WFRP 2.0 The Haunting IC

[dojango]

Penny waits in the square of moonlight by the cellar door and fumbles with flint and steel. A spark... a blazing star is born. She holds up the torch and looks around the basement. She whistles loudly. "Here, boy!" and she looks around.

Spoiler

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(1d100)[49]

[farothel]

Mangar was about to do the same thing, but Penny was ahead of him. With the extra light, he could have a better look around, as well as trying to hear where the moaning comes from. That certainly wasn't a dog.

Spoiler: OOC perception

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(1d100)[65]
perception 31.

[LarsWester]

Light from Penny's torch fills the tight tunnel. The passage descends with about three feet across from stone wall to stone wall continuing for what looked to be over 10 yards. Looking ahead Penny notices a large bloody rat with its neck snapped and laying in an unnatural angle. Further down the passage Pickles could be seen shaking his head violently back and forth with something in his mouth. Just beyond the dog the iron rungs of a ladder could be seen. Eyes following the ladder lead up to a small wooden trapdoor about 12 feet up.

[Haval]

Varnya will approach Pickles to see what the dog had in his mouth. 'Two rats. I suppose you can always come back and bill them later.'

[dojango]

"Yeah. If they don't pay I'll just give them their rats back. Here boy!" Jasmine also walks over to the dog, ready to grab him by the collar.

[LarsWester]

As Varnya neared Pickles she got a better view of what was in the dog's mouth. It looked like a human hand severed 3 inches above the wrist. Was it due to the dog violently shaking its head? Was it the light playing tricks on her eyes? Was her imagination running wild on her? She could swear the hand's long nailed fingers were writhing about trying to reach back and scratch at the dog's face.
At that moment Jasmine came up alongside the dwarf calling out to Pickles to come back to her. As she reaches for the dog's collar she too notices the object in the dog's mouth.

Magnar and Helmut hung back halfway through the short passage. The house above them groaned as ancient wood was shifted due to the heavy winds outside. Several yards behind them the ramshackle wooden door slammed shut as the winds howled. It felt as if the temperature in the cellar tunnel dropped suddenly.

[farothel]

"What the...," Mangar said with a grunt as the door slammed shut. He moved to the door and tried to open it again.

Spoiler: OOC rolls

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I guess it's a strength check: (1d100)[32] vs 41

[LarsWester]

Magnar struggled against the wooden door but despite no matter how much weight he put behind his shoulder the wooden door would not budge. Behind the door Magnar could hear the winds outside at a gale force. It almost seemed like the howling turned to laughing for a moment but that would be impossible purely a trick of the ears. At this end of the tunnel the light from Jasmine's torch was fairly dim but the relatively darkness didn't hamper Magnar's dwarven eyes.

[farothel]

Magnar trudges back to the rest of the group.
"Doesn't budge," he said, "at least not for me. I guess we will have to get to the front door then."

[dojango]

"Drop it! Drop!" Jasmine shouts at the dog. She picks up the dead rat and tucks it into her belt.

[Haval]

Seeing what might be a moving hand in the dog's mouth was probably just a trick of the light. Varnya will ignore any implications for the moment. To Jasmine, 'Is that what I think it is?' Was there a body buried around here somewhere? She'll will look around for signs of blood or other body parts.

The sound of Magnar trying to break open the door will interrupt her search. 'That can't be right. It's only wood isn't it?'

[LarsWester]

Hearing his master's commands so nearby Pickles finally responds dropping the object in his mouth. The severed hand falls to the passageway's floor and lays still. Varnya scans the surrounding area for any other loose body parts or signs of blood, finding none. As she looks around the fingers on the hand begin to shift slowly in such a way to prop the hand up on two fingers and the severed wrist. The hand begins scuttling across the stone floor. Pickles looks at Jasmine plaintively letting out a little whine.

[farothel]

Seeing the hand move, Magnar doesn't hesitate and chops at it with his axe.

Spoiler: OOC rolls

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attack: (1d100)[30] vs WS 48
damage: (1d10+5)[14]

[Haval]

'Huh.' Varnya is not especially worried about the hand but will take her hammer from her belt anyway. 'Does that happen a lot out here?'

[LarsWester]

Magnar's eyes the unnatural hand moving by its own power and springs into action. Blows from his axe ran down until the hand is completely destroyed and nothing more than a stain and tiny bits of flesh on the floor. Pickles looks up at Jasmine and then cocked his head looking at the dead rat hanging from her belt before looking back to Jasmine tail wagging. The group of four strangers were all gathered at the far end of the passageway near an iron ladder that led up to a small wooden trap door.

[dojango]

"Reckon we should charge them extra for that," Jasmine says, coldly. "Let's go up the ladder and go out the front door. Uh, might need a hand gettin' the dog up." Once the dwarves have gone up, Jasmine picks up Pickles and tries to awkwardly climb the ladder while holding the dog. Once she's high enough, she'll hand the dog up to one of the dwarves if they are willing and then will climb up the rest of the way.

[Haval]

Varnya will go up first. She's not sure if the hand was a one off, but between the drunk umgi and the halfling it would be better if one of the Dwarves took the lead, just in case. She'll take Pickles if the dog was willing. 'You bite me and I might drop you.'
Assuming there was any light up here at all she'll try and see what they were dealing with.

Spoiler

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Perception vs. Int 42 just in case with Dwarf Night Vision
(1d100)[22]

[Morovir]

Eyes darting in the gloom, Helmut follows the others. Although he tenses at the sight of the undead hand, hissing "Witchcraft!" under his voice, he is too late to react to it - by the time he gets close, one of the dwarfs has already wiped it from the face of the Old World.

Realising the foolhardiness of trying to carry a sword whilst climbing a ladder whilst drunk, he sheathes it temporarily, before reaching for the first rung.

[farothel]

Magnar wasn't sure it was a good thing to let the runesmith go first, but she had already gone before he could say something. At least the human could protect her if needed.
"I'll take the rear," he said to Jasmine, "but we best stay close together."

[LarsWester]

Spoiler: OOC

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Taking the summation of all those posts as a climbing order of Varnya, Helmut, Jasmine, Magnar.

Varnya reaches the top rung of the ladder throwing up the hatch at the top. The room above is dimly lit by Jasmine's torch below. Varnya climbs into the room taking stock of her surroundings as Helmut climbs up through the small hatchway. The human has a hard time seeing but Varnya can sense that they seem to be a small storage area. The room is about 12 feet by 18 feet with a doorway about 6 feet directly ahead of the hatchway. In this chamber there are a few storage crates, piles of lumber, and rolled up carpets. After checking the room for threats Varnya lays on her stomach reaching down to take Pickles from Jasmine. The halfling than climbed up the ladder slowly with one hand holding on to a torch. Magnar was the last to join them all in the small storage room. As he set his last foot on the floor of the chamber the old wood let out a low creak and groan under the weight of the dwarf.

[farothel]

"We'll have to move slowly and carefully," Magnar said as he looked around for anything useful, like a crowbar or something like that or failing that, some money, "I think if we jump together we end up back in the cellar."

[Haval]

Magnar may have a point. 'Stupid rickety umgi floors.' Varnya mutters. 'Looks like the cellar we just left. There's probably a kitchen around here somewhere.'

[dojango]

Jasmine looks down at the floor. The tall boys like their wood floors instead of good, honest tile on packed dirt. "Let me go first! That way if you fall I can, uh, go get help!" she says as she moves to the doorway. She waves her torch around to see if there are any more rats or... other troubling signs...

Spoiler

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(1d100)[62] for perception/Search v. 35

[LarsWester]

The party inspects the storage area that they find themselves in. Magnar notices light from Jasmine's torch reflecting off a small steel prybar. Several of the crates in the room are sealed but a few have covers that are easily removable. One such crate appears to have been used for storing seasonal clothes, including a set of good clothing, a monogramed robe with the letters L H arranged in such a way as the lower part of the L becomes the crossbar of the H, an overcoat, and two cloaks. Several of the sealed crates contain a copious amount of glass jars full of different colored materials of varying viscosities. In each crate the cans have numbers scrawled across the lids starting at 2310 and going to 2315. In Magnar's search he comes across a small collection of parchment with writing on it. The parchment is held together by a small ring in the upper left corner. Also in the room are several carpets, some damaged by moths, and piles of cut wood and stacks of lumber.

[farothel]

"Weird stuff to stock here," Magnar said as he looked at the papers, "anybody knows how to read?"

[Haval]

Varnya sighed, 'Give us it here.' She wasn't interested in rifling through someone's possessions, but since they were. '2310 to 2315. Maybe manling dates?' She only had a hazy idea of the Imperial calender. 'Might be a few centuries back.'

Spoiler: ooc

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Int to identify what's in the jars. Common Lore (dwarves) or Trade (Smith) +10 if anything seems relevant.
vs. Int 42
(1d100)[12]

Will read the papers if its in Reikspiel or Khazalid

[LarsWester]

Varnya looks over the stack of papers. It is typical human drivel written in an older poetic style of Riekspiel. One page describes a forested scene and the creatures within it. Another is a lustful description of a young lady named Hanna. At the bottom of each page is an overly artistic autograph of Bernhardt Siebert. It is upon reading this poem that Varnya considers the worth of reading further. She turns her attention back to the jars. Opening a jar she sees a wax seal at the top. Varnya assumes that the glass jars were for preserving food and smiles at her previous statement about there probably being a kitchen nearby. As the four strangers look over the room by torchlight Varnya's dwarven eyes pick up that there appears like a light was just struck on the other side of the wooden door.

[Haval]

Varnya chuckles as she reads. It sounded like the writer was exaggerating. 'Looks like poetry. A man named Siebert was in love, I wonder if the woman mentioned here ever knew about this?' She'll become more serious as she sees the light and will point to the door to alert the others. 'Someone made a light. I think we managed to wake someone up.' If there was someone living here hopefully they wouldn't be offended that the four of them were in here.

[dojango]

"Hallo there!" shouts Jasmine. "Ratcatchers here! Official business! Got a class 3 infestation down below, local ordinance says I gotta check it out! Try answering your door sometime, by the way!" Then after a moment, she gestures to the others to open the door up.

[farothel]

Magnar grinned as Jasmine's idea. That would work, at least for long enough to get out of here. He was also a rat catcher, at least if you considered what 'people' he mostly chased.