The boy appears unharmed, although seems malnourished. He stands up, becoming hopeful. "Some smelly half-orc. Well, that's not completely true. I came her on my own, just lookin' 'round, you know? Some says this place is haunted, but I ain't afraid of no ghosts. Anyway, this guy grabs me by the neck, asks me some questions, and then throws me in here to rot!"
"My name's Othdan."
A half-orc, someone from town or maybe connected to us being attacked? No, don't look to make up connections, gather information.
"Question? What did he ask you young man?"
"Well, mostly just what was I doing here, and what did I see. I dinna see nuthin', though. And told him so! But he just grunted and shut the door."
"Every now and then, I hear him talkin' to some one else, but I don't know the language they are talkin' in. I think it is at night time, but I can't tell morning or night any more."
"Your a brave lad I appreciate the information and we will get you back to town. I bet you got a good look at him, can you describe him or what he was carrying? Hair, weapons anything can help us I think."
Derrik will take out his water skin as well as some hard tack for the boy since he will probably want it as well as what mouser is offering.
"We need to go in a bit deeper to investigate, do you think you would be ok to wait for us here? The way back should be clear but best not to chance it."
Derrik will stand up, looking around the room.
"Did you ever see Brinya and Rodrik here?"
He eagerly takes the food and drink, but he shakes his head. "Sorry, no, I didn't get a real good look at him since it was so dark. Dark hair, tall. I might recognize him if I saw him, though."
His eyes go wide at mention of waiting, although if the door remains unlocked, he will wait for a bit. "Can't I just come with you?"
"I was right you area brave lad. I still think it best you wait here and go back with us. If you come with us now you could get hurt and we don't want that."
"We should get him home," says Tam. "It's not safe, especially with all the things we've seen lurking around here."
The kid claims to be from Trunau, so you would expect to find parents at home that know him.
Balmir is in the back of the group when they enter the new room, guarding the rear. When he hears the little boy's voice his eyes light up. "Othdan? Is that you?" He steps into the room after the boy has already been explaining his situation. "What are you doing here?"
At the mention of leaving the boy to wait Balmir shakes his head. "No, we'll bring him with us. I can keep him safe. Besides, it would be dangerous to leave him."
"Hey, Balmir! I am glad to see you... you ain't gonna tell my Ma, are you?
I wasn't causing no trouble, but Jessup dared me to come in and bring out something to prove I been here, and well..."
Balmir winks at Othdan, "Nope, I won't tell your ma." He pats the boy on his shoulder, "Why don't you do like he says," he points at Mouser. "Stay back behind us while we figure out what else is down here."
"I still advise he stay behind but I am not in charge nor a local. Do you want me to take the lead again Balmir?"
Derrik will approach the next door and wait for the others to follow.
"There is danger either way I guess. How about you stay near Tamxander here near the back and if trouble starts backtrack until one of us comes for you.
I will head up near the front of the group.
"By all means, my boy, stay here and we'll keep you shielded if any danger should arise," says Tam in agreement. "We'll get out of this yet."
Embedded into the floor of this chamber is a ten-foot-diameter granite emblem of a faded gold and white longsword. Four passages lead out of the chamber in different directions. A portcullis (which you have seen from the other side) blocks the southern exit, and a sturdy wooden door leads west. A ladder in the southern corner of the room leads upward, and a small chest and decrepit bookshelf face one another from opposite walls.
There is a lever on the wall adjacent to the portcullis.
The circular seal on the floor is a depiction of Iomedae’s holy symbol.
The bookshelf holds little of value—only the mostly destroyed pages of Iomedae’s holy text, Acts of Iomedae, and several other weathered scriptures.
It is unlocked.
Contents include: 1 ounce of sovereign glue, 2 doses of universal solvent, 50 feet of silk rope, a disguise kit (with 6 uses remaining), a set of thieves’ tools, a noble’s outfit worth 75 gp, a signet ring worth 50 gp, and coins totaling 237 gp, 155 sp, and 55 cp.
Derrik will approach the statue, examining it. Mumbling for some guidance to help with this task.
"A very large holy symbol of Iomedae is on the floor, interesting place this is."
Derrik will then move to the book case and the wooden Door, attempting to detect magic on the door.
Upon finding the scriptures and such of Iomedae, "I shall return these to the High Priestess. They are of great value to the Inheritor, it serves well in our favour that we found these."
Somer moves to the check to have a look at its contents.
"Interesting. Very interesting. I would think this is the stash of a brigand of some sort. Someone who need to look like someone else. Oh, and with a decent size purse too boot!"
Picking up the ring:
"Does anyone happen to recognize the symbol on the ring?"
|
Mouser excitedly examines the chest.
"I love it when people keep all of their valuables in one place!" he says. "It makes it easy to find when they don't want it anymore. Hey, look! Those reallocation tools I was talking about!" he adds, looking at the bundle of picks and files. "Can I take these to practice with?"
"I may be making a leap here but I cannot belive this was left with good intentions. I think we should take what we can and sell what we don't need."
"Mouse you feel like holding onto the glue and solvent? Could be useful."
"I think... not so good intentions. Someone moving around town without being recognized, putting up signs visible from afar using glue, then removing them with solvent? Orc attacks in the night? My friends, this looks like a plot to invade our fair town."
"Well maybe we should finish exploring and get back to town. We have little more then suspicions at this point."
Once all the items are gathered Somer will more towards the unopened door.
"Do the Orcs not regularly attack the town? I was always under that impression, actually the entirety of Last Wall was. I should make a detailed report to take back to Last Wall."
Derrik will keep an eye on the wooden door.
"Oh, they make attempts now and then, but if someone on the inside is signaling them and getting them in somehow... that's a new problem."
Balmir scratches his head then says "I'm not the smartest one in the group here but all of this stuff sure looks suspicious. I think we should head back into town and tell someone." Then he remembers. "Wasn't there another door that we didn't go into yet?"
"There are a few here that we have yet to travel through, We could return tomorrow after returning the boy and Alerting the mayor of what we have found."
I wouldn't say that the town is attacked regularly. It is well defended, so random attacks would be easily put down. But it does sit under the constant threat of attack, and it is dangerous to wander outside the walls for long or without protection. There have been tribe raids recently enough that all are familiar with them, but it doesn't happen that often simply because the orcs wouldn't survive.
Nothing here radiates magic, and the sword emblem on the floor is not a real sword, and is not removable.
"We could but I would rather have the full picture of what we are looking at. Plus more of those spiders might show up."
"Lets check the last door and see if there is more evidence of a plot."
Mouser doesn't hear anything, and opens the door.
This once-grand flagstone hall is filled with statues of different celestial creatures in every corner. An old fire pit in the center of the room is bordered on all sides by moth-eaten bedrolls, while shovels, picks, and other digging equipment lie strewn about a shallow tunnel bored into the northeastern wall. The ceiling above the tunnel has collapsed, leaving a hole open to the sky above a pile of burnt rubble.
Balmir inspects the cave in. "Hmm. I wonder if this is the same thing that was caved in upstairs." He looks to see if there is any way through the rubble and if there is a tunnel on the other side.
"This must have been where they cared for the sick during the plague. Terrible shame."
"Did we pass this area as we came in? I don't remember seeing this, odd that they are digging here though."
"Does this go into the town? Someone could go to the Plague House and get inside the town wall through here?"
|
|
Mouser considers what could have happened here. "It looks like they collapsed this on purpose...see all this burnt rubble? I wonder how long it would take to clear this out and see where it leads."
Kicking one of the moth-eaten bedrolls, he says "If we can't get through, we're probably out of leads here. We should get back to town."
Balmir turns towards Derrik. "From my reckoning, we are just under that area upstairs that was an unstable cave in."
This collapse does appear to be the same as you saw from upstairs. Balmir tells you that it looks like someone was tunneling into the hill towards Trunau, and without proper precautions, the tunnel collapsed. It does not look recoverable.
As Mouser is examining the bedrolls, two nasty, tiny, undead rats scurry from the tunnel and bite him!
Plus
[ooc]Miss
Somer slids to his right to give mouser room to back off and fires a small bolt of ice from his hand.
"They look sickly, maybe spread out"
vs touch at Red
to see why they are sickly
Somer hits one of the tiny creatures, but it simply hisses in response and turns toward him, becoming somewhat insubstantial as him moves toward him.
Meanwhile the other continues to try to gnaw on Mouser.
"MILANI Help me vanquish these foul undead creatures."
DC 11 for half
"Mouser, get to safty, you look terrible."
Somer's rapier strikes dead on, but passes right through the rat causing no damage.