Tursk growls as he draws the spear on his back. He gets within throwing distance and hurls it at the priest.
Tursks spear slices the cleric , which gives Barl an opening which he uses to hammer his foes in the chest, hard. The priest crumbles, and simply whispers "Oh. As he slumps to the floor, unmoving.
The fight seems to be very, but so many of you lay unmoving as well.
jack's roll
Tursk drops his shield and immediately begins pawing through the dead priest's possessions.
"Come on, come on! Tell me you have a healing potion, you bastard. My friends are dying."
"Ha! Told you that you weren't going anywhe.." Barl stops as he realizes the damage that's been done.
With Tursk checking for potions, Barl will frantically make rounds seeing who is still within the realm of the living.
You find no potions of any kind among the bodies. You find weapons, armor, some coins among the dead, even something that looks to be a component pouch. But no, you find no potions among the dead. Maybe there lies something in the other rooms, but nothing among the dead.
Kat is moving now, so she is among the living, she simply looks winded and may not have even been really hurt, just knocked out.The slice on her side is not even bleeding, so could not have been very deep.
Vic, looks to be hurt, but Barl is helping him, he seems in no life threatening danger. Helen sadly, is well past your ability to help her, the wizards eyes are glassy and see well past the mortal realm now.
Jack also seems to be lifeless under the table, having rolled there after he fell in battle.
Tursk violently kicks the body of the Norgorberan. No potions. Not a single damned one. A quick scan tells him the other bodies were bereft as well.
He sees Kat begin to stand and he sighs in relief. But then he notices the stricken look on Barl's face. At first he thought it was Vic, but the nimble one was still breathing, albeit shallowly.
Barl sadly pointed to Jack and then Helen. Tursk felt a cold chill race down his spine.
He raced over to Jack. Gone. Tursk nearly threw up. But he held it back and ran to Helen. But she was motionless. Still. Gone.
Tursk was overwhelmed with grief and despair. He clutched the holy symbol of Old Deadeye on his neck and stared at it almost hatefully. He fell to his knees, and his face softened.
And then he screamed.
It was a feral, gut-wrenching, cry of despair and denial. And from him came a surge of radiance that hit his friends, instilling them with life. When it was over, Tursk collapsed and nearly passed out.
Kat gets shakily to her feet, dull, confused eyes staring about her. She felt woozy still and was having trouble remembering what had happened. Suddenly Tursk screams, jolting her awake from the lethargy that seemed to grip her. Her eyes widened at the wave of warm radiant light that surged from him and she licks her lips and takes a step forward towards the collapsed man only to nearly stumble as her foot catches on a body. She looks down, then up again. It was Helen. Helen who likely had come in large part to keep Kat out of trouble herself. She falls to her rump and stares. "What happened?"
Tursk rolls onto his back, and takes a deep breath. He can feel his awareness growing sharper. He didn't quite understand the words Kat had said, but the gist was seeping in.
"Helen -- and Jack -- we were overwhelmed. Everything was -- so fast. They -- they didn't -- Gods! -- They didn't make it."
Tursk got shakily to his knees, his arms trembling from the effort.
"I failed. I failed all of you. I'm -- I'm so sorry."
Vic blinked awake and sat up to examine the carnage in the room. He was seriously wounded, but still alive. The same could not be said for Helen and Jack. Vic was no stranger to death, but to see his friends lying among the remains of the enemy brought a sense of overwhelming despair to his heart. Upon hearing the words of Tursk, he spoke with a shaky voice.
It was not a failure, Tursk. We all knew the risks. I imagine they died valiantly. We should begin to see to the proper burials for these stalwart companions.
Barl lends a hand down to Kat to help her up to her feet. "Hey, you okay Kat?"
He then nods to Tursk and speaks in a rare serious tone; "Vic is right. You did everything that you could. We all did. Now let's make sure this wasn't all in vain. We need to search this place to see if Lady Argentea and any other prisoners that they may have taken are here." He casts a derisive look at the fallen cleric. "Who know what they may have been put through."
After Tursk's outburst and energy washes over the group, a cough is heard under the table! Jack rolls over and takes a long, deep breath and coughs once more.
"We need time to rest, Barl. We can't save anyone as we are. I'll bar the doors."
Tursk bars the door and places his bear trap by one of the doors.
Barl nods to Tursk. "Guess you're right... I um, better go check on that stew."
Ah, I am invincible as he raises his fists upward
Kat stares up at Barl's offered arm with a strange look of what might have almost been wonderment, then suddenly blinks and shakes herself before letting him pull her to her feet. "I, I'm fine, I think.... better than some anyway," she adds sadly.
She did not join Barl in going after the stew however. It seemed for once she had lost her appetite. Instead, she goes to help Tursk bar the doors and windows.
Barl makes sure he brings back bowls of stew for everyone and throws a log on the fire. He'll pass his horn of mead around, then sit for his breather.
"So once we've finished searching this place, we should bring Helen back to Heldren for a proper burial, right? Maybe these bandits had a sled or cart around here somewhere we could use?"
"If not, we can improvise a sled."
A fast search inside gives you the layout. You have the kitchen, the to great rooms and Four bad chambers( the large one holding another locked chest) as well as another large room, the sick men where staying in. It smells of sickness, but has four beds and a table. Up stairs you have a large room with a massive table, covered in maps and texts, likely a study or planning room for whoever the bandits took the lodge from.
Another smaller room upstairs, clearly a store room as it contains boxes, holds a small iron cage. Inside the cage sits a small, winged pale humanoid about a foot tall. As you enter it screams "You! Release me! Release me now!"
First explain why we should help you?
Barls mouth hangs open. "Um guys... I don't want to alarm anyone.. but I think Lady Argentea has been turned into a fariy".
The little and very angry fairy looks down right furious as only a one foot, winged flue fairy could."Help me! You are holding me! Teb Knotten will fest on your bones! Suck the marrow right from your warm bloody bones! Do you here me! Release me at once!"
Vic approaches the cage.
What are you about, fairy? Are you Lady Argentea? If not, where are the prisoners kept?
Arannis looks up toward the cellar door above him, listening to the relative quiet following the commotion he heard, then smiles.
"Hey, didja hear that Miss Lady?" he says to the collapsed woman. "Sounded like a fight. That means somebody stood up to the bandits; even if they lost, it sounded ferocious, so I'm sure there are fewer of them now than there were. That ought to help; we'll be outta here in no time!"
The fairy looks at you for a moment. "Are you dense,of course I am! This, this...cage enchants me, that foul man did this! Let me out and you will be reward once I am returned to my rightful forum."
Kat narrows her eyes, studying the creature as she touches the cage. She didn't have a lot of experience with human nobles, but her talk of someone called Teb Knotten sucking marrow from people's bones seemed an odd thing for a pampered southern lady to be threatening....
"If being in the cage enchants you, how did he get you in there to begin with?
"I find myself uninterested in this creature's answers. Let us continue looking," Tursk says abruptly.
"We've already paid too high a price to waste our time here."
The little fey stops its feet and rolls its eyes "Magic you moron! Now let me out, let me out at once!"
"We were warned about you. Tiny sprites. Slivers of ice in their hearts. And their touch bears the bite of winter. Now tell me, sprite, if I looked into the core of your being, what would I find? Good? or evil?"
"But it matters not, truly. If you have information on Lady Argentea than you have value to us. A value we would be willing to trade for your freedom. But continue to play games..." Tursk said, leaving his threat hanging in the air.
Kat simply turns on her heel and moves away from the cage. She had been suspicious of the fey's story, yet willing to let the creature say its piece .... until it had acted even more imperious and insulting besides. Instead she listens, and looks about the room.
Vic draws his rapier and rests the pointy end on the edge of the cage.
It would not take much to skewer you like a game hen, fairy. Now, tell me where the prisoners, besides yourself, are kept, or you can serve as my pin cushion.
Barl shrugs. If the smart folks don't believe her, then neither do I. he thinks. Meanwhile, he'll begin to go through the rest of the boxes in the store room.
The fairy seems putout, but it looks as if it just might be ran though"I don't know! Not here, outside. They keep them outside.The foul man was gonna eat them or something." It says very put out and almost with a pout"Come on, let me out. This is a stupid cage."
Barl's search turns up supplies. Blank scrolls, ink, parchment, sand, some cloth and thread and other such things.
"Fine then. Leave."
Tursk opens the cage.
"Let's go outside."
Let's thoroughly search each floor before heading outside.
If you guys wish to head outside without me, then go ahead while I finish up in here.
With a gleeful cry the fairy fly's out of the room and down stairs.
He first examines them to see if they are trapped, if not he looks to the bodies of who may have the keys on their person.
If no luck, then Vic unrolls his worn piece of leather to expose a set of finely made tools. He sets to work on the locks to the two chests.
"No, not yet!" Kat cries as the fairy is released. She sets off chasing it down the stairs. "I think it's like the ones that attacked us earlier!"
Seeing the scrolls and ink, a pang of sadness hits Barl as he thinks of Helen. The moment is shattered though at Kat's exclamation.
"Whoa, what?!" The big man turns and follows his friend down the stairs.
Kat is chasing the Fairy down the stairs, she is having little luck actually catching it as it dashes around looking for a way out.
It is clear from a search if the lady is here she must be outside, maybe in the stables or an outbuilding or maybe this place has a cellar.
Vic actually found a key on the spellcaster, so only needed pick one lock.
* 1 gold ingot engraved with the Taldan royal seal
* a spyglass
* a silver lady's ring
* three shards of tiger's eye gemstones
* a fine pair of leather riding boots of elven make
* a silver dagger
* a leather portfolio containing several pieces of parchment,including a scroll of cure wounds, unseen servant and animate dead.
* Three sets of garments
* a belt pouch with 25 sp
* Some kind of potion
* 6 gp
* 82 sp
* 15 cp
Tursk goes downstairs and heads outside.
Hold up, Tursk. I found some valuables, and we need to make sure there is no basement to this house.
After Vic gathers the loot, he searches the first floor to see if there is a basement.
Tursk heeds Vic's advice.
Kat and Barl are still chasing the fairy, who take a wild turn and flies up and out the chimney. Vic and Tursk take the time to once over the place, even throwing the old bear skin rug aside and find nothing. You are left with little choice but to look outside. You still have some daylight, if not much.
Outside you find a stable a ways from the lodge,The stable contains three horses, but is made for five. It is well socked with saddles and other implements needed to feed and care for the animals.
A small toolshed stands near the lodge, it is backed with shovels,picks, axes and woodworking tools. Behind the lodge however, lays a door to a cellar. It is a heavy, and well reinforced door. You can hears muffled sounds f you put your ear to the heavy wood
"Let's check the toolshed first. If there's anything dangerous in there I want to find out before we go down the cellar."
Tursk stands by the toolshed door. He nods to Vic, silently counts to three and then forcefully opens it.
Vic nods and hides with his back up against the doorjam to get the jump on anything inside when the door is flung open.