Elise solemnly hands over the fallen knights armaments to Nethan, so that he may keep them safe.
"Yes!"
Elise laughs and rubs her hands together. This was truly the time for some good old plundering! Her first target is a short silken red cloak, with a trim depicting a great many number of mythical beasts - most importantly a dragon. With a girly giggle she wraps it around her and clasps it with one of her brooches. As she finishes and realizes what she's done, she quickly coughs and straighten her face.
"*Ahem*. This is was a very nice cloak. I'll keep it..."
To go with the motif of her new outfit Elise finds a leather belt with a pair of rubies inlaid on the buckle and a strip of cloth similar to the cape, which she ties around her neck like a scarf. She also adds a small pouch of gold to her pack.
Dreyyn, like the others, searches the vault for items of use. Seeing the bust of a warrior, he takes the cap off of it to inspect. Though it looks a deal fancier than he would typically wear, he sees it armored better than any typical helmet.
Looks weird, but it'll do.
He takes a belt off of the bottom of the bust as well, seeing its fine leather carved with imagery of strange two-tailed lion-like creatures, a near-universal symbol of strength. He had seen its like in his world before, though the leather here was from some other predator... dark purple in hue.
Also catching his eye is a cloak of white-gold fur that resonates with a magic that even he can feel. Putting it on, he looks much more regal than before, despite the injuries he still suffers. Within one of the inner pockets of the cloak, Dreyyn also finds a ring. Thinking them to be some sort of set, he puts it on and an intangible field of force faintly surrounds his body.
Alþórel happily helps with sorting through boxes, identifying items by their dweomers when he can. Finally in one chest he finds a simple sphere of smooth obsidian, perhaps a foot across. Lifting it carefully, he peers into it as if looking deep into the depths.
"Ah. It has been Ages since I have seen one of these. I recognise these runes. Eþnui. I had thought this perished long, long ago. But hate survives all adversity, does it not. I suppose it only fitting it turn up here. Now."
"They tried to open it, I see. Left only one last chance to guess the passphrase before destruction. They must not have known to whom it belonged."
He speaks a simple phrase in Eleven
Shaking his head grimly Alþórel picks these up - and stops when he sees the grimoire underneath. He sucks in his breath in uncharacteristic surprise.
"In Libro De Iniuriis - The Book of Harms. So it wasn't destroyed in the purge."
Spook looks around at the group as they pick out things. He cautiously picks out a few bracers and a dagger. It doesn't look like he will use the thing preferring his bow. Though, the bow is not very good at stabbing people.
Atenzuki dons some light armour that the group recognizes from the Tian region. The armour covers most of her torso and shoulders but doesn't cover her arms and legs. It has some regal colours to it, denoting a decently high rank of what the group assumes is military. It doesn't look like she has a weapon for herself in her belongings but has equipped some bangles on her legs. "Ah that feels better, still not going to be casting anything for a while but this feels safer."
Spook turns to the group and asks "So we have stolen from Nkosi, this isn't a bad thing I guess. We probably want to skip town as soon as we can. First though we should get the hell out of here. Someone mentioned the route that the captain took to get here. Should we get out through that way or back through the house?" Spook asks Nethan "Do you still have some spells prepared? You said you had some spells to knock out people? That can probably get us some good leeway leaving through the manor?"
Elise eyes narrow and she glares at Al when he opens the cache. Slowly she repeats the phrase (horribly mauling it) and then lightens up, shaking her head.
"You have to tell me the story of how you knew that 'password' some day Al."
"Iin Librio Dei Iniuiriis" she tastes the words again, hopefully not inflicting lasting damage to either Al's or Spooks eardrums.
Once everyone is collected and ready, Elise takes one look around in the room to make sure they didn't miss anything. It would be a shame to miss spoils after all.
"I'm uncertain as to how discreet the cultists were when they entered the mansion. They may have left a trail of destruction and carnage that would be foolish for us to walk back to. But then, they didn't just cut their way down through the house ..." she crosses her arms and lean against the wall. "... so that may be something. Nevertheless, I'm guessing that *someone* must have heard all the ruckus by now - or the alchemists warned them - so heading out trough the sewers might be easier."
Spook agrees "Sewers indeed might be easier, we do have to think about the possibility however that the manor guards have spotted the sewer opening. Probably means there might be some resistance at least on the way to the grate." He shrugs "However I don't know if they would have sent more people down the sewers to investigate. We closed up behind us when we walked through so I doubt they'd have come this way. This presents the possibility that there might be less guards topside..." Spook pauses mulling over the thought. "Though a bunch of us hurriedly leaving the district when we clearly don't belong there is an issue"
Atenzuki stretches feeling relieved to be able to move more than inside a cell or chained to a wall. "Sounds like you have some direction to get us out of here. We need to discuss anything else or can we vacate this horrid place?"
When Amelia offers to repay him back his 25 gps, he replies, "That's OK Amelia, you don't have to pay me back."
While everyone is discussing on how to escape, Nethan was about to answer Spook when he barely noticed a twinkle of something crystalline. Nethan reaches in and pulls out a crystal hilt, Can it be?! He moves to a spot in the room where it will be safe what he was about to do next. All of a sudden, a crystal sword issues forth from the crystal hilt. The blade looks slightly sharper than the last sword he manifested. Nethan smiles and looks at Spook, excited with his find, "Yes! I still have a few spells remaining that can induce slumber to humanoids. However, my arcane power reservoir is almost spent." Nethan then looks down at the compass to see if that blinking red light is still on the face, "But maybe the sewer will have less guards and I will be able to induce slumber to most we meet with?
"I agree with sewers. I'd rather not tangle with guards in the open where they can fly around us on those sticks."
"Wonderful. Sewers it is. We need to get all the way outside - we'd already 'left', as it were. Most sewers run to a river or sea outside the city. I suggest we follow the effluent out. Not the nicest of highways out of town, but it should mean we needn't kill anyone."
The party decides to return to the sewers. As they return to the surface the way they came they pass that illusionary wall again. Upon reaching the basement of the manor they see two guards posted near the hole that leads to the sewers. With another Eldred who does not look military inspecting it. They are talking to each other in elven.
"Look I can get it repaired but it may take some time. I can't just bend the bars back into place" The inspecting Eldred says.
One of the guard gruffs "Look we don't want sewer rants coming into here, we thankfully have seen no sign of anyone robbing the manor but we don't want a big gaping hole here."
The other Eldred shrugs "Do you not have something to cover this.. maybe make a temporary wall? I need to removing the grating to fit it with something new. Probably in the morn.."
"No! We are paying you to do it now." The guard snaps, the other Eldred sighs.
Elise points to the pair and mouths to Nethan: 'Nap time?'
Before the Sewer
Nethan smiles and nods cordially at Amelia's dinner offer.
The Sewers
Nethan quietly looks at the guards and worker, and tries to get an estimation of how powerful the slumber power should be . He wants to get it as close as possible since his reserves are running low.
Focusing his psionic sense to Nethan finds that the guards near the grate seem to be relatively new soldiers, one a bit more senior than the other. They are at least not that well trained as of yet. What appears to be the repairman is likely not tough at all.
Nethan focus at the center of the opposing group and a shimmer lands in the middle of them. He looks to see how effective his manifestation came to be.
All three of them fall sleeping from the spell leaving the way out relatively unguarded.
Running past the guards into the sewers the group reaches further below the district reaching a long corridor with the sewage flowing into a single furrow in the centre. They come out of one tunnel connected to this tunnel and they see 7 others connected to it in the centre. East and West of the corridor continues round, winding a little probably heading off to other parts of the district or other district entirely. Presumably Moretti and his crew came from the inn Daeron is staying at, perhaps there is a way to find out which way they did come from.
Elise tip-toes up to the sleeping eldred, stealing any obvious weapon that she can see.
"So that they won't follow us as eagerly. I don't think they'll believe that they all just spontaneously fell asleep, but if it helps I can empty a waterskin of mead over them ..."
She seems almost giggly again, clearly having fun 'sneaking' around for a moment. Cracking up in a bright smile, she adds.
"I have some glue in my backpack if we *really* want to hold them in place ..."
"Hmm..." Elise looked around, searching for any physical evidence of the grave-bornes passing. With a dry tone she continued. "I have a dice if we need some guidance ..."
Nethan casts detect magic on them to see if they are holding anything magical, and then he addresses the group in a whisper, ::"We should check them for keys and things we can use without waking them up or be ready to knock them out or just tie them up before searching them?"::
Basement
Nethan rummages around to see if they have anything magical. He finds that on the older guards belt he has several small magical items tucked beneath it. They don't seem to have strong auras, they have a small twinge of conjuration. Nethan can guess they are magical seals possibly for a door or an alarm. Without picking them up he isn't sure.
Sewers
The sewers are illuminated by small lights that look like sunrods. They aren't as strong but it looks to be just to get some form of bearing. Likely for any workers that might come down here.
Both Amelia and Elise gather where the tracks begin from where they are. Elise sees that it heads off down the left side of the corridor. The pair also see that in the sluice there is lots of red liquid flowing down from the direction that the tracks lead. It is hard to spot due to it having mostly dissolved but there is enough to pick up that something is off.
In a low voice, ::"I see they have things that may be keys for magical locks and alarms. Shall we tie them up, gag them, and retrieve the items?::"
"Is that red fluid blood in the water?"
"That might be wise. Let me see...?"
Dreyyn wonders if it the substance is blood, looking closer he can tell it is but it is rather thick. It has clotted already and he can see small chucks of flesh amongst the blood.
Nethan makes sure he is wearing some gloves and gently removes the items.
"Yep. Blood with flesh chunks."
Nethan gently takes the items from within the belt. Only taking care to touch the edge of them. He retrieves 3 disc like items. One he can now identify as a key, one that functions like a sending stone and the last that if pressed is an alarm.
Sewers
The blood is coming from the direction that the tracks of Moretti and crew came from.
Spook says "I doubt its Daeron, he likely left before Moretti did. I don't think Daeron would need to use the sewers either as he is a local and wouldn't draw suspicion. Though I do like the idea of following the flow, it should eventually lead out right?"
Nethan handles the alarm button carefully, places all (3) items in a safe but easy to reach pocket or pockets, and speaks quietly, ::"Maybe we can use the alarm button as a distraction later and I am sure the key disc will come in handy. And perhaps we will need to use the alarm disc too? Let's go before these three wake up,::" Nethan hurries to catch up with the others in the sewer and looks over his shoulder to make sure the remaining are following him as they catch up with the others. When he does, he updates them, "The (3) Eldred had a key disc, alarm disc, and sending stone disc in which one or more should come in handy?"
"Spook is right. Our best option is to simply head out of the city. If we make speed the sewers should get us out before anyone realises what happened."
"I agree. Let's get out of this weird town. Where will we go after we leave the city, though? Hopefully not another weird town." He smiles a bit, but clearly thinks all of the towns will be weird.
Al looks at the amulet
"I think Nethan might have have some ideas about that. For now, I believe we need to recover. There's not a one of us that isn't injured."
Nethan nods to Al and looks at Dreyyn, "Glad you asked Dreyyn, because when Atenzuki touched the stone compass that we used to find her with is now pointing to a new direction and therefore our next adventure. However Al is correct, we need to rest to heal and us spell casters must recover our arcane power." Nethan shows the group the stone compass showing them that it is indeed pointing in a new direction, then puts it away.
"All right. Out then!" Elise nods and notes the direction of the sewage flow, following it. Hopefully the 'sidewalk' would still be present all the way, she didn't look forward to a dip in that water ...
The group decide to follow the flow of the water, it seems simple enough and without any issue until...
The reach a bit of the tunnel where they begin hearing chatter in a mishmash of Elven and Draconic, it sounds like they are mixing words from both languages. Peeking around the tunnel to see what is ahead the group finds a set of hunch backed Eldred with purplish skin. They are nattering about something, for those that speak either language they get the idea that they are talking about what they could eat next. The group recognize that skin tone however, it looks similar to what the Alchemist had turned into. These hunch backs however only the skin tone and no real transformations.
Nethan speaks to the group in a quieter voice than the creatures, ::"Since these creatures are speaking in Draconic and have draconic features, I probably can not put them to sleep? I wish I knew more about this alarm disc I have to perhaps create a diversion with it? Do you know how to operate this disc Atenzuki from being a captive here?::
Dreyyn will study the creatures from afar, in case combat breaks out.
Elise tilts her head and listens in, surprised about how much she manages to pick up. Sadly, the topics discussed didn't seem helpful for their quest ...
"They're hungry. And in the way! Either we have to take a detour or we have to demonstrate that we are not edible ... By force most likely!"
"Ah yes, that would be these" She lifts up her leg and points towards the bangle on her ankle. She brings her knee closer to her head and says a command word and the metal shifts into a blade. She kicks out towards the air and as she lowers her leg the sword retracts back into a bangle so that she can stand on it again. "It's an experimental Tian Xia weapon, meant to fool captors. Didn't work out so well for me as I was knocked out before I could fight back. I think this is similar to that blade Nethan wields, though I am unsure. That sword doesn't look like normal arcane magic too me."
* * *
Both Dreyyn and Nethan figure out that these are mutants. Mutated likely by Atenzuki's blood. They look like common folk or urchins that probably were living here in the sewers before they were mutated. They also likely did not know draconic before the mutation, so whatever it did affected their minds too. So they might be unstable.
The draconic nature of the creatures does indeed suggest that they can't be put to sleep by magic. They also retain some of their features from their elven blood.
Their features seem to have elongated though only a little so that their nails are sharp. However these creatures would likely not be much of a fight, their muscles are weak and they hobble around.
These aren't natural that's for sure. Neither their Eldred or Dragon halves.
"They won't put up much of a fight, physically. Dirty nails in the sewer won't be good for us probably, but they're pitifully crippled."
"They look starved all right. Maybe we could just bribe them ..."
Elise ponders her options for a moment, then shrugs and opens her bag pulling out the small sack that contain her emergency trail rations. A mix of dried berries, roots, meat and roasted nuts it was some of the last samples of homewards cuisine she'd see. But eh, the local food isn't half bad. And they look like they could use it more ...
"Aight. I'll try this and see what happens. If they try and eat me, please do help me stop them!"
Then she stepped around the corner, flinging the small bag at the feet of the chattering critters.
"Food." She stated simply in Draconic. Then she repeated the phrase in (horrible) Elven. Hopefully they would understand either. Continuing on before the creatures got a chance to either run away or do anything hostile she continued "I need a guide. Anyone that knows the way around here?"
As Elise was moving out to talk to the dragon creatures, Nethan tries to grab her but misses and in common, "Well Elise, we will find out if they desire fresh bloody flesh or not." He takes out the Wand of Valor choosing to heal since he is low on power.