Fosco sees a room that looks like a ruined library or office. It's very damp, and quite cold, over near the door. It smells pretty musty, too.
There's quite a lot of furniture here in piles, some of it is mostly destroyed, but a lot of it could probably be salvaged. And wood is rare in this part of the world, so it would certainly be valuable. Physically getting it out of the ruins would be a challenge, though. Some of the carvings are unusual, strange sea creatures and things like that. But that's about it.
"Am I the only one who finds it strange that nothing is jumping out at us? Perhaps many of the creatures here were bound by the sorcerer's will, and slaying him released them? In any event, careful poking about in that furniture. There may yet be hidden snakes, and their venom seems potent enough to bring you lasting harm."
SoBH pbp:
Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
Thorin stops looking around and turns his attention toward the open door. "Maybe we can head back here and gather up some of this furniture. Stack it on a cart and sell it back in town. But now, looking into the library, we have more pressing issues."
He heads over to where Fosco stands guard and waits for the others before heading into the next room. Smelling into the library for gold and jems he taps his foot and starts to sing an old dwarven song. One that his mother would sing to him as she would rocked him to sleep in the shadows of his room deep within his mountain home.
Thorin hums and sings a bit, "Mattathias bold, 5 great sons had he Eliezer, oldest son, Simon, John, and Jonathan, and Judah Maccabee..." then he catches a faint, faint whiff of gold. It's far away, probably behind stone or a door, but the purity is so fantastic that it is very exciting to him. Then it's gone.
The room was once a small library or den or study of some kind. There's a large bookshelf with some 40 or 50 books still there, and a pile of fallen ones rotting on the floor. The air is damp and cold here. There's a door on the northern end of the western wall, heading to the west. It is closed, but doesn't have the strange metal locking mechanism.
"Treasure enough, when the time comes -- only after the danger is cleared." mutters Chendriss.
Darrow moves toward the door without the metal lock, inspects it, and listens. He looks it over the wall around the frame, the frame itself and the door itself. He'll be even more at-ease, if it is as sodden as anything else in here, and thus easier to break through should the need arise. Might be difficult to get a good listen with the Dwarven singing going on (which Hector is unconsciously murmuring along to), but he does not put his ear ON the door.
What sort of handle does it have?
...
Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11. Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.
While Darrow examines the door, Cathbad will take a look at the bookshelf.....any titles of interest? If so, she will flip through the pages. Likewise any book that seems out of place.
SoBH pbp:
Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
There are quite a few books on alchemy, in particular. Say, 2d7 are usable as references (would grant circumstance bonuses to concoct various things, should you set up a lab or something.)
A few titles (in common) catch both Cathbad and Bypeld's eyes:
A Brief History of Portsmouth
Elementary Ancient Elvish Pictography: A Guide for the Student
Ye Warlike Denizenes Auf Europa (this one seems very, very old)
Spellcraft for Students (by someone calling himself "The Sage Arcturis")
The door is not locked, and looks pretty rotten. The iron hinges are heavily corroded. He could probably shove it in with his shoulder without much difficulty. It has a regular push-latch handle.
Cathbad examines the Portsmouth book, looking for anything that might indicate what this area once was. Knowing what these ruins were once used for might be of some value to us.
SoBH pbp:
Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
The book is pretty densely type-set, very long paragraphs (ever read The History and Decline of the Roman Empire by Gibbon? like that). Flipping through to some random sections she reads a few lines about various oligarchs and their struggles against each other. It'll take some months of study to digest the book.
There's no maps or anything in it of the surrounding area, aside from one line drawing of what looks like the city from overhead... it's walled and roughly hexagonal in shape. And there's a smaller walled hexagonal structure in the middle of the city.
...
Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11. Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.
Beyond is a large, formerly well-appointed bedroom, now heavy with dampness, mold, and rot. A few skulls are piled in the center of the room. There's what looks like a stone fireplace on the western wall. Slime and mildew cover the walls, although here and there it looks like graffiti was once painted all over the place in random fashion. There's a large bed, a large wooden desk with several drawers, and a crumbling wooden wardrobe along the south wall. Darrow gets a brief chill up his spine from the cold, damp air.
The Judge passes a note to the player of Chendris, which is written in huge red block letters that everyone can easily see around the table, it says: YOU'RE ABOUT TO PASS BY SOMETHING THAT COULD MAKE YOUR LIFE A LOT EASIER AND I'M GOING TO LAUGH AT YOU WHEN YOU DO, TURKEY.
There's no eastern door out of the study/library... just the door to the south, where you came in, and the door to the west, which Darrow just opened...
beermotor wrote:There's no eastern door out of the study/library... just the door to the south, where you came in, and the door to the west, which Darrow just opened...
Any updated maps? I am real lost on the layout now...
If you want a map, you can draw one... but you don't really need one, I just told you all you need to know. To recap, the party is in the former library/den/study room, there's a door to the south (through which you came, from the used-furniture storage area), and a door to the west, which Darrow just opened, revealing the remains of what appears to be an old bedroom complete with rotting furniture and a fireplace. There are no other obvious doors.
Heading back into the room to the south Thorin and Fosco search for hidden doors, shifting passageways and new construction that might be along the walls and floor of this chamber. Thorin remembers smelling gold coming from this room and knows the treasures must be near...
MrHemlocks wrote:Heading back into the room to the south Thorin and Fosco search for hidden doors, shifting passageways and new construction that might be along the walls and floor of this chamber. Thorin remembers smelling gold coming from this room and knows the treasures must be near...
The smell came from the north, at the time... he thinks he detects a faint whiff coming from the moldy, damp bedroom, but the other smells are pretty overpowering in there.
That note probably means a secret door or similar.
SoBH pbp:
Cathbad the Meek (herbalist Wizard 1): AC 9; 4 hp; S 7, A 7, St 10, P 17, I 13, L 8; Neutral; Club, herbs, 50' rope, 50 cp; -1 to melee attack rolls. Hideous scar.
"Good thinking, Bypeld!" says Chendirss, "You may be on to something."
"And I agree about ganging up on that room -- though something about that chimney disturbs me... Slime covered walls, and a chimney that presumably goes to the surface somewhere? Sounds like a perfect home for something hungry and nasty..."
"Thorin, remember Hector found that bag of gems hidden behind a painting or somesuch -- you might want to check for anything similar in that bedroom, y'know..."
Hector and Darrow will enter the room behind whoever is checking it with the 10' pole.
Flavia will stay in this room, on alert.
Chendriss will also stay in this room, perusing any books that haven't already been scooped up. If the good ones are already scooped up, he'll wait for the trip back to town to look them over.
...
Gnome Boy • DCC playtester @ DDC 35 Feb '11. • Beta DL 2111, 7AM PT, 8 June 11. Playing RPGs since '77 • Quasi-occasional member of the Legion of 8th-Level Fighters.
