Pax Viginti Team 1 IC [5E]

[TriciaOso]

The floor of this room is all flagstones, and someone has pried up the one beneath the mat and hidden a bunch of poisoned caltrops and jagged shards underneath it. It is, as Temaias said, Wyvern poison.

Spoiler: Active or Passive Inv 15+

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One of the adventurers who fell here was a rogue; you're willing to bet he's been fighting wyverns in the last year or so.

Other than the trap, the kitchen seems fairly ordinary. It hasn't been refurbished at all--vampires don't cook--but most of the large fixtures were too big or antiquated or both to remove the last time the house fell empty. It's a large room, with a relatively low roof compared to the rooms you saw from the front. The terrace overhead lands between the first and second floors; between that and the duct work from the stove and some racks for pots and pans (now empty), Temaias will have to move through here at a crouch.

A huge butcherblock counter takes up the center of the room, and a cast-iron sink is next to a pump on your left. It's full of water for some reason. Smaller counters line the walls. Across the room is an antique and battered stove big enough to fit an entire (Small) roast pig. Perhaps surprisingly, a fire is burning on one of the top burners. The exit to the foyer is behind it--the grease and soot on the ground and the broken flue make it clear it was dragged over to block the door, which is also nailed shut.

The room is broadly T-shaped, with hallways stretching left and right at the far end of the room; from the maps, you know these these lead to the servant quarters and dining room respectively.

Standing on the counter is a contraption; a broom is braced against the ceiling, secured in place between two large barrels and lashed together with ropes. Looking closely at the ceiling overhead, you see that several joists have been sawn through. The barrels smell of lamp oil, and are canted towards the hot stove; the flagstone pried from the floor has been incorporated for counterweighting.

Spoiler: Active or Passive Inv 15+

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You can trace the action of the trap; the ceiling overhead is held up, just barely, by the broomstick. Anyone trying to climb up and enter through the terrace would have crashed down into this room, probably right into these barrels, smashing them and tipping over into the open flame. It's chancy, though; might have missed the flame.

Spoiler: Inv 20+

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Of course, someone with a flame cantrip--even just control flame--could make those odds much better.

Spoiler: Inv 25

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The fact that they were willing to set the house on fire, plus, the water-filled sink, means someone nearby has control water, probably. An ice spell would work, too, but then--why the water in the sink?

You see some small signs that a fight took place here; scuffs and hacks taken out of the counters, and a long smear of blood. Nearby, on your right, is the door to the larder or ice house. The door is standing slightly ajar.

Spoiler: Active or Passive Inv 15+

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Raven is able to deduce from the pattern that someone came out of the larder, was subdued, and was dragged back into the cold room. The blood has had time to dry.

Spoiler: Inv 20+

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You are probably looking at where the last of the adventurers before you feel. Looks like they entered through the larder and it went badly for them. One of them made it out the door into here, but not much further.

Spoiler: Perception 20+

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You hear a whispered incantation from the larder.