(( OOC: Apologies, I initially missed the DM response from a few days ago. ))

Onyx leaned forward a bit to look inside the room. Moving closer, he gave a cursory sniff, then nodded in satisfaction as he decided to slowly enter behind Arbon.

"You really think they summoned more than one?" he asked. "It might be that one was as far as they got before... well, before whatever it was that left them in the states we found them."

Still finding himself a bit overly-cautious, the warlock began looking over the spell components, but relied on his magic to move things around as he did.

(( Investigation Check: 22 ))

Onyx looks over the heavily stocked bookshelves. From the front of it, he can see many different types of liquids and powders, a few gems, more than a few baubles and knick-knacks. It as if someone spent their entire life, and perhaps more, to just collect these items and store them here...

(Is he looking for anything in specific?) 

(( He'll also look for a valuable pearl. ))

Onyx is also able to easily see two thin metal bars protruding from the back wall of the right bookcase on the top shelf. As if supporting a scarecrow made of gems, it lightly props up the bending corners of several priceless peral necklaces. They hang there like a jewelry store display case. 

(You could easily break one, and any of the many perals upon the string would be worth a great deal.) 

"Hmm, might be able to use these," Onyx murmured as he took a necklace. Stashing it into his pocket, he continued looking around the room. "Not sure there's much else to find here," he said, more thinking aloud than informing anyone.

(( Investigation to see if anything else of significance can be determined about the ritual circle, or the room itself. Check: 122 Trying again: 20 ))

With Onyx keenly aware of the magical nature of the circle, his eyes narrow to a thin squeeze at the material used. It's chalk, as ordinary as ever, drawn about wooden floors as average as can be. The candles too, while ominously purple, seem to be nothing more than standard ritual candles. 

Then he sees it. A small glimmer of hope into what not-so-fresh he'll was brought about this place in the form of the circles actual inscription. The words "to here, my strongest" are written in an arcane script followed by "to here, you have been summoned!" 

(This is direct evidence of an intentional demonic summoning as opposed to the theory of a perhaps accidental summoning brought about when the hags teleported in from town.) 

"Ok," announced Onyx as he sighed. "It's confirmed, this was a summoning ritual. We had expected it, but... well, knowing that, I don't think there's much else we'll get out of here."

He stepped back outside the room. "Personally, I think I'm ready to move on. Anyone disagree?"

Arbon nods, "Yes. Let's move on. It's not comforting know that they were definitely summoning demons, but not surprising." He walks out of the top right room and moves across to the top left room and tentatively opens the door, watching for anything inside.

"Agreed," Chazrael adds, following Arbon. 

Arbon, Onyx, & Chazrael walk into the bedroom and are immediately struck by the same smell, albeit dissipated significantly, as earlier. The hints of decayed flesh mixed with the strong odor of blood and vomit. Further unmentionable scents accost the nostrils until you cover your nose in some way, be it buried deep within an elbow or simply pinched beyond its foul reach. 

The sight is no less violent than the aroma, though you are now sure some dark illusionary magics were also at play earlier. Perhaps the very real smell smell simply assisted it through its deception, but whatever visual trap laid by the perpetrator appears to have sprung, and the long dead corpse of the third hag tortured beyond reason lay at the foot of the bed. It clearly hasn't moved in a long time.

Beyond that this room is ruined. The well made wood furniture from wherever it came from is broken and covered in the same black tar like substances mixed with blood as the walls. They appear to mean all manner of things in all manner of languages with no sense what so ever to them. 

Arbon covers his nose and mouth as he scans the room. "I see nothing worth investigating in here," he says, muffled through his arm covering his mouth, "You're more than welcome to search more thoroughly, but the hag is done for. I'll head down to the door on the left. It smells just as bad as this one, but better to have to get the stench out of my nose once, rather than repeatedly." With that Arbon will head to the bottom left door.

"I'll take a quick moment to search the room," Chazrael says. 

Investigation - 9

"When you're done," said Onyx to Chazrael, still holding his nose, "how about we burn the place ?"

Chazrael nodded. "Sure, I love a good bonfire." 

Arbon heads down the stairs away from the blood smell towards the room suspected of having some kind of animal fat storage. As he does, Chazrael looks about the room and finds nothing so much as an unbroken piece of wood large enough for a shield. With a little bit of time and some serious effort, might be able to fashion some kind of wooden spear from the bed poles but even that doesn't seem worth the effort. Its this black tar which, upon further inspection, seems to have some kind of weakening ability to it, as if it were caustic to an objects natural stability.

As a direct example, the broken wood seems to have collapsed under its own weight rather than it having been broken by an impact of some kind. 

With the inspection finished, the potential pyre awaits its eventual immolation and downstairs Arbon steps in front of the door on the left. 

The musky animal smell is so potent that it gags him a bit. The handle is slippery-sticky in the way that fat often is on old and unwashed cookware.

Arbon goes to open the door, and feeling the slickness of the handle, decides to wait a moment for the others to complete their pyre.

Onyx waited until Chazrael left the room, then cast magic on a corner of the tar-covered wood, sparking a flame. "No one need witness this horror again," he said quietly as the flame spread.

The magic leaves Onyx's hand and the tar catches immediately. It burns for less than a second before Onyx sees the flames spreading extremely fast to the point of crawling across the entire room before he can blink. The air then combusts into a small explosion and the door is obliterated.  A whoosh of hot air and force roughly shoves you all backwards towards the stairs. 

Anyone within 5 feet of the door (Chaz, Onyx, and I think Grahl is up there too) make a dexterity saving throw! 

Downstairs, Arbon both hears and feels the explosion as the walls and ceiling rattle. Some dust falls on him as the beams above seem to crack and shift slightly from the blast. 

(( Onyx's DEX Save: 6 ))

"Is everyone alright up there?" Arbon calls out, stepping to the bottom of the stairs and peering up.