Current Status
Holys (2 damage)
Tilver (1 damage)
Dain (2 damage) (-1 level)
Velika
Silas (5 damage)
Dain considers Magill's discovery.
"I doubt the skeleton was the one who spoke earlier. I think we should head up and try and clear out whatever is holding us here. Then we can relax more in our searching.
Dain touches the wound on his head and smiles at the feel of newly knit skin. "No, the bones lady didn't seem very talky. But the dead lady's journal says we need the lost key to go up into the square tower, so it's probably worth a quick climb to see if it's hiding in the leaves.
Does someone have some rope they want to shimmy down? Or should we climb up from below?"
"I have rope. I can climb down if we need to do that. Does it look like it would support my weight?
Silas wanders over and looks down to where Dain is looking and begins to tie a rope to the crenelation when he sees with at Dain is looking at.
"I can climb down, though I seem to have forgotten my rope..." Tilver looks down, a bit ashamed of not having such a basic piece of gear.
Tilver shimmies down the rope into the dead space between the older construction and the newer. A ledge twelve feet off the ground runs above the southwestern part of the courtyard and behind the western guard tower. The modification and renovations to the house over the years have left a strange open area five feet wide between the western tower and the western guard tower. No one can see the open area from the ground, and no window in the house looks into it.
Looking around, Tilver spies piles of dried leaves, dirt, and refuse. Amid these lies an old and tarnished key.
"Found something!" Tilver inspects the key carefully before picking it up.
The key is untrapped, dropped there long ago by the prostitute Thabitha. Tilver climbs back up without incident. As he arrives on the parapet, a cold wind blows and the deep male voice sounds again. “Come to me . . .”
Velika shivers in the cold wind. "Not sure I want the key if it's bringing us closer to him ..." Reflexively, she draws her gun, checks it over carefully and reloads it. She keeps it in her hand while she moves back to the recently re-dead Radanna. "I can keep this stuff in my bag - does anyone want to take any of this before I store it?"
"Without knowing what it does it might be as harmful to us as the book was when you first glanced at it. Its probably best to store it away for now." Silas then turns and heads back towards the stairwell up.
At the top of the stairs, Silas finds a large open chamber, possibly once a salon or even a dance floor. To the south lie a door and a curving staircase leading up.
Velika will also collect the red robe in Radanna's chambers and looks it over, unable to resist an attempt to make the symbols into some coherent language. "I'm sure the symbols on the robe are all kinds of ominous, but it's actually quite attractive."
Then she will head up the stairs after Silas.
Silas will search around the area as he waits for the others to come up and stealthily wander over to the closed door.
Dain gives Magill a scritch between the ears and thanks her for her help. As he does, he looks over the parapet at the top of the nearby gate tower.
After a moment the two join the others and head up the stairs. Once there, they search around in the rubble and under the curving staircase (if there is such a space).
Tilver joins the others on the rooftop. "So where does this key fit in? The journal said something about the top of the tower, right?"
Dain and Silas find nothing hidden in the chamber.
"Its probably for the door to the top floor, but lets finish here before we move on."
Silas moves over and waits for Tilver to take a look at the door before he goes in.
Tilver examines the door and tries to locate any traps. He'll try to disarm them if he finds them.
Tilver takes a careful look around, but finds neither traps nor lock on the southern door.
By the way, it is obvious that the staircase leads up to daylight.
As Tilver examines the door, Dain flips through the pages of the journal. "Hmmm...no....hmmmmm. Ah here it is! The journal says the key opens the 'square tower'. That must be further up because all the towers we've found so far are round."
He slips the book back into his pack and readies his spear.
Holys has moved up to join the rest of the group and is peering around near Dain.
"Ok, let's see what's in here first." Tilver carefully opens the door.
Shadows seem slow to flee when Tilver opens the door. A narrow little hallway south of the great hall opens out into midair on the keep’s west side. A wooden balcony once hung there; it was connected to a lower balcony via a wooden stairway. The ground lies forty-four feet below.
"Oh. Wait a moment."
Holys first casts Light on a piece of debris and drops it into the hallway below, noting any reaction.
He then casts Open/Close to open the door across from them in the passageway.
No. The west wall is missing and the ground is 44' down. The hallway itself is solid.
More specifically, there never was a wall there. A wooden balcony has collapsed.
The far door swings open with a creak, revealing a strangely-shaped room (most of which you can't actually see without entering it.) Some small bones lay scattered about.
Tilver slowly enters the room. He spins around the corner to check the unseen portions of the room.
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Silas moves in as well and stands by the next doorway.
Dain moves to the end of the short hallway and peers out over the edge - looking up and down to see what he can of the keep's outside from here.
Holys loiters for now.
This oddly shaped room in the center of this level has some old wooden bookcases along the northern wall. No books remain, although three human
skulls sit on the shelves, along with a small iron box.
Four piles of bones lie on the floor here as well. As soon as Silas enters, these piles animate as skeletal dire rats. In life, these rats were particularly large and strong. They attack immediately, biting at Silas from all sides.
Initiative Order
Tilver (1 damage) (surprised)
Holys (2 damage) (surprised)
Velika (surprised)
Skeletons
Dain (2 damage) (-1 level)
Silas (13 damage)
Dain steps to the entrance and tries to stab at the skeleton through the doorway.
Silas slashes down at rat that is now flanked. After the attack Silas shifts over to prevent himself from behing surrounded.
Dain's spear scrapes the flagstones, but Silas's cut slashes down on one of the skeletons.
Initiative Order
Tilver (1 damage)
Holys (2 damage)
Velika
Skeletons (B: 13 damage)
Dain (2 damage) (-1 level)
Silas (13 damage)
Holys stays where he is, not having much magic left nor easily able to get to the fight.
Tilver uses his longspear to try and attack from behind Dain.
Velika pulls out one of her scrolls of Versatile Weapon and reads it in grandiose style. She casts it on Dain's spear.
The animated rat skeletons attack in a swarm, one scratching Silas sharply across the ankle.
Initiative Order
Tilver (1 damage)
Holys (2 damage)
Velika
Skeletons (B: 13 damage)
Dain (2 damage) (-1 level)
Silas (18 damage)
Silas continues to attack the undead rats.
Dain hurls himself into the fray with a shout - trying to take some of the pressure off of Silas.
Silas destroys one rat with a sweep of his falchion, biting another (ewww!). Dain leaps forward and with his ensorcelled spear, slams the same rat in the corner.
Initiative Order
Tilver (1 damage)
Holys (2 damage)
Velika
Skeletons (A: 18 damage)
Dain (2 damage) (-1 level)
Silas (18 damage)
Holys continues to stay out of the way.
Tilver steps into the open alcove. He continues to try and use his longspear, but this time, instead of hitting the rat himself, he tries to drive it to one side and allow Dain to dispatch it.
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Velika frowns at the silver fur flying in the next room and attempts a shot at the dire rat obscured by her friends. Then she pulls out her wand of cure light wounds, waiting for an opportunity to help Silas.
Velika steps up and blasts one of the rats, ripping a hole through its bony ribcage. The rats swarm over Dain and Tilver, biting and clawing.
Initiative Order
Tilver (1 damage)
Holys (2 damage)
Velika
Skeletons (A: 18 damage; B: 17 damage)
Dain (4 damage) (-1 level)
Silas (18 damage)
Dain sees the skeleton to his left stumbling to step over Tilver's longspear, so he turns and jabs his spear at it while it is off balance.
Tilver and Dain jointly kill the rat injured by Velika's pistol.
Initiative Order
Tilver (1 damage)
Holys (2 damage)
Velika
Skeletons (A: 18 damage)
Dain (4 damage) (-1 level)
Silas (18 damage)