"Vanished without a trace, either he's gone invisible or there's some other way out. We'll have to see if the other workers are prepared to say where he's gone. I was hoping they wouldn't get to warn anyone else, but I guess our new skulk friend means it's too late for that anyway." Vard grumbled.
Luk Luk went to the storage room and began looking around. At first she saw everyone that Vard had, files, cleaning supplies and no exit from the room. But she had seen the man go in there, she knew there had to be something more. That's when she noticed a corner of the room where the dirt and the dust appeared to be more regularly disturbed. Approaching the corner, she saw the thin lines of a trap door, set into the floor.
Fain looked at the mechanism of the side door lock confounded Go ahead, kick it in. I know you can do it. Your friends will be here in no time. Don't you want to know what's inside? Go find out. Everyone will thank you for it.
"Oh, shut up you.", with the quietness of a cypriot mouse, Fain made his way back to the warehouse.
As the elf and halfling reported what they'd seen, Jenni frowned. "What do we do? Go down the trapdoor? Or into the shop? Do you think the trapdoor goes INTO the shop? And what do we do with all these guys?" She gestured to the four bound prisoners, some conscious, some not. "Should we get the sheriff?"
Luk Luk points out the trap door to Vard and anyone else in the room, "A trap door," she looks at Vard then to Jenni. Her tone is sing song, "Oh Jenni? Could you ask those humans NICELY where it goes, if it is trapped, and the name of the man that used it? I mean, he could have a very bad time in his future. Using his name might help us convince him to avoid such an ill fortune," Luk Luk is also very loud so the still conscious prisoners heard her.
Even though Alenka knew there had to be another exit in the room, the trap door had apparently escaped her notice. Good thing that Luk Luk had spotted it.
"I think it's safe to assume that that trapdoor goes to the shop. I don't think we have time to get the sheriff. We need to check out the shop first and sooner rather than later. Even as we speak, evidence is most likely being destroyed next door."
"I say we truss up the prisoners and knock them out. Ideally we take them with us but that may be too much work to keep an eye on them. Although they would make very nice meat shields."
Moving back to Thrym, she said, "Your gods are weak. They barely stopped my bleeding. More healing. Please."
”Ancestors,” Thrym said distractedly as he dragged the now-stable Skulk to the wagon parked in the warehouse and proceeded to tie the prisoner into one of the wheels, pleased that the warehouse amply provided him with all the rope he could possibly want. ”Thus, venerated, not worshipped. And if their touch did not mend your flesh fully, perhaps the failing was yours, not theirs, for not accepting all they would give you. Or perhaps this was a lesson, on not counting on their touch to heal injuries you should have prevented by your own might.”
”Be that as it may, I have used up their favor for the day. You shall have to let your body do the recovering on its own,” he grunted, looking up from the last knot he had just drawn tight and grinned at the half-orc.
"Oh Jenni? Could you ask those humans NICELY where it goes, if it is trapped, and the name of the man that used it? I mean, he could have a very bad time in his future. Using his name might help us convince him to avoid such an ill fortune."
"You heard the elf," Thrym growled at one of the workers, tied to the wagon wheels with the Skulk, each to their own. "Answer her, or I will push this cart of yours into the lake, and we can bet which of you drowns first."
Fain slunk back through the doors to the warehouse, "The buildin' one over is locked up. I'm sure it was open when we arrived. Anythin' happen while I was gone? Oh, grand, you found rope."
"His name's Rhett..," The guy said cautiously, as if trying to figure out how serious Thrym was. "'An the passage goes a lot of places..." Feeling from the tension in the room that this was not adequate, he added, "One of which is the shop, yes...and no it ain't trapped. Who would trap their own escape tunnel? That's a special kind of stupid..."
Vard hurried towards the trapdoor when Luk Luk pointed it out, pausing impatiently when the possibility of it being trapped was raised.
" Make sure to check them over for anything they shouldn't have! And no using them as human shields! " he called out.
" We should contact the Sheriff somehow, the skulk is pretty solid proof. Can we see a kid or someone we can pay to take a message?" he wondered.
But that thought was forgotten as the workman said it was safe. He quickly pulled tbe trapdoor open and peered down.
Luk Luk was about to say something on the messenger question but froze as she watched Vard just dive right in, "Or we could just get Rhett THEN find a messenger. That works too." If nothing happens to Vard then Luk Luk will also look down with her light crossbow at the ready.
The trapdoor revealed a rope ladder dropping down narrow shaft to a room fifteen feet to a room below.
In the room stuffed training dummies lined the south wall with crude faces drawn on their heads. Along the east wall were pegs mounted at eye level, some of which had a change of clothing hung on them and nicknames scrawled on the wall above. Three doors led east, west, and north.
" Three doors." Vard remarked to Luk Luk. "No ordinary basement, there's no telling how many people could be down here. I'll check out this first room, but we should gather the others before looking further."
"Matter of fact," he continued as he started to climb down " if this does join up with the shop next door, might be worth blocking this entrance so they can't get out, then going in the other way."
At the bottom, he examined clothing on the pegs, craning up to read the names, before listening carefully at each of the doors.
"The lackey said that that tunnel goes lots of places so I don't think blocking this entrance would do much good, they'd just go out one of the other exits. But...some of us could go over to the shop and go in that way while the others take this tunnel."
Alenka shrugs, "But those in the shop most likely know we're here so it may be best to all just stay together and go through the tunnels."
"Indeed Alenka it could lead to other places," Luk Luk was glad to not be the only pessimist about the situation. She looked back over to the prisoners, "Well, does anybody have rope? I am sure we can scrounge something up to secure them. Maybe shove them into crate?" the elf then laughed. It was not a pleasing sound, "Or Jenni? Could you just break their legs? Certain to prevent their fleeing lest they know where we can find aught to secure them with."
[ooc]Yes, the workers were hoisting crates up to the catwalk when we came in. That rope might be a little heavy but it should work.
Fain returned to the warehouse having sent some ginger topped young worker off with his note then rushed back inside to the little side room. He stuck his head into the hole before taking the rope ladder and gave out a kind of loud whisper, ”Hey, if we go to the shop do you think there might be curatives ... you know, bubbling cauldrons of magical whatsits? Something we could use?? For Queen Jenni?” Fain slipped onto the ladder and headed down.
" No breaking prisoners' legs!" Vard called up absent-mindedly as he lit the torches in the room.
" Blocking the trapdoor would stop anyone down here coming up and freeing the prisoners or causing any other mischief."
"Sheriff said her guards were already stretched thin, I don't know if we can wait for her. Yeah, Curiosity shop seems the best chance of finding some healing, unless there's a crate of potions somewhere in the warehouse. "
"It would work!" She shouted back down the hole. Then she started to look around the warehouse, "I see no reason not to commandeer healing items from the killers. Have we secured the area? Best to be done a'fore jumping down a tunnel and locking ourselves in."
”Secured the inside of this warehouse, perhaps, but who knows who lurks in the shadows outside. The little one already showed it can be done,” Thrym grunted, nodding at Fain’s direction. ”We do need to move, though. The one who got away might be fleeing, or running to alert his remaining masters. Or to destroy evidence that would prove their crimes.”
”I’m loathe to leave these three to their fates, though,” he said, grinning at the three prisoners. ”We went through some trouble to spare their lives. It would be a shame for another skulker to sneak in to cut their throats after we left to explore the tunnels below of the store next door.”
”I don’t want to trust in some pieces of rope either but I’m more worried about not getting a move on. It feels like it’s up to us to stop what’s goin’ on here and I’d rather not leave a one of us behind. I think we’ll need each one before things are done.”
The party left the warehouse and headed back the to shop. As Fain had indicated, there was now a "Closed" sign in the window, that had not been there prior. The side door was still locked, but now the front doors also could not be pulled open. Peeking through the window, it was hard to see the back of the shop, but there was no sign of light or movement.
With the warehouse secure, Vard strode up to the seemingly closed shop.
"Anyone got any ideas subtler than kicking the door down? 'Cause I reckon we should kick the door down."
"Drop your weapons and surrender!"
Alenka gives Vard an appraising look before looking at the door to the shop. Her brain tried to calculate the probability of success for kicking in the door. If Jenni and Thrym helped then maybe but such destruction may be hard to explain. "I could try coaxing the lock to open. I'm successful about 30% of the time."
Alenka carefully picked the lock and opened the door, revealing a small store filled with strange knickknacks, art, andunusual tools. The display case to the west featured jewelry, most of it locally crafted. The case to the east contained oddities such as turtle-shell soup bowls and bizarre gnome cooking utensils. The center case is filled with bottles and vials and a selection of scented soaps and perfumes. Behind the currently empty counter double doors lead north.
Luk Luk laughs, "Alenka has subtle covered," the elf shook her head as she looked around the store, "Well, where are thene'er-do-wells?"
Luk Luk aims her crossbow into the store after the door is opened and tries to observe it over the hunk of wood.
"Probably a trap. Cover me, I'll check behind the counter. " Vard muttered and crept forward, hammer at the ready.
Jenni stomped a foot in disappointment. "We waited too long being sneaky, and they escaped."
Vard peeked around the counter and untensed. "I reckon they've headed underground. Someone keep an eye on the back door just in case. And I saw bottles in the centre case - might be something there. I'll see if I can find the way down from here."
Vard moved over to the doors, and listened at them for a moment, trying to sense anyone on the other side.
Fain looked about the room confused, "I was expecting bubbling cauldrons and frogs dangling string from the ceiling ... or, um, nuwts. Is this a healing potion?" He was tapping the glass case in the centre of the room indicating one of the perfume bottles.
Alenka was able to confirm that the bottle Fain pointed to was in fact a healing potion. They were able to 'borrow' the item and help restore Jenni to fighting shape.
Vard heard nothing coming from beyond the door, so he opened it carefully to reveal another storage room with a big box of items that seemed to have not yet made it to distribution. A table with plates off to the side suggested that this room also served as a makeshift break room. The backdoor remained firmly locked. However, upon closer investigation in the room, Vard was able to find another trap door, similar in design to the one in the warehouse. Opening the trapdoor revealed another rope ladder dropping down to a dimly lit tunnel.
"Going through all these boxes and crates will take days," Thrym grunted, eyeing the latest storage room they had revealed. "Besides, if they had a secret lair underground, that's where they are storing all the things they wouldn't like the Lawkeeper and her minions to find. So down we go, before someone in there get word of our raid or figures it out on their own, and starts burning what they can't carry with them."
Fain smiled seeing that Jenni was looking a little more colourful, "Well there's nothing for it then. Let's get in the hole." He didn't push past anyone but awaited his turn to drop into the underground lair. While he waited, his nagging voice started at him again. It kept reminding him of that thing the priest said about Filton Legg...
"There was something else too. While he was getting clean he would occasionally make remarks implying bitterness towards someone for his addiction...but he clammed up any time we probed him on it. We never did find out who it was, but I think it was someone in town. Someone who scared him enough that he wouldn't name them."
Alenka clapped Jenni comfortingly on the shoulder as she took the healing potion. She then made sure that the door was locked again to make sure no one came up behind them.
The alchemist looked at Fain and informed him, "You wouldn't see bubbling cauldrons with no one around to watch over what's brewing. Too great a risk that what you're making would be ruined. It needs constant attention."
"Agreed," she said to Thrym, "we go down. Gentelmen first."
The hallway at the base of the rope ladder seemed to extend far to the north. While the southern direction had a visible end. Three doorways, facing east, west and south, could be seen.
Luk Luk decided to ask one important question before they began heading down the ladder, "Shall we try sneaking up on them or shall we go in with gusto? Fain? If you wish to try sneaking again I can cast Message between us to keep in contact."
Luk Luk would allow someone more martial than her take the lead. Her magic wasn't well suited for this. Just in case it was needed, Luk Luk pulled out a torch if it was needed.
"Assuming there is someone down there to sneak up on," Thrym rumbled in what he chose to believe was a whisper. "Besides, like before, I'm not built for sneaking like a damn thief, so I will guard our backs if you want to sneak on ahead," he added, knowing he would not get close without being heard even if he tried to.
Fain dropped into the tunnel as quietly as he could and gave all of the doors a listen starting with the west.
Fain quietly crept to the end of the hallway. Though he listened closely he couldn't here a sound. However, as he turned to go back, he heard something from the west. A quiet whisper, the contents of which he couldn't make out, followed by a quick shush.
"They know we're coming - they'll be looking out for us - could be they've got an ambush ready. It'll help if we can spot them before they spot us. I haven't had much practice at being sneaky but I've got size on my side."
"I think we should try to find the room below the basement first - make sure it's still secure for one. Or d'you think we can track them - work out which way they went?"
"Vard I also lack in stealth but I will try to keep quiet," Luk Luk concedes to the paladin.
"I agree that the sub basement need be secured a a priority. Shall we?"
Fain whispered as Luk Luk instructed not sure how her new-fangled magic would work, "We could lure them into an ambush if we find the other room. People could wait there and I could draw them over??? You could come down here and sneak over ... or you could go back to the warehouse and go through that floor hatch? Someone could stay and drop down from above?"
Goggles and Jenni brought up the rear of their entourage into the tunnels down below. They all knew that anyone who had been in the shop or the warehouse knew they were here so there was really no point in trying to be overly quiet.
Luk Luk looked to the others, "Fain is offering to lure them into an ambush with himself as bait. I could also provide Fain with some Jumping Jennies," she looks over to Jenni, "it is a firework. Cause some panic after finding them and then charge in to attack?" Luk Luk had to trouble keeping in contact with Fain due to distance and not wanting to out pace the group.