Gavril and Ursina drug the undead guard into the small room which was now crowded. The group searched all the bodies and the rest of the room finding nothing else.
"Should we go down to the lower level here?" asked Gavril.
"If something was down there they would have already come up to find out what the noise was we were making," declared Erevel.
"Maybe we should check out the towers before we head down to the lower level," suggested Armania.
Agreement was reached on checking out the towers before heading down.
Gavril and Erevel listened at the door to the closest tower. The undead guard had come out of this door. Hearing nothing Gavril opened the door revealing a round room in the tower that provided hidden observation of the grounds outside via an array of arrow loops. A spiral staircase descended, while a circling wooden stair climbed upward to a trap door at the top of the tower. Gavril climbed up to the trap door and listened but heard nothing but the wind.
Opening in the door, he was on the top of the tower which held light ballista pointed to the grounds and town. The ballista was fixed to a swiveling mount, and a wooden box nearby held 10 bolts. Seeing no guard around Gavril clambered up and seeing a bolt loaded in the ballista fired it toward town, where it struck the roof of a nearby house. The ballista could not be moved to fire at the other towers. The rest of the party climbed up but soon decided there was nothing to see, the other tower tops were similarly empty but for the ballista.
So down the group went, Gavril again led the way down the stairs, finding a dimly lit hall. There was a door on the opposite side of the hall and a room opened northward. He reported back to the group who then descended with Gavril leading with a torch. Northward the room held a wooden desk with a carved coat of arms. A chair sat beneath a window to the north and a small cabinet sat in the northeast corner. There were doors to the east and west in addition to the door in the hall. The walls of the room were covered with warm, woolen tapestries.
Ursina immediately checked for magic while Erevel listened at the first door to the west. Hearing nothing Erevel moved to the northmost western door and listened again. Again she did not hear anything. Meanwhile Ursina noted that the cabinet held some magic.
Ciprian moved to check the cabinet and found had a lock. He looked for traps but did not find any.
"I have a key ring, let me try them," Armania piped up. She moved to the cabinet also checking for traps but found none. She then tried keys until she came upon one that unlocked the cabinet. As she opened it she noted a needle next to the lock, apparently she had bypassed the trap.
The cabinet held a magic cloak and dagger, along with a mundane leather bag. Ursina took the cloak and Armania the dagger. As Ciprian rudely pushed forward to grab the bag, Armania pondered shoving his hand onto the needle but held the thought at bay. Inside the bag were coins of gold, silver and copper.
Erevel, not interested in more treasure was listening at the east door. She heard voices speaking a guttural language she did not understand and wet sucking noises, like webbed feet on stone.
Now what? Again the party spent time trying to determine their next move, quiet rooms, probable skum or what? Ciprian finally noted that the western door in the hall may open into a room they saw from the front, and it held an undead guard most probably.
"Let's go back up and come down the stairs into this other quiet room," suggested Erevel.
So up the group went with Erevel leading them down into a small kitchen, fitted with a cabinet and a stone worktable. A blackened iron cauldron hung in the fireplace. Doors led to the north and east.
Erevel moved to the north door and listened, thinking it led to the pantry. He heard the sound of dogs growling and barking.
"Not the pantry, probably leads to the courtyard," Erevel reported.
The cabinet contained enough kitchen tools and cutlery for a couple of cooks, and enough dishes and
flatware for about two dozen diners. The cauldron in the fireplace contained a greasy residue and some discarded humanoid bones. Ciprian was disgusted by the gnawed bones almost completely devoid of any flesh.
"Well I guess we will just go fight the Skum," Paullus interjected. Erevel was already opening the door to the office and headed for the next door. "Slow down Erevel, let the rest of us get into position," Paullus continued.
Once all were in place, Ursina cast bless on the party and Erevel opened the door revealing a dining room with a large table and a dozen chairs. Inside ready for the party were four Skum. One threw its Trident at Erevel, while another opened a door to the east and left the room. The other two Skum
Paullus entered and fired an arrow at one enemy while Gavril rushed in and fired at another. Armania cast light into the far room. Erevel leapt on the table and followed the retreating Skum into the next room, larger than the first, and beheld three more Skum. She managed to hit the i first before being surrounded by the others or dodging their tridents.
Ciprian moved into the room and cast started his Bardic performance. Ursina also moved into the dining room but found nothing to hit yet. Now the skum moved to attack anyone in the dining room. Bites and claws found flesh along with a couple of Tridents aimed at the party. Paullus dropped his bow and started attacking with his new sword. Gavril leapt on the table to get flanking with Erevel and dropped the first of the Skum. Erevel backed out of the room trying to stay upright. Ciprian cast Contagious Zeal on Erevel improving her condition and attacks.
Armania was looking into the room when out of the corner of her eye she saw Gavril enter from the last door and stride right up to her. She immediately cast a flaming sphere which did not appear to do very much damage to this Gavril. She made sure that the Gavril she knew was still standing on the table in the dining room as she took a step back. There he was, what was going on here?
The battle continued in the dining room and the room beyond as the Skum used their bite and claw attacks to great advantage. Fortunately Ursina stood right by Erevel giving her healing every round to counter some of the damage she took. Gavril, Paullus kept up their attacks on the remain Skum while Armania was trying to get away from Gavril as fast as she could. He attacked with two short swords, one in each hand. She had never witnessed this before as her acid dart failed to hit. Ciprian cast Blistering Invective, demoralizing all the creatures but only starting a few on fire.
Armania was able to sneak into the dining room just as Ciprian moved out to attack the double sword wielding Gavril. Ciprian noted that while Gavril was right handed, this Gavril swung the sword in his left hand twice. Paullus was eventually able to move out after killing his Skum. Erevel kept picking off the Skum one at a time until finally all the Skum were dead.
The battle continued with Ciprian, Paullus and the mirror Gavril. Armania cast Acid Dart which did no damage to the mirror Gavril. Eventually mirror Gavril took a step back headed out the kitchen door and disappeared. When Ciprian could finally catch a breath he followed at a run with Ursina close behind. In the messy room they did not see Gavril and looking outside they saw him enter the Magistrate's quarters. When they got their, no one was in the room. In a fury Ciprian smashed the mirror to tiny fragments. He was convinced that the second Gavril was some kind of mirror using creature and appeared in a mirror image.
So the two healers trudged back to the rest of the party who had been busy quaffing potions and looking around the two rooms. The dining room chest held tableware (goblets, platters, candlesticks, and more), decorations and tablecloths. A pair of fine crystal goblets rested in a velvet lined box Paullus said to leave the goblets here, he didn't want to be accused of stealing them.
"You know, I was at a wedding at the Fort and saw goblets that looked just like those," he said imitating a merchant.
In the other chamber the walls of this semicircular room were clad in wood up to half of their height, and decorated with murals of the town’s civil life on the upper half. A bench ran along most of the curved outer wall. Opposite the bench were a trio of high-backed chairs and a desk with a stool. Two more benches sat in the middle, near a central pillar that supported the ceiling.
Gavril checked the desk but there were no papers, only quills and ink inside. The rest of the room reminded the party of a courtroom. There were doors to the north in both the dining room and courtroom.
After the return of Ciprian and Ursina more healing was doled out. Armania was still trying to figure a way out of this level. Ciprian noted they could probably leave via the front door, but they would have to fight the undead.
"No, I'm looking for another way, and no not the battlements either," she noted.
Erevel and Gavril each chose a door and listened. Hearing nothing the party decided to open the door from the dining room. Erevel opened the door into another chamber where two wide cabinets with reinforced doors stood against the north wall under the ascending stairway in this room. A perforated metal bin sat near the fireplace in the northeastern corner. Another door led south, clearly into the courtroom.
Ursina tried to find any magic and was drawn to a book on top of the cabinets. It emitted faint illusion magic so Ursina took it down to find a book of Pharasmin hymns with a bookmark sticking out the top.
Gavril saw that the cabinets had locks and called Armania to try one of the keys from the key ring she had found. None of the keys would open the locks. Paullus said "What about that skeleton key that was upstairs?"
Ciprian produced the key and unlocked the cabinets. These seemed to hold the archive of the magistrates office. Documents detailing decades of the town’s administration could be found inside.
There were copies of trial records, building permits, ships’ logs, notary deeds, contracts, and other such paperwork. It would take hours to search the entire set of documents. Ciprian toyed with putting the information in his bag of holding but he thought it would not all fit.
"It might have information about Iris Hill," piped up Ursina.
"Or maybe court records implicating us," Gavril added sardonically.
DM's Notes: The party earned 1200 XP for the night and now have 18,230 XP needing 4770 to reach 6th level.
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