Praxim keeps an "eye" on those auras. "On the off chance that there are prisoners up there, we should move quickly before they get made an end of."
Praxim keeps an "eye" on those auras. "On the off chance that there are prisoners up there, we should move quickly before they get made an end of."
Lym grasps her falchion in a two-handed grip and stalks over to the table, flipping it back over with a kick.
"No coming back," she tells the corpse, her voice as grim as death. "Not for you!"
With a brutal overhand cut, Lym decapitates the corpse...
Kellen looks relieved to see Mammy fall and avoid the mess of the table. But before he relaxes, he jumps slightly at Lym's rant and rage. "Don't think she'll get much more dead than that," he mutters as watches Lym's grisly work. "You ever spent much time in Riddleport?" he adds as he walks away to check the northeast door.
With the fire being taken care of, Tomaru continues his search for Black Arrows. He opens the northern door (G20).
Grimacing at the sight and the smell, Thordak re-closes the door. "Well that was a bad idea. You know, I'm thinkin' this place should burn down to the ground. It would make it far more likable," he plainly says to himself.
Mammy has 3 wands and a spellbook on her person. They reek of sweat.
The room appears to be a 'playpen' of sorts. This simple room is strewn with “toys,” some of carved wood or bone, while others appear to be little more than partial animal carcasses. Old bloodstains mark the walls; some resemble crude, childlike paintings and feature images of dismembered horses, a ridiculous grinning horned devil tossing children off a cliff, and a big lake with a black reptilian monster sprouting tentacles from its back. Bookshelves rest against the wall, but instead of tomes they hold skulls of all shapes and sizes.
Two small ogrekin males sit in the middle of the floor in a pile of filth. They look up at you as the door opens. One has legs that are bent in odd ways, its clear he'll never walk. The other is 'normal', in that there are no obvious deformities.
Rhi continues to fight the fires, now mostly out. The floor and walls in the hallway where the fire raged longest are severely damaged, and creak ominously as she moves about the hall.
Before I forget again,
Channel Positive Energy that was terrible. I wish I could Bit of Luck on that roll.
Tomaru pauses as he considers the two... children? "Kellen, check the other door while I see if these two know anything about the Black Arrows." Tomaru gets closer to the two and speaks to them like a grown ups do when talking down to kids. "Hello. Can you help us? We're looking for some of our friends. They are human and have a symbol of an arrow on them." He smiles his friendliest smile.
Use Bit of Luck
Diplomacy +1 if attracted
Diplomacy +1 if attracted
Given what they have seen and though he is wary of the small ogres, Kellen nods at the priest's request. He mutters as he passes to Tomaru: "Be careful. The smallest scorpion is the most poisonous." He then goes to check the other door.
With the house looking unstable, Rhianni continues to send her magic to restrict the fire and stave it of fuel, knowing that she is able to do it from distance.
"Here," Lym says, handing Rhianni the wands -- wrapped in a fold of her cloak so she does not have to touch the sweat-scented things. She is carrying the Ogrekin's spellbook in another fold of her cloak, a note of disgust in her voice. "Seems like a fair division of these spoils to me."
Rhianni's water continues to do its work, quenching the last of the flames. The section of the house that was Mammy's room is very unstable, but it smells better...
The ogrekin children look carefully at Tomaru as he approaches. With a screech they lunge at him. The 'normal' one leaps on his back, trying to gnaw its way through the cleric's neck, while the other crawls on its arms with hideous agility, stabbing at Tomaru's foot with a small spike made of bone.
Hearing the screeching, Kellen will turn back to help Tomaru.
Tomaru yelps in surprise. He swings his morningstar at the bent legged one and backs out of the room.
Morningstar +1:
to hit Damage
As Rhianni hears the sound of flames being doused, the steam sizzling as water falls on the fires, she accepts some smelly magical items from Lym. Before Rhianni can cleanse the things, with the same arcane magic she used against the fire, a screeching sound suddenly takes her attention. Tomaru's voice is heard, "No, Tomaru's in trouble, let's get back to the others." and she starts towards the sounds of fighting.
Having done his loyal duty in giving Tomaru a chance with the ogre kin toddlers, Praxim begins emptying arrows into them, starting with the more mobile one.
Praxim is grim as his first arrow nearly causes the toddler to explode in gore, but, remembering the mayor's words, easily turns his bow on the other.
Lym follows fast on Rhianni's heels.
"I am past ready to set this whole place on fire and leave," she mutters.
It's over almost as soon as it began. Tomaru takes no real harm - some bite marks on his collar - and Praxim's arrows make short work of the ogrekin young. As you might expect, there is nothing of value on them.
Praxim is grim as his first arrow nearly causes the toddler to explode in gore.
Heading back to check the last door then, and see what happens.
Trap and door checking.
Seeing Kellen starting to check the door, Rhianni sees the bloody mess of gore and blood on Tomaru's back. She blurts out, "Tomaru, are you all right, what have they done to your back." A tear runs slowly down Rhianni's ashen blood drained face.
Thordak follows the others into the room with Tomaru. He looks to Lym and nods in agreement. "I agree with the lass. I say once we get out of here, we let it fully burn to the ground."
Tomaru gathers himself as much as he can. "Yes! Let's burn it! Burn it with fire!"
"Of course. It's rather difficult to burn anything with ice," Lym says in response to Tomaru.
"Before we do set this blight on fire: is there anyplace left where we must check for surviving prisoners?" Lym asks, a note of mingled pity and revulsion in her voice as she looks down on the juvenile Ogrekin.
The Wizard makes the sign of the Broken Mask and mutters a brief prayer to Nethys before turning from the dead.
"How disgusting that such a thing should become necessary..."
"Burn it once we've searched the place for captives. Talking of which where's Kellen?" Rhianni calls out "Kellen, where are you?!?!?!"
Kellen stands checking the last door, and answers as he examines it. "Here; I'm alright," he says and pauses,"and I agree we should burn this place to ground once we are done."
Kellen finds another of the scythe traps on this door, but it's easily disarmed from this side.
This musty chamber smells of blood and week-old meat, and is thick with clouds of fat, greasy flies. Thumb-sized cockroaches dance along the walls, floor, and ceiling. A thick butcher’s block sits under three cruel-looking cleavers that hang on a rack above. Bloodstained smocks of thick leather, one still dripping fresh gore, hang on bone-spur hooks by the door. A crockery platter of severed fingers and toes sits on a rickety old table next to a dried sinew basket overflowing with hacked-off hands and feet, all sporting stubs of congealed blood where their digits once were. A family of lucky rats gorges itself on the red stumps.
The smell in that wafts from this room is horrifying. There is another door in the north wall that is open, and through it you can just see a stairway leading downwards.
"Merciful gods!" Lym whimpers, averting her face and pulling up her hood.
"Best cover your mouths...and maybe your eyes; looks like we'll have to go through it to get downstairs."
Looking around at the display, he also mutters:"Beginning to think that those fellows in the barn were the lucky ones, if this is any sign."
Praxim is probably looking quite green around the gills.
Fort
"It is the journey, not the destination." Tomaru goes down the stairs to look for more Black Arrows.
Thordak simply shakes his head at the sight, his jaw clenched in anger. "I hate this place. I hate it with all that I am. I say we burn it down twice. And then burn it down again just to be safe."
Rhianni looks through the doors and stands outside shocked at the carnage. She tries to force her way forward, through the bloody gore and stench of death, but her strength seems to fail her. Gagging she calls for help to take her through after the others. Guggh... some one help ... I can't take this .. urrgh! Her face goes from her ruddy complexion, paling to white then an ashen grey. With help from Lym, holding her arm, she makes it to the stairway, gingerly stepping down.
Kellen makes his way down the stairs and signals for Tomaru and Thordak to stop before they reach the pair of doors on the left and right. "So if they can hold on for a minute while I check," he mumbles at the sounds of Rhianni above.
If possible, he will check both doors - not wanting to be hit from behind from either door and the potential for a double trap.
Tomaru, still divesting himself of ogre splatter is only too happy to wait for Kellen.
Also, I just noticed some of us are still injured, so
Channel Positive Energy
Feeling the divine healing power of Tomaru, Rhianni recovers a little.
HPs:
Kellen signals that the door are clear, and then points to indicate he will open the door facing right (North side one). He readies his sword and awaits the group's signal to open the door.
[dice=Fort Save]1d20+6
"Best cover your mouths...and maybe your eyes; looks like we'll have to go through it to get downstairs."
Looking around at the display, he also mutters:"Beginning to think that those fellows in the barn were the lucky ones, if this is any sign."
Gripping his axe a little bit tighter, Thordak nods a "go" to the rogue to go ahead an open the door.
Rhianni watches from afar, hoping to get out of here as soon as she can, to go outside and breath cool mountain air.
This dark, recessed corner of the basement smells of rot and old blood. Piles of gore-spattered skin lie heaped on the floor. A horrid rubbery face robbed of its supporting skull and muscle rests on top, its toothless mouth agape and empty eyes revealing only the layer of tan flayed skin resting beneath.
It occurs to you that most of the furniture you have seen in this house of horrors has been made of a strange, tanned leather...
"After we have burned this place twice, I shall consecrate the ground. Though I'm not sure that that will be enough."
"You may want to hold back coming in...this is only getting uglier," Kellen says to the others as he looks around. He is looking for signs of movement or anything else of note (aside from the pile of skins) as he braces himself and enters.
"While I hate to tempt fate, I have to wonder why this, of all houses in the world, appears not to be haunted. The suffering that has gone on here..."
Praxim looks very green as he peers into the basement.
"It may be there was not enough left to anchor a ghost if the Grauls made use of their victims' bodies," Lym says in a low tone of voice.
Rhianni heeds Kellen's words, not even approaching the entrance to the room, but staying out of sight in the corridor. "If I were one of their victims, despite my need for revenge, I'd want to stay away and not be reminded of the agony suffered in death here." As she ventures forth her opinion.
At the speculation, Kellen states quietly:"The dead have their own business to attend to - whether they die by violence or accident. If it affects matters here, then we'll know soon enough."
"There's nothing I can find in this grisly pile. If one of you wants to check further, go ahead. Otherwise, let's check this other door."