Serra holds his ranseur in front of him, letting the light illuminate the 'demonic' scarring.
Perception
Serra enters his soldiers waddle stance, unsure what to expect.
The room to the left appears to be empty of life save for those of the group.
Not a 1, plz.
Serra looks at the broken glass on the floor and frowns, having seen too much broken glass during his time as a bartender and innkeep pre-knight.
He casts Prestidigitation to clear a path of glass from the immediate vicinity, not wanting anyone to cut their feet.
That hurts, it does.
Serra follows Ely to wherever he goes next.
Not clear what to think regarding the chandelier, Eli continues down the hall, peering through the first doorway that makes itself available, on the right or the left. The swinging doors will have to wait.
The doorway beneath the stairs opens into a small wash closet. The one to the right appears to be locked.
Eli sizes up the locked door, and slams into it. What little remains intact in this razed city, and here I am, helping it along in its destruction. Well, it is only a door, and behind doors may lie cultists...
The door crashes open at ELy's insistence, shuddering the house with the force of it. Inside, a dark private office lays untouched by the "destruction"outside. A large, well made desk sits covered in a thick layer of dust while disturbed motes of the stuff dances in a thin beam of light through a crack in the wood boarding up the room's one window.
A fine Qadiran rug lays in the middle of the room, with a single chair sat to one side in front of the desk while a nicer, taller one desk chair sits behind it with its back to the boarded up window.
Shelves, some with doors, line the north wall while an oaken door sits in the middle of the south wall. The door is flanked on either side by well painted portraits, one of a young, beautiful woman, and the other of a small, gray eyed girl in ribbons.
Eli takes in the room, and once again returns to flushing out foes on the first floor. He moves to the swinging double doors and peers over them if possible. Otherwise, he pushes through, barring any obvious signs of trapping around the doorframe.
Serra continues to guard Ely's back, following him to the double doors. He remains in his soldier's 'stance'.
Perception
"This is an odd place, Ely. I do not trust it."
"Careful now... I... doesn't make any sense... probably... talking crazy talk.... odd... do not trust..."
Eli continues to press forward, wary of what lies ahead. His foot passes across the bottom of the hammer's shaft, occasionally setting the brace against something able to charge them.
"Master Beagan, does Xanthos have a scenting skill that could tell us if this place was recently occupied? The dust alone might discourage us from further searching, but we haven't investigated upstairs yet."
The swinging doors lead to the kitchen. Knives and utensils litter the floor and the smell of decaying foodstuffs (at least, hopefully, it is only decaying food stuffs) fills the air.
Eli turns around and readies to head back down the hallway. "Just the kitchen. This floor feels searched over. Let's be done with the second floor. The Tower awaits."
Serra tries to avoid sniffing too much of the foul air.
Perception
"Any food in here? I mean, to take back to the garrison, of course." Serra goes to check for any lapsed or edible foods.
Still thinking about foods, eh fatty?
The soldiers and children at the Heart may need it.
No, you're worried about your own fat belly.
Serra grimaces as if he was just mentally punched in the back of the head.
In the kitchen, Cole stops and moves a tea cart aside. "Guys, look here." he points to a trapdoor.
"Wouldn't be surprised if it's another trap. Let's check the house thoroughly and then check this out."
He follow Eli and Serra.
Eli raises his eyebrows in light surprise as Cole finds a trapdoor. He nods to the bowman. "Well investigated, Cole. Yes, let's make sure we don't go below until we know that nothing lies above."
Eli moves to the stairs, and treks to the second floor.
Abyssal that makes even less sense than usual...
perception:18, or know. planes 18:
Careful consideration of the damage throws the method of destruction into question. It appears as if they were made by some knife or tool, and only appear to be demonic destruction.
Room artificially trashed and made to look like demonic destruction...
A staged chandelier...
"I think someone is trying to create an impression this house was ransacked by demons, when in fact it is not. They might still be here, hiding in the basement or attic."
Grasker will call out loudly to the house from a central location:
"Would the winner of the 4690 Chicken Clutch Run come forward! We mean no harm to any except demonkind!"
"We have no want for your your things, only to help the city. It is much safe at Defender's Heart and we can escort you there if you like."
"This fine cleric speaks truth! He can heal you if you are injured. Hiding will do you no good in the long run. The demons run amok in the city, it is only a matter of time...!"
"Yeah!"
Diplomacy to Aid Grasker
A voice calls from upstairs, "There'll be no living with him now, now that the feast has come and the chickens have fled." The voice, frail and wavering, cackles at the end, a touch of hysteria wavering in the words.
Though you listen, no one seems to be headed down stairs.
"You won't mind if we come up and gave a little chat, would you? No traps or ambushes?"
Eli waits as Grasker begins to parlay with the nonsensical entity awaiting them upstairs. Eli leans in to whisper to the cleric. "Would you believe them if they said 'yes'?"
Taking any answer, including no answer, as cue to investigate upstairs, Eli takes to the steps, wary of what they will find when the reach the second floor.
Serra follows Ely up the stairs.
This is a strange house. I hope there are no giant angry brains.
Grasker will ready his weapon and head upstairs after Ely & Serra.
"Well Eli.. this person seems kind of different. And not in the friendly first world way of our bunny knight. I would look to your wise guidance if we get them talking."
"At your service, Marc... uh, Grasker. If you and Radiance feel the need to stay your hand, then we'll talk first."
As Grasker, Ely and Serra reach the 10ft by 15ft landing, a board creaks, then breaks. Cole and Grasker both jump wide, but Serra, Began, Xanthos, and Ely all stumble as the first board gives way, sending a spray of splinters out into the air.
If Eli can keep going up the stairs, he tries.
Eli pulls himself up, using his hammer for leverage. The others too are able to keep going with just a few bumps and scrapes.
Reflex
Serra, despite his girth, manages to catch himself and avoid the splinters.
"So much for warning us about traps. Prepare to defend yourselves."
Beagan and Xanthos both cry out in a burble of surprise as they go crashing through the floor into the water closet below. A close inspection of the wood shows that it has rotted through over time, a product of neglect rather than any truly foul intent.
At the end of the hallway on the second floor, while the group is gathering itself together again, a woman in gray robes scuttles from one room to another, shutting the door behind her.
Cole raises his bow at the movement and draws back the string... but he hesitates and the moment passes before he has the clear idea to shoot.
After a moment, he loosens the string and lowers the bow slightly and continues on behind Grasker and Serra.
Eli takes a moment to assess Beagan's condition as the fates conspire against him. Seeing him likely to bounce back, Eli keeps his hammer pointed down the hallway as he moves to the door.
If the door opens easily, he does so. If it fails to give on the turn of a knob, Eli attempts to encourage it open, again with his bony shoulder.
As Eli approaches the door, the bits of the knob laying on the floor draw his attention. The door, it's knob and locking mechanism broken and in pieces, opens easily with the slightest encouragement. Inside, the room is mostly tidy. The rest of the knob mechanism pieces are piled neatly in a tiny pyramid in the middle of the room. A small bed sits to one side, and a table with two chairs sits on other next to a large dollhouse.
There is a door on one wall of the room and above, faint streams of light filter through a poorly patched roof. Faint yellow chickens dance across a pale green wall on the other side, and part of a nursery rhyme is printed in a dark green calligraphy across the top and bottom.
"When pigs do prance and chickens dance upon their curly toes...let us heed their ideal and twirl and reel and slip our earthly woes....."
A leg dressed in a gray stocking with no shoes sticks out from the door of the doll house, and an adult shoulder presses against it's window, the fabric of the poor woman's clothing looking like odd curtains stuck in the sill.
The boy moves away from the woman in the doll house and goes back to Serra's side.
Cole looks evenly around the room until he spies the woman trying to hide, and doing it so poorly.
"You there, in the doll house, come on out. We're here to talk. We're not evil cultists, or in league with the demons writhing in our city streets. We're, uh, the other side. So get out here where we can see you."
He does not lower his bow however, keeping it at the ready.
"Can't see me, says he. Can't see can't see so stay will we"the woman mutters to herself, scrunching herself into a tighter ball inside the dollhouse. Her exposed foot kicks as she tries to shift her position, and the hand hanging out of the other side of the house flails into view for a moment.
Eli ignores the shoulder, moving to the other door, and investigating for other occupants. This is no safehouse, and what little light we still have is slipping through our fingers to flesh out this old person's home.
He leaves the 'woman' to the others to engage.
Ely doesn't hear anything from the other door.
Serra nods at Kastor, not surprised the woman ignored the squire.
"She probably hasn't seen much humanoidanity of late. Careful now, she might think we are demons," Serra opines a warning.
While waiting for one of the healers to check on her, Ely continues his wingknight duties and shadows Ely by the other door.
Eli opens the door, revealing the stairs. He places a hand on the door frame, and steps halfway onto the landing, testing it for support before fully stepping onto it. He listens upwards and downwards, and waits for the others to finish talking with the woman.
"Cole, that one doesn't seem ready to leave. We still have one more safehouse to investigate, so escorting her back to the safety of the Heart may mean we return to Estrod at night."
Beagan is still muttering when he wipes the grime from his fall.
"मैं आपकी सेवा में नहीं रह रहा हूँ, भले ही मैं अपने चमड़े के लोगों में से एक के रूप में शपथ खाई इसका कारण यह है?"
"Is this because I swore an oath as one of your leather men even though I'm no longer in your service?"
Xanthos seems to simply glare.
Once he catches up, he makes an observation, trying to explain the realities of different species to Cole and Serra.
"Maybe that's not a dollhouse? Maybe that's somebody's real house. There are folk that are wee-sized, you know. Smaller than me."
Seeing the extended leg and pressed shoulder, he continues.
"Hey, are you a wee one who got too big? Do you need to be shrunk back to fit in your house? Maybe Serra's book would tell him how to do that. Or Eli could reverse his 'get real big and angry' blessing."
While guarding Ely's back and waiting for the woman to be checked, Serra casts Detect Magic and looks around.
Not 1, plz.
Serra's hand catches on his armor, breaking his concentration and he ends up mumbling a few bars of "There Once Was a Ogre from Fey's Luck It".
Focus, you Fatty!
Serra tries again.
Not 1, plz.
Serra casts Detect Magic and scans the room and the stairs up and down.
The woman inside the dollhouse begins to giggle at Beagan's suggestion. "I was little once, and danced with the chickens. I felt big then. Then I grew up and got small again." For the first time she almost makes sense. Almost.
"but now I don't fit. And Lainey's gone and I broke the door. And I'm not supposed to have company either." The poor woman begins to sob inside her too small house.
Serra eventually, *finally* casts detect magic and takes his time looking around the room for auras. There are a couple auras amongst the toys within the room, but they seem little more than curiosities. Finally, there is a tiny faint aura down at the bottom of the stairway, near a little door.
Great. A crier.
Cole says nothing as he stands guard in the door, looking for cultists that seem not to be here.
These cultists are an elusive bunch.
While waiting for stuff to happen with the witch crazy person, Serra will examine the dolls for the curious auras that they hold.
"Curious, these toys."
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Spellcraft
Serra looks among them for something that might be appropriate for Kastor.
As the group continues to go through the companions things, a faint sound catches their attention from down stairs. The small door at the bottom of the hidden stairwell opens, a young woman climbing through with a small bag in her hands. Seeing the light from upstairs, she calls out, though quietly.
"Mama, I told you I'd be right back. You shouldn't come down here without me."
Grasker puts away his weaponry and comes in the room.
"What is wrong, little one? Just think, you are growing from this small doll house to the giant doll house around it."
"Like.. a hermit crab trading a small shell for a large one. And this large house has so much room to dance and race chickens for ribbons."
If she comes our to talks more Grasker will try to heal check to see what might be causing her to act this way.
"Who is Lainey? Did they bring down the chandler on the ground floor?"
Grasker will concentrate & Detect Evil on the woman in the doll house.