Lucas, unable to help himself in the moment, responded with a smile in his voice, "Oh I haven't had any visions. I just read your mind as I'm secretly a mindflayer using mind magic to make everyone around me think I'm some shadowy wizard human right now. But enough about that! You really got no idea why Big V's had his eye on you, huh? That's rough. But judging by the sound of things ya ain't far off about tapping into something. Guy like that, well, 'God' figure like'm don't take too kindly to folk poking their noses into his business, incidentally or otherwise. 'specially if ya glimpse something he's planning to do, even if you don't quite recognize what that is.... Or maybe you and the others were shown it for a reason?"

Seraph then hears the 'voice' in his head say, 'Ohhh~ Plot twist! Looks like somebody got a bonus prize today~ Question is, are you planning to drag your first one about on your little journey down here further, or might you leave her to slip away once you and your friends are done with her? Personally~ I'd say send her off with some fake blessing so she feels good about running off into that wretchedly undead infested graveyard, BUT to each their own~'

Seraph’s gaze darkens as he turns sharply toward Lucas, his eyes narrowing with a glint of restrained anger. His voice drops to a low, dangerous tone. “Enough,” he snaps. “Do not test me.”

Then, with an almost theatrical precision, he dismisses Lucas entirely, shifting his focus back to the woman standing before them. His demeanor softens slightly, though a steely edge lingers. “Do not listen to that fool,” he says firmly, his words cutting through the tension. “He knows nothing of true danger. No mind flayer stands before you—trust me, I would know. I’ve faced one before. Killed it with my own hands. And that fight…” He pauses, his expression darkening as if recalling a painful memory. “It changed everything. Set me on a path of redemption. A path of vengeance.”

Seraph’s voice hardens once more, his gaze flickering back to Lucas for the briefest moment before returning to the woman. “My friend here comes from a world of indulgence. A place where they revel in fleeting pleasures and shirk the weight of responsibility. A weak world, blind to the true dangers that prowl between the cracks of reality.”

He extends his gloved hand toward her, his voice softening again. “But you are not weak, are you? You are wise enough to see the truth. Let me guide you. If it is your wish, I will see you safely out of this graveyard. You have my word.” His piercing eyes meet hers, unyielding yet oddly compassionate, as he waits for her reply.

In spite the display of anger, Lucas just canted his head to the side as if genuinely confused at the reaction. A confusion that by all appearance deepened at Seraph's claims, as the wizard had not once mentioned the nature of his home world. "Unless..." He mumbled and began stroking his chin in thought before shaking his head, before then making his way over to the last door in the northwest corner and open it for a peak inside... assuming of course during all the conversation someone else hadn't beaten him to the punch. 

“Good to know that it’s not actually a Mindflayer because if I had my powers it would have been a dead MIndflayer” Sarcelle says to Seraph. Gyaan has so far chosen not to interfere but as Lucas walks past him the Dragonborn grabs his sleeve and says “stupid comments like that can get you killed before you get a chance too retract them. Next time I suggest you engage the grey matter before the masseter, temporalis and medialpterygoid muscles - hmmm!”

Sarcelle says to Seraph “if you could see free to me being escorted out of this complex it would be much appreciated. Once I reach the surface I should be OK!”

"I suggest not to split our group. Let's guide Lady Sarcelle to the surface and double time back here to find the others... " suggest the elven maiden.  

In the same moment Gyaan goes to touch Lucas he immediately jerks away the limb away before contact, but the action alone at least gave the wizard pause in step. He then snorts and replies a touch testily, "At least I'm not enough of a jackass to even /suggest/ they'd fall for that sort of bullshit. But I guess that just what you think of others, hm?" He then looks sharply to Anardil and says, "But sure. Entrance ain't that far anyhow. Let me have at least quick peek through this door and make sure we ain't gonna have to do the same song and dance soon as we get back. Safety in numbers and all that jazz."

With that, unless anyone else tries to stop him, he tries to open the door in the northwest corner of the chamber...

As Lucas turns away Gyaan continues “I know it was bullshit but they don’t and you did say that you took the image from her mind  which we all know to be true! If it were me that’s not something I’d admit even jokingly - I’d come up with a better story for the image - which I suspect you’re clever enough to do if you apply yourself?”

The door that Lucas tries to open is unblocked and he can see that it is a storeroom with stone shelves containbninbg several boxes and bags. A few crates are stacked against the wall. 

It will take one, or more, of the party members 15 minutes to escort Sarcelle outside the mausoleum - who’s going and who’s staying?

"That ain't what I said at all, old timer~" Lucas said in a sing-songy voice while giving the storeroom a curosary once over. "But whatever... Hmn, no prisoners in here, but could be something decent buried in the junk. Maybe another clue or two 'bout what their up to. Think I'll... think I'll stay and sort this out. Time being of the essence 'n all that." He said in a lazy yet matter-of-fact tone.  "And don'cha worry 'bout me none. This 'fool' has plenty enough tricks up his sleeves to make himself scarce if any cult buggers or deadheads show up in the meantime... Though I wouldn't be against having an extra hand stick around for the assist." 

"Much as I think we should stay together, I think we should investigate this storeroom before we move on and it would be quicker if we do that at the same time as the escort party. I'll stay here and have a look at this stuff as well. The rest of you should escort the lady." says Passoveloce while keeping some other thoughts to himself.

Gyaan elects to stay with Lucas and Passoveloce.

Vidar watches the exchange between Lucas and Seraph with interest, still standing by the door outwardly giving a relaxed appearance but to the trained eye is ready to pounce and interrupt if the altercation were to become physical. "This Seraph can be dangerous in a quick second but has great control over his emotion" he thinks to himself, "Lucas however.. will be interesting."

As the group decides the next course of action, Vidar turns to Gyaan. "What are these mindflayers they speak of? They sounds like a formidable yet evil foe?"

He then walks over to Seraph and Sarcelle, "I will help you escort the lady outside and too safety." He pauses for a moment, holds his arm our and mutters something under his breath in a foreign language and one of the Raven tattoos on his arm comes to life, flies a loop of the room and lands his outstretched arm. "This raven will act as a messenger and possible alarm in the event the others get into trouble whilst we are escorting the lady." He whispers something to the raven, it turns and nods before taking flight and finding a high perch to observe from.

"I have already spoken and given my word.  I will see you out safely." Seraph says with resolution in his voice.

Seraph and Vidar escort Sarcelle out of the complex. As she leaves the complex door Sarcelle turns to Seraph and says “a favour granted in no expectation of a favour in return is a virtue indeed. If I can return the favour go to the Great Library at Candlekeep and ask for me. Somebody there will know where I can be found!”

Meanwhile Lucas - watched over by Passoveloce and Gyaan - explore the store room. All the find of interest are two potion bottles labelled ‘Healing Use Only’.

After that they decide to explore:

a) the narrow pathway in the southwall, or
b) the door leading off from the balcony in the west wall?

Which ….

Apart from canting his head to the side at Vidar's question, Lucas wordlessly focused on the others, seeming more curious to see how the group might split up. Then once that was settled, it was straight to work rooting around in the storage closet for the wizard.

The latter discoveries made elicit a sigh of disappointment from Lucas. "Healing use only, huh? Pfft. S'pose we'll see. If you two don't wanna split'em, I'll keep'em for now." Lucas yet offered Passoveloce and Gyaan. As they deliberate, even if but for a moment, the wizard gaze drifts over to Vidar's raven, and without breaking line of sight on it he asks of the others, "Ya know... it'll probably be a hot minute 'fore the gigachads and blackwidow come back, and, uhhh... wellll -- it couldn't hurt to take just a -- just a quick peek past the door on the balcony now could it?"

To consider is to act for Lucas. He climbs up the steps to the balcony and approaches the door. On the door is painted a single eye. What does Lucas do?

Passoveloce is happy for Lucas to keep the "healing use" potion bottles - not being one to trust labels. "Lucas," he says with an edge of exasperation in his voice, "You can keep the potions, but be careful, their contents may not match the label."  As he follows Lucas' gaze he too is a bit nervous about the raven - after all who/what is the raven really keeping an eye on - he continues saying to Lucas: "We are in a very dangerous place, with unknown traps and dangers, some of which we have met, but there will be more and we are not sufficient to survive without the assistance of those escorting the lady. We should not investigate the closed door without their presence. We should, however replace the lock on the door from which we rescued the lady, and lock it to delay the discovery of her escape. I suggest after that, that we should await the return of our fighting force, before investigating the narrow pathway in the South wall, I get nervous leaving paths unchecked that may harbour creatures that may cut off our escape, if escape is needed."

He then removes the lock from his pouch and places it on the door from which it came and locks it again (taking his time to confirm it is locked to continue delaying for a few extra minutes). He then gets prepared to move for when the others return.
[skill]Sleight of hand; Lock Lock[\skill]:  10

Being a Lucky Halfling, Passoveloce gets to reroll 1's on a D20 test so:

Lock Lock: 21

Passoveloce successfully relocks the door and waits to see how Lucas responds!

Though he'd listen to Passoveloce the words of caution alone hardly kept the "wizard" from at least climbing up the steps. He'd already been up there before while the group were initially checking out the room, as evident by the lit lamp left on the balcony itself. "Oh relax, Slim~ If anyone or monstrous THING was waiting on the other side, it would've come bursting out of it by now, as our group wasn't exactly quiet in this room up to now. And IF there's trap, well... we'd be sparing our compatriots the trouble of significant harm... or a sudden demise." He says frankly while standing before the door, stroking his chin and pretending to absent-mindedly be pontificating over the eye symbology.

"Even then, that's not too bad. Died at least twice myself, though... not sure if I should really count the first time." On that particular revelation he turned away from the door to lean against the rail, propping up his head with hands cupping his chin and elbows at rest on the railing itself. "But fine~ You can save your breath too, Sir Gyatt... no, Gyaan -- where the fudge did I even get-..." Lucas cuts himself off there, huffing and weakly shaking his head. ".... This might be a bit of a morbid question, but either of ya'll ever die before yourself?"

Gyaan looks at Lucas in surprise at asking such a question before simply saying “no!”