"Oh!" Mavis says, delighted. "Yes, I will definitely look at those. That's very exciting, dear," she tucks the scroll tubes into her satchel.

Jorin nods at Drusk's suggestion and begins tieing the half elf to the bed frame, or whatever the most secure piece of the cabin is.

"That should hold I think.  Let us go back below and finish clearing out the, uh, basement.  Afterwards we can figure out what to do with him.  I do not want something from down there coming up here."

(Drusk is out of spells, but Vanja still has Cure Wounds. I'd be fine doing it later, but she could heal the elf now, if we want more information before going downstairs.)

Vanja gives the unconscious half-elf a worried but thoughtful glance before looking to the rest of the party.

"I could try to heal him now, but it would take a lot out of me.  And if we're going back down to investigate more, it might be better to save my healing magic in case we need it down there.  What do you all say?"

After Jorin is done tying, Drusk heads downstairs (assuming the others will follow). Casts Light again on one of Jorin's hand axes.

Drusk heads back to the blood room, stopping just short of the north passage. While the others are catching up, he checks the floor for more traps, like the ones Hildigrim disabled earlier. Perception: 9

OOC > One second folks... game pause in progress...

OOC > And we're back!

Just as Drusk is getting antsy to go back into the dungeon, and as Jorin is testing his knots keeping the unconscious half-elf tied to Criella's bed, a small tinkling bell sound manifests out of thin air. "Oh, my," Mavis says, standing up. She walks calmly to the door where Criella has been standing tending the fire (it's still cold out), opens it and sticks her head out.

"It appears we have company," she says, and opens the door wide.

Criella turns to look, and a smile comes across her face. "Pascal!" she says, and runs out of the cottage.

As you gather at the door, alert but composed, you see Criella in conversation with a lizard man. She turns to you all and says, "This is Pascal, I knew him when we were with the Knights of the Unicorn."

OOC > JcAndD, when you get a chance, please describe Pascal, and let's go from here.

“Bonjour, mon cher. Apologies for the long delay, traveling got the better of me. Ça va, cher? You look well.” He turns to the rest of you, “Ah, bonjour, pleased to meet you all.”

Pascal is a tall, burly, crocodile-esque lizardfolk. He wears simple traveling garp, but seems to have a pack full of various ingredients and knives, which hangs beside his apron. Another strange thing of note, is that whereas lizardfolk are often green, Pascal is a deep shade of red. 

Criella turns to introduce the motley crew coming out of the cottage. "These are newly met friends who have come to help me. Soon after I moved in, strange things began to happen. I," she pauses to look a little embarrassed. "I thought it was, I thought my neighbors were harassing me, and I took anger, and, well. It seems this little cottage of mine sits atop a dwelling or dungeon of some kind! These are Drusk and Jorin, and this is Hildigrim, and that there is Vanja, and Mavis. And her cat, Mortimer. Mavis and I have been staying above ground while the others explore, oh! And they have found a... prisoner?" She quirks her head. "A half-elf, possessed by an undead hand? In any case, he is unconscious inside."

"It has been quite a day. Reminds me of the old days, in fact. Perhaps that life has not been left behind after all."

"But how have you been, Pascal? How has fate brought you to my door? Besides that I invited you, of course," she laughs.

Pascal nods at Criella’s story, “Ah, cher, c’est la vie. However, it sounds like you have quite the group on you. I’m glad your letter made it to me in time, I was just about to leave on my next hunt when suddenly my old cher came ringing. Naturally, I couldn’t turn down that. So, here I am, but the traveling has been good, been very good.”

Hildigrim watches Pascal closely with wide eyes, a grin on his lips. "Excuse me," the halfling says, once Pascal has finished answering Criella. "Mr. Pascal, my name is Hildigrim Goodbody. I'm from Waterdeep. I'm very glad to meet you. I have met very few lizardfolk, and I have to say, you are by far the most interesting!"

Pascal turns to the halfling and nods, “And I’m glad to meet you as well, Mr. Goodbody. Any friend of cher’s is a friend of me. The pleasure is all mine,” He extends a clawed hand to shake the halflings, “Pascal LeRoux, at your service, my friend.”

As soon as Hildigrim says "excuse me" a wide smile breaks across Jorin's face.  After Hildigrim finishes his introduction, he extends a hand to the Lizard man saying, "Oh, prepare yourself friend, this one is going to flense the meat from your bones with the onslaught of questions he is about to unleash.  I'm Jorin Maul, of the Bodt tribe.  Have you come to help Criella with her house?  She has got a blood room downstairs." he juts a finger over his shoulder at the door in the floor.

“Not mine!” says Criella. ”Though I suppose I do own it, now?”

The lizardfolk tilts his head, “A blood room?” He spares a confused look toward Criella, “Well, that’s something you don’t hear everyday, now do you. Should’a invited me sooner. Care to show me around?”

Quote from Guiltysparc >>

After Hildigrim finishes his introduction, he extends a hand to the Lizard man...

 Drusk: "Hildigrim, normally you extend your own hand to a new arrival, not an undead one that you found in a bloodletting room in a basement.

"Pleased to meet you, Pascal. Unfortunately, we missed you at the Dashing Satyr, with their fine beers and unusual sah-kay. If we are lucky enough to find some buried coins downstairs, we can use Lliira's bounty for the next round of drinks at that inn, for a proper greeting."

Pascal notices that Drusk is a half-orc who smiles too much, dressed in elvish-style clothing, and has a mace with a yellow smiley face on it (underneath lots of old blood spatters).

Hildigrim looks at Jorin and then Drusk, his face blank before splitting into a wide grin. He looks back at Pascal. "I would love to have a long chat, but I can be patient. Lead the way, my friends!"

Vanja looks a bit nervously at the newcomer, but does brighten at the mention of the Knights.  She steps forward slowly from where she was looking over the unconscious half-elf once more and gives a polite but obviously ill-practiced motion that got lost somewhere between a bow and a curtsy.  Pascal would note that Vanja appears to be a young human woman, likely not even past her twentieth year, though her attire looks to be well suited for travel and has seen much of it, being a bit worn in some places and patched in others.

"I'm Vanja, as Criella already said.  A traveler from the south, though I would guess not nearly so well traveled as yourself."

Turning back to the others, she makes a soft coughing noise to get their attention.

"I'll ask again, should I try to heal our 'captive' in the hopes he might be able to tell us more about what lies below?  Or should I save the limited healing magic I have in case we need it down there?"

The lizardfolk is certainly surprised by the diversity of the group, but hey, he’s worked with weirder. “If y’all don’ mind, could ya fill me in on what exactly’s been happening? From what I gatha, this place is built on some old dungeon and that’s causing all sorts of problems. Anything specific come to mind?”

"Well, the first major thing on the list would be the bloodthirsty twig-men that slaughtered some of Criella's sheep," Vanja responds as she turns back to Pascal.  She motions with her arm to indicate the paddock outside.  "The slaughtered sheep is what prompted Criella to head to the Dashing Satyr, where she met all of us, and we discovered the twig-men were responsible after they attacked us when we returned here with her."

She shudders a bit as she recalls the tussle with the twig creatures.

"After that we investigated this cottage and managed to find the passage below, which does indeed seem to be an old dungeon of some kind, with traps in the floor and mold creatures that can apparently attack your mind."

She pauses with a glance back at the unconscious half elf.

"And then we found HIM down there, with THAT..." (she points at the severed hand on Hildi's rapier) "...attached to his arm and dragging him towards us like it had a mind of its own."