Eglar nods and picks up the clockwork amulet. "My father had one of these. They're quite useful when you're having a bad day of fumbling things." He hangs it on his cloak.

He then proceeds to start tapping around with the small rod again listening for the hollowness of secret compartments.

23Perception

Karrigg perks up. "A previous captain delving in necromancy? Perhaps a lever to be pressed when someone needs hidden entry for assassination."

Ludolf nods to Stoneclaw and puts the deck of illusions in his pocket.  He puts the spell scrolls in his backpack for analysis and copying into his spellbook.  He hands the circlet of blasting to Karigg and says "Do you have a use for this?  Please take it, could help."  After he has gleaned all that he can from the room, he says to Stoneclaw and everyone around, "Right.  Stoneclaw, I would suggest that we defer to you as to what to do with Andnon here.  Don't really like being spied upon and I feel that we need to press forward on our own now.  I would like to see where these ghouls are, that seems to be the place to start to both find Xavword and the killer of Basil Darkbranch.  It certainly sounds like Xavword was onto something, and we need to follow in his footsteps.  If you could direct us, it sounds like it is not too far away.  Do you have any other thoughts or recommendations for us?  If not, I say we should proceed.  I might like an hour or so to be able to process these spells and put them in my book, but aside from that I'm ready to go."

Stoneclaw nods slightly as he watches Eglar pick up the clockwork amulet and hang it on his cloak. "Your father had one as well? Then I'm guessing that you know how it works then. Xavword's teacher gave him that one as a parting gift a couple years ago before he left the city."

"I know it sounds quite farfetched but I wouldn't put it past the previous captain." Nikolas replied with a slight shrug before looking at Karrigg with a curious expression. "A lever for a hidden entry... the only other one that I can think of is the one in the basement that I used to use to get from here to my 'lair'. It wasn't exactly the best way to get there but it did help when it came to not being seen by anyone. But that route has been sealed off for close to a year. That being said... if someone was determined enough to attempt to try and assassinate me they would do whatever it takes to break through."

Stoneclaw hesitated for a moment before glancing towards Andnon for a second with a somewhat thoughtful look on his face. "Do not threat, I will have the guards take him to the city jail so he doesn't sneak after you, it's probably one of the only few safe places in this city surprisingly enough. Who knows maybe while you're following in Xavword's footsteps the captain of the guards can get some more information out of him. He's quite persuasive when he wants to be." As he spoke he noticed the Tiefling wince a little and took a breath before taking a step forwards. "Alright, so to get to the location where the ghouls most likely are... you'd first need to leave the estate, after you pass through the gates you'll want to take a left then follow the path until you reach a 'fork' in the path. If you were to continue going forward you would eventually find yourself at the church, if you were to go to the left again you'd be heading in the direction of the residential district but you'll want to go right which will lead you to the center of the city. Continue down the right path until you've reached the center of the city then take another right and you'll be between the Horse and the Hellhound Inn and the general store. You'll want to duck into the alley behind the inn and go down it until you run across a grate covered by three boxes, move the boxes and open the grate and you'll be at the only unwatched entrance to the catacombs. Please do be careful down there..."

Eglar looks surprised "Really, I want Andnon to stay with us. As a part of our party." 

As the others ready themselves, Ludolf thanks Stoneclaw for his help, saying "I know this was difficult for you, and I appreciate your tolerance of my ...unusual ... means of obtaining information, but I find this all to be quite helpful.  We will find your son, and also we will find out who killed Darkbranch.  I won't give up until I have done so.   Thank you for allowing us to use these items as well, they might help us in our tasks.  We will return them to Xavword when we find him."   

At Eglar's words, Ludolf turns to him.  "I don't know, do you think he is trustworthy?  I would tend to follow Stoneclaw's recommendation on this."

He then turns, pulls out his journal and his quill magically appears.  He begins ritually casting identify on the silvered dagger they found in Xavword's room.  If time allows, he will begin copying the spell scrolls into his spell book, and due to his abilities, he can copy the spells at 2 minutes per spell level.  When he brings out his spell book and sits down for a moment, ignoring everyone else in the room, if you were to listen, you would hear him rub and sniff the cover, then say very softly to the spell book "Are you hungry?  I have some new knowledge for you, num num num!" 

"From what I gathered Andnon has the same goals as us in finding Xavword. And solving this murder. He seems to be able to get into places mostly undetected which is a good skill." He says to Andnon "Did your former employer give you any gifts? Ones that she didn't want you to loose?"

He looks to the group and the dragon. "We need magic that will keep us from being spied upon magically" 

Quote from Twombley >>

As the others ready themselves, Ludolf thanks Stoneclaw for his help, saying "I know this was difficult for you, and I appreciate your tolerance of my ...unusual ... means of obtaining information, but I find this all to be quite helpful.  We will find your son, and also we will find out who killed Darkbranch.  I won't give up until I have done so.   Thank you for allowing us to use these items as well, they might help us in our tasks.  We will return them to Xavword when we find him."   

At Eglar's words, Ludolf turns to him.  "I don't know, do you think he is trustworthy?  I would tend to follow Stoneclaw's recommendation on this."

He then turns, pulls out his journal and his quill magically appears.  He begins ritually casting identify on the silvered dagger they found in Xavword's room.  If time allows, he will begin copying the spell scrolls into his spell book, and due to his abilities, he can copy the spells at 2 minutes per spell level.  When he brings out his spell book and sits down for a moment, ignoring everyone else in the room, if you were to listen, you would hear him rub and sniff the cover, then say very softly to the spell book "Are you hungry?  I have some new knowledge for you, num num num!" 

Stoneclaw hesitated for a second or two before nodding slightly in response to Ludolf was saying. He looked down at the floor for a moment and let out a faint hum. "As long as you're not torturing the information out of someone it shouldn't really matter how unusual the method of gaining knowledge and information is. Hopefully you can find Xavword alive and in one piece but I am prepared for the worst, if the same person or persons are behind Lord Darkbranch's killing and my son's disappearance then you'll need to be careful." He replied with a slight hint of worry in his voice.

Andnon looked between Ludolf, Stoneclaw and Eglar as he thought about what was being said. After a couple of seconds he took a step towards the wall and let out a soft sigh knowing that either way he didn't have all that much of a choice in the matter. 'Well this could have gone significantly better but... but at least it can't get any worse. Or at least I hope that's the case, although either choice does have it's ups and it's downs.' He thought as he watched the others in the room silently. 

Quote from Stormbringer4729 >>

"From what I gathered Andnon has the same goals as us in finding Xavword. And solving this murder. He seems to be able to get into places mostly undetected which is a good skill." He says to Andnon "Did your former employer give you any gifts? Ones that she didn't want you to loose?"

He looks to the group and the dragon. "We need magic that will keep us from being spied upon magically" 

Andnon smiled slightly as he listened to what Eglar had said and shrugged his shoulder a little bit. "It's a decent enough skill but I'm still learning, as you probably could tell. Well she did give me a rather unusual looking bag that she said I could use to keep my findings in  but... I can't seem to find it. I might have forgotten to take it or I might have dropped it on the way here..." He admitted in a sheepish tone, scratching the back of his neck as he did so. 

Stoneclaw shifted slightly at the mention of magic and moved his gaze towards Elgar. "Magic that can keep you from being spied on magically...? There are a few I've heard of that fit into that category but I don't know anyone who knows how to cast... them." He paused for a moment and glanced over at the Tiefling with a thoughtful expression before shaking his head slightly. 

Ludolf perks up at hearing Andnon’s description, and says “This bag, this strange bag that you use to hold things in, is it much larger on the inside than it is on the outside?  Does it hold more than what would seem possible?  That sounds interesting to me, if we could find it quickly.”  He turns back to copying the spells into his spell book.  “Who’s hungry?  Want some more?  That’s right, here we go….”

Eglar says "Ludolf  you have the device. You tell me. But I think he can be trusted."

Andnon thought about it for a moment before shrugging slightly. "I only put a blank book, some sheets of paper some bottles of ink and a couple quills in it but it did seem like it could take more. Although it could just be because I never carry more than I need, unlike Xavword who probably could have used it more than I could have." He said with a soft sigh as he thought about his friend. Although he quickly snapped out of it when he noticed Ludolf talking to his book. There was a momentary silence as he glanced at the others for a moment and took a few small steps towards the door.

"I know that my sneaking around definitely didn't help my case any but if there is anything that I can do for you all that will prove that I'm actually trustworthy, then just give me the word. Anything is better than being stuck in a prison for who knows how long." 

After writing the spells into his awakened spell book, Ludolf looks up at Andnon and at Eglar.  “I think you could join us Andnon, and prove yourself to us.  We could use your help.  You owe it to Xavword.”  He turns to Eglar and says, “He set off on the wrong foot, but I think he can be trusted.  Let’s have him join us.  If you agree …”  He turns his focus telepathically to Eglar and says to him with the helm, “I will keep my eye on him.  I don’t fully trust him, but he may yet be useful, he may be able to help us.  And he does seem devoted to Xavword.”

”Shall we?”  Ludolf smiles to everyone in the room and indicates that he is ready to proceed.

"Lets look for the bag Andnon mentioned. It may be something dangerous or contain something, or a focal point for scrying. My father made something like that once. Andnon everything you've learnt, doesn't leave this circle of friends unless we say so."

ooc Can I say For now on you are my squire? To Andnon, Eglar is a Rune Knight after all.

Andnon looked surprised for a moment but then he nodded slightly. "If you are sure about that then I will accept your decision, I will give it my all and do everything in my power to help. I still have a lot to learn but I think I can be of assistance... or at least I hope I can. You're not wrong, I owe Xavword a fair bit more than I would like to admit." A soft sigh exited his lips after he said that and his tail began to unwrap itself from his legs as he glanced down at the floor for a moment.

Stoneclaw began to move towards the door when he heard Ludolf's comment. "If you end up running into any guards while looking into the underground,  just say that I sent you to deal with a little problem. If they don't believe you then this one time I will allow the use of force. Just... don't kill anyone, unless you know without a shadow of a doubt that they are trying to kill you first."

“Don’t you worry, hopefully I will be able to discern their intentions, before it comes to fisticuffs.  Right.  Shall we then?”  He looks to everyone to see if they are prepared to depart.  

((Was Ludolf able to copy those spells?  If so, I will add to his spell book.))

Andnon had just begun to move towards the door when he heard Eglar speaking and he froze up slightly. "I don't know if it contained anything relatively dangerous, although I guess that in a pinch you could use a quill to stab someone if you were desperate enough to get away from them. I saw it happen in the taproom of an inn this one time but that's probably not what you meant by that... was it?" He took a breath and exhaled before slowly nodding a little. "The things that I've heard while in this estate shall not be repeated unless I have your express permission first. I will keep it secret even if it kills me."

"That's good to hear. Avoiding unnecessary violence and unnecessary casualties is always a good thing. That being said if you run across any undead that may have found their ways out from the underground it might be a good idea to make quick work of them, if you can."

Flutter:

”Right, let’s go!” says Flutter, pulling out his magic Shortbow as he flies out into the streets, ready to see roving undead at any turn…