"Mercy isn't my department. If he deserves mercy then I'm sure some compassionate god will send a hero down here to give him his final reward. I don't think that was us. Let's leave them be."
"Do we know anything about how to kill him? I mean he must be powerful if they needed to imprison him. Seems stupid to me to imprison someone for a long time and really get them angry at you if you could have killed them."
"I'm a big fan of the 'not my problem' wall him off approach. Maybe the blacksmith will be friends. Maybe not, worth a shot. We can always leave him down here too."
He then toddles over to the smith for a closer look.
He then looks to the Giant.
"Look, it seems you are in a bit of a dilemma here. You bound your service for life to someone who can not die. And then that master was sentence to "death" by pain and imprisonment. You have a classic problem proposed by the illustrious gnome scientist Kro Dinger. For now you see, your master is both dead and alive but you have no way of knowing. Due to this, I propose a solution. Since he is both dead and alive, that technically meets your contract of service for life. Your debt is paid, and now you are free."
He then puts on a big smile and slowly walks towards the giant.
"So, Here's the deal. We can let you free I think but you have to promise not to try to kill us."
"Nod your head if you agree your bond is broken and you desire to be free. Shake your head if you think you still owe something to the dead vampire."
Examining him closer Arkanost can tell that the giant is in a form of stasis and cannot hear you. The magic seems to invole the chains holding his arms if you break them he would be freed.
"Meh, leave him. Too risky."
Lyaro looks around for the way out
There doesn't seem to be any other way to go besides the way you came in but
Lyaro notices an outline in the wall that looks like it might be a hidden door.
Lyaro walks over to the potential hidden door, "Hey Arkanost, I think I may have found a hidden door, do you want to check it out?"
Lyaro casts detect magic and checks the door
Gonna save a bit of time. You detect magic behind the door.
You examine it and open the door.
This hidden chamber is simple but elegant, the walls covered in minimalist reed-mat paintings and tapestries. A high four-poster bed with a canopy rests at the far end, and a bookshelf, claw-foot bathtub, and desk covered in documents round out the furnishings. This was clearly a wizards personal quarters.
A feather token (whip) props open one of the books, and a +1 keen dagger rests underneath one of the pillows on the bed. One of the desk drawers contains a potion of cure serious wounds and a potion of fox’s cunning. A chest in the room contains a cloak of nightmares, a lesser metamagic rod of quicken and bracers of armor +6.
The notes are on a lot of different subjects ranging from planar theory, time travel, divinity. It seems the resident of this chamber was a member of a group whitin the keepers called the council of truths.
Lyaro points out the other items and starts perusing the notes, while the others go through the items
"THe council of truths.. hmmm.."
Achren looks carefully at the tomes on planar lore and arcane theory to see if there are any he hasn't read, nodding appreciatively. "This is a very nice home to leave so relatively unguarded." He gestures back in the direction of the dungeon. "Except for all those tests and traps and monsters, I suppose."
"He proabably didn't expect us to get this far."
Just in case, he counts his steps as he walks into the room, that way he will know exactly how far he will need to teleport out safely if things go bad.
Arkanost digs around in the shelves for any interesting looking books or scrolls and finally settles on the metamagic rod.
"This is nice. Mind if I take it? Go for it Gossan, they look better on you anyway."
There doesn't seem to be any unusual magics at work here.
The beauty of this red cloak hides its sinister nature, as at any moment it is capable of shredding into numerous hideous creatures known as nightmare bats. As a free action, you can release 1d4 nightmare bats. These bats remain until destroyed and can be recalled into the cloak as a move action. Bats recalled to the cloak are healed of all damage after 1 hour. A newly crafted cloak of nightmares contains eight bats. When a bat is destroyed completely before it can be recalled, it cannot be replaced and the cloak's upper limit is reduced by one.
Slot back; Price 30,000 gp; Weight —
Achren shrugs. "Same. The cloak looks interesting, but I already have one that seems more useful."
"Ok, grab anything of value and let's keep moving."
Once the room is looted, he is ready to continue on.
You once more cross the room with the slime in the pit avoiding the pressure plates and go to the other side of the room.
One the other side there is a long corrido lined with alcoves containing statues of different breeds of humanoids, their faces contorted with horror. Many of the statues are missing limbs and other protuberances, and the floor is littered with cracked and shattered bits of stonework, as well as entire statues pulled down from their pedestals or seemingly deposited on the floor without ever having an intentional placement.
At the end of the hall a set of doors with what appeas to be the carving of chicken heads on them. (knowledge arcana dc 18 recognises the creatures as cockatrices, I assume you make the check)
Achren nods at Anatoli. "Or a medusa. Either way, watch where you look."
The doors don't seem to be enchanted they are just normal doors.
Lyaro moves up to the door
"You ready and want me to open the door?" he has a sword in hand
"Go for it, but be careful."
He opens the door and steps to the side
You open the door and see two large bid-like creatures. They are indeed cockatrices but these are larger than normal. (normal cockatrices are small these are medium size. As a note it is their bites that petrify not their gaze)
The creatures look at you and hiss menacingly but don't attack yet.
A woman emerges from a door behind the creatures. Quite striking she appears to be half-elven and she wears an ornate red dress and carries a staff. "Hold on. I have these creatures under my control for the time being. Maybe we can work a deal. My name is Lazariel, an adventurer like you. I made it this far before anyone else but I cannot open the blasted vault doors. Help my open it and we can share the loot."
You see a man in armor watching from behind. He appears strange like a breeze surounds him. (he is a sylph- kinda like assimar but with air elemental bloodline)
"Equal shares amongs us all but I want first pick" she answers
"Given enought time I am confident that I can open this vault whitout your help, my employer wants me to retrieve a specific item but if your after the same thing..." she pauses considering and assesing your strenght "You can have it so long as I'm well compensated."
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confidence here is sometimes misplaced. One never knows what is guarding areas. We have found several very difficult and devious traps prior to arriving here. Additionally if we do make a deal it will be for a duration of time not until we split the treasure or other short sighted thoughts. Finally the longer we talk the less likely the spell you have on those creatures will last unless you spent significant magical power to do so, which means you are less likely to have that power now. Anatoli says.
Arkanost moves up as close as he can to the door, he is no good with people.
First he casts arcane sight, then looks at the door.
They allow Arkanost to pass and check the next room. The next room is very odd. Three staircase lead up to different obstacles courses and between the staircases doorways lead to the vault door itself.
Arkanost can see that the door is quite large and has no visible means of opening. No handle, or lock.
The man turns and waves at the stairs and points at the course.
"I went up and cleared the middle course. At the end is a handprint. I touched it and it drained me somehow. Now I cant complete the other two, or the first one again for that matter. Laz tried opening it with magic but no spell seem have to any affect." he explains.
"I wonder if an adamantite blade will work?" he says, his hand on the hilt