Abrosh coughs and wheezes, feeling terrible
Tamis looks over at Abrosh coughing and wheezing and chuckles a little bit. "Poor gnome, looks like the smell finally got to you eh?"
"I vote we go for the staircase down. I don't feel like being ambushed by more of those wererats, and it appears as if they have a pretty good knowledge of this place. Plus I doubt the person we're looking for is down any of those tunnels."
"It's starting to stink down here."
"still not as bad as a Ork armpit"
"Ork armpit is bad, but not as anywhere near as Bad as their waste facilities."
Wesley still is sick.
"I hesitate in following the stairs, but the truth is that any path we chose will leave other avenues behind, from which we can be ambushed, so I agree with you sister" - Trihedron comments - "I will close the march, and keep an eye on the tunnel behind us. Let us get moving" - she adds.
agreed, I will need to rest soon.
"If we choose to rest we should find a place we can easily defend."
Downstairs was the consensus I have maybe 1 fight left
Wesley follows downstairs.
Eva takes the lead for the stairs.
+1
Tamis looks down the stairs, the adrenaline fading from the prior fight
"Perhaps rest would be a better idea..."
The rest period passed without event. A few hours in, a shuffling noise can be heard in the hallway beyond the false wall, but nothing challenged the door. After the requisite time, you each prepare yourselves and cautiously venture out. The stench of the air appears to be reduced, or maybe you are simply getting used to it. Either way, you managed to venture out and scout out the area. Something had come in while you were resting and cleaned up most of the rat corpses. Nothing was left, not even bones or scraps of fur.
The ambush spot was also clear of most of the corpses, though a few remained. Those that did had very little soft tissue left on the bones, and scrape marks on the bones were very reminiscent of those left by human teeth. Even the wererats had fallen victim to the local scavengers.
The stairway down started wide, but soon narrowed to where only three could walk shoulder to shoulder, or two of Evangline. The stairs opened into a wide hallway, with two doors apparent immediately ahead. The northern door has been scratched and hacked with a handaxe, which is still embedded in the hard wood.
"I think we have a predator down here." as seeing the fleshless corpses
"Time to be armored and tiny!"
Wesley casts mage armor and reduce person and pulls his cloak about him.
Trihedron inches carefully along up to the corner and peeks into the area beyond.
Abrish recreates his light pebble, and casts resistance on himself every time it fades and follows as is the standard now
Wesley rides his dog closely after.
As Trihedron moves forward, she crowds past her sister, to see that there are hallways moving north and south from the entry area.
"South?? We can say this expedition headed south."
Wesley quips.
Abrosh titters and nods excitedly before recasting resistance
Moving across the hallway, Trihedron checks the northern door first for sounds or any other signs.
Moving out into the entryway, it is clear that in addition to the doors immediately to the west, the northern hallway also has a door. To the south, the hallway extends into the darkness.
As Trihedron moved carefully across the room, she found a loose floor tile. She paused, wondering what kind of trap this could be. After a few moments of inspection, she lifted the tile to find a shallow hole carved into the stone beneath. The hole contained a bowl of very stagnant water, and a mostly rotten haunch of meat from some large creature.
Turning her attention to the northern door on the western wall, she found a key stuck in the door's lock. No matter how she turned it, the key would not come out of the lock.
Finding the shallow hole in the floor, Trihedron calls her companion's attention to it - "Can anyone make anything of this? Why would it be here?" - she asks them.
Trying the key on the door, the dwarven woman is puzzled as it simply will not come out - "Strange..." - she ponders, looking back to the others with a shrug - "Magic?"
Wesley looks at the jammed key.
"Can anyone bypass the lock with some tools? I once worked with some hobbits who were good opening doors."
"I can give it a shot Wesley" Tamis replies, inspecting the door.
Tamis took a closer look at the key in the lock, and with a little oil and a few moments with her tools, the key turned enough to disengage the lock and come out of the door.
"Tamis you never fail to impress"
"Good job. Let's get in there!!"
Tamis opened the door to find a hallway that seemed to wind off into the darkness.
Wonder what happened to that door? Think it was jammed on purpose?
"It might have been, or time broke it."
"We may soon find out" - Trihedron pipes in, moving up to the next corner, eyes wary of what may lie in wait.
Wesley produces a scroll and reads quickly, the magic infuses the advanced scout.
Tamis quickly and quitely skirts up alongside her sister. We've been ambushed far to much already for me to let you do this alone.
With a nod to her sister, and the others a tad back, Trihedron again starts on the move, senses fully alert.
Trihedron and Tamis moved forward on the point, and both twigged to something not quite right on the wall to the north. It was only a matter of a few moments for them to start talking in soft tones about the section of stone that didn't quite line up with the rest of the wall.