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They head back and go into the first of two doors on the left. This is a fourth decaying bedroom with a set of boards on the floor that looks very unsafe. There is already a hole in the floor and roof. Alzar orders Megala and Dryshik to fly around, but they find nothing.
The final room on this side is locked. Now that’s interesting. A flask of acid takes it out, and it looks like a recent lock. Inside is a dirty, unused bedroom with a man bound and gagged and clad only in undergarments and devoid of any other items, clothes or equipment. Alzar reaches down and ungags him, and he thanks Alzar profusely. He says his name is Ned Shakeshaft and that he was a thief from a nearby town who entered this house at night last night, trying to find treasure that may have belonged to the previous owner, and was summarily knocked out and brought up here, tied and gagged.
Like he normally does, Alzar uses ESP t see the truth. Ned makes his save, and Alzar keeps him talking.
Ned fails. Ned is his real name, and he actually is a thief. Verified.
Round three – Ned makes save
Round four – Ned fails. He did come here last night, but he was not attacked, but tied up for some other reason
Round Five – Ned nails his save
Round Six – Ned fails. He was plated here by a local merchant to attack Alzar when the time is right, and kill him.
Well now, that’s rather interesting, n’est pas?
Alzar smiles at him with his new found knowledge. He pulls out his potion of poison, that has already has a bit used on the dagger. He shows it to Ned.
“Do you know what this is? No? It’s a poison potion. Someone may have made it to kill an adventurer that got too curious, or maybe they failed to make a regular potion – that happens sometimes. Perhaps they wanted a deadly poison for some nefarious purpose. Just a drop is all that it takes to kill someone. Just one drop.”
Alzar picks up the gag.
“All I have to do is pour a bit of this onto this rag, shove it back into your mouth, and leave you here.”
He then unstoppers the vial.
“Would you like that Ned? Would you like to be poisoned here, right now? After all, poison is the method of assassins, is it not?”
Ned rolls a die to see if he buys it or not. There is a local in the town who is employed by the Temple of Elemental Evil. When he heard that Alzar was coming here, he hired Ned to kill Alzar after pretending to be a prisoner. Alzar asks how much he was paid – 500 gold. Where is the gold? I get it after I kill you. That was not a smart deal. I assume your equipment is nearby? Ned glances at the fireplace. Megala flies into it and finds a dagger with an application of poison to it. Alzar laughs.
Now that is truly funny. I see fate has a sense of humor Ned. Would you like to be poisoned by your own blade? Alzar investigates the poison. (He makes his roll). I would have expected more than Carrion Crawler venom from you, Ned. That would just paralyze, not kill. Is that so you could make your way with me later, Ned?
Alzar puts the gag back in Ned’s mouth, they search the room and find nothing, shut the door and leave this wing. They head to the right corridor and find two doors. The first is yet another old bedroom. They had a lot of large bedrooms. The mattress is torn and stuffing is coming out, and mould is over the walls and floor. A search finds a pouch with 4 diamonds, 25 gold each, in the mattress that had not been found yet.
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