Akahale continues further into the room and uses his rod to open the other two chests.
His eyes roll with suspicion.
More wealth becomes evident. Coins and gems abound.
"Do not touch it!"
The dragonborn backs as far away as possible and looks for an exit.
He spots... the door he came in by.
"Wealth is neither inherently good nor evil. I say we take what we can and use it to further our work and deads. Either way, there's no need to spend more time here than necessary."
Manny nods, still staring,...
",... So shiny,..."
"I am with Akahale. Something seems fishy... One does not just leave this type of wealth ungarded. Of course there are those creepy eye balls in the floor that Manny loves so much, watching and waiting. How ever, what a great way to defund this evil presence. They will surely be after us when we roll out of here with all of the loot. To no avail of course, because we will cut them down where they stand."
Flanges twitching and eyes rolling with paranoia, Akahale retreats through the door.
"Do as you wish, but that is tainted wealth. Tainted and evil. Besides," he adds more practically, "it is scarcely possible to carry."
Returning to the eyeball filled chamber, he looks accusingly at the other door.
"Doubtless further abomination lies beyond."
Flanges twitching and eyes rolling with paranoia, Akahale retreats through the door.
"Do as you wish, but that is tainted wealth. Tainted and evil. Besides," he adds more practically, "it is scarcely possible to carry."
Returning to the eyeball filled chamber, he looks accusingly at the other door.
"Doubtless further abomination lies beyond."
MAnny looks stricken as Akahale walks away from the room. The elderly mage gestures like an infant towards the treasure.
"But,... But,... SHINY!" He protests plaintively.
:)
Stunned and befuddled at his egg brothers response. "Ah but not entirely unexpected eh Manny. Let us see what we can comfortably carry. If we put the loot on the floating disk, at least we can push it off if we need to. Let us help this vile place by re-appropriating their funds for good use."
"I'm with Sir Serpenthelm. We can't just leave this wealth here for the next cultist to come along and continue their goals."
In an effort to appease Akhale, Hadarai picks up a handful of coins and lets all but one of them spill from his hand back into the chest...
Then considering the last coin closely, he tosses it through the doorway into the next room with all the eyes.
"We may want to separate out the gems and a few pouch fulls of coins each -- no need to weigh Shay's disk down."
The friends contemplate the money, as Hadarai runs it through his fingers. Nothing untoward happens. The rest is silence.
Akahale snufles disapprovingly but makes no further comment.
Shaeryyn watches the rest of the group with amusement, "Gentlemen," she eventually says, "May we return to the matter of the other door?"
"We should take the gold. I'm getting paid for this, one way or another." Otto walks over to the lock and begins picking it.
Thievery aid check
"Maybe I can aid you there Otto."
"No one uses this good a lock if there's nothing important behind it..."
It takes a long time but eventually Otto gets the lock open. The atmosphere grows more oppressive as time goes on.
Manny watches Otto work, Smiling at first, then frowning, then tapping one slippered foot impatiently as time wears on. When the lock finally clicks the elderly mage almost shoves Otto into the chest in his haste to peek and see what's inside.
Akahale twitches.
Akahale opens the door.
Although dusty and not as supple as they once were, the expensive robes, shirts, pants, and so on in this room are in remarkably good condition. The clothing consists of dark-colored silk and velvet ornamented with eyes, sickles, and a three-sickled eye shape.
A wooden mannequin has a voluminous black-hooded robe with the hood up over the mannequin’s head. Projecting from the hood are two horns. The horns are part of a headdress built into the hood. These horns look like those in the graven image. The mannequin also wears an amulet.
Eyes revolving with horror, Akahale's investigative instincts come to the fore.
Akahale senses no magic except for the amulet which consists of a piece of onyxlike stone shot through with dimly glowing veins set in gold and hanging on a gold chain. The stone is carved to look like an eye, and its gold setting is like the lids of that eye. The glowing veins make the inky eye appear bloodshot with light. As you look at it, the golden lids blink, and the eye turns to focus on you.
Carefully extending his rod, Akahale unhooks the amulet and takes it out of the room for closer inspection.
Dropping it on the mattress-strewn floor, he watches the eye carefully and glares back.
"The symbolism is unprepossessing."
He's clearly doing his best to stay calm.
A sense of unease fills the room. For the first time on this adventure, Otto looks afraid. Not angry, not annoyed, just... afraid. "We probably should take that with us. Should be useful, at least." He steps closer to the amulet, staring at it as it stares at him. "Probably should take the robes too. Always handy, being able to pose as a cultist..." He trails off as he kneels down and picks up the amulet.
"You may be assured, Mr Samir, that should you show signs of possession or otherwise abominable behaviour, I will be happy to incapacitate you."
Akahale clearly intends his comment to be comforting.
"It appears that our distressing visions have some semblance of fact behind them and this is an extremely disturbing development. I suggest that we lose no further time in discovering what menace lurks here and eradicating it."
"There is still the other end of the intersection we came to." Hadarai motions out the door they blasted through. "If everyone's ready..."
Hadarai looks around the room to make sure that everyone has their new gear & loot stored, and weapons ready. Then takes up a position at the door, shield hefted in front of him, ready to lead down the hall once the group is set to move.
"Alright, good job. Lets pack everything up and move on to the next room."
Manny sniffs derisively and waves for Otto to take the amulet if he wishes.
"Silly think clashes with my Ensemb anyway,..." He mutters, still watching the eye in the amulet move of it's own accord.
"Hypnotic, isn't it?" he asks the amulet, waving his large beak of a nose first one way, then another,...
"Wait, what?!? SHINYS!" He cries gleefully as he joins the others in shoving coins into his robe pockets. When he is done he sounds like a junk wagon as he walks, following the others,...
The group head towards the open wooden door in the east. Beyond it lies a t-junction going north-south.
Grafire and Hadarai are leading the way. When we get to the intersection, Hadarai checks both directions. ()
Perception:
To the north, Hadarai can hear the sound of a man mumbling and muttering loudly to himself, but the light spell on his shield will not illuminate far enough to see the man. He hears nothing to the south and similarly can see the corridor stretching ahead.
Akahale stalks to the front line, sunrod held aloft, ears alert to the strange mutterings.
To the north, the little dragonborn can see that the corridor is lined with 5 doors on each wall (presumably cells). Beyond the cells in a hall lies what appears to be a torture chamber. Seated on a stool in the center of this room, you see a bald man with his back to you. He’s stripped to the waist, and his back is a bloody mess of lacerations. It is from him that the sounds Hadarai heard emanate.
To the south lies a large open chamber.
"Aha! Either a misguided cultist or a tragic victim. We should investigate."