"Whoever put this together seems to have had plenty of room to create dead-ends. That, or there are a brevy of hidden doors we just can't find."
Hoping the door is as untrapped as it appears, Zordlon tentatively opens it.
Zordlon finds that this door opens into the hallway rather like the others you have encountered to this point, pulling towards him rather than pushing into the room beyond.
As the dim light at the edge of the radius spills into the room, you see more sacks lining the walls, spilling with spoiled foodstuffs and again covered in the black mold and small mushrooms. In the three corners away from the door you stand at barrels are stacked, apparently hurriedly and without care as they sit at poor angles one upon the other.
Inspecting the ceilings and the walls, the room appears to be empty of any of those creatures you had encountered earlier.
"Wait a moment," requested Sayarisha, "Let me provide you each with a moment of arcane assistance and resistance before anyone enters that room."
With a smile, she stepped forward and cast Guidance and Resistance on Zordlon, Taanimohka, Unbeugsam, then finally Dornhold.
"If you wish, I can cast these spells of assistance on you before entry into or investigation of any new rooms in the future." she offered
Zurne peers at the mushrooms. "Black mold, that's one thing, but these mushrooms could prove useful."
Taanimohka stares as Sayarisha casts her spells. Her eyes linger on the magic.
"My thanks Sayarisha - we will survive if we support one another like this."
Turning her attention to the room newly opened Taanimohka wonders aloud.
"Yes, a providence for us - but to what purpose has this food been left here, and then to rot? My understanding was that this place has been recently opened, yes, but these look to have been stored here for some time? Was this place a living citadel - with creatures guarding and dwelling herein? How were they supplied, and by who?"
"Or perhaps our Orcish 'friends' once had much more numbers, and mindlessly drove inside, and whatever they found they could not retreat from"
Zordlon looks around the room for any magical signatures, before confiming "It was fire that killed this mold? It would not be safe to search the bags without putting them to the torch first"
Zurne: The mushrooms appear to be of a normal variety, edible and probably harmless. If you were able to successfully harvest and cleanse them of black mold you imagine you could supplement your food rations by about 5 days.
With your knowledge of black mold though you know that it would be extremely difficult to harvest the mushrooms without exposing yourself to black mold spores.
Based on the extent of the mold and fungus corruption you would imagine that these supplies were placed here about 2-3 weeks ago, and the black mold likely already existed in the space. The addition of foodstuffs allowed the black mold to thrive, exploding in density where it was likely just a small patch in a corner before.
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Zordlon - Scanning the room with your arcane sight you see a singular small magical aura in the far northwest corner. Cautiously getting closer, you are able to see a golden ring lost on the ground behind a jumble of barrels and crates. It emanates a faint aura of magic, but not being versed in arcane knowledge you cannot say more about what its magical function may be.
The ring is far enough back in the jumble that it is out of easy arm reach. You are uncertain if you could get to it without sending the entire stack toppling.
"Maybe between those cloak monsters from before and then having to watch their food become overcome by the black mold, that's what broke those poor orcs." Sayarisha paused, looking thoughtful before continuing,
"Taanimohka, this place was likely originally a prison and that we know dark forces have been sending resources to uncover whatever had been imprisoned here before. Those orcs could have been part of an earlier group sent in weeks ago. We've seen how dangerous the traps are here, I can imagine that those alone would have decimated any group without skilled members."
She paused to smile at the elven monk, "Also, we are all working towards the same goal, it only makes sense to do the best for all of us."
"So where do we go from here?" Byung-He remains where he is looking at the crude map thinking.
Sayarisha turns to Zurne, speaking in Varisian
Taanimohka smiles back, with a small nod. Unsure of a direct action to take in the group Taani stands alert, grateful for a few moments of peace and reflection.
Not really happy with such a small deadly foe Unbeugsam takes a double step back to keep a safe distance.
"We need to keep moving...there is little to be gained here. There are some doors yet unexplored past the orcs. We could go look over there and see what useful things might be that way." Byung-He seemed eager to move on he glanced around nervously knowing there was little he could do with these spores without more knowledge and equipment.
Zurne snaps his fingers. "Byung-He. Spoilage is often from mold and other things we cannot see. I do wonder if a purifying spell would remove the black mold and allow us to take food, should we need it."
Sayarisha waits a moment before commenting, "Unfortunately such a spell is currently beyond my ability."
Zurne stands as far away from the moldy sacks as he can , and utters words under his breath in some unknown tongue.
With a wave of his hand and a spark of purple energy, you all watch as Zurne causes a small patch of the black mold to wilt, turn grey, and then crumble to dust. Where the mold used to be you can see a 1' x 1' square of canvas sack. There is a rip in the canvas and peeking out from the inside you can see unadulterated foodstuffs. It appears this bag contains some kind of cut oats.
"That was a good choice. Especially as we do not have that much food!"
"I do possess a spell that lets one consume a feast of food in their sleep and it will sustain them for a full day...in an emergency."
"Well, that is our good fortune indeed. As a side, there appears to be a magical ring tucked behind these bags. Once we've cleared a path to it, could someone with more magical knowledge identify what it can do?"
Sayarisha watched with interest as Zurne cast his spell
"Well done, a few more of those and we'll be able to salvage a feast I think."she smiled at Zurne
"Between all of our abilities, let us hope we can avoid such an emergency friend Byung-He. But thank you for letting us know that you have such available should we need it."
"When the way is clear, I'd be happy to pit my knowledge of things arcane against this ring you've found, Zordlon."
"Just watch my back. Also, does anyone have chalk or another writing implement? I suggest that we write 'POISON' in Taldane and Orcish on these bags," says Zurne. He smiles a little ruefully and shrugs. "Nature is competitive," he says by way of explanation.
He then proceeds to slowly and carefully zap away the black mold.
He nods to Sayarisha, with a grin.
"Little strokes fell great oaks."
After the area is free from black mold, Sayarisha puts on a pair of gloves before picking up the ring to make what determinations from it she can.
She casts Guidance and Resistance on herself then Detect Magic on the ring itself.
While under the effects of her magic, she approaches the ring to study it.
[Knowledge Arcane]1d20 + 9 - 16
[Spellcraft]1d20 + 9 + 1 - 23
Sayarisha reaches in and just has her hand closes on the ring there is a creaking sound. Her shoulder is pressing against the lowest barrel without her noticing, causing the entire pile to become unstable.
Sayarisha attempts to stabilize the pile, but is unable to avoid two crates falling onto the bags of grain and veg below. Fortunately, the black mold has already been erradicated. She is fortunately able to scury out of the way to avoid a barrel falling onto her head.
One crate bursts open, revealing lengths of hempen rope. The barrel that was meant for Sayarisha cracks and a clear liquid begins to leak out. The room is immediately suffused with the smell of vinegar.
Crisis averted, Sayarisha examines the gold ring. She finds it is warm to the touch with draconic runes inscribed on the inside.
"...Pickles? Old wine? Or something worse?" says Zurne. "And that is a rather nice find."
"Well at least the floor will be cleaner now. Good eye spotting that ring, I am sure it will be handy in some circumstances." Byung-He waits for them to be ready to move onward.
"Unless someone else wishes to, I will wear the ring until we decide that it would benefit someone else among us more." she said with a warm smile, looking to the others.
"Let us inspect the rest of this food that Zurne has saved for us and see what we have before we move on."
Zurne takes a look at the two crates.
"Zordlon may find it useful, Sayarisha," says Zurne mildly, as he pokes the crates carefully.
Looking through the barrels and crates first the group finds 3 barrels of vinegar (one of which is cracked and leaking), 1 barrel of lamp oil, and 5 barrels of clean water. The crates contain all manner of mining tools and weaponry. The quality of the tools are not the best, and you can already see flakes of rust beginning to form from exposure to the damp air.
The ropes that had fallen from the first broken crate are joined by 9 more lengths of hemp rope, totaling 500 feet.
On closer inspection the rope appears to have been weakened by the damp air. It is still viable, but you are not confident that it would still hold as much as it was originally able to.
Amoung the food bags you find a wide variety of dried and preserved meats, fruits, and vegetables.
You ultimately find enough food stuffs to make up about 64 trail rations worth. It is not as densely packed as most trail rations though, and so the food stuffs probably weigh around 300 lbs in total.
"Well, we shouldn't leave these around for the next batch of orcs that might wander in. If someone could give me a hand?"
Zordlon takes the time to start breaking up the materials into a load that can be carried by our pack mules.
"I think we leave about half here with discouraging words as a reserve supply, and take the other half with us, divided between the two donkeys."she says as she starts to assist Zordlon in loading food onto the donkeys.
Taanimohka mods as Zurne speaks on the ring.
"As our stealth scout I would think Zordlon should take the ring when engaged in such activities,"
Thinking further Taani continues.
"However, as our least armored...or martially capable member, your continued survival Sayarisha, might be assured by possession of the ring."
As to the food and found equipment, Taanimohka is obviously incredibly impressed.
"Our continued survival, perhaps over many days or weeks can be assured by this pile. We might use this room as our base, should the complex prove extensive or require much time..."
"So...do we now continue or set up camp here? I would like to see if beyond those orcs we might find more such discoveries."
"I have experience with such rings before, and do not believe the 12 seconds of invisibility would make a large difference in my ability to scout. If we find a true ring of invisibility, that's a different story.
I believe we are currently still well prepared to continue, unless someone has concerns, let's check in again on the orcs."
"I hope that we can bring enough optimism so that they believe they can survive but not so much that they either attack us or find our storehouse of supplies." she says as they begin to head back.
"We should just ignore them," says Zurne. "They don't want interactions, just death. To be quite honest, I am surprised they haven't chosen to end their own lives. Perhaps it is some sort of warrior code." He walks carefully down the halls, retracing their paths, weapon in hand.
The elf-maid makes a dismissive gesture with a langurous hand.
"I am inclined to agree with Zurne. The orcs wish to die. We wish to live, and to achieve a great purpose. Ours is the true path, and we must not let them keep us from our path..."
Unbeugsam spits out a glob of phlegmen before replying. "We are not here to keep pigs alive!"
Sayarisha pauses to look over the individual members of the party. She addresses them with humility "It would seem that we are in slight disagreement about possibly going back to revisit the orcs. I do understand that they could be a problem should they choose to be so, yet there is something within me that has looked upon their condition and been moved to mercy. I would hope that if I were in their place, some of you might be moved to extend mercy and kindness yourselves."
She turns to Unbeugsam, "No matter how much you might dislike them, my dwarf friend, I must point out that they are not pigs. If they were pigs some of us might be inclined to eat them."
Looking to the elven rogue she askes, "Zordlon, what reason do you wish to revisit those lost and broken people?"
"Ah, perhaps I did not speak as clear as I should have. From what I can tell, we have cleared a dead end. The only path I believe we have is in their direction. I did not mean to imply that we waste further time with them."
Taani nods as Zordlon clarifies.
"Sayarisha - I was wholeheartedly desirous to help them - in earnest, even resorted to magicks to understand their tongue. [here indicates Byung He] Byung He offered succour - everything we offered they negated with despondent words. I would hope that I...you...were never in a position where we would reject implicitly offered aid. They seem contnet to waste away, and we will only diminish our own efforts if we tarry with them"
Sayarisha sighs, looking slightly deflated after hearing the words of both Zordlon and Taanimokh, "I see that I was wrong. I also understand that my efforts might well be wasted and delay our quest. Very well then I will relent to the will of the majority. Let us continue on in harmony."
As the conversation comes to a close, the party exits back out into the main antechamber where they first met the rage of orcs to find that perhaps the orcs' final wish had been granted. Where they had sat but 30 minutes ago is now awash with dark red blood, smeared in an apparent struggle. One of the malignant ceiling clinging creatures encountered earlier lies dead on the ground, a huge gash mark from an axe cleaving through a majority of its body, but there is no sign of the orcs. There are however drag marks in the blood leading further into the unexplored regions of the dungeon.
3 axes lay discarded here amoungst the remains of the sortie.
Byung-He seems relieved they are moving again but horrified by the carnage where the orcs once lay. "Well it seems like they went the way we are going so we should keep an eye out for them."
"Yes. We should be ready for anything, I do not believe the smaller monsters could have carried off so many bodies."
Zordlon takes a moment to check and see if there is any sign of what could have dragged off the orcs.
"This delays our philosophical discussion of the value of orcish lives, for the moment," says the druid. He peers at the obvious blood trail to see who was doing what and how quickly.
There are no foot or claw marks on the ground near the blood and drag marks, which further reinforces your confidence that the Darkmantles or some other flying or levatating creature was responsible for the orcish deaths. Like Zordlon, you are surprised that such small creatures could manage to drag off such large prey. But, you both know first hand how muscular those tentacles are. Perhaps if multiple worked in concert, or if there was one larger than those you had heretofore encountered, that would explain how it managed to drag way the orcs.
You do notice an irregularity in the drag marks that suggest that one or more of the orcs was alive and still struggling, although feebly, while being dragged off.
In your investigation you follow the drag marks down the corridor, revealing more of the far wall, and finding the doors that you expected from the map. The southern door is ajar and the blood trail leads to it before thinning to the point where it can no longer be followed.
Dornhold follows quietly behind you to ensure you do not get yourself into trouble without someone nearby to help.