Against the cult: the Forest Ruin (1.5)

Ogbar and Aanbo, in front and peering through the archway, see an east-west hallway running the entire width of the ruin, with an unbroken carpet of dust covering the entire floor. Far down to their left on the opposite wall is a closed door. Opposite them, directly north, is a matching archway leading into a dining room, with a feast laid out on a long table, with a place set in front of each of the many chairs. They can now see that the table is piled high with a side of pork, roasted vegetables, various bowls of stew, and a tureen of a green soup. Despite the thick layer of dust on everything, the food seems fresh and smells excellent.

Aanbo inches forward, tracking into the dust of the hallway, lighting a torch. He glances down the hall and notices that there is another glowing doorway all the way down to the west on the southern wall. Then, once the torch is lit and burning fiercely, the monk drops it through the archway into the dining room. The smell is even more savory and enticing from this close. Peering into the room, Aanbo can see that there are at least a dozen chairs and table settings, a closed door leading west, and two ornate silver candlesticks on the table.

As Kragga declares his suspicion, where do you all go/what do you do next? All is quiet.

Things to investigate within sight:
- the mechanism on the back of the exterior door leading out to the veranda
- the feast laid out in the dining room
- the door leading west from the dining room
- the door leading north from the hallway
- the doorway leading south from the hallway
- the magic doorway leading west from the entrance hall (with the sigil inscribed in the arch)

That's just downstairs.

Albertus, Kragga, and Joseph enter the dining room and cross behind the chairs around the dining table to the western door. The dust is thick here, but Kragga is impressed by the fidelity of the meal that has been prepared here: it's more detailed and involves more senses than any illusion he's encountered before. Steam rises from the soups and the smells of the different foods are distinct as he passes them at the table. Joseph and Albertus inspect the door with great wariness, certain that the only reason for a meal like this would be as a lure for a trap. Kragga scans the room, listening for the telltale sound of a trigger being tripped, a mechanism activating, or just any sign of movement.

Steam curls from the dishes. There is no sound. Disturbed by their passage, dust swirls in the flickering light of the torch on the floor. The light gleams on the lower curves of the candlesticks where they are not furred with dust. In the back of his mind, Kragga files away the question of how many skin cells magically-preserved bodies would produce over centuries. Probably about this much dust...

Joseph and Albertus look, and look again, but they find no traps. They exchange a look; Albertus cocks an eyebrow, Joseph shrugs and nods. The knightly fellow boldly pushes open the door.

Moving to see around their own shadows into the room beyond, they see a dim, unlit view of what appears to be a kitchen: a fireplace at the far, western wall; a long table/desk with drawers along the south wall (by the door leading back to the hall) whose surface is scarred by preparing food; a long counter under suspended cabinets on the north wall, next to the base of stairs leading up; a floor-to-ceiling cupboard just inside the door they've just opened. There's relatively little dust here - most of it is in arcs where it drifted under the two doors (which suggests to Kragga that the two doors have been closed for centuries). From the doorway, they can't see what's on the other side of the wall on their left between them and the other door.How do they communicate to the others what they've seen? What is everyone else doing?

Ogbar pokes at the food with his dagger. It is solid, but the blade's tip sinks into the pork, releasing a bit of savory juice - it is astonishingly tender, as if freshly served, broken out of the clay that the Frozen Blood cooks wrap such meat in before burying it with coals. As with all the food in this part of the world, the aroma of the seasonings are strange to the barbarian, but the meat reminds him of the first Feast of Iceheart he enjoyed as a man, years ago. Kragga, leaning forward to look intently at the meat, intrudes upon that memory. It's certainly very mysterious. It doesn't seem to be an illusion, but why would there be a feast here unless it was a trap? In the back of his mind, the wizard continues trying to turn these conflicting facts over in his mind...if it is a trap, what is the effect? Is the food poisoned? But how would that be effective? What kind of an idiot could be expected to eat random food in a place replete with traps?

Albertus asserts his skepticism about the food. Aanbo and Theran agree that they will stick with the rest of the group. Maintaining her management persona, Xana nods her permission, and the three of them proceed into the dining room.

Seeing that Ogbar hasn't caused them to blow up and be skewered by poison darts, Joseph climbs up on one of the chairs, leans forward, and grabs one of the silver candlesticks. When nothing explodes, he grins and then hops down to the floor again. He lights the candle from Kragga's torch. Then Joseph creeps ahead into the kitchen, nerves jangling with the apprehension of danger. Albertus' talk of "all" being illusory has Joseph half-expecting to fall through the floor like they did in the front hall, and he slides his feet carefully forward. He arrives in the middle of the kitchen without incident and reports what he sees: "Yeah, this looks like a kitchen. There's a bunch of drawers here. There are stairs leading up, and behind this wall, there's stairs leading down."

Xana bustles into the kitchen with Joseph and starts opening and closing cabinet doors and checking drawers. She finds a lot of cutlery, various spoons, ladles, serving forks, baking pans, many jars of unfamiliar spices and what are probably herbs, and, in the tall cabinets between the dining room and the stairs upwards, a lot of vegetables and grains: bags of oats, flour, jars of honey, cherries, squash, carrots, radishes, onions, beets...the larder is stocked full, and all of the food seems fresh.

In the dining room, Albertus grabs a furry grey apple from a tray of fruit, leaving a bare, round patch free of dust. He wipes the dust off, revealing an expanse of unblemished, smooth red-and-yellow fruit. He takes a bite with a crunch that is loud in the room, since everyone is watching him with bated breath.

The paladin chews thoughtfully for a moment...it's a little more tart than he usually likes, but it's a very good apple. Theran and Aanbo note a distinct lack of transforming into a donkey or bewitchment to kill a queen or any such other ill effects. Al doesn't even turn green or purple, not even a little bit!