Bow held in front of him with an arrow astride the shaft, Cetan slinks through the narrow opening of the doorway. His padding feet make no sound.
Brogann stays outside for a few moments, waiting for an alarm from Cetan. He knows he isn't as stealthy. A stealthy approach is only as good as the least stealthy in the group. He holds his sword ready and debates following the archer in. I would ruin his plan...
What is the light like inside? If the loft on the western side is the only remants of the second story, and the roof is likely gone, I would imagine we have sunlight where we are.
Brogann finds nearly a half-dozen sets of tracks coming and going from the back door, although the hardened earth makes it difficult to determine details.
Inside, Cetan sees a wooden staircase that once led to the upper story, now 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.
To the south, 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.
Cetan's arm pops back through the doorway, his handing waving his companions onward, that it's safe to follow quietly.
The tiefling notes the carving and smiles. Young love...
His grimmer expression returns as he scans the room, and the hole in the ground.
--------------
Once others enter the building, Cetan shares that the runes are Orcish, and spell the name "Skreed".
Does anybody now that name?
"We know they were here for sure now... Skreed is a name? Does anyone know the name from town?"
Sigrun also moves in and goes to carefully peek into the hole in the floor.
Sky Voice scans the surroundings but doesn't see anything of concern
Brogann sees nothing, and follows Cetan. He shakes his head. "I don't know the name."
Before a more thorough search of the room can be attempted, several massive spiders lurch from the shadows, leaping to the attack.
The first spider, as large as a grown man, skitters from the end of the southern hall, throwing itself onto Brogann. The sword binder's shoulder erupts in pain as its fangs punch through his clothes and into the flesh beneath.
Two more spiders—smaller than the first, but still as large as hunting hounds—clamber down and around the ruined staircase. Sigrun's face reflects in their myriad eyes as they close in on the rogue.
Sigrun shouts a warning when she spots the spiders, but stays put where she is since she's hemmed in between the hole in the floor one way and the party otherwise. She strikes at the 2nd spider of those coming down the stairs as it reaches the bottom.
Brogann snarls, takes his greatsword, and tries to cut the spider in half.
Then he steps back to make room for others.
Cetan grunts, attempting to hide that he's a little overwhelmed in the moment that the spiders rush in. He steps back and begins reciting spell words to himself...
Darkness seems to gather and weave into the arrow that rests astride his bowshaft.
His eyes seem to glow slightly in the same purplish darkness that gathered on his arrow before he steps away looses it at the spider directly to the East.
He quickly after looses a separate, plain arrow at it.
Sky Voice 5' step south and attack with Earthbreaker
Towering Brother 5' step SW and full attack
Cetan's arrow finds its mark, skewering the largest spider. It cries an agonized shriek as Gabsen dives into the melee. His longsword bites into the biggest of the creatures, hacking off a leg with a spurt yellow-green ooze. The others fare worse in their attempts, their blows doing little more than splintering the wood of the Plague House.
The wounded spider lunges at the fighter, although Gabsen deflects the attack on his shield. The two smaller spiders continue down the stairs, biting at Cetan and Towering Brother. Tooantuh's beast grunts as fangs graze its skin, and although the damage is inconsequential, it is enough for the venom to take.
It's getting tight in here.
The tiefling withdraws down the hall for a better shot.
Brogann casts Mage Armor. Next round he will move up and attack again.
Gabsen wastes no time and strikes back at the spider, using all his might in hope to kill it fast.
The sword plunges deep into the oversized arachnid, drawing ichor
All that sleuthering bored me.Time to get some exercise.
Sigrun swivels to follow the spiders as they descend the stairs. She takes another shot at the last one coming down.
Sky Voice makes another futile strike then yells in his Giant tongues.
Towering brother toots cry of pain from his trunk before attempting to once again attack the spiders.
[Ooc]Edit: Math on Towering Brothers Gore should be +3 not +4 and the damage on his slam should be +2 not +3 don't know hiw I managed 2 typos.
As Cetan retreats, Gabsen surges forward and hacks one of the smaller spiders into two twitching pieces. Sigrun turns to strike at the remaining runt, but her sword thuds into splintered wood. Tooantuh and Towering Brother fare little better against their foes, their blows connecting with nothing. Damn, but these arachnids are quick!
The smaller of the two spiders shifts southwards, away from the stairs. It tries to tentatively bite Gabsen, but its underdeveloped fangs fail to pierce the armor of his greaves. The larger spider creeps away from the boulder wall, failing to bite Tooantuh as well.
Having backed away from the crowd, Cetan feels more free to fire back into it.
Gabsen skewers the little spider easily, without emotion
Cursing another miss, Sigrun hurries along after the spiders and attacks again.
Sigrun and Gabsen cut down the clearly over-matched spiders, cleaving them into twitching corpses and stinking goo. But for the wind blowing over the badlands outside, silence once again falls over the Plague House.
With the fight finished, a more adequate search of the room can begin. The most obvious clue is a hopeknife, abandoned atop one of the bookcase shelves to the northeast. Discovering anything else requires a more thorough search.
If viewed under the effect of detect magic, the flasks and scrolls give off weak auras.
Cetan lowers his bow and frowns, very dissatisfied at the shot he didn't get to make. It irritates him like an itch that can't be scratched, but he quickly shakes it off.
Slinging the bow over his back, he begins to search the room while looking out for more spiders.
There must be more where those came from.
Brogann is likewise frustrated at not having been more effective in the battle, but gets to work looking for clues.
"Rodrik's hopeknife, the one that he lost."
He pokes at the bookcase further. "Well this is interesting."
He casts Detect Magic and examines the flasks and the scrolls.
One of the flasks contains an oil of magic weapon, the other holds a potion of shield of faith. There are also two scrolls of knock and a scroll of summon swarm.
Sigrun is left a bit cranky in the aftermath of the tussle with the spiders. She feels embarrassed by her poor showing; it took forever to run one of the things down and kill it.
She looks around some too since everyone else is. Mostly she concerns herself with the place's layout and spaces adjacent to the room they're in.
Sigrun finds a secret door under the ruined stairs, nearly hanging off its hinges. Opening it leads to an adjoining hallway.
Cetan is intrigued by this new development. He carefully opens the secret door and listens down the new hallway for signs of danger.
A good place for more spiders to hide. We should be careful.
Brogann will stash the scrolls, planning to scribe them later.
He shares his findings on the oil and the potion.
He moves a bit and takes a look. "There are also doors in the south side of the hallway near the front door, and also due south of us."
With the immediate threat gone Sky Voices languages return to him.
He takes a once over of Towering Brother's wound.
"I don't think the venom was strong brother your strength will return in a few days. Maybe faster if someone back in town knows the right miracles!"
Addressing Brogan "Those oils are quite good. I use those same magics to bolster my own or Brothers combat prowess quite often!
To the group "This place is definitely linked to what happend. Let us press on while we still have energy and put this sordid affair behind us and bring closure to the town."
"Let's see what is down the hallway that Sigrún found."
Most of this room beyond the secret door is in shambles, and the western wall has collapsed in a heap of rubble. A staircase to the south leads to a wooden loft upstairs; the area beneath the loft is filed with fallen beams, jumbled bricks, and other debris.
One can only wonder if the place is sure and won't fall on our heads..
Gabsen looks around cautiously, trying to discern if the house is still solid enough, and for most recent hints of people coming and going
Surely it's sound enough for us to take a quick look upstairs... surely.
He hasn't fully convinced himself and looks long and hard at the stairs.
"Doesn't seem worth it for me and Towering Brother to test shaky floors. We'll keep an eye out down here until we know that is the only way forward."
Brogann has Feather Fall prepared. He is somewhat less concerned about shaky floors, so he ascends while the others dither.
The stairs and loft above seem sturdy enough to support weight to the eyes of Gabsen and Cetan. Those that choose to inspect the upper level find the only remnants of the former church's 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 brass statue of an armored woman holding a longsword high and bearing a kite shield rests on the northern edge of the loft. Like everything else up here, it is blackened with soot and tarnished by the weather.
Cetan notes the brass statue, grunting and remarking.
Hmm, Iomedae. A private shrine that was out-of-the-way here.
His bow still drawn, he looks around the room.
It doesn't look like there's much to speak of here.
He briefly circles the room, kicking a piece of debris here and running his finger along a sooty surface there. He does not really expect to find anything noteworthy.
Assuming he finds nothing, he heads back downstairs and shares with the rest.
"We should probably tell Brantos and Tyari about this. I don't know if either have ever set foot in the Plague House, but they might wish to clean up this statue of their goddess."
He casts Detect Magic and looks around the room. Assuming he finds no magical auras, he heads back down.
Brogann stands at the intersection and casts Open/Close on the double doors just east of the front door, from a distance of 25' away.
Lacking any ideas about what they should be looking for or where they should be going of her own, Sigrun quietly follows the group along.
Gabsen stands ready to fight, after Brogan uses his magic to open the doors from afar
Handful trick.
The doors swing open, but no fresh threats come into view.
Two rows of scorched, wrought-iron bedframes take up most of the space in this soaring chamber, resting between a charred altar to the southwest and double doors to the northeast. A second set of double doors leads to the northwest, and a single iron door exits the chamber to the southeast.
Brightly colored holy figures stare down from the stained-glass windows built into the blackened stone walls, their visages noticeably less damaged than the rest of the room.
Theres a trap door, there, beneath that bedframe
Gabsen is looking around, wary for an ambush
Brogann also comes in and looks around.
He nods quietly to Gabsen, holding his greatsword.
Cetan follows Gabsen and Brogan into the room to investigation. Though his stride seems somewhat casual, his focus seems sharp as his head scans back and forth faster than his feet move.
As he enters the room he seems to sniff at something and mutters to the others.
Burnt flesh. Odd, the fire was nearly fifty years ago... Something has happened here recently.
"Nowhere to go but down it seems."