"It is not my intent to store anything dangerous, Lord Burne, Just some extra funds and books that aren't fit for travel. I believe you may find them interesting as well, as part of your studies? I would be happy to share them, again, but I would need to be present as well, all things being fair." He smiles.
An agreement seemingly struck Musami will place 4700 orbs worth of coins into the wardrobe for safe keeping.
Of course. Permin, calling to one of the guards from the entry hall, Please show these gentlemen to the ward room below. Allow them to use the spare armor closet for their needs. I am entrusting you to be their liaison should I be unavailable.
Turning to you both, I hope this will be satisfactory. I would show you myself but as you can see my people demand my attention. We have most of our patrols out tending to trapped livestock and swamped farmlands, trying to aid everyone with recovering from the storms. If you would excuse me kindly. He gestures to the pair and they move towards a small room off from the main hall. Lord Rufus stops at the door, Good luck on your return to the moat house. If you find the bandits you have the backing of the crown and my leave to put an end to them. They forfeited their rights the day they took up arms against the kingdoms. May Saint Cuthbert watch and protect you.
With that Lord Burne closes the door and leaves you standing with the guardsman Permin. The guard seems ready to show you to the ward room, if you are ready. Good sirs?
"That is most gracious,Lord Burne. We shall endeavor to provide proper justice."
After Burne leaves, and Permin is ready:
"Thank you, Permin. Please, lead the way."
Fil is placing the spare spell books and all of the orbs he has except 100 into the wardrobe. He keeps his other coin on hand. He also places his arrowheads into the wardrobe, as he'll not likely be crafting anything anytime soon.
"Will you always be the guard, Permin? Or will others have this duty if Lord Burne is unavailable?"
Permin leads you down a set of stairs, past the kitchen level, past the larder and well room, stopping on the lowest level, containing the ward room, the armory, and a small empty holding cell. The wardrobe does not have a lock, but a wooden frame is affixed to the inner door, holding a long thin sheet of white wax. A carving stylus hangs from a long cord next to it. Permin indicates you can notate what is yours and press your mark to it, to verify your belongings. Only the guards and his lordships are allowed down here. Even the militia and town council are refused entry without the lords' say so. Your goods'll be quite safe down here.
The middle aged soldier waits while you place your goods on whichever one of the five sturdy shelves inside the tall cabinet. While I might not be on duty, I do live here in the tower, as do all the Lord's guards. Lord Burne's Badgers we are. I'm usually on daytime guard at the front hall Sundays through Earthdays, and every second Starday of the month. If I'm not here it's likely his lordship will appoint someone else if otherwise detained.
Braggi, after recovering from the initial surprise at Lord Burne's crew's efficiency, leaves a bag of 2000 orbs in the wardrobe. "I have no signet..." Then he presses two of his knuckles against the wax, leaving a mark that only a hand exactly like his would fit. "There" he says, showing how it fits.
Navith opts to store his funds at the Church of St. Cuthbert - 150 orbs in all, keeping back 67 on his person - he pays ahead for a week of stabling for the three beasts he now apparently owns, and storage for the wagon.
Something about Lord Burne does not sit well with the Pelorite - perhaps an inbuilt distrust of arcanists, or perhaps an equally misplaced distrust of titles - so Navith does not attend the interview at the tower. Rather, he stays at the Welcome Wench, alert to the fact that the party's every move is being watched, interpreted, and just possibly, manipulated. Navith's tastes run toward the frugal, and he does not drink liquor, so while his repasts are simple, his appetite for information is not.
Unable to bring himself to properly ingratiate himself with the friendly drunk, Navith nevertheless keeps an eye out for anything of interest.
Navith notices nothing unusual during his time in the main room of the inn. The various people who come and go are either life long residents of the town or travelers working with the caravan stopped over in the communal field.
From the window he watches as a tall, lanky individual stops at the smithy across the street, poking about the forge and tools a few times before picking up a heavy bucket and lumbering away with it, towards the castle construction on the far hill.
Not recognising the fellow, but knowing Musami has some dealings with the smithy, Navith will mention the small event to Musami when next he sees him to make sure the lanky man had a legitimate errand to run.
Zokama refuses to put anything magical in storage. She'll wear it or put it in her bag of holding instead. All the mundane items that they haven't bothered to sell can go in there though. She also keeps out the few gems and the necklace that they haven't appraised yet.
There will be a short time period during the day that Zokama could visit the moneylender's shop to have the items appraised, if desired.
Zokama examines some of the smaller treasures to determine their value:
She also looks to see if she recognizes the pendant as the symbol of some group.
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Zokama looks over the small gemstones, noting small occlusions and chips which would lessen their overall value, making them out to be worth maybe 3, maybe 4 plates each. They are likely more valuable as mystical components than as ornamentation or trade currency.
The necklace on the other hand appears to be a bit more intricate, older, and well crafted. The pendant does not appear to be something holy, not matching any current church icon she can recall. It is however finely made, very detailed and ornate, and of value beyond the raw materials involved, easily worth 50 plates on the market, perhaps a bit more to a collector of antiques.
As Zokama is putting the mundane items in storage, she cleans and fixes the things that are broken with a prestidigitation or mending spell as needed.
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Mundane items at minimum value is fine and doable, at least for any item which weighs less than 4 lbs.
Thank you, good Permin. Is it okay if we take our leave?. Fil asks. Musami, Bragging, I believe Navith is waiting at the church. Was Zokama meeting us there?
He follows Permin to where they are allowed to leave on their own, then to the church to begin the journey to the Moathouse.
Musami follows Fil out and heads to the tavern. Before he goes inside he glances at the forge, visually checking on what he can see through the doorway.
Assuming Zokama attended the tower alongside Fil, Musami, and Braggi Permin escorts the four of you back up through the tower and to the main doors. Good day sirs, ma'am, best luck and the Mother's own sweet kiss protect you on your journey.
Musami finds the forge is empty, no one has dropped off anything for work but the dwarf does notice the bucket of nails is missing.
Upon entering the main hall the smithy notices Navith sitting at a table by the window, nodding in his direction. Musami is able to call to Fil, informing him their companion is not at the Church, before he gets to far up the road towards the bridge.
"Excellent! I was afraid that we would be meeting at disparate locations. Are we all ready to set out?"
Fil is ready to get going, assuming we have had the day to prepare and we are on the morning after.
After reuniting all together, Braggi's humour gets a bit better. They are surely a varied and weird crowd, but with the different capabilities each of them can put on a fight, there is certainly a good chance to save the day.
"Let's do this, crew!" he says out loud, remembering his sea faring days.
The next day appears only slightly less gray than the past few mornings. The air is cool, a slight breeze blowing out of the south east, carrying with it the smells of the marshes long before you reach them.
Ostler Gundigoot promised the inn would take excellent care of Navith's mounts until your return. Tomi was finally back to the forge, but attempted to avoid "noticing" Musami, his head hung in shame, almost obscuring the black and purple bruise swelling shut his right eye.
It takes nearly three hours to reach the familiar fork in the path, splitting the new road from the old, and turning away towards the moat house. The small copse you sheltered in only a few week previous has nearly returned to normal since your last visit. The track is considerably muddy, making travel a bit slower than your last excursion.
You are a half hour longer to reach the moat house, the sky remains dry, though a rumble or two of thunder weakly sounds off to the south.
Musami looks about on the track ahead, beside the track and in the undergrowth. He is looking for signs of passage since the party last traveled this way.
The recent rains has heavily washed over parts of the track, making it difficult to tell with any certainty which ruts and tracks might be recent, and which were left by travelers passing along the track days ago. It doesn't appear any tracks remain on the side trail which leads to the front gate of the moat house.
Musami juts his chin at the trail to the moat house. His knuckles go white as he grips his light hammer tightly in his right hand and his shield in his left. The beard-rings in his beard swing with his motion.
As Musami leads the group towards the moat house something in the swampy bog off to the right startles the birds nesting high among the the cypress, ash, and maples making up this part of the marshland. Whatever it is appears to be digging around behind a gray tupelo tree about thirty or forty feet off the roadway. Listening closely you can here a strange SOUND . Bits of dirt and mud fling about as it does so.
Whatever the creature is, the birds above are calling and chirping loudly at it, though it doesn't sound to be reacting in the slightest.
Zokama quietly moves closer with her bow drawn to see if it is something she should shoot.
She doesn't do a very good job of sneaking however. :)
As Zokama moves forward her boot gives an audible Shloop as mud sucks at it briefly, resisting her movement. One of the loudest birds overhead gives a half caw, cutting off midway, the rest of the birds going silent. A thump follows, then a moment later something the size of a small dog goes rushing off further into the swamp, rustling tall weeds and snapping willows. Aside from the brief flash of a pale green, scaly serpentine tail, you fail to get a good glimpse of the odd beast.
Zokama continues to move forward to see what the creature was digging at.
Zokama finds the creature was digging at a small nest burrowed into the twisted roots of an aged tree growing from a small clump of marsh grass. Several eggs have been cracked open and devoured by the creature, bits of tiny embryonic snakes ripped and splattered over the nest.
A small crawlspace extends deeper below the tree, partially collapsed upon itself. Laying amid the muck and mud is a strangely shaped rock, a rough, gravelly and triangular, reminiscent of a wedge, or perhaps a wing.
Zokama alerts the group to the crawlspace and picks up the rock to examine it. Perhaps a scale?
If shown, Fil will examine it.
Otherwise, he will be on the alert for other dangers, his bow drawn and knocked.
Zokama and Filnefillan determine the stone is actually a wing, a bird's wing to be exact. They came to this strange conclusion after Zokama found the rest of the stone bird, broken in pieces on the ground on the other side of the root nest. It's rough and rocky condition appears to be the from the strong calcified nature of the stone itself.
Why it came to be there is uncertain, or how it connects to the depredation of the serpent's nest.
Fil casts Detect Magic on the whole bird, as well as thinks of any process or creature that could cause it.
Braggi grows a bit impatient. "Hey! What's happening there?" He tries to spot, and will probably walk there a bit to see if there's anything wrong.
Filnefillan determines the shattered, though mostly intact, stone bird is not magical, nor currently under the effect of a spell.
As to what might cause a stone to become shaped like a bird, dwarves and gnomes come to mind first, followed by perhaps human craftsmen.
As to what might cause an otherwise normal bird to be changed into rough granite or calcified stone, stories abound about creatures such as medusae, gorgons, cockatrice, and basilisks.
From the fractured nature of the stone bird, Filnefillan has little enough evidence to determine what exactly occurred in the brush. A small creature was digging into this snake's nest, but it was scared away by Zokama's approach.
"Nothing at the moment, Braggi. There are legends of things that turn other creatures to stone, I am perhaps a bit paranoid on that fact. "
He turns away and back to the road, lost in thought about the history of the area and any of the magical creatures being know to the area in recent or even more dangerous history.
"Let's keep going so we make it before nightfall."
Continuing ahead another ten minutes you find yourselves before the fallen gates of the moat house. The warped drawbridge is still in place, slick and swollen from the recent rains. The previously stagnant and algae filled moat overflowed it's banks nearby, making passage over and into the moat house slightly treacherous.
The courtyard beyond the gate appears much as you last viewed it, though more than a couple of the deep ruts have become pools and puddles of muddy water.
Musami will approach the moat house, weapons and shield raised. His mouth is a grim line beneath his beard as he concentrates on moving across the drawbridge with care (so as not to slip) and avoids making too much noise as he approaches. He doesn't try to sneak, but doesn't want to be a clanging, banging, stomping one-dwarf cacophony.
Navith listens attentively as Fil and Zokama examine the stone bird. The priest likewise searches his mind for legends and myths of stone magics, but gives up momentarily - his training in the temple too ardently focused on battle and quashing the darkness of evil with acts, not history.
As the party approaches the moathouse Navith's face is grim. On the Meadow, visibility was forever and cover little. Here, inside a building and below, in catacombs? The Pelorite likes not the dark, nor dank.
Fil will scan the walls and battlements for signs of movement or early warnings. He has his bow drawn with an arrow knocked.he follows behind Musami and Braggi, being very careful on the bridge, waiting for them to cross before crossing himself. In the event of a gnoll sniper or worse.
He even looks in the moat itself for something to crawl out from under them.
The look of grim determination, as well as a tinge of fear, sits on Fil's face. He is obviously not happy to see this place again.
please let Toruk and even Xaod be okay.
Your group crosses the court yard and climbs the steps leading into the structure. Nothing appears to be moving among the ruined outer wall, partly collapsed tower, nor what remains of the battlements.
Crossing the threshold into the main hall Zokama and Navith get their first look at what the others have visited a few times now. Little has changed save a few puddles of water near the walls, rainy runoff and leakage from the ruined rafters above.
In the dim light from the open double doorway you can see the room is roughly 30' deep by 50' wide, angled along the south west to southern corner of the room. Along the western wall to your left a hallway disappears back west which still faintly reeks of excrement and waste. A similar passage heads south just off to your right. The small alcove sheltering stairs down is shrouded in shadows on the western edge of the northern wall. The eastern edge holds the damaged door open from before, the brigand's bunk room beyond.
The interior floor is still covered in wind blown leaves, ruined furnishings, and only a few scant traces of the rat swarms defeated before. It would appear the vermin multiply like rabbits and made a few meals out of their fallen and cindered kin.
A close look to the floor shows a build up of new rat tracks and an odd boot print you don't recall from before. The tip of the boot is cut off abruptly, just before the point the toes would alter the impression, as though the front of the boot was missing, or perhaps curled upward and preventing it from touching the floor. Very strange indeed.
Fil casts light on his bow and will maintain this as needed. Speaking softly, he asks: "Musami, Braggi, do you want to go to the cellars where we lost Cedryk? That is where Toruk and I detected the fiend. Or we could try to hide in one of the ruined towers and watch for something or someone to come out and interrogate them. Navith, are you prepared with Pelor's light? Zokama, please help me keep an eye keep an eye on the ceilings for a weird, greenish ooze. If you see it, we must burn it, it is quite dangerous."
I suspect our footsteps will betray us to those below. We might as well head down, but lets make sure the rooms up here are clear first.
Musami and Braggi spread out quickly, looking over the room while Filnefillan refreshes Navith and Zokama regarding the band's last foray into the moat house, mentioning the dangers of dripping purple-green slime from the ceiling down below, the elongated corpse eaters which devoured alive one of the captives, the strange mind touch calling out from deeper below the ruins, and of course the zombies and gnolls which had defended the place the first time they went below.
Musami returns from the southern hall indicating no one had disturbed the dead snake aside from the rats, his skin crawling slightly as he heard them scurrying away inside the walls.
Braggi mentions the rats as well, and that the strange boot print had inspected the western hall, along with the brigand's lair, but came and went not from outside but rather the cells below. It doesn't appear the intruder approached or noticed the small secret doorway from the brigand's lair, which you learned last time leads both outside to the moat, and to a still disused stairwell down to the unknown. Dust's still thick as a rug and untouched from before, no one's come or gone that way.
"I wouldn't hesitate much longer to do what we've came here for. They might already know we're here."