A few minutes later, the rest of the party returns, minus one ogrekin.

"Come on, people, stick close and follow our instructions and we'll get you home."

From there, the acid-skulls are activated again by Oriana but forewarning and the improvised cover stops them from doing any damage.

The prisoners gawp at the signs of fighting, the acid marks and bloodstains, and emerge blinking out into the sunlight.

"Somebody's gotta keep an eye on this lot on the way out or else they'll rush the walls of Gray and get themselves mistaken for an undead horde. Me and Caron can take care of that. The rest of you want to see if there's anything worth confiscating in those warrens, or call it quits and leave the clean-up to the Pharasmins?"

"There's still one more animated golem, trapped, I want to make sure it doesn't kill anyone. Still a bit anxious about using fire for it given the warnings."

"It is in the storeroom of an alchemy lab," Vavana agrees. "Perhaps we should search the lab and the library and the necromancer's hovel, on the off-chance that this derro had the kind of madness that includes meticulously cataloguing the weaknesses of his golems and the inventory of his storeroom, ordered by flammability. At the very least, he may have kept some scrolls for dealing with his unruly creations."

"Hmm. Quite. I'm used to the lootables being, uh, ancient forts and tombs and stuff, not right under a city, but kidnappers and necromancers certainly should not keep the goodies. I can't identify local scrolls."

Fortunately Vavana can! The lootables turn out to include:

- 3 doses of vermin repellent
- 2 tanglefoot bags
- 4 doses of black adder venom
- 3 doses of blue whinnis
- 2 doses of silversheen
- 3 potions of Cure Moderate Wounds
- 1 potion of Lesser Restoration
- 1 potion of Invisibility
- 2 scrolls of False Life
- 1 scroll of Dispel Magic
- 1 scroll of Identify
- 1 scroll of Command Undead
- Assorted jewelry
- A Traveler's Any-Tool
- A Handy Haversack, bigger on the inside and no heavier for its contents
- A Ring of Protection, of the weakest variety
- A Robe of Bones, lightly used and heavily stained
- A wand of Ghoul Touch
- The necromancer's spellbook, which includes a comprehensive collection of cantrips
- A library full of books on necromancy and golemcraft
- A strange two-spouted funnel
- A strange broken knife with a key-shaped blade
- The suit of enchanted studded leather armor worn by the jailer, though he's unlikely to cooperate with its removal and remains strapped to the table

In the library, Vavana studies a heavily dog-eared book that relates to the crafting of the carrion golems.

"Aha! Any magical freezing will slow the golem down, and a Gentle Repose could make it completely helpless for a short time. Are you able to evoke ice as well as fire?"

She might want to put a bid on the ring.

Vavana is reminding her of Sinnah a bit more, but that's maybe just association with 'studying magic'. She peers over a scroll and... Yep, total nonsense. That bit almost looks kind of like a rune? But... If you started casting from there, it would just explode...

...Sigh. Looking at cool magic stuff has kind of lost its luster for her ever since she learned that she can't actually learn magic beyond activating scrolls, like most kitsunes can't, due to friggin' Tamamo...

"...Well, illusory ice. But the thing where if I, uh, texture it? The right way? My illusions of walls are real enough to actually stop physical projectiles, or nets to actually catch people- We still think of them as illusions, because they're inherently temporary magical fake objects, and affected by magic that interacts with illusions the same way- There's a spell called 'suppress illusions and invisibility' and one called 'dispel illusions and invisibility', I think probably were specifically designed to counter kitsunes, ugh- But I could make illusory liquid air that will indeed make it actually cold, that might count?"

"Liquid air? Ah, by the texturing you probably mean infusing your illusions with material from the Plane of Shadow to make them quasi-real, it's a very versatile mode of casting. In any case, that should be effective against it."

"It's kind of instinctive and kitsune magics are not especially well studied. Too much chaos in our average nature to cooperate with that, I suspect? Oh, sure, most things can freeze or evaporate just like water. It just takes some wild temperatures."

They can go do that, then?

She quietly pads up to boarded-up storage room. Illusory liquid nitrogen rains from the roof of the lab onto the monstrosity, with just enough LOX mixed in to not create a suffocation hazard. That room is going to be positive pressure, though, air rushing through any available crack as the added liquid evaporates and raises the pressure inside.

The carrion golem notices the freezing rain, roaming the room and roaring mournfully like a wounded animal, but it lacks the intellect to try and break free from the barrier. Instead it smashes the last few intact shelves and then curls in on itself, slowly freezing solid. 

With that, other then the otyugh hiding in its midden pit, the Dead Warrens have been cleared of threats. 

Rest in pieces, poor, horrible thing. Rest in pieces.

They can leave now, right? The gloom and stench are depressing.

Yes, they can leave.

Outside, the rescued prisoners have almost finished being checked over by the pharasmin priestess at one of the gates out of Gray. Once she is satisfied that none of them are secretly undead, she channels positive energy and a burst of magical healing spreads from her to encompass everyone, healing the wounds of combat and captivity. 

"Go now, until your appointed ends."

Oriana has been giving the priestess her report of the party's delve into the tunnels, and at Vavana and Weiss' reappearance she calls them over. 

"Cleared it all out? What else did you find?"

"Some magic items, some poisons, a few potions and scrolls, spellbook and robes. I think Vavana made a proper list. And one, uh, prisoner I suppose? I want to put a bid out of the collective pot, however we're doing that, for the ring of protection. And if any of you have ideas on where I could buy something really good against enchantments I would really appreciate it- There's no good way around a particularly popular one back home, and I really don't like being under it."

"Which enchantment is that?" Vavana asks. She tries not to make her interest too obvious.

"A wand of Protection from whatever alignment you're most concerned about - Chaos? - would be my first suggestion. That would cost me about 400 gold in materials, and around the same again for my time. Provided the alignment matches the caster of a charm or compulsion, it gives a second chance to shake it off and protects from any more attempts to exert active mental control for a minute.

"Otherwise, the worst item for an enchanter to face that my studies have turned up is a Seducer's Bane bracelet. It gives as much protection against enchantments as the very best Cloaks of Resistance, and allows you to sense who just targeted you with an enchantment that you resisted, and gives the caster the false impression that their casting was a success!"

She smooths down her exasperation. Vavana is not bitter at all about how her favored school can so easily be countered, even by creatures not inherently immune to it. Protection from Evil alone is almost enough to make her try for True Neutral.

"That would cost around 10,000 gold, it would have to be commissioned from someone who knows Magic Aura. Togomor, maybe, if we present the library to him as a gift he might be amenable to that."

"Look, this sounds like a conversation for a tavern, not a graveyard. How about we make tracks, deliver our reports so somebody else can handle the clean-up, and meet at the Shoreline Drinkhall for spirits and loot-splitting?"

"We just call it 'charm'. I think it's subtly different than 'Charm Person', though it does also work only on people. It's a spell-like ability with no easy counters and lasts days or weeks."

She takes the opportunity to shift back since the mission is Officially Over.

"Ooh, that sounds perfect. Turn it back on 'em. If pricey. And yeah, job done, time to move on?"

"There's no smoke rising from the tomb and we have your names if there are any unacceptable damages down there. You can go."

On their way over, Vavana has several more questions about this 'charm'. Purely academic, of course.

Well, it's specifically sexual/romantic in flavor, and remarkably pleasant- Enough that some people actually ask to be put under it, reportedly. Though it also causes trouble when used maliciously or carelessly. She talks around which people, precisely, get this spell-like ability.

"Intriguing. That does sound more like a supernatural ability, it's said that the bite of a vampire or the kiss of a succubus can be addictively pleasurable even as they drain the victim's life. There are spells here known to induce lust, and some very powerful ones that drown targets in pleasure like Waves of Ecstasy, but what you describe could perhaps be a lower-circle version, more subtle and less overwhelming."

The prurient aspects, and Weiss' evasiveness, both seem to be lost on her. She unconsciously traces her fingers through the air, trying to intuit how such a spell could be stabilized.

The Shoreline Drinkhall is not too busy at this time of day, but busier than would be expected for most taverns. Many of the patrons wear the uniform of the Korvosan guard, starting or ending their shifts, and more than a few grumbling conversations cease at the sight of Oriana in her new armor. She pointedly ignores them and takes a seat, making a gesture to a barmaid that apparently suffices for an order because a half-dozen glasses of strong-smelling port are swiftly served up. 

The food here is less appealing, dense bread and stodgy dumplings with a greasy meat gravy to soften them in. 

"Juice or cider, please? -Well, anyway, one less necromancer, horray! Can't imagine doing that while knowing full well how evil it is..."