The Party: The manor's second floor and basement

Morning came with muffled goblin grunts and screams of frustration. Bait try hard to force his way out of walls, but dey too thick. Not able to twist or contort self into any position that would allow him to turn around and slip back through the hole.

"So what do we be doing about this?" Illaria asked the group and Bait.

"Bait have no choice, go forward. Boldly find new creepy crawlies to bake into cheese. Find rest of you later," he said as he crawled his way forward through the crowded walls that made his chest hurt.

"Well, you heard the goblin; he'll catch up to us; we just have to get exploring," Mavec said as he put out his cigarette on the wall, grinding the lit end against the rough wooden walls.

There wasn't a mechanical sound or anything else. They walked through the halls of the first floor, securing each room and trespassing on a place time had forgotten. There wasn't anything of real note. They could pilfer some silverware if they were common thieves, but that wasn't the case. Everyone present had no desire to steal from the dead.

The upper level was much like the bottom but with decaying floorboards. Some rooms were only accessible briefly before it was too unsafe to proceed. They found no sign of life on the second floor. Returning back to the ground floor, they convened in the foyer.

"We've been all over the house, haven't seen any sign of Vato yet. Think it was a bust?" Naya asked.

"Possibly, but we haven't found the entry to the basement yet," Alvec stated.

"Are we sure there is one?" Illaria asked.

"Yeah, there's clearly cement leading down into the earth. So there should be one somewhere. Can you guys get your animals to sniff it out?" Mavec proposed.

Echo and Rem responded to the question, sniffing at the ground. They rewound their way through the first floor till they reached the kitchen. Underneath one of the tables was a trapdoor the group had missed earlier. It wasn't hard to see why they had skipped it; the smell of rotting food and mold lingered well after both were gone. They pushed the table out of the way and pulled up the trap door.

A set of steep, sharp stairs descended down. Once upon a time, this must have been a wine cellar. Many bottles still remained in their racking. Likely turned to vinegar. The group descended below the house. A long hallway was in front of them, and doors were branching into other rooms. Outside the racks lining the walls, there wasn't much of note here. Bare stone floors and stone walls. Further down the hallway, coiled upon a spring, was what looked like a metal sphere with a knife sticking out of one end. A strange metal band with arcane markings stretched around its midsection.

The arcane symbols lit up as the group approached, blazing an angry red. The metal sphere sprung up at the group. Illaria drew her blade and parried, yet when her blade came slashing back down at it, the runes shifted color to blue, and her sword slid through it harmlessly. At the same time, it phased through a solid wall, leaving the group alone in the hallway.

Alvec rushed to the door. He grabbed its handle, and a jolt of electricity sparked through him enough to make him recoil his hand in pain. If it had been anyone else, it would have seriously hurt them. To Alvec and his devil's blood, this was just an annoyance. He grounded himself better and grabbed the handle again, pushing the door open. The strange construct leaped up and stabbed at him, but Alvec slammed it backward with his mithril buckler. "Don't let them get away." If they're scouts, we want to stop them now." He grabbed a vial of acid and hucked it at the thing. The thin glass tube shattered, spraying its sizzling green contents over the construct. As much as Alvec was well rested, the presence of constructs below ground encouraged him to conserve his spells.

If Vato were here, he would undoubtedly have a robust last line of defense. One that would require more spell usage than fighting one springy construct with a knife beak. Illaria rushed in, cutting the creature off. She swung her sword, which found its mark, and put a small gash in its polished bronze sphere. It sprang back at her, digging its blade into her shoulder before vibrating and phasing through the next door. Alvec again grabbed the door, and another shock coursed through him, this one less powerful than the last. The second he opened the new door, the one which led back to Naya, Mavec, and Echo was closed off as an entire wall moved to block their path. There was no way but forward for Illaria and Alvec.

Naya pounded her fist on the wall, now separating the group. "Are you guys alright?" She shouted.

"We're just fine; keep going forward; maybe we can be finding a way to meet up with you further on," Illaria shouted back.

"Mind the door handles; they seem to be electrified," Alvec hollered back, his voice muffled more by the distance.

"Naya, look alive; we got another one of those spring-based constructs," Mavec said as he pointed down the hallway. Sure enough, another one was hopping on towards them. "Piccora, engage," Mavec said as he pointed Piccora at the enemy. The metal rabbit rushed down the hallway, and as it did, a plume of thick smog roiled up from some slots in the floor. The rabbit's mechanical red eyes glared through it, casting a sinister image to anyone able to see it. Mavec laughed. "Gotta do better than that, Vato; a little poison gas isn't going to hurt my Piccora!"

Naya wrapped a piece of cloth around her face and nose, hoping to aid in not inhaling so much of the likely toxic smog Piccora had triggered before rushing in. She swung hard and fast, landing a solid strike as she zipped by it. It bounced up and down and stabbed at her shins; the knife bit into her leather armor and went through it. She grunted in pain and swung at it with her other sword as it vibrated away. "These things are hard to land more than a single hit on," Naya complained. The second orb slid through the wall. There was no obvious way to reach them.

Illaria and Alvec were suddenly fighting as the one Naya and Mavec had sought to attack joined the fray. It stabbed at Alvec and very narrowly missed. The blade glanced off his ghostly blue mage armor. He focused for a moment, calling upon the powers of abjuration. He forced the field of energy out of himself.

Illaria felt as if a pleasant, warm breeze had swept all around her. Her hair seemed to float just a bit as if riding a non-existent wind. The look of concentration on Alvec's face convinced her it was the wizards doing. Emboldened by his support, she struck again; another solid blow to the creature had it recoil for a moment before springing hard at her. She parried the knife and tried to sweep her blade into it in retaliation, only to find it again phasing out of reality. "Damn, these things. Alvec, can you do anything about them phasing?"

"Not in the slightest. This is more Mavec's wheelhouse than mine, and we're on the other side of the wall from him," Alvec said as he whipped a dagger to his hand with his tail and swung at the unphased one. His blade glanced off it harmlessly. He cursed a bit. He was fast for a wizard but clearly needed to work on his aim more.

"Piccora, rush down the hallway; I want to see what we're dealing with." The clockwork rabbit dashed straight down the hallway, kicking off two more blooms of toxic smog. As she reached the end of the hallway, the chamber was flooded with light as a ball of fire exploded above her. The rabbit slid calmly out from underneath the explosion of flames untouched. "Guys, this place is REALLY trapped. I'm beginning to think Vato is actually here now."

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Illaria again struck at the construct, her Wakizashi scoring a clean and deep gash through the center of it, slicing through the belt of runes around it. Sparks shot out in a torrent as it sprang away from the pair. The runes on it flickered, and it failed to escape as it had the last few times. Illaria and Alvec struck at it, their blades in tandem, landing hits on it. It spun to the ground, clattering and clanking as it skidded down the empty room, the light coming from its runes flickering out for the last time.

"Got it!" Illaria shouted. The remaining one stabbed at her again, springing up over her head and trying to drive the knife point at her face. The magical barrier Alvec was providing slowed the blade just enough that Illaria slid back out of the way. The construct seemed to summersault before her and spring back for another attack. Alvec moved forward again, moving to flank the creature. It was much easier to strike at a creature attempting to dodge blades on both sides. He'd do what he could to support Illaria's efforts if he couldn't land a blow himself. With its options of egress cut off slightly, Illaria's blade found purchase on the construct. It was a solid blow, but this one had joined the fight more recently and was less damaged than the first. It vibrated again and slipped through the wall.

Alvec rushed towards the one visible door. A click on the floor beneath his feet triggered another trap. Vials of acid above his head shattered, and the caustic substance rained down on him. An ordinary tiefling would have found this very distressing, but Alvec was an abjurer, and between that and his devilish blood, he was resistant to all of the major four elements. Fire, frost, and electricity, his blood protected, acid was by virtue of his studies. He reached the door and was greeted by a familiar shock as he spun the brass doorknob.

Piccora raced down the small hallway, once more triggering a gas trap. As she rounded the corner, however, she clicked another one. Deadly electricity pulsed out of the ground. The clockwork rabbit made several sounds of distress as the electricity hurt it much more than it would have any of their other companions. Mavec recoiled from the sudden flood of distressed information flowing through their connection. "Get off the electric plate and wait for me to get to you. Let's not take any more risks." Mavec shouted ahead of him. Piccora backtracked just a little bit to the safe ground. At the same time, Mavec, Naya, and Echo slowly advanced down the hallways Piccora had already set traps off in.

The traps, Mavec noted, were a mix of recharging and one-off traps. Some of them could present a danger to them, given enough time for them to reset, but for the most part, they wouldn't need to worry about setting these off on the way out. When Mavec reached Piccora, he scooped her into his arms and kept her there. A quick glance was all it took for him to know that she was at about half integrity or less. He could fix her, but if she took another hit like that... he wouldn't be talking about fixing her... he'd be building Piccora 2.0. Echo lunged past him and bit at the orb on a spring. His teeth managed to grab the runic band, and he pulled hard, tearing a chunk of it off. The whole thing flickered. It sprang back and thrust its knifepoint at Echo, scoring a wound on his left leg. Naya followed up a moment later and, with a swirl of her blades, brought the construct slamming into the ground inert.

"I think I killed it," Naya shouted as Alvec and Illaria emerged. The group took a moment to take a look at their surroundings. Now that they had the time to look carefully, the traps they hadn't already sprung were pretty easy to spot. They searched the space for a few minutes turning up nothing. Alvec couldn't help but feel something about this space was wrong. It seemed smaller than the construction of the first floor.

"Mavec, hey, I think we might be dealing with a false wall here. Any suggestions?" Alvec asked. Mavec brought his hand to his chin and rested it there. Now that Alvec had brought it up, the dimensions down here didn't make sense compared to the main floor. If Vato came and went this way a bunch, there would have to be a mechanism to shift it. Likely a pressure plate or a hidden wall switch. The only thing to do would be to search where they felt it most likely existed.

"Naya, can you and Echo go back above us and stomp on the floor in every room? When we hear you distantly, we'll know we're in the right location." Mavec stated.

"Sure thing, sounds easy enough." She and Echo went back upstairs, and moments later, they all heard the first thump. This process lasted a few minutes as they followed the sound of her footsteps. Eventually, the three in the basement stared at a wall and heard a distant thump.

"Alright, everyone, start searching; there's got to be something here," Mavec said as he got down on his hands and knees and started examining the floor for a pressure plate. It took a few minutes, long enough for Naya and Echo to return downstairs, before Illaria eventually found it. Depressing a stone in the wall caused the whole thing to lift lightly and shift to the side, revealing a room and a giant tunnel.

"I thought we might find something like this," Alvec said. "He was a strong wizard, meaning he'd have access to spells like shape stone. No telling what we'll find beyond this." Mavec stepped forward, his foot crunching onto something right away. He moved his foot and bent down, plucking a single iron scale off the ground.

"Well, one thing we might find is that Iron Cobra. I hope it wasn't able to get refilled with poison," Mavec said.

The group marched down the hallway, Mavec turning on his headlamp to cast enough light for himself and Naya to see.

"I could do without the lamp, but It's very exhausting to borrow the eyesight of other animals magically," Naya said. "I can only do it for a few minutes daily, and we don't know how far this tunnel goes. Seems like a waste."

After several minutes of walking and descending, they found themselves in front of a large, sturdy set of double doors. Two more spherical constructs stood before them. These ones lacked springs or knives. Instead, they had what looked like two long, thin dual blades attached to a pole sticking out of its top. The two constructs flared to life. The twin blades on their heads began to rotate, lifting both orbs off the ground.

"Fuck that's cool," Mavec whispered under his breath. Another issue appeared in front of them. A moving shadow Alvec recognized as a slithering ooze, a big gulp... except this one was much larger than the last one... a bigger gulp. Noting the small space under the door, the ooze could slip through and their lack of damage; Alvec grinned as he settled on something very dumb and brilliant.

"You guys handle those constructs; I've got the ooze." He carefully adjusted his bandolier, which was full of alchemist fire, and charged in. He took a deep breath and jumped into the ooze. He had to fight the magic of his boots, which tried to right him as he fell. No, he wanted to hit the ground; he needed these all to go off as quickly as possible, and the only way to do that was to take a spill. He plunged into the extra-dimensional space, maybe ten feet, before striking the bottom with his chest first. It was enough force to shatter some of the vials and start a chain reaction. Twenty vials went off, and his resistance protected him from almost all of it; two were potent enough to give him some minor burns. He'd taken more damage from the fall, to be honest.

"What the fuck?!" Naya shouted from above.

The ooze was none too pleased. The whole thing began to rumble as the several vials of alchemist fire continued to burn its insides. As suddenly as Alvec entered, he was ejected out, the force of which slammed him into the ceiling and then plummeted to the ground.

"I think I bruised a rib," Alvec said as he clutched his side and scrambled back to his feet. He glanced down to see the ooze quickly shrinking. He let out a sigh of relief. None of them were going to be taken down by this thing today.

Illaria and Naya were already engaging the flying spinning spheres. They'd each taken a few hits, but no one was too wounded. The sound of a musket roaring to life brought the group's attention back behind them. Bait stood triumphantly, wielding his gun.

"Bait live, Bait eat more cheese! Make new cheese called Trapped in a wall with nothing but spiders cheese." His bullets quickly clipped the bladed wings and brought both spheres crashing down to the ground, where Naya and Illaria could quickly disperse them. The goblin was covered in a thick layer of dust and grime. To anyone but Bait, his trip through the walls of this abandoned manner would have been literal hell.

"Damn it, I wanted to study the design," Mavec said as he looked over the broken and battered constructs.

"Alvec, what the hell was that about?" Naya asked as she stomped up to him.

"A calculated risk," he said. The wizard pulled out the wand and treated himself with it. "It dissolves its prey by using a weak acid. I resist acid. If it sealed itself off, I'd likely be able to kill it before I suffocated. If it slipped under that door, and we couldn't open it soon enough, anyone else devoured by this might die. It made sense, even if it seemed really dumb." Alvec assured her. It made sense in the way that life-or-death situations do.

"You couldn't have just lobbed the alchemist fire into it?" She asked.

"Had to be sure they detonated. Best way to ensure that was to go down with them," Alvec reassured her. The group used their healing wand to shore up their injuries before heading to open the doors.