FR PbP

(( What is the party doing? ))

((Did the party make it all the way back up to the first room, with the chimney without too much incident? Cool))

When the party reach the first room at the top, Robwin surveys the scene… and the aftermath of the fire he set the day before…

He looks about and investigates the room, looking for any burned spider remains, to try and work out if most of them had died in the fire, or if many had escaped and might still be at large.

Investigation check (if needed): 10 (3 less if it’s more like perception).

(( definitely Investigation; with the prestidigitation, darkvision and light in the background, it's easy to see many crispy exoskeleton corpses, some still sizzling )) 

The area is clearly burnt out. The area Robwin, TT and Eline were in when Robwin found the pamphlet is charred. There may be another alcove on the northeast side.

The pattern of spiders suggests the nest was farther southeast.

Even with all those queues, you cannot confirm the likelihood of what's left.

(( Are you going into any of the rooms on this west wall, exploring into the south or east side, heading back down or do we want to do a montage with success / failure skill checks through this section? I'm flexible. ))

Robwin looks around this level. “Let’s explore everywhere, eh?…”. He moves towards the nearest unexplored area or room to check it out…

He hesitates, “You don’t think anything is trapped do you? We should take it carefully. There’s no rush now, we can do this properly”. He smiles at the party.

Rinn shrugs, "Eh, there might be traps but I doubt it. This was a home and it seems like they left in all too much of a hurry to set traps, or were caught unawares and so didn't have time. But we can take our time a little more now."

"So, we don't kick in each door as we go? Or we do?", Eline asks as she and TT continue scanning the area with their muted lanterns. "With the scorching, I can't imagine anything tricky would survive."

"Your call.", she shrugs as she uses a mostly charcoal polearm to push at a spider carcus on the wall above her.

It falls forcing her to jump back. 

"Yeah, that was brilliant. Sorry."

Rinn, Robwin, Wolfsong, TT and Eline start methodically search the upper floor. 

The room they came in from is largely untouched by the fire that charred the main room.

The find two following rooms along the west side have charged but sealed doors. 

Rinn has no trouble opening them. He finds a few handfuls of coins (10 gp, 7 sp, 19 cp) 

The third door is open. The smoke infused heavily in all the furniture and literature throughout the room.

The back of the main area appears to be three times deeper than the front area.

Wolfsong, Eline and Cleaver do have some fun coralling some smaller, younger arachnid in the southwest area. Robwin and Rinn find it interesting, no doubt, the conversation and decisions to "fencing" an area where walls and ceiling are as easily traversed as the floor. 

The southeastern side was apparently the primary nest and still smoldering with egg clutches that are now new charcoal. 

In the mirrored three rooms on the east side, the party finds tunnels carved in the stone, joining the rooms and traveling up and down the Eastern wall of the rooms. 

Robwin is on the look out (as always) for anything that might hold magical secrets. He’d glance through the literature in the various rooms for any more scrolls or spellbooks, or anything of a magical nature. Lia knows the kinds of things he looks for and so flutters around looking out for anything likely too.

Rinn would keep his eyes open for anything that looks of value to stuff in his pockets as they move through the upper levels.

(( It looks like there isn't much that wasn't burned or had already succumbed to the ravages of time on this upper floor. The remaining tomes and scrolls found appear related to Dwarven history, religious and ceremonial rights of the community that once lived here.

With a bit of difficulty, you traverse the tunnels down to the east side of the second floor. 

Here, you can now see the layout of this floor mimics the upper floor. Only the hight is forty feet with clean carved ceiling and floor. 

Roll Perception and Investigation ))

Rinn's Perception: 18

Rinn's Investigation: 14

Robwin’s perception: 22 

Robwin’s investigation: 20 

The east side ceiling and wall around the large stair case, a twin to the one you used previously, is badly charred from the webbing now completely burned away. There are enclaves of books in the north side of this floor and a full library in the middle room on the west. The other rooms seem to have been for conference, meeting, study or some other type of small gathering. It's hard to tell. The east side rooms were, apparently, once completely overtaken by the ghouls.. Their tunnels are rather impressive. In the back quarter of this floor is an armory, maybe once for display. The pieces are Dwarven, heavy and not suited for anyone over four feet (48") tall or under three (36") feet wide. There are a few short Poleaxe (a Warhammer with a opposing side blade and top pike head), Warhammer (similar in design to Wolfsong's recent find) and War pick (looking a lot like Grayshard's). There are some functional and wicked looking long daggers and Scimitar like blades.

There is also another ghoul tunnel going down. 

Among the tombs and scrolls... you find a large, thick tomb that appears to suggest it contains the secrets to gain the shapeshifting powers of the mimic... a strange scroll you cannot decipher... what seems to be a Dwarven satire roughly titled "101 ways to escape a dungeon"... a tomb titled "Fate and Chance: the Complete Collection of Professor Kasten's Seminars on Gambling"... many tomb on Dwarven daily life... many scrolls on keep business or correspondence... and another tomb titled "Blackwane Barnabus and the Bistro of Bereavement"

Again all are in Dwarven. 

After searching through these top two floors including the work done to corral the younger arachnids, the day is close to spent. 

TT is the one to anxiously point this out.

"We need to report to the camp and get more looking out for these tunnels and those spiders, right?"

(( There was a fairly nice sofa like piece of furniture in one of the rooms, but Cleaver tore it to shreds before napping on the remains. ))

(( What are you doing? - collected, reporting, camping, pushing on, etc.))

None of the weapons appeal very much to Rinn. The book on shapeshifting sounds interesting and if no one else picks it up, he'll shove it in his pack to either read later and try and decipher, or perhaps shill it off to some merchant.

Rinn nods at TT's comment. "True. But I think most of the spiders are sorted out now. And we did see that ghoul, so we may need to search a little more just in case they have another nest below."

(DM Question - did you say there were stairs/tunnels leading down from the level we rested on earlier? We searched upwards to clear any remaining spiders and said we'd work our way down.)

(( Correct. You went to the top floor which turned out to be the one you originally entered from. You then cleared through it and followed ghoul tunnels down to the second highest floor along the east wall.

This is the floor you had fought the ghouls on.

This is also the floor above the mezzanine where the winches for the portcullis are. 

On this second floor from the top,  in the very "back"/south end, behind the armory, you found more ghoul tunnels going down.

You have now worked through two floors - this and the one above - which is the reason it has grown late. )) 

TT sighs, "Rinn, we don't know... those ghouls made you very ill. I'm feeling very uneasy. Something is very off in this place. I think it's more than the undead."