The Armory is Discovered

We had interrupted our circuit of the outside of Tegel Manor (WHY ??) and gone inside, finding darkness, traps and stuff that wanted to kill us. Standard fare for a place like this. We also learned (RE-LEARNED) that getting strung out is BAD BAD BAD !!!

Continued from First Foray into Tegel Manor.

  Reebo began carefully examining the statue, a bat-winged woman. Aefir heard something in the room to the north, a room we thought we had cleared.  Rats? More puddings?? We closed the door without looking and concentrated on the room we were in.

  Reebo, checking out the statue, said it looked like stone. Nothing in the way of carved inlays or jewels, sadly. The detail was such that it COULD be someone who was turned to stone. Hmmmmmm.

  Aefir pushed the statue, and it whispered "Beware the Vestibule", and then it hissed, sounding strangely like a cat.

  Reebo checked out the south door, found it locked, and tried to unlock it so we could proceed.

Behind the door was a small room containing a very large chest with coins spilling out of it.

Reebo looked for traps, and though he didn't find any, he was suspicious. He used his mage hand cantrip to pick up a hand full of coins as Aefir stepped into the room. There was a wire under the coins that slipped once the weight of the overlying coins was lifted, releasing a 200 lb stone slab that was acting as a false ceiling.

Aefir leaped from the room, narrowly missing being crushed by the falling stone. The stone crushed the chest and shattered on the floor.

The coins that appeared to be spilling out of the chest were all that there was, the now smashed chest was empty. On the other hand, there was quite a lot of coins in the bait pile once they were sorted from the broken stone.

  We went south down the corridor and opened another door. The walls were painted with farming scenes.  The room is noxious, a decayed orc hooked to the ceiling. Blood splattered in some places, it seemed to be a bedroom.

  Clothing in the dresser, pretty moldy.  Human type clothing.  Reebo checked out the furniture, drawers and stuff.  Some papers on the desk were just mundane house things.

  Under the bed he found a plow.... and the blade appeared to be made of agate. Not the kind of thing, or the location, we would have expected. He used his mage hand and a rope to get it out from under the bed.

  The Orc was decomposed but not yet mummified, and very stinky. Had been there a while but not an extremely long while.   Hanging by the wrists by chains.

  Examining the plow, Reebo estimated it was worth several hundred gold pieces, mostly the agate in the blade.  He could not figure out how to take it apart, and estimated it at 80 or so pounds. He pushed it back under the bed for storage.

  The room to the north of the bedroom was smaller, with a shelf and a desk.  A door toward the west seemed like it would be a closet.  Dust everywhere made it look unused and unvisited for a long time.

  The books on the shelf were stories, uninteresting.  Ceiling looked solid, no hanging orcs.

  The western room was a privy and a bathtub instead of the expected closet.

  Rolling up the carpets, for completeness, revealed just wooden floors.  Still, gotta look.

  It was clear that, where the roof fell in earlier, we had missed a room. Backtracking to find it seemed wise.

  Reebo got some candles from the chandalier - six candles.

  The wooden floor in the 'missed' room was of more than one color. Reebo used his mage hand to investigate the connections, but found nothing unusual. Spider webs looked like normal spiders rather than the larger type.

  Proceeding south, we came to a solid, iron-reinforced door. Locked, with a relatively complex lock. Keeping something in? Or keeping inquiring minds out?
 
It was approximately where the secret door from the outside (we noticed as we toured the outside) .

  Opening the door, we discovered an ARMORY !!!!

  Lots of weapons, shields. Room was dusty like the others.  Some of the equipment looked usable, though the armor mostly needed work.

Shadow Walker, standing in the hallway on guard, smelled a fungus or rot smell coming from the south.

  Syndra cast Detect Magic, revealing that the longbow Aefir looked at was magic.  She could also detect magic beyond the door to the south.

  When Aefir tried to pick up the bow, it hopped up, drew an arrow from his quiver, and fired at him. It missed, but shocked the heck out of all of us.

  After several attempts Aefir finally caught the bow, and it attempted to bind to him. He could tell that it did NOT radiate evil, but not if there was a curse or some geas-like aura on it.

  Syndra came over and took the bow. It bound to her. It was like a dancing longsword, but a bow.

  Reebo started looking at the chests. Weapons and repair parts for weapons and armor.

  Syndra kept her bow, Aefir took the second longbow, Natalie took Aefir's old shortbow and some arrows as a backup in case she ran out of hand-held crossbow bolts.

  Nothing in the room looked really valuable.

  Reebo (eventually) opened the door with magic beyond it. A longsword radiated magic. A pile of coins and gems looked like someone stored their loot and never got back to pick it up.

  Aefir got the longsword. It also wanted to bind to him. It was a  Longsword of the Adept + 1.
 
  When equipped, the user's intelligence can never be reduced below 11.

  An hourglass with blood instead of sand looked unusual.
  2700 copper
  1200 silver       split out     
  90 gold           split out    
  gems   Jasper, Citrine, Quartz, 2xBloodstone, Chalcedony

  We left the hourglass behind, but remembered it.

After several tries, Reebo opened the adjoining door, and went to back to the main room to look for a nice fancy dagger. No such thing, sadly.

The next room had more loot, and lewt, and phat lewt!!! There was a Shield and a Greatsword that radiated magic. Aefir was interested in the shield but so was Paraselene. We agreed for Paraselene to take the shield, which we had identified as a +1 shield.

Natalie went for the greatsword. It was a Cursed weapon, and instantly bound.

Greatsword of Vengeance

Martial weapon, melee weapon, uncommon (requires attunement), 6 lb. 2d6 slashing

You gain a +1 bonus to attack and damage rolls made with this magic weapon.

Cursed, possessed by a vengeful spirit.

This sword is cursed and possessed by a vengeful spirit. Becoming attuned to it extends the curse to you. As long as you remain cursed, you are unwilling to part with the sword, keeping it on your person at all times. While attuned to this weapon, you have disadvantage on attack rolls made with weapons other than this one.

In addition, while the sword is on your person, you must succeed on a DC 15 Wisdom saving throw whenever you take damage in combat. On a failed save you must attack the creature that damaged you until you drop to 0 hit points or it does, or until you can't reach the creature to make a melee attack against it.

Heavy: Creatures that are Small or Tiny have disadvantage on attack rolls with heavy weapons. A heavy weapon's size and bulk make it too large for a Small or Tiny creature to use effectively.

Two-Handed: This weapon requires two hands to use. This property is relevant only when you attack with the weapon, not when you simply hold it.

The rest of the treasure was 1800cp, 1300 sp, 40 gp.

A frantic search for a secret door corresponding to the one we noticed outside was fruitless.
We went further south down the hall, toward the smell of mold. It looked like a once upon a time bedroom, but now covered with mushrooms and a lot of frogs. There was water dripping from the ceiling. Four vials on a table that was undecayed and what looked like a metal bedpost, all that remained of a bed that had rotted away. There was one Giant Frog at the far end of the room.

Syndra tried to communicate with the frog. Druids are weird....  Frog didn't seem hostile or mind if we were there.  Reebo looked tasty, but the frog wasn't really hungry then.

One door lead out to the east. Shadow Walker opened the door. It looked like a bedroom. There were some more mushrooms near the door, a bed with a meat cleaver on the nightstand, and windows on the outside wall. We had looked into this window from the outside on our tour. There was a painting hanging on the wall of Ruang (we talked to him earlier), a small brass plate on the frame that identified him as "Ruang the Ripper". 

Aefir looked at the vials, and the frog didn't care if we took them, so we did.

  In the Ruang bedroom, as Reebo was checking a chest out, an unnoticed door on the east side opened and closed.  Shadow thought he saw a dark shape but it went away.  Reebo ran to get out of the room (good move) The others did too, and closed the door from the mushroom room behind them.

  A few seconds after they closed the door it opened again.  Aefir swung his sword at the space in front of the door, and hit something. Sadly, noone could hear the impact, so we didn't know for sure.

  Syndra asked the frog about this,and froggie said Not Good, Very Bad.

  Some folks fired into the space at the door.  The frog retreated into the corner furthest away from the invisible thing. Reebo hit and we could see the arrow, and at least get an idea of decent targeting.

  The Stalker removed all the arrows and attacked Aefir and hit him.

  Reebo was able to smear some mud from the floor (using mage hand) on it (Invisible Stalker) for at least a short time, helping us with some attacks.  The stalker shook it off shortly after that. Rinse and repeat.

OMG !!!  We kilt it after 4 rounds. Time for a long rest.... We backed up into the small room off the armory, locked BOTH doors and jammed them, and rested.

Continued in: The Secret Lab, a Picture Gallery, and a Zombie Giant Octopus