GM WhtKnt's Warriors & Warlocks (Inactive)

Game Master WhtKnt

Kal peeks inside one of the boxes in the storage room (checking everything for magic, naturally), before venturing into the ornate doors, "Well, this seems promising, wouldn't you say?" he asks Devon before pushing his way inside.

The storage room contains mostly household items such as nails, boards, tools, and the like. There are a few barrels that hold weapons, but most of them are empty. Beyond the ornate doors is a huge open-air courtyard with a fountain in the center. A covered balcony runs the perimeter of the room, about 12 feet above the ground. There are several doors leading into the south wing of the house. To the east, doors lead to a stable.

Map

Kal takes to the air, floating across the courtyard to the south side and continuing their exploration of the house, "Quite the place. I can't help but wonder why we were contracted to explore here, though. Nothing has been even slightly dangerous yet."

"You know thats the absolute worst thing you can say in a story right?" Devon replied as he searched about casually on their way still looking for a library.

"Lets find the book and get back before it gets too interesting."

Which of the three doors on the south wall do you wish to inspect?Right, left, or center.

Devon goes to the right door to check it out and if there was nothing fishy open it up.

Opening the right door (the southernmost) reveals a long corridor going south, with a room to the west and two doors along the west wall. Further down the corridor (about 40 feet) it turns to the east.

Map

Devon looks about and then walks toward the nearest door on the right side of the hallway and checks to see what is inside.

Kal wanders around, checking to ensure that there's nothing of note as he continues to move into the mansion.

Any way we could speed this up until we actually find something? We've been exploring for literally 3 months without anything really happening.

Sure, I'll push time through until you come across something interesting. Sorry, I tend to forget that what works well at the tabletop falls flat in PbP.

An exploration of the downstairs area reveals nothing of any real interest. The place is filled with dusty furniture and antiques which might bring a few hundred silver pieces, but by and large, there is nothing of interest here. Having thoroughly explored the downstairs, you decide to head upstairs.

Having started with the north half of the house downstairs, you decide to start with the southern half of the manor upstairs. The corridor immediately up the stairs simply goes the length of the house to the guard tower. However, you proceed into the central courtyard (the balcony goes around the courtyard at this level) and open a set of double doors on the south wall. This opens into a hallway, richly-appointed, with suits of armor down its length. At the south end of the hall are two sets of double doors. Behind the ones on the right, you find what you have been searching for... the library!

This is a huge room filled with shelves, upon which are hundreds of books covering a variety of subjects. There appears to be no sense of organization to the shelving.

"Ah finally, we have found the library at last. I'm guessing there is no easy spell to search out a particular book so we'll have to start looking for Mastery of the Self. Perhaps we can find a catalog or something somewhere. If a ghost shows up maybe they will know where it is..." He starts his search looking for a desk or reading place where some books might be of more recent use hoping this book might be there without having to search all the shelves.

"Indeed" Kal begins perusing the shelves trying to find their target, and any other interesting-looking titles.

There are a myriad of titles among the books. Some are boring treatises on mundane subjects--biology, geology, geography, history--but others hold different interests. Among the titles that you peruse are:

Upon A Chilly Night
Hobgoblin Battle Leaders
Of Horses And Mules
Sir Blackrose The Wicked And Mighty
A Marvelous Collection Of Elven Prose
The Guide To Fruits, Nuts, And Berries
Wisps, Wights, And Other Wonders
Elven Ghost Stories
Goblin Fairy Tales
Of Newt And Bat
Recipes Of The Northern Inns
Orcish Courting And Marriage Rituals
Pirates And Ghost Ships
Sir Blackrose Strikes Again
Orcish Soups, Stews, And Broths
The Anatomy Of Dragons
The Tales Of Sir Blackrose
Winter Survival
An Assassin’s Guide To Nobles
Zombie Animator’s Guide

A search of the books that are on the tables proves similarly fruitless, though you do come across one thing of interest in one of the open tomes; a piece of parchment bearing the words, in the local tongue, "family crypts." It seems to have been used as a bookmark.

Devon puts all the books about Sir Blackrose into his bag hoping to read them later. He turns to look at Kal after taking some time to check the other titles. "I can't be completely certain but it doesn't seem to be here. Maybe we are too late or someone else beat us to it. Aside from this weird bookmark maybe we should check just to be sure there isn't a secondary study or bedroom where the book might have been moved to."

In Devons mind the slip of parchment and the book they were looking for weren't connected, he didn't have any reason to assume it was more then just a bit of scrap.

Kal pockets The Anatomy of Dragons and the Zombie Animator's Guide before looking around for their targets.

You are about to leave the library when a translucent figure comes into view, a human female. She moves among the shelves, seemingly not noticing (or perhaps ignoring) you. At one point, she stops and partially turns, as though hearing something behind her. A look of terror comes over her face and she arches back, clutching at her throat. This continues for several moments, then she sinks to the floor and disappears.

"Hello?" Devon realized she was just replaying a scene after a moment and then looked to Kal.

"She looked like a maid of some sort. Didn't really tell us much those save something terrible found her...do you think we should check out those crypts?"

"Seems prudent," the mage replies, "Do you have everything you need from here?" he asks, before heading down to find the crypts.

"Yeah I grabbed a few books for later perusing but best to get what we came for and leave before the haunting has time to realize we are here." Devon followed along after Kal.

The duo makes their way towards the nearest tower, figuring that such would lead to the cellar (and perhaps the crypts). You descend the tower spiral staircase past the ground floor and into the darkness of the cellar. A 10-foot wide corridor leaves the tower base, going east, and there is a door on the north side about 10 feet down the passage.

I'll try to get a map update in a bit.

Current map, such as it is.

Devon makes sure they have a torch or light source before moving forward. He moves to the north door waiting for Kal to get to him before opening it.

Kal conjures a floating light for the two of them, and a crackling orb of arcane power manifests and drifts a few feet ahead of them, illuminating their way.

The door opens into a cobwebbed hallway that seems to have been unused for some time. Your light illuminates about 60 feet of featureless corridor, and at about 35 feet, a side passage intersects from the west. You proceed down the hallway to the side passage and discover that it opens into a chamber, the doors of which have been sundered. Beyond the broken doors is a crypt that has been plundered some time ago. Bones are strewn about the chamber that indicates no fewer than three separate individuals were interred here (or perhaps met their demise here). Atop the raised dais in the center of the room is a stone sarcophagus, the lid set haphazardly to one side.

Map has been updated.

Devon looks at the sarcophagus then back at Kal. "Yeeeeah I'm not going near that. Lets keep looking." He motioned forward down the hallway bypassing the room with the bones and looted dead.

Kal nods in agreement, ”Not yet at least”

Continuing down the hallway, you come across a stone door on the west wall. The door appears to be locked.

"This looks promising...locked doors usually have things unlooted behind them. Mind handling the lock?"

He motions to the Mage recognizing his own skills aren't anywhere need versatile or adequate to open the door without finding a key.

Kal nods with a smirk, and taps the door. With a thunk, the entire locking mechanism falls out, sand spilling onto the ground.

Going to try Transmuting the area around the lock into sand.