Veryna shrugs at the party as if to say, which one?
William opens the door on the northern side of the room. This room features a large oval dining table, a full-sized billiards table, and three comfortable, padded chairs. A rack of expensive billiards sticks is attached to the east wall.
Having no interest in games, Veryna moves to the far door and inspects it.
The door is neither locked nor trapped. You hear nothing on the other side of it.
Willam puts his hand on Veryna’s shoulder, motioning for her to stand to the side and cover his entry. He opens the door and takes a look around.
The aroma of cooked lamb hangs in the air, but otherwise the kitchen is unremarkable. A door in the east wall leads to a small patio with a fire pit, where food can also be prepared outside in warm weather. A short walkway to the north leads to a separate building, likely a servants' quarters.
Astrid, seeing that Zazu has not spotted anything of note, walks up to the south door of the kitchen and looks around for any traps:
If she does not find anything suspicious, she will open it with much stealth.
This room has a large bay window facing east, and is ideal for eating breakfast or reading in the sun during cold weather. A thin wooden panel wall separates this room from the next; it slides and folds into a nook in the western wall. A door leads to a patio outside, where a small table sits, decorated with several rare, colorful flowers.
Veryna steps up to the flowers and inspects them. Odd that there would be flowers here. If Flinn were living here, surely Verus and Branda would have known of it? She sets the thought aside for later and gives this room a thorough once-over.
Veryna is the furthest thing from a druid, but it doesn't take a botanist to see that these flowers have been neglected for at least a few days. The edges of the petals are beginning to wilt and the soil is bone dry. However, the implication is that someone tended to the flowers within the past week.
Veryna finds no traps on either the door leading outside or the sliding panel to the south. She still hears nothing but the rhythmic thumping from upstairs (which is maybe a tick louder as you approach the southern side of the house).
"Think we need to find our way upstairs, friends. Veryna, would you happen to know the way?"
Willam absently inspects and then opens the sliding door.
A tasteful menagerie of Flinn's travels and victories packs this large room. Paintings and memorabilia fill the perimeter, and a large glass display case with a prominent lock on its front lies in the room's center. Inside the case rest several rolled maps, a pair of worn leather journals, and a shining iron chalice. A fine painting of Flinn and his four adventuring friends hangs on the eastern wall, behind which a wooden staircase rises to the second floor.
Veryna raises an eyebrow at the swashbuckler and points at the stairs leading up with a small smirk.
She inspects the case curiously, running a hand just over its surface, focusing her divine power to hunt for magical auras.
Veryna detects a moderate aura of transmutation magic coming from the chalice in the case. There are no more magical auras in this room.
Veryna shakes her head with a small, frustrated sigh, unable to determine the slightest information about the chalice aside from its school of magic.
"Anything good, Mishka? Looks nice..."
Willam has no idea that the chalice is magical and finds it strange that Veryna seems so fixated. Hope she's not compelled. Better draw the steel just in case.
Seeing the journals, Willam grabs them and glances through, starting at the back and looking for clues into Flinn's current state of mind.
Veryna, in a rare lapse of vigilance, failed to thoroughly examine the display case and its lock before manipulating it. As she works on picking the lock, she hears a click, and the trap that she did not notice triggers. A bubbling transparent liquid solidifies into a jagged crystalline blade and stabs Veryna in the shoulder.
Veryna feels absolutely terrible, as if the blade has leeched away some of her life force.
She looks at William with concern in her eyes and slumps to the ground, thieves' tools still clutched in her hand.
Zazu snaps out of stupor as he hears Veryna fall to the ground and rushes over to her to see if he can identify happened to her.
Being unable to tell what is causing veryna's condition, he looks to William and says: "What happened, she is normally so careful when inspecting her surroundings. Is there another ghost or haunt around here?"
Astrid rushes to Veryna's side and starts helping Zazu look her over.
Unsure of what happened to her...Astrid starts slapping her in the face and shaking her to try and wake her up.
Willam catches Veryna as she slumps to the floor just in time to keep her head from smashing into the hardwood.
"Damnit, Veryna, you won't be beaten by dinnerware!"
"Zazu, I can't tell what's happening. Do something! Cast something! You're the healer, aren't you! Do something!"
Panic sets in as Willam realizes that he's helpless.
Willam looks up at Astrid and Zazu as a thought strikes him. "I've seen this before! It's blue whinnis poison. Thank the gods, it's not as bad as I thought. It's probably run it's course by now. She'll be out for a couple of hours, but she's out of the woods. Zazu, help me lift her. We need to get out of here for now. Astrid, grab the chalice, journals, and whatever maps you can cary and cover our retreat. May as well have some reading material while we wait for Veryna to come to. Let's go!"
Astrid tries to think of anyway they can help Veryna. She begins digging through her belongings and has a hard time finding anything...until she see's the smelling salts...
She almost (almost) shrieks in enjoyment as she pulls out the salts and administers them to Veryna.
Veryna coughs violently, shudders, then falls back to the floor, snoring lightly. She may or may not be drooling in her sleep.
As you all are trying to help Veryna, you suddenly hear shuffling outside, and then the outer sun room door opens. Through the door walk two humanoid figures. They have tight leathery skin, sunken eyes, and emaciated frames, and they move with eerie alacrity. Additionally, and strangely, they are both wearing servants' clothing. One is (was?) male and the other is female. They groan and start moving toward you.
Zazu
Astrid
Male creature
William
Female creature
Bold may act.
Astrid attempts to figure out what these things are...but cannot...
She decides that they look very unffriendly though...and runs up to attack them. She enters the Ifriti Genie style as the flame tattoo on her neck begins to animate.
Zazu moves into the room and studies the creatures as he moves towards one of them.
"William quick we are under attack by some drunk house keepers. I hope you brought some tip money with you because they look like they are here to collect their dues."
He then calls upon Desna to enhance his weapon with fire and attacks the creature in front of him.
Astrid walks up and attacks the female creature, but she is surprised at its spryness as it dodges both hits. Even the fire that erupts over its chest doesn't seem to do anything. Terafil stabs at the male creature with his starknife and manages to do some damage, but again the additional fire doesn't even leave a scorch mark on the creature's clothing.
The male creature retaliates on Zazu immediately, slamming him with heavy fists.
Zazu (35/42 hp)
Astrid (32/51 hp)
Male creature (5 damage)
William (50/50 hp)
Female creature (0 damage)
Bold may act.
Willam jumps to meet the female and stabs with his rapier.
"Zazu, I think we're past bribery. Time to put that scimitar to use!"
William's rapier pierces directly through the creature's neck, severing some very important tendons and other connective tissues. Its head now teeters on its neck unnaturally, but it is still up. It slams its fists down onto William's shoulders in retaliation .
Zazu (35/42 hp)
Astrid (32/51 hp)
Male creature (5 damage)
William (42/50 hp)
Female creature (16 damage)
Bold may act.
"Alright whiskers, I guess I will try it your way for once."
Zazu drops his starknife, feeling somewhat naked without it in his possession, and draws the scimitar and attacks the creature in front of him.
Zazu looks at the scimitar as it strikes the creature with such precision and looks to William: "Yeah I know whiskers you told me so, I guess I am never going to hear the end of this."
Astrid, her frustration already mounting at how useless she is against these creatures, decides to launch another attack hoping to do SOME damage to them.
Zazu draws Dern's scimitar for the first time. He can feel its radiant holy magic, and both creatures recoil away from it. He swings it in a wide arc, cutting the male creature in two. Astrid follows up with two swift punches to the female creature, and it falls as well.
You wait two hours and Veryna wakes up. What do you do now?
Veryna rises shakily to her feet.
"Good gods, Veryna, you were really out. Didn't even stir at these weird bastards crashing around...the display case! I still think we ought to see if we can't get that sucker opened."
Willam walks over to the cabinet and checks to see if the trap is still active.
William checks the creatures and finds nothing on them besides their servants' clothing.
The trap appears to have been a one-time trigger. It did not rearm but he is unable to unlock the case.
With shaky fingers, Veryna takes a few deep, steadying breaths before picking up her thieves' tools and trying again.
Veryna gets the case open and finds some stuff!
- Old journals and artifacts that look like they might be worth something
- A chalice that emanates magic
Veryna turns over the chalice in her hands, washing divining magic over it to study its auras, but finally puts it down in frustration.
She looks over the artifacts and old journals carefully, then shrugs.
Zazu nods to Veryna as she asks him to look at the chalice. He gets a shiver down his spine and his feathers start to tingle as he detects the magic that emanates from the chalice and he starts to concentrate on it.
After several seconds of concentrating Zazu just looks to Veryna and shrugs: "The magic of the chalice eludes me as well. We should take it with us and perhaps in time we will be able to determine its purpose."
Zazu then looks around at the group and remembers something: "Does anyone need a checkup from Dr. Zazu to help get you in peek wellness?"
As he waits for his companions to answer Zazu walks over to his starknife and picks it up then sheaths the scimitar.
“I’m okay, Zazu. Good to see you’re taking to the blade! That was one hell of a strike. And Astrid, thanks for stepping in to finish the job.”
“Let’s keep the cup and keep moving. Shall we try to find the source of that noise?”
Willam keeps his rapier in hand and moves to the door, but waits for the other before moving on.
Veryna nods at Zazu and places the chalice and journals in her handy haversack. When they reach the south door, she holds an arm out to stop William.
She then checks the door for traps.
Astrid follows along...and does...stuff...
The door is neither trapped nor locked.