Ashes steps back from Stokes with a bit of magical fire in his own hand. He is very much not willing to accept Ocean's Balm.
"Nah ah ah. I'm an elf, not a fern. You should go water the goat. Maybe see if something grows from it."
The elf begins searching around the room, musing to himself. "Hmm. I wonder, if you plant a goat in the ground and give it water and sunlight, can you get a bigger goat? I think someone in the old country tried that trick with a cow. I think it worked, too."
"Yeah, I think it works that way, but only if you plant them head down."
"Yeah, I think it works that way, but only if you plant them head down."
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Sure enough, searching the desk has quite some valuable information. Inside one of the drawers are several notes, and in one of the upper desk draws is a tome in heavy leather, held shut with an iron clasp that has no key hole. A single serrated blade protruding from the clasp has the face of some sort of horned demon on it. There is also an overland map in the bottom drawer, tracing an old highway from the city of Kibwe to a place called Xatramba, about 140 miles east. Several stops are also marked. Lastly, the final desk draer contains two Bronze Badges bearing a twisting serpent symbol.
The notes are lot of information about shipments and objects called "Slitherbound Stones".
This is the representation of the horned Demon Lord, Angazhan.
This clasp can be opened in two ways. Either a religious symbol related to the demon face must be touched to the blade, or the blade must be used to shedblood.
Attempting to pry the tome open with sheer strength wouldn't be hard, but it would result in cutting oneself.
These are Bronze rank Aspis Consortium badges. They could be used for a disguise, or traded for some cash.
Clynter let's out a whistle as he pockets one of the badges without saying anything.
Clynter tries to open the tome, but fails to get past the lock. Frustrated he tosses it back on the desk. "I didn't want to have to read the damn thing anyways."
vs DC 18
"This is the representation of the horned Demon Lord, Angazhan."
vs DC 20
"This clasp can be opened in two ways. Either a religious symbol related to the demon face must be touched to the blade, or the blade must be used to shed blood."
vs DC 15
Stokes lets Clynter decide to explain what he's whistling about.
In the meantime, since the clasp needs blood to be shed, Stokes tries to force it open, ignoring the sharp edges.
vs DC 25
vs DC 25
vs DC 25
vs DC 25
"Wow, that was a pretty deep cut."
"Uh oh, it's not stopping."
"Stupid demon lords and their blood sacrifices."
After another 30 minutes, Stokes is ready to go.
Ashes wrinkles his nose and frowns. "The air is starting to taste like burning. And it isn't just me, this time. We should probably get going...."
He's cut of by the sight of Stokes' gushing, bloody wound. The elf bites his lower lip, curls his toes, and takes a deep breath. A deep breath that's abrupty cut off in a cough thanks to his curse, the building being on fire, or both.
"Wow, that was a pretty deep cut."
With a trembling hand, he reaches out towards the azarketi and begins to channel his own magic. "L-let's get you patched up. There's no sense in letting all of that blood just go to waste on the floor. Instead of being in your body, of course. Where it belongs."
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Inside the book is a scroll of some kind, but it would take time to determine the spell, and a bearer's note from a money lender in Iwisa Block. Claiming the 2 gold and 5 silver from it would be easy.
The smoke makes it hard to read the tome's handwriting.
The hay in the open chamber is now an ash field with hot embers and coals, which would be a hazard crossing. Going to the last unexplored stall to the north that is showing signs of the gate being destroyed by flames and the parts falling into the wagon coral. A small cart wagon in the back of the room has an open teak box overturned in it, with dark red gemstones scattered around it. The box is marked as a shipment from Oenopion in Next to Tomil Jabrin at the Khalibi Caravan House. Along with the dark red gemstones is a note.
The remains of two oozes are in here, having been scorched to death by the burnt door collapsing on them.
There is also a shelf here with some fancy looking boots.
"Cha-ching!". Clynter looks at the gens, then the boots, then the gems, then back to the boots, not sure which of the items to grab first. Then he looks back at the other party members and sighs.
Uggggh...they're probably going to think we should *share* this treasure.
Then he swaggers into the room (but cautiously), looking around for any more traps.
---
Stokes will grab the tome and pretend he didn't see Clynter just swipe all the rest of the loot.
Ashes emerges from the burning building, triumphant in his... well, his triumph.
"That was fun. We should do this more some time." He kneels and gives the goat a friendly petting. "You did good."
"Sooo... those slimes ruined about half of our flesh and we're probably potential suspects for arson. Shall we head somewhere comfortable and lick our wounds?"
"That's a great idea. We should fine somewhere to lay low while we go through the writings we found and figure out what to do with all this loot.!" Clynter tries to think of a place in this city that would be an inconspicuous place to lay low.
"Don't worry, the fire department here is terrible. They won't be able to find us."
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|
Having safely escaped the burning building and found somewhere to catch their breaths, the party finds it is now closing in on night time.
Oenopion is quite a distance away, so going there would require some travel gear and the party to either be ready for a several days hike or hiring a caravan.
The book contains records of a shipment of several magical bloodstones coming from the city of Oenopion in Nex with what could be used to inflict a fatal curse called the slithering. The slithering affects only humans and transforms them into mindless oozes, but Tomil plainly thought he could control the curse and target only his enemies. The names of several human targets, including most of Kibwe’s Representative Council, are listed within the book. The last page bears the words “Cursebreaker could be a problem?”
Scroll of Non-Detection.
This could be traded in for 2 gold and 50 silver.
These gemstones are nonmagical and 10 in total. They no longer have any magical residue in them, and could be sold to the right merchant for 40 gold pieces.
It reads: “Beware, Tomil. As the stones steep in their brew during the long trip to Kibwe, they gain power. How much power, I do not know; the curse might intensify enough that it is not limited to those who contact the stones, but could perhaps become transmittable by touch or even proximity.” Placing the note inside the box was probably a stupid idea if proximity could cause the curse.
Boots of Elvenkind.
These tall, pointed boots are made from soft, supple black or green leather and are decorated with trim and buckles of gold. When worn, the boots allow you to move more nimbly, granting you a +1 item bonus to Acrobatics checks.
Activate [free-action] envision; Frequency once per hour; Effect Until the end of your turn, you ignore difficult terrain when moving on the ground. If you’re wearing a cloak of elvenkind, you also gain a +5-foot status bonus to your land Speed until the end of your turn.