The top of the chest opens, and the skeleton's torso falls out, held together by its leather cuirass. Several darts are stuck into its chest, piercing the leather. A closer inspection finds them covered in a long since dried green substance, some kind of poison. But Kellon can see the trap mechanism inside the chest, and it seems it was never reloaded. Perhaps the Dursts were long dead when this unfortunate adventurer wandered in alone.

Within the chest are three books with black leather covers, their pages blank. They seem to be personal journals of excellent quality, completely unused, and might fetch a few coins. Unlike most jewels and gaudy trinkets here, they do have practical value... assuming the locals are literate. Deeper inside are the deed to the house and the deed to a windmill and the surrounding acres west of the village of Barovia, as well as a signed will and testament from Elisabeth and Gustav Durst, leaving their properties to Rosavalda and Thornboldt Durst in the event of their deaths. Underneath the legal documents are a trio of scrolls rolled up in leather cases.

Spoiler: Kellon Arcana
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The scrolls are of bless, protection from poison, and spiritual weapon.


And then there are the skull and other bones of the adventurer, having fallen apart into the chest. Kellon spots, clutched in its detached skeletal hand, a letter that its previous fleshy owner failed to pluck from the chest before he or she died.

Spoiler: The Letter
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My most pathetic servant,
I am not a messiah sent to you by the Dark Powers
of this land. I have not come to lead you on a path to
immortality. However many souls you have bled on your
hidden altar, however many visitors you have tortured
in your dungeon, know that you are not the ones who
brought me to this beautiful land. You are but worms
writhing in my earth.
You say that you are cursed, your fortunes spent. You
abandoned love for madness, took solace in the bosom
of another woman, and sired a stillborn son. Cursed by
darkness? Of that I have no doubt. Save you from your
wretchedness? I think not. I much prefer you as you are.

Your dread lord and master,
Strahd van Zarovich