XI. Hunclay's Manor

[saalaria]

Grim feeling (over)confident now stomps in with Fulp...

...ending up behind him in 66

He still whispers:

"Well its purty nice...not up to dwarven standards mind.. But not bad at all, what ya reckon Fulp?"

[onlyme]

Fulp quips,
"I'd have gone with a blue rug myself, to match the potion."

[dmw71]

The group cautiously enters the room, except for Kassal, whom remains in at the doorway. Shortly after everyone enters, a 10-foot square pit forms in the floor, just inside the door, requiring Sylvan and Kassal to take a hurried step in the opposite direction of the gaping hole.

Entry Hall.png (8.66 KiB) Viewed 540 times

After a minute, just as it appeared, the pit disappears.

---

Having escaped the magical pit, which was not detectable by normal searching, the group, at least initially not moving from their current safe spots, can survey the room from where they stand.

The rugs and furniture are well crafted and rich in appearance. The two dozen paintings hung on walls of the room are mostly portraits and landscapes, all of exquisite artistry, with the most notable being a portrait of Hunclay himself on the west wall, nearest to Ciar. The large bird cage sitting on the north side of the room contains five frantic songbirds. Each of the colorful, exotic birds is extremely rare, noisy, hungry, and thirsty.

The wooden doors open in the east and west walls appear to be normal interior doors one would expect to find in a manor of a person of means. While they do have knobs to open them, they do not have locks. In the southeast corner, just behind Grim, is an elaborate, iron spiral staircase which spirals up to the the upper level of the manor, and down into what appears to be a basement or cellar.

[onlyme]

Fulp will slowly look around the area nearest him, but certainly waiting on Ciar to check for any traps on the doors before trying the one closest to him.

[Storm11]

"A close call that. And quite clever. I wonder if it moves about the room at random or iif it's only in this one spot?" the gnome waits patiently for the others to inspect the chamber. Can Kass see the picture of Huncley?

[dmw71]

Can Kass see the picture of Huncley?

It hangs about 30-feet away from where Kassal is standing, so, while he can see it, he really can't make it out in much detail.

[Storm11]

ok no worries

The gnome will stand in the doorway still ready

[Alethan]

Noting the songbirds in the cage, Ciar approaches them and takes some water from his waterskin and pours it into their water container. Then he looks around for any bird food that might be stored near by. If he can't find anything, then he digs through his rations for anything that might pass for bird food - crumbs or seeds or smaller nuts.

Ciar travels to Square 7 and then to Square 9.

[OGRE MAGE]

Sparrow likes the look of the fancy furniture. He goes to each of the sofas and tries them out for a bit. He both sits, and lies down on them. Then he lifts all the cushions and checks the cracks for loose coins or dropped or discarded magic items. ending on 35

Hey man, you never know.

[saalaria]

Grim moves to examine the door on the East wall. He wont touch it yet.

Ending up in 30

[AleBelly]

"The poor dears" says Sylvan mournfully as he sees the state of the birds. "Thank you, Ciar, for providing water for them. I'm afraid they require further nourishment."

He removes some dried fruit from his pack and tries to feed the birds.

[dmw71]

Except for Kassal, whom remains at the front door, the rest of the group moves to more thoroughly search the entry hall of Hunclay's manor.

Entry Hall.png (24.68 KiB) Viewed 515 times

Ciar and Sylvan move to get a closer look at, and hopefully calm the birds. Ciar pours some water from his waterskin into their water container, and Sylvan offers them some nuts and berries while the halfling searches the room some actual bird food. The birds overcome any reservations they may have had over approaching strangers and move to quickly begin devouring their food and drink, quieting in the process.

Grim and Fulp move to examine, without touching, the door on the east wall. It looks like a normal door, and would push open.

Sparrow moves to take a closer look at the five sofas in the room. He sits and lies down on them before lifting all the cushions and searching beneath them.

[saalaria]

"So which way do you want to try first?"
The dwarf keeps wtching the door.

[Storm11]

Kassal will enter and move to the stairsong the bottom of the grid. He will step on the first step at the very left of the stairs and look up. If the light is good enough he will scan the upper floor. If not he will get out the magical light.

[OGRE MAGE]

Sparrow looks bummed when he is done searching through the cushions.

Dang! Not even a copper piece! He says as he walks over to the door. at 55

He stares at the floor some more and listens at the door. If he doesn't hear anything, he kicks it open.

Door Kick (13 STR) [1d100] = 27

If that doesn't work, he gets an embarrassed look on his face and tries the knob.

[onlyme]

Fulp asks
Do the birds talk? Maybe they can tell us something useful.

[dmw71]

Looking up, Kassal sees that the ascent up the staircase in the southeast corner of the room opens into what appears to be a library. In the opposite direction, the descent seems to open into a storage area.

"So which way do you want to try first?" Grim asks, and Sparrow, after not hearing anything after listening at the eastern door, kicks the door open, revealing what is obviously a kitchen


---

More details if/when the group explores the new area.

[dmw71]

There is no evidence that the birds do anything more than squawk and chirp.

[Alethan]

With the birds quieted down, Ciar heads to the stairs. Eying them cautiously, he says, "We might check and make sure there is no trick step or anything..."

Ciar cautiously makes his way up the stairs, looking for any signs of a trap - a step that is slightly higher or lower than the others, a tread that is dusty or looks completely unworn, or anything else that might catch Ciar's attention.

Ciar moves to square 66, walking on flagstones, not rugs, to get there.

[Storm11]

Kassal's eyes widen at the thought of a wizards library.

Encouraging Ciar to be careful the gnome will follow the halfling up the stairs at a distance of 10 feet.