You continue along your way through the tunnels and caves of the Darklands. After a couple more days, you notice another side tunnel that branches off from the main route. Loose material sits piled at the side of the road, as if cast off from an excavation. It glitters and gleams in your light.
A closer look reveals that the pile is made up of gold and silver jewelry and gem-studded objects of every description: statues, goblets, crowns, amulets, bracelets, and the like!
"Have you ever seen such a thing?" Gig asks. "Let's check it out, but be careful. I hope such a pile isn't guarded."
Brijetta holds back. "Why would someone leave all of those valuables in a pile here?" she wonders out loud.
"Maybe they're a dragon, and they know no one'd take it? Or a swarm of carnivorous insects who look like gold coins who are hoping someone'd take it?"
Uhe stares suspiciously at the mysterious pile of treasures.
Not be seeing Dat every day. Probably a trap.
The Investigator begins... investigations.
The dwarf puts on pristine white gloves prior to picking and poking the pile ..
Mal detects the presence of magic among the treasure pile. Peering closely at it, she can tell that the items in the pile of jewelry and art all appear to be forgeries. Indeed, looking closely, Uhe notices flecks of both fresh and dried blood on various pieces of jewelry.
"Someone want to throw a rock at it or something?" Gig asks. "If it's a trap, I don't want anything sneaking up on us."
"My uncle used to tell stories about these things that could mimic the appearance of items and then they'd try to eat you. They'd be like chairs or chests or something. But then he said," Brijetta's voice drops to a deep growl, " 'That's f#@!ing stupid, Brijetta. A f%%~ing orc is far more dangerous than some stupid mimic!' "
She looks around for whatever's blood may be there, but if she doesn't see anything, she looks for anything that might go nicely with her fancy dress.
"Yeah, that's err, well I don't know exactly what manner of trap it is, but it's a pile of forgeries wrapped around something actually magic. Could be that it's an actual trap-trap, but if there's still blood on there, I reckon it's the bait for somethin' else 'round these parts..."
She sets a gem orbiting around herself as a shield as she looks for anything lying in wait.
Uhe begins investigating the blood.
After a few minutes of scratching his beard, Uhe shrugs and pokes the pile with his whip from 15' away....
Mal spots some strange, hulking creature lurking around an outcropping of rock, watching you intently. As Uhe pokes the pile and everybody else stands around, the thing steps forward. It is a truly bizarre beast, a quadruped with two humanlike appendages, and a skin covered in scaly patches of thin layers of metal, as well as warts that resemble gemstones.
"Hey, what's wrong with the treasure?" it asks in a burbling voice, speaking Dwarven. "Isn't it shiny? Doesn't it glisten? Don't you want to try some of it on?"
"So...there is a bit of blood on some of it, which is a bit off-putting," Gig opens. "Is it very cursed, would you say?"
The slack jaw dwarf stands there staring at the Gem Beast.
Err...hello there. How you be doing? We were just passing by and we be seeing this suspicious treasure pile. What's up?
Brijetta eeps, and ducks behind Mal as the others question this new creature.
"It would be nice without the blood."
"It err... seems like the kind of thing that you leave layin' around mostly if you're, err, plannin' on killin' an' maybe eatin' anyone who gets greedy?"
Uhe does not recognize the strange beast.
"Curse? No curse," the creature blathers. "Very nice jewelry, yes. Try it on!"
"Bah! It's not working!" comes another voice as a second creature steps out beside the first. "Let's just make them give us their treasures!" This one stalks forward menacingly!
"Bolka's britches! Well, we knew this was a trap," Gig begins to inspire his teammates, calls up his aura, and attempts to remember something about these creatures.
Uhe sighs.
We be knowing it be a trap. Be making it too obvious. Maybe next time clean off the blood. Maybe slightly less gaudy fake stuff. Looks like a trap.
The Investigator then sizes up his best options...
Feeling mighty confident about his chances, Uhe draws Skysunder and Strikes the new comer in the eye ball!
The Dwarf then Parry.
Gig finally recognizes the creatures as bauble beasts! The reclusive and deceptive creatures called bauble beasts create false jewelry as a byproduct of their extremely bizarre magical digestive systems. Two natural skin conditions provide the raw materials for this process: scaly patches of thin layers of metal, and warts that resemble gemstones. By chewing loose these patches and swallowing them, a bauble beast magically constructs the jewelry in its guts. After passing the forgery, it polishes and reshapes the item to make it more convincing. The beast then sneaks into a settlement to place the jewelry somewhere it can be found. A creature who dons this false jewelry is compelled to fetch their real valuables and deliver them to the beast, which it happily collects. Some bauble beasts simply send the confused victim on their way, but other more evil bauble beasts slay them to avoid being found out.
Uhe sizes up the oncoming beast and stabs it in the eye with his relic dagger! The beast roars in pain and anger, then lashes out at the investigator, biting Uhe and smashing him with a powerful leg! The beast's acidic bile oddly fills Uhe with an urge to give away his treasures!
The second beast hangs back and spits bile at Gig, scoring a hit!
"Ack, disgusting!" Gig groans.
He scrunches up his nose and resists the urge to give away any of his stuff, instead sustaining his encouragement for the crew and zinging a shard of metal at Uhe's target.
for
The dwarf seems a bit angry!
Uhe suddenly has the urge to give the Beastie all his baubles! The determined dwarf grits his teeth!
Shaking his head and cursing and kicking, Uhe punches himself in the face!
The Investigator then sizes up his best options...
Feeling a bit less confident about his chances, Uhe Strikes the new comer in the eye ball!
The dwarf then Strides 25' backwards like Michael Jackson moonwalking while his hair is on fire....
"Well at least we weren't rude 'bout it..." Mal mutters, almost seeming relieved that the bauble beasts had just attacked them. She pounds both fists into her chest, amping herself up as she covers herself in hair, fat, and muscle. C'mon girl, take no guff!
The slightly roly-poly death beast that Mal has become takes a huuuge bight out of the beast with Uhe's dagger dangling from its eye!
HP 84/84
AC 23
Fort +14, Ref +13, Will +12; sonic resistance 3
Hero points: 3
Infused regents: 5
Thermal nimbus: fire resistance 6 in kinetic aura (10-foot emanation); enemies take 3 fire damage
Effects:
"Ew," Brijetta exclaims as her nimbus of forge spirits come at her call. She blasts the nearer of the beasts with a shard of metal, then unleashes a storm of needles.
Brijetta blasts the bauble beast with metal shards. Mal transforms and takes a vicious bite out of the beast's foul-tasting hide. Gig blasts the creature as well, but Uhe misses with his dagger.
Still, the badly wounded creature realizes it has made a mistake in attacking you. "Grr! Let's get out of here! We'll find softer prey!" it shouts to its companion, turning and beating feet away from you. The other one moves to follow it, eyeing you warily as it goes.
Gig works to scrub the caustic goo off his clothes, "We could let them go, but maybe they have stolen something valuable from adventurers or travelers. Let's check out their stash!"
"...Yeah. An' I reckon we probably shouldn't let 'em keep tryin' to hurt people, even if.. I mean, they seem kinda stupid at it, don't they?"
Uhe pukes.
The Investigator then begins attempting to tidy himself up a bit using handkerchiefs and water.
Me just be knowing Dat me should be a wizard...
"Oh, that's good. They're leaving us alone," Brijetta says, happy. She looks dubiously at the pile of treasure...
The glittering pile in the main road is imitation jewelry created by the bauble beasts. The creatures' actual treasure is in a small cave off the main road, where several stone plinths and platforms display a variety of bejeweled statuettes and jewelry worth 200 gp. Among them is page 7 of Kalmaug’s Journal and a half eaten morlock.
"Well! Another page of the book. I'm glad we stopped," Gig steps over the morlock to collect the shining plate.
Uhe stands there looking quite dejected, bloody and covered in yesterday's lunch....
We be hav'n a doc and a laundry service?
"No foolin'! That was awful fortunate, truth be told." She pauses, brow furrowed. "If the pages are scattered around so much we should probably be askin' just about everyone if they've seen 'em, huh?"
You continue along the tunnels. A few days pass without incident. The section of tunnels you find yourselves in start to take on a fouler smell, the air heavy with the stench of decay. As the tunnel turns, an intricately carved stone door embossed with dozens of skulls stands to the north. The main tunnel ahead is collapsed from a small cave-in.
"That looks pretty ominous..." Gig examines the carvings closely, attempting to find some clue about their origin or creator.
"Why would you carve such a beautiful and horrible door in these tunnels?" Brijetta wonders aloud.
Uhe sniffs.
Anyone else smell that fouler smell, the air heavy with the stench of decay? Probably nothing ominous.
The Investigator begins counting the skulls.
Dozens. Probably each hand crafted and painstakingly design with each minute detail having pride....
Unsure of what the door portends, you carefully push it open and continue inside. This room extends to the north but is interrupted by a stained dressing screen, its faded, painted images of elves and spiders just barely visible behind numerous brown splatters. The screen ends before the eastern wall, allowing travel to the room beyond. On the east wall, an alcove holds several small candles, glowing with a green light.
You can hear the sound of gnashing teeth and tearing of flesh coming from beyond the screen...
"Oh, that doesn't sound good. I think it's going to be very painful if it tries to gnash us or tear our flesh," Brijetta breathes out quietly. "But we probably need to stop it, or see if it has anymore journal pages."
She activates her kinetic aura, hoping to save herself a little time later on.
Uhe seems to be concentrating on the disturbing sounds....
After a couple of minutes, the Investigator takes out his Skysunder and prepares to tear down the curtain....
Mal's skin takes on a grainy appearance, now composed of loosely connected Sand, and she sets a gem spinning in a tight orbit around her temple.
"Well... Let's give it a look?"
The large chamber past the screen must have once been a crypt, with burial alcoves built into the walls. The alcoves have been converted to shelving units, most displaying an array of green candles, while others have been carved out and replaced with ancient bookcases full of tomes. To the south, a stained dressing partition divides the room between the southern door and a long stone dining table on the west side of the room, complete with eight stone chairs. Another partition blocks the northwest corner. The room continues to the east along the north wall, ending in another door to the east, and one to the south.
Four ghouls are seated around the dining table, noisily feasting on the corpse of a pale humanoid covered in phosphorescent moss. Upon seeing you, one of them calls to you in a throaty feminine voice, her mouth still half-full.
"Welcome, esteemed guests. I am Shalina, and it is a pleasure to have you for dinner." A loud swallow and muffled burp echo off the cavern walls as the ghoul rises from their seat. All four are dressed in what might have been fine fashion decades ago, their grayish skin pulled tight over bones that protrude at odd angles. Shalina’s tongue is at least a foot long, and whips out to clean the corners of her mouth. "Where are you from, uplanders? Would you like to join us for our meal?"
"Ugh, no thanks! We're just passing through on our way back to Highhelm," Gig offers. "It looks like you have quite the book collection--do you happen to have any book pages that look like metal plates? We are interested collectors."
"And err... who are you eatin' there?"
Uhe smiles weakly.
We be just passing through. Since you be busy we kin just look about and be on our way.
The dwarf waves his hand in the air mysterious-like...
"When she says to have us for dinner, does she mean she wants to use us?" Brijetta asks quietly.
The ghoul smiles at Mal. "Ah, this is a rare dish indeed: a munavri from the depths of Orv. we are the Cult of Haute Cuisine, you see! We have gathered here based on our shared love of luxury and culinary variety. We've developed something of a sophisticated palate and eat 'lesser meats' such as yourselves only out of survival. Dwarves are so last season!"
Shalina narrows her eyes as Uhe tries to coerce her. "Hmph, rude! And here I thought we were friends. You're just like that other rude dwarf that passed through here a little while back. He killed two of us before he left. You're not thinking about killing us, are you?"
The other ghouls lick their chops and glare at Uhe. Fortunately, Gig's question about books brings a smile back to Shalina's face. "Oh, yes! We have a fine collection of arcane treatises. But the really rare stuff is in Grimwarden Yimraan's personal collection. I believe he has a few of those metal pages you mentioned. He's currently reading in his private study, but I will warn you that he does not like to be disturbed."
"Well, we'll be sure to ask politely," Gig looks longingly at the entrance to the study, clearly eager to check out the collection.
"What other dwarf, I wonder?"
Uhe grins politely....
Just a quick looksee at his collection, then?