Harold points at the fireplace as they explore the room, "Kind ov strange what trolls would be keepin' a fire li' in 'ere. Thought their kind was not an' all friendly wiv open flames. Which begs da quesshun, who else is 'ome?" The half-orc glances up the stairs as he tunes his senses into every sight, smell, and sound that mansion has to offer.
Alpy shakes his head, "No, never see trolls before. Not know why here."
This portrait shows the Count as a deeply curious man, surrounded by a museum full of strange and unique objects.
As Bjorn moves toward the staircase, a strange rapid clattering echoes off the hard surfaces from the room above.
"Yea, what is that?"
Maintaining position behind the group, Andrezi follows. "We'll find out soon enough, I suppose.."
Bjorn moves up the stairs slowly into the darkened upper level. The hallway at the top of the stairs runs about thirty feet to the west, and five feet to the east. There are two doors off the hallway to the west, and two to the east.
The door farthest down the hallway to the west hangs open. All other doors are closed.
Bjorn approaches the door at the far end of the hallway. The silence has become oppressive, and it seems as if somebody, or something, is just waiting...
As the ulfen man reaches a hand forward to open the door, the clatter of wooden legs echoes from inside the room as a small floral-patterned ottoman leaps out of the darkness and rams Bjorn in the right shin. The little stool rebounds backwards from the impact and lands on its back. With a strange whine, the ottoman's tiny wooden legs flail around as it vainly tries to right itself.
"Congrats you just beat up furniture."
Korvus moves up behind Bjorn, adjusting the pince-nez perched on his nose as he gives the moving ottoman a quizzical look. The wizard casts a spell to discern magical auras and studies the piece of furniture in an attempt to determine source of its mobility.
You detect an aura of transmutation magic on the stool.
The little stool gets very still as Bjorn turns it over. After standing on its legs for a few seconds, it slowly takes a step, then another. After moving freely for a few steps, it begins to move around your legs, nuzzling up against some, while bumping up against others.
When it gets to Alpy, however, the little ottoman begins to excitedly run around his legs, jumping a few inches off the ground, and putting its "front" legs up into the air to move around. Alpy looks at the rest of the group in confusion. "What it want with Alpy?"
Alpy shakes his head, "No, nothing like this. Was just me and father."
As he searches the room, Korvus pauses to gently pat the friendly ottoman, much as one would a friendly dog. "Perhaps your father created this to serve as a devoted pet for both himself and you," Korvus replies to Alpy. "It certainly seems to like you."
"It's adorable, it just wants to follow you around Alpy."
Despite searching the rooms, you discover nothing out of the ordinary, or even remotely interesting.
Moving back down into the entry foyer, three more doors are closed, but they appear to be unlocked. The animated ottoman follows Alpy around like a devoted puppy, though it appears the golem remains unsure (and a bit nervous) about his new companion.
Harold shakes his head at the little 'dog' ottoman, "And 'ere I thought I'd just abaaaht seen everything. Livin' furnature. The next fn' yew know aaahr clothes'll jump off aaahr backs an' wash 'emselves." The half-orc takes up the rear of the group, keeping his ears and eyes tuned in ready in case of something wanting to creep up behind them.
Lucius is just reminded of the time Harold stripped down and dove into the pool and shudders.
"Strip down and.. wash your clothes? Why would you do that? I.. haven't needed to do that in years.. magic suffices for me. Except for when I was forcibly stripped down when you found me, I haven't taken my clothes off for anything. I think I would prefer if mine did NOT.. jump off my back."
Andrezi, now curious about the animated furniture, decides to examine them with Detect Magic, curious as to what exactly animates them - in case whatever animates them decides to animate the clothes off his back.
_____________________________
The door leads into a well-stocked wine cellar, complete with a magical system to regulate the temperature and humidity. Other doors lead out of this room that end in a kitchen in one direction, and more storerooms in another. The food in storage is not very old, though judging by the light dust covering everything, nothing has been disturbed in these rooms for several weeks. You also find the doorway that led from the entry chamber to the northeast.
During your searches, you realize that many of the spices in the kitchen are from the far off land of Tian. These would fetch several hundred gold pieces if they were sold in Lepidstadt.
Another doorway leads to the east, and you enter to find many of these doors ajar, including several cleverly hidden doorways that you might have had trouble finding if they were not already open.
Lucius will raid the storeroom for food. He couldn't remember the last time he'd had anything to eat. He starts looking for ingredients to make himself a sandwich while the others are looking elsewhere.
Though curious about the animated furnature, Andrezi feels that it is best not to leave himself alone with such things, in case they inadvertently became hostile. As a result, he decided to cautiously check out the Library, keeping an eye out for anything suspicious before relaxing and checking out what books, if any, are there.
Harold inhales deeply as he scents the smoking room as they pass it. The half-orc seems to calm visibly with the odor and migrates in that direction.
Lucius finds many staples in the store rooms, the most magnificent of which is a huge slab of salted pork. Several loaves of bread are available, though most have the first signs of mold on them. A few quick slices with a knife solves that problem nicely.
Bjorn enters the trophy room but is slightly disappointed in the actual animals on display. A variety of deer and small cats are posed throughout the room as if they had been transplanted from their natural habitats. The only trophy of any interest is a large gray wolf that is mounted as if emerging from behind a granite formation.
Andrezi finds a library with shelves along the walls and books lined up, stacked, and crammed into every possible open space. There are several piles of books near the shelves several feet high surrounding an old and well-used leather chair. As he examines the books...
Harold discovers his own personal version of the afterlife. The sweet aroma of tobacco and other smoking materials draw him around the room in wide-eyed wonder. There are jars with magical seals holding exotic tobacco mixes just as fresh as the day they were stored. There are also plenty of materials for rolling just about any size of cigar one might want. Of particular interest is a churchwarden pipe with a delicately-engraved gold toothguard.
-----
The billiards room contains an exquisite table, but nothing of great interest.
The dining room holds a table large enough to comfortably seat twelve adults.
In the northwest corner of the room, a open door leads to a narrow hallway with a door that appears to lead back outside. As you examine the door, you can tell it was made to be concealed as part of the wall.
Korvus wanders about the various rooms as his companions examine the chambers that hold their interest.
"That's odd," the wizard mutters aloud from the dining room, "There is a significant amount of dust on the chairs and the floor near their legs. The rest of the room appears to have been cleaned recently, but it's clear that the table and chairs have gone unused for many months. Why would someone have gone to the trouble to clean the room but leave the table and chairs covered in dust?"
"I haven't the foggiest idea," Korvus replies with a perplexed shrug. "An animated mop or broom to clean the floor, perhaps?"
Harold reluctantly leaves the smoking room, rejoining the others as they make their way deeper into the mansion. The half-orc turns to Alphy as they walk, "I wonder if yaaahr farfer would be willin' ter part wiv some ov those jars ov leaf once we've found 'im. He 'as an exquisite collecshun."
Moving out of this part of the manor, a rear door leads to a 3-foot wide stone walkway leading across the river to another building. Unlike the manor house, the western wall of the building on the other side of the river has partially collapsed.
This large workshop is crammed with alchemical equipment, but an explosion of some kind has ripped away the western wall, leaving a large gap in the floor and wall open, now wreathed with scaffolding. It looks as if a stone bridge once connected this building with another on the far side of the gorge, but only a slender rope bridge now hangs between the two.
The building on the far side is a two-story tower with several stained glass windows.
Lucius takes his time and tip toes across the bridge.
As Lucius hits the center of the bridge, a loud ringing bell erupts and echoes off the nearby rock walls.
Somewhere ahead of you, what sounds like the roar of a creature sounds out in response.
"Yea, I don't like the sound of that. Sounded like an alarm spell" Lucius creeps back over.
"Lucius speaks the truth - was indeed an Alarm spell. Whoever is here is warned of our presence. Be prepared."
Andrezi, not particularly interested in walking across the rope bridge, decides to float over it instead - calling on his Flight hex to do so.
Several minutes pass and nothing unusual or threatening appears.
Peering through the double doors, you see a room crammed with cabinets full of weird, alchemically preserved creatures, including a pair of ice
mephit wings, several large spiders, parts of a dissected giant slug, and the digestive tracts and proboscises of three stirges.
There are three other doors exiting this room (N, W, S).
Korvus follows Bjorn carefully across the bridge. The wizard studies the various preserved creatures with interest as the Ulfen warrior investigates the northern door.