"Belros, I seem to have found 2 potions - can you identify them?" Grace asks, handing them over to him.
"Certainly, Grace."
Belros takes the potions and focuses upon them.
The potions indeed seem to be magical. Belros thinks that they are designed to immediately cure any natural disease.
"Cures for diseases. At least ones of natural origin. A great find, Grace. Who wishes to hold onto them?"
"Father Wolfram would make the most sense, wouldn't it?"
"I have no objection to that. Father?"
"Are we ready to resume our search and clear of the basement?"
"Indeed," says Wolfram, accepting the potions. "We shall make judicious use of these."
"As long as you're ready to de-spookify it," Allysen jokes, apparently feeling better after her emotional outburst and taking out some frustration on the stirges.
With your new companion in tow, you make your way back to the entrance hall and from there to the side room that contains the secret entrance to the basement.
After checking your gear, you descend the wet, spiraling staircase into the darkness. It continues until you think you are about 15 feet underground, emerging in a large room which is so unlike anything else you have seen in the House that for a moment you pause, somewhat taken aback. The illumination here is good since several lighted torches are held in shoulder-high brackets around the walls. This was obviously a cellar, but equally obviously it is now used for an entirely different purpose; your first impression is that it is the living quarters for about ten people.
Ten single beds (crude affairs - little more than thin mattresses on boards) stand with heads to the south wall, each with a small wooden locker at its foot. In the centre of the flagged floor is a long wooden trestle table on which there is a variety of cheap metal cutlery and earthenware crockery together with a large jug about half full of a light brown liquid. There are a dozen wooden stools round the table. Against the north wall are two casks, one larger than the other and both broached. The larger one is nearly full of a clear liquid, the smaller one about half full of a light brown liquid. A metal dipper hangs on the outside of the rim of the larger cask.
Next to the casks is a large wooden bin. Above it, hanging on hooks on the wall, are a large ham, a long string of sausages and a small side of meat. Next to the bin is what appears to be a crude, metal wood-fired stove standing in a fireplace. Above the stove, on a shelf, are some iron and earthenware cooking utensils, while next to it is a small pile of logs.
Near the foot of the stairs are two small, unbroached casks; next to them is a bolt of cloth.
The room has two obvious exits, both in the southeastern corner.
"The fools have arrived," Wolfram announces. "Ready for our dinners, umm err, deaths." The Reverend seems almost mirthful in the face of such overblown dramatics. "Come out, come out, wherever you are..."
He twists off a sausage and bites off a chunk. "We haven't eaten in two days," he reminds the party while patting his ample belly.
Argyle's call echoes on the empty stone floor, but none heed its call. The room seems to currently be unoccupied, and if anyone is hidden, they are not convinced by the priest's entreaty.
"Well, if anyone is here, they know it now," Allysen says as she draws her sword and moves to check the doors to the southeast.
"Let us proceed."
Lord Belros advances, slowly and carefully, trying to check under the beds and in nooks and crannies.
One of the doors to the southeast has a strong wooden bar across it. The words "Danger" have been written across it in chalk.
Wolfram scarfs down one sausage and then another, tearing off a third for later, as in five minutes from now.
"Please, stop feeding us to death!" he follows to the now silent ominous voice.
= 6
He takes one of the chairs from around the table and wedges it against the door handle to the room with the sinister Danger sign.
Belros turns to face the others.
"Only rubbish and debris underneath the beds it would seem."
He looks up at the ceiling and walls, in case a spider or other vermin is readying itself to pounce.
"Are you sure? I thought I heard something," Allysen says as she looks under the beds and poking at the detritus with her sword.
As Wolfram begins to bellow (to her ears, anyway), Grace tries to stop him first by putting her finger to her lips, and then as he continues to talk, she grabs him by the arm (not gently) and whispers intently in his ear "Don't give away our presence, you fool!" just as he finishes talking.
She draws her sword, and looks around the room, paying special attention to the doors :
There definitely do not seem to be any spiders or other vermin lurking in the corners, under the beds, or near the ceiling.
Wolfram chuckles as MWG tries to restrain him. He almost bites her finger, mistaking it for a bit of sausage.
"My apologies. I am being indelicate, but surely, our presence is no surprise, unless you think disembodied voices threatening our doom announce themsleves for no reason. And anyway, I've wedged the door; go ahead and search this room to your heart's content."
Then, thinking better of it, he finishes the third sausage.
Wolfram wedges the other door, same as the first. Once his hunger is sated, he stuffs the remaining sausages links and the large ham into his sack and begins systematically rummaging through the foot lockers.
= 10
Lord Belros turns to look at Allysen.
"While my hearing rarely fails me, yours is keener still and I would be foolish to ignore that. Where did you hear movement, Allysen?"
The foot lockers contain clothes and numerous other personal effects for (most likely) human men. None of them are worth much of anything.
Wolfram kicks the last footlocker closed then tugs the chair away from the door with the DANGER scrawl. He invites Allysen to do her usual recon.
"Here, but I'm not seeing anything," She says, her tone mingling both disappointment and anxiousness.
[ooc]Total: 11
Allysen listens and checks both doors, but neither seem trapped and she can't hear anything through either of them.
"I suggest that we try the left door, assuming nothing else distinguishes them apart."
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"I suggest that we try the left door, assuming nothing else distinguishes them apart."
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Wolfram demonstrates how to use a door. Swinging the bar and stepping to the side as the ominously labeled "DANGER" door swings open.
"Sure, why not? It's not like we've been trying to avoid danger, now is it?"
Allysen begins looking for danger past the danger door.
Grace moves to beside Allysen, ready to defend against any threats :
Belros likewise advances, trying to make out potential threats.
Katherine remains behind the front-liners, bringing to mind the words to a spell.
|
Isagoras saw no need to add to the random ramblings of greetings that went on to the halfling that said she was old. What of it? Lots of people were old. Even more have been the last scion of their house....
At the Room of Dinner he allows the others to be about their usual business. Nothing he really needs to add to.
As Wolfram sees to the proper policing up of the sausages and ham (shame to let them go to waste) Isagoras finishes the tidying of the room and stores the small side of meat in his own pack. (Probably venison?)
As the good father opens up the DANGER room, Isagoras demonstrates some basic security and drops two chairs haphazardly in front of it. "Since we are forewarned about the menace of this room, let us create some small barricade to barrier against being rushed. Only if the threat proves cautious enough to wait upon our pleasure then we might move these aside."
"That is a reasonable point, Isagoras. There are beds here. Let us use those."
Belros begins to move the nearest bed towards the door.
The door labeled with "Danger" turns out to be more difficult to open than at first expected, most likely because it hasn't been opened in a very long time.
Once Allysen and Moves with Grace double-check it and manage to force it open, they find a room in contrast with the one everyone is currently standing it. While the former is well-lit by torches and reasonably well-swept, the new room is dark, damp, and covered in musty dust.
What immediately draws your attention, however, are the six four-armed skeletons that spring to life at your entrance and charge to the attack!
Lord Belros focuses intensely when he sees undead, the sworn foe of Pelor!
"Sunlord, grant my companions and I your gift of radiance, so that we may smite down these unliving things!"
With this prayer, golden light envelops a weapon on each companions, except Isagoras and Grace. Grace finds her fists glowing instead.
Wolfram smiles when he sees the undead, as any man of faith would. Then, as Lord Belros imparts preternatural offense, Wolfram supplements with defense of the same quality.
At once, Wolfram, Allysen, Belros, Katherine, and MWG, appear to flicker.
"I trust you'll not get too close, Isagoras," says the Reverend.
"Well this is new," Allysen remarks dryly before readying her blades and stepping into the room and going into a sweeping battle dance that takes her right up to the skeletons.
Unfortunately, Allysen's strikes are a little clumsy as she sets herself up for a walloping.
Grace moves towards a skeleton, and attempts to punch it in its breastbone :
Doing
While Lord Belros and Brother Argyle use their magics to protect and boost their companions, Allysen rushes into the room to confront the skeletons.
Allysen nicks the first with her short sword () while Moves with Grace batters at a second (.