Farrukh is able to sever the magic around the creature (though not the petrification, fortunately).
After washing her rapier, Astraden dries it on the hem of her gore-spattered tunic and sheathes it. She crouches to investigate the pool's aura before proceeding after Carina and Farrukh.
The priestess finally arrives in the taxidermy room . . . just as everyone's coming back in to look in it. "Tanith, guess I'll get us healed while Farrukh works," she mutters, holding her holy symbol in one hand. When the positive energy doesn't seem to entirely erase the pain of her claw and fire wounds, she drops the device and presses that hand to her temple, completing the healing.
Looking over at the monstrous statue and the warrior's tinkering, she asks, "Farrukh, maybe we can smash it apart from the hallway?"
Once Farrukh has made the room safe for all those who don't want to be eviscerated by unpetrified vulture monsters, Eben heads over and examines one of the shelves.
Carina blushes blue as Farrukh slaps her hand away.
Once he gives the all-clear, she starts browsing the shelves alongside Eben.
Sitting on the top shelf of the first case is the preserved head of a juvenile black dragon whose eyes glow a faint green.
Below, the case also contains an odd black metal cage, covered in thorns, with nothing inside.
Resting on a large velvet pillow is a curved, serrated dagger.
On the bottom is a length of bladed chains. They twitch and wiggle of their own volition, seeming to move more urgently as Eben's hand strays near.
Intrigued, Carina takes a closer look at the serrated dagger. "Ooh... is this enchanted?"
Carina examines the blade. She determines that it is masterwork.
Carina looks...
Below, the case also contains an odd black metal cage, covered in thorns, with nothing inside.
Below, the case also contains an odd black metal cage, covered in thorns, with nothing inside.
"It should be safe to smash the thing, yeah."
Eben very, very gingerly reaches out for the twitching chains. "This might hurt..." he mutters, not entirely to himself.
Eben takes the chains from the case. They twitch and dance in his grip, swinging wildly enough to almost cut him a few times.
"Guess they aren't friendly... but might be worth something..." Eben says, having no idea whatsoever what he has in his hands. He unfolds his bedroll, and lays the chains down on it before wrapping them back up inside it.
Carina looks...
[dice=Knowledge (Arcana)]1d20+11
The top shelf of the second case contains four blank books labeled “Unspeakable Tome.” A fifth, somewhat similar-looking book hides behind them, entitled "That Which Walks That Ought To Crawl: The Devourer of Minds
Beneath these is a weathered and tarnished bronze figurine of a proud-looking griffon. Its talons and claws are carved of bloodstone.
This case also contains four jars, each containing the preserved eyestalk of some bizarre aberration. There are six other empty jars behind these. One of them is sealed tightly, and is labeled, "Whispers of the Soon-To-Be Dead".
Come to think of it, he recalls that the lurking stranglers faced in the Whispering Cairn were a particularly weak strain of eye tyrant. Most are roughly twice Spiny's size and ten times as cruel.
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"Interesting. 'Eye Tyrant' stalks are a rarity to behold."
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Rodrigo follows along after the others, allowing them to do their jobs. They're so effecient!
After stowing the writhing chains, Eben looks back over the case. "Now... this looks interesting..." he says, picking up the dragon head. "Wonder if it was related to Ilthane?" He curiously examines the glowing eyes in particular.
The dragon head stares back at Eben.
Eben hears a low hiss. The dragon head begins speaking.
"ilthane...eben...tripartite deceived, storm broken...moon is not your friend...still alive, still alive..."
Eben yelps, nearly drops the dragon head, and then gazes at it in rapture. "It TALKS. I have a new best friend! What's your name?"
"friend...name...I must know his plans...the eye tyrants are watching..."
Astraden examines the objects magically as Eben and Carina remove them. She inspects the statue and Eben's chains with particular interest.
Carina straightens herself up. "Well, you don't want to touch the dagger--that's Strahd. It's cursed to betray the bearer when he needs it the most, and even when it doesn't, you're doomed to a terrible end. You'll go nuts or kill your loved ones with this thing by mistake. Sometimes both."
When Eben's dragon head starts talking, she briefly jumps before recognizing what's happening. "Oh, is that dragon head enchanted with a magic mouth? Cool!"
The cage is nonmagical.
The dagger is magical.
The velvet pillow is nonmagical.
The chains are magical, but don't seem to do anything in particular aside from twitch. They would potentially serve as excellent materials to craft an enchanted spiked chain, however.
The vrock statue is affected by a permanent paralysis effect, just as Farrukh said.
Tanith frowns at Carina's description of the dagger. "Shouldn't we destroy it or something? Leaving it down here seems too dangerous."
Tanith studies the contents of the third case.
A housecat-sized stone dragon with a long, stinger-tipped tail sits on top of the third glass case. It is hunched down in a catlike posture of fear.
The top shelf contains a stuffed doll pierced with no fewer than twenty long dark barbs. With a start, Tanith realizes that the doll very closely resembles Eben.
A 4-inch-thick tome wrapped in chains sits next to the doll.
On the bottom shelf is a battered greatsword. It has been crafted masterfully, and the dull steel is streaked with what seem to be unpolished garnets. Beside it lies a golden talisman etched with markings depicting different types of fungi.
Tanith studies
"Tanith, do you want me to look at the stuff you guys were talking about earlier, from Zyrxog's room?" Astraden asks. "And you're right, Carina - that head's pretty awesome."
The priestess turns her mage-sight towards the third case as Tanith opens it.
The griffon radiates moderate power.
The vulture creature is a vrock, a deadly warrior demon.
The dragon does not radiate magic.
The book radiates a moderate aura.
The doll radiates a minor aura, but seems to have no obvious purpose.
The garnet sword is a +2 greatsword.
The talisman radiates a minor aura.
The cage seems fairly uninteresting. A stranger pawn shop might take it for twenty gold.
The pillow might be worth around five gold.
Farrukh begins looking over Zyxog's ledger curiously.
"Huh. You know, this is starting to make sense to me after all the times we've seen it. It's really not that different than Common."
"By the way Tanith, that sword looks pretty powerful. Probably better than your bardiche." Looking back at the cage and "Strahd"'s pillow, she notes, "Those're probably worth about 25 gold."
"Ah, Undercommon? You know, we keep seeing Auran around too . . . maybe I'll try and learn that if we ever get some down time."
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Astraden believes the jar to be some sort of noisemaking device, though it's difficult to tell if divination or necromancy truly is involved. She doesn't believe it to be single-use, however.
- The sale of "petrified pseudodragon" to someone referred to as "Medium Rare" residing in the Bright Lands. Marked as pending.
- The sale of something listed as the Apostolic Scrolls to someone named Loris Raknian. This is the most recent sale.
- The sale of an enchanted falchion apparently once owned by an orc warlord to Constable Etin Derecs (whom the party has had dealings with prior). This sale occurred several years ago.
- The purchase of something simply marked as "Cursed Object" from a coven of vampire hags.
- The sale of a "Head of Vecna" to a local Vecnan cult.
- The sale of a coat of hound archon leather to a local petty noble.
The name of Loris Raknian comes up once more, noted at the bottom of the ledger. The note reads:
SALE
Product: Disposal
Targets: Eben MacTeague; Carina Viera; Tanith Creed; Astraden Limhaare; Cuetzpalli; Farrukh Al'Khatel; Zalamandra
Patron: Loris Raknian
Additional Notes: Zalamandra is isolated; delay further attempts. Cuetzpalli dead. Refundable fatalities during this sale include This portion contains a number of percentages, growing larger and larger and ultimately scribbled out entirely. Objective changed from "disposal" to "conversion" in light of altered patron/seller dynamic.
Farrukh also notices a very thorough copy of the notes on the adventurers found in Telakin's room. Spidery handwriting continues where Telakin left off, including such tidbits as "She is a half-orc now. Destroy rapier ASAP", "Creed may be part-troll—appears nearly impervious to serious injury or magical effects; install additional security on him once servitude obtained", and "Rodrigo—eliminate him; too little is known to risk capture".
"Tanith, do you want me to look at the stuff you guys were talking about earlier, from Zyrxog's room?" Astraden asks. "And you're right, Carina - that head's pretty awesome."
"Do you mind? There's a bunch of stuff in here and I can't tell what's valuable or magicked from what's not."
"Carina, think you'd know anyone willing to buy it?" Astraden asks, pointing back to the dragon head. "Could be worth several pounds of platinum if we find someone with an interest."
She nods to Tanith and, squatting on the floor, begins counting through all the coins and items. She makes sure to check each item for auras and will note down anything of unusual value.
"Speaking of dragons, I think that one there could be worth a few dozen gold. Some people just LOVE dragon statues."
"I imagine Ph'rexis would be more than happy to buy it--his shop's full of odd magic stuff like that." Carina shrugs.
"Zyrog must have been is business down here for a long time. I wonder how much of the other bad stuff going down in the Free City he had a hand in."
"It's uh...it's a living creature, guys. A pseudodragon." he says, looking up from the ledger. "Not sure selling a petrified creature for pocket change is really worth the potential guilt later."
"Some other interesting stuff in here too. Some guy named Loris Raknian hired Zyrxog to 'dispose' of us. But apparently he changed his mind on having us killed in favor of Zyxog converting us. We should track this guy down and take care of him."
"Zalamandra's fine, it seems. Though...isolated?"
"They think Tanith's part troll. And they want to kill Rodrigo because he's the new guy."
"That's about it, besides some sales. Most interesting being the sale of 'Apostolic scrolls' to that Raknian guy and a sword to the constable. Though that was years ago, and I'm not sure if they went through a middle-man or what. Still. We should keep our eye on Constable Etin Derecs."