"Using knowledge for well-gotten gains is one of Lliira's directives... as long as those gains are then used for festivities, of course."

"You know I don't subscribe to any organized religion," Hildrigrim says to Drusk as he concentrates on picking the lock, "but a celebration is a different story."

Jorin lets out a full throated laugh at Drusk's joke and says, "HA!  Yes, well-gotten gains.  The heart of every adventurer.  Make sure you put that in your notes Hild."

Hildigrim, for all his sheepishness, easily springs the lock. It is old, and has not seen much use, but it comes off the hasp cleanly. It looks like you could use the hasp to lift the door open.

Mrs. Brinarei (as NPC) says, "If you young folks are going in there, I'll stay back with Criella, to make sure nothing untoward happens up here." Criella nods gratefully.

Now what?

"Sounds like in is where we should be going, yes?" Jorin says with a big smile and prepares the open the door.

OoC - Jorin wants to head in, but given the nature of PBP, I'll hold off him actually opening the door until other players have a chance to weigh in with their thoughts.

Hildigrim puts away his tools and looks with anticipation at the trapdoor.

With Jorin going in first, Drusk casts Light onto one of his battle-axes.

Jorin's face lights up at the sight of his glowing ax.  He swings it in a few wide circles in childlike amusement before getting into a more combat ready stance.  

He crouches down and opens the door.  He'll pause for a moment after the door opens to listen (Perception: 12) before heading down/in.  If he doesn't hear anything, he will proceed through the door.

OOC > As per the lengthy posts I made before anyone signed up, I'm going to proceed with Vanja as an NPC for the moment, give Neo time to come back without limiting the rest of you.

Jorin hauls the trap door open, and while it protests a little, it does not take too much effort. Cold, damp air spills out, carrying with it a smell of musty disuse and... other things. It is dark in the hole, and Jorin thrusts his glowing axe into the opening and peers inside. Worked stone walls, wet and beaded with water, descend into the darkness, and in the bright light you can see a crude wooden platform, glistening with wetness, ten feet down. In the ten feet of dim light beyond that you can see a set of platforms making a crude staircase to the stone floor ten feet further down.

The whole place seems dank, perhaps wet from the nearby creek? But this is no cave. The stone walls, and what you can see of the floor, are smooth and well crafted.

It is a ten foot drop to the platform, then ten more feet of "stairs" to the floor, which is about ten feet ahead.

Drusk takes a look (he is the only one with darkvision), shading his eyes from the glowing axe, and sees that at the end of the platform stairs, the shaft opens onto a hallway running left and right.

"At the end of the platform stairs, the shaft opens onto a hallway running left and right."

(That had to be role-played once. ;-) From now on, I think we can all assume that Drusk passes on that sort of information.)

Jorin peers down into the hole, "Dark down there..." he says, and pulls a handaxe from the sheath on the back of his belt, "Drusk, could you make this one glow?"

Assuming Drusk obliges, Jorin will take the glowing handaxe and toss it down to the lowest level, at the bottom of the stairs.  He then takes out his coil of rope and glances about the room for something study to tie it off on before dropping the other end down to the wooden platform.   

Quote from Mingofaust >>

... and in the bright light you can see a crude wooden platform, glistening with wetness, ten feet down. In the ten feet of dim light beyond that you can see a set of platforms making a crude staircase to the stone floor ten feet further down.

 

(OOC: Doesn't matter right now, and probably lots of shadows from the platforms, but Light is "bright" from 0 to 20 ft, "dim" 21-40 ft. )

OOC: Also, if the spell is cast again, it goes out on the first item, so if light was cast on the handaxe, the other axe went dark.

"Just hold on to it," Hildigrim instructs Jorin as he picks up the rope. "I'll go down first." Without waiting, the halfling begins shimmying down the rope to the first landing. Once on his feet, he'll look around.

Perception (rolling at disadvantage; use the first number for the lighted area): 9

"Ha, you make a great adventuring companion Hildy.  I hope you do not mind me calling you Hildy...or maybe Grim?" Jorin says with a chuckle, and follows Hildigrim to the first platform.

Holding back while the sturdier companions worked at the floor, Vanja readily leans forward and peers down the hole as Hildigrim goes down.

"See anything of note, Hildigrim?"

Quote from Guiltysparc >>

"I hope you do not mind me calling you Hildy...or maybe Grim?"

 (OOC: I am now tempted to call him Grimhilda, the lesser known younger brother of Brunhilda. )

"Hildi's fine," the halfling responds, not looking up. "My family calls me that all the time."

OOC > My bad, I was looking at the 20'/20' range for Light as diameter, not radius. I'll keep that in mind for the rest of this.

So, original light spell still in effect on Jorin's battle axe, platform 10' down, with 10 more feet of "stairs" to floor a total of 20' down, opens into a hallway.

You all tie your rope to... it turns out there's nothing in the cottage secure enough, but fifty feet of rope is just enough to reach all 20' to the bottom of the shaft and also all the way out to the sheepfold, where you tie it to one of the sturdy posts. Then, with Jorin leaning in with his lit axe, Hildigrim shimmies down the rope. Drusk and Vanja lean in, too, trying to get a better look.

The platform is slick with wet slime, and Hildigrim has to stand carefully to not slip. From this perspective he can see the hallway that runs left (North) and right (South) in front of the entrance shaft. The walls of the hallway are carved in a bas relief of grotesque skeletons, corpses, and other creatures rising from their graves. The ceiling is about 10' tall, and also of smooth, worked stone. On the wall directly across from the "stairs" is a carving of a grinning skull with worms crawling out of its eyes.

Finally, Drusk swings down the rope, and now two of you are standing on the slippery platform, casting some wicked shadows from Jorin's axe into the creepy hallway.

Crude Map:

             |      |
DH )))_       |
             |      |

Jorin casts his eyes over the carvings of skeletons and rising dead on the wall saying, "Well, if we die down here, at least we won't stay dead for long." He looks back to Criella and Ms Brinarei,  "Keep your eyes peeled and if anything other than us starts up these steps, lock the door."

If there is room on the platform, then Jorin will jump down to join Hildi and Drusk.

Drusk also looks at the carvings on the wall. Are the drawings about generic undead, or is the iconography for a specific religion? History check: 14 (Edit: sigh... no idea)