Mandraiv comments, "A shame we don't have a barrel of lamp oil. As it stands the only safe bet is that he's gone straight to Bargle. Probably the best thing to do right now is to see if we can plug the hole."
Mandraiv looks around the room to see what he can see.
Mandraiv searches the throne room for a bit. The most obvious item of value is the throne itself, which sits on a small stone dais along the room's eastern wall. The throne is carved of wood with numerous colored stones in it. Most are worthless glass, but a few seem to be real topazes worth 500 gp each. Other than the throne, there is very little of true value laying about. The chief, or one of his retinue, must have been a trap builder, for there are numerous half-finished projects laying about, along with a sheaf of crudely-bound paper with numerous charcoal sketches of trap designs on it.
The weapons of the kobolds all seem to be quite ordinary and quite poor in quality.
There are five other exits to the room: two to the north (one of which leads to the guard room you've already visited, two the south, and one to the west. The now broken door you came in through lies on the eastern wall.
Mandraiv takes some of the trap projects and tries to jam them in the hole the chief went through in order to plug it. Then he says to the group, "Let's check out the other room to the north we haven't been to yet."
Mandraiv checks the door and the area nearby it for traps and carefully checks to see if it is locked.
Oso laughs out loud as the chief slips out under the table.
"You coward not chief. Run little rat, run. We find you if you stop running!" roars the Garundi. "I need a rest ..... and food. Rest and food so I can make scars."
The warrior leans against the table, blood dripping from his last wound. He shakes a little with the rage bleeding away.
Aredhel carefully cleans her blade and then slides it in her scabbard. She examines Oso, and then glances at the bolthole.
"Now is not a good time to stop. The chief has no doubt run to Bargle. If we wait a few hours, then we invite an attack on our own position." Her tone is uncertain; Oso is clearly in need of rest.
"I still have some healing within me, but my abilities are running down. '
Cure Wounds on Oso:
Mandraiv checks the door and the area nearby it for traps and carefully checks to see if it is locked.
Mandraiv says, "If we are to rest we need to either find a spot in this castle that is more defensible than this room or leave the castle entirely. I think the first alternative is better. What do you all think?"
Aredhel nods. "Agreed. Let's find a defensible room and set up camp."
Mandraiv replies, "How about the small room on the first floor near the top of the stairs?"
Mandraiv replies, "How about the small room on the first floor near the top of the stairs?"
Oso shakes his hand at Imsh and waves away the healing. He closes his eyes while the rest decide what next. Waves of tiredness fall through his body.
"Just a couple of hours...."
Mandraiv says, "Well, I don't feel like carrying Oso that far. Let's block off the busted door with some tables and try to relax. Hopefully the kobolds will leave us alone."
"Sounds like a good play. Let us catch our breath so we are better prepared for whatever welcome Bargle has planned for us!"
He helps to move the tables and such over to the door Oso "opened" and will stand watch there.
Aredhel nods, and moves to help Imsh block up the door.
About an hour into your rest, you begin to hear movement from outside the doors of the room. You can't be sure, but you're guessing it's the kobolds. They seem to be moving about quietly outside, but never get too close to the room you're currently holed up in.
Aredhel gratefully bows her head to Imsh when he offers her healing, and when he's finished casting, gives him a rare and winsome smile of gratitude.
Thereafter, she remains on patrol, moving from door to door to stop and listen intently, attempting to divine the kobold's plans, and pre-empt any outright attack by giving her compatriots warning.
Mandraiv takes advantage of the short rest to recover his spell slot.
A few hours pass with no interruption and you feel refreshed.
Aredhel never stops pacing, her hand open and closing on the hilt of her sword. Finally she turns to the others.
"Who wants to wager the kobolds have created a number of traps while we rested?"
Mandraiv replies, "I would be disappointed if they hadn't. Does anybody have a preference for which way to go?"
Oso smiles gaily at the superficial cuts and bruises that have healed under his dark skin. Only the big one at his hip still exists. He barely notices the way Aredhel paces and positively rubs his hands together at the thought of more fighting.
However when he stands again, the Garundi is still weak from his door smashing rage. He wipes his face and shakes his head.
"I be weak as kitten so no more doors breaking down. Sorry."
Imsh claps the big barbarian on the shoulder.
"I hope we do not have to break in anywhere else for awhile. We may need to slip by some pesky kobold traps, however!"
Mandraiv goes to the door he had been checking out before Oso got everybody to take a nap. He ensures that the dead fall trap rigged on the party's side of the door has been disabled. He says to the rest of the group, "I don't know what's going to happen when I open this door, but we need to be ready for anything. Don't stand directly in front of the door."
Mandraiv waits until everybody is ready and then follows his own advice. Standing to one side of the door he removes the bar, and then opens the door with only his hand in front of the door while he does so. He holds his pact blade in battle axe form in his other hand, moving his free hand back away from the door as soon as he can.
Aredhel positions herself so that she's on the others side of the door from Mandraiv, greatsword held at the ready.
The door opens without any seeming problems into what appears to be a kitchen. A large fireplace stands in the north wall of this room, with a spit over the open flames. A mostly eaten carcass of what appears to be a dog hangs on the spit. A small shelf next to the fireplace holds a few kitchen impliments and doors open to the east (back into the mustering room where you first attacked the kobolds) and to the west into the unknown.
The rooms seems otherwise unoccupied.
Oso waits for the scouts to lead off and then grabs a dog leg to munch as they all continue.
Mandraiv alters the form of his pact blade to a glaive and carefully probes the floor as he moves cautiously into the room and looks around.
He then moves to check out the door to the west.
Mandraiv checks out the room and the door to the west but can't find anything unusual on either. The door to the west is locked.
Mandraiv changes his pact blade into a longsword and sheaths it. Then he uses his thieves tools to try to unlock the door.
Aredhel follows close behind, her elbows flared, both hands on the hilt of her greatsword, whose tip almost scratches the ceiling.
Although he is not successful the first time, Mandraiv manages to unlock the door after a few tries.
Mandraiv stows his thieves tools and draws his longsword, holding it in a one handed grip. He moves to one side of the door and prepares to open it. He says, "Nobody should be directly in front of the door."
Once he is satisfied that everybody is in a reasonably safe spot, Mandraiv opens the door.
Mandraiv pops the door open, momentarily revealing another guard room (similar to the one you first fought the kobolds in). A split-second later, a large plank, studded with sharp, rusty metal spikes slams down from the far side of the door, right about at the level where the warlock's head would have been had he been standing in the doorway.
Once everyone has recovered from the surprise, a quick inspection of the room reveals it to be a small 15'x15' chamber with a door in the south wall and a corridor heading further west. A single table with chairs, all sized for kobolds, is set up in the middle of the room. A single squat wooden flask sits on the table, but the room is otherwise empty.
Mandraiv goes to check the door out. First he looks for traps.
Then he checks to see if the door is locked.
Mandraiv's heart sinks when he hears an audible "click!" as he steps through the doorway into the guardroom. Simultaneously, a heavy blade slices down through a false door lintel. The warlocks jumps out of the way at the last second as the blade comes crashing down onto the flagstones of the doorway. ,
Mandraiv takes a moment to catch his breath after he narrowly avoids the trap. He turns to the rest of the group and says, "This sort of thing could get annoying after a while."
Mandraiv alters his pact blade into the form of a glaive and carefully probes the floor in front of him as he enters the room. Assuming nothing too much out of the ordinary happens he will again try to check the door to the south.
Mandraiv checks the floor in front of him, but fails to locate any other obvious traps. The door to the south seems to be unlocked.
Mandraiv changes his blade back to a longsword and sheaths it. Standing to one side of the door, Mandraiv cracks it open a little bit and uses a mirror to check the room out.
The doorway to the south opens into a hallway that travels for 10 feet before dividing in a t-intersection. Two doors can be seen in the branching hallway, both heading further south.
Oso follows nervously watching the walls and ceiling for the next danger. He goes to speak more than once but decides not to distract the scout.
Mandraiv closes the door to the south and remains the the guard room. He says, "Let's go ahead and check the corridor to the west out."
Mandraiv reforms his pact weapon into a glaive, and carefully testing the floor ahead of him starts down the corridor leading west from the guard room.
Mandraiv finds and disarms two more crude traps in the corridor to the west, ones that were obviously quickly put together while you were resting. The corridor ends after only 10 feet, branching north and south. The southern one travels for only five feet before ending in a door, while the northern one quickly opens into a 10'x10' room. A nest of some kind in located in the northwestern corner of the room, and Mandraiv can hear some kind of scuttling in it. The room has only one exit, a corridor that continues north.
Mandraiv says to the group, "We've got some critters in a nest here. Haven't seen what they are yet."
Mandraiv advances to 10 feet from the nest trying to see what's there. He holds his glaive ready to attack at that distance.