1: Monastery of the Iron God

Still disturbed from the sudden attack, Lith goes to examine whether he can recover the darts he threw at the bloodsuckers. After inspection, he turns to Edgar.
"Not really," he replies to the question about the undead, "never even saw one in my life."
The thought of an animated body trying to kill him makes the elf shudder and he tries to focus his thoughts on the iron books. They seem rather heavy, too heavy to be carried as loot. As he digs one of his nails into iron to test it out, he turns to others.
"Do you think we can sell the one with the spell and the preparation for reanimation? What could it be worth?"

His mule could probably carry one or two of those...

Lith finds that all three darts are recoverable. The iron books do seem to be made of, well, iron.

Czespecem listens at the opposite door ...

The dwarf waits by the door to listen for some time, frequently having to shush the party. Minutes tick by as he hears no noise coming from the other side of the door. Satisfied, he begins examining the door for any traps, deadly or frustrating or anything in between.

Nothing. He can't find anything. But he doesn't find anything that suggests no traps, but sometimes that's all you get in life.

Czespecem looks at Rogar, trying to assess the man's condition. The dwarf does not want to lose a man, at all. Better if someone's going to open a possibly trapped door, that it should be ... "Here, Brogan," Czespecem says, "the door seems clear of traps, and I hear nothing beyond it. Ready your spear just in case, and I'll open 'er up." He looks to the rest of the party. "When you're ready ...?"

Not looking up from his examination of the books Derrick answers the undead question, "If properly protected we should never fear the walking dead, but by the looks of this Temple proper protection was not afforded. Luckily I have brought some items to deal with them, as well as some knowledge on the subject."

A short time later he resets his shield and checks his mace, "Ready as I ever will Czespecem."

Benetolio's interest is piqued by Derrick's comment, so he approaches the iron book and uses his lantern to illuminate its pages.

The wizard spends some time studying the book looking for signs of magical writing.

OOC: I have Read Magic prepared, if you want me to attempt to use it here.

The book does indeed require a spell to interpret, even in its stone form. With some gestures and words of power, Benetolio is able to enchant his own sight with that of interpretation, specifically of magical lettering. The words and sigils begin to make sense, and he is able to determine that this is a formulae for the spell Mirror Image.

"Ah! Very interesting," Benetolio remarks to his companions. "I have heard of such spells, but their mastery is far beyond my ability." He looks up from the book to see if any of the party heard him.

He then explains what the spell does and asks for some time to copy the spell into his own book.

"Such a find is treasure indeed!"

OOC: You guys good with taking a breather here while I copy the spell into my book?

OOC: Okay, sounds good. Thanks. Cast Read Magic to scribe spell into book.

Benetolio retrieves his spellbook and begins the meticulous work of transferring the spell from the iron book into his own tome...

The passage leading from the door continues 15ft to the east, 15ft to the south, and then continues east for another 25ft. At the end, there are three options. To the north stands a 10ft long hallway leading to an open passage. To the south, the passage continues another 5ft before heading east another 20ft and turning once again south; on the southern face of the 5ft section lies a closed door.

Upon reaching the intersection, some noises can be heard echoing through the stone halls to the southeast. It is practically impossible to identify what the sounds could be, but they don't sound like voices.

"I'll take point," says the dwarf, "and Brogan can follow with spear in hand. The rest of you follow behind. Keep Rogar in the middle, I'd like him to live through this. Which way, now?"

Gripping his spear as he listens to the noises, Edgar seems perturbed. "I think we should go through the door. They're are creatures nearby that would surely do us harm, perhaps more than those we just fought. I would prefer to have a door behind me as we move further in rather than unknown creatures.

Taking his place within the marching order Derrick studies his environment as the travel, quieting his movements as much as possible upon hearing the noises down the hall. "I am not interested in having an unknown door behind us, perhaps we should take a peek inside."

Knowing that the party plans on entering through the door, or at least taking a look, Czespecem sets to work to ensure the door is safe. Ten frustrating minutes later, he can find no sign of a trap. Throughout the process, the rest of the group continues to listen to whatever the noise is, and while it seems to be coming closer it also seem to be moving quite slowly.

Behind the door is am empty room with a deep layer of dust. In one corner, the wall juts outwards to create a small and seemingly empty nook.

Czespecem immediately moves to investigate the nook.

As soon as Czespecem enters the room and passes through the center, glowing circles from the floor reveal themselves through the dust. To those other than the dwarf, it appears to be a pattern of concentric circles; the center circle is only about 2ft in diameter. Czespecem, however, is suddenly thrown into a trance, floating upwards and crossing his stubby legs in a lotus position.

Gently, Czespecem lowers to the ground and he regains some clarity of the room. His shovel appears in his hand, and the spade head gleams with a cold light and the edge seems much more keen. Whatever material it had been made from before, it is now very clearly iron. All in all, this only took a matter of seconds, not much time at all.