Morsun puts his weapon away without making any comment about the dogs. When he notices the locked door that Sool found, he pulls out his perfectly-legitimate-craftsman tools and sees if he can pick the lock, talking while he works.
"This place is a lot bigger than I originally thought. I wonder if this knight new about how far underground this goes or if he just stumbled across it. Or even if he's still here."
"Well, someone opened that cage there," Emri points out. "And I don't see a lever in here anywhere." She glances around again. "Does anyone else?"
Throkk looks about, ignoring the dog blood dripping from the axe in his hands.
"No."
Sazen looks around.
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"This doesn't strike me as the sort of place a knight would use as a hideout." says Sool. "It's hard to imagine an armored man shimmying through that tunnel regularly. More likely the goblin was using this place. The dogs make me wonder if we might be dealing with some sort of fallen druid or ranger or hedge-witch too. I'll say this -- even if the goblin was the one using this place, he certainly didn't dig it out himself."
"I think we're getting warmer."
Morsun finds the lock is actually well made enough.
Sazen uncovers two vials of lesser alchemist’s fire, forgotten underneath a pile of straw. A critical success at this check also reveals a small glass bottle filled with a murky, foul-smelling brown liquid.
Success reveals that it is a foul alchemical reagent called corpse blood, used in a variety of alchemical items mostly related to disease, poison, or their antidotes.
The box containing this bottle clearly once had 7 other bottles in it, all of which appear to be missing.
Morsun finds the lock is actually well made enough.
Pursing his lips both in concentration and in appreciation for the lock's construction, Morsun tries again.
Finally, he just "gets" it.
As Morsun works, Throkk muses.
"We find killer here, I think."
This chamber is entered via a short hallway remarkable only for a large steel wheel on the wall. This area seems to be some kind of living quarters.
The home is divided into three areas: the larder, the lavatory, and the living space. The larder is a simple storeroom filled with scraps of old meat, a third of a wheel of cheese, a sack of turnips, and a barrel of weak ale. There is also a crate of empty wine bottles in one corner. They are all of a good Chelish vintage and were probably quite valuable.
The lavatory sits just off the main living space, and it is little more than an open pit. This is also where someone disposes of their garbage, and there are scraps of moldy food and bits of junk in the corners of the room.
Throkk walks over to the cheese. Keeping one hand holding his axe aloft, he grabs at the cheese with the other, intending to break off a large chunk.
Upon hearing Sool's words, Throkk's hand freezes upon the cheese. The huge man then withdraws his hand to his face, sniffs it, then lowers it to wipe it upon the nearest bit of cloth, whether upon himself or in the room.
Sazen picks up the three bottles and hands the unknown one to Sool.
Hey, I don't know what this one is. Any ideas?
Hearing the comment about the food, Sazen says
He's right, but I can fix that.
She casts Purify Food and Drink on the stuff in the larder.
There you go. Should be safe now.
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Hey, I don't know what this one is. Any ideas?
Sool is looking a trifle wistfully at the label of one of the Chelish wine bottles when Sazen addresses him. "This really was an excellent year." he says with a mixture of admiration and disappointment vying in his voice. "Curious to imagine someone sitting around in this mud pit sipping a fine wine between bites of raw turnip."
"Hmmm, you were saying? Oh." He takes the bottle and gives it a careful couple of sniffs, then pours it out onto some cloth and then adds a little water to it, and rubs the cloth between his finger and thumb to judge its stickiness or thickness or something.
He nods, satisfied with his test.
"Corpse Blood. That's the colloquial name anyway, these days it's actually made of less invidious ingredients. But a staple in any poisoners toolkit. And not the sort of thing one would just find lying about in a basement. This belonged to our murderer. As I suspected, this person is a skilled practitioner of that vile art."
Hearing the comment about the food, Sazen says. He's right, but I can fix that. She casts [a spell] on the stuff in the larder.There you go. Should be safe now.
Sool raises an eyebrow and looks to Throkk.
"Well this should be interesting." he says. "I'd still recommend not eating that, but I wouldn't dream of gainsaying our priest's magical skill."
He waits, watching to see if prudence or gluttony will take the day. Privately, he lays a wager with himself...
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Throkk grins at Sazen then his free hand once again reaches for the cheese.
Emri, likewise, takes a hunk of cheese and snacks on it. "Tastes fine to me. Thanks, Sazen."
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"The turnips tasted fine to Bort as well, not that he spent much time in his last few moments savoring any tastes. Remember, we're dealing with a professional here. No doubt the reason there are turnips down here is that the poisoner needed to make sure the poison blended with the taste of the stew, and so conducted experiments."
"Still, why pass up the chance to enjoy basement cheese?"
"Maybe you just prayed away some evidence," Morsun says to Sazen.
"Why indeed?", asks Throkk, looking cheerful now that he has both evaded poison *and* gotten to eat.
Sazen smiles at Emri when she is thanked, and in response to Morsun she says
I think that bottle that Sool identified is the evidence we need in this case, Morsun. But definitely a good reminder to be more careful in the future.
The passageway opens up into a large natural chamber, the center of which is occupied by a pool of brackish water. Stalactites and stalagmites occupy much of the room, but a path between them leads around the pool and to another corridor on the opposite side of the cave.
The moment your group enters the room, a strange blue glow emanates up from the pool, sending a cascade of shimmering light to the ceiling above. Seconds later, the head of a giant blue snake rises from the pool with sparks of electricity dancing between its fangs, while a metal, rattle-tipped tail pokes out of the water behind it, audibly building up a charge with every flick of the rattle.
Morson
Lightning Serpent
Sazen
Emri
Sool
Throkk
Morsun uses the distraction of spraying water to dart past the giant snake and strike it from behind.
Sensing that the snake will strike before the others are ready to advance, Morsun raises his shield.
Sazen moves into the room, drawing her bow, and shoots when she finds a good sightline.
Morsun uses the distraction of spraying water to dart past the giant snake and strike it from behind.
Sensing that the snake will strike before the others are ready to advance, Morsun raises his shield.
The snake lashes out towards Morsun with it's fangs.
It's rattle twitched tale twitches it tail... electricity arcs towards Throkk.
Sazen 17
Emri 18
Sool 14
Throkk 18
Morson 18
Lightning Serpent AC19 -8
The pain from the snake's strike was so painful that Morsun nearly dropped his sword and shield. Murder in his eys, he struck again and again and again.
Throkk gleefully rushes forward, eager to hack something in half!
Even being zapped with electricity barely makes him twitch, though his hair now looks even spikier.
Sazen moves into the room, drawing her bow, and shoots when she finds a good sightline.
"A most curious menagerie for an abandoned cellar." sneers Sool. He moves into the room, trying to get away from the group, then turns back to the snake, concentrates, and flicks a finger, causing a stone to sail across the room toward the snake.
The unnatural snake goes limp and floats on top of the pool...
At the bottom of the shallow pool is the body of an explorer who died here many years ago. Nothing more than bones now, the body has slowly been consumed by limestone that has calcified around its skeleton.
Anyone who investigates finds the pommel of a weapon sticking out of the stone.
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Sool points to the pommel of a weapon within the calcified mass.
"The proverbial sword in the stone. Perhaps destiny will favor one of you to draw it forth." says Sool with an amused twist of the lip. But then he becomes more serious again.
"Our little grotto is apparently more than a hideout for some contemporary villain. We should be wary, there may be more mystic energies at play down here than we'd first realized."
Already knee-deep in the water, Morsun warily fishes the sword out.
Throkk began to reach for the sword but Morsun gets there first.
Sazen wonders why the guys are fishing around in the water, and realizes there must be a sword down there when Sool mentions it. She waits to see what kind of rusted piece of crap they find. Perhaps it will be worth something to a museum.
"Nice."
Morsun tries to jiggle the sword's pommel a bit before looking at the others.
"We'd need a hammer or something to chip it out, which I don't have."
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Throkk fishes in his pack for something, then pulls out a crowbar.
"This do?"
I don't think the trail is exactly hot. We're probably okay if you guys want to try. I definitely don't want to come back.
"We should get it out!"
Sazen, who isn't a very good Cleric, also belatedly notes that people are wounded. She casts Heal, healing everyone within 30 feet of her.
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"Thanks, Sazen!"
It takes a while but the rapier is recovered and the pursuit is renewed.
The tunnel beyond the snake’s lair twists and turns for a great distance; it takes ten minutes to traverse it before they can detect a faint natural light up ahead, and the air becomes notably cleaner,
smelling vaguely of grass. After another five minutes of travel, the tunnel opens up into a cave mouth.
The tunnel you have been traversing opens into a cave, and you can see a forest beyond the cave’s mouth. The roots of a large tree block the middle of this entrance, as if the tree had grown into a hillside that has since eroded away. Beyond the tree is a large pond; a path around the water begins to one side beneath a curtain of moss hanging from the tree. The cave itself is piled high with two rows of neatly stacked crates and boxes.
Hallod is a rough-looking man. He is bald and has a prominent scar running down his face from an axe wound he took years ago. He is wearing filthy leather armor and wields a nasty kukri with deadly efficiency. As you enter the room, he hops up on a berm formed by the tree roots, aims his crossbow at them, and taunts them by saying, “I wondered when Bort’s lackeys would arrive. Let’s do this!”
Sazen
Hallod
Morson
Emri
Sool
Throkk
We don't want to kill you, Hallod I presume? We're strangers in town and nobody's lackeys. We just want to take you in and understand why you did it. We're willing to listen to your side of all of this.
"You seem like a nice person, its a shame you didn't mind your business". Hallod grins before raising his crossbow and shooting at Throkk but the large man ducks just in time. Hallod reloads and readies another bolt.
You notice the trip wires set up as triggers for traps, you can easily step over it. The area is marked on the map with white dots.
You feel a slight tugging as you trigger a trip wire.
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Sool looks around calmly at his companions, then seems to settle on Throkk.
"Excuse me..." he say, then runs his long fingers through Throkk's hair, after which he rubs his palms together, then turns his hands in a rolling motion, and finally speaks a word and pushes his hands together in a way that makes a squelching noise.
Sazen shoots the guy.
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Emri dashes into the room, nimbly hopping over a set of trip wires. "Whoah, watch your step, folks! This guy's tricky!" She ducks and weaves around the crates and boxes, and launches herself up onto the rocky platform the big bald dude is standing on. "Last chance to surrender!"