Having heard both a curious boom followed by Ravboom's yell for them to retreat, Relas continues to hang back...though he's rather alarmed to see his summoner stagger back into the kitchen covered with tiny spiders!
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"Stupid spiders no scare Biggun!" Biggun yelled out as he backed out of the room. Even though he wished to squash them like the little buggies they were, he knew that his chain wouldn't be up to the challenge, and he simply didn't have enough feet to step on them all. "Ravvie, you better have good idea!"
Ravboom stands outside the door, where all the powder has been spread around the door, and out of the way of everyone else so they can get out. He points the BoomRav at the gunpowder, and readies an action to fire when the spiders spill out into the gunpowder.
The GM can roll the damage, since I don't know what a powder horn full of powder will do as a 5ft explosive trap
With tens of spiders - black with scarlet marking, malicious and quite tickly - crawling up her legs, Palomia sprints from the building... following Ravboom, Biggun and Globlob - all of whom had already made the sensible decision to get out of there... the tide of black follows her, out into daylight... and into the waiting trap...
With a grin, Ravboom ignites the spilt gunpowder... and, with a flash, a fireball mushrooms upwards into the sky, shepherding thousands of arachnids into Pharasma's domain...
If Palo is carrying on like that, she must be okay!
Appearing much less concerned about his summoner now that the spiders have been dealt with, Relas seems content to watch the fireball mushroom into the sky. "Wow...good thinking Ravboom! Solie would be proud!"
After a moment, he looks away from the fire and back to the others. "Oh...I thought I heard someone yell earlier when Palo used that wand. We might want to get ready for more company..." he suggests as he turns to look back at the house.
Ravboom nods. "Me too. And they sounded like they like spiders. Might be upset all of them made sparklies..." Ravboom reloads the BoomRav, digging the second gunpowder horn out of his pouch to refill the chamber that was fired.
There is a moment of relative quiet following detonation of Ravboom’s gunpowder – a shallow echo reverberates from the trees surrounding the house… but from the voice within the building, there is no more shouting. Ravboom and Relas, both alert to the sound of movement, hear the owner of the voice run down a staircase beyond the far end of the kitchen…
A shape, indistinct within the dark interior of the building... but undoubtedly goblinoid, kicks the door to the kitchen open... and, bellowing at the intruders, lets loose an arrow... with a 'thunk', it slams into the door frame...
"Eep!"
Relas hadn't expected the owner of the voice to start taking potshots at them with a bow and jumps with surprise as an arrow buries itself in the nearby door frame. Reluctant to charge back into the house since quarters were rather cramped, he hunkers down and holds his position until some of the others, namely Biggun, can move in to engage.
Globlob, having been handed a wand of some sort, frowns at it uncertainly before he tentatively tries to point it at the goblinoid. "Boom?" A cacophonous explosion of sound resounds from just behind the hostile goblinoid and the warchanter breaks into the most vile of grins. "Boom!"
Ravboom grins and sticks his arm through the doorway, firing around the edge to not block anyone. "BOOM!"
A roar fills the air as his odd weapon belches smoke and flings a thumnail size ball of lead through the doorway and into the goblin on the other side. A small cloud of fire blooms out as well, along with the deafening roar!
The Goblinoid shape in the building, yelps in pain as – moments after the cacophony of noise from Globlob - Ravboom’s gun blasts a bloody hole in its shoulder…
Pushing past Ravboom, Biggun rushes in…
After Ravboom puts his new BoomRav to use and Biggun charges into the building, Relas follows suit right behind the large goblin. Unfortunately, there's still not a lot of room in the small house and the eidolon is forced to do his best to paw at the crazed goblin from around the corner.
Relas can't get at the goblin... and, as the fight escalates, the raggedy looking goblin starts to babble...
"MY HOUSE!!! MY STAR!!! VUELIB PROMISE IT TO ME!!! I DONE WHAT IT SAID!!! IT GIVE ME STAR SOON!!!"
Letting it's bow fall to the floor, it draws an ugly blade and slices at Biggun...
Unable to get a clear shot, Ravboom grumbles about oversized goblins having big butts and runs around the house to the other door.
Globlob steps into the door before him, scooting around the corner before he slings another blast of sound at the goblin menace. Or rather, the menace that is not on their side.
"Right, got it!" Relas calls in acknowledgement of Palo's command and turns and bolts back out the door and around the house to catch up with Ravboom.
Biggun's balde comes down hard on the goblin... a spray of blood paints the floor crimson mere fractions of a second before Globlob detonates yet another wall of sound - the force of the noise sending Biggun's opponent tumbling...
...when Ravboom and Relas make it around from the other side of the building, Globlob and Biggun are already standing over the defeated goblin - a horrid, wet, 'slurping' sound coming from the mass on the back of its neck...
Ravboom looks at the mass, and makes a face. "Even goblin no like that..." He points his gun at the mass. "Ravboom make go dead, all get back..."
Globlob nods furiously in agreement after a long moment of grimacing at the bizarre growth. He scurries back a step or three, dragging Biggun with him if he has to.
The black mass, moist and glistening, makes two final noises as it withdraws blood-soaked tendrils from the goblin’s neck… that is the last thing that the horrific thing does as Ravboom’s Boomrav, loaded and aimed, vapourises the mass – along with a sizable portion of the goblin’s head…
…as the noise of the pistol ricochets around the house… and dies away, silence falls once more – this time, the silence of a deserted building…
"Well...I guess if anything else was going to come charging out at us it would've done it already," Relas offers hesitantly once the sound of the BoomRav fades away. "Palo, I can go peek back into the spider room if you want..."
Ravboom reloads his BoomRav. "Nasty thing. Weird black thing nasty too. Everyone stick gether, no one get one being alone. Let search and get anything worth taking, get going. Chief no make it to fallen star it seem."
"We still got other place to check! C'mon, let's poke around dis house and den get goin'." Globlob surges forward to check around the spider room, snatching up one of the roasted arachnids as he goes to munch on it.
The disparate group move up the creaking stairs and come to a small, dusty classroom contains 16 child-sized, wooden chairs, all neatly stacked against the south wall. A blackboard decorated with chalk drawings hangs slightly askew in the middle of the west wall, and several pieces of white chalk lay on the floor nearby – the images on the blackboard are drawn with quite some artistry… faded depictions of birds and other wildlife are distributed around the border of the board – whilst the more distinct drawings, in the centre of the board, are of a ruined building… a highly stylised key… and various images of an amorphous blob….
There are two other rooms on the first floor, the first, a small bedroom contains a bed, tiny table, dresser, and a single chair - stowed beneath the bed, a sizable collection of woodworking tools has been collected: three wood axes, a lathe, a chisel and several saws. Also beneath the bed, a large key – exactly as drawn on the blackboard in the classroom – carved from a single piece of black granite and marked with the symbol of a flying raven...
The second room is a musty bedroom is modestly furnished with a large canopy bed, a small desk and chair, a wardrobe, and a cold fireplace – through the decayed canopy that shrouds the bed, a shape can be seen lying upon the blankets…
- your consideration of the raven sigil doesn't draw any conclusions...
When Palomia announces her presence in the room to the shape on the bed... nothing happens - the shape doesn't move nor reply... instinctively, from the stillness of the shape and from the atmosphere in the room, it is clear that a dead human is laid out on the bed...
Unable to contain his curiosity any further, Relas carefully pads across the room and over to the bed. "Don't think they're going to be answering you anytime soon Palo," he says softly. "Maybe this is whoever originally owned this place?"
"If they dead wrong, maybe you get a black blob on your neck, too! You be careful, Biggun." Globlob warily reminds the pair that head into the room, keeping his wand at the ready.
What Relas has in stealth and caution, Biggun has in single-mindedness... striding over and pulling the curtains away, he is confronted with the body of a long dead human - a sudden smell of decay emanates from the ill-preserved, partially mummified corpse lying on the bed in a threadbare nightgown...
...in her hands, a time faded parchment declares that 'Life has been good to me - at least in those early years when the farm bore the fruits of our labour and the village was a thriving community - life moves on though and the predilections of the Arvarenhode family have proven to be the end for us... Lord Bertram has brought a curse upon this place... Strange creatures walk the night and, may Pharasma look upon them kindly, take the children... They are all gone now - all of my sons... my daughters... each to a better place. May the gods forgive me this final surrender... I cannot go on without them'.
Ravboom grunts. "Long time dead. Maybe thing on neck not be part of star fall, sound like curse on area. Strange creatures take children, not good. Must have been before Ravboom born though. Probly 'fore chief born. This place been abandoned long time seem, since village be goblin village now, not long legs." Ravboom looks thoughtful. "Maybe search for starfall stir up old curse..."
The path beyond the building where Chief Oddle had hidden out becomes harder to navigate, the farther the group travel; time and nature have partially reclaimed the trail… the occasional overgrown bramble needs to be cut from across the path and, on at least two occasions, there is a need to backtrack when they take a wrong turn… Eventually the forest disgorges Palomia, Relas and the goblins at the shore of the lake…
A long, narrow, stone bridge — barely wide enough for a single wagon — arches over the silver sheened lake, connecting to a small island of rocks and windswept weeds. The jumbled ruins of a fortified manor house dominate the dreary islet, its upper floors and watchtowers having long since fallen into piles of rubble at its base. Vines, creepers, and prickly weeds cover the tumbled stones, atop which a dozen or so crows caw and flap.
Globlob lets out a low whistle at the sight of the lake, the islet, and the manor as the group finally winds their way out of the forest. "You think da big bad black goopy thing made dis place abandon, too? I wonder if da star in da house or da lake..." He muses without breaking stride, heading straight for the bridge.
Arvarenhode Manor once had four upper stories, but these levels have long since collapsed, forming a ragged heap of impassable rubble above the partially intact ground floor. The building itself was constructed from tightly-fitted blocks of light-gray stone sealed with white mortar... lending the ruin a slightly ghostly look.
Cautiously crossing the bridge and scouting around the manor, the collapse in the northeast corner of the building is discovered... a massive section of the wall has fallen in on itself, leaving a gaping, rubble-strewn gap stretching from the floor to the 18-foot ceiling overhead. Enough natural light pours through the hole in the wall to nourish a moss-covered tree and to allow swathes of grass to take root among the sunken flagstones underfoot.
There are no obvious tracks to or from the Manor - and there don't appear to be any other ways into the great hall of the manor than through the tumbledown hole in the wall or through the heavily warped doors that appear to lead into the same great hall...
Rav sneaks up to the corner of the building...
...and looks around the corner, using his darkvision to pierce the darkness...
Looking around the corner into the manor, there is no sign of life... no movement... no noises... nothing...
The floors are unadorned, but the ceilings still depict simple decorations with small, ceramic tiles—though many are now missing or lay shattered and crumbled about the floor. All the walls, floors, and ceilings show signs of age, weathering, and other, more ancient abuses, including cracks, gouges, and a few fist-sized holes. Small bits of rubble and debris—mostly broken stone and the ancient remains of worn, rotting furniture— litter the floor. A 12-foot-wide, 6-foot-tall fireplace dominates the middle of the eastern wall whilst, to the west, two doors lead away from the ruins of the great hall..
...the tree creaks and moans as a trio of crows take flight - their wings beating heavily as they take to the sky...