17 arcana check

"Chanting still going, sounding a bit more dire if you want my opinion." Leann calls from her guard position near the passage in the dining room. "I'd suggest finishing up in there so we can deal with the chanters before they do something we'll all not like."

Arcana 18

One of the small vials filled with a crimson liquid is a potion of greater healing. The other vial is filled with a translucent emerald liquid and is a potion of poison resistance.

Feel free to finish up what you want here before I move on.

If no one has any objections, Sergei would like to give the red potion to Rudick.

"Here, if you drink this it should patch up a wound or two. Probably come in handy at some point."

He would like to give the green potion to Skip.

"Here, this should protect you from poison, should you need it."

Sergei would like to take the dice, and the spell book, and is ready to move on. Does he notice anything strange about the dice? Is he able to make any sense of the spellbook?

Skip slips the coin into his coin pouch, and hangs the amulet around his neck, tucking it in behind his shirt. Making sure everything is collected up and nothing is left behind, he closes the lid of the chest, flips his hood back up, and melds back into the shadows, ready to move on 

stealth 22

Alev takes the tools and nods to the others. "If I had to guess, whatever is doing that creepy chanting is the "heart" of the house, as the orc calls it. So... It might be a group of ghosts like the ones we just fought, or a monster with many heads, or something just as bad. Let's be ready for anything."

With that said, he's ready to start moving again, even if what he just said makes him more scared than what he's letting show.

Though she would not see it, a simple nod had been the Orc's answer to Leann's call. His attention however remained on Sergei until he finished checking over the potion. It is after which Rudick started to open his mouth and raise a hand as if to reject the offer potion. But after a brief moment's hesitation, he simply nodded and slipped it away into a side pouch. "So, less a trap and distraction then, and more the genuine article... Hmph. Guess its back to those stairs then." He takes back out the warhammer, and with little more than head gesture to the others to follow, took point on heading for the stairs that seemed to lead to another sublevel of the house.

"Remember. Mind that patch." He warns, and would if possible jump over the area pointed out last time on his way down.

The party moves down the passage that you cm hear the voices coming from. You hop over the trapped section of the floor and descend deeper. You come to a room that has several slices set into the wall. Each alcove contains an object. Two passages on the west wall lead to other chambers, one of which descends into a water filled chamber. A rusted portcullis bars that entrance. You can now make out that he voices are saying, "He is The Ancient. He is the Land," over and over again in dry whispers .

The items you find in the alcove are:

• Small, mummified, yellow hand with sharp claws on a loop of rope
• Knife carved from a human bone
• A dagger with a rats skull set into the pommel 
• An 8" diameter vanished orb that looks like a large green eye with a black slit for the pupil 
• Aspergillum carved from bone
• A folded cloak made from stitched human flesh
• A desiccated frog lashed to a stick
• A bag full of bat guano
• A shriveled, green severed finger
• A 6" tall wooden figurine of a mummy, it's arms crossed over it's chest
• An iron pendant adorned with a devil's face
• A shrunken, shriveled head of a halfling
• A small wooden coffer containing a dire wolf's withered tongue

Sergei scans the items with detect magic. He remembers his earlier admonition to the group to touch nothing, but he has to admit that some of these objects are a bit fascinating. His fingers twitch in temptation.

Leann glances at the various objects, but none of it impresses her much, her youth was spent with much worse than this around. She moves onward to the stairs, but waits there as the others look around more.

To your sight, nothing appears magical in the room.

((The map has been posted on the Discord))

Sergei pulls himself together. 

“Nothing of interest here,” he reports.

He’s ready to move on.

Rudick nods curtly, having been patiently waiting and looking to Sergei as he scanned the items. Granted, the Orc didn't exactly exude an eagerness to mess with some of the items, and was conflicted on whether any were the 'heart' they sought in the first place...

"Onward and forward." He added all the same as he strode on to the portcullis for a peek past the bars. He'd also test them, both to see how easily the rusted things might give, as well as if it'd even be possible to lift the gate significantly enough to raise for someone to get inside and reach the wenching system on the other side.

Alev shudders in disgusts at the items made from dead people. "What was wrong with these psychos?" He asks to no one in particular, as he looks at the shrunken head.

Regardless, he will take the skull dagger. After a moment of hesitation of him waiting to see if anything happened when he grabbed the object and not being sure whether or not it just looks like an eye instead of being the real deal, he will take the orb too and put it away on his backpack, hoping to get some gold when he sells it once this is all over.

Not seeing anything else of interest in the alcove that doesn't looks gross or suspicious, he moves forward.

Seeing Alev take a few of the objects and nothing happens, Sergei can’t help but take the cloak sewn from human flesh, and stows it out of sight. Such an odd and morbidly unique thing just might come in handy at some point. After a hesitation, he also takes the iron pendant of a devil’s face.

Voice in his head: That’s not my likeness. You’re not shopping for a better demon, are you? (Harsh laughter)

Watching Alev and Sergei, with a keen eye waiting to see if anything happens...

perception 12
....and if nothing does, or he senses nothing, Skip picks up the mummy statue, and the mummified hand. He steps them in his pack, and moves up to Rudick and the portcullis

Stopping in his tracks, Skip races back and picks up the halfling head too

(assuming his perception check revealed nothing untoward happening)

"This passage seems blocked." Leann informs the others. "Do we want to check out that other passage first or try to get past the gate here?" She glances to the second passage out of the room as she speaks.

Skip, as a few members take the items, you see nothing happen.

As Leann asks her question, Rudick walks over to the portcullis and wades through the water towards it. With little difficulty, you lift the portcullis up into the ceiling with a screech of rusted metal. The chanting echoes through the chamber beyond. In the center of the the room, there is a stone dias that rises from the water. Atop the dias, you can see a humanoid form sprawled across it.