"Thank you brothers. If everything goes to plan i'll simply see you all in a few minutes. Good hunting lads!" he says as he slaps Thozar on the back.
He then turns to the boy and speaks in the common tongue so he understands.
"I'll be your protector, lad. I'll let no harm come to you while my fellow Dwarves here check that the rest of this place is safe. I'll be near the entrance here ready to act if needed. Please keep that magical light dim so as to keep my Dwarven eyesight keen." he says with a smile.
Torith does as he says and stays on the opposite side of the room from the light.
The boy looks shocked at Ulark's comment about using the Hopeknife for anything other than its intended purpose, but doesn't dewll on it. He tries to take the hammer, but it is just to heavy for the lad.
After checking the door, you enter into the next room. 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 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.
You identify the circular seal on the floor as a depiction of Iomedae’s holy symbol.
Gundar grumbles complaints about not taking the boy back to town immediately, but takes up his axe and resumes his position at the vanguard.
In the next room, he glances about for danger before going to inspect the bookshelf for anything useful or informative.
Thozar follows suit, searching the room for what he can before focusing on the bookshelf. What knowledge lies in wait here?
Once he is through with the bookshelf, he approaches the ladder. "Shall we take a brief detour and see where this leads? Presumably it is to the ground level, but where?"
"It's another holy symbol to Iomedae. This room must have held some significance when it was in use."
In response to Thozar's question Thuradin remembers "Didn't Torith find a trap door in the floor of the room with the haunt? I bet that's where this goes. It's placement seems about right."
Thuradin will then place his ear to the door directly outside the furnace room and listen for any sounds beyond.
That makes sense. Ulark nods at Thuradin's prediction. We never did try to go that way. Somewhat distracted by the locals.
He stands guard as the warpriest puts an ear to the door. Hall or door - I would go with the latter he whispers to the others, eying how close the other doorway is to the child and Torith's hiding spot.
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"We can take it back with us. No need to try more orcish lockpicking."
The bookshelf holds little of value—only the mostly destroyed pages of Iomedae’s holy text, Acts of Iomedae, and several other weathered scriptures.
The chest, however, is unlocked, and contains 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.
"This all looks very useful, we should definitely hold onto it. Shall we proceed through the door we passed, or down the hallway here?" What could they have been doing with glue and solvent? The rest seems fairly straightforward.
Uneasy with the lack of further resistance, Thozar begins rapidly braiding and rebraiding his beard. I know there is more to this compound, but surely we should have run into something or somebody else while down here.
Straight ahead, unless you heard anything skittering about Thuradin? Ulark says as he nevertheless takes time to untie the bag of coins and place it precariously on the door's handle.
For a clatter in case something slips around the back. Unless any of you got a thunderstone? He says as the other dwarves looks at him, then moves to the hall's edge.
Torith starts to get bored of the quiet. All he can hear is his own breathing and the nervous breaths coming from the Othdan. He decides to ask the boy a couple of questions to keep them both distracted.
"So, Othdan, where in Trunau do you and your guardians live? Is there just you or do you have any siblings to play with?"
The questions are only just not as awkward as the quiet was.
Ulark sees a pressure plate in the hall just in time to avoid stepping on it. The hall is trapped!
"See anything down there Ulark?" Belir asks as he helps gather the equipment.
The dwarf hops back with a start.
Yes. A mouse trap, a large one. he says as he points out the pressure plate before him.
The chest flies through the air and hits the floor with a loug "CLANK! THUMP THUMP", which then triggers the trap. The trap is like a long bear trap, chomping in on the chest. The chest is held tight, but not too badly damaged.
Kragmyr chuckles at this. "I know a few sagas which could have ended several hundred verses earlier if such a way o' thinkin'."
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"Ye just hate boxes, I think," Gundar snarks.
Thuradin, unsure if he heard anything on the other side of the door or not decides to follow the others down the hall.
"I'm beginning to appreciate the simplicity in avoiding subtlety. I would prefer to be less intrusive, but if we aren't, why not go whole hog, eh?" Thozar completes his beard and takes up position. "Kragmyr, in this book of yours, is there a story of a young Belir being trapped in a box?" he says with a grin.
"Let us press forward then, there is more to discover!"
_________
...Well, at least the goods were out of this box first. Ulark says after a moment.
Forward then. Not a chance in the Nine that if the troll's here it doesn't know we're coming so no harm in marching proud in then.
Gundar sticks to his word to form the vanguard and heads down the hallway, picking his way carefully past the trap and its boxy victim, and keeping an eye open in case that wasn't the only one.
No more traps seem evident.
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.
"Shoddy bit of digging, that were," Gundar remarks. He advances cautiously into the room.
If there was a troll here, might have come through the tunnel.
Before the others enter the room, Gundar will look about for any tracks that might still be undisturbed, especially if they look like they might come from trolls - or orcs.
Thanks to Belir's keen senses, you are able to react to two tiny rats that come scurrying out of the rubble towards you. Normally, you might not care, but these look like some sort of undead rat, and the hairs on your neck stand on end.
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First, vermin. Now, undead vermin. What a delightful place.
Gundar swings half-heartedly at the little monsters, testing to see if they react at all like real rats and scamper off.
We go back to town, whoever comes - and whose trap was set - 'll know someone was poking around. Ulark says to Belir as they walk. We should drop the lad off, yes Should have done that from the start but haul back here right after. See if this troll and the killer re...
If the paladin was going to continue is unclear as Gundar's wide swing clangs off the ground and draws the dwarf's attention to the pair of odd rats in the rubble-strewn tunnel.
This is starting to feel more like pest control than deputies. he says as he swings his own axe blade down on towards a vermin.
for
Belir did better than he though, because when he lifts his axe back up, the rat splits into two pieces.
With the sounds of battle ringing in his ears Thuradin rushes into the room.
The remaining rat attacks Belir (who gets an AoO first, so the rest of this might not matter...)
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Kragmyr stepped up to the last of the rats and swung his longhammer...
...to say that it connected would be an understatement.
The rat is quickly killed. Luckily, they didn't even get rolling before you neutralized the threat.
The body of a half-orc lies among the rubble, half-buried, half-eaten.
It is a Str check DC 10 to pull it out (which I doubt you would have trouble with).
The macabre corpse still wears a suit of sturdy chainmail, and his pockets hold a wand, a fine silver dagger, a red gold unholy symbol, and six black onyx gems.
Kragmyr makes his way to the corpse and picks up the red gold unholy symbol. He holds it up to get a good look at it.
"Huh. Looks like this be the holy symbol of..."
"An' this be a wand of..."
I wonder if this is the half-orc we are looking for. The earth always has a way of setting things right. Thozar walks over and rummage through the pockets and looks over the body for identifying marks. "Can't imagine that was a pleasant way to go. I am loathe to expose the boy to such things, but it would be worth having him try to identify the body."
Once the body has been sufficiently worked over, he turns to the discovered items. He presses a hand to his temple, trying to discern any magic upon them.
Gundar is forced to agree with Thozar. "Aye. If this is the villain who brought 'im here we need to know."
Thuradin examines the body to see if he can determine how long it's been dead before searching the rest of the room.
"Seems like we have more than one culprit here." he says, pointing to the four bedrolls "Assuming that this fellow here is both our kidnapper and murderer then that leaves at least three others unaccounted for."
He nods in agreement with Thozar and Gundar "I, too, am loathe to expose the boy to this but I think that we need to find out if this is the same one that abducted him and if it's not then we need to return him to town in a circumspect way lest his return tip off his kidnapper or his compatriots."
Thuradin examines the hole and the cave in, thoughtfully stroking his beard "Hmmm, I wonder what they were digging for?"
While the rest busy themselves looking at the gear found, Ulark examines the corpse.
I suspect the boy's seen worse. And may do him good to look at the captor in the dead eyes if he can. Show that evil does get what they earn.
The wand allows you to cast cure light wounds (with 8 charges remaining), and the holy symbol is of Nulgreth, the Blood God.
You can't tell how long the body has been there.
The boy is brought in to identify the body, but he shakes his head. "No, that ain't him. Never seen that one before."
Thuradin claps the young boy on the shoulder "Thank you." he tells him in Common "Now let's get you home to your parents, who are probably worried sick about you."
Turning to Dwarven he tells his compatriots "That leaves at least three more conspirators unaccounted for. Let's return the boy home, quietly, and then return here and wait for whoever shows up."
Kramgyr shares the revelation about Nulgreth to the rest of the party.
"Let's get back to town lads. An' bring this with us. This unholy symbol o' the blood god does not bode well."
"This place makes me worry more and more for the safety of Trunau. We need to stop these people and whatever they have planned"