With a smile at the party the paracountess rises from her seat. "So you obtained the box? I'll let Ambrus know you are capable. If you want to keep the letter opener," she walks up to Misarru, "I don't mind. Though if you take them, you'll have to promise me you'll come back to play some time." With a wink the paracountess touches Misarru's chest with one of her fingers.
She walks past the party, into the bedroom. "Ah, Kreuvus, there you are." The paracountess only looks at the imp briefly, before addressing the party again. "My servant will show you the way out."
The paracountess calls for her servant, and the same man that let the party in answers her call. He escorts the party to the manor's exit, and closes the door behind them when they're all outside.
The Wise Quarter is the district in the city of Absalom where most of Absalom's government buildings are located, including the residence of the Primarch and the hall of the Grand Council. There are several large mansions the party passes by on their way to the rich estate of Grand Councilmember Dremdhet Salhar. While the party travels to the estate they get the feeling they’re being watched.
The party arrives at the rich estate of Grand Councilmember Dremdhet Salhar, and is greeted by a guard who is expecting the party as they reach the tall, wrought-iron gate. Once the party is inside, a servant walks up to the group. ”Master Salhar is not present. He was called away on important Council business. The Sapphire Sage, master’s most trusted advisor, will receive you. He is available to negotiate any business you may require.”
While the servant explains this he leads the group down welldecorated hallways, past expansive rooms. After a few minutes, the group arrives at a simple study near the end of a long hallway. Inside Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, a tan-skinned old man sits behind a desk flipping through pages in a large tome. Scraps of paper jut from the book marking over two dozen different places. As the group approaches the open door, the wise sage silently gestures the party into the study with one thin hand, while closing the tome with the other after finishing what he was reading. Once the party is inside the study, he addresses the group.
”Good day to you, Pathfinders. I am Amenopheus, the Sapphire Sage, advisor to Master Salhar. I understand you were sent here to discuss archaeological permissions. Knowing this was coming, I spoke with Master Salhar at length on the subject and have this to say.”
”Since Osirion was reopened to exploration a decade ago, adventurers, historians, and treasure-seekers flock to my country by the hundreds, perhaps thousands. While most families with ancestral burial vaults maintain guards and keep their sites out of the hands of casual thieves, not all families have the wealth or power to restrict everyone, and as we all know, not every defense is perfectly secure. Unscrupulous tomb robbers and maligned merchant organizations cause Osirion to bleed relics into the Inner Sea—something the descendents of Ancient Osirion cannot afford. We Osiriani have thousands of years of rich history coursing through our veins, and while that power has been out of focus in recent years, we are content to wait, knowing our enemies will wear themselves down. As they fall into arrogance, folly, or greed, we wait for our return to power, knowing we bear the riches of our ancestors at our feet.”
”Master Salhar remains impressed by the Pathfinder Society, orating in their favor a handful of times in front of Absalom’s Grand Council, in fact. Due to previous relationships between him and the Society, Master Salhar has agreed to grant permission to the Pathfinder Society to explore his family’s vaults below Sothis. The only thing he requires is that you retrieve the map of the vaults from his own vault here. The servant will lead you to the basement and show you the room.” The Sapphire Sage’s eyes twinkle as he smirks knowingly, then he turns back to reading his book as though he had never been disturbed.
After leaving Amenopheus’ study, the servant brings the group back through the spacious estate, leading them down sturdy stone steps into the cool basement. Down a hallway, after a couple turns, the party ends up at a plain wooden door. The servant opens the door, gesturing to the room with a bow, and waits silently for the party to enter.
Once every member of the party is in the room, the servant shuts the door and locks it behind them. Written on the back of the door is the message: “Within these cases lies your quest and your way out.”
A plain stone room contains three chests: a copper-banded chest of smooth, dark wood; a red lacquered chest; and what looks to be a cube of solid steel. Behind the chests sits a low table holding a clear glass jar half full of liquid and a covered wicker basket.
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"It would make seem that what we need is in these containers, but there must be something more to it." Artix says as he slowly moves around the different containers, making sure not to touch any of them.
He then turns and eyes Misarru, "Perhaps someone could take a look at these and see if there is anything nasty tied to them."
Magic can be felt from the copper-banded chest, the locks of the other two chests, a small object in the basket, and a small object in the glass jar.
While the liquid in the jar appears to be water, Misarru realizes it's actually not water as soon as it makes contact with his hand. What’s actually a mildly corrosive cleaning agent hurts Misarru's hand, but he manages to pull jeweled brass key out of the jar.
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"Ouch, that hurt. That burns, must be some sort of acid." He looks like he's going to kick down the bowl, but thinks the better of it.
"You know, that chest over there looks like it's not there at all. Looks like an illusion to me actually."
When pointing the illusion out, Misarru points at the copper-banded chest that's looks like it's made from smooth, dark wood.
The snake's dumped on the floor, together with the cloth and a blue rune-etched stone key. Sparkle manages to lure the snake away to a corner of the room, where Sparkle places the cloth. The viper crawls under the cloth.
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Misarru looks at the keys with interest and then looks at the chests with interest.
"Now which key is used on which chest I wonder."
He squats down in front of the lacquered chest and tries the jeweled brass key on it, afterwards the blue rune key.
If it looks like it doesn't fit he'll won't force it.
If none of the keys fits the chest he'll try his hand at opening the lock with one of the masterwork tools they got from the warehouse.
When the jeweled brass key is placed in the red lacquered chest’s keyhole, the chest doesn't open and the key keeps spinning without making any manner of contact with the mechanism. With some effort Misarru grabs hold of the key again, and pulls it out of the keyhole.
Chilly sounds a bit concerned, but when the rune-etched key is placed in the keyhole the chest unlocks. The red lacquered chest holds a key forged into the end of a jeweled scepter.
A golden key has dropped 6 inches down from a slit in the 15-foot-high ceiling, where it hangs on a cord.
The party gathers around the steel chest, and Chilly tries the golden key first. The steel chest unlocks when Chilly turns the key in the keyhole.
Chilly, eager to see what's inside, opens the steel chest without noticing the trap it contains. A cloud of blue smoke comes from the chest and engulfs the entire party.
When the blue smoke has cleared, everyone feels just fine. The only difference from before is that Chilly's skin and Orin's scales have turned as blue as smurfs.
The steel chest holds the map of the Salhar burial vaults beneath Sothis and a wand of knock .
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Artix watches as Chilly inserts the key and turns it. He begins to cough as the blue smoke rises out of the chest and covers the party, trying to back away.
As the smoke clears, Artix looks from himself to the others and can't help but grin slightly seeing the now blue colored dragon and Chilly.
"Well that is an unusual trap." He turns to Sparkle. "You know of any way to get them back to normal?"
Artix eyes the map and wand, before reaching in and taking them both. "Must be what we came here for, and how to get out of this test. Who can use this?"
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Chilly sits there, stunned. The first words out of his mouth are note to self: let trap person check for traps in future. Second note: do not do this again. Third note: start planning killing spree.
Chilly looks at misarru told you there was a trap. Lets find that guy who gave us this stupid task. I feel the need to hug him. And touch lots of furniture.
gathering what is left of his dignity, he gets ready to go.
and what's a smurf?
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Misarru grins broadly at Chilly and Orin.
"Heh, you didn't let me check the box again. I can't help you were so quick with that key."
As they get ready to go, or at least activate the wand, Misarru looks at Sparkle for that, he states something obvious.
"Apparently such creatures are blue. I can't say I've ever seen a creature with blue skin though."
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"I've seen blue skinned creatures before." Artix chimes in as he tries to suppress the smile growing on his face. "But they had been outside in the winter for far too long. Nothing quiet like this.
Artix tosses Sparkle the wand as he heads toward the door, letting the Gnome and blue eidolon go first.
"At least we finished all of our tasks. We should head back and give the report to Ambrush."
Sparkle uses the wand to open the door. On the other side of the door the party's greeted by the servant who led them to the vault. "That's fast," the servant says, and inspects every member of the party. When he looks at Chilly and Orin the corners of the servant's mouth curl and he tries to keep in his laughter. "Some have turned blue I see."
"You can keep the map and wand, but please give back any keys you have on you." The servant waits for the party to hand over the keys they have on them. After that the servant informs the party Amenopheus has left for the day. "If you wish to speak to him, perhaps you should try back tomorrow. Either way, I'll show you the way out."
The servant escorts the party to the estate's exit, and opens the door for them. "I'll inform the master of your succes. You have passed." Once again, the servant tries to keep in his laughter. This time he fails, and laughs loudly while quickly closing the door behind the party.
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Misarru hands over the keys to the servant, albeit a bit reluctantly.
As they go out of the mansion, he asks his group members for a favour.
"Say any of you got some healing skills? That acid-like substance in combination with the sting that imp delivered seems to bother me more than I'd have thought."