"Let's at least wait until we're ready to leave," she says. "Bringing a child into danger is cruel."
"Indeed." Ellara said, glancing at Julie. You had to be careful with children - especially because they were trying to find one. You had to be careful with things like this, because they could go spectacularly wrong.
"Fair enough, I care not."
"I'm entirely unsure what to make of this find. Let us move on for now. I can only hope to come to terms with it when we return."
"If we move the child, we are responsible for it." she agrees.
As no one wishes to break the sealing spell at this time, what actions would you like to do next?
There were still the two doors on the eastern side of the southeast hallway, and Ellara moved down in that direction, pressing her ear against the first door and trying to listen through it. The sooner they figured out the full layout of this place, the better.
The northern door, while open, had noises from behind it. The more southern door opened into another ruined room - this time, the southern wall had been demolished by either explosives or magic, allowing entry into another section of the city.
"...A good start, I suppose." Ellara said, morphing into a canine form and sniffing as she started exploring past the demolished wall. One way or another, this was probably going to be interesting.
Kiyomi will slide in after the more rugged types.
Julie follows Ellara, confident in her ability to take whatever finds them, but less confident in her ability to find whoever.
Karnelia opts to stay in the backlines, with Little Sister trailing behind, keeping an eye at the rear of the group.
To the west the corridor connects to the ruined area you had previous been to. Two more doors, similar in style to the one you found the fake box behind, stand shut.
To the east, after a short corner, a stairwell leads down into the lower areas of the city.
Ellara moved up to the northern door and judged that open as well, curious to see what else was going to be behind these. Might as well round out this area, then see what was to the south, right?
Opening the doors reveals a morbid sight. It appears someone tried to pick up a box similar to the one you took sometime ago. You can just read on what remains of the lid, To my house, I was bound. Unfortunately, the box had melted somewhat. Equally unfortunately, someone was holding it at the time, and did not survive the process.
"Lady Karnelia, is there any magic left in here?" Ellara asked, looking over her shoulder as she began sniffing the chamber, just to see if she picked up any interesting scents.
"What were the words we were looking for again?" Lady Karnelia asks. All these similar sentences were getting to be quite irritating.
She nods to Ellara, and scans the room for any lingering auras.
"'To my house, am I bound.'" she seems upset at having failed before and the words are burned in her memory.
Julie's fingers tap impatiently on her weapon as she glances to the side. After the others have theorized for a bit..
"Should I just fire blade beams at this one till it breaks from a distance, if it's not the right one, then?"
There is no magic left within the box...but the corpse radiates Necromancy. Something is likely to happen if your disturb either.
"There's no need to disturb it. It will likely have another monster."she says, annoyed at having to deal with this while Amberlae is in danger.
"Yes. I'm expecting an undead surprise, and I'd rather not find out."
Ellara massaged her throat a bit, wondering if she should just torch the corpse and be done with it. Fire solved a great many problems, after all... and frankly, her whole house had always considered undead a bit of an abomination if they weren't being actively controlled or experimented upon. It was one thing to raise a corpse yourself, but natural undead generally needed to be put down.
(Some people wondered why her House felt that way. Mostly, it had a lot to do with public perception. They preferred to be seen as the 'helpful House that could eliminate undead when the priests were busy', rather than 'probably the source of the problem in the first place'.)
The creature registers as dead, but with a curse that will return the creature to some form of life. It was likely part of the trap in the box that killed this poor soul.
"I'm tempted by the possibility of more magical artifacts, but, if you all prefer the safe route, by all means, let's locate some other stupid box."
"Agreed. The sooner we leave this forsaken pit, the better."
-Posted with Wayfinder
To infinity, and the next door.
The passage turns to the South, and heads down a flight of stairs for fourty or so feet. At the end is an impressive set of double doors, showing a scene from one fo the Dwarf holy works.
"Little Sister, do you see anything beyond the door?"
As requested of her, Little Sister shifts to incorporeal form and slowly floats up to the door. She examines it cursorily for anything that could harm her, and then peeks into the next room, trying her best not to be seen.
Beyond the door is a landing. Grand stairs descend further, going deeper into the broken city, now in a vast cavern. Strange lights glow and flicker, illumating the place with a chilling view. Across from the stairs, however, lie the remains of a temple. Something has rent the once grand building asunder. The facade is missing entirely, allowing Little Sister to see inside - and see that in the centre sits a plinth, with a box of gold sitting upon it.
Well, shiny things were interesting. Not necessarily safe, but... interesting.
"Does this one say what we want?"
It takes a little convincing from Lady Karnelia's part, but Little Sister eventually builds up the courage to go further down and peek at the golden box.
The ruins of the holy site are broken and shattered, although the area the pedestal is surprisingly clear. The box says To my house, am I bound, matching the description you have been given.
"I found it! I found it!" Little Sister exclaims as she bursts out of the door. "It's in here!"
"I found it! I found it!"
In her excitement, Little Sister tries to pick up the box, not thinking about potential consequences.
Little Sister took the box. There was no horrifying click, no rise of a pressure plate, no sign at all that the box had been guarded by anything beyond mortal guards when the church was whole.
It was, therefore, something of a shame that no one thought to look up.
After several moments, a strange buzzing noise erupted from the ceiling. Four massive, striped insects of some kind were descending from a monstrous hive of some kind. Likely, this was the lower layer of such a thing, and the Hive itself reached to the surface...but there was no easy way to tell.
Regardless, the creatures seemed to see those who entered as trespassers. Each creature as big as a small horse, and are descending rapidly.
A young girl's very shrill scream makes itself heard from inside the room.
"Aaaaah! Bugs! Really really big bugs! Don't open the doors!"
Karnelia shouts back to her sister. "They can't touch you, sister! Just bring the box back! If anything goes wrong, leave it there and run back to us!"