Now that Mathius isn't being disturbed by people castin spells outside his door, he settles down with his chosen book on Mentem. He has been studying it for a few hours when he takes a break for refreshment. As he walks around the workshop his gaze falls upon the door to the interior and the armour within.
He stops suddenly - he remembers something important. He dashes into the room, and there sits a sealed chest covered with house Verditius markings. He cries aloud "How could I have forgotten such a treasure? What must my predecessor think of me?" He tries to pull the chest forward into the light more, and starts to examine the markings on it in detail.
(Assuming that he can't work out a way to open it from his examination, he will attempt some spont InHe spells to determine how to open it.)
As soon as Mathius touches it, there are a series of clicks from the inside the chest, and finally one loud >clack!< noise. The stoutly built chest, showing signs of having been blasted, battered and burnt, opens, much to Mathius's surprise (or lack thereof).
A peek inside shows several journals, written in a hand that is unnaturally regular and uniform. One glance at the contents, and Mathius is both aghast, and awed. The books swiftly get put out of sight. There are also a pair of velvet wrapped packages; One contains a ball of crystal, about the size of Mathius' fist, perfectly clear, along with a small holder made of ebony wood. The second package appears to be the remnants of some mechanism, and one finely crafted, made of gold and silver. After looking at it for a moment, Mathius' reasons it is probably no bigger than his hand, fully assembled, and somewhat bird-like in form. The last thing removed is a ledger - of who purchased goods from him, and who paid what in return.
As he reaches the bottom of the chest, he uncovers a bronze plate. It glows, and an image appears of a massive man, bald, and well tanned. "I see one of my house-mates has finally come to claim my journals and goods, since the chest has been opened. Since this message is playing, I can only assume I'm dead, or have passed into twilight, and have no further use for them. May the wisdom and secrets therein serve you as well as they did me." The image fades, and the bronze disk plate turns to do dust.