Legacy of the Hearthwoods part 4 - RPLOG
From Rusted Promises
Participants
Date
3/8/477
Log
The entrance to the mausoleum is cold, stairs stretching downwards into the gloom before finally disappearing into the darkness below. Still, there must be at least another opening somewhere, for a steady draft to be blowing in everyones' faces.
Jera is still leading the way, dressed in heavy armor. He keeps his Kendrac bladestaff close at hand, the weapon giving him comfort despite the notification that he would get little to no help from it. "Anyone has a light?" He mumbles softly, feeling the wind but not seeing where it's from.
Selena nods back to the fox, producing a small light near the group to illuminate the surroundings. "It might be best to keep it dim, but if you need it brighter then let me know." She replies simply, tapping a foot against the cold stone floor for a moment as the group moves in.
Cassidy moves along after the pair, adjusting her mask. "I'll let you handle the light, Selena. No point having two. I wonder what we'll find down here." SHe's a little excited, but doesn't vocalize that fact.
Natska enters the mausoleum with her allies, alternately peering into the darkness below and glancing back at the door behind them as they make their way down the steps. The hair on the back of her neck is raised, but her steps are calm, confident.
With Selena lighting the way down the steps, they end up at a handing that leads out into a corridor. The lack of a single speck of dust in what should be an untouched place is telling - the floor has been swept clean and the walls similarly kept cool, clean and smooth to the touch, but otherwise bare and featureless. Several statues of wolves - presumably ancestors of the Hearthkeep clan - have been moved to line the west wall, and the path ahead splits into a crossroads with one path to the west, one to the east, and one leading straight ahead.
"Dim is good, yes." Jera agrees, looking along the path and then frowning softly. "Hmm. This is unsettling. There's been absolutely no opposition." He mumbles, looking at the statues of the wolves and touching one for a moment while he stares at the crossroads. "Straight down, I think. We'll probably just find smaller, less important coffins in the side rooms.
Selena looks over the unusually clean area somewhat awkwardly, though she happens to gravitate towards the status and their inscriptions, reading over them with mild curiosity. When the path forks, she returns her gaze to the branching paths. "If there's something important, it's likely it'll be marked. Or I suspect as much, anyway." She agrees, letting the light dim a little more.
With her mask on, it's hard to tell what she's doing, but Cassidy starts to gradually resemble less the Solacious fennec and more and more like the Hearthwood lady of the house, herself. She wasn't entirely sure why she was doing it, but ever since the manor she was just -dying- to try it. "I will follow your leads, of course."
Natska tilts her head to the side, ear flicking, then looks up and down the side hallways. "Mm. I am sure Jera is correct," she says quietly. "And we can look down the other ways later if we need to. Let's continue on."
Following Jera's suggestion, the group makes its way past the statues and down the hallway. Eventually it opens out into another chamber, as meticulously kept as the hallway, which appears to have been a section of catacombs converted into makeshift living quarters. Alcoves which once were the resting places of the dead have been reverently and cleanly emptied to serve as makeshift shelves and storage areas, and the long-dead ashes of a fire lie scattered in the middle of a circle of stones. More evidence of the living lie about - jars of preserves, folded clothes, there are even bedrolls - but they are tightly rolled up and don't seem like they've seen any recent use. Seems like the Mistress' servants are out on her bidding, perhaps, or this is just one of the many wayhouses or bases of operation that they have.
Jera shudders a little bit as he looks. He dislikes being surrounded by death, much less by whom might possibly have been friends or family or people he remembered in what blurry memories he had left in his childhood. "Please don't loot anything."
Selena sighs quietly and shakes her head at the sight at the end of the tunnel, clicking her tongue slightly at the aparrently abandoned campsite. "At the absolute worst, we can get rid of their supplies." She notes bluntly, picking up a jar of the preserves and taking a brief look at it before setting it back down. "I'm not sure I'm too pleased with this setup either way. And it's far too quiet where we are."
Cassidy rolls her shoulders and runs her fingers through the back of her 'new' hair style and adjusts her hat. Yes, this would have to do. "I promise, I won't take anything." She does look around, though, humming softly. She was curious to see where these side passages went to, but... She sticks with the group for now.
"Far too quiet..." Natska replies, looking over the supplies and nodding her head. "But we are just scouting at the moment. If they are only using this house as a way station, that is still information..." She nods at the far tunnel. "We still have plenty to look for, though."
"Hmm. It doesn't look like there's going to be anything important here. Or anybody. Best to proceed, I think. Before we are flanked by returning cultists." Jera murmurs softly. "Left or right, now?
Selena nods back to the others; "Might be for the best if we take a look around. Flanking seems unlikely given it being a crypt and us having enough places to mave in the room, but cornered, though... That would be a problem." She notes. "I'm not fussed about directions, though. Either way works."
Cassidy glances towards the passage on the right and gestures to it. "Let us check this way, perhaps? I feel like we should." And with that, she turns and starts off, ambling at a leisurely pace, so as to not distance herself from her companions, or go too far to be recalled by them should they wish to go another way.
Natska looks back at the tunnel on the far side of the room, then moves her shoulders in a small shrug and falls in close behind Lady Hearthkeep, tail slowly swishing back and forth. "This place feels so off."
Returning to the crossroads and taking the right-hand path down a long, twisting hallway, one finds themselves looking into from the doorway a circular room that has been lit with sparsely-placed oil lanterns at regular intervals, eight points of light forming an octagon about the centre of the chamber. The flagstones have been swept to perfection, and crude wooden racks have been setup by the doorway for shoes to be placed on; there are still a few lying there, although their owners are thankfully nowhere to be seen. Whatever the original purpose of the room, it's been lost.
Situated in the middle of everything is a sarcophagus that's been repurposed as an altar of sorts, as immaculately clean as everything else. Scrolls and tomes are stacked in disarray against a stand to one side, out of the reach of pests and the damp. But most important of all is the skeletal vixen lounging leisurely on the sarcophagus, her fine, delicate fingerbones petting the muzzle of one of the many bone dragons that surround her adoringly. The creatures look absolutely tame and submissive...although one gets the impression that could change on a whim.
"Here we are." Jera frowns softly as he draws his bow. "Almost thinking about striking first...but holding on to his shot and deciding to let others decide.
