Emancipation

[Anastasia]

You walk ahead. Ahead is a golden door, words engraved in it.

Lo, those who seek treasure.

Lo, those who seek gold.

Low, those who seek to steal.

Be true or be cursed here, for greed undoes those who feel it.

[Corwin]

Seira whistles. "Wow, that must've been so hard to those merchants!"

And to be clear about this, tells Elle and Kascha, "This is an exploration. If we actually find something we want, we'll consider later whether dealing with curses is worth our while."

[Anastasia]

"The question is how strong a curse is it?" Kascha wonders aloud, "Can it affect us as we are now?"

Elle chuckles, "If someone made something this hard to reach, let's assume it can." Taking a breath after and straightening her shoulders, tossing her hair after, "There had better be a few spells worth risking it in here."

"I'd settle for a grimoire." Kascha says, "A good book or two." Smiling as she reads the door, "This would be an incredible refuge if we can make it fully safe for ourselves."

[Corwin]

"I was just thinking that," Seira agrees. "And it has doors all over the Inner Planes at the very least. Imagine a capability similar to the Infinite Staircase! I'm pretty excited!"

She opens the door, exploring!

[Anastasia]

The door opens. Ahead are...vast chasms, golden walkways criss crossing above them. Below lie vast piles of gold, gems, jewelry, treasure and more. Weapons and armor are in heaps, magical trinkets and tomes all below. It goes on for thousands of feet, the far end visible in the distance.  The walkways all interconnect, letting you see from above.

Kascha's gasp is followed by Elle chanting, working away.

Taking 10 on Spellcraft.

"There's curses here by the dozens," she remarks slowly, "No, the hundreds, no the..." she closes her eyes, "Too many curses."

[Corwin]

Seira examines the curses herself. She can count better than Elle due to offloading some of the process to her avatar, and a better estimate is in order. Tens of thousands? Millions? Trillions? She also decides to check what the ten strongest curses are and how strong they are.

[Anastasia]

K:A and Spellcraft, this is definitely an occasion that calls for it. +5 bonus to both due to a recent talk with Mystra that happened to be on point.

[Corwin]

K:A 10 for 142 (Divine Insight), Spellcraft 10 for 128 (Divine Insight)

[Anastasia]

There's dozens of curses laid over the ground - from weakness of mind and body to paralysis to bad luck to so many more. What's worse is that every coin, every gem, every treasure is individually cursed. There's a tremendous dark magic in the air, a malice that poisons everything here.

[Corwin]

"This will be a great teaching moment," Seira muses. "Are you two needed elsewhere for today? My avatar will mind the regular business at the Cauldron, but I'd like the three of us to methodically map out the artifacts and curses to make a proper index. The main goal is to make sure there's nothing else hidden, and no presence keeping an eye out on things. Then, come tomorrow, I'll show you the spell Mystra taught me to properly discern the origins of curses. I doubt we'll ever get a chance to practice in an environment as diverse as this one. What do you say?"

[Corwin]

I do want to know the strengths of the curses (both in general and for the strongest few), as well as whether any other magic is present.

[Anastasia]

A general curse here is CL25 and equal to greater bestow curse. It only gets worse from there. If this isn't the work of a deity, it's a work of an extraordinarily powerful creature or malice. If it's a force, it may be just as well for Creation that it stayed in here.

The worst curses are a few like this:

You will lose one hit point per minute until you return the items you took from the vault as well as items worth triple the value of what you stole in addition. Damage done this way can't be healed. A wish or miracle spell that succeeds on a DC 50 caster level check can undo it.

The moment you pick up the item to take it, you suffer 300 points of vile, searing fire damage.

When you are under this curse, you suffer a -16 penalty to all ability scores. This curse lasts until you return the item you took.

"This'll be great," Kascha says, taking out her book, "There's so much to be learned."

Elle merely goes to look down at the treasure, "I'd be a fool to say no. If we can claim even a fraction of this treasure, we'll be doing fine."

[Corwin]

"Follow me, then! We'll map out this place and then split up."

Intention is to ensure there are no hidden doorways and so on, nothing concealed that true seeing and blindsight can spot, etc.

Also, a question. Are there any curses not tied directly to an item? Something 'global'? Are there any curses that trigger if the curse on one of the items is triggered or removed?

[Anastasia]

Yes. There's a handful that are global and a lot more that are individualized.

Feel free to ask for details or followups, and give me a quick Perception too.

As you go, Kascha adds, "Don't get too far, and we should look into protections. Are there spells that stop curses?" Kascha asks, "A strong curse can be hard to get rid of."

[Corwin]

"I'm actually not sure, but it wouldn't be very exciting, would it? Kind of like warding yourself against every type of magic before going out to a duel~"

Seira winks at Kascha, adding, "Don't worry, I can break any curse here if I put my mind to it. It's just that it would be better to practice some and then find a way to remove the conditions that lead to the curse in the first place."

Taking 10 for 105.

How many are global and what's their CL? If there's less than a dozen, can you tell me in brief what each does?