"I'm ready to kill more goblins and track down rogue mages. What about the rest of you?"
Katara had been quiet most of the evening and enjoyed her brandy.
Later that evening she would walk around town to get a feel for it at night. The next morning she rose early and after breakfast with everyone else, she excused herself to sell the gear and ask around town about people who were interested in things from the spire.
"Goblins, kobolds, monsters in general....someone's got to patch up those wounds, lead on."
After seeling your loot, and paying the taxes you distribute the resulting money between you Before getting again to the Spire
The Echo woods are calm. It takes you a few hours to reach again the Spire, but at least nothing attacks you.
The ground level of the Spire is mostly done, but there must be other secrets and treasures to find..
Katara would look at their new red skinned friend. "Wish to do the honors and open that door?"
She asked pointing to the door in the North Wall.
"It will be my honor to help."
This is, indeed, the room by which Baldrek came.
A curving hall that has been badly damaged, but there are intact doors to the north, east, and south, as well as a large doubledoor leading west to the core of the tower.
The southeast corner of the room has collapsed in a mound of green glass rubble, but a tunnel runs through the debris, shored up with rough timbers
Zurks glances at the tunnel under the glass rubble. "It looks like those filthy goblins used that tunnel to bypass the other rooms. We should watch our backs."
Baldrek looks at the tunnel and shakes his head.
"I'm not so sure, Zurka, I came into the spire through this tunnel and it leads to the outer walls. Well, let's move on then."
Baldrek then searches the north door for any signs of traps.
Baldrek finds no trap on the door.
It seems to be a simple, crude wooden door.
"Its clear..."
Finding no immediate danger, Baldrek opens the door, with his maul in his hands. He then looks around for any danger.
"You guys take the lead. I'll hang back and bring up the rear. I don't want them filthy grubs sneaking up on us again."
This curving room is a good-sized kitchen, complete with decaying tables, cupboards, and bins.
One newer table has what seems like a child’s laboratory set up, with broken cups standing in for beakers.
If Gorok was still with you, she would be ashamed... or maybe she would find something useful in all this mess!
Mary looks around the kitchen.
"Well now, somebody's been busy with the cauldron.
My aunt would scold whoever is in charge here."
Nothing dangerous attacks you.
You are a very kind GM :3.
Maybe i can brew you a mushroom or chicken soup?
Mary goes over several herbs she sees lying around.
"Worthless.....seasonings....eww, why would someone?...."
Her attention then befalls some others near the cauldron's chopping block.
"Ah....this is useful. This is pretty but deadly herbs is called Belladonna. 'Beautiful woman', some Varisians sometimes call it, its beauty hiding a deadly trait."
She lets that sink in with a small smile.
"This, is a curious one.", as she holds it up into the air and looks at it. "First man next to me will be shared a little secret."
As a psychopath, Baldrek had always had difficulty to judge sarcastic comments or phrases with double meanings.
What is her point?
"Hum... you are stuck with a dwarf, a shadow man and a half-devil... no man around for your little secret, but if you must tell someone, beauty..."
Baldrek then leans towards her.
Baldrek gets a kiss on the cheek, as he steps up to her while she's still holding the herb up.
"I heard doing so was a custom in some parts of Varisia, more the civilized regions in the lands bordering the frozen northlands. It's said to bring good fortune."
Probably a surprised Baldrek....she smirks with a mysterious twinkle in her eyes.
"Fortune favors the bold, and can yield a reward.
Or does the custom offend you, Big Red?"
"Not at all, Beauty, not at all..."
Weird... why would she do this? This is the first...
Being red, he could not blush at all, but it completely caught him by surprise. Never before he received a kiss... at least not before lots of coins left his pouch.
"... so, we move on?"
"Yes, let's see what other secrets this place holds."
"We should explore the area beyond the north door." Zurka responds.
Mary pokes Katara in the side.
"You won't need the little songbird for this one if it's locked, right?"
"Songbird, you mean our new acquaintance? He seems like he knows what he is doing so I was going to let him keep doing it."
Mary smiles.
"No, not Big Red."
The singing of a bird follows, as a diminutive head pops from underneath her hair.
[Bird singing]
A quick glance at the next room shows it to be empty, except some furniture ...
It feels strange, maybe even disapointing, not to be attacked by goblins.
Baldrek peeked into the north room as Zurka suggested and soon came back to the alchemy lab/kitchen.
"Not a single soul that way..." and, at Katara's comment, he continued. "... lady not sure where are you from, but if even the little birds are as ugly as I am, it should be a hell of a place..."
Saying this, he leaves the room again laughing, moving towards the door to the east in the previous room, where he repeats the usual procedure.
The door doesn't seemed traped or locked.
When Baldrek opens it, he sees inside the small room a plush, human-sized bed stands in this chamber, along with a table holding a bone scroll tube and jars filled with eyeballs, claws, and teeth.
Various automaton parts lie scattered around.
"Hey guys... check it out! This room is also clear..."
Baldrek enters the room and starts to look for anything useful.
He inspects the eyeballs jar, trying to figure out if they are the famous pickled eyeballs jars that the goblins are so fond of.
What we have here?... I must say, if these are pickled, it is my lucky day! They are really delicious... perhaps the only good food that little bastards eat...
"That's good, no goblins."
Seeing the jars, Mary half absently mumbles..
"I once met an Osirian noble, my family was invited to a feast after he saw a musical performance. One of the curious delicacies, were cooked sheep's head. They ate eyeballs first.
Yet eyes are also useful reagants in brews."
"Songbirds don't exhist where I was raised. Only ravens." She stated and would look around among the piles of things and to see if there were any other exits hidden away.
"Ravens aren't bad either."
"There are few birds where I came from." Zurka states flatly. He stays out of the way of the others, electing to make sure the party is not troubled further by any more goblins.
Neither Katara or Baldrek see anything strange-, well, stranger than a jar full of eyeballs.
The bone scroll on the table seems even more normal than a jar of eyeballs...
Maybe the automaton parts can find a buyer back in the Fort.
Mary looks at the scroll, trying to find out what it is.
"We should move on here, the day is young." Zurka comments. "The doors leading to the central tower chamber beckon to us."
A bit sad that those are not pickled eyes, Baldrek leaves the room behind, heading towards the door to the central tower.
Baldrek opens the door without trouble , spots something odd and does quick work of a rudimentary alarm device, made of an old small helmet with rocks and bits of metal.
Stairs wind upward to the right, circling around a glowing wall of semi-translucent green stone.
It seems the Azlanti tower was built around a core of some other material—a spire within a spire.
Does it help that i know Azlanti?
Zurka's eyes widen at the appearance of the eldritch magic. "Such arcane might must be contained in those walls...if only I could tap into it..."
Seeing the makeshift trap Baldrek disarmed, he nods grimly to the others. "More goblins lay in wait. Prepare yourselves."
"Big Red, would you do the honors?"
"It will be my pleasure, Beauty!"
Baldrek draws his hammer and starts to move forward, always looking around for any signs of goblins. He tries not to make too mush noise.