The in the roads does not appear to have been disturbed since the rain previous day, as such the villagers footsteps are baked into the dried mud. With a little sniffing around you find that all the tracks in town seem to lead to the shrine, and then they all seem to go, en masse, to Waelvur's Wagonworks. Instead of going inside the building or gathering around the wagons the tracks lead to a single cellar door around back of the shed.
There does not appear to have been any panic or disorder, the villagers simply marched down into this cellar. Opening the unlocked door reveals not a cellar but a tunnel.
The tunnel is muddy and slopes down. At the bottom of the entrance sits a small cask filled with sand. There don't appear to be any unusual sounds or smells coming form the tunnel. The floor of the tunnel has been tramped down with a few hundred footsteps.
Hm.... They appear to have gone this way. We must be carefulTorith looks around. Suddenly, he closes his eyes, and lets his other senses do the work.
"What do you suppose could cause the entire population to go down there?" Azayzel looks around at the party, "As odd as it seems, I can't help but be curious. As there doesn't seem any sign of answers up here, shall we venture forth and see if we can solve this mystery?"
"We'd best get on with it."
Hedge looked around for a post to tie his horse to, then dismounted and went to the "cellar" door with his new friends.
Could be some form of attacker, probably using magic as there doesn't seem to have been any fighting, maybe they were taking refuge from something powerful - or could be something of a religious nature - perhaps there's some sort of shrine down there?
Celephix will fall into formation behind the others, and provide light via 'dancing lights' if required.
You head down into the dark tunnel. Most of you have darkvision (sorry dragonborn), and lights are provided for the rest.
You head down the dark tunnel and follow it for some 200 feet. At it's end you walk into a wide, irregularly shaped cavern with a floor of smooth bedrock. The walls are made of damp dirt, with tree roots protruding here and there.
The muddy footprints of the townspeople lead to the east towards a stone slab with a rusty pull ring in it. You can see from the mud that the slab swings open like a door and the people walked through it.
You inspect the door and find no sign of danger, you press your ear to it and hear nothing beyond. When you are ready you carefully pull it open and find a further tunnel. Sixty feet ahead you can see that two stone reliefs of stern dwarves in chain mail carrying battleaxes have been carved into either side of the tunnel. Once you get to look at them you can see that they are also doors.
You can go through the dwarf to the north, the dwarf to the south, or continue east along the tunnel.
Hedgerow paused at the relief sculptured dwarves. He was curious what may be behind them but waited for other members of his group to chime in before taking any action.
A quick listen reveals no noticeable sounds coming form either the north or south stone sentinel. A further 60 feet down the hallway there is a stone door sitting slightly ajar.
Torith slowly walks up to the door that is slightly ajar, shield leading the way. He whispers to the rest of the party. Im going to kick down the door in three. 3...
Torith slowly walks up to the door..[/ooc]
Ashi frowns at the extent of the underground passages, looking about the large cavern as they pass through.
She stops and examines the dwarf-carved doors, commenting to Hedgerow, "Is this your people's work, Hedgerow?"
She also tries to note where the people of the village went, by the muddy footprints...
The druid shrugged.
"Couldn't tell ye. Been on me own since I was a boy. Before then I was on the road most'a the time. I'm not a dwarf's dwarf."
"I will be happy to investigate whichever direction these two..." Pointing at the Dragonborn barbarians, "decide to go." As he notices Torith beginning a countdown he ducks behind Ash and watches intently as he waits for him to reach "1".
Torith heads east down the hallway towards the slightly open door and the rest of you follow not far behind.
Before he gets there, however, you all hear the rattling sound of a chain and ceiling behind you, just east of the dwarf doors, collapses.
Only it turns out that the ceiling was actually the floor of a 10 foot cubed iron cage that completely blocks your retreat. The passage is 10 foot wide and there's 50 feet between the cage and the open door.
Torith and anyone directly behind or beside him must make a dc 15 dexterity save. Danger Sense will apply.
Hedgerow ducks, rolls and manages to avoid the falling cage. Do you want to be west of the cage, where those party members who elect not to roll will find themselves? Or East, separated form the party, but closer to the eastern exit?
Torith manages to leap out of the way of the dropped cage. He rolls, then leaps up, looking to see if anyone is trapped inside.Is everyone ok?
Ashi curses and rumbles as the cage falls, catching her unawares... "I am unharmed....but a prisoner, it would seem."
"What it the world caused that! Is everyone alright?"
As the iron cage tumbles down the thin plaster floor cracks, leaving Ashi caught within. Torith is east of the cage, Celephix, Azayzel and Hedge are west of the cage. The whole thing looks like this.
No sign of Valik and Thorin, I messaged them, but if you are reading this and want to jump in just let me know.
Initiative.
first up are Hedgerow, Celephix and Ashi.
Well that's an inconvenience. Torith can you check that door - see if there's any way to secure it while we see if we can shift this thing.
The corridor is 10 feet tall. The cages are 10 feet tall. You can see that there is a space, at least 10 feet tall above the dropped cage where the undropped cages hang. There is no mechanism out here for raising or lowering them. The cages do not have doors or any kind of lock. They can be lifted, or the bars can be bent, by a strength check.
Ashi grabs hold of one of the bars and after a moment of gathering her strength, begins to attempt to bend it out of alignment....
Ashi heaves and the bars bow a little bit, they bend an inch or so either way but, frustratingly, they do not go far enough to allow her to squeeze out.
Torith hears a jangling of chains coming from through the door and then the ceiling over top of himself and also the rest of the party come down.
Everyone make dc 15 dexterity saves.
The druid once again managed to barely jump out of the way of the falling cages.
"What the devil's goin' on?!"
Hedgerow dives back, out of the way of the fourth cage.
Torith attempts to leap out of the way of the falling trap, cursing as he does so. Why so many traps!
Torith pulls off a second duck and dive, and rolls through the door.
On the other side of the door, standing by a bank of levers is a half-orc with a stunned look on his face.
It is not azayzel and Torith's turn.
Frozen with confusion, Azayzel's fumbles as he is not sure what to do with the onslaught of so many unexpected actions. "Looks like we are going to need a different plan, than just casually strolling through." Looking around, "Once again, everyone ok? How you doing over there Ash? You able to force your way out?"
Torith, having managed to avoid both traps, walks up to the half-orc. Why are you here, and why are you setting traps on us?
Ashi looks from her efforts , at Azayzel "I am trying..."
She re-doubles her efforts to bend the bars ,
Hedgerow bounds back from the second cage to try and capture him. He is now free in a stretch of hallway with one cage between him and the previous room and three cages between him and the next room.
Azayzel and Celephix are trapped together in a cage.
Next Ashi is trapped in a cage. the bars are slightly bent and as she tries to bend them further she is less successful then before. A frustrated fury begins to build in her belly.
The next and last cage is empty.
In the next room Torith interrogates a half-orc who has been trying to capture you all. Dumbfounded the half-orc does not respond he casts his eyes to a wooden club sitting by a stool next to the door. The nhis eyes go to the door on the opposite side of the room.
Having a second to look around Torith notices that the door he just came through has a peephole in the middle of it, granting a clear view of the hallway. In the center of the room an eight-foot tall rectangular stone stands upright. The stone has an inscription on it that's hard to read from a distance.
At the foot of the standing stone a small human is pinned face down by rocks placed atop his arms, legs and back.
There is no light in the room, but the light you brought into the hallway shine dimly in here.
Round 2:
I'll re-roll initiative, since there was some confusion previously.
So in round two Grund will be going first and you will all be left to follow, in whatever order you please.
The half-orc looks at Torith in his armour and shield, with his battleaxe. The half-orc is just wearing simple clothes, and his truncheon is apparently lying by the wall near the door. He promptly takes off running away Torith towards the door on the opposite side ofthe room He goes out the door and begins to shout "Baragustas! Baragustas!"
from there you may all act however you like, and in whichever order you prefer.
Torith runs after the half-orc, and shouts off behind him Keep trying to break out! Hedgerow, try to see if you can get past that cage!
The chamber with the half-orc was 25-foot by 25-foot carved from stone. The one that Torith follows the half-orc into is a 50-foot by 50-foot chambre hewn out of rock. The floor is rough but flat, the walls show the chisel-marks of the original builders, and the ceiling is about ten feet high. Identical stone doors with iron pull-ring handles stand in
the middle of the east, north, south and west walls(where Torith is coming from). In the center of the room stands a life-sized and lifelike statue of a dwarf warrior wearing a chain shirt, helm, and big boots. He carries a shield on his left arm and a battleaxe in his right hand. The statue has clearly been broken into, roughly, the head and upper torso, lower torso, and legs. These pieces have been reassembled and held together and upright in a stout wooden frame. A dagger along with several coins and gems lie on the floor in front of the statue, surrounded by an ring of fine gravel.
Seated on a low stool by the south door is older Tethyrian man. He seems shocked to see the half-orc. As Torith enters the room the half-orc points at him and tells the man. "That's him Baragustas!" The man is obviously terrified to see Torith.
Why were you setting traps on us...?
The man points to the door to the east and tells the half-orc. "Go, get them!"
He then falls to his knees. "Please, I didn't know what they were doing. Please don't hurt me."
I... I won't hurt you. We're trying to find out where the villagers went
"Let's see what tricks the dark one shares with me." Azayzel reaches up and flicks the uniquely designed earing.
"Facio, Voco, Ferre."
Holding onto the bars, Ashi begins to emit a low, low rumble. Her fists
squeeze the metal tighter and tighter, the muscles on her arms and shoulders bulging.
With a shout she heaves mightily on the cage...
Raging, 1 min, advantage Str save/checks
@Torith. The man throws himself to the ground. "There in there!" he points to the south door he was sitting by. "I didn't know, I didn't know what they were going to do! I wasn't involved!
@Azayzel. Azayzel cannot cast mage hand on the levers because he has not even seen them. The are on the wall beside the door. Only torith knows they are there.
Something does happen however, the bars of the cage that Azayzel and Celephix are in begin to glow red-hot. A fiendish creature appears in the space next to Azayzel, it's arrival brings with a stench of brimstone and dry, hot air.
"Pitiful slave, you allowed yourself to be caught? In such a childish trap? Maybe I should cut my losses and harvest your soul now!" The creature grabs the iron bars surrounding it, pulls them towards it and spins, throwing the cage east down the hallway carrying with it the cage holding Ashi and the empty cage blocking the entrance to the room at the end of the hall.
The east end of the hallway is now clear of cages. The three broken and melted cages lies in a twisted heap in front of a stone plinth in the adjacent room. There is now a high-pitched screaming and crying, as though from an injured child coming from that room. The fiendish creature is nowhere to be seen, only the stink of sulphur remains.
@Ashi. Ashi summons up the strength to bend the bars in her fury, but it's too late as the demon destroys all three cages.
@Hedgerow. The bars of the cages are 10 inches apart, a small creature could probably squeeze their way through, but not a boar. A creature such as a rat or a snake could do it, even if they were medium, because of their body shape.
The half orc takes off running through the eastern door. Full withdrawal. The man Baragustas begins to grovel before Torith, blubbering about how he didn't know, and it wasn't him, that sort of thing. He also tried to grab onto the Toirth if he is allowed to. Not in a hostile way, just a pitiful begging for mercy kind of way.
You may all act as you wish, in whatever order suits you.
