Play@YSDC

"Good show!" cheers Clive. "Hey, Mike, you're good with tools. Maybe you can use this one to jam the gears so we can grab the bolt cutters safely. Just keep your head down!"

Mike will try to jam the mechanism.

which roll ?

Jack looks momentarily disappointed as the skellie explodes. He races away from the blades and then sits sulkily pulling shards out of his skin.

Mech roll to jam the mechanism (1d100=61) - Success.

Let me try
Mike struggles with the mechanism and manage to jam it.
Yeah, I did it.

The mechanism jams temporarily, allowing Mike to pull the key loose before it shudders back to life, dislodging the tool.

"Well done!" says Clive. "Let's get that trapdoor open now!"

Jack bounds over to the trap door and attempts to open it.

The trapdoor is padlocked shut.

Mike will need to use the key.

Mike opens the padlock with the key.

The trapdoor heads down quite a way past brick walls. It would almost be like climbing down a chimney considering how narrow it is. It isn't too narrow for Mike, at least, though his shoulder might brush the brickwork if he isn't careful. It's the charnel stench that comes up from the rooms below that are a problem, however. It's quite an ominous smell. There seems to be a faint reddish glow down there, though, and a slight draft of heat. The metal rungs aren't scorching hot, though, so it'll probably be all right to descend them. Heat rises so if there were a literal fire raging down there, well, no one could grasp any of the rungs to descend, could they?

Clive peers down the hole. "Let's go down!" he says. "I know it smells bad, but it's not like there's anywhere else we can go. We worked so hard to get this far, we've got to find out what's down there."

What is this place ?
Mike wonders
The entrance to this place was hidden in the cellar, weird.
Let me take the lead, stay behind me

Jack cheers up. "Down can only mean better!" He says obtusely. He brings up the rear.

They travel down the long passageway for so long that it must be a hundred stories at least (or maybe five) and the kids' arms ache a little with the careful exertion. As they reach the bottom they find themselves stepping out of an old-fashioned hearth and into a brick kitchen similar to the last one but there is an open fire over hot coals where the table used to be that charred suspiciously shaped logs whose ashen scales occasionally peel back with a blast of flame to reveal cooked meat beneath. There's an archway that leads out of this room, leading down a corridor lined with open fireplaces that sit raised a foot above the ground and give this place its unearthly heat. Upon a table lies three stones, pale like ice, and above them lay the words: "It that tames the burn."

"I wonder what would happen if we put one of those stones in the fire?" says Clive.

Mike is looking for a poker. that might be useful as a weapon. If none found, he will try to search for something else.
Someone is living here ... be alert.

Clive nods and looks around the hearth to see if there are any tongs.

Jack wanders around the room, humming a little ditty. "Looks like it could be a fun experiment, young Clive." And he watches the younger boy with fond amusement.

There is no poker but there is a pair of heavy tongs half sitting in the fire and glowing red.

It's heavy, iron and looks like it would pack a wallop.