"I don't know. He went in and never came out. There's a gnome in town, very old, and she claims it was part of Tula Belhaim's castle." She mulls Temperance's offer over, then shakes her head. "I'll give him a few days to show up first. Right now, I want to know more about these kobolds, and why the Tower fell."
”I didn’t know that about your husband,” Huc offers weakly, realizing there is little to do about it now that the tower is in rubble. ”We’ll find out what we can.”
He’s about to turn to leave when a thought occurs to him. ”On the off chance that there is someone in there, or that we get hurt exploring in there, does the town have any healing items we could take with us? It might make the difference between success and failure.”
"Xemne's Tonics sometimes has healing potions for sale, or you can talk to Lady Eupaphenia at the House of Abadar or Nilos Genser at the Shrine of the Seven Roses."
"Mn. We can do that. I do wonder how many have entered and not returned, and if any did return with stories. What does not return may sometimes be rescued, or at least brought home." Master Temperance appears to be in agreement with Arien regarding the purchase of healing potions.
"If one of you think you can talk a merchant into lowering their prices, I say go for it." He shrugs skeptically, "I don't have much coin to add to the effort, though."
Reading the moment, Huc nods and looks back towards the rubble. "Welp. We're burning daylight, and if there is someone in there ... they'll need our help quick."
He looks to his newly-formed group, "Y'all ready?"
A small crowd remains gathered around the rubble of the collapsed tower. Only fragments of the first and second floors still stand. Black stone and broken wooden debris lie scattered down the hill's southeastern slope, forming something of a ramp leading up to the tower's second floor (or what's left of it). The front door, a slab of rusted iron, is still in place in the doorway.
Huc heads towards the tower and—once at the rubble—moves towards the front door. As he walks, and once they're out of earshot of the locals once more, he calls quietly out to the team.
"Any of you good with doors and locks?" He pauses to take a look at the door itself, looking for any kind of dangers, "I really don't know what to expect in here."
Huc, it looks like the door should open inwards. There's no sign of a trap.
Huc pushes the door open.
he yells inside, "Hello?! We're coming to help!"
The door does not budge more than a fraction of an inch, despite Huc's best efforts. The grinding he feels through the door as he shoves suggests to him that there is likely to be a very large pile of rubble on the other side.
"Why don't we just climb the rubble up to the second floor. Most likely a ton of rock in the way here?"
It looks like the rubble ramp could shift under an unwary ascender, but if you're careful it shouldn't be too hard.
Huc gives a few short whistles, and Fynn pads along behind him as they approach the rubble. Without much effort, both woodsman and mutt make it up at the door, checking it for traps and such.
If things are safe at the top, he looks down at the group, "Anyone need a hand? I have some rope."
"Yes, throw down the rope, so that we don't wind up bruised from folly," says Temperance.
However, the good monk falls even with a rope.
Master Temperance scrabbles and can't make any headway, but manages to hang on to the rope and not slide down the ramp.
There's no door on the second floor--some of the walls have given way, and the only remaining part is an exposed upper floor open to the sky. Huc sees a trap door set in the floor, but one of the roof timbers has fallen across it.
After helping the team up and reeling the rope, Huc points out the trap. ”Watch that.” He looks down the hall, specifically at the soft-footed half-elf who’d been keen on scouting around earlier. ”You wanna take point? Or should I?”
With a bit of time, everyone manages to get up the ramp. There's only one partial room remaining here, and it looks like the trap door is the only way to get down into the rest of the remains of the building.
When the team is up, Huc tries to clear the debris from the trap door. Wth a little ingenuity and his rope, Fynn is even able to pitch in.
The beam weighs around #100, but Huc and Fynn are able to shift it over enough that the door can be opened. Revealed below is the entrance hall. Apart from the light coming through the trap door and a few stray gleams around the edge of the iron door to the south , the room is dark. It appears that the tower's large ground floor has mostly collapsed, but along the western portion of the room a section remains clear of debris. There is an iron trap door in the floor directly below you. Shattered wooden furniture lies scattered around the bodies of two more kobolds.
Huc, now sweating through his beard, stands aside to let Arien take point. "You'd think." He shrugs broad shoulders with a grin, "Then again ... I never gave much thought to the thoughts of kobolds."
He looks back down the row of rubble-explorers, then back to Arien. "I'll keep them moving safely. You just find us a safe passage down."
Then he gives a pair of quick whistles to Fynn, pointing at the half-elf. Fynn pads quietly along with her without hesitation, defending her from threats.
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With grace, somehow the cripple has no problem whatsoever with the climbing.
The only apparent way down from the ground floor is through the iron trap door. Oranna has no trouble seeing at the moment, Arien and Master Temperance are doing all right, but once you get down into the room Huc is going to be at a disadvantage in the sight department.
"Anyone need a light?" she says while clicking her finger in a snap. Sparks of fire kept from them before disappearing in the air.
Huc’s own light—some kind of heatless flame coming from the edge of his big lumberman’s axe—springs into existence moments after Oranna’s light. He grins at her, ”Yes, but I brought one, too. Anyway, I thought orc-blood let you see in the dark.”
He stands ready to follow Arien’s lead, should she decide to take point. Flynn waits patiently, mismatched eyes ranging the broken room for threats.
All of you make it down to the main floor without incident (though it's a good thing that Fynn is well-behaved, as given his lack of thumbs it was necessary to lower him by rope). There's the pile of rubble in front of the main door, which looks like it would take some time to shift. There's also the iron trap door in the floor.
Opening the trap door reveals a steep ship's ladder leading down into a room .
From above, you can see the wall the ladder is affixed to, and a large space around it that you can't see the extent of from above. There are bits of masonry on the floor that seem to have fallen from the ceiling, but the ladder feels sound enough to descend safely.
Huc looks down into the darkness for a second, then shrugs over at Arien. "You want me to go first?"
"I think...hm...no," says Master Temperance.
With no response from the team, Huc recycles the rope into a lowering rig for Fynn. He hands the trailing end to Ariel. "When I get down, lower Fynn. Then come on down."
He slings his axe over his shoulder and climbs down into the darkness, which is pushed back by the heatless flame.
Once at the bottom the stairs, Huc and Fynn take up a defensive position while the others descend.
Fynn gets to the bottom of the ladder and immediately begins whining. Huc can clearly hear and not-so-clearly see something moving in the further reaches of the large room.
At this point, Arien, Master Temperance, and Oranna are still at the top of the ladder.
Round 1:
Initiative order
Arien
Huc & Fynn
Oranna
Master Temperance
Foes
"As the great philosopher Li Po once said, 'the thieves could not steal the moon from the window of my hut'," says Temperance as a non sequitur. It appears strangely inspirational, though.