The artificer would give Adray some space to gather himself while she fetched her prized daggers.

"You gunna be alright?" She'd check in with the boys again, "I can use the arcane to stitch ya up a little more if ye'd like." Fran would do a general wellness check on Adray and Ordrag.

"I'll survive...thanks to you all," he says.  "Maybe we can take a break?... I mean, let's take our time finishing the search and talking to our new friend here."

With that said, Adray will slowly stand up and make his way over to Skulls.  He'll search him for evidence and loot.

Mortlock was impressed by stoic demeanour of those people who saved him, dying in process, and swept aside his involvement with the cult.

"You would not find anything on that one. Or on them," he pointed at four other Dead Three cultists floating near by in the water, their skulls caved in by the great club - the one in his hands. "Most of them do not use any magical weapons on principle - they say Gods give the skill and strength. And those five were sent specifically for me, they did not need any documents or written instructions either."

Indeed, the cultists were armed and armoured the same way you saw before. Fran could get signature daggers if she still was interested - they were no different than any other except the subtle changes, making cuts as painful and difficult to heal as possible. Black armour was good, but nothing extraordinary either. 

"This place is sort of a treasury. Come, let me give you a tour" He pushed away the dead body and stepped into the water.

Central room had 3 exits in addition to the wide corridor the party came by. On the south, a short flight of stairs climbs to a circular chamber with four padlocked wooden chests piled in the middle of it. The chests are locked.

"Actual treasury. We can look inside the chests, but if you ask me, I would not take a grain of dust from it. Cultists came with that treasure but there is something about it... As if they were afraid of it for some reason. And this is saying a lot".

Room to the north appeared to be more impressive. Burned torch stubs litter the floor of this hall, the western end of which is occupied by three six-foot-tall, painted wooden statues. Each statue stands atop a two-foot-high block of red stone, making it look taller and foreboding. The center statue resembles a heavily armored man whose face is hidden behind the fearsome visor of his helmet. He 's painted red except for his right gauntlet, which is black. Clutched in this gauntlet is a blood-red spear, pointed upward. The statue to the north depicts a purple-garbed male noble wearing a harlequin mask and holding a dagger behind his back. The statue to the south portrays a black-robed skeleton with its jaw opened wide and its bony hands outstretched.

"Meet the Dead Three themselves. And to be honest, it does feel like they at least visit those statues sometimes. Or may be it's my imagination. Spend a couple of weeks here - and you will begin to see things".

Next room was infested with rats - pretty ordinary - dining on the common rations, spilled from the nine wooden crates, scattered throughout the room.

"Stolen goods. Even cultists need to eat sometimes. Or wear something."

Small nook in the corridor contained an open chest with a couple of torches inside and did not deserve a special description.

"Feel free to look for yourself. Cultists were not strong on keeping books. And at any rate, my brothers were the one running any tabs on them. I mean, do not hope to find any special documents here." 

Choir has her new set of thieves' tools to play with. She will attempt to pick the lock on one of the chests.

Sleight of hand: 10

Hmmm, maybe she needs Fran to explain it again...

Tools did not work indeed, but Choir had something better - the key ring. With several very different keys on it.

Adray moved about as Mortlock gave the tour.  Seems like the only thing worth taking was back in the treasure chests.  Everything else was rotten or ruined.  In regards to the statues, he'd rather not remain the room.  They were off putting...  Turning to Mortlock he asks, "So, it sounds like your mother has a large part of instigating all of this.  This crypt, the cult, the whole bloody mess with Elturel and the captain leaving the city.  Sounds like you are a right source of information when no one seems to know what's what and it also sounds like, and correct me if I'm wrong, you're mother instigated the group yet a squad was specifically sent to kill you."

Fran would follow behind Adray and Mortlock, listening, looking and watching. Mostly she was interested in the brute body language. He sure seemed to know a lot about this place. And how and why was he so deep in here. Something was bothering her, like something didn't add up.

Mortlock appears very sincere - out of gratitude or for any other reason but looks like he wants to be on your good side and pretty honest. 

"I would not call it a squad..." Mortlock's face became even scarier when he grinned with no real humor in that smile. "Though, Vaaz was good. The best they had - I was actually flattered they sent him."

He sighed. "Wrong on both assumptions. Assassins were sent by my brothers. We do not get along. Still, did not expect the out right murder, even from them. Amrik said cultists needed a strong hand down here and I believed and walked right into an ambush. If you need information - he is the one you want. Payments to cultists, operations plans, public appearance and "hope of the house" - all him. He runs his own money-lending business out of a tavern called the Low Lantern, not too far from here."

"By the way, my oldest brother, Thurstwell, uses imps as spies throughout the city. He has the bathhouse under surveillance and probably knows you're here. He's very sickly and seldom leaves our mother's estate, so, we would not see him exactly. But how is he going to use that information - only he knows."

"My role was... let's call it strong hand. You met the cultists - raving mad lunatics. Some times all they could understand - a good beating. I was the one to help them understand. Guess my brothers decided my job is done."

"I guess the next step is to report back to our captain and then visit this brother of yours at the Tavern.  But what about you?  Are you going to walk back home after sharing all of that?" Adray inquires.

Fran would help herself to two of the cultist daggers before pulling out the sending stone, "Ye wanna update 'im now?" She'd offer the stone to Adray.

Mortlock looked very seriously at you all "I am going to run. Find the ship that will take me out of Baldur's Gate and as far as possible. There is a hope my brothers would not bother to search for me, that if they do not catch me right away."

"I can help," suddenly declared Vendetta. Know a couple of places where you can lay low for a while."As of you," she turned to the group, "I owe you big. Do not have anything with me now, but I swear, every tavern in the city will know new heroes. If so you wish."

Quote from BlueBayou >>

Tools did not work indeed, but Choir had something better - the key ring. With several very different keys on it.

 (ooc: Oh....yeah....keys. XD )

ooc: again it pains me to be a swed.. 10missed PMs and 11posts on this thread alone ^^ 

During all this time Polly will have sat down and cast Detect magic.

When it is done first goes over to Choir and the chest. Then she will investigate the statue of the masked man. Lastly she’ll go in the other rooms just to make sure there aren’t anything of the magical verity.

Under her breath, just so the others might here she repeats the song of the elven spirit.

 When she is done she mulls over the words for a bit.

“If it is as you say and Elturel has gone to the nine hells, then there is where we must go if we want to save it, isn’t it?” She say with dread. 

Dropping the subject she continues, “What do we do next? Continue to explore these tunnels or do we return up and rest? I think we have done unrepairable damage to this organisation now.”   

OOC: You are not alone on it. And for all my overposting - there are even more posts I did not make precisely to let, for god sake, someone else to play :)

Mortlock clearly  was not designed for a court - to many obvious emotions too easily expressed. Now he was looking at Polly with a mix of surprise and horror: "Go to Nine Hells? And I thought I've seen it all. God speed to you, friend, God speed." "I am sure cultists are done here - to find leaders among them, not completely mad leaders, I mean - that was a difficult task even before. You eliminated those leaders. If I know that scum - an I do - they will run and hide until better times, may it never come."

Polly's "Detect magic" added to the dreadful scenery some pretty auras. All 3 statues shined - not extremely bright but enough to warn anyone with the vision. The Mask, though, looks more like a part of the composition, not some significant artifact.

There is certainly something magical in the chests with that unknown treasure - and not all of it gives a necrotic aura.

Bodies of the dead cultists, however, did shine with necrotic energy - but the aura slowly disappeared. Most likely Mortlock was right and Dead Three did give some "blessings" to their followers.

Standing by the statues Polly reply “Then I suggest that we return to base and recuperate..”

”We should stay away from those statues.. they seem to have been enchanted somehow.” She walks back to the chests. “The chests though is an other story! This one in particular! I’m detecting a faint magical aura form this one! And it doesn’t seem to be malicious!”

ooc: sorry i missread and chaned the post! 

Fran would head over to Polly to assist with the review of the statues. She’d also be interested in supporting Choirs investigation of the chests if she noticed Polly’s detect magic there (or if she tells them). 

After everything was demonstrated and studied (to a degree) Mortlock bowed to his saviours and said his farewells - if the group did not have any immediate questions and allowed him to leave, he would rather do just that, before his brothers figured out he survived. Vendetta leaved with him - he was a safe guide here and she would help him on the surface.

Meanwhile, Choir, probably remembered at some point about the keys and tried them out. Indeed, one of them worked. One by one treasure chests were opened and in the lite Choir's shield and torches on the walls you saw the content - silver coins, a lot of them. Old, with a dragon on one side, but definitely silver coins. On top of the pile of silver, chest 1 hold  two red crystal vials with gold stoppers, coins in chest 2 were mixed with eye agates, while chest 3 contained a delicate porcelain dragon mask. Chest 4 contained a bronze crown with five spires each shaped and painted to resemble one of the five kinds of chromatic dragons (black, blue, green, red, and white).

By the way, among "stolen goods" you have noticed some useful stuff as well: ten days' worth of rations, a bag of twenty caltrops, three flasks of alchemist's fire, six sets of manacles, four tinderboxes, nine daggers, and four potions of healing in glass vials.

 Choir will pocket two of the healing potions. Being a healer with no spell slots has been very frustrating.

"I say we take all the chests, all the usable gear, and the food, well with all the refugees about I'm sure someone is hungry enough them," Adray says as he goes to pick up a chest.  "Plus, I believe the captain said something about spoils being hazard pay and if we have to go ta Hell an expedition fund may be in order.

"Aye. I can't say no teh it." Fran would shrug with a nod, agreeing with Adray. The artificer would start gathering up the rest of the stolen goods so that they don't get left behind. "At minimum there's gud scrap metal 'ere." She'd say as she gathered daggers.