"We should have brought some food, we could have drawn them to that." Fhingle says while staying back with Salonius
Salonius sleeps oorly, troubled by the duel worries of killing largely blameless animals, and his fear of getting mauled by the same. Still he steals himself and hurries through his daily chorse at the orchard, and spell preparations to meet the other - albeit with faintly dark rimmed eyes.
He rushes forward again flinging forth a handful of brightly colored sand which transforms into a maddening explosion of violently vivid color!
Area cone-shaped burst
Duration instantaneous; see text
Saving Throw Will negates; Spell Resistance yes
DESCRIPTION
A vivid cone of clashing colors springs forth from your hand, causing creatures to become stunned, perhaps also blinded, and possibly knocking them unconscious. Each creature within the cone is affected according to its HD.
2 HD or less: The creature is unconscious, blinded, and stunned for 2d4 rounds, then blinded and stunned for 1d4 rounds, and then stunned for 1 round. (Only living creatures are knocked unconscious.)
3 or 4 HD: The creature is blinded and stunned for 1d4 rounds, then stunned for 1 round.
5 or more HD: The creature is stunned for 1 round.
Sightless creatures are not affected by color spray.
Meliandri is not excited to see the dogs outside the Fair Fortune Livery. Her sleep had been rocky; though she’d convinced herself by day that she hadn’t killed anyone, by night she’d discovered that she wasn’t so sure. Still, people were one thing, dogs another. She draws her sword, muttering a few words of encouragement to her friends before bracing herself for another fight.
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After Salonius' spell is cast, Saul steps right in front of him, with his spear at the ready. He doesn't want to kill any dogs and hopes the spell works, but will do what is needed to protect his new companions.
Any dog that comes into range, Saul will first do his AoO spear attack on it, and he is also readying a standard action to conduct another spear attack immediately after, assuming the dog lives through the first hit.
The dogs topple over and lie there like shot.
"We could lock them in a room. They don't have hands to turn a knob," Jhen suggests. "But it is probably more humane if we just put them out of their misery rather then letting them starve to death."
As Jhen approaches the first dog to put it out of its misery a large dog - a feral mastiff - comes run out of the door. But the beast only bites armour.
Startled Salonius makes a throwing gesture, it looks like he is miming for a moment, but at the last instant a wooden spear-like stake rockets forth from his fingertips!
Despite having to avoid Jhen, the botanist manages to hit home, the stake striking the dog and exploding in a shower of splinters that penetrate the hound's thick hide! In addition to the wound the wooden splinters remain causing the canine ongoing pain.
The bleeding dog doesn't relent.
Startled Jhen pivots and awkwardly swings his rapier at the chomping hound.
Meliandri once again begins speaking words of encouragement to everyone within earshot, moving toward the big dog with her own sword.
"That is a BIG Dog." Fhingle says really loudly. Fhingle fumbles to pull out his sling and looks for a rock.
The big dog is not hurt further, besides bleeding. But his attempts at biting Jhen are pitiful.
Finding his balance Jhen, once again, stabs his blade at the unrelenting mastiff.
Which is the end of that proud dog. It collapses as the blade punctures it's lung.
Ohh, he would have been great at the Coffee house, I could have talked Laria in to keeping him." Fhingle says moving forward to have a look around.
Salonius, pale faced, holds up a hand with index finger extended, moves over to the exterior of the stable wall away from the doors and vomits.
"Uggh, I never understood why being a wood school wizard gives me such a violent ability... Its not very me."
Opening the door a bit further to let light in Fhingle looks around. Broken desks, scuffed tables, and torn chairs crowd the thirteen horse stalls, all of which are covered with a healthy layer of dust. A grated-off alcove along the southeast wall seems to house the only relatively intact wares.
Salonius recovers himself and prestidigitates his tongue waving for Peeko to enter ahead of him before following on behind.
"There is something shiny in the rafters, someone boost me up and I get can it down?" Fhingle moves to the spot, Fhingle attempts before someone helps him.
Fhingle makes it up the wall to the rafters, but trying to climb up onto the rafter he falls down again.
It takes some playing around, but finally the ring falls down and Saul catches it. It's an old Juliac signet ring made of platinum.
Meanwhile some hinge starts creaking in the corner
Jhen reluctantly dispatched the small dogs and began searching the large stalls along the north wall.
"Just as 'happy to not 'ave 'ad to stab anything." Meliandri follows the rest of the group into the stables, sheathing her sword pointedly. She quickly spots the shiny thing in the rafters but chooses not to try the climb herself. She ignores the halfling's attempt to climb up and his asking for help, wandering over to the grated-of alcove instead. There, she spends a minute peering through the grate to see what she can see, then ponders her options for getting the grate out of the way.
Jhen searches the northern stalls, where he finds nothing of note. Continuing along the north he finds two back offices. Each contains an old desk, a chair, and some empty cupboards. On the floor he finds a set of strange little tracks that look like clawed baby footprints crisscrossing the floor, desktops, and cupboards.
The iron gate blocking the entrance to this hallway is locked. The middle of the gate has a wide opening in the bars through which a Small creature could wriggle.
Inside you see some crates, and a formerly secret door that hangs partially open on decayed hinges.
"Alright, I 'ave something 'ere!" Meliandri points through the grate and gives it a quick shake. "There is a secret passage behind these bars. It could be the way to that 'ideout Rexus's mother mentioned. 'Owever, there is a slight problem. Most of us cannot get past the grate."
She thinks for a moment. "Either Fhingle squeezes through, or...we could go around the back of the building and smash out the wall. I do not think it is load-bearing, and it is weak already, but it could be loud."
Retreating from the office Jhen informs the others, ”I’ve found some strange footprints over here.” Shaking his head, ”Definitely not dog prints. Can anyone Make heads or tails out of them?”
As Jhen leaves the office he hears a noise and as he turns around a drawer is opened. A tin mug standing in the cupboard starts shaking and slowly moves off the shelf falling down to the floor, clattering loudly.
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Before the issue with the cupboard:
Saul examines the platinum ring. Have I seen this signet before?
After Meli points out the locked grate:
Saul examines the locked gate... It's been a while since I've picked a lock, but this doesn't look too complicated.
The drawer opens by itself and the tin mug falls to the ground as Saul finishes up with the lock. He jumps! "Was that the wind? Jhen, please tell me that was the wind!"
The door resists Saul's attempt to open it as the bolt slips over at the last moment.
Salonius peers at the footprints and his brows raise and he swiftly seems to recover his vigor, "Ahhhh! These are Grimple footprints! They are tiny fey, with some small magics, magehand I seem to recall? So they can likely move small objects to play tricks and such! Fascinating! Do you recall anything more Peeks?"
Peeko is busy defecating upon the dog that barked at him previously and only glances at his Master in confusion,
"Grimple? Can Peeko eat it? Peeko eats it?"
"Nevermind Peeks."
As he sees the bolt sliding forward he chuckles, "If it is using magehand all you should theoretically need to do is exert more than five pounds of force upon it; though of course there are a number of variables I may not have accounted for... Does anyone speak Sylvan by any chance? My elven is not bad, but I am not sure it will speak it."
"Grimple?" Jhen asks relieved. "Ah, right ghosts don't leave footprints."
Fhingle moves up to where Meliandri is and looks at the bars. "What happens if I am stuck in there with something and you cannot help me?" Fhingle says while putting an arm through the bars.
Saul goes back to trying to unlock the iron gate and after a few more attempts it is finally open.
Once Peeko is done with his business with the dog, he checks on the office, where the ghost stuff happened. Wanting to know who pushed out the drawer Peeko investigates and comes back to Salonius with a silver key in his beak.
Behind the 'secret' door is an old workroom that houses numerous old slaughterhouse tools, veterinary equipment, and woodworking tools, all of which are covered with a thick layer of dust through which strange tracks and patterns have been traced. Heavy mallets, crumbling ropes, and tools for restraining animals hang from pegs in the walls or rest atop leaning tables. To the southwest, a trap door sits ajar, propped open by a block of wood.
Here even more of these tiny footprints are found.
"Looks like our path leads downward," Jhen says wit a nervous smile. He takes a deep breath and makes his way to the trap door, I'll go first." He opens the door, looks down, and asked, "a bit of light might be nice?"
Once there is a light source he descends with a wave and a lopsided grin. With false bravado he says, "As we say in the opera 'break a leg,'"
The eye-watering stench of urine and feces fills this large room. Nests made of chewed crates and barrels line the walls, while rusty knives and hooks cover the tabletops.
Salonius suddenly feels a chill and dust is thrown up in a whirl at his feet, causing him to sneeze.
Smiling as he raps his fingers against his chin, Salonius says much the same thing in all of the languages he knows, Auran, Common, Elven, Infernal, Shadowtongue, Strix, and Terran.
"Greetings Grimple, we mean you no harm. We are here looking to restart the Silver Ravens, do you know of them? I would dearly like to speak with you please? My name is Salonius Barridan and these are my companions seeking to liberate Kintargo... We would like to be friends if possible?"
To Jhen he adds, "I am afraid I did not prepare a light spell this morning, a foolish oversight on my part given we were to be heading below ground. Does anyone have a sunrod, or better a light or dancing lights spell?"
Grimples despise humans and show it by attacking drunks, unlocking stables, torturing guard dogs, and loosening hanging storefront signs so that they fall on people. This does not stop them from sometimes allying with humans and other humanoids, but such collaborations are always temporary, as a grimple is ever plotting betrayal. Although a grimple is often arrogant and overbearing, its ability to vomit at will (and propensity for doing so constantly) remains its most unappealing quality.
As they are not invisible, they must be hiding somewhere.