Seeing Roshan recoil from the smell that assails him upon opening the door, Sādhanā takes a step back, wary of some sort of poison.
"Hunh....I can probably do something about the smell but that's about it." she magus says, wrinkling her nose.
"I might be able to do something about it." Celia says, stepping through the doorway. Shrugging off the wave of nausea that tried to rise up, she utters a brief benediction, waving her hand in the direction of the rotten food.
The rotting smell quickly fades as Celia casts her spell. Roshan sees this room is a pantry. There are several broken bottles of wine on the floor.
"Well there's food at least if we need additional supplies" Sādhanā comments looking into the room. "We can come back here on the way out. Want to try the next door?"
Roshan nods as he tries not to let the excitement and anticipation of what they might find, show on his face. He just couldn't believe that after all this time he was finally here.
Going to the next door, he tries to shut everything else out as he concentrates on inspecting the door for traps.
The next door is locked but not trapped.
With his tools already out, Roshan gets straight down to business.
The door unlocks easily enough and the door swings backwards on its hinges. Inside the room are a handful of boxes, neatly stacked, and several labelled jars.
Taking out a torch from his bag, Roshan lights it before going into the room that is only lit by a few rays of the fading sunlight. Going inside, he starts by examing the labels on the jars, "I wonder what all of this is?" He asks, more as a question to himself, than directed at anyone in particular, as he wasn't used to having other people around him. He had been travelling alone for the last year or so, and usually only had himself to talk to. Roshan seems a little lost ijn his own world as he explores their find.
Roshan notices a dusty journal sitting on a small desk.
Roshan goes to the desk and picks up the journal. Dusting it off, he opens it.
Following into the room once open, Sādhanā scans the boxes and jars, seeing if she can make out anything of the labels.
The jars and boxes are each labelled with a name. The jars are too grimy to see into.
Roshan opens the journal and sees that it is a ledger filled with names. At the end of the journal is a short note:
"All bones have been prepared accordingly to be shipped out as soon as possible for blessings and to have individuals canonized."
Roshan takes the journal to Sadhana and holds it out to her, "It was the names of their fallen. I'm assuming that these boxes hold the bones of those that they were going to have blessed and canonized. For some reason, they just never made it. I can only assume that those jars are their...organs or something. I'm not sure what, if anything, we should do with these bones. Maybe they can finally be properly laid to rest some day."
"Hmm...we should probably deliver them to Barclay as the highest ranking member of Iomedae's church on Zahvroma." Sādhanā says, half to herself, half to her companions as she considers the fate of the would-be saints before them.
Sienna shrugs. "So...you're thinking of going back to Valwick now?"
Roshan looks over at Sadhana, wondering what she would do. It seemed like they were on some kind of important mission....but, making sure that these bones got into the right hands, could be considered important as well by some. There would never be a shortage of evil, of that he was certain. Truly good people that were willing to take time out of their own plans to help those long gone from this world though...that was rare.
Shaking the thoughts from his head, Roshan goes to the last locked door to check it for traps.
The last door is neither trapped or locked.
Roshan cautiously opens the door.
Sienna shrugs. "So...you're thinking of going back to Valwick now?"
"No, not now. But we can definitely come back here on the way back once we're done." Sādhanā replies.
"We don't know what happened here...I guess we'll see about it," Sienna says.
With a nod, Sādhanā turns to look through the newly opened door.
Behind the door is what appears to have been a nursery. A glowing white symbol is painted on the back wall. A couple of dolls and wooden toys are strewn on the floor. The air is musty in this room.
---
Elsewhere, Tesia and Rhadaya manage to gather enough wood to see them through the night.
Roshan moves into the room to get a closer look at the glowing symbol on the wall.
Roshan recognizes it as the holy symbol of Iomedae.
Roshan looks up, "Well, it looks like this is just where the smaller children were kept. That is the Holy symbol of Iomedae on the wall. I'm surprised that it's still glowing after all this time. Let me just see if there's anything else of use in here. I can't think of anyone that would need all this children's stuff." He says as he looks around the room for any kind of actual information.
Roshan's search yields nothing useful.
Roshan sighs as he walks outg of the room, "There's really nothing important in there. It's just children's toys, and things of that sort. I guess that's pretty much it for this floor, except for the rooms we haven't been through yet that were ransacked already."
Tesia lets out a sigh, "I know...then...why have I been having so many doubts about everything? I don't know what to think about things half the time anymore, and it's getting so I...I feel like I...I don't know." She says, sounding frustrated at not being able to put into words the things that are bothering her. Mostly, she didn't know how to explain to her wife, that she was starting to doubt herself.
Tesia gets quiet as they finish gathering up the wood they need. She didn't know if all of the decisions she had made lately were the right ones, or if she was letting her emotions get in the way of her thinking process. All she knew for sure was, she didn't want to let the others down.
Tesia seems to get a little lost in her thoughts as they head back to camp.
"By the way, do you know what your great great grandfather's name was?" Sienna asks. "Just in case one of us spots it."
He nods, "Yes, his name was Tobias Sparrowhawke." He blushes slightly, "I know it probably sounds a little silly, but he was my great great grandfather and one of the first Paladins of Iomedae to set foot on Zahvroma. It was here that he met and fell in love with a beautiful Vishkanya entertainer. My great great grandmother, Avani Sharma. The story gets a little....confusing after that point, and no one seems really sure exactly what happened, but it's said that he was so in love with her, that he gave up his position with the church to be with her, and that they settled here on the Island somewhere, and our family grew from there. Details of how things happened though are a bit murky, and I don't see Tobias as thed deserting kind....so, it would be nice if while investigatikng what happened to this first team of explorers, I could figure out what exactly happened all those years ago, and what actually happened to Tobias and Avani." He explains, feeling just a little hesitant about revealing so much of himself to these strangers, "Of course, I don't expect to find all of my answers in one place...and I promise not to keep you too long from yourf other important tasks." He finishes, not wanting them to think that he planned on keeping them here for days. He would find out what he could about his family and this first group of explorers, but then he also wanted to find out what they were looking for as well.
"Mysteries and controversies are usually right up our alley," Sienna comments.
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Roshan looks to Sadhana to see what her thoughts were, since she seemed to be the one in charge...or as close as it came to being in charge. It was hard to tell really, the dynamic of this group was...unique.
While in the room, Sadhana shifts her vision to perceive magical emanations while looking at the glowing symbol.
"Probably better to check the next level first and go through the ransacked areas on the way out." she suggests.
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Roshan nods in agreement, "Yeah, that seems like a good idea." Roshan glances at the blond tiefling with the bow. She had been really quiet, but it was often the quiet ones that were the most dangerous. It meant that they didn't need words, and were always watching and calculating other people's moves and such. He surmised that the reason that she spoke so little, was that she didn't need to.
The symbol radiates a strong aura of protection.
Sienna glances at Cyna. "I think you're scaring the poor guy being all quiet like that."
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"Hmm? Oh, nice to meet you." Cyna says.
Suddenly hearing her speak slightly startles him, but he recovers in time to get un-tongue-tied. Giving her a nod he says, "Yes, you as well. Okay...so on to the next floor then?" He doesn't completely manage to keep the nervousness out of his voice, but this group's reputation preceded them, and not without good reason.
Sienna nods. "After you."
Roshan proceeds to the next level.
As they make their way to the next level, Roshan keeps his senses alert to any danger.
Roshan doesn't see anything out of the ordinary as the group ascends to the next floor. This floor has a large area with several desks, while there are some rooms toward the end of the hall. Papers are scattered everywhere and you can see signs of a battle fought long ago.
Roshan sighs a little as he heads towards the rooms at the end of the hall and inspects them.
Roshan's only discovery is three skeletons in a room. One bears rusty, battered armor with a holy symbol of Iomedae around its neck. The second has rotting leather armor with the first's sword through its chest. The third also is clad in rotting leather armor with several arrows piercing it in the back. The second and third skeletons have axes clutched in their skeletal hands.
An initial inspection reveals that the first skeleton was definitely a human while the other two were not quite human. Their skulls have sharp fangs where normal teeth would be.
Roshan determines that the skeletons are of orcs.
Pointing to the skeletons he says, "Well, it looks liked they were attacked by orcs."
Roshan checks the one with the Holy Symbol around it's neck, for anything that might help identify them.
Turning the holy symbol over, Roshan sees a name inscribed along the blade: "J. van Rees"