As Natsume prays to Asmodeus, and Tamerius to the Nine-Tailed fox-- or vice versa-- Giggett, Sitril?
Sitril does not pray, he walks a bit to deal with the adrenaline and his anger.
"Why did they die so fast?"
He begins to look through the room as they wait
"Because we were ready to get them. I prefer that than unexpected fights that end awfully."
Giggett gets to the famous box. She starts with a Detect Magic, then a thorough search for traps on and around the box, also on the statue, and then get the box out of the water.
She looks at the opening mechanism, is it locked?
The pool is empty, now that the elementals are gone.
But the marble statue of the elven woman has water coming from her eyes, that will slowly fill it up again.
The statue is made by a true artist. Very well done, and beautiful.
At the bottom of the now dry pool is a sealed stone box that bears the alchemical symbol for-- life.
And the name: Silwyth.
There are no traps.
Giggett wants to pull the box out of the pool-- but it is fixed to the bottom of the pool.
You can just take some time to snap it off.
There are no locks or anything, the box is simply sealed shut.
There is nothing else in the room.
Other than some strange blood stains... that Sitril realizes are-- from Natsume.
Giggett makes a hand sign for every one to take cover and then carefully opens the box. With gleaming eyes she looks what's inside...
A skull looks back at Giggett.
Its eyes-- non existent.
The box Giggett ripped from the bottom of the pool, and then broke open, greedily cracking the seal-- is filled with the remains of a humanoid.
Giggett scratches her head.
Human? Can I check the pelvis to determine if it's a woman (Medicine check)? Are there clothes with it? Was it packed like that or more like in a coffin?
"Could be remains of Silwyth..." speculates
”Suddenly glad I haven’t been drinking from this...” says the vixen, gesturing vaguely toward the pool.
Since the name Silwyth is on the box, Sitril's idea might be correct?
The remains are placed in the box, all the bones, but not a body laid out since it is not a coffin.
Probably not a Dwarf, nor a Halfling... Human, Elf, Half-Elf--
It is a woman...
"Why is Vilree keeping her mother's remains here? With the statue, it looks like a place to mourn and praise, but at the same time it's no burial site, this tiny box is nothing like a proper coffin."
Giggett seems puzzled.
"Tam', do you know how to raise the deads? I'd love to meet Vilree with her mother dancing before us!"
Giggett bursts in laughter.
Realizing her joke is not pleasing everyone:
"Sorry, dark humor."
She's still hard time stopping her laughs.
"Let's search the 2 other rooms, Sitril, while our friends are meditating."
”I was thinking of putting her skull on my flail, so”
It is a storage room that lies just opposite the place where the woman who saved everyone from the plague used to be buried, before the fine grave robbers came to desecrate her tomb and mock her bones.
The chamber is piled high with boxes, barrels, and crates.
While most are partially empty, they do contain a wide variety of alchemical tools, reagents, and supplies that could be used to create a vast array of alchemical items.
A few minutes later, Natsume and Tamerius have finished praying and join the others, moving on.
You move back into the place where you fought the drudges, whose bodies lie around-- and where you fled the multi-bodied enemy.
The long chamber is packed full of alchemical gear and experiments.
Cauldrons stand next to tables where volatile mixtures are still brewing and bubbling.
A large furnace is opposite the door, just behind a long pool of water with a statue of a woman standing at its head.
To the east, the passageway descends with the spiral stairs.
Flasks are still carefully filtering reagents and are far from ready.
The furnace is lit and is being used to melt copper, burning away impurities for a future experiment.
The central table contains common alchemical items ready to be shipped. Chief among them is a small crate containing 6 vials of lesser alchemist’s fire and another with 4 lesser acid flasks.
There is also a small, velvet-lined box containing a single dose of something.
A note on the table indicates these items are intended for an address in the Chelish capital of Egorian.
Finally, the pool is filled with fresh water.
The statue standing over the pool is of Vilree.
She stands in the same pose as her mother, only she does not have tears streaming down her cheeks.
Instead, her expression is hard, cold, and calculating.
Giggett searches the statue, too. Nothing with it?
Natsume will take a moment to investigate the various alchemical solutions that are bubbling away. Anything that isn’t useful to the group or explicitly benign, she’ll take steps to destroy.
If Vilree is the source of the evil grossness, no reason not to impede her.
In fact, impeding her is the specific mission Daikitsu brought her back for!
I'm no necromancer. says Tamerius to Giggett's dark humor.
Seeing Egorian, Tamerius is intrigued and start looking at the document.
The statue is-- a statue. But just a statue.
Natsume finds some way to destroy the things bubbling away-- either mixing them together, or going to pour them in the pool, or whatever.
Nothing can be used for now, and all can be used in some way to harm something, thus you would have to destroy all.
The document mentioning Egorian is an address, a delivery address:
Destius Vilbucher, Manor Greyclaw, Egorian
Tamerius tries to remember if he knows the person.
The name and address would indicate a minor noble, with some money.
Tamerius takes the letter, for later...
I could be used against them... good at least something interesting here. I could send this information to my sister.
Anything interesting here? Or do we try to finish the monster downstair or do we try to unlock the door to the tower? asks Tamerius.
Giggett looks at Tamerius and begins to think his memory is failing him...
"Let's finish exploring the tower. We have 2 rooms to search and stairs going up."
We have 2 rooms to search and stairs going up.
The base of the tower is the lounge area--
--which is a well-appointed lounge.
Off to one side, a pair of padded chairs sits in front of a fireplace lit with faintly glowing embers.
Two bookcases flank the fireplace along the curved wall; they are filled with tomes, scrolls, and an assortment of odd and esoteric objects. Nearby, a staircase goes up to a second level, and a door stands partly open, leading into a kitchen--
--behind.
Where dirty pots and pans are piled high on the table in the center of this room, obscuring the view of the fireplace that sits beyond.
This is where pot-tosser was.
Are left here-- the stairs going up.
Giggett starts waving her hands and casts a spell to detect magic in the room .
After having searched the 2 rooms, she's ready to climb the stairs, waiting for Natsume to go first and following stealthily.
You already searched those rooms and got what was there.
Natsume takes a moment to steady herself and her shield, makes sure the rest of the group is ready, and if so, leads the way.
Natsume goes carefully up the stairs, followed by Giggett, and then the others.
You all ascend up into a small hall.
The curved wall of the fortress here is covered in paintings of Vilree’s mother, Silwyth.
The paintings depict an elven woman of unnatural beauty, with raven hair, fully green eyes, and a mischievous smile dancing across her lips.
There is a door here.
Giggett takes a bit of time to check the door for both traps and locks and once she considers the door's both secured and unlocked, she lets Natsume go first.
No traps.
But it is locked.
"It's open!"
”Cool!”
Natsume kicks it in.
Well done.
Says Tamerius.
Giggett works away on the lock, that she manages to pick.
So Natsume kicks the door in--
--and, immediately, compartments in the ceiling open, and drop a freezing alchemical liquid into the entire room!
The freezing alchemical slurry is dumped into the room and onto all of you-- who try to avoid some of the cold!
The doors open to reveal a bedchamber with a large bed opposite the door, flanked by a desk and a dresser.
The heady scent of lilac hangs heavy in the air, emanating from a cone of incense that is still smoking faintly.
As usual, Giggett doesn't manage to avoid the trap because she obviously lacks reflexes!
"Brrr..." it's cold, Giggett thinks. But at least it smells nice.
After the cold shower, Giggett starts searching the room.
Vilree obviously uses this chamber as her sleeping quarters.
It seems that she hasn’t used it much over the past few weeks.
You see bed ;
a dresser - opening it you see it is filled with robes and work aprons, and, though the clothes in the dresser are of good make, they are not particularly valuable. There are three vials, elixirs probably, in there too ;
a desk - checking it you see it is filled with personal effects and correspondence ;
a chest - that is closed but not locked. Inside are three sacks containing a large amount of coin - some 600 coins. There are some other vials in there, a half a dozen of them ;
a door in the corner that leads to the privy, which is quite clean...
Giggett starts looking at the correspondence and the personal effects, trying to assess what is Vilree's personality, goals in life, etc... She wants to know more about her. And also who are her contacts.
Giggett takes some 10 minutes checking this out--
Looking through the correspondence, Gigget find letters signed by-- Hallod!
They confirm the delivery of various shipments of alchemical reagents.
Another piece of parchment contains a timeline of dates and notable occurrences.
Near the bottom, it shows the date that Bort’s caravan arrived in town.
A note is added: “Tied up loose end: merchant.”
There are two entries beneath that line: one is dated yesterday, and reads, “The last reaction is in place.”
The final entry does not have a date listed — that spot is blank — but it reads, “Mother avenged.”
Giggett tells the others after reading the documents:
"I really understand this Vilree. She loved her mother, her mother got killed by those she saved, she asks for a legitimate revenge. Maybe she can be reasoned with..."
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Natsume only has time to look up when the ceiling drops a bunch of frostiness upon her, and squeals as it hits and clings to her fur!
”BrrrRRrrr!! I’m not an arctic fox!”
She’ll LoH on Giggett, then spend the next 10 minutes shivering as she prays to heal someone else.
1 LaoH + 1 other after the 1st 10 minutes
Tamerius is not able to avoid the washing cold!
Brr...
While Giggett looks around, Tamerius starts patching himself.
Tamerius is nice and clean now.
1 LaoH + 1 other after the 1st 10 minutes
Sitril was so close to dodge the trap, but he failed. His beard gets covered in icing making him look rather funny.
"Who put traps in their bedroom?"
Vilree gave you all the cold shoulder-shower...
So, Natsume heals two with her lay on paws, while Tamerius heals himself and Giggett checks things out.
1 LaoH + 1 other after the 1st 10 minutes
Tamerius continues to work on his comrades to heal them.
Tamerius spends time working on warming up the frozen skin and such--
--and Natsume prays, heals, prays...
After a half an hour spent up in the room-- where you can lie in bed, use the nice toilet, only Giggett is a bit wounded, and Natsume has not prayed after her last Laying on Hands.
Natsume, feeling much better after giving herself Daikitsu’s foxy favors twice (which feels much like having a belly full of mice-fried rice) takes a moment between rounds of prayers to take a breather.
”I don’t want to move on half-ready. Anyone mind if I...?”
She turns back to pray.