Auntie Baltwin escorts Mr. Peppers, Mun, and Grummosh upstairs to the bedroom. When you enter the room, you notice a lot of beds. Half of which are empty being that it is mid day. A handful of kids are still in bed with some sort of sickness. "Best try and be quiet, do not want to wake the ones sleeping."
Uthread decides to stay on the first floor. He searches the first floor and finds nothing but empty liquor bottles and a few cats.
Gringo decides to head out side with Gealdn who is currently chatting with the children who seems to be amused by the big half-orc.
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Mr Peppers does his best to move about the room silently As he looks around the room checking on the sleeping children and looking if they seem to be sick or just sleeping
After he returns from his rounds he quietly points out the large amount of beds. "How can you afford to feed and care for so many unfortunate children? They must eat you out of house and home."
The children in the room are appear to be sick.
"Mostly from charity and donations. Some families do make donations and bring their children here to get better, they know that I am a decent enough at getting kids back to good health."
Grummosh is unable to tell what sickness this is, just that they are truly sick.
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Mr Peppers is content with the children upstairs being actually sick, especially since he has no medical training what so ever.
"I thank you for the tour Ms Baltwin." He will then wait and let everyone else go back downstairs first, then when they are out of earshot he will detect magic over the room quickly to see one last time if anything appears to be amiss.
Afterwards he heads down and asks: "Do you think the children would enjoy seeing some magic tricks? The ones not sleeping of course."
"Well she is strict, but I think all old people are like that"
Mr. Peppers, you do not detect anything as magical.
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Mūn hangs back with Mr. Peppers before heading back downstairs. He whispers to his fellow elf. "I've neither seen nor heard anything to cast a darker light on this place than the simple rumors you heard on the way. But she does definitely seem to have a dependence on drink, more than may be optimal for work with children. What do you think?"
Once everyone is finished with their investigations, you may return to the Temple and deliver you report.
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Mr Peppers nods with agreement to Mun. Then continues down the stairs and joins with the rest of the group and bids Ms Baltwin and the children farewell.
On the walk back to the Temple Mr Peppers says: "While not the best place to grow up from what we could see the place looked like a reasonable place to recover from illness. If the temple wants more info they'll need to put together a more involved investigation. Maybe follow the kids when they head into town or watch over some of the visitors."
You all are able to track down Ollysta Zadrian again at the temple. She is sitting behind a table with multiple scrolls piled up, then stands when the pathfinders enter the room.
"Ah, you return. Anything to report"
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"While not the best place to grow up from what we could see the place looked like a reasonable place to recover from illness. Ms Baltwin healed my rat bite with magic, so she has some skills in healing. If the temple wants more info they'll need to put together a more involved investigation. Maybe follow the kids when they head into town or watch over some of the visitors."
"Very well, we will look into it further. Thank you for the assistance. I will advise Ambrus the deed that you had done.
With that she sits back down and continues through the scrolls.
At this point I'm going ot rail road you guys a little bit.
The PCs make their way to the rich estate of Grand Councilmember Dremdhet Salhar, and are greeted by a guard who is expecting them as they reach the tall, wrought-iron gate. Once the PCs are inside, a servant tells the group Salhar is not present, called away on important Council business, but his most trusted advisor is available to negotiate any business they may require. The servant explains this while leading the group down welldecorated hallways, past expansive rooms. After a few minutes, the group arrives at a simple study near the end of a long hallway. Inside Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, a tan-skinned old man sits behind a desk flipping through pages in a large tome. Scraps of paper jut from the book marking over two dozen different places. As the group approaches the open door, the wise sage silently gestures the PCs into the study with one thin hand, while closing the tome with the other after finishing what he was reading. Once the PCs are all inside the study, he addresses the group.
“Good day to you, Pathfinders. I am Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, advisor to Master Salhar. I understand you were sent here to discuss archaeological permissions. Knowing this was coming, I spoke with Master Salhar at length on the subject and have this to say.
“Since Osirion was reopened to exploration a decade ago, adventurers, historians, and treasure-seekers flock to my country by the hundreds, perhaps thousands. While most families with ancestral burial vaults maintain guards and keep their sites out of the hands of casual thieves, not all families have the wealth or power to restrict everyone, and as we all know, not every defense is perfectly secure. Unscrupulous tomb robbers and maligned merchant organizations cause Osirion to bleed relics into the Inner Sea—something the descendents of Ancient Osirion cannot afford. We Osiriani have thousands of years of rich history coursing through our veins, and while that power has been out of focus in recent years, we are content to wait, knowing our enemies will wear themselves down. As they fall into arrogance, folly, or greed, we wait for our return to power, knowing we bear the riches of our ancestors at our feet.
“Master Salhar remains impressed by the Pathfinder Society, orating in their favor a handful of times in front of Absalom’s Grand Council, in fact. Due to previous relationships between him and the Society, Master Salhar has agreed to grant permission to the Pathfinder Society to explore his family’s vaults below Sothis. The only thing he requires is that you retrieve the map of the vaults from his own vault here. The servant will lead you to the basement and show you the room.”
The Sapphire Sage’s eyes twinkle as he smirks knowingly, then he turns back to reading his book as though he had never been disturbed.
After leaving Amenopheus’ study, the servant brings the group back through the spacious estate, leading them down sturdy stone steps into the cool basement. Down a hallway, after a couple turns, the party ends up at a plain wooden door. The servant opens the door, gesturing to the room with a bow, and waits silently for the PCs to enter. He doesn’t know anything beyond that he is supposed to escort the PCs to this room and lock the door behind them; if questioned, he remains silent and stoic, simply waiting for them to go into the vault.
A plain stone room contains three chests: a copper-banded chest of smooth, dark wood; a red lacquered chest; and what looks to be a cube of solid steel. Behind the chests sits a low table holding a clear glass jar half full of liquid and a covered wicker basket.
Once all of the PCs enter the room, the servant shuts the door and locks it behind them. Written on the back of the door is the message: “Within these cases lies your quest and your way out.”
Wicker Basket:This 2-foot-round wicker basket requires no key to open, its lid resting gently atop its wide rim.
The glass jar:This gallon-sized clear glass jar is about half full with clear liquid. At the bottom of the vessel sits a jeweled
brass key.
The Copperbanded Chest:a copper-banded chest of smooth, dark wood.
Red Lacuered Chest:This smooth, red lacquered chest looks devious. The metal plate surrounding the gaping keyhole pulses
with glowing amber runes.
The Steel Chest:This steel cube has only the faintest crack where its lid meets the base, and would be completely featureless save for its narrow keyhole.
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Examining the various chests, Mūn looks confused. "Osiriani are a strange sort, no? This seems very elaborate. There looks to be magic involved in at least some of these, and I have no skill in those arts. Can anyone else make sense of this?" Mūn looks to see if there are any mundane clues that he might recognize.
I made a visual aide for you all. it is the current map under the Campaign title.
Mun, you do not notice anything else than what was already described.
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"Hmmmm. Do you think then that only one of these is the key that we need, and we need to determine which one that is?"
Mūn ponders for a bit. "I would suppose then, if that is the case, that we don't want to risk making a wrong choice."
Without touching or disturbing the jar, Mūn examines the key sitting at the bottom of the clear liquid. Does it appear to be of a size to fit either the "gaping" or "narrow" keyhole in the lacquered or steel chests?
With out taking the key out of the jar it is hard to say if its fits any locks.
Mr. Peppers confirms that there is Illusion magic coming off of the Dark wooden box
Gringo you are unable to identify the liquid.
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Mr Peppers will reach out and take hold of the dark wooden box in an attempt to disbelieve the illusion:
"Grummosh, not all illusions are the same, there could indeed be a box here, it just may not look as it does with the spell on it. Or perhaps it is something completely different." If Mr Peppers disbelieves the illusion he will have a look over what the illusion was on.
Mr. Peppers your arms go strait through the box.
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"Well, it appears it was indeed just an illusion. I guess we can ignore that box completely."
Mr Peppers turns his attention to the glass jar with the key at the bottom. "If you don't recognize that liquid how about I lift the key out so we don't need to deal with it." With that Mr Peppers speaks a few clear Elven words and begins to concentrate and the key slowly rises up out of the liquid:
Mr. Peppers, you are able to remove the key from the liquid.
Grummosh, you do not notice anything about the wicker basket.
A tiny viper sits in the bottom of the wicker basket, when Grummosh opend the lid, it struck out like lighting, nipping him on the hand. Laying beside the viper is a blue rune etched key.
And with that the snake is dead.
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It takes Uthraed a little time to get his bearings after being locked in the room.
"I think that's a good theory Mun, I don't trust the chest or the key with the runes, but then I do not know much of magic runes. Though I do know something of languages."
Uthraed takes a look over the runes and attempts to read them.
You are unable to make out what means.
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Mr Peppers calmly looks at Gringo "That spell doesn't provide enough control or power to use a key in a lock. Maybe we need to just compare the keys to the locks we have and see which fits best."
With that he'll take out his handkerchief and pick up the key that was in the liquid and clean it off, then smell it to see if he recognizes it . Then he will compare the two keys side by side as well as the key holes in the two remaining boxes, as well as look to see if there are any keyholes in the door to the room.