GM Jiggy |
did I do that right? +9 for skill ranks and cleaver explorer. +2 for masterwork tools.
Yep, looks right to me.
Cassidy pulls out some tools, sticks a small metal pick into the lock, and opens the door with a single, expert flick.
The door opens to reveal a short hallway. On the right wall is a door which presumably leads to the same room as "Door #3"—the next door you were planning on checking. The end of the hall opens into a much larger room, across which the light from the first hallway doesn't quite reach.
Assuming that at this point somebody uses a light source so that more than just Garnult can see...
It appears that this larger room was once a grand hall: large stone columns support the ceiling, and the remains of a massive banquet table sit in the center of the room. The north wall bears two doors (one near the east and one near the west), as well as a vacant and decrepit throne. The far wall (west) has a set of double doors.
The southern end of the room, however, is in far worse shape: a good portion of the ceiling has collapsed, leaving rubble piled against the middle of the south wall (the top of which also looks to have broken off). The lack of open sky confirms that keep has (at least) a second floor.
Sticking out of the base of the pile of rubble is a pair of feet.
GM Jiggy |
Kn(r):C/G: 2d20 ⇒ (5, 3) = 8
Heal:C/W/G/T: 4d20 ⇒ (7, 8, 18, 4) = 37
It doesn't take long to realize that this person has been dead for a long time: much of its flesh has rotted off, and it actually falls into pieces as stones are removed.
Garnult Tarnhammer |
Seems our Necromancer was ambushed by his own friends...I guess the dead do hate the living...
GM Jiggy |
Kn(N):W/C: 2d20 ⇒ (19, 13) = 32
Kn(D):W/C: 2d20 ⇒ (2, 9) = 11
The door in the short hallway (the one presumed to enter the same room as Door #3) is not locked. Opening it, you see what was probably a kitchen during this keep's heyday: there are the remains of two brick ovens, some stone countertops, and half-rotted cupboards. Rusted cutlery hangs on the walls or sits in warped and rotten knife blocks.
The smell of the room is repugnant; there is slimy mold and mildew coating patches of the walls and floors—and even literally hanging out of cupboards—and its scent turns your stomachs.
And just as expected, you can see the other side of Door #3 set into the wall on the right.
GM Jiggy |
Kn(r):C/G/T/W: 4d20 ⇒ (16, 11, 14, 19) = 60
INT:C/G/T/W: 4d20 ⇒ (9, 6, 18, 12) = 45
Stncng: 1d20 ⇒ 6
Checking Door #4, you find it locked, but Cassidy easily handles that.
Opening the door reveals what appears to be a dilapidated shrine, little bigger than a closet. It includes a stone table with a bowl for burning incense, two tall stylized columns engraved with vaguely-humanoid images in verious poses, and a holy symbol engraved on the back wall of the small room. You all recognize the symbol as being that of Urgathoa, evil goddess of undeath. Everything in the room is covered in dust and cobwebs, and looks to be in generally poor shape.
Something odd occurs to you: based on the length of the hallway and where you remember the outer walls to be, you expected this room to be substantially wider. There's a good 15 feet between the northern wall of the shrine and the northern end of the hallway.
Cassidy Montblanc |
Cassidy will look for traps. Do some detect magic on the area. And if all looks safe, than she'll open up the door. And if she can stand back and use a long stick to press the latch or use the spell Open/Close, she'll do that.
GM Jiggy |
The secret door is untrapped and easily opened, and doing so reveals what must have been the keep's armory.
It's a long, rectangular room that runs nearly the entire width (east-to-west) of the keep. The entryway on either end is only about 10 feet wide, but then it opens up to a width (north-to-south) of about 20 feet.
The walls are lined with everburning torches. Dusty and broken weapon racks stand vertically against the northern wall (which is also the northern wall of the keep). Similarly cobweb-ridden racks of armor and shields line the southern wall. Within the open area of the floor are two large, open sets of shelves stocked with dirty and partially disintegrated scroll tubes, wands, and vials. There are two such racks, but one has collapsed due to its own rot and its decrepit contents lie broken and scattered on the floor.
Set in the southern wall of the room are two normal (i.e., not secret) doors. Remembering the layout of the keep so far, you'd guess these are the same doors that you saw set into the northern wall of the "grand hall".
Tolbert "Beetle" Musgrave |
Detect Magic on the wands, scroll tubes, and vials.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Garnult Tarnhammer |
Garnult grunts at the state of this "lab".
GM Jiggy |
Between looking and scanning, you find the following items that are still in good working order:
+1 full plate
lesser metamagic rod (extend) x2
scroll of restoration x2
oil of inflict serious wounds x3
+1 breastplate
cloak of resistance +2
adamantine scythe (at least, the blade; handle's rotted off)
oil of magic weapon x3
Garnult Tarnhammer |
Wow... Garnult says...
Can I has the full plate?
Warren Connery |
"I can use the breastplate and these oils. I'll take two of the inflict and one of the magic weapon. Do you want the others Garnult?
I'm assuming that the Oil of Inflict Serious Wounds goes on the weapon and then the next time it hits and inflict serious wounds goes off too.
GM Jiggy |
I'm assuming that the Oil of Inflict Serious Wounds goes on the weapon and then the next time it hits and inflict serious wounds goes off too.
Nope. When an oil is applied, it "casts" the spell on the thing you smear the oil on. Since ISW targets a creature, smearing it on an object will do nothing (wasting the oil). Smear it on a creature, they're affected by ISW.
GM Jiggy |
So from the armory where you are now, you could head through one of the southern doors to the "Great Hall", you could go west through a passage that mirrors the one you entered the armory from, or you could go back out the eastern secret door you came in and go up the spiral staircase. Where to, team?
Garnult Tarnhammer |
Garnult follows Warren and Cassidy up the stairs. Let's do this...
GM Jiggy |
K(r):C/G: 2d20 ⇒ (1, 20) = 21
Perc:C/G/T/W: 4d20 ⇒ (4, 3, 11, 10) = 28
Ascending the stairs, you come upon a large room. Workbenches line the northern and western walls, and are covered with all manner of beakers, flasks, and other containers—many of which contain liquids of verious colors. A couple of books lie open on the workbenches, along with myriad pages of loose-leaf paper.
The eastern wall houses a bed, a small table with a quaint flower-vase and two chairs, and a rack of larger containers which look to be the stock from which the lesser contents of the workbench are drawn. The southern wall is home to a pair of large bookshelves.
Set in the eastern wall is a doorway, but the door has been shattered. Two emaciated corpses lie on the floor, humanoid in shape but with sickly skin and unnatural features. Both look like they have suffered some slash-wounds. Blood is spattered here and there on the floor and walls, and some of the glassware on one of the workbenches has been shattered.
On the southern wall is another door, this one closed. The nearest bookshelf has been toppled, and looks like it was dragged away from the door after it fell. The closed door has a smeared, bloody handprint on it, and bears a bit of damage as though it was hacked at by blades.
Garnult Tarnhammer |
More undead, these uns nastier than the other uns...our Necromancer friend? Garnult says as he steps into the room.
GM Jiggy |
Assuming the use of a light source unless otherwise specified...
Cassidy peers through the western doorway and sees a peculiar and unsettling room. At least 20 feet from north to south and almost that wide, it is lined with half-rotten beds. Each is (or used to be) ornately-carved wooden four-posters whose posts are shaped into stylized scythes—the favored weapon of Urgathoa, goddess of undeath.
The beds are unoccupied, but a few skeletal corpses lie about the room. They look as though they came to rest while climbing out of bed or walking toward the door.
The "bedroom" extends further south than the laboratory does. Additionally, the southeastern corner of the bedroom has suffered partial collapse, leaving an open hole and a pile of rubble.
GM Jiggy |
Since Cassidy didn't roll, I'm assuming a take 20, spending 1 minute.
Cassidy finds the southern door to be free of traps, but locked. Her close examination also reveals that the blade-marks in the wood have traces of blood in them, as though the blades that were hacking at the door were already bloodied.
Meanwhile, Warren peruses the creepy bedroom, but finds nothing of particular interest. Your best guess is that for whatever reason (Urgathoans, amirite?) the room was a creepy and less-permanent-than-most-folks-would-like way to lay the dead to rest.
What would Tolbert and Garnult like to do while Cassidy is busy examining the door for traps, if anything?
Garnult Tarnhammer |
Garnult watches the others work, this place is giving him the heebie jeebies.
Garnult Tarnhammer |
Lets just check things until we find something, we are here to find a Necromancer right?
Tolbert "Beetle" Musgrave |
Let's check the southern door before we leave this level or go poking around in holes in the wall.
FYI, it's hard to keep track of where we have left to explore with no map to look at.
Cassidy Montblanc |
yeah. I'm a little lost as to what we have left to explore. But on-wards to wherever is next. Maybe check out the hole in the room we are currently in before going on to the next room/southern door.
GM Jiggy |
Yeah, sorry. I used to have a scanner so I could've provided a sketch, but no more. Maybe I could come up with something in MSPaint...
4d20 ⇒ (6, 13, 4, 12) = 35
Opening the bloodied southern door, you see a decrepit room whose original purpose is difficult to discern. A few rotted pieces of wood suggest the original presence of furniture, but little else exists other than dust.
Two sets of footprints can be seen in the dust: one comes from this door, the other from the bedroom via the hole discovered earlier. The two sets of footprints come together and mingle confusingly while heading south.
The southern end of the room ends in ruin: the floor and wall are gone, appearing to be the source of the rubble that you saw at the southern end of the Grand Hall on the first floor. From this vantage point, you can see that the collapse centered on the southern wall. One side was the rubble you investigated (and found part of a corpse in), while the other side has a pile of rubble as well, though you can't see it very well. Beyond the area of collapse is the outer wall of the keep, including the boarded-up main entrance that you saw from outside.
You can tell that the owners of the two sets of footprints were fighting. You also recognize that one set belongs to the destroyed undead creature you found in the rubble below.
Warren Connery |
Warren carefully looks at the tracks and then says. "Ok, the two entered, there, and there and then fought here and headed south. One set is the dead undead creature we found downstairs. The other? Our Necromancer? Hard to say. They went that way though. So unless we have more to check here, I think I should try to pick up the trail on the other sided of this rubble pile."