The right doorway slides open, grinding against the floor as it does so.
Taanyth's light illuminates the chamber, and you see that both doors led here. A wide set of stairs leads down into another, wider chamber. On a slightly raised platform in the center of the room, a stone coffin rests.
The professor's footsteps lead to the coffin.
Peredur moves cautiously into the room and examines the coffin.
Seeing that there may be no more to explore, Taanyth throws the lit stone inside to create noise. He stays cautious and looks around for anything of the dangerous sort.
Iesha starts, then realizes the source of the sound. She steps into the far crypt and joins Peredur at the coffin. She examines it as well.
Alzano follows along silently, the idea of being in a secret crypt in a graveyard at night isn't the most settling feeling.
You can see hand-prints in the thick dust of the coffin where Lorrimor clearly shifted the stone slab during his earlier trip.
Still standing by the entrance to the back room of the crypt, you notice one of the shadows start to move... and take shape as a giant centipede crawls from a crack in the wall, hissing angrily at the intrusion.
Unfortunately, you did not catch the entrance of it's partner. It attempts to sink its jaws in to your foot, but cannot penetrate the leather of your boots.
attack roll vs flat-foot:
damage roll:
Taanyth walks up to the coffin and tries to push the stone slab off.
The coffin lid slides open easily. Inside, where should be a body, instead, you find the following:
A quiver, filled with 29 arrows.
A small satchel with 7 potions.
Six simple glass flasks of holy water.
A scroll case, containing four scrolls.
A darkwood case, the lid of which is decorated with the same device found on the back of the locked book the professor entrusted to you: A scarab, with a single eye glaring out from its back.
Taanyth looks over to the items and casts Detect Magic to see if any of the seemingly non-magical items actually are. He takes the scrolls and casts Read Magic to decipher them.
He takes the darkwood case, and lifts it up for everyone to see.
"Everyone gather."
Peredur produces a sack and gathers up the quiver and the satchel, then carefully packs away the holy water. "'Twill be best, I'm thinking, to return all this to Father Grimburrow and ask him for use of it."
Iesha helps to gather up the items.
[dice]1d20+2
The scrolls are of the following
1 Scroll of Protection From Evil
As you furl up the last scroll, you hear a grunt of surprise, or maybe pain, from the front chamber. Glancing around, you realize Aleksandr has not joined you in the back room, and is apparently in some sort of trouble.
Spinning around at the sudden sound, Alzano draws his rapier and moves toward the back room. "What happened?"
Iesha will ready her glaive and move back to the open door to see what's going on.
"Marvelous."
Since Peredur is handling fragile objects that belong to the temple, he'll take his action to set them down carefully and draw his sword as a move action. "Aleksandr, what's awry?"
Initiative:
Aleksandr looks down at the centipede in surprise. Taking a five foot step away from both centipedes, he draws his longspear and stabs at the centipede that attempted to bite him.
Attack, centipede:
Damage, centipede:
"Giant centipedes," he shouts to the others in warning.
"Terrific. Big bugs."
On her turn, Iesha will attack the nearest centipede with her glaive.
Aaaand the centipedes laugh at her.
Taanyth takes a chakram (move) and throws it to the nearest centipede (standard).
Aleksandr's jab at the centipede misses, steel screeching against the stone. The massive bug hisses and lurches forward, trying for another bite.
Taanyth's chakram whistles through the air, and slices neatly through the other centipede as it closes to attack, leaving a severed pile of giant insectoid bits.
Fortitude save:
Aleksandr curses at the centipede and attacks again.
Attack, centipede:
Damage, centipede:
Aleksandr growls in anger, although he had to admit he's never been one for martial skills.
Round 2:
If it's still necessary (not to mention possible), Peredur will advance on the last remaining centipede and attempt to duplicate the effect of Taanyth's chakram with his longsword.
Despite taking out a chunk of Aleksandr's leg, the natural venom of the cenitpede has little effect other than a slight numbness in the fingertips.
Peredur steps up, and with a practiced ease, he skewers the hissing monstrosity. It collapses into a twitching mass.
Silence returns to the false crypt.
"Damnable insect," Aleksandr says, kicking the beast. "What did you recover?"
"Some blessed water, a few potions, some scrolls, a lot of arrows, and a darkwood case. Th' elf was looking them over when th' centipedes interrupted."
Alzano puts away his weapon as he sees the dead centipedes. "If we're done here, I suggest we look them over somewhere that isn't crawling with disgusting creatures that want to eat us."
"Yes, I'm inclined to agree," Aleksandr replies to Alzano, "Let's get out of this crypt, report the infestation to the church in case it's indicative of a wider issue and then see what we can find out of Harrowstone from the general populace."
"Would you really think of it wise to tell the church we went grave digging?"
Aleksandr looks at Taanyth quizzically. "We already informed the church of our intent to take the supplies in this crypt, to which Father Grimburrow was happy to assist. I fail to see how you can even consider this 'grave digging'."
"Also, keepig the Church informed of our actions and discoveries can only help our interactions with the townsfolk. Especially reporting something like this bug infestation. While I will not go so far as to say there is no possibility of -unfriendly spiritual issues- these bugs could be resposnible for any oddities the local people might have noticed. It could be reasuring to them to learn that it's *just* bugs.
She pauses"And if later, it does prove otherwise, we'll be more likely to get them to listen and assist than if they're panicing and convinced we, or the Professor's ghost or something, are behind it."
Exiting the crypt brings you face to face with two torch-bearing acolytes of the church. One of them, an older man, with a concerned look, steps forward and speaks.
"Father Grimburrow informed us that you may be investigating something in the Restlands. We heard a bit of a commotion. Is everyone well? What happened?"
"'Twas a minor thing, a pair of great centipedes in th' false crypt. We dispatched them with little trouble." He motions them closer. "Have either of you heard aught of a man calling himself Adivion Adrissant? He was in th' Restlands when we came."
"This unused crypt was infested with giant centipedes. We've slain the ones that attacked us, but you might want to be on the lookout, just in case there are more. We were on our way back to alert Father Grimburrow to the issue. So far, however, we've seen no more serious threats to the town's well-being"
She chuckles as realizes she and Peredur spoke up at the exact same moment.
The acolyte looks almost overwhelmed for a second at all the talking. Then he composes himself.
"Unused, you say? Well, you have our thanks for the handling of the insects. We will look in to why this crypt remained empty. We will certainly be alert to any other infestations as well. We will certainly alert the Father as well." He turns to Peredur.
"I have no heard that name. Unless he was disturbing the dead, or some other profane act, his presence is of little concern. Folk come and go to pay their respect." he shrugs.
"Anything you may have found of the cache that you had mentioned to Grimburrow is yours to use in Pharasma's name. See that it is not wasted. We bid you a good evening." Here they move past you in to the crypt.
"And a good evening to you."
Peredur looks to his compatriots. "Back to th' Pro--to Mistress Lorrimor's house, then?"
"I think it wisest for us to return to Father Grimburrow and report first."
Alzano pulls his cloak tighter and shivers. "Don't care where we go as long as it's someplace warm."
"You have th' right of it, Iesha. Temple first, then Kendra's."
Aleksandr nods in agreement, and leads the way back to the Temple. He summons Father Grimburrow after speaking briefly with one of the acolytes.
"Greetings, Father," Aleksandr says as the priest approaches, "We've recovered the items from the false crypt, yet seem to have discovered an infestation of giant centipedes. We've eliminated the two that attacked us, but I suggest that you task some acolytes to uncover their nest and destroy it. We wouldn't want any of our flock to be hurt by the beasts."
Once they are done at the Temple, Aleksandr leaves word with Father Grimburrow to contact the other sin eaters and let them know he'll be taking a sabbatical for a month or so and that they'll need to cover him while he is away.
"Now that we're done with the Temple, I suggest we speak to the locals about what we've uncovered and then use the public records in the morning to attempt to uncover more," Aleksandr says as his stomach rumbles, punctuating how hungry he is.
"I saw two places that looked like we could both get food and meet some of the locals. The inn, I think the name was Outward Inn, and a tavern. Of course, we should reasure Kendra that we're alright as well. I think if we follow that road south, it loops around and crosses the river to join the one passing the Prof...Kendra's home. We should probably leave our weapons there before going to either the inn or the tavern. No sense in making the locals any more nervous than they already are."
"To the Outward Inn then?" Aleksandr's stomach rumbles again.
"Sounds good to me. We can also take the time to ask Kendra if she knows that gentleman we met."
Directly across the river, what must be one of the towns taverns is a shining beacon of light. You hear strains of muted music drifting across the water.
You head to the north bridge toward the town center. On the outskirts, the farm houses that dot the landscape are beacons of warmth and light in the night. The moon is out and large in the sky, and the wind still carries traces of a winter chill. Crossing the sturdy bridge, you can see the glow of the town center.
Crossing the bridge, you hear the groan of strained wood, hear the whinny of a horse, the clip-clop of hooves... or do you? The sound seems to fade as soon as you notice it.
The chill of the night, sudden and vicious--digs deep inside like a knife-blade, leaving you chilled to the very core of your being. Tracks appear just ahead of you and move along the bridge toward the town center, bringing an unsettling reality to the phantom sounds.
Alzano suddenly stops walking and looks around in confusion. "Shh! Does anyone else hear that? Sounds like..." he cuts off with a sharp intake of breath and peers intently at the ground in front of him.
Taanyth fixes a Detect Magic spell whilst getting his hands ready if apparent danger comes by.
