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Snorkack its fine, we can move back in time a bit and let you search around. Nothing has happened in-game that would prevent it.
Daphne carefully inspects the northen wall in the room with the skulls, pushing on every stone, finally she finds a block that sticks out a little more than the others. She gives it a solid shove and it slides inward about a handspan deep. A section of the wall groans and grinds on unseen hinges, swinging outward.
Holding her torch aloft, she peers inside a narrow, dusty room ten feet wide and twenty feet deep. The room is strangely dry and choked with a thick blanket of dust,, but is otherwise devoid of furnishings. In the back of the room, there is an ancient skeletal corpse dressed in rotting, moth-eaten clothes, seated on the floor. It is propped up, resting its back against the northern wall. In its lap is a leather sack that it still clutches tightly in its bony fingers. Next to the corpse there appears to be some black writing scrawled on the wall that you can't quite make out from this distance . . .
While Madeline scans the hidden room, Daphne examines the back of the secret door and notices a pull ring set into the opposite side of the block that she pushed to open the portal.
Ganelon startles at the sound of the broken crossbow. He take a moment to slow his breathing and heart-rate. "I really do not like this place." He whispers.
Guillemin sees his life flash before his eyes in the fleeting moment between the recognition of a crossbow aimed squarely at his face and the harsh cracking sound of the crossbow arm snapping. He looks stunned as the bolt falls harmlessly at his feet. All he can do in response is to cross himself and blurt out a whispered "Je vous salue Marie, pleine de Grâce..." as he starts an uninterrupted string of Hail Mary's recited at such a speed that his words become an unintelligible mumbling. He gives Ganelon an enthusiastic nod to show he agrees with his appraisal of their situation.
As he drones on like this, he nonetheless starts to prod at the floor of the roon through the door he just opened. He is eying the unusually low ceiling suspiciously.
If nothing happens, he cautiously steps inside and attempts to methodically clear the floor with his pole. He examines the walls for irregularities and visually inspects the small urns without touching them for now. Should none of his comrades provide enough lighting for this work, he will use one of his own torches as needed.
While Madeline scans the hidden room, Daphne examines the back of the secret door and notices a pull ring set into the opposite side of the block that she pushed to open the portal.
"Ease off, Madeline, it does not look like a trap. This might be a formidable albeit macabre sanctuary if we ever find ourselves in need of one" she says, pointing at the contraption at the back of the hidden door. And with a nod towards the corpse's leather bag she continues, "also one suitable for provisionally storing our spoils until we decide to withdraw from this hostile hole."
She waits whether Vandal does as Maddie commanded. If not, she tries to squeeze past Maddie and fetch the sack herself and reads what is written on the wall.
Vandal lends his ten foot pole and such expertise as he can offer, which is but a mite more than his ability to hold palaver.
Whilst Guillemin looks to the wall, Vandal shall exert his probing inquiries upon the low ceiling and floor. Doubtless the questions he must ask the stone are easier to frame.
Vandal & Guillemin carefully probe the floor of the room with the alcoves and low ceiling for traps and find nothing alarming or noteworthy after about ten minutes of searching. Aside from the cobwebs, and the neatly spaced triangular shaped alcoves with clay urns (66 in total), there is little else in the room aside from an ancient bronze brazier suspended by a chain from the center of the ceiling, about seven feet off of the ground.
Daphne squeezes through the narrow opening provided by the secret door and carefully pads softly across the floor to where the corpse lies. No secret bottomless pits, poison darts, or hidden bogeymen reveal themselves and she kneels next to the mummified skeletal remains and carefully removes its fingers from the ancient leather sack and loosens its drawstring. Both the corpse and the sack are remarkably well-preserved after who knows how long in this dusty hole. There is a burnt out torch stub on the floor under the writing and the charcoal smudges are pretty clearly written in Greek. Daphne silently curses herself for having skimped on her studies and asks around if anybody else in the troupe can read it, but they all shake their heads "no."
Everyone should make a note that their characters do not understand Greek. Of course there is nothing preventing you from making a transcription and finding a scholar of Greek to interpret it for you.
Frustrated by the mystery of the scrawled letters on the wall, Daphne turns her attention to the sack and carefully loosens the drawstring and peers inside. Her eyebrows rise and her eyes widen: What a treasure! she thinks to herself. She runs her hands through the sack and judges there must be hundreds of silver coins mixed with at least a score of white gold coins of a larger, heavier mintage. There is also a well-preserved dagger in an ornate silvery sheath, with a lacquered wood handle wrapped in gold wire, and a polished silver pommel. Withdrawing the blade reveals a brilliant oiled blade with a keen edge. How this corpse in shoddy sandals and a rough-spun tunic of hemp and plaid trousers came to possess this thing makes the mind race with possibilities. While her other companions busy themselves with searching a nearby room she carefully pours out the money on to the ground and counts out 230 silver pieces, and 22 white-gold (electrum) coins. The faces on the coins bear no faces she recognizes, and there is no script or markings on them. Coins:
Motioning for Vandal to come join him by the door, Guillemin attempts to nudge the closest urn out of its alcove with his pole. If he can do so from the relative safety of the doorframe, he will.
"Please take good care of them a little longer, kind Monsieur, we will pick it up at a later time," she whispers to the fallen adventurer while carefully putting the filled purse back onto his lap. "This, I might find use for right away" she adds smilingly while inspecting the dagger and attaching its sheath onto her belt.
She turns around and tells the group "Maybe we shouldn't burden ourselves with those coins before we are ready to return to the safety of civilization." Then she leaves the chamber and tries to close the door again.
If anyone thinks he could make better use of the dagger, I am happy to pass it on.
Also, nikolokolus , as soon as there's some spare time (e.g. someone searching for 10 mins), I'd like to check whether there' some magic going on with that weapon.
Guillemin (& andVandal) reaches out with the 10 foot long pole and can easily reach about 10 of the alcoves arrayed as they are along the western, northern and eastern walls in two stacked rows at about waist and chest high. The first urn is carefully nudged from its perch, topples and breaks with a loud crash. The shattered urn sends ash and pottery shards flying across the floor. The ceiling fails to collapse. the urn fails to explode in a fireball, and no swarms of poisonous spiders materialize from the recess. By God, it feels almost anticlimactic after crossbow trap and the falling wall from earlier. Guillemin estimates that he can probably clear a couple of urns a minute at this rate (but will probably take more time especially as the stick in his hands strives to reach the furthest urns along the wall). There is the glint of something shiny and silver that catches the light cast by your lantern in the little pile of ashes on the floor.
Does anybody else want to search them and L'ennui does Guillemin stick to just what he can reach with the 10-foot pole?
Daphne decides lugging the sack of coins about is kind of a terrible idea and carefully places them back with their guardian. While others search the other room, she sits on the edge of the bier with the 2 remaining skulls and holds the dagger in her hands and spends a good long while trying to attune herself to it. Perhaps it's the oppressive gloom, or her nerves that spoils her meditation, but she's not able to get into the proper frame of mind to detect if there's some latent hex, blessing, or enchantment within the silvered dagger. Neither can she rule anything out. The secret door closes neatly behind her and it's as though it were never there. She tests it again to make sure it will work again and nods in approval.
Guillemin finally interrupts his mindless praying when the urn loudly shatters and a flash of cupidity brings him back to Earth (or under it, for that matter). He tries to scatter some of the ash with the tip of his pole to see what glimmers underneath. Over his shoulder, he whispers to Vandal: "What do you think, l'ami? Probably don't have time to check all of these right now, but might as well tip over a few, right?"
If the shiny stuff is simply coinage or otherwise unremarkable, Guillemin will proceed to topple more urns within reach.
It is indeed coins. The first urn yields 3 silver pieces of the same mark as the one's Daphne found in the dead man's leather sack. More urns topple until you've cleared 9 of the alcoves (one was apparently already empty) with your 10' pole, and you manage to collect a grand total of 23 silver coins for your trouble. Guillemin can't help but wonder if all this racket from the breaking urns isn't tempting fate a little bit . . .
Alright gang, your little expedition is separated and the dice gods have frowned upon you. From what I've gleaned from your posts, Daphne, Sancho, Vincent, and Maddie are all in the room with the secret door and the three two skulls. Guillemin, Vandal and Ganelon are at the east end of the passage investigating the room with the urns and the alcoves. It seems that something has been drawn to your activities. For now Guillemin, Vandal and Ganelon are far enough away from what's happening that they are not part of the action for the surprise round and they will need to close on the first normal round and will not be able to attack because it's too far away to cover in a single round; i.e. combat movement is 40' per round or less based on encumbrance, but charging up to your full movement rate and attacking can cover the ground, you'll do double double damage but your AC suffers a -2 penalty for that round. Only trusty Sancho noticed them round the corner . . .
Daphne, Vincent and Sancho are resting in the room with the skulls while Daphne examines the silvery dagger, seemingly lost in a trance. The sound of breaking pottery occasionally punctuates the still, damp air and causes you all to flinch involuntarily. Suddenly Sancho screams in terror as a figure in tattered grave clothes, with piercing pinpricks of icy blue light in the center of its fleshless eyes, rounds the corner and shambles through the open door, with its bony fingers outstretched in front of it. Before you can even rise and ready your weapons, the animated corpse rushes forward through the door as Sancho bravely tries to duck into the fetal position and swing his lantern in front of himself in a wide arc.
Unfortunately poor Sancho doesn't quite deter his attacker and the thing rips his guts out in a single violent rake of it's talon-like hands, killing him instantly (sorry, instant death for 0-level NPCs at 0 HP). Another similarly garbed corpse also strikes out at Sancho but misses badly, and the last directs his attack at Vincent and hits him with a violent overhand swipe. The black talons feel like ice on Vincent's skin, and mere seconds later the wound begins to feel as though it were struck with a firebrand.
Guillemin, Ganelon and Vandal are startled from their activities at the end of the passage by a blood curdling scream from the west and other shouts and the sound of some kind of scuffle . . .
You know the drill. Head over to Roll20 and let's get it on!
Also, AdamReithVincent needs to make a Save vs. Poison/Death . . .
Guillemin readies his shield and his spear. Not wanting to rush into danger alone, he intends to follow whichever of his comrades heads towards the commotion, staying a few steps back so as to fully utilize the reach of the spear if it comes down to that.
Vandal edges towards the kerfuffle, with the intent of discerning the nature of threat before proceeding with reckless charging, inconsiderate offensives et al.
As Sacnho's dying scream echoes through the halls and fades to nothing, Vandal, Guillemin and Ganelon cautiously proceed west down the passage. Meanwhile, Daphne, Vincent and Madeline hastily rally and draw weapons and spring to the attack. Vincent is a bit jumpy and struggles to calm his nerves and his first thrust of his fauchard is wide of the mark, but the threat of the polearm seems to drive back the hideous looking skeletal cadavers in their rotted grave clothes. Daphne instinctively pulls the newly found dagger from its sheath and lunges at the nearest one to her and plants it squarely in the chest. The wound immediately begins to smoke and hiss and the animated corpse writhes in pain as it opens its mouth in a silent scream. My god Daphne thinks as the handle of the dagger heats up in her hand to an excruciating level. She tosses the now cooling dagger into her other hand and looks at the blisters on her delicate palm and fingers in shock, but she steels herself and keeps her focus on the foes in front of her. Maddie is also able to find purchase with the tip of her dainty rapier in the weathered, and nearly blackened flesh of the nearly mummified thing and it flinches at the nasty gash she inflicts on its shoulder. At least they seem to be vulnerable to mundane weapons, she thinks to herself.
While the trio inside the room press their attack and dodge the clumsy, blackened, skeletal claws of these foul abominations, Vandal sees one of the creatures step back into the passage about eight paces away and lifts his great two-handed sword high over his head and charges full tilt at it. The thing never sees it coming as the massive mountain-man brings his blade crashing down through the joint of the neck and shoulder and all the way to the pelvis, nearly splitting it in two. the corpse collapses to the ground and a mass of white wriggling maggots and a flood of black ichor splash on to the ancient flagstones around it. Ganelon and Guillemin move up and try to strike blows of their own on the two remaining foes. The crusader's mace misses the mark, but Guillemin's spear finds purchase in one of the walking dead's back, and a stream of black blood flows down it's ancient robes. More blows are traded, and Vandal cuts another creature down form behind, while Daphne finishes off the remaining abomination. The smell of corruption and rot is thick in the air as pools of foul black blood spread wide over the stone floor and hundreds of fat wriggling maggots writhe about.
The troupe counts themselves lucky that only poor Sancho fell against these foul things vomited out of nightmares or hell itself. Vincent scratches around the burning cuts on his arm; it is now pustulated with little black sores. The group takes stock of their situation: They shake their lanterns which seem to be a bit low on oil and wonder if now might not be the time to cut their losses and collect their gains and head back to Les Hiboux? The nasty infection that seems to be taking hold of Vincent adds some extra urgency in his mind at least.
Everyone earns 75 experience points in the fight, so everyone should have 91 total.
Vandal looks pityingly at what remains of Sancho. Poor kid at least needed whatever these Christ-God people did as their due to their fallen.
He looks around, his face fixed in a scowl as he surveys the scene.
As he looks upon the remains of the fight he noted streaks upon the floor, tracing a path through the corridor and beyond into the northern passage.
Feeling a vague sense of dread at having to face these creatures again, he motions the group to direct the attention of those he can towards the tracks.
Hoping they would share his views of having to deal with another surprise attack by such things, he puts forth his opinion on the matter.
"Barricade."
Moments later, a bit hesitantly, "Traps?"
Impossible to tell whether it is sorrow or spite in her voice when Daphne kneels next to Sancho, tears off a tatter of his shirt and mutters "Foolish boy was asking for it."
Undoubtedly spiteful is the expression on her face when she uses the rag to wrap the accursed dagger's handle and put it back into its sheath.
"Yes Monsieur Vincent, I agree we should leave for now. This strange inflammation around your cut develops swiftly, you might want to seek out medical expertise sooner rather than later."
Vincent dropped his eyes, he had been wishing it had just been hallucination induced by the panic of combat but yes, his arm did not look at all normal and felt even worse.
"Note taken crone, it would be a shame to lose my arm on our first outing. Let us make haste."
Vincent also invites the cleric Ganelon to have a look at it, if he has any aptitude for the healing arts.
Grimgravy please sprinkle your fairy dust on my arm and make the hurts go away.
Guillemin leans on his spear and stares wistfully at Sancho's remains. "A damned shame..." Then, looking over at Vincent's wound, he winces and adds: "Ah yeah, that looks nasty. Definitely should get it checked, and I need some fresh air. I say we recover whatever we can carry and be on our way. Oh, and Vandal, traps sound like a good idea. We should see what we can come up with next time around... but for now..." He spits directly at the monstrous corpse nearest to him. "I say we put fire to these abominations and leave." then, turning to Ganelon, he concludes: "Unless you have some higher means of cleansing this place, of course." He gives the religious man a deferent nod.
Once all is done and dealt with, Maddie exhaustedly wipes sweat forming on her brow, then kneels beside Sancho. She cermoniously pushes his eyelids closed and then bends down, lowers her face onto his chest and sniffles.
"You poor, stupid, lovable, idiotic fool, how could I let this happen you..."
She then looks up at her compatriots, and specifically at Vincent's festering wound. Maddie wipes her tears, but it's a constant stream.
"And now, if Monsieur Vincent succumbs to his wounds, my already broken heart might as well walk away on its own and leave me to rot as well!"
