"Slei, this shirt would look just adorable on you! It could use polishing, though...." Holds the chain shirt up in front of Slei.
Examines the amulet closely: .
The amulet is a lovely piece, with a star rose quartz. Eldan believes it's worth about 70gp.
"Masteriss Zigil, perhaps I could peruse those scrolls and determine just what they may be."
The steel scroll case contains a scroll of hold portal. While perusing it, Eldan recalls that he stashed a trio of scrolls upstairs after the spider fight. Retrieving them, he discovers that they are a scroll of summon swarm and two scrolls of knock.
"Ah yes, these will do nicely," Eldan states as he returns the scrolls to the case. Opening a waterproof bag he retrieved from a pocket in his cloak, Eldan places the scroll case within. "Is there anything else for this room?" He glanes around to make sure the party hasn't missed anything.
The only other thing of interest in the room is the statue, which Zigil recognizes as Jingh, one of the heralds of Iomedae.
Zigil has a search as well
Zigil begins examining things around the room, then swoons and slumps to the floor!
A voice is heard, though there is no sound.
"Child, danger comes to Trunau, and to the wild world beyond. The Inheritor seeks to bolster those who need defending. She forges a weapon to strike at all those who are enemies of the just. She forges a shield, to protect the helpless. You and your companions shall be that sword and shield, and strike and defend against the foe.
The Inheritor trusts in the strength of your arm and spirit, but she also gives you a gift. Gather your allies beneath this banner and say, "Under the shield of The Inheritor, our sword-arms shall not weary". Thrice shall the banner aid you, and it shall be as if it were a new dawn of the day.
Go now. Be wary, yet continue to seek allies. Strike down the wicked, and protect the innocent.
The light on the wheel fades, and Zigil comes to herself on the floor.
Ziggy sits up and shakes her head, her eyes wide. "Wow .... take your protein pills and put your helmets on, gang. We've really made the grade."
With a faraway look in his eyes, she says "Iomedae wants us to seek allies and strike down the wicked and protect the innocent."
She stands, a little unsteady.
The urns are empty, possibly looted a long time ago, or only originally contained ashes.
"She's given us a gift." Zigil moves over to the statue of Jingh and reaches behind it.
Zigil holds up a gleaming white banner, with Iomedae's sword stitched in gold upon it. It's the first thing that the group has seen in the Plague House that is not covered in dust and soot.
Eldan did not see it in his earlier search, and it's hard to imagine how he could have missed it.
Ziggy is still awestruck and a little shaken. "I ... I don't know if it was there before. Jingh ... or someone ... spoke to me. There's .. there's some kind of danger coming to Trunau, and we have to be ready."
He looks up at the banner. "If we get badly depleted, I can use this banner to restore us, just as if we had a full night's rest. I can only use it three times, though, so I will save it till we need it."
She looks over the group. "Iomedae has given us a great gift but also a great responsibility. Let us prove worthy of that trust, and defend Trunau against whatever evil may come." He holds the banner aloft: "Are you with me?"
Eldan looks thoughtfully at Zigil then states, "While I am no adherent to Iomedae, I can appreciate that she is on the side of good. So, as long as this does not require any vows of devotion to her, I can go along with this. As for that banner, it seems like a rather powerful artifact, and I wonder if this was the reason they chose to kill him, to prevent him from finding it. Now in case there is something else they were attempting to hid, shall we continue on?"
"Hmph. Sure spose I'm in. And Garm too if he ever crawls out from under the bed. This here is our home and no orcs or whatnot is coming to take it from us."
"Wow!" Zigil folds the banner and places it carefully in her backpack.
"Okay, I'm ready. Eldan, I think you're right. There might be more here. It's possible that the artifact might only have been revealed too worshipers of Iomedae. If so, then there must be something else here they were trying to hide. Let's continue."
Zigil moves to the door on the east and opens it.
As expected, the door leads to the room with the granite symbol embedded in the floor. A ladder in the southern corner leads upward, and a decrepit bookshelf and small chest are against opposite walls.
"Aye. We won't let some blithering bilgerat try to take our home."
Slei, seeming bolstered by the fact that there is a goddess looking out for the group, will inspect the bookshelf and try to open the chest.
The bookshelf only contains the remains of various holy writing, including a ruined copy of "The Acts of Iomedae". The chest, however, contains a small cache of valuable items: 3 small vials, 50' of silk rope, a disguise kit (missing some parts), a set of thieve's tools, a noble's outfit, a signet ring, 237 gp, 155 sp, and 55 cp.
Zigil will do a quick detect poison and detect magic on the contents, esp. the vials. (Alas, no spellcraft.) She will also look at the signet ring to see if she recognizes the insignia or design.
"Eldan, you may want to look at these as well. Slei, can you use the thieves' tools or the the disguise kit? Not judging."
Zigil does see that the 3 vials have magical auras. However, they don't look like standard potion vials.
"I never mastered lockpicking, alas. Those little hairpins are too fiddly. But I can try and figger out your disguise kit, if you like."
"Sure. I doubt that anyone else will have a use for it." Zigil will take the remaining items. Eldan will probably want to do a detect magic and spellcraft on the vials when he gets a chance.
"Shall we go this way?" Zigil leads the party to the west, and carefully looks to the north, then to the south.
As Zigil starts into the western hall, he notices that the floor looks strange about 6 feet from the room, possibly a pressure plate. Looking beyond that, she sees a trio of hidden bear traps going as far as the intersection.
"Hmm ineresting. I've got one of those. Very handy."
Giles pulls out his bear trap.
"How we going to set them off? If only Garm was still here..."
(You are pretty sure he is joking).
"Perhaps we can use some of the debris to toss into the traps to set them off? Or perhaps one of you has a staff or long pole with which to set off the traps?"
"I have the falchion we found earlier. We can use that to poke the traps. Hang onto me, I'm going to see if I can trigger the pressure plate."
Zigil will wrap her rope around himself, and tie it, and give the other end to Giles andd Zepfina. When they have a firm grip, she will place the point of the falchion on the plate and then lean on it trying to trigger it.
"If we have to, we can go back to get the dead rats, and toss them onto the center of the plate."
As Zigil leans on the plate, the three traps snap shut at almost the same instant.
"That looks like it would have hurt. Good thing we came the way we did. Even if the cube did get us all goopy."
If it looks safe to proceed, let's continue down the western hallway. Ziggy will continue to probe ahead using the falchion.
The hall to the south leads back towards the stairs, while the north passage goes around a couple of corners then ends at a door.
Continuing to probe ahead , Zigil leads the way to the door.
At the door, he listens
Zigil hears nothing behind the door.
"Get ready, gang."
Zigil puts away the falchion, readies her sword and opens the door.
Beyond the door is a once-grand flagstone hall filled with statues of different celestial creatures in every corner. An old fire pit in the center of the room is bordered on all sides by moth-eaten bedrolls, while shovels, picks, and other digging equipment lie strewn about a shallow tunnel bored into the northeastern wall. The ceiling above the tunnel has collapsed, leaving a hole open to the sky above a pile of burnt rubble.
One of the young spiders encountered on the main floor quickly scurries out of sight at the top of the slope.
Quietly pointing: "There are the spiders. Be careful around the pile of rubble."
"Let's start by searching the statues, and then we can check out the tunnel."
"Hmm what's going on here then?"
Giles has a good look around the campsite and examines the tunnel.
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"I wonder if there's any useful information in here," (then, seeing the spiders, "Zoinks.")
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Eldan will survey the scene, lending his formidable deduction skills to the effort.
"Hey, bedrolls!"
Giles sees a body half-buried in the rubble in the tunnel. It looks like something has been chewing on the body. Maybe those two undead rats which are right beside him.
The rats are the same type the group encountered in the grain stores, and seem to blend oddly into the shadows, so the only truly visible part of them is their gleaming red eyes.
Slei will move out from behind Giles and fire her sling at the rats, hoping they aren't as incorporeal as the last one was.
(If the bullet goes right through them, "Rats!")
In spite of the forms of the rats shifting and swirling into shadow, Slei is able to hone in on their beady little eyes, and her stone strikes home with a satisfying thwack!
[dice=Damage to "Shrat1"]1d6[/dice]
The rat squeaks and falls over.
Eldan gestures, speaks a word of power, points at the remaining rat.
Giles attacks any rat still standing.
Giles misses, but Eldan's force bolt damages the rat enough that when Zigil calls on Iomedae's power, the rat is torn into shreds of shadow.
"Let's search this room thoroughly." Statues, the alcove where the were rats were, and bedrolls. Quick look through the firepit, though I doubt there's anything there. Zigil scans the room with detect magic as he searches.
If we don't find anything, we should proceed out the door on the west, probe the hallway for traps, and if none, open the door on the north.
There is a body under the rubble in the tunnel. There is a single magical aura emanating from somewhere in its gear.