fireinthedust wrote:

Iron Ranger wrote:

Kondor detects a soft leather boot print among the beast men prints leading away.

Like after the beast men, or chased by them, or even carried away by them?

The beast men tracks appear chaotic and haphazard. The few boot prints are slightly more recent and reveal sure steps, an even gait, determination. A fair deduction is the follower stepped within the preexisting ones for speed.

[Kondor add 50 XP.]

Gundrabu remembers words his god once whispered to him concerning the sorcerer of fire. “Leave the Atlantean to his strange fate, my friend. We have our own work before us.”

Gundrabu holds high the light as the duo enters the sanctuary.

The area just inside the open doorway is covered in bloodsoaked, matted snow and the bodies of the killed beast men have been removed, and with a quick glance to the pulpit, the severed head of their leader as well. The moved pews remain where you left them, gathered tightly near the doorway, all else seems the same.The tinking of sleet falling through the burnt out ceiling and landing against the pews and exposed portions of the stone floor begins as you move into the room. 

The melted harp leans against the middle of the pulpit.
There are frozen carcasses of giant rats atop the pulpit.
There is darkness through the burned out doorway to the right of the pulpit.
There are splinters of a broken pew at the front of the north  side column.
The dreadful cold again pierces your furs and armors beneath.

Last edited by Iron Ranger (3/16/2020 11:31 am)

Eirvit wrote:

“I suggest, Kondor, that we carefully make our way to the burned-out door and make our camp within. I believe that that room still has a roof. Let’s go cautiously, lest any possible foes think as we do.

“If all is well, I suggest that we come back out and drag a pew or two up to that door to serve as a barrier for us within.”

“Agreed. And we need a fire! Let’s go look and then get to work. With caution!”

Ooc: I’m sick, possibly corona, but I’m intent on finishing this scenario!!!

“Kondor, someone lit a fire in the center of this room. The flue in the fireplace must not be drawing. You can dump your wood here. If it burns out, we can use the remains of this pew.

“Any idea what’s on the other side of that door?“

Gundrabu looks pensively up at the broken windows and the cold blowing in. “It would be nice to cover those. Perhaps we can devise some method later. I wonder if we can reach them by standing on a pew.”

[Get well soon! If you suddenly, unaccountably become silent, we’ll know why, and we’ll wait for you!]

Eirvit wrote:

Eirvit wrote:

Gundrabu looks pensively up at the broken windows and the cold blowing in. “It would be nice to cover those. Perhaps we can devise some method later. I wonder if we can reach them by standing on a pew.

Gundrabu has a spare coat and a large sack, as well as 4 spikes. He recommends to lean a pew against the wall beneath a window, so he can reach it and cover it. Two spikes to each window, top and bottom, holding a coat over one, a sack over the other.

 The only difficulty he sees is a means to hammer in the spikes, since he lacks a hammer.

”Kondor, do you have some useful tool? If not, perhaps we can use a hearthstone from the fireplace.”

The windows are very small, 12 feet high.
 

Kondor drops the load of firewood, and roots through his backpack, pulling out Emral's old map.

Eirvit wrote:

Well, while Kondor and Gundrabu drag two pews to the doorway to use as a fence, Gundrabu likewise brings in whatever is necessary to serve as a ladder to reach the windows. Ref, can he do that? How long are the pews? If they are woefully short when leaned against the wall, can they be stacked?

Alternatively, if Gundrabu surmises that the cold and wind won’t be a real problem (but merely is noted as flavor), he’ll give up the project. No need to put holes in his sack and coat if he doesn’t need to!

The remaining pews are 9ft long. They are rough hewn but not so much so that you'd have a good foothold while it's leaned against the wall.

While the Esquimeaux is bundled quite well and would normally scoff at these frozen temps, the cold is a problem, for it is Nightfall and sick Helios will not be seen for a year, continued exposure means certain death. What Gundrabu thinks is that something is wrong with the cooking fireplace and that perhaps the previous campers broke out the upper windows to release the choking smoke from their campfire...
 

Kondor starts a fire first, before anything else.  Uses the fireplace.

"This would have been where Emral and Malak camped. So long as the winds are off, we should be find with a good fire for now.  The wine cellar on this map would not be a wise place for a fire, but we could hole up if pressed. I'm surprised there's no link to the other basement, the one we wish to enter. For now we're here, and tomorrow we'll be ready to get through that doorway."

Kondor takes the wood already there and sets it up in the fireplace. Then, when warmed, he helps Gundrabu with the pews, etc.

Gundrabu now tries to climb within reach of the windows, armed with four spikes, one coat, one large sack. If Kondor has no hammer, he also has a dense stone—or a chunk of pew, if that’s not available.