The widow shakes her head, sobbing, then one of the guards speaks up. "The bodies were taken to the church of Abadar for final preparations. You might try there if you wish to see the bodies, but the sheriff examined them, so she can tell you best. Tomas was clearly stabbed with a knife though. Someone snuck up on him. We saw three short-ish guys running out of here when we came in last night with the boss's remains. They were already a good bit ahead of us, so gettin' details or catchin' up wasn't possible."
The other guard is showing compassion for his boss's wife now, gently patting her back as she is too far gone to respond at this point.
The guard continues, "If you want to look around, I have her key,"nodding to the new widow. "But the boss's key...it was the only thing taken from him."
"I'll go with you," the guard says as he opens the door to allow them in.
Lamps illuminate this large showroom. Glass display cases, broken in a few places, line the walls, while two additional cases sit like islands in the center of the room. The cases contain an eclectic mix of valuables such as unusual tools, masterwork weapons, jewelry, fine china, antiques, and artwork. A set of merchant's scales rests on top of one of the display cases.
All the cases are locked in the room, but a few of them have been smashed opened. It isn't likely to be a problem to avoid them, but there is glass on the floor that will need to be avoided.
There are still plenty of things in the broken cabinets that have value...
The guard nods, "Of course there is a vault. You can't be a lender and changer of coin if you don't have a vault."
The guard leads them through another door into the office a large polished desk dominates the space. Hooks for hanging lamps are permanently affixed to the walls, while mounted behind the desk is a large framed portrait. Running along the east wall is a large display case filled plaques, framed documents, trophies, and stuffed animals.
The portrait is a picture of Archivin and Agnes in their youth. The most notable of the documents is a signed copy of the town's charter. The mounted objects include a bear, a reefclaw, and a boggard spear.
Only another door is found, nothing else of any value except records of the owner's dealings.
"I thought you would like to have seen his office. Across the hall is our quarters. Nothing much of note in there, then there is the stairs down to the vault..."
As the group is lead down the stairs towards the vault, the guard guides them to a bare corridor leads to the double doors of the vault. A hook for a hanging lantern is mounted on the western wall at the base of the stairs, and underneath it is a single chair.
"Boss had a trap over here...I'm not really sure how to turn it off," the guard says as he stomps on a hollow portion of ground by the stairs coming down. [b]"It opens when you are leaving. Beyond that...I don't think there is anything more.
With that the guard moves over the vault and unlocks the door.
Beyond the heavy steel door, this darkened chamber is lined with shelves, including freestanding shelving in the center.
There is ample room in the vault, but labeled boxes, bags, weapons, and armor are spread throughout.
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"I don't see how to disable the trap either. There's always a switch, or a button, or a lever or something. It's never tasty, but I'll find it and turn it off. I wouldn't want anybody who still owes Guarill money to have an untimely accident."
Orin grins at Sparkle Weave as he finishes.
Take 20 looking for the trap mechanism = 32 Perception.
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"Probably some sort of counter-weight or switch on the inside floor," she muses, coming close enough to the vault to look inside but hopefully not step on said trap trigger.
"I suppose we could get Walder's inventory list, and cross-reference it with what's all labelled here in the vault. See if there's anything of note that might be missing, or help us make sense of this."
Because right now this just reeks of a straight-up frame, she thinks with cynicism.
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"Perhaps walking back and for would be a bad thing. Whoever has not entered the vault can stay back and look at papers. I will do this before anyone opens the door? Oh, the door is open."
Davreena wafts into the room and looks around with apparent disinterest. She tries hard to focus but the spirits murmur below ground too.
After a few seconds of everyone moving into the room.
Beau and Davreena spot a small amount of movement out of the corner of her eye, something moving quickly out of the room.
Whatever it is takes several quick steps out into the hallway. Beau and Davreena can respond to the movement.
Combat
Dav and Beau have a surprise round to react. Then the enemy moves into regular rounds, followed by the group.
The creature, a humanoid shaped female with grey flesh takes the blow in stride, tossing her eyes back at Beau as she moves forward in the bright light, covering her eyes.
The creature turns and looks at Beau, a look of terror on her face, then she takes off again. Withdraw action
She takes a step and then the floor opens up beneath her!
Leaving her to fall into the trap, though it seems to stay opened.
"Help!!" someone calls out from within the trapped floor.
Stay in rounds, there is more to this!
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Clair walks over to the edge of the trap and looks down. "Hey you! Who are you, and why did you run? Your answers may influence the duration of your stay down there."
Whatever the reply of the woman will be, Clair will try to sense if the woman answers with the truth. Clair also takes a good look to see if anything else is to be seen inside the trap.
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Orin gladly accepts Sparkle's spell and scrambles over to the edge of the pit.
Assuimng he can get there within 10 ft, Orin will climb to within 10 feet of the attacker and bite with his reach.
What is found is a pair of the same type of gray-skinned individuals. One looking very, very woozy, while the other looks as if he has had time to stress himself into a bad place.
Looking up at Clair, it's clear that both are scared, but neither seem particularly willing to talk at this point.
Finally, the male begins to speak, "P..p...please don't k...k...kill us. W...w..we h...h...had to d.d.d.do it."
The male hearing their words, whispers softly, "Please let me out. I have been down here for hours..."
The female looks like she is about to try and run and as she jumps up to grab the ledge, she falls unconscious. Clearly she was holding on by a thread.