Chapter V. Bugging Out

General Summary

Helvella puts the lantern on her walking stick. Three small copper pots through the magical portal. It appears to be a laboratory inside. Jars of powders, chemical apparatus, l shaped table + bench. Shine with the warmth of pure gold, including a human skull (20gp). Golden apple (5gp). Golden rose (5gp). Five small golden discs (5gp). Open book, candlestick stub (unlit). The book is Ye Secret of Ye Philosopher’s Stone. Too profound and recondite to be fully understood, general subject matter can be deduced with lengthy study. Small stacks of 47 gold coins. Lily starts looking for hidden stuff, finds a concealed drawer. Inside is another spell book containing dancing lights comprehend languages shatter and tenser’s floating disk.   Short rest, Ollin keeps watch. Axel identifies while everyone else rests, then rests after. The stone is cool to the touch. It gives you advantage on 1 ability check per dawn. The bag is a bag of holding.   Kvaethi: I know I’ve offended you in our first meeting. To feel fear like that is shameful. But maybe this tale can make it up. Have any of you heard The Gorebeards trace their lineage back to the elven Queen and the human warrior. Many of his feats have been lost to time. I’ve been trying to record them in common from the old elvish, my life’s work for the past five years. A man may have one foe and triumph against them, but with so many, he’s fucked, eh?   We go back up the ladder, and back towards the center of the house, then north. Left first. Lily and Ollin listen at the door, hear nothing. We check the door on the left of the hallway, a long table, broken, broken table, and broken dishes in what used to be a dining room. Roaches scuttle from the table when Axel lifts part of it to check for hidden stuff. We move on to the other side. Lily and Ollin listen again. Two stuffed armchairs with stuffing pulled out, broken table, another fireplace. Lily helps Kvaethi check the fireplace for hidden items. A stone out of place on the chimney. A collection of mouse bones in the hearth.   “Bones. Bones.” -Kvaethi   Ollin sneaks to grab the stone out of the chimney. He almost drops it, but catches it. There’s a hidden compartment inside the brick, with a box and two small pouches inside. He hears skittering and a swarm of spiders comes out of the chimney and attacks him. We’re surprised.   “I found something. Oops…” -O   They swarm Olin’s body and bite the shit out of him. He drops unconscious. Axel pushes past everyone and throws a fire bolt on the spiders out of his gauntlet, then backs up. Kvaethi yells you many legged vile little mongrels, you take on little mice and the smallest of us! Both axelkahn and Kvaethi run away after attacking. Lily casts sacred flame on them. Kadias starts stomping with his warpick.   This isn’t working! -Kadias   Helvella misses with Eldritch Blast. Cailín blows the spiders off Ollin with Gust. They climb up onto Kadias.   Leave that wee fella alone! -C   Axel casts firebolt on the spiders. Kvaethi these puny creatures…there’s even less of you now…Lily casts sacred flame again, but Kadias’ armor protects them. Kadias strikes a torch and tries to burn them on himself, but he can’t quite get them. Helvella misses with Eldritch blast,   “Sorry Kadias” -C she tries to hit with Shillelagh, but closes her eyes when she swings and misses. The spiders miss Kadias again. Axel blasts them with fire and gets the last of it.   Lily heals him, Kadias lays on hand for one hp.   “Those spiders were scary.” -Kadias   A spectral feather traces his wound from Kadias. Water from Lily. Ollin has no more wounds but still feels the spiders crawling him.   30 cp and 2 small pouches of alchemical powder (5gp) in the box   “There were more spiders than copper.” -Ollin   2’10   Door swinging in wind, another outdoor entrance. Lily listens at the last door. Dirty and damp kitchen. Iron cooking equipment, sink, cupboard. More stairs from west to east.   Kvaethi throws the cupboard open. He hears a rattling from the sink. The whole sink is rattling like a poltergeist. The drain plug pops off, then 4 dog-sized giant centipedes emerge from the drain.   The first two centipedes attack Kvaethi. He gets poisoned by one. He goes down. His body convulses and seizes up.   Lily attacked one with her quarterstaff.   Another attacks Ollin. Axel shoots firebolt at the same one Lily attacked, killing it. Ollin sneak attacks the one that is attacking Lily, killing it. Kadias runs up and attacks the one that knocked Kvaethi out, pinning it through the head, then throws it behind him. Helvella kills the remaining one with Eldritch Blast. Kadias goes up to Kvaethi and lays on hand. A glowing albatross wraps its wings around him and neutralizes the paralyzing poison, then heals him a little bit.   Axel checks the room and finds the humanoid tracks again that go into a door to the East. Lily and Ollin listen at the door but don’t hear anything. Lily, step back. Axel opens the door after putting his huge hand on her face. Copper cask, split discolored and empty. The scullery. Stairs lead down to presumably the cellar. The footprints go down the stairs. We decide to go downstairs, thinking that our time to fuck around is running out.   Marching order: Axel, Lily, Kvaethi   Axel looks down the stairs, goes to take a step down, stair creaks, hears a wailing laugh. Kvaethi gets scared, reaches back and clangs against the metal.   Wine cellar, no intact bottles left. Two large metal storage bins near the edge of a door. A human corpse in plate mail, sword and shield in the center of the room. The tracks go to the south wall an stop abruptly. Helmet is closed, it stinks. Axel stops us and checks for traps to see if the guy died to that. He notices there are drag marks from the stairs to the body. Lily guides him. Axel goes up to investigate the body. In the gaps in the armor, he can see white color, the color of curdled milk in a pattern like it’s been squeezed out. Axel takes the longsword away from the corpse. Plate mail is banged up, but serviceable. Shield and sword are in good condition. Axel starts removing the armor, quickly finding that the body is swarming with rotgrubs, they emerge from the body as he disturbs it. They surprise us.   The grubs attack Axel—the first misses, the second hits him. He becomes infested by 3 rotgrubs. They bite his skin and burrow into his body.   “This is gonna hurt.” -O   Ollin tries to dagger the rotgrub out of Axel’s body. He gets one, then runs up one stair. The other ones are invigorated by his body weakening. He feels them burrowing through his chest burrowing closer and closer to his heart. Kvaethi gives him bardic inspiration.   You to survive this, you have to keep your heart strong! -Kvaethi   You vicious creatures of death! If death is what you want, death is what you’ll get. (Vicious mockery).   Axel disengages and runs back up the stairs. He lays out his tinker’s tools for the next turn. The grubs burrow into him and squeal, doing damage.   Cailín shoots them with guiding bolt from her Star Map. Lily runs after Axel, takes forceps from Axel’s tools, and casts healing word, then attempts to do what Ollin did but with the benefit of her medicine skill. She deftly gets one out.   Don’t do this. Don’t go further. -Lily   The grubs start crawling out of the armor toward the rest of us on the stairs. Helvella backs up and hexes them, then hits them with Eldritch Blast, using the advantage from guiding bolt. Hex looks like Spanish moss clinging to them.   Kadias backed halfway up the stairs and yells for everyone to get behind him, pulling out his shield. He casts shield of faith on himself. An albatross appears around his neck.   Ollin takes out his cutlass and swipes at the grubs, killing one of the swarms. Then he backs up and ducks under Kadias’ legs.   Vithr sang one final song. -Kvaethi   Discordant whispers. The grubs squirm away. Kvaethi squishes one as they run, then goes behind Kadias. Axel holds the hole in his chest open to give Lily better access. She can see its tail. Red sparks coming from his eyes and veins, muscles bulging. Cailín hits the retreating swarm with Shillelagh, then goes back behind Kadias.   Thank you friend. -A   The grubs come back toward us up the stairs. Helvella absolutely blasts them with a hexed eldritch blast, obliterating them as the eldritch blast chains through the vines   Rotgrubs are tiny beasts, occupy corpses and recently deceased. When a target is infested with rotgrubs, it acts like a disease and can be cured as such. When a creature loses consciousness with rotgrub infestation, they burrow into the heart and kill them.   I’m sorry for my shite surgeon skills. I didn’t pay much attention to the surgeon master on the ship growing up. -Ollin   That’s alright. Good thing we have a good surgeon. -Axel   Lily finds the secret revolving door. Under the corpse is an adventurer’s pack. The armor is dented with club marks. The bottle racks in the wine cellar has one last full bottle that’s been rolled under the rack. It features a jauntily dressed unicorn. A rare vintage worth 50gp to the right buyer.   Lily listens at the secret door, hears nothing. Kadias pushes the door open. Beyond is the dormitory. The torches that were burning in here earlier are now snuffed, so now the room is dark. Kadias closes the door.   “We did our mission, we found out what’s going on here, let’s get out of here and get our money.” -Axehlkan   Ollin argues to steal everything here as soon as possible. We go upstairs, the stairs are not good, but useable. Only the lowest six steps are useable on the next staircase that goes up to the third floor. We decide to sneak around the next couple of rooms.   We look around the room for an exit or for tracks and we find drag marks that lead to the west edge of the room to the southwest corner of the room beyond the beds. The wall gives, he’s able to push open a secret door that leads to a rocky cavernous hallway. We begin to descend into the network of tunnels where presumably the cavern to the sea dwells…echoing lap of the caves below.