<strong><span class="bbc_size" style="font-size: 14pt;">SENTHAYNATRIX LITERATOR</span></strong>(http://www.myth-weavers.com/sheet.html#id=563156)<br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Statblock</div><div class="spoiler_body">Female Neutral Kobold Alchemist, Level 1, Init 2, HP 8/8, Speed 20 (30)<br/>AC 15, Touch 13, Flat-footed 13, CMD 10, Fort 2, Ref 4, Will 1, CMB -2, Base Attack Bonus 0   <br/>  Light Crossbow (10 normal, 5 iron, 5 silver (carried, rest in pack)) +3 (1d6, 19-20/x2)<br/>  Morningstar 0 (1d6, x2)<br/>Cold Iron Dagger, Cold Iron (1) 0 (1d3, 19-20/x2)<br/>  Lamellar Cuirass (+2 Armor, +2 Dex, +1 Size)<br/>Abilities Str 8, Dex 14, Con 10, Int 18, Wis 12, Cha 10<br/>Condition: doing her Mission Impossible impression</div></div><br/><br/><br/>"A cabal of<em>necromancsserss</em>..." The little kobold scowls after the professor's excerpts are read.<br/><br/>Enlarge that scowl by a factor of fifty and she'd be fearsome. Instead, with her tiny height, glasses and all, she just looks pouty.<br/><br/>"<em>That</em>would exsssplain the Professor's choicsse of reading material." She twists her wrist, so, and a ridiculously small and slender knife flicks into her gloved hand...Hardly a toothpick. Senthaynatrix uses the narrow blade to point, not letting her fingers dip into the small chest itself. "Judging from the s-symbols on their coverss, these two holy textss appear to be dedicated to godss with<em>ssome</em>bearing on the topic," she points at the top one..."Urgathoa, the<em>firsst</em>undead, goddesss of gluttony, dis-sease,<em>and</em>necromancy.<em>Not</em>pleassant reading, I would dare s-say. Thiss other texsst is dedicated to Zon-Kuthon, the pain-prince. A god of torturerss, murdererss, and s-sadists."<br/><br/>The kobold glances around the room. "Quite evil. For reas-sons besst left as an exersscise for the sstudent, their wors-sshiperss are, ssss,<em>unpopular</em>in mosst landss. These are not what I s-should conssider<em>light</em>reading." She flicks the tip of the tiny knife to the black tome and the purple one. "Of coursse, they<em>might</em>be s-something elsse entirely, but why label a romance novel with the holy ssymbol of a dark god?" She gives her head a tiny shake. "Thesse otherss are not exssternally marked."<br/><br/>Senthaynatrix looks almost shocked for a moment when Aesa returns with her kit, then ducks her horned head as she levers the heavy case (it probably weighs almost as much as she does...Not that she weighs much) up onto the table next to the small chest. "<em>Thank</em>you, coussin. Thank you<em>very</em>kindly." From the sound and look of it, she's hardly used to having such help.<br/><br/>Probably doesn't have a TA back at the university.<br/><br/>The kobold puts her dagger away and opens the case to reveal, among other things, a rather carefully and tightly packed array of arcane glassware, bizzarely blown retorts and bottles filled with peculiar-looking liquids and powders. In addition to all of the carefully-crafted lab gear, there is a box of glass tubes and rods, presumably for connecting things. Everything is fastidiously clean, set in its own carven place and very securely packed...Clearly the possessions of someone almost obsessively organized. Senthaynatrix picks out a small leather roll of assorted tools and flicks it open on the tabletop, revealing an array that includes everything from watchmakers tools to slender jemmies and a variety of tempered lockpicks that seem oddly out of place amidst a scholar's accoutrements.<br/><br/>Senthaynatrix hops up on the table and selects a thin knife from the tool-roll, one made from a flattened and polished rod of glass. She also carefully extracts some type of a bird-quill that has had a curved length of very fine, tempered wire set in its tip. The little kobold studies the three unlocked books carefully, then leans the side of her head against the small chest, closing her eyes and listening while dragging the wire between the closed covers and pages of the uppermost book with the feather barely held in hand for fear it should snag on some resistance. Once finished, she lifts the covers only the tiny thickness of the blade before repeating the test on random pages. She even sweeps her probe between each of the books before lifting out the top tome gingerly, as if wary of any tug or resistance, and moving on to the next. Once they're all flat on the table, she gently probes at the spines of the books with the flat of her knife, then taps carefully, listening for variations in the faint pinging sound made by the glass knife's impact. Her movements are smooth and familiar, and extremely procedural...She's obviously done this many, many times before with other suspect books.<br/><br/>On the other hand, she's taking forever. At the rate she's going, she won't have even touched all four books in a quarter hour...And she still hasn't actually opened a single one of them.<br/><br/>"I s-should imagine the unmarked book,<em>and</em>the locked one, are of s-similarly dark conssern. Mosst likely the locked texsst will require<em>s-special</em>care in itss opening. I believe my abilitiess s-should be up to the tassk." She pauses with her hands and tools well away from the books and regards Aesa soberly, "As-s<em>unpleassant</em>as ssuch knowledge may be, the notes-s sscircled in our dear friend'ss diary ssuggest that what iss within<em>may</em>bear relevanssce to hiss demis-se...as well as<em>your</em>ssafety, Lady Kendra." She nods to her old friend's daughter.<br/><br/>"I s-should als-so note that I am not...<em>exsscesssively</em>familiar with the texssts of Urgathoa and Zon-Kuthon, but what I do know iss dissquieting<em>enough</em>. If any<em>otherss</em>take these textss up, read at your peril and do<em>not</em>exsspect resstful ssleep."<br/><br/><div class="spoiler_container"><div class="spoiler_header" onclick="hideSecond (this);" role="button">Taking 20</div><div class="spoiler_body">Taking 20 on attempting to find traps. Senthaynatrix doesn't have any special trapfinding abilities, so it's just 20 + perception + any bonus for having the proper tools (Do MW thieves' tools (+2) count for this sort of thing? Because oh god does she ever have the proper tools. She's practically bat-kobold). On the other hand, she does have Disable Device, and if she finds anything she'll be taking 20 on that, too...Tools and all, but this time at + 6 for the skill for a total of 28.</div></div>