Your dwarven captain dashes up to Blacklock's body and ends one of the giant weasels, splitting its head open like a fruit with his warhammer.
Badger joins the melee and opens up a large slash on another weasel.
Argyri dashes over to join the melee, too. She skewers the weasel which is covered in Blacklock's blood with her rapier.
The fourth weasel visibly squints and shakes his head and then shrieks when it bathes in holy fire.
Blacklock blinks as divine healing flow through his body.
The bloodied two weasels disengage and dive into their borrow leaving trails of blood and carbonized fur.
Weasel 1 = -10 HP dead
Weasel 2 = -5 HP
Weasel 3 = -12 HP dead
Weasel 4 = -1 -5 = -6 HP
Blacklock has 6 HP!
Turning to Kwin, Tarn grinned and said ”Ye be full of surprises, master elf. I’m Tarn, captain of this group. Want to join us in investigating this here house? If there be more than weasels, your talents would be most useful. Uhm…and your name is…?”
The wood elf entering combat was a surprise, though a welcome one. He vaguely remember the sun bleached wood elf from the trek on the road. He looks to the elf squinting, "Thought you had left with the others. Glad you stuck. Even gladder you had some healing." He looks around again to see if the commotion brought attention from the house or elsewhere in the yard. He looks back at the wood elf cleric, "The name's Badger."
Badger turns to regard Blacklock, "Yer still with us. Good. Next time ya pull yer head from yer arse don't stick it in any other holes."
Badger looks to Tarn, "Well we found weasels. If something is in the house near that window. They might be wondering why they got a rock tossed in. Maybe we should pull back out the wall, bandage up and they we can head on." As he speaks about bandaging he looks toward the bite on his leg where he was bit.
Drusilla smiles as Blacklock gets up and comes over to give the Human Monk a hug. As she does she giggles." You are alive and still with us!"
Dru pulls away and her smile widens even more as she then walks over to greet the other elf.
Kwin picked up his staff and stepped closer to the others. He shrank a little, unused to so much attention on him. To Badger, he replies ”I stuck around because I wasn’t sure if this was my path… I’m just a pilgrim, following the path that Fharlanghn lays before me. I assumed he went to such lengths to put me here in Saltmarsh for a reason; I just didn’t think it would be-“ He shakes his head. ”I suppose it doesn’t matter what I thought.” To Tarn, he replies ”Yes, Captain. If you’ll have me, I will come along. Perhaps this is why I was guided here.”
At Blacklock’s suggestion of fish tacos, Kwin smiles and says ”One of the joys of traveling the world is trying to local foods! I’d be glad to try these tacos, assuming you don’t keep offering yourself up as food to the local critters.”
When Drusilla speaks to him in elven, he grins broadly.
Because the road is the best teacher, initiates are trained in the ways of Fharlanghn by being taken on long trips. They are dismissed if they ask when the journey will be over, because to the faithful of Fharlanghn, the journey never really ends.
Clerics of Fharlanghn are found throughout the world on various journeys but are most active in the Central and Southwestern Flanaess. There are two kinds of priests: urban and pastoral. Urban priests wear brown robes and maintain small chapels in cities and towns. Pastoral priests wear green and spend all their time wandering.
Brushing the grass and dirt from his elbows and thighs "...I'm sorry, waitress? I think you made a mistake...I didn't order any GRANDPA." gazing daggers at Badger.
Badger moves on half chuckling, "Don't know boy." He looks up pulling in a memory, "Me grandpa taught me if yer hunting something in its den to not lead with the face. I garuntee never thought the adage would be so on point."
Later when Kwin mentions Fharlanghn Badger smiles knowingly. "A follower of the Dweller on the Far Horizon. Welcome."
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Tarn smiled at Blacklock. ”At’s the spirit! Grab a torch while we investigate inside. Likely mighty dark with more creepy crawlies. Now, let’s go in and get this done!” He said, certain that with the weasels defeated, the worst that might happen is getting cobwebs in his beard.
"Did you all have an idea of where you were going to enter, or were you checking to see if that hole was a secret way in?"
"Well it looks like it has 3 doors and a bunch of broken windows." He looks to Blacklock and Argyri, "Did either of you see signs of folk inside, or foot prints near the doors?"
Kwin will light one of his torches and hand it to Blacklock. Then he'll take a few paces back, more than willing to let the stouter among them lead the way. As they move towards the front door, Kwin stays turned with his staff ready, in case the weasels decide they aren't done with us yet.
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When Argyri kills one of the enormous rodents with a single stroke, she looks thoroughly surprised.
I did it! Oh man, I wish Rummy had seen that...
When the elf brings Blacklock back from the dead, and then he agrees to Tarn's offer to join the crew, Argyri says, "Woah, I shoulda recognized you as a holy servant of Fharlanghn. I'm glad you're with us.
"Argyri Katrakis, Doer of Daring Deeds, at your service" She gives him a dramatic bow.
He lowered his voice an octave "Looks like the muthaf&@%in renovation team has arrived...time to bring in the wrecking ball!" holding his fists high.
Crickets chirped, and a beautiful bluebird alighted on Blacklock's shoulder chirping a merry tweet greeting and totally spoiling the ambience he was going for.
"Awwww!" Argyri reaches over to ruffle the boy's hair. "That's ADORABLE. Not every kid would have that kind of spunk right after a weasel chewed their face off, right? Go get'm, Tiger!"
On the question of doors, Argyri says, "I'm still partial to the rear porch. I kinda feel like the front door is...maybe just where we'd be expected to enter? And the side door goes into a hall, and I couldn't see far down it."
Tarn shrugged and followed behind, trying to softly whistle an old miner’s song.
"Argyri Katrakis, Doer of Daring Deeds, at your service"[/b] She gives him a dramatic bow.
Badger looks about trying to gage how serious Argyri is.
"Awwww!" Argyri reaches over to ruffle the boy's hair. "That's ADORABLE. Not every kid would have that kind of spunk right after a weasel chewed their face off, right? Go get'm, Tiger!"
Badger laughs but chokes when he hears how loud. He moves and side whispers to Blacklock, "If only ya had a rose." He offers the kid a torch.
He has his bow ready to cover. Once Argyri and those following close to here go in he will move in and move against the wall to the open side of the door along the wall looking for targets.
When she hears Badger chortle, Argyri looks over as if she's just noticing his wounds and says, "Oh, no offense, but you're not looking so hot, Big Guy. Maybe we should...of wait, didn't you just suggest we bandage up? There was so much going on, but sure. Some clean rags and ointment first. THEN we storm the castle!"
Badger takes a sec to bandage up. He mumbles chuckling incredulously, ”Big guy.”
You reach the door to the patio uneventfully through the garden, Agryri leads. Blacklock follows her again. Most of the patio pavers are cracked and overrun with weeds.
The solid wooden porch door is 5 feet wide and 7 feet high and easily opens for the dashing sailor. Illumination is bright; sunlight streams through most of the broken window panes.
The house's interior is dilapidated and damp, with patches of harmless mold everywhere. The woodwork is generally rotten. Cobwebs and dust are thick, and rubbish is scattered everywhere. Plaster fallen from the walls and ceiling lies strewn across the floor, along with the shattered remains of vandalized furniture.
Besides the patio door on the north wall, the 20-ft by 35-ft room has a door in the center of the east wall and a fireplace opposite on the west wall. Other than a pile of refuse in the southeast corner, the room is bare.
As soon Agryri makes one step past the threshold, you all hear a loud and malevolent voice say, Booming, fiendish laughter follows.
Tarn froze in his tracks at the booming voice and fiendish laughter. Hammer in hand he looked around the patio and muttered "Don't think that was a weasel."
[dice=Hit Die]1d10+2
Badger takes a sec to bandage up. He mumbles chuckling incredulously, ”Big guy.”
"Oh I could've cast light" Drusilla says a bit defeated. She was feeling a bit out of place. She was a fisherman, not an adventurer. At least not anymore. She didn't even really have many spells that could be considered combative. Her master had told her the same all those years ago.
AS the others headed in, Drusilla still clutching her dagger follows. She hoped she could pull her weight. The Elf has only a few real spells that she could lob at those that threaten the group.
Argyri gasps audibly when the voice speaks, but decides to put on a good face.
[larger]"Oh yeah! Well I think YOU are afraid of US! If you're so tough then come down here and talk to us face to face, why don't you?"[/larger]
She then glances over at Tarn, "Though if no one's coming out, do you want to lead the way or shall I?"
"Um Hello Mister or Misses Ghost, We don't mean to intrude but we came to help maybe put you to rest?" Drusilla says to the voice as she takes a position towards the middle. She hoped the other more combat-capable members would keep the worst of whatever came at them at bay.
"Well I think we're given up on surprise. Big question. Illusion or Ghostly."
He looks about for anything of interest or out of the ordinary.
As Blacklock searches the room Badger kneels opposite the door to the east incase it opens and an enemy shows up.
The scary announcement chills your bones but doesn't send you fleeing. After you recover from the initial shock, you start filing into the room. First the sailor, then the thug, and then the traveler. When the fisher steps into the house, she immediately notices an obvious trail in the debris on the floor leading to a trapdoor in the floor.
Blacklock doesn't discover anything as exciting.
”Wait, so the ghost is in the chimney?” Tarn asked Blacklock. ”How do we get it out?”
Tarn grinned, glad that someone in the group had some brains. He was just surprised that it was the streetfighter and not one of the magic-y types who had come up with such a good idea. "Practical solutions to practical problems." He muttered to himself as he went about getting what was needed to start a fire.
Drusilla watches in horror and then after a minute finally speaks up."Stop, that won't work, Ghosts are not solid nor do they need to breathe. So please try not to burn down the house!"
The Elf sighs."We can't do anything about it unless it shows itself. Until then its just some disembodied creepy voice okay!"
Drusilla points at the path."There are tracks that lead in that direction so whoever our 'ghost' is,is probably that way okay!"
" They go between the floor door and that door that kinda looks like a wall. Which I'm guessing I'm the only one who see them...they are real though" Drusilla says as she begins to follow the tracks to the door and points at the seems. Pointing out the doors obvious features that separate it from the wall.
In the room there is one obvious internal door in the east wall leading out of this room into the rest of the house. Drusilla is the only one who has spotted the tracks from that internal door to a secret trapdoor in the floor.
Now that Drusilla has pointed out the tracks and secret trapdoor, everyone now sees, wow. There's a secret trapdoor on the floor there within five feet from the patio door.
"Ah, so not the chimney, but through the secret door. Right." Tarn said. "Guess it takes a wizard to track a ghost. Let's go then! He finished, heading towards the trapdoor and opening it up.
Opening the trapdoor reveals a sturdy set of wooden stairs with a floor 10 feet down to a torchlit chamber.
”Lit torches. Why would a ghost need those?” Tarn wondered aloud as he descended down into the room.
Badger looks over, ”Are we gonna look about here and upstairs afore heading underground?”
"An excellent point, Badger. If someone or something lurks here on the ground level, they could trap us down below in the basement. We don't know if there is another way out down there. We should make sure the coast is clear up here first, I would think. And maybe we could put something over the trapdoor while we do. Either something heavy, or something fragile."
Tarn frowned as he climbed back up. ”Bah. How’s a ghost going to do that. Hands would just go right through.” He muttered. ”First weasels, now this? Bet it isnt a ghost at all and is just a gnome or something.”
"I mean that makes sense to try and see what's up here. But it could also tip the scales in favor of those below. Maybe we should sit something heavy on the trap door so they can't use it to get out and get behind us, either" She suggests looking around. She giggles and then nods.
"True why would ghosts need torches?"