Both of Tirial's shots miss, so Horan gets away.
The first chest contains a wide variety of clothing, coins, and other items. Some of them are magical. It appears that these three would sometimes kill people and keep anything of value in this chest. There's probably an exit above the chimney where at least the smaller two could get out to hunt. It's evident that the warm air from the forges slowly moves up and out of this chimney. But, it looks like they either haven't been at it for too long, or had difficulty doing so based on the amount of good clothing and other items in the chest. If they had been at it for years, it would seem that they should have acquired more goods. It's likely that they only did it occasionally to supplement the Beholders' diet of fish from the water and possibly on occasion for some other nefarious reasons known only to Horan and the Beholder.
The second chest contains 150 GP worth of Sanctified Incense and certain other ritual apparatuses and what appears to be some form of robes dedicated to the Shadow. It's likely that Horan was either performing rituals, or about to do so.
It's also a good guess that one or both of the Beholders actually ate whomever they captured. It's likely that there might be some body parts in the murky water. The arm in the basket has a signet ring on one finger. However, the design is unfamiliar to everyone.
After checking out the area, it's also noticeable that this is a small temple dedicated to the Shadow. Horan's Spiritual Weapon spell visibly displayed as a quarterstaff, so that pretty much guarantees that he is a worshipper of the Shadow.
The water is also fairly unsavory. It's likely that anyone who would have fallen into it might have gotten sick doing so.
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I will be posting experience in the next day or two. Everyone will be leveling to level 6 (I think. I’m pretty sure of that, but I don’t have the XP numbers in front of me).
If you do not have a wish list, please PM me with anything that you might want at this level. The parcels for this level will be in the first chest.
Because RickRoll and Farce are MIA, I'm going to cut to the chase here. I was originally going to run a skill challenge to get down the rock wall, but since Artemus and Boruuk are such good climbers, I'll just rule that everyone ties everyone else together and the group slowly makes its way down the rock.
If we want to continue the adventure, the PCs themselves will need to enter the Tavern and recruit other PCs since there is no patron. It would be best to have a 5 PC group.
The players can proceed directly to the Tavern right away unless anyone wants to roleplay a conversation here. Tirial and Boruuk will not be heading to the Tavern.
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