Chapter 6: Beneath the Inn of the Damned

[Inferno]

Chapter 6: Beneath the Inn of the Damned

Day Five.
Village of Briarsgate, The Golden Grain Inn (6*)
Between 10 and 11pm, Thursday, October 20th, 576 CY.
Full moon, partly cloudy, damp, cold, misty.





Being of sound mind and body, the adventurers voluntarily attempt to reenter the house of horrors known as the Golden Grain Inn.

Golden Grain Inn.jpg (183.23 KiB) Viewed 6130 times

At the back of the inn, Mouser unlocks the window into Bertram Beswill's bedroom with Hoom's enchanted picklock.

Ingrid chants aloud for 30 seconds, weaving a magic spell that conjures an eerie, invisible shroud that descends with finality and strangles every noise. The world is suddenly as silent as death. No moaning wind in the trees. No crunch of dead leaves underfoot. All sound is utterly consumed. The group has been unnaturally rendered deaf and voiceless. No talking to each other, please.

In the surreal, otherworldly silence, Mouser slides the window open, pushes the curtains aside and peeks in. His infravision sees the room is cold. Without a sound, he climbs in the window and motions the others to follow him inside the manse of madness.

The adventurers follow with weapons drawn. The small room is quickly overcrowded. The group presses against the dark shapes of the bed, nightstand, desk, chair, chest, and a closed door, all barely visible in the window's reflected moonlight.

Long Bo listens at the door and hears no voices from the other side. Then he remembers why.

Those with infravision see a faint, telltale circle of warmth (S) marking the trapdoor under the rug that opens to the dungeon beneath the Golden Grain Inn.


Actions?

Map of Golden Grain Inn.jpg (366.06 KiB) Viewed 6130 times

One square = 5'. Darkened areas are your recollections.






Status:
Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/1: AC 7, HP 9/9, Spells: 2/3 1st lvl
Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 4, HP 10/10, Spells: 1/1 1st lvl
Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 2: AC 4, HP 16/17
Hoom Feethos, Elven Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 3, HP 7/8, Spells: 0/1 1st lvl
Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 14/16, Spells: 2/4 1st lvl and 2/3 2nd lvl
Long Bo, Human Druid 2: AC 6, HP 12/15, Spells: 2/4 1st lvl and 2/2 2nd lvl
Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 16/19, Laying Hands: 0/1
Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 2: AC 0, HP 18/19

Magic:
Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.
Silence, 15' Radius (Ingrid): Duration: 5 rounds left.


*Map of Briarsgate
NPC List for Briarsgate

[Zhym]

Grothnak points at the trapdoor, then at Telkis. When Telkis gives the go-ahead signal, Grothnak raises the trapdoor so Talkis can enter then follows right behind.

[ChubbyPixie]

Telkis looks at each of the others briefly to guage their readiness. If all seem good to go he'll nod at Grothnak and prepare to rush down as quickly as possible while staying in range of Ingrid's spell. Once in, he'll try to get a look around to ascertain what kind of threat they face. If the odds seem overwhelming, he'll rush back up.

[dmw71]

Avril watches on as Grothnak and Telkis communicate silently, and switches from her sword to her bow as the later descends into the dungeon below. She nocks an arrow and does her best to shift in her current position to allow herself the best, unobstructed angle at, or ideally into, the trapdoor below.

[DadsAngry]

Hoom Feethos:

Hoom takes out his short sword and will wait for his turn to go down.

[Grognardsw]

The silence is 15' out from the stone, meaning 7.5' in every direction from the center point of the stone?

Grey Mouser, thief

Mouser raises a hand when Grothnak approachs the trap door. He points to his ear, mimicing the act of listening, then motions Ingrid to step back to the edge of the room so the silence spell won't interfere with Mouser listening.

Listen [1d6] = 3, [1d100] = 2

If he doesn't hear anything, he'll motion for Hoom to give it a try as well.

[Zhym]

Grothnak urgently shakes his head when he sees what the Mouser has planned. He makes a circle with his hands and widens it. He points down and to the interior walls. He moves his mouth as if talking then covers it with a hand. He points to one ear then puts a finger in the air while raising one eyebrow. Finally, he points to Ingrid and motions toward the exterior corner of the wall.

If Ingrid goes to that corner, Grothnak gives the Mouser a nod.

[Fulci]

Ingrid Esthof, cleric

Ingrid moves to the corner. She has her mace and shield ready.

[Inferno]

DM:

In the silenced, unlit room, Ingrid can barely discern Mouser and Grothnak pointing urgently. The priestess believes she understands them and slowly, carefully navigates through the dark, cramped chamber to bring the sound-destroying stone to a corner.
Then Mouser crouches down, pulls up the area rug, and listens at the exposed trapdoor. He hears nothing from the other side, and motions for Hoom to try.

The humans are nearly blind in the darkness here, along with being mute and deaf.

The silence is 15' out from the stone, meaning 7.5' in every direction from the center point of the stone?

No, it's a 15' radius in every direction, or a 30' diameter sphere (see link below to the spell description. I place these links at the bottom of all major posts for active spells, btw).
This room is a 15' x 15' x 8' rectangular cuboid. There's no place for the stone to reside in this room without affecting the area of the trapdoor.
Not that Mouser or Grothnak would know this.

Also, I mentioned before that I'll roll thieves skills where a PC won't know the outcome. Let's please expand that to listening at doors too. Thanks, everyone.

Magic:
Silence, 15' Radius (Ingrid): Duration: 4 rounds left.

[DadsAngry]

Hoom Feethos:

Hoom sheaths his sword and moves over to the trap door. He crouches down and places his ear to the door. Maybe this time he will have better luck, no storm tonight.

[Inferno]

DM:

Hoom also hears nothing.

[DadsAngry]

Hoom Feethos:

Hoom get back on his feet and stands to one side of the trap door. He shakes his head to the group and points to his elven ear.

[Zhym]

When Telkis gives the signal, Grothnak opens the trap door and follows him down.

[dmw71]

Avril keeps her bow trained at the opening, allowing the rest of the group to descend before her. She switches to her blade and peers into the opening, making sure it's safe, before descending herself.

[Grognardsw]

Grey Mouser closes the window behind them and adjusts the room in case anything was moved. Cat's Claw and Scalpel drawn, he follows the others down.

[OGRE MAGE]

Bo takes advantage of the magical silence to practice his singing voice. He strangely belts out an unheard tune in his low baritone voice while he waits for the others to make their way down.

He then follows the group into the hole.

[Inferno]

Day Five.
Village of Briarsgate, The Golden Grain Inn (6*)
Between 10 and 11pm, Thursday, October 20th, 576 CY.
Full moon, partly cloudy, damp, cold, misty.





In the creepy aural void, the adventurers lift the trapdoor and warily descend the ladder down into the deep, stone dungeon beneath the Golden Grain Inn.

A lone candle casts a sickly, weak light in the chamber of horrors below. Suspended by chains are four iron cages. Cages for humans.
All of them are empty.
Except one.



A caged woman (X), bound, gagged, blindfolded and motionless, is the only soul here. It is not Felicity Gade.

The cages dangle a foot off the floor and two feet from the ceiling beams. More blindfolds, gags and ropes lay on a wooden table with benches beside it. Two chests rest against the northern wall. There are two doors in this room, and the southern one is stout and held tight by a heavy bar across it.





Actions?

Beneath the Inn of the Damned.jpg (425.93 KiB) Viewed 6064 times

One square = 5'. Darkened areas are your recollections.






Status:
Avril Hollysword, Half-Elf Fighter/Cleric 1/1: AC 7, HP 9/9, Spells: 2/3 1st lvl
Grey Mouser, Half-Elf Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 4, HP 10/10, Spells: 1/1 1st lvl
Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 2: AC 4, HP 16/17
Hoom Feethos, Elven Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 3, HP 7/8, Spells: 0/1 1st lvl
Ingrid Esthof, Human Cleric 3: AC 3(1), HP 14/16, Spells: 2/4 1st lvl and 2/3 2nd lvl
Long Bo, Human Druid 2: AC 6, HP 12/15, Spells: 2/4 1st lvl and 2/2 2nd lvl
Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2(0), HP 16/19, Laying Hands: 0/1
Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 2: AC 0, HP 18/19

Magic:
Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.
Silence, 15' Radius (Ingrid): Duration: 2 rounds left.

Player Resources:
*Map of Briarsgate
NPC List for Briarsgate

[ChubbyPixie]

Telkis looks from the bound woman to the others and shrugs his shoulders in a "who is this? - I have no idea..." attitude. He taps Ingrid on the hip (shoulder is too high) and motions politely for her to step a bit to the north, miming that he wants to talk to the mice in his pack. He goes to the corner near the barred doorway and opens his pack to quietly whisper to Finster. "Now's your chance, Finster," he says "I won't ask you to do anything you're afraid to do. There are three choices: you can scout down this tunnel ahead of us, reporting back if it has an egress on the other side, or you can scout this inn, looking for other mice who may have such knowledge, or I will set you free outside to gather information there before we proceed down the tunnel - for this next part may be quite dangerous." As Finster makes his choice, Telkis straps Cranach to his belt and readies his hand axe.

[Fulci]

Ingrid Esthof, cleric

After giving Telkis enough time to talk to his little friends, Ingrid steps up to the cage and examines the woman inside. Is she breathing? Is she someone they've seen around in the village?

The memory of her being in one of these cages is still all too vivid... It's lucky her back is turned to her companions, so that they can't see how her face is distorted by this memory. And it's lucky that the veil of Silence hides her short whimper.

[Inferno]

DM:

Ingrid Esthof sees the captive woman is breathing. Her blindfold and gag cover enough of her face that she can't be readily identified. Her hair is different than Felicity Gade's.

Finster's response will be covered in the next DM update.