The potions are spoiled healing potions. Drinking them would heal you, but probably make you sick to your stomach, or worse.

The coffin's lid opens with ease. Inside the wooden box, you find a pile of ashes, some tattered clothing, and a wooden stake impaled into the wood beneath where a sleeping person's heart would lie.

Kurrian had managed to regain his composure after the incident, barely, standing straight and looking at the woman as a man held out a pipe to her. The look on her face made Kurrian cringe. She's frightened... and rightfully so... She'd nearly died. I'd nearly gotten her killed. I'd lost control...

Damn those Saints for being so elitist and prideful! I can't summon another one. I might not be able to control it either. He told himself, and as the group moved into the room, Kurrian followed, dragging his staff on the ground behind him. He looked around once he had entered, and slowly shifted the staff in front of him, biting his lower lip. Four skeletons and a coffin. Shuddering, he followed one of the men towards the desk, standing even further away from the coffin than he, and also looked at the books.

The entire time, though, he was feeling hair standing on the back of his neck.

There are two journals, a list of recently obtained loot, and a rough map of the Cave on the desk. The journals will take several minutes to read.

Kurrian's hand grasped old parchment as he sought to not get in the man's way, and still look at the books. Curious, the Conjurer grabbed it and separated it from the books, discovering it to be a leaflet of parchments. One of them was some kind of list. Raising one eyebrow, he read it. "A list... I'm guessing loot." He murmured, thinking verbally, and put that paper down to look at other pages of the collection. This one was not a list. Kurrian looked at it, making a thoughtful sound, before holding it out to one of the others. (OOC: Any one of you)

"Found a map, of this place I think. One of you folks might want it, I've never made a good navigator."

Reem had come into the new room late, still shaken from reaction of the Saint, [censored] I didn't know summoned creatures could do that!
He took in his new surroundings, staring round the room, Great more skeletons
Some of the others had pried open a coffin, though Reem couldn't yet see the contents, his view blocked by some of the others. Instead he turned his attention to the table where Falco and Kurrian were investigating the books and vials balanced ontop. He came up behind them and looked with interest over Kurrian's shoulder at the documents he was sorting through.

"A list... I'm guessing loot."

Reem's attention was suddenly focused on the piece of paper that Kurrian had just laid on the table, Now that could have some value.
He felt a small nudge as the point of a book prodded into his stomach, taking the book from Kurrian, Reem studied the cover, wondering what he was holding.

Edited to fit with the GM's wishes

Its a book with a locked clasp. You'll have to find a key to get it open.

Dedave jumped back startled by his discovery, amongst the dumner there was a particular hatred for the undead, making the disovery all the more disturbing.
"Good ridince" he muttered under his breath and stirred the ashes with his knife checking for any small gems. "At least in death this vile beast could make me rich" he joked to himself although he said it louder than he wanted.

Mick looked over the shoulders of the other, into the coffin. He grimaced, looking into the pile of ashes. The harmless dust didn't frighten him, but more of the fact that they might run into vampires. He had never met any before, but he was pretty sure he would be able to make friendly with one of them. "So... I think someone oughta take that stake with us. If there's vampires around and all."

The conjurer mumbled a few remarks, which pulled the lock-picker away from the morbid pile of dust. "A map, eh? Lemme see if I can't make heads or tails of it." He said, taking the paper. He pursed his lips, making an exaggerated look of thoughtfulness and he looked over the map. First step was to find the long tunnel they came through...

Dedave gave up his search, digging through a dead vampires ashed was not on his life long goals list and seemed morbid even to a greed driven adventurer.
"Good idea" he said and gave the stake a strong pull, in the vile and dangerous places he had explored it was survival of the guy with every weapon imaginable to man, and a stake was a good one.
Grave robbing already he thought to himself as though having a moral dilemma, before silencing his morals returned to trying to remove the wood stake.

ooc: Heh, yeah Fallout 3 is awesome. It feels a lot like Oblivion with guns in the gameplay, but.. different at the same time. Favorite quote so far: "I am mortified about the cake incident. Simply mortified."

And yeah, that and Fable II are why I've been gone. Both are worth buyin', methinks (I only rented them).

ic: Karst watched as the Saint took her hand and allowed her to help her up. Grabbing the Saint's gauntlet in the offered hand, she gripped the creature's arm with the other and yanked her to her feet. After the shining woman had let go, the Khajiit stared at her hand like a child who'd just shook hands with its favorite celebrity.

She.. she touched me. She actually touched me! She let me help her up. I.. Wow.. I never knew how smooth their skin was. It's like.. warm, golden silk. The world around Karst was lost on her, all her mind focused on the feeling of childlike awe she was experiencing. The only experience she'd had up-close with Daedra was fighting them, and Dremora skin was not pleasant to touch like this. The servants of Mehrunes Dagon felt like squishy leather but this Saint, this unearthly creature of beauty and warfare, was soft and warm and Karst had distinctly felt a large amount of magicka thrumming through the golden woman's veins. I wonder if she'd let me talk to her?

Only when the creature she was admiring turned on Perenne did she snap out of it. She knew she'd never get there in time to do anything and could only gasp and put a hand to her own chest as the golden blade came down in a flash and then.. disintegrated.

"What the.." Karst turned her gaze to Kurrian, then back to the gold dust settling to the ground that had once been a Daedra. It shocked her, but she wasn't quite sure why. Sure, Karst knew that Saints were proud and arrogant things with a hair trigger, but from what she knew of Conjuration, summoned ones were obedient to their summoner and whatever alliances they had. Maybe they only serve the Conjurer on principle and there is no real power over the creature.

Whatever it was, the small Khajiiti halfbreed felt her heart melt as she watched Perenne lock up, then start moving silently and solemnly past the others, even as they all went into a new room to explore. Normally, she would be excited at reading the journals and looking at the map Kurrian had found, but right now, she felt the right thing to do had nothing to do with any of it. Karst made a point of making her normally soundless footsteps audible so she wouldn't startle the Breton as she came up behind and around her, then took the woman in a gentle hug.

"It's okay, babe." she whispered, a slight country-girl twang in the elven voice, "I'll have a talk with Kurrian about this, but.. is there anything I can do for you first? I've got alcohol if that'd help."

Kurrian gladly gave the map to Mick, and then looked towards the books, picking up one of them and noting it looked like a journal. He opened it and began to read through the pages, not so much to read as to get his mind off the fact he was in a room of death.

I want to go home.

"Ha! Ha, I knew there would be a vampire in there. Okay, maybe not a dead one, but still, I was right. Now the only thing missing is those angry, vampire rats," Alister exclaimed, mostly to himself. In truth, he wasn't really interested in the vampire, the corpses, or the items on the table, except for maybe the map.

Eventually, he turned around to look back at the Breton girl, and smiled brightly when he saw the Khajit girl hugging her. While he was glad to see someone paying attention to her, in truth, he was relieved that he wouldn't have to be the one to do it. Not that he didn't like the girl. Actually, out of all the people there, she was probably he one he liked the most. It was just that he was horrible at comforting people. He always managed to do something incredibly stupid or awkward that got him nothing but withering glares and dirty looks for the rest of the day.

He simply stared at them for a moment with a smile on his face before turning back towards the others and waching what they were doing. He noticed some of them sorting through some books and papers, while another was attempting to remove a stake from the coffin. He frowned at this for only a moment before reminding himself that it had been a vampire. A smile quickly returned to his face though, and he watched the group with only mild interest as he returned to his thoughts.

Dedave wrenches the stake free from the coffin. However, the vampire dust begins to pour out through the bottom, as the stake was apparently plugging the hole it had made. As the dust dissipates, Dedave notices a small golden key at the bottom of the coffin. He also notices a few Septims he missed.

Kurrian skims the journal. Apparently, it belonged to the leader of a small bandit group. They'd moved into the Cave in hopes that the legends would keep pesky adventurers out. He also mentions having a vampire in the group. The first few entries are about moving in, and setting up a base of operations around the area. The next few mention strange sounds coming from the deeper parts of the cave, and how the men are afraid to go down.

The journal then details how the leader and a few of the men finally went down to investigate... and then it degrades into paranoid babble, and something about seeing Droth getting chewed apart by The Things In The Shadows.

The last page describes a barricade the men built, and how he finds it hard to sleep at night when he can hear the scratching at its door...



The map shows that this room leads into a small tunnel, which then ends at another barricade/wall, much like the one you just entered. Beyond that there are only scribbles and monster-esque doodles.

Even when someone goes to lengths to make sure that their footsteps are heard, if a person is distracted, they may miss even the more obvious signs. Thus, it was no great surprise that Perenne, her mind still focused on replaying the fact that she was nearly killed, and just what she was doing there in the first place, didn't notice Karst approaching until the Khajiit woman actually wrapped her arms around her. She let out a startled gasp, jumping in surprise as the lightly furred arms brushed against her, about to cast a spell to destroy whatever it was that was SURELY attacking her, probably that Saint come back from Oblivion to finish its work. When her hand touched nothing but Karst, though, she let out a long, yet relieved breath, turning her gaze up to the Khajiit woman and forcing a smile.

"I'm alright... Really. Let's just... Get back to exploring this cave so we can get out of here a little richer." She said weakly, though it was obvious that she was lying to simply keep things going. Taking a step back, she slipped out of the Khajiit woman's embrace, half-heartedly flicking her wrist to throw a ball of Light down the entrance of the small tunnel that would lead to the next barricade. Thus far, they had been surprised by rats already, and they were only two rooms in, so it stood to reason that there would be more things waiting in the Darkness for them. So, she aimed to remove that Darkness before they ever got there.

... She had a feeling that she was going to be a master Illusionist by the time they left.

OOC: Oh lord, now I'm falling victim to Fallout's charms... But that atomic bomb explosion... So... delicious... :chaos:

Dedave stared at the shiny coins for several moments, his neck at an awkward angle. He quickly pocketed them however has he leaned over a small key caught his eye.
Keys mean locks, locks mean doors or chests, and those contain treasure! he thought getting ahead of himself envisioning swimming in a pool of septims while drinking from gem coated cups. He snapped back to reality when the dust caused him to sneeze and he instinctively jumped back.
"Has anyone found a lock?" he asked no one in particular still sniffling from the dust.

"You found a key, huh? We might be able to use it, this here might be a door." He tapped the paper for emphasize, pointing at the crudely drawn barricade. Mick stared at the map for a few seconds, before perking his head up, "Wait, didn't someone find a book with a lock? Ya might wanna try that?"

He turned towards the tunnel, which the Breton girl had so kindly lit up. He rolled up the paper in his hands, before turning back to the group still milling around the table. "Hey, you guys see any ink over there? I think I might wanna finish mapping this place out."

Reem studied the book, wondering whether he should force the lock, he was very interested in its contents, the tome in his hands could give the group hints about what was to come or of the fate of a previous group...

"Wait, didn't someone find a book with a lock? Ya might wanna try that?"

The Argonian jerked his head up at the voice, "Yeah got one here, pass the key over"
Reem held out his hand to Dedaves for the key.

OOC: I am more resistant to Fallout's charms. I post way more on No Mutants Allowed then here, so I got a bit jaded after going there.
IC: Jo'Shari looked at Kurrian. Kurrian appeared to be a bit shaken by the Golden Saint incident. Jo'Shari felt a bit sympathetic, but didn't act on it. Instead he walked over to the others and took a long look at the map. He noticed the child-like drawings of the old monsters. Jo'Shari smirked as it added evidence to his claims of great danger. Jo'Shari looked intently at one, trying to figure out what it was supposed to be (OOC: Lycan, your cue).

"Key" Gidave said dropping it into Reem's hand. Please be a treasure map, please be a treasure map, he repeated in his head over and over again. He was interested in what the book was, if it was worth locking it was worth opening.
"Open it" Dedave said quickly, giddy with excitement.

OOC no Fallout for me till december CoD 5 beta rocks though

also sorry for short post but its 2 in the morning and I wanna go to bed

IC
"Key"

Reem looked down at the small golden key, wondering whether it would fit into the book's lock. He didn't have much time to think,

"Open it"

Dedaves was apparently more eager than he to find out what the book contained, Reem slowly took the key and attempted to open the lock.

The group had been scavenging within the cave , and apparently a map had been found . Festus looked down at the own crude scribbling he had been doing on his parchment with dismay . "Well , alright , guess I wont have to finish drawing this up" he said whilst scrunching up the little bit of paper in his gloved hands . He threw it into the old dust filled coffin . "Whoah , watch it gramp's" he said with a grim smile , looking at the ash .

"Infact...I may just take some of that stuff . Might hold some crazy voodoo luck or something eh" . He scooped up a generous handful of the ash , and put it in one of his pouches , amongst the vials of holy water .

He waked out of the way of the group . They seemed pretty enveloped in their madness and gibbering . Festus just did'nt get it at all . This was a simple find and retrieve mission for him , and he had neither the time nor the inclination to delve into the history of some generic ragatag old bandit lair .

" Alright guys , yeah , woooOOOoooOOoo scary , a coffin!" He said cynically from the shadows as he leant against the wall , smoking his pipe and eating a little rat jerky .

"Big deal . Can we get going now? Honestly , we don't need to see all this crap"

Mick raised an eyebrow at the man complaining, opening his mouth as if to make somesort of retort. No sound came out for a few seconds before he handed the map to one of the others crowding around. He stepped out of the small congregation with a few small steps, his arms out in a wide shrug, "No..." He started, his voice thick with sarcasm, "We only broke through a door carved with 'keep out' in dozens a' different languages, most of which none has even ever seen. We only just stepped over the corpses a' thirty others that were here before us, plenty a' which never made it fifteen paces in! No, let's not bother sticking around and learning about the place, forget traps, forget whatever was making those noises in that book. Forget that this place scared a hardened bandit into being afraid of the dark for fourty years, huh?"

"Well," the Breton started, his arm pointing to the next hallway deeper into the cave, "You don't wanna stick around, head on in. Be sure to tell us how many ancient cosmic horrors and traps you see before you get yourself killed, huh?" He waved him off, then turned back towards the group with a map, mumbling an insult to the man's parentage.

The key goes to the book. Upon opening it, you found that it is the journal of Count Orlock, a vampire who found himself working with the bandits here.

The light spell travels across the cave, towards where the next door should be. However, there is no door - only a pile of jagged wood and splinters that once served a doorway.
Perenne loses 10 Sanity Points from the Golden Saint ordeal. She is now quite jumpy.

OOC : "Nosferatu" reference? Or is that Count Orlof? Maybe Im thinking of count Olaf

IC :

"Hey , fine pal , if thats the way you want it!" Festus spat , making a rude gesture at his opponent with his middle finger . Crude maybe , but hopefully effective .

"You deadbeats have your head in the sand , you know that? Yeah okay , a big scary door with warnings scraggled over it . What bandit lair doesn't do that? They dont exactly want people coming in at their leasure you know . As for the corpses , had it occured to you that they could of indeed be the bodies of other rival bandits who sought the riches this lot had? Theres nothing exceptional about it . Some bandits got irked with these guys and decided to attack them . bandits aren't the most hospitable of folk you know!"

He was really fired up now . He hadn't really realised it until now , but his method of hanging around at the back of the group had annoyed him . He was the golden eagle for septims sake! Supposed daring adventurer? He should of damn well had the stupid medallion his employer had sent him to retrieve by now . This was taking too long .

" I dont need your assistance . If anything , you lot are the real threat here . First we have the coward high elf who summons golden saint's to ease his carnal cravings because he can't get a real woman , then we have the crazy woman mage who see's to it that she chucks fireballs at anything that moves , then we have some weird khajiit-hybrid thing , and you , Mick , your just an ass"

He crudely spat on the ground . "Im out of here , Im grabbing my loot and leaving ." he snarled , making his way towards where the light spell had gone , wading through the chipped splinters and wood and deeper into the cave . But he was already regretting his words , he had already realised he might of just pushed it a bit too far , and made enemies of the group . Hopefully they would understand it as stressed ramblings and not take too much offense .

OOC : Now why did ya have to go and make him angry heheh , lone prey :chaos:

ooc: Hey, that's Karst's cue!

ic: Karst smiled a little at seeing Perenne buck up a bit, but knew she was lying when she said she was fine; when you spent most of your life doing it, you recognized the more obvious lies of others. But Karst wasn't about to push the poor woman. If she needed a shoulder to cry on, someone to talk to or just someone to watch her back, she was there. Until then, she'd let the girl be.

The Khajiit was about to go check out the journal and map when a few of the others started fighting. She sighed in annoyance. Sheogorath, these people bicker worse than any group I've ever been in before. We're gonna kill each other before whatever's in here has a chance at this rate.. When Festus mocked Perenne about being scared, though, she glared venomously. "You insolent little mother." she muttered to herself.

His arrogant manner grated on her severely since it wasn't the playful form of arrogance that she enjoyed, and she decided she wasn't even going bother pointing out how impossible it would be to get a Daedra, let alone a Golden Saint, to have six with a mortal. An urge to punch the man in the face welled in her. When Festus further insulted the rest of them, that was it. She'd had enough. If nobody else was going to attempt to keep some semblance of order, she was going to take matters into her own hands. As Festus walked off, she unslung her bow and nocked an arrow in a matter of a second, then aimed it at his back.

"No, you're not. As much as I'd normally love to pick 'your' loot off of your mutilated corpse later, you're gonna stay here 'cuz we all stand a better chance at this together. And if you refuse, I'm gonna put an arrow in your ass and ask you again." Karst said flatly, making it clear she wasn't joking. "We were gonna split whatever we got and protect each other, but if you become a threat to the others, I will put you down, asshole. Also, you ever stop to think that there was Daedric, Ayleid, Dwemer, Ta'agra and something I recognized as a Black Marsh script on that door? Do you really think that bandits would go through the trouble of doing that, or even know those languages? If you do, you're a [censored] idiot and you might just be more useful as a corpse. At least then we wouldn't have to endure your annoying immaturity and selfishness."

That said, Karst narrowed her eyes and added, her voice still relatively level, "So.. what's it gonna be? You gonna be a good boy or am I gonna have to hurt you?"