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"Well, if she's really not your sister..." Eben says, rather dubiously, "You should probably be concerned about the fact that she's looking for your mom..."
"I am."
Carina blinks a few times. Her voice is shaky. "I don't know what's going to happen if she does find her... and I'm hoping it won't come to that."
"I guess it is pretty bad. Do you think there's any chance you can find spore of them?"
"Hey, why don't we send to Alessia again tonight? See if it works, at least."
"The Marquis, Zyrxog, plus Carina's evil twin sister. Am I missing anyone really obvious? I mean, that was where my mind went from 'let's see if we can peacefully negotiate with this thing' to 'die, abomination, die', because if we had parted ways peacefully, Jadis woulda joined up with them sooner or later, I guarantee."
Searching the area, Cuetzpalli finds some traces of footprints—clearly, some people at least made it down here. Perhaps those would-be hoard looters that the urchins spoke of back in town. Regardless, the only fully intact remnant he finds is a small diamond—the kind that might have gone on a wedding ring, though the gold is long since corroded by the green slime.
While it's difficult to tell, he doesn't think any humanoid has been here that wasn't a good deal heavier than Carina. If Carina's "other self"/"sister"/"freeloader" has indeed been here recently, it wasn't in the flesh.
Cuetzpalli also finds the remnants of Ilthane's old laboratory.
But not everything is lost, Cuetzpalli finds, rolling a well-placed metal plate out of the way and uncovering what remains of Ilthane's trove.
"Don't go tasting those just yet, we don't know that they're not bombs . . ." Astraden warns Farrukh.
"What a waste! I'm glad we killed those idiots," Cuetzpalli mutters, shaking his head at the destroyed horde.
"Oh. Yay. Potions." Eben says, quickly losing interest in the bottles and eyeing the locked box instead.
Elixir of Bilious Might: Drinking this elixir grants a permanent +1 inherent bonus to Strength and Constitution. The drinker's blood, however, turns viscous and green.
Elixir of Souls: Drinking this elixir grants a permanent +1 inherent bonus to Charisma, subtly enhancing the drinker's personality. It also causes a noticeable increase in nightmares.
Elixir of the Housefly's Dance: Drinking this elixir grants a permanent +1 inherent bonus to Dexterity and a +5 feet base speed increase. The drinker gains a terrible phobia of spiders, and spiders gain a marked antipathy towards the drinker.
Elixir of of Life: Drinking this elixir grants a permanent increase of +3 to the drinker's natural armor, and in so doing covers their shoulders, forehead, arms, legs and abdomen in thick black scales.
Astraden is unable to identify the last elixir, though it seems to be of similar quality and power as the others.
She believes that each of these identified elixirs would sell for around 55,000 gp.
Astraden is unable to identify the magic on the box.
"Wow, one of these things would sell for over 50k. So we've got an elixir that makes you strong and tough, but makes your blood gross-looking. A good deal, I think," Astraden says, picking up the first vial.
"The second strengthens your force . . . of personality. Sorry, that wasn't even a joke. But it has a side effect of bad dreams."
"That one with the spider sign on it attracts spiders to you! And, oh, makes you faster at running away from them. But why would you want to do that?"
"And this one makes your skin really tough. Looks weird, permanently, but tough, permanently. Probably worth drinking."
She detects Eben's disinterest and hrmphs. "Go ahead and try and open the box if you want. I've not got the faintest what's inside."
Tanith can't help but wrinkle his nose as Astraden describes the contents of the vials.
"I think I'll pass for now. The Book of Gains™ frowns on performance enhancing alchemy. I wonder what the 'perks' were to the ones Ilthane used on herself? Or her whelps?"
"Mind if I take a look at the last one?" Carina asks as she examines the last elixir.
"It would be nice to have super tough skin. But I don't want to be fugly..."
"Think I'll hard pass on these. We can sell them and buy stuff that doesn't have terrible drawbacks."
"Mind if I take a look at the last one?" Carina asks as she examines the last elixir.
[dice=Craft (Alchemy)]1d20+20
[dice=AP Boost]2d6
Carina is unable to identify the elixir.
"Okay, I'll admit, those are a little more impressive than more cure potions..." Eben says, reappraising the situation. "Some are kinda tempting, but I dunno, having bad dreams the rest of my life or looking like a freak seem kinda... deal-breakerish..."
"Hey, Farrukh, can you pop the lock on the box? After trap checking, of course."
"Sure."
After tasting a drop of it, swirling it around in its flask, and taking careful sniffs of it, Carina puts down the unidentified elixir with a sigh.
"I've got no idea what it is, sadly."
"Ah well, we can probably get Zalamandra to identify it after we get her out," Astraden reassures Carina. "'Cause we can get her out now, right?"
Eben picks up the rat skull. "Assuming the Blessed A~#*@@@s believe this was the big scary resident of Ilthane's lair..."
"Yeah. Assuming that." Astraden makes a grimace and picks up the vials as well.
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The effect is pretty simple "kill them a lot"-style necromancy trap. Farrukh used to be pretty good at disabling these, but sometime between meeting Manzorian and the party's foray into Kuluth-Mar, he's lost track of all the tools he had for dealing with magic traps.
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"Everybody stand back. This trap is going to zap me in a second." Farrukh begins rapidly vibrating, and tenses to lift his shield in response to an attack.
By angling one’s shield correctly and stepping into an enemy spell’s effect, he may deflect the power of the spell that targets him. Spells or powers countered by this ability must be targeted spells (one cannot use Burnished Shield against fireball for example, as it does not specify a target) with the martial disciple as the target. The initiator makes an attack roll using his base attack bonus plus his shield bonus to AC opposing the enemy’s caster level check. If successful, the spell or effect is negated.
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Astraden is already halfway up the exit by the time Farrush finishes speaking. "Good luck!" she shouts from a very safe distance, her voice echoing down into the chamber.
Farrukh taps the lock with his shield. Instantly, he feels a jolt come from the lock, which releases a high-pitched chittering. For a second, the shield seems to warp...
...then sort itself back into place as the trap expends itself. Farrukh picks the lock quickly and opens the box. A clicking sound comes from the lock, steady, like a clock or a broken music box.
The interior of the box contains two carved wooden trays, designed to hold simple glass vials—the top and bottom are padded with cloth and contain pockets to hold more vials and alchemical supplies.
In total, the box contains fifty opaque potions, which Carina can fairly easily identify by taste. The box also contains a metal key mold. Cuetzpalli has uncovered Ilthane's old alchemy kit.
20 potions of cure light wounds (CL 5)
10 potions of cure critical wounds (CL 14th)
5 potions of gentle repose (CL 13th)
2 potion of fox's cunning (CL 11th)
1 potion of bull's strength (CL 11th)
2 potion of bear's endurance (CL 11th)
1 potion of animate breath (Carina surmises that this is a draconic spell which converts a breath weapon into an elemental—it's a 7th level wizard spell)
1 potion of greater magic fang (CL 7th)
3 potions of sending (Carina believes these to be concoctions of Ilthane's own—they deliver the sending to a creature predetermined during the original brewing. Carina isn't quite sure who it is)
2 potions of haste (CL 5th)
3 potions of remove disease (CL 9th)
"...minor healing, lots of healing, corpse preservation, intelligence boosting, strength boosting (don't worry, Tanith, it's completely wholesome), endurance boosting (again, wholesome), one of..." Carina pauses. "...breath weapon conversion into an elemental? Wow. That's a new one for me. Powerful as hell, too."
"Anyway--natural weapon boosting (as in claws or teeth, not fists--sorry Tanith), potions of Sending (to whom I'm not sure), speed-boosting and disease removal." Carina finishes identifying the potions.
"Ilthane had quite a kit here. I should start brewing some more potions one of these days."
After surreptitiously backing away himself as Farrukh prepared to disarm the big trap, Eben sidles back into the conversation. "Oh, potions," he says again, but less jaded this time, if nothing else because of the sheer variety Ilthane had tucked away. "I think she did that breath weapon elemental thing when we were fighting her, actually. But don't suppose any of us can really make use of it." He picks up one of the sending potions. "I wonder if we could use one of these to find out who she was in contact with? Possibly working with. Or for. If Carina can't find out just from examining them, we could use it ourselves to do a sending. Maybe pretend to be one of her kids taking over the lair and looking for opportunities to get in with Mom's old crew?"
"If YOU want to handle that, be my guest. Fharlanghn knows I couldn't lie my way out of a burlap sack."
Astraden returns after about a half-minute of waiting for an explosion. She notes down Carina's identifications on an expired scroll. "Don't suppose anyone here has a breath weapon they've been saving as a secret surprise this whole time?"
"I'd be happy to help concoct the message with you, Eben. But it seems like we could get in over our heads pretty quickly if it was someone Ilthane was working for." Astraden shrugs. "Don't wanna go poking a hornet's nest when we've already got a bunch of recurring enemies to deal with."
"The real question in all of this is how Ilthane filled these tiny potion bottles with her dragon claws", Tanith asks while pantomiming his calloused hands as claws alongside one of the vials.
"She had all those kobolds melted to her back, remember? She probably used them for fine motor work."
"Typical employer, calling a medical advancement her property when it's really a bunch of kobold slaves doing the work . . ."
And so the group departs from the lair, wind walking back to Alhaster. The last non-taxidermied remnants of Ilthane the Black, as well as the last remnants of her ruined work and her bloodline, are left to rot.
When the group arrives at the imposing Aerie, it is almost midafternoon. Perched atop a jagged cliffside overlooking the entrance to the habor stands this grim, gothic, many-towered structure of dark stone. As they approach, they are joined by two fruit peddlers, each pushing a small cart of fresh apples, pears, and what appear to be rocks.
The two peddlers walk alongside the party, each whistling the exact same jaunty tune. As they wheel their wares, each member of the party hears a voice echoing in their head.
~ Hello, and welcome to the Angel's Aerie! As special friends of the Blessed Angels, you are of course welcome to enter at your leisure. That is, of course, assuming you have brought us good news, and are not here to waste our time. As a formality, would each of you kindly submit to a brief thought scan? Just a formality, of course. We wouldn't want this to be some kind of elaborate heist. Zalamandra has been such a courteous guest these last few nights, after all. ~
As the voices go quiet, the members of Spiny's Six feel an unpleasant sensation, like an insect is jabbing its legs at their brains, feeling its way around.
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Astraden accepts the scan, screwing up her face beforehand as if diving off a cliff. "-DON'T THINK ABOUT HORSES DON'T THINK ABOUT HORSES F%+& F### F+#~ F!@@ OH DEAR SWEET LYNWERD I NEVER MEANT TO BETRAY YOU-"
While her mental tact is unceasing, anxious, and possibly an intentional fakeout, she has no apparent intention of heisting the Aerie today.
Eben doesn't bother resisting the mental probe, since at this juncture all his surface thoughts are all about meeting with Mara and getting Zalamandra back, rather than any eventual plans of overthrowing the tyrannical regime of this city and its sadistic enforcers along with it. Oh. Shit. Did thinking about how I'm not thinking about that count as thinking about it? NO JUST DROPPING OFF A RAT SKULL NO HOLY SMITES TODAY.
Cuetzpalli doesn't resist. He's thinking about how much he doesn't like it in Allhaster, and can't wait to leave once their business is concluded.
Carina sighs, and decides, out of spite, to fill her thoughts with images of nothing but the colour grey.