Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh

     Cook doesn't push past Brynn and in fact has his hands half reached out towards her ready to grab her and pull her back if need be.  If she does leave the stairs, however, Cook will as well.  He's firstly interested in checking out the body - make sure they're dead, try to guess if they fought down here or were dragged down here, and of course to see what they may have on them.

     If Brynn is somehow satisfied with the room being empty of threats and is ready to go back up, however, Cook will grumble a bit but comply.

Dexterity Save, if needed:  15
Investigation check for checking out the body:  9

Cook manages to shuffle over to the body without impaling his feet with glass.  Two things Cook notices about the body; it’s been dead for awhile, and it’s infested…

Maggot swarms spill out of gaps in the armor. At a glance, the grubs’ appearance looks unnervingly similar to curdled milk being squeezed from a bladder.

initiative order.  Brynn, Rot Grubs, Cook

"Perhaps we should cover the upper parts of the house before heading donwstairs?" The young Rhenee beauty suggests with a hint of fear in her voice, barely being able to look down the stairs. "You know, to make sure no one falls us in the back, or locks us down there until the next slave transport?" She argues, too proud to simply admit she is afraid to go down the stairs.

(Decepetion to hide she is simply afraid: 17)

Seri (Passive Insight:  16) glances at Esme, startled.  The Rhenee woman had seemed so eager to move ahead confidently the entire day until now.  And yet, she brought up a good point, Seri has to admit.  Perhaps they should all consider their options, having triggered the apparent alarm?

"Anyone who heard those sounds surely will expect us to descend this stairway next and may be laying an ambush."  Seri keeps her voice low, just loud enough to be heard by Brynn, the furthest away of her companions.  "Should we instead continue on at the entry level to determine where the other set of boot prints lead?  Perhaps there is even a different way down and we can turn their expectations against them?  And stick together as Darixa says."

At that moment, just after Cook descends to join Brynn, Seri (Passive Perception:  16) hears a sudden, surprised intake of breath from both.

"Friends," she calls out urgently, voice still low.  "Talk to us.  What by the Wave Father's dim lit deeps is happening down there?"

Darixa also peers down the stairs as Seri starts to call down after the others. (Perception: 13) "Perhaps you should check on them? See if they need help?"  

Brynn had only just cleared the last few steps when Cook managed to find himself ahead of them. Brynn followed his line of sight. Saw the corpse. Saw the movement.

“…Ah.” Not fear. Just recognition. Then Brynn dragged their hand down their face in a slow, tired facepalm. “Cook…” There was the briefest pause. “These are not the mutts yer looking for...” Their hand dropped.

Brynn didn’t rush forward. Instead, they planted themself at the base of the stairs, angling their stance so anything spilling from the corpse would have to go through them before reaching the others above.
(I had readied a Frostbite prior to going down in case they run into anything hostile. Would that trigger here once the grubs came out?)
(If so... Frostbite Damage: 3)

“Seri. Darixa. Esme.” They call over their shoulder, voice steady. “Cook just made some friends.” A faint tilt of their head. “You’d want to give ’em a bit of space unless you’ve got a plan fer things that burrow.” Their brass fingers flexed once, then shifted... shuck-click... as a small chamber slid into place. "An' I'm not talking 'bout into the ground."

“They look like they move quick.” Brynn adds. “An' won't ask consent.” A quick glance back up the stairs, checking positions, not doubting them. “I’ve got the line here an' I'd prefer if ya stayed behind me. But if you come down to lend a hand, don’t bunch. An' be mindful, we still don't know where that scream came from.” Their intent had been to sweep the room before going to inspect the body.

The device hissed as pressure built. Brynn raised their arm and would release a controlled burst of freezing brine across the maggots, aiming to choke the movement where it clustered thickest without scattering it outward.

Action: Frostbite Damage:4
(Target choice would depend... ie. if the readied attack goes off against Grub 1, then would target Grub 2. If readied does not go off, would target Grub 1)

Seri knows Cook is in trouble, then hears Brynn call out.

Darixa ducks down on the stairs and sees Cooks dilemma… also the beaten bronze armored corpse.  A chill goes down Darixa’s spine.

Brynn both frostbites fly.  They take damage…

The swarms of rot grubs converge on Cook wriggling and biting and trying to get under his skin (literally)

Attack: 13 Damage: 0

Attack: 16 Damage: 0

if they hit Cook takes 7 damage per hit and must Con save DC 10 or be poisoned

Con Save: 22
_____

     Cook recoils as the grubs begin to squirm their way out of the corpse, writhing and squelching towards his hands and arms.

     The first wave hits him.

     For a split second, he’s simply repulsed—face twisting, stomach lurching—but he grits his teeth and forces himself through it, jerking back just in time to avoid the second, more enthusiastic spray of maggots that comes wriggling after him.

     He’s seen some foul things in his time. Some of them, somehow, people even called delicacies.

     Not him. Other people. But definitely not Cook.

     Leaning his weight away from the body, Cook recovers his footing and brings his big, meaty palm down hard on a cluster of the creatures, trying to crush them before they can spill free. He follows it up with another quick slap if needed...

_____

Action:  Unarmed Strike is a 19 to hit for 7 bludgeoning damage
Bonus Action:  Another unarmed strike which is 14 to hit for 6 bludgeoning damage

Cook’s big hands make short work of the frostbitten creatures leaving only a few wiggly stragglers.  Cook can’t help but see the long hair of what may have been a lady knight judging also by the custom fit of her armored figure.

Seri's Survival to determine if she can intuit what must be done when rot grubs such as these burrow into skin and flesh:  24
(No time for Guidance).

Hearing Brynn's urgent recounting of what has transpired and the sound of a strange scuffle downstairs, Seri takes the first few steps down (moving to a position just south/upstairs of Brynn.  Her heart sinks as she sees the Rot Grub Swarms and her fears are confirmed.

Once, on a far easterly jaunt out into the Azure Sea, coming upon a damaged and derelict ship that had been looted and left by pirates days earlier, the crew of the Dragonfly had encountered corpses infested with such lethal parasites.  Thankfully, Captain Thorne, for all his gruffness and physical bulk, had moved quicker than Seri would have believed to defuse the danger when the grubs had just found purchase on a crewmember's flesh, applying flame.

"Cook!  In Procan's name, if any of the parasites made contact with your flesh, light a torch and apply flame directly to the wound!  The resulting burn is the price of survival once the grubs touch flesh, else they burrow too deep to reach, after which death becomes inevitable."

Seri does not know if Cook has any torch handy, so just in case, she fishes one from her pack and tosses it down to him.  As she does, she chants a word in Elvish and gestures with the same arm.  Spiked bull kelp coils around the forearm, then whips forth at range to sweep the parasites away from her burly companion (without pulling them all the way to Seri and Brynn).  Seri then steps back up and out of the stairway to give the others room.

Movement:  Seri steps to the stairs and 5' down (just south of Brynn), Action/Free Action, then back 15' south out of the stairway to give others room.
Free Action:  Seri pulls a (still unlit) torch from her sealskin pack and tosses it down within Cook's reach.
Bonus Action:  None
Action:  Seri casts Thorn Whip (melee spell attack with 30' range) to sweep remaining Rot Grubs away from Cook.
Thorn Whip to hit Rot Grub Swarm:  25
Thorn Whip damage on Rot Grub Swarm:  5 (magical piercing)
Forced Movement:  on a hit, Seri pulls the target (if large or smaller sized) up to 10' directly towards her, so southeast and up away from Cook, but not all the way to herself and Brynn, perhaps 7.5', letting them drop to the cellar floor below.

As Darixa sees the grubs, she pauses where she is at on the stairs. "I'll just stay here... I mean, unless you really need more help," she says. She does grab her lute and starts playing, singing a few brief lyrics (OOC - Granting Inspiration to Cook: once within the next hour, when failing a D20 Test, can roll 1d6 and add the number rolled to the total.) 

'High tide, low tide, keep the sails full!
Monsters are before you, but you'll win the pull!'

Realizing that her new companions Cook and Brynn have run into some sort of trouble downstairs, the young Rhenee is seething with anger with herself for not overcoming her fear but does her best to stay calm and collected as she tries to keep watch for other threats. She takes some brief comfort in the brief but sweet tune from the tanned girl in the stairs. She hoped to hear more of her in time.

     "Ah now, for such small things they surely reek something fierce when splattered, don't they?" Cook asks as he shakes his arms and rubs them across his thighs trying to get the last few of the disgusting grubs off.

     "It's alright," he then calls out to the others.  "It's alright now.  A little surprise, no big deal..."  

     "Any of you be needing some armor?  It's slightly dented and surely not the most pleasant smelling but it still looks usable," he says as he nudges the armor with a foot to see if more of the grubs come out - If so he is ready with his lit torch to singe the little muckers something good!  "Plate mail, I think.  A shield and sword too if you be needing..."

     With the grubs still in mind Cook isn't too keen on doing a full search of the body so he instead turns his attention to the rest of the room.  It seems a bit small a cellar considering the size of the house but he's never lived in a such a large place himself so he really wouldn't know for sure.  He winces a bit at the wine rack and all the broken bottles.  He can only imagine that there were some rather good, and pricy, vintages lost there.  A shame.  Not much else to look at excepting the storage bins.  He makes a point of holding the torch above them so he can get a good look inside to ensure they are empty before turning to Brynn, and the others, and giving a shrug.

     "Not sure why the footsteps came this way," Cook says to the others.  "Ain't much to see unless they were getting some sick thrill watching the dead one rot..."

___

If anyone wants the sword or shield Cook will happily bring them to them.  If they're wanting the armor he's a bit reluctant to strip it off the corpse himself, crawly squirming rot grubs still giving him a bit of the willies in regards to manhandling the corpse, but he'd be willing to assist.  Otherwise he's ready to head back up and check out the rest of the house.

Esme leans back against a wall and sighs with relief as the cook calls out that they are alright. "No need for clunky metal scraps, but can you check if they have any good wines down there?" The young Rhenee calls back down.

Cook make an investigation check please

Seri lets out a long exhale once she perceives that none of the rot grubs had burrowed into Cook's flesh.  She makes no move to retrieve her thrown torch.

As she waits for Cook to take a look around the cellar, she muses quietly, just loud enough for her companions to hear:

"I could perceive no mechanics or artifice to produce the frightening alarm we heard earlier when setting foot on the stairway.  It must be magic, likely arcane magic.  Meaning there is likely at least one magician, perhaps a powerful one, among those who occupy this house."

Seri pauses, considering further.

"There may be a door or passage to that cellar somewhere, perhaps hidden.  The tracks leading to or from there are fairly recent, so must have been made by someone other than the armored corpse, which has been lying there for some time, based on the rot grubs.  And I am skeptical that whoever occupies this place would set a magical alarm just to detect whether anyone descends into the dead-end wine cellar with the infested cadaver."

"On the other hand, these same occupants are now forewarned and may be expecting us to continue down that route if we do find a secret passageway.  So I agree, we may be best advised to continue searching the entry level for now.  Perhaps following the other set of boot prints."

"I have no need for armor or swords, Cook," Darixa says. She then responds to Seri. "A hidden passage makes sense. So you see anything? We could check out other areas though and come back."

Quote from HunterOrien >>

Cook make an investigation check please

 
Investigation:  nat 20 for a 23 total

     Cook absently grabs the previously thrown torch and sticks it in his waistband, his lit one will start to falter eventually and so it could come in handy.

     "Looks like all the wine is busted or stolen, unfortunately," Cook calls up to Esme offhandedly but gives the rack a once over after checking out the bins.

     "Could just be they recently retrieved something from down here and left," Cook offers to Seri in regards to the boot print remark but her mentioning it does cause him to check out the floor as well to see if the tracks they followed down here are indeed still evident or not.

Cook makes several discoveries; an intact bottle of wine, the footprints seem to stop at a cellar wall, the shield sword and plate armor have fireflies etched into the bronze, and the corpses hair is the same as Darixa’s, it also smells like a ham is cooking somewhere…

     Finding the intact bottle of wine, Cook looks up the stairs to Esme.  "Guess you're in luck!" he declares holding the bottle up for her to see before tossing it to her.

(Cook Dexterity roll to see how well he tosses it up to her from the bottom of the stairs: 5 - She'll probably need a good Dex roll of her own to catch it before it hits a wall and shatters or something!  Oops.  That is what I get for rolling when not asked!)

     "Fancy armor and sword," Cook counters Darixa with.  "Fine filigree of fireflies decorating them all."  

(Not exactly sure what about the corpse's hair is the same as Danica's?  I believe hers is just brown and kind of a disheveled / wind tussled kind of look?  Obviously Seri's would be a lot more distinct but... *shrug*)

     "What you make of this?" he asks Brynn with a nudge of his elbow and a jerk of his head to indicate the footprints seemingly stopping right at a wall.  "Maybe as they suggest, a secret door here someplace?"  Cook can't see it himself, to him it just looks like a wall.  But handing the job of figuring it out off he then begins to follow his nose wondering where that smell of ham is coming from.

(OOC - Given Esme is upstairs and away from the stair, what exactly is Cook throwing at? And I too was not quite sure what part of the hair is like Darixa. She never moved from her spot relatively near the top of the stair, so not sure how well she can see anyhow.) 

(Does Darixa have any knowledge of fine filigree fireflies at all?  History Check: 11)