Elliot continues watching the doors, still expecting another demon attack at any moment while the discussion progressed. He paces about uneasily and is relieved when the wand provides a workable way out for the prisoners.
"Agreed, Thesius. Let's fall back to Staunton's office first. Whatever is behind that wall was made to be a trap. Whatever is in his office is something they probably do not want us to have or know." He reasons, and behind heading back towards Vhane's office.
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Still, she listens carefully to Verene's suggestions, and opens her mouth to reply, but the kobold-wizard disappears for the final time.
Having decided to go to recover the documents and any valuables in Staunton's chambers, the champions make their way (somewhat cautiously) back through the Templars' Court and the hole they made in the wall into the Officer's Court. There are no signs of any demonic presence along the way.
However, there are a handful of tieflings missing from the dead they'd left behind. Perhaps they'd missed a few? Fortunately, all of the half-fiend minotaurs are still there.
"... we should've been more thorough about finishing them off." Nurah opines darkly.
Thesius nods in understanding. "A lesson learned, though they might not have walked off either."
Not wishing to waste time, he quickly makes his way to the doors leading into Staunton's room and starts to look for potential traps, taking the time to disable them if present, and finally assessing if the door is locked if no traps are found.
If the door is locked, he'll use the key to unlock it before stepping back to allow the more durable members of the party the right of way in case an enemy is in the room. His bow at the ready.
"I thought we were thorough about it. Maybe someone raised them as undead." Verene is fairly sure Merixia beheaded the tieflings and demons that were left alive by Elliot's sword. She makes sure her shield is renewed and checks through the door for any fiendish presences or magic while Thesius is examining it.
Merixia scowls at the pools of blood where there used to be corpses. "I double checked and killed any who were still alive. I always check the bodies." After all, vengeance is not complete until you've either dragged the guilty to jail (along with all evidence necessary to convict them) or made certain they're dead.
"Well, so long as Staunton is dead, we did well enough. If they're merely animating the dead, they should be much weaker the second time around. And you need very expensive components to fully resurrect the dead back to normal. I wouldn't suspect the demons keep many diamonds worth many thousands of gold just lying around for a rainy day. And then, even if they did, they would still need more powerful magic and large amounts of diamond dust to get back to full health," Elliot says, then freezes as he gets a dreadful feeling of foreboding. "Wait. If the Tieflings are missing, what about Staunton? " Should his body not be in sight, he looks into the adjacent room where the dwarf fell, ready for anything.
"Staunton's remains were... a mess," Azira offers as she too looks to make sure they are still present. "I don't know the first thing about magic, let alone necromancy, but I'm not sure he could have been animated as anything like his old self..."
please, Iomedae, let it be so... and if he was, we may need to start investing in more holy water so we can douse all the corpses we leave behind...
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Nurah considers carefully. "Maybe the succubus took them away?" She suggests, then shakes her head. "No, that seems... unlikely. She wouldn't have had the time, would she?" The halfling bard seems somewhat shaken.
Elliot advances into the next room, where there are yet more corpses, one of which is definitely the pile of meat that Azira left Staunton's corpse as.
"Is he still in there?" Nurah follows after the magus, looking around him. "Looks like he is..."
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"It has been about one minute since the succubus — Janeamine, I suppose — teleported away from us. If she moved multiple bodies out of sight in that time, she had help."
Verene studies Staunton's corpse carefully, relieved to see it is still present and at least has not been immediately raised.
Then she focuses her attention on the spell checking for any fiendish presence ahead of them through the door to Staunton's bedroom.
"I... think someone disturbed his remains, though I'm not fully sure. It's hard to estimate how much of him is still here and what might be missing," Elliot says to Nurah and the others, wincing as he looks at Jhoran. "Sorry, I didn't mean to be insensitive. However, the demons would only need some small part of him to resurrect him, if that is their plan. And if it is, they might have gotten away with it while we were elsewhere. Maybe we should take the rest of Staunton's remains with us so this cannot happen again. It also might boost the crusader's morale to see one of the enemy commanders beaten."
The magus' fatigue is clear as the party moves into the office. "Let's search this place quickly and withdraw for today as we planned."
"...Note to self, start keeping a shovel in the bag of holding." This is going to be nasty. Maybe she can improvise something from the furniture in the room. Merixia follows Elliot, sword at the ready.
"We may want to focus on the room prior to the body. If no threat presents itself within, we can then perhaps split between searching the room and gathering his remains," Thesius notes while gesturing to the door as he steps away from it after having looked for traps and unlocking the door if necessary.
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Thesius finds no signs of any traps on the door, nor does Verene detect any fiendish presences. Thus, Thesius uses the key he'd taken from Staunton's corpse to unlock it. Pushing it cautiously open, he reveals a plush bedroom. It is immaculate to the point of spotlessness. The bed sheets are tight against the mattress, and no splinters mar the floor near the well-used sparring dummy in one corner, despite its obvious heavy use. An inkwell, a blotter, and a black quill sit atop an otherwise bare desk, with a three-legged stool pushed out of the way underneath. A single large chest sits at the foot of the bed.
Joran looks around, then snorts. "As meticulous as always."
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Perception +27
Disable Device +19
Thesius will quickly take stock of the room from the doorway before doing a once over for traps now that the door is open.
If no danger presents itself, he will continue.
"Verene, please do a scan for anything magical while I start looking for any traps and items of interest," he asks while moving into the room. He'll pull out his thieves' tools as he does so.
Thesius starts to move into the room, before suddenly stopping. Knowing what lies in another room, he takes a dagger and launches it at the chest to see how it reacts.
If nothing happens, he continues forward to investigate it. Looking it over for traps and whether it is locked
Verene recognizes the spotless bedroom she saw in a brief moment during her failed scrying attempt. She scans the room for magic and fiendish presences while Thesius does the same for traps. She takes any documents that are obviously present in the room and adds them to the haversack.
Azira lingers in the doorway, Radiance at the ready, while the others press into the room and begin searching.
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Thesius scans the room thoroughly, but sees no signs of any dangers. He moves towards the chest and stabs it with a dagger - which thunks heavily into its top to no effect other than to scar the thick wood.
Verene detects a large number of magical auras, mostly focused on the chest. There's still no signs of any fiendish presences here.
Using the key, he opens it to reveal a treasure trove.
Inside the coffer there are even more treasures - three potions of different sorts, and a single wand.
Nurah lets out a low whistle at the sight. "Wonder where he got all of that? It can't all be from looting this place, can it?"
"Merixia would you please load this into the bag of holding while I continue to search the room? I think it better we further explore these items once we are out of here," he asks before moving to the desk to search it next. Keeping an eye out for any traps and hidden compartments as he does so.
Perception +27
Disable Device +19
"Ooh, a book. I wonder if he kept a diary? Or maybe it's the demons' secret plans!" Merixia looks over at Verene. "Would you check it for magic once we're back at camp? It would be a shame if it was spelled to go up in flames if someone other than Staunton opened it." She absolutely learned about such spells from her mentor. A destructive book ward wasn't a plot device in her favorite series of novels, not at all.
"Merixia would you please load this into the bag of holding while I continue to search the room? I think it better we further explore these items once we are out of here," he asks before moving to the desk to search it next.
"Of course! Hopefully none of this is cursed..." Merixia eyes the figurines distrustfully. The coins are likely safe enough though. The cleric pulls the bag of holding out of her backpack and begins scooping gold and platinum into its extradimensional space.