Tarn leads you into the wine cellar through the secret door. Shoulder-height wooden bottle racks line the north and west walls here. There appear to be no intact bottles left in the racks and shattered bottles cover the floor. Against the east wall, at the foot of the stairs, rest two large metal storage bins that appear to be empty. In the center of the room lies a ripe human corpse.
Then upstairs in the scullery. This room displays the effects of damp and decay more than most. Mold grows in patches on the floor, walls, and ceiling. A large copper cask, split, discolored and empty, stands under the window, with a small heap of crockery shards on the floor beside it. Stairs lead down into what is presumably a cellar.
Then through the only door in the room and into the kitchen. This kitchen is dirty and damp, with patches of gray mold and cobwebs on the floor, walls, and ceiling. In the southwest corner is some iron cooking equipment with a chimney above. Next to it, under the window, is a cracked and discolored stone sink. To the right of the sink, a small, closed wooden cupboard is fixed to the wall about five feet above floor level. Against the far wall, a flight of wooden stairs leads upward from west to east; the woodwork of the staircase is decayed, and a few of the treads are missing.
Blacklock is ready to attack, but the cupboard is empty.
But from under the sink slither four giant centipedes and attack! Two attack Tarn and two attack Blacklock! Of course, a centipede manages to bite the brawler.
”Armor, lad. This is why ye wear…ah fook.” He cursed as the brawler went down. Sadly, his ability to squish oversized insects left something to be desired. He silently decided that he would continue learning how to properly armor himself, as at the moment it didn’t feel like he had enough steel between him and the creatures.
Drusilla stays back and utters a simple phrase at one of the Centipedes she can see.
Argyri groans. "AGAIN??"
She move in, trying to take advantage of Tarn's position. She attempts to skewer one of the overgrown bugs but it skitters away. As it does, Argyri comes at it from the side with her dagger.
Badger draws his weapons and moves to go after the same foe as Argyri (if he can). He cuts at the monsters with his swords.
Kwin grimaces when he sees Blacklock go down. His impulse is to charge forward, to help the young man in his distress, bt he knows he'd only become a victim of the insects himself if he did. Instead, he readies his bow, nocks an arrow, and loosed it at one of the centipedes.
Longbow, to hit , damage .
Black lock falls... again. His companions react.
Tarn misses with his hammer time.
Drusilla targets a minuscule insect mind.
Argyri moves up to melee and stabs a centipede killing the mind-attacked insect.
Badger joins melee from upstairs and kills to bugs.
Kwin pulls his longbow out and skewers the last one.
Once again, Argyri rushes over to Blacklock. While the wound seems small, the way it swells--and the ashen color of his face--make it clear he needs more than just a bandage.
"Kwin, will he be OK? Can you call on the gods to save him??"
Kwin drops his bow and rushes over to the fallen warrior. He chants quietly while he lays hands on Blacklock. When the spell ends, he checks the boy's pulse, rests his palm on his forehead to gauge his temperature, and plucks at his skin to see its response.
"He is certainly strong, this one. The poison still courses in him, but his body is already winning out. With some rest, his will shall finish the job that the Horizon Walker's magic has started."
Casting cure wounds on Blacklock, healing .
"Y'know, I need to take up a hobby for the time we spend waiting for Blacklock to regain consciousness. Maybe dice games? Whittling?"
Argyri looks around the room for some wood she can whittle, and tries her hand while they wait.
While she carves, she turns to the plucky gnome. "Hey, Badger, where'd YOU learn to fight like that?"
"Angyri you could help me practice my songs. My master said I had horrible musicality" Dru says with a slight laugh as she looks to Blacklock.
" We should get you a nice Ranged weapon" She says coming over to pat the young man on the shoulder. One she has seen about town for the decades she has been there.
While she carves, she turns to the plucky gnome. "Hey, Badger, where'd YOU learn to fight like that?"
"Don't live long in the Hool if ya can't scrap. I guarantee. Me father teach me the baics, guard taught me to think with a team, usually."
Against the east wall, at the foot of the stairs, rest two large metal storage bins that appear to be empty. In the center of the room lies a ripe human corpse.
After an hour, Blacklock recovers, concerned that insects entered his body. With consensus, Tarn heads out the kitchen door to explore the downstairs.
The first door on Tarn's right is a dining room. At one time a long table stood in the center of this room; now it lies broken on the floor. A broken chair sits against the wall between the windows, and there is a heap of broken dishes in the northwest corner. There is nothing else of note here.
The next door on Tarn's left is a withdrawing room. Two stuffed armchairs stand near the fireplace of this room. The covers of both have been torn and the stuffing has been pulled out, but the wooden frames are intact. A broken table lies on the floor near the north wall. You notice a collection of mouse bones spilling out from the hearth of the fireplace.
"Our second round of salvage isn't going to well, eh?" Tarn said as he poked around. "Two more rooms. Hopefully something of value is left behind." He looked through the rooms with an eye for profit.
Tarn approaches the fireplace in the withdrawing room looking for loot. After he notices a stone out of place on the chimney above the fireplace, a swarm on spiders flood forth with obvious irritation.
The spiders envelope the dwarven captain!
”Foooooook!” The dwarf cursed as he was engulfed. He swung his hammer about wildly, trying to smoosh the arachnids and shake them off. Once more he was glad to be wearing armor…
Kwin summons his god's wrath down upon the swarming arachnids.
Casting sacred flame. They take radiant damage unless it makes a DC 13 dexterity save.
Drusilla looks at the spiders and squeals a bit before she utters the same arcane phrase and hopes it affects this swarm of disgusting spiders.
"I hate spiders." Badger moves in and starts whacking at the spiders.
When the spiders swarmed the dwarf, his armor of Agathys froze a batch of arachnids.
The dwarf swings his hammer and crushes some spiders on the ground around him.
Blacklock tumbles next Tarn and smashes the bugs.
Drusilla stares at the bugs.
Badgers skewers the rest of the spiders.
Tarn investigates the stone that he saw looking out of place on the chimney above the fireplace. Removing the stone reveals a hidden compartment containing a wooden box. Inside the box are 30 cp and two small pouches of alchemical powders .
Exiting the withdrawing room, you find yourself the musty, dirty entrance hall again. To your right, a corridor leads into the west wing of the house. The walls are bare and bits of smashed furniture lie upon the floor.
A staircase on the eastern wall climbs to the next story, reaching it at a balcony that overlooks the entrance hall along its north and west sides; the stairs appear safe to climb, though the balcony rail is broken in several places.
”Wasn’t bloody worth it.” Tarn grumbled as he put his wards back up. ”Western room first? Don’t think it will make much difference. Just hope there’s nay any fooking creepy crawlies in there.”
"By the Moon's light I hope no more spiders!" Drusilla says looking over the Alchemical powders, triple checking for any sign of Spiders.
"West it is." Badger moves with the group keeping a watch on the flanks and rear.
You turn toward the west wing. The first door on the left opens into a library, with bookshelves around the walls. Most of the shelves are broken, and in many places they have come away from the wall. The few shelves still intact are empty, but a pile of books rests in the southwest corner.
The fourteen books in the heap untidily thrown into the corner are covered with cobwebs, vermin droppings, and harmless mold. All are partially ruined but are still legible. Most of the books are dull (histories, collections of romantic poems, and so forth), but three are quite noteworthy. These three books bear clear titles on their spines:
1. The Magical Properties of Gemstones by the archmage Tenser
2. The Magical Properties of Herbs and Flowers by the archmage Tenser
3. The Metaphysics of Mathematics by the mage Nystul
Across the hallway was once a writing room or study. Against the wall under the windows sits a large wooden writing desk, partially broken and riddled with damp rot. There are three drawers in each side of the desk and a large central drawer; the latter is closed, but the others are all open—and two of them have been broken open forcibly.
Drusilla will look at Blacklock and then points to the book pile. "Three of those are noteworthy. We should definitely get those. Though I would need your assistance, cause I am not a fan of spiders. But I will use Prestidigitation to clean it all up"
After that, she points to the Desk."Someone go through the desk. There may be something useful or valuable"
Her curiosity piqued, Argyri will check the closed drawer.
"Woah, hey, is your dad a mathematician?"
”That some kind of Wizard? Can’t see why they make up weird names for everything. Like necromancer! Just call it a zombie-mage, aye? Makes more sense. Or pyromancer. It’s a fire mage! Bet that they’re just trying to sound mysterious. So what’s a metaphysicist? Some kind of math-magician?” He asked, while keeping an eye out for any more spiders or the like.
When Agryi moves towards the desk, Kwin readies his bow, covering her in case it holds some sort of surprise.
Argyri checks the closed drawer. The central drawer is locked and opens with a quick application of thieves' tools. The drawer contains nothing but old, valueless documents, all written in Common—receipts for purchases of various chemicals and laboratory equipment.
When Argyri confirms that there is no danger to the drawer, Kwin lowers his bow and puts the arrow back in his quiver. He starts to wander around the room, using the end of his bow to tap at things.
He tries to think like a pre-teen boy, like those he met at the docks the previous evening. What would they explore, and how could it be dangerous to them?
That leads him over the the broken shelves. He pushes at them with the end of his bow, making sure they wouldn't collapse on someone unsuspecting. The same with the desk. He'll check it over and push on it; if it is going to collapse, better now than when a kid is under it.
Investigation if relevant: .
Drusilla blinked and then tapped her chin."Metaphysicist that is one of those Earth Studies things. Still noteworthy but nothing like the arcane." Dru walked over to look at the desk as she slipped books away into her bag, and wondered what sort of chemicals and stuff this supposed alchemist was working on.
She rummaged through the drawers looking at the papers and whatnot.
Drusilla uncovers a small secret compartment. Inside the secret compartment, wrapped in cloth, is a glass vial containing two doses of potion of healing.
Drusilla holds up the two vials and looks at Kwin and Tarn.
"I believe these to be healing draughts. I personally think it should go to the kid.Though not sure how he will take it when he falls?"