[IC] Chapter 1-4: Cellars of Hate

[Silent Giant]

There must be a hidden door somewhere or .... or we have to go downstairs.

Giant goes back to the kitchen and searches the southern wall, rocks, etc. (take20)

OOC - Have we examined all cauldrons already?

[DM Surranó]

Investigating the other two cauldrons reveals no new valuables nor passages.

[Lugar]

"If I had to hide something valuable I'd bury it deep underground. The 'key' is probably hidden right beneath our feet." Lugar taps his pick on the stone floor of the kitchen where they searched again. "Let's go below."

[Silent Giant]

Okay, follow me.

ooc - Have we water breathing? :-)

[DM Surranó]

OOC - Nope. Merri possibly had. Until her levels were drained.
OOC - you can take the description provided earlier:

The party descends the ladder which proves to be safe, only the last step above water gives in under the half-orc's weight but the remaining two steps underwater are equally safe. The water proves to be a bit less than three feet deep and as such it's fairly deep for the dwarf and the ceiling is fairly low for the half-orc. Brandishing two-handed weapons may be an issue for him and for Merri as well.

There's slience down here, aside from the splashing water. In the dim light of the everburning light mace Merri needs to see anything other than pitch black it seems to be an ordinary cellar. At least, once it was. Some wooden planks and pieces of broken barrels float on the surface and earthlike mounds line the walls; once they must have been sacks of flour, grains, vegetables or other food. The large chunks of smoked meat hanging from the ceiling are also eaten by blight in this moist climate.

The architecture is fairly simple. Stout stone pillars hold the cellar's ceiling and it's mostly a single open space spanning the entire base of the mansion, aside from a rectangular area confined within stone walls, about fourty by fifty feet. There seems to be a single entrance to this confinement; a massive iron door.

[Lugar]

Lugar leaves his backpack in the kitchen, in a nice hiding spot, but he takes a thunderstone and alchemist fire from the pack to put in his belt pouches. Then he slings his magical rope around his shoulder before following Giant down the ladder. As he's about to put his first foot in the murky cellar water he mutters, "By Elestraee's tits, I hate water."

He follows close behind Giant and pushes debris away from his face with his pick. "Maul, I don't suppose you could turn this muck into Holy water? That'd give these devil spirits a nasty surprise if they try anything!"

OOC - is the cellar a rectangle or is there a rectangular room in the middle of the cellar with the iron door? Also, how far can Lugar see through the water?

[DM Surranó]

The cellar is rectangular, or even square, roughly 100 by 100 feet with a roughly 40x50 feet block of wall in the middle, featuring a door.
Imagine it as the double of the "ground" floor without the walls between rooms and with the completely blocked inner yard (spoiler: call it "garden") being the closed-up area in the middle -- except that the whole space is smaller than the ground floor and the middle part is smaller than the garden. From Lugar's dwarven legacy it's not impossible that this confinement is actually a basement (or at least foundation) of a small building that is in the garden.

Everything including the iron door stands in water so murky that you cannot penetrate it by sight, not even darkvision, for more than a few feet. You notice diminutive colorless creatures scurry and swim out of the area your light source affects.
There seems to be a slope or some stair steps in front of the door since it's almost completely below water level, making it a hard target for prying or knocking down.

The air, though stale, is surprisingly easy to breath for such a place.

There seems to be nothing of value left.

EDIT: revised my notes. Added some detail on the water and the iron door, above.

[Silent Giant]

Giant draws his dagger (if he cant use his double axe) and goes next to the iron door carefully. He tries to open it. After he goes around the block looking for another entrance or hole.
There must be a hole somewhere. (if we can easy to breath)

[DM Surranó]

Giant finds a few ventilation shafts near the ceiling at the outer perimeter of the cellar but those are too small for anything larger than ordinary rats to pass and even those couldn't pass because of the grates closing the shafts. Where the shafts lead remains untold as there's no line of sight to the external world; vision is blocked by debris but draft is not. Listening intently he can hear the echoes of dripping water within the cellar, distracting him from any noise that may come from the outside.

[Lugar]

Feeling the floor sink lower with his feet as they approach the iron door, Lugar pulls his hat down tight on his head. He will assist Giant with the door and searching the rest of the cellar.

OOC - does the door feel rusty and brittle? Are there any holes at the door to look through to the other side?