"I don't know," responds Lysandra. She seems too weak and disoriented to have much conversation.
Taking charge of the girl seems to embolden Lankus, who clearly knows he is well out of his league here. "Right," he responds. "I'll bring her outside and wait." He departs slowly with the girl, who is having trouble walking with any speed.
The lever is not easy to pull. Make a DC 17 Strength check.
The lever, connected to the chain winch, operates the metal doors in the ceiling. It can be used to release and open the (counterweighted) doors, or used to winch the doors shut again. They are neither trapped nor locked. The doors are directly above the crystal (which levitates in the center of the room, slowly rotating.) The doors themselves look heavy and solid, and from your sense of the geometry of this place, would most likely be near the ground level, somewhere near the back door where you entered upstairs. That said, you don't recall seeing any doors in the ground out there.
Through the archway to the right of the stairs, Boko finds a large stone chamber filled with several wooden shelves, sparsely stocked with dust-covered bottles of what looks like wine. The room is also heavily encased with thick cobwebs that descend from the ceiling to the top of the wooden shelving.
Open doorways lead east and west. In the room to the east Boko sees barred cages or cells; in the room to the west, Boko can see little, as it is completely filled with cobwebs.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
(Confirming that these rooms don't seem to have been passed through in years, given the state of the cobwebs?)
Boko lights a torch and uses it to burn away the cobwebs in the wine cellar, and she grabs a bottle of wine, stowing it in her pack as the cobwebs flicker. She gives once final glance around the room to confirm nothing's hiding in there and speeds to the other open doorways. She lights the cobwebs in the room to the west and uses the light to peer into the room with the cages. Anything recently passed through there? Anything inside the cages?
Perception: 15
If not, she'll head back to the portal room. Is the withered corpse (not the youth she threw into the portal who dispersed, the corpse in ceremonial robes just outside of the damaged portal? Boko will rifle through the robes to see if there are any items or anything of note in pockets etc.
The room to the west does not look like it has been entered by anything humanoid in many years, nor do the web-choked wine bottle racks look like they've been frequented in recent decades, but the room to the east is mostly clear of webs. Boko stows a full bottle in her pack.
The room to the west is so thick with webs, Boko cannot see within. The webs smoke and crackle when ignited, but do not burn readily. The smoke smells terrible.
The floors of the cells to the east are covered with a thin, scattered layer of old straw, and inside hang metal chains dangling from the ceiling. Two filthy, disheveled human children lay curled up inside the cells. The cell doors are shut, but the children are not attached to the chains within.
The corpse in the teleportation room has nothing in its pockets except old, burned incense.
Boko doesn’t make it to the portal. She moves into the cell room, and tries the cell doors, eyes alert for any traps or hidden figures. If they are locked she looks to see if they are forceable. “We are getting you out of here. Lysandra is safe now, with my friend Lankus, headed outside. Bela, the monster, is gone for good. My name is Boko. Can you walk?”
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Boko uses the remainder of her waterskin to send some water into the lock and freeze it with shape water. Then she hits it with the butt of the spear, trying to force it open.
Strength: 3 (and if she can try again: 5)
Whether she gets open or not she goes upstairs in search of Lankus or Qivys, to either help get the kids to safety or help with the locks.
Boko helps them out, carrying one or both as needed. She's still moving fast. She seeks out Lankus, assumedly outside, and hands over her rations, mess kit, and waterskin to bolster the kids. She druidcrafts some buttercups to blossom that she's spotted hidden underfoot, and gives some to each child to attempt some lightness and life, and also to distract from Qivys' macabre display of Bela's head on a spit. She also druidcrafts a few loose branches into a small campfire, to warm them. "This is Lankus, a friend. He's been taking care of Lysandra. Bela, or perhaps Lord Xolor, is no more. Town is just that way, a bit of a long walk, but easy enough. I will be back out soon, with Qivys and the rest of our friends. Thank you, Lankus."She runs back to catch up with Qivys (assumedly heading back down?), and speaks in her usual clipped tone as they move. "So shall we try that portal? I think that is where the peg legged boy and our friends are. I assume they're being detained, wherever it leads. I hope they have not made any new fast friends, though perhaps you will be able to fell another vampire this night. And pray that it is not a one-way trip, though if it is, Lankus can get the children to town."
If and when Qivys runs into Lankus, upon seeing the girl with him he will say. "Let me get a couple of those vials of holy water ya said ya had." he says while watching the girl. Once he gets 1, he will pour some into his palm. "Ya got a dirty face child" he tells the girl as he gently wipes her face with the holy water. ((will wait till this is resolved))
The children, dazed, are relieved to exit the building. One begins to cry. They sit on the rocky ground.
The children do not object to the holy water face-washing; it indeed cleans their filthy faces, somewhat.
"I've got 'em" replies Lankus, his confidence returning. He is prepared to guard the three children. It takes several attempts to light a small, sputtering campfire, there being little fuel and a permeating dampness in the cool air.
(The 10-minute protection spell elapses as you prepare to reenter the strange building.)
Qivys will smile and say. "There ya go lass, much better." He will carefully do the same to the other children, just to make sure. "We best find a place fer these little ones, somewhere out of tha way so as ta keep them out of the eyes of anythin' dangerous." he says to Lankus as he tries to find a spot away from the door with some cover to shelter the children. As he does this he says: "Ya did good lass in findin' 'em." he tells Boko. "What about tha noble, bard an' halflin'?" he asks.
Boko nods. It's been a hard night. Hard day. Hard journey. Hard week. It felt good to bring some light into the world, or at least balance the dark.
She speaks as she moves back through the property to the basement. Does she see or hear anything, on the way, in the unexplored rooms off the parlor and kitchen, and the locked room upstairs? "Like I was saying, I believe there is a portal in that last room. It is where the peg-legged boy ran to, and disappeared. It is probably where the noble, bard, and halfling went to, when the vampire sent them away. I do hope that there is a way back. They are likely held against their will, fallen, or cannot return through that portal. I took the remains of that other awful youth and just put his head in, and the whole of him got pulled inside, and disintegrated. So no peeking. Once you start in, you go in. If you have a way to learn more, it would be wise to try it. Why have the others not returned?"
She will assist in any attempt to ascertain the nature or secrets of the portal. If Qivys judges it sound and smart to go in, she will go in with him.
Boko makes her way back into the windowless keep. The ground floor is cold and quiet – nothing stirs. She descends the stairs.
(Assuming Qivys accompanies and helps her,) Studying the runes carefully, Boko concludes that the portal resembles some sort of two-way teleportation circle, but it looks like one of the runes on the stones has been recently defaced with some sort of sharp object.
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"I don't know," responds Lysandra. She seems too weak and disoriented to have much conversation.
Taking charge of the girl seems to embolden Lankus, who clearly knows he is well out of his league here. "Right," he responds. "I'll bring her outside and wait." He departs slowly with the girl, who is having trouble walking with any speed.
The lever is not easy to pull. Make a DC 17 Strength check.
Boko intelligence check to figure out what the lever might do 20
The lever, connected to the chain winch, operates the metal doors in the ceiling. It can be used to release and open the (counterweighted) doors, or used to winch the doors shut again. They are neither trapped nor locked. The doors are directly above the crystal (which levitates in the center of the room, slowly rotating.) The doors themselves look heavy and solid, and from your sense of the geometry of this place, would most likely be near the ground level, somewhere near the back door where you entered upstairs. That said, you don't recall seeing any doors in the ground out there.
Boko tugs on the rope and realizes it’s quite heavy, and perhaps risky. She points at the lever, shakes her head, and doesn’t pull the rope yet.
She moves toward the door by the stairs and listens and looks for any sign of passage or movement. If she sees no traps or threats, she looks inside.
Perception: 20
Through the archway to the right of the stairs, Boko finds a large stone chamber filled with several wooden shelves, sparsely stocked with dust-covered bottles of what looks like wine.
The room is also heavily encased with thick cobwebs that descend from the ceiling to the top of the wooden shelving.
Open doorways lead east and west. In the room to the east Boko sees barred cages or cells; in the room to the west, Boko can see little, as it is completely filled with cobwebs.
(Confirming that these rooms don't seem to have been passed through in years, given the state of the cobwebs?)
Boko lights a torch and uses it to burn away the cobwebs in the wine cellar, and she grabs a bottle of wine, stowing it in her pack as the cobwebs flicker. She gives once final glance around the room to confirm nothing's hiding in there and speeds to the other open doorways. She lights the cobwebs in the room to the west and uses the light to peer into the room with the cages. Anything recently passed through there? Anything inside the cages?
Perception: 15
If not, she'll head back to the portal room. Is the withered corpse (not the youth she threw into the portal who dispersed, the corpse in ceremonial robes just outside of the damaged portal? Boko will rifle through the robes to see if there are any items or anything of note in pockets etc.
(Sorry, I think Gerrard made off with the robe before going through the portal)
Gerrard Feldren - Human Noble in Ghosts of Saltmarsh
Kerric Brightblade - Elven Warrior in "Apocalypse"
The room to the west does not look like it has been entered by anything humanoid in many years, nor do the web-choked wine bottle racks look like they've been frequented in recent decades, but the room to the east is mostly clear of webs. Boko stows a full bottle in her pack.
The room to the west is so thick with webs, Boko cannot see within. The webs smoke and crackle when ignited, but do not burn readily. The smoke smells terrible.
The floors of the cells to the east are covered with a thin, scattered layer of old straw, and inside hang metal chains dangling from the ceiling. Two filthy, disheveled human children lay curled up inside the cells. The cell doors are shut, but the children are not attached to the chains within.
The corpse in the teleportation room has nothing in its pockets except old, burned incense.
Boko doesn’t make it to the portal. She moves into the cell room, and tries the cell doors, eyes alert for any traps or hidden figures. If they are locked she looks to see if they are forceable. “We are getting you out of here. Lysandra is safe now, with my friend Lankus, headed outside. Bela, the monster, is gone for good. My name is Boko. Can you walk?”
Unless a key can be found, the locks must be forced (strength check), smashed with a weapon or spell, or picked.
The two children are conscious but extremely weak. They stand, uncertainly, but do not seem to have the strength to respond verbally.
Boko uses the remainder of her waterskin to send some water into the lock and freeze it with shape water. Then she hits it with the butt of the spear, trying to force it open.
Strength: 3 (and if she can try again: 5)
Whether she gets open or not she goes upstairs in search of Lankus or Qivys, to either help get the kids to safety or help with the locks.
Between freezing and whacking the locks, Boko is able to make short work of them; they were old and not particularly well-made.
She has to help the children up the stairs, as they are very pale and weak.
Boko helps them out, carrying one or both as needed. She's still moving fast. She seeks out Lankus, assumedly outside, and hands over her rations, mess kit, and waterskin to bolster the kids. She druidcrafts some buttercups to blossom that she's spotted hidden underfoot, and gives some to each child to attempt some lightness and life, and also to distract from Qivys' macabre display of Bela's head on a spit. She also druidcrafts a few loose branches into a small campfire, to warm them. "This is Lankus, a friend. He's been taking care of Lysandra. Bela, or perhaps Lord Xolor, is no more. Town is just that way, a bit of a long walk, but easy enough. I will be back out soon, with Qivys and the rest of our friends. Thank you, Lankus." She runs back to catch up with Qivys (assumedly heading back down?), and speaks in her usual clipped tone as they move. "So shall we try that portal? I think that is where the peg legged boy and our friends are. I assume they're being detained, wherever it leads. I hope they have not made any new fast friends, though perhaps you will be able to fell another vampire this night. And pray that it is not a one-way trip, though if it is, Lankus can get the children to town."
(Assuming we are in the final minutes of the 10-minute protection from evil and good, Boko is still moving fast.)
If and when Qivys runs into Lankus, upon seeing the girl with him he will say.
"Let me get a couple of those vials of holy water ya said ya had." he says while watching the girl.
Once he gets 1, he will pour some into his palm.
"Ya got a dirty face child" he tells the girl as he gently wipes her face with the holy water.
((will wait till this is resolved))
The children, dazed, are relieved to exit the building. One begins to cry. They sit on the rocky ground.
The children do not object to the holy water face-washing; it indeed cleans their filthy faces, somewhat.
"I've got 'em" replies Lankus, his confidence returning. He is prepared to guard the three children. It takes several attempts to light a small, sputtering campfire, there being little fuel and a permeating dampness in the cool air.
(The 10-minute protection spell elapses as you prepare to reenter the strange building.)
Qivys will smile and say.
"There ya go lass, much better."
He will carefully do the same to the other children, just to make sure.
"We best find a place fer these little ones, somewhere out of tha way so as ta keep them out of the eyes of anythin' dangerous." he says to Lankus as he tries to find a spot away from the door with some cover to shelter the children.
As he does this he says:
"Ya did good lass in findin' 'em." he tells Boko. "What about tha noble, bard an' halflin'?" he asks.
Boko nods. It's been a hard night. Hard day. Hard journey. Hard week. It felt good to bring some light into the world, or at least balance the dark.
She speaks as she moves back through the property to the basement. Does she see or hear anything, on the way, in the unexplored rooms off the parlor and kitchen, and the locked room upstairs? "Like I was saying, I believe there is a portal in that last room. It is where the peg-legged boy ran to, and disappeared. It is probably where the noble, bard, and halfling went to, when the vampire sent them away. I do hope that there is a way back. They are likely held against their will, fallen, or cannot return through that portal. I took the remains of that other awful youth and just put his head in, and the whole of him got pulled inside, and disintegrated. So no peeking. Once you start in, you go in. If you have a way to learn more, it would be wise to try it. Why have the others not returned?"
She will assist in any attempt to ascertain the nature or secrets of the portal. If Qivys judges it sound and smart to go in, she will go in with him.
(Make an arcana check to try to discern anything about the portal.)
Arcana, with help: 21
Boko makes her way back into the windowless keep. The ground floor is cold and quiet – nothing stirs. She descends the stairs.
(Assuming Qivys accompanies and helps her,) Studying the runes carefully, Boko concludes that the portal resembles some sort of two-way teleportation circle, but it looks like one of the runes on the stones has been recently defaced with some sort of sharp object.