Jominda stands there with her mouth open.
Meanwhile the next part of the construct rises into the air and moves to the coal room, only to fall into the same place as the previous part.
Herm moves further into the building, watching the constructs go.
"Door a head of me, Stairs to the north east, door beside the starts at the bottom and at the far end of the room as the stairs go up." Herm says over his shoulder.
Kendra says a word of power, and momentarily her eyes glow in purple.
"It's a small conjuration. Looks like it's somehow collecting all the parts together, but I don't think it's actually reassambling it." Kendra notes.
Looking around, you notice The portrait above the fireplace is of a deeply curious man, surrounded by objects in his museum.
[dice=Knowledge(nobility/local)DC18]This is Count Caromarc[/spoiler]
"That is Count Caromarc, he must own this place. I wonder if he was the person whom created Thomas." Herm Moves further into the house. "Count, my name is Herm Dunlaven, I am a friend of Professor Lorrimor and his daughter is here as well, we have come to talk."
No one answers Herm's call. But part after part of the construct moves to the coal room. Lastly a dustpan and brush move into the room through the air and take up the smaller remains. The door to the coal room closes and the door to the right too.
Jominda's eyes follow the clean up until it is done, while she stands there open mouthed. "Can I have that magic too fro my home?" she asks as it is done.
"Quite possibly." Kendra admits.
With her magical vision still working, she says "Let us investigate these rooms thoroughly before heading on. Anything that can help us move further without causing further damage is a good thing."
As there is nothing else of interest in this room, Kendra checks on the coal room. But there is also nothing to be found but the obvious. A door leads further into the building from there.
But instead going there Kendra decides to take a look where the magical clean up came from. Behind the door to the right is a corridor that looks more like the way into the house, with multiple doors to the left and right.
Kendra speaks a few words of power, and again a momentary purple glow shines from her eyes as she renews the spell to make sure it stays up to date. She carefully and slowly walks up the corridor, first wanting to check everything without doors.
Herm follows behind Kendra looking for any other monsters to jump out and attack.
"What are we looking for?"
Following the corridor Kendra ends up in a dining room. The vaulted ceiling of this large room is adorned with gilt. A pair of halberds hang above a huge lit fireplace in the far wall. A great dining table and twelve chairs take up the center of the room. A large bell hangs near the fireplace.
There are secret doors in the south wall.
Jominda is awestruck as she sees the dinner room. "Wow. Now we only need to find where the food is prepared. Or someone to prepare it for us." Jominda suggests.
Looking around she notices the secret door "Hey, look. There is a hidden passage."
"We're looking for anything to contact the main mansion, or any other sign of traps or guardians." Kendra answers Herm.
She continues walking out calmly, and arrives at the dining room.
Kendra looks where Jominda indicates, and says "Well spotted, dear. But before we explore the tunnel behind it and find some kind of slime to attack me, let's first explore the normal doors in this building."
Noticing nothing of interest in this room, not even signs of living, she walks back into the hallway and thoroughly checks one of the doors for magical traps before carefully opening it.
The books here are all about engineering
[ooc]Appraise DC20 The tobacco jars are filled with various
exotic tobacco mixtures, worth 200 gp in total. Among
the mundane pipes are a calabash set with six small jets
(worth 75 gp), and a long churchwarden with a gold tooth-
guard (worth 50 gp).
Herm follows closely behind Kendra making sure that some slime doesn't come out to eat her.
"IF we need to we can retreat back to here, there is food and other items. I am sure the count won't mind if we pay him for anything we took. Should we press on to find him and Thomas?"
"For someone to mind, someone would need to be here first. And I do definitely mind if I have to survive on trail rations." Jominda states while taking mental notes what will be served for dinner.
"But I agree that we should make sure there are no more surprises in this house."
After following that train of thoughts for a moment she asks "If we don't find the count or Thomas, are we going to keep that castle for ourself?"
Kendra laughs at Jominda's suggestion. "I am sure we'll find someone, eventually. But you are right Herm, this would be a good place to hold out. There's plenty of food and drink, and an ample amount of books to read."
Kendra turns round to the door they entered the building through, trying to discover if the lock, once repaired, would be easily openable from within. "Did anyone see the key to this? I would repair it, but I don't want to lock ourselves in."
It is not obvious with the lock destroyed and no longer moving. But from the inside it was just a handle, that now doesn't move anymore.
"Are we checking upstairs, before making a final decision about staying here?" Jominda asks.
"I was thinking you go check upstairs while I try to mend this lock."
"Herm, are you coming?" Jominda asks at the base of the stairs.
The stairs lead to a tribune, which has three doors.
White sheets cover the four-poster bed, wardrobe, and dressing table in these luxurious guest rooms that are rarely used.
Three simple cots are arranged within this chamber. Numerous drawings and books litter a nearby table.
The drawings on the table are various attempts at plans for rebuilding a bridge between two buildings.
This neat bedchamber holds a resplendent four-poster bed surrounded by oak furniture. This is the master bedroom, though it is obvious that no one has slept here in days. The furniture consists of a wardrobe, a dressing table, chest, and a tall dressing mirror.
Kendra studies the lock for a while before heading towards the library, to see if there's any books on locksmithing.
"Harrold, can you tell me about how such a lock would work, exactly?" she asks on the way.
Jominda tiptoes upstairs and listens at the first door.
Not hearing anything she continues to the second and the third.
Finally she decides to open a door and look in . Finding a bedroom she checks the wardrobe. Finding it unused she continues to the next room. Finding another empty bedroom she calls downstairs "I found where we could sleep. And it looks like there are, or at least were some people here."
Moving on to the next door, and then going straight through the next one too she exclaims "Know we're talking. I call dibs on that one if we stay here."
Herm nods at Jominda, leading her up the stairs.
"These beds could serve for you and Kendra, I will take a cot."
"Is that something with your faith? Or why are you not interested in a spacious, comfortable bedroom? I'm just wondering - what are your dreams? As getting the big room in the castle is not high on your priorities list." Jominda asks curiously.
She opens the wardrobe to see if there is something interesting in this one.
The wardrobe is crammed with fine men’s clothing—10 noble's outfits, six scholar’s outfits, and one royal outfit. One of the dressing table’s drawers contains a jewelry box holding a silver chain worth 50 gp, a gold snuffbox set with a topaz worth 400 gp, a platinum-handled magnifying glass in a leather case worth 600 gp, and a monocle with a silver chain ending in a diamond pin worth 800 gp.
Jominda is disappointed. "Not a single dress!" she complains. But then she turns to Herm to see if he's going to answer.
"I live to serve, my aspirations are to be a Knight of Ozem and serve in Last Wall. I made a pledge to Iomade that I will try to free Aranzi from those who have captured her and perverted her in Geb." Herm looks the fine clothing over, taking out a black noble outfit and holding it in front of himself. "My family never could afford such riches. We had enough, my parents being fisher folk."
"That's a heavy burden you put on your life." Jominda tells with wide eyes, not really understanding what Herm's motivation is.
"Neither could mine." she replies, going back to a topic that is more to her liking. "That's why I'm not going to let that opportunity pass to sleep in a royal bed."
"It is I agree, it is what I had to do, it helped me get out of a rut I had driven myself into." Herm looks at the bed, then at Jominda. "It is your miss, I will not take it from you." Herm smiles.
"Thank you." Jominda replies, making a curtsy.
"you're welcome, Lets see to Kendra and Harrold." Herm waits for Jominda before closing the door and heading back downstairs.
Jominda takes a quick look into the remaining room she already saw from the balcony, before going down the stairs. "This is a worthy shelter for us. Did you make progress securing the door again?" she asks Kendra.
Seeing that Kendra is still busy with the door Jominda decides to go for a meal.
"I'm going to cook something for us. Any special wishes? If not it will be something quick, like roast beef with fried vegetables."
She takes the shortcut through the larder and the storeroom for the cleaning tools. She leaves the doors open to be able to hear when she is called. "This arrangement of rooms is stupid. No Matter if you come from the kitchen or the dining room - to get to the wine and food you have to go through the room with the cleaning tools or through the room with the coal." But that doesn't hinder her to collect what she needs.
"It is an interesting question."
"The basic premise is that there are sliding pins which are lifted by the key. When the pins are lifted it allows a tumbler to rotate, which moves a bar that stops the door from opening."
His explanation, while technically correct, is very difficult to visualise correctly if you have no idea how a lock works.
"Can you explain it to me by drawing it out?" Kendra asks Harrold.
Herm moves about the house, looking at different things, finding himself in the smoking room Herm takes a look at the pipes picking them up and inspecting them closely.
"I never tried smoking, always seemed a rich person activity." Herm says out loud to no one.
"I could certainly try if we can find some parchment, pen and ink." Harrold replies starting to look around the room
Kendra grins, and yells back to Herm "Jominda always wanted a pipe. She thought it would look sophisticated."
Herm comes back into the kitchen with the pipe and some tobacco.
"Have you ever tried this?" Herm holds up what he found
"Yes. But it is too strong for me. It only makes me cough. Nowadays I use tobacco mostly to keep aphids and other vermin off my herbs."
"But I like the smell of it when someone else smokes a pipe. It's a shame that you can't light one without sucking in the smoke." She tells while flipping the chunks of meat on the hearth and shuffling the vegetables in a pan.
Kendra rummages through a few things in the library and produces some paper, after which she gets some writing implements from her own backpack. "Here, Harrold." she says.
She places the paper on a small table next to the leather chair, probably one to hold a good glass of wine, and flattens it out, while handing the pen and ink to Harrold.
"I have never smoked a pipe before, do you feel this would be stealing to try it out?" Herm asks as he sits down