Legacy of the Silver Dragon: Chapter 1 (Chickens, Demons, and a Missing Girl)

[Voda Vosa]

The silent grumble from Muzim is the usual reply, after which he adds. "Boys in there are lookin' fer any hidden doors. Looks like Bosco found something. I can't stand inside, I'm too heavy and the floor structure might be compromised if more than two stand there. However Antares is quite light, he might be able to walk in. As far as it goes, I have not sensed any sort of magic enacting in these charred remains." replies the dwarf. An unusual amount of words coming from the ever silent priest.

 

[Binder Fred]

"From your sphere?" posits Antares with a somewhat forlorn look at the artifact in the dwarven cleric's hand. As usual, information on origin, nature and all else has been pitifully few and far between, the obsidian ball itself as undetectable and opaque to the young elf's magical senses as, say, its owner's mind to logic...

Stellan, on the other hand, couldn’t care less: "Erenie didn't want to talk too much about it, but this is where Anna was last seen, right? Something about falling and a white shape?" He seems in control, but at the same time positively eager to go in, looking this way and that beyond Muzdin form to what he can see of the interior, hand on his sword pommel. "HO, BOSCO, YOU IN THERE?"

<Response Muzdin and/or Bosco?>

 

[Voda Vosa]

"Yes.-" was all what the dwarf said, cryptic as usual, as he returns the sphere to his pocket.

 

[gambler1650]

At the burned down house

The trap door opens up easily enough, though the hinges squeak just a bit - nothing to alert anyone anywhere outside the house as it's much more quiet than the voices of those talking.

The stairs that lead down are solid wood, and because of the way they face (towards the other section of the house that is much less burned and charred, they seem to be pretty intact).

OOC: I'm going to attempt to scan some maps relatively soon to put on an image hosting site or some such... Keep forgetting I can do that. By relatively soon, it could still be awhile but preferably at least the house by next weekend! As a reminder of the layout... The front of the house faces a relatively quiet street, and Myst, Muzdim, Antares, and Stellan are all either inside the door or at the door. There are two walls with doors. The first is parallel to the street, directly in front of the door. The second runs from the front to the back of the house, the door set in the part of the wall on the front half of the house. The roof is caved in over the right hand side of the home, with debris scattered throughout that half, and part of the floors caved in there. In the back half of the house, where Bosco is, there's a trap door that leads to stairs that angle to the left of the house (as seen from the front door).

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Bosco winces at the loud idiots yelling into the house. He quietly hopes that, if there's something dangerous in here, it goes for them instead of him -- of course, since they've announced that he's now inside, that's probably a foolish hope.

Turning his hat around backwards to get the brim out of his eyes, Bosco gingerly puts a foot on each of the first few steps, making sure they'll hold his weight without setting off any traps or alarms. Once he's done that, he'll head back out and get everyone to be quiet.

 

[Binder Fred]

"He's not answering," frowns Stellan after a short pause. He breathes in for another shout: "HEY BOS-"

"No, in truth here he comes around the side," interrupts Antares with a touch of long fingers against Stellan's shoulder and a pointed hand. "And a pleasant morn to you as well, oh fair and reasonable company treasurer," he adds with an uncertain smile, noting the halfling's expression.

<Response Bosco?>

 

[Toric_Arthendain]

Sensing Bosco's frustration, Myst scowls at Stellan and Antares. "Shhhh!" the cleric hisses. "Maybe this place is abandoned of any life and silence or the lack thereof doesn't matter but if it isn't, there is no sense in warning any potential enemies that we are here," Myst says quietly. "Although it may be too late at this point," he adds.

The cleric then steps onto the stairs beneath the trapdoor and begins a careful descent.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

"Don't heal that one," Bosco mutters.

 

[Binder Fred]

Sensing Bosco's frustration, Myst scowls at Stellan and Antares. "Shhhh!" the cleric hisses. "Maybe this place is abandoned of any life and silence or the lack thereof doesn't matter but if it isn't, there is no sense in warning any potential enemies that we are here," Myst says quietly. "Although it may be too late at this point," he adds.

"Ah..." Antares looks from the creaking floor to the gaping holes on the leftward side, leading directly into the cellar... "It might have been too late some time ago, brother Myst... Unless they were sleeping very soundly?" He still manages to look somewhat apologetic about the whole matter though...

"Right?" agrees Stellan, utterly unrepentant. "So let's get down there before they can mount an ambush." He draws his sword and follows close behind the cleric, brown eyes excitedly scanning this way and that... He is somewhat disappointed when they are met mostly with gloom and ill-defined debris dimly lit from above <I assume?>.

"Don't heal that one," Bosco mutters.

Antares smiles, softly amused, "Shouldn't a treasurer think in the long term?"

He himself hangs back in the small back storage room for now, thoughtfully fingering charcoaled timber between thumb and forefingers... "Why did they not teardown and rebuild, do you think? Has it not already been a month and some days?"

<Response Muzdin and/or Bosco?>

Just then Stellan's head pops back out of the trapdoor: "Anybody think to bring a torch?"

<Response Any?>

<If nobody has anything better:
"I have a ceremonial candle?" It's fat, irregularly yellowed and smells strongly of bees and honey.

 

[gambler1650]

The cellar is, as is the case with many houses in the town, simply dirt with wooden boards laid on top. Under the holes in the floor above, the most debris is found - remains of large beams for the roof and floor boards. Enough light filters in from the first floor so that most of it is at least well lit enough for Stellan, Bosco, and Myst to see into all but the last few feet of the side wall opposite the stairs. Muzdim (if he has come down also), and Antares can see the entire basement, and they see some storage barrels lined up against the back wall.

OOC: Stellan has torches, and lights one, for the rest of the group unless someone else wants to.

Uncommon, but not unheard of in Ascadar, there's a well bored directly in the basement's earth, about five feet in front of the stairs, ringed with stone walls about 3 feet high. Water had been found on digging an exploratory well early in the town's history, so many home owners used their mining skills to seek it themselves. Most of the town now draws from the three deep wells located in the north, southwest and southeast portions of Ascadar, but some of the houses retain the legacy wells although many have dried up completely.

This well has a wooden cover on top of it. The cover is relatively new looking from the stairs at least.

OOC: Actions?