Arval realises the group moved back without him and catches up.
The door opens with a creak into a spacious room which smells of mildew and rot. Norna peeks in to see a long desk and chair sit to the south, while to the northwest a narrow alcove contains a closed safe. Thick layers of dust cover everything in sight.
As the group enter the room, a sense of relief suddenly washes over everyone. The claustrophobia and tension in Harrowstone seems absent; this is just a room. The evil aura Rustom felt all around the prison is absent in this office.
"This is probably the best place to find a key, hopefully it is not in the safe." Kawrock searches the room for a key or anything else interesting.
The group tear the office from top to bottom: no key is found. This appears to have been the office of Warden Lyvar Hawkran. It is neat, tidy, and fairly empty. The only item of interest is the safe, which is locked but does not appear to be trapped.
"We don't have anyone who's able to open it?"
Eldon looks at his companions, and his eyes rest on Arval. "Arval, would you be able to break the safe's lock? I figure we'll have to use brute force."
Before Arval can try Eldon walks over to the safe, and first tries himself. Eldon's display of brute force is quite impressive. Or at least he thinks so.
Eldon and Norna grabs a bit of stonework from the crumbling wall, and smashes it as hard as he can against the safe repeatedly. They make a little bit of progress but only manages to dent the door. However, as they continue smashing the safe, a crashing sound comes from within the safe. They step back, exhausted. Blue liquid starts to drip out of the dent they just made in the safe.
Seeing the weaker halflings trying to open the safe, Arval grabs his shovel and moves in between them.
"Nonsense we can still try to open it."
He pushes his shovel in the slit between the door and the casing and starts trying to pry the safe open.
Arval starts trying hard to pry the safe open. He makes a little bit of progress, more than Norna and Eldon, but still not enough to get close to opening the safe. As the safe rocks back and forth, more crashes sound from within, and more liquid pours out.
"Don't worry, Norna. You can do your mending, can't you? Though whatever the blue stuff is seems lost."
"We could try dragging the safe home, depending on what the liquid does to furniture?" Eldon casts detect magic to see if the blue liquid has magic properties, and searches his brains for information on blue liquids.
"Pretty sure it's harmless," Eldon concludes with a definite nod.
|
"Next time, when a gnome thinks a halfling has a good idea, someone should be given pause and reconsider."
Norna prays for Guidance and casts Detect Magic, examining and attempting to identify the mess, for whatever it is worth.
"Oh sure, NOW I get the good ideas! Stupid good ideas! They're so unreliable!"
Rustom looks on as the others try to open the safe, still trying to figure out his new companions. "Maybe I can pry it open now that you have weakened it some." He walks over and pulls on the door of the safe as hard as he can.
Rustom walks up to the safe and violently jerks on it a few more times. Even more smashing is heard. After a few more jerks, the door is a little closer to being opened but not quite there. However, the smashing seems to have stopped. A lot of liquid is coming out now.
Norna takes some time to identify the puddles on the ground. It looks like the remains of what was over a dozen potions: cure moderate wounds, lesser restoration, and remove disease. From the sounds of the safe, everything breakable is broken.
|
|
"Hmm... I was going to say that it seems we have broken everything that can be broken, but I don't want it to be mistaken for a challenge. There may still be documents - even scrolls - in there, so we should still ('still' isn't quite the right word...) be careful, let the liquid drain out, and maybe come back when we have a key, unless it looks like we can take the whole thing to a locksmith."
"The warden was trapped on the lower level, and so the keys may be there, or with another jailor. I say we should just continue to explore this level, then either make a foray down below, after the keys to this and the other, or go up a level."
Kawrock dips one of his fingers in the mixture and places it in his beak. "Hmmm not bad."
With the safe thoroughly dented and its contents smashed, the group seems to have explored what they can in this office, unless further attempts at the safe are desired. While the group smash at the safe, a quick glance is made in the room to the north. It appears to be a privy, its less than pleasant contents having dried to dust after decades of disuse.
What do you do?
An investigation of the privy reveals nothing. Norna and the rest of the group head back towards the west hallway, and then pick a door to listen at.
Eldon's dancing lights follow along as the group make their way through the dim prison to the west hallway. As Norna approaches the door, she's startled to realize that it is barely set on its hinges, allowing for an easy look into the room. The rectangular chamber beyond seems to have once been a chapel, but now thick sheets of what appear to be cobwebs drape everything within in gossamer threads.
As Norna peers in the door and the group follows up behind her, there's a sudden bust of activity from within. Spiders emerge from the webs the moment the group approach the door. Each the size of a large dog, these pale yellow spiders move in to attack!
Yellow Spider
Purple Spider
Green Spider
Grey Spider
---
Lena (mage armour)
Rustom
Norna
Arval
Kawrock
Eldon
The spiders all charge from the room and effortlessly crawl up the ceiling to avoid your attacks before they leap down to surround the party! One spider simply rushes up to Norna, and tries to bear down on her and bite. However, her armour is much sturdier than the spider's fang and the tiny gnome is unharmed.
Rustom swings his greataxe at the spider in front of him (green)
Kawrock draws his bastard sword and takes a step south of Vladlene before taking a swing at the yellow spider.
His swing stikes the wall as he says,"I have never seen a snack this big before. Get in my beak spider!"
A spider nimbly lands on the floor, crouches, and then leaps a good 10' into the air, intend on using Rustom's face as a landing pad. Rustom's axe flashes out like a bat, sending the enormous spider flying a down the hallway and out of sight. A distant crunch is heard as it hits a wall.
Kawrock yanks out his sword and slashes down as well, but in his hunger he fails to skewer the delicious spider-treat dangling in front of him.
"Speaking of snacks, Kawrock, did you know fried spider is a delicacy even among specific human civilizations?" Eldon asks, and starts a long-winded explanation of this delicacy and its roots to unintentionally annoy inspire courage into his allies.
While talking Eldon draws his rapier, and takes a big step to create a flanking opportunity for one of his comrades. "I once visited a human tribe that lived in the jungles of..."
Eldon begins telling an epic bardic tale of Mwangi culinary traditions while Norna valiantly bonks a spider on the abdomen. It does not seem to notice.
Suddenly irritated by Eldon's rambling story, Lena throws out a vicious fireball which blasts a spider out of mid-air. It flips on its back and its legs curl up.
Arval moves towards one spider and flanks it. He makes a big swing at the spider .
"Squishy bastard!"
Arval swipes the spider's thread out of the air, causing it to plummet to the ground. He then reverses his slash, piercing the spider's carapace. Although it is not dead, it wobbles about feebly.
The remaining spider seems to have not cared about the untimely death of its companions, and leaps a good ten feet in the air before plummeting down towards Norna! The little gnome manages to waggle her shillelagh defensive and knock the spider to the side.
Rustom takes a few steps and again swings his greataxe
The last spider dies with a satisfying splat, and lies still.
End of Combat
Eldon used two rounds of inspire courage.
Lena cast firebolt.
The last spider chitters and dies. A few tiny spiders crawl through the open doorway their larger relatives attacks from. Within is a cobweb-infested room, dark and musty.
|
|
Norine casts Guidance and Resistance on herself, and then will enter carefully, searching for any spiders waiting to ambush. She casts Detect Magic and searches the room for auras, then physically.
Everything, though, looks like a big spider, the webs swaying and tearing at her movements, and Norine has trouble thinking or concentrating. "I think, before, I must have encountered such spiders without my good companions..."
Kawrock pulls a leg off the spider Vladlena hit with the firebolt and between crunchs says, "thanks for cooking one for me Lena." He then walks into the room after Norna finishing off his spider leg and taking a look around.
Norna stumbles through the webs, near-blind and disoriented. Despite her utter confusion, the detect magic spell manages to show an aura of some kind. As she fumbles through towards the source of the aura, she collides face-first with a cabinet. Kawrock is much calmer navigating the room, and manages to locate Norna. After a short while, the two of them emerge covered in tiny spiders. They bear 5 clear vials, a wand, and two scrolls.
The spiders tickle.
Kawrock eats as many of the spiders on him as possible he even gets one off Norna as she focuses on the items.
The five vials are all holy water. The wand is a wand of cure light wounds with 20 charges remaining. Norna is unable to identify the scrolls, but they are divine spells.
The chapel itself appears to be dedicated to Pharasma, common enough in Ustalav.
|
Kawrock pulls a leg off the spider Vladlena hit with the firebolt and between crunchs says, "thanks for cooking one for me Lena." He then walks into the room after Norna finishing off his spider leg and taking a look around.
[DIce=perception]1d20+10
no probl...are going to...desna's shining eyes. Urp
Lena goes very pale. And stares at a wall for a time.
"Does that taste any good?"
Arval says as he grabs a roasted spider leg. He takes a bite and looks a bit stricken.
"That's actually really good. Here Vlad have a taste."
Arval offers the half eaten spider leg to Vladlena. He suddenly sees the vials and the wand and whistles in awe.
"That looks like some nice treasure!"
|
|
lena goes paler, if that is possible, with a slight green complexion. Her eyes seem to be glowing as she looks at arval
take that disgusting thing away or I'll give a case of heart burn that you will never forget, you, you...ulp nausea overcomes anger and she darts away.
She comes back a little later, less her breakfast, muttering about roasted bird, with giant pig on the side.
The spider leg has been blackened by arcane fire and is not properly seasoned. However, it sort of tastes like somebody tried to incinerate a crab.
Who claims the gear, and where to next?
"May I see the scrolls please? I may be able to read them." Kawrock casts a spell and looks over the scrolls.
The scrolls are both scrolls of lesser restoration.