"Ah remember this door.."
Not too long ago, August considered opening the door. But at that time, the sight of the charred kobold made him leave the door alone.
But this time, it seems, they'll have to go in.
After enjoying the breakfast that was so graciously prepared, Zuriel scoops up a slice of pie and brings it along. Without delay, he grabs hold of his new cane and heads out the door. On the way out, he makes it a point to say goodbye to Malak and Bophre. While in rout to the wizard’s house it becomes obvious that he has developed a slight limp in his stride, which is obviously fake as hell. With his new limp, and cane prominently in hand, he takes his time navigating the rout while enjoying the fresh pie. "Little Jack Horner Sat in the corner, eating a Christmas pie; He put in his thumb, and pulled out a plum, and said, what a good boy am I! Hehe, this pie is good!"
Once the group gathers in front of the wizard’s house, Zuriel wastes no time. He immediately begins searching the area for traps.
Once confident that the general area is free of traps, Zuriel approaches the house’s front door and begins inspecting it for traps.
Ethulfel thanks their host as the table is set, and praises her skill as they eat. He is clearly more tired than he let on though as he begins nodding off by the time the food is done. He offers a brief apology and plops into a chair by the fire where he quickly falls asleep while the cleaning up is still going on.
Ethulfel enjoys breakfast, and his slice of pie, and joins Jenise in seeking out their hosts to thank them. When they arrive at the wizard's house, he begins by observing the established group in an attempt to understand how they operate. As Zuriel begins examining the door, he offers, "I'm not an expert at these sorts of things, but I have a fairly sharp eye, if you don't mind some help?"
Gavia arrives at dawn and is waiting out in front of the house when the others arrive. She gets up from where she's been sitting, and dons a bandolier packed with numerous small vials and a backpack. She also picks up a long spear, which she finds unwieldy considering how clumsily she handles it.
"So, how are we going to do this?"
"If there are no traps, I intend to open the door. Then we will head in and begin inspecting the house for dangers."
Zuriel looks over at Ethulfel. "I suppose more eyes are better in this case. We have a lot of ground to cover, and a trap could quite literally be anywhere."
You look the front door over, you find that the trap that killed the kobold did not reset and that it is safe. No other traps in the house look visible and you are free to enter it seems.
"It looks clear to me," Ethulfel says in response to Zuriel's stated plan. Then he takes half a step back, nods, and offers, "after you."
"Ah can go first." August volunteers. After all, the elf looks so frail - and who knows what is waiting on the other side.
The paladin keeps his shield in front, covering his face, and opens the door.
You open the door and see within the floor of this well-appointed entry hall is adorned with two expensive Qadiran rugs and decorated with several overstuffed leather sofas. Two dozen paintings with gilded frames hang on the walls, portraits and landscapes, all of exquisite artistry. To the north sits a large bird cage. Wooden doors open in the east and west walls, and an elaborate spiral staircase of iron both ascends and descends in the southeast corner.
Jenise takes the time to cast a quick mage armor before following August into the wizard's house. Who knows what kind of traps Hunclay might have left? She loads a bolt into her crossbow and takes a look around.
The sales value of the Qadiran rug drops immediately as August steps on it with his muddy boots.
The bird cage looks certainly interesting, but the paladin does not stride towards it. Instead, he looks a Zuriel and Ethulfel to verify if the road is clear.
Gavia finds herself blocked when she tries to cross the threshold. With a clatter her spear bars her way. Then she remembers she has been carrying the thing vertically and it's taller than the doorway. She backs up, lowers it to a diagonal and tries again, successfully entering the second time.
Ethulfel follows the others in. He mutters a minor blessing for Zuriel and does his best to help the elf search for any dangers, or other secrets.
Zuriel moves into the room after August opens the door. Once inside, he begins searching for traps. "Give me a few minutes to make sure we are clear of traps."
You three look around and together you feel pretty sure it’s safe, but at the last second with the clatter of the spear against the door you all stop. The sudden noise stopping the birds from chirping loudly. You all turn back to entree and you see it Zuriel, a magical trap lies directly off the landing.
You seen a rune that would conjure forth some kind of effect and using a bit of ingenuity using your large elven blade you scrape it u til you watch it fizzle out.
Zuriel points out the trap before someone makes the mistake of triggering it before it can be delt with. "As expected. Magically trapped. These are going to be very difficult to handle and could be very dangerous, so I would stand back until I either explode or finished with the process."
Once everyone is well out of the way, he begins the near impossible task of disabling the trap.
Zuriel pulls out his elven blade and begins slowly working the edges of the ruin to the point that it begins to fizzle. It dosen't take long before parts of the image become unrecognizable, causing the spell to falter and eventually fizzle out. Soon after, he stands over the dormant image and begins waving his arms around in a way that looks similar to spell casting yet is obvious not. "Mugla, me jamajama" He says out loud, then turns to the group. "There, that should do it. All disenchanted."
As you enter the room and look around you see the other rug, the birds, and the door to the east, the door to the west, and a the iron spiral staircase that ascends and descends; giving you four options.
You all do however note that the largest bird in the cage, a large burnt orange bird with a large beak, has a small silver charm dangling from its leg. A quick scan of the birds reveals that they might be of some value due to their rarity, if they remain alive that is however.
Gavia is concerned about the birds having gone for some considerable time without being attended to.
"The birds need some water. If anyone finds any small plates or bowls bring them to me."
Zuriel glances inside the bird's cage before moving up to the east door. Once there, he carefully inspects the door.
"Okay, Gavia. We can feed the bird when we know this place is safe."
Until then, August avoids touching anything, and follows Zuriel.
Opening the door you see within; a kitchen that is well stocked with all the accoutrements needed to prepare gourmet meals. The northeast corner has a small wall with a curtain to make a small room. Two doors to the south on each side of the room beckon onward.
As expected, Zuriel searches the room and doors for traps. While looking around the area, he keeps an eye out for any small bowls that could be used to feed the birds.
You don’t find any traps, but you do find what could be used to feed the birds. Some small bowls exist but they are of to big to fit in the cage without letting loose the birds should you open it up.
After looking over the bowls, he hands one to Gavia. "This should work if we can get it in the cage." Now that he feels the doors are clear of traps, he opens one of them.
Jenise fills a pitcher with water from the kitchen, bringing it out to the bird cages to fill Zuriel's bowl. "I wonder what kind of birds these are?" They probably need food as well as water, but what kind?
When the birds have been given a saucer of water, Gavia looks them over carefully. She tries to identify them, reasoning that some food for them must be on hand somewhere. It's just a matter of knowing what kind of food they should be searching for.
"Probably couldn't go wrong with a combo of fruit and bread. One of those should do it."
You realize these birds are tropical in nature, likely from various different parts of Varuna and abroad. They look to be song birds from the look of them but they aren’t in a particularly content mood. Though once food and water are given to them they start to quiet down, and after wards watch contently at you.
Going on the right side you find a larder stocked with dry storage good but with little else inside. The other door however when you try it seems to be stuck.
Zuriel carefully inspects the left side to see if he can determine what's causing it to stick.
Ethulfel's wonder at the magical traps and exotic wildlife keep him quiet for the early exploration until finally he mutters, "It's a good thing I didn't bring Kazi in here... she'd have been very interested in these bright birds, but they may have looked a little more delicious to her than she could resist. Before we move on too much farther, does anyone want to check the charm that bird's wearing for magic? Or, maybe just look around for magical auras in general?"
You detect only a single item in the room as magic; the charm. It appears to be light Abjuration aura.
Checking the door you realize quickly with a slight shake that it’s got something heavy in place. You think it’s not entirely covered so a kick to the outside of the door may help.
Zuriel kicks the door.
Zuriel kicks the door.
Zuriel kicks the door.
"Um, August! Can you please kick this door and see if you can get whatever is blocking it to move back some."
Jenise decides to see if there's any magic around here. It's a wizard's home, she'll be very surprised if there aren't any arcane traps or wards around here.
"Okay, Zuriel. Ah'll try..." August walks close to the door, and aims a hefty kick. But whatever keeps the door blocked seems to be of sturdy make.
The paladin takes a few steps back, and tries again with a running start. This time, there's much more force behind the kick.
After the birds are taken care of, Gavia looks around to see if there's anything of value to be found.
Zuriel retries the door after August gives it a solid running kick. "Curious what's in there." he states while tugging on the door.
You are unable to understand what this Abjuration magic means Jenise, but you do determine that it’s faint and what school it is at the least.
Looking around and evaluating the room for wealth Gavia, you find that most of the house isn’t particularly valuable. Though the kitchenware and silvered utensils and such would be worth total about 800 gold.
Finally beating into the door gives way and August manages to clear it knocking and bashing aside a large armoire. Inside you see a very small room barely larger than a closet. Inside beside the armoire is a bed that under it has a person who begins shouting as the door smashes open. “Oh gods, please don’t hurt me! Don’t hurt me please, I have nothing of value! Just leave me be!”
Zuriel bends over and looks under the bed. "Emm, you're being a bit ridiculous. Why in the hell would we hurt you. Speaking of that, who are you?"
Gavia, who has set a side some pages in her journal for inventory, pauses in writing down the birds and silverware to add "We're just appraisers sent by the town to record the contents and their value so this estate can be liquidated. We're not thieves or anything like that."
"Yes," Ethulfel continues when Gavia stops, "appraisers sent because the wizard who lived here is deceased and they're doing an accounting of his estate... so, who are you and why have you barricaded yourself into this room?"
“I umm am Mathezic, Master Hunclay’s servant. he starts to relax as you gets a look at all of you and crawls out from under the bed, “When I heard the collapse, I heard the trap at the door go off and got scared. I umm wasn’t sure if more kobolds would come, so I barred the room. The other servants tried to convince me to come out but I don’t trust them. I was never really friends with them. I wasn’t sure if you were the kobolds, Linus and Saba, or something else.”
"Kobolds? August looks around him, alarmed.
"Are there kobolds here, still?"
"Well, the place is safe from here to the front door if you want to head out. That said, if you would be so kind as to point out what areas you know are safe from traps, we would appreciate it." Zuriel says as he offers Mathezic a hand up.
"Who are Linus and Saba?" Ethulfel asks nobody in particular. "And, are they safely accounted for?"
“I haven’t seen any… but I ugh had a good feeling some of them would show up. And Linus and Saba are the other servants. Master Hunclay wasn’t as nice to them; they might have just left. I’m not particularly sure about traps, I’m only allowed in a few rooms. But I know that we were never to touch his bookshelf, or move things sun his room unless he told us too.
He says as he takes Zuriel’s hand and stands up.
"OK, so, bookshelves are likely trapped and be extra cautious in his room. Got it. Which rooms could you freely move around in?"
“Umm the most of the house, but the basement where he goes to conduct his study and tests was off limits. He had contact with things he didn’t want us to see, I think it had to do with the he stars….”
"Well....spit it out. Had to do with what?" Zuriel says as his thin eyebrows begin to cross out of irritation.
"And, where is the entrance to the basement?" Ethulfel adds with a great deal more patience than Zuriel seemed to have.