The door at the top of the stairs is stuck, but a swift kick from Mathias makes it burst open.
The good news is that it's not ghosts!
Marcus drops his torch somewhere on the dirt floor and runs to the centipede on the log pile. He attempts to cut it in two.
Instead he rams his sword gloriously into the moldy log pile.
The centipede hisses back at Marcus
The other centipede crawls down off the ceiling, scuttleds over towards Mathias and tries to bite him with its vicious mandibles.
Whilst both of their pincers land blows, none of draw blood.
However something else is peeling itself off the ceiling. The stretches of mold are coming together in a large quivering ball of pus, mould, and slime that drops itself down towards Mathias.
However Marcus easily steps out of its way, leaving it to plop on the floor harmlessly.
This ooze has an AC of 8, and HP of 28.
The centipedes have an AC 14, HP 15
Mathias strikes back with a downward right cross toward the centipede that bit him. Following the attack up with a quick jab with his left.
Marcus yanks his sword out of the pile and brings it down towards the centipede again.
Narrowly missing the nimble bugger.
Since his allies rushed past into melee, Beswaur puts the flasks away and readies his blade to charge into the fray.
The centipede scuttles forward and tries to bite Mathias again.
The centipede on the woodpile arches is back and strikes out against the halfling
The ooze tries to roll its gelatinous mass on top of the halfling again. However it is too slow for the nimble halfing. It does however catch one of the rotting log within in its slimy body.
As Beswaur steps into the room the giant metal door on the furnace creaks open with a hideous sound. The door then immediately slams itself with a mighty bang, before slowly creaking open again.
Anyone know about that slimy thing? I'm just going to be trying stuff over here.
Beswaur drops the knife, again pulls out one of his bottle, and opens it while pointing the top at the moving pile of slime.
As the centipede charges in for the second bite Mathias half steps right letting the mandibles pass harmlessly by and positioning himself for a brutal ax stomp. Foot high over his head he drives his heel and weight down toward the top of the centipede's head.
(power attack seems fitting)
Dunno, but its trying to eat me so I'm going to stab it just after I...
Swinging at centipede
...kill this thing.
Marcus's massive blow severs the centipede in two. Both halfs fall to the floor, still twitching.
Mathias land's his blow. The centipede staggers and then lunges for him in relatiation
As the ooze is struck by the lightning it noiseless begins to move, as if injured by Beswaur's actions the ooze tries to slam into the warpriest
The large door to the fireplace slams again with a terrific sound!
Beswaur throws a different bottle at the oozing form.
, if hits
Marcus glances quickly at the fireplace but doesn't stop long enough to examine it closely. He turns his attention to the ooze.
Mathias finishes the centipede with a 1,2 punch
dice=Damage] 1d6 +5 [/dice]
dice=Damage] 1d6 +5 [/dice]
Mathias then stalks toward the ooze
The ooze tries to roll onto the warpriest
But the half orc steps out of the way easily. As the ooze moves the trio notice that it has collected half of the centipede Marcus rent in half.
Mathias being closest to the oven feels that the oven has become warmer, and he can feel heat start to radiate from it.
Well that is interesting
Mathias looks around, normally near an oven or furnace there will be a shovel used to scoop out the ashes.
This squishy thing is also interesting!
Marcus hacks at the ooze again.
Mathias can clearly see a long iron shovel, and the mouldy remains of a broom. The shovel and broom handle are made out of iron that is rusting away, and the bristles of the broom are clearly mouldy. As Mathias is looking he thinks he can see small flames burning through the small glass pane in the large door.
The ooze rolls onto the half orc again
This time the ooze catches the warpriest and engulfs him with thick oozing slime.
This ooze has an AC of 8, and HP of 9
While Mathias would like to take care of the fire, the priest is more important. Positioning himself to the side, flanking the ooze (likely no bonus but good habit) he strikes at the ooze with an open palm.
Marcus drags the dead ooze away from Beswaur.
Mathias what is going on with that stove?
The oven itself is radiating some form of strange heat. Standing next to it causes Marcus's hair to stand up on the back of his neck.
It certainly wasn't working when the party came down here.
Looking at the furnace Mathias can now see a set of iron keys handing up on a hook just beside the iron contraption. Whether they were there before and he didn't notice them, or whether they have just appeared he is not quite sure.
Marcus taps the side of the furnace with the flat of his sword and pushes the door all the way open with it.
A haunted stove?
Mathias grabs his staff and uses it to retrieve the keys.
The stove radiates a faint aura of evil. It produces a dull metal sound when tapped, but Marcus can't seem to open it with his sword, the door seems to have latched itself.
Mathias however can retrieve the keys easily with his staff. The ring contains three iron keys, all large sturdy keys, now covered with rust.
The furnace is getting warmer, and the air down here is warm even if it is setting the trio's teeth on edge.
What are the chances we could just toss in some holy water and lock the door?
Might as well try.
If he doesn't have any Marcus will hand Mathias two flasks of holy water. If the stove seems to be locked he will ask for the keys, otherwise he will just try to unlatch the door by hand.
The stove is not locked but it's wooden handle needs to be pressed down upon and pulled in some form of safety feature to open. The iron door creaks open revealing only several scorched faggots of wood. Pouring in a vial of holy water creates a huge hissing sound and a significant quantity of scalding steam appears when the water touches the wood. The hissing steam seems to moan and stutter
burn the crone and with that steam and sound are no more.
Marcus feels as if whatever evil flames were there have now been put to peace.
I must be honest I didn't think that would work. Let us hope that this place can quickly be set to rest where the structure's bones and finish their decay into the woods and the earth can naturally bring harmony back to the surrounding land.
Mathias looks around searching the area for any other taint in the basement before motioning the the others that he is ready to move on.
Marcus nods I expected whatever was in there to attack us.
He uses his detect evil to search along with Mathias before moving on.
Now that everywhere has had a cursory glance, I would suggest we thoroughly search every room. Starting at the bottom and working our way up. We don't want to chance missing something and this still be a threat to the locals.
.
Agreed.
Mathias searches with the rest of the group.
The basement yields little else of interest, other than a species of speckled woodlice living in the moulding logs.
A search of the parlor finds a small tarnished copper mirror underneath the harpsichord. The mirror radiates a faint aura of divination and necromancy.
A search of the dining hall is more dangerous. Whilst looking under the table the party is beset by a horrifying vision, the tables are full of children raging in ages from 4 to 13. At the head of the table sits a crabby faced woman who glowers at the children, before turning her dreadful gaze on the party, and then she turns her wrathful face to a small child at the other end of the table. All of the rest of the children are slurping gruel, but this child is not. He sits gaunt and white faced, chewing his nails and pitifully watching the other children consume their meal.
As the vision fades all of the party are exceptionally hunger. The hunger is gnawing at their stomachs, like they have not been able to eat for days.
Let us find this crone and be done with it.
Mathias slams the end of his staff down on the mirror.
Hmm... We may need to check and be sure the children area actually buried in the graves.
I would like to inspect the well again as well.
The outside of the house is exactly as the party left it.
The well is still sturdy. The base of it has been made out heavy stonework and it is all intact.
The cover is wooden, and is now covered with a thick black gunge. The wood sags slightly. The cover seems to have been locked down with a large rusty iron lock. However one of the keys on the chain from the cellar could conceivably fit this lock.
The grave sites are still an overgrown mess of weeds and thorns. The tombstones still hunks of cold grey rock. They still sit there in two neat rows, and the party can count 14 stones, each with a name engraved into it. The names are as follows:
Wilfred
Welsh
Henry
Mattias
Rodd
Escott
Mathias
Kai-Uwe
Moreno
Elmore
Bosse
With three stones that were either never engraved, or the engraving has worn off with time.
.
Let us finish the inside first, since we are here. Beswaur opens the closest unopened doors on the ground floor.
Marcus drinks one of his cure potions.
Marcus shivers a bit and puts a hand on his stomach. This must have been a horrible place. He follows Beswaur through the next door.
Mathias follows the others not wanting to run into the same issue when the group first entered this place.
The room behind the forlorn eating area turns out to be the remains of a kitchen. The back door is from this room to the back porch. However this door is boarded up from the inside. The planks used to do so are black with mould and rot. As are the benches. Broken plates and bent instruments are scattered across the floor creating a dangerous mix of shards and spikes
As the party step into the room the rusty lid on one of the iron pots rattles, several cupboard doors open and slam, and this disturbance brings four giant rats out of their hiding places. The rats hiss viciously but seem to be watching the party at this stage rather than attacking.
If we must battle rodents I would prefer to make them break the path through this clutter than do it ourselves.
Mathias, staff in hand takes a wide stance at the edge of the debris field.
Beswaur will wait until Markus is also ready, then throw a vial at a rat.
, if hits
If misses
Marcus takes a stance similar to Mathias.
Here little critter.
The vial smashes against one of the rats who lets out a high pitched sequel. The splash catches another rat who also lets out a horrifying noise. The two damaged rats shake their heads and this shaking causes some sort of bizarre mitosis as a fifth and sixth rat, identical to the other two plop out one from each rat.
Heads down all six rats charge towards the adventurers.
Marcus raises his sword to meet the charging rats.
Gods that's horrifying.
As the rats charge in Mathias extends his staff in his left hand out over the debris, snapping his right arm out behind him back toward the direction they came. Snapping the staff back in and spinning he launches a two handed attack trying to sweep across the rats.
Mathias's blow strikes forward and sends the rat flying. It smacks into the wall and falls onto the bench and twitches several times before expiring.
As the remaining rats surge forward they seem to split again, so each one running forward has another leap out from its behind. This process certainly doesn't slow the rats down, and indeed they all pile in together to aggressively savage the adventurers.
Marcus's sword cleaves one in half, leaving seven rats facing the adventurers.