Barrowmaze: Of Where-Rats and Mongrelmen.

[Hadarai]

Callen

The Cleric takes position by Rum, holding his holy symbol at the ready. Ready for the possibility of turning any undead that may lie in wait.

[Spearmint]

Exploring beyond the Rat Room.

The victims of the pit trap are left undisturbed, the group take the secret door. The next chamber barren apart from the furnishing on the south door.

Rum & Callen go that way, the dwarf takes the knocker and announcing the group's presence knocks in the door.

"Mousetrap!" meows the cat and suddenly behind them a set of strong bars drop from the ceiling to cut the pair off in the alcove.

Actions Rum & Callan I need you to give a Dex check vs [4d6] since a spring-trap iron bar swings down to try and pin you both against the wall. Succeed and take no damage, fail and take -7hp from a bone crunching strike.

Mousetrap: pressure bar damage [2d6]=7

Vann Hector. The door you listen at is not locked, you open it into a isosceles shaped triangular room. A door in the wall to your right. The room contains many bones, scraps of worn garments and boots, empty bottles. Placed in sorted piles by type. A crate labelled 'edibles' and a metal keg with 'Water' stack to one side.

Sigrid & Sundance can reach the dropped portcullis bars but the women are not strong enough to counter the weight and lift it up.

Actions and rolls please.

[Stirling]

Vann Hector

I will run across and try to help lift up the portcullis or bars to free any of the trapped.

mouse trap. Ok, it is as worse as a pitfall too.

Vann Hector: Strength check vs 11 [4d6]=14

If I need any roll or do I just try to lift and jerk it upwards.

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn

Guys, lift the portcullis up. I'll check if there is any response from our skeleton friends.

For listening for incoming footsteps on both side of the corridor, do i roll for Wisdom or Hear Noise? Based on my understanding, Hear Noise is only used for listening through doors and portal, right? Second question, listening for this is an action by itself right? I can't do anything else when doing this? Lastly, how long does it take for me to set a bear trap?

[Spearmint]

For listening for incoming footsteps on both side of the corridor, do i roll for Wisdom or Hear Noise? Based on my understanding, Hear Noise is only used for listening through doors and portal, right? Second question, listening for this is an action by itself right? I can't do anything else when doing this? Lastly, how long does it take for me to set a bear trap?

Let me address these in turn.

You can use the Thieves Skill: Hear Noise to apply to various situations. Picking out a single conversation among many in a noisy tavern. Add it to a Safe-breaking skill as you turn vault tumblers. In terms of a dungeon, it is not just noise, but discernment of voices, footsteps; recognising number of figures beyond. Any Thieves Skill is normally 'a turn of action' so ten minutes rather than a round duration. I am fine with you suggesting several actions during any search phase.

You can set the bear clamp trap up as a one round action or if you want to lay it as a camouflaged trap, that will take a turn.

[Spearmint]

Exploring after Mongrelmen.

Rum Lightbender: 13 Dex check vs Mousetrap bar [4d6]=14 Callen: 13 Dex check vs Mousetrap bar. [4d6]=13

Once the Mousetrap is sprung, the bars drop over the alcove to secure it as a cell and a wicked bar, camouflaged in the ceiling but spring mounted to trigger with the dropping bars, it whooshes with alarming speed and though Callan ducks underneath the blow, Rum Lightbender is caught and crushed by the powerful heavyweight bar. -7hp

For a moment he is snagged and pinned against the door but augmented by Sigrid's Strength spell and with Callan's help, you can extricate yourself away.

Sigrid, Sundance & Vann Hector apply their strength together to lift the portcullis up. It needs Rum & Callan too in order to raise the bars high enough that it resets the Mousetrap.

While you do this, Veryn guards against wandering Sapphire Skeletons or worse. You can set up the bear clamp in the passage by the door to snare any intruders who step on it.

Despite the heavy door knocking and even heavier crash of bars, nothing seems alerted to your presence and Veryn does not hear any skeletons returning.

Here is the current health status:

Vann Hector: 9/16hp
Callan: 8/8hp
Veryn: 6/6hp
Rum Lightbender: 3/11hp
Sigrid: 9/14hp
Sundance: 7/8hp



Next actions please

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn

Veryn will sets the trap quickly, informing the rest about it so they don't get caught off guard.

So far, no skeletons. Quick, lift it up before they come here.

[Stirling]

Vann Hector

Every injury whittles us down. We should be careful not to extend ourselves. But I am still driven to prove my theory the Mongrelmen lurk near here and we can befriend them.

Spiking the door and then adding the bear clamp can give us a minimum security behind us. Good, lets do that.

I think the Mousetrap door to be a false door. So I will go through into the triangle room and the door to my right. A 20'ft square crypt?

appreciate the maps.

[Darithe]

Sigrid

Grimaces when she sees the extent of Rum's injuries. Wishing she still had her first aid kit, she looks to the others, "Anyone have healing supplies left?"

[Hadarai]

Callen

"Here, allow me." Callen says as he gently holds his hands over the Dwarf and begins chanting a prayer, hoping to tend to his injuries. He grimaces as he pulls his hands away, had he mispronounced something? Lost his timing?

My apologies, it's the best I can do at the moment Rum. Here, a wafer to supplement further".



-1 holy wafer so that Rum can regain an additional HP for 3 in total.

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn

Veryn will spike the door nearby the bear trapped floor, just for good measures.

[Spearmint]

Exploring beyond the Rat Room.

Here is the current health status:

Vann Hector: 9/16hp
Callan: 8/8hp
Veryn: 6/6hp
Rum Lightbender: 6/11hp
Sigrid: 9/14hp
Sundance: 7/8hp

Rum Lightbender takes a wafer and healing prayer to ease his pain, his shoulders bruised one to another and spine almost snapped in to. A 'dwarf trap' let alone a mouse one.

The Bear trap is laid. Hopefully no bears actually wander these crypts! That would just be too much.

Vann Hector takes the next crypt as others search the room behind him. Actually this is not one 20'ft square crypt but two triangular ones, another door in the north of the diagonal wall that stretches before you. In this first crypt are several earthenware jars, most cracked and fractured or eroded with age. Sorting through them you can find a bracelet of silver filigree inset with miniature ornamental teardrops of ebony and ivory. The next door is slightly ajar, it is dark beyond and grave silent. Using infravision, you do not detect any motion or heat sources but not a slimy trail of ooze, like a snail or slug crossing under the door marking the floor though no.obvious slimes or gelatinous creatures seems present. The crypt has a cold chilly feel, quite the opposite to the bright fresco painted upon the wall, a faded mural of a warrior ascending into Ygg's blessing. Several large candles, partially burned down and snuffed out are in a branch style, silver candlestick beneath the fresco.

In the first room:

The door you listen at is not locked, you open it into a isosceles shaped triangular room. A door in the wall to your right. The room contains many bones, scraps of worn garments and boots, empty bottles. Placed in sorted piles by type. A crate labelled 'edibles' and a metal keg with 'Water' stack to one side.

Sundance & Sigrid can apply themselves to sorting through the oddments.

Secret Doors checking: [1d100]=9 [1d100]=35

The casual inspection finds some things of interest. Firstly another (not so) secret door, in the bottom SE corner of the long wall. It may confirm the soothsaying of Gerdal regarding 'secrets beyond secrets' as it becomes revealed. You can open the portal and see a passage that extends about thirty feet to the west.

Secondly among the many bones and set aside skulls, you find four skulls that each have a large imprint branded upon their cranium, that of a black hand. In crayon, someone has written "face towards enemy" on the back. Each of the skulls have but a single tooth still stuck in their top jaw. A thin thread of spider silk cord is wrapped around the tooth, the cord is about twenty feet long and spooled on a wooden reel.

Actions please as you continue the exploring.

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn

Well, this is peculiar.

Do these silk bound skeletons face the same direction?

[Spearmint]

they are just four individual skulls, with a thin, thread of sewing cotton-thread tied to the tooth. Not full skeletons.

[Kenjosephus]

Sorry, mistype skulls with skeletons. I assume these skulls do not look at a certain direction.

[Spearmint]

No, you can pick them up as loose skulls and carry them about. The distinguishing features are the 'black hand brand', the pull thread around a tooth and the writing on the back of the head.

[Stirling]

Vann Hector

I get this sort of vibe ...

"Don't pull the tooth out!"

[OGRE MAGE]

Sweet!

I think any Guild members would have heard of the exploding black hand skeletons before.

[Kenjosephus]

Veryn

Veryn will search for any trap inside the bright fresco room, poking floors and looking up the ceiling for creature or contraption before taking the bracelet of silver filigree inset.

Find trap vs 20% [1d100]=83 and disarm trap if any vs 25% [1d100]=15

[Craigers07]

Rum

Rum thanks Callen for the wafer and continues to grimace in pain.

"That should serve as a reminder not to be so stupid."

He will search the room for anything else of interest before deciding where to go next.