The Scales of Blackened Souls (Inactive)

Game Master Lord Grey

Sharla follows Anders's lead.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
Stealth: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (3) + 4 = 7

Wow - we are just not very quiet!

Before they get going, Varus mutters to the party, "Very well, but I would council a short rest soon. You are wounded, Anders, and the warlock looks like he could do with a moment's breath. After the next building, foe or not, let us take refuse in the sepulcher and grant ourselves a respite."

The cleric gives the two sort-of quiet ones a head start, then tromps off after them.

The barbarian needs healing and the warlock gets spells back after a short rest. =)

I concur, but don't you have some healing to prop me up through another fight?

A short respite does sound appealing, Galenus says, before he trudges along after the group.

sneak: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (12) + 1 = 13

Don't wanna stop as long as there's gas in the tank, eh? Fair 'nuff. Ya, other than spells, I have 1 Channel Divinity. I can divvy up 10 hp any way I want, but no one can go above half max. Hence, if you're the only one injured, I'd need to wait until you were at 2 hp or less to get full effect. ^_^

Stealth: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8
Stealth w/ disadvantage: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (4) + 2 = 6
Ach.

point of clarification, are you checking one of the two doors in the first annex, or exploring the second? See the map if confused

I updated the Temple's map at the top of the page, numbing the potential doors you could take, for clarity sake. Anders, which one are you going to?

Door 1 looks great, then 3, unless they open to the same area.

I imagine you meant 1 and then 2, as 1 linking with 3 would be interesting indeed.

Actually, let me describe this whole area since will be the firs time the group has actually entered it, instead of just looking at it from the alley. Forgot that I hadn't yet, my bad. Sorry for slowing things down so much! Feel free to redeclare if desired.

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Scene - Cemetery, area 4

This area of the cemetery is walled in nearly completely on all sides. To the north is the wall of the temple, and the two alleys that are composed of it.

To the West is the first annex, already half explored and to the East is an as-of-yet unexplored annex, the one the orcs had been keeping an eye on.

To the South is the cemetery fence, old, poorly maintained and decorated with bones.

Throughout the 50 or so feet between the two annexes are more headstones of old graves.

Features

There are two doors to on the annex to the West, blank, grey stone like the door on the other side. One of these two doors stands ajar. A cursory inspection shows no visible or audible enemies from within this partially opened door.

To the East is a single door built into that annex, and several wooden boards and iron chains have been secured in-front of it by large iron nails driven into the stone walls of the structure, sealing it shut.

Occupants

None in this area, though the sounds of distant orcs to the East and North east are more clearly heard, their sounds of grunting, speaking, and laughing coming down the far alley to the east. While there aren't as many voices as there was the previous day, there are clearly several orcs within the area around the temple.

Sharla goes over to the east, and listens at the door.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

"I can't hear anything."

Must be safe. Since we have a minute, we should hide those bodies. Maybe drag them in to the room back there? Then scramble up the dirt to remove the drag marks. I'll start casting some magic to clean the battle up a bit.

"O.k." Sharla goes and does as Galenus says. As an extra little present for any orc who finds them, and to prevent a reanimation, she cuts of their heads.

Anders quickly aids with dragging in the bodies.

Aye, let's cover this up as best we can

Varus aids in hiding the bodies. "Are you certain we shouldn't just dump them in the pit that is under the campfire?

We might want to have a short rest in the Crypt at some point."

DRAT! Eaten post!

Sharla approaches the door in the eastern annex, and notices something strange. Looking down, the soil near the door has been displaced by her footfall strangely, as if she stepped on something just beneath the ground which made something shift... Another Trap!

Looking closer at the trap she was just barely able to avoid, she spies another soil cover tarp staked to the ground, probably concealing another pit, hidden to catch anyone who tried to use the door to the eastern annex.

People are moving the corpses to the nearby searched room with the other corpses, with the architect tomb? Crypt 1?

Correct. The room with the architect sarcophogus where we already searched.

That was my thinking.

Anders returns, and sees Sharla standing outside the door, atark still.

What did ya find, Sharla?

"A pit. Want to help me trigger it?"

Triggering the pit could be done as easily as dropping one of the orc corpses into it, or even pulling the tarp away.

Sharla takes one of the orc heads, chucking into the pit, triggering it.

As the tarp comes loose from its only partially secured staking to the ground, folding around the bloody head and soil, it falls into the pit with a soft sound of breaking glass.

Looking into the pit, you see that there are several bottles filled with a clear fluid that had fallen onto the head after it fell into the trap, pulled down by strings attached to the tarp and tied around the bottles.

The head drips, wet, but otherwise unaffected by the fluid.

Hmmmm...nasty stuff there. Let's get in there and see what they were protecting.

I assume we can maneuvet around it to enter the room.

you can, but the door is still boarded and chained up. There is some small risk of falling into the 10 foot deep pit while attempting to unseal the door.

The party is done moving the corpses into the crypt and cleaning up the area behind them.

Not knowing how to help with the whole trap thing, Galenus takes a look around the area with Detect Magic on to see if there is anything interesting out there.

Walking around the area, Galenus notices two things. The first is that fluid in the bottles within the pit are magical (enchantment). The second is that there is a magical ward down the second alley about halfway (Abjuration), drawn onto the temple wall.

Huh. Whatever was in those glass bottles was magical, as part of the trap, Galaneus says as he peers down the put. Some sort of enchantment. Also, there's a magical Ward down that alley over there. Probably a glyph or an alarm. We should go another way to be safe.

So you guys have the sealed door at 3, the partially ajar door at 1 that appears empty, and the as-of-yet unchecked door at 2. What next?
If you want to try and unseal the door, I'll require an athletics check, and a DC 5 acrobatics while doing so or assisting to keep from losing your footing near the pit as you try to pull the boards and chains off.

Let's make things easy at first. Let's check door 1, and just ensure that its empty and there's nothing in it.

Anders moves to door number 1, and he pokes the ground before him to see if there are any other traps. Then, he opens it all of the way to peer inside.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (14) + 2 = 16

Varus moves over to Door 1, just in case it's not as empty as it appears.

Scene - Crypt, Area 2
The room inside smells fairly fowl, of sweat, body odor, and a bit of feces and ale. The room is 15 feet deep and 20 feet wide, with this door set into the center. There are no other obvious exits.

Like the other room that shares this same structure, this room is a crypt. unlike the other one, there are no carved sarcophugi. Instead, there are many wall slots, crammed tight in rows and collumns from floor to ceiling, on the three walls which hold no door. Some of these slots are open, others are sealed with a stone slab and carved.

Features
The floor is littered with ragged, filthy bedding. Several bottles (many of which are empty) are scattered here and there, and a couple of reaking pots are placed within open chambers set within the wall.

Two extra javelin quivers are placed in the room.

Occupants
The room is empty of all but you.

"Looks like a bedroom. Anders, would those javelins be useful for you?"

The bedroom and chamber pots are from the orcs; what was this room before then? It looks like a city bank vault, or perhaps a smaller crypt for ash jars.

Casting detect magic.

Anders returns to Room 3, and he acrobatically attempts to negotiate the pit while unbarring the door.

Acrobatics: 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (9) + 4 = 13
Athletics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (2) + 5 = 7

Galenus' detect magic reveals nothing in the crypt.

Anders is unable to break through the barricade on the third door on his first attempt.

Anders opens the door and heads into the area.

Come on guys.

Perception: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

the door is still shut. I'll need another attempt with another acrobatics. The DC for the acrobatics for you or anyone assisting is 5, the DC for the door in unknown, but higher than 7.

Varus draws near and adds his own iron boot to assist in Anders' effort.

Aid Athletics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

varus, I'll make that roll your acrobatic check. Assisting gives the assisted parson advantage on their check, no roll required. Anders, roll with advantage on your athletics.

Galenus waits patiently.

Athletics: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (16) + 5 = 21
Athletics Adv: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (3) + 5 = 8

The acrobatics check is required for each athletics check to keep your balance while exerting yourself against the boards/chains\
Anders' acrobatics: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Anders attempts to rip off some of the barricade in lieu of an appropriate tool, but isn't able to get enough leverage to do more than make one of the boards groan under his strength.

Varus approaches to help, and together the two of them busy themselves as they begin pulling the boards and chains off of the wall, either breaking as they apply their strength or tearing the nails out of the wall along with them. Anders nearly loses his balance after the last chain comes lose, but he catches himself after wheeling his arms in the air for balance, maintaining his footing.

Door 3 is now unsealed.

Despite Anders and Varus being distracted with their work, all four of the party hears the stone door behind them creak open. Door 2 cracks open slightly, as something within peers out at them.

Either roll me bluff checks to pretend you don't notice, or initiative ;)

Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 2 = 15

At the first sound of intrusion, Varus, who had been expecting an attack, wheels about, mace held high.

Bluff check to not notice? Why would you ever do something like that when there's something new to check out?!

imitative: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21

If you wish to try and pull off a ruse, you could roll bluff to keep the watcher from realizing you have noticed them. If they realize you've spotted them, they will react. If they believe themselves to be safe they might continue observing, allowing you to get the drop on them in some way, such as gaining a surprise round.
It'd need to be a group wide ruse, however, and once one of you begins acting against thre watcher, the opportunity would be gone.
Normally orcs don't just watch from a doorway, so I thought I'd suggest it as a possibility, but you may all so whatever you want.

Sorry; I meant that to be taken from a character perspective. My character is kind of crazy and overly curious - at least that's how I've been trying to roleplay him. So there's no way he would try to bluff like that when he sees something new. He'd just go investigate it. It was kind of a joke. :)

If I were playing someone with a soldier or spy or criminal background, or even a more combat oriented character, I would have tried to bluff. It's a fantastic suggestion and an excellent opportunity. It's just not something my character would do at this point.

"Anders, block the door!"

Init: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (20) + 3 = 23

Initiative: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

The figure is peaking low, as if in a crouch behind the door, and only a slight fraction of its green/grey face is visible.

Anders and Varus are both 50 feet from Door 2, Sharla and Galenus are 30 feet away.

Sharla, and then Galenus are up. The watcher has cover bonuses.