Seeing another person he grew up with fall after a devastating attack from the beetle, Conrad rounds the creature and in a single swing sends his flail through the hard exterior shell and pulls his flail free. The beetle stops moving as it completely bleeds out.
Besides the now dead beetle, you see Perri collapsed on the floor, and the body that the beetle was trying to move. You see in the northwest corner of this room a pile of rubble, cloth, leaves, and sticks in the corner. Looks to be the making of a nest.
You see that this man is from the village and has unfortunately died from the wounds he has received in this tomb.
Joras is horrified when Perri falls slowing his normally fast reflexes. He sees Conrad take the opening left by the monstrous creature and strikes a mortal blow. He breaks free of his daze and runs to Perri's side and sings of the heroism of those that sacrifice for others. He brings his hands up as the colorful notes sink in and his hands glow with a white light that he applies to Perri's wounds.
|
As soon as the beetle falls dead or dying on the floor, Conrad kneels by Perri's side to check for his pulse. He sees that (Shelyn be thanked) he's breathing normally, and moves away so Joras can properly heal him.
He turns the inanimate body of the unknown person on their back. "Oh, Gods," he moans, when he finds himself facing a dead man. With all hopes of having found Roldare's sister gone, he sits on the floor, exhausted, puts his arms around his legs and exhales deeply, resting his forehead on his knees. He says in this position, unmoving, for almost a full minute.
When he has recovered somewhat, he searches through the man's pockets. "Sorry," he mutters, unable to repress his embarrassment and guilt at stealing from a corpse. "We just really need stuff."
Once that's done, he gets up with some difficulty to inspect the pile of... Whatever the hell a beetle can make a nest from.
Seeing that every is taken care of, Miron wraps his cloak around him tighter and gives a cursory listen at each door, then goes to check out the nest, casting Detect Magic and poking it with his stick (until he notices that his stick is magic and tries to surreptitiously clean the gunk off it.)
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Joras is quick to act and rushes to Perri’s side. Conjuring forth his arcane powers he can heal Perri, causing him to wake up.
Conrad is overwhelmed by the situation, partially closing himself off. As he recovers, he searches the man’s pockets. He does find a few items that could be useful. He finds a dagger, something everyone in Kassen carries. Typically, more a tool than a defensive weapon. And from the looks of the blade this man didn’t have the opportunity to draw it. He also finds a small point purse; 8 copper and 2 silver. The man is also wearing a good winter cloak that looks to be less than a season old. One more thing you notice is that there is no wedding ring on his hand, no family left behind.
As Conrad and Miron check out the nest, you discover nothing of value or use.
As Perri returns to consciousness, he looks up into Joras' face. "Okay, so we won. I told you this was a bad idea, didn't I?" He sits up and looks about, getting his bearings before trying to return to his feet. Then he turns to Conrad. "Get what you wanted out of this?"
|
|
. One more thing you notice is that there is no wedding ring on his hand, no family left behind.
Conrad leaves the man's pocket money where he found it. He was hoping to find a healing potion or a first-aid kit- the situation certainly doesn't warrant robbing a dead man of a few pennies.
He grits his teeth as Perri taunts him, resisting the urge to respond with a punch to the jaw. That was how he used to deal with jeers -and he doesn't want to become that person again, especially not with someone who probably helped saving his life not even an hour ago. "You're welcome," he replies sarcastically, gesturing at the beetle's caved-in head.
"He's d-dead. W-what do you suppose we do n-next?" though he raises his voice to address the whole group, the tone makes it clear the question is particularly aimed at Perri.
"The main reason we came out of that 'safe room' was to try to help our panicked friend in the other room. I suggest we do that. Go get him and bring him back to the safe room, where he will be far better situated than he is now. Reduce risk. Try to keep other people from getting hurt.
That kind of thing."
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Joras shruggs off Perri's ire, being in a shrugging mood. "I did not ever say that you weren't being practical Perri;I just thought trying to save a maybe life or at least a body for burial was the right thing to do, not the smart thing."
He looks worried at Perri's and Conrad's exchange but see not way to help at this time. At the suggestion that we try to move the broken man, he says, "Okay, this room may be close to where we left him or not i'm a bit twisted about. Let me think."
Which door likely leads where?
He looks over both doors, indecisively, choosing the one he thinks is best to get to Roldare. Joras tries the door he selected and opens it if possible and takes a look down it, saying, "Maybe this door?"
"He didn't want to leave his illusion of security with no promise of anything better. We now absolutely have better. Not that people always make choices based on sense."
"I...the last channel I have left, but some charges remain in the wand...", Roya speaks up, calling upon Erastil once more.
She had frozen in the situation, again. The shock seemed to be seated deeper than she wanted.
"But it would probably be wise to rest up a bit soon. I know it's not nearly evening, but this has taken a toll on all of us...we should recover and consider our next steps."
While the group is discussing the validity of taking on the beetle and rescuing the man that the group now knows is dead, Roya does a burst of positive energy that heals those who were injured. Besides wounds that could only be healed with powerful magic and rest, the group feels great.
Joras tries to mentally trace where they are compared to where they have been, and he is turned around. He picks a door, opening the door he sees that it Ts off roughly 20 feet ahead of him. But he does recognize the bones that are scattered on the floor. Looking a head, he sees that one end ends with the door that leads to Roldare.
Coin flip 1=East 2=South
As Joras looks down the corridor he remembers how the halls looked near Roldare. "This is the right way, Roldare should be right around the corner. We could try to convince hime we have a better place now, and we can see if he knows about any remaining traps and how to stop them."
Joras looks around, and follows with, "Want to come along? It should be safe, just 20 - 30 feet away." Joras steps forward carefully, looking out for traps as this hallway has not been used by them before. He moves close to the broken door to the room Roldare is living in.
"You do that. I will take a moment with the poor guy.".
Roya kneels next to the body and tries to determine what caused his wounds - was he surprised by the beetle? Assaulted be skeletons? Or ran into one of the traps here?
"That's why I'm here." Perri goes along with Joras, prodding the floor with the butt of his bill as he did before.
Joras moves towards the door that Roldare is in. It looks exactly how it appeared when the group of you left, not too long ago. From outside the door you can hear the occasional muttering and even crying from within the room that is Roldare mourning the loss of his friends and the regret of him not protecting his sister. If Joras tries to communicate with Roldare and get him to open the door he will recognize Joras voice and the key word for him to open the door.
Roldare’s eyes are wide and bright with excitement, but as he looks past Joras and does not see his sister or all of Joras’ companions Roldare slumps back into sorrow; “The voice of death has claimed more lives…” and he beings to cry; “Dimira, I have failed you…”
Roya looks over the body this fallen man. It was hard to notice because the battle has just ended but moving his cloak reveals a wound at the back of his head. Something blunt and large hit him just above his neck. Never had a chance.
Conrad looks over the door. He sees no traps and the door is unlocked. He can faintly smell the aroma of smoke coming from within.
The door reveals a short hallway that cuts to the right. The smell of smoke is stronger, but there is an odor along with it that almost turns your stomach. Something is burning that shouldn’t be. You also hear the faint sound of what you would recognize as sap popping from within wood as it burns. The light that is coming from around the bend is faint. If you move forward the smoke thickens and hinders your sight a little.
Joras talks to the broken man, "We haven't found her, yet. Because of problems we have to rest before we can continue searching. We found a room that is more secure than this one, you are welcome to join us."
After such discussion, Joras follows with, "The biggest problems we face are all the traps that have been set, I'm guessing by you and the others. Do you know how to deactivate them without setting them off? That would be a great help to us, so we can search the rest of the place." Joras holds the thinnest thread of hope, though he is pretty sure that the fate of Roldare's sister is dire.
|
|
[b]"Shit," Conrad swears, very quietly, as to 'it attract Roya' s attention.
He glances at her. She still seems shocked by everything she's witnessed, and he decides against opening the door.
He lays the back of his hand against the door, checking if it's hot, and he crouches down to see if there's light (or possibly flames) filtering out.
"Joras isn't telling you the best part. There's a lot of GOOD FOOD, and a door which actually completely secures! We can all have a really good meal and manage to get some honest rest. Or you can stay here where the door doesn't secure anymore, and there's still nothing to eat. C'mon! I'm hungry! But we came back for you before I ate anything. Wanted to share properly."
While the others try to fetch Roldare, Miron turns his attention to the beetle, seeing if there's anything useful that could be extracted from the body.
"All clear?" he asks Conrad as he's listening at the other door.
Joras and Perri try their hardest to get Roldare to move locations, but are unsuccessful; “No! I will not go out there until Dimira is returned and we are leaving this… death trap!” shaking his head; “ It wasn’t supposed to be like this… it’s never been like this… something is wrong… Dimira…”
Conrad continues to check the door with Mirion’s assistance the door is not hot, and you are not seeing any light creeping from around the door. Whatever is causing the aroma of smoke must not be near the door.
Joras shakes his head sadly, saying to Perri, "I don't think there is anything more we can do for him now. Best if we do join the others and head back. And I agree we need rest, I'm not doing much more today and Roya seems spent as well. And everyone is tired from all of today."
Joras walks back to the others, "I hope nothing interesting happened, I could use some boring time now."
"I think I understand being afraid. I don't understand paralyzing fear. That's what he has. I don't know how to get through to the man behind that fear. Very frustrating. I'm tempted to just go knock him out and drag him over here, but that would just reinforce his fear and extend it to include us." He sighs, obviously upset and having no idea how to deal with the situation.
"Maybe it's the flame we were supposed to collect?" Miron suggests, though clearly not expecting that to be the case. [B]"It's probably fallen over and started to burn something else." he adds pessimistically.
Miron, Knowing how our luck has been going so far in this tomb, I would not be surprised.
Brandark continues to stump along, but remains in the background as the others try to convince the man to leave.
"No. NO. Just, NO! How many more 'but what about this' are we going to run our faces into before one of us DIES? Get the rest. Recover." Perri just walks past the group and back into the "safe room," where he sits down and starts really eating instead of just the bite or two he had before they left again.
Joras wearily says, "Smoke may mean a fire that if spreads would be bad, but it could just be a smoky hearth. Perri's right though we can't do more now, as I said. If anything else comes up, withdrawing may be our only chance to survive." Joras follows Perri to the relative safety of the room with the food.
|
|
Even someone as reckless as Conrad has to concede, rationally, that Perri has a point. But with all the fuss going around, he has almost forgot about the Flame, and now Miron has sparked his curiosity.
He tries to peep through the keyhole to see something. If that fails, he warns the others "I'm g-going to open it slightly. You d-don't have to stay," and cautiously cracks the door slightly ajar.
Joras is walking out towards the "safe room" when Conrad gets even bolder. He stops and turns back, saying "If anything goes wrong now, we run. I can't help much any more, Roya's exhausted, and I doubt anyone else is much better off."
Joras never made it to the nice place.
The group divides, some going back to the saferoom with the food drink and warmth. Others staying behind to peek behind the door. Those who go back enjoy their meal and drink right away. Maybe with heavy hearts and a lot on their mind. Divided group, Roldare’s paralyzing fear, what else does this tomb have in store and what has caused it.
Conrad slightly opens the door and doing so causes everyone in the room to get the aroma of the smoke. But there is an odor along with it that almost turns your stomach. Something is burning that shouldn’t be, but you are unable to exactly put a finger on it.
Looking past the door it reveals a short hallway that cuts to the right. You see a faint light coming from around that bend. It is there that you also see the smoke beginning to thicken and might hinder your sight and breathing. The last thing you notice is you hear that faint sound of what you would recognize as sap popping from within wood as it burns.
Smelling the smoke after Conrad opens the door, Joras sighs again saying, "Never getting a break here, this is getting ridculous. But we can't ingore this either because we might all suffocate. Let me by Conrad, this seems more of my thing."
Joras takes another pebble, lights it up, and puts it away so it doesn't show. Then he wets a small scarf and wraps it around his mouth and nose. Bending over to put his breathing close to the ground at half his height of 2 feet 8 inches( so 16 inches off the ground), he steps forward with a wary stealthy walk to the bend and takes a peak.
|
|
As soon as Joras looks ready to sneak across the room, Conrad seizes him by the arm. "This d-doesn't smell like n-normal fire. I'm not sure it'd s-spread."
Easy to read as he is, it doesn't take a great connoisseur of human nature to notice he sounds doesn't sound completely certain about that last part.
Looking down the hallway, Joras sees that there is a light coming from down the hall and a lighted stone might not be needed.
Joras stealthy moves forward, keeping an weary eye out for any traps or rocks that would give away his coming. Getting to the end of the hall Joras sees it breaks off to his left. Venturing forward from there, he sees that the room does open from there. The smoke thickens and the odder becomes even stronger.
Looking from the opening, Joras sees the sourse of the light, the smell, and the sounds. You see the remains of a moldering fire in the center of a broad chamber that is letting off a plume of oily smoke. Fed by a heap of burning gear, debris, and even the horrific sight of the charred remains of an unrecognizable body.
The fire cast a flickering light across the walls of this room, partially obscured by the veil of smoke.
The sickly smell and smoke forces you to cover your eyes and face. You think if you spent much time in here you could become sick.
You all sit and eat. The chairs are a welcomed comfort. They seem to cradle your body perfectly; you believe that you could easily fall asleep in the chair if you sat for too much longer. But then again, it has been a long time since you felt the comfort of your own bed.
Miron follows towards the fire, wrapping his coat over his mouth to protect himself from the smoke. He takes a look at the smouldering mass, turns a tinge green as he sees the corpse and quickly retreats before the smoke and smell overwhelms him.
"We should put it out at least," he splutters, once he gets out of the room. "There was water in that stupid fountain room, if there's a bucket or something we should be able to collect enough."
|
|
Seeing both spellcasters walk in the room, Conrad follows them -not feeling particularly keen on being left out. He has to cover his face with the top of his tunic as best as he can to do so.
He freezes in place as he spots the corpse slowly burning in the fire, but Miron's words prompts him to act. Without a word, he sheathes his flail, rushes to empty the contents of his waterskin on the fire- which is clearly not enough to put it out. He silently curses himself for having left his iron pot at home...
"I'll go see if I can get something. Get out!"
And with that, he runs out of the room, and sprints back to Roldare's lair, where he remembers having seen some barrels.
"I-I need a bucket," he barely takes time to explain, as he inspects the barrels to check if there's one that's not cracked or filled with holes.
Joras squeaks, "Okay" to Conrad and runs back to the room, sputtering and taking deep breaths of clear air. He then remarks to anyone listening, "Why should I scout if you come with? If something bad showed I wanted to run away. Oh, and who set that fire and why? I have a bad feeling about all this." Joras will stick around for a few minutes to see what happens.
"No bucket.", Roya comments - she had been standing in the back, unwilling to leave Conrad to his fate, but also not eager to go in, hoping that Joras scouting would resolve the issue.
With almost everybody entering, she felt compelled, too, then focuses on the fire for a moment.
She starts chanting, as if repeating a Mantra, and Water forms, repeatedly pouring down over the fire.
The aroma of the fire was all wrong. But this whole place was all wrong, anyway.
But soaking it would still likely cause lots of smoke - so Roya was ready to turn and leave - better to do it over a couple minutes and safely - if she could get a few castings in every time before leaving the fire, unless somehow magical, should eventually succumb to the water.
Joras follows Roya when she moves to the fire to try and put it out. He stays back a bit, trying to not be too close and not breath smoke.
Miron shuffles along behind Joras, mouth and nose buried in his coat.
Beside the east side of the fire , you see a scorched key. The smoke in the room and the metal becoming blackened has made it more difficult to see.
Roya moves up and cast Create Water and it causes a large plume of smoke to fill the room . The smoke rushes Roya and for a moment she feels as if she is going to be sick, but she is able to hold it together and not become nauseated.
As the smoke fills the room you aren’t sure if it is the flames being flushed out, the shadows its casting, or the smoke filling the room. But, just for a moment, you believe that you see a figure appear from behind the far pillar before it vanishes in the smoke.
As the smoke fills the room it prevents you from seeing clearly beyond your normal vision.
Perri & Brandark are enjoying a few mugs of ale and their share of the feast at the table, unaware of what is happening with the rest of their companions.
After quaffing back a small ale, Brandark looks over at Perri.
Perri, I really hate that they took off without us, but I know that I need a bit of rest, you
He then looks over to one of the benches and lays down on it using his backpack as a pillow.
Give me two hours, and then I will watch while you rest. 2 Hours each
He inquires.
"Take your two hours. Conrad's inability to wait almost got me killed once. I'm not going to let his impatience bully me to death."
Joras looks around the room Roya entered to spot anything that might harm her or is of interest.
To open the spoiler at 17 DC.
He starts a bit at the massive billowing of the smoke as the fire wavers under Roya's divinely given watery assault. He crouches low to avoid the worst of the smoke if it should reach around the corner.
He calls out, as Roya is engulfed by the smoke, "Are you okay, Roya?"
"I...I'm good, but we're not alone. I think something else is there. Let's go back to the other room!", she states, squinting once more in the direction of the pillar.
She then turns to leave. She was not trained in military tactics, but both Perri and Conrad were not here, she was standing up front, in a haunted tomb, and in need of rest.
The least they could do would be to fall back to the previous room and cover the door - at least they'd have a chokepoint on their side in case there was more than one enemy.
Concerned at Roya's reply, Joras says, "Okay come around the corner and we'll go." As Roya arrives at he corner, Joras waves her to pass him, whispering, "Roya, you're faster than me, run to safety as fast as you can, I'll follow. You can tell the others. Don't worry, I can be quite slippery if I need to be." Joras will follow Roya to the relatively safe areas.