Roger looks back to the pretty human lady, "Not as such milady, but settled here for a few years now, least it feels that way." he smiles that she took such an interest in such a small man, well all gnomes are small men really, they just never grow. However he turns back to othe task in hand, hoping to impress these folks with his enthusism, if not his skills.
You look carefully at the glass cases and notice that there is nothing of significant value in any of them. Most were smashed open.
Roger scrthes his head as no clues are forthcoming from the search. Having satisfies that he can find not more, he goes to study the two larges doors up the stairs.
You don't see any traps on the door, Roger. When you open the doors, you find stairs going down.
"Oooh look, there's stairs going down here." he alls to the others.
"I guess we had better check them out. Who wants to go down first? I'm not opposed to it if no one else wants to." Geoff comments
Waiting until the first person, or two if they went side by side, began their decent Viniana readied her glaive and began to descend behind them so that she would be able to strike past them at any attackers. She looked at the others and said, "If you need something to keep anyone that might come from behind us off of you stay next to me, I can strike at them to encourage them to stay back."
Adjusting his gear and pulling our his greatsword, Geoff takes a position in the front.
"Duly noted Viniana. Lets take it nice and slow down the stairs then with Roger and myself at the front."
"Down the stairs, well that should be fun." says Roger beginning to enjoy the art of investigation. "I wonder if it's dark down there."
"I should hope no one comes from upstairs, now I'm concerned for Mrs Walder!"
Nelda reached for her dagger, just in case, as she followed the rest of the party downstairs.
The lighting is a little dim, but you can all see as well as normal. The light comes from torches on the walls.
"Provided none of you want to disappear from sight, it's probably a good idea you don't step on the presssure plate that opens the pit." Roger says as he looks at the stairs. "I might just be able to make it safe if you can just wait a moment." Roger descends the stairs to jam the plate, so i won't trip and open the pit. He carefully pulls a small leather bag from the inside of his coat and lays the contents on the step. Picking a what looks like a chisel, he tries to jam into the crcked stone, that acts as a trigger.
"OK, you can come down now." he says cheerfully to the group waatching him closely. "Best not to trip or take out the chisel, til we leave." He smiles up at the company of investigators.
"Good eye, Roger" Geoff says once the gnome is done with the trap.
Geoff will then advance forward over the pit to the door at the end of the hallway.
"You might want to give this a look over as well before I push it open", Geoff calls back to Roger when he gets to the door.
Geoff, you notice what appear to be tracks, like something has already fallen into the trap.
Never one to refuse aan opportunity, Roger checks the door.
Viniana smiled slightly and Roger and said, "Good eye, I'm glad we brought you with us Roger." As they reached the door she waited patiently for it to be checked and opened, just in case.
"Guys, it looks like something has fallen in the pit already. Should we open the pit and see or leave it be for now? I'm for opening it personally.", Geoff says while waiting for Roger
Nelda followed the party, gaining trust in Roger as he lead the way.
"Thank you Roger, I would rather not fall today," she said, smiling at him gratefully.
Turning to Geoff, "Maybe we should back up if we are to open the pit. I do not want to be stuck between a door where we do not know what lies behind and what is down there."
Roger winks at the women, "Thanks, remember I gave you a card, you can always call me." then returns his ge at the door, "I agree with her." he says looking at Nelda, "don't want to drop in th epit on the way out if we have to hurry."
You move to the stair side of the room, and Roger carefully lowers the lid on the trap. Geoff reaches in to hold the trap door open. When you peer down into the pit, you see a grey humanoid creature. It looks up at you, clearly afraid. It looks like it was injured slightly in its fall into the pit.
"Oh!" cried Nelda, startled that the being hadn't been calling for aid. It had been silent in the trap, it had to know the investigators were on the stairs. None of them had been quiet.
Her view was slightly obstructed by Geoff and Roger, but she could see that the creature was afraid.
Nelda cleared her throat and gave a tentative, "Hello." Could the creature talk?
A scared voice answers Nelda, "Please don't hurt me."
It seems fairly passive
Holding the pit open, Geoff looks at the creature, "What is your name?"
To the rest of the group, "Do we have any rope to help it out?"
"There is a length of silk rope in my pack."
Nelda shrugged off her pack and riffled through to find the rope. While handing it to Geoff she asked, "Will it be strong enough to pull the creature free?"
"Don't pulll him up, til we know it'safe. Whatwas he doing to end up down there? Go on, ask him!" Roger asks Geoff.
"You in the hole, What were you doing down here?", Geoff asks of the creature
Hearing someone was trapped down below Viniana took out some soap and shaved a bit off before praying over it so that it began to glow and then dropped it down the whole so they could better see whatever was down there.
"I'm Rogi. If I tell you everything, promise you won't hurt me???"
"You have my word that none of us will hurt you should you not try to hurt us" Geoff says, he also begins to lower the rope down as he'd rather not have this conversation via talking too loudly.
"Careful Geoff, don't let him out until he answers our questions. Who knows what tricks he might have up his sleeve."
Nelda squinted at Rogi in the dim light of the pit. When she spoke Nelda thought she may know of her origins.
She felt sorry for the being, trapped like an animal. But... "Roger is right. We can assume Rogi was attempting thievery."
Roger nudges Geoff, "This one's a strange one, leave him be until we've finished our business here. He'll come to no harm down there." the gnome says, unsure what will happen when Rogi has an escape route and people to blame for setting off the trap.
This is a skulk. You know that they are known for often performing petty or small-scale illegal activity for pay. There is a tribe of them in town, and they usually work in groups, not alone.
"Are there more of your party beyond the door, Rogi?" Nelda asked.
"I don't know. We were surprised, and all tried to run away, and I fell into this hole. I don't know if the others made it or not. We were all scared we would be caught and punished."
"Now you said you'd tell us everything, so what were you doing down here and why?" Geoff says, rope in hand but not being lowered down.
"Promise you won't hurt me first..."
"I've already given my word that we won't harm you if you don't try to harm us and that's all you will be getting." Geoff says in a disgruntled voice. "Now hurry up with the story or I'll suggest that we leave you down there with the lid closed."
Viniana wasn't the most diplomatic of people and decided it would be better to let one of the others do the talking to this creature. The fact that the creature had come down here to steal was a mark against him, but his obvious fear of what would happen touched her. She wished she had the words to comfort him with but she knew it was likely that she would only make things worse if she tried.