Ava shoots Caladius a grin. "No, of course not. If it just happens to look that way at the end of the day, though..." She shrugs, looking across at Lucon. "I'm sure the Lord Mayor has enough gold to go around. We're just bringing some of it back to the people."
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Although he's not the stealthiest or most useful rapscallion in the search of the mansion, he manages to find at least one way to make himself useful. He scans each room carefully for details - how it looked when first the party enters. Before moving on to the next room, he makes sure that all of the surface items are returned to their original positions: curtains and drawers are closed, loose objects are returned to their resting places (unless absconded with!), and he even has his invisible servant brushing tracks and fingerprints away.
Caladius' face darkens, obviously not convinced. "Whatever. Can we stop robbing the place blind and get back to finding the Asmodean Knot now?"
"If it pleases you." Ava says. "Where haven't we searched yet?"
"I'm still convinced it's behind that lock we couldn't open earlier. Think that key there'll do the job?"
"I wouldn't rule out the possibility." Ava says simply, looking down at the key. "I think you're right, though. Vampire or no, it's a place we want to check out."
Thinking back to where you've all explored you figure you've explored nearly all the second floor except for a few small areas on the west and southwest parts of the floor. The first floor is only about half explored, and most of those places explored already are where the food and guests were allowed to mingle. The third floor is nearly completely explored except the area behind the locked padlock.
"Here, take it." She says, handing Caladius the key. "I'll check down there. Send someone down after me if it works."
With that, Ava will head try and find a staircase that brings her to the unexplored regions of level one.
"Why not just see right now, Ava? We're not that far from the door." Caladius arches his brow quizzically, obviously curious as to why Ava keeps trying to slip off on her own. He then shakes his head, "No, nevermind. Do what you want."
Entirely frustrated by this entire scenario and the acting and costumes and lack of straight-forward bad-guy bashing, Caladius throws his hands up in defeat, takes the key, and begins to head toward the locked door they'd first encountered. He doesn't even bother to look over his shoulder to see if any of the others follow along.
Moving northward to the descending steps she'd found there, Ava explores the area and heads down and out of sight.
The rest of you head back the way you came, through the secret tunnel to the south, back to the west side of the building, and up the closest stairs leading to the empty attic, managing to avoid contact the entire way and the sounds of jovial party goers fading behind you. In no time at all you find yourselves in front of the padlocked door of the attic.
Ava will peer out of the western door to gauge exactly where the party-goers are. If there's nobody in the immediate vicinity, she'll go through and take a quick look around, noting the ways back into the dining hall.
"Come on, let's get this thing open." Lucon says, sobering up. "I don't want to think about what the Lord Mayor will do to us if he finds us up here."
Sabinus registers concern on his face with the prospect of dividing the party, but he remains silent. He follows the others up the stairs and lets Caladius and Lucon take the lead on opening the door.
In the attic, you all eye the padlock and new acquired key with trepidation and curiosity...
Caladius gruffly tests the key in the lock.
The key slides into the padlock easily, like it belongs there.
Caladius nods once. "Thought so." He then opens the door and procedes to enter the room beyond.
Sabinus, who does feel both trepidation and curiosity, loads his crossbow and stands back.
Caladius moves ahead to discover;
A51. North Attic:
The contents of this room are similar to those of the main attic, but much dustier. On the west side of this rectangular room you find;
A52. Empty Storeroom:
The walls of this empty storeroom are scratched, as if by fingernails, although no other clue to the room’s original use remains.
These two rooms appear to be all there is left to explore of the northern end of the attic, indeed the entirety of the attic itself appears to have been well explored at this point.
Enko takes the time to heat up his silver blanch using the flame of his lantern and coat his sling ammunition, then joins the group, lantern in one hand, loaded sling in the other.
The scratches are old, evidence of the dust, but they appear random in nature.
"Hmmm. Tracks in the dust here..." Caladius follows the tracks, then stalls in front of a bare wall, "...that stop here." Standing beside Lucon he puzzles for a bit, scratching his chin before turning to the carpenter. "See if you can find a seam or hinge, Lucon." He then runs his fingertips lightly along the wall. With a grunt of satisfaction and glance to Lucon, he steps back. "I think there's a door here. Someone care to fetch Ava?"
Then, without waiting for the dwarf, Caladius opens the secret door.
"Nice find, Caladius. But how is anyone supposed to find Ava? We don't even know what disguise she's using, or where she's gone. I knew she shouldn't have wandered off..."
A53: Secret Room
The only feature of this bare room is what appears to be a pair of double doors made of flat gray metal in the northern wall. The surface of the doors seems moist and reflections in the doors look more like vague shadows and smears of light. After looking at the doors for a few moments you note that the “reflections” seem to writhe and move of their own accord.
"Hmm..." Caladius passes through the secret door and approaches the strange device, his breath low and steady in the tight confines of the small room. "That secret door used to be trapped, but it seems like it's been tripped before we got here. Maybe thanks to whoever left that trail through the dust?" Looking at the shimmering surface of the object, he then turns back to the group. "This thing stinks of magic. Sabinus? Corneleous? Care to look at it? The room's safe as far as I can tell."
Sabinus scans the room and the door in particular with detect magic.
The gray doors definitely register as magic, but the aura type, while very powerful, is indiscernible or possibly hidden.
"...are you sure it isn't some sort of magic trap that resets itself?" Enko says uncertainly.
"Well, no, but it's not set right now at least."
Ava lets her curiosity get the better of her, and glances about before pushing it open to see what's inside.
Lucon squints through the misty shapes. "Well... What's inside?" the carpenter says, taking a tentative step through the threshold.
Ava grins madly, overtaken by a deeply ingrained goldlust. Her heart races. A chest hidden away in a secret room! Her imagination goes wild, the possibilities of what could be inside exhilerating her.
She takes a deep breath, calming down only long enough to make sure she can get back out if the door closes, before launching into the delicate task of picking the lock.
As Lucon steps forward and goes to push into the door, his body blurs in a whirling red light, and he vanishes from the room, as if sucked into the grey metal of the 'doors'.
Lucon tugs the executioner's hood from his head and abandons it by the door, mopping his brow and looking about nervously. "This... this can only be it, right?" he says to the others as they join him. "The gods only know what we're going to find in... find in... -yaaaaawn-"
Just as soon as he lets out his ear-splitting yawn, Lucon turns crimson and shrugs in embarassment. "After a meal that big and after so much wine I can think of nothing better else but a nice, long nap. That was a very fine looking armchair..." he says, draping himself over his great towershield, eyes drooping.
Ava bites her knuckle, barely able to suppress her squeal of delight. Now this was what she wanted to see. The best part of sticking it to the man was undoubtedly the money. If she was going to be noble in her cause, she might as well make a little profit along the way.
She carefully pushes the loot into her pack before lifting the dolorously heavy bag and slinging it across her back. For once she finds her heritage a boon: Dwarves were built for many things, and hauling gold was definitely one of them.
Before re-locking the chest, she takes a moment to whip out a knife and carve the words "Love, Sian" into the interior. With a mischievous grin, she'll sneak back out, deciding to quit while she's ahead and see how the others are doing rather than risk getting caught out alone with the loot.
Without much fuss, aside from having to slip past some passionately necking nobles at one point, Ava is able to make her way back upstairs to the attic and rejoin the others in the previously locked attic area. It's been a few minutes of separation, but Ava easily notices the distinct lack of Lucon as she catches up.
You don't have to level up before you proceed further into the knot. Just so you know.
"Lucon!" With a start and a surprised look that bounces briefly between Sabinus and Corneleous, Caladius rushes forward after the carpenter.
periodic torches in wall sconces whose flames flicker with
unsettling slowness, like the slow swaying of seaweed underwater. Shadows seem to dance at the corner of the eye in the alcoves, and a soft, barely audible whispering floats in the air of this strange place. What appears to be a slumped over corpse dressed in tattered robes lies heaped on the floor between the closest alcoves.