Against the cult: the Forest Ruin (1.5)

Joseph and Kragga examine the side door. Joseph is pretty confident that the holes above the door are used to project/expel something: gas, hot oil, flames...? There's no way to know from here that he can see.Just a few paces away, Xana and Theran are looking at the beetle-headed statue.Just outside the front door, Ogbar, Aanbo, and Albertus peer in at the front room, illuminated by a guttering torch just inside the doorway. Deep shadows are cast by the torchlight: the bannister's shadow makes a crazy arc along the east wall and the upstairs landing is buried in shadow. The door/doorway gleams with moving patches of many, many colors. Albertus has the sense that there is an illusion. Ogbar feels a shiver of sorcerous danger: there is definitely magic here in this building...old magic. Over the smell of scorched dust, first Aanbo and then the other two at the door begin to smell the savory aroma of cooked pork and roasted vegetables, wafting from the dining room they can see through the two open doorways to the north.

Theran examines the next statue, this one with the head of...a great heron? It really is wonderful how the marble still depicts delight in the tilt of its head and angle of beak. But he sees no sign of any external trigger, which Theran takes as confirmation that there is a pressure plate near the base of the statue. Carefully he begins to scrape away the accumulated leaves, canes of ivy, and dirt from the veranda, and sees that there is a slightly wider gap between some of the stones. Step on this side of that crack, and the veranda is solid. Step on the other side...probably that is the pressure plate. Theran points it out to Joseph; the two of them confer for a bit and agree: stepping within two paces of the statues is likely to set off traps.

Kragga mentions the prospect of treasure, warns everyone about the trap above the side entrance, and then begins scorching the blackberry canes, setting them each alight then extinguishing the flames when the cane burns through. As they are severed, the thorny canes drop into a spiky mat that the thick leather of adventurers' boots can safely stomp without fear of getting punctured. But it's taking time: the dry undergrowth burns easily, but the green growth on top is harder to set alight. The path is not fully clear yet (but by taking out major, thick canes first, Kragga has reduced the CON save difficulty: DC7 for M creatures, DC5 for S creatures). He's working very fast, but there's over a hundred canes in just that short stretch of thicket. Characters can attempt the CON save to pass now, or wait to see if Kragga continues to clear the path.


As Kragga is scorching the thorny vines, Albertus agrees with Aanbo that it's time to leave, then calls out to the others with an inquiry as he prepares to enter the ruin anyway. But Ogbar pushes past both of them and steps into the front room. The aroma of freshly cooked food grows stronger as he enters the building. His boots leave deep prints in the thick layer of dust, and he mounts a couple of stairs for a better view. Ogbar pauses on the second step when he notices four things he couldn't see from the entrance: the mezzanine/balcony extends above this lower room on all four sides; he's just stepped out from under it. In the exact center of the high ceiling (it is as tall as the room is deep, north to south: about 12 paces) hangs an elaborate chandelier, golden sun and stars baubles glinting in the flickering light of the torch. From this vantage, looking down at the room, he sees the sparkling "door" crawling with colors...the movement reminds him of when one of the Frozen Blood elders used smoke to show him how to collect honey from a beehive. Ogbar, make a WIS Perception check, please. The final thing he sees, which takes most of his attention, is a humanoid shape standing motionless on the landing up above. The light of the torch isn't shining on the figure directly, but the indirect light is enough for Ogbar to make out the shape and some details. It's very pale, like the statues outside, but its arms are at its side and it has a man's head, and the whites of its unblinking, motionless eyes are glowing, shining as if they contained light and that light is filtering through the sclera like a lantern's light through gauze.

Is Xana opening the side door near to her, or returning to the front door via the path through the thorny thicket that Albertus and then Kragga helped clear (in which case, roll a DC 5 CON save)?
Theran pokes and prods at the ground with his staff, angled low so that the blade won't chop it in half if it springs out where he expects it to appear. Nothing happens. Perhaps he's unable to push hard enough from this low angle? He then lays his staff on the veranda, across the crack where the pressure plate seems to begin and then pushes down on it. Nothing happens still. Then he puts both hands on the staff and really leans his weight on it. There is a sudden jerk as the flagstone drops down a finger and a long blade snaps out of the base of the statue, scything through a 180-degree arc in the blink of an eye, so quickly that the wind of its passing ruffles Theran's hair. Had his head been a hand higher...well, it wouldn't have been good. Joseph whistles at the narrow miss: his friend was nearly that much shorter.The torch that the dwarf dropped on the floor flickers and pops.
Having stepped into the room, Aanbo can see the full contents of the room: his huge shadow, dancing across the staircase and wall beyond in the torchlight; Ogbar; Ogbar's footprints; the staircase; the glistening doorway; the glittering chandelier; the table in the other room wafting a spicy, savory smell of a freshly-cooked meal; a pale glow distinct from the torchlight on the ceiling above the landing. Aanbo also notes that, looking under the stairs, the room seems to extend around the northeast corner, which would seem to approach the veranda that the others have been investigating. Aanbo, make a WIS Perception check.

Ogbar addresses the figure that only he can see, and that only halfway, its bust visible above the railing from this angle. There is no response, not even movement. Perhaps it is a statue...a statue with the whites of its eyes glowing...?

Albertus and Kragga stand in the doorway, peering in. Kragga, Aanbo, and/or Ogbar can all attempt an INT (Arcana) check on the nature of the doorway if they wish (Albertus already has).