The Blighted Lands

Twig finds more mundane items, though she does find a key in the nightstand drawer. 

Twig  shows the key to her companions and the pockets it. Turning she goes to the unopened door and opens it. 

Twig opens the door to a ten by ten-foot closet and sees a pile of dozens of gemstones sitting on the floor. (30 gemstones, each worth about 1gp)

Rivana's eyes glittered as she saw the gemstones. "Ooooh! Nice haul!"

Twig takes a step back. “This absolutely feels like a trap”

"Oh, come on! They're just gemstones! I don't see any magic chess boards or anything. Besides, you're holding a glass sphere filled with fire. It feels a bit silly to be balking at the pile of gemstones." Rivana says, hands on her hips.

"Let's try tossing something in there to see what happens." Garth headed back to the dresser and grabbed a shirt, and then back to the doorway and tossed it near the pile of gems.

The shirt falls harmlessly to the floor next to the pile of gems. Nothing happens.

 Twig takes another step away from the closet of gemstones and glares at Rivana. “Have at it then,” she says pointedly. 

“I have no real interest in shiny rocks.” She shrugs “This is how you might trap a magpie. Or a bard.” 

Rivana snorted. "Fine. Maybe I won't tell you what the symbols on the skulls are, next time. Quid pro dough, kitty." Rivana said, and then purred to antagonize Twig.

Twig shrugs, unconcerned with Rivana. “Garth, that shirt seemed unharmed.  Perhaps you could try and lasso one, if you didn’t want to go in? “

"I survived the last trap." Shrugging, Garth entered the room and braced himself after walking to the gems. (Assuming nothing happens) Garth scanned the room and then proceeded to pick through gems, looking for anything interesting that may be hidden in the pile.

Perception: 11

Garth finds nothing but gems and an old shirt. There were 30 gems, each worth about 1gp. Nothing else happens. 

Gathering all the gems into his bag, Garth heads back into the bedroom to stare at the trapdoor in the ceiling. After a few moments he drags the chair underneath the door. Once in place, Garth stood on the chair and tested the door gently to see if there was any resistance.

Garth collects the gems without issue. The trap door opens easily and Garth can see that stairs fold down from the trap door into what appears to be an attic.

(This is how the attic door is. Pull-down from a cord, stairs fold out.)

Garth cautiously moved partially up the steps, allowing just his head to poke into the attic. He looked around for anything dangerous or interesting.

Garth pokes his head into the opening and sees a windowless fifteen by twenty-foot room with one door across the room. The only item of furniture is a square table. Lying on the floor next to the table is a body of a woman. 

Garth tells the group what he can see.

Twig pushes past Garth to see for herself, and goes all the way into the attic. 

(Twig says she put the sphere on the dresser before climbing the ladder.)

Not ones to be left alone below, Rad and Rivana climb the ladder after Twig to join her in the attic.

The group sees a windowless fifteen by twenty-foot room with one door across the room. The only item of furniture is a square table with a candle on it. Lying on the floor next to the table is a body of a woman. She appears to be similarly dressed to Rivana Greywyre and is clutching a skull in her dead hands. 

Rivana stares blankly at the body. Upon closer inspection, you see that it is indeed the body of Rivana Greywyre. She begins to weep and says, “I’m sorry. I did not intentionally deceive you. It wasn’t until this very moment that I realized I was dead. Two other adventures and I came to this place a year ago. We had found all but one skull and decided to split up and search. I found it here in this room sitting on the table. A small devilish creature with a scorpion’s tail appeared and attacked me. I was poisoned and never made it out of the room. My allies never came for me – they fled in fear. I have been doomed to repeat my missteps ever since. Each night I travel to the inn looking for those who would help finally end the madness of this place so that I may rest. I’m sorry but this is as far as I can go. Please finish this quest." After she finishes speaking, she weeps more.

Rad moves over to the body and lifts the skull from the corpse's hands. "It's the waning crescent." 

"Alright, well that's about as creepy as my uncle Joe's twitchy eyebrow. I'd say we need to locate and deal with the creature that killed Rivana, don't want any of us to join her on the ground." With that, Garth began to scan the room, looking for any potential hiding places.

Perception: 15