Judoc holds his light high, stepping off the bottom of the stairwell and starting his way around the the edge of the room, looking at the shelves and barrels that sit at various intervals.

Judoc picks the first barrel he comes by, inspecting it closely, though there seems to be little really of note.  The wood is old and dried out, softened by rot and there are wide gaps between each of the boards of the barrels, the iron rings which had formerly bound it are rusted through in places and hang loose around the wood elsewhere.  A thin, red stain trickles down from a bung hole at the mouth of the barrel, though whatever was in it has obviously emptied long ago.

Judoc turns as he hears the sound of footsteps echoing from above and he sees Magnus, then Rondald descending the stairs behind him.

"Thought we were going to clear the surface first?"  Gustav says from the room above, his voice echoing in the stale, underground air.

Judoc turns his light towards the corner of the room, where the corridor slopes downward, into the earth, illuminating the passage as much as he can without stepping downward.  The corridor is not long, it perhaps only goes twenty feet or so before turning on to the left and out of view.

OOC:  After a light inspection, it appears here that there is little or nothing of value.  The small bits of woven sack left on the shelves dry rot and crumble upon touch and all of the barrels seem to been emptied and become unusable long ago.
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:05, Wed 20 Nov 2019.

Taking a few minutes to survey the contents of the room, Judoc is disappointed to find nothing of interest. This place was abandoned long ago, and anything of value would likely be hidden away behind a locked door or in a hidden compartment somewhere.

He looks up to see some of the others joining him. At Gustav's question, Judoc calls up, "Certainly. I'm just checking out this cellar, that's all. There's a corridor leading out from here that's worth investigating. It may connect to some other basement somewhere or go somewhere more interesting, but we can come back to explore it later."

His brief search complete, the mage ascends the stairs to the first floor of the ruined structure.

OOC: It's not a good idea to split up right now, and we can come back and explore this corridor later.

Magnus did not have time to do much of anything except to find some space to turn around in order to follow Judoc back up the staircase.