"That's odd."Ashley remarks as Malachi points out the reddish brown stain on the wooden floor. "Coppery, that can't be good."
She follows his eyes to the ceiling and as they find the long trapdoor without a rod to grab the small ring, she waves her hand making a spectral hand appear and she directs it to pull on the small ring to hopefully pull the door down.
The stairs lower down with little resistance, counterweighted just enough to bring them back up into the ceiling if left alone. The smell grows stronger with the passage to darkness of the attic opened up.
“No, it can’t be good”Malachi shakes his head at Ashley “I fear we may have just found our missing owner.” Malachi strengthens his resolve and slowly mounts the ladder, climbing up and using his darkvision to search the attic. Perception 11 rolled in discord, passive perception 14.
Climbing up, Malachi quickly spots what he had been expecting. A body. Male, probably a dwarf. They are lying on the attic floor, files buzzing around. A chest sits tucked into a corner, just a few feet away from the corpse, with ornate wooden carvings of flowers and the sun.
Malachi chokes back a gag and covers his mouth with his hand as they discover the body. “Wait, who is this? I thought the owner was described differently by Jean-Lou?”Malachi kneels down and investigates the body, trying to determine the cause of death, any identification of the body and if they have any items. (Investigation: 18 rolled in Discord)
He looks up as Ashley begins to investigate the chest “Watch out for traps, hard to tell what is hiding up here.”
Looking over the body, Ashley can tell the man has been there for at least a week. His rotting hands clutch it his midsection, and pulling them out of the way reveals a bolt embedded in his abdomen. The skin around the wound is particularly discoloured. The work of poison.
Malachi determines that the bot most likely originated from the direction of the chest. He goes over to inspect the chest. The ceiling is low here, and he has to crouch to get squarely in front of the chest. He sees that there is a broken padlock lying on the floor, but the chest is still closed. He sees that the only way to lift the heavy lid is to place one's hands in two recesses just below, in order to get purchase on the lip. But doing so would force one to be crouched directly in front of the chest. Looking at where the bolt struck the dead man, he surmises the trap is just inside the lid, though whether it has a second bolt loaded or not is anyone's guess.
At that same time, the door downstairs opens and Joren can be heard entering in his loud armour.
Samir looks up from his book as Joren enters the small building, the sound of the man and his armor unmistakable. Removing his glasses, he rubs briefly at his tired eyes, calling out from the back room. "Ah, Joren, you're back. How did it go?"
Joren's disguised and disfigured face, focused and somber from his echo-flanked trip back, breaks into a wide smile as he sees the half-orc artificer, giving Samir a quick shoulder hug. He sets about cleaning himself off and removing the elements of the disguise that he can.
"Cultists watching everywhere, but I am thinking they did not notice me. Councilor Jean-Lou received the message and will be trying to put together quick, coordinated raids against some of those on the list, looking for evidence. Warning him not to underestimate them before leaving, I did."
He pauses, trying to remember if he has left anything out. "He was also agreeing that the lack of large capacity ships in the harbor which Ashley was seeing is unlikely to be a coincidence. Perhaps the serial killings in The Rows as well..." He trails off.
"Finding anything new here? Understanding the Godtongue? Where is everyone? Were the others leaving with Vilus to go meet his team of assassins?"
Samir seems slightly startled by Joren's greeting, but composes himself quickly. Slipping his glasses back on, he places a scrap of paper in the pages of the book in front of him before looking back to the larger man with a shrug. "Understanding? Not entirely, no, but I believe there is progress being made. As for the others, I know Malachi and Ashley went upstairs to look around. Perhaps they found some decent living quarters intact up there." Samir frowns a little, tapping a finger against his lips. "I am not a military individual, unlike yourself, but even to me these events seem far too likely to be precursor to invasion. They're softening up their target, I would think. Like heating a sheet of metal before trying to drive a hole in it. Reduce possible resistance and it becomes far easier to simply..." He stabs a single finger forward in a thrusting motion in illustration. "... straight through the target."
Malachi looks up from where he was inspecting the dwarf and shouts “Ashley, wait! The chest is trapped! Look at the dart in our new friend here. It’s poison.” As he inspects the chest and considers their options he sees there is no way to open the chest without crouching directly in front of the opening. “I think this is a job for Samir. I wonder if we can drag this downstairs?” He gives the chest a tug, trying to determine if he and Ashley can drag or carry the chest without setting off any remaining traps.
A stranger opens the door to Magda's shop and enters, looking around at confused faces, the stranger shifts back into Vilus before anyone can ask. "I've set them looking into the killings and trying to assess how to thin out the cult's numbers." He says addressing Samir and Joren. "What needs doing around here?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
From upstairs, Vilus hears the scraping of wood on wood as Malachi and Ashley slide the chest out from the attic corner. Repositioned as it is, they are able to get on either side of it, each one grabbing one side of the lid. The lid lifts off. Click. A bolt shoots out right where Malachi had guessed, thudding harmlessly into the wall. Inside, carefully laid out, is a diamond, 48 Gold pieces, and a small pouch of seeds.
"Whoa!" Ashley exclaims as both the bolt shoots out and seeing what lays inside. Gingerly picking up the pouch of seeds, she examines it, "I would assume this is the owners chest, the one that perished where Vilus was kept." Looking back at the dwarf, she wonders, "You think that was a thief? Trying to plunder this shop since she never returned?"
Malachi moves down the stairs to show the others their haul from the chest, running into Joren as he returns from his visit to the Councilor. “No, we have things covered. Well, there is a body upstairs we will have to get rid of. Looks like a looter ran across a trapped chest in the attic, one last gift from Mother Magda. We have a diamond and some gold, and Ashley found some seeds. Must be pretty special to hide away in the chest like that.” He turns to Ashley “Any idea what they are?” He turns his attention back to the diamond and examines it closely to see if he could determine it’s worth based on his experience at passing fake jewelry as expensive pieces.
Vilus hearing the news gives a nod and goes to inspect the seeds Ashley holds, Perching the arcane lenses back on to the tip of his nose he looks down curiously.
(Arcana 14)
"Leave the body, I'll get rid of it whilst you're all sleeping. Not too big is it? Either way, as I was telling Joren and Samir here, I've set the cell out finding the source of the murders, we already know the source but they're mostly doing recon, with a view to thinning out the cult's numbers soon. I suggest we see what we can do on a larger scale, hopefully once the councilwoman is 'taken care of' their organisation should be in enough shambles to give us an easier time getting into their lair and getting more info, though I don't like giving up the homefield advantage."
Inspecting the diamond closer, Malachi can tell that is is indeed real. The clarity is pretty good though it isn't the largest diamond he's seen. He places its value at 300 gold.
As for the seeds, Vilus counts 6 large seeds in the bag, about the size of beans. He holds one in his hand and feels a slight pull at his magical energies. It seems like channeling a small amount of magic would cause something within it to activate. But it's hard to ascertain exactly what.
"heh, magic beans... I think there was a story about these, though I can't remember it..." Vilus hands the beans back to Ashley and gets to helping Samir for the remainder of the night before Samir turns in for the night.
"I haven't even.. fine here." Ashley looks annoyed as Vilus takes the seeds from her and she had barely had time to look at them herself. She admires the diamond while waiting and offers, "Shall we split up the 50 gold? 10 each? Malachi, why don't you hold onto that diamond, I've heard they can be good for spells, we might need it at some point."
When Vilus hands them back, flippantly calling them magic beans, she looks them over and realizes something (arcana 18, ha!) "These are more than just magic beans you big oaf, I mean, think about who they belonged to. They.."she moves them around in her hand a bit before settling them back in their pouch, "they have this healing or medicine energy, maybe even the potential to affect death? Not sure, but they feel pretty strong to me." and she tucks them away in her bag.
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"That's odd." Ashley remarks as Malachi points out the reddish brown stain on the wooden floor. "Coppery, that can't be good."
She follows his eyes to the ceiling and as they find the long trapdoor without a rod to grab the small ring, she waves her hand making a spectral hand appear and she directs it to pull on the small ring to hopefully pull the door down.
The stairs lower down with little resistance, counterweighted just enough to bring them back up into the ceiling if left alone. The smell grows stronger with the passage to darkness of the attic opened up.
“No, it can’t be good” Malachi shakes his head at Ashley “I fear we may have just found our missing owner.” Malachi strengthens his resolve and slowly mounts the ladder, climbing up and using his darkvision to search the attic. Perception 11 rolled in discord, passive perception 14.
Climbing up, Malachi quickly spots what he had been expecting. A body. Male, probably a dwarf. They are lying on the attic floor, files buzzing around. A chest sits tucked into a corner, just a few feet away from the corpse, with ornate wooden carvings of flowers and the sun.
Following Malachi up the ladder, Ashley stares at the body of the dwarf. "I wonder how long he's been up here?" she walks over to him.
Medicine 9
She then looks at the chest, attempts to open it if it is unlocked.
Malachi chokes back a gag and covers his mouth with his hand as they discover the body. “Wait, who is this? I thought the owner was described differently by Jean-Lou?” Malachi kneels down and investigates the body, trying to determine the cause of death, any identification of the body and if they have any items. (Investigation: 18 rolled in Discord)
He looks up as Ashley begins to investigate the chest “Watch out for traps, hard to tell what is hiding up here.”
Looking over the body, Ashley can tell the man has been there for at least a week. His rotting hands clutch it his midsection, and pulling them out of the way reveals a bolt embedded in his abdomen. The skin around the wound is particularly discoloured. The work of poison.
Malachi determines that the bot most likely originated from the direction of the chest. He goes over to inspect the chest. The ceiling is low here, and he has to crouch to get squarely in front of the chest. He sees that there is a broken padlock lying on the floor, but the chest is still closed. He sees that the only way to lift the heavy lid is to place one's hands in two recesses just below, in order to get purchase on the lip. But doing so would force one to be crouched directly in front of the chest. Looking at where the bolt struck the dead man, he surmises the trap is just inside the lid, though whether it has a second bolt loaded or not is anyone's guess.
At that same time, the door downstairs opens and Joren can be heard entering in his loud armour.
Samir looks up from his book as Joren enters the small building, the sound of the man and his armor unmistakable. Removing his glasses, he rubs briefly at his tired eyes, calling out from the back room. "Ah, Joren, you're back. How did it go?"
Joren's disguised and disfigured face, focused and somber from his echo-flanked trip back, breaks into a wide smile as he sees the half-orc artificer, giving Samir a quick shoulder hug. He sets about cleaning himself off and removing the elements of the disguise that he can.
"Cultists watching everywhere, but I am thinking they did not notice me. Councilor Jean-Lou received the message and will be trying to put together quick, coordinated raids against some of those on the list, looking for evidence. Warning him not to underestimate them before leaving, I did."
He pauses, trying to remember if he has left anything out. "He was also agreeing that the lack of large capacity ships in the harbor which Ashley was seeing is unlikely to be a coincidence. Perhaps the serial killings in The Rows as well..." He trails off.
"Finding anything new here? Understanding the Godtongue? Where is everyone? Were the others leaving with Vilus to go meet his team of assassins?"
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Samir seems slightly startled by Joren's greeting, but composes himself quickly. Slipping his glasses back on, he places a scrap of paper in the pages of the book in front of him before looking back to the larger man with a shrug. "Understanding? Not entirely, no, but I believe there is progress being made. As for the others, I know Malachi and Ashley went upstairs to look around. Perhaps they found some decent living quarters intact up there." Samir frowns a little, tapping a finger against his lips. "I am not a military individual, unlike yourself, but even to me these events seem far too likely to be precursor to invasion. They're softening up their target, I would think. Like heating a sheet of metal before trying to drive a hole in it. Reduce possible resistance and it becomes far easier to simply..." He stabs a single finger forward in a thrusting motion in illustration. "... straight through the target."
Malachi looks up from where he was inspecting the dwarf and shouts “Ashley, wait! The chest is trapped! Look at the dart in our new friend here. It’s poison.” As he inspects the chest and considers their options he sees there is no way to open the chest without crouching directly in front of the opening. “I think this is a job for Samir. I wonder if we can drag this downstairs?” He gives the chest a tug, trying to determine if he and Ashley can drag or carry the chest without setting off any remaining traps.
A stranger opens the door to Magda's shop and enters, looking around at confused faces, the stranger shifts back into Vilus before anyone can ask. "I've set them looking into the killings and trying to assess how to thin out the cult's numbers." He says addressing Samir and Joren. "What needs doing around here?"
From upstairs, Vilus hears the scraping of wood on wood as Malachi and Ashley slide the chest out from the attic corner. Repositioned as it is, they are able to get on either side of it, each one grabbing one side of the lid. The lid lifts off. Click. A bolt shoots out right where Malachi had guessed, thudding harmlessly into the wall. Inside, carefully laid out, is a diamond, 48 Gold pieces, and a small pouch of seeds.
"Whoa!" Ashley exclaims as both the bolt shoots out and seeing what lays inside. Gingerly picking up the pouch of seeds, she examines it, "I would assume this is the owners chest, the one that perished where Vilus was kept." Looking back at the dwarf, she wonders, "You think that was a thief? Trying to plunder this shop since she never returned?"
Having cleaned himself off, listened to Samir, and nodded a greeting to the arriving Vilus, Joren ambles upstairs to see Malachi and Ashley.
He looks at the chest, puzzled. "Anyone needing help with anything?"
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons
Dyson/Eleo(TwilightCleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(ShepherdDruid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(WildMagicSorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(EchoKnightFighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(MercyMonk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(NatureCleric3/DivineSoulSorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Malachi moves down the stairs to show the others their haul from the chest, running into Joren as he returns from his visit to the Councilor. “No, we have things covered. Well, there is a body upstairs we will have to get rid of. Looks like a looter ran across a trapped chest in the attic, one last gift from Mother Magda. We have a diamond and some gold, and Ashley found some seeds. Must be pretty special to hide away in the chest like that.” He turns to Ashley “Any idea what they are?” He turns his attention back to the diamond and examines it closely to see if he could determine it’s worth based on his experience at passing fake jewelry as expensive pieces.
Vilus hearing the news gives a nod and goes to inspect the seeds Ashley holds, Perching the arcane lenses back on to the tip of his nose he looks down curiously.
(Arcana 14)
"Leave the body, I'll get rid of it whilst you're all sleeping. Not too big is it? Either way, as I was telling Joren and Samir here, I've set the cell out finding the source of the murders, we already know the source but they're mostly doing recon, with a view to thinning out the cult's numbers soon. I suggest we see what we can do on a larger scale, hopefully once the councilwoman is 'taken care of' their organisation should be in enough shambles to give us an easier time getting into their lair and getting more info, though I don't like giving up the homefield advantage."
Inspecting the diamond closer, Malachi can tell that is is indeed real. The clarity is pretty good though it isn't the largest diamond he's seen. He places its value at 300 gold.
As for the seeds, Vilus counts 6 large seeds in the bag, about the size of beans. He holds one in his hand and feels a slight pull at his magical energies. It seems like channeling a small amount of magic would cause something within it to activate. But it's hard to ascertain exactly what.
"heh, magic beans... I think there was a story about these, though I can't remember it..." Vilus hands the beans back to Ashley and gets to helping Samir for the remainder of the night before Samir turns in for the night.
"I haven't even.. fine here." Ashley looks annoyed as Vilus takes the seeds from her and she had barely had time to look at them herself. She admires the diamond while waiting and offers, "Shall we split up the 50 gold? 10 each? Malachi, why don't you hold onto that diamond, I've heard they can be good for spells, we might need it at some point."
When Vilus hands them back, flippantly calling them magic beans, she looks them over and realizes something (arcana 18, ha!) "These are more than just magic beans you big oaf, I mean, think about who they belonged to. They.." she moves them around in her hand a bit before settling them back in their pouch, "they have this healing or medicine energy, maybe even the potential to affect death? Not sure, but they feel pretty strong to me." and she tucks them away in her bag.