Sparky watches the area for further surprises while Zano attempts to unlock the door. Small wisps of smoke rise from his body for a few seconds. He raises his hands, ready to start casting a spell if they are attacked.
Sylas will file in behind Zano with his weapon in his hands listening and watching closely.
The front door creaks open, and a cold phosphorescence illuminates the area. "Hello? Is anyone there?"
Sparky turns his head and freezes. "Did you hear that?" he asks his companions. "Would an undead try to trick us?"
He jumps down each step, easier than walking due to his size. When he can see the front hall he stops and watches the newcomer momentarily.
"Hello?! Are you seeking shelter?" a high-pitched voice calls. In the cold phosphorescence illuminating the hall, the stranger sees a poppet with shiny button eyes and plumes of smoke like incense rising from his body.
A short, bearded, dark-skinned man in leather armor is in the hall, light streaming from an object in his hand. He has a sheathed dagger at his belt, and the light clearly reveals the spiral symbol on the pendant he wears. "Well met. I am a traveler, seeking shelter from the storm. If I may ask, are you the ones who killed the centipedes outside? Are you in need of healing?"
alright damn it, if I come over there and we find you undead I swear I will stop and pull this search of this house over right now and beat you til you wish you were dead, so you understand me?! Sylas says
The man looks appalled. "Undead are anathema to my patron, the Lady of Graves!"
"You will be most welcome here then," the poppet says. "...And your Lady will thank you for your actions. As Sylas said, we've fought some undead. I'm sure there are more. I'm Sparky, formerly Scraps. The owner of the house is Rola," he points to the human female with them. He then indicates the dwarf. "And that's Zano."
He motions for the man to join them upstairs. "We explored half of the ground floor. Now we're going upstairs."
"I am named Ikshvaku Charayana. That is a mouthful, so call me Vak...it is easier to say. So you are fighting undead? I will gladly join you." He makes his way up the stairs.
The priest shakes hands with Zano. "It would seem that fortune and the Lady placed me here."
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Back to the door Zano opened! C17 on the map Map
A single long table sprawls through the middle of this dining room, surrounded by a combination of chairs, broken and otherwise. A pair of fallen chandeliers lie atop the table at either end. To the south, a shattered cabinet for displaying fine place settings just barely stands, while a sideboard for food preparation nearby teeters on rotten-looking legs. A large fireplace to the north is cold and dark, though it has become the centerpiece of a disturbingly majestic display of rotten
curtains and table linens, strips of carpet, fragments of wood, and, in a few places, strange bones of what appear to be bat-like humanoids, all arranged to depict an immense bat with its wings spread from one end of
the room to the other. Its head looks like little more than three hand mirrors placed to give the impression of an alien, three-lobed eye.
Also standing here are seven bat like humanoids. They turn to you as you open the door. Six move to attack, but the last one in the back barks out a command in what you can tell is Aklo and the others stop. the one who spoke looks at you and says a few more words. He gestures hopefully.
"Oh dear," Sparky says. "I don't know what language they are speaking." The poppet gives a bow to the apparent leader. Keeping his hands up, he takes a few steps along the eastern wall so that the others can file into the room.
"I do not understand what they are saying, either."
Sylas looks at the creatures and places his weapon to the side in a gesture of peace and shakes his head about Aklo and says none of us speak that I think.
we may be able to draw between us and the leader if someone has paper?
"Oh, that's a good idea!" Sparky says. "I wish I had paper. I try not to carry easily flammable items." For a moment anyone standing next to him feels like they're standing next to an oven with an open door.
The Vudran frowns in concentration, trying to understand what the bat-creatures are communicating.
Sylas looks up at the air and back down at the creatures and says seems it wants us to go take care of something above us
"Let us investigate upstairs. This is indeed a strange place, yes?"
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Seeing you discuss and gesture, the lead creature nods at you and points at you then upstairs. You get it wants to go up stairs, they don't want to!
You are not sure how to get up stairs, but where to next?
You are in C17
Map
"I do not suppose that any of you know where the stairs are? No? Well, then, perhaps we start in the middle." Vak points to the walled area between the north and south stairs. "I hope we will not encounter any click-clacks...."
"Or there may be some hidden stairs, the kind used by servants," Sparky says. "But your reasoning makes sense."
Sparky continues to explore this area expecting an attack.
Sylas moves out and slides in front of Sparky with a nod his weapon at the ready
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Off to C1!
you look at C1, its a giant second floor open balcony. The one one super stand out thing is the clock. It has a slight greenish glow coming from the front....
The creatures all nod as you leave looking like they assume you will deal with whatever is up there....
Map
Vak murmurs a brief cantrip and concentrates, trying to detect magic on the clock.
Seeing Vak casting magic, Sparky says, "That's a good idea."
The poppet spends a minute chanting while his hands contort and dance. Focused on the clock, he opens his perception to any magical auras emanating from it. The smell of burning wood drifts from him.
Sylas ho hums and cleans a fingernail as he watches the magic folk do their stuff
"So the clock...preserves something?" Vak approaches it carefully, trying to see if there's anything inside of it.
"There's a necromantic aura coming from the clock," Sparky says. "With a blend of abjuration maybe. Preservation. I don't think I've seen anything like this before." He steps closer to the clock and begins to search it for a key to wind the clock or for secret panels.
"If I can find the key, I'll wind the clock."
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An elegant, eight-foot-tall grandfather clock stands on a platform extending from the balcony. The clock’s face is six feet off the ground,
a mix of brass and bronze etched with ornate stars and planets. The clock’s iron hands are shaped like curving comets. Below, grimy glass windows built into doors allow the complex clockworks to be observed as the pendulum swings back and forth.
Above the clock face is a complex-looking pair of interlocking doors decorated with a tangle of curving metal strips. The arrangement resembles a set of intricate bars, which appear to secure the enclosed compartment. Within the compartment, a human brain floats inside a metal-and-glass container filled with bubbling fluid.
map
Roll the recall knowledge! Also feel free to roll arcana and occultism!
"I haven't seen anything so disturbing in quite a while," Sparky says. "A good number of years." The air around him shimmers, like the horizon on a hot day, while he thinks of what he knows of about necromancy and the undead. "I wonder if we should remove it."
The priest shudders. "There is little to be done with this...unnatural abomination now. It is best that we are finding the stairs and going up, yes?"
"I wouldn't want to tinker with it unless I was desperate," Sparky says stepping away from the clock. "Right you are Vak! Let's continue to explore and find a way up the stairs."
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You don't know much, but you know something somewhere might help with this problem. Where too? feel free to move on the map and ill open that door!
map
"Well let's look in this room," Sparky suggests. "If this building has servant stairs, those might be our best way to get to the highest points of the house." He listens at the door then attempts to open it.