OOC: It might help if you were rolling perception checks. Though, I'll remind you that if you roll lower than your passive, I'm going to use the lower roll rather than your passive.

Erric pokes at the rapier. Nothing happens. As the bard prods the bottle, it shifts a little, and Erric can see it's a wine bottle, and it looks to be unopened. When he forces the door to the right open, he looks into the left hallway. He looks across the hallway into the open doorway. He can see the end of an ornate table and one armchair in the room.

Maldorn tells the bard: "Kenku? Is that what the bird folk are called, Ceric? If so, all I can say is that I identified four sets of avian tracks walking towards the house, but only three of them walking away from the building."

The ranger then nods in agreement to Anafrey's methodological approach to exploration and makes sure he is the last one to enter the room she picked to investigate first. Once he notices the new pages, he picks them up and reads them out loud, before passing them to whomever wants to look at them next.

"That thin burnt blade reminds me of your weapon of choice, Master Feric. Perhaps it is still usable despite the outer damage?" Maldorn moves closer to Erric and the door to the right: "I'll cover you," he says, placing an arrow on his longbow.

Then he asks Jambiya and Anafrey: "What's next? Room with fancy table or the large room?"

(OOC: From what I gather, Maldorn's passive perception is coming into play a lot here. I'm happy to keep that going, but if active perception checks are preferred, please let me know.)

Not really paying heed to her companions, Anafrey continues skirting the left wall of the building splitting her attention between keeping quiet and keeping an eye open for anything that moves or seems out of place.

stealth : 10

perception : 10

Erric swipes the bottle and the burnt rapier, and follows Anafrey, sort of like a remora on a shark. The remora doesn't steer, and probably just makes snarky comments.

"Heard a tale about a haunted house once. Extremely popular for some reason but terrible dialogue and contrived plot. Basically these three idiots went to go find a witch, and ended up in this burned out dilapidated house. The ending seemed unfinished and I guess the witch was standing in the basement in the corner in the end? Like I said it was a bad story. What I'm saying is does anyone think there is a basement in this house?"

When Erric picks up the bottle, his suspicion is confirmed: the bottle has yet to be opened. The label is barely singed and looks fancy. As he picks up the rapier, he notices the parts of it which aren't covered in soot and grime shine a little more brightly than his own weapon.

It is fairly common for buildings in this part of Faerûn to have basements. Sometimes the floorboards of the house creek, which also adds to the idea that there might be more house below.

When Jambiya arrives at the open doorway across from the door they used to enter the room, she looks into the next room. Though she doubts it got much use this far from civilization, this two-story chamber appears to have been a ballroom. Like most of the house, this room is littered with debris and blackened by fire damage.

Erric stows the bottle in his pack, glancing at Anafrey's quickly-sobering form entering the ballroom. He tries some practice swipes with the burnt rapier absentmindedly as he keeps up with the group. He looks around the ballroom for anything spectral, feathered, or really anything that's not just burned debris: perception 14

Anafrey enters the ballroom holding a hand up to signal the rest of the party to wait, hugging the near wall and looking to see if there's a balcony or something else that would allow a potential bird-person to see and/or attack the party from above before waving for the party to enter to investigate.

Jambiya waits as bid, and if the coast is clear, she'll enter the ballroom, letting her imagination fill it in with parties and dances, with Clarice at the center. Almost without noticing she is doing it, a small figure of a woman in ball gown, twirling, materializes in her outstretched hand. "Oh!" she says, as she notices, and it winks out. She looks around, a little embarrassed. "This was a grand house, once." She looks about for any more journal pages. Perception: 18

Erric and Anafrey enter the ballroom, their eyes scanning everything. The bulk of the room was clearly empty. Burnt remnants of chairs and sofas line the walls. A tiny stage is prominent on the left end of the room, but it appears to also have been empty when the fire burnt it. There is no balcony. Like the entrance hall, this room was two story, but now is completely open to the sky above. As Jambiya enters, she is at first distracted, but when she finally focuses on the room, it is she who finds not one, not two, but three diary pages.

Along the same wall as the door through which they entered, the adventurers see an opening into the left hall and a closed door a little further. On the wall to their right is a set of double doors. Though the glass in the doors and the windows on the wall are filthy, Erric recognizes the shapes of the garden he and Anafrey avoided.

"Friends? I like shiny things more than all of you put together. But if we see that mirror Dirk sold Lord Alistaire, we should look away immediately if we cannot break it, and run the opposite direction. I'm a little concerned about what's in the basement now. I'm guessing that neither Clarice nor the bedroom are still here."

A little louder, but not shouting at all, he says: "Lady Clarice? Lord Alistaire? We'd like to help you if you are listening."

Upon seeing the glass doors with plants outside, he starts. "Creepy flaming plants," you can barely hear him mutter to himself. He recommends either retracing their steps through the room they came through, or going right into the hallback back to the entrance as long as it doesn't bring them too close to the doors. 

"Best avoid the garden unless we have cause to enter." Anafrey remarks, patting the flask in her brassiere as she walks the length of the ballroom. "Let's continue to the back and circle this floor fully before trying any stairs, I imagine that if we are able to piece together whatever remains of this journal, that will satisfy Dirk's need to understand what occurred here." She opens the closed door carefully and takes a peak before swinging it wide.

Jambiya follows the others distractedly, beginning to sort the journal pages by date to build a cohesive narrative. 

(@rkmobious: Blair Witch Project?)

Maldorn only enters the ballroom several moments after the rest of the party, and is the last to read up the next three pages. Once Erric mentions the plants, he steps towards the double doors and stares at the overgrown plant-life through the glass for a few moments, trying to determine if he can deduce anything about it (nature: 10, add another +2 if "forest"). Whether he finds out anything about the plants or not, Maldorn also looks around the garden area to find any potential sources of danger (perception: 25, add another +2 if "forest").

The ranger then lights up his still unfinished hand-rolled cigarette and continues to follow the group silently. As usual, he is bringing up the rear.

Once again, the group's attempt to communicate with whomever or whatever might be present in the house goes unanswered.

Maldorn rakes his eyes over the various overgrown planting areas through the glass. He's about to give up when he recognizes what is unmistakably a twig blight hidden among some other plants.

Opening the closed door, Anafrey finds what was clearly the dining room. Though in need of a good cleaning, it remains remarkably intact. A large table and eight matching chairs dominate the room. A door to her right stands open to the left hallway, a closed door is a little further down that wall, and a third door (fourth if you count the door Anafrey is looking through) at the opposite end of the room is closed.

Jambiya is a little bit lost in the house now. She steps into the dining room after Anafrey, then looks about, trying to orient herself. "We should go up, or down, I think this floor won't hold either the bedroom or the mirror. I'm sort of sick about Daddy Pops giving them this thing."

"It looks like you were right about that garden, Master Feric," Maldorn drags on his cigarette. "There is at least one wandering mound of wood chips out there, and these little buggers never amble on their lonesome."

"Let us gather as much information as we can, Ms. Jambiya" Maldorn forgets to drop the honorific as requested. "I'm sure the stairs can wait for us to look into a couple more rooms." The old ranger then waits for everyone to make their way into the dining room and then follows. His bow is strapped on his back once again, while he enjoys his smoke.

Anafrey waves off the fumes from Maldorn's cigarette as she wanders around the dining room, looking for more pages, or anything else of note. Assuming she finds nothing further; guessing that the door to the right will open into the entry way from which they came, Anafrey goes to the far door and opens it impatiently.

The room on the other side of the door area was clearly the kitchen, as evident from the oven and the numerous cooking utensils scattered around the room. Less indicative of a typical kitchen is the remarkably realistic statue of a birdlike humanoid standing in the middle of the room. The kenku is in a pose of surprise.

OOC > Uh oh. :)