Despite the noise, Talliree winds up leaning against Himo and falling asleep as he explains what happened. She really didn't get much the night before.
"I'm not sure if it was a dream or not. It felt so real. There were some children, and a kindly old lady reading them a story".
He then notices all the stacked furniture.
"Why did you move all the furniture"?
When the story is shared Mitchell becomes alert. "Perhaps we should go down first. Wouldn't want anyone to get hurt, and us unable to find workers". Mitchell prepares to be the first one down, and stay while they work... just in case.
"Yes. We do that.", replies Himo, still not entirely awake.
"Nnn," Talliree protests as the conversation wakes her again.
"D-down? Why'd we wanna go down where the scary ghost lady is," she asks as she rubs the sleep from her eyes. "Said something about tuckin' some kids into bed while buryin' somethin'."
"Yeah we didn't want to wake you but we've had more restful sleep in dungeons."
"Then all the more reason to escort the workers down".
Mitchell heads down weapon drawn.
Hob manages to calm the workers, who retreat to their tasks, glowering at each other. The bricklayers finish moving the pile of furniture, both not being present when Talliree mentions ghosts, but stand mouth agape as Mitchell draws steel and begins his decent into the cellar.
"Uh, ya gots rats down there?" the tall lanky one asks.
"No," Talliree says as she follows Mitchell down. "I don't mind rats, some of Mr. Whiskers' best friends are rats."
The small mouse on the half-elf's shoulder nods curtly at the man as Talliree begins going down the stairs.
"Spooky ladies talkin' about tuckin' you in while buryin' somethin' with a shovel on the other hand..." Her voice trails off as she shrugs, trying to play things off nonchalantly.
"You heard the lady, we're just making sure the spooky lady has cleared out."
The smaller more quiet worker continues to gape, but the tall , lanky one begins to laugh, as if you were joking.
Then when he slowly realizes you aren't, screws up his face in puzzlement, then shrugs, "Sure, we'll be workin' in th' kitchen, see." and walks around towards the kitchen, rattling off commands to his lackey, "Git out there and fetch them bricks by the side!"
Mitchell leads the way down into the cellar....and finds it the same as he's seen it before. Some junk, some barrels, some poorly maintained walls...lots of cobwebs. No spooky lady.
Himo follows Mitchell, trying to stay alert for any hint of weirdness.
Talliree timidly tiptoes into the cellar and breathes out a sigh of relief as she realizes there are no spooky ladies to be found.
"Well that's a relief. What was she doing down here anyway? I don't see where she could have dug a hole."
Walking over to where Talliree , Hob and Himo had seen the spooky lade, they find the packed earth of the cellar undisturbed, except for the scuff marks of the workers who'd been down there the day before.
Mr Whiskers, sitting on Talliree's shoulder, raises his head, little pink nose twitching....as if he smelt something. For a moment, Talliree was certain she could smell something....a mix of old fashioned perfume mixed with the rank stench of spilled blood...but then it fades away until she cannot smell naught but the mustiness of the cellar.
Himo looks around, unhappy to have not spotted anything amiss.
"We can't go digging up the whole cellar today can we? I'm not sure what else to do... I'm going to have to research some necromancy spells in case we need to evict a ghost that's too creepy on a regular basis."
Mitchell can hear the conviction in his friends voices. At first he was skeptical about what they had observed, marking it off as mass hysteria; He had seen that before... but now.
Mitchell stops for a moment, touches his holy symbol and asks for the guidance of his god Casts Detect Good/Evil
"Hey, did any of you smell that," Talliree asks after catching that disturbing scent.
Mitchell's senses expand as the spell takes effect, blinking as his eyes adjust to this new way of seeing.
Though he doesn't 'see' any creature, he does notice a kind of undead 'residue' in the cubby the others saw their apparition. A roughly rectangular area of the floor exudes an very faint undead aura.
"There! Something is not right there"! Mitchell points to an area of the floor. "Someone bring me a shovel".
Mitchell will ask the others to stand back ready for anything, and begins to dig in the questionable area.
Himo dashes back upstairs, asking the workmen:
"A shovel!? Do you have a shovel I can borrow!?"
One of the workers looks at Himo in puzzlement, then he's whacked on the back of his head by a superior, "A shovel! Yessir! Right away!"
He runs out through the taproom to a waiting cart outside, grabs a shovel and thrusts it into Himo's hands.
Himo himself hustles the shovel back down into the cellar, ignoring the worker's perplexed looks.
Mitchell, his face one of grim determination, sets to excavating the area of packed soil he can still see with his enhanced vision.
As he digs into the soil, he notices that the aura he was 'seeing' slowly faded the deeper he dug.
Finally, the aura disappeared completely and for a moment Mitchell stopped, looking at the two foot by three foot hole, about 3 feet deep, that he'd dug.
It was then that he notices a piece of burlap sticking out of the disturbed soil at the bottom of the hole....
"Ho! What is this"? Mitchell continues to dig around the area trying to uncover what this might be... carefully...
Mitchel sets aside the shovel, and begins to brush away the dry soil with his hands, slowly revealing three bundles of burlap sacking laid out side by side at the bottom of the hole.
Himo waits near, perturbed by these events.
Talliree takes a step back as Mitchell reveals the sacks. The bravado and good cheer she normally has conspicuous in their absence. Mr. Whiskers sits on her shoulder, still as stone while he watches.
Mitchell says a quick prayer, then carefully and reverently removes each bundle handing it to someone outside the hole.
"Be careful with these. I fear I know their content".
He then does a quick Divine Sense to see if anything else is reacting out of the situation.
Even though he's careful, Mitchell and the others cannot help but allow the contents of the bundles to move about. All can hear the telltale noise of bones knocking and rubbing against each other.
Mitchell does not detect any evil presences nearby.
The somber mood is interrupted by the voice of one of the workers, calling down from the trapdoor, "You all gonna be long? We got's work to do down there! "
"SSSH!", replies Himo, feeling jumpy and irritated.
Talliree is shaking as she helps haul the bones out. Her face is a sickly gray as she tries to not think about what had happened here. She had lost friends, seen other kids die, and had only just escaped death herself a few times, but there was something chilling about finding the bones of several small someones buried where none would have found them.
"Are you saying you'd rather dig up a hidden grave than wait," she asks the man once she's up with the first of the bundles.
The man frowns at Himo's shushing, but he retreats from the trapdoor as Talliree ascends, his mouth moving but uttering nothing at Talliree's question, as he looks from her face to the bundle and back again.
However, he doesn't quite get all of the way out of the way, and jostles Talliree as she steps out of the cellar...
Hob winced with the imagined horrors that might soon be very real.
Himo looks in horror and readies himself to dive to catch the wrapped....whatever it is.
Talliree proves herself to be nimble, even with the awkward burden she carries and trying to climb out of the cellar.
Mitchell decides to probe the area where they were buried a bit to make sure there are no clues left behind, then leaps out brushing the dirt from his hands, and handing the shovel to the clumsy worker.
Investigation.
"I think it wise that we take these remains to a hallowed ground somewhere and lay them to their final rest. Maybe we can find out to which god the former residents prayed and inter them in their name. If we can't find anything I can perform the last rights... though not as well as a true priest".
Indeed, Talliree quickly adjusted the contents of the bundle to avoid having anything fall out onto the floor.
The worker asks, "What's all that then?"
He's answered by Mitchell's comment, blurting out "Wha? Remains? Remains of what?"
"We do not know for certain.", replies Himo, hoping that the literal truth will stave off further questions.
"Let us get going then!", he says to Mitchell, eager to be done with this entire business.
Talliree nods in agreement with Himo. She too wants this done with.
The worker's superior ambles over , asking "What's all this about then?"
"They's gots remains! From the cellar!" the worker tells him excitedly.
"Remains ,you say?" the other man asks, rubbing his beard, then addresses Talliree, "Miss, mind me asking what you have in that bundle ?"
"Probably children," Talliree answers in a quiet voice. "W-was this place an orphanage at some point?"
The older man tucks his thumbs into his suspenders, and thinks, "Now that you say...I think it may have. " he says, then turning to where some carpenters were sizing up a section of wall, calls out, "Thuris! Come here! This chap's done some of the ol' work in this building." he says to Talliree.
The carpenter walks over, his face annoyed. A middle-aged half-elf, he stops in front of you and says, "What do you want, Iherod? I'm busy."
"This lady was asking if this place was ever an orphanage?" Iherod says, indicating Talliree with his head.
"Aye, a nice widow named Esther ran one here some time ago, I did some work for her as an apprentice. Nice lady...but cheap." he says, then his piece said, nods to Talliree and departs.
"There you go, lady. But, if them bundles do have bones in 'em....well, that's for the Watch. I'll go fetch 'em."
"Here now. All in good time. I am Sir Mitchell Cloudkeep, and a holy warrior of Waukeen. It is my obligation to get to the bottom of this, and determine the next step I'll handle how this revealed information will be handled. And as owners of this establishment we make the call".
Persuasion
"Mitchel just wants to get a head start on it, we'll be talking to them before long but best to have more information before then right."
Persuasion (Advantage) Obviously this guy doesn't know who Sir Mitchell Cloudkeep is!!!
While obviously sympathetic, Iherod isn't swayed, "No,no it won't do. See, if it comes out I didn't get the Watch, well I'd lose my chit! Then what would I do? As a Waukeenar, I'm sure you can see the situation I'm in! " he exclaims, rubbing his chin.
"Don't worry, the Watch around here are a sensible lot..." he advises, then with a muttered command, sends one of his apprentices out into the sunny day to fetch the Watch.
After a few minutes wait, a Sergeant and a few Guards of the Watch appear and have a hurried conservation with Iherod.
The Sergeant approaches, "Good day, the Guildsman says that some remains were found during some work in the basement. Seems this place was an orphanage back in the day. Some children died, and they buried them in the cellar. Irregular but it happens. Iherod says you wish to deal with the internment etc. That is fine...." he asks, having gone down a list of items he'd written in his notepad.
He looks up, "Do you have anything you wish to add?"
Himo remains quiet, not wanting to add much around a member of the Watch.
"We saw a ghost last night digging in that spot- but the tradesmen here can attest the ground was hard packed and undisturbed. We weren't sure but we had some concerns about what it could be. I'd hoped it was just a pet but..." Hob gives a little shiver.
Talliree sets the remains down somewhere out of the way after it's clear that the watch would be involved. She finds a small cubbyhole that she can fit into and curls up until it's time for her to give whatever it is the watchmen would want.
MItchell takes charge of the situation as only he knows how.
"I'm sorry to waste your time here, when you've got real crimes to solve. Some people don't have the proper respect for noble judgement. We'll take care of things from here".
He then rubs his chin for a moment, and thinks.
"There is one thing you might be able to help with. I'd like to learn more about the history of this place, who owned, it who used it in the past etc. Is there a source of information for this you might suggest"?
Persuasion (If needed)