Jarl, what kinds of signs are you trying to find? You don't perceive anything that I didn't already describe, but there might be some deductions you could make via an investigation check if you tell me what you're looking for...
Squiggles and Flynt:
The papers are laying about in a disorderly mess. Most of them have scribbled notes on them in a language neither of you understand, but Squiggles, you think you recognize a few arcane phrases among the scribbles, some pieces of which are parts of the verbal components of spells that you know. Two of the papers have diagrams. One of them looks like a map of a city. On closer inspection you recognize the plaza where you met Rawk just south and west of the center. There is a red X a bit north and east of there, right around the center of the city. The other diagram seems to depict an object with pointy bits sticking off in odd directions over a round cylindrical base.
Balian:
It looks like the chests are probably locked, though without touching them it's hard to say for certain. You don't see any evidence of any physical traps.
Celric:
All three chests have an aura of abjuration magic. In addition, the chest to your right as you face them (call it #1) also gives off an aura of enchantment magic. The one in the middle (#2) has an aura of evocation magic. The one on your left (#3) has an aura of necromantic magic.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Balian
"Well Celric, am I going to singe my eyebrows, or worse, if I open these?"
Remembering he picked up a key in the shape of a question mark when they first entered the undercroft, Balian retrieves it from his pocket to see if it can be used on any of the chests.
As the others examine the rest of the room, Shale walks over to the shelf and taps on the brian in the jar.
Brian wakes up and begins to sing one of the harmony lines to Bohemian Rhapsody, but the words are difficult to understand through the fluid, and the tune sounds strange without the lead line. If only you could find a Freddie in a jar...
As you touch the jar, you feel a little spark, not unlike a little jolt of static electricity. It doesn't feel like anything noteworthy, but shortly afterwards, you get a little headache... just briefly, and just enough that you close your eyes for a few seconds. Then it passes. The brain sits there in the jar, unchanged, as far as you can tell.
“Yeah I wouldn’t touch those just yet. There is definitely some magic coming from those. Let me scan the room as well really quickly while I have the spell up.”
DM: anything else in the room pinging as magical?
after that get situated. Celric will pass on the information on the chests and which magic types each have coming off then. “So any suggestions on how we open these up?”
" Looks like a wizard of some sort uses this room. There isis so patchy spell work in those notes, and schematics for a device". Squiggles explains what he learned reading through the papers.
"Shale, is that brain bigger than mine?" Squiggles goes to look at the books by the brain, starting with the covers/titles before opening"
"Huh? Oh, uh...?" Shale rubs his temple to relieve the sudden headache. "Well, it certainly doesn't have the thought of wanting to set everything afire in here just to open some chests... So it has that going for it," he chuckles to himself.
Nothing else you can see appears to have a magical aura about it.
Squiggles:
One of the books is a text you've likely seen before: Principles of Necromancy. It's one of the most widely used textbooks on that school of magic in wizarding universities, laying out the arcane theory of the relationships between life, death, and undeath. A second is also a popular tome known to many scholars of the arcane, entitled Planes of the Multiverse. The other two have titles in languages you don't know, though they seem to use elvish orthography.
OOC - Balian's intention was to try and match the shape of the key with the hole in the lock by eyeballing it, figuring he's lvl 11 so must have a fair bit of experience in these things (rolling a crit for investigation never hurts either!).
All the keyholes look like the key would go into them. You can't really tell just by sight whether it would actually turn and unlock them once it's in, though (picking a lock, which of course Balian knows a great deal about, is more of a tactile and auditory activity than a visual one).
"Can anyone dispel this magic? Because if the best we have from the smartest person in the room is 'set it on fire', then I might just have to try the key."
Jarl, what kinds of signs are you trying to find? You don't perceive anything that I didn't already describe, but there might be some deductions you could make via an investigation check if you tell me what you're looking for...
Squiggles and Flynt:
The papers are laying about in a disorderly mess. Most of them have scribbled notes on them in a language neither of you understand, but Squiggles, you think you recognize a few arcane phrases among the scribbles, some pieces of which are parts of the verbal components of spells that you know. Two of the papers have diagrams. One of them looks like a map of a city. On closer inspection you recognize the plaza where you met Rawk just south and west of the center. There is a red X a bit north and east of there, right around the center of the city. The other diagram seems to depict an object with pointy bits sticking off in odd directions over a round cylindrical base.
Balian:
It looks like the chests are probably locked, though without touching them it's hard to say for certain. You don't see any evidence of any physical traps.
Celric:
All three chests have an aura of abjuration magic. In addition, the chest to your right as you face them (call it #1) also gives off an aura of enchantment magic. The one in the middle (#2) has an aura of evocation magic. The one on your left (#3) has an aura of necromantic magic.
"Darvin" | Changeling | Hexblade 1 / Swords Bard 6 | Descent Into Avernus (AC 19; PP 14; 52/52 HP)
Anton Chergoba | Human | Battlemaster 4 | Lost Mines of Phandelver (AC 20; PP 14; 36/36 HP)
Mostly just trying to see if the room is in active use, as opposed to abandoned for an extended period of time (months, years).
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
As the others examine the rest of the room, Shale walks over to the shelf and taps on the brian in the jar. "You dont see this every day..."
(Waits for intellect devourer to jump out...)
Balian
"Well Celric, am I going to singe my eyebrows, or worse, if I open these?"
Remembering he picked up a key in the shape of a question mark when they first entered the undercroft, Balian retrieves it from his pocket to see if it can be used on any of the chests.
Investigation (min 13): 23
Brian wakes up and begins to sing one of the harmony lines to Bohemian Rhapsody, but the words are difficult to understand through the fluid, and the tune sounds strange without the lead line. If only you could find a Freddie in a jar...
Shale, make an INT save.
"Darvin" | Changeling | Hexblade 1 / Swords Bard 6 | Descent Into Avernus (AC 19; PP 14; 52/52 HP)
Anton Chergoba | Human | Battlemaster 4 | Lost Mines of Phandelver (AC 20; PP 14; 36/36 HP)
Balian, are you trying the key in one of the chests? Or if not, how are you proposing to figure out whether it will fit?
"Darvin" | Changeling | Hexblade 1 / Swords Bard 6 | Descent Into Avernus (AC 19; PP 14; 52/52 HP)
Anton Chergoba | Human | Battlemaster 4 | Lost Mines of Phandelver (AC 20; PP 14; 36/36 HP)
Mama, I killed a man..
Int save 2
(Buh bye, guys. It's been fun.)
Put a gun against his head, pulled my trigger now he's dead.
Shale:
As you touch the jar, you feel a little spark, not unlike a little jolt of static electricity. It doesn't feel like anything noteworthy, but shortly afterwards, you get a little headache... just briefly, and just enough that you close your eyes for a few seconds. Then it passes. The brain sits there in the jar, unchanged, as far as you can tell.
"Darvin" | Changeling | Hexblade 1 / Swords Bard 6 | Descent Into Avernus (AC 19; PP 14; 52/52 HP)
Anton Chergoba | Human | Battlemaster 4 | Lost Mines of Phandelver (AC 20; PP 14; 36/36 HP)
Jarl, make an investigation check.
"Darvin" | Changeling | Hexblade 1 / Swords Bard 6 | Descent Into Avernus (AC 19; PP 14; 52/52 HP)
Anton Chergoba | Human | Battlemaster 4 | Lost Mines of Phandelver (AC 20; PP 14; 36/36 HP)
Investigation: 19 (passive: 10)
Birgit | Shifter | Sorcerer | Dragonlords
Shayone | Hobgoblin | Sorcerer | Netherdeep
“Yeah I wouldn’t touch those just yet. There is definitely some magic coming from those. Let me scan the room as well really quickly while I have the spell up.”
DM: anything else in the room pinging as magical?
after that get situated. Celric will pass on the information on the chests and which magic types each have coming off then. “So any suggestions on how we open these up?”
Gash - Lvl14 Goblin Wizard - The High Court of the Aasimar Queen
"I could set them on fire!"
" Looks like a wizard of some sort uses this room. There isis so patchy spell work in those notes, and schematics for a device". Squiggles explains what he learned reading through the papers.
"Shale, is that brain bigger than mine?" Squiggles goes to look at the books by the brain, starting with the covers/titles before opening"
"Huh? Oh, uh...?" Shale rubs his temple to relieve the sudden headache. "Well, it certainly doesn't have the thought of wanting to set everything afire in here just to open some chests... So it has that going for it," he chuckles to himself.
Celric:
Nothing else you can see appears to have a magical aura about it.
Squiggles:
One of the books is a text you've likely seen before: Principles of Necromancy. It's one of the most widely used textbooks on that school of magic in wizarding universities, laying out the arcane theory of the relationships between life, death, and undeath. A second is also a popular tome known to many scholars of the arcane, entitled Planes of the Multiverse. The other two have titles in languages you don't know, though they seem to use elvish orthography.
"Darvin" | Changeling | Hexblade 1 / Swords Bard 6 | Descent Into Avernus (AC 19; PP 14; 52/52 HP)
Anton Chergoba | Human | Battlemaster 4 | Lost Mines of Phandelver (AC 20; PP 14; 36/36 HP)
OOC - Balian's intention was to try and match the shape of the key with the hole in the lock by eyeballing it, figuring he's lvl 11 so must have a fair bit of experience in these things (rolling a crit for investigation never hurts either!).
All the keyholes look like the key would go into them. You can't really tell just by sight whether it would actually turn and unlock them once it's in, though (picking a lock, which of course Balian knows a great deal about, is more of a tactile and auditory activity than a visual one).
"Darvin" | Changeling | Hexblade 1 / Swords Bard 6 | Descent Into Avernus (AC 19; PP 14; 52/52 HP)
Anton Chergoba | Human | Battlemaster 4 | Lost Mines of Phandelver (AC 20; PP 14; 36/36 HP)
Balian
"Can anyone dispel this magic? Because if the best we have from the smartest person in the room is 'set it on fire', then I might just have to try the key."
Squiggles does some showy hand flourishes and casts Minor Illusion to create an illusion of the chest in front of Balian bursting into flames
Shale shakes his head. "Sorry, can't help you there. Don't those tools of yours work for all types of traps?"