IC II Toes In The Water

[Admiral]

"Do you know how to use such a crystal? We should use it on all the items here."

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Luckily we have all day

[Zman]

@Miriam

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The wand emits a faint Abjuration aura.

One Ring emits a faint conjugation aura.

The second Crystal is a Prism of Arcane Sight. If you stare through it and make a DC15 Concentrate Check you effectively see using Detect Magic.

[Zman]

"I believe I can. Where should I start?" Valen glances between the magical auras.

[achinca]

"Is it like a using a magic device? I could try to see if I can get it to work" says the cleric.

She also senses the excitement about the potential magical items "Listen, this is his tomb. None of his artifacts belong to us. At best they belong to Max, assuming he is really related to him. I think we should see if we can find something to help Natalia and use this as a base. But we should stop acting as tomb robbers."

[Zman]

"Tomb robbers? Max had the same intentions." Valen counters Miriam. "Our reality is one of need."

[Admiral]

"Stick first... then balanced blade, then gifts of bone-" Shiny's response is oddly stuttered. He suddenly blinks and taps his head, then goes back to speaking normally.

"Sorry, don't know what that was... Check the wand, then the dagger, then the items on the skeleton. I'll spend the time looking for traps on the body."

As Valen starts studying the wand, Shiny slowly and carefully approaches the skeleton, and takes a very long time looking for traps around and on the body.

[achinca]

"Well Valen, I really hope that when I go meet St. Cuthbert, I am buring with nothing but a plain brown robe and a pair of sandals. I would not happy seeing other loot my armor and weapons."

Miriam stops and looks around "This is a tomb. Call it however you like."

She shivers before looking at her holy symbol "I took that mace, that armor and that symbol from a dying man. Since then, it has been a weight on my body and mind. Ah, I wish I was strong enough not to need this."

She stops and takes a deep breath "I will not argue with nor try to convince you other wise. I see all of you blinded with greed and coming up with excuse. These belongs to Max, assuming he is a real kin of the decease. Anything that could help Natalia or Linwood should be used. But otherwise, I want nothing to do with anything we find it here unless it goes to help the poor and the disaffected."

[Zman]

Valen sits down, his legs crossed and studies the wand with the crystal, nigh unmoving...

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This could be a while...

Shiny is unable to find anything traps on or around the skeleton. Alabaster must have been old, judging by the remnants of his silver beard. He had been dressed in a simple robe, long ravaged by the sands of time. Though, he finds a hole in one pocket and sees a small silver bird figuring laying on th ground. Valens vision of it must have been obscured it resonates with faint magic.

[Admiral]

Shiny reports on the skeleton and his findings, speaking normally. Suddenly his eyes open wide. "Weasel! If here, who... Not safe!" he stammers.

[achinca]

Miriam gets of her soap box when Shiny starts to talk funny.

"Shiny Storyteller, Halfling Lawyer and Apprentice Horse Whisperer, are you trying to pretend that you are Natalia Trapmaster, Loot Expert and Organ ripper?'

She shakes her head. The cave is really magical ....

[Zman]

Mithril swears that she can hear voices...as she listens she can no longer hear them.

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Listen
Miriam(d2+3)[5]
Kurt(d20)[1]
Shiny(d20-2)[5]
Natalia(d20+7)[12]
Mithril(d20+3)[22]
Valen(d20+3)[20]

[Athedia]

Mithril stood up, bowing again to the dead body. Turning her head she looked around for the source of the voices. Hearing nothing she kept an ear out for more sounds. Realizing Whiskers had snuck off yet again she went in search of him, it would not do any good for them to be careful and then have a weasel set off a trap.

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Listen and Spot Checks (without the bonus from Whiskers since he is running around.

Listen (1d20+1)[19]
Spot (1d20+1)[4]

[Zman]

Whiskers is spending a lot of time near a section of wall, which he settled on after circling the room twice.

You thought you hard the voices fom the far doorway with the stairs up, through the familiar fog.

[Athedia]

"We may have visitors." Mithril pointed at the fog where she heard the voices, "I am not sure, but I think I hear someone, just be prepared." With that she headed over to Whiskers. "What is it? Did you find something?" She knelt down next to the small weasel and looked at the wall.

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Search/Spot/Listen (with the alertness modifier now)
Search (1d20+3)[19]
Spot (1d20+3)[10]
Listen (1d20+3)[10]

[Zman]

Mithril doesn't find anything but an empty piece of wall, completely continuous and smooth.

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Maybe a Dwarf's expertise would be helpful...

[Athedia]

"Kurt, you showed some knowledge of stoneworking at the pit. Could you tell me what this is? Whiskers will not leave the wall alone." Mithril glanced toward the entryway, nerves playing havoc on her imagination.

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Knowledge Architecture/Engineering (1d20+4)[13]
Spot (1d20+3)[23]

[achinca]

"Did you hear noise coming from upstairs" asks the cleric.

[Zman]

Even busy by the wall Mithril can't help put peer into the darkness, almost seeing two shapes in the distance, but she can't be sure with the darkness...

Kurt, his axe and hand comes over after peering into the distance...

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Had to give you something for a 20.

Also, you know that it possible for stone to hide a compartment, especially with a Mage capable of molding stone.

Spot(d20)[9]
Listen(d20)[2]

Take 20 on a Stonecunning Search

[Athedia]

"I thought I did, but I may have been imagining it. Does anyone else see figures out there?" Mithril shook her head, the stress of the day must be getting to her. It was just like when she was a child and saw monsters on her walls.

[Cavelcade]

"Hmmm..." Kurt gives his attention to the stonework, feeling the rock almost alive under his fingers as he'd been taught before he'd turned towards breaking necks rather than rocks. "There...might be something here. A compartment, maybe. He frowns over at Miriam, a little irked by her tone, judging from how his beard bristles. "I would rather my axe kept being used to slice heads and my armour to protect than go with me to the ground. I too would rather be buried in a robe and sandals, if I fall I hope you or some other good folk put my arms and armour to good use."

[Admiral]

Shiny looks around. "If killers coming... be ready? Grab what we can?" His eyes light onto the dagger.

From a distance of 15 feet, he picks up a rock, aims it carefully- "stand back", and throws it straight at the dagger to see if he can topple it over.

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Can Shiny find a rock or something similar to throw? Should he make attack rolls to hit the dagger? Just want to see what happens if the balanced dagger is knocked over, in case there's a magical trap.

[Zman]

Shiny grabs the first rocklike thing he can see, which happens to be a silver bird figurine. He steps back and tossed the stone at the dagger, covering his head and looking away. He hits the dagger squarely, almost as if the figuring aimed itself. It nicks the dagger off of the bench, the dagger falls to the floor and it's glistening blackened blade imbeds itself in the stone floor deep enough to stop the blade from falling flat.

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Attack(d20+4)[17]

[Admiral]

Shiny walks over very carefully, studies the dagger for anything suspicious, and finally, if nothing seems wrong, reaches out and picks it up.

[Cavelcade]

Kurt nods as he stands, going to position himself beside the door with his axe. "Yes, I definitely think there's something behind that rock. Give me time and I'll see if I can break it open...I might need more tools, though. For now though, let's see about these voices and ghosts."

[Zman]

Shiny even picks of some of the mannerisms of Natalia and he studies the dagger in a hyper attentive way, eventually he touches it seven times before picking the blade up. It litterally humms in his hand as if holding it too long would put your hand to sleep.

The blade is incredibly sharp and seems to scratch the stone with only the effort needed to pick it up.

[Zman]

Kurt readies his axe and moves to the very edge of the illusion and sanctum peering with his eyes into the dark, blotting out all light. He can see that the illusion is part of a rocky wall about 20' above a deep deep chasm. About 30' across and above the crack in the earth Kurt can see the other side, evidence of tools and habitation are evident. As he watches an Orc drags a carcass of an animal and tosses it into the pit as a home for their waste, you can't hear it strike bottom.

As the Dwarf thinks about his connection to the earth and his
position, his innate senses tell him it's possible theis cave is connected to the western most part of the Orc caverns.

[Admiral]

"Humming blade, very sharp..." Shiny says to the others. It looks like just the kind of blade that would be deadly in Natalia's hand.

Still carefully carrying the blade, he walks over towards the skeleton. "Stealing from a corpse... more dangerous. Wait for nimbler fingers." He looks back at the rogue's frozen body.

[Cavelcade]

Kurt retreats slowly from the edge of the illusion, looking at the others for a moment, before glancing back out and suddenly laughing softly.

"We're back at the orc caves. This leads up to the Western end of them...the perfect staging point." He glances over at the old skeleton. "I wonder was it on purpose."

[Admiral]

Shiny's eyes widen. "Sneak around, slash from behind."

He looks back down at the weasel. "Should get back to guarding? Orcs follow footprints, we sneaked ourselves."

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Shiny wants to wait an hour for Valen to finish studying the wand, though perhaps someone should bring Whiskers back to the front to stay on guard.

[Zman]

Valen rubs his eyes, focusing on the world around him again. "It's a wand of Disoel Magic, though it has precious few charges left.". With a flick of his wrist, Valen points the wand in Natalia's direction and utters the command word....

With a broad and truly genuine smile, "Welcome back to the land of the living Little One." as Ntalia slumps to the floor having to idea how she got their and no balance to remain upright.

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Caster Level Check(d20+5)[24] vs 23
5 Charges Remaining

Booya! Call that the DM special!