Zane arrived at the creature, only to yell in surprise as the powerful Rashemi man swung his sword in an electrically-fired arch, dealing the basilisk a terrible blow. After recovering from his own poorly placed strike, the priest felt himself slowing a bit as the lizard swept its gaze over the three men. Gritting his teeth, Zane shrugged off the gaze attack, listening to the inspiring song Azarra sang as he again tried to beat the beast down.
Azarra keeps singing, but that's all. She's too afraid of being turned to stone to go in there (or even look in there) without goggles.
Ishta shows her face through the doorstep, just enough to throw a Magic Missile and pop back out.
Ishta sends a volley of minature missiles slamming into the flank of the Basalisk, it makes a piping roar in pain!
Ser Armithia lands what he thought was surely a deadly, blow but his sword jolted in his hand, ringing like a bell leaving the creature unharmed.
Azarra deathly afraid of the creatures gaze stays out of range.
Delenn whispers a similar spell and another volley of miniature missiles detonates all over the reptile.
Still shicked by what happened a moment ago, Kardas hesitates. Zane doesn't and he brings his mace down with ferocious energy, shattering the creatures's skull. It's eyes rotate up into it's skull and it collapses.
COMBAT OVER
Sounding relieved, Delenn remarks,"Well that's one down at least. We must be cautious in case there are more."
Ser Armithia looks down on the beast.
Perhaps, let us attend to the statue.
Azarra, unafraid now that the creature is dead, casts detect magic and scans the room.
Zane hefted his mace once more, even as his elbow absorbed the shock of the impact. He was about to bring the weapon down once more when he noticed that the beast was still and the others were already starting to go about their business in an orderly fashion. The priest let out a pent up breath, giving thanks to the Morninglord that the fight with the basilisk had went so well, then looked about with Azarra for the room with the oil that Delenn suspected was nearby.
Trying to help Azarra, Ishta searches for magical auras and analyses them, if any.
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Kardas kneels down next to the beast and starts harvesting alchemical essentials. Drops of basilisk blood, its eyes - use a spoon, don't look right down at them while scooping them out! - and a couple of its teeth. All that will surely come in handy later. With his blood still pumping, the Raumathar is exhilarated. "Ha! That was like a hammer blow straight from the heavens! Now, give me a second to ... and ..."
Squishy sounds abound from the corpse as the Raumathar harvests the valuable bits and parts.
Ser Armithia has a good go at trying to turn the angel statue's head, but like the others it's firmly stuck.
Azarra's clever eyes spot a brass buckle underneath the various detritus the Basilisk had gathered to make it's nest. She pulls it out and finds it's attached to a stout leather belt. A closer inspection reveals the belt buckle is fashioned to resemble three demonic faces. it radiates a faint aura of transmutation.
Zane doesn't spot anything else of note. Kardas meanwhile starts organ harvesting.
Noting Ser Armithia's attempts to manipulate the statue, Delenn says, "We'd better try and find that oil. I suspect the one of the side rooms in this block will have been reserved for the caretakers."
Azarra notes that the belt is magical, but has no idea what it does. She sees Ishta looking though, and so she hands it to her.
Interesting aura. Feel free to use it if you can figure out what it does.
When the ladies have finished identifying the found magic item, Kardas finished his strange Rashemi art of slice and dice, and Ser Armithia had given up on moving the statue without aid, Zane nodded to Delenn and moved to the northern door, prepared to open it when everyone was ready.
Kardas kneels next to the gutted basilisk and frowns, making for an odd sight. He muses on what to take since carrying the entire beast out of here simply isn't an option. "Hrm, fermented basilisk intestines have supposed alchemical uses ..."
After doing what he must, the swordmage bounces back up and nods at his comrades while shaking his bloodstained hands. "My apologies, but it's not every day you get to put your hands on fresh basilisk parts. I'm ready to move on now."
Azarra lines up behind Zane, ready to help.
The gold elf joins his companions at the door. He replaces the goggles with the Deathwatch Eyes.
Ishta has a closer look at the belt.
She hands it back a few moments later, explaining what it does. "It doesn't seem too useful, though I guess we can turn it in for some coin."
Kardas opens the door to reveal another long sandstone corridor. At each end the walls have an statue of a cherub, however the most interesting feature is mid way down the corridor. In the floor there is a five-foot-wide circular valve which appears to be made of dark iron. Upon each petal of the five iris petals that it's comprised of are fantastic brass inlay engravings of angel faces smiling and looking upward to the ceiling.
"That's the gate to the lower levels through which we will descend" explained Delenn when one of you asked.
Zane marveled at the craftmanship of the portal that would take them to the lower levels of the library, though the angelic cherubs seemed out of place in this now-forsaken place. Hearing Ishta explain the properties of the belt, he nodded his agreement that the item would be valuable to sell, then prepared to head back into the main corridor, thinking one of the smaller rooms off it might contain the oil they sought.
Azarra listens to Ishta explain the belt, and then says
Wow, strange. Okay, we'll sell it if no one wants it. Anyone?
Azarra follows Zane, but watches to make sure Delenn is staying with them and not going on downstairs without them.
Ser Armithia takes point. His Deathwatch gaze screening the area.
The knight nods to at Zane, he approaches J, and nods to Azarra.
Ishta follows Zane's lead, and plans on stayind behind in case a nasty surprise appears.
"While we're at it, we could also check the doors just opposite."
At the nod from Ser, Azarra casts Open on door J.
Azarra whispers a spell and the door in front of Zane opens with a slight squeak revealing another study chamber. As before there is a sturdy but worn desk and a pair o small chairs. The desks contain
quills, dried out ink, and a number of time worn sheets of paper for taking notes.
As the group got ready to enter the aged study, Zane noticed the angels on the wall beside the half-elf. "Hold on a second...I think there might be something there beside you, Azarra." He pointed out the dancing angels along the wall, and what he thought would be the appropriate way to open them.
After some experimentation you find all it takes is simply moving the angels apart by hand. This reveals a small room containing a store of items, including six blank spellbooks, a brand-new alchemist’s lab packed in a crate, six vials of holy water, 20 spent wands, a large cauldron, a dozen bottles of lamp oil, a dozen bone scroll cases, and a huge supply of quills, inks and tablets.
swallows in flight (worth 200 gp) contains two scrolls of remove disease and three scrolls of restoration.
You hear a gasp of surprise, "Well well well, so this is where the caretakers kept their supplies. I must have walked past it hundreds of times. It seems you have a good eye Mr Levallis."
"Uh... You told us they were here, didn't you..."
Ser Armithia scans the supply closet before turning his attention to the next door.
Azarra sees the hidden door after Zane points it out.
Inside she finds an ivory scroll case carved with images of swallows in flight (worth 200 gp), which contains two scrolls of remove disease and three scrolls of restoration.
...and apparently nothing else.
...she also doesn't question anyone's motives. :)
She does, however, cast detect magic to make sure she hasn't overlooked anything magical.
Azarra's spell doesn't reveal anything new. Where to next?
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Zane took a peek around in the room after the others, marveling that after fifty or more years the hidden portal had finally yielded its secrets that only the long-dead librarians had known. As always, he thanked the Morninglord.
In an dusty corner of the room the priest saw a tiny box and picked it up, opening it to reveal its singing treasure. He grinned, pocketing the item for now as the group moved on to the next room in the hallway.
All the rooms in this area prove to be study areas with near identical contents. After checking the last one, Delenn suggests, "Perhaps we could try some of that lamp oil Mr Levallis found on the statue?"
The gold elf actually pauses to admire the music box; before clearing his throat and continuing to lead....
"Sure, why not. If it fails, I can use and abuse some ancient Nar words of power to cover it with magical grease, so one way or another, we should be fine. I do take it that by triggering the last, eh, key as it were, we are forced to proceed on to the next level?"
After the hallway rooms provide nothing of note beyond the secret door, Zane went with the others to the third statue, applying some of the found lamp oil before attempting to help move the device tot he position Delenn indicated.
"You never wrestled a greased up bear before, Zane? Ha! Oh. Ugh. Why won't this statue budge ..." Clearly, it had been too long since Kardas had participated in such a wrestling match.
Uh, Ser? Could you try moving this statue?
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Ser Armithia shrugs his mailed shoulders.
I shall attempt it again. Perhaps, as a team?
Set Armithia shows the others how it's done, casually moving it with a single hand. As before you hear a metallic noise as the mechanism engages.