Rick peers around at the area warily. "Looks like the man could use a care-taker for this ... estate. I imagine he may not take kindly to our presence if he's keen to us suspecting his involvement. That should be a foregone conclusion after the Sheriff's statement and our connections, so maybe Dahros leads the way? I'll be right behind you... and d'Log... and Ykra. Matter of fact, Phinick why don't you stay close to me in case we need Dahros and d'Log to d'tain Hallod."
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Skittles looks around the property herself as well, paying close attention to the unkempt shrubs, grass, and other weeds.
"I wonder if its safe enough for us to take an indirect route through the shrubs to get to the house."
"D'log, what do you see up there?", she whispers to d'log waiting further details. Regardless, she takes her position up behind Rick in queue for their approach.
Ykka looks for any signs of life, "are we sure this is the right place?"
Dahros shakes his head, "Man, this place is deader than Bort."
As d'Log heads for the tree, he notices that the dead branches form a kind of cage that obstructs easy passage. It would be all but impossible for a longshanks to get near the tree without making a huge noise. He might be able to squirm in there, though, if he was careful.
The others looked around carefully, noting that there were faint signs of recent comings and gong here. The trail seems to lead to the front door, as well as around the back of the house.
For the most part, the goblin manged to get up the tree easily enough, though he did get snagged on a few branches along the way. From his vantage point, he can see inside the ruined parts of the house, noting that it doesn't appear to be occupied at the moment. Honestly, it would take someone with severe self-image issues to even consider living in a place like this. That, or some other reason to remain separate from the rest of the townsfolk.
"So what you're saying is, we don't need to take the quiet approach."
Dahros frowns "Wait, why am I whispering. Alright, Log says it's clear. Let's go." he says, pushing forward and leading the group into trouble once more.
Ykka stays toward the back and begins to play a low but upbeat tune. The others feel inspired.
Dahros moves across the yard, headed for the front door. The door itself looks to be in decent condition, though the warping and settling of the house has left it loose in its frame. When Dahros gets close, he can see that it is slightly ajar, held closed only by a loop of string attached inside the house, likely looped over a peg.
Ykka watches Dahros pause when he gets to the door, "what do you see?" She begins to move closer, waving d'Log in front of her.
Dahros says "Door's open, but there is a string attached to it. I think it's trapped. Who's our trap disarmer? Hey Log, get up here."
Peering up there, Rick chimes in, "I could toss a little flame up there to burn it. Maybe the whole house too." Rick grins at Phinick, "You should see d'Log and Dahros's fire eating act, it's incredible. Mostly impressive on d'Logs part, Dahros will eat anything. Saw him eat a whole bear earlier."
In a whisper he adds, "Actually come to think of it he might have a bit of a disorder, so maybe we shouldn't talk about that after all."
d'Log scurried up to the door and examined it. He realized that the string holding the door shut was just that. There was no trap attached to it. The trap was actually lower down. Stapled to the inside of the door was a rope. d'Log cut it gently, allowing the door to fall open. The rope disappeared into a pile of leaves and detritus, and led to a rather ingenious mechanism set up to fire a heavy crossbow at whoever opened the front door.
The rest of the room was covered in piles of rubble. The hearth was choked with leaves and branches from above, and the smashed furniture is lit by the daylight streaming in through the collapsed ceiling. The only exit from this room leads to a small hallway thoroughly filled with debris from the collapsed roof. It is obvious that no one has come through this way in a long time.
Dahros frowns "Something's not right." as he leads the way through the hallway.
Dahros sees exactly what he expects...nothing. The hallway is completely blocked off. Oh, a few hours' of moving rubble around might let you into other parts of the house, but not easily.
Ykka sees the mess from the front path and is glad she didn't join them at the door. "See any tracks or anything guys?"
"I see what you expect, rubble. He's either not here or dead under all of that."
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Skittles joins the team and upon seeing nothing but rubble, pipes up "Well, we could try to move this stuff around, but that just seems like more work than we have time to spend. I think we should go around, and try to find another way in."
And with that she tugs on Dahros, as the biggest in the crew, and directs him back out of the house and around the building clockwise.
Dahros nods and understands Skittle's direction, taking the lead once more with his shield and blade readied and raised.
Ykka continues to sing and play her fiddle, hoping to inspire the others as they do more important work.
The trail that d'Log had found earlier led around the back of the house and to a boarded up window in the back of the house.
Dahros smashes down said board window to make a broken board window that goblins can squeeze through. "Log, get in there and check it out."
The shuttered window led to a room filled with debris from teh collapsed roof. There's just enough room for maybe two people to get in there at a time. When your eyes adjust to the relative darkness, you can see a crawlway leading under the debris and sloping downward. It is barely big enough for Dahros' shoulders, but the others should have plenty of room. The crawlway is completely dark.
Ykka approaches with the others and casts Dancing Lights, "should I send these down the hole? Do you want to go down first d'Log so you're not blinded?"
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"Don't fret dLog. We won't send you in there alone. I'll be right behind you. I see very well in the low light, and will keep an eye on your tail"
Skittles pushes dLog in the room, and towards the ramp down, following behind him with Ykka. She keeps her keen eyes on her surroundings, looking for additional traps with dLog along the way.
At a turn in the tunnel, about 15 feet in, d'Log stopped so suddenly that Skittles nearly bowled into him. The patch of ground in front of him looked too...clean, for lack of a better word. While the ground before and after it were scuffed by the passage of knees, hands, and feet, that patch was bare. Not super noticible, but d'log was well-trained in the art of trap finding.
Looking around, he found the trap. A section of the tunnel roof had been rigged to collapse if too much pressure was placed on that trigger plate. Good thing he saw it before anyone heavy enough to press the plate down got close!
d'Log is fairly sure that he has the trap disabled for now, but he still whispers back for everyone to be careful crossing that particular patch of tunnel floor as they pass. Sure now that their quarry definitely has something to hide, d'Log continued on, eyes peeled for more traps. The wait was short. The tunnel came to a dead end after another 20 feet or so, ending in a chamber that looks to be the inside of a small closet. The door swung freely on its hinges, opening to a solid wall of rock and rubble. Set in the floor of the closet is a hatch, looking to be very old, but free of dust and rubble. The hinges look like they are heavily rusted and haven't seen grease or oil in a very long time.
Ykka keeps the dancing lights far enough back to allow the silly human to see without hindering the more advanced party members.
She sniffs the air, wondering if anyone is close enough to detect.
There are no magical auras about the hatch, and the only thing Ykka smells in the air is d'Log.
"Looks older than Skittles. Y'think he went down there?"
"Looks good to me, what d'ya think? Maybe I'll keep Phinick up here until you can give us the all clear sign." He looks expectantly at d'Log and Dahros.
Rick saw nothing amiss with the hatch.
The hatch rose and let out a terrible screech. d'Log started to stop his motion, but it was far too late. Shrugging, he continued to open the hatch, then slipped in as stealthily as he could. If anyone was down there, they knew company was on the way.
Beneath the hatch was a smooth stone chute that slanted off at a 45-degree angle. There were handholds carved into the sides of the chute that would assist coming back up, but the fastest way down was also the most fun!
Ykka follows as well, giving up playing about halfway down as she grins.
dahros
d'log
rick
skittles
ykka
dogs
You all slide down the chute and land on a rocky floor, covered with alchemical grease. You are in a room lit by a single flickering torch. Through the gloom you see small piles of crates and more than a few barrels stacked up horizontally on the south side of the room. Opposite you is a stout wooden door with iron bands, while the north side of the room has an iron portcullis. Behind the grate are four angry dogs, who leap to their feet and begin barking at the first sight of d'Log. By the time the last of you is down, the portcullis is already being raised and the dogs are snarling and trying to get through the widening gap to attack!
R1: dahros, skittles, ykka, dogs, d'log, rick
map is updated!
dahros 20/20
d'log 19/19
rick 16/16
skittles 18/18
ykka 18/18
dogs (white) -0
dogs (yellow) -0
dogs (blue) -0
dogs (red) -0
Ykka quickly begins playing soft, soothing music. She starts to shush the dogs as she moves toward the back of the group.
Calculation Information
Proficiency Level (Trained)
•Ability Bonus (+4): Charisma 18 (+4)
•Base Bonus (+3): Character Level (+1), Trained Proficiency Modifier (+2)
Description
Spell 1
Auditory, Enchantment, Incapacitation, Mental, Occult, Sleep
Traditions: Occult
Cast: [2] focus
Range: 30 feet
Area: 5-foot burst
Saving Throw: Will Save
DC: 17
Target's Saving Throw Result:
Critical Success The creature is unaffected.
Success The creature takes a –1 status penalty to Perception checks for 1 round.
Failure The creature falls unconscious. If it’s still unconscious after 1 minute, it wakes up automatically.
Critical Failure The creature falls unconscious. If it’s still unconscious after 1 hour, it wakes up automatically.
Each creature in the area becomes drowsy and might fall asleep. A creature that falls unconscious from this spell doesn’t fall prone or release what it’s holding. This spell doesn’t prevent creatures from waking up due to a successful Perception check, limiting its utility in combat.
Dahros shouts "Angry dogs incoming!" as he moves up with his warhammer and twirls it before trying to bring it down on a dog.
wills
Dahros' hammer slammed into one of the dogs, the creature staggered with a yelp, but still weakly scrabbled to get under the rising grate. It took a second blow to kill the dog. Skittles cried out in despair, warning not to hurt the poor dogs any more, and Ykka took that to heart. Carefully aiming her spell, the gnome bard sent the last three dogs to sleep. All three dogs piled together on the floor, snoring gently.
From behind the wooden door you hear a growling voice say, "Damn!" and then the sound of running footsteps.
"We've gotta runner!" he shouts, running to the door and throwing it open and running after him.