"Ah!" shouts Rexi involuntarily, startled by how things played out.
She rushes to the edge of the pit. "Tarn! Are you all right?"
Bazzle looks about slack jawed. "Seriously if someone said we were in Hell. I would totally buy it."
Aster is flabbergasted, truly and utterly, though part of her want to giggle at the 'thing that was my grandmother' comment. She beats that part of her down with a stick and hopes Tarn is not dead on the spikes below as she shuffles over to the edge.
""He's alive" she breathes, being able to see him in the darkness. "Does anyone have any rope?"
- A masterwork rapier with an extra 200gp worth of gold filigree and top quality leather. Written along the blade in very small script reads "A tree is recognized by its fruit"
- A signet ring of the Vashnarstill family. It pulses a faint golden glow.
- A signet ring of the Vashnarstill family. Non-magical
- 600gp worth of jewelry (most of which is rather old-fashioned, but just needs some polishing to look good)
Bazzle helps the others get Tarn out of the hole. "We found some gear. I think its mostly your ah um family heirlooms Tarn. Nice rapier. Can we fight small enemies with cool gear next. Hopefully unrelated to any of us."
Rexi waits nervously for the group to bring Tarnagus up, then immediately deploys her healing hex on him.
Tarnagius lays on his back and lets out a low groan before climbing out.
"That thing isn't related to me. Not anymore. Gather anything that looks useful or valuable, if you're right about the sins we have 5 left, correct?"
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Bazzle looks at the treasure suspiciously, "Greed? meh we can risk it."
Kethaera eventually extricates herself from the web to join the rest of the group. All that can be heard is the light crackling of fire, and you can smell something burning.
* snif snif *
"What's burning? Did... did they throw something in the fire before we got here?"
Rexi goes to check the fire, expecting the worst - part of a body or something like that.
"Huh... Tarnagius, my apologies for having... You know... Confronted he who was once your grandfather... Had I known..." - Ederion offers his apologies to his companion, and seems to be stammering a bit, which is not usual for him - "Anyway" - then turns his attention to the recovered items.
"This is a beautiful blade" - he nods appreciatively at the exquisite rapier.
He turns the ring around in his hands for a few moments, trying to discern what magical properties it may possess.
And after he feels the smell, he moves inside after Rexandi.
"Well it is your size." Bazzle puts the jewelry in a bag. He lifts it as if judging its weight. He offers it to Aster to carry, "I don't want to be weighed down."
"It's not greedy to reclaim family heirlooms from those who stole it."
Tarnagius leaves the identifying magical objects to the experts and goes with Rexandi.
Ederion senses a small spark of intelligence within the ring. A supportive and dependable soul who beckons Ederion and emotionally moves him towards Tarnagius. It holds some power over Transmutation and Abjuration, but it is slight and weak.
Inside the kitchen are a huge array of tools, tables, and food. To one side is a butcher's table that's covered in wet blood. To another, a spit roast is built into the wall, and is cooking a large hunk of meat that's now burnt. A cauldron sits in the middle of the room with potatoes that are boiling. Ederion (and anyone else who succeeds on a DC 20 perception check) hears a tiny sound from the spit. It sounds like a voice, or at least a mumble.
Bazzle looks at Tarn, "If its not just another mind frack. Demon skank, glutton demon hosts people dinner, strange things are afoot."
"Maybe I can see what the ring does," says Rexandi. She murmurs and gestures slightly.
Ederion senses a small spark of intelligence within the ring. A supportive and dependable soul who beckons Ederion and emotionally moves him towards Tarnagius. It holds some power over Transmutation and Abjuration, but it is slight and weak.
"Tarnagius" - Ederion nods at his companion - "This ring belongs to your family. It holds power, but more than that - it beckons to you, as a member of the Vashnarstill family" - he adds - "Take it" - and gives him the ring.
Inside the kitchen are a huge array of tools, tables, and food. To one side is a butcher's table that's covered in wet blood. To another, a spit roast is built into the wall, and is cooking a large hunk of meat that's now burnt. A cauldron sits in the middle of the room with potatoes that are boiling. Ederion (and anyone else who succeeds on a DC 20 perception check) hears a tiny sound from the spit. It sounds like a voice, or at least a mumble.
After a look around, Ederion dashes to the spit, and begins looking for the source of the tiny sound.
Rexandi looks further into the powers the ring contains. It doesn't require a command word, but the wearer (who is a Vashnarstill or is trying to bypass with UMD) makes a mental command. The power is only used once per day, but it significantly increases the wearer's aptitude in social situations. Alternatively, the magic can be used to help prevent the wearer from being charmed.
Ederion spies a lever hidden next to the flu of the fireplace. It is very hot at the moment. The sound is coming from behind the wall. It sounds like a muffled call for help.
Ederion looks for traps first.
Then if he finds it safe, he looks for a thick rag, or some sort of kitchen mitten, and uses it to pull the lever.
"A little too late on that charm resistance, but thank you, Ederion."
Tarnagius follows Ederion to the fireplace but isn't too sure what to look for, so doesn't contribute much.
Ederion does not spy any traps. When he pulls the lever, the back wall creaks behind gears to slowly shift to the side. A very narrow crawlspace lies behind, with a plump-looking dwarf laying on his stomach by the entrance. His arms and legs are hogtied, and he has a cloth binding his mouth. As he looks in your direction, he screams and tries to turn away.
"You'd think after being kidnapped by a cannibal cult, someone would be happy to see us," says Rexi wryly.
Aster chuckles at Rexi's comment but points out "We are armed and all." She lowers her mace to the floor, then with hands out and wide she says "Sir, we are not with the undead that captured you, they are gone now, please let us free you."
The dwarf refuses to look in your direction. He has his eyes closed shut, but he is sobbing. It will be difficult to get to him with the burning spit roast and fire in the way.
"Oh, for the love of... let's get this fire put out," says Rexandi. She casts around the kitchen for an ewer of water or the like so that she can douse the fire.
There's a clay pot that contains water, set near the door opposite the spit roast.
Without waiting, Rexandi moves to the door and picks up the pot, then slowly pours water on the fire - taking care not to do it so fast that it generates a huge cloud of scalding steam all at once.
The fire (which I probably should of mentioned was burning by magic, oh well) has been put out. There's still the spit and hunk of meat in the way, but you could easily duck under to reach the crawl space if you'd like.
The crawl space is about 3 feet squared, and is about 15-20 feet long before hitting a wall.
The dwarf looks up for a moment to see what Rexandi is doing, but resumes his weeping. He says something in the Dwarven tongue between snorts and bawling.
"Bro...Brother... I'm s-s-s-so sorry..."
Rexandi subsequently removes the spit with its hunk of meat, which she presumes is also some kind of humanoid, and puts that on one of the kitchen tables.
"I hope someone speaks Dwarven."
Bazzle moves the spit out of the way. He shakes his head no when the subject of dwarven comes up.
I don't. No spells to help either." she'll try moving forward, slowly peacefully, putting her wrists together and then breaking them apart, to make him understand she's going to free him. Then if no one comes for with any understanding of the poor man's language she'll cut him free.
The Dwarf doesn't struggle against Aster's aid. When he's freed, he mutters "Thank you" in perfect Common without even a Dwarven accent. Judging the age of this Dwarf is a bit difficult, but his beard is shorter than Tarnagius', his voice is fairly high pitched, and his skin is dirty but without wrinkles. When he stands up (which offers no small amount of pops and cracks as his body finally gets to act normally) he only reaches about half a food taller than Bazzle. He looks to the spit roast, where he says "My brother..."
Bazzle stifles a retch.
"I hope not."
"Are you Torgga's son?" Aster asks hopeful and also trying to avoid answering his question.
He nods. "Yeah. I'm Morgran."
Tarnagius looks briefly at the spit and glances away.
"Gods I hope not. Let's make sure he's not in another room. Ederion, Bazzle?"
"Wait..." - Ederion pauses, and looks at the spit more thoroughly - "We need to know"
The spit roast is a large hunk of meat, probably 2 feet long and weighing 30-50 pounds. It's quite burnt, but probably has some edible meat nearing the center.
"Ugh. Ew. Ew ew ew. No way," says Rexandi. "I'm not touching that haunch-of-person."
Ederion has to dig into the meat to get through the burnt and charred stuff, but determines that the meat looks similar to beef, though the way it's cut it a bit odd. It has been gutted and partially de-boned, save for the ribs which are pretty darn small for a cow. This might have been a calf, but the possibility of a Dwarf can't be ruled out.
Ederion sets himself to the task as some sort of surgeon - methodically removing pieces of meat to investigate. He finds it surprisingly interesting that there is no certainty whether this piece would belong to a calf or a dwarf - "We are all just flesh and blood after all" - and makes a mental note to look into this matter later on.
"Inconclusive" - is all he has to say to the others, before moving on to the next room.
He carefully listens at the door, and checks it for traps - if none are found, he will open the door, rapier in hand.
Rexandi backs away from the spit of maybe-dwarf and instead focuses on checking the team for people in need of more magical healing.
Rexandi activates her healing hex for Ederion.
There are no traps to this door, but when Ederion opens it, he feels a wave of frigid air. This room looks like a large pantry, with floor to ceiling shelves that hold all sorts of food. Furthermore, the room seems to be divided into various levels of chill. All sorts of meat hangs from the ceiling, there is a shelf teaming with fruits and vegetables (some are frozen, some are fresh), and there are even pitchers of milk, jars of honey, freshly ground flour, you name it. Hung on the side of the door is a simple looking wand (easily identified as a wand of Purify Food and Drink, 20 charges). The most striking thing here is a large bowl holding bones, guts, and the head of a young Dwarf.
Morgran has not entered the pantry, he's still near the spit.
Ederion clenches his jaw at the sight, and hesitates...
"Best I check this one alone" - he says to no one in general, but wants to make sure they keep Morgran outside.
Then he moves inside.