Searching the boxes turns up nothing of interest until Pizzmic barely notices, hidden in a bag of weevil-infested flour, four interesting vials crudely labeled in Draconic.
The vials do not detect as magical (and nothing else in the room does, either), but Wuliem quickly identifies the vials as alchemist's fire.
This crossroads of stairs has one dominant feature: a crumbled statue in the southeast corner, once the image of a proud warrior chiseled roughly in granite. The statue’s helmeted head now rests on the floor, its lifeless stone eyes gazing toward the south. On the helmet, a single Kelish word is carved in the stone. The wide stairway to the north leads to a passage that ends in a cave-in ten feet past the foot of the stairs.
Looking into the larger room beyond, you see cracked and crumbling frescoes lining the walls of a large empty room. The sections of the frescoes not destroyed by the passing ages show Qadiran men engaged in battle. A rough stone tunnel leads off to the northwest, as if the ground simply cleft in two ages ago. A large pile of bones rests just inside the passage.
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Wuliem --absently--places the vials of Gurk’s Fire Juice into his pockets,while peering around at he rest of the boxes.
He doesn't seem to be aware of his...actions.
Upon entering the next chamber,
Wuliem whistles as he notices the 'once the image of a proud warrior chiseled roughly in granite'.
He moves over toward it, reaching for his journal and inkpen as he does.
Hmmm...this seems interesting.
Actually, there is an idea that I have been toying with that I may be able to harden my skin for battle to help prevent harm.
This statue dust could assist with that!
Wuliem begins to fill a vial with some of the statue dust.
As Ralklain suggests, the group advances into the room and towards the tunnel. On the top of the heap of bones are the battered, dismembered remains of several recently killed and eaten kobolds. Underneath these are layers of bones of increasing age, marking the results of the kills of many different predators through the centuries.
From the bottom of the pile comes a shifting of the bones as a human skeleton rises to stand before you, the evil hatred of all that lives is nonetheless apparent in its eyeless sockets. It wears no armor, but has a golden crown crushed into its deformed skull, and it holds a jade katana in its hands.
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Watch out!
Exitium moves southwest, where he could charge next round (no one in front of him)
Exitium Power attack charges the beatch, pouncing:
Ralklain's moves and a blob of acid flies from his fingers, sizzling a hole in the skeleton's rib cage.
The bomb hits the skeleton king, causing most of it to disintegrate and what remains to fly off in all directions.
Fortunately, the jade katana seems to have survived the carnage and lands relatively softly on a pile of bones. Prying away the skeletons fingers, you are certain that this is what Amara Li wished you to find for her.
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We came to obtain the katana. That task is complete. However, if it is the wish of the party to continue on in this place, we can. Perhaps you are right, one of the previous Pathfinders could be in here and require aid, I suppose.
I'm not sure if additional risk to our well being is worth a few more gold pieces, however if there is some chance that a person in need is within this keep, we should proceed. I really doubt there is much chance of someone surviving though...
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I suggest we press onward being now our main objective is complete I suggest we search the remainder of the ruins and hopefully find some more of those trade agreements. I think we should investigate the well and maybe purge whatwver spirit that dwells within. Finally I would like to dispose of the food and supplies left by the grey man and his kolbolt companion, there very well be many more aomewhere else nearby and we should only hope our efforts will encourage for them to move on. pizzmic searches the rest of the room we are in, looks at the golden crown picking it up. gold's gold
Searching through the pile you find the skull and get the golden crown worth 300 gp (perhaps this was the warlord Asad's last stand?), 100 gp in mixed coins, a masterwork short sword, and a wax-sealed tin scroll tube with a scroll of comprehend languages.
Pizzmic doesn't detect magic on the katana, but his perceptive looking also notices that the pommel of the katana can be unscrewed from the grip and inside he finds a tightly-rolled document that seems, from the seals, the ribbon, and the lettering in Tien and Kelish, to be more than just the 'usual' trade agreement.
The tunnel extends quite some distance, eventually leading to what appears, from the light and a draft of fresh air, to be an alternate entrance to the dungeon, likely the usable one spoken of by the ghoul Maurit.
On the way to the door to the south, you pass a side corridor with two doors, one on the north side (likely the room 'spoken of' by the frog-creature) and one on the south side that must lead to the scribing room.
At the end of the corridor sits a sinister-looking fountain in a rounded alcove. A four-headed hydra, displayed in cross formation, protrudes from the middle of the rounded wall. The hydra’s heads all face directly down the hallway. Its top head’s mouth is firmly shut, its socketed eyes staring darkly down the corridor, and its head fin is flared and up. On that head fin, a single Kelish word is carved into the stone. The other three heads have toothy mouths open wide and reclined head fins; these obviously served as spouts for the fountain. Just below the mouths is a ceramic basin. The basin has been dry for many long centuries now.
Sunic says, "Before we leave, cats, we should totally save the hungry beetles the froggy guy said were in that north room. I've got an idea and some more trail rations..."
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Ok sunic ole boy lets go engage the giant beetles remember they will prob be hostile and attack. They did try to get the froggie hmmmm it seems that sunics accent changed ever so slightly that's werid....oh well I'm probably just imagining it. pizzmic will draw his crossbow yet again and follow sunic should his actions of civility fail pizzmic will fire in the hopes to defend bis companion
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Wuliem alas arches an eyebrow at this strange sounding Sunic.
It seems that I am not the only one to become something different!
I may have need to converse with Sunic about his methods.
I agree! plus there may be other lost treasure. I wonder what this
unusual trade agreement may be? I knew I should have learned Kelish, but I figured that it was a dead language! Hehe!
Sunic takes a pile of his rations, opens the stuck door with several good shoves, and throws the rations into various places of the room, closing the door again after him. "So, let's give that a few and check the other room Ralklain wanted us to check out."
You climb over piles of rubble, including that of a broken chair - perhaps even a throne, although it is battered, ancient, and decayed - and enter the next room.
This large room is dank, and a strange draft flows through it carrying with it a foul odor. Rubble is strewn here and there. A strange, slimy slick glistens down the western wall. Near the slick is a wooden door. The only sound in this room is a faint drip echoing from deeper in the dungeon.
As Sunic and the party approaches, the strange, slimy slick peels itself off the wall and attempts to slam Sunic!
Sunic feels the blow on his arm and shoulder, then feels the acid exuded by the creature burning his flesh. It tries to grab him, but fortunately Sunic is larger than its usual meal and can't be engulfed so easily.
Narvik rushes up to the creature and lands a tremendous blow on the slow-moving mass, sinking the morningstar into the creature and causing sizzling slime to leak from the living bag onto the ground
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Pizzmic already his crossbow in hand walks to moves to s15 where he takes a knee and readys an action to fire at anything that moves into square s20. you never know what could be waiting for an oppurtune time to strike. All in all this little quest was quiet successful I sure hope Sunic lets me ride his back on the way back to absolam. That dang pebble in my shoe is tearing my foot up.
The creature comes apart like an overripe fruit in Exitium's jaws, something like innards and clear blood pouring out on the floor. It is obviously dead.
Opening the door to the next room, you find a cramped chamber that stinks of something worse than rotten eggs. A black mildew covers the walls and the three doors that lie beyond the entrance. Each has a small metal slot at its bottom, but the latched covers long ago rusted away.
Though the doors are locked, the black mold has weakened the metal and wood, and doors yield with a strong jolt or two. Each of the three cells contains an ancient skeleton. While in the rooms, you feel sickened, but you feel normal again when breathing fresh air. Searching the rooms you find with one set of remains a what appears to be a document of some sort written in Tien. The letter’s paper is brittle and browned with age. Its broken seal features a kirin flying amid three clouds.
There is no other treasure of interest here.
The black mold appears to be a natural, relatively harmless mold resulting from water coming into contact with the plaster and dyes on the walls, with the decay of the wood, and the like, and, less savory, the decay of the bodies.
There doesn't seem to be anything else to be found in the room or the small prison.
Going to the unexplored room, you find the door stuck, but are able to eventually shove it open. Rubbish and black mold choke the far end of the chamber. The slightest movement kicks up dust and spores, choking the stagnant and already foul-smelling air. The black mold is present here, too, but isn't and thick.
You see what first appears to be three greenish-yellow glowing orbs on the ground, covered and dimmed by the mold and the dust. Looking closer, they are beetles the size of a housecat, and they have fearsome-looking mandibles, with glowing spots on their carapaces. But, they are occupied voraciously eating the rations.
They are fire beetles (a type of 'vermin'), named for the glowing spots on their carapaces.
Pizzmic detects magic in the mess of rubbish and rubble in the northeast corner of the room.
First discovered are four more of the trade agreements and then, due to the persistence of trying to find the magic item, you find, after quite a bit of searching, a small sack with 200 sp and a set of magic bronze bracers.
They are a set of Bracers of Armor +1,
So you leave the room with the fire beetles - with Sunic making sure that the door remains open to allow them to leave once they've finished their meal - and travel to the well room, stepping carefully over the remains of the poor ghoul Maurit and through the smouldering spider's lair.
To recap: A mournful howl comes from a stone well in the room’s center. This large chamber’s walls, once painted with vermilion and gilded with gold leaf, are now splotched and crumbling. Unlike the walls, however, the tiles that decorate the well are untouched by the ages and gleam as if recently polished.
Wuliem, I believe, saw that there appeared to be a skeleton at the bottom of the well.
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After capturing some beetles in a vial,
Wuliem seems to be physically shaken by the mention of checking out the 'haunted' well.
I don't believe that disturbing that...darkness is a good idea!
I felt totally transfixed by the howling--
as if all I wanted to do was throw myself down there!
I suggest we leave it be!