Phar straightens his cloak and gives a modest, if slightly embarrassed bow.
"I apologize. The spell is new and, perhaps, more effective than I'd calculated.....The room is clear. After you."
Caerth smiles at Phar and moves to lead the way inside the ruined room. Phar's spell blew out much of the room's western and eastern walls but the entire northern wall is still intact. The door's frame still looks sound but part of the southern wall next to it lies in rubble. The half-orc druid goes to where the swarm had been hiding and says a short prayer over the dead rats lying in the corner. He beseeches the unnamed Goddess of Nature worshipped by Strateous the Hermit to take the rats into her embrace. It felt weird for him to invoke a deity, but it seemed appropriate for this place.
"Oversized mice? I think we are all just a little jumpy here. Nice effect, regardless."
Aureus laughs.
Quinn strides into the room and looks around. There isn't much left.
Aureus flies into the room and looks around. She ascends to the ceiling and inspects the room's roof.
"I don't think it will fall on us." She looks around the room and notes a wooden chest in the southwest corner. It is completely ruined. It did not survive Phar's spell. She clears away the broken wood and finds that there are coins scattered on the floor and embedded into the wall. Many of them have been cracked by the power of Phar's magic.
"We might be able to salvage some of these coins," she says. She tries to pry a gold piece out of the wall.
"We'll have to melt down the others, I think."
She takes one of the intact silvers off the floor and cleans it off.
"Hmm, these don't look as old as the ones in The Hermit's room."
She hands a few to Quinn and to Maur. The coins are, indeed, different than the others. Aureus continues to dig through the rubble by the chest.
Caerth doesn't wait for Aureus to finish. He steps through the broken wall into the room just west of it. He is forced to step over tons of stone rubble and two broken tables. One looks like it was broken some time ago while the other was blasted apart by Phar's spell. The magical sound also ruined an old shelf. There are three other intact shelves but none of them have books on them.
Caerth whistles for Screech. The owl is soon perched on his shoulder.
"Search... carefully," he says to the owl.
"And hunt." Screech hoots and then wings away deeper into the ruin.
Aureus finds a single gem embedded into the wall. A nice looking peridot. It isn't damaged. She also two halves of a wand.
"Well, that's too bad."
"If they are only real threat here, we should be lucky. Let's find out where those ghouls came from and clear the eggs. Then we can rest and discuss. Those stinky things live in swamps? Or was it caves? Anyhow, this is desert so I guess there must be caves somewhere, right?"
Litrix looks over the bloody splotches in the room.
"The latrines stink anyway, everything here needs good airing. Or burying under the rubble."
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OOC:
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What's inside the room and what do we have unexplored?
@Knightfall craft is alchemy, a requirement for annointed knight, I'll specify it in RG
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"There is the cacti forest to the east," Aureus suggests.
"There could be more... what's the word you use," she ponders while looking at Phar.
"Verdant areas in that forest."
"Indeed there were more lush areas," Caerth says.
"I saw them from above while flying as a dire owl. Not scraggly trees but deep vales with verdant trees. There could also be a more boggy oasis somewhere nearby. Trogs also live underground." He waits until the others join him before moving on to the next room with the old fireplace. It is indeed intact. He notes that its chimney is quite solid. The room beyond could have been a kitchen. And the one he's standing in... an old pantry, perhaps? He notes the wooden door on the pantry's western wall.
"Aureus, there is a door here. But, we might be able to go around. There was an open corridor."
She nods and moves to the door. It isn't locked, but she's sure it is trapped She has no luck finding the trap.
"Let's go around, if we can. Whatever is on this door, I don't dare try to open it."
Angus makes his way around to the other side of the ruined temple to where Phar's spell has blow away the wall. There is now a large 10-foot hole where the wall used to be. It goes all the way up to the room's roof. He does not have to duck his head to peer inside the room.
