Tsk tsk, no luck eh? Well, I'll just have to try harder.
Hmmm....I could take her out to dinner when we come back, I can't think of a better way to spend my share of the reward.
Ruhk gets to his feet and gives Bethany a pat as the light fades from her head.
"Good work old girl, we still got it."
Zirren stands and moves to the hallway. "It seems like everyone else is fine for the moment. We'll make sure to grab the mushrooms."
Zirren makes his way past to gather the mushrooms from the Dwarfs corpse.
Caine rolled his eyes at the antics between Bella and Ruhk. "Extortion ain't a great way to win a girl's heart, Ruhk." he chuckled as he helped Boote to his feet.
Looking at the space they were in, he decided to continue the conversation they'd all been having earlier. "That was a nasty spot to get into a fight. It nearly got one of us killed."
"Remember that defensive bottleneck thing I mentioned earlier? That would have been a good time for it. If we'd pulled back to this room we could have forced them to come at us one at a time, and they would have because skeletons are stupid."
"Every one of us is good in a scrap. We'll be a whole lot better once we start using our surroundings to our advantage and working as a team."
Zirren gathers up the two mushrooms from the skeleton without further incident. He also finds a hidden pocket within the leather apron, a small leather-bound journal wrapped in a water-proof bag. The bag protected the journal from the elements, but time has dried out the leather and weakened the bindings; however, with care the dwarven runes are legible.
Also, the ring found on the dwarven corpse radiates with magic when checked...
"I sense something amiss with many of my brothers. I have seen them whispering in huddled gatherings and casting dark looks about as if hiding some sort of secret."
"The horrible secret has been revealed... My follows have fallen for the deprived rantings of Droskar. I should have sensed it sooner, the signs were clearly there. I do not know what fate awaits those of us still loyal to Torag.”
”The fools still have not found my journal. Clearly the depravity of Droskar has eroded their minds. Only four of us remain loyal to Torag, some of the others took to the chance to survive, but we four shall endure.”
”We have received no food or drink in what I believe to be three days… There are no windows in this secret prison and I judge only on my sleep pattern. Already my companions beg to be released, but no response comes from the other side of the door. There is a constant sound of pickaxe upon stone reverberating from the ground beneath this once glorious temple. What do they seek below?”
”It has been five days now. Death watches me from the corner of my cell. If I am to die, then I shall die in peace knowing that I shall join Torag soon. I am deaf to the screams of my companions who beg to worship the dark lord of Toil, but I fear there is no one to even hear them. I can hear them scratching at the stone with their bare hands.”
”Seven days… My mind slips and my will falters, but I must maintain my faith. The scratching has stopped; I think the ghosts are finally dead. I go to join them soon. Torag be praised.”
That is the last entry.
As Zilka looks at the journal, Zirren notices the ring and casts spells to identify the Magic's surrounding it.
"The ring is certainly to be useful. It wards its wearer from fire both indirectly and directly though it is limited in power and will only do so for a small time. It also seems to... require some time to attune itself. It will take a full day before it will shield the wearer."
He then turns his attention back to Zilka and the journal. "I don't really know Dwarven off hand, but I've seen it enough of its runic nature and I've studied patterns in enough wording of all kinds that I should be able to decipher it quickly."
Belladonna puts her hand up "Uhm, excuse me. I might kinda sorta know Dwarven..."
"Let's try this thing." Caine said, pulling the wand recovered from the witch's cabin out from his boot, where he'd stuck it like a dagger.
Ruhk raises an eyebrow at Bellas "confession".
"Let me guess, your family had business with the dwarves of the region in the past? They love making money as a general rule, but a lot of dwarves insist on making business in their own language.
A pretty clever idea really, all languages have their own rhythm and reason, so if you use a language you know by heart, you WILL have an advantage."
Belladonna blushes. "Actually uhm, my dad taught it to me. So, I'm probably a bit rusty."
"Well, looking at the concentration on Zirren's face, I'd say he knows something of languages.
Between someone with his skills and someone who DOES speak the language, I bet we can get it translated well enough for the rest of us.
Go on, give him a hand why don't you?"
Zirren glanced up at Belladonna with a look of pleasant surprise.
"You do? This is wonderful actually. With your help we'll have this translated in no time. Actually, when we have less pressing issues, I'd like to learn more about the language from you. If you'd teach me that is."
Zirren sat down with Belladonna and within a short time the two of them had deciphered the script. Near the end, Zirren's face took on a grim exterior. "It's as we thought. The Dwarves who lived here were followers of the Dwarven God Torag. But there seems to have been some sort of coup and this place was corrupted and overrun by servants of Droskar. They were locked in here and left to starve to death. The three you fought apparently lost their faith and something here turned them into the skeletons. The last one was the only one to keep his faith and perished peaceably... if you can call it that." Zirren said, with an obvious look of disdain at their surroundings
"There was also mention of sounds of ceaseless tunneling from below. I suspect there could be more of them."
"These poor Dwarves..." Belladonna whispers, more to herself. "I don't know anything about these Gods, but this Droskar sounds horrible. Most of us nearly starve to death cuz of the Kreeds, but for the Dwarves, it was just cuz of their faith."
Approaching Zirren, Belladonna asks if she can hang onto the ring.
"Hmm, oh yes. Here. You found the door after all."
Well, that is certainly handy to have around? Where did you pick that up? Wait, never mind. I don't really need to know. Where to next?
"Well now that we found some of what we need here we should keep moving downward. Back out into the hall and into the next doorway which should be right next to this one, I think.
Let's remember to use Caine's tactics now."
"Roger that. I'll take a listen." Says Belladonna. Still slightly distracted by the beautiful ring.
Hey Mister Torag. I'm not a Dwarf, and I really don't know much about you, but if we find more Droskar skeletons and stuff, could you help us a bit? I'd be happy to get rid of them for you. I just, uhm, don't want any of my friends dying for it... You know?
Once Belladonna reaches the door, she motions for silence and searches for any traps, then tries to listen for any movement. If there's a keyhole, she'll try to peek through.
Belladonna creeps up to the door and as she approaches it, she notices that it is partially open and it swings inward toward the west. She listens intently at the door, but does not hear anything on the other side. She cannot see into the room due to the darkness beyond and the angle of the door. She can, however, detect the faint odor of wet animal fur...
Belladonna checks Lucky to see if he's rolled in a puddle, then gives a thumbs up to Caine to take it from there.
Lucky is dry, but he sniffs at the open door and begins to tremble, backing away quietly... Belladonna realizes quickly that Lucky is scared of that room for some reason or another.
Caine moves into position, stopping when he sees Bella watching her fox. Door breeches weren't a place to have a kit underfoot. He waited until she sorted out what to do with her new pet.
Nathaniel works his way along the wall toward the rear guard position.
Ruhk pats Bethany once before taking his position opposite of Caine, grinning feraly at him.
While waiting for Bella to get the fox out of their assault pattern, Caine continued his impromptu tactics lesson.
"Until we figure out a ay to see through walls we won't know what's waiting for us behind a door until we open it. That means most of the time we can't really decide ahead of time if a breach if offensive or defensive. It's up to the folks leading the charge to make that snap decision. Here's the guideline- If a room is small, like that last one, it's going to be a defensive breach. If it's big, it will be offensive unless there's clear danger that we aren't prepared for."
"Also, foxes should not be in the middle of our breaching path..." he said with a half amused smile.
"And, Rhuk adds, When entering a breach, it can be hard to cover all angles, that's why if the leaders focus on the front, other people should quickly check other directions for hidden foes.
Up, down and to the sides."
"Ehhhh..." stumbles Belladonna as she tries to find something to keep Lucky safe. Pulling off to the side, she rearranges her backpack to have her small pillow stuffed part way down, then she puts Lucky inside the pack. She leaves the top open, to allow Lucky a quick escape if he needs it.
When she's ready, Belladonna grabs the door handle and yanks it open, hiding behind the door for cover.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Caine was usually all business in these situations, but he couldn't help but chuckle at Bella trying to figure out what to do with her fox in the middle of a dangerous ruin.
Belladonna pushes the door open the rest of the way and steps to one side just as Zilka sends her glowing lights streaking into the room to reveal its contents to Greyson. This small study looks like it has been lived in recently. Gnawed bones litter the floor and tufts of gray fur can be seen here and there. An old stone desk sits in the center of the chamber, scratched and cracked in many places. The stench of wet fur hangs heavy in the air. An open doorway to another room is plainly visible along the west wall. Also, curled up in the far corner behind the old desk are two wolves just starting to rouse from sleep due to the bright lantern like lights hovering in the air...
"Wolves!" Caine barked.
Zirren looks around both directions hoping to find a way to help but there's just too many people in the way. If he could just get to Caine.
Caine shuts the door.
"Hnh, smart move Caine, we don't know that we have to go in there, so why not avoid a fight until we've searched the rest of the place eh?
But we might not be safe yet, the wolves didn't walk through the door, so there must be another way they can go..."
Belladonna draws her sword and keeps it close. "Uhm, so what now?"
"Well, I'm imagining we see if there are any other areas to explore before dealing with this room.
If we can find the rest of the shrooms we need without a fight, all the better, aye?"
"There was an exit to that room on the left wall. If we go in from the front door and head north we might run into them again. We should look for wolf tracks as we move to see which path they take to come and go."
"No reason to kill 'em if we don't have to."
"Back outside, folks."
Zirren glanced at Caine in a moment of confusion. Then a thought occurred. Zirren felt as though he was starting to understand the man a little more as he got used to being around him.
Perhaps it's simple reflex for him to repeat things he's said and done. I'm almost convinced now, he was a military man. He's observant and willful, but to an unlikeable degree. He isn't stupid or slow, not with tactics like that. He's using muscle memory tactics. Training through repetition.
Zirren turned and began to walk back the way they came. "Caine, we knew that there were wolves and Kobolds here already. You found the tracks even. If we followed them we'll be sure to find where they go and came from. It's also possible that the Kobolds have tamed them in some fashion to use as guardians up here."
Caine is able to pull the door shut without any issues and Zilka terminates the light spell within that room . As the group discusses which direction to go now, the suddenly hear the sound of sniffing and snuffling coming from beneath the door followed by a deep growl... and then a loud howl splits the air from within the enclosed room only to be joined by a second howl from within the room. The heavy door muffles much of the sound outside of the room, but it still echoes slightly in the empty stone hallway...
"Well, if there are more wolves here, they'll be coming to answer that call, sure as you please.
Other things might come too..."
Caine dropped a brass piton onto the ground and kicked it into the base of the door with the reinforced toe of his boot. It would take a while with some tools or breaking the door to open it up now. He nodded to Zirren. "I meant that we might find how they actually come and go from their lair, through the temple. We haven't seen that yet."
"No way to know if they're Kobold pets though. Not yet."
When he was done he followed the others back out to the temple courtyard.