Lost Lab of Kwalish

Gravity will let Raeland and Nolzur resume their previously interrupted conversation when they're outside the tomb area. She will ask Nolzur:

"Why did they keep you captive for so long and apparently without any particular reason? Is it just for collecting your blood so that the muralists can decorate the tomb?"

Once the cost seems clear, Kili will follow the others out of the cave. The stranger looks like he will faint at ant moment so she will keep an eye on him as the others asks him questions. 

Nolzur looks puzzled or at least surprised by Gravity's question, "So, Thesselar didn't send you?  I thought for sure you were taking me back to him.  He's been teaching me.  He's quite the alchemist.  Makes people, all kinds if creatures, really.. more than they were when he met them.  He did something to my blood.  That's why they want it.  They've been keeping me barely alive with healing magic.  They caught me trying to steal back the manual of golems they took.  I don't know how they caught me, but I'd be careful if I was you: no telling how they keep an eye on things so close.  So, if you don't know Thesselar, why were you in the pit?"

Nolzur looks to L'Chuck

Gravity ignores the trace of surprise imbued in Nolzur's words and keeps her mouth shut regarding their recruitment by both Thesseler and Moghadam. "Cons of being a group of double agents."

She maintains a safe distance from the rescued prisoner and keeps eavesdropping on the ongoing conversation between Nolzur and Raeland, while trying to pick up more details about the 'Manual of Golems'.

(@Wile_E_Coyote, What happened to the 'Steel Defender'? If he's still around, Gravity may use him as a mound to transport Nolzur to the Temple.)

<I was trying to prompt you to tell him you maybe don't like Thesselar.  Nolzur will tell you his weaknesses out of gratitude.   It's about 60% why he's here.>

"So you're trying to get something from old Thessy, eh?  Well, you saved my skin back there.  Let me tell you something, that there alchemist didn't just change my blood.  He's mixed up his own, too.  He's all inside out.  Stuff that would kill you or me, he loves it.  But if you got a nice pot of medicine or a healing balm, well, that'll unsettle his constitution, right good.  

<At this point, he'd give you a general layout of the Temple of Moloch, but you have already seen most of it, so I'm just going to have him tell you where to find the master gem cutter is kept.>

So, you're looking for Seodra? She's in a room tucked away in the southwest corner of the temple area (the southern part) (area 31).

"Same thing as always takes me where I am... treasure." The grizzled former pirate replies, "No, that last hand of cards changed my life, not decided yet whether I won or lost on it." Realizing his companions would be oblivious to the circumstances he turned to them and expanded. Pointing to Nolzur he began the tale, "This fella had been in the Isles and was paying his way by cheating folks at cards, as your supposed to. Well, I know a trick or two myself and had a pretty little trinket to wager. So I gets myself in a game of 'Shark's Hook' with Nolzur and some other upstanding scoundrels. Last hand had him unable to match my bet, so he threw in his place on a crew until he could get some coin - off to find some fabled treasure guarded by a great evil they were.. I knew he'd have something up his sleeve, so before the card turned I used my dagger to pin his sleeve to the table. Before he knew what had happened the card was dealt and he hadn't had time to fix his hand."

"Well, I took that birth, an that treasure was protected by a coven of sea hags. Killed the rest of my crew they did, sold myself to them as a slave in exchange for my life. Spent years killing off my brethren that came for that treasure. Eventually a crew bested the hags, an I went free. Lost the taste for the sea though, made me crazy sick to be out on the waves..." He had turned back to Nolzur now, "Miss it like me mother's tit but I guess your path didn't lead you down a much better road. Couldn't leave you a slave for your blood."

Not yet willing to reveal all, he glosses over the questions regarding their recruitment by Thesselar. Remembering the manual in Moghaddam's residence, the tale of Nolzur's donations becomes more apparent. "We're here on a job, heard your name involved and couldn't missthe chance to catch up. So, Moghaddam caught you and decided you'd made a better decoration than corpse? A reminder for folk not to cross him?"

Nolzur shakes his head, "Nah, he's just after me 'strawberry smiggles', that's what I call my magic- imbued blood.  Thesselar came up with it.  It's hard to explain just what it does, but Thesselar says he learned of a thing called a beholder and figured how it did this trick.   Sort of makes things it imagines real.  He was using me as his guinea pig, and now my blood has a touch of that magic, or whatever it is.  It's not all worked out yet, but there's definitely something there.  Listen, I don't think I'm heading back to the temple any time soon.  Do me a favor and don't mention to anyone that you saw me.  I won't forget you.  Mark my words, once I figure out how this magic blood works, I'll be in touch and square things with ya."  With that, he sneaks off down the rugged hillside.

<Whats next guys?  Back in the hole? Over the pit? Other?>

Gravity will conjure up a small magical crystal ball filled with water in the palm of her hand (Prestidigitation)...a tiny goldfish with pirate eye-patch is swimming inside. She crushes the crystal ball but holds onto the goldfish which currently uses a pair of lungs for respiration instead of gills. "A fish out of water."

She decides to find the 'Solid Wizard' of the group assuming that he probably went through the western side entrance, and she attempts to walk the plank while murmuring a long list of complaints angrily: 

"Seodra? Who's this Seodra? Now, I have to find this 'Seodra' guy, stop Phenex from doing whatever he's been trying to do and save Tarnhem, help Madame Kili to find a 'Pentival' and retrieve the 'Manual of Golems'. Well, where's my payment and who's going to pay me for rescuing all these creepers?"

Dexterity: Acrobatics 18

Bidding fairwell to Nolzur, and taking a mental note of the increment to the man's existing debt, he watches Gravity return to the tomb. "Back for them treasures, and a favour from a demon ain't a bad boon to have in my pocket..." He too makes his way over the boards down the entrance Kili took. 

9 Dex vs plank....

<Seodra is the master gemcutter for the Tomb of Horrors.  She was trying to get the eyes from the statue of moloch when she was caught and placed in the service of Thesselar.  She's an earth genasi.  I think the current group knows most of this but the original group may never have known her name; I'm not sure it came up.  They definitely heard the rest, though.>

Sculptors’ Workroom

This workspace is used by a number of neutral human sculptors creating objects for use in the tomb. Five are present when the you first enter this area, watched over and assisted by a girallon.

 The creature carries torches in two hands to provide light for the sculptors. With the other two, it hands out hammers, chisels, and other tools as needed.  He looks to you angrily, but seems disinterested once noticing the tokens given to you by Moghaddam.

The rhythmic chanting magically carried into area 3 grows louder in this area.

Raeland walks up to the sculptors that (presumably) Kili has engaged whilst she waited for them to catch up. "What is it that you are building in here?" then in a lower, conspiratorial tone he adds, "And how do you plan to escape? We have snuck one person out but 10 might be noticed. If those muralists are bootlickers, then we might have to deal with them permanent-like." The last statement is directed at Kili and Gravity.

Gravity turns her head at the hulking companion questioningly, as if awaiting further explanation, then shrugs her shoulder and whispers back:

"The muralists will definitely put the blame of stealing their unlimited supply of 'strawberry smiggles' on us, and they're going to count Tarnhem as a witness. By the way, he's not doing well and might not be able to testify against us."

The bounty hunter woman attempts to put her 'ear to the ground' in order to find someone who recognizes her as a recruit of Thesseler, or someone as proud and aloof as herself to extract more details and rumors about the current situation.

"Mr. Monkey here certainly needs another pair of hands. I mean...what happens if he feels the need to scratch his back but all of his hands are occupied...jeez!"

Charisma: (Rolled with advantage from 'Ear to the ground: Bounty Hunter' feature)

Kili nods slightly at Raelands words. She would have preferred to sneak in, rescue the paladins and sneak out. But who was she kidding? She couldn’t sneak to save her life and there were others who needed her help.

“That thing looks nasty” she whispers to the working, nodding slightly in the direction of the girallon. “Is he your watcher?”

The muralists look at your like you're crazy, eyeing yiur medallions ad if it's the source of their frustration.  They make no indications of their plan to escape.  One replies, "it is a bit of an escapist fantasy, working on this transcendental art installation.  Quite the opportunity we've found d ourselves with."

<It seems like they're afraid ro speak openly about plans for escape.  Not sure who in the group would be familiar enough with a girallon (nor native to Oerth,  rather hailing from Chult on Toril) to surmise with certainly it can't understand any languages, though it is true that it cannot.  That doesn't mean the walls don't have ears, so to speak.>

(OoC - Sorry, judging by your last post I'm guessing that the spoiler info about the sculptors either wasn't for player character knowledge. That makes Raeland's second statement a bit presumptuous.)

Raeland gives the sculptors a slow nod, not quite picking up on the subtlety of their statement. "A tribute to escapism huh? Ain't that a bit contradictory to a tomb?" He turns to Gravity and not loud but enough to be overheard by the immediate sculptors says, "Tis a fair point you make lass. Once they run out of dye, them muralists are gonna cause a ruckus... We might need something to trivialize their issue, soon."

Gravity twitches her nose as if she's been trying to sniff out the extent and origin of the potential danger when Raeland mentions the final sentence. 

"I'm not much concerned about the outcome of our...eh...misdeed, since Boss Moghaddam should have been more careful before recruiting us. Let him resolve the issue of the shortage of pigment and workers' discontent."

Quote from PolarBearSoup >>

Raeland gives the sculptors a slow nod, not quite picking up on the subtlety of their statement. "A tribute to escapism huh? Ain't that a bit contradictory to a tomb?" 

<don't sweat it. Just trying to be economical so players can get the idea what's going on without spending 5 days in dialogue with prisoners under constant surveillance>

"Not when it's a tomb for a lich." The tiefling quips back.  "Here, Master Acererak will escape death itself."

They'd be appreciative of your help escaping and all, but it's probably something you'll have to find for yourselves.  

Quote from Wile_E_Coyote >>

 

 You're currently in area 8

17