Adriena regains her composure, setting her jaw and and lifting her chin. She says to Malis, Ganthanor, and Gregory,"Well, I guess our 'spies' are checking the immediate surroundings for more of these 'things'. I wonder what the rest of you would like to do. I am of a mind to leave this building quickly and head for our destination. It is nightfall and we are best suited for night travel - in our current forms." She turns to Ganthanor and smiles,"My apologies for the sleep spell. I acted out of panic and fear. I will say this though, it gave the others a chance at some of the glory. Shame on you for trying to hog it all!" She gives him a playful slap on his armoured shoulder.

Ganthanor responds, "Forget it M'lady. No real harm done, just my pride. Shall we get to it?"

"I think it would be wise to move out of the area as soon as possible." Gregory says as he brings his hand up to his head for a scratch. "There's no telling what kind of critters will be attracted to this stench." He takes a deep breath through his nostrils and then exhales. With a twisted look on his face, "Nope...I don't think I should have done that." After blinking his eyes and swatting at the bug flying around his head, Gregory says, "What do you say, ready to move on?"

Ganthanor responds, "You are right. Let's go."

Aanparon turns back from the other room, deciding that he doesn't want to take the chance of running into any more of those black creatures without the party at his side to help defend him, and returns to the group to find them all headed for the door way. He falls into mass of the group as they reach the next room, once past the doorway they all see what Garth and Aanparon have seen themselves:

They see the main hall. It has a vast open-beamed ceiling and an open heart in the middle of the flor. There are several holes in the walls of the second-story rooms. The room is 40x40. Directly across the room from you are the stairs (NE corner, on east wall) leading to the second floor. To his immediate left there is a closed door. There are two windows on the north wall as well as one window (next to the main door) on the south wall. The smell of burnt flesh is very powerful in this room.

Adriena says, "I realize we are wanting to leave, but something has occured to me. If this is Lady Otasura's manor perhaps there are hidden passageways or rooms that contain some of her possesions which may be of some help to us. I suppose she would have told us and they probably took everything of importance-- if only to keep them out of Orc hands....hum. Well, it was just a thought. It appears that the orcs tried to find some hidden passages, or they are just overly destructive," she says pointing to the holes in the walls. "What a horrid smell!"

Adriena then begins looking around trying to find any human remains among the refuse, she works her way toward the shuttered window on the south wall but does not find anything that is identifable.

Garth's invisible snout wrinkles at the smell and he says in his whispery voice: "I'm going to try and listen at the door for the noise of any other, ah, undesired guests..."

Ganthanor moves across the room to the stairs and begins heading up, his ears strained to hear any sound, "I'll check the stairs folks." On his way up the stairs, he notices something out of the corner of his eye, turning he sees that in the rafters of the main hall there are three corpses, all three of which look half-eaten but additionally two of which are burned. Ganthanor also sees the glint of coinage and items in the rafters as well. None of the other party members notice, they are too busy looking around on the ground to look up.

Aanparon heads for the windows too, but stops short when he sees that the windows are shuttered closed.

Gregory stands next to Malis. Malis remains wary with her warhammer still out looking about the room, half expecting a creature to suddenly appear and attack at any moment.

Ganthanor moves back down the stairs just a tad and calls out softly, "Gregory... Gregory, in the rafters. Check the rafters. I see bodies up there. I'm still going to check out the upstairs. Also, it looks like there is some coinage up there too. I'm not sure though." Ganthanor then continues up the stairs carefully, listening intently, sword ready. As Ganthanor turns to head up the stairs, he gives out a muffled cry of pain as his left foot breaks through one of the wooden steps, gouging a long shallow cut in his leg. He is able to pull his leg and foot out and after a close inspection of the step realizes that it had been tampered with for such an effect.

Adriena backs away from the door to give the invisible Garth some room, even though unbeknownst to her Garth is across the room at the other door. She turns to face into the Main Room and gets her bearings on the party's whereabouts. Ganthanor is on the stairs, Gregory is trying to figure out how the bodies are secured and how he can get up to the rafters, Garth is [supposedly] listening for 'things' outside, and Malis is standing guard. She then moves to accompany Malis and speaks to the others, "Ganthanor, Aan. Perhaps you might wait until we get these bodies down? Gregory, are you a capable climber? I have a length of silk rope if you need it. I'll bet our good friend Garth or Aan could scale that wall with ease, though. It may not be of any use to try and identify the bodies, but I am curious. Not to mention money may come in handy - even if it is human currency. I think we should stick together, empty the rafters of their 'possesions' and then proceed upstairs together. Once upstairs , we can open a window and get a good look at the surrounding area and decide upon the best route to travel to the city. What about it?"

Gregory replies, "If any of you are expert climbers, by all means, climb up there and check it out. Aan? I'll stand below and catch anything you throw down. I'm use to climbing in my elvish body and not this reptilian one." Gregory walks to where Aan is, "Hopefully you won't fall this time," he finishes with a tight grin.

"I didn't fall, I jumped. I meant to hit my head on the floor like that. It kept me out of battle. You think I wanted to end up looking like Gantanor?" Aanparon replies with the same comradely joking. Aanparon then moves to the wall looking for hand holds, "Gregory, give me a boost. Famous last words, as I recall."

Ganthanor softly calls out, "I heard that! Besides, it's Ganthanor not Gantanor. You must have hit your head harder than you thought."

Gregory joins his hands together to give Aan a boost. "Up you go!" Aanparon gets a nice boost up from Gregory and slowly begins climbing up the wall. Due to the damage caused by the invading orcs, there is plenty of nooks and gouges in the wall to gain purchase. Upon reaching the rafters, it is much easier for Aanparon to move around. Aanparon quickly moves to the, for lack of a better word, nest in the center of the rafters. He can tell that the two burned bodies are orcs and the third is a human. As he loosens the cords that hold the bodies in the nest, and tries to figure out a way to lower the bodies, the two orc bodies fall straight to the ground. With a shrug Aanparon looks around the rest of the nest. He finds various belongings, including four human skulls, an orc skull, two shields, three daggers, a short sword, a silver goblet, four iron hoops, and some coinage. He quickly gathers the coins up to find 3 gp, 28 sp, and 21 cp--all in orcish currency. Aanparon is able to wrap the coins and other belongings into some of the cloth debris that makes up the nest and drop it to the ground. The only thing that remains is the human body.

Garth stands by the door in the northwest corner of the room and listens at the door, once it is clear that he can not hear anything coming from the other side, he stands and watches as the rest of the group do all of the work.

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