Chapter 8: Against the Cult of the Reptile God

[Starbeard]

At the entrance, where there is still some light, Moogeye opens her pack and carefully arranges it so that her bullseye lantern, oil and tinderbox are secured at the top, easily found in the dark. Then she grabs hold of Avril's cloak and lets her lead the way through the darkness.

[ChubbyPixie]

"Well... I simply have no desire to repeat our experience in the barn. If there is fighting to be done, I'll be right there, I assure you." replies Telkis."Perhaps we should at least watch in different directions," he says to the remaining cowardly men-folk.

[Inferno]

Day Six.
The Abandoned Foaming Mug Inn (16)
Between 8pm and 9pm. Friday, October 21st, 576 CY.
Full moon, cloudy, damp, cold, misty.





Inside the dark, boarded up, abandoned Foaming Mug Inn, Avril detects no warmth with her elf-blooded eyes. Nearly blind, she advances, hugging the wall. Moogeye and Ingrid follow, holding Avril's azure cloak.



Even with her longsword extended to probe the opaque territories before her, Avril struggles. Unexpectedly, the inside of the inn is in complete disarray. Her path is continually blocked by strewn furniture and other unseen obstacles in the darkness. Continuing, she risks injuring herself or noisily toppling some of the scattered debris.

Outside, all remains still.


Actions?





Status:

• Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/2: AC 7, HP 10/10, Spells: 0/4 1st lvl
  Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 3: AC 4, HP 24/28
  Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 10/16, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl and 3/3 2nd lvl
  Long Bo, Human Druid 3: AC 6, HP 18/22, Spells: 5/5 1st lvl, 1/3 2nd lvl and 1/1 3rd lvl
  Moogeye Comcra, Human Monk 2: AC 8, HP 11/11
  Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 15/19, Laying Hands: 0/1
  Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 3: AC 0, HP 27/28

Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.

Resources:

• Map of Briarsgate
  NPC List for Briarsgate
  The Story So Far (in words)
  The Story So Far (in pictures)

[AleBelly]

Pelias looks around, uncomfortable being separated from the others. "I don't like this. What say we get some light and follow 'em in? I don't see anyone out here..."

[OGRE MAGE]

Bo

I agree! I feel rather stupid standing out here doing nothing.

Bo begins the process of pulling out his lantern and lighting it unless someone else intervenes.

Sephus should squawk loudly if the pyro's return. I think we ought to get in there and help the girls search.

[Zhym]

Grothnak snorts and shakes his head. "I do not know why you feel stupid," he tells Bo. "You did not go into a dark collapsing building without a light."

"Guard duty is not fun," he says, "but it is necessary."

[dmw71]

Avril finding her progress unexpected impeded by what she assumes is a heavily littered room, stops her progress and turns to face Moogeye and Ingrid trailing behind her. "This room --" she starts quietly "Is just littered with... stuff. We won't make much progress without light, so let's double back and inform the others of our findings, then decide as a group how to proceed."

"I know I wouldn't mind circling the building itself to see if there's a way into a cellar or underground area."

[ChubbyPixie]

"A light inside would be seen through the windows and give us away for sure," says Telkis. "I've no doubt we can defeat the villagers, should it come to that. To my mind, the goal is to avoid them altogether, until we can release them from this evil thrall. I'll stay here on watch as well."

[Starbeard]

Avril finding her progress unexpected impeded by what she assumes is a heavily littered room, stops her progress and turns to face Moogeye and Ingrid trailing behind her. "This room --" she starts quietly "Is just littered with... stuff. We won't make much progress without light, so let's double back and inform the others of our findings, then decide as a group how to proceed."

"I know I wouldn't mind circling the building itself to see if there's a way into a cellar or underground area."

Moogeye agrees with Avril. "We will have to head back and confer further. One of the others may well be better able to lead us through the darkness, and in the worse case we can explore with a bullseye lantern, where the light can be directed mostly toward the ground and away from the walls."

[OGRE MAGE]

Bo smiles at Telkis.

This hooded lantern of mine can direct a dim light in a certain direction. I will use it to help navigate through the place but wont shine it at any of the walls or windows. I really think the girls could use our help in that dark place.

Maybe it would be best to sneak around the perimeter of the building to see what you can find?

Bo takes his lantern and enters the dilapidated building. Still thinking about the barn at the grisly farmhouse, he steels himself for whatever he is about to find inside.

[Inferno]

Day Six.
The Abandoned Foaming Mug Inn (16)
Between 8pm and 9pm. Friday, October 21st, 576 CY.
Full moon, cloudy, damp, cold, misty.

Foaming Mug Inn.jpg (241.61 KiB) Viewed 1750 times

In the cold shadow of the looming, decrepit Foaming Mug Inn (16), Pelias and Long Bo reconsider their decisions. The grey druid pulls his lantern from out of his pack so that they can follow the women into the dark, abandoned building. But before he can light it, the women suddenly emerge.

Avril explains in a whisper that the interior is so strewn with debris that it cannot be safely navigated without light.
The half-elven maiden's infravision detected no living thing inside, within 60 feet of her. She considers circling the old inn in search of other means of entry.

Grothnak and Telkis are resolute in their wish to remain on guard, acutely recalling the fiery ambush that took place two nights ago, not 150 feet from here.

Long Bo closes the hood of his bullseye lantern to channel its beam tightly and to the ground. Then he and Pelias (and anyone else who wishes to join them) enter the half-collapsed maw, into the inn.

They find the ground floor in a state of total disarray, triggering the memory of Killian Gade's words:

• “The old Foaming Mug Inn. A dozen townsfolk were found murdered there one morning, including the proprietor. A sword fight. But no one ever discovered the reason. Those people were friends and neighbors! The building’s been abandoned ever since. A year now, I reckon.”

It seems everything was left just as it was in the aftermath of that pitched battle. Broken furniture is strewn everywhere, and there must have been a small fire near the servant stairs.



Holes in the roof had allowed in months of rain, causing rot and structural collapse on the northern end of the building.





With light and caution, they can slowly navigate through the dangerous, ruined inn. The cobwebs are thick. Floorboards creak underfoot. The smell of mold and rot is pervasive.

Walking the entire ground floor, they see the destroyed remains of the common room and kitchen, and find a once-grand stair leading upwards.



They also find a door, hanging on one hinge, with a rickety staircase leading down into the dark cellar.



Outside, only the faintest light is barely detectable through the thin cracks in the boarded up windows of the inn.


Actions?


Map:

SE Briarsgate Map 4.jpg (219.29 KiB) Viewed 1750 times

X marks Grothnak's and Telkis' position. Lighter area marks visibility; all else is from memory.[/ooc]





Status:

• Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/2: AC 7, HP 10/10, Spells: 0/4 1st lvl
  Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 3: AC 4, HP 24/28
  Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 10/16, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl and 3/3 2nd lvl
  Long Bo, Human Druid 3: AC 6, HP 18/22, Spells: 5/5 1st lvl, 1/3 2nd lvl and 1/1 3rd lvl
  Moogeye Comcra, Human Monk 2: AC 8, HP 11/11
  Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 15/19, Laying Hands: 0/1
  Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 3: AC 0, HP 27/28

Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.

Resources:

• Map of Briarsgate
  NPC List for Briarsgate
  The Story So Far (in words)
  The Story So Far (in pictures)

[dmw71]

Avril re-enters the inn, intent on learning of possible stairways leading up or down. Now benefiting from Long Bo's lantern, upon spying the cellar door, the elven maiden immediately makes her way in its direction. She will cautiously peer down into it using her infravision, and listen intently for any hint of activity down below.

[Zhym]

Grothnak keeps a watch out for anyone approaching.

[OGRE MAGE]

As the party looks around the place, Bo is more interested in studying the details of the debris. He looks intently all around, hoping to find any evidence whatsoever that someone other than us have been in here lately.

I suggest we stay off the upper floors until we've searched in here thoroughly. Let me know if you need the light.

[Starbeard]

Moogeye examines the grand stairway, wondering if it is sturdy enough to support climbers. "From the appearance of this ceiling, I believe it would indeed be wise to stay off the upper floors for now."

[ChubbyPixie]

Not wishing to potentially attract attention "sneaking" around the entire building, Telkis will catch Grothnak's eye, then point to himself and the Northeast corner of the building. He'll then creep up to it as quietly as he can and peer around it to get a look at things alongside the East side of the former Foaming Mug.

[AleBelly]

Pelias enters the decrepit inn with the others. After a quick look around, he concentrates, trying to detect the presence of great evil within the structure...especially below.

[Inferno]

Day Six.
The Abandoned Foaming Mug Inn (16)
Between 8pm and 9pm. Friday, October 21st, 576 CY.
Full moon, cloudy, damp, cold, misty.





The investigators of Briarsgate enter the dark, mysterious inn that has seemingly been consigned to oblivion. The catastrophic collapse at its southern end had rent an opening in its outer wall wide enough for them to infiltrate the abandoned house.



Avril navigates the unimaginable fallen wreckage and moves to the cellar stairs. She cautiously peers down them and her elven eyes detect no unnatural warmth or cold. What little she can see of the basement appears clear of the detritus that strangles the ground floor. Her elven ears hear no sound from down there. But the stench of mold seems thicker, more nauseating.



Moogeye brushes aside thick spiderwebs and examines the once-grand stair at the front, southern end of the inn. She believes it might support their weight. The back, northern part of the inn had succumbed to collapse.

Long Bo searches for any trace of others having been in this forlorn, demolished place. His lantern exposes something to his probing scrutiny. In the ashes of the fire at the servants stair, a smudged footprint. By the estimation of the druid, neither man nor any beast that he had ever seen could have left that strange, monstrous, three-toed print, an unnatural bastardization of man and reptile. He was reminded of what had seen in the unholy shrine in the tunnels beneath the Golden Grain Inn.

the masks.jpg (249.77 KiB) Viewed 1717 times

the ghastly abomination.jpg (154.28 KiB) Viewed 1717 times

Pelias moves through the dim, creaking, web-shrouded ruin and concentrates. The holy paladin is suddenly overcome by supernatural, chilling emanations of evil, festering beneath these groaning floorboards!

Outside, standing guard with Grothnak, Telkis peers to the south and east through the gloom of the spectral shadows of the doomed village. His infravision detects an obscure, man-sized figure approaching from the southeast (from 17), trying not to be seen.


Actions?


Map:

SE Briarsgate Map 5.jpg (257.16 KiB) Viewed 1717 times

G=Grothnak, T=Telkis, ?=Approaching unknown figure.
Lighter area marks visibility; all else is from memory.[/ooc]





Status:

• Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/2: AC 7, HP 10/10, Spells: 0/4 1st lvl
  Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 3: AC 4, HP 24/28
  Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 10/16, Spells: 1/4 1st lvl and 3/3 2nd lvl
  Long Bo, Human Druid 3: AC 6, HP 18/22, Spells: 5/5 1st lvl, 1/3 2nd lvl and 1/1 3rd lvl
  Moogeye Comcra, Human Monk 2: AC 8, HP 11/11
  Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 15/19, Laying Hands: 0/1
  Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 3: AC 0, HP 27/28

Magic:

• Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.

Resources:

• Map of Briarsgate
  NPC List for Briarsgate
  The Story So Far (in words)
  The Story So Far (in pictures)

[ChubbyPixie]

Telkis catches Grothnak's eye with a brisk wave of his hand. He then mimes "one," holds up his arm to indicate human height (or as close as he can get) then points in the direction of the approaching figure and finally adds a motion which is supposed to mean "sneak," but which probably looks like he's trying to do some obscure gnomish ritual dance. He then removes a small sliver mirror from his pack and holds it just around the corner to attempt to keep an eye on the figure. Could it be Hoom or Mouser? He places the other hand on his bow and watches. After a moment's consideration, he indicates to Grothnak to watch around the other corner.

[Zhym]

Grothnak nods his answer and moves as quietly as he can to peer around the other corner of the inn.