And once he has, what about the strong mixed aura? Or pair of auras, if that was actually two strong auras too close together to tell apart.

The container with the strong abjuration and transmutation aura has no observable effect when opened.

Again to Tomas, then. She was worried a little about this one, between the abjuration and the strange blended aura. Hopefully it turns out to be nothing problematic.

"An ounce of stone salve. An item with multiple functions—it can reverse petrification as flesh to stone or duplicate the effect of a stoneskin spell. Expensive for a consumable. It's not a common item."

"A scroll of Stoneskin would sell for... six hundred and some Absalom pounds, and a scroll of Flesh to Stone between eight hundred and one thousand, if memory serves and they are not too atypical for their circle other than components. I presume this costs more than that to create? It does indeed seem suboptimal, but perhaps the Thassilonians had a better design for it or a worse design for scrolls, or something similar."

Back in.

And on to the ten combined auras! Do these things explode?

They do not. The container holds ten cubes of waxy amber substance.

That would explain the ten auras.

To Tomas to identify them. If these are individually valuable, this could be more valuable than everything else in that room combined, and a moderate aura does suggest that. With ten examples to look at, she could probably figure it out, but best to leave it to the expert.

"Hmm. I'm not sure exactly what they do. Very nonstandard. I think you split each cube in half and plug your ears with the wax. They help you resist against charms and compulsions? But only compulsions that are linguistic in nature. It probably has a limited duration."

"Intriguing. And possibly valuable, both as a unique item construction which someone might find valuable and as ten distinct copies of a magic item. On to the next?"

And once they have all returned and are safe from whatever is coming, on to one of the evocation auras! They all seem similar enough, so she will start with the closest to the door.

The evocation container explodes in a fireball the moment Lhín opens it.

Lhín has many advantages from being made of shadow. Surviving massive amounts of energy is not one of them. She dives for cover, gets herself halfway behind the door— for most familiars, it would be enough.

Unfortunately, the same force that binds her to her elf's dreams binds her more tightly to the world while she is in it. She cannot evade as a typical familiar would be able to. The fire catches her and scours her from existence.

"That one was explosive, it seems. And Lhín could not survive the explosion. I will recall her in the morning. Do we wish to example the remaining evocation bottles, or better to assume them identical?"

"I think that's enough evidence to cease poking them. We probably have all of the magical stuff."

"Alchemical objects can be valuable without any visible magic, but this certainly seems like enough to disregard the other evocation jars. Do you see a safe method to explore the nonmagical ones, in case they too react to being opened? They may also have magic, the detection-blocking wards clearly did not hold on those particular alchemical containers but they may have on other ones."

"Oh, interesting. Some of the wards failed in this area specifically. We can sort through the nonmagical alchemical components later. Let's check the next room."

"Makes sense to me."

Onwards, then. Julen gets to open the door, as usual.

Six stone platforms draped with white sheets stand in this room, with manacles affixed to the four corners of each. What appears to be a metallic bookstand stands at the foot of each platform—one of these stands still holds a large leather tome. The walls are painted a soft, soothing blue.

As always, she begins with a Detect Magic. The manacles look somewhat ominous, but appearing ominous does not necessarily imply any magic. These ones might just be for restraining test subjects or something like that.

The manacles are not magical. The large leather tome possesses a faint transmutation aura. There's a magical scroll on one of the bookstands; it possesses a moderate illusion aura.

"The tome is magic, minor transmutation, as is something on that bookshelf, moderate illusion. Items or spells, as usual. I see no evident traps — Tomas?"

Tomas studies the tome and the scroll. "The tome is magically preserved with an unguent of timelessness. It has no other magical properties. The object on the bookshelf is a scroll of dream."

"I suppose we take the scroll and remove the sheets on case they hide something, and then move on if not?"