Marcus keeps his eyes on the open tunnel as he hears the dwarf's ask about the Baron, but wasn't there another...
"Hey, weren't we supposed to look for a wizard? Does that body look wizard-y?"
If it was him, then they might get a bonus, but what the heck would be be doing crushed down here with some dead kobolds? Trying to stop them perhaps? Whatever, he'd leave the figuring to the smart ones, he was going to focus on not getting surprise mauled by the next awful monster they find down here.
"Hey, weren't we supposed to look for a wizard? Does that body look wizard-y?"
Cira smiles, chuckling at Marcus’ choice of words. ”How exactly does someone ‘look wizardy’, hm? Not all magic users wear robes and pointy hats, you know,” she teases. Anything to lighten the mood as she reluctantly reaches out to open the hand wearing the ring. Before touching the jewelry itself, she passes her own hand over it, casting detect magic. Just in case.
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How exactly does someone ‘look wizardy’, hm? Not all magic users wear robes and pointy hats, you know,”
Marcus chuckles at Cira's teasing, glancing back at her "You don't say?" He then let's a trickle of his acrane power charge his blade, causing a slight glow in the uncertain light. "I would have never guessed.
He finishes with a smile and a wink as he turns back to his vigilance on the tunnel.
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Grargath looks between Marcus, Francis, and Cira, face reddening.
"Aye. Th' wizard... Tha' was my next guess." Grargath turns his attention to a particularly interesting piece of rubble.
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Shaking her head at Marcus with a smirk, Cira carefully slides the ring from the dead man’s finger, bringing it and the light from her staff close to her face to inspect it.
Marcus hisses at the sight of the dark shapes coming his way. Backing towards the group as he readies his blade.
"Ware! Something is coming from the tunnel! Kade see if you can't chuck your stick in there."
As she turns over the ring in her fingers, a fancy golden H is immediately apparent.
Wait…
She turns to the group. ”I think we may have found Hunc—.” She breaks off with a start as Marcus calls out his warning, eyes darting to the tunnel ahead. She quickly deposits the ring into her bag, then readies herself for the unknown coming at them. She is suddenly especially thankful that they’d decided to rest the night before.
"Can you see what it is?" she asks Marcus nervously.
Marcus squints into the darkness hoping to find more detail. Hearing Cira's query, he responds.
"No just two darker shadows in the shadows of the tunnel, but they did appear to be approaching. I suggest we prepare for the worst."
Grargath sharply turns toward Marcus at his warning. "From th' tunnel?" Grargath draws his axe and shield.
Francis draws close to the rest of the group, reaches out and touches Grargath ["Dawn guide you!" After a small bit of Sarenrae's power bolster's Grargath, Francis readies his weapon and shield, ready for whatever fight may come.
Grargath nods in thanks to the priest and hurries over to the tunnel's opening. "I don' think we'll be findin' anyone friendly this deep," he comments. "Unless Hunclay brought friends with him."
Assumin' tha' is Hunclay, of course.
With a battle shriek, a trio of kobolds spring out of the darkness. These short, reptilian humanoids have scaled skin, snouts full of tiny teeth, and long tails.
A kobold towards the back, wearing crafted studded leather, draws back a bow and takes aim at Marcus.
Raising a hand in anticipation of casting a spell, Cira pauses abruptly as she quickly surveys the creatures ahead—something felt… off. The closest three appeared to be, she assumed, run-of-the-mill kobolds. But the one in the back… armored? She didn’t know anything about these creatures, but that didn’t seem normal.
She then notices it raising a bow, drawing the string back as it takes aim at Marcus.
No. She was having none of that.
With a low growl she pushes her way past the bard, swiftly striding forward with purpose, hand clenched at her side. As she nears the group of creatures, she brings her hand, glowing a milky white, to her chest before thrusting it forward to send a sleep spell hurtling towards the armored kobold.
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Kade shook his head his head at his companions' questions. No, he didn't recognize the dead body. It was his understanding that Hunclay the Wizard had established himself in Belhaim some three years ago. Kade had only been back in town for a matter of days and as such had never seen the guy; he couldn't dispel Marcus's speculation that what they had found was that very wizard. Or what was left of him.
Kade's brows furrowed as he recalled his earlier suspicion. Like so many other thoughts of his he hadn't voiced it, but ever since hearing the baroness saying that Hunclay wished the tower gone he had wondered if the wizard wasn't somehow responsible for the collapse. His mysterious absence amplified that suspicion. But was this the perpetrator they had found then, squashed underneath the tower? Kade looked at the wizened, white-haired figure and imagine him with a pick axe, chipping away at the foundation of the tower he wished to see gone, only to have the whole thing scramble down on him. It was dumb. It was a cartoonishly stupid thought, akin to the fool sawing away the tree branch he's sitting on. Weren't wizards supposed to be smart?
No, there was something off here. Primarily it was this: how did the kobolds fit into any of this?
The battle shriek told him that he would have to hold off on speculations about the scaly runts. Some very live ones apparently wanted them dead! He gritted his teeth in frustration. The environment was very much to the kobolds' advantage. The rubble was difficult to maneuver around and the low ceiling was a constant annoyance. Kade hated compromising his ever-perfect posture.
That frustration turned to fright, however, when Cira charged into the fray confidently. Kade's thoughts immediately went to the evisceration he had received only hours ago.
Cira! What do you think you're do... oh. Well then.
The half-elf handily neutralized half of the enemy, including what seemed to be the group's leader, with a flick of her hand. The kobolds went from threatening to comical as half of them fell asleep, and Kade had to smile. He chided himself.
Right. Don't forget yourself now. She's the magician with fantastic arcane power. You're the guy who punches good.
That said, he was also the guy who could take a punch or two. Certainly more so than Cira, he thought. The half-elf had done well, but she was now the first point of attack for the remaining kobolds. Kade darted through the rubble and past the sorcerer. He didn't mind punching bag duty.
Marcus crouched in readiness as his companions act around him, glad once again that he had chosen (or perhaps fate had chosen) to travel with such competent companions.
Seeing Cira's spell go off so magnificently, Marcus decides his best course of action is more of the same. End this fight before a true blow is struck.
Trickling a pinch of fine sand through his fingers he chants out magical words that sound suspiciously like a lullabyear, centering the spell on the Kobolds who remain standimg.
One more of the kobolds collapses to the ground, asleep. only the foremost kobold remains upright!
Grargath hustles past Cira and Marcus as they begin putting the kobolds to sleep. As a dwarf who liked a challenge he finds himself somewhat disappointed that his targets won't even be able ti fight back, but flashes of Kade's guts spilling from his body quickly put that thought to rest. He takes his place next to Kade and readies his axe.
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One left. Doubt I'll be able to hit him in these cramped conditions. Let's try something else.
Francis growls at the Kobold loudly, then bangs his morningstar on his shield, points it at the Kobold, and lets out an intimidating shout.
Francis's morningstar gets stuck in his shield and his shout comes out a squeak as his throat catches.
The last kobold's sprinting charge slows down to a trot. The small draconic humanoid looks back at its sleeping companions. The kobold turns back to the party and drops to its knees. It throws its crude spear to the ground and pleads in pidgin Common.
"No strong masters, please no kill-kill Eepo."
Grargath is taken aback by the sudden submissiveness of the kobold. He relaxes his hand wielding the shield, but keeps his axe ready just in case. The vile creature may be playin' a trick.
He stares Eepo down. "If yah want t' live, you'll tell us wha's been goin' on down 'ere now! Did you lot cause th' collapse?"
Marcus watches as his companions accept parlay with the creatures, aaparently intending to capture and interrogate them.
Probably be safer to the world as a whole to slit their vile throats and loot the bodies
He doesn't voice this thought, however, as he has learned his companions showed considerably more moral character than himself, and knowing what his morally ambivalent lifestyle had gotten him previous to meeting this group, he was willing to try to be better.
Instead he decided to try to play good angel to Grargath's bad. Assuming a kindly tone he speaks to the creature.
"There is no need for further voilence, lets just have a conversation and you needn't be hurt. Tell us about the tower's collapse and this human here." pointing to the crushed possible wizard corpse.
"Wizard-man make deal with Blood Vow tribe. We drop man-building for shiny-shiny." Eepo explains, still on his knees. "Wizard-man get in the way and man-building fall on him."
As she watches Marcus and Grargath talk to the kobold, she leans over to Francis and murmurs, "Make sure the others get tied up soon. They won't stay asleep much longer."
"Wizard-man make deal with Blood Vow tribe. We drop man-building for shiny-shiny."
She takes a few steps towards the kobold and crouches down, attempting to be as nonthreatening as possible. She didn’t trust this thing in front of her, but somehow she almost felt sorry for it. Almost. ”Did he say why he wanted the building destroyed, Eepo?” she asks kindly.
Marcus keeps a sharp eye on the Kobold as Cira gets down to its level to talk with it.
She certainly is impulsive, that thing could still turn on her.
To be safe Marcus begins readyimg a combat spell to pop the Kobold should it make any aggressive moves towards Cira.
If I have to squash this one, so be it, we can just wake up a different one to question
Grargath frowns as Cira kneels to speak to the creature. Awfully risky, gettin' close to 'em like tha'. Can't trust a kobold.
He leans over to Marcus and Kade and says under his breath, "We should take 'em back up t' th' surface with us. Let 'em face th' Baroness' justice. An' she can hear wha' happened 'ere first hand."
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Eepo shakes his head vigorously. "The why's not for Eepo to know. Eepo only here to dig-dig."
Cira rises and takes a step back, turning to the group. "It's story seems likely," she says. She pulls the ring from her bag, briefly looking over it again before handing it to Marcus with the large, golden H readily apparent. ”I found this on the body over there. That, plus the kobold’s story and what the Baroness told us about the wizard...” She shrugs.
She glances back down at the creature. "I don't know why Hunclay would resort to making deals with kobolds though.”
"We should take 'em back up t' th' surface with us. Let 'em face th' Baroness' justice. An' she can hear wha' happened 'ere first hand."
Marcus nods at the dwarfs advice, "Although it might be kinder to kill them quick here, their fate should be decided by the Baroness." looking at the better armed and armored Kobold, "I would bet my blade that one is the leader of this pack, probably would have more answers. Once we disarm and bind them we can ask. Though, i do not fancy coaxingbthis lot through that acid trough area.:
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Francis hands out lengths of rope so they can tie up the kobolds. "Is there another way to the surface besides the way we came down?" he asks the kobold. To the others in his group he says quietly "It might be a good way to get our treasure out of here without prying eyes from town who might want to steal it from us."
"Wizard-man make deal with Blood Vow tribe. We drop man-building for shiny-shiny." Eepo explains, still on his knees. "Wizard-man get in the way and man-building fall on him."
He got in the way? Got in the way how?
Kade was standing over the three sleeping kobolds, ready to give them a nasty surprise should any one of them prove disagreeable upon waking. While Francis had tied up the snoring scalies, he had disarmed them as an extra precaution; Kade didn't mind leaving the questioning to the others. He couldn't image he'd be much good at it. Carrying a conversation was plenty difficult enough for him.
Still, he couldn't quite follow what the kobold was telling them. That Hunclay had promised the kobold tribe gold (shiny-shiny?) in exchange for felling the tower from below made some sense. According to the baroness the wizard had petitioned for the witch tower's destruction for some time. Kade couldn't even guess at the man's motivation, but what really mystified him was how he'd ended up dead under a pile of rubble. If he had contracted the kobolds, if he knew exactly what was going on down here, then why had he 'gotten in the way'? Was Hunclay meeting his end in the very collapse he himself had ordered just a highly ironic accident?
"We should take 'em back up t' th' surface with us. Let 'em face th' Baroness' justice. An' she can hear wha' happened 'ere first hand."
Kade nodded his assent. That seemed to be the best way to go about it.
Eepo turns to Francis. "Only tunnel from here go back to Blood Vow lair. See how Eepo helps bigfeet? Let Eepo live."
"Blood Vow lair, eh?" Grargath shakes his head in bemusement, and turns to his companions. "Looks like Hunclay was th' brains, but no surprise there. Hard not t' be when workin' with kobolds. 'S too bad he didn' tell them anythin', though..." The dwarf goes silent for a moment as he eyes Eepo, trying to judge whether he was telling them the truth.
"Th' wizard's house will probably have more answers than anythin' more we'll get out of him." He turns his attention back to Eepo. "Are yah sure there's no other way t' th' surface?" Grargath asks, silently dreading to have to cross the slime once again.
Well, Kade thought, it seemed that the party had completed their mission. The tunneling reptiles had been behind the tower's collapse. They had something to report to the baroness. Something to hand over too, what with the capture of the perpetrators.
Ready to sling one tied kobold over his shoulder he asked the group:
"We going back up?"
"We going back up?"
"Aye," Grargath nods in agreement, offering to take one of the tied up kobolds. "Maybe we should check out th' rest o' this tunnel first, before it opens up t' th' kobold lair, jus' t' be safe. Don' want t' miss anythin'."
Marcus nods at Kade.
"Im sure the Baroness can get the why of it from these Kobolds. Inthink we should grab as much of the most valuable treasure; gold, gems platinum as we can. In case we cant come back fornthe rest. Search these Kobolds too."
Suiting action to words Marcus casts detect magic and starts searching the Kobolds.
Most of what Marcus finds is ratty and useless to creatures larger than a kobold, but their leader, a huntress that Eepo calls Sesserak, had a fair amount of loot.
- small mwk studded leather armor
- small mwk short bow w/ 20 arrows
- 5 gems worth 25 gp each
- 10 pp
Marcus lets out a low whistle at the haul from Sesserak.
"Looks like this one had some decent gear and some cash. I wonder if thats what the Wizard paid it?"
Turning to Cira and Francis holding the potions. "have any idea what these are?"
Marcus snaps his fingers as he realizes what the potions are.
"Aha! These are moderately powerful curative potions, quite a handy concoction to have on hand in case Francis cannot reach a wounded comrade in time. I suggest we distribute these to our two front line fighters."
As he talks he moves to hand a Cure Moderate Wounds potion to each Kade and Grargath.
The rest of the loot he stuffs in his bag for the time being.
"Looks like this one had some decent gear and some cash. I wonder if thats what the Wizard paid it?"
"That would be my guess. Seems like a lot of money for a kobold to have without help."
Cira is about to take one of the potions Marcus has held out when he snaps his fingers, drawing the potion back sharply. She smiles when he identifies them out loud. ”That’s definitely a helpful find.”
She glances around. ”Are we… about done here? I’d like to get back above ground,” she asks with an uncomfortable smile. The dark, stuffy tunnels were were starting to get to her. She wasn’t used to being without fresh air and sun for so long.
Kade looked at the deep red potion before dutifully stuffing it into a pocket. This liquid was Francis in a bottle? Crazy stuff. He grunted his thanks to Marcus while hoping that he would never need the thing.
Dropping an eye towards the bard's leg, Kade picked up another kobold and slung it over his other shoulder. The group had enough strong arms between them that transporting the reptilians shouldn't be a problem. Francis, Grargath, Marcus and himself could easily carry one each, but no way was he making the bard haul one of these up and out of the ruins in his state. And he wasn't about to let Cira do it because... Well, Kade was raised better than that.
"Maybe we should check out th' rest o' this tunnel first, before it opens up t' th' kobold lair, jus' t' be safe. Don' want t' miss anythin'."
"Be best to unload these first," he replied, giving one half of his living cargo a light jostle. "We'll be back."
The group would have to return down here soon regardless. The Canteclures' treasury was too tempting to do anything else and there were no shoulders wide enough to carry the kobolds and the seven chests.
Which sent Kade's thoughts hurtling towards a subject he had been hesitant to approach ever since finding the treasure. Who was the rightful owner of the gold now? Because however much he'd like to believe so, he wasn't sure that it was theirs by law. Were there any Canteclures left today to declare ownership? If not, did the gold pass onto the next ruler of Belhaim, the baroness, or at least to the county itself? Kade had no idea, but there was a question there that needed a mutually agreed answer before they saw Lady Devy again.
"Guys," he started, turning towards the group. "Do we tell the Lady about the gold?"
No matter what the others answered he would comply by it. In his mind they were all fantastic in their own rights and absolutely deserved the money. Kade had no moral qualms about these people getting some extra capital with which to continue their journeys. It was really for his own sake that he asked. Him taking what might by law belong to someone else bothered him. Huh. Was he being selfish again?
Marcus grunts as Kade brings up the inevitable question. Ever since finding the treasure he harbored a fear that his companions would take umbrage with recovering treasure lost for years because it happened to be in a tower run by a torture crazy, overthrown ruler.
"As far as I am concerned the treasure is ours by right of conquest, and finding the keys. I will cede to the groups wisdom in this matter, however. It does rankle the pride to face such dangers as we have for a paltry hundred gold."
Saying his piece, he goes back to preparing to get the Kobolds to the surface, knowing his companions would make the correct choice.
I morally correct, perhaps, but that wont help keep food in my stomach or a roof over my head
"Guys," he started, turning towards the group. "Do we tell the Lady about the gold?"
Cira glances into the room with the chests of wealth. She too had been thinking about the treasure. ”I say we keep it,” she murmurs. ”After everything we’ve had to deal with down here…” She shrugs. ”I doubt anyone who might hold claim over it actually needs it. We could do a lot good with that kind of gold.”
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Francis gives it some thought. "We risked our lives to explore this ruin, and the wealth we discovered never belonged to the Baroness's family. Nobles often have this unfortunate tendency to think everything they see is theirs. They steal enough from the serfs who live under their rule. I feel no qualms about keeping our knowledge of the treasure to ourselves."