Khamul grabs the stuff under the second throne, saying "Yoinks", and demonstrates his agreement with Idun's plan by running for the rope over the chasm even as he stuffs things into his handy haversack...
Zarque helps by grabbing stuff and making it disappear, almost shoveling it into nothing. Then blinks her way back to the statue door to make sure it stays open.
Thinking his sight will last longer than most, Sil hurriedly helps the others find the rope and start across, planning to bring up the rear.
Grenz circles around, gaining speed as he goes, then jumps across.
Then he moves to the other end of the rope to assist his companions.
"I can still see, but not for long" - he informs.
Oathday, 17 Lamashan 4707, 1:58pm. 55 degrees, partly cloudy.
After gathering the items, you make your way across the columns safely, using the rope or natural strength to bridge the gap. You pick up the Everburning Torch, which seems to have dimmed in the strange light, and as you make your way out into the daylight, you swear you hear a voice behind you. Turning, you see nothing but a red mist that vanishes back into the darkness. you strain to remember what it said, but it slips your mind as you concentrate on it. For the time being, you are left alone at the entrance to the mausoleum with your unconscious captives.
Khamul is happy to be back out in the sunlight, away from the darkening crypt; "Well, I'm willing to call it a day, how about the rest of you? I say we close the crypt up again, take ourselves, our prisoners , and our loot back to town and figure out what we have. I also propose we get some beer and the best meal the Rusty Dragon can put together as a well earned reward! We can discuss what to do next over dinner!"
Sil helps gather the survivors and anything which a quick glance suggests might be valuable from the dead, dragging what he must outside, into the light.
"So, whatever the sheriff had you doing, you've finished? Sure, then, prisoners to the sheriff and after, an easier night of it. Sounds fine."
Sil will work to follow through with the plan if it seems accepted.
Once outside, Zarque opens a strange glowing doorway, "Except for Khamul and whoever else watches the prisoners, anyone wanting to examine the loot is welcome to join me in here." and she steps inside, allowing her allies to enter, except Khamul, whom she will teach to respect a kobold, a race of the dragons, with proper respect.
Zarque will help identify and share any of the loot she gathered, except the staff. When she brings that into the room, "We should pretend this was not recovered. That it was dropped down crevasse. This is theitem desired by our current enemies. We should do all we can to make them believe we failed to retrieve it. Also, I promised to recover this, but not to hand it over. So for the moment I'll keep it hidden. It may be useful for me to pretend to betray you guys and join the other side for a time. Not sure I like that idea, and I don't plan on it currently, but I want to keep my options open in that regard. It'll fit my previous conversation with that priest where I presented myself as a rather dragon like personality, as in devoted to my own wealth. He will likely try to use that against me. If so, I'll try to make it easy for you guys to track us. Whittled sticks and such." Zarque then proceeds to examine the staff herself, and let the others see it, but not touch it (it might be cursed, she won't touch it herself either).
Drek can't contribute much analysing the items, so he instead watches the prisoners.
Grenz stays outside, watching over the prisoners.
The second item that Khamul picked up looks identical to the first one once unwrapped, down to the way it is painted and as Sileven confirms, is very magical. In the coffer is several small bars of gold you estimate to be worth approximately 400 gold sails altogether.
As Zarque starts rambling about his master plan that will solve everything as long as everyone acknowledges he's got the only mind present that matters, Sil just shakes his head. "You're more dragon-like than you seem to think, and that's not a compliment. It is all about you and about what you're going to do. I don't even know what these things are for, or why they matter, but just helping you take solo control over them so you can make somebody else believe you've got a dragon's greed just seems to be playing to your greed. Does anyone who has an idea what's going on with these have an alternate plan?"
"Well, it's a clever see, but maybe too clever. Too many things parts hafta go right. Seems like a plan that's vulnerable to them wanting to backstab ya instead of paying ya. And from what we know of them so far, they're that kinda ill folk." Idun worries.
"I say it'd be best to either leave the the fake in there, hidden, like we missed it, and return home declaring we didn't find anything or give them the fake and say that's what we found. Maybe 'here, have it, just leave us alone' sorta thing. By the time they figure things out, maybe we've had enough time to do something else clever we haven't all thought up yet." Idun offers a fairly risk averse plan.
"I'd say our biggest boon is they can't send any of their big fellas to murder us without losing their whole 'oh no sheriff, I ain't evil, just a subordinate misbehavin' thing. So, even if all our sneaky plans fall through, if we're all together and we have the staff, we got the upper hand." Idun seems to trust most in a plan that relies on their ability to defeat any disposable pawns.
Milah watches the prisoners as well, knowing nothing about what the others were sent to find, or why, or much of anything really.
While they wait out of Goldendrake Dimension, Drek updates Sil and Milan about last events.
"To make a long story short, the murders had some Pharasmin priests involved, and we have our hands tied on this. They were looking for a staff - probably the one we just found - but we don't know for what it for whom."
"Sil, greed is a desire to have and posses. I'm talking strategy and tactics. Can you think of a better hiding place than here, where they can't access even if they knew I had it here? Besides, I said it was a backup plan, not the main plan. I just haven't found a good main plan yet. We can't let them have the staff, at least until we know it is safe for them to have it, which seems unlikely."
Zarque seems confused as Idun starts, then famepalms,
"Idun, There is only one part to go right or wrong, whether they believe me or not. It's not exactly a complex backup plan. And frankly, the 'give them the fake scepter' fits perfectly with it, except I'm not certain it'll fool the guy in town. I noticed it is a fake, any master would, only common rabble and apprentices would be fooled, at least upon inspection. As for sending goons, the only way they leave us alone is if they think we are on their side, or at least cooperated, and even then it isn't certain, but any other outcome is almost certainly going to result in a fight, and direct combat is the worst way to defeat an enemy, a path of high risk to be taken for expediency, out of desperation, stupidity, or to achieve what can't be reasonably done any other way. The highest form of warfare is to win without fighting a war."
"I wonder what those guys are up to in... In there" - Grenz comments to Drek'Thar and Milah, as he confirmed the prisoners are securely tied.
...
2 ranks +3 trained +1 trait
Khamul shakes his head "I don't trust humanoids in general, and that kobold isn't helping matters, popping out of existence with the stuff I bled to get."
He busies himself searching the Bloody Fist and his mooks
As he does so, he continues speaking: "Ok, we have a quorum out here. We know how to open the door by spending some blood. I propose we close it, so anything that was trapped inside there can't get out to make trouble. Also, who's the elf? Clearly he's a friend of yours and a dab hand with a pair of blades..."
Milah nods, "Zarque is...well, I suppose you could call her eccentric, but that would perhaps be overly charitable. An acquired taste, perhaps? Still, as annoying as she can be, she's useful in a fight. As for Sileven, he helped to root out the goblins that had set themselves up in Thistletop."
Khamul looks up from his searching and says levelly "So you're vouching for both of them. Fine... Meanwhile, should we close the door?"
"Not a bad idea" Drek goes to examine the entrance and see if the same ritual they used to open it is needed to lock it.
"I didn't mention whether they believe ya or not, I mentioned they might be the kind not to deal straight with ya even if they buy it. What if their first thing to do with a new hire is to cast all sorts of charm magics on ya till one sticks like we thought about doing to Remus? Or some truth forcey magic?" Idun worried. "Just figure there's a lotta bad things a bunch of casters can do to someone who's isolated. And these seem like bad folk."
"Though maybe I'm thinking bout nothing. Can clerics cast charm magics?"
"A better place than where you have sole possession and control? Depends on the goal, I guess. I can understand why you assume there's no place better, because everything you put in here becomes yours by default. I really don't know what these things do, or why they want them, but I recognize an attempt to lay claim to things when I see it."
----
"Direct combat is rarely a first choice, but sometimes it is still the best choice. Again, I know enough to know I don't know anywhere near enough to make plans. A quick blade in the kidney is an excellent choice for dealing with dangerous spellcasters."
Zarque laughs at Sil's concerns of ownership. "Now Sil, I think you're getting paranoid. I gave my word I'd get the staff. Didn't say what I'd do with it afterwards. As for everything else, I'm very particular about who owns what precisely because I don't want my ownership of things to be an issue of dispute. It's just bad form to let issues of ownership get fuzzy, it gives others a good lever for laying claim to things that really are mine."
"Now, any ideas for good primary plan of where we go from here?"
While the others discuss their plans, Khamul goes through the belongings of the unconscious men. Each one wears red hand wraps, with Red Fist's being made of some tougher material than the others. A small pouch is found inside each of their shirts, all containing coins of various denominations. There is also a vial of flower petals that you have come to recognize as well in each pouch. Red Fist also has a hand written note that appears to be a warning. The coins amount to twenty-eight gold sails in total.
[b]"Well, another 28 gold to add to our split, these handwraps from Redfist are interesting , and finally a note. It reads 'Redfist or whatever you call yourself these days, I am coming for you. Your debt has over grown my patience for your incompetence. You have until the first of Kython to get that relic into my hands or you and your people will be added to my army. Not the living one. I have sent an ally from the Church to assist you. He has orders to cleanup when he is finished. I would suggest you hurry it up. Consider yourself warned. X'. Now the ally from the Church could be our Pharasman priest in Sheriff Hemlock's cells, or maybe it could be someone in the folks who are coming to collect him... Do you think we can convince chumpy here to talk if Drek'Thar will wake him up? "
"To be sure, someone isn't particularly happy with this bunch, and I can't imagine they're going to be any more so given what we've done here today." Milah smiles, "I'd be more than happy to make sure this one understands the situation, perhaps see if we can come to an arrangement."
Drek is caring about closing the door, but he overhears the conversation. "I can easily wake him up if you want" he says. "Detecting magic auras is a bit more difficult, but if I can touch it maybe I'll get to sense something."
"Already said I don't know enough to help make good plans. Who are you trying to hide these from? The guy we have in custody who already assumed we have them? Unless there's somebody else . . .."
He shakes his head, knowing the discussion is pointless.
"As for what's next, I don't even really know what just happened. The people who can intelligently hold that conversation are all out there, apparently because they aren't willing to go into the space you use to hide things."
"I think it might be a good idea to maybe send a message to a higher up Pharasman church that something's iffy with this particular Pharasman church. Might be slow to get anything done, but it's still something that don't require much work on our part."
Having searched the prisoners, Khamul will join Drek'Thar at the doors and undo the job he did jamming them open.
Drek looks at the doors and it appears that to close it, all you have to do is physically close the door. However, if you want to activate the rune lock again, you will have to rewrite them in blood.
Milah shrugs. "I'm fine with interrogating him, I'm just not sure whether we want to do that here and now, or some other time and place..." She looks around. "Of course, that decision would likely depend on how long the others plan to...do whatever they're doing."
Having unjammed the doors so that Drek'Thar can close them up, Khamul looks around at the others and then at the "strange glowing doorway" that Zarque has conjured and disappeared into with Idun and Sileven... He looks at it carefully to see if it is trapped,
+4 ranks+3 trained+1 trait +6 Competence from Idun +4 to detect danger (ie. traps)
He can find magic trap because of the Trap Finder trait
"I have no idea what to do now except secure this staff. One option is to put it in the cage at the thistletop and to keep the key here. They'd need to not only get the key from me, but to also know what the key goes to. Then I can hand the fake staff to the priest. If he takes it. we can follow him. If he realizes it is fake, I can take it as a failure and innovate from there."
Drek uses his own blood to seal the doors .
"Mmm. I like that, now there's two steps. But what's the cage at the thistletop?" Idun is curious.
"Thistletop has something that should not be disturbed. It is locked away and will hopefully remain so. Nothing more should be said of it. I'll go in a misleading direction and head that way. Anyone coming with me, or will all of you take the prisoners back?"
Once everyone is out of the extradimensional space, Grenz pulls the group aside while keeping an eye on the prisoners - "I do not understand why we are complicating things so much, and why we would put the true staff away from our sight, all the way at Thistletop?" - he grunts.
"Why not just keep it simple and effective - Zarque, since you are the one 'perhaps' doing the deal with Remus, it is too risky for you to take the real staff, so take only the fake one wen you are to meet him" - he comments.
"Drek'Thar can keep and guard the true staff, while we all watch over him. Easy and done" - the half-orc shrugs - "That is my vote"
Zarque interrupts Grenz, "Don't discuss plans out in the open. You never know what might hear you, especially the prisoners who will tell their friends everything you say!"
Once everyone is out of the extradimensional space, Grenz pulls the group aside while keeping an eye on the prisoners
Taking Zarque a bit aside, Drek expresses his opinion.
"Listen, your plan is sound but... what if the staff is NOT to be taken to Thistletop?"
While you are discussing what to do, one of the bound prisoners starts to groan as he begins to awaken..
Finally able to hear the proposal, Milah whispers, "I'm not comfortable leaving anything as powerful as I've been led to believe this is out of our sight, especially somewhere that isn't guarded, trusting to luck that someone won't stumble upon it. My vote, if it comes to that, is that we keep it close - regardless of who carries it."
”That” - Grenz reiterates, then moves to stand guard over the prisoner which is waking up.
The thug struggles against his bonds, but looking around, realizing he is outmatched, he settles. Grenz sees that his eyes are attempting to defy the fear in them.
Oathday, 17 Lamashan 4707, 3:22pm. 57 degrees, Mostly sunny. Sandpoint Southgate
As you approach the gate, Red Fist and some of his cronies in tow, you notice that the town guards are speaking to someone who looks far too well dressed to be in this part of Sandpoint. The human male has dark black hair that seems to be kept in place by magic, as it never seems to move, even though there is a tiny breeze coming in from the sea. You overhear him say something about an urgent matter in Magnimar and that he must speak with the Mayor and the "so-called Heroes of Sandpoint". He produces a writ of some kind that they barely look at. Eventually, they let him through.
When your turn comes up, the guards speak to you in quiet tones. "That's not the first guy that's been asking about you folk. Seems you've become quite popular outside of here too. Makes me kinda jealous, to be honest, but hey, we can't all be heroes, right?" He looks at your prisoners. "Need us to take them in too?"