You open the door; there's a small 20 foot by 20 foot room. A bed in the west, next to a wardrobe, and a desk to the east; there's a wall bracketed shelf with three books on it over the desk.
Stig (a little tipsy now) walks over to the bed and lays down. He's just gonna have a little rest while the smarter dudes search the room.
It's the softest bed upon which you've ever laid. It smells like roses.
It's nice.
"It's the gnolls' bed, Stig, full of tics and hyena parasites. You only think it's soft because you're drunk off your ass."
Search the joint – treasure, traps, secret passages etc.
One is a book of (illustrated) erotic poetry
One is a chartbook of all time and tides along the south coast of Keoland on the Azure Sea.
One is a book entitled "The Great and Secret Game," about all the trade secrets of "stage magic."
As Beldan searches, no secret doors; there's a chest under the bed, unlocked, with 500 g.p. and 5 potions.
The desk has about 25 sheets of vellum paper (scroll stuff) and ink and pens; the drawer has numerous small balls of fleece, three bags of powder (red, blue, and yellow), and 5 balls of gum arabic, with a little hair in them.
When Beldan opens the wardrobe, a mouth grows on it, and in a frantic screaming man's voice regales him with,
prying b@!+!, get out of my wardrobe!!!!!
Do you continue to piss around in the wardrobe?
"Hmmmm... Spell components. Interesting ones, too. And I guess the tide charts are useful for smugglers."
“Hey magic guys, there’s some potions and stuff down here, you might want to check it out and holy crap the wardrobe’s yelling at me!”
Beldan hurriedly backs away from the baleful furniture.
In the wardrobe, there's a little gnome holding some turkish delight, and a pale fine assed witch lady in a sled.
Just kidding
There's a bunch of finely made robes, a nice wolfskin overcoat, two pairs of boots, a bullseye lantern, 10 oil flasks, a lighting flint, and a piece of paper marked thusly:
I.... - X X X
II.... X-X- 2
III.... - - -
just to let you know, on the note I transcribed above, the periods between the roman numerals and the hashmarks or x's don't exist; I can't post it without them being right next to the numerals and that looks wrong somehow.
"Kip it doon!"
Stig rolls over.
just to let you know, on the note I transcribed above, the periods between the roman numerals and the hashmarks or x's don't exist; I can't post it without them being right next to the numerals and that looks wrong somehow.
Line one: Hyphen, X, X, X
Line two: X, Hyphen, X, Hyphen, 2
Line three: Hyphen, Hyphen, Hyphen
That is correct. The roman numerals are there marking the lines.
just to let you know, on the note I transcribed above, the periods between the roman numerals and the hashmarks or x's don't exist; I can't post it without them being right next to the numerals and that looks wrong somehow.Line one: Hyphen, X, X, X
Line two: X, Hyphen, X, Hyphen, 2
Line three: Hyphen, Hyphen, Hyphen
"Hmmm ... looks like a code," comments Beldan sagely, looking over Altai's shoulder, having overcome his fear of the wardrobe.
"How many levels does this house have? Maybe the numbers refer to floor levels? ... and the exes and dashes ... I'm not sure ... someone's looking for something?"
Could be for something we haven't found yet, better keep it safe in case we need the code, not that I couldn't solve any cipher we encountered with my superior intellect.
Riese starts searching around also. (17-taking 10)
Altai gives Gittik the book of illustrated poetry. "Some readin' for you - as good a place to start as any other." He turns to the other party members. "They're not here. Let's move on."
Where to?
I suggest we try that trap door in the roof then - back in the barracks room. I assume that's not the way we came down here. Perhaps its a way into anothe part of the house that hidden or otherwise in accessible.
Altai gives Gittik the book of illustrated poetry. "Some readin' for you - as good a place to start as any other." He turns to the other party members. "They're not here. Let's move on."
"Me cannot read - but me like pictures. Hee hee!"
You go through the trapdoor? If "yes," I naturally assume Beldan looks it over. Just need to know who opens it.
You go through the trapdoor? If "yes," I naturally assume Beldan looks it over. Just need to know who opens it.
But I have some some band-aids and a bottle of Bactine standing by for when it e'splodes!
Right on...hmm....splosions....(just kidding).
"I just remembered I have 10 pints of oil!"
Beldan gives the door the once over, and then does his usual schtick of inviting someone else to open it. “Hey, if there’s a big guy behind the door with a club, I’m not going to last long am I?”
Elgan hisses as the wardrobe starts shouting, and then swiftly changes onto a cat. Once he realizes that it is harmless, he changes back, looking a little sheepish.
He frowns as Beldan removes the wolfskin coat, but shrugs and continues to observe the others' actions.
He frowns as Beldan removes the wolfskin coat, but shrugs and continues to observe the others' actions.
"What? Too rustic?"
Stig has fallen into deep REM sleep.
"Nae Mammy, Ah din't...." <mumbling, horrible snoring>
<mumble> "... Nae in mah crease..." <horrible snoring, mumble>
WRT the murderholed trap door; no locks, no traps. Just a simple barring mechanism from this side. Easily bypassed.
"What? Too rustic?"
Elgan's mouth twitches in a momentary grin.
"Naw, Tain't dat. Ah'm fond o' a good fur coat mehse'f." He admits, smiling at his own humor.
"Is jest dat,... Mos' peeple's outside deh Dreadwood, Dey jes' go huntin' fo' dah fur. Leave dah res' lyin' dere. Dat's jes' a shameful waste. Ah gots no problem wit' killin a beast fer food, or se'f defense, an' usin' whut it gives yah."
He shrugs again. "But yah didn' kill it. Ah got's no problem wit' yah wearin' dah coat. Jus' sad ta t'ink dat da res' was prolly not used. Dat's all."
Beldan holds up the coat, looking at it again. “Maybe it’s gnoll fur?”
At the door: “Do I have to do all the work? Alright, someone go and wake up Stiggy, once he’s here I guess I’ll open this. I don’t know, thought I was hanging out with brave adventurers but whatever…”
Once all are present and accounted for, Beldan will cautiously open the door.
It swings up; Beldan sees it opens into a good-sized room. Nothing much in there besides some broken furniture.
There's a door on the north wall, and a door on the east wall.
The room looks deserted; sparse; abandoned.
<Mumbles.> "Nae me ginch, Poobis, nae 'n me ginch please...." <horrible snoring.>
"Reeroo!"
Beldan pulls himself up into the chamber and stealthily scouts the place out. “Little light up here guys,” he whispers back down to his companions on the stairs.
A more thorough examination doesn't reveal anything of interest.
All right. Once he has some light and some company, Beldan will check out the north door.
The north door opens to the back porch of the west wing of the house. It's concrete, covered, cracked; delapidated looking. There's plain evidence of people coming and going on the porch--lack of overgrowth, old muddy footprints give it away.
“This one leads outside. I’ll try the other…”
Affirmative; external door.
The other door leads down a short hallway that ends in a big room. In the hall there's a door on the north and on the south walls.
Way off in the big room, you can make out a large grand staircase, sweeping upward along the east wall of the room.
Beldan will sneak ahead, down the passage, to the entry of the large room, making sure no enemies or monsters lurk within.
The big room is a dingy grand entrance hall. A stairway climbs the east wall up to the next floor of the manse. There's the hall you came from, and a hall on the north wall (this is the one from the maggot kitchen,...and there's another hall that goes into the east wall, under the masoned staircase. The floor is of once polished marble, and is covered with shards of glass; presumably from the glass and iron chandalier lieing in the middle of this room.
On the left wall a massive painting dangles askew. It was a portraiture but is now so mildewed it has become an impressionistic study of Obox-ob.
A rusted suit of plate stands the aeons' sentinel before the staircase; a halberd held at attention.
The ceiling of this room stretches the next story, and a walkway of the next floor, with a wooden handrail, abuts the northern and western wall.
You see no creatures herein.
Alright, heads back into the corridor, tell the others what lies ahead, then check out the north and south doors in the passage, in that order.
Neither door is locked or trapped. Do you enter either room?
Peer into the north room, door cracked open.
Zzzzzzzzz.
This room was a library. Bookshelves, filled with books, hundreds of them, line the walls. There's an old fireplace on the north wall. Before it is an ancient leather chair; its back is to the door. There's a small table next to the chair.