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The door opens to a cool, dry room carved into the bedrock beneath the manor. Rows of wooden wine casks line the polished stone walls to the north and west of the stairwell. To the east, an impressive wine rack carved of rare polished woods displays tiers of wine bottles, their labels obscured by a thin layer of dust. To the north, directly facing the entrance, three 10-foot-tall steel vats tower above the stone floor. A sweet, fruity smell hangs heavy in the air. A utilitarian room, the wine cellar is totally devoid of the decorations found throughout the rest of the manor.
Unless you count the Varisian man manacled to the wall as a decoration.
As the door opens, the man screams, “The air is poison! Hurry!” He then sucks in a deep breath and strains against his bonds. His dress and accent mark him as Varisian, and he looks at Ela with a mixture of fear of his impending death and hope that She can save him!
Ela doesn't see much in the dim light, but she does hear some kind of soft hissing sound. Not like a snake, but like a gas venting from a container.
A simple mechanical trap is rigged to the inside of the door. A wire allows the valves at the top of the large vats to open when the door is opened. It's clear that there's no way to see or disable it from the outside.
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Angela drops her pack at the door and then rushes into the room and down the stairs. "I heard someone that was definitely not Ela!"
She takes a look at the venting vats off in the distancea nd very quickly traces an ingenious line from them to the door of the room that Ela just opened. "Damn, the door was trapped an in such a way we couldn't have known ahead of time! Ela, can you get him unbound, asap? If you can do it quietly that'd be best, but if not then fire away or take my longspear."
She takes a fresh gulp of air from the hallway and then takes a second to analyze the vats and threats facing them.
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Realizing what she's done, Ela gives a look that can best be described as "help me" and "it's over...". Without thinking she takes the spear and rushes forward, feeling in the darkness for the manacles while holding her breath.
It can't end this way.
She begins to tear up in desperation but doesn't know what else to do but push forward.
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Angela's superior knowledge of the natural fermentation process gives her to understand that the gas venting from the vats will soon make it difficult to breath. She does some quick mental math and deduces that you have about 20 seconds of good air before you even have to start holding your breath. She recalls too that the gas is slightly heavier than good air, so anyone on the stairs or in the kitchen above will not be affected at all.
But it's likely a moot point as Grax's greatsword shatters the manacles. Emilio immediately jumps up and heads for the stairs, his cheeks bulging comically as he holds his breath until he reaches about midway up the steps. His breath escapes in a whoosh as he takes in the sight of his rescuers.
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Emilio stops halfway up the steps, gulping air as he tries to catch his breath. "She wasn't gonna kill me; she needs me alive. She always used some wand to give me enough air while she yammered at me," he blurts out.
He catches himself as he realizes he's not exactly sure who you people are.
Out of that frying pan and perhaps into a new fire, his expression becomes more guarded, and he addresses Ela and Grax warily, "But let's not get ahead of ourselves. To whom do I owe this rescue?"
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Angela takes a moment to see if there's nothing she can do about the trap herself, before she then takes a good look around the room further to see if there are any important items down here still. If needed she could probably see about getting that wand from ealier working and actually give the place a good look over.
Before she starts having to risk holding her breath she bounds out of the room and back up the stairs, taking care to not get her heels caught on anything as she goes.
She gives a look over at Apalah as he tries to be cagey, deciding to back up the nagaji she moves in a bit closer, hands on her pack. "We've got some papers that a certain blade for hire should probably see. Seems they're resting their head in a less safe place then they thought."
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As Angela quickly assesses the room, she spots a set of gloves of unusual design resting atop a rucksack near one of the vats. She closes the door and joins the discussion, her heels tip-tapping on the stone steps.
"No, not complaining about a rescue, just, you know, gotta be careful. Plenty of 'opposing organizations' out there," Emilio answers Grax.
He gives a quick and meaningful nod at Apalah's reference to a certain grandmaster. His dark eyes slowly sweep across the rest of the group as they make their case, lingering on Angela at her comment about papers. But he doesn't seem quite convinced. Yet.
"What papers? Stuff from Irel, or something else?" he asks the diminutive secretary.
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Angela takes an extra second to grab the gloves before she heaads back upstairs.
When Ela gestures for the papers, Angela reaches into her pack and pulls out a package wrapped in fabrics and shapped to look like a basket full of something, easy to pass of as baked goods instead of making look like a large bundle of papers. "Why would we give you a bunch of documents from Irel? We're here busting you out of her prison, what would be the point of giving you documents to give to your employer from her. These are from a differnt source..." She subtly points to a torch hanging from her bag, and then eyes him knowingly.
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"Ohhh, yer' here to get me out so's I can deliver sometin' from Mr. T," Emilio says as the (dim) light in his head comes on. "Dese here files are fer al-Jarki, yeah? 'Cause that's where I was headin' next anyways. Sure, I'll take 'em....," he readily agrees.
He looks around at you with new eyes as he appraises his large, skilled and powerful rescue team.
"But, heyyyy, since we're here an' all, lemme let youse in on somethin'."
He lowers his voice just a little, but as he talks he gets more irritated, and his volume quickly returns to normal.
"See, 'dis here Irel lady, she researched some ruins in Varisia chock full of treasure an' magic. All she needs to trip the wards is the blood of one of the ancient Families — 'dat’s where I comes in. She’s plannin' ta' drag me out to Varisia an' bleed me in some cave, then take everything for herself. That’s how I’m supposed to pay some debt she says I owe her."
At the last, he looks away, and it's obvious that he's leaving something out. Of course, you already know about the money he cheated her out of and the deal he reneged on. But he doesn't know that you know.
"But here you are, bustin' me out," he says happily as he gets back into his scheme. "Look, I know where she keeps her notes, (Dat's what I was askin' 'bout when I tought you had some papers from Irel, like, maybe you'd already found her notes)," he says in an aside to Angela. "But, if you ain't got 'em, let’s go nick ‘em and take ‘em back to the boss, yeah?"
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Angela holds up a different file, with the words, Expenses and Billing scrawled in beautiful calligraphy across the front. She opens the file up and it proves to be a copy of the documents they found in the library. "We already found, and copied, those details out earlier. Taking the originals would have resulted in us having to deal with a couple of nasty looking constructs. Any other information you might have?"
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Ela shifts nervously for a moment before admitting Well... I didn't prepare Invisibility today, so if we want to get you out fast it's going to have to be a good disguise, and minimal to no exposure of your face. So, something legitimate-looking with a hood. Or do any of the rest of you have a disguise kit?
She looks around the group, back into problem-solving mode.
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Perception
As fate would have it, Angela, Reznor and Therin suddenly hear multiple sets of footsteps and an unfamiliar woman's raised voice from the entry room. They hear something about construct maintenance, and a dressing down of Nyeli ensues.
Emilio listens too, and the color drains from his swarthy face. "Irel's back. With Balan, her bodyguard. We gots to go NOW!" he whispers insistently.
He looks back at Angela. "Youse wantin' more information, honey? I'll tell ya' this. That Balan ain't to be messed with. I saw him take out 20 guys in mere seconds. It's like he's some kinda mythical legend or somethin'."
He looks down the small hallway through the staff quarters and toward the dining room. "That way? Then out da' back?"
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Angela has a small flash of a prank she could play run through her head but decides that it'd be too much of a risk and she should instead focus on getting out of the place. Getting back into the library to grab the notes and then toss them into the reception hall to pit the constructs against Irel and Balan would be too time consuming and had too many possible ways for failure. She instead starts to usher everyone, quietly, back to the back of the house and the rear exit. "Seems a disguise kit won't be necessary our cover is blown, and we should leave, NOW! Everyone got their things? Okay, let's get a move on."
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Deciding that discretion is the better part of valor, the Pathfinders Agents of Grandmaster Torch escort Emilio out through the back door. And straight into the hedge maze....
The emerald-green hedges are planted in a dizzying array of geometric patterns flowing towards an unseen central point. Some parts of this multi-acre expanse are curving while others are straight. The hedges are meticulously trimmed to stand 10 feet tall and the walls are 5-foot-thick and thorny. There are occasional decorations including marble fountains, benches for resting on, and decorative topiaries mostly carved in various animal shapes.
Emilio is able to walk on his own and seems to be healthy. He wasn't tortured or starved, but he does ask if you might have happened to find the gear that Irel took from him.
Flying above the maze, Javon is able to provide guidance away from the manor and towards what looks like a thinner part of the outer maze wall that would be easier to cut an exit though.
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Angela gets to the door and look sat everyone readying for battle, pulls out her longspear and a small vial with the words Shield neatly written on a tag hanging from the neck. She looks out into the dining room and over at Javon, trying to ensure that there's no threats in there before she tries entering the space herself.
Angela gets confirmation that the room is empty and then opens the door as fast as she can without making unnecessary noises, and steps into the room. She sneaks up to the doors joining the dining and reception areas and listens at it while she tries to bar it. When the threat of getting discovered in the act of escaping is minimalized, she getsures for everyone to get the hell out of here.
Bounding out of the room after everyone, she nods at Javon's directions, takes up a spot right behind Emilio and keeps her eyes peeled for danger.