Darla casts another detect magic spell and perks up, announcing that both Des and Drake have found magical items! After attempting to read the label on Drake's newfound potion, the bard announces that she can attempt to identify the items, but it will take 10 minutes apiece...and she'll only be able to ID them if their magic is occult in nature.
After a bit more thought, the bard decides this is a good time to do a full detect magic sweep of the rooms, just in case anyone missed something on the first check.
“Hmmm….’Bottled Lightning’,” Gellius announces as he emerges holding a stoppered vial and handing it to Darla. “Magic or not, I think you may be able to make good use of this.”
Gellius notes the the bottle Drake found is also labeled in Infernal and is able to translate it for the group: healing (minor).
Darla is unable to discern the properties of the wolf's tooth.
"So much stuff left behind," wonders Des. "They must have been very rich."
It's not just the shield, talisman and potions - the goblin looks around at the fragmented furniture and ripped bedsheets, imagining the many uses these discarded things could be put to. "I wonder why our tribe didn't take these to use them, there's good wood here, and some of these bits can be made into clothes and rope."
Des's words make sense--and not just 'goblin sense'--to Darla, so the young woman makes another quick scan for hidden foes, looking up towards the ceiling, perhaps fearing a giant spider or the like.
"Let's see what other treasures were left lying around." Des begins creeping carefully towards the western door.
Des's words make sense--and not just 'goblin sense'--to Darla, so the young woman makes another quick scan for hidden foes, looking up towards the ceiling, perhaps fearing a giant spider or the like.
Darla remembers that this had been the lair of the bugbear until the party killed it. Fortunately, nothing has moved back in to fill the vacuum in the interim.
Des begins creeping carefully towards the western door.
Moving to the front, Gellius offers to take the lead with Drake and Alex.
“Let us go in first,” he suggests to Des with a smile. “We’ve seen any number of dangerous beasts here so far. We can keep them away from you while you and Darla put them down.”
Uncomfortable in a position of leadership, Gellius is nonetheless unwilling to let others face the danger of the unknown ahead of him.
Gellius opens the door, and the arcane light on his main-gauche spills into what was once used as the citadel's kitchen. A decrepit stove is wedged into the southwestern corner, while wooden cabinets line the walls and a large dust-covered table takes up the middle of the room. There are doors in the northern and western walls.
Dangerous beasts? Des looks over their shoulder, where the splayed limbs of a dead bugbear are visible amidst a curious construction of bedframes and blankets.
Gellius enters the new room cautiously, crossing to the opposing door where he remains on guard.
“Seems like at least some of these rooms are safe,” he says. ‘Though we’ve been surprised before…”
Following Des’s gaze, he makes a rueful face.
“There’s going to be a big cleanup job, if this place is ever going to return to it’s former glory.”
Darla takes up the rearguard position.
With his bow in hand, Drake keeps a watchful eye out for any possible threats.
Gellius passes through the kitchen and opens the door on the far side to reveal the training hall where they first heard Alak fighting imps in the adjoining test arena.
Alek walks into the room behind Gellius. "They would have kept provisions for the test somewhere nearby: silver weapons and supplies for the summoning rituals. If they left anything behind, there may be robes or badges."
Hearing that, Des sets to searching the room they were in, looking into cupboards and cabinets and peering underneath the tables.
Darla looks around as well, executing a different type of search effort.
Des begins looking in the kitchen's cabinets. Opening one of the cabinet doors, they see the interior cloaked in a mass of webs and the webs inhabited by several generations of spiders.
Disturbed at the intrusion into their ancestral home, the spiders roil out of the cabinet and swarm over the goblin.
"Oh, yum," mutters Des as the goblin pulls open the cabinet door, only to shriek a moment later as the spiders engulf their body. "No! Bad lunch!"
Des pulls out a dagger, trying to scrape the spiders off.
Darla starts a panicked singing to inspire her allies, sheathes her rapier, and draws her bug-squashing light mace.
Darla begins to chant as she switches to more appropriate weaponry.
Des draws a blade and tries to scrape the spiders off them, but as quickly as the spiders are detached, more crawl on from the floor. The dagger seems to be accomplishing nothing.
Having NO idea what to do against a swarm of tiny spiders, Drake decides to grab a torch from his pack and steps into the room, taking a swat at the annoying pests after he does.
NOW that he's got an idea on how to attack the swarm, he draws out a torch from his pack. "Blunt weapons, splash weapons, and any type of magic that affects an area. Best way to beat these stupid bugs. I have GOT to get me a club or something," he comments, looking to the torch in his hand, "because this is ridiculous."
Drake shares tactical advice as he retrieves the best option he has for damaging the swarm.
Alek draws his greatsword, rushes back into the kitchen, and lets the large blade fall flat-side down onto the swarm. The spiders caught underneath are squashed, and many others flee the vibrations, disappearing into cracks and crevices in the floor and walls.
Des shrieks as the very large sword comes within a hair of hitting the goblin, then begins to frantically punch their own arms and legs in an attempt to squish the remaining spiders.
Des squashes every fleeing spider they can reach before the arachnids are out of sight.
"This lunch was too much trouble," grumbles Des as the goblin holds up a mostly squished spider and regards it doubtfully. "Don't think these are good to eat, anyway."
Breathing a sigh of relief, "Nice work there, Alek. Boy am I glad that ended swiftly. Not sure what I could've done with a stupid torch against those things. Now that that's settled, let's keep checking this place out. Hopefully that's the last we'll see of a swarm of bugs."
The wave of weakness that had swept over Des passes. Now that the spiders have abandoned the cupboard, a couple of vials are visible beneath the layers of webs. Their labels bear a skull and crossbones, along with a word in what is probably the same language as the vials from the barracks.
"Heh, look. Someone milked the spiders." Des points out the vials, but doesn't take them or touch them. "Would have been nice to set them on fire," the goblin muses dreamily at Drake. "Get them nice and crispy."
"Yeah I'm going to go with 'poison' on those vials. Call me crazy." He then proceeds to grab the vials. "Don't suppose any of you would use this, would you? Myself personally, not really a big user of poison."
Gellius points out that the label, written in Infernal, reads arsenic. Perhaps it was meant for rat poison, though keeping it in the kitchen where the food is prepared seems a bit dangerous.
"I believe there was another door at the far end of the test arena," Alek offers. "Let's check that out."
Darla gives Alek a quick nod and resumes her rearguard and magic-detecting duties.
Des looks at Alek curiously. "Why did your people leave this place? Perfectly good castle, only small bits missing."
"I very much doubt any bits were missing when they left," he replies dryly. "But they had a better offer. Queen Domina Arabasti of Korvosa -- er, the chieftan of a city many times larger than Breachill -- offered to fund the construction of a great fortress for any Order willing to relocate to Varisia to defend her city and support her reign. Citadel Vraid is huge -- three separate structures, each one of which is larger than Citadel Altaerein -- and built in the mountains rather than simply atop a hill so it is more defensible. Nearly four hundred Hellknights live there, far more than Altaerein could ever house."
Des's mind boggles as they try to comprehend both a city larger than Breachill, and a citadel at least three times larger than this one.
"Wow..." is all the goblin manages.
Alek and Gellius lead the group back through the test arena to the door at the far end. Opening it reveals a room about fifteen-foot square, its walls lined with cabinets and drawers, with a table in the middle. Additional doors lead out to the south and east.
"Hm, a storeroom," Alek remarks. "This looks more promising. If anything was left behind...." He uses the tip of his javelin to flip open a cabinet door, stepping back quickly in case these cupbooards, like the ones in the kitchen, are also vermin-infested.
"I do like promising. Let's check it out." Drake proceeds to investigate the place.
While the men search by hand, Darla scans with detect magic.
Des joins Alek and Drake in searching through the room, raising up on tiptoes to reach some of the taller surfaces.
"Oh, here, this is more like it," Alak remarks, pulling a wad of old rags out of the back corner of a drawer. "These are the temporary badges ... well, what's left of them." The stained and crumpled squares of fabric have the crown of nails logo stitched onto them. "See, you'd attach them here on the sleeve," he demonstrates. "As old and filthy as they are, they'd hardly pass muster with an observant paralictor, but they might do the trick with the undead."
Des finds something wedged between the wall and floor of the bottom of one of the cabinets: a tarnished silver dagger.
Buffing the dagger with their tunic hem, Des hums happily. "Found shiny knife!"
"Not much good against skeletons," Alek advises Des, "but that could come in handy if you run into any more imps! So, are we ready to take these badges and armor downstairs and see if they convince the guardians we're not their enemies?"
"Oh, here, this is more like it," Alak remarks, pulling a wad of old rags out of the back corner of a drawer. "These are the temporary badges ... well, what's left of them." The stained and crumpled squares of fabric have the crown of nails logo stitched onto them. "See, you'd attach them here on the sleeve," he demonstrates. "As old and filthy as they are, they'd hardly pass muster with an observant paralictor, but they might do the trick with the undead."
"I say we give it a shot," he says, nodding.
Buffing the dagger with their tunic hem, Des hums happily. "Found shiny knife!"
Grinning, "Good. That's good. Pointy end goes in the bad guys. Just remember that and I think we'll do alright."
"Not much good against skeletons," Alek advises Des, "but that could come in handy if you run into any more imps! So, are we ready to take these badges and armor downstairs and see if they convince the guardians we're not their enemies?"
Nodding, "Let's do this. But just in case, be ready to run like the wind. If you all couldn't eliminate these things the first time, I'm not so sure we would manage much better. I'm just sayin' be prepared is all. Alright, let's get ourselves fixed up however we need to and give it a shot."