When Myna shoves the stone door inward, Flint’s torch reveals a large room.
As Flint rushes in, with Kayne and Morgrym following casually after him, a voice comes from the southwest corner of the room.
"You're not a dwarf."
Standing behind iron bars is a tall humanoid, strip to only his breaches, the stranger holds the bars with rough looking fists.
Flint looks at the caged half-orc, glances past him and looks around the room seeing no one armed, and puts his sword away a bit disappointed. He eyes the half-orc again. "Neither are you!" he says, almost as an accusation.
"How many weirdos are we going to have to run into before we find the rest of the soldiers?" Flint launches the question at the prisoner, as if he had any way of answering. Flint glares at him, and waits for an answer all the same.
"Stop talking and get me out of this cage before the damned dwarves get back." He strains against the bars, muscles standing out like heavy cords. "Must be a key around here. Hurry up."
Myna walks over to the cage and looks the half-orc up and down.
"Well those dwarves will not be coming back. Why are you in the cage? What did you do?"
What are you talking about, you don't need dwarves when you have this dwarf around.
Flint nods. "Gee, yeah. Calm down! I just took out a whole room of dwarvern bandits. Now, you aren't a maitenence soldier, and you probably aren't forbidden lore. I'm guessing you aren't a princess either. Who are you and why are you here?"
Kiril continues frowning at them until Flint speaks up. "Hah! Though he be but little, he is fierce!" He grins at flint, canines showing.
He offers a meaty calloused hand through the bars. "Kiril of the Iskurral Wolves. Sounds like we're here for the same thing--the princess."
An infamous company of sell-swords that recruit from Vayangurr and work on the mainland to the highest bidders. Known for their howling before battle and tight circle formations of axe-and-shield berserkers with strong pike-men behind them. They wear chain mail and heavier plates with furs around the shoulders, and have a reputation for drinking and taking whatever they want when they aren't fighting.
"Yeah he is!" Flint agrees, grinning proudly at Morgrym. Flint clasps hands with the prisoner.
"Anyone remember finding a key on those corpses?" he says, turning to the others.
"Let me take a look at those locks." Myna says while removing a leather pouch from his belt.
Open Lock (Tool):
Kiril laughs heartily, "And funny!"
As Myna works on the lock, Kiril seems to notice the elf for the first time. "Who's she?"
"Ummm..that's HE!!! And if you want these bracelets off, show a little respect!", the elf grumps while working on the lock.
With two small, flat steel tools, and a wood dowel shoved against the body of the lock, Niversal quickly has the lock open before you can say, Bob’s your uncle
The stranger, with his hands on the gate, suddenly feels the gate swing outward, and he is free.
The big half-orc breathes a heavy sigh of relief as the cage swings open. He hugs Myna (unless he dodges away). "He or she, I could f%&%ing kiss you. Now, there's a secret door there the dwarves were using to get in and out," he points at the west wall. "I figure they got valuables in there, or even better a few heads to split open." He grins toothily and goes over, trying to open the door like the dwarves had.
-Posted with Wayfinder
Flint suggests collecting all of the weapons off of the dead dwarves before reading them to be moved outside.
"We can store all of their weapons here in case we end up needing a spare."
As for the corpses, he doesn't like the idea of just dropping their bodies into the pit, and instead suggests hauling them outside under the sunlight at least. "If you've got any prayers or such, war priest, could be useful." he says to Morgrym.
Day 5, Tuesday approximately 9:50 am (turn 64, turn 5 of 6)
Kiril shows the strangers, who as yet have not told him their names, the secret door in the west wall.
After carefully examining it for locks and traps, the party is quickly through to the room beyond, which is a small room, with door in the wall across from where they came in. The group pause, looking about carefully, and are a little puzzled that the room is empty, but they notice a second secret door, in the south wall of this room.
Opening the secret door in the south wall reveals an even smaller room, only ten feet or so wide by fifteen feet. There are boxes stacked in this room, and all of them contain sacks of dried beans and lentils
The door in the west wall opens into a sort of north/south passageway, fifteen feet or so wide, with a gate, and a large cell at the southern end, like the one where Kiril was found. The cell is empty, but a new looking cot, made of wooden boards and heavy wool, sits against the far wall.
At the northern end of the passageway is yet another door, which opens into a room fifteen feet by thirty feet, with four also new looking cots, and desk and a chair.
Realizing they have explored to the ends of this area, the group back tracks to the passageway outside of the room where the bandits were encountered. It is here that Flint makes the suggestion that the bandits weapons be collected and placed somewhere safe.
Looking south from this location there are two more sets of double stone doors to the south, a pair on each wall east and west, almost directly across from each other, and then the passageway ends in a blank wall.
Myna – Inspiration: Y
Kayne – Inspiration: Y
Flint – Inspiration: Y
Kiril - Inspiration - N
"Well, if yer gonna use him as bait, yer gonna need a bigger hook." Flint narrates, speaking in a gruffer voice as he recites a story of his time on the ship to Kiril and anyone else who cares enough to listen, speaking as one of his dwarvern sailor buddies.
"Eyy, Flint!' they said to me. 'Go ahead and climb down to the anchor, y'hear? We're gonna tie ye to it and try and lure that beasty following us in. Y'good?' I looked them in the eye and said, 'Sure, just give me that sword first and we'll see who eats who."
Flint grins for a second, waiting for energy to build. "We feasted on the thing for a week! I still have no idea what it was."
Flint is clearly telling a well-embellished tall-tale, but there are some elements of truth in it.
During their search, Flint would have introduced himself to Kiril and said that he's primarily here to search for the Dwarvern Maintenance soldiers that disappeared. A rescued Dwarf lass named Gwendolyn was part of their number, but there are more still missing. "Any idea where they might be?" he says as he begins moving the bandits weapons into the room where they were hanging out. "We were expecting Goblins instead of dwarves, and dwarves instead of a half-orc. What a day."
Kiril chats as they search the rooms. "Who are the rest of you anyway? A man, an elf, a dwarf, and a halfling. Now a half-orc. Hows that for diversity." He chuckles.
He listens to Flint's story, grinning at the halfling like he's a circus curiosity. He laughs boisterously at Flint's bravado, and then even harder at the punchline. Slapping Flint's back heartily, "Well told! You could be a bard!" Either he believes him or doesn't care the story's embellished.
When Flint asks about missing maintenance soldiers, "Hmm. Only dwarves I've seen were the c%$+s that piled onto me after I got snared by a trap. Can't say I've seen any friendly ones since I went into his dark a!+%%~# of a 'palace'--you're not looking to rescue the princess?"
Once they are looking over the bandit's gear, Kiril tries out the axes and hammer, looking for something he can use two-handed.
He holds the weapon gingerly, as if handling a family heirloom. "Hmm. Not bad, not bad at all--FLINT! You say these were your kills? May I borrow this?" Kiril asks, surprisingly polite and even solemn. "Until I find something bigger," he grins apologetically.
The robed human crosses his arms and leans slightly on the mule behind him. "Kayne Aetherax, and this is Alighieri." He raises his gauntleted hand to gesture around. "How long did you say you've been here? And did you find out anything useful?"
"I'm Myna.", says the elf.
"You named your f!@$ing donkey? That's hilarious! Hope we don't have to eat the dumb beast," he chuckles, looking at the mule with a glint of hunger in his eye.
"Suppose I'm here for that too." Flint says, answering the half-orc. "But I was hired and have made promises to find the missing soldiers. I think they're supposed to be kept by the Goblins, probably, but I've yet to see any of the dumb little bastards."
Flint gestures absently, in a 'suit yourself' manner.
"Well, sucks about your gear. Feel free to hang out here and if we come across it I'll bring it back to you." He turns to the others. "Are we about ready to head out?" he says impatiently.
"I saw some double doors with your pointy ears' names on them." he says enticingly to Myna.
"Now, now, Myna's an elf, and he's more than just a donkey for us." Kayne shifts his weight and rests his hand on the hilt of his rapier. "But don't get any ideas about eating my mule. The notes he's carrying are doubtless worth more than any of our lives, except perhaps mine, since I wrote them. He's here to help carry things. Unless you want to do all the heavy lifting, carrying, and otherwise serve as our beast of burden?"
It takes him a moment to register Kayne's joke. "Oh, hah! The elf, I get it."
Kiril shrugs to Flint, "I'm not gonna sit here while you lot have all the fun. Let's go."
Myna will move down the south and examine the 2 sets of stone doors.
Perception(East):
Perception(West):
An obviously disgruntled dwarf will follow the Orc, Knife-Ears, and Dwarf-Friend. He doesn't particularily care where the Asses Ass is.
Assuming Myna mentions that he thinks he heard a noise form the East door (from discussion), Flint presses one hear up against the door with a huge, eager grin on his face.
Listening even closer to see if he can hear anything else, Myna waves the others to silence as he listens.
Perception:
Kayne sighs and comes along with the others, temporarily leaving Alighieri behind in the "safe house" they've set up. He should be fine for a little while at a time, and I shouldn't need any of the notes for now. The jars might be nice, but I can make do.
Day 5, Tuesday approximately 9:50 am (turn 64, turn 5 of 6)
At first trying not to be distracted by the prattle behind him, Myna places his head near the doors on the east. It seems all is quiet, but then he hears a snort, and a faint snore.
Just then Flint moves up and listens as well, and when he hears the same snore, he looks right into Myna’s eyes and gives a knowing nod
Listening once more, Myna closes his eyes, and moves his head near the joint between the two doors, and yes, he can hear the unmistakable sound of at least two men snoring.
Flint's grin widens as he hears the snoring men.
He looks to Morgrym and gives him a nod, and then takes his place ready to open the doors together.
Kiril waits with arms crossed while the two listen at the door--then finally loses his patience and charges in, howling with his weapon raised.
Once everyone is ready, Myna will quietly open the door. Before that, however, he will check it for locks or traps.
Perception:
Before Myna can give a proper signal, Kiril is pressed to take action!
To Kiril’s surprise, as he shoves the stone door open with his shoulder and bellows a challenge, talking a quick step into the small room, the dwarves he sees, sleeping on thick wool blankets thrown on the floor against the far wall, do not stir from their slumber.
In fact, there are four sleeping dwarves in this room. They are dressed in similar attire as the bandits encountered earlier. They sleep in a line against the west wall, while in the south of this small room, there are a pair of large wooden chests.
With Kiril pushing past, Flint smiles and drops his torch.
"Alright!" he says in response to the half-orcs enthusiasm. He looks around with confusion, scimitar drawn, as he notices the lack of reaction from the sleeping dwarves.
"The hell? Hey! Wake up!" he shouts at the dwarves.
Kiril hesitates, confused, then walks over and checks them for weapons, looking to disarm them.
Kiril sees that none of these dwarves has any weapon ready at hand, though one of them does have a small knife tucked into his left boot.
Flint and Morgrym shout, even kick at the sleeping dwarves, which rouses them normally.
At first the dwarves are groggy, rubbing sleep out of their eyes, pulling cotton stuffing out of their ears, and grumbling such things as
Oy, you said we’s could sleep today
And
Wa the hells, we just laid down
Then they realize you are not their friends, and that you are armed, and the four dwarves immediately throw up their hands and say
We give up. If you let us go, we’ll tell you whatever you want to know
Flint swaggers in front of the group of surrendering dwarves. "Good! Because we've got plenty of questions for the lot of you! YOU!" he says, pointing to a dwarf at random. "Why are you so ugly?" Grin.
Myna just shakes his head and tries to hide a smile that creeps upon his face.
"I'm not going to kill you, you're not even armed," Kiril says with disappointment. "You know where the princess is?"