"Two below. I suppose there's a basement." Jon agrees.
"Basement," Petra says with a dismayed grunt. "Tight quarters. Can you, I don't know, magick the door open?"
Petra asks the question of Aurengil, or anyone else who casts magic. It's clear she has only a vague idea how such spells work, but aren't there thing-jigs (that's a technical term) to be able to make things float about the air and such?
"Give me a second and I'll go first."
Petra hesitates. "If you wish it. Be careful. We've seen once that gettin' you back on your feet takes us some doin', although Kyranda's aid helps, of course."
She adjusts her grip on her axe.
Jon concentrates. His eyes close. His tattoos glow gently with white light, and his skin darkens. The tattoos move as he murmurs a strange susurus of sibiliant syllables.
Carefully he enters the comforting darkness of the shack, crossbow at the ready.
While the party deliberates their course of action a few minutes pass and the conjured grease covering the floor just inside the door dissipates. Jon casts several arcane defensive enhancements of his own, and then enters the dimly lit shack.
The shack contains an old dirty armchair with a footstool resting at its base. A small wooden workbench is also situated against one wall. 4 yards of thick leather is spread out atop this workbench as well as a bar of soap (50 uses), two small sacks (holds 1 cubic ft./60lb each) and a tiny 2” tall glass vile fitted with a tight stopper and filled with a bright crimson liquid. Also amongst the trash littering the shack you find four fishing hooks and fishing net.
(Taking 20 to search the shack) A trapdoor on the floor in one corner of the room can be found. The trap door is secured with chain and padlock, no sounds can be heard coming from behind this door. (If you try to smash with weapon, auto hit but you need to roll damage… Hardness 10, hp 5.)
"Unless any of us can pick locks, I suggest you smash that open," says Aurengil, prophet of the obvious.
In the meantime, he sets to scavenging all the goods he can and shoving them in the sacks, then leaving the sacks just outside the door for easy pickup. Only the vial does he keep, placing it in his belt pouch for later inspection.
"Soap," Petra says wistfully. She makes sure to snag the bar of soap for her own pack.
"I can take a crack at bustin' it open," she adds on, although she's reluctant to blunt or chip her axe's sharp edge in such things. "Karmuk, your flail might do more injury to it."
She rummages in her pack-- she does have a flask of acid among her belongings, which she's also reluctant to use up, but if you've got to corrode the hell out of a lock, acid is handy.
"Ok, be ready. I'll try to break it. Only Abadar knows what freaks we face this time."
Karmuk puts his dagger away and hits the trap door with all of his strength.
Karmuk gives it a couple of more hits.
"Troll's arse!"
Karmuk's face is read from anger.
"It is very hard to break. Maybe we need to find the key."
Following the others into the structure, a fairly quick glance around the room leads to Deng simply trying to stay out of the way. After Karmuk takes a few swings at the lock, and then gives up in frustration, the half-orc sighs. "Anyone have a crowbar? Might be easier to pry the clasp up off of the door."
"I'll take a pop at it," Petra says, putting her shield to one side and gripping her axe with both hands. She has no crowbar with her, so merely shakes her head at that. She swings using the blunt end of the axe, trying to spare the sharpened edge from damage.
No luck. Petra sighs.
"Well, I can dump acid on it. But... if these undead are locked so gods-be-damned solidly down in the cellar... maybe it's safe to just leave 'em there."
Jon looks thoughtful. Then he goes over to the trapdoor and attempts to lever one of his stakes under the chain, then using the leverage it provides to pull.
"Or perhaps they guard something worth having," says Aurengil. "Surely it is worth some more time."
Option 2: with no RAW for acid breaking locks, I would house rule that using the vile of acid will reduce the locks hardness by 5, thus weakening the lock. So if the acid is used, lock hardness is reduced from 10, to 5.
Option 3: leave the lock and chain for now, and return when you are stronger or have better equipment
Petra's lips twist in wry acknowledgement of Aurengil's words. Ah, the lure of possible supplies. She shrugs and nods, and will put her shoulder to trying to aid Jon's attempt.
"Let's leave it for now, like Petra said, and return later, with better tools. Ok?"
Karmuk suggests, while helpin Jon at the same time.
Trying to get is weight behind helping pop the chain, Deng leans over and does his best to help/
Jon sighs and stops.
"I can see this isn't going to work. Let's think this through."
"The door was locked. That means the corpse in here locked it before dying. So either this corpse locked the padlock, or someone else locked it and left. Might be worth double checking the corpse, and the area outside - maybe it dropped it when it slipped."
Karmuk jumps with both feet on the trap foor.
"Cursed lousy hatch!"
The stubborn lock and chain resists the heroes repeated attempts to break the darn thing.
Those who stand around the trap door while Jon is searching the corpse
Jon searches the corpse outside and finds a tiny key that looks like it could fit the lock…
"Look, they are trying to get out."
Karmuk readies his flail, just in case they break the door.
Petra facepalms at Jon's suggestion. "You're right, of course. Clever-boots. Tho' I still want to know how the shack itself got locked from the outside.... bit harder for the fella to do that from in the room."
She frowns to herself, and looks at the dead man as Jon searches him and finds the key. Since the curse began, she's come to carefully not think about the undead they fight as anything but monsters. It's easier that way, than to remember they were once people with homes, lives, families.
Had he known he was dyin', this rotter? Had he locked some other deaders down in the basement to try and save himself, but then succumbed? Poor bastard. Dead now in all the ways that matter. She sighs.
She straps her shield back onto her forearm and nods at Karmuk's words.
"Alright. Good eyes spottin' the key, Jon. You want to unlock it, or want one of us to do it?"
Zandu scratches her head, clearly perplexed by the mystery of the locked doors. "Maybe the rotter didn't lock himself in this here shack, I dont see how he could of either. Maybe someone else locked the rotter in this here shack, and maybe the rotter locked that there chain on the trap door?"
"Whatever the cause o' this mystery, we've now got ourselves a decent chain and lock."
Zandu turns to Karmuk."Whats trying to get out? You smell another one?"
"There's at least two more down there. I can help here..." Jon glances at Deng "... or I can go look at the empty shack."
"Deng, someone... or something is push the trapdoor from below, not with great force though."
"And that is good idea. I can help."
Karmuk starts to clear some space with Deng.
Petra shakes her head at Jon's words. "No splittin' up. Just because you didn't sense dead in there doesn't mean there's not other threats. Just, uh.... stay back enough from Deng's..." Healy magic. She doesn't know the proper terms.
She does nod at Deng's suggestion to clear the room and give them space to work in, though. With Karmuk she will drag some things out of the way, so they can surround the trap door, or at least be in range to swing at whatever emerges from it.
This being a problem for warriors, Aurengil stays out of the way. He and his familiar Calithil keep watch to make sure the group is not surprised from the outside.
Jon nods to Petra and starts helping.
"Jon, you are not totally useless after all. Good thinking with that key, I mean. "
"I think we have enough room to fight. Could you Jon open the door if me, Petra and Deng try to surround the door? just in case something pops up"
Karmuk asks and readies his flail once again.
Obviously uneasy, Deng readies his sword and takes his place around the trapdoor, having to move when he realizes he stopped where the door should fall after opening.
Jon bristles at Karmuk's compliment
"Sure, I can open the door. Try not to hit me."
The key slides into the lock with ease and clicks as its freed, the chain falls away breaking the tension. Jon flips the lid like hatch upward, it stalls at the height of its ascent and hangs straight up for a moment undecided. Finally it falls backward with a bang.
10 feet of stairs leads down to a small room. In the middle of the stairs a putrid, feral looking corpse of a dog stands, a sickly feint light burns in its eyes as they stare malevolently up at you. Another cadaver corpse of a canine lurks at the bottom of the stairs.
Everyone roll initiative, if you roll 8 or higher post your action please.
Readies to attack the zombie dog as it tries to come up out of the cellar.
Petra must have woken up on the wrong side of the boat, this morning. She is slow to react.
Karmus casts disrupt undead.
Jon fires off a ray of positive energy at the undead hound, then jumps backward 5 feet. The ray flashes and hits the dog causing the creature to produce a brief but painful sounding whimper.
Karmuk fires off a similar ray of energy at the canine but the blast is slightly off target and it misses its mark.
The hound stalks up the stairs with unusual quickness for a rotter and enters the hatch. As the creature enters the hatch Deng swings his sword abut misses, the blade whooshes through the air.
The undead dog opens its filthy maw and snaps at Dengs ankle. The creature latches onto the Half-Orcs leg for second before releasing and rearing its head back to bite someone else in its way.
The other corpse of a hound staggers up the stairs behind its counterpart...
"Keep your cursed teeth of from my colleague!" Karmuk roars.
Aurengil sees things starting to get out of hand. He starts to wave his hands in a complex weaving gesture.
Petra is startled by the speed the hound erupts from the cellar with. Gritting her teeth, she swings with the axe.
Aurengil begins the process of casting an incantation, the elf targets Petra.
Meanwhile, the dwarven ranger slams her axe down upon the undead canines head with a thunk, killing it with a single blow.
Petra to be enlarged just before Aurengils turn for 1 minute-This increase changes the creature's size category to the next larger one. The target gains a +2 size bonus to Strength, a -2 size penalty to Dexterity (to a minimum of 1), and a -1 penalty on attack rolls and AC due to its increased size.
Focusing on the immediate problem, Deng waits and tries to hit the second "dog" climbing out of the cellar, when it gets far enough up to be reachable.
Jon readies himself to blast any appearing rotters.
He can't help but look at Deng Did it draw blood? Is this it for him? Is there any way Aurengil can get him 'the cure'?"
Shaking his head he concentrates on the business at hand.
Karmuk smashes the dog with overhand swing.
The second undead canine crouches low and stalks over its fallen counterpart. As the dead feral dog comes up out of the hatch Deng stabs it, his blade pierces the creatures back like a needle. Karmuk then pummels the creature with his flail driving its head down upon the steps of the stairs; its body follows where it remains still.
Aurengils incantation takes affect. Within the span of a few seconds Petras body, armor and axe morph in size and the dwarf grows to tower over Deng, Karmuk, Jon and the trap door hatch. Just as Petras head is about to touch the ceiling the growth stops, yet she remains very tall, very large.