Prologue - Death House

The thought of being trapped even more so than they are now sends chills up Narissa’s spine, "I will be happy to stay and assist if needed."

"Aye, we'll keep an eye out for a mechanism to open the door on the other side. We'll knock three times from the inside if we need to get out."

Amalthea readies her shield and warhammer once again and leads the way with Abraham following with his torch and Taniwha's sharp eyes and darkvision.

Amalthea, Abraham, and Taniwha find that beyond the secret door is a narrow room not wider than the doorway leading into it. This room is another, smaller library the size of a large walk-in closet. The walls are packed with bookshelves, and the subject matter here is markedly more sinister: rituals for demon summoning and necromancy, all dedicated to something called the Cult of Osybus. Against the back (south) wall of the tiny library is a skeleton in battered leather armor. The corpse has its head stuck in a heavy wooden chest with clawed iron feet.

The righthand (west) wall bulges a bit, since this is the wall the stovepipe passes through. The door will stay open as long as Drina and Narissa keep the lever pushed down.

Abraham will see if he can find a book about this cult in general, since it suddenly seems a great deal more relevant. "I wonder if this cult is still a factor?"

"The suspense is killing us....what have you found? Remember to keep your eye out for something that might need a key." Drina exchanged arms as she held the book pulled forward.

"I can switch you out when you need," Narissa offers, "just say when."

Abraham peruses the books, but none of them seem to contain any information about the cult itself. In fact, the author assumes that the reader is already a part of the cult, because who else would have access to these texts? He does learn that members of the cult are called Priests, and that they seem awfully focused on rituals that draw forth and bind the souls of their enemies.

Following Abraham into the small room Taniwha starts flexing his hands and rubbing them together as he spies the books, he takes a few quick breaths before busying himself. Keeping his hood pulled up he scans the small room looking for anything that stands out, something out place or not just fitting.

With the question from Drina he grunts back, "There’s more books, darker books."

"Eh, I see a wooden chest in here. Looks like the poor inhabitant already opened it though so we probably don't need the key for that. Hope it wasn't the old master of the house..."

Keeping far away from the suspicious chest and skeleton, Amalthea carefully watches for movement from them.

Taniwha and Amalthea don't see any movement from the skeleton nor the chest, but they do see that there are a few darts lodged in the corpse's armor and ribcage. Taniwha, educated in such traps, spies the mechanism tucked in a corner of the chest and realizes that it's empty of darts. In fact, based on the dust and corrosion, it looks like the trap has been harmless for centuries.

Abraham will read over the texts, letting the others go about their business with the trap.

"Poor sucker." Taniwha mutters as he moves the open the chest, ever curiosity and thrill of discovery driving him forward.

Taniwha has to move the skeleton to get to the multiple items in the chest, which turn out to be several books and scrolls. The three books are bound in black leather and blank; they could probably go for 25 gp each.

The rest of the items are scrolls: three of them are clearly magic by the way the letters squirm and shift under Taniwha's gaze, unreadable; one is the deed to the house; one is the deed to a windmill; and the last is a signed will bequeathing everything in this chest and all other family property to Rosavalda and Thornboldt Durst in the event of their parents' deaths.

After all this, Taniwha notices a final scroll clutched in the bony hand of the corpse. This one is bears a shiny red seal, but it's not the Dursts'. Instead, this crest depicts a raven in flight before a cameo of a gloomy castle in the distance.

As Taniwha moves around the chest with no issue, Amalthea comes to peek around to see what he has found.

"Oh dear, I wonder if Rosavalda and Thornboldt were who we met up front..."

As her eyes are also caught by the shiny red seal, she takes a quick look around at the cult books Abraham has been checking on and see if they match anything he has looked over.