"Okay Whicket, enough games. Who, or what is in that bag, hm?" Devona eyes the strange statue and bag with a bit of wariness.

Whicket lets out a squeak and looks at Devona with a hurt expression and a bit of fear in his eyes. "I don't know! I didn't touch it! I didn't put it in there! I'm telling you it was the mean minotaur's bag! He must have left it here!" He waves his arms around frantically before huffing and looking at the bag again. Drawing his rapier, he carefully inches closer to the body, "Y-you want to see who it is? Ok-kay." Sticking the tip of his sword under the fabric, he flicks it up then jumps backwards as if expecting the body to strike back. The side of the bag back revealing the face of an orange female lizardfolk. Not much other than the face and arm are visible with the fabric as it is, but you think you can see the glint of metal inside. "Happy?" Whicket frowns at Devona.

Devona sighed a little with a small smile, "Quite." She walked over to Whicket and gave him a pat on the head before taking a deep breath and looking into the bag properly to see what all was in there.

Jumble remained silent, wondering what was going on. Their mission seemed to have turned into something rather strange; true, there had been an air of mystery to the whole thing ever since they discovered that the crown was missing. But now add a dead body on top, and he couldn't help but feel like someone was playing a prank.

Using the remaining few minutes from the last casting of his detect spell, the bard looked around the room for any magical auras.

(( If needed, Perception Check: 9 ))

Moving the bag, Devona can clearly make out the guards armor the lizardfolk is wearing. She can also tell that it looks like she was killed by a blow to the back of the head. 

Jumble does not sense any magical auras in this room.

"I'm not sensing any magic in here," Jumble announced. Of course the lack of magical auras didn't mean there were no traps, but it made him feel better, at least.

Now more at ease, the bard went over to the dragon statue. It was impressive, almost awe-inspiring, and Jumble whipped out his notes to write up a description of the artifact even as he carefully examined it, top to bottom, for clues.

(( Looking over the statue; I figure that's either Perception (5) or Investigation (9). ))

The first thing Jumble notices when investigating the statue, is the dusty plaque at it's base. It reads, Cyra Queen of Dusk (in draconic)

Upon farther inspection, the bard also notices that the upturned claw is a lot less dusty than the rest of the statue.

"Hmm... a statue of Cyra?" mumbled the bard, as he jotted another note. When he got to the upturned claw, he blinked, then furrowed his brow. Turning to look around the room, he asked the party, "Does anyone see something that might fit into this claw?"

Nygil squats down next to the body, "Huh, you don't suppose this is the missing lizard folk that Zoran and that butler were talking about? Poor thing, I wonder why she was killed." He shakes his head before standing up. 

"Something to put in the claw? Oh! I get it, lets see..." He glances around the room, looking for anything that would fit in the statue's claw. 

Perception: 13

Kashika Looks around, both for what Nygil asked for but also to see if someone might be looking in on them. (Perc: 6) but after that, she would move to the body. Thinking to herself that the lizardfolk MUST have been brought here for a reason, so, she did one of the things she had to do... she moved to the body and began to 'loot' it, to see if by some chance whatever needed to be on the statue was on the body. Meanwhile she suggests to Jumble... T-Try the r-ring I gave you... Just in c-case.

Quote from Raiketsu >>

T-Try the r-ring I gave you... Just in c-case.

"Oh?" Jumble took the ring out of his pocket and looked it over. "It's worth a shot," he thought as he placed the ring onto the palm of the upturned claw, then stepped back.

(Wooo and after a week I am back again. Sorry for the wait)

Nygil is unable to find anything to put in the claw. Partly because he is somewhat distracted, and partly because there is absolutely nothing other than the statue and the dead body in this room.

At Kashika's suggestion, Jumble removes his new ring and sets it in the statue's outstretched claw. The group steps back to see if anything happens. You stand there for a few moments before concluding that nothing is happening.

Devona will continue rummaging through the bag for clues and if not seem apparent, will attempt to turn the claw on the statue itself and see if it moves at all.

(and welcome back!)

Farther investigating the body, Devona finds a bag of coins, a broken spear, and she notices patches on the armor and skin of the victim look to have been burned or melted. 

When she investigates the claw, her attempts to turn it fail, however, after fiddling with it for a moment, she steps back then reaches out and puts her hand on top of it, then pushes down. All of you hear an audible click as the entire arm moves downwards. However, when the eledrin removes her hand, the claw moves back to it's original position.

"Hmm," Nygil says. "Nope, don't see anything useful here..." He trails off as Devona pushes down on the statues hand, which returns to its original position after she stops pushing on it. Immediately, an idea comes to him, "Well... I'm not usually one for dishonoring the dead, but perhaps we could use the weight of this back to hold the claw down? Unless someone has something else heavy enough to keep the pressure on." He gives an awkward chuckle, then looks around to see everyone's reaction to his idea. 

"Seems reasonable to me, the rest of you keep a look out for anything that moves once the bag is in place." Devona will bring the bag and attempt to hang it off the dragon arm and claw and wait to see what happens.

(Assuming the body is still in the bag lol)

Devona drags the body bag over to the claw, pulls the claw down causing that click to sound again, then she hooks the bag onto it in order to hold it down. Once again, you cannot tell if moving the claw did anything just yet.

Jumble's eyes narrowed at the claw now holding the bag. "Wait just a minute," he began, at which point he quickly summoned Ichabod to his wrist. "Go check the other room," he instructed the familiar, who then flew off back the way the group had come. The bard tried not to smile at the rather simple revelation--they were dealing with a dead body, after all--but the attempt wound up making him appear to be smirking. He apologetically shrugged toward the group. "A copper says one of those doors is open now," he explained.

(( OOC: If the other room is within 100 feet, Jumble will look through Ichabod's eyes to examine the doors. If it's further away, Ichabod would know to come back and reveal whether a new door was open via a signal. ))

Ichabod flies out of the room and down the unexplored corridor. (There was no door here) He shortly enters another circular room that looks nearly identical to the one you are currently in. There is another dragon statue in this room siting the mirrored position of the Cyra statue.

(At work. Won't have time to post till after work tomorrow but...)

Kashika suggests that maybe both claws have to be pulled at the same time, when, and IF jumble shares that info.