Pepper brings his club down onto the slime, trying to splatter it into as many separate pieces as possible.
And succeeds!
The olive goo trembles, then dissolves into a pool of sticky smelling fungal residue.
The room, still encrusted with fungi and rot, stands open - but with the dying of the ooze so also dies the last remnants of the fire that provided illumination.
"Nicely done Pepper!
Weyland sighs at the loss of his lantern,
"I just bought that....Well if no one can do better, I have some candles. They're not good for much, but they should let us look around."
The scarecrow, newly mended, comes out of the workshop with a makeshift mop and begins to mop the remnants of the floor where the sickly green ooze has spread. He ignores the party.
The workshop stands open.
The 'gate room' stands open.
The ceiling, still encrusted with plants, leaves the area in darkness as the lamp-fire dies, broken only by the candle Weyland has lit.
"Through the portal I suppose." Shae says unsure of himself.
"Shouldn't we be looking around this place more first before we be going through some portals elsewhere?"
"Shouldn't we be looking around this place more first before we be going through some portals elsewhere?"
"I agree. There's no guarantee that we'll even be able to get back here, so we'd best be thorough. Maybe we should clear some of those plants down, so we can let in some light.
Shae pulls out his hatchet and attempts to use mage hand to shift it around enough to cut down as much of the plants above as possible.
He'll also experiment with Prestidigitation to clear some of the plants.
Th group spends some time pulling down the roof-plant. Once a few of the larger vines are yanked down, the rest of the plant comes with it and "daylight" pours in.
The scarecrow goes to the workshop, returns with a crude broom, and starts to sweep the debris from the floor and outside. Occasionally the broom catches on the remnants of floor.
Shae's magic proves most useful at cleaning the last remnants of suckers from the roof.
Now that the area is cleaner, Tarek looks around for any clues.
"So what's the plan?"
Tarek moves to pick up his fighting sticks, handing one back to Shae. Let's secure the area one section at a time. Take a look around.
Weyland also starts nosing around looking for anything out of the ordinary or that might be worth something.
Weyland also starts nosing around looking for anything out of the ordinary or that might be worth something.
Shae does the same
Percep
Plus detect magic
For the moment that's correct.
This room seems - well, scoured. The slime from whatever attacked you has spread like thick green mucus, trying to slowly reform, but shrivelling from sunlight.
Apart from that disgusting mess, there really doesn't seem to be anything here - except for the Scarecrow.
Shae's sixth sense is blinded by the presence of the portal, but he thinks there might be something in the workshop.
"I think there is something magic in the room other than the portal, but the portal is too bright for me to make anything out. If you see anything that looks well made bring it outside and I'll check again."
Turning off detect magic does Shae see anything that's well made enough to be enchanted?
Percep if needed
Weyland heads into the workshop to help Shae look around.
Anton moves to assist, standing facing away from the portal and casts his own Detect Magic.
Pepper works furiously to help get the vegetation off the roof, but when things quiet down and people start peering into corners he quickly appears bored. He takes a nearby tool and starts poking at the shriveling pools of mucus, seeming amused by it's quivering.
The workshop shows hard use. The tools here are all wood, cloth or stone - and have a crude look about them, as if crafted by an amateur. There are hundreds of tools here, mostly stored in tool cupboards.
Standing in the place with the most wall between you and the portal, and pointing away from the portal, you manage to pick up that one of the tool cupboards has an aura. . There could well be other things, but the 'glare' from the portal is just too strong.
One thing looks well enough crafted to be enchanted. There is a scythe here that has a beautiful, almost organic look.
Further investigation reveals that the metal head is beautifully honed, but still bears flecks of grain. The head has a clever mechanism and can be easily rotated to use as a weapon, rather than a tool.
Shae picks up a scythe and examines it. Walking outside he moves out of line of sight from the portal and examines more closely.
Detect magic
SPellcraft to identify if needed
Tarek seems put out. Barrista wisdom tells me, there's no coffee or tea in here... Shall we check another area? Find anything worth looking into?
"There's an aura about that tool cupboard," Anton says pointing.
[ooc]Spellcraft: [/dice]
"I can't figure it out though," he continues approaching the cupboard to examine it more closely.
** spoiler omitted **
Shae comes back into the room and says.
"This Scythe has magic about it."
He'll then come over to Anton and examine the cupboard also.
"Let me see."
Shaezon gets close and tries to block the aura from the portal as he examines.
Spellcraft
"It just looks like a mending cantrip to me. Novel, but we can't take it with us. "
Shae opens the cupboard.
Will it fix Weyland's lantern?
Will it fix Weyland's lantern?
"Probably not. It might do some good, but it'd be flimsy at best. Really not worth the time. We should get moving."
"At this point, flimsy might be better than nothing at all. My candles are for picking locks unnoticed, they're not big on the whole illumination thing. Anyone see anything that we could jury rig some torches from. It might be dark where we are going."
"At this point, flimsy might be better than nothing at all. My candles are for picking locks unnoticed, they're not big on the whole illumination thing. Anyone see anything that we could jury rig some torches from. It might be dark where we are going."
"You can give it a shot, but you'd be better served to spend ten minutes making torches."
Hmm... my understanding is that some dweomered items emit light. Perhaps your new scythe, there?
Let's keep moving.
Weyland will make a couple of torches and give one to Anton and Shae.
"We may not need them, but better safe than sorry"
Let's do this.
The portal room is crusted with fungus, and smells terrible. The plant roof is still in place here, and the torches cannot be held high without risking causing fire.
There are three doorways - one you entered through, one to what must be the living quarters, and one that should hold the portal.
The doorway to the living quarters has a spongy, rotten door. Fungus, slime and mould has turned the door into a riot of colours... but a faint rust red suggests the remnants of the door are bound in iron,
The doorway to the portal is completely covered by mushrooms.
Weyland takes point, checking the door to the living quarters for anything unusual before opening it and slipping through.
The spongy wood gives softly beneath Weyland's hand. Something hard and sharp catches at a finger - a metal reinforced stud within the fungus encrusted door.
"Well, so much for the finess approach. Hey, Pepper! This door was saying some unflattering things about your parentage. I don't think you should let it get away with that."
Can we use the scythe to scrape the ceiling? Tarek looks to Shae.
Can we use the scythe to scrape the ceiling? Tarek looks to Shae.
Shae hands Tarek the scythe.
Thanks, Shae. Tarek gladly accepts the scythe, flipping the blade out a bit and reaches up to see if he can scrape away from the what's keeping the light out.
The Scythe does not emit light, but is a fantastic tool for cutting and ripping the plants on the roof.
With very little effort the roof can have a hole cleared that enough light in to render the room normally illuminated.
Tarek will exhert that effort albeit cautiously.
Pepper helps clear the ceiling and then gives the door an exaggerated frown. "No one talks that way about me dear departed mother!" He gives the door a swift kick, chuckling as it gives way.