"A taint?" Nakoma asks with concern.
"Let me try to open it, if the dead still linger perhaps the second time will prove less daunting." He'll move forward to open the trapdoor.
Nakoma knows that at times unquiet spirits can react violently to the presence of the living, especially when the dead fell victim to a particularly foul or loathsome death. These creations, which are not quite undead and not quite ghosts, are called haunts. The burning death of the plague victims in this place has created such an effect, and while mostly harmless, it certainly gives a fright to those who fall victim to it.
When Zirelle moves forward, the haunt does not manifest and she is able to see, below one of the ravaged husks of a bed, a trapdoor in the floor that is opened by rotating a section of the tile. Opening the hidden door, reveals a rickety wooden ladder leading down into a room below.
Illumination of the area below reveals a small room, little bigger than a 15' square, with a 10' granite emblem of a faded gold and white longsword embedded in the floor. There seem to be several passages or doors that enter into this room, suggesting an underground complex.
Zirelle looks to see if there is dust in the room, or anything else that would tell them which places have been recently visited.
Zan stays close trying to make sure Zirelle doesn't stumble across any traps the priests may have set for unwanted guests, likely no one living knew of this place or what defenses they had put in place.
Nakoma lingers near Zirelle and Zan, close enough to follow them, but not so close she's crowding them.
"What do you see?" she asks.
Zirelle starts climbing down the rickety ladder. If she makes it down safely, she casts detect magic, wanting to see if the sword embedded in the floor is magical/functional rather than just part of the design of the room.
Nakoma knows that it takes a fairly high-powered priest to remove a haunt, there is no combating it per se. Probably not even the High Priestess at Sanctuary could clear this place, even if you could convince her to try.
The room below does not appear to have the ruin and detritus of the upper floors, as if the fire didn't' do damage here. There are no traps found as Zan looks around the hole in the floor. Once cleared, Zirelle works her way down the rickety ladder to the floor below. Her divination does not turn up any magical effect from the emblem in the floor, so it appears it is purely ornamental.
Passages exit this room in four directions. A lowered portcullis blocks the southern entrance, but a lever next to it may be the answer to that barrier. A sturdy wooden door leads west, while open passages head east and north. A small chest and a decrepit bookshelf face each other from opposite sides of the chamber.
Zirelle, keeping Detect Magic up by continuing to concentrate on it, examines the exterior of the chest, the doors, and the bookshelf for any magical emanations.
Zan will head down with Zirelle and carefully checks the area with his own mundane skills, keeping alert for traps, secret compartments and secret doors. Paying particular attention to the chest, lever, door and portcullis.
When there's room, Nakoma follows them into the secret passage, helping them look around for traps, clues and danger.
All the heroes descend the ladder, looking around the small room. The bookshelf has destroyed pages of Iomedae's holy text - The Acts of Iomedae-and similar scriptures, none of which is magical or valuable. As Zirelle expands her focus for her divination, she is able to determine that two magical auras emanate from the chest, which is wooden and locked. The first aura is faint but the second is strong.
Zan finds no traps on the chest or anywhere else in this room. Nakoma sees nothing besides what has already been described.
Peering at the chest Zan turns to the other"I don't see any traps, lets see if it is unlocked." Zan carefully reaches for the chest but angles himself away from the front of it, experience telling him you don't always spot the traps.
Can anyone open this? There seems to be something magical inside it. Zirelle says, pointing to the chest.
The chest is locked and at first Zan has limited success with the lock, but he keeps at it, and soon has the tricky little lock open.
Opening the lid, holding his breath in case there is an unspotted trap after all, the ranger finds a surprisingly nice stash of loot for a supposedly abandoned ruin.
Inside is 50' of silk rope, a disguise kit (6 uses), a set of lockpicks, a noble's outfit, a signet ring, and a leather bag filled with coins, 237 gold, 155 silver, and 54 copper respectively. The magical auras come from two small vials. One holds about an ounce of an amber-colored thick viscous fluid. The other holds 2 ounces or so of a clear liquid which reflects the light prismatically, making little rainbows if you look through it. The stronger aura of transmutation comes from the brown fluid.
Zan will examine the thieves tools to make sure no rust has started to set in. "They are the same as my own and are in good condition, they'll sell for a few gold. The rope would be quite useful and lighter than the more common kind you'll find. I keep my gear light and try to stay disciplined in that so I am reluctant to take the rope personally."
He takes a carefully rolled backpack out of his current backpack "We can put any equipment in here. As long as we put the items or coin towards defending Tranau I don't think Iomedae will begrudge us."
"Agreed." Nakoma replies. "The people these belonged to are long dead.
"Care to carry the rope, Baldek?"
Looking at the vials, Nakoma raises an eyebrow. "Any idea what those do, Zirelle?"
Considering this for the first time, Nakoma nods.
"I'm not surprised. But then, I've never been on the best of terms with the Inheritor's clergy." She thinks a while then asks, "Do you think they're from the time of the Plague House's operation, or more recent?"
Hmm, let me see... says Zirelle in response to Nakoma.
Zirelle asks Does anyone recognizes the signet ring... was the person using this trying to imitate someone specifically or just generally? Could this be the disguise of the person who stayed at the Inn the night of the murder?
Nakoma examines the signet ring, then shrugs. "I don't recognize it. Zan?"
Zirelle has no guess on the thick brown fluid, but she is able to identify the clear liquid as Universal Solvent. A liquid that can dissolve adhesives like tanglefoot bags etc. There are two doses in the vial.
No one recognizes the sigil on the signet ring, it does not appear to be from around here.
The Plague House has been abandoned for nearly 50 years. It is clear this chest doesn't have 50 years of dust. Plus, from the fire, there is ruined detritus all over this building, but the chest doesn't seem to have any detritus nor 50 years of dust on it. You would say it is a comparatively recent addition and has been used even more recently, like in the last week or so.
"This stuff is very recent." Nakoma muses.
She looks around for any clues to who might have used it, but discovers nothing else of interest. "I can't tell by who. Can you, Zan?"
Nakoma moves over to the portcullis and peers through the bars.
"The ring means next to nothing to me. It might not link in with any real house, it would be handy to claim you're a noble from some far off land. We're a little isolated here and many strange people come from all over to Last Wall." He tries to figure out when this place was last disturbed or if there are any tracks.
He'll head over to the portcullis and shake his head if there is nothing more to note.
Handing the vial with the clear liquid to Nakoma, Zirelle says This one is a universal solvent. Not sure on this other one yet though. Let me keep it for a while and I will try again later.
Zirelle shrugs at no one knowing anything about the signet ring, and then slips it on her finger in case it is needed later. She loads everything else they found into Zan's extra backpack.
It's clear to those looking that the dust in this room has been disturbed recently, but tracking actual footprints or making heads or tails of them is impossible on the stone floor. It seems most of the disturbance is in the room itself rather than in the hallways in any direction. Surprisingly, one of the footprints is clearly not human. It seems to be larger than man sized, and barefoot, with the shape of webbing between the toes. The print also seems to have a large claws on the end. No one can tell what sort of creature makes such a footprint, but it's presence is a bit unsettling.
The daylight from above does not easily penetrate the subfloor, so sight down the hallways from the main chamber is limited unless a light source is brought to bear. Looking through teh portcullis, you can see the passage continues for about 15' before splitting in a "t" junction.
Remember, there is an untrapped lever next to the portcullis, which is currently in the down position.
The passage to the northeast, also travels for about 20' before making a "t" split. The hallway to the northwest, ends in two doors, after about 15'.
Scimitar and shield in hand Zan will move up to the t junction keeping his eyes peeled for traps, secret doors and attackers.
Zirelle reaches into her pack and releases her Ioun torch, lighting up the area around her.
Accepting the universal solvent from Zirelle, Nakoma slips it into her backpack. She draws one of her starknives and speaks in a foreign language, causing the weapon to glow brightly.
Nakoma follows the others, also alert for danger.
Baldek shift the lever to the up position, and with a grinding, creaking that seems really loud in the enclosed space, the iron portcullis raises into the ceiling. Nakoma and Zirelle both provide sources of illumination which allows Zan to carefully scour ahead for traps. The ranger does not find any traps, and when he gets to the end of the short passage, he sees a door closes off the passage to the southwest.
The other direction, the hallway opens into a small chamber. There ares stone stairs here that lead back up to the first floor of the Plague House. A passage on the northwest wall offers egress out of the stairwell. A lone statue has been relegated to a dusty corner behind the stairwell. The statue is a woman holding a longsword with both hands wrapped around the hilt. Strangely, the sword itself seems oddly askew.
Zirelle casts Detect Magic and scans the room, but mostly focuses on the sword in the statue's arms to the Northwest, to see if it is a real weapon. Her other theory is that it is a lever. She tests this theory by attempting to move the sword if it does not radiate magic.
The sword does not radiate magic, but it does appear to be a real sword. A very fine blade at that. Nothing else in this room has magical auras either.
At the loud, grinding of the portcullis, Nakoma curls her lip in distaste. She keep a wary eye out for danger. Once Zan tells them the way is clear, Nakoma heads down the hallway. Seeing Zirelle head into the small chamber, Nakoma follows her.
Seeing the statue, Nakoma sighs. "Iomedae in her 'pose of peace.' " After a moment she adds, "Still, it's a nice sword." She makes no move to take it from Zirelle and obviously has no interest in using it.
Nakoma looks around, curious if there's anything else of interest in the chamber.
With a gesture at the stairs that lead up into the chapel, Nakoma remarks, "Let's wait on heading back up. There's more to discover down here."
Zan checks the area for traps and secret doors before heading back down the corridor towards the door, carefully checking the door for traps as well.
Here, you can study it now says Zirelle, handing the sword to Baldek.
The iron door at the other end of the hall has no traps and is not locked. When all are ready, Zan opens the door revealing a chamber whose walls are pocked with skull-sized cubbyholes, each containing a single brass or clay urn -- some long since shattered or dented or tipped over, others still intact and upright. A lightly colored stone statue depicting a burning chariot wheel occupies the northwest corner of the room. Another iron door in the east wall leads back to the central chamber.
From the doorway, Zirelle can see a strange rippling moisture effect in the center of the room. There is something wet or damp there, something big.
As the party brings more light to bear, it's apparent that the shimmering thing in the middle of the room is nearly translucent ooze of some kind, about 10' long on each side and stretching to the ceiling. The light reflects off many coins and metallic object which are imbedded in the gel-like substance. The group is horrified when the thing begins moviing, apparently heading in their direction.
The Urn Depository - Round 1
19 Baldek
14 Zirelle
11 Nakoma
8 Zan
1 Creature
Zan mutters "Not again..." He takes a half step back. "Its a Gelatenous cube, they are dangerous. If people move back maybe we can destroy it at range, the corridor would be a tight fit for it."
They burn, right?
She moves back, but stays at least 12 feet away with no one in front of her, and thrusts her hands out in front of her, casting Burning Hands.