The rattle of chains echoes again from somewhere in the darkness to the east, but the noise is more distant than the first time the adventurers perceived it. A moment passes and then there is a faraway thoom, the echoing report of a heavy door slamming closed.

After this, the explorers hear only silence.

"Not behind the second door," Barnabas observes. "Let's see what's behind the second door."

"Something walks these corridors...and it is well-mannered enough to close doors behind itself."

The ranger continues to watch down the eastern corridor, allowing Ishmael the time needed to examine the door.

As with the neighboring door, Ishmael finds no evidence of any manner of trap.

Pushing the door open, the adventurers see that the room beyond is precisely the same dimensions of the previous chamber they explored: a square stone room, twenty by twenty feet. The walls are bare of any form of markings or adornment and the floor is littered with debris: fragments of pottery, glass, and bone. In the center off the southern wall is another door, which is closed. The top right corner of the door has splintered away, leaving a hole, beyond which only darkness can be seen.

Near the center of the floor is a large leather sack, held closed with a tightly tied cord. A skeletal hand still grasps the top of the sack, but the remaining bones of whoever once carried it are nowhere to be seen. Milling around the sack are almost a dozen huge rats, each one the size of a hunting hound, their grimy fur almost obsidian in color. As the door swings open, the large rodents halt their foraging, all of them regarding the newly arrived adventurers with dark red eyes.

There are eleven giant rats in total. Each rat has an armor class of 7.

09:24, Today: Labyrinth Lord rolled 7 using 1d6+1.  Initiative - Party.

09:25, Today: Labyrinth Lord rolled 3 using 1d6.  Initiative - Giant Rats.

The adventurers win initiative and may act before the starving rodents.

Too small a space for so many rats. They twine about themselves in an unseemly manner. Perhaps, they would have done so anyway.

Barnabas, in the vanguard, advances into the room and crashes the spiked head of his flail into the fleshy, twisty mass.

B. hits 1 rat for 6 dmg
19:22, Today: Barnabus rolled 19,6 using d20+2,d6+2.  melee attack rat.

Ishmael loses a dart from somewhere on his person. He targets one of the rats on the outskirts to avoid anytime rushing into melee.

20:49, Today: Ishmael rolled 21,3 using1d20+2,1d4.

Hits for 3

This message was last edited by the GM at 16:51, Fri 26 Nov 2021.

Dax turns from the hallway at the sound of the door opening. He brings his sword to bear at the sudden cacophony of battle. Stepping into the room, he takes a position near Barnabus and slashes at the nearest rodent of unusual size.

---

Dax Moonblade rolled 19 with his Two-Hander hitting AC 0 for 6 damage.

The young knight stepped to the fore, brandishing his sword bravely. This is what he was here for, to protect his companions from the evils of this cursed place! He'd been looking forward to a triumphant first battle, one in which he could prove his mettle to his companions and glorify his God!

But a swarm of rats is not the easiest of foes to engage with...

Sir Dryvyk was about to fillet one of the vicious little rodents, but felt his sword dig into the door frame, sending a jolt of pain through his shoulder!

Sir Dryvyk of Drakeholme rolled 2 to hit miss (Natural 1),for 8 damage using d20+1,d8+1 ((1,7)). First roll of the game. Yeah, that's about my luck. It's going to another one of THOSE games huh? Wonderful.

With there being so many of them, Gwendolyn fires off a shot at the nearest living rat she can see, easily striking it in its center mass.

[Gwendolyn's arrow strikes AC-5 for 4 damage]
This message was last edited by the player at 00:59, Fri 26 Nov 2021.

Malivoire saw that his companions were landing blows on the huge vermin swarming about the room, but there were a rather large number.  Concerned they might swarm and overwhelm one or more members of the group the elven mage called upon his powers to hopefully lessen the threat. With a sonorous tone and a toss of glittering sand into the air, Malivoire let loose his magic.


OOC:

Cast Sleep. Affects 7HD worth of creatures.
14:46, Today: Malivoire rolled 7 using 2d8.  Sleep spell - HD Impact.

[Posted by Labyrinth Lord]

Grugar moves alongside several of his fellow adventurers into the fray, spearing one of the rodents with a quick stab of his blade.

11:17, Today: Labyrinth Lord, on behalf of Grugar, rolled 14 using 1d20+1.  Attack - Long Sword.

11:17, Today: Labyrinth Lord, on behalf of Grugar, rolled 8 using 1d8+1.  Damage.

Five of the large rats are slain as the adventurers rush into the room, some by crushing blows from weapons, others by well placed missiles. For a moment, the cacophony of battle overtakes the quiet of the catacombs.

Before the vermin can retaliate, Malivoire intones his spell, the sand that the spellcaster throws sprinkling the surviving rodents. In an instant, the rats are succumbing to sleep, their red eyes closing, their grime encrusted forms becoming still, save for their heavy breathing.

OOC: Combat over.

11:56, Today: Labyrinth Lord rolled 15 using 4d4.  Sleep Spell Duration.

The giant rats will remain asleep for 15 turns.

Observing the sleeping sextet of rats and listening to its stentorious breathing, Barnabus gives a meaningful look to Ishmael, its meaning punctuated by an admonitory waggling of the man's fingers.

"Don't want them spreading any tales, do we?"

He look towards the southern door, the one with its own aperture at the top right corner. That's the way he would go after someone collects the sack.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:39, Sun 28 Nov 2021.

"Well done, Mailvoire!" Dax gives a nod to his friend for stopping the fight before any of the group was hurt.

The ranger then begins beheading the sleeping rats to ensure they do not pose a threat when the spell wears off.

"The gnawed corner on that door means the rats had access to the room or passage on the other side. Or there might be more of them..."

Once the last sleeping rat is dead, Dax gingerly pries apart the skeletal fingers, picks up the sack, and examines its contents.

As he does so, he says, "Can someone take a peek through the hole in the door before we swing it open?"

[Edit: making sure the sack gets picked up before we move on.]
This message was last edited by the player at 01:39, Wed 01 Dec 2021.

Malivoire grinned a little as his magic successfully ended the threat.  He proudly accepted Dax's congratulations and then moved forward to peer alongside the ranger while Dax examined the sack.  It was tightly sealed even after all that time (based on the bony hand), which Malivoire felt must signify some contents of importance.

The dwarf looks back at the cleric strangely, usually unsure what the addled man is talking about, and this moment finds it no different.  "Rats doan talk." He says, before helping the ranger dispatch the rats.  He glances up at the door, letting someone taller take a peek.

Gwendolyn keeps her bow at the ready, listening to the environment and looking about attentively as she does, while the others work out the next concerns.

Removing the bony hand from the sack, Dax opens it to see that it is filled with a large number of silver coins.

OOC: 123 silver pieces, to be precise.

Peering through the southern door’s broken corner, Barnabus can see that the chamber beyond is roughly thirty feet by thirty feet. The priest does not spy any occupants, nor does he observe any movement within the room.

Opening the door, the adventurers see that a hallway branches away from the chamber, leading eastward into shadow.

Just as Barnabus had seen, the chamber is empty, save for several pieces of pottery lined against the eastern and western walls. A few of the containers are broken or overturned, but several are intact. Although fashioned from clay, the pots have been painted in varying patterns of black and white.

There is a door in the southwestern corner of the chamber. The dark wood it is built from has been reinforced with iron bands. Another door is situated on the eastern wall, close to the southeastern corner. It is fashioned from stone and bears a well rendered etching of a kneeling warrior, a sheathed sword lying on the ground before him. Both doors are closed.

On the northern wall, a few feet left of the portal the adventurers entered from is another door. The group quickly surmises that it is the exit from the first room they explored, the vacant chamber with the skeleton hanging on the wall.

After the greedy counting's been completed, Barnabus cheerily repeats the tally three times, "One two three, one two three, one two three."

He takes a peek into the intact urns, surmising they will contain naught but ashes. If so, he will transfer the contents of one into the other until he has verified there is nothing hidden within.

Unwilling to turn his back on the southwestern door, he faces it, sure that one of the party will understand his intent.

Dax drops the sack into his pack, before stepping into the off-square room. He takes a position watching the corridor leading east.

"Barnabus, Mazzahs said he would be pay for pottery that might provide history of this place...and more if they have to do with the the dead. You think those urns might qualify?"

As Lampert's light brightens the room, Dax says, "Stone door, first?"

Sir Dryvyk approached the stone door and examined the kneeling knight and the sword. He wasn't particularly learned, but something about the etching seemed to draw his interest.

"I'm ready when you are," he said quietly to Ishmael.

A professional matter requires a professional reply, something even Barnabas can muster on occasion.

"If they're burial urns, then, yes, they would be part of a funerary practice, albeit one more prosaic than our employer has in mind. It's the other ... funerary practices ... that interest him -- how keenly I can readily imagine. I worry about what might still live within the unbroken ones -- rot grubs, for example. They are also the sort of place an undertaker's apprentice might secret a key to the larder for his personal use."

Grasping one of them, he finishes, "Who would be mad enough to dig his hands around in one of these, after all?"

Malivoire went to stand beside Sir Dryvyk and examine the stone door.  He looked for any signs of writing to accompany the picture, or anything of particular note in the effigy that might identify the figure.

Once the others have made way, the dwarf presses his ear to the door, and then searches for anything unusual about its construction.

Most of the pieces of pottery contain precisely what Barnabus anticipates: ashes. Transferring the gray powder from one urn to the next does not reveal any hidden contents within them. As the priest shifts the ashes from one container to the next, he notices that three of the urns bear several unusual symbols on them, the meaning of which are unknown to him, but might be worthy of study by the adventurers’ patron.

During his investigation, Barnabus also notices that one lone urn bears traces of bright red, painted carefully amidst its patterns of black and white. It is the only container in the chamber that is not filled with ash. Rather, it holds teeth, hundreds of them, each one yellowed with age.

Lampert holds his torch high to permit the adventurers gathered at the stone door to see its details more easily. The image of the warrior and his blade has been rendered with great skill, the carefully chiseled contours of the carving making it appear almost lifelike. However, there are no symbols or inscriptions which provide any insight about specifically what, or who, the picture is intended to depict.

Ishmael examines the door closely before pressing his ear to its cool surface.