Arya and Elaina combine to dice the creature to its final death.
Grimacing in pain Valghaz looked down at the corpse. He felt like he should have known what it was, but the answer was on the tip of his tongue. He settled on saying "Fine work everyone. Damned abomination would likely have gutted me iffin' ye lot weren't here. Hopefully that'll be the last o' them an' we can get out of this hole."
Mimi hands a small flask to Valghaz. "Drink this, it will help heal you. Until just recently my formulae were keyed to my physiology only and would make anyone else ill. But I think I've solved the problem."
Mimi then approaches the undead corpse, giving it a couple of nudges with her foot to make sure there are no surprises. When it doesn't respond, she takes out her dagger and uses it to help remove the bolt she shot from the body. She studies both the bolt's iron tip, and the wound. Afterward she makes a few notes in a journal about how well her new device is working so far.
Arenel let out a low sigh as she leaned closer to Valghaz in case he needs to lean on someone.
"Are you alright? Do you have any healing that you have left?" Arenel asked. Then Mimi handed him a flask. "Or drink that... I gues.." She said with a small shrug and a smile. "Also please tell me that door there leads us out." She stated as she pointed to the door on the far wall.
Valghaz greatfully nodded at Mimi as he put his arm around Arenel, though truth be told he didn't really need the support. He drank the potion and felt the claw wounds close. As the flesh knitted together he focused on the injury, willing the last of his divine channeling to finish closing the wound.
"Thank ye, Mimi. Yer craft an' generosity speak volumes. An' Arenel..." he let it go with a smile as he took his arm off and patted her on the back.
"Lets get out o' here. Bet ye ne'er thought a dwarf say that he can't wait to get above ground to see the light, eh?"
"You're um, welcome." Arenel said as she pushed a bit of her hair out of her face.
"Isn't there an old fable that dwarves who've never been above ground believe they'll fly off into the sky?" Arenel asked with a small smirk.
Elaina wanders back through the hallway and plops down in the shallows of the pool, hands over her ears, dazed from her proximity to Mimi's bomb. She asks, looking up at the others in confusion, almost shouting.
"Aye, that there is. But while many think it be a joke, there is a seam o' gold in that. Y'see, many dwarves refuse to leave their mountain homes. They be born underground, they live there an' they die there. Sure, they might poke their heads up once in awhile. Some might e'en spend a few years up top. But their hearts be in the mountains. They've got somethin' which we call 'stone sense.' They can jus' tell when there be somethin' off with the stone. Such as a ceilin' which isnae as sturdy as it looks, a secret door, ye ken? It be part of them. But the thing is, iffin' ye live above ground for to long, ye 'fall into the sky.' Ye lose ye stone sense. I, for example, have fallen into the sky. Me family came here when I was but a wee lad. I think that I once had the sense, but I barely remember. Sometimes I think that I jus' think I did because the elders talk about it, especially when they be complainin' about dwarves like me, bein' born in the cities away from tradition n' whatnot. Anyways, that's the long an' short o' it."
Then, with Elaina shouting in his ear, he turns to her and says "Aye lass, mayhaps. Ye did stab the beastie mighty hard, an' ye used magic. But more likely it was Mimi's bombs. Ye alright?"
Elaina near-shouts, no sign of comprehension on her face. The bard gains her unsteady legs, equilibrium thrown off by the ringing in her ears, and wobbles over to the alchemist. She places one hand gently on Mimi's cheek and gives her a reassuring smile, then squeezes the woman's hand.
"Huh, I feel like there is a story there." Arenel told Valghaz with a small smile before she looked to Elaina. The annoyed look returning to her face. "Just when I thought she couldn't get more annoying." She muttered.
She patted Valghaz on the shoulder before moving to the door and giving it a look over. "Shall we see if this is our saving grace?" She asked the group.
Arya wipes down her blade and stoops to examine the body of her fallen foe while Arenel and Valghaz discuss dwarven superstitions nearby. She listens in as she searches for anything valuable she might take as a prize, quite fascinated by the dwarven culture.
When Arenel approaches the door, Arya smiles.
"I'd say so, let's get out of here."
Mimi is just finishing her notes on the wound and the acid's effect on the bolt tip when Elaina pounces. She had been concentrating, not paying attention to what anyone else was saying, so she hasn't the slightest idea what Elaina is screaming about.
That she's screaming in her face and patting her face and hand makes a chill run up her spine. More time with Elaina has convinced Mimi that while Elaina might be manageable most of the time, she truly is unhinged. Working hard not to pee herself, Mimi responds to Elaina, forcing a large smile. "T..thank you" she squeaks.
The poor girl is obviously upset! Elaina thinks, seeing Mimi's nervousness. She takes her hand and tugs her towards the not-so-hidden door; the only possible way out of the cave for them. "Come on, Mimi, I'm cold. Let's go find the sun." She says in what she thinks is a soothing tone, her volume more moderate as her hearing returns. As she pulls her captive along, she hops over the rotting body in the center of the room and wonders who it was. Probably another vampire pirate smuggler, eaten by his own creations.
Arya: You find nothing of interest on the corpse of the creature you just fought.
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Now that the distraction of the undead is passed, you notice some more details about the other corpse in the room. It's dark, almost black flesh bulges against its armor. An intricate tattoo of a dragon clutching a flower is barely visible on his shoulder against the diseased flesh, and clutched in one hand is a crumpled scroll.
--------------------------------------------------------
Elaina and Mimi: The air in the next chamber is stale, yet unlike the other chambers in the complex, the place seems quite dry - even dusty. Cobwebs hang in thick sheets from the ceiling, and against the northern wall sit three large sea chests.
Finding nothing of interest on the body of the creature, Arya reaches over and pulls the scroll from the clutches of the rotting corpse.
"What's this?" She says as she opens up the note.
The scroll reads:
These bones once be Penkus, so if ye read this, I be dead, laid low by the sick put on me by that foul dead thing! Yet even as me flesh wracks, know t'was not the dead what brought my doom, but one I 'til recently called friend.
Vanthus Van Rebvorn! Your name fills me we bile! Spineless, treacherous cur! You left us here to die. You left ME here to die, after all what I done t'get ye into th'Lotus! Yer designs on the Lady of the Lotus be clear now, and with meself out th'way...ye doubtless move even now into power, slithering amid my vacancy like a hermit crab in a shell, or a cadaver worm to still warm flesh. CURSE UPON YE!
To th'one what reads this. If ye have any honor or vengeance in yer soul, know that Vanthus must die. He dwells in the lap o'th'Lotus, below th'Taxidermist's Hall. Seek him there, but 'fore he dies he must ken it were Penkus what undid him and guides yer killing blow.
And if, by some cruel spite of fate, it be ye what read this, Vanthus, know with certainty I wait for ye beyond, where I intend t'rival the pit itself in yer torment!
Elaina shrieks with joy when she sees the chests and she charges for them, dragging her hapless victim along. "Look, Mimi! It's treasure! Just like in the stories! You conquer the evil vampire pirate lord and find his fortune!" The bard's already high-pitched voice rises to an almost unintelligible, excited squeak as she explains to the alchemist. She releases Mimi's hand and pushes against the lid of the center chest.
The chest's lid does not budge - each of them has what looks to be sturdy locks on them.
Arya stuffs the scroll into her backpack as she moves in to the next room.
Sounds like Vanthus is a real piece of work.
Walking over to the centre chest Arya places her hand on Elaina's shoulder.
"Please, allow me."
She kneels down in front of the chest and places her pack on the ground beside her, pulling out a set of complex looking tools. Selecting a lock pick of the appropriate size, she begins tinkering with the lock on the front of the chest.
Arya's attempt to pick the lock on the chest is not successful.
"Take yer time pass. I can bash it open but I'd prefer to trust in yer skills first."
"Thank you, Valghaz." Arya sighs after regaining some composure.
"You might want to make yourselves comfortable."
Arya settles in to study the lock and carefully works at picking it.
After being dragged over to the chests by Elaina, Mimi figures a way out of her predicament. Locks! I know something about those!
"You shouldn't touch any of the chests Elaina, evil pirates would almost certainly trap them. Maybe stand back a little too."
Mimi doesn't have lockpicks of her own, but she busies herself by helping Arya identify the lock types, and their various internal workings. This takes some concetration, so she can just ignore the others for a few minutes.
Elaina gasps softly and covers her mouth with her hands, her eyes widening to show the whites. "You're right. What was I thinking?" She whispers and takes a few steps back, standing on her toes to look over the working women's shoulders as they stoop over their lock, her wisps circling Arya's head and quivering with the excitement the bard felt.
With some time and patience, Arya manages to pick the lock on the chest. Opening it reveals a dozen bags. Ten of the bags contain 100 gp. The other two bags contain a small handful of assorted gems. The gems from the pouches total 500 gp of value.
The chest on the left is filled with copper and silver coins (it takes some time to count them all, but it totals 7,500 cp and 1,500 sp).
The chest on the right contains eight vials of liquid, a straight stick with runes carved in it, and a small jade coffer. Inside the jade coffer, resting on a tiny velvet cushion, is a light brown gemstone. A small strip of paper in the coffer identifies the gemstone as an earth elemental gem.
The vials of liquid are described below:
3 vials with a light blue liquid.
1 vial containing a bright yellow liquid.
1 vial containing a bubbling liquid that looks like water.
1 vial with a thick, viscous brown liquid.
1 vial with a bright blue liquid.
1 vial containing a dark blue liquid with small pink bubbles.
While the others count coins and such, Mimi goes to work identifying the potions.
3 vials with a light blue liquid -
1 vial containing a bright yellow liquid -
1 vial containing a bubbling liquid that looks like water -
1 vial with a thick, viscous brown liquid -
1 vial with a bright blue liquid -
1 vial containing a dark blue liquid with small pink bubbles -
Elaina gives an excited squeak, taking the gem bags and poking through them to see if any match her eyes.
Arya's face lights up as she cracks the locks and opens the chests to reveal the treasures inside.
"A fine compensation for getting stuck down here! Here, let's have a look at these gem stones!"
Arya watches as Elaina looks through the pouches, and makes note of the stones represented and what they're worth.
As Elaina lays the gems out one by one on the lid of one of the sea chests, she steals a glance at Arya. She said something nice to Mimi when she turned into a fish. I should say something nice to her for opening the chests. Consciously giving compliments wasn't something Elaina was used to, anything nice she might have to say usually being an emotional outburst when something excited her. "That was... uhm... When you... you know... It was good... With the locks..." She said almost inaudibly, making an obvious effort to keep her eyes on the gems.
After looking through the vials, Mimi tells the others what she's found.
"There are some very goods things here, potions of healing, mostly minor but one quite powerful. A restorative potion, and one for invisibility. There are a couple I haven't been able to figure out, but I'll give them another closer look later."
"Are we sure this doesn't belong to our employer?" Arenel asked as she crossed her arms. "I mean wasn't she told that her brother had been taking things out of the vault?"
"Hm, good question. It shouldn't be too hard to figure out how long the chests have been sitting here. If it's something from the vault, it would have been placed here recently."
The chests, while still solid, have the air of something that has not been touched in many years, perhaps decades or even longer.
Elaina gathers up the gems after she's looked through them, exclaiming "These are the most beautiful shiny rocks I've ever seen!" She then realizes she has no way to carry the bags of precious gems, and sets them back on the chest. "Someone should carry those where they won't get lost. " She offers helpfully, clasping her hands behind her back and looking for anything else of interest in the room.
There are no doors in the room, except the opened secret door from which you came. Likewise, there are no unopened doors in the room with the corpse.
"Okay we didn't miss any doors correct?" Arenel asked as she looked around the room. "How do we get out of here?" She added as she leaned against the wall, slowly sliding down it till she sat on the floor. "I'm starting to lose faith that we'll get out of here..." She muttered.
As Arya finishes appraising the gemstones and counting coins, it begins to dawn on her that this vault has no other exit.
At Arenel's comment the hopeless mood starts to rub off on Arya. All this treasure is worthless if we can't even get ourselves out of here.
"Hmm, wait, Mimi, you did say there was another way out below the water right? A tunnel that the tide flowed through. We just have to find a way past the grate?"
"Someone could tie the rope to the bars, and someone else could pull on it so the bars come out. Not me, though. I'm too delicate." Elaina suggests.
Mimi is completely crestfallen.
"I was sure this would lead to the surface. I don't know what we do now. I really don't think I missed any other openings around here."
When Arya asks about the underwater tunnel Mimi nods affirmatively.
"There is one, yes. But I'm only guessing it leads to open water. There must be some way the sea is connected or there wouldn't be a tide. But there's no way we can remove the grate underwater. It's strong. And who knows how far we'd have to swim underwater if we could?"
"Well fook. There must be somethin' we can do...mayhaps the trap door? Stack chests, rocks, whatnot. Get to the top an' lift it up? Or...it'll take time. But..."
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/a/air-bubble
http://www.d20pfsrd.com/magic/all-spells/b/blessed-fist/
"We can use this!" Elaina announces emphatically, snatching up the case with the brown gem and holding it aloft for the other to see. "I know lots of stuff about elementals, they're very helpful to cute girls like me." She had read of fire elementals in stories. They were never depicted in a pleasant light, usually cruel and evil. But rocks are probably patient. I bet it will help me. "It can tell the rocks on the door to move, then we can get out."
"The gem summons an elemental? Maybe it could just tunnel an exit beside the trapdoor? Oh, and hewing a ladder in the wall up to it would be very nice."
"Well if we're leaving through the trap door, we'd best cross back over the rock pools before the water rises too high again."
Arya looks around at the treasure hoard.
"Everyone grab as much gold as you can carry, in case we can't get back here again."
Elaina pats her skirt. "I don't have any way to carry anything except this." She hold up the gem, then slips it inside her tunic. "So I'm ready to go. Last one to the trapdoor has to stay here forever!" She crosses back over the pool and navigates to the room with the trap door. Once everyone has joined her, she takes a deep breath and hurls the crystal against the wall, not sure what will happen.
"Let's get this done then. This would make for a poor tomb."
"Especially after everything we've done to try and get out of here." Arenel stated as she stood up and helped grab as much as she could as Arya said. "I think we'll be able to get it all if each of us takes as much as we can carry." She said.
Mimi follows along back to the trapdoor, carrying what she can.
Arya loads up her pack with as much of the gold and gemstones as possible and takes out her rope to help out with the crossing back the way they came.
With a little effort, the group collects the treasure and brings it back to the room with the trapdoor in the ceiling. Elaina hurls the elemental gem against a wall, where it smashes into pieces. A mound of rock vaguely shaped like a humanoid emerges from the wall where the gem hit, then merges back into the wall. A moment later, you hear a rumbling sound, and the trap door opens. Sunlight streams into the cave, framing the earth elemental briefly before the creature fades out of existence.
Using some rope and a little ingenuity, the party manages to climb out of the tunnels along with the treasure. You find no trace of Vanthus, but after returning your landing spot, you are relieved to find the boat still there. Rowing back into the city is no problem.