Alistair begins to do one of his patented dances in place to inspire the party to greatness You are as bold and brave as the legions of The SHield Maiden herself!
Anchard watches the others as he loads his crossbow. "Save the lessons for after the skeletons are felled. They don't need any pointers on how to fight back."
Shortnose and Cerian manage to destroy the skeletons with their attacks and then are reminded by the others to attack the fallen bones with the blunt ends of their weapons just to be sure...
You notice the dwarven skeleton in the praying position that was not animated smeems to have some mushrooms growing out of his ribcage... the same type of shrooms needed for the herbalist in town...you manage to pick 2 ironbloom mushrooms...the warhammer in his hands is also of good dwarven quality and has something written on it in the old dwarven tongue...
Looking at the hammer Bonifacius takes it. "Do you mind? Me thinks it belongs in proper dwarven hands!"
Anchard stows the 'iron-blooms' says with a sly smirk, "And I'm the one accused of racism. If no one else cares that you want it Man of Many Words, I don't see why a magical hammer can't be a share of your findings."
Well then we have what we need, shall we go before those orcs come back? perhaps they will stumble into the darkness and we can be done with them as well.
He paused and glanced at the others for a moment
Unless of course we want to explore the rest of this place?
After the fight is over the mushrooms are picked and the hammer dusted off and given to Bonificious. The wording on the hammer in dwarven says Daemon Bane and is a magical warhammer +1 except against daemons...
The group does not find anything else of worth in the cells and leaves back towards the hall... there are still areas un-searched in these ruins...
Alistair shrugs I hate medicine so much.... and begins sauntering back to wards the dark room.
As some of you are magical users of a sort you do know that this type of magic only lasts a while thus you can wait it out if you so desire...
"Best'a if we search everything." Shortnose says to his new companions.
"Mayhap we find gold and treasure and fame!" he scratch his head thinking about the darkness in the other room and finally admits ”But that dark room gonna be a problem tho.”
"Let's spend some time searching the other areas before we try to kill that thing. The darkness will wear off eventually."
Alistair nods sagely at Anchard Well don't be shy Shortnose, lead the way my good man, perhaps you should lead the way!
Shortnose tests the door to the north and finds it unlocked. He opens it and looks inside the room. This small study looks like it has been lived in recently. Gnawed bones litter the floor and tufts of gray fur can be seen here and there. An old stone desk sits in the center of the chamber, scratched and cracked in many places. The stench of wet fur hangs heavy in the air. There is an adjoining room to the west.
Taking a sniff Ulfgard shakes his head. "Arg, this smells like a orcs sock!"
"Wasn't there something about a wolf large enough to meet a man whole in the story those hunters told us? Anchard says ushers the others to investigate the room further by walking in slowly.
Alistair pushes Shortnose ahead of him as he approaches the adjoining room to the west carefully.
A wolf that large would not be an ordinary wolf, we must keep our eyes sharp.
He responded to Anchard with a tight frown,looking about the ground for perhaps muddy pawprints... after all wet wolfs didnt wipe their paws
Shortnose is encouraged by others to go in first...Gaping holes in the roof allow faint light to enter this ruined chamber. One of the stone columns that once supported the ceiling is toppled, its broken pieces littering the floor. A thick patch of black mushrooms hides in a nearby corner, giving the room an earthy scent that is barely noticeable above the stench of wet fur.
Anchard is satisfied with finding nothing and is ready to turn back to the other rooms.
Where to next master nose!
"Hey, I liked that!" Shortnose says cheerfully at his new tittle.
He doesn’t move away from the room just yet, instead the warrior points to the black mushrooms and ask the others ”Ain’t that the same ‘shurooms you guys are here to pick it up?” then he moves closer to the stair and try to see if anything can be heard from the other side of the passage.
”Ain’t you picking it up?” Shortnose asks when the others don’t react to the mushrooms they found.
”Whatever.” he says shrugging and moving towards the room where the other monster was. Maybe the darkness ended up already and they could explore inside.
Anchard returns looks for the others, "What is the cuase for delay?" Anchard enters the connecting room to find the mushrooms. "More? do you think she would need more of these things than the ones already procured? We may just want to be sure." Anchard kneels to collect the second set of iron blooms so everyone may continue searching the ruin's remaining rooms.
"Good." he says simply.
Alistair carefully collects the remaining mushrooms and tucks them away in a linen sack. There we go, mushrooms for days
"Aye. Gotta skin that thing in the darkness now." the warrior says moving to the room where the darkness effect was cast and it it’s not ended yet, he’ll wait it end before entering the room.
Quietly he followed the fortunate man torwards the darkness, arrow knocked to the string though yet undrawn.
The group collects the next set of mushrooms and as they advance to the fortress prayer hall again they discover the darkness has faded away...they still have mushrooms to collect and know they must continue searching the area...
Taking a small one aside the Inquisitor gently sniffs it, licks it and rubs it. [i]How would it affect the ale?"[/B]
Anchard returns to the courtyard, peeking beyond the door to see if the inky darkness has faded.
"Ya have my back?" Shortnose asks to no one in particular, just before sprinting in the room, sword and shield ready.
Whatever that thing in the darkness was, sword and shield wound need to be enough.
Shortnose rushes in expecting trouble but only discovers an empty room...searching above he sees darkness up in the decaying rafters but detects no movement up there...
cautiously following the ...excitable warrior into the room he scans the area... starting low and working his way up his bow aiming where his eyes pointed.
I don't suppose you know the word... subtle do you friend Nose?
He asked as he scanned barely hiding the smirk on his lips.
"If ya wanted subtle, wouldn't be sending me to scout." the man shrugs at the strange comment.
Strange blokes, do they even know when they are hungry?
With that, he starts to use his sword to fiddle with things around, moving the debris with his sword, helping the search for anything interesting.
"Keep your wits about you while you search the room. If it decides to remain hidden, anything of value in there is still ours for the taking." Anchard readied his crossbow from outside the room.
Shortnose looks about and does not see anything resembling the creature from earlier...the room itself is a mess but there appears to be some ironbloom mushrooms growing under one of the southern benches....
Alistair scrapes a few off carefully and puts them into the ironbloom sack he has going Gosh do we have enough yet?
Alistair counts the number of mushrooms the group has managed to find and the tally is eight. Laurel needs seven mushrooms so the group has enough...
I wonder what happened to whatever that thing was that made the darkness.
He began already hurriedly backtracking for the courtyard hopefully before more of those orcs arrived.
"I hesitate to speculate. I am sure it is merely hiding; waiting for an easier meal. Let us close these doors on our way out. Let it surprise our orcs when they return."
"Should we press our luck with the remaining rooms or head back?"
We never bothered to look in that half fallen tower not that I expect to much to be there... I care little as long as we hurry. I dont want to be here if those orcs return with friends.
He said simply enough, reaching forward and trying the knob to the door on his left.
"Aye, our duty is elsewhere, but where are here!"
Alistair begins walking away with the mushrooms We got paid for a job, we did that job. I don't want to spend another second in this forsaken backwater than necessary
Alistair walks outside the building back into the courtyard area and notices the day has been replaced by evening twilight and the air is a bit colder...a loud wolf howl is heard and Alistair sees a large wolf and two regular sized wolves appear over the rubble of the walls sniffing the air and looking in his direction...
inside te fortress the others hear a loud wolf howl...
"Great, what now?" The warrior curses and runs outside, shield and sword ready.
At the sound of the wolf's howl he moved, no longer curious as to what the other rooms might contain as to worried his team might be well, running afoul of wildlife.
He approached slowly behind Alistair and crouched eye level with the wolves.
There is some jerky in my rations in my pack, pull it out slowly let us see if we can make a few friends
He said voice low