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Milo was so entranced watching the undead burn it took him a moment to realize that most of them were still moving. Luckily the others finished them off, and the one that got through missed!
He stares at the smoldering corpses for a moment, a chagrined look on his face, then shakes his head.
"Lead on, oldtimer!" He says, to Tomnus with a slight grin.
He stops to mumble a few arcane words, and casts Mage Armor on himself, before continuing downwards.
The barrel-aging caves seem empty now that the undead threat has been taken care of.
On the other side of the cave it appears that someone has pushed aside a bric-a-brac shelf exposing a small niche in the back of the room. An outline in the dust shows where a small chest once sat. The shelf contains dozens of crates of rotting wine corks and moldering labels. There is a crate which contains a set of bracers of armor +1.
A passageway leads further on beyond the barrel-aging room.
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"Lia, do you want to lead? And would you like some company?" asks Marcus.
If she says yes; Marcus puts his bow away, and draws his falchion, holding the point out in front of him. "Then lets see what is down the tunnel."
If she says no; Marcus falls in behind her, bow out and arrow nocked, trying to provide covering fire. "Ok, lets go."
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"Lead, certainly. Company, thank you, but no. A sword like that will make too much noise, and we're trying to be subtle now, aren't we?" With a wink, Lia will take point down the passage, rapier drawn. She'll try to stay a good 40 feet ahead of the others, but she'll be careful to make sure that she can see what's ahead as well. Where possible, she'll keep to the walls to minimize how much shadow she casts ahead of her, but she'll be making sure to keep her eyes peeled for any signs of trap, hostile, or interesting loot.
The party travels down the tunnel for what seems like miles. The tunnel from the barrel-aging caves ends in what appears to be the basement of a stone cottage. The basement is filled with nothing but moldering, empty wine racks and a flight of crude, wooden stairs leading back above ground. On the other side of the basement the tunnel continues further.
Falcon has a sudden realization that he is in a basement.
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"You seem a bit more interested in this one than in the others. Mind if I ask why?"
Milo shrugs slightly. "Was asked to keep an eye out for some Osirian friend of Railford's that got himself lost up this way. But if that was him, don't look like he'll be goin' home any time soon." He scowls down at the charred corpse. "There anything to identify him?"
Milo's mood seems to darken the longer they walk. He glances around the basement, scowling.
"At this rate, we're probably halfway back to Railford." He eyes the basement and continuing tunnel angrily. "And why make us tromp through that damn swamp, when we coulda come in right there?"
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Looking more closely at the wayfinder, Lia hands it to Milo. "Does this have any special properties that you can find, or is it the standard equipment they told us about back at the lodge?"
Holding a finger to her lips as the others catch up to her at the basement, Lia takes a quick look around, going quietly up the stairs to listen at the door to the above house.
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"That's the guy, I guess." Milo concedes when Lia shows him the name.
He takes the wayfinder reluctantly when offered, glances at it scowling, then hands it back to Lia almost immediately.
Looks like any other to me." He adds.
"Dunno nothing about Osirion funerals. Should we just torch him with the rest?"
Lia moves up the stairs and enters onto the main floor of a small one-room cottage. A man lies on the bed, seemingly suffering from a severe fever. He starts when he notices Lia emerging from the basement but falls back to his bed in weariness when he senses that she is not the threat he expected.
"How did you get down there? Who are you? Not Grald's I guess or you would have stuck me already."
This man has been attacked by ghouls recently and likely suffers from ghoul fever. He is very weak but is stronger than his friend you met earlier and it may take longer for him to fully succumb to the disease.
"Hmph." the man replies Lia. "Cheeky one, you are."
"Well, I've the right to be down there, seeing as they're my tunnels and this is my cottage. In fact, the whole town of Railford here is mine. The name's Becher. You see, I went out a couple days ago to find the papers to prove that this town is mine after some young upstart came marching through here with a bunch of thugs and mercenaries claiming that because no one owned this property he was taking over the town as his own."
"Now my friends all fell in the barrel-aging caves. We weren't expecting such foul creatures to come attacking us and I narrowly escaped down the tunnel, using all my strength to bring this back." Becher kicks a small chest sitting on the floor at the end of the bed.
"That's the reason we went searching around down in those old abandoned caves. That chest has got the deeds to Railford, the deeds passed down to me from my dad. It's locked though, and I don't have the key on me. I need to continue on to the distillery. The tunnel in the basement's the safest way but I've hardly got the strength to go on. I'm not opening this thing until I get to the distillery though; I want to keep those papers safe and the distillery is the safest place for me right now."
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"A moment, if you please, Mr. Becher." Walking back to the head of the stairs, Lia will descend into the basement to talk to the rest of the group. "He claims to be Becher Railford, son of the late Iodon. He appears to be suffering from ghoul fever, although he is not yet close to death. He has a chest with the deeds in it, although no key. He won't open it here, and he desires to continue on to the distillery further down the tunnel. There is an opportunity here, if we have the wits to take it. I see no reason not to make helping us a condition of our helping him. I'm reasonably certain I can open that chest, given enough cause." Lia will give a small smile as she reaches the latter part of her narrative.
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Milo snickers, then ask, "Any idea where we are now?"
"At the rate they're going, half the town will be ghouls within the week." He laughs humorlessly. "Great place to put a Pathfinder lodge to be sure."
He goes over to look down the continuing tunnel. "Get the walking corpse, lets get this over with then."
Hearing the deal, Becher is quick to agree. "Certainly, certainly. If you Pathfinders can help me out of this jam, I'll comply with whatever you want."
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"Come, Mr. Becher. My associates will give you a hand down the tunnel, and we'll get you to a healer in town who can hopefully prevent you from suffering what most of your fellows did. Sad business, that. I'll lead the way, make sure there are no more of your friends waiting to eat us all," Lia says cheerfully. She'll grab the small chest and tuck it into her bag before heading back down to begin leading the way down the next chunk of tunnel, rapier again in hand.
The party follows the tunnel for some way until they arrive in another small basement serving as the end to the tunnel. Becher leads everyone up stairs into the large distillery.
Noises, shouting, and arguments come from outside. A gruff voice from outside the distillery calls out, "Becher, you fool! We know you've gotta be in there! Surrender and hand over the deeds! We've got the town at our mercy, give it to us before people start to die!"
Becher summons up his last ounce of strength to shout back through a window, "My family's been running this town for longer than anyone can remember! You'll take this town only from my cold, dead body!"
At this point Becher succumbs to his illness and falls to the ground, unconscious.
Loud noises begin to issue from the front doors of the distillery as those outside try to force the doors open.
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Milo gets a slightly manic gleam in his eye, as he glances around the distillery.
"Gimme a clear shot if you can". He says with a disturbing smile. "Pretty sure they'll torch just as well as the dead ones."
He tries to move to a good spot where he can get a clear line with his 15' cone burning hands, ducking behind some cover ( ), and readies an action to step out and burn as many as he can, seemingly completely oblivious to the dangers of being so close.
After damaging the door for a bit, two soldiers burst through the dilapidated distillery to find the Pathfinders waiting for them!
The party hears banging from the southern doors as well, although they seem a bit sturdier.
Marcus sends an arrow past the soldiers while Lia puts an arrow through one's chest and brings him to the ground. Tomnus swings his staff and misses but then brings the other one to the ground with a shock of electricity.
One of the guards finishes bashing in the door. With the door now open, the other raises his longbow and fires at Tomnus.
There is now a banging coming from the door to the stillroom (marked on map).