((But could a chicken do your RtD turns?))
Turn Eight: Black Feathers for Deepest SinTaren:Vote for the Right passage.
Examine Ceiling.
(1) "Er, umm, guys. We should go towards the right."
Silence. Hel appears to wait for you to do something. You start furiously examining the ceiling, uncomfortable with the whole situation.
Helskaya:Follow Taren, remaining at the back (and with an axe in hand ready to throw at first seen enemy).
(2) You wait. Patiently. Some day, that Taren will do something.
Elenor:Follow the rest of the group (left hallway) and pick the small crossbow along the way. Check for its quality. Show the papers I brought to my companions. Avoid the direction from where the stench is being emitted.
(4) There's probably nothing left in this bureau. Time to pack up. Elenor walks back through the hallway calmly, trying to forget.
Arriving at the circular room, he spies a small crossbow... (5) surprisingly high quality. Must have belonged to a fellow adventurer once. It's certainly worth keeping, so you do so. And now, further on into the left hallway.
Arriving at the intersection, Elenor shows the mysterious paper around, but neither of the two can make heads or tails of it. Next up, the supply list, which Taren starts to intently examine, and finally the map shard. It does not appear to apply here, the intersection angle is all wrong. This expertise is agreed upon. But, what's with this stench... Elenor casts a vote to avoid it. Taren agrees, and so, the three of you set off to the right.
Remy:Keep following Taren, gunchucks at the ready to shoot the first hostile. Also, if the first enemy I see is a ratman, wear the sergeant's helmet and try to convince them to back off.
(5) Making haste, Remy manages to catch the group just as it takes off, joining them in their exploration. After adjusting to the healthier pace of the three others, you try the helmet on for size... yup, still stinks. But fits like a glove, at least one that actually fits.
Apollo:Following Remy, musket drawn he decides to follow their moves.
(1) Remy is too fast! You can't catch up!
"Hey! Remy! Please wait up!"
No reaction. And now, you're at this intersection, and have no idea where he... wait a minute. This stench... of course! Only his helmet could stink that bad!
Apollo sets off to the left.
Ratherio:"I don't want to get up"
"WHY ARE YOU LEAVING WITHOUT ME I MIGHT GET KILLED"
Ratherio follows the rest.
(6) Hmph. Everyone is going. At least you are alone now, precious time... alone... in a monster-infested dungeon... weakened... without a map...
Thankfully nobody heard Ratherio
scream like a little girl, as even the baddest little necromancer has an ego, and a vulnerable one at that. But it would haunt him the following night, mocking him in his dreams. Either case, the suddenly not-exhausted-at-all Ratherio Houston clears through the hallways at remarkable pace, deciding for the left one on a whim, and scaring the much slower Apollo half to death on meeting, repairing his ego and using way too many participle clauses.
--
The following loot still remains, and nobody cares for it:
Worn shield x1
Wrecked scalemail x1
--
Apart from the way you came in, there is a locked door (now in substantially worse condition), and two other ways. It is to be assumed that the key is somewhere around in those two ways.
At the end of the right hallway, there is what appears to be a... ratman bureau?
There is paperwork and drawers and more paperwork and in-trays and out-trays everywhere. Ratmen don't seem to be particularily orderly though... the "first horizontal surface" system of storage seems to have been applied. There's everything lying around here, including the legendary ratman porn (yuck). Something useful, too, maybe?
Bureau ASCII map:
------
|TTTT|
|.c..|
|...C|
|...C|
D....|
|...T|
|CCc.|
------
D = Door/Entryway
C = Filing cabinet
c = Chair
T = Table
. = Ground, with some paperwork on it
At the end of the left hallway, there is an Y intersection. A stench wafts in from the left way, the right one seems unremarkable.
At the end of that left arm of the Y, Apollo and Ratherio find... the bathroom. No wonder it stank to heavens! Grafitti is everywhere and the entire thing is as disgusting and broke-down as the average public restroom, if a bit more disorderly - random books and comics are all over the place. One of the stalls is occupied, and sometimes grunting noises are emanating from it. As does the stench. Someone is doing business, it seems.
Whereas, at the end of the right arm, the remaining party finds a T intersection. There is an indentation containing an angel statue in the wall opposite to where the party came in. The strange thing about the angel are the wings: The right wing is a normal angel wing, as you would expect it, but the left one is different, as if corrupted, coming apart and having some technology-ish things in it - piping, gears, wires... The angel's expression indicates sorrow. Around the indentation, there is yet more strange writing, indecipherable at a glance, as if part of a long-forgotten tongue.
Overall, the whole thing is totally misplaced in this ratman lair, down to the rock it is made of. Obviously, it is suspicious, as the faint tingle of adventurer senses throughout the party confirms.
Character sheets.
Helskaya Arkut (lawastooshort)
Status: Normal.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: Pair of knives (one large, one small),
northern white bear jawbone on necklace, northern white bearskin.
Inventory: Wet stone, firestone, pot, spoon, three leather pouches varying in size, pestle and mortar, dried meat rations for several plus more days, filled waterskin, flour, Lesser Herbal Medicine, Lesser Blade Poison, Rusty Axe x2, 0 cp.
Skills: Herbal Medicine; Shamanic Magic; Knowledge (Legends of the North)
Spells:
Shining Shamanic Healing Finger!, Transform: Raging North Bear
Elenor Warsen (Caellath)
Status: Currently unseeing.
Injuries: None.
Equipment:
Masterwork Armor, Longsword, Crossbow,
Dragon Crest Shield, small well-crafted crossbow.
Inventory: Medical kit, small supplies bag, 5 cp, Potion of Lesser Healing, Painkiller Potion, Gibberish Paper, Map Shred, Rations Listing, some longbolt ammo.
Skills: Swordsmanship, Dodging, Marksmanship, Medical care.
Spells: None. He's notoriously unmagical.
Apollo Anderson
(Spinal_Taper)Status: Normal.
Injuries: Bruise, right shoulder.
Equipment: Reinforced lab coat, cheap leather armor,
Dagger,
Rudimentary Rifle, Officer's Scimitar,
Inventory: Bullets, Gunpowder, various pouches and bags, Experimental Painkiller (?) Potion, 4 cp.
Skills: Alchemy: Chemistry, Alchemy: Potion brewing, Alchemic Magic: Rudimentary Enchantments (quantum amount +1), Metal Working (quantum amount +1).
Spells: Enchantment: Better wearability!
Taren Creyn (Tiruin)
Status: Normal.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: Broadsword, Crossbow, Longbolt ammunition (quantum amount -4), white cloak, grey tunic, belt, solid holey leather boots, buckler.
Inventory: Whet stone, one filled waterskin, Cloth, lots of rations, ratman cloth, 3 cp.
Skills: White Magic: Healing, Anatomy, Swordsmanship, Marksmanship
Spells: Menscur, Fogili, Nonsens, Mendia, Leonic Cleanse.
Ratherio Houston (borno)
Status: The bestest wizard ever just nobody understands
Injuries: Scratches on face. Cut on left leg.
Equipment: Purple robes of death!
TM, Wand of death!
TMStaff of death!
TMDagger of death!
TM Ring of death.
Inventory: 0 cp,
Debt notice, Scrolls of: Leaden, Monovolt, Lesser Silence, Flare Arrow.
Skills: Black Magic: Death Magic, Black Magic: Chaos Magic, Agility
Spells: None, at least no explicit ones. He probably knows quite a few... we haven't seen them, though.
Remy Maelle (Remaelle)
Status: Good enough to go.
Injuries: None.
Equipment: A spirit talisman, knife, leather armour, traveling clothes, a backpack, Vintage pair of Chain Revolvers, buckler, 14 cp.
Inventory: Bedroll, rope, tinderbox, enough food to last a few days,
Debt notice,
officer's helmet.
Skills: Shamanistic Magic: Elementalism, Agility, Quick Reflexes, Hand-to-Hand Combat.
Spells: MEGA BRAND