Xaul nods as he sees the majority of his party members put their coin back into the pot. He sighs and says 'Well, I don't particularly need anything at the moment, so I think it's worth me putting my share back into the funds too.' Sure enough, he drops the 10 gold dragons back into the little chest holding all the cash.

Assuming you are back in the manor (rather than carrying the chest around with you), you hear a loud crash from the basement. 

Xaul curses as he hears the clamour below and says 'Hopefully that's just rickety shelf that got disturbed by a draft, but I don't expect it will be. Everyone, spells at the ready.' He then heads round the taproom towards the hatch, waiting to open it as his companions draw close.

Damros speaks softly, "I thought it was just a couple of dug out 'rooms' for casks of ale and wine?"

"Think something decided to tunnel into the basement for a new 'escape route' since we burned that last one?"

Sehaethas is saving up for better armor, so he keeps the ten gold pieces.

Sehaethas says reluctantly, "I suppose we should go check it out."

He'll start making his way to the basement.

OOC: Are we in the store or the living area at this point?

Skye stays to the rear of the group. 

I assumed you were in the ground floor (so close by). You head there, and upon opening up the hatch and looking in from the outside, you see a stack of old plates and bowls that were stored on the shelf are all on the floor, most of them broken. The shelf still seems intact.

[I'm assuming we've had a short rest since our fight with the thugs]

Xaul sighs. 'There's definitely something down there. I'll cast speak with animals on myself and call down from here in case it's just a lost Beast, but if I don't get a response, I think I'll hop down and deal with it, whatever it might be. I can blast it away with a thunderwave if it tries to get too close, and if it somehow manages to land a hit, I can always punish it with a hellish rebuke. Sound good?' If the party is happy with his plan, Xaul will take a small swig of his flask, then call down in a strange, bestial tongue, asking 'Hello! Are you lost or in need of rescue? If so, we can help, but please don't destroy any more plates!'

There is no reply 

Xaul gives an irritated click with his tongue 'Looks like we should head down and deal with it then...' He then drops down, looking to see if he can spot anything but also preparing to blast away any violent creatures that approach. [Perception: 5]

Xaul sees nothing that could have caused the plates to fall off.

What are the rest of you doing currently? 

Sehaethas is just waiting for word from below.

Damros runs to where he has his backpack stored and grabs a couple of torches... just in case.

Damros yells down the hatch, "Xaul !  Any sign of a visitor?   Need more hands or eyes down there to search? "

Xaul yells up 'No sign of anything down here, but I haven't searched too well! Some extra help would be greatly appreciated!'

"Go on, Damros," says Skye. "I'll stay up top to get you anything further you need. Just shout up, I'll be right here, happy to help." 

Damros gives Skye a half grin and a wink, "So good of you to volunteer me."   He then moves down the ladder into the cellar; stopping to light a torch.

With the torchlight, you look around, the wall seems to be sturdy, there is no sign of any current movement going on

Xaul grumbles and says 'Well, something clearly is here, surely, we just haven't found it yet and it doesn't seem particularly inclined to reveal itself, so guess we've got to search the hard way....' He pours out a single drop from his flask onto the stone cellar floor, which suddenly flows up into a mighty wave that then spends the next minute washing idly about the room, up and down under Xaul's command, aiming to cover all the space in the small cellar, and then lashing out if it senses any foreign creatures within it's 10 foot reach. [I'll roll an attack on confirmation that there actually is something it finds to hit]

[@DM, I think this might be a bit of a perversion of the feature's original intent, but with Xaul's Tentacle of The Deep, it says that 'you create a 10-foot-long tentacle at a point you can see within 60 feet of you'  but when it comes to attacks, it just says 'you can make a melee spell attack against one creature within 10 feet of it', which says nothing about Xaul needing to see the creature to try and make an attack, only that it can attack anything within a 10 foot area if able, so would it be able to search the room for unseen creatures by testing to see if it senses anything to attack as it goes? If you don't think it can be used that way, no worries, Xaul will just stand there stumped until somebody else tries something]

I will say it can be used that way, it's a bit slow as you have to move it each turn, and try attack again. 

It finds no targets.