Janos whips his head around, when Mat whispers to him. He squints his eyes in the direction indicated.
Janos visibly relaxes. He chuckles. "Mat, that's just a raccoon." He claps him on the shoulder. "Ease up. There aren't zombies behind every grave. Now let's find those streets."
Daniel lowers his sword, but keeps it in hand.
Stay weary, I'd rather false alarms than be caught unaware.
But you are right Janos, the night wears on and we should get to it.
Following the steathier party members, Daniel renews the light on his sword.
you find and reach the crypt
The crypt itself is a freestanding granite
mausoleum, the roof of which is decorated with a pair of
leering gargoyle statues. A single stone door with a rustylooking
lock sits in the mausoleum’s south facade, and it's locked.
It could have been the proffessor. He had no skill with such things I'm aware of. He was operating in secret so might have used acid to get past it and tried to hide his passing.
I think we'll find the answer inside. If it was the Professor, I bet he will have taken equal care inside. If it was someone else, we might find it ransacked." He looks at the lock. "Mat, do you think you can rig it back the same way once we leave?"
Janos nods. "Well, then I say let's get inside." He pushes the door open slowly, peers inside and then takes a few steps in.
Daniel walks in, sword drawn and glowing to provide light.
Within, a flight of stone steps leads down into the
cold earth to a large crypt lined with empty niches—no
dead are interred here.
Well, I suppose we should do a very thorough Search and see what we can find.
While Daniel begins to root around, Janos sighs and looks at the members of the group. It had only been a day, but he did feel like he trusted them. After all, Petros trusted them enough to ask them to watch over his daughter for a while. And enough to include him with them.
Finally, the long moment of reflection is over and Janos unties the band of cloth around his head. Reflexively, he runs his hand through his hair and scratches his pointed ears. He cocks his head and listens for any hint of movement other than their group. He also turns his head, using the cleric's light to peer deep into the crypt.
When he others look at him, he says, "I hope my father's blood doesn't alarm anyone. I figured I may need all my senses down here and this cloth can obscure sounds at times." He pauses. "And I hope I'm among friends."
|
I thought he was hiding something. With a chuckle Mat says, "At least you know who you father is; my mother was ..... lets say never lonely in the evening. As for your point ears and elven blood I don't care as long as you don't care that I'm a human.", he finishes with a broad grin. "Now back to important matters."
Mat walks over and listens at one of the doors. "You never know there could some walking rotting corpse on the other side of this door."
"I know who he is only by story. He was gone long before I was born. My mother broke her vows to her husband to be with him and he just left her. We lived on as outcasts, poor and hungry before she died herself. You won't find me thanking him for anything." Janos spits on the ground in anger and disgust.
"It was my mother's strength and will that got us through. And her foresight and compassion that assured me a place after her death. If anything, her 'humanness' is the best part of me."
Sadly, we must leave our hearts to the mercy of those we care for to find meaning. A guarded heart knows no pain, but neither can it know love.
Rhia smiles to herself as she listens to her conmoanions' banter, holding herself at the ready for what may await behind the door.
you open the door
The room is dark and musty smelling,
a set of stairs descend deeper into the
earth.
Janos steps inside, moving carefully and letting his eyes quickly adjust to the new space. He keeps his ears focused on any sound of movement ahead of the group. He walks to the top of the stairs and looks down to the lower level.
As Janos contemplates the stairs, Rhia whispers an unearthly phrase as an eterherial silvery blue light radiates from her pendant.
Daniel renews the light on his sword and follows the ranger, allowing him space to sneak ahead.
Never liked books much myself either..
"You never totally get used to it, but after living in the swamp these past years, there's a certain comfort to the damp smell. I hate to say the rotting smell is comforting, but it is in its own way."
If Janos doesn't see anything alerting from the top of the stairs, he slowly makes his way down to the bottom.
as you walk you farther in you reach a dead end with a stone sarcophagus.
Daniel looks around, perplexed.
Well, now what? It appears pretty empty but maybe something is hidden...
Not seeing anything else, Janos walks up to the sarcophagus. He wipes away some of the dust and tries to make out any features or writing on the stone. "Maybe this will tell us something?"
Find anything?
"Hand prints in the dust. Here and here too." Janos points to the top of the sarcophagus. "Someone's been here recently."
Having them pointed out, Daniel looks, Perhaps it has been opened recently? Shall we look inside?
Daniel renews his light and stands feet apart , ready to thrust his sword into any creature inside.
"Fine. Mat, come help me lift the lid. Daniel can stand ready with that pig-sticker he has. Rhia, stand by to help too if we foolishly waking a spirit."
When Mat is in place, Janos counts to three, and they lift the lid.
you open it and find;
a dozen silver arrows,
four sun rods,
six flasks of holy water,
10 +1 arrows,
five +1 ghost touch arrows,
two +1 undead bane arrows,
five potions of cure light wounds,
two potions of lesser restoration,
a scroll of detect undead,
two scrolls of hide from undead,
a scroll of protection from evil,
and a thin darkwood case decorated with an image of a scarab
with a single eye glaring from its back—the same design
that appears on the cover of the Manual of the Order of the
Palatine Eye among the books in the professor’s collection.
"Storms of Gozreh! Look at all this? And the Church doesn't know this is here?" Janos reaches in and runs his hand over several of the items, particularly the many arrows. He stops as his hand reached the darkwood case. "What is this? Isn't think the same design on the Professor's book?"
Well, this is certainly all things we could use. Particularly Janos if you're any good with a bow. But this has significant value. We'll have to show the good father and hope for his blessing to use it. We'll need to examine the book back at the professors.
with a brass planchette, and four iron and glass vials
containing tiny, churning clouds of vapor. The vials sit
in velvet-lined indentations to the left of the spirit board
and planchette, along with six empty indentions.
Janos picks up the case but is interrupted by Daniel's comment. "I can shoot an arrow and hit the target. I'm not a great shot, but I should be able to get the job done."
He looks back down at the case. "Perhaps we shouldn't open this yet. The book at the Professor's was locked, and he did warn of the contents. If this is connected to the book, maybe it's best if we figure out what that connection is first." He does closely examine the scarab design.
If that is all, then we should be getting back to the church and then home.
"Right. Hey maybe Father Grimburrow knows what this symbol is. The professor did say this was stashed by Pharasmites long ago."
" It would appear that someone spent quite a bit of time preparing to battle the undead."