Boomkin flips the basket over and the key goes flying and the wadded cloth flips out.
A very disturbed, writhing, small green viper falls out of the wadded cloth and strikes at Tromos!
Dazed by being so upset (literally), the viper misses. It now draws back, defensively.
The small viper is poisonous, but unlikely to cause death in healthy individuals.
Normal snakes like this are unlikely to strike if not disturbed, and do not chase people. You're safe if you stay a few feet away from it.
The turns and turns in the lock, but never connects with a mechanism.
As you work it, though, you see the chest fade until it is only the outline of a chest. It was an illusion!
Tromos tries the jeweled brass key in the steel cube and it breaks, then crumbles into dust!
The key from the wicker basket is made of a blue stone and is etched with runes.
Herman notices that the runes on the blue stone key do, indeed, match the runs on the red-lacquered chest.
The red-lacquered chest opens, revealing a key forged into the end of a jeweled scepter. (A careful inspection reveals that the jewels are mere costume jewelery.)
Several of you also hear a click and whirring and, looking about the room, see a small golden key has come through a slit in the 15 foot ceiling, hanging on a string about 6 inches down.
Storn, perhaps with the help of the table, gets Amaruu up onto his shoulders and everyone else helps Herman get stably up onto Amaruu's shoulders, and Herman unties and retrieves the small gold key. Back down, you now have two keys and the steel cube chest and the lock on the door.
As it turns out, the gold sceptered key opens vault door.
Boomkin tries the small gold key in the steel chest and it opens, but then there is a *Poof* that fills much of the room with ... blue for a moment.
You think it was the Prestidigitation spell.
Everyone but Xeno successfully resists; Xeno turns blue.
Inside the chest you find the map of the Salhar burial vaults beneath Sothis and a wand.
In is a Wand of Knock (CL 3rd, 11 charges).
When you open the vault door and go to leave, you see the servant who is taking notes on the condition of the room and of each of you. He then tells you that you can keep the map and wand, but asks you to give back any keys you may have.
After leaving Dremdhet Salhar's mansion, you head back with all four tasks accomplished. When you are passing through the Foreign Quarter on the way to the Grand Lodge, a throng of people blocks the street ahead. A performance art group commandeers the street, drawing graffiti to create a jolly hellscape complete with illusory devils comically dancing around in circles. A few citizens avoiding the crowd slip off-street through a nearby alley, the only egress past the gathering.
As you go down the alley - not for the first time today - some of you notice that something is wrong this time. Amaruu, Boomkin, Herman, and Xeno - who noticed the halfling - and see him again in front of you. Amaruu, Boomkin, Herman, and Storn's earlier sense motive also allows them to act, forewarned of this danger.
You see:
- the halfling, now with a greataxe;
- a woman who may be the previous red-haired woman, now wearing a Norgorber mask and wielding a short sword;
- a blond woman smiling maniacally; and
- a brown-haired man in a brown cloak wielding a rapier.
The maniacal woman just finishes an incantation and sudden mists emanates out from her, obscuring the group! (The areas with the orange dots are obscured: all vision, including darkvision stops after 5', partial concealment at less than that.)
The halfling charges out of the mist toward Boomkin, raging and swinging his greataxe with all of his power!
But too much power is put behind the swing and the halfling misses with his deadly blow!
The brown-cloaked man moves forward in a position around the corner of the building.
The red-haired masked woman casts a spell, but the obscuring mists make it very difficult to tell what it is.
It is shield of faith.
There are more sounds of spellcasting from the mist, but it is impossible to see.
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Herman will advance to the square in front of Tromos, and casts Ear Piericing Scream on the halfling who charged the group.
"Is this one of the tests? Who ARE these crazy people?" Herman shouts to no one in particular.
Amaruu - feeling that his true talents are being put to use at last - charges and punches the halfling, the spikes of his gauntlet piercing deeply into his shoulder.
The halfling winces and recoils as if hearing an ear-piercing scream that he alone can hear.
Boomkin adds to the halfling's woes, causing a sudden stormburst to appear over his head, buffeting him.
The brown-cloaked man, though, is skilled in ways you haven't seen before, and Amaruu feels flanked even though he has both of his foes in front of him. His deadly rapier thrust, however, cannot connect, especially given the intervening building.
The halfling now attacks again, this time swing his greataxe against Amaruu, slashing deeply across Amaruu's chest!
The red-haired, masked woman steps forward and casts a spell, and touches the halfling, causing his wounds to seal up completely.
The blonde woman steps forward in the mists - laughing maniacally - and casts a spell, causing a bolt of energy to leap from her fingertips and find its way unerringly to Amaruu's wounded chest, causing him to go down!
The raging halfling shakes off Herman's spell.
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The alchemist observes as the red-haired woman draws an item from her pack. Through the fog, he can barely make out a parchment inscribed with divine runes. Focused on his arcane recollections, he is half-oblivious to the melee occurring in the middle of the alley.
"The red-haired woman has armored her companion in divine magicks," Tromos announces to his companions.
He steps a few feet forward to gain a better view of their attackers. He draws another flask, and after the short preparations hurls it towards the halfling.