"One never knows when such skills might come in handy."
Loki waits for his question to be answered, wondering if this group has common goals that they can seek out together.
Lilith giggles then says " Of course a deal is a deal, the master is a powerful person, in Freeport. He thinks he has full control, but right now a civil war is going on and I find myself free lance at the moment. He sent me to kill you which in my opinion is a waste of your various talents. A gnome thinking he could send a few assassins out to kill a group that I could have a use for later on, plus I'm sure there are more tomes. Who knows what else we could find, and it looks like you all could use my help. " Lilith says with a wintry smile.
"Indeed. What do you know about the other tomes? And please forgive my ignorance, but what did this ritual have to do with any tomes? I saw no tome. Not that I'm complaining, just curious," says Piter.
In answer to Loki's question, he replies, "I think we all desire additional power and wealth so that we may attain all that we desire."
Lilith spoke of being sent by the elder that sent them on the quest, and then soon after by the gnome that had sent the assassins. Loki was not quick to trust.
Sense Motive:
He had hoped for high-minded aspirations, like the stories of old. A group that set out on an impossible quest, battling all that stood in their way, only to barely achieve their ends, and the adulation/adoration of all that they came across. Perhaps such tales were only for bards, and they would simply wander around as the fates deemed.
...or not...
Loki was never one to accept the machinations of more powerful creatures dictating his movements.
"This is the second time this creature has sent someone to assassinate us. I would kill this gnome. Lilith, tell us everything about your master."
Cyan eyes scour her every movement, conscious and more specifically unconscious, that might betray hidden emotions, and unrevealed agendas.
Cakkarak considers Lilith's answer and revelation of her master.
"That gnome has elevated himself to annoying thorn in our side. I think it is about time that we crush him once and for all," the iskar says after a few moments after Lilith finishes speaking. "Being followed all over Norrath by assassins would be.., problematic. I imagine one of them would get lucky at some point."
"Finding more of the tomes, that is my more immediate goal Loki, in answer to your question. I feel that they are a source of great power in their own right." The iskar turns to face the necromancer. "Wealth hold little actual interest to me personally. However, I do recognize the usefulness of coin. Greed is quite the motivating force." Cakkarak says, a ghost of a grin lighting his scaled snout.
"If I had the power, and the spirits know this is a complete fantasy, I would break the hold of a certain dark god upon my people. All it is doing is splintering my people, and holding them back from growing. The dark god causes us to fester/" The monk pauses for a few moments. "I only say this now that Zaruksis is slain. My people's shadowknights almost always follow the one that ruins us."
"So, in short that is why I search for the tomes. Plus, it forces me push my body and spirit to be better. To even have any sort of chance of anyone listening, I would have to be able to beat the Elder monk of our temple. And the spirits only know how many others." Cakkarak says, nodding more to himself. "But, trying to undo something that corrupted the iskar for almost all of our history?" Cakkarak shakes his head as if he had just heard what had come out of his muzzle. "Although, how to remove a poison that has fester and seeped into the iskar, is rather beyond me. For the time being."
Cakkarak looks over at Loki, considering his request to learn Iskar. He was about to tell the dark elf "no", just the thought of teaching the language of his people seemed wrong somehow. Of course, that was more of the near brainwashing that took place in his youth responding more then anything. He could see the benefit in knowing an extra language.
"I agree, only if you teach me the language of your people," the iskar tells the necromancer.
"And Kur'Plugh what about you? Big plans?" Cakkarak asks the ogre, whom was back to admiring his new ring.
The iskar monk looks over at his allies.
"Alright, Lilith has aided us in battle and the ritual. In addition, she is a source of information concerning an annoying gnome that is soon going to be broken into several smaller pieces. I see no problems if she continues to travel with us." Cakkarak pause for a moment, and looks over at the ogre shaman. "And I'm sure Kur'Plugh is tired of healing everyone all the time."
Piter sits, tired and badly injured. There is a huge cut across his chest, and he takes his armor off and starts to attend to it with the supplies he has.
"Do any of you have any curing spells?" He looks at Kur'Plugh.
Now that he's a recipient of one tome, he wonders if he can sense the others. He looks up, and far in the distance, to determine if he can.
(HP: 2/50, Mana 4/10)
Piter: Sadly, that ability is no longer active, it seems like it was only due to the result of a person reading the tome, since they were no longer active until someone had read one of them.
Lilith gives a another chuckle, then says " Sorry to disipont you Loki, but grand plots don't appear to be grand plots, until after one has amassed much wealth and power. It seems like you are on the right path, but I'm sure that as you travel, more will be revealed to all of us, after all you do have a bard traveling with you.
Lilith walks over to Loki and casts a spell healing some of his wounds.
Kur'Plugh gives a sigh then casts another spell, glad that he was able to amass much more mana.
Piter
" Well I'll need to spend a some time to regain my mana, once I have done that, I'll help heal anyone who needs it. " The ogre says.
" Big plans? Right now it seems that chasing down the tomes and unlocking the knowledge they contain. Plus I'd like to make sure that no one else can benefit from these books, binding spirits without the proper training, can result in common folk unleashing a gate to another plane, or having those that have died many years ago come back to continue their plans, is to much trouble. " Kur'Plugh says, his long term goals were more or less traveling with the party, where ever it might take them.
There were too many questions to answer about this quest, which made him wonder why the others accepted it so readily:
- There was a spirit ogre flitting about in the ethos looking to steal their vitality. Kur'plugh, a bare neophyte in mystical knowledge, somehow knew everything about this creature.
- Strange unexplainable magics, beyond anything that the well-read Loki had ever found in his many tomes, were commonplace, especially being wielded by their ogre, who apparently was a psychic and a shaman and....
- There was the old man who handed them his tome, but did not want the power for himself. It made no sense if he was too principled to rip the still-beating hearts from the chests of the innocent, why he would take part in the ritual at all, or even speak to the party. What was his goal?
- They were to track tomes, but no longer had the ability to sense them, which forced them to constantly trust strangers seemingly at random that popped up understanding far more then they.
Loki never liked being a pawn, and liked this seemingly constant state of ignorance even less. At every turn their choices were being made for them by forces unseen.
That stopped now.
"I am for Freeport to kill this gnome and confront this old man. There are questions that need to be answered."
Teir'dal would be taught to the lizardman in exchange for the tongue of the iksar.
Loki (32/32 hit points, 4/64 mana) shakes his head wondering what in the 9 hells Lilith is talking about in terms of "grand plots", he fixes his gaze squarely upon Lilith and repeats, "Tell us about your master." There is emphasis on each individual word, so it will not be missed again.
The jury was still out on whether the necromancer would sign off on Lilith joining their party. This was a woman that apparently put food on her table as a sellsword, likely a Scattered Ember, but if she could be trusted no longer had allegiance to the gnome. Thus far she was not the "source of information" that both Cakkarak and Loki had expected her to be.
" Alright, sorry, your face is very expressive for someone who has spent a long time reading between words. My current 'master' is a higher up in Freeport, in the town guards, the captin of the guards to be more precise. He learned from the gnome who was your capture about all of you, I tired of his brutish ways of dealing with his messes. The true person that I serve is seeking for a way to remove the current lord of Freeport, he has been bad for business. My master's name is Gerrad, a wizard of some small renowned, who seeks to shape things behind the scenes. While he serves neither good nor evil, he keeps a balance as best as he can. Right now he says the scales are truly off center, at times he sends me out to help balance somethings out. He has other agents, I usually operate by myself I was passing through Freeport when he sent a message, that an old friend of his needed some help."
Lilith pauses letting the words sink in " The elder one who told me a few things about you, has been looking at signs and using a little bit of magic to read the possible future, gave me the land that you were traveling too. He is a cryptic old bastard, he didn't give me an acute location where you where at. I had to spend a lot of my resources and I had to call in a few favors to track you down, as for the old man's name I don't know it, I only know him as the Elder one."
" I only know that helping you find more tomes will help you out, perhaps it will be what you seek, or at the very least give you the foundation for your path. I want to help you out in the ways that I can, I don't want to spend the rest of my life at someone else beck and call. Perhaps when we go back to Freeport we can find more information about the Tomes, if you wish me to help you that is."
Lilith is telling the truth, she wants to help you out her reasons involve power.
Kur'Plugh:
" Well now that we chased off the gnomes, we should check to see if the cave is empty, there might be some more knowledge that we can glean, before heading back to Freeport." The ogre suggests.
Lilith had said that she was sent by the gnome when the gnome had hired the Scattered Embers, but it now appears that the gnome was not her master. She was sent by the master of the guard, but also answered to the Elder one at the behest of a wizard named Gerrad, and the gnome as well.
Loki rubs his eyes with the tips of his index finger and thumb.
"Tell me of the gnome and what you know of the tomes."
Cakkarak nods, agreeing that the gnome that was hiring these assassins needed to die. As he stands, listening to the conversation unfold, he hears Kur'Plugh raise a fair point. The monk watches the dark elf
After Lilith tells them what she knows about the gnome and the tomes, the iskar had a few minutes to sort out everything in his head. Her actual master seemed to have rather uphill battle if he was trying to restore balance in Freeport.
"Kur'Plugh brought up a decent enough point. Now that the gnolls are dead and we have a rough map, we might as well check out the cave," Cakkarak says. "I doubt the former slaves are going to be staying in there for any length of time. They had a lot of new mouths to feed."
"If they were in a hurry to leave, we might find a coin, or a few of that mages spells," the monk rubs the underside of black-green scaled snout. "It might help to fund our trip back to Freeport. Or give us some clue as to what was going down there."
Lilith says with a sigh " All I know about the Tomes, they usually consume the souls of the whoever reads from them. From what little I have been able to read, this could be a cycle that might be broken. I've tracked down some reports that seems to start 100 years, this is the first time that anyone has managed to pull anything back from the tomes. There could be a hint of where the next tome could be, but I don't know." Lilith says.
" The gnome, just want's petty revenge he also is living in mortal fear of all of you. Now he changes out from which apartment he stays in, to certain taverns."
Piter nods, and says, "I vote for the mines too. After first resting up, of course. I would still like to understand more of the books. How many are there, and where are they? And what did this ritual have to do with the tome, other than that it was written in there."
Loki nods in agreement that they should return to the mines.
"Perhaps..," Cakkarak pauses as if searching for the right words. "Perhaps the spirit that has been bound to each of us acts as armor of a sort. To prevent soul-devouring. Loki's sheer willpower probably helped to keep his soul in place." The iskar nods in the dark elf's direction.
"A theory. It might have something to do with this cycle that Lilith speaks of, weakening the tomes abilities to soul drain," Cakkarak taps his chin in thought. The monk shrugs slightly, and then looks over at Kur'Plugh.
"I know you told us back on the island, but would you mind going over what you know about the tomes once more?" the iskar ask the ogre shaman. It had been a fair bit of time since the frozen isle.
As they rested for a little while to regain mental strength, Cakkarak began to piece together a training schedule to teaching Loki his language. Starting simply, he would make sure the dark elf had the basics down for moving onto full words and sentences.
Kur'Plugh reminds Cakkarak and the others about the Tomes, that an ogre shaman had found a way to trap spirits, that one should never have been able to be bonded.
Sazs, had written some ideas, theories in fact, on how to bargain with those that live just beyond our sight. The spirits that I commune with, are forces of the world and in some cases, powerful creatures that left enough of a mark or powerful enough to reach others. However I don't know as much as I should, I've had grandfather spirit here for as long as I can remember." Kur'Plugh touches his chest, then his head.
" After a while it can get hard to hear yourself think, in one case a spirit can take control of weak will person, or overcome one who is trained as well. Sazs found a way to tap into the power of the spirits, then drain them to fuel his Mana to heights not thought of."
Kur'Plugh sighs hearing not only his grandfather spirit, but another voice whispering to him, trying to tempt him to free it. The last time that voice had been heard his village had been burnt to the ground, shaking his head slightly he clears his throat.
" When a shaman grows in power and understanding, the spirits will demand less payment from him, as some of them grow off a shaman energy. Not enough to weaken the shaman, but they reach an understanding, and some require a pact. That only happens when a shaman reaches a spirit of vast power, of course this is how I was trained, it could be different for other shamans." Kur'Plugh rumbles trying to block our the other whispering that he can hear.
The journal entries are difficult to understand fully reading them makes your head heart, the gist of the theories require a sacrifice of some kind and Loki can feel the book beating in tune with his heart beat. Loki can also feel a very faint pulse, coming from a distance, you think that there can be other tomes that didn't get destroyed.
The journal describes great tomes of insight for Shamans, Monks, Necromancers, and Shadow Knights. Each Tome will have a test, as a spirit was bound into each of the tomes. That test varies on for each person, the Tomes of Sazs will bind themselves with a creature until that creature dies, then they will lie dormant for another to test them.
This Ritual allowed for all to benefit from the spirit that was bound into the tome, the spirit was placed into pieces and given to all that had completed the ritual. Each tome will have a ritual that you will need to complete, that way there will be less chance at needed a will save vs death/having your soul ripped from your mortal body and bond forever for the primordial spirit to torture.
Lilith chimes in that this has happened in the past, as some fools have tried to read the books without the rituals and their souls' were consumed by the spirit. This allows the Tomes to have more power, and with the ones that have been powered by the souls of those who didn't protect themselves, more power can be had.Each Tome will have a different ritual, but will need to be taken to a place of power, allowing the readers of the tomes a better chance to wrest from the spirit, a better boon.
Cracking open the Tome, every notices that there are new words written in place of the old ones, the former pages were all about theories that made your head ache from just trying to understand them. The new words read as such:
Those that have completed the first reading will know now that another chance that Sazs to be resurrected has been stopped. The Vessel for Sazs and his companions will find the clues required in Freeport, for the one known as the Elder one has information, for he was a fool that had read from the madness of Sazs... When he was his apprentice, the Elder one has been alive for 400 years at least. His penitence for dabbling with forces beyond his control, cursed him with eternal life one without joy, without being able end his pitiful life, siring sons and daughters, watching them grow old and die, reliving the cycle until you five could be spun again to the mortal coil.
Know that Vessel, can die, but the others infusing his life will bring him back.... at a price.
The rest of the night is spent pondering over the turn of events resting, keeping an eye on some members of the party, eating and studying the map. With a little bit of luck you are able to find out thanks to the map, where some of the traps are. Perhaps that is all of them, but you have a sneaking suspicion that more are going to be around.
The tome that the group had received from the Elder one, this answers a few questions, as why he didn't read from the book, as more then likely his will was no match for the Necromancer's, or he was afraid of facing Sazs.
Loki starts to methodically scour the underground complex, starting in the worked stone part of the complex where Swenj had first appeared from, and working his way to the hewn parts of the caves, using the map to guide his steps.
He knew not if more gnolls were returning, so he was positive that he did not wish to spend anymore time there than needed.
Piter keeps his vial of antitoxin handy as he searches the complex with the others. Anything and everything is of interest to him, but he's not keen to fight more gnolls, and at least one of those fought above had got away. If there is something of value down here still, he and possibly others may come back to retrieve it.
Cakkarak simple helps scout around. Everyone is still close lipped from events of the ritual.
Traveling back to the cave that you climbed out from, the stench of decay hit’s your nose informs you that you are headed in the right direction. Climbing down the hole again is quickly completed, not to mention that you quickly see the ladder that Piter at one point could have climbed to allow him to rein death from above.
Back tracking to where you fought Swinj doesn’t take too much effort, after all the flash fried Iksar is a good land mark to inform you where you are. The dried blood from various wounds also leaves a testament of the battle, shaking off the effects of remembering the battle, you all press on.
Loki: you are able to memorize your path so far, and the good news is that the few traps that were on the map, you have a good idea where not to step. You see some arrows thrown on the floor, along with dried blood, the raw cave walls and floor transition into smooth evenly carved walls, ceiling and floor. The ceiling is 30'' high, the room 10' wide and 35' long. There are two alcoves 15' down, a door on the east wall 25' down, and straight west of it a corridor. Continuing to the 30' mark reveals a set of grand stairs leading up 10' to a set of double doors that look to be made of brass.
The doors are open it seems that someone must have forgotten their manners and left both doors open. About halfway down the passage why lie another two arrows, no dried blood can be found; the alcoves seemly hold nothing expect what could be remains of some fluid better left unidentified. Looking through the open double doors; you see a room 15' long by 10 wide, which opens both east and west to corridors. Two mummified guardians, literally parchment-thin skin draped lovingly over decaying bones and entombed in rotting treated linens, stand silent guardian over the entryway. The shredded remains of rope can be seen.
Near the doorway is a goblet knocked over on its side, with a rat greedily licking the contents… whatever was left inside it. Small lumps sit in the corner, and the room itself has a stench to it. It reminds you of the ship that you were on briefly as slave masters, then as slaves, a few buckets sit next to the small lumps, and one small bucket with a ladle sits in the center. Upon closer inspection the water in the bucket to the center is stagnant and maybe half full.
A passageway to the left can be seen and when the group goes farther along, it splits off into two different paths; one is to the right, while the other one holds a door that is closed off.
A blue-black thumb absently traces the contours of the ring that was now permanently affixed to his finger.
Loki considers the blood for a few moments, imagining the goodly saps standing in this very place and being impaled multiple times by the hidden traps. Their pain brought forth a contented smile.
He wondered if it would kill the owner of the blood if he got a sample of it and paid for a resurrection. Such thoughts were best left for when he was rich enough to buy a continent.
Leaving one of the walking mounds of muscle to take the lead the necromancer moves behind them to examine every nook and cranny of the complex.
Loki: The alcove closest to the door has a slight draft, you are just barely able to feel the draft; even dark elves are somewhat lucky enough to feel a breeze of 'fresh' air; it must be the ears.
You make a note to have the walking mounds to check out as soon as they get done securing this part of the cave. Also take a look down the side tunnel, you notice a curious thing, a lever in the wall.
Piter is very careful around the areas that seemed to be trapped. He holds his shield in front of any suspect holes or cracks, and makes his way around the complex, looking for anything interesting.
Search:
Loki remains behind those that have signed up under the vocation of "arrow magnet" or "meat shield" and permits them to make the choices as to where they go and how quick.
The necromancer looks at the map to see if the lever is marked in any way, and directs the group along the path to the rooms that will require the least exploration first, methodically ensuring that they have seen everything in the fastest way possible.
The lever is marked but no wording on what it does, it seems to be a bit of a mystery, as it is in the upright position. In the same room where the buckets and where the 'mummy's' are standing guard, there are two doors, the door that looks like it leads into a possible storeroom, the oother door is locked as Piter finds out. So far Piter has not found anything interesting, except for the arrows, and the locked door. After 20 minutes, Piter unlocks the door and upon opening said door, you see smoothly carved walls and a ceiling that is worked as well, along with three doors.
Loki marks the location of the lever and continues to search the complex.
Looking down the finished hallway, and spotting the three doors, Cakkarak stops. He looks back at the lever still in the upright position. The monk had little knowledge or training in the things of a mechanical nature. Sure, he knew were to strike a living being to cause pain, crippling nerve injuries, or possibly death. The inner workings of a lock, not so much.
"Does it seem plausible that the lever back there controls the traps," the iskar asks the others quietly. Like the others, talking had been kept to a minimum. If there were any more gnolls, or other living guards, they didn't need to alert them to the groups presence.
Looking at the mummified bodies, almost standing at attention, Cakkarak's cold, green eyes narrow. The monk stares hard at the preserved bodies, mind whirling.
"Loki, do you have the power to animate these mummified bodies? Or control them if they are waiting to strike?" Cakkarak asks the dark elf.
Turning his gaze to Pieter, he nods at the human and them looks back down the hallway.
"Well Pieter, should we check the first of the three doors?" Cakkarak asks as he looks back down the smoothed hall.
Loki is cloaked head to foot in robes the colour of damp ashes, with a face almost invisible, for it is ever carefully concealed within the shadow of his broad hood.
His shoulder rise and lower in a shrug. The inner workings of levers and traps were unknown to him. "Plausible, yes. To this point we have been able to avoid the traps using the map. Should that change this lever would be a good thing to mark."
The necromancer shakes his head, "Such spells are in my future, but are unknown to me now."
The door 15 ft away from the party, facing you from where you entered this chamber that Piter just unlocked, from the east, explodes, as the shrapnel from the door pings off your armor and clothing, an unholy howl shakes all you to your soul.
The smoke from the door, obscures your vision for a few moments, along with the sting of wood, you catch the glimpse of something large and scaly. It looks like someone had taken a iksar, bottle fed it steroids as an egg, then that same iksar, kept taking the steroids. This creature fills up the doorway, while not large sized, it is diffidently on the very top range of medium.
By the way it points at all of you then:
The necromancer works to determine the spell that had been cast their way.
Spellcraft:
Loki fails to get out of the way (22/40 hit points).
Reflex Save (vs. DC 18):
"Perhaps that lever should be pulled."
Cakkarak nods in Loki's direction when the necromancer tells them that he was currently unable to control or animate a mummified body. However, later would be another story all together. Making sure Pieter was ready to go, the iksar gets ready to walk down the hallway.
Walking down the hallway, the monk is suddenly blasted as the door explodes. His training had kicked in before Cakkarak's brain had become fully aware something was wrong. Brushing a bit of debris off of his shoulder, the monk scaled maw opens, about to say something vaguely snarky.
A deep roar echoes down the hallway. The iskar stares at the reptilian creature, his eyes refusing to blink. It's roar had threatened to shake his very soul free from it's fleshy moorings. Before Cakkarak could breathe a word, the powerful looking reptile pointed at them.
Bone chilling cold suddenly washed over the blackish-green scales of the iskar monk. Cakkarak had already been shifting his body when the overly muscled reptile had pointed it's claws their way. The training the monk had survived growing up in, had left him pretty much always expecting to be attacked.
"Now might be a good time to find out," Cakkarak shakes ice from his green reptilian eyes as he glances at Loki.
Loki: Column of Frost but with a twist, there is something very odd about the spell's energy.
The put's himself in a monk like fighting stance, waiting to see who would be the first to bring the attack to him. Strangely enough something about the spell seems a bit off to those of you who took the damage.
Piter was being careful but an exploding door was beyond his capability to deal with. To top that, a dragon sticks its head out and breathes a blast of cold fluid at them, so cold that steam surrounds it and crystals of ice form in the air. The blast unexpectedly goes to Piter's left, but he had lifted his left foot in preparation to jump left; all that remains for him is to crouch down, and hold his shield in front of him. But it's not enough, and the icy death hits him head on.
Reflex save:
His skin burns with cold as he looks for a place to hide alternatively an opening in the dragon's defenses.
(HP: 43/61, Mana 18/18)
Will Save (vs. DC 18):
The good news, the damage that you just took no longer matters and the massive Iksar as a slight sheen and translucent, you realize that this is a hallucination as the dust from the exploded door is releasing a fast acting toxin.
Loki you realize this a heartbeat before Lilith calls out " Fall back, this is a poison that we have all breathed in, it will quickly render all of us unconscious then the heart gives out, the longer we stay in this area the worse we get."
Fort Save (vs. DC 16):
Success! The toxin proves no match to your body's immune system, as the cloud finishes dispersing, you see that the door did indeed explode, due to Piter stepping on a pressure plate that was cleverly hidden in the floor. So far Loki is the only one who is now unaffected from the toxin known as Mind Rot.
Piter's Fort save:
Piter notices a smell, something, and he exhales a bit and stops breathing. Then he moves back to the entrance of the room before breathing in, through his shirt sleeve.
(HP: 61/61, Mana 18/18)
At the female cleric's words, Cakkarak looks at the massive Iskar a bit more closely. It was somewhat shiny, and more importantly, vaguely translucent. He just then realizes that they had walked right into a trap. At least the cold had been just in his mind, as opposed to actually freezing his black-green scales. He had just about enough of that when they found the mage using hearts to empower himself.
'Perhaps the next time we are in Freeport, we should think about hiring out some expendable assests,' the iskar monk thinks briefly. With a mental snap the iskar brings his focus back to the present. Cakkarak exhales sharply, nostrils clamping shut as if he had dove under the surface of the water. Moving in a graceful, fluid manner, the monk holds his breath and backs out of the hallway.
Cakkarak: you manage to stagger out from the cloud and you start to succomb to the effects of the toxin, Lilith mutters a few words and the poison is quickly removed from your system.
Loki: You and everyone else, are able to map out the cave, there are a few spots on the map that have locked doors that will have to either be smashed opened or picked.
Not much has been found so far, after a few hours you have found that there is a sideboard along with a cage, that is unlocked. The sideboard is still locked, strangely enough, but perhaps the others who helped killed Swenj grabbed what they were able to and left.
Going back to the way you came down from the surface, where the battle took place with the others and Swenj. There are two paths, the first path seems to lead to the next level down where as, the other path to the north.
Loki continues to methodically search the complex.
For "continues to methodically search the complex"
Map o' the cave
You have mapped out this floor.
Loki: You find bits of cast off chain, hunks of ore of some kind with a hint of brown, broken bowls, skeletal remains, broken pick axes, more rocks, the walls have been worked smooth in most of this level of the cave.
At least a gallon of dried blood all over in various parts of the cave; gnoll fecal matter; the skeletal remains of an elf; unknown species, about 40 cots, a hole in the ground that even your vision cannot see the bottom of.
It looks like one part slave mining camp, one part crude torture area, and one part dentition center.
Loki draws up the map to locate exactly where the group is in the complex, and then examines the room for possible discrepancies.
The Teir'dal takes a moment to walk about the room, searching for anything of value, while being careful not to step on something he might rue.
"When we are ready to depart there might be benefit in remotely pulling that lever and seeing what transpires."
Nodding his thanks to Lilith, Cakkarak shakes the lingering effects of the poison off.
Almost falling to the air born poison had one added benefit, the iskar had discovered. He was certainly more on guard then was a sort while ago. Cakkarak had aloud himself to drop his guard a little and had almost paid the price for it. He wasn't sure if Kur'Plugh could cure poison, and the monk wan't in a hurry to get poisoned again to find out.
The iskar monk continues to help search as best as he can. They stop at the still locked sideboard. Cakkarak cocks his head to the side as he looks it over.
"Yup, certainly looks locked. If the former slaves didn't see this, then they must be completely blind," Cakkarak looks at Pieter, a grin almost lighting the monks face. "I defer to your expertise in the opening of such things. I would say smash it open, but there could be something breakable in there," the iskar shrugs his scaled shoulders slightly.
Piter winces, and looks at Lilith. "Do you have more poison remedies? I know nothing of defeating traps..."
While waiting for an answer he begins searching the locked furniture for traps, starting by not touching it at all.... If he finds nothing this way, he'll later use his fingers and thieves tools to look in the right places.
Search:
Lilith nods then says " Yes, I do thankfully I was thinking ahead on that front." Piter: you find no traps on the objects you are searching, then again bards were not known for finding traps like a rogue could.
Loki: You and the others are still in the room with a cage in it. Nothing seems to stick out that is off from the map you have, and everything that you have explored so far tells you of any secret passages. You know of one possible hidden chamber and that is back in with the alcoves.
This room has a music box that is playing an annoying childish tune to it, not to mention that it feels like a very creepy tone do your current surroundings. The rooms decor itself appears to be furnished in at one point in time quite nice drapes, furniture, the sideboard, a mirror, and a table with two chairs. Time and the environment has tarnished the mirror and there is a slight smell of rot and mildew. The table looks with a lot of TLC like it might be salvageable, but all in all, most of the contents of this room is ruined.
Loki places his ear against the door and attempts to assist Piter in determining what is beyond.
Listen:
"I would advise that we hurry, for we know not how many gnolls, or other creatures, might be returning to this place now that the master is dead. This place is looking like it is a waste of time, with us only finding things that are endangering us. It looks like the goodly saps cleared it out of anything useful."