2) The Secret of the Haunted House

[OGRE MAGE]

The Search Continues...

The new adventurers like the tone of this strangers rant almost as much as they liked his music. Doubtful grabs the mans stool and throws it at him, trying to distract him as the others move in. Burly gets a bit overzealous and slips in some of granny's remaining goo. Jervis makes up for that by lunging at the man and hitting him squarely in the side of the head with his ax. Young Jonas also jabs his long pole at the man but, the damage from Jervis is all that was necessary to drop the man dead in his tracks. He now lays on the floor bleeding out with his head split open.

The room is silent again as the rest of the party enters. All but Vhing descend the stairs. He stays up top and pulls out a rusty old saw. Ben and Ermulf look at him curiously as he begins to study the trap door carefully.

Burning torches line the walls this former cellar room. You can now see 10 single beds (crude affairs, little more than thin mattresses on boards) with their heads to the south wall, each with a small wooden locker at its foot. In the center of the stone floor is a long wooden table on which there is a variety of cheap metal cutlery and earthenware crockery together with a large jug about half full of light brown liquid. There are a dozen wooden stools around the table. Against the north wall are two casks, one larger than the other and both broached. The larger one is nearly full of a clear liquid, the smaller one about half full of light brown liquid. A metal dipper hangs on the outside of the rim of the larger cask.

Next to the casks is a large wooden bin. Above it, hanging on hooks on the wall, are a large ham, a long string of sausages, and a small side of meat. Next to the bin is what appears to be a crude metal wood-fired stove standing in the fireplace. Above the stove, on the shelf, are some iron and earthenware cooking utensils. Next to that is a small pile of logs.

Near the foot of the stairs you just came down are two small, unopened casks. Next to them is a bolt of fine cloth.

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Injuries:
Jonas, slightly
Vhing, seriously

[coil23]

Doubtful

Doubtful gestures to the others for silence then carefully creeps to the back of the room toward the doors.

Are the doors open or closed?

Doubtful will listen at the doors (if closed) or peek in to see (if open). Also checking the floor for ideas on traffic (how much, what kind, how recent, debris left behind,etc.)

[Mant72]

Keilif:

Keilif arms himself with one of the torches from the wall and gestures to the fallen man's sword, "Someone might want to arm themselves with that. From the looks of things, there are probably more of these guys around. We must tread lightly."

[OGRE MAGE]

Doubtful takes the lead and begins looking around for clues. The first thing that he notices is that the room is far cleaner than the rest of the house they have searched. There is no mold growing anywhere or signs of insect infestation. There is no refuse lying around and it is apparent that the room is a now used as a living quarters.

He finds no tracks on the floor so he goes to investigate the doors....

The north door appears normal and is closed. The door on the east wall has a large wooden bar across it wedged into heavy metal brackets. The thick board has a warning on it written in chalk. The one word message seems simple, even to you newbies. It simply reads......DANGER!

[ravenn4544]

Ben will explore the fallen man's clothes to see if his pants will fit - considering he is in need of a change. He'll also look to use the liquid in the casks that he can identify to wash himself as best he can if the singing mans pants don't fit...

[Fulci]

Jónas Gillman

"Who was this man calling for?" asks Jónas, his voice slightly trembling. Hitting spiders and bat things is one thing, but hitting and killing a person is another! "Before he died, he cried for some 'GENTS' to come in here, we got to be prepared!"

[ravenn4544]

Ben feels his strength returning after downing that foul swill and is again able to engage in the world around him, "you speak sense, Jonas - should we make fast the doors? We where certainly loud enough to be heard over a mild sea... "

[hedgeknight]

Naturally drawn to the cooking utensils and such, Burly gives a check of the stuff to see if any might come in handy. His stomach growls loudly with the sight of all the available food...seeing as he hasn't eaten anything really substantial since before his arrival in Saltmarsh. He checks the hanging meat to see if any of it is cured. If so, he takes a knife and slices off a mouthful. If it is still uncooked, he will take a few sausages, stuff them in a bag, for later.

[Stirling]

Vhing Cranepool

From his view at the top of the stairs, Vhing expresses horror at the wanton murder of the 'janitor'.

"If I were you Keiliff I'd use the rest of that orc-slime to paste the guy up good and proper. Will surely go better for us if he's alive and kicking at the end of this. Told you he might be Juli's acolyte and he's only made up ten bunks for us to camp in. He could be some rogue in a gang judging by the sword. He won't be able to tell all if he's dead though." Vhing spies the meat and casks..."Oh,look Shoo-Fly, dinners' ready...and at last some beer no doubt. Perhaps someone ought to 'play the piper' and sound off. His 'mates' may think everything is okay and leave us to feast if they hear his cacophony!""

Vhing remains at the room above. Using a hacksaw to do a little carving and carpentry(?)..eventually he will descend, closing the entrance again with the trapdoor.

[coil23]

Doubtful

Will someone please tie up the...janitor? Oh, and gag him too...and make sure he can't even SEE that instrument he was torturing. Any ideas on our next move? I want to take a peak behind this door and then barring it sounds good for the moment while we get our bearings.

Looking at the north door, Doubtful looks around first for something to bar the door with and makes sure it is within reach. He then quietly opens the door a crack and peaks out.

[OGRE MAGE]

Ben quickly gets to work stealing the leather pants from the man that Jervis and Burly just brutally murdered. The man doesn’t move a bit during this ordeal and is apparently quite dead. Jonas expresses his concern in the fact that the now dead man was calling for his friends to join him just before he was killed. He also expresses his concern about killing innocent people that did absolutely nothing to warrant such actions.

Burly moves to the makeshift kitchen and begins looking through the many cooking utensils. The items are usable, but none of them are up to the standards of Granny. The hanging meats are salted and ready to eat, so the hungry baker begins to stuff his face. When he checks the wooden bin, he finds even more bounty. There are loaves of black bread, dried beans, flour, dried fruit, and even a small amount of honey. All the food looks fresh and quite appetizing. The large barrel of clear liquid is water and the smaller cask contains a weak ale.

Vhing is still convinced that the beds are here for you and that the party has just killed one of the acolytes that the well endowed priestess posted here to greet you on your arrival. He even goes so far as to tell Keilif to use the last of the magical healing salve to try to resuscitate the dead man. Most of you notice that the tagalong cat following Doubtful around won’t go anywhere the smelly half-orc.

Doubtful checks the unbarred north door and finds it to be unlocked. However, he finds nothing nearby that will work as a bar, other than the one that is in place on the eastern door.

[hedgeknight]

"We have enough food here to feed a small town," Burly says around a mouthful of salted beef. He scoops out a ladle full of cool water and washes it all down. "Wonder where they stockpiled all this from? We got at least ten others to confront, maybe more."

[wolfpack]

As the man falls jervis says

Beware the others, he was obviously calling for other cult members.

Jervis will carefully go and prod each bunk with his axe and look underneath.

[Mant72]

Keilif:

After retrieving a torch, Keilif makes his way to investigate the two casks and the bolt of cloth near the stairs.

[Stirling]

Vhing Cranepool

While the others check out the room and the far doors, Vhing tries to see if he can get to understand how the trapdoor spell/trap works to make the booming ghost voice again. (his thoughts were if it was placed on the door hinge he could cut that out and use it for dramatic effect later).

Then he will join the others in raiding the wine and food and go pick a comfortable bed to test out, boots off so not to dirty the sheets, shake the pillow and 'zzzzz'

[coil23]

Doubtful

Taking a moment to look at the dead man on the floor, Doubtful says: They are only animals, right, Jervis?

Shoo-Fly seems to be avoiding even being close to Vhing. Wrinkling his nose, Doubtful has an idea why. Is it just the smell, Vhing, or is the cat avoiding you for other reasons?

Turning his attention back to the door, Doubtful ponders the options.

What if we pushed this long table close to the door so that we could just shove it a few feet in a hurry to block it? And do people really think this spot will be safer for making camp tonight?

[wolfpack]

No, not an animal a brigand. A brigand who has a choice to surrender or die... He choose poorly.


We should block the door without a bar, there could be more on the way any moment.

[ravenn4544]

Ben recoils when he finally gets the pants off the dead guy, "holy shit is this guy lucky we killed 'em!! He's got the crotch-rot like something we used to threaten the new meat with... oh my GOD --- Vhing! you owe you for watchin' over you. Give me a laugh and take a whiff of THAT!!" he says as he points at the mans rotten groin with an evil smile.

He'll eventually shrug and look to wash off the pants with some beer before changing into them.

[Urson]

Alec

The Dwarf makes his way down the stairs. Since no one else seems interested, he'll take the broadsword- examining it to see whether it's a decent piece of steel, properly worked.

[Nordbo]

Danny Cruester

not paying attention properly to Keilif's good suggestion, misses the opportunity to snap up the sword, and starts looking around the room for other weapon-ish impliments. Any brooms lying about that could be converted into a decent staff ?