Northlands Campaign

Aye, we may as well go room to room at this point. It's likely its known we're here. They saw us well before we knew they were here. South's as good as any to start. Least in my mind."

says Barnabus.

Cade nods as the group is discussing going south. "South works for me." He says out loud

The hallway south is 10' wide and extends 30' before opening into a larger area.  The lighting, while dim, is sufficient to make out a few details.  The hallway itself is clear of debris, but the area to the south has indeterminate litter scattered in the area you can see.  Immediately on the left stairs up, but they end in rubble just a few feet up.  You can make out closed doors towards the end of the hallway, one on the left, and two others on the right.  There are a pair of trails disturbed in the dust on the floor, undulating from side to side and about 18" wide.

A glance outside at the courtyard reveals the ox still in the partially disassembled corral, munching contentedly on hay.

OOC: So the undulating trails that are 18" wide, were made by something like a rattlesnake going side to side making an 18" wide trail or did something with a body 18" wide, like a giant anaconda, make the undulating trails? Or are they about the size of the holes we saw in the Cultists' faces?

More along the lines of the anaconda.  Closer inspection shows they lead to/from the missing cultist corpse.

Wil studies the trails for a bit, forehead furrowed in thought. He then turns to the group, "Well, based on the trails and the fact that the cultists' bodies vanished, I think we might be dealing with some Yuan-ti or large corpse eating snakes."

OOC: If Wil has no way of knowing about Yuan-ti disregard the Yuan-ti portion of his comment.

Cade frowns and sighs. "Snakes that eat people..." He glances around. "Those might be able to get up those stairs, where we cannot easily go." He nods to the stairs blocked by rubble. "I say we check those doors ahead..." He nods forward to the doors they spotted further along the southern path.

"Indeed" says Barnabus. Shield leading the way he steps to the first door on the right and attempts to throw it wide while simultaneously stepping back to the side before peeking in. 

Bart looks a bit shaken. And tries to play it off as a joke "Who knows maybe the snake prefers non meats.... or at least has a distaste for chicken..." He looks at Kina stiffens up and tries to act valiantly once more. "If the lady is feeling a bit uneasy my wings are here for you to hold! Just dontgrab too tight." and winks extending his wing.

The door open fairly easily for Barnabus, revealing the rubbish strew interior of a roughly 20' x 15' room.  Even with the advanced level of decay evident, this looks like it had at one time been a conference room with a large table surrounded by a number of chairs, all now ruined and worthless.  Lighting here is a little brighter as daylight seeps in from a pair of arrow slits. one overlooking the corral in the courtyard and the other one the steps to the main door.

Kina smirks at Bart.
"I'm fine with snakes. Just don't expect me to act brave around insects." she says, still trying to puzzle out why the cultists would be hanging about in such a dangerous place, unless they had somehow charmed the animals.

"So either they decided to just leave us alone last night or they're simply ignoring us because we're not on the kidnapping docket." she mumbles.

"I wonder if the same mind control that makes the cultists just... die... also somehow charms the wildlife. I can't think of any other way that group could have just camped here with all these creatures about without simply being eaten... then again, maybe a large number were, and they just weren't fighting back because they weren't told to."

"Good question." Cade says in response to the idea of what keeps the wildlife in line. He glances around the conference room, walking inside and taking a stroll around it. If there are no other exits, he would return to the group and nod to the next door. "Want to try that one next?" he suggests.

Barnabus gives a nod and if unstopped will repeat his door opening process with the door on the left.

Barnabus, roll a strength or athletics check for the door.

Athletics: 8

You notice a significant amount of resistance to the door as it opens, but you are able to overpower it easily.  A pungent, almost acidic, odor assaults your nose as the door scrapes open.  While foul, the smell is not debilitating.  The room is roughly 15' x 20' and the floor is covered with an unknown substance that is about 4-6" deep judging by the area scraped up by the door.  Some sounds of movement come from the ceiling but no details can be seen as the interior of the room is quite dark.  Larger debris can be seen around the room, but everything seems to be coated with whatever is on the floor.

Bart is intrigued by the substance particularly and would like to make an incestigation check before walking in the room.

Investigation check: 5

Bart: 

 You hear an irritated, very high-pitched, squeak from overhead in the room, followed by a muffled chorus of additional high-pitched chirps.

Wil looks at the ceiling in the area where the noise of the movement came from (dark vision). He looks from outside the room. 

Investigation: 18

Wil: