Seeing the mechanism on the drawer Lucky moved over to check it out while pulling out his tools to try and disable the thing.

"I will take care of this, whatever it is."  Lucky said.

15:22, Today: Lucky Six-Fingers rolled 42 using 1d20+27.  disable device.

In reply to Lucky Six-Fingers (msg # 42):

New rule: Lucky has to roll low in order to succeed.

Jeez man. Let me get at least one zap on ya'll outta all this.

The trap falls into so much scrap parts under Lucky's nimble digits.

Opening it reveals a set of thick tomes.

Izzick, you might be salivating. You might not.  These are probably Josephine's spell books.  All of them.

Selvin looked around as he slowly walked in to the room. He noted a few things but didn't immediately move to anything in particular. He wasn't sure they were heading the right way - but it would stupid and careless not to at least check the area out and make certain it didn't have what they were looking for, right?

He tried to concentrate on the magic in the room, to see what type of magic it was, to make sure there wasn't illusion magic hiding something.

In reply to Selvin Larst (msg # 44):

Most of it does seem to be exactly that Selvin:  illusion magic.  There's a thin layer of it all over the place.

"Kinda like someone wants to make you think everything is magic here..." Chandanar opines as he does the same thing the rest of you are doing.  He scratches his chin.

"Ya know...the best place to hide a leaf is in a forest.  If that soul cage thing was anywhere...wouldn't it be where there was the most amount a' magic to hide it?

"Or the gnarliest death traps. But I'm kinda hoping Josephine's too lazy for those.  It'd be a nice switch if we didn't have death traps. Ya know what I'm sayin'?"

Selvin grinned and looked at Chandanar. "Man. You're so cynical! I'd say it was from traveling with us but I think you were always that way. Cynical 'n' sarcastic."

He stepped back a bit. He tried to find what would be the best place to cast the spell and made sure his allies weren't in the area. But he wanted to try and get rid of the illusion magic - though for all he knew it was just making the place look better than it was.

OOC: Looking to see if casting Dispel Magic is feasible and if so the best place to put it.

11:58, Today: Selvin Larst rolled 22 using 1d20+10.  Knowledge (arcana), if needed.
If not needed, then caster level check for Dispel Magic would be +4 to that total instead.

In reply to Selvin Larst (msg # 46):

The illusion flickers, but remains...

"Josephine is a lich after all..."  Chandanar scratches his chin again.

"But I did notice that those..." he points at the spell books, "...didn't flicker just now.  Maybe try it once more and we all look around when it flickers.  Whatever doesn't...uh...flicker...that's the stuff we need to look at.

"Does that make sense?"

To Chandanar's point, she is a lich. But it's a good idea.  So I will give ya'll a shot at it.

Recast the spell.  Everyone except the caster needs to make a perception check.  I will let you know the results.

Questions?

Lucky nods that he is ready to watch in his area while Selvin gets ready to cast the spell again.

07:49, Today: Lucky Six-Fingers rolled 37 using 1d20+19.  perception check.

In reply to Lucky Six-Fingers (msg # 48):

LUcky...in the flash, you notice the glow on the clothing in the drawers doesn't fade.

A quick look reveals a robe with some intricate stitching  in the shape of runes and a pair of leather boots.

The boots seem to have some kind of alteration magic on them Boots of Spider Climb as per 9th Level

The robe...none of you have any idea what to make of that.

"Clothes?  Is that...can that be a her..."  Zuni asked incredulously.  She might not know all that much about magic but storing your soul in clothes was a letdown, if that was the case here.

In reply to Zuni Runesong (msg # 50):

Chandanar shrugs.  "Would you have felt better about it if it were a flaming skull or a blood red ruby?  And wouldn't that be kinda obvious?"

He narrows his eyes at the robe.  "Course...we don't know it's the robe.  So?  Who's gonna pick it up?"

"I wasn't sure what to expect, to be honest, but I don't think the robe is what we are looking for.  Though it is a nice find.  What does it mean if the magic wavered or not?"  Lucky asked.

In reply to Lucky Six-Fingers (msg # 52):

Chandanar glances away from the robe.  "Selvin's spell isn't powerful enough to counter Josephine's magic.  But for something simple, like a camoflauge type spell, Selvin's spell can interrupt Jospehine's for a moment.  For her stronger magic," He gestures at the robe.  "Selvin's spell can't make a dent.  Sorry Selvin."

He shrugs.  "What it means is the robe is the strongest magic item in here.  Either it is the soul cage or what we're looking for is somewhere else.  There's only that room left to look into..."

He is gesturing at D13.

Do you want to take the robe?

Selvin didn't seem to be that heartbroken or angry about his magic not being powerful enough. It had done a little, which is more than enough to at least get them started.

He thought about it for all of a second of two. Then he gave a shrug, grinned and grabbed the robe. He deliberately looked at Zuni and then Chandanar. "What's the worst that can happen?" Like a dare almost.

"Let's keep goin'." He headed to where Chandanar had gestured.

Lucky grabbed the spellbooks and handed them to Izzick before moving in the direction Chandanar pointed.

"_{...a flaming skull would have been impressive...}" Zuni muttered before she took the point into the next room.  She grinned for a moment at Selvin taking the robe, thinking that she had taught him well.  Take everything that wasn't nailed down from the evil necromancers.

"Let's see what this next room holds for us."

OOC:
Perception -> 26

After a short hallway, you come into what was once probably another bedroom.

The bed on one wall has been broken into pieces.  Now a moldy mattress lays on the rubble and the floor.

Propped on the mattress is, unsurprisingly, a corpse.  But this one seems to have been treated much differently than the others you've seen.

It is a man.  Probably a warrior when he was alive.  He wears old plate, a large battle axe resting between his hands.  He seems well preserved.  From the state of the flesh he could have died yesterday. From the state of the armor, he's been dead decades.

Surrounding his resting place get it?, dried flowers have been heaped.  At each corner of the mattress, a severed and mumified hand has been set onto the floor.  Each hand holds a candle which gutters.  The smoke from the candles fills the air with a sweet honeysuckle kind of scent.

There isn't anything else of interest in the room.

Zuni slowly walked up to the corpse on the mattress.  She frowned as she took in the severed hands and dried flowers.  "Okay, this is a little fancy, at least for this place." she muttered.  Considering how the denizens down here seemed to be very cavalier with corpses, seeing one treated like this was surprising.

She didn't know much about funerary rites, but maybe there was some significance to this display.

OOC:
Knowledge Religion -> 21

In reply to Zuni Runesong (msg # 58):

The candles at the four corners are a fairly common motif in funerals, Zuni.  It's usually meant to create a seal around the body of sorts.  To keep demons from stealing the soul.

The hands...that just seems to be a decorative choice.  IF it means anything, that's lost on you.

What is more interesting is the scent the candles give off.  It's an odd kind of sweetness.  You think it's incense used in binding rituals.

Perception checks from everyone please

"Do you guys think that this...whatever this is supposed to be...could be that soul container."  Zuni asked.  "And what's with that smell?"

OOC:
Perception -> 29

Lucky took in the sites of the room and the smell as well.  There was a sweet smell and not an order of decay like he would have thought.  This was something special.  "I am not sure if it would be, it could possibly be a loved one of hers.  Perhaps a husband or something would be my guess.  Would seem like a good spot to put her own life essence."

The sight of the man so preserved had Lucky looking at it and nothing else.
09:37, Today: Lucky Six-Fingers rolled 20 using 1d20+19.  perception check.

In reply to Lucky Six-Fingers (msg # 61):

The sounds of battle off in the distance have stopped.

Chandanar glances behind you.  "I think we need to move fast here."

Selvin looked around the bedroom with the corpse, but his eyes kept coming back to the corpse and the destroyed bed. It was really weird, like how it was done, how the corpse was so well-preserved but the bed was trashed, and everything.

His eyes narrowed as he tried to figure it out but didn't have any of the required information to do so. He tried to see if anything in the room was out of place or was an illusion like the last one. He cast the same spell again to see what auras there were.

Casting detect magic again and seeing barely anything lol.

22:21, Today: Selvin Larst rolled 19 using 1d20+16.  Perception.

In reply to Selvin Larst (msg # 63):

The candles glow fairly brightly Selvin.  So do the dried flowers.  They seem to both be some kind of binding magic, though of a type you haven't seen before.

The battle axe glows brighter than anything else.

Everything else seems normal.

"Whatever distraction we had sounded like it stopped.  If we don't think that the phylactery is in here we best move along."  Lucky said as he peered outside the room.

In reply to Lucky Six-Fingers (msg # 65):

Chandanar frowns. "It should take them a few minutes to get back here.  I think we got a little bit of time. But we can't push it."

He glances at the body. "So...do we wanna...I dunno.  Take something?"