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Pádraig Henry does sense a faint magical aura emanating from behind the podium the cashbox is on. Inspecting the area behind, he finds the source of the aura: a tarnished copper ring. He also finds 1 pp, 4 gp, and 2 sp that had fallen behind it at some point in time.
This is a Ring of Swimming
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You move back into the aquarium room as quietly as possible, with Victor using his low-light vision to see as far ahead as he can. There's little else of value or note within the western room. The tracks you noticed, however, lead north into a long chamber. Plants, rocks, and hundreds of motionless specks fill the countless glass cases throughout the room to the north. The preserved husks of giant insects and arachnids—including a ten-foot-tall spider—leer over the displays.
A dead man’s body, swathed in red-and-black robes and covered in welts, lies on the floor.
From where he stands, Victor notices two bright red spiders scuttling about the area around the statue. And then he sees a third and a fourth. Having battled them a few weeks ago, Victor recognizes them as scarlet spiders. The spiders scurry around the statue and back out, making it very difficult to tell precisely how many there may be...
Shiny ring!
"Huh, it's a ring of swimming. This should help the next time I swim around town!" She giggles.
Dead man and a bunch of spiders. The cause of death seems obvious to her. She makes a gesture with her hands where she rubs them together before spreading them outward.
Do you want me to burn everything here, or...?
Victor shivers a bit as he remembers the itchy spider bites from one of Pug's many rat slaying missions "Be ready with that, just don't hit us!" Victor backs up and gets ready to sling some acid at the nearest one once the others are ready.
Geoffrey advances next to Victor, his sword at the ready. "I think Victor has fought these things before, so he must know how to scare them right?"
Morvena peeks into the room, makes a face, and steps back. "Wonderful. Fire seems prudent but take care not to burn the rest of the building down around us," she whispers, looking around nervously.
Issil watches her party members nod in approval and she grins.
She creeps up to the entrance and-
"Toasty!"
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Issil quietly moves ahead and finds an area from which to safely cover the Spider Room in a plume of fire. She fries one spider, but the other curls up and evades some of the heat.
The black spider scuttles forward and crawls up Issil's leg.
Luckily, its fangs catch on her clothes instead of her skin.
-- Bold is up --
Issil, Padraig, Morvena
Blue, Yellow, Green (-3)
Geoffrey, Victor
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Pádraig Henry begins a song to inspire his friends.
The baby spiders would get scared and search frantically
For their mother.
But the Glass Spider would have long gone, having known that the babies
Would survive someone on their own.
Oh-The Glass Spider had blue eyes almost like-a human's.
They shed tears at the wintered turn of the centuries.
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Issil tries to focus.
But nope, the magic fizzles from her hand. "So many spiders, I want to burn them all!"
Having no desire to deal with anyone's strength being sapped, Morvena steps forward and conjures a burst of bright glitter into the room ahead.
"Multiple eyes will not help you here!" she laughs gleefully.
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A swath of bright glitter infiltrates the dozen eyes each of the two spiders have, blinding them.
Issil feels a tingle on her left thigh as the blue spider slips up her pants...
The yellow spider scurries ahead, but the green one has no idea what it's doing, having lost all sight, and chooses a random direction to move in.
-- Bold is up --
Orange (blind), Black
Issil, Padraig, Morvena
Blue, Yellow, Green (blind, -3)
Geoffrey, Victor
"Oo, a spider!"
Issil misses completely and is promptly bitten.
"Oh, backoff." She feels the bite. "Better yet, stay close so I can burn you all! Heehee!"
"Here let me help you Issil!" Geoffrey exclaims as he hacks at the spider climbing up her leg.
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Feeling emboldened now that the calvary is here, Victor steps up and tries to impale a spider that's climbing up Issil's skirt "I'm pretty sure that area is restricted to paying customers!" He says with a half hearted chuckle as he flicks his blade at the spider.
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Geoffrey neatly slices the spider crawling up Issil in two, and Victor mains the other one with his dagger. Issil's legs now drip with crushed spider guts.
The orange-eyed spider crawls forward, and bumps into Victor's foot. Victor swings at the blind bugger and easily crushes it beneath the weight of the blade alone.
-- Bold is up --
Issil, Padraig, Morvena
Yellow, Green (blind, -3)
Geoffrey, Victor
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"Only paid customers, hehe." Issil gets the joke
With not enough spiders to burn, Issil frowns and goes for her mace again.
Assuming she has even more spider guts covering her, she moves towards the back and readies her mace.
"Well, perhaps a bit much but worth the experience of saying that I did it," Morvena smiles, pleased at the effectiveness of her glitter. With only one or two spiders remaining, she decides to go for a simpler approach and steps forward to fire an acid dart at the remaining spider that she can see.
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Issil critically splatters the spider next to her, and Morvena fries the final one with an acid dart empowered by one halfling's inspiring vocals.
The corpse you'd spotted before the spiders attacked is now safe to inspect. The victim, a male human, wears a robe on his body and a silver unholy symbol of Asmodeus around his neck. He also has a vial of silver dust, and the following magical scrolls.
Underneath his robe, he wears a magical breastplate.
Finally, clutched in the man's hand is a gold plated Hocum’s Fantasmagorium charm.
Victor's eyes light up a bit as the bounty begins to be layed out in front of them "Wow! We should have come here sooner, look at all this stuff!" He starts to pick things over then decides he should wait.
"With a bit more time and some help I'm pretty sure I can get an accurate value for all this stuff. Well, so long as none of it is magical... that's you all's department."
As the magical people take a look at the items, Victor strolls around the room, tapping spots, lifting things up, and generally giving it a good once over.
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"Nice work, Issil and Morvena. You ladies got it goin' on, for sure."
Pádraig Henry casts read magic and examines the scrolls the priest carried. "Sweet! A scroll of cause fear, a scroll of doom, a scroll of inflict light wounds, and a scroll of remove fear."
Then the bard casts detect magic and studies the priest's breastplate. The halfling shakes his head. "I'm unable to identify the enchantments on the armor. One of you take a look at this, please."
Finally, Pádraig Henry takes a look at the unholy symbol of Amodeus, the vial of silver dust, and the Hocum’s Fantasmagorium charm.
"I've got a pretty good idea the unholy symbol of Amodeus and the vial of silver dust are each worth _____ and _____, respectively. Not sure about the value of the Hocum’s Fantasmagorium charm, though."
"Think the spiders killed him, or something else?"
The bard joins Victor searching the rest of the chamber.
"Ah! This breastplate is enchanted; the wearer will be a little harder to strike than normal," Morvena explains, pleased that she was finally able to identify something.
Then, she turns her attention to the strange little charm they'd also found. "Hmm...interesting..."
"...it is pretty, but otherwise I cannot offer any idea as to what value it holds."
As Morvena begins to help the others examine the chamber more thoroughly, she muses aloud. "A priest of Asmodeus, here...it seems we are not the only ones who have heard the rumors about this place and found them worthwhile to investigate. Let us hope that no others choose to follow in behind us."
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Pádraig Henry values the unholy symbol and the silver dust at precisely 25 gold pieces and 75 gold pieces, respectively. No one can get determine exactly what the charm might be worth - Morvena thinks it's probably worth about 20 gold pieces.
Examining the corpse, it's easy to tell that the many welts covering the man are similar to the bite Issil had earlier endured, even to an untrained eye.
You have another look around the room, and your eyes fall upon the large spider statue. The statue looks odd, as if it was fabricated from parts, with twine wrappings visible between the legs and abdomen.
Next to the statue is terrarium that's been smashed open. It contains six hatched eggs. The absence of dust on them indicates they must have hatched recently.
Victor notes that the footprints he'd earlier seen continue east into the next room.
"Rough, but you sided with Asmodeus." She shrugs when she sees the symbol.
She also shrugs when she sees the charm.
"Well, it's not his footprints." She washes the spider goo off of her and then prepares to continue on.
"Hmm...then it seems that there are still others yet that may be within," Morvena remarks as she steps aside to allow Victor and the others to lead onward. "Perhaps they will be the one - or one of the ones - that we seek."
Once the high fiving and loot whoring comes to an end, Victor waves the others onward stealthily, following the footprints.
Issil follows suit. She's getting used to this.
Geoffrey follows along as silently as he can.
"Probably another fake," is Morvena's reply. "Our friend seems to have been quite resourceful in manufacturing oddities and attractions for his museum."
She then falls into formation once everyone is ready to move forward...
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You quietly creep ahead further east into the museum. A circular alcove off this hallway cradles a lovingly maintained statue of a regal man, his arms outstretched and his chest adorned with a carving of a winged eye. Empty picture frames line the walls.
"Huh? The statue... the footsteps stop in front of it." Issil keeps her weapons ready. "Did the statue move?"
"You're right Issil. The tracks stop here. Maybe there is a hidden door around here somewhere?" Geoffrey keeps a sharp eye out for any trouble while the other examine the area further.
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Pádraig Henry hangs back a bit, showing professional courtesy to his stealthy colleagues, waiting for them to message him forward when it's prudent.
He whispers, "The statue in the circular alcove off this hallway is a depiction of the dead god, Aroden."
The bard nods in agreement, when Issil and Geoffrey note the tracks stop in front of the statue.
Victor sees the same thing everyone else does, the foot prints ending at the statue "Well shoot, something's up here... lets sweep the rest of the level first..." Victor shakes his head and continues on to check the next room.
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Despite a relatively thorough inspection of the area around the statue, you aren't able to find a hidden door. Victor suggests moving further in - quietly.
At the end of this hallway is another exhibit. Wax replicas of various politicians, folk heroes, deities, and creatures fill this one, some laughably fake and others eerily lifelike.
One in particular stands out—a depiction of a man dressed in bloodstained professor’s robes. This figure wields a bloody surgeon’s knife in one hand, but its face has been melted away into an unrecognizable waxen mess, save for a single glaring eye.
The defaced statue bears a plaque inscribed with: Professor Mangvhune—Temple Hill Slasher.
You've already heard of the Temple Hill Slasher, an infamous Kintargan murderer who was executed 116 years ago but whose legacy lives on as an enduring urban legend.
The single remaining eye looks like it could be valuable if pried out of the wax figure.
From the south, the sound of groaning Padraig Henry had earlier heard behind the double doors becomes more pronounced...
Issil doesn't stay long near the statue of the Slasher. She's heard the stories.
Morvena shudders and looks away from the defaced statue. "If you wish to take the remaining eye, be my guest - but I would prefer not to touch it," she whispers to Victor. Then, as the sound of groaning reaches their ears from the south, she gives the others a wary, questioning look.
Geoffrey nods grimly as he readies his blade to deal with whatever is causing the groaning noise.
It couldn't be the Slasher...could it?
Victor gives the eyeball a quick eyeball before waving the others onward towards the groaning sound. "We can check back on this afterwards, just like that statue."
He continues to creep to the west and south, towards the moaning.
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Victor creeps ahead through a small alcove ahead as quietly as he can. When he peeks around the corner, he sees the horrid source of the groaning: five shambling corpses slowly roam the room to the far south in a seemingly random pattern. Their bodies are charred to a crisp and blackened, as if they were burned alive and later reanimated.
Issil frowns as she sees them.
Then she grins and makes her FIRE sign again.
Geoffrey gives Issil a thumbs-up sign, readying his blade once again.
Victor waves the others forward slowly and nods at Issil's idea for more fire. He always returns with his own sign for me first!
Once everyone seems to be in position, Victor again leads off the attack with a searing gob of acid at the yellow one's face followed by a quick attempt to hide again.