After burning through whatever healing spells remained, and getting everyone fully restored, the group wakens with feeling good. Olaf's drained vitality is fully restored in the morning, and you recall the works done in the Citadel and dungeon over the last few days. Reptilian and baboon cultists with dragon claw holy symbols from some far away place are the last thing you expected, but then the presence of a number of undead in the crypts, and the evidence of recent necromantic activity there, which perhaps leads back to Breachill and maybe Voz Lirayne the bookseller all have you perplexed. What stated as a mission to save some goblins has gotten a lot more complicated the more you unravel.
With much to do and follow up on, what do you do in the morning?
In the morning, Trista readies herself over a big cup of coffee and plans her line of questioning for the bookseller.
The Reliant Book Company is a small bookshop that buys and sells rare tomes, and therefore is never really a very busy retail outpost in Breachill. The owner, proprietor and chief researcher is Voz Liryane, a half-elf, who is of somewhat shy persuasion. She had engaged Trista before in some small transactions, but never been open to sharing more than the bare minimum. It is also the shop where the arsonist and goblin-threatening Calmont was employed as the assistant.
As your group approaches the shop in the morning, you find it is locked up tight. The shutters are bolted, and curtains are drawn and yesterdays post is still in the outside box. It appears it hasn't been open, and front door is locked. There are three windows, each on the other sides of the rectangular shop.
Trista knocks firmly on the door and presses her ear against the window to see if she hears anything.
Fentus joins Trista in the morning, helping rouse the others, getting them breakfast form the kitchens before they all depart.
Following Trista's lead, Fentus stands back as she knocks on the door, commenting, quietly, "Looks pretty boarded up, would hate to have found out she left in the night or something,"
If she was concerned before, she would be worried now. Her foot tapped on the ground while Trista worked on the door. "If she was responsible... do you think she already knows about us?" she asked.
Olaf looks around the exterior of the shop, "Do we have the juice in this town to get the law to open this door for us? Or do we have to do it ourselves. This seems too ... convienent."
Looking over to Zainab, Olaf responds "Seems likely, its not like we came back into town unnoticed."
Zainab shook her head. "We don't really have any proof she's responsible That and she may run off if we got more people... and that's if she was the reason for the holes." She then noticed the windows. "Maybe we can go in through the windows."
"Or through the door."
Trista will try to pick the lock.
Looking around at the others, then to Trista who has started on the door already, ”Wait, wait, maybe we should try a back door or a window first, the front door seems kind of obvious, I don’t want to get caught up in a misunderstanding with the guards,”
Nothing whatsoever is heard from inside the shop. The shop is located far enough off the beaten path that trying to pick the lock should not alert the guard or any passersby, you surmise. Trista tries her luck with the door lock, and while she gets close, she cannot get the mechanism to snap open.
Trista nods at Fentus' suggestion. "That probably is a better idea. Let's head around back and try to open a window."
Fentus walks around the back of the building, looking and testing for an open window or a back door if there is one available. "I really hope we didn't miss her, I really don't want to head back to the castle only to find she has raised more undead,"
"It still wouldn't hurt to check. If she's not here, she may be in the castle instead."
Moving to the less-visible side of the bookstore, Fentus gives Trista some guidance, and also shows her how he used to break into places when he was on the streets. Using this advice, Trista makes quick work of the window, which eventually slips open, allowing access to the inside of the store.
There is no light, no sound, and no apparent activity inside the shop. Soon enough all the group is inside the main showroom. There are three main areas of the shop, the main browsing area, a door with a sign that says "staff only", and another door that might be to personal chamber or other small area.
success]
Fentus climbs inside, looking around at the store, whispering to the others, "Well I doubt we are gonna find anything in the main area, better check these other rooms,"
He'll creep over to the Staff Only door, looking around at it, before opening the door and looking inside.
Trista creeps after Fentus, throttling her desire to pick through the many volumes in the bookstore.
Fentus and Trista both leave the trove of books behind and focus on the more private areas. They stop to examine the door, but see nothing that gives them pause. The door does not appear to be locked.
The aspect that their suspicions might be wrong made her nervous. And there wasn't anything too suspicious in the main room either. But she pressed onward, making note of anything necromatic.
"If there's anything of note... it may well be in her bedchambers." she whispered.
Zainab notices nothing necromantic or of interest to her from an arcane perspective in the main room.
Fentus, seeing nothing out of place with the door, will open it and step into the staff only room. Looking around, seeing if anything unique catches his eye.
Fentus opens the unlocked door, but unfortunately, his check for traps was not detailed enough. From the door jamb a small click is heard. Then spikes lance out of the one side of the door, attempting to skewer the poor sorceror.
The spiked door catches Fentus completely unprepared, and the spikes skewer in several places, one piercing all the way through him. It's clear the man is unconscious immediately, and in a bad way.
Critical hit
doubled = 38hp dmg
So far there didn't seem to be anything out of the ordinary from her... that is until she heard a sickening sound nearby. Turning around, she was able to see Fentus get skewered before falling unconscious. In shock, she got to within 30 feet so that she could apply a verbal word of healing in the hopes of waking him up.
"Fentus, are you alright?" Trista queries, after Zainab brings him back from the brink of death.
"Well, now I'm very interested by what is in the back room."
She waits for Fentus to get out of the way, but steps into the back area as soon as the way is clear.
Olaf winces as Fentus takes a trap to the face.
”Oof, you alright there?”
Gasping for air as Zainab removes the giant spike and heals his gaping wound, his eyes fly back open as he sits up, "What just happened to me," looking around confused, as the others are all gathered around him. Bringing his hand to his side, wincing in pain, "Thanks Zainab, I am not sure what happened, it was like I just got a whole house thrown at me, then nothing, and now I'm back"
Shakily standing to his feet as he eyes the spike trap that impaled him and nearly sent him to his untimely demise, "That's not a normal thing to have in one's shop, but uh, I think I'll let someone else go first next time,"
Fentus goes down, but with Zainab's divine skill, he pops back up again just a few moments later. With the trap sprung, entry into the room becomes a cake-walk. It appears this small cramped area is some kind of research room but it left in complete disarray as if someone left in a great hurry. Books, papers, hastily scribbled notes, and many other bits of research litter a small cluttered desk.
Trista pokes through the papers. "Atrocious filing system."
"Some people can be like that at times... and yet figure out how thing are somehow." Zainab would attempt to do just that.
The desk is messy, and Trista's natural curiosity gets the better of her as she gets stuck reading some of the more eclectic treatises on the desk. Zainab is perhaps more focused and eventually she finds something interesting.
There are some notes scribbled in a rushed hand: "Aha! Entrance to Alseta's Ring at Guardian's Way!"
"Guardian's Way? Hmm..."
It was a bit of searching, but Zainab was eventually able to piece together the way to find the relevant information. And her eyes opened wide as she pieced together what it meant.
Still waiting from the other room, "How's it looking in there? Everything all right still? No giant scary swinging scythes from the ceiling or trap doors filled with spikes?"
Unfortunately, that name Guardian's Way does not ring a bell for either of you. There are lots of other strange and odd books and items on the desk of the book store owner, but none seem relevant to where she is or what she is up to.
Olaf helps the group poke around, more interested in any occult or arcane works than other topics he didnt understand.
This is the only room on this side of the store. There is another room on the other side, which you guess is a personal apartment/bedroom.
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"Whatever she was working on here, she didn't take very careful notes. Not a single cross-reference!" Trista gently tuts at the state of affairs.
"Perhaps she kept a personal diary?" She leads the way into the private quarters.
Fentus follows, nursing his still half healed wound, "Hey, just be careful before you open that door, alright?"
”Yeah, perhaps we check for traps first?” Olaf adds as he searches with the group.
"Yeah... I can't make out what she's been trying to do... but she's the one going into the tunnels alright." She swallowed hard. This time she would try to see if she could spot any traps herself.
Moving across the bookshop, the group inspects the final door for traps but does not find any. However, when Trista tries the door, it is found to be locked.
Not to be confounded by an simple door, Trista attempts to pick the lock.
Trista has the lock open in short order, and opens the door to the bedroom. Beyond is revealed a small untidy living space that shows that someone left in a rush. The bed is unmade, a small chest has been ransacked, a wardrobe is missing about half its contents, and a small desk is littered with miscellaneous personal objects like a archivist's gloves, dented reading glasses, and several alarmingly large balls of lint.
There does not seem to be an immediate threats or traps here.
Zainab's face was a mix of worry and frustration. "Oh no." She worded out quietly. "We may be too late. Let's search for a bit... but I think we need to go back to the castle."
She sought to use that time to search as well as better tend to Fentus's wounds.
Fentus steps up to the doorway behind Trista to peek into the room, "Damn, looks like she caught wind of us coming and left in a hurry, let's search this place quickly then head back to the castle,"
Trista searches as well. Perhaps there are some notes considered too insignificant to take that would still give clues as to the bookseller's intent.
"Aye, everyone lets look around quick, see if there isn't anything useful here before we move on." Olaf agrees, and moves to help search the room.
The group has apparently learned to search very well from their time in the dungeons of the Citadel. They find some interesting things in the bedroom. First, a book titled Breachill, Outpost of Liberty and several other loose leaves of paper are recovered from a cluttered nightstand.
Additionally, left behind the clothes in the wardrobe, Zainab finds a rolled up bundle of scrolls, clearly containing magical spells. There are four separate scrolls in all.