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Taking the painfully-earned key, Brayden kneels down at the steel chest. At Slera's words, he sniffs his wound. "Poison, yes, perhaps. Though we need a way out of here before we can deal with that. Still, stay ready with that healing, in case opening this chest should bring about more trouble."
Inserting the key into the lock, Brayden turns it cautiously. Assuming he feels it click, he opens the chest.
Bit of a recap:
Our heroes have managed to obtain a single key from the containers in the vault.
Wicker Basket: now empty, obtained a Blue stone key, carved with runes
Glass Jar: filled with liquid, which Brayden identified as being harmful. A key is still submerged
Copper-banded chest: turned out to be an illusion, which everybody now sees through
Red lacquered chest: contains glowing runes near the lock, as of yet unopened
Steel chest: although the lock is somewhat scratched by fruitless picking attempts, it otherwise remains closed
With Zahur so faithfully coming to the rescue of Zarunkumar, the danger of falling down has now passed. The three-crowed chest still sits in the middle of a large hole torn in the warehouse, and was almost tipped into the water below by the approach of our heroes. What would that have done to the precious paperwork inside? Our heroes will have to come up with a clever ploy to extract the chest here.
Brayden tries the blue stone key on the steel chest, to no avail.
Zarunkumar searches through the crates, to find various tools and supplies: fishing nets, rope, beer, dried fish, lead ingots, pulleys, rat droppings (ugh!), pulleys, timber, planks, spare sails.
She also finds that Zahur, in a moment of clarity, has clumsily punched himself and the crate through the floor in a smattering of debris
The crate is now at the bottom of 15 feet of water, slowly releasing bubbles. But this Guaril Karela seemed a reasonable fella, right?
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Well... that didn't work. Can we NOW break the corrosive fluid on top of it? Hell we can even put both of the chests near it and bet on which one dissolve the first. He sights and walks agitated around the room thinking of ways to get out of the room. Though you might just want to check if it fits the other first.
Will looks around and sees two options: tie the rope around a nearby chest to anchor it, or use the crane for some more sophisticated lifting. The latter will take longer, but will probably give a better shot at lifting the 200-something crate from the water.
With Zahur's swim check it should be possible to dive down and attach the rope to the heavy crate.
Judging from the amount of bubbles coming from the chest, it is a matter of second, not minutes, before the inside is thoroughly and utterly wet.
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Dominique pushes the solid metal chest next to the glass container expecting to see if the blue key really matched the red laqued chest before taking any action. He had doubts that the key would open any chest and was preparing both morally and physically for repeating his effort then for striking the glass in the right place.
Team Vault:
The blue key opens the red lacquered chest. Inside is a key forged into the end of a jewelled sceptre.
A slight 'click' can be heard as the chest opens. A golden key is suspended 6 inches from the ceiling, fifteen feet up.
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Quite pleased with himself, Brayden reaches in and takes the sceptre-key, then turns toward the metal chest. Hearing Slera's request, he looks up quizzically and follows her directions, eyeing the key dangling from the ceiling.
"Strange to dangle a key so high... seems like bait for a trap..."
If he finds one, he will pause and consider his next step. If not, he heads over to Slera and offers her a boost.
Will attaches the rope to the crane, and throws an end toward Zahur, who promptly dives down with it to attach it to the chest.
As Slera points out the key, Brayden looks around for obvious signs of a trap. He finds none, and concludes that putting the key up this high is the challenge.
The key is dangling from a thin wire, but it does not look like a gust of wind is sufficient to bring it down. Shooting at the wire might help, but Dominique's shot goes wide - these thin wire are hard to hit.
Will stands ready to pull the chest up. He is a veritable mass of muscle, but it may very well be that all the armour he wears will bog him down. He is definitely going to need some assistance in pulling the thing up.
Will pulls the rope as hard as he can, but seems to falter as the heavy armour turns him around. Just as he is about to slip the rope, Zarunkumar and Dr. Agon com in and take over. Together, they manage to pull up the chest from the water.
Here's hoping that the papers inside have not been damaged too much.
Zahur is still floating around in the dark, dirty waters of the docks.
With the chest now safely ashore, but the Magus still adrift, Will drops down an end of rope to get the Magus out.
Dominique's arrow just barely misses the cord. So close...
A dripping wet Magus, a Fighter and a Witch walk into a warehouse. Leaving only a crate to be opened.
The rescued crate holds a smaller mahogany box inside, containing five books and a few loose sheets of paper in a leather folder. Luckily, they have been untouched by the water. The titles and subjects are unrelated: magical topics, geographical topics, the physiology of dragons. The folder contains cargo manifestos, inventories and other financial logs. Furthermore, the crate contains 10 set of masterwork thieves' tools, three flasks of alchemists fire, a flask of acid, a dozen jars of ink, a footprint book, adamantine weapon blanch, three bags of powder, a deck of marked cards and two sets of loaded dice.
Brayden and Slera put on a nice circus performance as one stands on top of the other, who stands on top of one of the chests. With the added reach, it's actually not that hard to cut the cord. With a wild swing, Slera cuts the cord, and the key drops onto the floor.
Congratulations, you now have two keys!
Brayden inserts the gold key into the lock, and even before turning it, the chest springs open. Inside, it reveals a map of some underground location and a wand.
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The inquisitor nodded in appreciation to the spectacle made by the rest of team then took the wand looking at it carefully and leaving the maps to Brayden and Slera. He got closer to the door and knocked with his fist at the door and started yelling Open up if you still want to have your door intact! We got your blasted maps!
My, my, wouldn't you know it. A wand of knock. Who has any use for such a thing?