Circe gives a little sigh and her shoulders slump as Al points out the flaw in her plan of waiting above. "I suppose you're right Al. Even as focused as Hemlock gets when working, he more than likely would have seen something that even he would have thought was odd. I still don't really want to face a necromancer in his or her own lair though."
As Dash sees Al pop the lid off of the coffin his mouth drops open slightly. Well I suppose where finesse fails, brute strength will always succeed. He manages to compose himself after a moment, but he knows that there is a chance that at least Circe has spotted his reaction thanks to her darkvision. While he is still catching the gist of the conversation, things are registering a split second later than they would otherwise, as Dash has started mentally berating himself for putting down his friend's success where he has failed. By the time the group has moved on to discussing waiting for the necromancer, Dash has finally caught up to what Circe said about the bag. Circe barely gets out her last sentence when Dash jumps in, "Hey! I might be able to make that thing work. Let me see that bag Circe." Once he gets his hands on the bag, Dash starts going through a few common activation methods.
17 is insufficient to activate blindly.
Circe sighs as Dash runs through some of the most common methods used to activate such devices and then is unable to resist making an attempt of her own after watching him. "My turn Dash."
Circe sighs as Dash runs through some of the most common methods used to activate such devices and then is unable to resist making an attempt of her own after watching him. "My turn Dash."
The DC is exactly 25.
The bag contents seem to shift slightly. Where there was nothing now lies a book.
Circe gives a little excited squeal when the contents of the bag shift and she suddenly finds a book that wasn't there before.
"Check it out, I found a book!"
Circe examines the book with detect magic before attempting to open it.
It's actually two bookes strapped together back to back. They're made of some sort of leather you're not familiar with. It has a lattice of bones that seem to be holding it closed. They are expertly placed and connected. One of the front covers has a gold leaf inlaid symbol on it. A stags head. The edges of the horns have peeled back with time. Their seems be be black markings underneath that mirror the symbol.
The books do radiate magic. Auras include necromancy, illusion, abjuration, and others all blending together in such a way that makes them difficult to seperate.
Heal check for anyone who looks at the book.
Edit: to clarify. The two books are connected by one kind of leather strap that seem normal and allow easy seperation of the two books. The two books themselves are made of an odd leather and both individually held together by a series of expertly placed bones that hold the individual books together. One I'd the books has a fold inlaid staf that s peeling.
Circe undoes the leather strap so that she can look at both sides of both books and then holds one in each hand.
"Ok, correction. I found two creepy magic books. Should I open either to try to read them?"
"Not without our resident sneak checking them for traps. I'd be rather sad indeed if you suddenly went poof, or got turned into a radish. I hate radishes."
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"Well, if those are what I think they are, you may have gotten your wish Circe. We can make him come to us on our terms to get those back. At the least we have what seems like incriminating evidence."
"Creepy magic books? Oh." peers over Circe's shoulder at the books, clearly interested. "Looks like those might be the books of profane rites for whoever is down here raising undead."
"What do you think Dash? Do they look trapped to you? I can tell that they definitely have several magical auras about them, but that may just be part of what they are. They were hidden pretty well so whoever it was may not have felt any need to trap them as well."
"Creepy magic books? Oh." peers over Circe's shoulder at the books, clearly interested. "Looks like those might be the books of profane rites for whoever is down here raising undead."
Heal check to know more about the book leather. Anyone who can see the books can do this.
Akydi steps next to Circe and examines the book
"Looks like its made out of creepy and unpleasantness" The seer says with a bit of a smile.
"Hey Hemlock, got anything that can gum up this hole to make it airtight? I have a feeling it would really make him angry." Al said with a mischievousness grin.
"Nothing that would be permanent and airtight might be hard to do too...well, let me rephrase, it could be done, but it'd take a LOT of tallow and I don't have that much on me currently. Let me look through my materials though and see if there are any alternatives."
Yup. It's people. The leather is human skin.
Hemlock, I don't think you can take 10 on knowledge checks without special circumstances. However, you're VERY familiar with humanoid skin as you are a mortician. That plus your ranks in heal are auto success for this one.
"What I suspected, you have a human skin bound book there. Someone has a nasty obsession with skin around here. I could see if you didnt want to handle it, some people have problems with it so I offer to carry it if you don't want to."
Hemlock considers Alabaster for a moment and something sticks in his head,"Alabaster....ala...white....ooh!" He snaps his fingers and begins rummaging through his satchel. "How big is this hole. I might have enough to seal it off. Not sure how air tight it will be though but we can try. Of course if its too big a crack, I'll have to go back to the morgue and get more. "
"Human skin? Oh that is just so gross. Here Hemlock, you can carry the books."
Circe gives the books to Hemlock or whoever else wants to carry them as she is a bit grossed out by the origin of the leather used to bind them.
The plaster will plug the hole if you want to.
Listen checks all around please.
"I've heard stories about skinstealers, maybe that's what this is?"
"In the most literal since Aky, whoever this is, is definitely stealing skins. Though what he does with the skins, aside from making leather books, is hard to determine. He could have simply been sadistic enough to skin those poor "maids" alive just to listen to them screaming before killing and re-animating them. As for arcane purposes for the skins, we don't have enough knowledge yet to make a guess since there are too many options. I, of course, would prefer not to receive any first hand knowledge, so how about we leave now?"
Circe has likely made herself even more nervous by pondering the possible uses for human skins and is nervously shifting from foot to foot and eyeing the doorway out.
[ooc]Perception:
It may be just paranoia, but you swear you heard something.
Circe jumps and looks back the way they came. "Ok, now I think I heard something. Can we please go now?"
Al hears nothing but when he hears what Circe says, he loses his smile. "Fine, fine. I suppose we got as far as we could down here. I am fine with going. I could use a bath pretty bad right now."
Dash is looking quite clearly frustrated at his second failure of the night, but he looks up at Aky's suggestion that the books could be trapped. As Circe starts to hand the books to Hemmick, Dash walks over and offers to take them from her. "That's ok Hemmick. Like Aky said, I should take a look at them first. Besides, it's less weird for me to carry them, cause I'm not human. Or even half-human as the case may be for you two." Dash starts examining the books for traps, and casts detect magic to check for magical traps.
After Circe asks to go Dash says without looking up from what he is doing, "That's not a bad idea. And if we takes these with us we can examine them more thoroughly. I don't want to open these until we can be sure they won't kill us."
Hemlock nods to Dasheel, "Oh no that's fine, I really want to investigate the book, regardless of its covering, I bet it is very fascinating, but I'd rather be sure there isn't a nasty acid ward or fire trap on it. Would be hard to read with my face melted. Anyways it wont take me long to plaster this hole up. It won't hold up to anyone who is determined to get out but it might keep a lesser creature stymied for a bit."
Dash is looking quite clearly frustrated at his second failure of the night, but he looks up at Aky's suggestion that the books could be trapped. As Circe starts to hand the books to Hemmick, Dash walks over and offers to take them from her. "That's ok Hemmick. Like Aky said, I should take a look at them first. Besides, it's less weird for me to carry them, cause I'm not human. Or even half-human as the case may be for you two." Dash starts examining the books for traps, and casts detect magic to check for magical traps.
1d20 + 7
1d20 + 5
After Circe asks to go Dash says without looking up from what he is doing, "That's not a bad idea. And if we takes these with us we can examine them more thoroughly. I don't want to open these until we can be sure they won't kill us."
The books have no magical traps on the outside that you can see. However you realize that the bones are actually a magically reinforced lock and a good one at that.
From experience though you know that mages tend to put traps on the inside cover. That's how you'd do it anyway.
"Well this is interesting... These bones are actually another magically reinforced lock. Kind of like the one on the coffin. There doesn't seem to be anything dangerous on the outside, but there is a good chance that the interior could be trapped. At least, that's how I'd protect an important book. I wonder if this thing has any good spells in it. Now I want to get out of here so we can examine these more than anything else. Circe, is there any chance you can dispel any potential magical traps on these once I take off the locks?"
Circe looks rather relieved when Al agrees to leave, though she decides against agreeing out loud that he definitely does need a bath to get all the zombie gore off of him.
At Dash's question, Circe shakes her head no. "Sorry Dash, I only had one spell prepare for dispelling magic. I could prepare another one after I get some rest though."
FYI: You have the ability to dispel magical traps using disable device, though it's not easy.
"Well it certainly did what we needed it to do. I hear dispelling can be a tricky business. Al said, trying to keep her encouraged.
When Al sees that Hemlock is done with the plaster, he leads everyone out of the Coffin room and up the stairs. After they leave the room, he regains a bit of his jovial mood. "It is too bad we could not meet up with the master of this place and be done with it. It is best to resolve one's business with efficiency."
"That's ok Circe. We'll get some rest and tackle these books in the morning. I'm fairly confident that if I take my time I can open those locks, so you don't have to worry about wasting energy dispelling those."
"That's ok Circe. We'll get some rest and tackle these books in the morning. I'm fairly confident that if I take my time I can open those locks, so you don't have to worry about wasting energy dispelling those."
You all make your way our without an issue.
It occurs to you all in one form or another that if any of you were found with a book of black (presumably) magic made out of human skin it would look bad.
Circe: it occurs to you that if you spent some time studying the bag you can probably figure out the command word. A magical boost would help, but you may be able to do it without. **cough**identifyspell**cough**
Pulling out a smaller vial from his belt, Hemlock downs it after they exit the coffin room. It has no odor but he clearly enjoys it. "Just something I mixed up with some of the local corn crop."
"You know...I bet I could put something on that door to let me know if anyone is going in or out of it. Maybe a small piece of string, just a little bit of wax on either side to hold the string in place. I could make it nearly invisible."
Hemlock starts fishing in his satchel for string and wax and eventually has it in place on the door.
He mutters to himself while setting it in place,"Could flour the floor to see if anyone was walking but then they'd see the flour too....hrmm...wonder if i could make semi magical dust....should work like flour except would only show up with magical detection....most people aren't wandering around with magical detection all the time....have to investigate this..."
"DONE!"
The look of relief is evident on Circe's face as they exit the secret rooms. "After we get some rest I could prepare some spells to dispel magic and to identify magic to help figure out the bag and the books. Do you think we'll be safe enough in our rooms for the rest of the night?"
Dash looks at Hemmick's work with a gleam of satisfaction in his eye "That's a clever idea Hemlock. I mean, there are certainly ways around it, but I doubt most people would think to look for it. As for being safe overnight you might want to consider staying with us, Circe. I don't really like the idea of you staying alone tonight."
Al paused for a moment after Circe's statement, rubbing the rough bloodstained scales on his upper arms. "Well, if it will make you feel better you can crash in my bed. I have not slept in it in months. Something about becoming more like a dragon makes me more interested in sleeping on metal or stone. Besides, someone should keep watch for a few hours, and I will be ready to do so after a quick shower and some exercise." He paused for another moment and added, "Of course, of Lorth is sleeping in there you might want to go to your room so you do not have to experience what gargling thunderstones sounds like."
He tried to smile a bit about that and rubbed his cheek with the back of his hand as the drying blood began to flake off. "Of course, none of the people that attacked you have shown up or have been identified since, so it is probably best we stay together. Lorth is probably up and out by now anyway. You have to love that dwarven work ethic."
"Thank you Dash, Al. I really don't want to sleep all alone in my room tonight. Al, are you sure you don't mind me using your bed for the night?" Circe can't help but blush a bit at the thought of sleeping in a boy's bed, especially Al's.
"Do you guys mind if we run by my room first? I need to get a few things for tomorrow?"
"Of course we can stop by your room first. Twould be the gentlemanly thing to do."
Akdyi flashes Circe his best smile. "I told you that you would be kept safe, did I not?"
"Thank you Aky. I am indeed quite safe." Circe smiles back at Aky.
So you swing by Circe's place as you head to the men's dorm. Circe can pick up whatever she likes.
Now, How are you going to get her into the dorm unseen? There's a desk at the main entrance that is staffed 24/7.
Circe will part ways with the guys when there doesn't seem to by any bystanders around and fly up to their balcony again.
Circe will part ways with the guys when there doesn't seem to by any bystanders around and fly up to their balcony again.
Your call. I'm just looking for a cinematic.
After gathering up her blank, some clothing and arcane supplies, Circe walks with the guys around to the side of the building that their balcony is on.
"See you guys up in your room. This is so much easier than trying to sneak past the dorm guard. Also, you guys might give some consideration to appearing drunk when you enter the dorm. It will help to explain why you are all out so late."
With one last wave and a little jump, Circe quickly flies up to the balcony, quite glad that she was already in her flying outfit with its pants rather than her usual school uniform with its skirt.