(Part 3) The Abbey on Guardian

[Custom_Hobby]

If now one has already done so, Aurum checks the body of the dead man in the kitchen for clues or anything that might help the party. If someone has already then he does the same for the dead monk in the garden.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

The body in the kitchen has already been examined. All they could tell was that death probably occurred within the last 48 hours (and given that this morning's breakfast's still in the pot it was probably more recent than that). This second body also bears no signs to indicate how he may have perished.

The picture I posted was not a picture of the dead monk in the garden (as his description sates that he is quite young, in his late teens) but it was on the same page and I was going to post it the first time you discovered a dead monk anyway :p.

I'm not sure if that's this morning's breakfast from a few hours ago or the previous day's. I'd need to check some notes for that but I think it's from this very morning, an hour or so before you lot got off the ship.

Ahah, found it. That's not this morning's breakfast. It's last night's dinner.

[Custom_Hobby]

After examining the bodies Aurum goes off after Ivor and Raul grumbling "why do they keep going off alone?"

[Balgin Stondraeg]

The three head out into the cloistered walk and explore it a bit. After a minute or two Ivor's spell wears off, his eyes grow tired and he must remove the crystal lens through which he looks and place it in it's oily casing. It's smoked up and it needs a propper mechanical clean before he can use it again.

They observe the small porchlike walkway to an adjacent building constructed of wattle and daub. Around the corner they come across a large pair of iron gates through which they can see a set of stairs leading straight down, clearly to some kind of cellar. These gates also sport a rather substantial looking lock.

Okay guys, the orangey yellow blobs by the walls are lanterns. The grey blobs in the middle of the cloistered walk are pillars supporting the roof. Now where there's a lock there's usualy a key or two so one of the monks has probably got it. SO before you panic and start smashing doors and batterring locks it might be worth looking for the easy way, especialy if there's still some monks left alive who might be scared rubbish*less at the sound of someone kicking in the doors they're hiding behind :p.

The map shall be updated as you guys explore it. Currently it's a view from the doors although if people head in you'll get a much better view of the refectory. That's a spiral staircase at the far end of the corridor in the bend there. It leads up.

The full map, or sections of it, will go in the player handouts thread. The temporary version shall be kept here, moving to whichever post it suitably belong in as stuff happens.

No prizs for geussing what the chalk outlines on the floorplan are guys :).

[Custom_Hobby]

Aurum Looks around for a second and concentrates trying to block out the noise his companies are making to see if he can hear anything. "Guys if there is a lock maybe the key is somewhere inside, lets go back in and finish searching to see if we can find it."


OOC: Listen and spot checks.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

OOC: Listen and spot checks.

Listen and spot are mostly passive so I'll be doing them all the time anyway when they're needed :p. Search is mostly active so that's the one you'd need to tell me about :).

Search is finding things. Listen & spot are noticing things.

[Custom_Hobby]

OOC: Sounds good, most DM's I played with you had to specifically state it

[Mr Teufel]

Kiaphas has his scimitar drawn, and is standing warily, guarding Naedath. That's what we're here for, to keep this guy safe. So that's what he's doing.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

Okay then. You guys have searched all of the ground floor of this building that you're going to get to without removing a few obstacles so where do you fancy going next and what would you like to do?

[Custom_Hobby]

OOC: Both doors that lead into the blacked out area are locked?

Aurum gets tired of locked doors and says "I'm going upstairs, anyone coming with me?"

[Rod the Worm]

"If the esteemed mage will come upstairs, I shall too." Rogan replies.  "I wouldn't want Kiaphas to be left to guard him alone though."
He also takes out his morning star, keeping a finger around the end of the chain to stop the ball swinging free while unwanted.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

"Well," mutters the sage, "if there's no-one downstairs then maybe upstairs is worth a peek." He fingers his beard and raises his walking staff, preparatory to hauling himself upright.

I'll update this post in a few hours' time with some upstairs stuff.

[Alex]

Ivor follows the rest of the group, concentrating more on cleaning his lenses than on the world around him. He catches his foot on a step, but being used to tripping over his feet he catches his balance almost unconsciously as he goes.

[Balgin Stondraeg]

At the top of the stairs the group finds themselves at the corner of a narrow corridor. A pair of large wooden chests featuring intricate recurring carvings grace the landing. To the left a hurriedly drawn curtain seals off another room (although anyone's welcome to draw it aside).

To the right the corridor narrows drasticaly as it passes a number of small doors placed so closely together that they cannot lead to very large rooms. After about twenty feet the corridor meets a wider hallway. However, clearly visible around the corner are the head and shoulders of another monk. His face cannot be made out too clearly at this distance but he clearly fell on his back, his arms flying out in disarray as he landed.

[Custom_Hobby]

Aurum uses his axe to draw back the curtain to see inside the room. He keeps his shield in a readied position while thinking about his breath weapon just in case.