Kirian follows from behind. He's fascinated taking in the room, and kneels down to listen against the door marked 'DANGER.'
Habbi turns to face the door that is not barred, "Hey, you think this was that guy's party? Maybe he got double-crossed by them, or something... Anyway, Peren, shall we check that door first?"
Peren nods as he was making his way across the room to the door without the sign. He checks to see if it is locked or trapped in any way, before he even touches it.
Perception:
Kirian walks quietly around the room, studying everything he can, using his quarterstaff and mage hand as needed to avoid physical contact with anything.
Kirian keeps exploring the room, also checking for other hidden doors or anything of note.
Carric listens at the door not barred and doesn't hear a sound.
Peren checks the door for traps and doesn't see any.
Kirian begins searching the main room and discovers the contents of the room are mostly innocuous. The jug and small broached cask contain cheap ale, the large cask water. The side of meat is salted mutton. The unbroached casks both contain brandy (value 50 GP each) and the bolt is of fine silk (value 100 GP). The lockers, all unlocked, contain only clothing and small personal effects of no value, beyond indicating that all the residents of this room are male and probably human. The stove is cool and unlit. The wooden bin contains a considerable food supply -- black bread, dried beans, flour, dried fruit, animal fats, salt and a small amount of honey.
A barracks of sort?
Rolen continues his vigil as others poke around...
"Peren, any luck with the door?"
"Whatever's behind the door marked "danger" must be bad if these people are afraid of it."
"Then again, maybe it's a deterrent and they hide their treasure in it."
Carric moves over near Peren.
Shall we? Over here, Rolen. Let's see what is behind here.
"Perhaps we should check the unbarred door first, just to make sure that we do not have another possible ambush," Habbi mentions off-handedly.
He then lifts his shield and mace, ready to live with the group's decision.
Well...yes, Habbi, the unbarred door is where we are headed.
For now, because it doesn't actually matter, Peren opens the door to reveal...This small room is clearly the quarters of a person senior to those who live in the 'barracks' main room, since the furnishing is less crude and the place is clean and tidy, as if cared for by a servant. There is a comfortable-looking bed in the northwest corner with a wooden locker at its foot. A small wooden table stands against the east wall, and beside it is a padded leather chair. On the table is a brass 9-branch candlestick and in it burn 3 candles, giving the room good illumination. The candles, though not fresh, are far from spent. Under the table is a small wooden box and a bullseye lantern with a moveable shutter over the lens; the lantern is unlit. On a shelf above the table are stacked three books. In the northeast corner is a wooden cupboard with the door closed.
"Guys, I found a secret door over here..."
"Guys?"
Muttering, "...we'll come back to it."
Kirian joins the others in the newly found quarters.
Peren enters the room and searches the locker, then goes to the cupboard, and finally examines the small wooden box under the table.
Perception:
Perception:
Perception:
Carric covers the actions of Peren from the doorway where he has a vantage over both rooms.
Kirian has a look at the books on the shelf and then searches under the bed, chair and table.
When Habbi has confirmation that there is no immediate threat, the cleric goes around trying to make sure that the rot grub infestation has not extended into this room.
Peren searches the locker
and then the Cupboard
and then the wooden box
parchment
Kirian takes a look at the books, his background lends him some info on them.
The books are:
1. a volume of erotic poetry, fully illustrated;
2. a naval almanac listing tide times for the area of coast containing Saltmarsh (a total of 100 miles of coastline is covered);
3.A learned volume concerning mesmerism and its effects. Inside this book is a sheet of parchment carrying some simple words and phrases in the common tongue and their equivalents in what Kirian recognizes as the gnoll language even though he doesn't speak the language. The first two books can be sold locally for 10 GP each. The third item is more specialized, it will sell for up to 20 GP but customers are most unlikely to be found in Saltmarsh or any other small town. The sheet of parchment has no monetary value, though it is a curiosity.
Kirian searches the desk and finds a hidden compartment!
First level: color spray, hypnotism, detect illusion, wall of fog
Second level: invisibility, magic mouth
Habbi discovers that rot grubs can only live inside a corpse or living host.
Habbi comes back and says, "Do you guys want to clear out the surroundings, then shore this area up as a "home base" of sorts? It seems fairly clear that this place hasn't been used in some time. I think that the guy outside might even have been a "Ratcatcher", you know, an adventurer who fell prey to the rot grubs."
EDIT: Noticing the others coming out with armloads of stuff, Habbi cranes his neck, "What'd you find?"
Kirian studies the spell book, and looks up at Habbi with great concern,
To Habbi, "We can't stay here. We're in danger as long as we do. This place has been lived in recently. Too recently."
Kirian lays the books and other items on the floor and paces around very quickly, thinking out loud.
Holding up up the spell book, "Whoever this individual is, they're a Wizard, and not a novice. Probably an Illusionist, judging from the spells in here. They know how to turn invisible, and they're probably good at hypnosis if this other book is any indicator. Definitely very dangerous."
He continues, looking at the poetry book, "Also a bit of a pervert, but I don't judge..."
Holding up the parchment, "This sheet has basic words in what looks like Gnoll, so this Wizard is likely working with or enslaving them. Maybe that's what the hypnosis is for?"
"Naval almanac... Lantern with a shutter... Abandoned house overlooking the sea... At least 11 people living down here under it... Silk bolt... Fresh fine foods..."
"Recent tracks through an open front door... The bugs... Ned... The grub-infested corpse... Hidden doors..."
"So the townsfolk think the house is abandoned and run down, possibly haunted, and they stay away. Meanwhile, an Illusionist, 10 other people, and possibly Gnolls are hidden away down here, under this house by the sea. And they want to stay hidden. Something to do with ships and tides. Criminals? Pirates? Smugglers, perhaps?"
"Either they're tied to the Lizard-folk, or there's other shady activity in this town."
Habbi frowns, "Is this enough information to bring back to the Sheriff? Do we need any more proof? Whoever they are, they are likely to know we were here."
The big cleric turns to the others, "What do you think?"
Kirian, slightly resigned, "Believe me, I'd love nothing more than to sleep off this illness right now. But unless squatting in abandoned houses is seriously illegal in these parts, we don't have enough real evidence yet."
"I say we keep exploring."
Kirian loads the books into his backpack.
Muttering to himself, "If it turns out they're running a soup kitchen for the poor down here, I'll happily return these and apologize."
Habbi nods and looks at the others...
Peren, having shown what he found to the others, nods in agreement with Kirian.
"I think you are correct. We need to learn more about what is going on here...as much as I too would rather leave this place, we have a duty and we should see this through!"
Aye, let us push on, then. It is as I feared. Something is certainly afoot down here, and the weapons now have a source.
Kirian goes up against the door marked "Danger" and listens carefully.
"I don't think this is the group's exit. It's barred from this side. But there's something on the other side they're afraid of, which means perhaps we can use it to our advantage."
"Or it might just be a monster that will kill us all if we open the door. You never know for sure."
"A security system of sorts? To deal with curious interlopers? Makes sense," Habbi nods.
Rolen grunts, Only if they think that all interlopers would open the door marked "danger". Otherwise it strikes me as a poor deterrent. Unless we intend to wait here for whomever it is to return I don't see how we use this against them....I am also weary of using all our resources to kill something behind the door only to then have to fight off a returning wizard.
Rolen knows this was the sort of attitude that made him few friends but the warrior could only shrug at himself mentally. He was a pessimist.
Habbi looks at Rolen and adds with a smile, "Well, we considered the possibility that they may be hiding treasure behind there..."
Rolen grunts again, True but is it worth the risk? MAybe we should work to create an ambush of some sort.
"Who knows how long we could be waiting? Do we want to check out this barred door, or look behind the secret door over there? We also got those stairs that lead to nothing over there..."
"I have to admit, I'm very curious of what's behind the barred door . If the legends of this Alchemist are true, it may have been something he left behind. We still haven't found anything about him other than the books from upstairs."
"But the secret door will probably lead us to something more with these men."
"We can always come back and search the door once we have made sure there are no further threats awaiting us. What was that about a secret door Kirian?"
Peren moves over to where the wizard is standing and examines the area he says contains the hidden door.
Perception:
Rolen nods after Peren and follows the halfling to cover him as he opens the door. The dour elf seems to be taking a liking to at least the work ethic of the rogue, made evidence by his minimal grousing and his subtle assurances of readiness as the halfling goes to work...
Carric moves quickly to the secret door with his long-time companion and Peren. He nods as he draws an arrow to his bow.
Kirian slowly and quietly opens the secret door.
Habbi readies in case of attack and shines his holy light into the door to give his sharp-eyed companions a better look.
Kirian opens the secret door and looks down a set of rough hewn stairs carved into the bedrock and leading down about 20 feet into a natural cavern.
Kirian leans ahead a bit to let his darkvision kick in.
To the others, he whispers, "This is starting to make much more sense now. This must lead to the waterfront."
"Shall we?"
Habbi cranes his neck to see into the door.
Peren silently creeps down the stairs.
Stealth:
Carric follows, bringing up the rear, with his bow drawn.
Kirian asks the others if they are ready, Peren creeps down the stairs, Habbi leans in and sees that there are torches at the bottom of the stairs giving some small measure of light.
Peren walks down the steps carefully with not much sound. However, when he gets to the bottom of the steps he hears the thwack of crossbow bolts.
+2 one of the heavy bolts strikes Peren for
Round 1
Peren
Carric
Habbi
Rolen
Thugs
Kirian
Habbi casts bless on Peren, Carric, and Rolen.
"We can do this, guys!" Habbi calls out.
Carric moves to the bottom of the stairs, sets his Hunters Mark on the green guy, and fires away.