RED OAK: Return to the Pass of the Hounds

[Woe]

Three magical helmets? Into the bags they go. I suppose Bruce and Anna don't want to be test subjects?

Freya will cautiously open the door, and barring monsters, the party will continue south.

[Woe]

Oh, and though probably obvious, Tiana is mapping.

[Longman]

Anna will be a test subject if Talin asks her. Bruce, not so much.

Freya gets the door open again easily and Anna is secretly annoyed because that was supposed to be her shtick, her way of being impressive, and the elf keeps doing it.

Beyond the door you see...

full map - Copy (5).jpg (69.54 KiB) Viewed 2280 times

The room is about 40 long and has a large stone table in it with some abstract carvings on various surfaces. There are some old stools and wooden chairs too, as well as a large (3' high) and very ornate earthenware jug on the floor, uncorked. There's some rather cool abstract mosaics set into the west wall. Tiana does not recognise these.



The south wall actually appears to be a balcony overlooking a lower area. It also has some abstract carvings in the same sort of geometric style.

There are stairs leading down to the east and another door in the north east wall. The arch around the stairway looks quite ornate.

Mouse girl reports nothing magical when she arrives on the scene. Basically it looks like a fun place to have something to eat and drink.

[Woe]

Haha oh right, Anna is the thief! She's been such a good archer that everyone (i.e. me) has forgotten she has other talents. Let's see if Anna says something or until Freya rolls a failure.

It's probably perfectly safe but someone has the spooks now (Freya?). The chairs are human-sized as well? Anything in the jug? Tiana will light the lantern so the party gets some decent lighting in this area (just so the humans don't need to stay huddled). If Anna wants to listen at the northern door, great. Freya is going to peek (crouched behind cover if possible) down in the lower sources, sending the light sources back if necessary.

How high is the ceiling?

[Longman]

The ceiling in this particular room is about 12 feet high. The other rooms and passages, 8 to 10.

There is no liquid in the jug. It could be valuable, maybe not. Kind of a pain to carry around, though. Chairs are human sized, yes.

I will post what Freya sees in a minute. She moves south and looks down the balcony, right?

Anna hears nothing behind the northern door whatsoever. This door is evidently not locked and partly ajar (like about 1 inch).

It is spooky - seems like unknown humans got good use out of the place, a very long time ago. Doesn't seem like a castle lock-up. Seems more like a place to live. Kilian can't guess the exact age but he thinks it predates the goblin invasion by a long time.

[Longman]

Here's the map for the previous post.

full map - Copy (6).jpg (79.35 KiB) Viewed 2264 times

The ornate carved stair does a cute little curve around the wall and comes out in the lower room. It seems mostly empty although there are more ornate carvings on the balcony rim and the wall below, and there are also some stone seats on the diagonal wall to the south west. Freya can even see the remains of an old cushion there. The corridor goes south and then seems to enter a room - she can't see anything past that point.

[Woe]

She moves south and looks down the balcony, right?

Yes, trying to stay out of sight from whatever may be lurking below.

[Longman]

I just described what was in the southern room. What else do you do. I have a pretty good idea of where everyone is.

[Woe]

Let's check out that NE door first. Kilian's suspicion is that it's a kitchen.

[Longman]

It may once have been an underground kitchen. There's lots of deep stone shelves on the walls, and a blocked chimney, although no obvious water basin.

There are two beds in here, wooden upended, against the wall.

The shelves contain all manner of stuff:

More pottery (12 more items varying size)
Two old braziers
Coal
Kindling
Water jugs, metal
Flint and steel
Incense
Blankets, rotted.
More cushions.
A large amount of glassware, 38 items in total:



A book.
3 Chess sets

Various carved dice.

The glassware, chess sets and dice are likely to be worth money to a collector. Potentially, a lot of money. A lot of the other stuff is worthless.