The bodies are piled outside, and one of the companions moves to collect wood for a pyre. The collapsed tower at the southeast corner provides ample good dry wood and should make the pyre burn hot enough to deal with the corpses.
Exasperated with Muqaq, Seif starts to remove the tiny armour from the broken body of the chief. As soon as the first piece, the helmet, comes free in his hands, it shifts in size, growing almost instantly to medium size. Looking at it in shock, Seif estimates it would be a near perfect fit for his own head.
While Seif is still looking at the helmet in wonder, the Gin's body and the bones of Tarin and the dark stranger are collected and laid out.
"Huh. That was unexpected."
He then turns to Xanyon.
"Would you like this? It might need to be cleaned first... I had the impression those little rat-things were far from hygienic."
Seif-al-Din shakes his head when he regards the corpses of the party's fallen.
"What a tragic waste. We should, at least, give these a proper burial; I do not want them left for the carrion eaters..."
"A...a little helmet that grows? What if it shrinks when it's on my head? I'm not sure I'm the best to wear this anyway, all those straps might get in my way."
"I agree with Seif, bury our friends and burn the carrion."
"It's too heavy for me as well. We should see if the same happens to the rest of the armour as well. If it can be used, you should wear it, Seif. I think you are the only one of us so trained."
Sati helps to strip the armour from the little King's body.
"Bury them we shall, after we finish clearing the first level of the temple. For now lets just leave them in the monastery." Examining the heavy looking armor he continues, "I also do no wish to wear armor."
Tiny dagger (d2), tiny shortbow (d3), 19 tiny arrows, a lock of some blondish hair (animal hair?), 3 bluish buttons (none matching), a small gold nugget (worth around 10 gp), 16 sp in silver and copper coins.
As each piece of armour is removed from the tiny body, it resizes itself to fit the person holding that individual piece. In the end, you are left with a hodge lodge of armour pieces in Seif and Sati's sizes, but you are confident they will all resize to matcH each other if a single wearer handles them all.
The first room to be investigated is the last room of the living section of the monastery. The area outside the doors is scattered with ruined books, covers without pages, pages ripped, crumpled and torn, and bits that are no longer recognizable. The door opens without too much difficulty, requiring only the force needed to push the mounds of paper and detritus out of the ways.
A sagging wooden balcony overlooks this large room, which must once have been the monastery’s library. An overpowering odor of musty, rotting paper and old leather fills the air here, and hundreds of books—most too damaged even to open without destroying them—litter the floors. Empty bookshelves
line the walls of both levels.
Xanyon looks carefully into the room. If given the clear from Muqaq he will search the room.
"You might find this book interesting Muqaq."
The half-orc hands over what he has found.
Once finished exploring what is left of the library, the group continues north, moving along the eastern wall. The route takes you up past the courtyard, and what was probably once a garden within. Now, it is burned and black, and an uncomfortable reminder of friends so recently lost. The trees that once stood there have burned down to blackened stumps, and the grass is barely stubble. The nest of the Geier burned the most fiercely, and nothing remains to even mark where it stood.
Continuing to move past the open space the team moves up and finds a room. Mohgwier enters, looks around, and finds no threats within. The rest of the team then joins him. The room turns out to be a small chapel.
The brightly painted walls of this small chapel, probably meant for personal prayer and reflection, stand out as unusually garish for the otherwise reserved architecture notable elsewhere in the monastery. On the walls, numerous rectangular wooden plates traced in gold filigree depict a strapping warrior battling creatures of fire, riding a chariot on the wind, and engaging in other acts of noble heroism. It is the same figure depicted elsewhere in the monastery, but the sheer number of images here suggest that this shrine was especially important to the clerics who honored him as a saint of Sarenrae. Perhaps a quarter of the gold plates have been pried away or hacked apart by long-absent vandals.
Opposite the door, dominating a section of the north wall, stands a man-sized statue of the warrior, its face marred by what look like numerous blows from an axe. The statue holds both hands in front of him, bent at the elbow, palms up, as if expecting an offering. Several deep rents from similar axe blows make it clear that someone tried to hack the arms from the statue decades ago, but was unable to do so.
A staircase on the east wall leads up to one of the monastery's many towers.
"Thanks Xanyon." Muqaq says, giving the book a glance and then tucking it away for later inquiry.
In the chapel Muqaq will scan the statue for magic. While he concentrates he says "Lets finish up the last room on this floor and then we can head upstairs."
Seif-al-Din looks in wonderment at the 'shrine'.
"A little ostentatious, but it does lend the impression that he was someone rather important; I wonder who he actually was, though? He is not a Herald that I am familiar with..."
When Muqaq suggests finishing off this level before searching the tower, Seif-al-Din nods.
"Fair enough, although I doubt there will be much up the tower..."
"Hopfully it's sturdy enough to support us all."
As suspected, the tower is only a single tiny parapet, and not much of an area to explore, fitting only one or two people at the top at any one time. Mohgwier charges up to the top and looks around, but failing to find anything comes back down, allowing the next person to advance. Anyone who wishes can climb up, but other than the view of the surrounding desert, there is not much to see from up there, and noting of significance to find.
Pulling back, the group moves to investigate the next area, just to the west. The first chamber is a vestibule to a larger chamber that can be seen beyond.
The walls of the vestibule are lined with more carvings and depictions. In this case, the figure from the other room is absent, and the scenes depicted are more common stories from the holy book of Sarenrae.
The sight of the larger room to the north causes the group to pull up short. The room looks large, and roughly circular or maybe octagonal. In the center of the room there are several dedicated bodies. They are mostly animal corpses, but something about the way the collection sits makes you think they did not all come here to die of natural causes.
Seif-al-Din frowns.
"Well that does not look ominous at all!"
"I was thinking the opposite. Oh, sarcasm. Well, let's throw a rock at it?"
"Wait." Muqaq says, surveying the room with his magical sight.
A scan of the parts of the room that can be seen without entering register no magic. However, the ceiling and some of the walls lay out of sight.
Muqaq will move to the doorway and stick his head in to scan the rest of the room.
Looking around, Muqaq sees no magical auras. However, looking up at the roof, he sees a cluster of creatures gathered near the peak of the room's conical roof. At a glance they appeared to be sleeping, but there was little else he could tell about them with so brief a look.
"There are some kind of creatures sleeping near the roof. Everyone buff up, lets get ready for a fight." Muqaq says after quickly withdrawing his head.
He casts a spell of protection on himself. "We should start the engagement with ranged weapons and then hold here at the door, make them come to us."
Xanyon readies his pistol.
"Just let me know when you're all ready."
Mohgwier will have trouble reaching those creatures unless they come down. I can be ready though, with this. She pats her crossbow, ready and loaded.
Once everybody is in place Xanyon fires off a shot at the closest creature.
HP = 26/26
AC/T/FF = 19/15/14
Weapon Equipped = None
Grit = 2/2
Orc Ferocity = 1/1
Bullets = 30/30
Black Powder = 30/30
Alchemical cartridge (paper) = 18/20
Speed = 30'
Status Effects = None
"I don't want to risk another fire. Xanyon and Sati fire at the same target to get things started, Mohgwier hold the door."
Seif-al-Din stands ready with his curved blade, ready to assist for when (not if) the creatures close for melee...
Sati stands ready with Xanyon, and when he is ready to fire, she lets off a bolt from her crossbow.
Xanyon's shot rings out and one of the creature's falls dead to the floor just a few steps away. Sati's shot hits as well, but sticks through a wing instead of the body, doing little harm.
The rest of them screech and take flight around the peak of the roof, scrambling to see where the threat is coming from. In motion, you can tell them apart more easily. You count 5 more.
Muqaq
Sati
Mohgwier
Seif ;
Xanyon
Stirges
Round 1:
Seif-al-Din steps forward to protect the ranged combatants, readying an attack for when one of the small creatures comes within range.
"I'm gonna let you guys handle this one. Like I said, don't want another fire in here. I'll stand ready to heal if anyone is seriously injured." Muqaq says, drawing out his mother's holy symbol and waiting behind the others.
Round 1
HP = 26/26
AC/T/FF = 19/15/14
Weapon Equipped = None
Grit = 2/2
Orc Ferocity = 1/1
Bullets = 29/30
Black Powder = 29/30
Alchemical cartridge (paper) = 18/20
Speed = 30'
Status Effects = None
Xanyon takes aim at the one injured by Sati, hoping to bring down another before they attack.
Xanyon's shot brings down a second creature, and it falls to the floor under gravity's pull.
The Stirges flitter about for a moment before charging down towards the intruders. They move for the folk gathered at the bottom of the room, diving. Of the four remaining, two move at Seif, as he has placed himself at the fore, and the other two at each of the ranged fighters. The first to come close is quickly sliced in half, as is the second as it tries to swoop in to pierce him with its long, sharp nose. One flutter down to Xanyon (entering his space) and proceeds to attempt to attach itself to him. However, it cannot get a firm grip and is forced to let go. The last goes for Sati. She proves too fast for it, and it fails to catch her.
Mohgwier moves next to Sati and pounces on the stirge.
Sati takes a step away from Xanyon in order to get enough space to target the creature flying about him.
Mohgwier catches the first, the one near Sati, in powerful jaws and crushes it. It dies instantly. As soon as the threat is removed Sati step backwards and raises her crossbow almost directly at Xanyon. She looses her quarrel and the flying thing is snatched instantly out of the air by Xanyon's face and pinned by the quivering bolt to a wooden wall some few paces away.
Only silence follows, as it seems all the creatures have been slain.
The room itself stinks of rotting carcasses and guano, but underneath the layers of dirt, grime, and offal it appears to have once bee the monastery's chapter house. The octagonal room would have once served as a meeting place for discussions and lessons. Nothing of particular interest appears to remain, however. It appears that the Stirges have lived here for some time, and as they are incapable of moving such large bodies themselves, that someone had been feeding them by bringing the animals, alive or dead, here to this room.
Edit:Also, there's probably a secret door in one of these rooms into the space in the wall next to us (to the west). Whoever has the highest perception should take 20 to search all the adjoining chambers when we're finished with this room.
While this is technically true and easy to tell from a map, your characters do not have such a map showing them the square footage, etc., and spotting the dead space between areas would not be easy, particularly since you haven't seen the other side of the area since yesterday. If you are to plausibly spend extra effort in this area looking for a secret passage, it should probably be motivated by either a high perception check to notice the missing space in the first place, or a Kn: Engineering check.
Seif-al-Din wrinkles his nose at the corpse pile.
"We are going to need to move those out of here at some point; however, I vote that we wait to do that after we have finished exploring this building..."
While doing a cursory inspection of the room you find a silver bowl, that while dirty and blackened now, will probably be valuable after it is cleaned (75 gps). In addition there are some gold and silver coins scattered around the floor and the corpses, but picking them all up and counting them out is likely to be a chore for later.
Something odd about a wood panel in the southwest corner of the room catches your attention, as the mounting is unique among all of the other panels in the room. A few moments of searching more closely allows you to find a release to a secret door. The latch click open with no difficulty, but the door moves in barely an inch before halting. Leaves and vines poke out from the tiny space, and seem so thickly grown as to have arrested the path of the door completely.
About 15 seconds of wrestling with the door are needed before it can be forced open. Looming walls with no apparent doors enclose this small roofless garden. Monks must once have come here to relax and contemplate the ways of nature, but any order they might have brought to the place all those years ago is almost impossible to notice now, as a wild cacophony of multicolored scrub plants and desert weeds have almost completely overgrown the space.
A search of this space reveals nothing further, and you surmise that it was used for solitude and reflection as opposed to hiding treasures. Another hidden door on the far side opens up onto one of the two shoulder chambers you noticed just before exploring the sanctuary last night. You crawl out between the legs of a bas relief statue adjoining the wall. He is a bearded figure appearing on a hilltop to a group of robed pilgrims. The being holds up his hands, palms out, in a sign of peace. Though many of the faces and limbs on the bas-relief have been worn down or cut away, the expressions of those range from beatific to horrified.
A crude stone stele that seems to have been erected more recently than the abandonment of the monastery stands here as well. Its graven inscription reads: “A ghost of unholy mien was purged from this place by Theodephus Estrovan, servant of Aroden, 4691 ar.”
You wander from room to room, attempting to see if there is any room or space you have neglected to check, and other than climbing to the top of each minaret, you have searched the whole top level and are confident there is no room or space you have missed.
"Good work everyone. We did that right. Lets get everything that could attract carrion feeders outside and burned now. Then we can check out the basement."
Seif-al-Din nods.
"Agreed."
"I think that garden needs a little pruning, too, but we can leave that until later!"
Xanyon huffs in relief as the bolt skewers the stirge and not him.
"Fine shooting!"
Moving with the rest of the group he keeps careful watch as the building is explored.
"A filthy task, but one best done now, as you say Muqaq."
The rest of the day's light is spent dragging the bodies from various parts of the monastery's main level and adding them the the pyre burning near the southeast corner. More coins and trinkets are found while gathering the pugwampi bodies from the chapel, making for another 13 gp worth in total. The room where you killed the stirges has valuables spread around as well, and gathering them up as you move the animal carcasses out of the space brings another 47 gp.
Having spent most of the day at rest while Xanyon was sleeping leaves you still feeling for the most part rested as the sun sets, and with no one injured in the most recent engagement, you all feel well enough to press on.
Muqaq will renew his magical defenses before heading down the stairs after Mohgwier and Seif. Having perfected their scouting method clearing the first level he didn't bother to instruct the team.
Once the corpses are cleaned out of the upper level, and Seif-al-Din has had a chance to cleanse his hands, he breathes a sigh of relief.
"Shall we see what is downstairs?"
"Ready when you are."
The space into which you descend seems to be an enormous laboratory. Against the north and south walls are two identical daises raised about five feet from the laboratory floor, each accessed by a wide set of curved stairs. Atop each dais is a wide workbench covered in a bewildering series of glass beakers, tubes, alembics, athanors, and other alchemical tools. Some of these containers are filled with a murky green substance.
A massive mold-encrusted basalt table dominates the entrance of the room, flanked by two small tables to the east and west containing surgical tools and sheaves of old parchment. The walls of the subterranean lab were clearly fashioned from the living rock under the monastery, but carefully cut mold-encrusted tiles line the floor, interrupted occasionally by metal drains the size of dinner plates.