Sailors on the Starless Sea

[GlassEye]

There are no others doors aside from the large, main doors. And while the glimpse of the demonic toad fountain piques Alaric's interest he isn't aware of any magical being that it might represent. Discovering anything about the corpses or anything else about the room will require more than just peering in through a partially open door.

[sblock=OOC]Skill check for Alaric: Alaric (1d10+2=8) Failed.
Skill check for Kurl: Kurl (1d20=3) Failed.[/sblock]

 

[doghead]

Narančasta, Siva

Narančasta surveys the room from the door, looking for any signs of weapons or armour.

If he sees any, he points them out to Alaric before motioning a couple of the more capable fighters to join them at the doors. When everyone is ready, Narančasta leads them in though the doors, moving slowly and keeping a careful watch, in one hand his sword, in the other the vial of holy water. Before he starts collecting anything, he wants to be sure there are not going to be any surprises.

If there is no sign of weapons or armour, for a moment Narančasta considers shutting the doors and leaving the room until a priest can be brought in to lay the dead to rest properly. But they need to be sure ... So he motions to a couple of the more capable fighters to join them at the doors ...

Siva shifts smoothly into a position behind the fighters where she can cover (most of) the room, without impeding the way out, should they need to make a hasty exit.

 

[GlassEye]

When Narančasta (and anyone else who enters) steps inside the chapel he immediately hears the crackling of cinders and feels the heat of the blackened earth beneath his feet. It is unsettling but after a moment you realize that the illusion or hallucination or whatever it is poses no threat to your well being.

A look at the corpses reveals that one or more might be wearing armor but with the entirety of the room blackened by ash it is hard to tell without a closer examination.

 

[Deuce Traveler]

Tender walks in, telling Boral out loud, "You may want to stay outside, friend. I doubt your cow is going to do much good in here."

Happy walks over to some of the corpses and kneels down near one, saying, "It looks as if some of these folks may have been armed when this happened. Curiouser and curiouser." He tries to tell whether or not the bodies are indeed armored and armed, and with the types of applicable equipment.

Kurl adds, "Finally we may find something that may be of use to me... err... us." He steps closer, but cautiously, to the toad fountain. "This should prove an interesting puzzle. Why would a normal bunch of folks erect such an odd monument, I wonder."

A cow bell can be heard close behind. "I don't know, and I don't care. All I know is that there is no way Betsy and I are going to wait alone outside after what we've seen," Boral says with his cow in tow.

 

[doghead]

Narančasta

When Narančasta (and anyone else who enters) steps inside the chapel he immediately hears the crackling of cinders and feels the heat of the blackened earth beneath his feet. It is unsettling but after a moment you realize that the illusion or hallucination or whatever it is poses no threat to your well being.

A look at the corpses reveals that one or more might be wearing armor but with the entirety of the room blackened by ash it is hard to tell without a closer examination.

Narančasta moves cautiously around the edge of the room, checking more closely for any weapons or armour. The sensation of heat rising from the cinders is unsettling.

"Let us gather what we can, and then be gone," he says needlessly.

Despite the grim surroundings, or perhaps because of them, the sight of Boral leading Betsy into the room evokes a nervous snort of amusement (or is it bemusement?).

 

[Dogmatron]

Sorry for the absence...RL had me in a headlock for awhile, but I manage to finally evade the grapple...

Brom, Geoffrey, and Fendrik will follow the others into the room to help search the bodies. Geoffrey gags at the smell of burnt flesh but manages to keep his breakfast down, for now. They will all steer clear of the idol and the black goo.

'I don't think it was 'normal' folk that erected anything about this place, " replied Fendrik to Kurl, running his hand gentle through is new waving locks.

 

[fireinthedust]

Alaric thinks out loud. "Perhaps they were worshipping that idol and then were locked in here by some religious zealots, burned alive. I'd guess that whoever did this thought they were truly evil... probably some demon idol of frogs, then, or else a nature deity of swamps?"

Alaric goes to have a look at the frog idol and the slime, looking around the statue for secret compartments and the like. He reaches down and takes a sharp of debris, and dips it in the ichor to have a look at the consistency, the smell, etc.

Borok, Dudles and Xim follow him, looking at the bodies as they go.

"If these are behind the death of my cousin, their spirits haunting this place... I hope it was a horrible death for them!" The halfling curses.

Borok and Dudles make warding signs on themselves.

"Ock, lad, don't be so fast to curse. Evil deed, this, and evil things have happened here."

 

[Dogmatron]

"Aye, don't be so quick to speak ill of the dead," added Brom, "We don't know what happened here. These may be the bodies of innocent souls."

"Hopefully long departed souls, as innocent as they might be," mumbled Geoffrey as he searched one of the burnt bodies, still occasionaly gagging.

 

[fireinthedust]

Borok nods along with his brother dwarf's wisdom, though he understands Xim's anger with the fort.

Alaric shrugs thoughtfully. "Perhaps we'll live to find out. Yet I don't like the looks of this frog idol for goodness and innocence, and sacrifices of this sort usually happen in wicker cages and not burning down their own temple. It is a puzzle..."

OOC: I am looking forward to figuring this one out. If we get to the end I'll know, and if not I'll compare when I finally buy this module! Great game so far, btw, though between this and the goodman-games funnel, I'll be glad when I have only one character to watch out for! (the others happily retired back to town, safe and sound, of course!)

 

[GlassEye]

Happy discovers that the bones of the charred skeleton are hot to the touch. However, it is clad in a scorched chainmail hauberk and grasps a blackened mace in its bony hand. And while it may be disconcerting to touch the bones Happy finds that he can do so without getting burnt and without the bones standing up and trying to brain him with its mace.

The others searching the main room make the same discovery concerning the bones strangely retaining heat of the fires that destroyed them. Again, it is more unnerving than anything else and the others searching manage to find two more suits of chainmail hauberks, two more maces blackened by fire, and a flail.

Clutched in the hands of one of the unarmored skeletons Zim finds a censer blackened by fire, ash, and smoke. As he untangles the chain from finger bones he brushes against the censer and rubs off some of the ash. The censer glints of gold and looks like it might fetch a good price.

Brom is moving through the debris of the chapel and nearly stumbles over a blackened iron coffer, half-buried in the rubble.

As Kurl approaches the grotesque toad fountain he sees that it has red gemstone eyes and jeweled fangs within its loathsome maw. The heat seems to be a little more intense as he approaches the fountain. Alaric, moving with less caution towards the fountain than Kurl, also sees the gemstones and feels the increased heat as he moves up closer. As he steps up to search around the fountain for hidden things the black, tarry ichor drips out of the basin and flows up into a mass that stands half the height of a man and looms threateningly towards the squire. Embers seem to flicker and fade throughout the flow of the ooze and a pseudopod begins to stretch out from the main mass towards Alaric...

[sblock=OOC]Hey, a nice round of productive posting today!
If you choose to attack, the group has initiative. I'll resolve in the order that you all post.

Stuff found so far:
3x chainmail hauberk
3x mace
1x flail
1x iron coffer
1x golden censer
?x gems on the toad fountain[/sblock]