Thorn and Sizhen pull into the dark room above. There is a torch laying on a floor covered with foul droppings. The stench of ammonia is overwhelming. From the floor, the torch casts light but also menacing shadows in all directions.
Thorn and Sizhen are shocked when they see the bats that Bryn had warned about!
note="Xorthan,lenpelletier,Oxbox"]Summary:
*Huge (2-3 fist sized even with wings tucked in sleeping) demonic looking (strange wings, claws, long sharp proboscis) bats hanging on a variety of brackets bolted haphazardly into the walls and ceiling. Dozens of them.
*2 monster sized winged creatures near the north door. 1 is a giant bug like creature with bulging eyes, clawed appendages, hair, and long sharp snout. 1 is a mega-sized granddaddy bat similar to the others but with a huge maw and teeth. Horror show material.
*A pivoting iron tree-like bracket with bells hanging on it. A cut rope hanging off of it.
*A chain linking to the floor/ceiling door panel, chain leading out of a small port near the north door.
*North door closed. West door closed and bolted with cross brace bolt. South door completely permanently barred with wood. *Two indented window openings east, completed shuttered and boarded close.
*Bryn is to the north, near the bell tree.
OOC: On the map,
"Palace Upper Level 1st Floor", this is room #7. I hope you can see how it corresponds structurally to what I describe above, but as normal now the decor is nothing like the picture
Below is more description, trying to save time by just cutting what I wrote to Ox in first description by two separate notes, if you want more to reflect on. Update to that: Bryn has cut the rope to the bell tree apparatus. The rope from through the north wall is now gone, only a small length remains tied to the bell tree itself.
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Hanging high, from bars and brackets bolted to the high on the ceiling and walls of the upper room, Bryn sees rows of large bats!
They are larger than most other bats Bryn has ever seen, the size of two or maybe three stacked fists even with wings tucked in. They hang there in deathlike still slumber, their sickly pale flesh and course rugged hair fully visible in the basking glow of the torchlight. Long shadows cast out behind them, swinging back and forth as Bryn moves the torch. There are dozens of them!
Bryn cannot see the entire room, but he is looking to the south. Since the shutter panel pivots on the north, he cannot see the northern view, but he suspects that some sort of chain mechanism is connected to the top of the door panel and pulls from the chain which is likely routed from a northern direction.
Straight south is an indented threshold of a door. It is closed and has several boards nailed across it, suggesting that it is no longer used for entry.
To the east (Bryn's vantage left), Bryn sees two indentures with heavily shuddered windows. One seems completely boarded, the other is not, but it is unclear if it is operational for opening.
To the west (Bryn's vantage right), Bryn sees a heavy wooden door with iron braces. It is not boarded, but is soundly closed with a pivoting cross-bolt board thrown across it and firmly set in an anchor bracket.
Bryn holds his composure to look once more at the beefy bats. He sees that they have strange multi-armed wings, large cupping ears, and nasty snouts on them, long and tubular.
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Now with better vantage on the whole room:
* There is a north door. It is closed, but no interior cross bolt bar like the west door.
* There is a chain mechanism that routes to the floor panel door. As predicted, it seems to come through a port in the wall, somehow rigged to the chain in the hall below in all likelihood by way of pulleys outside past the north door, would allow a chain puller below to open the floor panel door here.
* Besides the chain, there is also a heavy rope line that comes in and is tied off to a huge tree-like iron frame of hangers. Attached to the hangers are dozens of....bells. On the opposite side of the rope, hanging from the front of the hanger structure - a sizeable lead weight. Like a counterweight? At the base of the iron bell hanger structure: two hinge pivots. The apparatus is leaning forward and still, but looks like it could be pulled back by the rope, pivoting back, but then likely would fall back forward upon release due to the front loaded counterweight.
Deductive reasoning: oh shit. Is there some rope back at the lower exterior hallway that routes up to this rope? Something an attendant could pull, ring a shitload of bells, and awaken this fearsome looking flock of clawed long-snouted sucker bats?
* The most horrifying of all, there are two huge mega monster winged creatures in the northern side of the room previously not in view:
1) A slightly varied version of the other bats, but huge, about the size of a great Dane dog. It hangs upside down separated from the others. Instead of a proboscis, it has a huge terrifying maw with an oversized jaw and a wide spread of teeth. It is horrible looking.
2) Sitting high on a shelf near the north door is a mega-sized fly-like insectoid creature. It is crouched and not moving, but it is unsure if its large eyes are open or closed. It's bug wigs are tucked into skin like covers on its back. It has hair-like strands on its head and back. Its limbs look large and stout, tipped with claws. The upper appendages almost seem like arms. It also has a long snout proboscis protruding from its face like a sharpened piercing tube mouth. This horror show creature is about the size of a beefy calf or a large mountain lion. Holy shit!
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