"Can you help Rall?" Bowen almost pleads to the woman as he removes Fee's body from the creature and places it somewhat peacefully to the side.
Arla's face falls as she sees Bowen lift the halfling's broken body from the manta. As Bowen asks her to look at Rall, she nods quietly and kneels down beside the sheriff. She speaks a few words softly, and makes a series of hand motions before laying her hand onto Rall's forehead. Her hand glows as she casts Cure Light Wounds.
Rall stabilizes but does not quite wake up.
There is a sudden stillness in the air now that the violence is over. The magical darkness that still hovered in certain parts of the room also disperses.
"zzzzz"
Arla sits back slightly, turning from Rall to Bowen. "I've done what I can for him just now.. he's still unconscious, but he'll live."
Her gaze moves to Fee's lifeless body before she looks back at Bowen again. "...What do we do now?" she asks the ranger quietly. "Rall needs rest, and Fee... he needs a burial.." The druid pauses before continuing. "But this is a dangerous place, and if those children are here, then time may be running out.."
Bowen begins searching the room after laying Fee aside lighting a light when Fee's extingushes. "First we see if we can find anything that may have been dropped in this room before we arrived. These creatures had to feed on something before us and perhaps they had something that may help us. Second I think waiting a little with our eye on that door will give a chance for the other two to show up... I'm not wanting to think why they didn't come to our aid... They were right behind me. And well third... I think we need to rest..." Bowen stops his faltering speech thinking about the children that they came to rescue. "I just pray we find these children alive after all the others who have given there life..."
Bowen's search does not turn up anything of value. The altar in the room proves interesting however. It is in the shape of a large anvil. Bowen cannot help but notice that there are five indentations in the top of the anvil surrounded by a set of dwaven runes.
"I don't guess you happen to know dwarven do you? And it looks like I was wrong not so much as a bone pile. I wonder where they got nurishment from." Bowen gives up and peeks outside the room to see if anyone or anything happens to be about.
The hallway outside the room is currently empty, but it is early in the day yet. Bowen knows all too well that many things only come out at night.
As for the bone pile, there are the remnants of rats, a wolf, and a few rabbits. I just said there was nothing of value, and the bits of fur and bones are devoid of any practical value. Sorry.
To be more specific, the room has rafters, an altar in the shape of an anvil, six long pews, three to a side in the room, some rubble on the floor and a few weeds growing near the wall. The ceiling looks like it could come down with only a little help.
The doors can be barred from the inside, though any such bar would have to be makeshift.
As Bowen searches the room, Arla attempts to make Rall more comfortable, using his bedroll as a pillow for him and covering him with her cloak. She then gets up and moves over to altar, Ash following at her heels as usual.
She shakes her head in answer to Bowen's question. "No.. afraid not." She examines the altar curiously for a few moments, before moving over to the door.
"We should do what we can to make this room safe if we are staying a while in it.."
The pews are wooden and Arla and Bowen are able to use them to barricade the door. The day passes slowly and the night excrutiatingly so.
Outside the door, all through the night, the patter of feet can be heard and once the two of them hear a conversation between some creature with a low, gravelly voice and another with a high pitched barking voice.
Later there is howling, it sounds as if it is coming from the nearby yard.
Once, during the night, something on soft feet pads up to the door of the room and there is scratching on the wood, as if with claws.
Come the morning and Rall awakens (0 hp).
Bowen through the night keeps his bow at the ready with a clear shot at the door cursing himself for not making a peek hole they could have looked through to see the creatures then he also curses himself for not trying to hide their tracks. "Well how do you feel this morning Rall?"
"Like I was assf&$+ed by a minotaur and then shat upon."
With a smile, "Good as new then eh?" After his little jab he moves to the door. Before moving the make shift barricade he listens and when it is clear he looks out. "I was thinking mayhaps that corpse has something may be of use to us. Shall we check the corpse for a medical kit?"
The hall outside the door seems curiously empty...
Sunlight streams in through the hallway leading to the small courtyard.
"Glad to see you awake again." Arla smiles at Rall before moving over to him. "If you give me a moment, then I should be able to help heal your injuries more."
The druid speaks a few words, casting Cure Light Wounds as she lays a hand on Rall's shoulder.
"How do you feel now?" she asks the sheriff before speaking to Bowen.
"You mean Fee.."
Turning to look at the ranger, she continues, "Healing supplies would be useful though, if we are continuing further into this place. However, what do we do now?"
She glances over at the halfling's body before looking back to Bowen and Rall.
"At the least, we need to make sure his body is somewhere safe until we can come back for him and give him the burial he needs. He deserves better than this place."
"How do you feel now?" she asks the sheriff before speaking to Bowen.
"Thank you ... both," says Rall. "What is this about Fee?"
Arla looks back to Rall again, pausing for a short while before she speaks again. "...Fee didn't make it. He was attacked by those creatures too and we couldn't save him in time.."
Fee's items from his character sheet:
TREASURE
- 2pp 22gp 6sp
COMBAT GEAR
- Sm. Spear (2gp 1d6×3 20 ft. 3 lb. Piercing)
- Sm. Sling (- 1d3×2 50 ft. 0 lb. Bludgeoning)
- 20 sling bullets (2sp 5 lb.)
- Sm. Shield, heavy wooden (7 gp 2 — -2 15% — — 5 lb.)
- Sm. Chain shirt (100gp +4 4 -2 20 ft. 12.5 lb.)
OTHER EQUIPMENT
- Sm. Traveler’s outfit (1gp, 1.25 lb.)
- Sm. Backpack (2gp, 0.5 lb.)
- Sm. Bedroll (1sp, 1.25 lb.)
- 10 Candles (1sp, -)
- 4 Sm. Belt Pouches (4gp, 0.5 lb.)
- Flint and steel (1gp, -)
- Rope, silk (50 ft.) (10gp, 5 lb.)
- 8 days of sm. trail rations (4gp, 2 lb.)
- Sm. Waterskin (1gp, 1 lb.)
- Sm. silver replica of a "Slightly dented and well-used iron tankard"
"We are going to have many graves to dig when we get home. I just hope the children are not part of them, not sure how much more death I can take in a week." Bowen sighs and readies his scimitar and klar, "So, shall we try to get to the corpse's bag in the courtyard? I expect trouble so if we are waiting for it we should be better prepared."
Fee's items from his character sheet:** spoiler omitted **
Rall takes the holy symbol in hand and says "We should hold onto this for him."
Arla nods her head solemnly in response to Bowen. "Indeed.. I can't say I was prepared for this when I left the town a couple of days ago. But we must do what we can. And there may be something we can use out in the courtyard."
She picks up her spear and calls Ash to her side before moving over to join the ranger. As Rall talks about Fee's holy symbol, the druid turns back to him, giving him a faint smile and a nod of agreement. "I think it should be kept safe for him. We should close the door here too. We can't barricade it from the other side, but at least it should keep out most creatures until we can take him back to the village."
Giving the large grey dog beside her a scratch behind the ears, she then steps up to the door.
Rall takes the silver tankard and puts it in his pouch before wondering if the others think he's looting Fee's corpse. "He'd want us to hold onto it," Rall says quietly. "Now, let's go kill something."
Moving cautiously out into the courtyard, the three adventurers are not attacked. The ground of the courtyard does however contain new wolf tracks.
The body by the well has no pack on his body. A little searching however reveals a rotting backpack, partially covered by dead grass only five feet away. Inside the backpack are moldy trail rations, a set of thieves tools, fifty feet of silk rope (slightly mildewy), a small coin purse with 42 Andoran coins, all gold, and a small blue vial with a cork seal.
Rall takes the thieves tools. "These could come in handy ... I think they're for, um, picking locks and stuff."
"This rope may come in useful, never know just needs some air." Looking at the vial, "What is this stuff?" He tinks the vial with his nail.
There is a liquid in the vial.
Rall forgot to clean his teeth this morning and can only taste the bile that filled his mouth as he nearly died. perception (1d20+4=7)
Rall forgot to clean his teeth this morning and can only taste the bile that filled his mouth as he nearly died. perception (1d20+4=7)
Rall can tell its sweet, with a faint hint of rose and mint.
Moving cautiously out into the courtyard, the three adventurers are not attacked. The ground of the courtyard does however contain new wolf tracks.
The body by the well has no pack on his body. A little searching however reveals a rotting backpack, partially covered by dead grass only five feet away. Inside the backpack are moldy trail rations, a set of thieves tools, fifty feet of silk rope (slightly mildewy), a small coin purse with 42 Andoran coins, all gold, and a small blue vial with a cork seal.
Rall takes the coins, the vial, and the rope. "I'll hold on to these for us," he says.
"That will be fine with me. Shall we continue looking for the children?" He scans the courtyard looking for trouble.
Aside from the corpse, everything seems serene in the courtyard. Outside the monastery walls, there is a heavy fog blanketing the dew covered vegetation. Nearby, song birds are chirping and calling.
Arla nods her head. "I think we should continue to search. Perhaps we should keep looking down the corridor we were in before we went into the altar room. I don't think we went past the turning before."
"Let's find those children."
"Good with me ... And I'll stick with you this time. ... Sorry. ... About Fee I mean."
Once more entering the monastery through the double doors, the three companions move to the end of the entrance hall (past the two closed doors - north and south). The double doors of the chapel are still open, just as they left them a few minutes before. There is no movement from the doors to the south, and so they head north along the five foot wide hallway. The hallway is ten feet long here and then it turns to the East. It is very dark on this end of the hallway, though the other end, about fifty feet away to the west, is lit by sunlight. The sunlight comes in through both the ceiling and an open door into the courtyard.
In the very dim light, it is just possible to make out two doors, both facing north, about three feet apart from each other. The first of these two doors is about ten feet away from the corner of the hall.
As they enter the building once again, "Should we only check open doors for the moment or do we need to check all the doors?" Then he steps quickly to the double doors to the sanctuary that they spent the previous night in then bends and examines the doors looking for the scratches that would be left from the noise maker last night.
The scratches appear to have been made by a dog or a wolf.
Looking at the ground he tries to see if any tracks can be found from the canine. "I believe a wolf resides here." Pointing to the scratches, "Looks like it new we where here. Make sure your ready for it."
"The man in the courtyard was killed by a large canine too.." Arla pauses for a moment as she looks at the chapel door. "I think we should shut the door over, to keep Fee safe in the room for now. And we need to be careful if there are wolves willing to attack humans here."
As the corridor darkens, Arla speaks a few words and casts a Light spell on her spear. She then calls Ash to heel, wanting to keep him close.
Rall falls into line behind Arla and Bowen. "I'll guard the rear," he says. "Let's get going."
1d20+8=10
Looking at the ground he tries to see if any tracks can be found from the canine. "I believe a wolf resides here." Pointing to the scratches, "Looks like it new we where here. Make sure your ready for it."
The main set of wolf tracks appears to head into the courtyard, but it is hard to be more certain then that on the solid granite floor.
Now that they are ready Bowen takes lead with his scimitar and klar at the ready scanning the shadows that Arla's spear cast. Then with a slight nod to the left he walks down the corridor looking for any signs of passage.
In the east-west part of the hallway, there are numerous signs of passage through the western most door on the north wall. This door is slightly ajar.
Rall approaches the door to listen and peer through but stubs his toe on a crack on the way and fails to muffle his grunt of pain.