...Though before he actually settles in to sleep, he wants to cast his invisibility spell on Sprig so that way he doesn't waste the spell. Grossphil casts invisibility on the gnome and says, "That way the next time you want to backstab a berserker, or perhaps one of those thieves we encountered earlier, you may have a surprise advantage."
"Wow, thanks, Grossphil," says the now seemingly empty air in front of the mage, which is Sprig."I'll be setting up on the shelf over there between the dried meats and the corn meal - make sure nobody throws their pack on top of me, I guess. I suppose I'll take first watch, so nobody has to try to wake up a body they can't see in the middle of the night."
Enjoying his invisibility, Sprig will wander over to inspect the weird basins on the southern end of the kitchen, followed by the boxes with the circular disks on top, whatever on Oerth those are. During his watch he'll see what interesting spices are stocked in the kitchen and take a box of pepper if he can find any.
"Give me a moment to clear a bit of this up." Mac ties a bit of string around a small piece of wood four times and starts muttering. Quite soon after the pantry starts getting cleaned slowly but surely. Casts Unseen Servant
After grabbing a cold drink from the cold room, Mac takes a few moments to scan and examine the room with his gem. As he casually sips on whatever drink he has found, he chats. "Ah. This isn't so bad, you know. I haven't had a cold drink in years."
After scanning, Mac will take first shift with Sprig.
Grossphil does not like the sleeping accommodations inside the pantry one bit, but it seems better than freezing to death or laying in the kitchens refuse. He casts a spell on little Sprig and, much to the gnomes delight, he suddenly vanishes from sight. After staking out a claim where he will be sleeping, Sprig goes back out into the kitchen to investigate the strange devices. Fiddling with the two handles on the circular vessels causes running water to pour from their spouts. It takes the gnome a while of tinkering, but he figures out that the right handle draws forth cold water and the left pours hot. The water circles the hole in the bottom of the large vessels and then disappears, but he has no idea where it actually goes. The square units with the four circles on top don't seem to have anything to do with the water vessels. After some more tinkering, Sprig finds that manipulating the knobs on the front of the devices makes the circles on top glow and turn very hot. When he pulls open the door handle on the front of the thing, he notices that the empty space inside the device gets very hot as well. He assumes that these things are some kind of ovens, but he doesn't see any wood, smoke, or smell any other kind of fuel burning.
Zefarrel wants to use her magic to divine whether it is good or bad to go back through the black portal they entered this room through. Once cast, she gets the faint feeling that it would not be harmful to do so. She also spends some time nursing the nearly dead dwarfs wounds as best she can. Mac casts a spell that doesn't appear to do anything, until the mess in the kitchen starts to slowly clean itself up. He takes a look around at the entire area through his large clear gem, but he doesn't find anything to be out of order.
Finnigan draws enough remaining strength to check over the dead berserkers on the kitchen floor. Oddly enough, other than their axes and some very meager equipment, they carry almost nothing at all on their persons. It doesn't look like they were particularly well off or well equipped to be out adventuring. The dwarf silently wonders how these brutes came to be in here. He then lays out a big sack of rice to lay on and tries to make his battered body as comfortable as possible. He finds a few bottles of cooking sherry to drink, which dulls the constant pain of his horrible wounds pretty well throughout the night along and gives him a horrid case of heartburn.
The night in the pantry goes by uneventfully and everyone gets in a fairly comfortable rest, piling up the softest of the foodstuffs to sleep on. 2 hit points healed for resting Oddly enough, once morning comes around, all of the items that were removed from the shelves or consumed magically appear again. It seems that this place replenishes itself every day and that rations are no longer required, in this room anyway.
Actions?
Elitir 16/22
Zefarrel 12/20 4/4 first 3/3 second
Grossphil 16/16 2/2 first 1/1 second
Mac 7/7 2/2 first 1/1 second
Sprig 10/10 2/2 first
Finnigan 4/25
"I suggest we cast all the healing spells on Finn and then rest again here, supplies are good." Elitir will search around and cook up a large hearty meal for anyone interested in eating what she cooks.
Zefarrel prays for renewal of her magics (OM, I've updated my spells). Assuming I got what I asked for at least as far as 1st level requests, she will cast 2 cure light wounds on Fin. Hopefully Frey will favor you again my friend.
During his watch and before retiring, curiosity gets the better of him and Sprig does an experiment. He casts Detect Invisibility and looks at himself. He then casually turns in the direction of the unseen servant cleaning up the room.... He is utterly shocked by what he sees there, immediately closing his eyes tightly and turning away. The horror... he vows to speak of what he saw to no one. Ever.
In the morning, after some unsettling dreams, he awakens and reviews his spell book of Tricks and Befuddlements for the Aspiring Prestidigitator. Anyone awake sees only the book lying open, a page turning occasionally.
Was he able to find any pepper the night before? If so, did it disappear over night?
oops....sorry. I forgot you did that. Yes, there are three variety of crushed pepper in small jars near the smashed spice rack. Consider it equipment now if you like.
Finnigan feels a bit better after a full night's sleep and a few more healing spells.
"Thank you, Zefarrel. Your healing powers are greatly appreciated."
Seeing the foodstuffs replenished, Finnigan briefly considers taking more of the sherry, but then thinks better of it. He sorts through looking for anything that might serve as non-perishable rations, like nuts or dried fruits or hard cheeses. If he finds anything, he includes it in his pack.
"Where to now?" And should we throw these bodies back through that portal? Or into a new one?"
After the gracious healing of Frey form Zefarrel, Finnigan feels quite a bit better. He passes on the sherry, but fills his ration pack with nuts, preserves, and hard cheese from the magic shelves. Up and at em once again, the dwarf asks what should be done with the dead bodies on the floor. He seems ready to investigate another black portal.
Elitir gets the gist of how the strange devices work in the kitchen from Sprig before cooking up a huge breakfast of ham, eggs, and biscuits for her and her friends. She seems content to stay right here for another day.
The still unseen Sprig burps and farts a lot during the morning meal, quietly blaming each one of them on Grossphil.
Actions?
Elitir 16/22
Zefarrel 12/20 2/4 first 3/3 second
Grossphil 16/16 2/2 first 1/1 second
Mac 7/7 2/2 first 1/1 second
Sprig 10/10 2/2 first
Finnigan 12/25
Grossphil is perfectly happy with sitting and eating the magically replenished food for an additional day so that his fighter friends that don't have -3 to hit can recover. In fact, he'll even volunteer to take first watch so that if something comes through one of the entries while everyone is lounging about, he can take advantage of his magic missile spells he prepared today. But to do that, he wants to cast invisibility (Grossphil casts invisibility on himself) so that way if something does come into the room, Grossphil can surprise them.
OM, are you going to put that Sprig and Grossphil are invisible in each of your posts down at the bottom where you always put the party HP and spell #? I think that might help everyone remember.
Being invisible to the others, Sprig finds, is occasionally hair raising - people who don’t know you’re there make no effort to avoid stepping on or sitting on you, it turns out. Even less so than normal. He stays on his toes.
He’s dying to get moving, but considering how very nearly dead Finnegan got yesterday, he supposes resting up is wise. As he stands there invisibly tapping his foot, it occurs to him that something is not quite right. He thinks back to how they came into this underground complex yesterday and how they entered this room through the black portal. Something doesnt add up. He’ll try to determine what direction they entered this room from, and if it corresponds to the direction they left the first room, or if, as he suspects, they have been teleported in some way.
After that he looks to see if he can find some cylindrical spice container with a cap he can empty out for reuse - he has an idea for a “dark light.” It’s brilliant.
Once breakfast is over, the group agrees to stay in this room for one more full day to rest and recuperate. The thought of their friend Pumfrey wandering around alone in this weird place doesn't deter their decision. Thanks to the help of Mac's servant, the kitchen area is starting to look much better, except for the coagulating pool of blood and two large rotting bodies of the dead berserkers lying in the middle of the floor, that is. They are starting to stink a little bit now as well.
The half-elven priestess uses up her last two healing prayers for the day and Grossphil makes himself invisible, just as he did to Sprig earlier. The gnome ponders the way the group has traveled through the portals so far, but with no real way to check direction, he can only go with what they already know. (When Pumfrey went back through the eastern portal of this room, he did not join up with the others who had still not exited the living room.) Sprig thinks he may be on to something, though he has no way to be sure until more of the portals are explored. He finds plenty of sealable glass jars and other spice shakers lying around near the spice rack.
Grossphil tells the others that he is fine with keeping watch now with his offensive spells at the ready.
Actions?
Obviously something is going to happen if you plan on staying in the same place for another 24 hours. So, I will need to know where everyone plans on being physically during this down time. If there is anything you plan on doing while you wait, let me know that as well. Once each of you has posted where you are in the room and how you plan to pass the time, I will roll some dice and continue the action.
Elitir 16/22
Zefarrel 20/20 0/4 first 3/3 second
Grossphil 16/16 2/2 first 0/1 second (Invisible)
Mac 7/7 2/2 first 1/1 second
Sprig 10/10 2/2 first (Invisible)
Finnigan 18/25
The visible party members are treated to a bizarre struggle between two unseen forces: one picking up and examining spice containers, occasionally dumping their contents before casting them aside, the other methodically cleaning up the mess and replacing bottles, tins and canisters neatly back on the shelves. Finally, Sprig finds what he was looking for, a tall, thin, metal container easily gripped in one hand. ”My darklight!” the empty air exclaims before dumping the contents on the floor and pocketing the receptacle.
He next turns his attention to the bodies. ”Shall we drag them into the cool room?” he says. ”They’re starting to smell.”
After this is done, he’ll scour the perimeter of the room looking for any secret doors or compartments they may have missed...
