Hilde proceeds to cut the ears, tongue and nose from the creature, and add them to the necklace.
She holds it in her hands for a second, looking at it, deep in thought.
She then shrugs, and throws it away.
Glad you threw that necklace away Hilde, it was starting to smell a little ripe! Kit then proceeds to cut down the half-eaten man.
Hilde nods
"Thanks for having my back," says Dilwyn, once again impressed by the martial skill of his companions. "I think I've learned that diplomacy should be reserved for people in plain sight. If that thing had stabbed me a bit higher up I'd be toast."
Iskender will cast detect magic and see if any of the loot is special. Obviously the potions are, but how about the axe, or the bracelet?
Iskender nods appreciatively, "that rapier there has a magic aura about it. Would any of you mind if I absconded with it for a bit? At least until the world ends, I should think."
As he admires his well-crafted axe, Kit says to Iskender, I don't mind, it looks like the insane aren't the only thing we have to worry about in this town!
Hilde looks at the rapier with an amused grin, and turns around. She gets a healing potion and drinks in one big glup.
Dilwyn takes the offered potion and drinks it.
"That's much better," he says, wincing as he feels the wound fully closing up. "As far as I'm concerned, you're all welcome to anything you find if it suits you. I'm not much for fancy weapons, myself. Give me a nice solid stick any day, but that's just a matter of personal taste. If we're thoroughly checking out the town, which is sounding more and more like a good idea if there are monsters about an not just disease, then I'd suggest we go to the apothecary next. It might have some stuff to be found that would be useful to have when we get to the other places. It's a bit out of the way, though."
Distributing the potions and weapons as best suits the needs of the group, and a few of you curing yourselves, the group stows the rest of the loot and heads back down to the main floor of this shop.
Looking out, you still see other buildings that you might wish to investigate.
Kit sweeps his arm out and bows slightly, Ladies first! He says to Hilde.
"Don't look at me to decide which way to go. I thought coming was stupid, but then Kit infected me with his fate, and now seemingly I am his meat shield. This is not how I expected this to go. I was sure that armageddon would have come more swiftly than this."
Hilde shakes her head and moves towards the next house (A13)
"What?"
Kit grins as he says, but you would have missed coming to this place! He sweeps his arms around. Would you want the end of the world to come without you saying you were here! Kit can't keep a straight face and bursts out laughing.
Iskender appears perplexed. He speaks in fragments, "But, but... the... world... apocalypse... me... track down... Ummm, right?"
Right!
Zal walks past the bard and warrior and smiles as he follows Hilde, I'm glad that is settled then!
Following Hilde, you head down to the burnt out building that Redthistle told you was the old Militia HeadQuarters. This smoldering ruin was once a three-story, wooden structure. Though three of its four walls remain standing, the building’s interior has long since collapsed, leaving it a smoldering tangle of blackened beams and ash. Searching thru the ruins you do not find anything of interest.
You leave the burnt out HQ and move across the road to the next building which should be the Mulnarin Farm. The door to this small farmhouse lies kicked in, and the adjacent barn has burned to its foundation. Looking into the farmhouse, everyone, excepting Iskender, sees a trapdoor in the floor, only half covered by a disturbed rug.
Hilde uncovers the trapdoor and tries to open it.
Dylwyn heads to the trap door as well and stands with his staff ready to play whack-a-mole if anything pops out when Hilde opens it. He's learned his lesson, and doesn't attempt to announce their presence in a friendly way first.
Everyone enters the farmhouse and Dilwyn and Hilde walk over to the trapdoor, while Hilde uncovers it and yanks on the rope handle, but it does not move. The door seems to be barred from the other side.
"If it's barred from the other side then there's either another way in somewhere else, or whoever locked it is still in there," Dilwyn remarks. "We can try breaking it in, like the sheriff's office, or we can try announcing ourselves in a friendly way and see if maybe whoever or whatever is down there is in a talking mood. I'm guessing this is some kind of panic shelter, or something like that."
Hilda grabs her axe, and moves her head sideways.
"Probably to keep maniacs like us out I should think."
"Maniacs? Us?" Dilwyn seems thoroughly flummoxed that anyone could possibly consider him a maniac. Thinking back over the events of the last few days, though, there is the fact that he's joined up with total strangers to actively seek the foretold end of the world, he was one of the very rare few who've worked really hard to break into a jail, and then topped it all off by telling an angry bugbear that they were about to visit.
"I take your point," he says, after a moment. He tries to work out what Hilde means with her gesture, and figures that barring something more definite, it's a safe go-to move to stand a little farther away from her and her axe so he doesn't get in the way of whatever she's planning to do with it. He's still feeling sympathy pains between his legs for that deranged half-orc from the inn.
Hearing no objections, Hilde raises her axe and prepares to bash in the trapdoor.
kit grips his axe ready for whatever pops out as Hilde gets ready to bash the trap door. Knock Knock!
Hilde uses her sword to try an destroy the trapdoor.
vs Hilde AC 14
Deciding to open the trapdoor the old fashioned way, Hilde takes a huge swing at it and it shatters. A crossbow bolt comes flying out and just misses her.
A young voice shouts, "I am armed. Go away!"
Peeking down you see four children, and the oldest boy, perhaps 15, is holding a dagger in front of him with his younger siblings standing behind him. The crossbow appears to have been a trap on the door.
Hilde smiles, drop her axe and jumps into the cellar.
"Kill the boy first Hilde, he looks to be the ring leader!"
Zal, too caught up in his own thoughts notes the sound of movement beneath them but doesn't think to stop Hilde. As she drops into the space, Zal frowns after Iskender, They are children...no need to terrify them...
"I did express that they were probably trying to keep maniacs like us out, right? How many farmers have we killed so far? And only the one genuine monster, right? What would be the irony that we are the actual cause of the end of the world, and not its salvation, or even its chroniclers?"
"I don't think that's entirely fair," says Dilwyn, frowning. "So far we've only killed in self-defense. The minds of those farmers were long gone. Even if we weren't under direct attack, so far this disease has been beyond anything I've ever seen before. I could not have helped them without more investigation, and their bloodthirst was not going to give me that time.
"It's true that this time it was just a couple of kids, but the last two times we encountered a door to the unknown with noises behind it were a different story. The last one was that monster you mentioned, and we still have no idea what was up with Silverstone Hall." He sighs.
"Speaking of children," he calls down to them. "You can relax. We're in charge of our wits and are not here to hurt you. I imagine our entrance has been alarming, but we did not wish to give up our element of surprise in case the noises we heard were something dangerous again. This town has been through one hell of an event. Do you know what happened to your parents?"
"Reassure them that their hiding place was excellent, and that the next marauders will surely not be able to discover them. Of course, now that we ruined the hatch, they will need to find a new hiding place."
Come down out of there! We aren't going to hurt you! If we were you all would be dead already! We are here to help! Kit yells up.
Kit realizes he's probably not helping but hopefully can avoid bloodshed. Still wincing from the mention of the farmers.
Ha! Usually people think I'm the one that looks crazy! Put the dagger down, boy! Are you hungry? We have some food we can share.
Hilde smiles at the boy, and extends her hand to him.
"We are not hungry, but thank you for offering" replies the boy, while putting his dagger in the sheaf at his waist. "After the sickness we have been living off the food stores and the water barrel over in the corner" as he points to the far corner of the root cellar.
"I am Tevan Mulnarin. These are my brothers and sisters."
"Do you know if Rexel is alive? My da told me to get there if things went bad, but we have heard too many things going on so we figured we stay here till we ran out of food and water." he asks.