The snake hisses inside the basket as Dasiji slowly tries to take the key out from as far as possible. The former guardsman tries to angle the javelin as high as he can to avoid the edge of the basket while he fishes the key up. He taps the side of the wicker basket as he brings the key up, threatening to overturn the entire thing. Fortunately, he quickly reaches forward and snaps the key off the edge of the javelin before the basket can fall, stabilizing the precarious wicker basket before it hits the ground. The snake hisses angrily as it is unsettled in the linens, but does not spring out of the basket to attack them like Kehl seems to believe it will.
They all back off from the basket, careful not to further upset the serpent inside. Dasiji holds the stone key in his hand, trying to decide what it unlocks.
When the chest opens, no trap goes off. Instead, a single jeweled scepter sits inside, tucked away on red velvet. The end of the scepter is a key amid the exquisite-looking jewels. A quick scan of the room shows that it will not fit in any other chest, but instead fits in the door. Once they are ready, they can use this key to leave the Osirian's clever test.
|
"Well, that's a relief. No one was maimed or killed, and we have a way out. So... I don't want to try that last trick again, after such a close call." Dasiji puts his fishhooks away. "But this bit of string could still be useful for eliminating acid -- which would leave possibly poison, or a tiny water elemental, or who knows what. Anyway, it would be good to know." Dasiji strides over to the glass jar containing the brass key and drops the string in the liquid.
|
Quintus smiles to himself as he takes his whip from his belt. Haha! Time to show off... He peers up at the ceiling as he gives the whip several shakes, uncoiling the braided leather cord and lining up his shot. "Stand back, guys. It's been awhile since I've used this thing."
After swinging his arm a few times, he steps forward and snaps his wrist, sending the whip flying toward the ceiling!
AC of the key is 10 + 8 (fine) - 5 (Dex 0) - 2 (inanimate) = 11.
Taking a full-round action to line up a shot gives a +5 attack bonus for ranged weapons (figure this is more appropriate for a whip).
As Dasiji drops the string into the glass jar, his caution is rewarded. The clear liquid bubbles slightly as it eats away at the string, which is visibly smaller when Dasiji pulls it out. The acid is not particularly strong, but it is still quite acrid. A quick dip of the hand would likely sting but leave no permanent injury, while any number of ingenious solutions could fish the key out.
Quintus snaps his whip high towards the ceiling, extending its length to a full fifteen feet. The other look at his target, which seems to be a small key that has emerged from a slit in the ceiling on a thin string. The string snaps as the tip of the whip tears into it, dropping the key to the stone floor with a plink. The actor reaches down to pick it up, examining it closely. The bright golden key is too small for the copper-banded chest, while the red lacquered chest is already open. A quick comparison shows that it would be a good fit for the steel cube.
|
|
Dasiji starts in surprise at finally noticing the key hanging from the ceiling, just as Quintus whips a piece of string from fifteen feet away with ridiculous ease. The good-natured Ijo laughs and applauds. "Well done! I did not even see it. The other key might not be needed now, but I'm curious anyway." A skilled naturalist (among other things), Dasiji reaches into one of his pockets, pulls out a piece of chalk, and drops it in the acid.
The chalk bubbles and slowly dissolves in the acidic water, breaking apart after a few moments and dissipating into the clear liquid. The key inside appears as if it might fit in the remaining copper-banded chest.
|
|
Astyannax follows Quintus' actions.
"What is wrong with you two? Don't they teach you to search for traps at Clown College or whereever you learned your crafts? You don't just stick a key into a lock!"
Shaking his head, he takes his mace and knocks over the glass jar full of acid, giving it a solid push away from the others to generate some momentum before hit hits the ground.
Too much occurs all at once. As Astyannax pushes the glass jar onto the stone floor, Quintus puts the key in. The jar shatters on the floor, spilling acidic water towards them harmlessly and leaving the jeweled brass key on the floor. Astyannax's warning and Kehl's caution are not heeded, because at the exact same moment, the steel cube pops open. With an audible pop, a swirl of blue dust shoots out and fills the room briefly. It seems magical rather than mundane, as it is a visual illusion that does not leave the air feeling, tasting, or smelling different. When the illusion fades, both Kehl and Dasiji have bright blue skin rather than their normal skin tones. It seems that the canny Osirion set another mostly-harmless trap to test the Pathfinders, and it will seem to him that they did not.
With the cube open, its contents lay visible to the room. There is a single piece of paper (presumably the map of the burial vaults they came to retrieve) and an old-looking wand.
|
|
"Wait!" As Quintus inserts the key into the cube and Astyannax knocks the glass jar off the table, Dasiji extends a hand toward each with the palm out and fingers spread, to no avail. The well-supplied ranger winces as the jar lands with a crash, then starts rummaging through his pack.
"I was going to ask if anyone had more chalk, so that we could be sure the acid was neutralized... but that works too." The blue-skinned Ijo pulls out an empty sack and drops it on the table. "It should be safe now, but whoever takes the key might want to put this over their hand -- or gauntlet -- just in case. I'm going to see what we came for."
Dasiji carefully takes up the paper and reads it before touching the wand.
|
|
Quintus stifles a laugh as he looks at his blue companions. "Interesting... I didn't detect any magic from the steel box. Guess it wouldn't hurt to be more careful in the future, if that's even possible..." What else was he going to pull out of his pocket to test the acid?
He raises his eyebrows as he sees the wand. "Maybe the magical auras were hidden by the box... that wand has to be magic." He casts detect magic once again to try to determine any properties of the wand.
|
|
Dasiji sighs. "Yes, this is it. We can go now." Lacking a scroll case, he puts the map between pages of his footprint book to keep it safe, then puts it in his pack. "I'm curious to see what's in the other chest, though." Dasiji takes up the empty sack that he had dropped on the table, puts it on one of his blue hands, picks up the jeweled brass key that had been in the acid, and takes a good hard look at the copper-banded chest.
The brightly-colored ranger pauses, clearly befuddled. "I have no idea what I'm looking for. Kehl? Can you tell if it's trapped?"
Dasiji, temporarily blue-skinned, eyes the copper-banded chest with the jeweled brass key in-hand. He looks it up and down, not seeing any traps whatsoever, but he is also not skilled at detecting them like Kehl is.
|
|
Astyannax laughs as he looks at his now blue companions.
"Oh, they'll be talking about this at the Lodge tonight."
He sobers up. "You told me not to mess with our host's stuff. We've got what we came for. Unless you think there's an anti-blue potion in that chest, why not leave it alone?"
He still grins a little as he looks at the blue men. He still holds his mace, his arm hanging limply at his side.
Maybe they'll think more about looking for traps.
When Dasiji puts the key into the lock, nothing happens. He twists it, waiting for the telltale click, but it does not come. He rattles it a little bit, but it feels like there are no tumblers to unlock. He removes it with a frustrated look and examines the key. As Dasiji fiddles with it, Astyannax and Kehl both look on in surprise as the box begins to fade away to a translucent outline. They see, clear as day, that the chest is a simple, persistent illusion with nothing inside. Their host must have included it as another test, or perhaps a red herring to avoid seeing the key that Quintus noticed earlier.
The door opens without firing off another trap, much to Kehl's relief as he turns the key. The silent servant waits on the other side of the door, apparently having been there the entire time. He gives a very subtle look of knowing at Dasiji and Kehl. Without a word, he leads them back up to the Sapphire Sage's study through the opulent palace.
Amenopheus remains in the same chair, poring over an ancient-looking manuscript. He studies the four Pathfinders as they walk in, noting the blueness of half their number. He also notices the page that Dasiji holds. "I trust that you found what you were looking for. I hope you also came to the realization that there will always be things that you are not looking for. Please remember this, friends. Give my best to Venture-Captain Valsin, and do not let that map leave your sight until you give it to him."
The crowds fill the street in the late afternoon and early evening as the citizens of Absalom finish their work and return back to their homes. As the Osirian complex fades behind them, the Pathfinders return to the Grand Lodge with the evidence of their successful missions in hand. A few people give Kehl and Dasiji, still blue-skinned, strange looks - but it is not the most unusual thing in Absalom in any given day, much less today.
The crowds are particularly thick in the Foreign Quarter as the Pathfinders first enter. A throng of people blocks the street ahead. A performance art group commandeers the street, drawing graffiti to create a jolly hellscape complete with illusionary devils comically dancing around in circles. A few citizens avoiding the crowd slip off-street through a nearby alley, the only egress past the gathering. Even a few of the town guardsmen watch the bizarre performance without moving the troupe aside. When a few people ask them to move the pranksters, the distracted guardsmen point them to the alleyway.
|
|
Dasiji holds out a blue hand and hisses, clearly agitated. "Stop. Look around. I was taught to pay the most attention when most distracted. Those guards are failing. If we can't find anything wrong here, then we need to be super alert in that alley." Though young and not that bright, the serious Mwangi learned many hard lessons as a guard in Sargava.
It's the usually-dense Astyannax who first notices the lurkers in the crowd who seem to be letting people pass. There are four in all, likely working together. It's hard to tell anything about them between the chaos of the impromptu street fair (which seems a little too convenient at this point) and the throngs of people in the crowd. Still, it seems clear to the Pathfinders that this is a setup for an ambush. There are plenty of people in the city who would love to get their hands on the gear of some unsuspecting new Pathfinders, or perhaps they were followed by someone from the Apsis Consortium to steal the fruit of their mission.