Mayor Abber shows you around the few rooms he knows here.
There is a waiting room, simply furnished with a table and chairs, and its stone walls are bare. The furniture isn’t particularly comfortable, and the only nod to courtesy is a copper vessel filled with water on the table.
There is a storage room. As it’s been weeks since the last supply delivery, this room is mostly empty. A few wooden casks half-full of salted pork and mead are all that remain, along with a crate of parchment paper and a few boxes of ink and goose quills. A jar containing a lesser salamander elixir lies forgotten on a shelf here.
There are several simple bedrooms. He points out one as the room where they were keeping him.
Mukluk, now fully healed after the longer rest, sticks his head into the storage room.
He does a quick glance for trouble (in hopes of just closing the door until someone else can handle the situation) and then is ready to move to the next room.
Perception
Then he moves to the bedroom, again ready to lock things inside if he can.
Perception
He declines to loot the place.
Rova's happy to let Mukluk rest, urging Thkrull to find somewhere safe to wait outside.
"If we don't come back, go back to the circus, OK?" she tells him, patting his trunk, before heading back inside. She makes sure her forks are accessible, and then pulls out her bow again when they're ready to move on.
Once everyone has healed and rested, you press on.
The next door is a large and imposing granite slab broken only by a small viewing slot at eye level. It is barred from the opposite side.
Through the viewing slot, you can see two more retainers and a slurk. The retainers point their tridents at the northern door, looking terrified. They are not looking at the door that you are at.
Mukluk grunts, then steps back as he sees that it’s barred from the other side.
He’s somewhat happy to break it down, but hopes someone else might have a better solution.
Prism tries to slide her sickle through the viewing hole to unbar the door. She seems to grunt and struggle. "You may have to kick it in Muk."
"Maybe it's another demon, which turned on them," Rova suggests. "We could tell them we'll help them if they open the door."
Prism almost gets the bar lifted, but can't quite get it all the way over the brace. She sets it down gently.
Prism gives it a couple more tries before giving up. She jams her arm further into the slot but it's eye level certainly isn't a gnomes eye level and it is very hard for her to reach it on her toes.
Should Prism fail, Mukluk will do as promised and use his dwarven skeleton key to open the lock (aka his right boot or left shoulder).
Athletics
Athletics
Prism is ready to give up when she hears a click. The bar is off and the door can be opened!
Rova takes a leap of faith that even Pharasmin-acting Gozrans will take the right side when faced with The End, and calls out, "Hold on, we're coming to help!"
She wonders whether she should invoke Nemmia's name, or maybe Harlock's, but decides that might be pushing things too much.
Rova throws open the door. The two men look surprised.
This wide hall leads into the cliff face at an angle. A double door at the west end of the room is carved from blue and green marble and depicts a magnificent abstract pattern that evokes both the wind of a tornado and the water of a whirlpool. The handles are green-enameled metal leaves, each bearing a drop of water. Smaller doors lead out of this hall to the north and south directions. The door to the north has several planks nailed across it.
They look at each other. "Um, yes. Yes! We need your help. In there!"
They point to the boarded-up door.
Mukluk pauses, confused.
These retainers look like the ones you just fought in the first room, who were beating up the mayor. They are probably bad guys, but they are not immediately attacking you. They do not seem to be afraid of the slurk. They do seem to be afraid of whatever is behind the door.
Niksi folds her arms, pumping her whip in her hand every few seconds as a reminder that she is armed. ”Throw down yours arms and promise not to attack us, and we may help you. We are happy to help, of course, but we wish to do so intelligently. A mere formality, you understand.”
Prism puts her hands on her hips. "And why should we help you? Beating up the Mayor and all. Are you out of your minds?"
Mukluk draws The Poker, but isn't acting threatening. He doesn't say anything and would prefer to avoid a fight if he can.
They look at each other and lay down their tridents.
"Yeah, sure, we won't attack if you deal with what's behind that door."
"What exactly is behind that door?" Rova asks, curiously.
She eyes them up, studying the nearer, red-clad one to try to get some idea what they might face.
Mukluk waits, hoping for a good clear answer to Rova's questions.
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Laughters tumbles out from behind Niksi’s mask. She then pauses, holding up her face with her chin up as if she just caught a scent, switching her face over to “puzzled.” ”What is that? A smell of...hmm.” She begins sniffing around each of her companions, pausing to mime an exaggerated quizzical tilt to her head. ”Steam? Steak? Stew? Sturgeon? Stake?” She holds up a declarative finger. ”Yes...stake. That’s the closest. A bit smoked, yes. People do tend to get burnt on those after all.” She then takes a step closer to the two ad hoc doormen. She picks up each of the tridents, sniffs them, then tosses them back to her friends. She finally sniffs in the direction of the two doormen. She pumps her fist in triumph then steps back to the rest of the group, twirling back to face the doormen with a swoosh of her tailcoat. ”Dear gentlemen, I discovered the malodorous scent. I regret to inform you that your trousers are currently aflame. Or, to put it more colloquially—“ She switches her face to a rarely used one, one she keeps only for the most particular moments. The eyes are painted unnaturally bulged with lashes like spider legs. The mouth is also pulled open in a grin of too many teeth. The texture of the mask is designed to look like human skin stretched thin and bleached white. This, dear friends, is her “scary” face. ”’Liar, liar pants on fire.’” Her voice goes up an octave and takes on an artificial, exaggerated sweetness, taking a luscious turn on the final word. She really hates having to bring out the whole “scary clown” shtick and finds it terribly unoriginal, but sometimes the classics are classics for a reason. ”Now, gentlemen, if you would like to learn firsthand how I got my wooden face to have such soft skin, please, continue to lie to me! I would be happy to show you every excruciating detail.” It’s actually some animal leather and the help of a lovely bodypainter she met at a club a decade ago, but half of scaring people properly is implying enough to let their minds fill in the rest.
In answer to Rova's question. "Well, uh, we recently killed a ghoul and traced it back to here. So there might be more ghouls in there. But maybe not. We're not sure."
As Niksi terrifies them, their faces grow pale. They grab the slurk and run away, out the front door.
Rova's mouth drops at this new Niksi. She's is, for the moment, stunned 3.
Eventually, she recovers.
"Do you think they were telling the truth about more ghouls in there? That doesn't seem right..." she says. "(Also, should we have just let them go? They were probably more demon worshipers.)"
Niksi waits until the doormen are well away before switching her face back to her more neutral “happy” faceplate. She changes her entire demeanor back to her natural state. ”Don’t worry, everyone; I’m still the same Niksi as ever. I just saw a ripe fight or fright moment, and fright seemed simpler. I apologize if I frightened any of you.”
Mukluk looks sternly at Niksi, having only fully heard half the words she said. He nods, happy to have avoid another fight.
"Well, uh, we recently killed a fool and traced it back to here."
"Yeah, ok then. A fool, huh? I prefer clowns, myself. But they can usually be apart of any circus, either of them," Mukluk agrees. "Not sure why they are all worked up about that."
I guess they are worried about looking foolish.
With weapons in both hands, he's ready for someone to open the door so he can hopefully convince the fool to go do his foolin' someplace else.
Prism looks at Niksi. "They were lying to us? About the ghouls or helping us?" She looks warily at the boarded up door. "Should we take a look?"
Rova nods, and makes sure she has her weapons ready.
"What do we know about ghouls, if they weren't lying about that," she says.
Unfortunately, undead were certainly part of her education as a child, but they tended to focus more on the mindless ones that would likely pour forth as part of Rovagug's awakening, not things like ghouls.
”They lied about leaving us be. They were intending to attack us when we had our guard down. They were probably being honest about the ghoul, as far as I can tell.”
You tear the boards down from the door and enter.
The stone steps from the secure chamber lead down into darkness. While torch sconces are mounted on the walls, the torches all burnt out long ago.
Mukluk waits by the door to see if others are going to need and obtain light, or if he needs to go in alone.
"What kind of fool lives in the dark?"
"Aghoul?" Prism grabs one of the torches from the wall and gives it a light.
"It may just be somewhere they didn't go a lot," Rova also points out. "My family didn't usually lead the ritual chamber lit if they weren't going to be down there. Sure, The End is probably going to come before we all run out of money or trees for torches, but you never know."
You all quietly descend the staircase. After a bend in the hallway, there is another staircase down.
The stairs lead to a narrow series of corridors containing over a hundred burial niches. The horizontal niches are each large enough for a human body and are vertically arranged in groups of three: one niche at knee level, one at waist level, and another at eye level.
You see a collapsed hallway filled with rubble to the left and an open corridor to the right.
Rova glances into the niches, wondering when the bodies in there will start moving.
The bodies are not moving, but the rubble looks awfully unstable. You think getting too close would cause a collapse.
A thievery check could prop up the ceiling in key locations.
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”Careful now. Niches be crazy,” Mukluk warns, hoping to avoid a collapse.
If there are any bodies in the niches, he will drive the Poker into the skull of each, just in case they aren’t dead-dead.
”That was some rather niche humor, Mukluk.”
Niksi stands back to let Prism have a go first, knowing the gnome has much greater skill at such matters.
Prism takes a look at the rubble. "Weshould..shoreitup..hereandhere..soit doesn't cavein..behindus."
Prism carefully prods the ceiling in a few places. She eventually finds the right spot.
Mukluk will continue his trepanning of any body as he moves through the area, desecrating bodies with a hole in the head as he goes. He moves up to the next niche, giving the party time to look around as they move.
Perception, intersection
Rova looks a bit horrified by Mukluk's actions, but continues to follow, ready for the ghoul, or some other horror. Unfortunately, her gaze keeps straying back to the dwarf.
Mukluk thinks that there is some movement in the large room forward and to the right.
Niksi will likewise proceed stealthily, her practiced skills as a dancer providing her with great poise and control of her movements.
Initiative!
Prism
Mukluk
Blue
Yellow
Niksi
Rova
Green
Red
The ghouls stand in wait near the entrance, but Prism and Mukluk get the drop on them!
Prism quickly moves into the room with the torch to get the drop in on the undead. "So many of them." He voice shakes a bit in fright. She slices her sickle at it to try and bring the undead down quickly.
She then raises a magical shield in front of her for protection.
HP 25/38
AC 20 (AC 21 w/ Shield)
Hero Points 1/3
Vibrant Display 1/10 minutes
Round 1
Action 1: Stride.
Action 2: Strike.
Action 3: Strike.
Mukluk watches as Prism dances by him, and moves up to strike at yellow twice.
to hit;
damage
to hit;
damage
[ dice=Gouger]1d20+10[/dice] to hit;
[ dice=P]1d6+4[/dice] damage
[ dice=Poker]1d20+10-4[/dice] to hit;
[ dice=P]1d4+4[/dice] damage
[ dice=Poker]1d20+10-8[/dice] to hit;
[ dice=P]1d4+4[/dice] damage
[ooc]If crit: cold iron piercing damage.
AC: 21 +2 with shield action.
Fort/Ref/Will: 9/9/9
HP: 46/46 -11 -32
Focus: 1/3
Hero Points: 2
Speed: 20'
Luck? 0/1 used