Tenja cracks his knuckles and prepares to bodily grab Andrus if he appears to be posses.
With Tenja standing ready, Andus passes his cloak under the floating wrathstone, held aloft by Zareth's Mage Hand. Deftly flipping the garment over the artifact, he holds the cloak high, avoiding any kind of contact with the stone. Immediately he feels an exultant and utterly evil presence sifting through his mind, searching for weaknesses. Brief images of wealth, power, women and adoration flick through Andrus's head but then, mercifully, fade away as the stone hits a wall of impenetrable faith.
Certain that he is out of danger for now, Andrus places his cloak in his backpack and breathes again.
Crossing to the desk, he finds papers and a key.
Andrus begins reading the papers. He is still trying to figure out how the demon got here and if there are any more Stormcrows to be found.
"I am still... myself, for now. We need to finish this quest and destroy the gem before it gets another chance. Tenja, Kith, and Urlag: see if you can find a way to access these vaults. Zareth, do you know the Arcane Lock ritual? I want to prevent anyone from entering this fortress while we collect our fee. If we can't access the vaults easily, we will need to buy ourselves more time to do so. This was an adventurer's stronghold. Those vaults have some gold in them or I am a dirty goblin." He looks at his friends with determination. "I aim to get at that gold. With the mayor's reward, we will be sitting pretty for a while." Then he goes back to the papers. He even sits in the chair and puts his feet on the desk while he reads them.
Looking more closely at the vaults, everyone realises that there is no magic needed to open them, merely some muscle.
Reading the papers, Andrus finds out that before she was completely taken over, Agera had been trying to fight off the demon. The documents are a diary of sorts.
The Stormcrows found the wrathstone in the tomb of the lich they banished and took it along with the rest of the treasure. It appealed particularly to Agera but she soon became aware of the danger of the thing. Awareness was not enough to save her however and she used the power of the wrathstone to turn her old comrades against each other.
The Stormcrows had always been jealous of each others powers and abilities and the wrathstone enhanced those feelings and turned them to devastating effect on the group. After Illugi Swordbreaker and the Emerald Warlock killed each other, Agera retained enough sense of self to bury them before taking refuge in the vault, hoping to hold off the inevitable.
Most of the information prior to the description of the Stormcrows encounter with the wrathstone are mundane accounts of adventures undertaken, but there are hints that Agera was on good terms with Lord Padraig when the group first arrived. References to the Lord of Winterhaven are infrequent, but warm.
Andrus sees Urlag moving the rumble.
"That's the way, Urlag! Put your back into it."
He stands and addresses the group.
"There doesn't seem to be any indication of any other Stormcrow. The story's pretty much like you would expect. Stormcrows found wrathstone, wrathstone posesses them, they kill each other. No big surprise there from what we already learned. The only surprise here is that Lord Padraig appears to have been a good friend of Agera. He will take her death hard, I think. Let's get to work clearing this rubble. The sooner we get done, the sooner we get paid."
And with that, he sticks the papers in his pack and joins Urlag in moving the rubble. Since Str is not his forte, he will focus on smaller pieces that won't task his strength.
As he does, he thinks about what he read and keeps looking over his shoulder at his pack as if he is thinking about something.
Urlag shoves rubble aside and rummages through the revealed chests.
While much of the Stormcrows loot has been spent by Agera in her attempts to free herself from the wrathstone, three bags of coin remain intact along with a miniature in a gold locket, a rolled bundle of robes and a folded bag.
Urlag sifts through the coins happily, then turns his attention to the locket.
Tenja clears out the next vault and finds a pair of boots next to a single child's shoe. The coffers in this vault are otherwise empty bar a handful of silver coins.
Urlag finds the locket impossible to open without more expertise.
More tired than she realised, Kith cannot move the rubble.
Intrigued, Urlag finds the hidden mechanism and opens the locket.
Andrus says, "Now, this is more like it." He takes the bag of holding. checks it first, and then begins to put all the coins in it. "We can divy up the coins back in town." He picks up the small shoe. "There is a story here, a bigger story than renegade adventurers. I think Lord Padraig had a more personal reason for sending us. What's in the locket, Urlag?"
Andrus attempts to move the last of the rubble. "Um, a hand here guys?"
"Hnh. Betting we found a young crow."
Urlag shows the locket around.
"Lord Padraig's son? With an adventurer, no less? Hmmm......... Interesting." Andrus says as he itches his nose. The dust is starting to get to him. He wrinkles his nose and almost sneezes. "The papers we found were Agera's journal, of a sorts. She spoke of Padraig in a fond tone, but nothing to indicate this type of relationship. I wonder what happened to the boy? Perhaps Padraig can shed some light on that. Urlag, hang on to that locket. Or give it to me, if you like. I think Padraig is going to want it and the shoe more than anything else we've found here." Then he wipes the sweat on his brow and tries to move more rubble to open the last vault.
Zareth grabs the bundle of robes before looking at the locket. "Looks like the lord was closer to Agera than we thought. Close enough that she'd keep a picture of his kid in her locket, at the very least. Guess I'll have to ask him a few questions when we get back."
The haul in the last vault is greater. Resting on a shielf are a pair of worn gloves, a set of bracers, a greatbow, a battered scroll and two small bags.
"Avandra's kiss!" Andrus whispers as he picks up the bracers. "Fate magic! These bracers can protect you in combat by changing a successful hit into a miss by teleporting you a short distance away. I must have them." He holds them to his chest protectively. He looks at the others. "We need to make sure we equally share the magic as well as the loot. Speak up. Is there something here you've been looking for or would like to have?"
Tenja's eyes light up went he sees the shield, and he moves towards it like it has some strange hold on him. "This is a famous shield of dwarven make." Tenja tosses his shield to the ground and reverently picks up the new one and straps it to his arm.
Seeing that no one else has spoken up for the boots, Urlag checks them against his enormous feet.
To his surprise, the boots fit perfectly.
Andrus straps the bracers on and he can feel their magic. He also takes the rest of the coins and the scroll and puts it in his bag of holding. Then he carefully removes the wrathstone, still covered by his cloak. He places on the ground and examines it.
As he examines the stone, he explains to the others what he is doing:
"I am worried about this wrathstone. After reading Agera's notes and listening to the desperation in her tone as she tried to free herself from its vile clutches, I am afraid that I will not be able to resist the stone long enough for us to return it to Winterhaven and more powerful spellcasters who can remove its evil. Despite the value of such a large stone, I believe the only way to be safe from its power is to destroy it now." He draws his mace out. "It is the only way to be sure. I will not live as a slave." He raises the mace above his head.
"Bah, put it on the ground and I will crush it with my hammer."
Pausing as he and Tenja raise their weapons to crush the wrathstone, Andrus realises something. Destroying the artifact will release the unknown occupant.
"Whoa! Avandra just revealed something to me. If we destroy the stone, the demon will be released. Are we ready for something like that? Let me check something first." Andrus says as he careful wraps the stone up in his cloak and places it in the bag of holding and then waits. He is concentrating like he is trying to sense something.
The group start to pool their knowledge. Andrus believes that the bag of holding may at least muffle the wrathstone.
Zareth studies the problem.
The wrathstone can be destroyed, but doing so on a site already dedicated to Asmodeus's power would be foolish. It may be possible to expel the sentient fragment and banish it.
Andrus gets a chill as he watches Zareth study the stone and tell his conclusions. He looks back the way they came and realizes that Zareth had said it was a one-way portal when they came in.
"We need to remove the stone from this room but to do that, we need to find a way out first. Then we can deal with the stone. One problem at a time, guys." Andrus announces to the group.
Tenja looks around for an idea of how ot get out of there.
Andrus holds the way out of the room in his hands.
Chagrinned, Andrus realizes he still has the key from the desk. He looks for the keyhole and inserts the key and turns. "Let's go back to that construct room and banish this entity back to the Hells where it belongs." He picks up the wrathstone, still in his cloak, and exits the room.
After pulling on her new gloves, Kith follows Andrus from the room.