"Kakrish..."
Tamora shakes her head although there is little to hide a smile that appears on her face which betrays her expression of disapproval.
The Baroness turns her attention to Kyras, when Kakrish interrupt the report. For a moment, she is too stunned to say anything, but when he stands back up, she looks at the dwarf. "Yes, um, thank you. You don't have to do that again... Ever." There is a little smile on her face as she says those words. She then looks again at Kyras. "You were saying?" After the report, she ponders for a while. "I don't know about trading with them, it might take a while for the people to get used to the idea, but the fact that they will move slightly away for now will certainly greet as good news." She walks over to the side table and serve herself to a glass of wine, encouraging others to do the same.
"Now, as for other news, this will interest you. We tried to find any possible next of kin for Hunclay's land and possessions. Our investigation turned out nothing. Which means that all his belonging are now property of the town. Now, according to the law, when such thing happened, the town must liquidate asset by hosting an auction. Because we don't know what exactly there is in there we need someone to head in there and do an inventory of all the goods." She takes a sip of her wine and continue. "The man was also known to be somewhat paranoid, so be wary of traps and other protections in there. Once you have a list of all the stuff that can be up for sale, just bring it to me. If you find anything dangerous in there, I would rather you find a way to discard it. Do you have any questions?"
What if we encounter hostile a inside? Kyras asks.
Kyzen with sarcasm... "Why will there be hostiles!!!"
Hostile traps, maybe?
"The man lived by himself, so I don't think you will be encountering anyone in there. Then again, he was a wizard. Who knows what would be in there." She takes another sip of her wine and continue. "If you do find someone here, capture them is possible. If it is not, well then use whatever force you deemed necessary." She then looks at Hoga to answer him. "Traps are more than likely. So explore the place with caution."
Fortunately, Kyras is a skilled investigator. I'm sure he can keep us safe.
I will certainly try. Baroness, if we do have to fight we will claim the gear of our assailants as part of our compensation. Is that reasonable?
Kyzen taking a step forward, passing by Kyras... "Investigation is fun, ok." Now looking at the Baroness, trying to ba as diplomatic as he can be... "But if we only encounter traps, what's our compensation for taking all the risk for securing the place?"
"What happens to the possessions that cannot be liquidated?"
"Ok, let see if I can answer all your questions." She looks first at Kyras. "Yes, if you encounter any hostile creatures in there, you may keep whatever they have on them." She then turns to Kyzen. "While I don't have any funds for this, I can let you have up to three thousand gold of the wizards personal property before the auction." She then moves on to Tamora's question. "The town will have an auction to liquidate all of Hunclay's possessions. I'm pretty confident that we will be able to sell off everything."
I think that addresses everything. I say we start first thing in the morning.
Kakrish raises his fist in the air dramatically. "We have a plan!" he says a little too loudly.
"Morning sounds good" Paying his respect to the Baroness, Kyzen head toward the exit... "I'm bying the first round!!!"
Deal! Hoga says, following along.
Tamora bows to the Baroness. She nods at Kyzen's suggestion before following Hoga and Kyzen out.
"Well, I could really use a drink right now!"
"Hear, hear. Sounds like a great plan."
After a good night of eating, drinking and relaxing, the group heads for the manor after a good breakfast. The manor is three stories tall and the outside walls are made of thick stone. With a quick inspection of the outside, you find only one door and three chimneys. There are also multiple windows, but you can't see anything inside as they seemed to be covered from the inside.
Taking point Kyras says Yes, well lets get to it. He casts Heightened Awareness and checks the entire porch/door area for traps before checking the actual door for traps and then trying to open it.
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As the group heads towards the wizards manor Kakrish starts skipping. "You know, there ought to be a song about heading to a wizard's house. Something like this." Kakrish breaks into a singsong voice, "we're off to see the wizard... And then I don't know what else."
Kyras inspect the front door as Kakrish tries to add verses to his new song. After a minute or so, Kyras found that there was a trap on the front door, but someone already triggered it. He can clearly see scorch marks on the door and the frame. Confident that there is nothing else, Kyras tries the key. It fit perfectly and he is able to open the door.
The floor of this well-appointed entry hall is adorned with two expensive Qadiran rugs and decorated with several overstuffed leather sofas. Two dozen paintings with gilded frames hang on the walls, portraits and landscapes, all of exquisite artistry. To the north sits a large bird cage. Wooden doors open in the east and west walls, and an elaborate spiral staircase of iron both ascends and descends in the southeast corner.
Still wary of traps Kyras check around the room and then begins the inventor. He asks for someone to detect magic in the area. Looks like some nice stuff. He will take 10 on Appraise on each items for a 20 and record his guess on approximate value as part of his list.
Kyzen picks up right after Kakrish
"... Manor, to investigate his death under the Tower..."
Using his Basic Geokinesis ability, Kyzen examine the room at a distance
Kakrish laughs and slaps Kyzen roughly on the back. "Yeah, that's it. Maybe you should become a professional singer like me." Still laughing Kakrish steps up on the porch and into the wizard's house.
"I don't see much in here. Other than all that expensive looking art stuff. How about we go there?" Kakrish points through the western door.
Tamora scans the room with her detection spells and looks at the room with a careful eye (Perception {Take 20) - 30).
Hoga hangs around and guards the others, not being good at any of this!
Kyras is about to enter the room when he hesitates for a second. Taking a better look, he finds hint of a magical trap just waiting for him to set a foot inside. Avoiding the trap, the group is able to inspect the room. After a moment, Kyras find a switch behind one of the portraits on the wall. He is pretty sure that it would disable the trap at the entrance. As for Tamora, using her magic, she finds a magical aura coming from the largest bird in the cage. Getting closer, you also notice that they are out of food and water. The birds themselves look rather weak from starvation. alive, the collection of bird could fetch about two hundred golds.
Kyras quickly deactivates the trap and notes its location in his log. Best to disarm all the traps before the Baroness's people come in here to collect things. He says to himself.
"No magical traps somewhat. But the largest bird over there is magical."
The healer assess the state of the birds.
"How could he!"
Tamora rushes towards the cage as Kyras flips the switch.
"Oh, you poor little things. How long has he neglected you? It's okay now. You don't have to put up with him any longer and suffer by your lonesome. Don't worry. Tamora is going to make you plump and healthy again."
She fills the containers with water and shares some of her rations (using 1 day worth of it) with them.
Kyzen try to assist Tamora, but seems to know nothing at all about these birds anatomie...
Tamora and Kyzen inspect the birds. Tamora is able to identify all the exotic birds. They are all birds from a jungle type environment, like the Mwangi expanse. Tamora notices a small silver charm attached by a string to the leg of the largest bird.
"Why you guys spending so much time on those birds?" Kakrish looks at the doorway leading west. "We've got some exploring to do."
Its prudent to provide nourishment to them. They likely have not been cared for since the time of the wizard's death. If they die it represents considerable loss to the town and would cruel to the birds to boot. Kyras says as he continues to catalogue.
"Now that the birds are safe, lets continue our investigation" turning to Kakrish... "Any door or staircase is fine with me, we have to do it all anyway, right."
Tamora continues to pet the birds as she is feeding them and notices a silver charm tied above the largest bird's talon.
"I get it. So the magical source comes from the charm not the bird. And what a collection of foreign birds here. It's hard to believe that they were collected from the jungles of Mwangi expanse, no less. That explains their rarity but still..."
The healer trails off then levels an angry gaze at the dwarf when he do not care about the birds.
"And leave them to starve? What kind of a person do you think I am?! You do realize that these birds are not objects but living creatures that have feelings! And there are someone who empathizes with them?! Something you possibly wouldn't understand for someone not having any experience with animals."
She gestures to the cage then to everything that is more richer than the birds.
"And a considerable loss? Really? I would not jump to that conclusion since there are many other assets in this mansion make the values of these birds pale in comparison."
With the birds now feed, Tamora is able to get the charm from the big one. She studies it for a while, but she can't seem to figure out what it does. On the other side of the room, Kyras is done cataloguing this room and ready to move on.
Lets explore the ground floor before going up. Kyras says as he checks the east door.
"You might want to identify what this charm does first."
Tamora hands the charm to anyone that can identify it.
Kyzen can't detect magic either...
"Ah yes. Let me look at that bauble." Kakrish takes the charm from Tamora and begins to examine it with a knowledgeable air.
After a few moments he hands it back to Tamara. "Yep. Magic. But it must not be that significant since I am unable to determine the exact nature of the magic." He turns to the rest of the group. "And now, we can keep moving?"
Noticing that Kyras is checking the east door, Kakrish moves up to the door with him.
Kyras inspects the door and finds no signs of a trap. It also appears to have no lock on it. Opening the door, you see a kitchen that is well stocked with all the accoutrements needed to prepare gourmet meals. There are two doors on the southern wall. There is also a curtain closing of a small cubby in the northeast of the room.
This may take a moment. Ill record the truly rare and expensive stuff and estimate the rest. Someone hit it with a detect magic.
Tamora scans the room with detect magic.
While the rest of the group inspect the east room, Kyzen, not wanting to get caught off guard goes to the west door and listen
Then he goes to the staircase and look/listen up & down (has dark vision if no light)
Kakrish steps into the kitchen. A brief glance doesn't reveal any enemies so Kakrish moves to the southern doors and listens at each of them.