Jed shrugs. "They started digging under the town hall. There's even a manhole in the yard in front of the place."
"Well all right then. Town hall it is."
Kelgan sets out for the building, securing his tower shield behind him and loading his crossbow.
Town hall looks like someone, maybe 75 years ago, thought this would be a great town. They erected a classical building of mortared stone, with a tall clock tower (sadly missing a clock), a roof of light silvery green-gray phyllite, and important-looking steps leading up to front doors of imposing-looking local oak wood.
For such an impressive structure, there appears to be little activity going on. Moss grows rampant over the north side, and a few of the upstairs windows are without glass. Half of what would be the front lawn is an earthen pit. The other half has gravel strewn over it; amidst the gravel is a metal grate.
"Should have called this place city hell!"
Caspain looks at the grated area.
"Should we tear this off before we go in?"
.....
Looks at the dwarves "We are going in the door aren't we?"
Cricket detects spirits. He remains close to Wolvie, observing his behavior as he walks him around the site.
Cricket is maybe getting something faint -- or maybe just static. He's aware from past uses that a thickness of earth tends to block his spirit sense, so if spirits are underground, you may need to be, too, to get a good read on them.
Wolvie, sniffing around the pit, pauses every few feet to dig in the ground, once coming up with a small chisel that was apparently lost there during the work. Also, he stops and urinates every 10 feet or so; apparently it's "his" pit now. When he gets tired of that and goes over to the manhole cover, he seems uninterested at first, then, as he catches a faint whiff of something, his fur stands up a bit and he makes a soft noise between a whine, a growl, and a question mark. He looks at Cricket quizzically.
"Yeah, we're going in. Dwarves and goblins can see in the dark, the two of you, not so much. We're too loud to sneak anywhere, so a little light won't spoil things. Carry a torch for the elf, or something."
Kelgan moves down toward the grate, looking for a lock or catch holding it shut. He seems eager to advance down into the depths.
It's got a simple catch, no lock. There are metal rungs in the side of a mortar-walled shaft leading down. You can hear the faint sounds of water below, and those with darkvision can easily see the surface of the water about 20 feet down, in what appears to be a circular vault. Partially-dug tunnels extend from one side of it like spokes from the hub of a wheel.
Cricket orders Wolvie away from the pit and tells him to hang out and wait for us. He then walks back over to the pit, still holding the flask of holy water and peers through the gate.
I've got a bad feeling about this...
"I'll go first, I have the best eyesight in the dark, it rivaled most of the other dwarves in my clan. I'll give you the all clear to come down as soon as I get there, hopefully unambushed."
"I'll secure a rope."
Kelgan does just that, anchoring it to the front steps of the town hall.
"You do that Kelgan. I have no doubt of your eyesight, Jaegr. Mine is keen as well and I have the advantage of not needing a rope."
Wyvurn will leap into the manhole, catching the last rung before he splashes into the water and uses his momentum to swing to the edge to avoid getting wet.
The agile hobgoblin doesn't even hesitate; while Kelgan is fussing with the rope, Wyvurn leaps past him through the opening. He seems to barely touch the ladder on the way down, landing lightly in hip-deep water, poised for action. A rat swims away, then everything is still.
Wyvurn:
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"Showoff!"
Kelgan laughs heartily at Wyverns antics, shaking his ample stomach with his guffaws. He stops laughing when his wooden teeth fall out and straight down into the sewer.
"Feck! Now I really gotta get that wyrmbone carved or I'll be eating naught but mush and muck. How's it look down there, Wyvern?"
Caspian realizes how deep the water is as he carefully descends into the hole....
"They should've dug some drainage in this drain...."
If there is no prompting from others, Cricket goes last.
Is anyone maintaining a watch up above?
Wyvrun will take a look around.
When the teeth start falling, Wyvurn will see ho wmany he can catch.
If he sees or hears nothing immediate, he will motion for the others to come down.
Wyvurn sees what was in the last spoiler:
With a quick backhand swipe, Wyvurn saves Kelgan's false teeth from the nasty sewer water. Although the stench of the water is interfering with the hobgoblin's usually keen smell, he still gets a whiff of something rotting or corpselike, coming from
Suddenly, Wyvurn's hair all stands on end, and he gets a sense of horrible dislocation. Dropping involuntarily into a crouch, he sees
Wyvurn will slip the teeth into a pouch and draw his sword with his other hand never taking his eyes off of what's in front of him.
"I think all of you should get down here as soon as possible."
"Wowsers!"
Caspian casts dancing lights trying to steal some of the darkness from the area....
"I'm here." he adds to Wyvern's statement
Kelgan slides down the rope, sinking to his chest in the water. He holds the crossbow overhead and tries to find solid footing in the damp, dank tunnel.
After Kelgan ties the rope, Jaegr went down the rungs with the rope in hand in case one was loose. As he and Wyvurn look with their 90' darkvision, he has his weapon ready, even though the water is deep.
Miralda stuggles to slide down safely.
DC 5 for a rope with a wall to brace against.
The frail elf loses her grip, falling into the water below.
Damage:
Luckily, the water breaks her fall somewhat, and she comes up, sputtering. "I'm okay!" she cries, standing on tiptoe to keep her nose and mouth above water.
With Caspian's dancing lights, everyone can now see what Wyvurn was looking at (open spoilers above).
"By Grandmother Ruke's Hanging Tree! That's not the vampire I was expecting. More foul work of that necromancer, no doubt. Come, let us put her to rest swiftly and end the mockery that has been made of her."
Kelgan peers at the coffins and the dead vermin, looking for signs of movement.
"She is beckoning to us. I know not the intricacies of spirits, but I have a hard time attacking a little girl, even a ghost. Can we communicate with her?"
Cricket descends halfway down the rope and then cannonballs into the water. He pushes his way forward. Lucky for us, we have a full-fledged Tuelvi spiritspeaker here.
Cricket pulls out a rattle, does a little dance, picks a dead rat out of the water, bites its head off, spits its head out and intones in Tuelvi.
After he is done, he turns to the spirit of the child vampire.
Hey, there, kitten, what's the skinny?
The ghostly little girl, emboldened by Cricket's obvious knowledge (or merely his willingness to approach her) addresses him politely in Wood Elf:
"I ate the Easter egg," she whispers to you, as if confiding a secret.
Then, with a chiding look, "You shouldn't bite dead rats. That's gross."
Kelgan, there's no movement from the coffins; judging from the angle of the sun, you've still got a couple hours before their occupants, if any, wake up.
On seeing the little girl, Miralda cries out, "LISSA! Oh, no... O Winged Lady Fileet, have mercy!"
She starts crying inconsolably.
Caspian nudges Kelgan, Jaegr and Wyvern
"Perhaps we should secure and set these caskets ablaze?"
"We can try, let's get to it while we still have some day time"
"Good idea. Caspian, check on Miralda. Cricket, keep our new friend talking. Kelgan, Jaegr and I will see to these coffins."
Oh, was it good? Was it a real egg, or a chocolate egg? I like the chocolate eggs, myself. With some of those marshmallow chicks? Mmmm, mmm, mmm, good. Do you know my friend, Miralda?
Noticing the others' interest in the coffins, the little girl (or, more accurately, her ghost) calls, "The draculas that live in those boxes just sleep all day. At night they go out, but they always come back and whine that nobody lets them in their houses, and they're hungry. My daddy hates whiners."
Turning back to cricket, she says, "No, silly, it was a fake pretty egg. Like a present. Not a chocolate one. It was real hard to eat, because you can't chew them. I thought I was going to choke to death. But I didn't want the skinny man to know I had it. I didn't want to get in trouble."
She looks down at her corpse, and adds, quietly, "But I'm in trouble anyway, aren't I? Can you help?"
After your second question, she says, "Of course I know Cousin Miralda. Daddy says she's too dainty and flighty, but I like her." She starts crying. "I want my mommy!" she says.
Little Girl Ego (Cha check):
Cricket will need to beat that with a Diplomacy check (or Bluff, if you're somehow threatening her) to prevent a potentially catastrophic temper tantrum.
[Crosses fingers]
"Best see who's inside, then. If we miss Otis, this town is still in danger."
Kelgan approaches coffins and pries the first open.
Kelgan tosses aside the lid of the first coffin, revealing a pale, undead-looking sewer worker inside.
He is distracted from his task by a creepy, eldritch scream coming from the little girl, who smites at Cricket in frustration.
The little goblin, wise to the ways of spirits, dances back out of range before the girl's ghostly arm can pass through him.
Wyvurn, thinking quickly tries to buy Kelgan some time,
"Now stop that behavior this instant! What would your mother think? An you have gone and upset your cousin!"
Wyvurn's ruse seems as if it will fail to distract the little girl's ghost from attempting to vent its frustration on Cricket -- until Caspian assists (+4 to check -> 18 -> success!), which I assume he will do. With the halfling backing Wyvurn, Lissa calms down a bit and nods gravely. "Daddy doesn't like outbursts," she agrees. "You're not going to tell on me for stealing the egg, are you?"
"Not as long as you let us return it. My friends are also going to take the draculas up to a place where they can eat and not hurt anybody. Where is your father now?"
The little girl's ghost looks at you like you've lost your mind. "Draculas drink blood. That's gross. You shouldn't let them eat."
Also: "I can't return the egg. I ate it. Also, I'm scared of the skinny bald man. He can summon demons, you know."
Cricket, who hasn't really been paying attention to all of the clues that have been dropped, being too busy grooming Wolvie or gathering garlic cloves, stares at the ghost slack-jawed and open-eyed.
He moves closer to Cousin Miralda and pats her on the shoulder.
"What should we do with these draculas?"
Lissa's ghost seems to like Caspian, and responds well to his question. She says, "I don't like living with them. I want them to go away. I don't want to see them anymore. And I want to go home!"
Kelgan takes one of his wooden, steel-tipped crossbow bolts out, draws back and prepares to stab the sewer worker through the heart. Then, thinking the better of it, he loads the bolt into his crossbow and fires it at the corpse's heart from point-blank range.
The wretched vampire-spawn is impaled with great force by Kelgan's stake-like bolt. In an instant, its flesh withers off of it and turns to dust -- leaving its skeleton to sag in the coffin lifelessly, held up by the bolt through its body and halfway through the back of the coffin as well.
The little girl's ghost claps its incoporeal hands soundlessly, then says "Ooh! Do it again!"