Mandras and the boys eyed the run-down manor as they approached it. At one time, it must have been splendid, with its columns and patios; now it looked just plain tired.
The party walked around the place, looking in the windows for signs of life or treasure – there was little of either – of course. A well in the back yard held the hint of something slithery and shiny in the bottom, so they left well enough alone.
Mandras offered to scale the wall up to the 2nd floor terrace and drop down a line, but Rarder preferred to use that flying sword. As he got up there, he disturbed a gaggle of stirges roosting in the ruins of the attic. They were dispatched rather quickly and the party clambered up, then moved down to the 2nd floor via a trap door.
Yes, quite the past glory as they passed rooms with mouldy walls, rotted beds and broken-down closets. In one, they found a small Hold Person spell in a chest as well as 4 gems hidden under the floorboards. Eventually, they came to a bedroom with huge cobwebs along the south and west walls and a chimney that must certainly hold the spinners. Mandras tossed a torch into the chimney. Sure enough, 2 giant spiders charged forth, already on fire. They didn’t even reach the party. Someone poked the bed in the middle of the room and everyone was horrified to see 6 giant ants come out from beneath, but they weren’t hard to kill. Konrad, annoyed by the intrusion, overturned the bed and found two large fissures beneath, which were hardly reassuring for the stability of the manor. A check of the fireplace gave nothing more than a piece of shiny fool’s ore…
Doubling back to avoid the main stairs down, the party descended to the ground floor kitchen, which seemed empty bar some smell of roasting whatever…. In a side room was a set of copper pipes going into the walls and a stairs down, which were ignored for the time being.
Exiting the kitchen into a corridor, the party took the west door into a dining room. Local wildlife struck again as a giant weasel took a large chunk out of Konrad, before it too was put down. In the meantime, in a fit of curiosity, Juttery, still in the kitchen, opened the pantry, to be promptly bitten and poisoned by 5 large centipedes. The latter were also squashed to a pulp before the party exited to the garden to lick its wounds…