Investigation: 10 + 1

Gotur, you do notice that the chests in this room look different than the mimic did.

Venovar, you creep into the bedroom quarters. This room is much cleaner than the larger room (although most places would be cleaner than that cesspool), and has been furnished with a large desk, a few chairs and two beds.

You see a few things on the large table. You see a small bag containing a good amount of gold coins (250gp), 5 various colored gems (you're not sure if they are worth anything at this point), a complete map of Neverwinter and a letter which reads just once sentence, over and over and over again. It covers both sides of the paper.

sometimes, dead is better. sometimes, dead is better. sometimes, dead is better. sometimes, dead is better. sometimes, dead is better. sometimes, dead is better.

Venovar will split the gold and gems evenly (62 gold and 1 gem each, 2 gold and 1 gem leftover) amongst the party. I'm not sure whether I should include Thorvin or not, but for this calculation I did. Ven will also make an insight check to see if he can figure out what this letter could mean (adding Guidance). If anybody wants to help me out, I can roll again.

Insight 9 + 3

Alton will help anyone who wants or needs it. 

Ok, thanks! Rolling again.

7 + 3(guidance)

(make sure to add any gold to your sheets. I think you have to create a custom item for the gems. Yep Thorvin would've taken his share. Thanks for splitting that up! Maybe just have Venovar take the leftover for simplicity.)

Alton, you and Venovar take a good look at the letter. You recall and converse about how crazy the necromancer sounded when he first saw you, as well as when he was yelling craziness during combat and trying to escape in a crazed manner. From the look of the main room being basically a horror room, along with how the letter is written among a few other details, you're both able to deduce that this guy was simply crazy and felt he could create some type of an undead army using dark necromancy. Venovar, you might feel disappointed and/or let down in this moment due to the fact that there really wasn't much to this nut-job other than his obsession with the undead, although you might also feel at peace with everything being seemingly over.

Bottom line - the guy was just crazy. A crazy necromancer wanna-be.

"Thanks Venovar!"

Gotur will take his cut, and if the remainder is mentioned, he'll suggest that it go towards caring for his mom.

((Are there two bedrolls in the sleeping or is that just a hold over from the original image?))

((There are 2 bedrolls in the room.))

"I think he might have had a friend.", Gotur says, pointing at the bedroll. "Think it was that other guy?"

"You mean the one who was chained to the wall?"

"Not the ogre, but that guy we found in the room farther back? You think he was mixed up in this?"

"Yeah, the turned human is the one I meant to say. I feel like he is part of this somehow, but why would they be sleeping next to each other? They must have had some prior relationship with each other. Maybe they could have been working together, but the necromancer betrayed the other and used him as a test subject... but maybe the poor man was kidnapped by the necromancer... there are many possibilities." Venovar then noticed the chests in the back. "I don't know if I should check those chests in the back, but I'm going to do it anyway." Venovar goes to the chest and carefully looks over it to try to find any traps or dangers that would be in the chests before opening them. (Investigation check) He would also like to see what he can infer about what is inside the chests by looking at their exteriors. (Perception or Insight, you choose) Since Alton said he would help me with whatever, I will roll the checks with advantage.

Investigation: 11 + 4

Perception or Insight: 8 + 3(Perception) or 1(Insight)

Guidance for the perception or insight check: 3

OOC: Did we open the chests in the north and west?

Gotur is ready to pull him free from a mimic's clutches if they're wrong.

Venovar, from what you can see, the chests in the main room do not look rigged in any manner. You can't determine what is inside them without opening them, but given the help you get from Alton as well as Gotur at the ready if anything were to happen, you feel quite comfortable opening the chests...

They open without issue. They do not bite you. The lids creak open and they sound like they are used frequently. 

In each chest, you find 5 scrolls of animate dead. So there's 10 scrolls altogether. 

“We should burn these...” Alton says quietly. “Better so that they can’t harm someone ever again.”

"I agree. I don't want anybody to go through the pain that my mother did. Let me burn them." If everybody is fine with him doing the burning, he will start the process by gathering up the scrolls and putting them in a pile. Next, he takes out a match from his tinderbox and uses it to light one of his torches. After the torch is lit, he throws it into the pile of scrolls and watches them burn. "Nobody shall suffer now... but whatever is truly behind this necromancy will." 

"If we think it's that poor fool that wrote them, I say burn them and close the book on it, but if we think he's part of something bigger, an expert might be able to tell something about who wrote them?"

Arcana: 11

He stops just as he is about to throw the torch. "That is wise. That second bedroll leads me to believe he had another person working with him though, so maybe we take one for further inspection. I'm going to look for signs of whether the man chained to that wall was his partner. Alton, if you could help me with deciphering this."  He will make an Investigation check to try to see if there were any signs of a humanoid struggle in both the necromancer's lair and at the spot where the human was chained up, what similarities the chains on both the human spot and the zombie ogre spot have, and who the chains could have been made by.

6 + 2

((So, the other guy that Venovar is referring to was not chained to the wall. He was just a guy on the ground, almost dead because he was bitten, and he had the letter from Ven's mom.))

Venovar, you gather all of the scrolls from the chests, put them in the middle of the room, and are about to light them up as Gotur jumps in.

Gotur, you get a sense that these scrolls looked kind of... vanilla. You've likely seen this particular scroll or other magical scroll like it in shops you were proposing business to, and the scripture as well as the material of the scroll itself leads you to think that these scrolls weren't written by that nut-job.

Venovar, this whole entire situation still seems a bit cloudy to you. What the hell is going on you think to yourself. You proceed to do all of your investigations that you have listed with Alton's help. You guys are able to deduce the following information:

• The man who was in that other smaller alcove was in fact not chained up, and you recall he had the letter from your Mom. You don't think he was involved in all of this, other than he was trying to do Ven's mom a favor by retrieving her ring. And he got bit.
• The zombie ogre chains look like normal chains with a crude shackle. It was likely made by a skilled blacksmith. It's old, though.
• There is no sign of struggle in the master sleeping quarters.
• Having two bedrolls in this type of room would be common as this used to be the quarters for the sewer maintenance crews. It doesn't necessarily mean the apprentice necromancer had a master... or at least not in these sewers. Or, he could've been a 'self professed' apprentice.
• You see a small lockbox underneath the large table in the sleeping quarters that you missed when you initially checked. (11 vs 12, the DC was 12!)

"I doubt that this guy wrote these... which means that someone else did... if someone in town is making and selling these, I think we owe them a visit. I think we take at least one for evidence."