The entire group follows the trail along the front of the building and around the eastern wall. The trail runs all the way to the back of the building where it ends at a small entrance door on the north wall of the large estate building.
You hear quiet talking in Ingan from behind the door. It sounds like one person is doing most of the talking but there are a few others replying from time to time. The speaker seems to be urging someone to 'throw of chains of servitude'.
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Garduk shakes his head. "I didn't hear anything either."
He turns to K'Anubis. "I don't think we want a herald or translator," he growls softly. "Our job is to sneak in, not to talk to anyone, remember?"
"If there's someone on the other side of this door, maybe we could cause a distraction to draw them to the other side of the house? I could cast a spell to make it sound like an angry mob is approaching the other side of the building."
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Garduk thinks through the plan, muttering to himself, then nods to himself and says to Kulga, "If you don't see me coming in about half a minute, something's gone badly wrong."
The half-orc doesn't wait for a response. He snaps his fingers and barks, "Kadota näkyvistä!" and disappears from sight. His fellow Pathfinders hear him take a deep breath and then fast-moving footsteps slap the ground heading back the way they came.
Garduk casts vanish and runs to the front courtyard. He arrives, panting, and casts another spell, creating the illusion of the sounds of half a dozen or more azers, arguing in incoherent speech that sounds sort of like Ignan, approaching the front door and knocking loudly. Once the illusion is set to run , Garduk takes another deep breath and starts running back to the group, hoping to get back to the northeast corner of the house before his invisibility wears off.
"Did..." Garduk pants, appearing suddenly with the group. "Did it work? Did they leave? Should we go in now?"
Garduk successfully casts ghost sound, it lasts for 36 seconds, about 25 seconds after he gets back to the back corner.
Garduk vanishes and then takes off in a sprint, the sounds of his fast footsteps travels away from the group and around the corner of the estate. When he gets to the front, he casts an impressive ghost sound then races back to rejoin the group. It only took a few seconds so he realizes that his illusion will still last for about half a minute longer.
K'Anubis checks the door. It seems to be safe and unlocked. He looks for a nod from the others then opens the door. Inside the door is what looks to be bunk room or dormitory. This room has few decorations and only simple furnishings, such as stone cots, a makeshift table, and a chest of drawers to the south.
As one, half a dozen azers turn their heads to look at you. Most of them are dressed in shabby livery consistent with the rest of the Cinderfury decorations but one seems to be quite a bit different. She is wearing deep red leather armor and breeches along with sturdy black military style boots. The group seems to have interrupted her delivery of a passionate speech as she stands with her mouth open. Suddenly she glances at the double doors behind her then turns back. Her eyes glow with fervency and she raises a fist and her voice. "ოპოზიცია ჩამოვიდა! ახლა უნდა აირჩიოთ: აკეთებთ ენდობა წითლის ჭიის, ან იღებ თუ არა ეფრეეთის ჯაჭვებს"
trust in the Red Worm, or do you accept the efreeti chains?
The azer servants look hestitantly between themselves, the newcomers, and the fiery acolyte. The entire situation is tense. Something must happen soon.
You hear the sounds of a large group of azers making a ruckus and banging on a door somewhere to the southwest of your location.
The servant azers look confused and tentative and one of them begins to speak. However, the acolyte cuts him off. "You're not from the Cinderfurys? Well then, why are you here?" Her mouth falls open in shock. "You what? You freed the azers at the security complex?"
One of the servants jumps in with undisguised excitement. "Axuztu? You released him? Where did he go? He's my cousin."
Over the next minute or two, the azers ask more questions about the free security guards. One of them mentions Flamebinder's Jaw.
"Our Master keeps that in his office on the second floor."
They also give you information about the layout of the rest of the estate, repeating the warning about traps on some of the doors.
With a sense of urgency, the Red Worm acolyte wraps everything up.
"We are grateful for you help but we must go. There is only a small window." She directs the azers to gather their belongings and quickly ushers them out the backdoor.
The Pathfinders are left standing in an empty room.
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We not even need to like each other to make business. Do not staying on our way to artifacnts is a good relations start. - nods K'Anubis hoping that team won't translate it.
The Monolith will take a look around before find way inside the estate and spend a minute to listen through it. Hopefully, Garduks illusion will disappear till that time.
As she was leaving, the acolyte had tossed a satchel to K'Anubis. "Thank you for your help. This was intended to help these guys but now they won't need it. You are welcome to it."
The satchel contains an elixir of hiding, two potions of cure moderate wounds, a potion of invisibility, and a scroll of heroism.
Nella probes the two rooms for magical auras and finds nothing other than the auras on the items the acolyte gave them. At the same time, Garduk and Kulga move into the adjoining room. This is a small kitchen. The stove in the corner burns with a small magical flame but the rest of the room is empty.
K'Anubis opens the double doors leading out of the servant's quarters. The doors open to a large room that contains sofas and chairs upholstered in leather with a metallic sheen. A steel table is set with stone plates, crystalline cutlery, and gold-lined goblets. Doors to the north open onto a narrow terrace, and the portrait of a stern efreeti hangs along the west wall.
It is obvious that this room has seen little use in recent times. It is arranged to highlight the household's wealth.
Across the open area a set of double doors lead to a storage room and directly south of the servant's quarters are double doors leading into one of the meeting rooms. The meeting room doors were mentioned when the azers were pointing out traps in the estate.
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"Pah. Just here for show. Insecure families who don't trust to the authority in their blood and name often try to substitute wealth in its place. No one's used this room for years."
"Let's see if they trapped the other way into this room..." Before entering the large room, Kulga examines the single door into the meeting room for traps/locks.
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Nella peers curiously over Kanubis' shoulder as he opens the doors out into what seems to be some manner of sitting room, but the portrait of the stern efreeti means nothing to her and she turns her attention back to the others.
"Here Kulga, I think this would probably benefit you the most out of all of us," she whispers, taking the gifted scroll of Heroism and passing it to Garduk. "But this is probably an arcane scroll so I can't actually use it myself."
"And Kanubis is right, we should probably try circling around as much as we can," she adds as she gently re-closes the double-doors that lead out into the main sitting area.
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Garduk takes the scroll and casts its spell on Kulga. "This will last about 50 minutes. Hopefully we'll be done here by then."
Inspecting the other contents of the satchel, Garduk shakes his head. "First Qalkami told us to use stealth, now it is seems as though this group was preparing to sneak out of the mansion instead of just walking out the door, or fighting. I wish I had a better idea of what they're all so worried about," he grumbles.
Garduk draws his wand of magic missile and fiddles with it nervously.
The door leading south out of the kitchen is one of the doors that the azers had indicated as trapped. Kulga confirms this with a perfunctory examination. It is a magical trap but it can be disabled.
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So, may we just Dispel it? Wo need to enter somehow... not loud and fiery.
If no one can Dispel this trap, perhaps the Trade Prince would bring a solution.
K'Anubis sure that Guarli mentioned that kind of trap...
Do you remember a young dragon from Bazira's party? She smells like flower, just so stimulating and calm at the same time. So.... what are we wating for? - says Kanubis turning back for party before continue...
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"Nella, if that spell is a gift from your god, it would benefit me to no small end as well." Brady accepts Nella's offer of another heroism spell with gratitude.
Brady waits to see if K'Anubis' advice from the Trade Prince proves worthy. He, too, had similar conversations with the head of The Exchange, and would hopefully be able to provide such aid later.
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"I'd be happy to - we've been able to talk our way out of trouble so far but this right here," she gestures to the trapped door, "is the sort of thing that can't be talked around. So hopefully this will help!"
And as requested, Nella takes a moment to call on Shelyn's power and grant Brady an extra bit of Heroism.
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Garduk studies the door for a few moments, absorbing some of the magical energy.
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"Yeah, it's a magical trap," Garduk growls. "The wizards coming out of the fancy academies would describe it as having 'an aura of moderate evocation.' Not that they'd ever actually come across one. Anyway, this door definitely wants to go boom, and apparently there are six more just like it waiting for us. So who wants to take the first crack at picking the lock? Does anyone here even know how?"
If K'Anubis is still willing to try (or if someone else is), Garduk first gathers the party together so that all of the Pathfinders are within his reach. He barks out, "Tee meille vaikea polttaa!" and each member of the group feels a cool breeze waft over them.
The scrawny half-orc then positions himself so that several feet of wall separates him from the trapped door, pulls out a scroll of heightened awareness, and quickly reads the spell off of it.
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"Well, if I remember right from the layout we shouldn't have to traverse all seven doors - just four of them, assuming we want to poke around in every room and every nook and cranny," Nella points out. "Still, that's...easier said than done. I've only got one shot at this but I can try and dispel the trap so we can at least get into this first meeting room. Just let me know if you want me to try or to save it."
"Okay, stand back..."
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Team, stay back while I will enter dangerous rooms here around. To avoid possible splash or gas harm. For me pain is just a motive to be quicker and wiser next time. Oh, can someone protect me from this wand again?
After Garduk and Nella Cast their spells and someone renew Mage Armor Upon him - K'Anubis finally gets Showmanship to Diasable device and then enters.
K'Anubis easily picks the lock to the southern door, thereby bypassing the trap on it. He opens the door to find that the room is fairly sparse. A glass table etched with serpentine designs, surrounded by high-backed glass chairs, sits in the middle of the room. Double doors allow access to the north and south of the room and a single door sits in the west wall of the room.
The only magic that Nella detects are moderate auras surrounding the doors. The auras are just like the one on the door they already came through.
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Upon entering into empty room with just table and chairs, K'Anubis wonders
Why was ths place protected, hm?! Anyway I'd prefer to stay unnoticed as long as we can. So please, Tarragon, stay cool for a while. And thank you, Garduk.
After pointing to more magic auras, the Monolith take a good look around to find trap or other threats. (Or may be jewles). And better understand local architecture.
The dwarf tryin to realise, if efreeti come to this place based on doors size and celling range.
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Showmanship (4+ goals): Once per adventure, you can use your bonus for any Craft or Profession skill in place of your bonus for a Disable Device, Knowledge (engineering), or Use Magic Device check as if you were trained in that skill.
Brady joins K'Anubis at the door, watching over the dwarf's shoulder to see if he can open this one too. If K'Anubis appears to be having trouble, he offers to make his own attempt.