Drusilla will follow the other elf. She was glad to not try her hand at such a leap. It would probably be disastrous! Once they are up in the new area she will speak to the others.
"We should wait, regroup and reform our matching order." She states as she takes a look about, trying to see if she can spot any more weak floors.
Kwin opens the kitchen door, then points down at the floor. He says to those following him "Try not to disturb these footprints here. Let's have Badger take a look at them. Perhaps he can tell how long they've been there."
Kwin makes his way over to the north staircase in the kitchen. In a regular voice, he calls up "Badger! Can you come look at something?"
If Badger does come into Kwin's view at the top of the stairs he'll say
Yes, Kwin stepped over the difficult terrain of the wreckage of the ceiling when passing from the Entrance Hall into the hallway toward the kitchen.
Badger carefully navigates the back stairs. They are missing some steps, but the ones that are there are sturdy enough.
Analyzing the tracks, Badger finds them made by daily traffic of medium-sized humanoids.
Argyri nods at Drusilla's suggestion, and gathers back up in the kitchen. When the footprints are pointed out, she nods in understanding, tip toes to the door the prints go to, and listens. Then she checks carefully to see if it's locked.
Argyri nods at Drusilla's suggestion, and gathers back up in the kitchen. When the footprints are pointed out, she nods in understanding, tip toes to the door the prints go to, and listens. Then she checks carefully to see if it's locked.
Argyri finds silence behind the unlocked, closed door.
When everyone's there, she holds up a silent 3 fingers...2...1...and then opens it (rapier in hand).
She peers--but doesn't step--in.
When everyone's there, Argyri holds up a silent 3 fingers...2...1...and then opens the door (rapier in hand). She peers--but doesn't step--in.
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. The tracks continue from the door down the stairs.
Argryri motions for the others to follow, and tip toes down the stairs.
When the door opening is anti-climatic, Kwin says "If anyone is here, they likely heard that floor collapsing on us. They'll at least know we were here, the same way we know of them." He gestures to the footprints they are leaving for emphasis. "I don't think ghosts leave footprints. Does anyone have an idea who might be here?"
When Argyri treads on the top step,
"Is there anything on the other side we should be concerned about?" Drusilla says as she readies her dagger and her cantrip. Should she need it.
"Ghosts don't leave footprints, but whomever is screaming like that probably does." Tarn exclaimed. "Come, let's go!" He said, as he rushed down, hammer in hand.
Argyri rushes down behind Tarn, forgoing stealth (and a bit relieved to have the sturdy dwarf at the fore).
Keeping with the order they had established before, Kwin rushes down after Argyri. But he grits his teeth and says "Be wary of an ambush!", even as he charges headlong forward with the others.
Badger readies and follows the others down.
Tarn, followed by Argyri and everyone else, charges down the stairs into the cellar. 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 human corpse clad in plate mail; a longsword lies by the corpse's right side, and a large shield covers its legs.
Everyone notices the tracks on the floor continue to the south wall of this chamber and stop abruptly at ab obvious secret door to the east of the fireplace.
"Rekon that's our screamer?" The gnome asked in his thick accent.
The corpse smells at least a couple weeks rotten. You would need to examine it for more precision.
Weasel take 2!
AC 8
When the body moves a bit during Blacklock's examination and moving the shield, the corpse explodes with swarms of rot grubs.
Kwin calls on his god's aid to help the poor traveler on his way to the afterlife by cleansing his body of the infestation. He calls down a sacred flame on the swarming menance.
Casting sacred flame. The swarm takes radiant damage unless it makes a DC 13 dexterity saving throw. Then he'll step back some more, giving the others room to pull back if they need to.
The others responded with skill, grace and confident pugilism. Tarn, on the other hand, swung his hammer wildly, his eyes just as wild, as he scattered any grubs that approached him, as he desperately avoided any getting in his beard!
Medium swarm of tiny beasts, unaligned
Armor Class 8
Hit Points 22 (5d8)
Speed 5 ft., climb 5 ft.
STR DEX CON INT WIS CHA
2 (-4) 7 (-2) 10 (+0) 1 (-5) 2 (-4) 1 (-5)
Damage Resistances piercing, slashing
Condition Immunities charmed, frightened, grappled, paralyzed, petrified, prone, restrained
Senses blindsight 10 ft., passive Perception 6
Swarm. The swarm can occupy another creature's space and vice versa, and the swarm can move through any opening large enough for a Tiny maggot. The swarm can't regain hit points or gain temporary hit points.
Bites. Melee Weapon Attack: +0 to hit, reach 0 ft., one creature in the swarm's space. Hit: The target is infested by 1d4 rot grubs. At the start of each of the target's turns, the target takes 1d6 piercing damage per rot grub infesting it. Applying fire to the bite wound before the end of the target's next turn deals 1 fire damage to the target and kills these rot grubs. After this time, these rot grubs are too far under the skin to be burned. If a target infested by rot grubs ends its turn with 0 hit points, it dies as the rot grubs burrow into its heart and kill it. Any effect that cures disease kills all rot grubs infesting the target.
Badger lets out a whistle, "Lookin like ya found some big maggots. Yuck." at first surprised by everyone's sudden action it's at this point a few hop his way. He shakes and wiggles his feet as he hops away trying to shake any off before they get through his armor or a soft spot.
Badger looks at the swarm and grimaces. He pulls out his bedroll looks at it and curses. He shakes it out and gets ready to use it like a net.
Drusilla takes a moment and mutters."I wonder how well those would be for bait...Right, Cast a spell" Drusilla points her dagger at the grubs and utters some arcane syllables as she unleashes Mind Silver
Badger looks toward Blacklock, then the rot grubs, then back at Blacklock, "Rot Grubs." The gnome almost mouthed the words his face twisted puzzled. His eyes jump wide. That's so bad."
Badger moves a few feet forward. Tosses his bedroll over the swarm.
Once the bedroll lands the gnome shuffles to the swarm and leaps onto the bedroll. Hopping and stomping before moving off. He turns to look at his work.
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Argyri heaves a little in her throat, but wills herself to slide up beside Blacklock, where she does her best to skewer as many grubs as she can on her rapier.
Blacklock stamps on the deadly rot crubs and dances away to safety.
Kwin lights the swarm on holy fire.
Tarn smashes a swarm with his warhammer leaving a shell of vibrating thunder.
Drusilla attacks their almost non-existent minds.
Badger throws his bedroll over the swarm, stomps on then, and retreats.
Argyri closes into melee and skewers the rot grubs as they swarm from under the bed roll.
With only one live victim next to the swarm, the rot grubs start to climb on Argyri's legs. When a critical mass of the rot grubs reach Argyri's waist, Tarn's shell of vibrating thunder explodes with BOOM! The broken fragments of wine bottles echo and vibrate in a cacophony.
After the ringing in your ears stops, you look around the cellar. 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 human corpse clad in plate mail; a longsword lies by the corpse's right side, and a large shield covers its legs. Dead rot grubs are scattered around and near the corpse.
Everyone notices the tracks on the floor continue to the south wall of this chamber and stop abruptly at ab obvious secret door to the east of the fireplace.
Drusilla begins to xast prestidigitation to clean off the armor and weapons. At the end she'll Don the longsword and look at the others. "Do any of you want the shield? And I figured I can use my spell to carry out the plate mail. I hear it's expensive and could fetch a pretty decent amount of coin in town!"
Tarn stared at Drusilla as she went about cleaning the armor. All he could think about was the horrible death that the last occupant had suffered. Not that he could fault her reasoning, gold was gold afterall! But the thought of what had happened left him feeling sick to his stomach. He was just glad that his powers worked. Without thinking he ran his fingers over his ring, taking comfort in the touch.
"GAAAAAGHH!" Argyri shakes violently as the grubs die, and brushes them off her leg with the side of her rapier, as quickly as she's able.
While Drusilla cleans the armor, Argyri asks, "Ooooh! Does that work on pants too?"...looking down at the grub guts on her pants.
After that, Argyri goes to inspect the (poorly hidden) secret door. If it seems untrapped and she doesn't hear anything behind it, Argyri will open it and peer inside.
"Indeed it does! I use it to clean fish guts outta my clothes So that should work!" Frusilla says as she casts the spell on Argyris' pants cleaning them instantly.
Badger looks at his bedroll. "Um I da'not care if it works on bedrolls. I ain't touching that thing again. Gross." He shakes at the thought.
Kwin moves over to the metal storage bins. Do they look like they've been in use recently? Can he tell what they are (or were) used for?
Investigate
Drusilla stands and begins to look about the room, carefully scanning as she tried to pick out anything out of the ordinary!!!
Kwin inspects the metal bins. The outsides appear salt-stained and the inside have bits of straw, which may be packing material.
Drusilla cleans the potential loot and Argyri's clothes.
Afterwards, Drusilla looks around the wine cellar and spots a surviving bottle that rolled underneath the rack when it was victimized. The bottle's label bears the image of a jauntily dressed unicorn.
And, Argyri approaches the wall with the obvious secret door. After hearing only silence beyond the wall, she finds the latch to the door in a couple of seconds. The wall easily swings open revealing an even bigger cellar beyond.
This torchlit chamber was once a large cellar, but it has since been converted into living quarters. Crude beds stand along the south wall, each with a wooden locker at its foot.
From the doorway, she can see a wooden trestle table ringed by rickety stools dominating the center of the room. Metal cutlery, cups, and dirty plates sit atop the table.
"Ooo some wine!" Drusilla points at it and then asks "Should we grab it, it looks in tact?'
"Grab a bit. We might want to wait until we secure the house before we start a full salvage."
”Or a full party. It’ll be nice to have a tangible reward.”
" Then we put it in one of the metal bins? Hopefully it will stay intact? And safe!"
Argyri pauses at the threshold of the open secret door watching her companions secure salvage.
The living quarters beyond the secret door indicates that many people lived here. And with dirty dishes on the table and the smell and sound of a fire in a nearby fireplace, the inhabitants are not far.
With all of the noise that they have made, any attempt at catching them by surprise has been lost. And if this second cellar is as big as it looks from this doorway, it's probably where Tarn started walking down those stairs beneath the secret trap door. Could they have come full circle?
Drusilla will put away the dagger,draw a sword and see what she can possibly do with it. It had been a while but she remembers training with another elf, with other elves around her. 'Swords and Bows are the staples of our military, and every elf will learn to use them' came moving through her mind, a sliver of her past creeping in.