Wormwood resists some of Bekassine's spell, though she is still chilled by the magic. Aurelia misses with her attacks, but Yarth lands both of his hits, badly wounding the hellspawn. She startles when Horace calls out from the room behind her, sparing a quick glance over her shoulder. She then turns back and growls,
"Keep it! My life is worth more!" She then casts a spell, disappearing in a flash of light as she teleports away!
With Wormwood gone, there's nothing stopping you from going through these rooms and gathering up all you can find. The writing desk in her office contains several historical texts about Vyre as well as a half dozen or so books on occult magic, but the valuable books in this collection consist of two tomes in particular. One is the book Lady Wormwood is currently researching—a thick, densely written tome called
An Investigation Into the Enduring Allure of the Hearth, a dry and repetitive work by a priest of Erastil who was obsessed with harnessing the powers of nostalgia and longing for one’s hometown. While the book is somewhat of a slog to read, it does contain the formula for two rituals—
collective memories and
gathering call.OOC:
The writing makes it difficult to learn these rituals, unfortunately—a PC must succeed at a DC 36 check to Learn a Spell for either of these rituals. The book is worth 300 gp.
The second valuable book is Lady Wormwood’s journal—an equally densely written (but much better organized and engaging) book that chronicles her frustrations at being ousted from the Dragonfly Society and catalogs over a hundred people whom she’s spent time obsessively stalking and collecting material about. The most recent entries include you and your new association with Gideon. It’s obvious that scrying is the primary method Augusta favors in gathering this information, but it notes she hasn’t directly observed you yet. This book also contains the formulas for
binding circle and
call spirit.OOC:
These can both be learned at the typical DC for rituals of their rank. This journal is worth 120 gp.
A few other treasures lie about the room as well. A
spell duelist’s siphon sits on the nightstand by the bed. The armoire contains dozens of fine outfits and clothing worth a total of 150 gp in all (and constituting 6 Bulk of clothing); a wonderful gold-and-diamond broach depicting a peacock with human faces worth 2,600 gp sits in the pocket of a long lavender-and-yellow coat. A small wooden coffer below the outfits in the armoire contains a scroll of
scrying, a scroll of
teleport (at 7th rank), two
panaceas, and a taxidermy mouse with emerald eyes worth 250 gp. A fine oil painting depicting dancing humanoid wolves eating screaming pigs has been placed in the back of the armoire behind the clothes. This painting is worth 1,000 gp and is signed by Delmonia Crape.
The final, and perhaps most important, stash of magic items here lies within the crate, which Horace has gathered up: a crooner’s cravat, a herald’s ring, a mocker’s swazzle, a scene stealer’s tunic, a pair of spectacles of discernment, a stage magician’s cloak, and a tumbler’s belt.
In the previous room, you are also able to find valuable items among the overwhelming collection of junk and clutter: a gold ring set with sapphires worth 1,200 gp tucked into a doublet’s hidden pocket, a wand of
teleport bundled along with a set of a dozen fine chopsticks (the chopstick collection is worth 30 gp), and a set of
+2 greater striking handwraps of mighty blows wrapped around a human femur.
