Sailors on the Starless Sea

[doghead]

Narančasta, Siva

The Burnt Ruin: This once-proud edifice has fallen into ruin like the rest of the keep. All that remains of the building are high, fire-scarred stone walls and toad-faced gargoyles leering from above. The singed, bronze doors – cast with hundreds of wailing demonic faces – are barred from the outside. The portal is marked with a single word drawn in flaking red paint: REPENT.

Happy that no more halflings are throw themselves down the well, Narančasta takes the opportunity to look over the burnt ruin more carefully. It doesn't look promising. Barred from the outside? He checks the walls to see if they are all intact, to see if the building, perhaps once meant as a prison is still secure.

Siva keeps an eye on the leering gargoyle as Narančasta moves round the building.

 

[doghead]

Siva

Xim: The halfling collapses on his knees in the dust, and only now speaks, not looking at anyone. "Her name was Zim," he growls. "You said it wrong. Mine is Xim, meaning crooked. Her name was Zim. Like the flower."

Siva give the halfling an puzzled look. She is pretty sure that he said his name was Xim and it was Zim who died. Siva is pretty sure that it is the other way around. Perhaps she just heard wrong?

 

[GlassEye]

Narančasta's examination of the burnt building leads him to believe that it was not a prison. If nothing else the carvings on the door indicate it had some other purpose, something more important and, quite likely, sinister. It appears that the blocked doors can be easily unblocked should the group want to do so.

 

[doghead]

Narančasta

Narančasta steps up to the door and bangs on it with the pommel of his sword. Then he listens for any response.

OOC: I was more concerned to determine whether, if something had been secured in the building, would it still be in there?

 

[GlassEye]

There is no response when the noble pounds on the door. He is beginning to suspect that the door was blocked from the outside while people or whatever dark creatures inhabited the keep were still inside and then the building set on fire. Considering that the roof has burnt and collapsed it is unlikely that anything managed to live through that inferno.

 

[fireinthedust]

Alaric follows Narancasta.

"Let us check out the other building before we open this door. Yet I have no doubt that this will reveal our way for us."

 

[doghead]

Narančasta, Siva.

"Let us check out the other building before we open this door. Yet I have no doubt that this will reveal our way for us."

Narančasta nods slowly in agreement. Personally he would rather leave the burnt building be. But the consensus seems to be to take a look. He glances over to Siva, who nods, and moves into a position from where she can cover the door and those in front of it.

"Right, Aleric, Happy, Brom with me," he says stepping up to the door. "If anything tries to come out, we shut the doors right back in their faces.

Once everyone is assembled, Narančasta will remove the bar carefully. Then he will crack the door open slightly and listen for anything inside.

[sblock=fireinthedust]Narančasta was investigating the burnt building (E on the map), not the tower (H on the map)[/sblock]

 

[fireinthedust]

ooc: Wait, I just re-read the text, noticed this is the burned-out building. Sorry! Heh, I have a feeling Alaric's going to be wrong about this one. Sigh.


IC: Alaric, Borok and Xim move to help Narancasta, Dudles following with his sack of carried goods.

 

[GlassEye]

It is a simple matter to remove the beams holding the portal closed and use the enormous bronze rings to pull the doors slightly open. Narančasta listens but hears no movement or any other sound from the interior of the building. From their position those at the door can clearly see the interior of what was obviously once a chapel: six charred skeletons lie about the chapel, some crushed by burnt fallen beams. At the head of the chapel is a fountain depicting a squat, demonic toad. A foul, black ichor seeps from the toad's broad lips, pooling in the basin seated at the foot of the fountain. Though the destruction occurred decades ago, there is still a stench of charred flesh that lingers in the air along with the sour scent of burnt incense.

 

[fireinthedust]

Alaric looks inside at the burnt room. He scans the room for other doors, bery quickly, then looks over the remains, and especially at the demon toad fountain.

OOC: Who is this idol depicting? Can I guess based on what I know from the DCC RPG book of patrons who I think this is, and since Alaric is interested in that subject matter, that it would be his guess as well?