the trunk is made of jade and each leaf is made of carefully carved gold.
the light from devana's glowing dagger, seems to cause the trees to animate slightly like they are rustling in a summer breeze. but only as long as the light is touching them.
makes one wonder about the orb of daylight?
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What beautiful trees! And they seem to like your dagger.
She looks excitedly to Devanna. Do you think they could actually grow golden leaves with the right light source?
I know just the thing! Come on!
Forgetting her usual skittishness, she walks quickly out of the room, motioning for Devanna to follow her back to fetch the glowing orb.
"I have no idea what happens when you expose them to a bright..." Devana starts until she realizes that Sarosha is going to fetch the orb right now. Her eyes widen a little, as she considers that a pretty reckless approach from a scientific perspective. "Wait, shouldn't we..."
She casts a light spell quickly onto one stone in the wall before she leaves to follow Sarosha all the way down the hallway. "If we take the orb now the door might open for a bit. Let's make sure it closes again when we cover it. And... I'd really prefer to investigate the statue and the trees further before we expose them to a bright light source... and get everyone out of the room. We don't know what might happen."
She slips a piece of cloth from her backpack around the orb and takes it, then she starts making her way back.
Abedezar is immediately drawn to the tree, and examines it intently. He also searches it for magical auras.
There are 4 trees one in each corner, the trunks are of solid jade and each leaf is individually carved of solid gold. You can guess that each tree is worth at lest 2000 gold.
when the orb is brought in the entire room seems to suddenly feel like a cool summer breeze is blowing and the tees actually rustle in the breeze, the gold metal clanging ever so lightly.
Abedezar, your detect magic indicates a strange transmutation aura in the entire room, but there is also a concentrated aura on the hand of the statue.
there is another aura of abjuration magic in the wall behind the statue
"There's certainly magic in here, I don't have the skill to tell ya exactly what spells though"
Devana presses the orb with one hand tight to her chest in order to prevent dropping it and uses the other to cast her own detect magic spell, whispering a few, precise words in draconic.
She approaches the statue, not quite as slowly as before, but still careful. She doesn't feel comfortable with this approach to exploring the room, but that's probably what 'adventuring' is supposed to be in contrast to scientific expedition.
If the magic in this room is meant to interact with that of the orb - or simply the light it creates - then maybe there is a place where it's supposed to be. She looks closer at the statue of the pirate captain, looking for a place to put the orb as she circles around it and examines it closely. How is the depicted pirate standing? How is he looking? Is there a plate with an inscription? Are the hands maybe spread out in a way to put the orb into them?
"The wall over there... it has a strange aura of abjuration. As though to prevent magic manipulation." she says, even though she seems solely focused on the statue.
Bored with all this magic stuff that he doesn't understand, Bazan starts stirring the water with an arrow to see what he can find.
Sarosha examines the wall, the magic is coming from a circle inscribed on the wall with n imprint of a hand missing the pointer finger of the right hand.
the imprint is human sized.
the magic seems to indicate that it is some sort of arcane locking device.
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Look here, it seems to be some sort of arcane lock.
Sarosha examines her own hand.
Anyone willing to lose a finger to try it out?
She smiles at her own joke. Then she looks to the warpriest.
Abedezar, didn't you say something about the statue's hand?
Sarosha examines the statue's hand to see if it has all of its fingers or anything that might match the wall imprint.
As she finds no further use for the orb or way to interact with the statue, she approaches Sarosha, holding the orb on the side of her body away from Sarosha.
"I am afraid I am afraid I don't know a spell for locks." She replies a little ashamed. "There is a strong magical aura on the statues hand - well, across the entire room, but the hand is a focus point."
The statue is staning with both hands holding the hilt of his sword, the blade pointing down on the ground. the orb does not have any resting place on the statue.
the magic aura on the statue is a simple brass ring on the finger of the statue's left hand.
One thing that is evident though is the pool is a cntral point of the room. it is only about a foot and a half deep.
the water is stagnant and dirty, but youcan somewhat see to the bottom. There is a dark spot in the exact center of the pool under the water. it appears to be about 4 inches round.
The brass ring radiates Transmutation magic.
Abedezar removes the ring from the statue and places it on his index finger.
She nods Sarosha. "I'll have a closer look at it. Just a moment, let me finish investigating the statue."
"Transmutation", mumbles Devana as she beholds the ring. "Could be pretty much anything and I have no idea how it interacts with the rest of the room, but the classic would be Flesh to..." She interrups herself abruptly as she notices Abedezar toying with the ring. She takes a few steps back from him and the statue: "I think that may be unwise at this point." It doesn't sound like she was particularly concerned though but rather curious for the result. If Abedezar turns to stone now that would mean her admittedly pretty wild guess was correct.
In the meantime, Devana gathers her dress to prevent it from getting wet and tries to put the orb in the pool just as Sorasha suggested. She lets go of it, curios of whether it will continue to glow if she does so and steps back.
Placing the orb into the center of the pool, the entire pool begins to glow, illuminating the whole room. the water starts to swirl around in the pool and within a few seconds, the water is pristine and appears drinkable. The glow of the pool illuminates the room and there feels like a warm summer breeze throughout the room. the golden leaves of the jade trees rustle in the breeze.
the water of the pool radiates conjuration (healing) magic
Abedezar breaks the brass ring free of the statue and places it upon his finger. within seconds there is a strange feeling that come over him but he has no ill effect.
his appearance seems to have taken on elven features.
withing the light of the pool and while the ring is being worn. the brass has a slight vibration and it seems to hum, no specific tune just a low single tone.
"By, Nethys, she's right - at least as far as your facial features are concerned. Well, consider yourself lucky, it could have been worse. Could you try to carefully take the ring off? Don't panic if it doesn't work, it may be a curse... that may get a little expensive, but a cleric should be able to solve that problem." She looks at him with a curiosity as though he was a lab rat she doesn't seem to share Sarosha's amusement, nor to be particularly concerned.
Then she starts to speak in elven: "Do you understand me know? What can you tell us about this place? What is your name?" She pronounces each and every word in precise, yet edgy and somewhat coarse elven, with a strong Chelish accent.
In common she continues: "Maybe the ring is the key to open the hidden lock in the wall over there at the far end of the room. Otherwise it likely ain't here... or... try to move around a bit, see if the sound changes. Maybe it guides us somewhere."
After she stepped out of the pool and smoothed her dress she searches the now clear water for anything inside it.
more like potions of CLW if you can figure out how to transport the water.
"The water... it just changed into a massive pool filled with light cure potions."
Devana empties her waterskin somewhere in a corner far away from the pool and then refills it with its contents.