"We'll look upstairs after Jasper, if we need to."
A suitably chastened orcling follows the grumpy human axeman toward the double doors. He looks up and nods at Anor's peace offering. "He's right, the mushrooms won't be up there. Need a short sword?" He holds out the weapon.
"Nice sword," says Reekis, "I'll take it, if you like."
Adalwin follows the others out of the tower room.
"It's not going to do me much good." He hands it off to Reekis.
Adalwin moves up next to Eljoy, putting his shoulder to the door. "Let me give you a hand with the door" Thinking back to his last encounter with the tower door, and considering his weakened state, he offers to assist Eljoy.
Eljoys heads through the courtyard towards the double doors. He notices that there is already something of a worn path through the long grass between the courtyard entry archway and these doors.
He peers through the partially open doors (the opening being wide enough for a human to slip through without further opening the doors). Beyond the double doors is a small dark hall. Littered with mounds of debris and years' worth of dead leaves, it is clear that a narrow path winds inside.
Jasper moves up to get a vantage point where he can peer into the darkness before the group has committed to entering, just to see if there's an obvious threat waiting in the shadows. ShadowWing perches on his shoulder, seeming to peer in, also.
The double doors are already open wide enough for a man to step through, but Adalwin wrenches them further open, allowing more light into the hall beyond. Inside, a narrow mostly clear path winds through a wide hall littered with piles of dead leaves and debris.
There are closed doors along the north and south walls of the stone hall, about halfway down its length. At the end of the hall is a set of open double doors, and just before these doors, alcoves or side passages appear to extend north and south.
"I don't see anything lying in wait..."
That's right, Jasper cannot see any obvious danger. The space is now quite well lit between the daylight through the doors, Oliver's light spell and Eljoy's torch.
"Nice sword," says Reekis, "I'll take it, if you like."
A suitably chastened orcling follows the grumpy human axeman toward the double doors. He looks up and nods at Anor's peace offering. "He's right, the mushrooms won't be up there. Need a short sword?" He holds out the weapon.
"No, thanks, I'm better off with the crossbow."
Adalwin steps into the hall, looking back as if to assure himself the others are following. He starts down the passage, keeping an eye out for anything dangerous or valuable. He stops at the northern door and tries to push it open.
Adalwin neither sees nor hears anything valuable or dangerous as he traverses the short, wide hallway. The north door doesn’t open with a casual push, so Adalwin puts his shoulder into it. With a loud crack, the door gives way and opens, shattering an ancient wooden chair propped against it on the other side. The room beyond is dark and smells deeply of dust and decay.
Anor will keep bringing up the rear with her crossbow ready.
Adalwin curses softly as he realises he has destroyed a chair in opening the door. "Probably priceless" he mutters, shaking his head, before calling out for assistance. "Oliver, Eljoy? Light please!"
Jasper peers around the door jamb by his knee.
"Probably so. If you mean that rotted old piece of wood wouldn't be purchased by anyone at any price, it was priceless." Jasper grins up at the boyish fighter.
The dark, stone walled chamber is about ten feet to a side. It contains several old chairs around the walls, all of them broken and rotting almost to the point of collapse. Lying twisted in the middle of the floor is a dwarf-sized skeleton, wearing the cracked and brittle remains of a leather apron. Shards of broken glass lie near one of the skeleton's out-stretched hands, and a discoloured scrap of parchment lies near the other.
Jasper notices the glitter of silver underneath the skeleton's apron.
Jasper peers around the door jamb by his knee.
"Probably so. If you mean that rotted old piece of wood wouldn't be purchased by anyone at any price, it was priceless." Jasper grins up at the boyish fighter.
Adalwin grins down at Jasper. "You're probably right." He moves into the room, a little more spring in his step, and starts to search. "Looks like this dwarf barricaded himself into the room. I wonder why?" He is careful not to touch the parchment, lest it crumble away like the chairs.
Jasper moves into the room toward the skeleton. Using his quarterstaff , he tries to move the apron aside to see what glitters beneath.
Nodding at the broken glass, he offers, "Think that was a potion vial? I've heard of folks that carry poison if they fear getting caught more than death. Maybe he died here by his own hand rather than starve." He shivers at the thought.
Adalwin and Jasper search the small chamber. The thing that glinted in the torchlight turns out to be a light hammer apparently crafted of alchemical silver – slightly tarnished, but otherwise appearing to be in good condition. Carved into the head of the hammer is a depiction of a stylised stone archway with a flame beneath it. The pieces of broken glass appear to be pieces of a small vial or bottle, but whether it once contained poison or potion is impossible to say. The cracked, fragile looking piece of paper has faded brown writing on it in some runic alphabet, in a crude hand. The apron the skeleton wears appears to be a blacksmith’s apron, although it is falling apart and probably worthless.
Neither of the searchers finds anything else of interest in the room. There are no other exits.
"Anyone read that stuff?" says Reekis, craning at the writing.
The southern door opens easily enough. Beyond is a dark room of similar dimensions to the previous room. The room contains a time-stained wooden table, upon which rests a soiled and partially rotten hat, and several wooden pegs in the wall. Moth eaten scraps of rags hang from some of the pegs and litter the corners of the room.
Jasper hefts the hammer, "Silver's useful against werewolves, right? I can't swing this well, but we should keep it in case we meet wolves. I mean, something ate that fellow outside..."
Once it's clear that no one can read this parchment, Jasper will take his waterproof bag from Percival's saddlebags and slip the ancient script between some of his new parchment before stashing it back on the mule and rejoining the explorers.
"Werewolves?" Reekis looks about anxiously.
"Doesn't look like we will find much more here." Adalwin moves down the passage, stopping to pear into the alcoves on his way to the next door.
"Werewolves?" Reekis looks about anxiously.
Jasper shrugs, "One of the rumors about these woods has always been werewolves. There's lots of rumors, though. They might not be true, any of them."
He holds out the hammer if anyone wants to claim it.
The 'alcoves' beyond the north and south doors turn out in fact to be narrow corridors that stretch away north and south. The southern corridor has two more doors along its length, facing each other on the east and west sides - the western door is ajar, and light - what looks like daylight - filters through. The corridor appears to end at a dead end beyond the doors.
The northern corridor turns east after a short distance.
"Werewolves?" Reekis looks about anxiously.Jasper shrugs, "One of the rumors about these woods has always been werewolves. There's lots of rumors, though. They might not be true, any of them."
He holds out the hammer if anyone wants to claim it.
Adalwin turns back to Jasper. "I'll take it, if no one else has a use for it. I wonder if I'll ever see a werewolf?" He asks to no one in particular, almost sounding wistful.
"I guess we should search everywhere, to make sure we don't miss anything." He heads back into the cloak room and starts to poke around.
Adalwin finds nothing of interest in the ancient cloak room (unless you like hundreds of years out of fashion and falling apart hats).
Reekis peers over Adalwin's shoulder.
Jasper says, "What did you find? Is it another skeleton?"
Reekis finds nothing.
Jasper however, searching through some mouldy pieces of rotted rags in one corner of the room, finds a few thoroughly rusted old nails on the floor, and growing up beside them from a crack in the flagstone floor is a stunted mushroom with a dull grey cap.
"Hey, nice one, Jasper! Is that the mushroom we want?"
It certainly seems to fit the description of an Ironbloom mushroom. However, Laurel said she’d need seven mushrooms for her recipe.
"It's one more than we had! Who has the sack for the mushrooms?"
Perhaps there will be more forges deeper in..."
"Lets find out. Where to next?"
If no one has any other suggestions, Adalwin moves ahead through the double doors, waiting for at least one of the light bearers to move with him.
Jasper peers down each hallway, left then right, but follows the young fighter and the bearer of light.
This chamber is dark, but light from torch and spell reveals a large room. Timber pews - surprisingly intact, but tipped over and covered in dust - lie on both sides of a central aisle. At the far end of the room is an over-sized anvil.
Jasper peers down each hallway, left then right, but follows the young fighter and the bearer of light.
[dice=Perception to the left]1d20 + 14
[dice=Perception to the right]1d20 + 14
Jasper notices nothing unusual to left or right.