Fligg moves to Horatio's right side, and swipes at the centipede there with his cat-like claws.
______________________________
Crit
Olivius steps up to the left of Horatio and draws his spear. Move! He bellows at Horatio, then he strikes the centipede not getting focused by the eagle and Fligg.
The eagle appears out of nowhere and rends the centipede to shreds, tearing it's head off.
Fligg moves over with a quick movement and slams his clawed finger right into the other centipede's eye, penetrating the creatures small brain and ending it quickly.
Feora squeals and stumbles back a step, reaching for her shield in her backpack, and fumbling with it to get it on her arm.
Combat over!
Olivius spins his spear into a ready position behind his shield and looks around for more trouble. Seeing none, he sighs and relaxes a bit.
Well, that went quickly... He pauses when his mind catches up to what just happened.
Where did that bird come from?
Feora stumbles back, falling to the ground under the weight of her shield. "Oh Sarenrae..., light alive..." She collapses to the ground and shivers, and fights to hold back tears as she clings to her shield like its a lifeline.
Olivius moves over to the shaking girl. He had seen this before. Little boys used to arrive at the Academy all the time and a few had the same reaction when confronted with their first battle drills.
He kneels beside her and says calmly but firmly, Feora, look at me. He waits until she does so before continuing, It's ok. They were just big bugs. We squished them. You're safe. You're ok.
Horatio clutches his bleeding leg, limping over to a pile of rubble before sitting heavily to inspect the wound. "Well, that went swimmingly," he mutters, wincing as his fingers brush the raw edges of the bite. He stands again, putting pressure on the leg and finding it alright. Moving over to Feora, he crouches on her other side, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder, gripping gently. When Olivius finishes, he speaks up, softly. "You don't have to stay here. If you want, we can take you back to the inn. Olives and I have handled things like this before, and Trig and Fligg look like they've got each other's backs. You don't have to stay. If you do, though," he adds, shaking her shoulder gently, "we're going to look after you. We'll keep you safe."
1=Olivius, 2=Horatio
Feora after a moment drops the shield trembling, and throws her arms over Olivius, hugging him as tight as she can, bawling her eyes out.
"That bird is my friend, he's from the First World," Trig says, holding out her arm. The eagle flaps over and lands there, nearly toppling her over from the weight. "I can call lots of friends. It's kind of what I do."
Fligg kicks the dead bugs away from them. He walks over to the iron door and searches it while the others converse.
Olivius the Soldier isn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't a hug. He awkwardly puts his weapon down and holds the little girl. His mind spins for something to say. Words bounce around inside his head without success in coming out. Finally he manages to say, You can go back if you want. But I think it's important you continue on. If you don't, this fear will settle in your gut, and never go away. He remembers the abuse the expelled "Incurable Cowards" at the academy suffered before they were sent home in shame. Not that. I won't be like them.
Don't worry. I'll be right here the whole time.
Trig only sees anything magic coming from the creatures she has summoned. Otherwise, the room seems 'mundane' except the crumbling walls and iron statue.
If he doesn't see any traps on the door, Fligg will open it.
There do not seem to be any traps, however, there is only light from Trig's light rock, so some may have trouble if the party spreads too much.
In order to get the little one's mind off her fear and get her moving, Olivius asks, Hey, we could use some more light. Can you make some more glowing rocks?
Sometimes moving and doing things are the best medicines.
The eagle looks at the statue a bit oddly.
Feora sniffles and nods, grabbing back up her shield. She looks around, making sure to fix her pack to her back and sighs as she prepares herself. She rubs eyes reddened by tears, watching and waiting for the others, hundreds of thoughts spinning inside herself as she tries her best to look strong and tough, but feeling anything but. She then goes over to Horatio, seeings the bite marks, and looks at them closely. "Oh..., you were hurt! Are you ok?"
Horatio has some minor wounds and it very clear that there was poison in the bite, but it seems to have failed to take.
Feora works quickly, bandaging up the minor wounds for Horatio. "I need to clean this up, the poison didn't get into your system..., but I don't want it to get infected at all. Just hold still, ok?" Feora keeps working quickly, her fear all but forgotten as her hands work quickly and deftly.
"Hey babe, take a look at the statue too. Mr. Feathers seems to think that its strange," Trig says to Fligg.
Fligg turns and nods, "This door seems to be untrapped, it should be safe to open when we're ready." He walks over to the iron statue, and gives it a good looking over as well.
"What, this? It's nothing; just a scratch, really. Doesn't even hurt." Horatio chuckles at Feora, but winces slightly as she begins bandaging the wound. "Alright, maybe a little," he admits sheepishly, giving a half-smile as he stands again. "As for light, I happen to know the same trick," he offers, picking up a stone and clenching it in his fist, muttering in a light, musical tongue. When he opens his hand, the stone is glowing with a weak, watery light, like afternoon sun reflecting off cobblestones.
He reaches to Feora, taking her hand in an attempt to calm her. "Olives has a good point - if you go through this, you'll be stronger. But at the same time, it's alright to be afraid. Fear is nothing to be ashamed of. It's how you know you're still alive." He gives her a reassuring smile. Glancing aside, he weighs the stone in his hand experimentally a few times, before lobbing it in Olivius' direction.
Olivius catches the stone without really looking at it. Handy. he says, flipping the glowing rock over a few times for examination.
That statue still a statue or do I need to disassemble it?
Upon inspection, it becomes clear that the statue isn't a statue at all.
It is an iron maiden. Fligg sees no traps and opens it without a problem...leading to a skeleton falling out of the chamber. Within the pile of bones, a rusty metal key sits. When Fligg reaches down to pick it up, he spots a latched iron case under a bit of rubble.
After carefully examining the iron case for potential traps, Fligg picks it up and sees if its locked. If it is, he tries the key on it. "Look at this stuff guys..." he says distractedly as he fiddles with the box.
Olivius moves over and whistles low. Not my preferred way to go. They had one of these at the Academy. I never spent time in one, but it wasn't unheard of for students get this if they were disobedient walk-ins.
"That's harsh..." Trig says in surprise to Olivius. "Getting tortured to death for disobeying?"
Man, humans are F~~*ED UP! Trig thinks, her eyes wide.
The box opens up without a key, the latches just lifting up revealing a pair of daggers. Mithral daggers that have notches carved along the flats of the blades.
Feora blanches at the maiden. "Those..., those are things that cultists use, and evil people. Why would you want something like that? Ever?"
"Look, some treasure!" Fligg says, picking up the two mithral weapons to show the others. "These'll be worth a pretty penny."
Olivius shrugs. It was called the Asmodean Academy of Military Science. They didn't place much value on things like fairness and mercy.
He takes one of the daggers from Fligg and flips it around his hand, testing its weight and balance.
This is odd. Why would these be under a Iron Maiden in a nondescript tower in a tiny town the middle of nowhere? Weapons like this would fetch a fine price in any city.
"This place keeps getting better and better," Horatio sighs, shaking his head. "Kobolds, towers, iron maidens - what's next? A rack? A cage of hungry dire rats?" He shudders at the thought. "Let's move on - I don't want to be in the same room as that thing. It's making my flesh crawl."
Feora hugs herself to Horatio. "Thats a good idea, let's get out of here. It's creepy in here."
Moving South, numerous jail cells line these long-abandoned corridors. Each of their solid iron doors hangs ajar, and includes both a peephole at eye level, covered with a piece of sliding metal, and a smaller slot for food and winter and water at floor level.
"What is this place? Why would there be a prison under a tower in a little town in the middle of nowhere? It's so exciting!"
Trig stays near Feora and Horatio, ducking her head about and trying to look at everything at once. Fligg moves slightly ahead of the group. He hides himself in any shadows present by force of habit and keeps his eyes peeled. This place is creepy.
A few of the cells contain bones, but most just debris and rubble. There is a pile of fallen rubble to the East, but it is easy to traverse and head around. There is also a hall to the west that leads seemingly out of this prison area. The doors of each of the cells the group comes to are opened thus far, but it looks like either the jail was nearly empty when it went into a state of disuse or the prisoners escaped.
Olivius walks down te hall with spear in hand and holding the glowing stone with his fingertips. He looks left and right before indicating he'd like to continue west.
Rapier drawn, Horatio follows behind Olivius, sidestepping around Trig when she crosses his path. He keeps Feora close, eyes flicking left and right in the dim light. He nods in agreement with Olivius, starting to the western hall. "Let's get out of here. Unless anyone wants to search the cells."
Feora grabs her shield, hoisting it up and trying to follow Olivius as well as she can but hanging back a bit, eyes wild as she is trying to keep her gaze on everything, and not doing a very good job of any of it.
Trig says, "Nah, lets go. We can search them on the way out if we still want to."
After a twist and a turn, the group comes a door, which Trig takes a look at and sees no traps, as well as not seeing it locked. However...it does seem to be stuck.
Fligg tugs on the door as hard as he can.
"Yo, Olives! Get over here and help me with this."
Olivius braces his shield on the door, plants his feet, and pushes.
Take 10 for 14, if that's allowed. If not,
The door almost budges, but not quite there, perhaps if someone helped Olivius...
Rolling his eyes, Horatio steps up to the door. Tucking his rapier into his belt, he braces himself and attempts to aid Olivius.
It frustrates Olivius to no end that he couldn't budge a door by himself. Having Horatio help is only salt in the wound. He is helping. A Limp-Wristed singer and dancer! What's next, huh? Singing duets late into the night?
Between Olivius and Horatio, the door pops open.
There can be little doubt what purpose this chamber once served. The dank room stores an ancient rack, a fanciful brazen bull, an iron maiden, a cauldron, iron chairs with sharp edges and cruel protuberances, and a wooden table upon which sit various implements of torture. A bronze plaque affixed to the western wall depicts a crowing rooster above crossed spears.
Underneath the spear, a short phrase is inscribed.
"Confession Cleanses the Soul. Pain
Clarifies the Mind."