Marlede is interested in inspecting the bodies lying in the northern room. She's looking for anything that could identify them in regards to being guards or servants or any other stations conceivable within the Caer. She's also trying to figure out how they died.
Marlede identifies three humans (all male) and one halfling (female). Blood-soaked clothes, consisting of linen covered with leather armor, make the presence of lethal wounds obvious, but getting a closer look proves difficult. The fabrics are practically fused with the frozen flesh. Breaking them out of the various layers would be a time intensive endeavor. You do spot frequent tears and rips in the garments, signs of battle. All of them wear the same amulets that the sleeping guards also wore. These trinkets look like made of obsidian and are fashioned to look like a padlock.
Marlede shares what she finds with the group. No point in keeping anything to herself.
"These corpses show signs of a battle. And the amulets they hold are the same as the sleeping guard's amulets above. Either these are fake soldiers of the Caer, or the ones above are impostors who took their place. It was a good idea to paralyze them, regardless. There's too many unknowns."
She gestures to a bullseye lamp strapped to her backpack.
"If we need vision of farther ahead, you may use my lamp. Although I doubt the oil hasn't frozen over by now. I could light a torch to defrost it, and then ignite the lantern. I'd rather we don't go moving forward blindly, but if we're going to move forward stealthily, then I'll put it away for now."
And she waits for the others to make the decision. She knows that their friend, Perrin, can move ahead using the walls or the ceiling, but separating under these circumstances makes her feel uneasy. Especially since she can't sense the fiendish aura like Sirius.
Aubreen will hand an end of his rope (He only has 40') to Sirius, then climbs into the boat. "I am going to push the boat down the passage until I can see up the Northern tunnel, be ready to pull me back if I need" He smiles with a wistful thought. "My great great grand father used to speak of carrying a ten foot pole in situations such as this, always thought it kind of weird but I realize now it could be useful"
The boat bobs backwards slowly, stopping once Aubreen gets a clear look down the hallway to the north. After ten feet, a room opens up. It is empty, except for a meagre pile of grain sacks lying in the middle of the room, spilling their contents from multiple holes. Aubreen spots a solitary rat poking out of one of the sacks, eagerly chewing on what it found inside.
With the boat further down the hall, Aubreen also makes out a wall to the far east. In the middle of the wall, a 10 foot wide slab of marble marks the outline of a passage. Its surface is smooth, divulging nothing about how it might be opened.
Sirius ties hus ripe onto the one given by Aubreen. ”Look in the first room first so you can’t get surrounded.”
Hearing Marlede’s words, Sirius shudders. ”Seems like there’s been an infernal takeiver here. The gods only know what’s happened to Yurgunn’s sister to side with these heathens.”
[Does Aubreen have more than 40 feet of rope available? The distance covered is around 50-55 feet to get a look at the room in the back. I'm going to assume that he either does, improvised something or chose to discard the rope. Either way, he makes the trip.]
Coasting along on the ice cold water and using his sword, Aubreen makes steady progress. During the work, he notices shapes in the water. They are unmoving, Torm be praised, but they are clearly humanoid. The water is shallow enough (around 8 feet) to see to the bottom, where eight corpses lay, weighed down by their chain shirts. There are six human corpses and six dwarf corpses in all, a grisly sight. They are located mostly at the western end of the hall, but some of them have floated up to where Aubreen stops the boat.
Aubreen also gets a good look into the room: its fifteen feet wide and covered in frost. To the left and right are narrow tunnels, and across from the entrance stands an eight-foot-tall pillar of ice with a horned, pale-skinned, humanoid figure trapped inside it. The pillar is wrapped in black chains, and the wall behind it is covered with brown fungus.
[P. Perc] As he beholds this sight, Aubreen also hears the faint squawk of a bird, followed by the murmur of a voice. These sounds are coming from the western passage out of the frozen room.
Marlede stands ready, pointing her bow and arrow in Aubreen's direction in case he gets attacked. She doesn't say anything, focusing her senses to perceive any danger.
Post #728-Sirius ties hus ripe onto the one given by Aubreen. ”Look in the first room first so you can’t get surrounded.”
That would make 90' of rope not including the amount used for the knot
Aubreen has seen enough, at least enough while floating 80' away from his companions, alone in the frigid passage. He gives a couple tugs on the rope then begins to pull himself back towards the ladder.
Once reaching Sirius and the dry shelf he climbs out and whispers his findings in the dark. He relays everything he has seen, the bodies in the water, the frozen form, the bird call and whispered response. "We should bring the paralyzed guards down here and tie them up. I think this will take longer than an hour and we don't want them raising any alarms."
He paces back and forth clearly disturbed by what they have seen, confusion clouding his features. "Are we in over our heads with this, what are we even doing here?" He continues to pace, "Infernal talismans, a fiendish presence, more guards then we can handle. By Torm what is going on here?" His emotions begin to take control, fear and confusion dominating his presence. "We have left enemies behind us, faced with the unknown before us, this is quickly getting out of control!" He stops and confronts the three of them, staring into th segmented eyes of Perrin spider. "How do we handle this, do we start with the guards, get them under control, or do we push forward and hope they remain unawares?"
He paces back and forth clearly disturbed by what they have seen, confusion clouding his features. "Are we in over our heads with this, what are we even doing here?" He continues to pace, "Infernal talismans, a fiendish presence, more guards then we can handle. By Torm what is going on here?" His emotions begin to take control, fear and confusion dominating his presence. "We have left enemies behind us, faced with the unknown before us, this is quickly getting out of control!" He stops and confronts the three of them, staring into the segmented eyes of Perrin spider. "How do we handle this, do we start with the guards, get them under control, or do we push forward and hope they remain unawares?"
At the question, Perrin does his best spider shrug. "Yeah, I don't know," he starts, his voice carrying a uncertain tone to Marlede's ears. "There's obviously a lot of things wrong with this place." He pauses for a moment before continuing. "We've seen enough to know something is terribly wrong, but we don't know enough to be useful yet. What are the odds we go back to town? In the morning, you guys can ask around to see what the town knows about the situation while I come here and do some solo scouting." Another shrug. "I can sneak into places and do some spying as a normal spider or something. If that sounds dumb, I say we keep moving forward and see what we can find. I just hate going into something this dangerous without knowing what we're facing, and I can't help but feel we're a little over our heads."
Sirius tugs Aubreen back and listens to his findings extremely disturbed. "This whole business is really bad but now that we've started, I don't see a way we can leave without there being some major consequences. Once the paralyzed guards wake up, they can give our information. If we kill them, someone will notice sooner or later and we're the obvious suspects, being from out of town and coming to the castle before, asking all kinds of suspicious questions." Disappointment in himself washes over and he looks defeated. "I even waved around the flag of my house for gods' sake. Who knows what these heathens could do with that information. The only way out is to go through now. Or to flee the Dale and hope they don't send someone to attack my family."
Sirius paces around anxiously trying to come up with options. "We found a bunch of dead guards, I think it's fair to assume they weren't on board with the fiendish takeover. The new ones seem to be, with their amulets and all. Attacking sleeping people seems extremely dishonorable, but it might be our only chance to get out of here alive and not get hunted by devils. We should bring the guards here, tie them up and question them one by one. And we should do it fast, before the patrol notices something is wrong."
Sirius goes upstairs and starts carrying the guards down one by one. He takes his rope, unties it from Aubreen's rope and ties the guards up. "I hate to say it but I think we should incapacitate as many guards as we can before we continue, they don't seem innocent by any accounts. If guards have to be killed to get rid of them, their replacements can't not be evil, right? There's what, 12 guards just in the towers, probably more in the main building. If things go awry, we're utterly screwed anyway, no need to keep the 12 guards in. If these guards are what I think they are, I think we should go on an assassin mission to take out the rest of the guards.
Marlede unintentionally clicks her tongue in annoyance. The indecision is clearly irritating her. But she knows she has to stay calm, otherwise she'll do something she might regret.
"Look, the people of Caer Dineval were asking for help in their own way. Whatever is happening here, they know that they can't talk about it, otherwise, they would have told me already."
Looking at Aubreen, she'll say "We're here to help the people of Ten-Towns. And avenge those that were murdered for whatever fiendish plot is taking place here. As long as no alarms sound, we still have control over this situation. Do not start doubting yourself, or us for that matter."
To everyone, "Let's do what we can for now. If we're worried about getting overpowered, then let's go with Sirius' idea and cull down their numbers first. I've seen more than enough to know they're not innocent." She says looking at the drowned corpses.
"We could also just keep pushing forward and force whoever we find to tell us what they know. The choice is yours."
Sirius finds the three guards in the same state as the group left them in and has little trouble carrying them down the ladder due to his strength. It's been around 15 minutes since you entered and explored the cistern, the poison would probably remain in their system for a while. Their breath, though shallow, becomes much more visible in the freezing cold down here.
Aubreen takes Marlede's rope and uses it to tie the 3 prisoners, gagging them to ensure they will be quiet. He collects the emblems from each, their profane energies an insult in his hands, yet he remains defiant they should not have these.
"What effect do these have? Do they wear them as a symbol of allegiance, or does the emblem demand allegiance from them in an insidious way?" He picks up a small rock and casts light upon it. Handing it to Sirius. "Cover it with a cloth or pocket to extinguish the light, if we are moving forward you will need to see. Try to keep it at bay until we know whos voice it was I heard." Aubreen will climb in the boat, tying the rope to the prow. "Do you think we can all fit in here together?"
Perrin acquiesces and moves into a position that made it easier to Marlede to cling to him before he carries her over the frigid water. As he does, he can't help but feel uneasy as they creep further into the keep. He couldn't shake the feeling that they diving straight into the midst of danger, and the fear that the keep was haunted grew more with each tentative step he took along the wall of the tunnel.
The three guards are tied up properly. Even if they were to wake up, they would not be able to cry out.
As Aubreen grasps the amulets, he feels a revulsion. They feel wrong, tainted. Either a natural instinct, or a warning from Torm. The black stone they are fashioned out of seems practically infused with dark energies.
The boat does indeed look a bit too flimsy to comfortably fit more than two people. But with Perrin sticking to the wall and Marlede (somewhat uncomfortably) atop him, you would be able to cross together.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Aubreen climbs back into the boat with Sirius, using his sword once again as a pick to pull the craft forward. His rope back on his pack and coiling the length provided by Sirius. "Keep the light down. I heard a voice and want to check it out before alerting them of our presence. Marlede, I will keep at your back but you are a lot quieter than I am."
Once reaching the Southern passage with the frozen statues he climbs from the boat and moves as stealthy as he can to just at the edge of the room, (About 10' from the statue). Keeping low to the ground so Perrin and Marlede can pass unimpeded. Listening for the bird and voice he heard earlier. He looks at the statue (from a distance) to discern any further detail or clues, or at least watch that it doesn't move and present a threat.
Marlede is interested in inspecting the bodies lying in the northern room. She's looking for anything that could identify them in regards to being guards or servants or any other stations conceivable within the Caer. She's also trying to figure out how they died.
Investigation: 19
Medicine: 7
Currently DMing:
Marlede identifies three humans (all male) and one halfling (female). Blood-soaked clothes, consisting of linen covered with leather armor, make the presence of lethal wounds obvious, but getting a closer look proves difficult. The fabrics are practically fused with the frozen flesh. Breaking them out of the various layers would be a time intensive endeavor. You do spot frequent tears and rips in the garments, signs of battle. All of them wear the same amulets that the sleeping guards also wore. These trinkets look like made of obsidian and are fashioned to look like a padlock.
Marlede shares what she finds with the group. No point in keeping anything to herself.
"These corpses show signs of a battle. And the amulets they hold are the same as the sleeping guard's amulets above. Either these are fake soldiers of the Caer, or the ones above are impostors who took their place. It was a good idea to paralyze them, regardless. There's too many unknowns."
She gestures to a bullseye lamp strapped to her backpack.
"If we need vision of farther ahead, you may use my lamp. Although I doubt the oil hasn't frozen over by now. I could light a torch to defrost it, and then ignite the lantern. I'd rather we don't go moving forward blindly, but if we're going to move forward stealthily, then I'll put it away for now."
And she waits for the others to make the decision. She knows that their friend, Perrin, can move ahead using the walls or the ceiling, but separating under these circumstances makes her feel uneasy. Especially since she can't sense the fiendish aura like Sirius.
Currently DMing:
Aubreen will hand an end of his rope (He only has 40') to Sirius, then climbs into the boat. "I am going to push the boat down the passage until I can see up the Northern tunnel, be ready to pull me back if I need" He smiles with a wistful thought. "My great great grand father used to speak of carrying a ten foot pole in situations such as this, always thought it kind of weird but I realize now it could be useful"
The boat bobs backwards slowly, stopping once Aubreen gets a clear look down the hallway to the north. After ten feet, a room opens up. It is empty, except for a meagre pile of grain sacks lying in the middle of the room, spilling their contents from multiple holes. Aubreen spots a solitary rat poking out of one of the sacks, eagerly chewing on what it found inside.
With the boat further down the hall, Aubreen also makes out a wall to the far east. In the middle of the wall, a 10 foot wide slab of marble marks the outline of a passage. Its surface is smooth, divulging nothing about how it might be opened.
Sirius ties hus ripe onto the one given by Aubreen. ”Look in the first room first so you can’t get surrounded.”
Hearing Marlede’s words, Sirius shudders. ”Seems like there’s been an infernal takeiver here. The gods only know what’s happened to Yurgunn’s sister to side with these heathens.”
Aubreen uses his sword to push the boat down the tunnel. With the added length of rope he tries to drift enough to look into passage 5
[Does Aubreen have more than 40 feet of rope available? The distance covered is around 50-55 feet to get a look at the room in the back. I'm going to assume that he either does, improvised something or chose to discard the rope. Either way, he makes the trip.]
Marlede stands ready, pointing her bow and arrow in Aubreen's direction in case he gets attacked. She doesn't say anything, focusing her senses to perceive any danger.
Currently DMing:
Post #728-Sirius ties hus ripe onto the one given by Aubreen. ”Look in the first room first so you can’t get surrounded.”
That would make 90' of rope not including the amount used for the knot
Aubreen has seen enough, at least enough while floating 80' away from his companions, alone in the frigid passage. He gives a couple tugs on the rope then begins to pull himself back towards the ladder.
Once reaching Sirius and the dry shelf he climbs out and whispers his findings in the dark. He relays everything he has seen, the bodies in the water, the frozen form, the bird call and whispered response. "We should bring the paralyzed guards down here and tie them up. I think this will take longer than an hour and we don't want them raising any alarms."
He paces back and forth clearly disturbed by what they have seen, confusion clouding his features. "Are we in over our heads with this, what are we even doing here?" He continues to pace, "Infernal talismans, a fiendish presence, more guards then we can handle. By Torm what is going on here?" His emotions begin to take control, fear and confusion dominating his presence. "We have left enemies behind us, faced with the unknown before us, this is quickly getting out of control!" He stops and confronts the three of them, staring into th segmented eyes of Perrin spider. "How do we handle this, do we start with the guards, get them under control, or do we push forward and hope they remain unawares?"
At the question, Perrin does his best spider shrug. "Yeah, I don't know," he starts, his voice carrying a uncertain tone to Marlede's ears. "There's obviously a lot of things wrong with this place." He pauses for a moment before continuing. "We've seen enough to know something is terribly wrong, but we don't know enough to be useful yet. What are the odds we go back to town? In the morning, you guys can ask around to see what the town knows about the situation while I come here and do some solo scouting." Another shrug. "I can sneak into places and do some spying as a normal spider or something. If that sounds dumb, I say we keep moving forward and see what we can find. I just hate going into something this dangerous without knowing what we're facing, and I can't help but feel we're a little over our heads."
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
[Concerning the rope: ah I see, when I was scanning back over the messages I missed that due to the misspellings]
While looking and listening out for danger, Marlede also notices the corpses in the water, but the cistern appears otherwise unoccupied.
You're all back together at the west end of the hall, the boat bobbing in the water close to you.
Sirius tugs Aubreen back and listens to his findings extremely disturbed. "This whole business is really bad but now that we've started, I don't see a way we can leave without there being some major consequences. Once the paralyzed guards wake up, they can give our information. If we kill them, someone will notice sooner or later and we're the obvious suspects, being from out of town and coming to the castle before, asking all kinds of suspicious questions." Disappointment in himself washes over and he looks defeated. "I even waved around the flag of my house for gods' sake. Who knows what these heathens could do with that information. The only way out is to go through now. Or to flee the Dale and hope they don't send someone to attack my family."
Sirius paces around anxiously trying to come up with options. "We found a bunch of dead guards, I think it's fair to assume they weren't on board with the fiendish takeover. The new ones seem to be, with their amulets and all. Attacking sleeping people seems extremely dishonorable, but it might be our only chance to get out of here alive and not get hunted by devils. We should bring the guards here, tie them up and question them one by one. And we should do it fast, before the patrol notices something is wrong."
Sirius goes upstairs and starts carrying the guards down one by one. He takes his rope, unties it from Aubreen's rope and ties the guards up. "I hate to say it but I think we should incapacitate as many guards as we can before we continue, they don't seem innocent by any accounts. If guards have to be killed to get rid of them, their replacements can't not be evil, right? There's what, 12 guards just in the towers, probably more in the main building. If things go awry, we're utterly screwed anyway, no need to keep the 12 guards in. If these guards are what I think they are, I think we should go on an assassin mission to take out the rest of the guards.
[ Assume Marlede relays Perrin's messages. ]
Marlede unintentionally clicks her tongue in annoyance. The indecision is clearly irritating her. But she knows she has to stay calm, otherwise she'll do something she might regret.
"Look, the people of Caer Dineval were asking for help in their own way. Whatever is happening here, they know that they can't talk about it, otherwise, they would have told me already."
Looking at Aubreen, she'll say "We're here to help the people of Ten-Towns. And avenge those that were murdered for whatever fiendish plot is taking place here. As long as no alarms sound, we still have control over this situation. Do not start doubting yourself, or us for that matter."
To everyone, "Let's do what we can for now. If we're worried about getting overpowered, then let's go with Sirius' idea and cull down their numbers first. I've seen more than enough to know they're not innocent." She says looking at the drowned corpses.
"We could also just keep pushing forward and force whoever we find to tell us what they know. The choice is yours."
[ Assume she's whispering like Aubreen. ]
Currently DMing:
Sirius finds the three guards in the same state as the group left them in and has little trouble carrying them down the ladder due to his strength. It's been around 15 minutes since you entered and explored the cistern, the poison would probably remain in their system for a while. Their breath, though shallow, becomes much more visible in the freezing cold down here.
Aubreen takes Marlede's rope and uses it to tie the 3 prisoners, gagging them to ensure they will be quiet. He collects the emblems from each, their profane energies an insult in his hands, yet he remains defiant they should not have these.
"What effect do these have? Do they wear them as a symbol of allegiance, or does the emblem demand allegiance from them in an insidious way?" He picks up a small rock and casts light upon it. Handing it to Sirius. "Cover it with a cloth or pocket to extinguish the light, if we are moving forward you will need to see. Try to keep it at bay until we know whos voice it was I heard." Aubreen will climb in the boat, tying the rope to the prow. "Do you think we can all fit in here together?"
Marlede shrugs. She's not sure the boat will hold all three of them, since Perrin can still climb the walls.
"Do you mind carrying me again, Perrin? Just in case the boat can't hold us."
Her voice doesn't carry the Primal Energy that lets her communicate with beasts anymore.
Currently DMing:
Perrin acquiesces and moves into a position that made it easier to Marlede to cling to him before he carries her over the frigid water. As he does, he can't help but feel uneasy as they creep further into the keep. He couldn't shake the feeling that they diving straight into the midst of danger, and the fear that the keep was haunted grew more with each tentative step he took along the wall of the tunnel.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
The three guards are tied up properly. Even if they were to wake up, they would not be able to cry out.
As Aubreen grasps the amulets, he feels a revulsion. They feel wrong, tainted. Either a natural instinct, or a warning from Torm. The black stone they are fashioned out of seems practically infused with dark energies.
The boat does indeed look a bit too flimsy to comfortably fit more than two people. But with Perrin sticking to the wall and Marlede (somewhat uncomfortably) atop him, you would be able to cross together.
Aubreen climbs back into the boat with Sirius, using his sword once again as a pick to pull the craft forward. His rope back on his pack and coiling the length provided by Sirius. "Keep the light down. I heard a voice and want to check it out before alerting them of our presence. Marlede, I will keep at your back but you are a lot quieter than I am."
Once reaching the Southern passage with the frozen statues he climbs from the boat and moves as stealthy as he can to just at the edge of the room, (About 10' from the statue). Keeping low to the ground so Perrin and Marlede can pass unimpeded. Listening for the bird and voice he heard earlier. He looks at the statue (from a distance) to discern any further detail or clues, or at least watch that it doesn't move and present a threat.
Stealth: 11 (+10)
Perception: 20