Zeal's Evil Campaign

[An Enemy Spy]

"Do you guys hear that?"

[sonofzeal]

Horace and Ugruk, you hear nothing except the normal city sounds. No screams for help or blaring sirens mark your discovery, and the house itself appears completely silent...

[Ascension]

"Your ears deceive you, gnome. Now let's go ahead and finish this job."

Horace pushes past the gnome and strides confidently down the hallway.

[Zarpasphankaris]

Ugruk shakes his head at the gnome

Yeah, I 'ave no clue what your talking about. You must be hearing things.

[sonofzeal]

The room is arranged rather simply. On the wall to your left (the east wall; you entered from the north) are two closed doors, apparently unlocked, and the table with the letters. Along the west wall is the third door and the staircase, and on the south wall is a window.

The colours throughout the room are muted and delicate, and the carpet is very soft, the kind that you instinctively desire to go barefoot on. On the wall above the table with the letters is a portrait of a serious looking man named, apparently, "Merin DeFoe". The date suggests it was painted at least 30 years ago, possibly more.

[Zarpasphankaris]

Ugruk looks around the room

Well. Where should we start 'ta look?

[SoD]

Amana

"Now we search the area, and hope he doesn't have it on him." she whispers, as she goes over to the portrait, and gently pulls the bottom outwards, to get a glimpse at the wall behind it.

[sonofzeal]

Peeling back the portrait reveals blank wall... but you notice a second portrait in the frame. Same man, same pose, but wearing a holy symbol of Nerull and vicious-looking ceremonial dagger, with a bookshelf of occult tomes in the background...

[SoD]

Amana

Taking the second portrait down, Amana gazes over it. "...well. That was unexpected. Looks like he may be deFoe of quite a few people." Carefully, Amana places the portrait back up, the way it had sat beforehand, and then moves to check the desk, quietly pulling out draws completely and checking inside the space leftover, before placing the draws back.

Spoiler

[roll=1d20+1[/roll]
If the space is a mess, she'll check the desk surface as well.
And shouldn't that be an unholy symbol?

Edit: bugger. For neatness sake, could you roll the search check for me?

[sonofzeal]

The desk turns up nothing, although it does appear to be substantially younger than the portrait. Indeed, on closer inspection it looks like most of the decor is no more than five years old, although the house is obviously much older.

[Ascension]

Horace leans against a wall, impatiently tapping his foot, as the others search the room.

[SoD]

Amana

"Nothing. Nothing worth noting, at least. Next room then, unless we want to split up to search the place?"

[sonofzeal]

As you talk in the foyer, you suddenly hear the creak of footsteps on the floor above you. The footsteps are light and spry, but still clearly audible to all of you.

[SoD]

Amana

Amana puts her finger to her lips, to indicate silence.

[An Enemy Spy]

Wrackspurt tries to hear what's going on upstairs past the infernal racket.

Listen (1d20+9)[27]

[sonofzeal]

The footsteps seem to hesitate for a moment, and then continue across. You hear a faint door creek, and then nothing.

[An Enemy Spy]

The gnome sticks his head out the window to see if there is one above it.

[sonofzeal]

You have to climb into the window frame and lean way back, but you can see a window up there. It's currently closed.

The backyard itself continues the rather spartan decor of the house. There's a second building back there, which looks like servant's quarters to you, as well as a pool and a few trees. The outside wall is interesting though - while solid and sturdy (and nigh-unclimbable) as ever, there are signs that it used to be much more ornate, and that it's been modified since to have all the stylings removed. You wonder why that would be.

Spoiler

To speed things up here, I recommend that you put conditional actions ("I do xyz, then IF abc THEN I also do pqr") or intent ("I do xyz, trying to accomplish pqr"). This will allow me to give more appropriate and detailed answers.

[An Enemy Spy]

Wrackspurt climbs out of the window picks up a rock and throws it at the upper window. The he loads his crossbow

[sonofzeal]

You wait a minute, but there is no response; judging by the footsteps you heard earlier, you suspect that DeFoe is in some other portion of the house.

[An Enemy Spy]

Wrackspurt throws his grappling hook at the now broken window and climbs up the rope

Climb (1d20+2)[3]

[SoD]

Amana

"And for those of us unwilling to climb, accompany me. Quietly, please." Amana quietly walks throughout the house, for another likely looking room, ready to draw her sword if need be...

[An Enemy Spy]

I think I'll just take 10

[sonofzeal]

Wrackspurt fumbles around trying to get the grappling hook to stay up. Despite his generally high levels of physical coordination, not having trained with grappling hooks ((no ranks in Use Rope; I rolled and it failed)) takes its toll. The hook on the end makes a disturbingly loud clank when it falls.

Amana, on the other hand, overcomes the stairs quite easily. She is greeted by a long hallway with a high roof, with doors on either side. The stairs appear not to go any higher than this; judging by the roof, there may be room for a storage space up there, but the entrance is not immediately obvious.