Spurred on by Arcos and Lubella's warnings, Rexus suddenly turns, and his eyes widen as he sees the sledge hovering menacingly over him. He cries out in surprise, leaping back and snatching up his cane. He gives a deft twist and pull of the handle, unsheathing a long thin blade within. As he steps away from the impending blow, the sledge falls to the ground, clattering harmlessly at his feet. "What in the Hell is going on in here?!?", he cries, panic rising in his voice.
"Someone or something is messing with us!," Lubella declared. I wonder if there's any residual trace of magic? She cast a spell and scanned for arcane auras.
While Lubella can sense a lingering aura of magic upon the sledge, it fades away before she can determine anything more than magic was used upon it.
"I think the sledge was lifted by magical means," Lubella said. "There must be a hidden or invisible creature around somewhere! Does anyone have any way to reveal it? I hate the idea of going down below with this thing behind us." She searched the corridor to see if there any items on the ground besides the sledge.
"I have a scroll that would help in that regard," Rexus offers, sheathing his sword as the danger seems to have passed. "If we know a general area that the invisible creature is in, I can hit it with it. I just have a single shot with that, though." He casts a quick spell, surveying the area much as Lubella is. "I don't sense any mystical auras around here at the moment, though. Whatever it is, it knows how to keep out of sight."
Lubella cast her spell again and looked at the ring on Amalie's finger to see if she could see any magic auras.
"We need to check the basement, according to the letter," Lubella said in a low voice. "Someone might need to guard the trap door so it doesn't get closed and blocked behind us. If we shut this door, an invisible creature would have to give itself away if it wanted to enter the room." She examined the open secret door to see if there was any way of barring or wedging it shut from the inside.
The ring does not radiate any magical auras. Barring the door is simple enough - once closed, one of the large tables could be dragged in front of it to prevent easy opening.
Lubella beckoned everyone inside the room, then closed the secret door. She pulled the table over in front of the door to block it, and scanned the room for magic auras, to make sure an invisible creature hadn't followed them in.
"I don't know if whatever it is will be able to push that open or not. Perhaps someone should stay here on guard?"
Felicia, noticeably rattled, paces about the room, sniffing along the walls and eventually the opening of the trapdoor, tough she sorely regrets that with the smell of rotting excrement assaulting her senses.
"If you want, I can stay here," Rexus offers, gripping his cane tightly. "I don't like asking you to head into the basement without me, though - you wouldn't be in this haunted stables if it weren't for me." As he says this, Lubella examines the area for auras, finding nothing beyond the magics she expected to find on her friends.
Felicia begins sniffing around, as her nose has rarely steered her wrong before. The foul stench arising from below threatens to overshadow anything else, but she does smell something else coming from below. Rats, if she's not mistaken. Rats, and...something else. Something unnatural. Something that smells of both the natural world, and something mystic.
"Thanks," Lubella replied. "We need someone to make sure we don't get trapped down there. If I find another exit, I'll let you know. I'm going to cast a spell so I can communicate to you." She muttered an incantation. "The range is only just over a hundred feet, though." She renewed the light spell on her scimitar.
Lubella descended the ladder down to the basement, trying not to breathe through her nose because of the stench, and looked around.
Arcos pulls out his dagger, and follows Lubella down the ladder.
If you lot don't mind, I would prefer to stay up here. Ladders and I aren't friends. However, I should be able to share divine blessings with you if you can get back to the ladder. Amalie offers. I could sit on the door, keep it open in that manner. she says, now with a smile.
"If that is your wish," Lubella replied to Amalie. "We'll do our best to keep you updated. If we go out of range of my spell, holler if anything tries to open the door from the hallway."
The smell of the room below grows worse as Lubella descends into the livery's basement. Her light reveals rusty knives and hooks lying haphazardly on dusty tables, as well as several crates and barrels. A closed door is dimly visible to the west, and chewed into the sides of barrels are nests. From within, Lubella's light reflects off of the eyes of several large rats, which begin to squeak and hiss as she intrudes upon their lair.
The rats charge out from their nests, snapping at Lubella's uncovered feet!
Two of them leap onto her, drawing blood with their sharp yellow teeth, though she's able to leap out of the way of the third.
Labella jumped as the rats bit her feet. "Argh! Not the feet! Oh, that's it!" She began her martial dance and struck out at one of her tormentors.
Lubella kicks one of the rats up off her foot, and slashes him midair with her glowing scimitar. The rat squeaks in pain as blood sprays from its wound, and it hits the ground a moment later, twitching as its blood spills out from its prone form.
From the ladder, Arcos shoots a bolt of lightning at one of the rats.
Amalie stares down the hole as Lubella hollers about her feet.
Would that I could go down and help. Perhaps huck a stone down at them Amalie? Can you see clearly enough down? Seems like a simple bite and she didn't come back to the ladder, so she may not need restoring yet. Just wait, trust in them to trust in you.
Arcos conjures a bolt of lightning in his hands and throws it at one of the two remaining rats. It squeaks in pain as the electricity courses through its body, but it does not fall - instead, it fixes its beady eyes at the scribe, hissing at him through its yellowed teeth.
Amalie holds her magic stone aloft, ready to throw it at one of the rats once she has a clear shot, but Arcos remains in her line of sight.
"Hey, rats!", Felicia shouts, a predatory smile crossing her face as she pulls a dagger. "That's basically my forte!" She hurls a blade at one of the two , and hurls the dagger at it.
The blade grazes the rat, and while it seems battered by the mystical and mundane assault, it remains defiant in its defense of its home.
Rexus likewise crowds around the opening, wincing as he spies Felicia and Arcos fighting against these massive rats. He conjures a small ball of acid into existence, and hurls it at one of the rats .
The acid ball, however, splashes harmlessly on the ground, doing little to improve the stench in the livery's basement.
The rats continue to attack the invaders into their warren. The one on Lubella continues to savage her foot, while the one that Arcos shocked pounces, leaping far higher than the scribe would have expected.
Lubella finally manages to throw the other rat off her foot, and it lands a few feet away, already scrambling to get back into the fray. Arcos is less fortunate, however, and his rodent opponent manages to draw blood with its yellowed incisors.
Lubella continued her dance, moving away from under the ladder with her steps. She struck out at the other rat that bit her, defending her precious toes.
"These things are vicious!", she said, shocked at the way one of them leapt at Arcos.
Lubella whirls around, stooping low to slice at the rat, dealing a vicious wound that knocks it a few feet back, tumbling to the ground where it lies in a growing pool of blood.
Arcos yelps, "Ouch!" and shoots another bolt at the rat.
Arcos summons another bolt of lightning and hurls it at the rat, and it arcs towards Felicia's dagger, sending electricity coursing through the rodent's body. It falls to the ground, smoke rising from its still-twitching body, and the room falls silent.
Now that the rats were vanquished, Lubella looked around to see what was down in the basement. I really need to wash my feat when I get out of here. This place is disgusting!
Lubella searches around in the basement for anything interesting, finding only rat droppings and garbage for her troubles. The tools lying on the tables have rusted into uselessness, and if the barrels contained anything interesting, it was long ruined by exposure and vermin. Only the door to the west seemed intact, and even then there were spots where the large rats had chewed upon it to wear down their massive incisors.
"This is all junk," Lubella said, looking around. "Maybe there's something in here." She walked over to the door and opened it.
Lubella opens the door, and the light from her scimitar illuminates the darkness of the large room beyond. Dirty salt and sawdust coat the floor of this gloomy hall. Bits of the wall masonry have been chewed or clawed away, revealing narrow, winding animal tunnels beyond. Steel rails are mounted in the ceiling, with a few lonely iron hooks dangling from them. A pile of stained pillows and moth-eaten blankets lies in a ten-foot-square depression in the floor to the northwest.
"I wonder what all this is for?" Lubella wondered aloud as she looked at the steel rails and the iron hooks. She moved up for a closer look at the depression.
Lubella realizes the tracks and hooks have a slightly sinister purpose - the slaughtered animals would be hung here for harvesting. However, the stains upon them now are rust-colored due to oxidation, not slaughter. Her light reveals an iron grating to the southeast, also in disrepair, while the depression is lined with pillows and blankets, all filthy and chewed. Her light does reveal the glint of metal - coinage!
Rexus follows Lubella into the room, staying close to her to remain within her nimbus of light.
"Keep an eye out — there may be more rats about," Lubella said to Rexus. "There's some coins here. There could be bugs or something in with them — hang on a sec." She was a bit hesitant to step down into the mess, having just had her toes chewed. She made a gesture, and spoke some arcane syllables. She concentrated and gestured with her hand, as some of the lighter items floated out of the depression and on to the ground nearby.
"Hm, the rails and hooks could be for hitching animals, though I can't say I know why they'd bring them down here."
"That would suggest that there's another entrance somewhere." Lubella replied. "I can't see them bring live animals or carcasses down through the trap door."
From her vantage point, Lubella notes that there is a hole in the ceiling that's been boarded up, roughly the same size as the depression. There definitely could have been a lift between the basement and the ground level, but the stables would have been built overtop that, and the stone flooring would have hidden this from sight.
While her gaze is skyward, she's distracted as a half dozen ugly bipedal creatures come scurrying out from the holes in the walls. They're smaller than the rats, at least, but resemble opossums walking on their hind legs. They scurry out into the room, rushing towards the intruders, shouting something in a harsh-sounding language unfamiliar to your ears.
The creatures leap out from their warrens, and the nearest three stare down Lubella, Rexus, and Arcos. They open their mouths, and a great gout of vomit erupts from them, streaking across the room in a putrid shower.
Fortune favors Lubella, who manages to avoid the worst of the vile spray, but Arcos and Rexus both are covered in the thick vomit. The stench on it is horrendous, and the two men feel their gorges rising.
Rexus is unable to control his revulsion, and he begins to retch, able to do little more than contain the contents of his own stomach.
The air of the basement is now thick with the acrid stench of vomit, and the possum creatures swarm towards the intruders. Two leap upon Lubella, while a third pounces on Rexus, and a fourth on Arcos. A fifth moves up near to Lubella, and prepares to attack her as well.
The creatures' claws scrape against their foes' armor, but are unable to penetrate and cause any harm. If they weren't so misshapen and ugly, it would almost be comical.
The stream of projectile vomit spattered Lubella's foot hair. "Really?", she declared in disgust. Based on the creature's weak attacks, she decided to conserve her battle dance for now. Taking pity on her tiny foes, she struck with the flat of her blade.
"Felicia, get in here!", she shouted. "We're being attacked by puking possum people!"
Hearing her new friends retreat from the space under the trap door, she decides to slowly make her way down the ladder to follow them.
As she goes down, her gait unsteady. With a word, one of her magic stones flares into light, letting her see the area around her.
She heads off towards the sound of her friends.
Lubella connects solidly with her blade, striking the possum creature in the chest. As she strikes it, it's like she struck a post, and she feels the resistance from the blow travel up her blade into her hands. It's not enough to save the creature, though - she strikes it, and it hisses in pain, falling to the ground.
Amalie descends into the basement, and whispers to her rock, causing it to glow with a soft, white light. She can see Arcos, covered in the creature's sickness and beset by this beast.
Rexus chokes back his revulsion, but is able to do little more than beat a fighting retreat away from the creature, and draw his sword cane again, brandishing it at the creature. "Back off, I'll use this if I must!", he says, but the tip of the blade shakes, betraying his bravado.
Arcos walks into the room and focuses briefly, shooting a bolt of magical force at one of the possum beasts.
Arcos brushes past the possum creature, which slashes at him as he enters the larger room.
Its teeth manage to find a weak spot in his boot, but doesn't really manage to do more than pinch his heel.
The magic bolt flies towards one of the creatures, striking it square in the chest. It howls as a small explosion of force cracks its ribs, and it slumps to the ground.
Felicia slices at the possumfolk with her falcata!
She cuts deep into the creature's flesh, sending it to the ground!
The one still squaring off against Lubella retreats for a moment, says a few words in the arcane tongue, and suddenly a thin wave of sludge runs under her feet, making the whole area slick.
The other possum creature begins savaging Rexus, its sharp teeth clawing at him.
It finds a soft part of his boot, and draws a bit of blood.
"What is it with everyone going after my feet?", Lubella asked rhetorically. She stepped forward, maintaining her footing, and struck at the one responsible for sliming the floor.
Arcos lobs another bolt of lightning at the possum creature. The creatures small size gets the betty of him however.
"There's something weird about these creatures!", Lubella shouted to her companions. "When I hit one of them a moment ago, it felt incredibly solid for such a little beast!"