He drops.

"So, we're allowed to take his stuff, right?"

"Yes, absolutely, though take some care that it is not going to explode you." Time to mop up zombies ho hum.

The zombies do not seem aware of his presence and can trivially be mopped up. (Woljif and Nenio will start looking through the shop for valuables.)

He will help search the place once the souls in the zombies can all move on to wherever isn't a zombie.

Magic glaive! Sleeves of Many Garments! Spellbook! Crate full of scrolls of miscellaneous necromancy spells! Crate full of potions! Crates full of miscellaneous spell components! Crate full of so much onyx! Tract arguing that all the great heroes of the crusade were secretly necromancers, starting with Queen Galfrey; the writer apparently believes that the secret of her immortality is that she is secretly a lich. (This claim is straightforwardly illegal in Mendev.)

The necromancer seems to have been mostly avoiding magic items that would by necessity draw attention — a wizard of his strength could certainly have afforded a headband, but he couldn't have worn it without it raising questions about how he afforded it — but there are plenty of consumables. No diamonds, or anything else that costly, but one of the crates has some diamond dust.

"What a shame. It does not appear that he recorded the results of his experiments."

"You had implied that necromancy did not interest you as a field." Are the potions identifiable? Are any of the scrolls useful if you do not wish to make zombies?

"Necromantic spells are uninteresting, but it seems that necromancer boy's creations were quite unusual! I am very curious how he created zombies that were so much more useless than the standard variety."

Some of the scrolls are for necromancy spells that don't actually create undead, like Blindness or False Life or Fear (or Contagion; Nenio reports cheerfully that he seems to have found a way to modify the spellform to inflict ghoul fever). The potions can be identified if he takes some time to look over them; some of them are things like Inflict Light Wounds or Protection from Law, but there are plenty of more-likely-useful staples like Shield of Faith or Invisibility.

The zombies seemed pretty fucking useless to Blai but he is not well-calibrated on the standard issue.

They will have to take everything back, he's not sure what's to be destroyed and what's useful (the bartender, for instance, might want the Inflict potions). Stuff they can use themselves gets distributed first and then stuff they just need to haul so it doesn't fall into wronger hands according to carrying capacity.

...Even the tract? Seelah doesn't feel right about spreading that kind of lie.

"Ah, yes, and what could be more important than the feelings of my dear cousin?"

"I don't know if the prescribed procedure is to burn it on sight or to hand it in to the authorities so that at least in theory someone can track down whoever wrote and whoever scrivened it," Blai explains. "I do not mean to host a dramatic reading on a street corner."

"I guess that's okay."

And once they're loaded up they can depart via the smashed door and head back to the Defender's Heart somewhat encumbered.

Up ahead of them, someone darts around a corner, wearing the poorly-fitting uniform of a crusader and a helmet in a completely different style.

Wonders never cease. When they reach the corner is this personage still visible?

Yes. He looks nervously at Blai and Seelah, and... less nervously at the Count, for some reason?

Up close, he appears to match the description they were given for the missing Desnan mage, apart from the fact that mages generally don't go around wearing armor.

"...Thall?" Blai asks, after a moment to dredge up the name. "We are not interested in an arrest."

"You're not with Hulrun?"

"I've been reporting to Ser Tirabade and don't even know where the Prelate is. I have not adopted hunting Desnans as a priority in my life."

He relaxes fractionally.

"He was right behind me. I managed to lose him for the moment, but I'm not sure how long I can keep up running in this disguise..."

"Well. I mean to have a word with him should I encounter him, and have no reason to detain you. Good day."

Fortunately, Hulrun seems amenable to making that easy! Here he is, coming around a different corner, accompanied by three other inquisitors. His face has less of the greyish tint from their first meeting.

"Thall the Wallflower! You are under arrest for treason, trespassing in a military installation, sabotaging military infrastructure, unlawful flight from custody, and resisting arrest."