After a moment Dejik does not detect any evil auras. The woman looks rapidly between Sarkast and Jinxx and takes a step back from the group, giving herself around ten feet. Brawny and with a vicious facial scar, she looks like one of the thousands who have been "donated" by local law enforcement to aid the crusade. Sarkast glances in the house to see several more looters wielding bows.
"R-right," she says, trying to maintain the sense she's still in control. She puts a sack at her feet, holding out a sword to ensure nobody comes close. She proceeds to lift items out of the sack and replace them.
"Silverware set. Goblet. Some painting. Couple'a bombs - which I will use if you take ONE step closer. And some potions and arrows."
As she speaks she lifts out a set of fancy cutlery, an ornate brass goblet, a small portrait of a young man, and what look like flasks of acid, alchemist's fire, holy water, and two unknown potions. She also holds up a couple of arrows carved to look like bolts of fire.
"Think about this. Where will you go? Who would you sell this to, a dretch? The countryside crawls with demonspawn, will you leave the city and risk your life, and very soul? I am giving you the chance right now to make the right decision, to make the only decision really. Take my coins and go to the Defenders Heart. We need you, right now, more than you have ever been needed. Look for Irabeth Tirabade and the password is Strongheart, tell Mistress Tirabade that Nilus Romani sent you. Do the right thing, I beg you by the blessed Rose. " Nilus says as he holds up his coin pouch.
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The woman stares belligerently at Nilus and lets out a loud groan.
"Fine! I'll take yer money, crusader. Yer robbin' us blind, but so be it. There's more loot t'be had elsewhere. C'mon boys! Let's get outta here!"
With that, she places the bag full of loot down, and holds out her hand for the money as the looters pour out of the store, weapons lowered.
"Go to the Defenders Heart. It is safe, and we could use your help in the coming days. " Nilus says as he steps out of their way and hands over all his coins
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The woman fights with herself for a moment, but sees a way out. She snatches the coins and takes off into the streets. THe looters pile out behind her, shooting the group dirty look.
"Robbed by crusaders, never thought I'd be seein' t'day," mutters one. He spits on the ground.
The group is now in possession of the following:
The cutlery is worth 125 gold.
The goblet is worth 15 gold.
The painting (cut from its frame and rolled) is worth 55 gold.
- A nice set of cutlery
- A painting, cut from its frame and rolled
- A brass goblet
- An acid flask
- An alchemist's fire
- Two vials of antitoxin
- Three vials of holy water
- Three ornate arrows crafted to look like fire bolts
- A clear potion that seems to magnify its surroundings
- A rich brown potion
Dejik will detect magic on the items, paying special attention to the ornate arrows.
Dejik successfully identifies the arrows as +1 flaming arrows.
Dejik also picks out the first potion as an elixir of vision. Ayesha recognises the second potion as a +2 potion of barkskin.
The looters have now departed and the open door of the building hangs on its hinges as invitingly as a door in a demon-infested ruin can.
"Well, shall we investigate, now that we have driven the looters from the scene? Perhaps someone should stay at the doorway here and make sure nothing sneaks up on us while we are poking about inside."
Nilus nods at Ayesha I can guard the door. and he moves into the building.
The group step in to explore the shop. It's a relatively unassuming herbalist's shop which looks to have been repeatedly picked over. Dead plants line the shelves and broken alchemical equipment and vials are scattered around the area.
Ronan stays with Nilus at the door, and he sends Jinxx in to see what he can sniff out.
Dejik steps inside and sweeps around with Detect Magic. If she finds anything interesting, she'll point it out to Ayesha and Sarkast.
Dejik detects no magical fields within the shop.
Sarkast pokes around, looking for any signs of the owners, hidden compartments, or other dangers lurking about.
Sarkast starts prodding his way around the shop. He sees a few alchemical supplies which are surprisingly unharmed. Largely because they are wooden and fixed to the shelf. Grabbing onto a large vial, he twists it to the side and a click sounds. The shelves swing to the side, revealing stairs descending to a basement beneath Topaz Solutions.
Sarkast raises an eyebrow. "I seem to have found something."
The basement is dark. The nauseating, sweet smell of decaying plant matter wafts from below.
"If someone can bring a light over, I will see what is in the basement."
"Here, take this." Ayesha picked up a piece of rubble from the floor and chanted briefly. The item glowed bright as a torch as she handed it over to Sarkast.
Before you go... Dejik touches Sarkast on the shoulder and asks Iomedae to protect him.
Sarkast takes the light, and thanks Dejik for the protection. He then takes a deep breath before starting down the stairs. He holds the light in one hand, and his spear in the other as he descends.
Sarkast bravely creeps down the stairs, making nary a sound as he heads into the basement.
The air in this basement is damp and musty-smelling. The walls and floor are packed earth, while dozens of gourds hang from the ceiling beams. A sludge of rotting plant matter covers the floor. Against one wall, a wooden table holds a strange apparatus that looks like a clockwork toy of a snake-bodied, six-armed woman holding a sword in each hand. A tightly corked bottle, filled with what looks like water, sits before the statue.
A wooden chest covered with engraved runes stands under the table, and a sinister image of a star surrounding a goat's face is painted on the wall above the table. The basement is otherwise uninhabited.
This is one of the symbols of Baphomet, one favored by his human worshippers as opposed to his demonic or monstrous ones.
"It appears safe, the rest of you can come down ... there are some rather sinister items here, there may be enchantments."
Without touching anything, Sarkast checks for any visible signs of traps.
Dejik walks down the stairs carefully, checking for magic auras.
The combined caution of Sarkast and Dejik pays off. As Sarkast begins to enter the room, Dejik spots a faint magical aura on the goat's mouth, which extends 15' surrounding it. She stops Sarkast from crossing into its field. The clockwork toy itself also has a faint magical glow to it.
Sarkast also notices two things are amiss - the first is the clockwork toy is spring-loaded, ready to smash the bottle. The second is that the chest moved a bit, and the stench of decay comes from the chest directly.
The spell is an illusion spell of the glamer subtype.
The spell is magic mouth, set to trigger when somebody steps inside of the circle.
The clockwork toy has a unique, but weak magical effect on it. It has been wound and will activate (likely swing its sword) once a command word is spoken.
I think the toy idol will break the glass on command, and I suspect breaking the glass will be bad for us...but I don't know what the other magic aura is. Ayesha? Can you make out what the goat's mouth does?
Sarkast, be careful of that chest--it reeks of death...or undeath, more likely. Dejik switches her life link to Sarkast and invokes Iomedae to heal herself. Then she steps back and tries to sense any evil aura from the chest.
Ayesha: down 0 hp
Nilus: down 0 hp
Jinxx: down 0 hp
Ronan: down 0 hp
Dejik: down 1 hp
Sarkast: down 0 hp
Bellis: down 0 hp
Following closely behind the pair, Ayesha scanned the room as well. At Dejik's words, she replied, "Oh yes. Yes indeed. If Sarkast had crossed that aura, he would have triggered a spell. A harmless one, normally. It's just a spell to speak a certain word or phrase, but if the mechanism is set to break the glass on command..." She broke off, not needing to state the obvious.
"The question is, how can we disarm this little booby trap without damaging any of the evidence we came looking for?"
"I am equally concerned with that chest ... I saw movement, and there is a distinct odor coming from it."
Sarkast keeps a close eye on the chest while the others examine the trap.
Sarkast's expertise in traps leads him to a fairly simple solution. Just throw something at the clockwork toy. Provided the bottle is not accidentally smashed, it should knock the toy over, preventing it from destroying the bottle.
"Very well, I'll see if I can hit it." Ayesha unlimbered her bow, drew an arrow, and carefully aimed at the toy. She held her breath and loosed the arrow.
Sarkast's expertise in traps leads him to a fairly simple solution. Just throw something at the clockwork toy. Provided the bottle is not accidentally smashed, it should knock the toy over, preventing it from destroying the bottle.
Ayesha's expert shot hits the clockwork toy dead on. It collapses to the ground without harming the bottle.
Ayesha grinned at the others. "Okay, let's see what happens." She gingerly moved into the room, into the radius of the trigger spell, poised to dive back to the staircase if necessary.
As Ayesha steps boldly forwards, the goat's mouth in the symbol begins to move, speaking in a deep, booming voice.
"Ahh... I hope you are among Iomedae's slaves... I would hate to think of mere peasants wasting suhc a personal greeting from Lord Baphomet!"
At the word Baphomet, there's a loud clack as the clockwork toy strikes the wall, now safely away from the bottle. Furthermore, the lid of the chest flips open. A strange growling wail sounds out as a filthy creature that resembles a small child made from leaves, vine, tree bark, dirt, and tubers crawls out!
This is a mandragora, a vicious creature borne of a mandrake root. It is known for its poisonous attack, blood drain, and horrendous shriek and incredible reach.
The strange plant creature leaps out of the box, and lets out a horrendous, blood-curdling shriek!
Plant Creature
---
Ayesha
Dejik
Ronan
Nilus
Sarkast
Jinxx
Ayesha was still smiling at the failed attempt to crack the bottle when the chest popped open. The waves of sound buckled her legs and she leaned against the nearest wall, vomiting and weakly shaking her head.
As the creature emerges from the chest, the stench overwhelms Sarkast completely. He retches in the corner as he staggers up the stairs to try to find clear air.
The shriek penetrates upstairs, sending Jinxx reeling. The eidolon slumps against the wall, drooling and unable to concentrate. Ronan somehow manages to resist the attack of the plant creature.
Nilus grabs at his head, the scream fills it with pain and he cannot move correctly!
Nilus readies Radiance for battle and moves toward the sound.
Dejik moves up the stairs, reeling from the stench.
Ronan looks around, the only one to resist the scream of the plant creature. He grabs his crossbow and heads downstairs. Once down, he levels it and fires a bolt which slams into the creature!
The plant creature flops forwards, looking like a disturbed baby with a giant leafy mouth. Once within 10' of Ayesha, enormous vines grow from its body, and lash out at the vomiting magus! However, Ayesha manages to twist to the side, avoiding the attack.
Dejik feels the ringing in her ears cease, and regains her balance. The nausea fades away.
Plant Creature (3 dmg)
---
Ayesha (nauseated)
Dejik
Ronan
Nilus (nauseated)
Sarkast (nauseated)
Jinxx (nauseated)
Dejik moves back down the stairs and fires her bow at the plant creature.
Nilus will move within glaive reach of the thing
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Nilus staggers forward within 10' of the plant creature while Dejik's arrow pings off of the wall.
Ayesha staggered away from the plant creature, still trying to hold her stomach in and trembling slightly.