Holys continues to be a bystander to the violence.
Silas continues to attack the injured rat next to him while watching the rat on the other side of Dain.
Flush with confidence over her last shot, Velika whoops and brings up her gun to shoot another bonerat. When she realizes there are none within her sites, she holds the pose for dramatic effect.
Silas scraps and claws with the rats but fails to land a decisive blow. They're simply too fast. The rats, however, spend too much time dodging spear, falchion and fang to get in any really solid bites.
Initiative Order
Tilver (1 damage)
Holys (2 damage)
Velika
Skeletons (A: 18 damage)
Dain (4 damage) (-1 level)
Silas (18 damage)
Dain watches the bonerat in front of him react to Tilver's spear, and when it dodges, slams home a thrust with his spear. He then maneuvers around the other bonerat.
Silas continues to try and end the tiny threats facing them.
Between them, Tilver, Silas and Dain destroy the last of the rats. Their heavy breathing is the only sound in the room.
COMBAT OVER
As soon as the last rat falls into an inanimate pile of bones, Velika rushes to Silas' side. She frowns at the red stains on his fur and uses wand of Cure Light Wounds to heal him.
"Well, apparently even a dead rat isn't a good one. Thank you Velika." he looks at the next door and says, "Do you think they were here by happenstance or guardians of what lies beyond?"
Holys shrugs. "Who can tell, in a place such as this? I can open the next door, from a distance, in case of other... denizens. Are we ready?"
Velika looks over at the small iron box with obvious curiosity, but the accompanying skulls on the bookshelves intimidate her. "Maybe the rats were protecting that box. Opening that from a distance might not be a bad idea." She frowns in concentration, mutters and gestures, scanning the shelves for magic.
Neither the box nor skulls radiate any magic.
Dain moves over to the bookshelves. His initial intention is to look at the iron box, but he finds his attention drawn to the three skulls instead. He peers at them carefully, then pokes one. "Hello? Anyone in there?"
Unless something happens imminently, Holys casts Prestidigitation to make the skull that Dain pokes turn blue.
He chuckles. "Sorry. Couldn't resist."
Velika grins and nudges Holys. She casts Ghost Sound in the location of the skull, making it sob piteously.
"Dain, what are you doing to that poor skull?"
Silas shakes his head and says, "I think we have disturbed the dead enough." He nods his head to the next door and looks over at Tilver, "So what are the odds that this one has a surprise? With guardians at the door I am guessing not."
"Wait, we should see what this box holds first." He examines the iron box to check for any traps on it.
The box is locked, but after a few moments with his lockpicks, Tilver opens it with a grin. Inside are five small vials sealed with wax. Four contain a think black liquid while the fifth contains a viscous clear liquid with a greenish tinge.
Silas frowns down and sniffs to see if he can get a whiff of the unknown liquids through the seals, "I am guessing poison. But maybe drugs considering who once lived in this place."
With no knowledge of alchemy and given the age of the materials, Silas is uncertain what lies within the vials.
"I have not dabbled in that. But bring them with us, I would be interested to study later."
Silas looks at the door. "Shall we move on?"
Tilver studies the vials with an inquisitive look, but then nods at Silas. "Let's try the next door." He moves over to check it for any traps.
Dain subtly slips the blue skull into his pack when he thinks no one is looking.
Dain takes the skull unnoticed. Tilver finds no traps and opens the door.
A round room on this level, filled with dirt and leaves, leads out onto a balcony with a short, protective wall. It is a fourteen-foot drop down to the rooftop garden to the southeast, and a forty-four-foot drop to the ground.
As Dain moves to follow Tilver into the next room, he closes up his backpack and straps it back on, strangely whispering, "It'll be ok...don't worry." into the pack before closing it up.
When he and Magill enter the room, they begin to search through the detritus on the floor.
Tilver points out to the tower beyond the short wall. "Look, the tower is as tall as this. But we didn't find any further way up. The journal talked about this key being to a 'square tower'. That looks round to me, but it could allow a way up." He cranes his neck around to look for any 'square' towers.
Silas returns to the room with stairs and begins to head further up.
When Tilver goes out to look around, he sees that there is indeed a square tower rising out of the northeastern part of the house, and that the round tower rises well above this level - another forty feet at least.
Around the parapet to the right is an alabaster plaque with a large green rune set in it.
Meanwhile, Silas climbs the stairs in the dance hall to arrive at a round room. The floor here in the house’s central tower is wooden, and the ceiling goes up twelve feet. A staircase leads down to the dance hall, a wooden door provides access to the west, and an archway leads out onto the bridge to the southeastern tower.
Silas moves over a bit and then takes a look at the door to see if there are any traps while awaiting his allies.
Velika, of course, can not resist trying to read the rune.
Holys advises Velika on arcane matters.
vs. DC 10 to Aid Another on her skill check: success!
Velika notices that the runestone has been defaced, altering its original purpose. Holys and Velika discuss and agree that the runestone's original purpose was to protect the house from evil spirits. They cannot decide what affect it currently has, if any.
Meanwhile, Silas sees no traps anywhere around the door upstairs.
Do Holys/Velika believe we can fix (or at least un-deface) the runestone, or would that be beyond our capabilities?
Holys has joined Silas upstairs, keeping an eye on the corridor to the SW.
Velika will also join Silas at the top of the stairs.
Dain and Tilver trail along after Velika and head back to the dance hall and up the stairs.
When everyone has arrived Silas opens the door and scans the room before heading in.
The floor in this room west of the central tower is wooden, and the ceiling measures only eight feet high. Magic circles and symbols are painted on nearly every surface of the ritual room, making one’s initial entrance a dizzying experience.
A ladder leads up.
means “secrets.”
At that, the door on the far end of the bridge opens and a strange and savage monstrosity emerges. This hideous monstrosity appears to have been literally cobbled together using bits from various corpses, not all of which were human (or even humanoid). It has two heads, three arms (one of which ends in claws), and two legs. Strange tubes and pipes are woven throughout its body, but much of him looks held together with metal stitches and even some screws, bolts, and pins.
With a half-articulate roar from its two heads, the weird creature prepares to charge!
Initiative Order
Tilver (1 damage
Silas (3 damage)
The Cobbledman
Holys (2 damage)
Velika
Dain (4 damage) (-1 level)
Tilver steps onto the bridge and braces his long spear to receive the hulk's charge.
"Those symbols have something to do with summoning and soul dedication."
Holys nods. "Velika is right. Evil magic in this place."
Silas moves forward and readies an attack when the creature comes close enough.