"A little light would be very handy." she mutters under her breath.
Listen for anything interesting (1d20 6=10).
Unfortunately, she can't seem to hear anything other than the sound of her own heartbeat.
Pendrick cocks an ear towards the room as well.
'Seems clear' he whispers to Tzu. 'Hang on while I dig out a sunrod for you to carry./
'Here we go. Good thing I forgot I had you on gambling night little feller!' Pendrick offers the sunrod to Tzu with a grin. "Forgive a simple guardsman for assuming you won't need all your pointy bits at the same time?"
Keiva hesitantly enters the room behind Tzu and Pendrick, unable to keep the old adage "curiosity killed the sprite" out of her mind. She tightens her grip on her ice axe and peers inside.
It does indeed seem to be a warehouse; barrels and crates have been knocked over and opened, with grain and wine in evidence. There is another door opposite you across the room. The ceiling must be at least 20 feet high.
"Get out of that if you can." she chunters, briskly ripping strips off the bottom of her shirt to bind the thug's hands and feet.
"Although if anyone's got anything a bit stronger, it wouldn't go amiss right now. And I don't mean your cat's cradle wool Keiva."
The thug drools from the side of his mouth.
'I've got a sling that might work to bind his hands', Pendrick offers. 'Here, ooh, ooh, almost, there you go'. The sling loops around enticingly before flopping down next to Tzu.
"Much better. Do you want to leave a note for the victim saying we'll be back shortly?"
Tzu looks with some distaste at the drooling thug and with more enthusiasm at the warehouse.
"He should be okay," Keiva says. "Just pull him inside the door in case it rains if you don't want to leave him outside."
She wanders over to some of the crates to see what kind of warehouse this is.
Keiva looks at the crates and sees that they have been ransacked as if the culprits were looking for something. It seems to be mostly grain and wine.
"Further in. Follow the broken crates."
Pendrick makes his way oh-so-sneakily to the door in the south wall. He then listens at the door.
Pendrick indeed hears nothing untoward.
"Oh for goodness sake Pen, how do you expect to hear anything in a helmet?" whispers Tzu as she joins the guard at the door and place her own delicately furred ear to it.
Even the delicately placed ear of the group's resident litorian hears nothing.
Shekkebet takes Keiva's suggestion to heart and, attempting to be gentle about it, drags the unconscious man into the warehouse, rather than leave him in the alley. The half-burnt thug that our ferocious feline friend drubbed against the wall can stay where he lies, however...
He otherwise offers no comment, watching the others advance cautiously through black unblinking eyes.
Shekebbet drags the unconscious man into the warehouse.
"Through the door?"
"Through the door!"
After waiting for the rest of the band to arrange themselves thoughtfully in the warehouse, Pendrick opens the latch and then pushes the door open with a foot.
The door opens into a corridor, 5ft wide and 10ft tall (typical giant architecture). In the opposite wall is a door.
"It doesn't look especially menacing..." Tzu looks at Pendrick. "Going on?"
"Go go go!" Pendrick smiles to himself as he mouthes the words. ahh, outside of the law, but doing better work, what a strange and wonderful world!
He makes random, idiotic gestures with his shield before telling Tzu; "you go right, I'll go left" And he does.
Pendrick finds nothing but a wall, which he guesses to be one of the exteriors. That's one end of the corridor found! Turning round, he can see that the corridor is 50 feet long in total, and as well as the door that was previously seen, there is another one in the same wall. At the opposite end of the corridor from him is a ladder going up into a loft.
"Ladders I can deal with." Tzu's eyes light up as she heads towards the tempting steps.
"Pen - hand me the torch will you?"
Pendrick hands the precious sunrod to Tzu and prepares to follow her up to the loft.
Tzu grabs the sunrod and heads up the ladder. Once in the loft she sees a large box, 3ft by 2ft by 3ft high, painted blue, with a glowing white rune on the lid.
"Ooooh."
Sticking her head back down the ladder she reports to Pendrick and the others.
"I'm no magician, but this seems to me to be a job for our fair Witch and my pal Soren". If it comes to blindly pulling the top off the box, I'm your man. Until then, I'll stand here listening and guarding"
Shekebbet pulls himself carefully to the top of the ladder to examine the rune-scribed box. "Surely, if there were thieves searching for something precious here, a treasure that is warded by magic would top the list. Whatever wards this box must have been adequate to prevent it's theft, so we should exercise caution..."
He examines the chest minutely, but does not touch it.
Shekebbet doesn't recognise this particular rune, and as he examines it the rune ceases to glow and the box opens...
A 3ft tall crystalline form stands up and steps out of the box, with obvious intent to attack Shekebbet despite its expressionless face, which (along with its height and build) is suggestive of a faen.
Tzu's talons (or rather, as she explained to Pendrik, her extra strong nails) extend menacingly and a growl rises in her throat.
"Step back Shekebbet."
Pendrick moves so he is close to the ladder, looking at both (unopened) doors, and immediately adjacent to the nearest (unopened)door to the ladder. He prepares to stab any toughs that come through the door.
a fabulous talent for being where the action ain't
Intrigued by the appearance of the crystal faen, Shekebbet only belatedly attempts to step back from it's approach, raising his staff to attempt to ward off any blows.
"Oooh!" Keiva squeals. "A little crystalline faen - how interesting. She peers closely at it, her hand wavering as if she wants to touch it, but not quite willing to take that final step. She is seemingly oblivious to any threat the creature poses.
Initiative (1d20+2=3)
Initiative
Tzu
Pendrick
Shekebbet
Statue
Keiva
Still growling, Tzu extends a paw and swats at the crystal faen.
"Don't threaten my friends. Keiva, step back. Right now. I'm telling, not asking."
The statue seems to not be affected by Tzu's blow in the slightest. Perhaps she pulled it too much?
Pendrick hears his litorian friend growling.
Tzu looks extremely bewildered by her utter lack of effect on the crystal being.
"Shouldn't it shatter with impact like that?"