Qivys composes himself and starts descending the stairs into the basement, warhammer drawn. As he walks down he tilts his head towards Kas "Stick close lad, and keep your eyes open"
If he reaches the basement without incident he scans the area.
Qivys descends into the cellar, with Kas close behind. Omen and Red remain at the top of the stairs, steadying themselves and trying to gain their composure.
Shoulder-height wooden bottle racks line the north and west walls of the cellar. There appear to be no intact bottles left in the racks and shattered bottles cover the floor. Against the east wall, at the foot of the stairs, rest two large metal storage bins that appear to be empty. In the center of the room lies a human corpse clad in plate mail; a longsword lies by the corpse’s right side, and a large shield covers its legs.
Kas recoils at the horrible shrieks, attempting to cover his ears without dropping the lantern or sword. As the screams fade he hears Qivys say, "Stick close lad, and keep your eyes open." He sticks to the dwarf's back like a shadow as they continue down the steps. The light of the lantern, wavering a bit as his hand trembles, reveals the armor-clad corpse. "Body. Body!" he mumbles. "There's a dead knight on the floor!" he half-shouts up the stairs. He presses even closer to Qivys, sword at the ready, studying the corpse for any sign of what killed it.
Still descending the steps, Kasimir looks at the corpse. The plate mail is pretty banged up, and from what you can see (and now smell) of the exposed body, this person has been dead for a few weeks, maybe. Cause of death not yet clear.
Red swallows nervously, her mouth gone dry at the shrieks. She stumbles away from the stairs and tries to regain her composure. She's shaky and sweaty as she approaches the stairs once more but stops when Kas calls out. Nope, she thinks, Nah, no way.
"I'm gonna... go check out the rest of this floor!"She calls down to them, voice wavering slightly as she retreats back into the kitchen. She glances down the hallway but hesitates to get further away from her companions. Indecisively she walks back into the other room to stand beside Omen hugging herself.
"Or maybe not." She mutters, mostly just to herself.
"Keep calm Kas. He can't hurt us now. We should probably have a closer look, see if we can tell what ended his life" Qiv approaches the body, all the while looking around the body for any signs of a struggle. "Go now spirit, be free. May Pelors light guide you" Qiv whispers the prayer as he kneels next to the body. He studies the body looking for signs of battle injuries. Investigation1 or Medicine20 (Whichever is most appropriate)
Loathe to get anywhere near the body, Kasimir moves into the corner at the bottom of the stairs. "I'll just stay back here and investigate these bins." Investigation15
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Kasimir examines the large metal storage bins - they are empty, their original purpose unclear.
Qivys examines the body, which lay on its back.The plate mail is banged up but serviceable (and fits any Medium creature.) The longsword and the shield are in good condition. A backpack is under the body. A peek under the chest plate quickly identifies the cause of death - in combat, a blade had found a seam in the armor and run this poor sap through.
But just as Qivys solves the case, a swarm of finger-sized maggots boil out of gaps in the armor – big white grubs looking unnervingly similar to curdled milk being squeezed from a bladder. They swarm Qivys and attempt to burrow into his flesh.
Initiative: Grubs: 17 Qivys: 7 Kas: 3
Kasimir is quick on the draw. He's about ten feet away. Red and Omen are just out of line-of-sight, but they can see Kas and sense the commotion.
Kasimir is engrossed in his study of the empty bins, totally not just avoiding the dead, stinking corpse. He hears the slight rattle of the armor as Qivys pokes around, and turns just in time to see the first of the grubs slither out of the corpse towards Qivys. He lets out a fearsome battle cry -- not to be confused for a terrified yelp -- and begins whacking away at the grubs with his rapier. He will also begin evasive footwork that resembles, to an untrained eye, the icky dance performed when one is startled by a mouse.
Rapier Attack = 18; Damage = 10; Sneak attack = 5 (assuming the grubs are within 5 ft of Qivys)
(Icky dance for flavor; he doesn't learn effective prancing until next level)
Kasimir slices and dices the maggots. His rapier turns out to be not the most effective weapon against these things (too many individual grubs, too spread out) but he does successfully kill maybe a third of them. (OOC: half-damage.)
The maggots swarm Qivys. Attack: 16
They are all over him, but none have yet penetrated his armor.
Omen tries his hardest, but can't seem to make his legs move. He is deeply terrified. He may act, but he cannot descend those stairs yet. He does not have line-of-sight, but he definitely hears Qivys in distress.
Sorry, let's add Red and Omen into the initiative list, in case they can help in any way: Red: 13 Omen: 12
So Red and Omen are up next, together with Qivys, if they are able to act.
Hearing the commotion Red will pull out her instrument and gripped it tightly in an effort to comfort herself. She'll make her way down, taking each step one at a time. She stops when she can see Qivys and fumbles with her instrument, bringing it up and drawing a shriek from the strings casting Vicious Mockery, pressing herself back against the wall, as far away as she can get.
She'll make her way down, taking each step one at a time. She stops when she can see Qivys and fumbles with her instrument, bringing it up and drawing a shriek from the strings
Try as she might, Red can't seem to draw the willpower to make her wobbly legs walk down enough stairs to see Qivys or the maggots. She's still deeply shocked and upset by those screams.
Seeing the maggots start to crawl across him he frantically tries to squish them.
Qivys manages to mash some of them, but there are still many more crawling on him, trying to burrow into him.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Kasimir:
Kasimir's stomach flops as he watches the pale, fat grubs wriggle up Qivys's legs, hungry mouths probing for a gap in his armor. Hearing Omen's question he shouts back, "Grub, maggot, worm... THINGS attacking Qivys!" He drops the rapier on the ground and draws his daggers. "Good thing you're armored up," he tells the dwarf, as he begins slashing through the fat worms, attempting to scrape them off Qivys's back.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
(Both of Kasimir's attacks connect.) Kasimir manages to slash off about half of the remaining grubs. It's a much smaller maggot army than originally oozed out of the body.
But a few suddenly turn on Kasimir, whose exposed flesh looks especially tasty in the flickering lantern light.
Grub Attack: 12
One of the grubs finds a gap in Kasimir's leather, rapidly burrowing into his side, just above his hip. (Damage won't be inflicted until Kasimir's next turn.)
Red and Omen have a turn, if they can do anything out of eyeshot. Qivys is up, also.
Just to summarize: There is a smaller-but-still-dangerous swarm of grubs attacking Qivys and Kas, and one is now inside Kasimir. Red and Omen are about 25 feet away (as the maggot burrows) and can't see any of the combatants.
Qivys
Qivys composes himself and starts descending the stairs into the basement, warhammer drawn. As he walks down he tilts his head towards Kas "Stick close lad, and keep your eyes open"
If he reaches the basement without incident he scans the area.
Omen
"Saint Cuthbert's Cudgel!" Omen exclaims.
Overcome with fear, Omen's vision tunnels and paralysis takes over.
All Omen can do is scream out "WHAT IS THAT!" as he shakes with fear, his gaze fixed to the stairs leading down.
Qivys descends into the cellar, with Kas close behind. Omen and Red remain at the top of the stairs, steadying themselves and trying to gain their composure.
Shoulder-height wooden bottle racks line the north and west walls of the cellar. There appear to be no intact bottles left in the racks and shattered bottles cover the floor. Against the east wall, at the foot of the stairs, rest two large metal storage bins that appear to be empty. In the center of the room lies a human corpse clad in plate mail; a longsword lies by the corpse’s right side, and a large shield covers its legs.
Kasimir:
Kas recoils at the horrible shrieks, attempting to cover his ears without dropping the lantern or sword. As the screams fade he hears Qivys say, "Stick close lad, and keep your eyes open." He sticks to the dwarf's back like a shadow as they continue down the steps. The light of the lantern, wavering a bit as his hand trembles, reveals the armor-clad corpse. "Body. Body!" he mumbles. "There's a dead knight on the floor!" he half-shouts up the stairs. He presses even closer to Qivys, sword at the ready, studying the corpse for any sign of what killed it.
Still descending the steps, Kasimir looks at the corpse. The plate mail is pretty banged up, and from what you can see (and now smell) of the exposed body, this person has been dead for a few weeks, maybe. Cause of death not yet clear.
Red
Red swallows nervously, her mouth gone dry at the shrieks. She stumbles away from the stairs and tries to regain her composure. She's shaky and sweaty as she approaches the stairs once more but stops when Kas calls out. Nope, she thinks, Nah, no way.
"I'm gonna... go check out the rest of this floor!" She calls down to them, voice wavering slightly as she retreats back into the kitchen. She glances down the hallway but hesitates to get further away from her companions. Indecisively she walks back into the other room to stand beside Omen hugging herself.
"Or maybe not." She mutters, mostly just to herself.
Qivys
"Keep calm Kas. He can't hurt us now. We should probably have a closer look, see if we can tell what ended his life" Qiv approaches the body, all the while looking around the body for any signs of a struggle. "Go now spirit, be free. May Pelors light guide you" Qiv whispers the prayer as he kneels next to the body. He studies the body looking for signs of battle injuries. Investigation 1 or Medicine 20 (Whichever is most appropriate)
(OoC: WOW! Let's hope it's Medicine)
Kasimir:
Loathe to get anywhere near the body, Kasimir moves into the corner at the bottom of the stairs. "I'll just stay back here and investigate these bins." Investigation15
Kasimir examines the large metal storage bins - they are empty, their original purpose unclear.
Qivys examines the body, which lay on its back.The plate mail is banged up but serviceable (and fits any Medium creature.) The longsword and the shield are in good condition. A backpack is under the body. A peek under the chest plate quickly identifies the cause of death - in combat, a blade had found a seam in the armor and run this poor sap through.
But just as Qivys solves the case, a swarm of finger-sized maggots boil out of gaps in the armor – big white grubs looking unnervingly similar to curdled milk being squeezed from a bladder. They swarm Qivys and attempt to burrow into his flesh.
Initiative:
Grubs: 17
Qivys: 7
Kas: 3
Kasimir is quick on the draw. He's about ten feet away.
Red and Omen are just out of line-of-sight, but they can see Kas and sense the commotion.
Kasimir:
Kasimir is engrossed in his study of the empty bins, totally not just avoiding the dead, stinking corpse. He hears the slight rattle of the armor as Qivys pokes around, and turns just in time to see the first of the grubs slither out of the corpse towards Qivys. He lets out a fearsome battle cry -- not to be confused for a terrified yelp -- and begins whacking away at the grubs with his rapier. He will also begin evasive footwork that resembles, to an untrained eye, the icky dance performed when one is startled by a mouse.
Rapier Attack = 18; Damage = 10; Sneak attack = 5 (assuming the grubs are within 5 ft of Qivys)
(Icky dance for flavor; he doesn't learn effective prancing until next level)
Omen
Omen will force himself to step forward to see what is going on.
Kasimir slices and dices the maggots. His rapier turns out to be not the most effective weapon against these things (too many individual grubs, too spread out) but he does successfully kill maybe a third of them. (OOC: half-damage.)
The maggots swarm Qivys. Attack: 16
They are all over him, but none have yet penetrated his armor.
Omen tries his hardest, but can't seem to make his legs move. He is deeply terrified. He may act, but he cannot descend those stairs yet. He does not have line-of-sight, but he definitely hears Qivys in distress.
Sorry, let's add Red and Omen into the initiative list, in case they can help in any way:
Red: 13
Omen: 12
So Red and Omen are up next, together with Qivys, if they are able to act.
Omen
Omen will call out in a trembling voice "What is it? What is going on?"
Red
Hearing the commotion Red will pull out her instrument and gripped it tightly in an effort to comfort herself. She'll make her way down, taking each step one at a time. She stops when she can see Qivys and fumbles with her instrument, bringing it up and drawing a shriek from the strings casting Vicious Mockery, pressing herself back against the wall, as far away as she can get.
Wisdom Save DC 13
Damage 3
Qivys
Seeing the maggots start to crawl across him he frantically tries to squish them.
Attack 24 Damage 4 (Unarmed strike.)
(OoC: While hitting myself with a hammer brings hilarious images to my mind, I assume an unarmed strike is more appropriate)
Try as she might, Red can't seem to draw the willpower to make her wobbly legs walk down enough stairs to see Qivys or the maggots. She's still deeply shocked and upset by those screams.
Qivys manages to mash some of them, but there are still many more crawling on him, trying to burrow into him.
Kas is up.
Kasimir:
Kasimir's stomach flops as he watches the pale, fat grubs wriggle up Qivys's legs, hungry mouths probing for a gap in his armor. Hearing Omen's question he shouts back, "Grub, maggot, worm... THINGS attacking Qivys!" He drops the rapier on the ground and draws his daggers. "Good thing you're armored up," he tells the dwarf, as he begins slashing through the fat worms, attempting to scrape them off Qivys's back.
1st dagger Attack = 13; Damage = 6
2nd dagger Attack = 6; Damage = 2
Sneak attack if either connects = 3 damage
(Both of Kasimir's attacks connect.) Kasimir manages to slash off about half of the remaining grubs. It's a much smaller maggot army than originally oozed out of the body.
But a few suddenly turn on Kasimir, whose exposed flesh looks especially tasty in the flickering lantern light.
Grub Attack: 12
One of the grubs finds a gap in Kasimir's leather, rapidly burrowing into his side, just above his hip. (Damage won't be inflicted until Kasimir's next turn.)
Red and Omen have a turn, if they can do anything out of eyeshot. Qivys is up, also.
Just to summarize: There is a smaller-but-still-dangerous swarm of grubs attacking Qivys and Kas, and one is now inside Kasimir. Red and Omen are about 25 feet away (as the maggot burrows) and can't see any of the combatants.
(Qivys and Kas up next!)
Omen
There is little Omen can do from his vantage point. Free still grips him and overwhelms his ability to control his body or move.