Lialda saw the spirits of the dead suddenly appear, the corpses mouths full of fire and ash screaming in agony.
Agatsu feels the urge to shake and flee, but still manages to keep his composure.
Darren, watches the scene which ends after a few seconds.
"A haunt, there is no telling how long it will be until it manifests again. WE had better search this room as quickly as possible."
"I don't know that I want to experience that again. Can they do anything to us? Is everyone comfortable searching the room before we leave?" Sylvar asks as he quickly moves over to the single door to check for traps before opening it, although he will leave the room the way they came in if the group prefers to.
You find about 200gp worth of various trinkets. Sylvar's sharp eye finds a trapdoor concealed beneath one of the beds.
Unable to resist, Sylvar checks the trapdoor for traps before opening it. "Can anyone else help searching so we don't run out of time. I really don't want to still be in here when those haunts come back. I hope I'm not doing anything to trigger them," he says.
The party's other elf follows Sylvar closely while keeping an eye out for traps and other hazards.
It takes about ten minutes to do a quick search of the room. The only hidden thing was the trapdoor. Sylvar detects no traps on it. So, the question is, do you continue searching the rest of this floor, or do you try the trapdoor?
"I think we should explore up here before trying down there. Who knows what other clues we might find." Alistaire opines.
"However, we should be prepared for that haunt when we come back here."
"Alright, but I'm not sure I want to come back into this room. Maybe we will find where the door leads from below and won't need to come back. Let me check this single door," he says as he moves over to search it before opening it.
Agatsu nods in agreement to Alistaire and Sylvar, and then proceeds to follow the rogue as he moves to check the door.
The single door is a steel door. And you realize it probably leads to the stone annex on the side of the chapel. Sylvar detects no traps, and is also able to tell that it has been opened recently.
When you open the door, several rats scurry away into the debris. This square room has a set of steep stone stairs leading down into darkness. Resting in front of the stairs is a steel lockbox. It is obvious that people have tried to open it before, but it remains locked. Immediately to your left is another single
Someone had been here, huh? - whispers Agatsu towards Sylvar, and then steps in the room to start looking around and investigating before advancing.
Kilien follows with her bow at the ready, giving all the stonework a cursory examination, looking for hidden features of the building.
"Yes, so we need to keep alert as someone or something else may still be here. Watch the stairs while I check this door and then the lockbox," he says as he checks the other door for traps before opening it to see what is on the other side.
"Once I check this lockbox, I think we should finish exploring this level before going down into the basement. Darren, can you say a prayer for me?," he says after closing the door and moving over to the lockbox to check it for traps.
Sylvar proves to be more skilled than previous people. There is no trap, but there did seem to be some sort of magical lock, however, Sylvar is able to bypass it and open the lockbox.
The lockbox contains a potion of darkvision, a scroll of barkskin, a scroll of ghostbane dirge, a masterwork hand crossbow, and a case containing 10 normal bolts, 10 cold iron bolts, and 10 silver bolts.
Lialda was glad the haunt was over with and helped in the examination of the room. The trap door that they stumbled on and the lockbox beneath proved useful once it was opened. Lialda kept an eye on the room since it seemed they would be coming back up as it made no sense for everyone to go down just then.
Sylvar smiles when he is able to bypass the magical lock. "Hmm, I wonder who these belong to. Can anyone use these?" he asks. If no one claims any items, he places them in his pack. "If anything, we can sell them. Let's go through this other door to finish exploring this level," he says while waiting for the rest of the group.
Once they are ready to proceed, he walks through the door and looks around more closely than when he peeked out earlier.
Realizing that, rather than finish this floor, they were continuing down below Lialda quickly climbed down to joint he group. She did ask, "Do you think we should close the trap door behind us?" Before she came all the way down.
When you open the door, you see a long narrow room. The support walls and pillars that once connected the Plague House to the huge boulder behind it have burnt and crumbled in this ruined chamber, revealing nearly the entire face of the monolithic stone as well as much of the sky above. Jagged red runes have been painted onto the rock in long, broad strokes that reach from top to bottom. A cabinet on the southeast wall and a tall bookcase against the northeastern wall are all that remain of the room’s furnishings.
Lialda was near the back of the group and looked into the room as best she could. The room looked...eerie, and she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to go in there, buts he knew they would need to. Hvita was peering out of her pack over her shoulder nervously.
I figured Sylvar is first because of his Perception and trap finding, Then probably Agatsu as he is a frontline fighter and has high Perception also. The question really is whether you want Alistaire also near the front or as rear guard?
As you enter the room, Kilien notices movement out of the corner of her eye. Looking up, she sees the bloated body of an immense spider dropping down on the group.
"'Ware spiders!" Kílien cries out in her cracking voice as she draws and shoots.
Kilien hits the spider with an arrow that sinks deep into its abdomen. It then drops on Sylvar.
The spider bites the surprised Sylvar.
Alistaire rushes forward to help Sylvar with the nasty creature.
but ends up not helping much.
Kílien draws, nocks and looses again, hoping to bring down the giant vermin quickly.
"Ahhh," Sylvar yells when the spider drops on him, it's fangs digging into his shoulder. Almost instantly, he feels a warming sensation spreading from the wound.
Agatsu enters his usual unorthodox fighting style, then advances to attack the spider.
Lialda didn't realize they were under attack by a giant spider until it had already began and Sylvar had gotten bitten. She stayed back as Hvita burrowed into her pack and quickly cast a spell to send a beam of blue light lancing out at the spider.
Agatsu smashes the wounded spider.
Sylvar feels his strength ebbing.
Darren attempts to treat the poison each round as well.
Sylvar, for your first two Fort saves you get an additional +4 bonus.
Kílien rushes to Sylvar's side and attempts to draw the poison out of the wound before it can do much damage.
Sylvar is relieved he doesn't have to fight the spider in his weakened condition.
"Thank you all for your help. Seems I was too focused on what was "in" the room and didn't think to look up. That bite really hurt. Give me a moment to see if I can regain my strength," Syvar says as he leans against the wall.
With the spider destroyed and Sylvar in obviously rough shape from both the wound and the poison, Lialda approached and said, "Here, this should help." Without words or gestures her hand became coated in pale golden light and she reached out to touch Sylvar's wound gently.
The light was warm and in stark contrast to the feel of Lialda's skin which was very cold, too cold for a human or half-elf. She kept her touch light not to cause pain as the wound began to close itself.
"O-of course," Kílien says hesitantly. "Always looking out for a fellow elf, and... I hope... a friend." She blushes and looks away, embarrassed by the interpersonal interaction, and begins searching the room for unusual features or hidden treasure.
With the defeat of the spider, you can give the area a thorough search. An abandoned hopeknife sits in plain sight on one of the shelves in the bookcase to the northeast. Its blade bears the inscription, “For Rodrik, my love.” This is the hopeknife that Brinya originally gave to Rodrik, but he misplaced it here. In addition, the bookcase contains a false back that Sylvar and Agatsu find. The small cubby behind the false back holds an ornate gold coffer studded with numerous gems. The coffer is empty, but is itself worth 500 gp. Pushing aside the rotted boards in the cabinet to the southeast reveals an iron flask containing oil of magic weapon and another holding a potion of shield of faith, a beat-up steel scroll case (worth 5 gp) holding two scrolls of knock and a scroll of summon swarm, and two vials of holy water.
At the far end of the room is a collapsed stairwell. The wooden staircase here that once led to the upper story has all but crumbled to ashes. The northern wall has collapsed, and the floor underneath has sunk entirely, leaving a dark, gaping hole in the ground surrounded by rubble. A single door exits the room to the northeast.
Sylvar inspects the hopeknife. "I wonder if Rodrik set this here or if someone stole it from him and put it here. I'm feeling a little weak from the spider bite but I think I can continue. Let's finish searching this level," he says as he begins moving to the other end of the room. Seeing the door at the end of the hallway they first entered, he searches it for traps before opening it.
Sylvar finds no traps. As you get closer, you realize that the hole in the floor will probably give access to the basement below, but it doesn't look very stable. When you open the door to the NE, you see a short corridor that opens to a small room. Most of this room is in shambles, and the western wall has collapsed in a heap of rubble. A staircase to the northeast leads to a wooden loft upstairs; the area beneath the loft is filled with fallen beams, jumbled bricks, and other debris.
Sylvar searches the room. "Not sure there's much left here," he says as he carefully searches the room, making sure to note if it looks like anything else will fall from the loft.
Lialda shook her head and said, "I don't know if Roderick left it here or not though didn't we learn that he had lost it? I doubt he would have left this behind intentionally. I wonder what made him leave in such a hurry that he didn't know he had left the hopeknife behind?"
As the group pushed ahead Lialda looked around the room woriedly, particularly at the collapsed wall, and hoped the whole place wouldn't come down on them. "I would agree Sylvar, this place feels very empty."
Sylvar is fairly certain that there is nothing of interest in this small room. The stairs leading up to the loft seem to be in good repair and whoever goes up first confirms that it is safe. Most of this wooden loft is still standing—this is the only remnant of the building’s destroyed second floor. The roofless chamber is completely exposed to the elements and filled with soot-covered debris, fire-damaged furnishings, and charred wooden beams. A large, soot-covered brass statue of a goddess with a longsword in one hand and a kite shield in the other stands precariously on the northern edge of the platform above a rickety flight of stairs.