Shomari wakes from a feverish sleep, still feeling light-headed and weak, but not apparently suffering any ill effects from the sickness. He sits up, and looks around at his travelling companions.
"You search the village, catch fish," he says softly. "I will hunt. I do not wish to eat rats." He stands a little unsteadily, smiling as he looks at his "new" armor. He collects his weapons and goes to look outside, to see if there are any zombies out there.
No one wants to eat rats Shomari, but if the rest of the village is as bare as here... and the villagers who rose as zombies have to be somewhere. Fishing and hunting may not be easy so we might not be in a position to be choosy, that's all I'm saying. Polo replies, trying his best to remain practical in the face of adversity.
Azmerai looks at Shomari. He shruggs points downstairs. "Please check downstairs first. Ratdoor not safe anymore! Then we go check for food! He looks at Shomari almost pleadingly, feeling ashamed not finding the correct words to show his concerns.
Shomari peeks outside, it takes a moment for his eyes to adjust to the bright light, but glancing quickly up and down the street he can see the odd zombie staggering through muddy puddles towards the centre of town, no imminent threats apparent. The smell of smoke is strong in the air now the rain has stopped.
As far as cooking rats goes, it would take a lot of them to make a meal, and it would be pretty time-consuming too. In addition, the rats may carry disease which cooking would not necessarily make safe.
Assessing the downstairs door reveals that the rodents evidently consumed the bits they gnawed away, there aren't enough fragments left to use magic to make the door whole. There are however plenty of shelves nearby you could disassemble and use to board it up, you can see a hammer and a tin full of nails over near the forge. The wood situation remains dire however, aside from a couple of wooden barrels you could break up, the shelves and racks are either painted or treated, so would likely give off toxic fumes when burned.
Kaiya makes an appearance from the basement steps as you discuss things. She looks forlorn, her eyes flicking to each of you quickly before returning to stare at the floor.
I need to... move his body... she grits her teeth, lips tremblingcould someone help please? We put the bodies in the basement, behind the door...
Azmerai looks around for a moment and then goes to his chest and unties the rope. Handing it to Polonius he mumbles: "Tie around body. You can lift it then. Please give back."
Hearing that other bodies have been stashed behind the door he pauses.
Maybe collect all dead bodies and put in lone house and burn it
Shomari steps away from the door and looks at the child coming up from the basement steps. Hearing her words, his hand moves to his sibat, but he doesn't pull it yet. He thinks of his own unborn children and scowls fiercely at the thought of what their lives will bring. It is not the way of hobgoblins to let children stay soft for long, but he couldn't ask this child to see her family risen.
"Child," he says, more abruptly than he means to. "You stay up here. Leave body to us." He gestures at Polonius and the others who have the child's trust. "These will make sure it is done properly."
For those venturing upstairs: the top floor is the living quarters for the family that owned the shop, back when things like that mattered anyway. The upstairs floor has a large, shuttered window on each side of the floor, letting in enough light to see by. The room is mostly floorboards, the furniture is piled up around one end of the room, corralling off an area just large enough for a few people to sleep, with the window a last ditch escape route of necessary.
Evane's body is where Polonius left it after administering the small mercy he could. The only other things of note up here are the cooking range and nearby pantry, unfortunately empty.
Polonius tentatively puts his arm around Kaiya's shoulders.
Don't worry, girl. We'll see he is treated gently.
He looks to the others.
But first we need to make sure this place is safe. You stay here on the stairs, Kaiya, we'll open up the door here. Azmerai, Shomari - would one of you do the honours please?
hope not rest of clan, hope little one not see whats after door
grabbing his halberd the grey-skinned half orc prepares for the worst.
Though neither of them would know it, both Polonius and Azmerai are thinking almost exactly the same thing as the big half-orc opens the damaged door;
Kaiya shouldn't see what I think is behind that door. No child should. But she has been so brave about her brother, I hope she can be brave for a little while longer.
But in case the worst does happen, his finger brush lightly over one of his alchemical concoctions.
Kaiya stays on the stairs, she is watching all of you with a studious gaze.
You wrench the spear out from across the door, it comes free with the grating sound of twisted, splintering wood. The door is barely on its hinges, slowly swinging open to reveal nothing but darkness beyond. The stench has increased tenfold.
Bringing some light to bear on the room reveals a charnel house, Azmerai hasn't seen anything like this since the time he watched a pack of wild dogs turn on one of their own. Polonius is able to stand the sight by retreating in to his scientific side, counting bones and vertebrae, noting the differences in skull size and shape amongst the shredded clothing, he estimates around a dozen humanoid bodies, or parts of them, are interred here. The rat swarm that came through last night gorged itself as it surged across the room, blood and viscera are everywhere, and the identities of the bodies thankfully impossible to determine.
Anyone stepping in to the room:
You can see, across the other side of the room, the entry point the rats must have come from. There is a small excavated hole in one corner, underneath one of the beams supporting the roof. It's about a foot in diameter, with fragments of dirty skin, rank hair and rat droppings around the area. You'd need to start actually squirming your way through to see any further or determine where it goes.
You notice a glint of metal underneath a tattered piece of what used to be a dark jacket. Closer inspection reveals an ornate prayer-book with intricate metal filigree. The decorative silver also serves as a locking mechanism, entwined around the spine and across the cover, it has a single groove where a stylus or narrow wand might reside. The holy symbol of Desna is emblazoned on the front. It remains the sole thing in this room of horror than is untouched by the gore.
As a quick look does not show any appearant danger, Azmerai walks to a bucket used before for human needs in the corner, takes out a scrap of cloth and pisses on it. Wringing it he binds it around his mouth and nose and so protected he walks into the room. Grabbing his trusted dagger he walks closer. He looks around and sighs. Many times loading in buckets to get it out. Many times!. He looks at polonius as if to ask.... what next? In that moment he notices the book. Wiping his hands he hands it over to the learned gnome.
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Lilith moves her dancing lights into the room, but as soon as the light reveals the contents she turns her head and retches. After some time and difficulty she manages to concur her disgust and survey the room from the entryway.
She sees the book that Axmerai has found and is glad he is retrieving it. She also spies the rat hole. And finally she concludes some things from her study of engineering and architecture.
You know, if we could clean all this up, we might be able access the basements of surrounding buildings front his basement. It looks as though this was a common basement for at least he stables, and maybe that Inn as well.
Thinking further she offers I think the remains could be burned in the forge if we could find fuel.
Shomari gags at the stench that pours out of the room, but is relieved that at least none of the bodies seem to be capable of reanimation.
"There is much we need to find," he says. "Food, fuel, the source of the fire that burned in this town last night. And what is behind the doors upstairs, as well."
Polonius instinctively takes a step back and covers his mouth at the sdden stench. But he quickly pulls himself together and pushes Kaiya up a few steps.
It's ok, it's ok. he says gently.
Taking the prayer book from Azmerai he flips through several of the remarkably untarnished pages and then turns back to the young girl;
Do you recognise this Kaiya, know the person it belonged to maybe?
Kaiya gives you the smallest of nods, then suggests in a quiet voice
It was the priest's. He carried it around all the time.
She looks a little unsure, then ventures
He was talking about it when the fever had him. I think he said he had lost the key when he was in the church. He was upset
She returns to staring at the wall until Shomari speaks about the door behind the counter. She looks up, bravely meeting his gaze for the first time
That's where my dad kept his special things. I will open it with my key if you want to have a look.
Her stomach grumbles, and she puts her arms over it to quiet it down.
{ooc]Prestidigitation is a good idea, but would not work as would just leave you with a shiny looking painted board. Acid splash would work, however you are burning paint off wood, so are still going to be releasing the toxic fumes as vapor. Plus it would be horribly mind-numbing, time-consuming work, maybe a 8 hours work to provide enough wood for one evening.[/ooc]
Azmerai nods and wants to speak, remembers the urin-soaked rag and unties it. He looks at Lenneth and Lilith very approvingly and says:"Good. Check two doors in house, check rat hole. We have a plan. I say secure house quick. Little steps! Today, Tomorrow! Not next week!"
Grabbing his halberd he walks to the door to the fathers room.
Turrey, I hate to keep asking... But could you share just another mouthful of your wandermeal? It's not for me, but the girl.
He nods his thanks and offers the morsel to Kaiya.
Here you go. It's all we have for now. But he still smiles as she gobbles it up.
Azmerai is right. If we don't organise we won't last long.
Lenneth is right. he says. Our immediate priority is shelter and safety, so we need to better know the layout of this place. Lillith and Azmerai can take Kaiya to her fathers room and check there. Lenneth and Turrey, you could look upstairs, I don't think that floor.is very big. he turns to the warriors. Shomari - I don't like the look of that hole in there at all and the door isn't much use any more. Can you keep an eye on it until we all come back? Maybe check in here for anything unspoiled? he takes a deep breath. I'll go through that hole. It's small anyway and with my ability to see in the dark I might not draw attention to myself if there's anything.... bad in there.
Our next priority is food and water. We could use these cellars to get from building to building and that seems the safest way bit we'd need to clean up the bodies as well - no one should be left like that and the risk of infection is far too great. he turns to Kaiya. But don't worry about your brother sweetheart, well make sure he is treated right.
We should think about setting up receptacles on the roof to catch rain water and even snares to catch birds but for now I think searching the nearby buildings is our best bet, we have desperately little food. Longer term, fishing and hunting are a great idea, especially if we can find a boat somewhere - as Lillith correctly pointed out, this village is on the sea.
That's just how I see it, guys. None of us know eachother very well but if we don't work together we're not going to last much longer. Does anyone have any other suggestions? If not, let's get started.
Shomari grunts and looks for a container of some sort to load rats and leftover corpses into. If there is something, he will start loading, while keeping an eye on the hole.
Kaiya brushes crumbs off her tunic and smiles very briefly at Polonius and Turrey, before leading Lilith and Azmerai upstairs to the ground floor. She does not appear concerned as she uses her key in the door behind the counter, then heaves with all her strength to pull the thick, heavy door open. Lilith's dancing lights fly in to the room and illuminate a small storeroom. It is well organized with labels on shelves and pegs on the walls. You conclude it must have been the area for special orders and maybe the safe for the cash the shop took. A search reveals the following: two cloaks, one set of cold weather clothing, two blankets, a kukri from under those blankets, three empty waterskins, a pile of parchment and stack of charcoal sticks, several sketches of wildlife (done by a young hand judging by the style), a pouch of 12 gp and finally, wrapped in a square of oilcloth lying forgotten in one corner, 6 wax candles.
Shomari is able to find an empty barrel by the forge which would suffice for the grisly task he's set himself, but a quick assessment reveals that not only would the forge not hold all the remains at once, but it would be difficult to light a fire in there if the bodies were already in place, at least without using some oil or other flammable help to start things off.
Lenneth finds the top floor as it was before, furniture all jumbled at one end, but plenty of space for everyone to sleep, and safer too with the lockable gate. A flicker of movement, a shadow flitting across the nearby window shutters, draws her attention. Leaving Turrey to assess the rest of the floor, she walks over and glances out, and can see puffs of dark smoke gusting past the window.
Polonius drops to the filthy floor and begins the frankly disgusting task of wriggling and squirming his way through the hole the rats had made. Gritting his teeth and forging onwards, he drags himself through the foul earth until the darkness in front of him reveals itself. He is in the corner of another cellar room, but can barely see the other side. There is junk in here absolutely everywhere. If there were a graveyard for discarded and forgotten wagons, traces, wheels and other assorted stagecoach and equestrian equipment, then this would be it. Spending a few moments to listen and look around, to the best of his assessment the cellar does not appear to have been used in a very long time by anything other than the accursed rats. Speaking of which, from here he can't see anywhere they might have gained entrance, he would have to leave the hole and search properly to determine any more about the area.
Polonius gags and retches at the unbelievable stench but manfully struggles through.
Well, this is the stables I guess... he whispers to himself.
He pulls himself out of the hole and stands up slowly, aware of every rustle of his clothing and the crack of his knees and starts to look around.
I shouldn't be here on my own... This is stupid...
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Shomari grunts and looks for a container of some sort to load rats and leftover corpses into. If there is something, he will start loading, while keeping an eye on the hole.
I could help your repurpose one of the book cases for a communal coffin of sorts after I check this room. There is a hammer and nails. And that would save the barrel for water. Lilith offers.
Azmerai looks at the little girl shyly and says:Little gurl, we can need those items. Is it ok if we take our to make better place to live.
He hands over the money to the little girl and wispers in her ear to hide it at a safe spot. Lots of gold, what food I would have bought. Fresh meat, roasted in the smiling dragon inn. Often I have stand behind it smelling the good roast. Now gold is just weight, useless weight!. Taking the kukri and hefting it in his hand and swinging it with a flicker of his strong wrist."Good steel. Your pops made it? Can I keep it for moment?"
His experienced eyes find the hiding hole and almost gently he opens it. After the unsuccesful try with the key he thinks of the little halfling.
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Looking through the small storeroom Lilith thinks This room is extremely secure. That alone could be useful. And there is a safe. If we can figure or reset the lock it could be useful down the road. Parchment! Lilith exclaims happily when she makes the discovery. That will be useful for scrolls!
She makes a report of what all is found offering the Kukri to whoever needs it. Its very sharp. And she asks Turrey to come and look at the save and generally check out the room in case they missed anything.
Polonius experiences a very unnerving atmosphere, it is very still down here, no noise, no air movememnt at all. It feels ancient and decayed, for a moment his mind panics at the lack of stimulus, and the bolt of fear from even contemplating the bleaching shocks hiim back to the present, where he starts to take in every details he can see around him. There is certainly quite a bit of untreated and unpainted wood you could scavenge here to burn, but you'd need an axe or similar tool to break it down so it can fit through the rat hole. Alternatively you could try to enlarge the hole which would make it safer to move through as well.
A thorough search shows another rat hole in the other wall, just as filthy as the other one. You can smell something very acrid coming through though.
Polonius groans as he realises he needs to squeeze back through the filth to get back to the shop cellar.
Lilith's assessment is correct, the shelves could easily be repurposed using the hammer and nails to server as temporary coffins/stretchers to move the bodies. The barrel is in a fairly bad state as has been used to store leather and metal scraps for the last few years, but nothing a good cast of mending couldn't solve.
Kaiya accepts the pouch from Azmerai, but looks uncertain as to what to do with it. Finally she puts it back on one of the shelves.
Mum said that if people look after you and talk to you nicely then they are ok. So if you are looking after me then I think my dad would be ok with you borrowing these things. As long as you look after them, I get told off if I don't look after things, you don't want to get told off, it makes you feel bad.
She looks sternly at Azmerai.
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Lilith will busy herself repairing the barrel and building the box to hold the human remains. She will first use Prestidigitation to clean up her side of the tunnel, but likely cannot reach farther than a few feet. After she will find a quite place (Maybe in the storage room) and begin to scribe a scroll. She need two hours to do so, but I do not believe it has to be continuous. If someone needs her she will gladly set down her work and help them.
Azmerai gently leads the girl down and then looks into the hole downstairs. Grabbing his spade he starts scraping the filth aside and slowly widening the hole.
Polonius hears the sudden scraping of metal behind him and his heart leaps into his mouth. After a second he realises it is Azmerai beginning to widen the hole he came through.
Azmerai, Shomari - there's a load of old equestrian equipment in here. None of it seems salvageable but it's dry enough to burn if we can break it up this side. There's another hole here as well, it must be where the rats came from. he calls through the narrow passage.
There's a lot of lantern oil flowing through it, as if there was a spillage in a nearby building. Listen, that fire in town could be a real problem for us, we are basically sitting on top of a potential inferno here with all this rubbish. I think I need to check it out but I'm wary of going any further alone. Ask Turrey if he can join me down here, please?
Lilith is able to help clean the tunnel with her magic, and as the tunnel is quite short, the spell removes the little horror completely.
Prestidigitation will not clean the charcoal as the simple spell doesn't consider the parchment 'soiled'. You would need stronger magic such as erase to re-purpose the parchment if it is already 'used'.
Indigo looks at Lenneth in a way that only a cat could, as if he has been waiting for that penny to drop for some time. "bad rat..rat fire..fire bad" he returns to licking his paw.
Azmerai widens the hole as planned, it should now fit a medium size humanoid, however without bracing it could be dangerous...Kaiya watches for a while, but loses interest quickly. Her brow furrows
Did you see where the priest's magic butterfly went? He made it float around his head!
It occurs to Polonius that there are no intact stairs up in this cellar to the floor above. Looking around he finds a doorway in the ceiling towards where the main part of the stables might be, and underneath lie the smashed remains of the wooden staircase, along with the heavy metal-framed wheel that fell from above to crush it. With a bit of climbing and a rope it would be possible to get up there.
azmerai, there is plenty of wood and metal here that you could use to brace that tunnel but i haven't got any tools.
He looks around one more time and says;
We can get up to the stable proper from here - there's a trapdoor. But the stairs have collapsed so we'd have to climb up. Does anyone have any rope? I'm already covered in filth so I'm going to push on through the other hole here, it might lead into the Inn. Tell Turrey to follow me.
In for a penny, in for a pound. he thinks as he squeezes through the other rat hole.
"I have"The barbarian opens his chest and takes out his rope and grappeling hook and finally his halberd and pushes it throught the hole so that the gnome can take it. Slowly wriggeling through the widened hole Azmerai reaches Polonius and the halfling.
Looking around he checks for wood and metal and slowly starts to gather some few choice items to slowly slide through to the other house. It takes some time, but with the help of his strength and the halberd he manages to get a few pieces. Together with Polonius and the halfling he gets the stuff to the other"Flint´n Steel in my chest" he says to the hobgoblin and Lillith. After a good hour of work he prepares to open the trapdoor together to explore the next building.
Polonius squirms through another few feet of scummy earth, getting himself and his clothes muddy and sticky in the process. He emerges to an odd scene, that this is an inn cellar there is no doubt, ale barrels lie stacked against the wall, with crates full of goodness knows what placed with them. On the other side of the room a space apears to have been cleared, and in it are laid around a dozen bodies, wrapped in cloth of varying colours, with paper prayer strips laid across their heads.
Azmerai has no problems moving to the stables side of the cellar and breaking down the old wood items there. After a couple of hours of labour there is a large pile sat near the forge which should last a few days. If he wants to reach up to the trapdoor above the broken staircase, he'll need a successful climb check, DC 14.
Listening to the gnomes whispers he urges him to open the crates and check the content. Dead Ones close, but still no stinky. Why? Magic? Looking around he checks for a piece of canvas to put items atop to drag it across the floor to their new home. Gladly seeing that Shomari is stabilizing their end of the tunnel he works even more to find items useful for their survival.