Garrokmal nods at Hieronymous as he passes back through the door, proceeding to the next one in the hallway. He pauses for quiet, then tests the door.
Garrok tries the door and it slides open to reveal a set of wooden stairs descending down into the dark stone basement of the fort.
Garrokmal peers down the stairway, then looks back at his companions. "Well, what do you think?"
Hieronymous stares down the stares blankly, "Hmmm, perhaps it'd be prudent to clear the rest of this place out before we head down there?"
"Yes, I suppose that would be the smart thing to do. I change my vote, not that I voted out loud, but still, I was secretly willing us down the stairs."
Zafzalurg shrugs, grabs the keys, and starts dragging the suddenly reticent half-orc toward the next door.
"Alright, then. Let's check the rest of this floor and come back."
Closing the door to the stairwell behind them, Garrokmal leads the group over to the door just past the double doors leading to the throne room. Once everyone is in position, he carefully opens the door.
This large courtyard is open to the sky. Tenacious clumps of partially trampled grass grow fitfully here and there in the hard-packed earth, in places stained with blood or scratched with furrows. To the north, four goblin dogs yap at an outbuilding and what appear to be two dead goblins lie slumped at its entrance.
As you enter there is a large crash from the outbuilding door that rattles and shakes the entire structure and you hear the weak whinny of a horse. The dogs renew their barking with vigor and seem not to notice your entrance.
Hieronymous, feeling brave after the luck he had in the last battle, races across the courtyard and tries to impale one of the dogs.
Hieronymous sprints across the open ground and impales one of the dogs on tip of his spear. The dog yelps and falls to the ground dead. The other three hounds turn in surprise at their companions cry.
Garrokmal is surprised at Hieronymous' reflexes and powerful strike... Steal my thunder, will he?! With a growl he attacks with a burst of speed, closing on the closest goblin dog in an instant.
Garrok runs forward to slice into one of the dogs with his sword, feeling its spine snap on the edge of the enchanted blade, the mutant dog collapses.
Zafzalurg slides along the wall, dagger poised, and waits for his opening.
Ithrinniel sneers at the goblin dog in the far corner, "I'll bet you fall asleep easier than your goblin cronies..." she mutters as she begins a hex.
The dog yawns a big toothy yawn then turns several times to lay down on the ground and sleep. While Zaf moves up along the wall to get into position.
The lunges for Garrok as it reacts aggressively to being surprised.
It clamps down on the rim of Garrok's shield as it tries to sink its teeth into his flesh and you hear the sound of tooth on steel.
Letting the sleeping dog lie, Hieronymous steps over the dead dog and takes a stab at the remaining dog.
Hieronymous steps forward and rams the spear into the last of the dogs as it gnaws on Garrok's shield, putting an end to its threat. One dog lies sleeping, but the rest of the practice yard is silent.
"One monster stew, coming up..." Garrokmal growls as he drives his sword into the sleeping goblin dog.
With all the beasts dead, Garrok gets a good look at the courtyard.
Then he examines the west-facing door and considers going through it. "As long as you're all still with me..."
Looking around the exercise yard area, you see that grass grows in splotchy patches, in the corners the weeds grow tall and there's a hard packed trail leading across the center of it. Burnt areas of grass call to mind any number of goblin antics and a ring of stones denote what looks like a fighting ring. Other than that it's mostly nondescript.
Looking to the fort itself, the tops of the towers look down over the rest of the structure, but it does not seem to have a second floor.
You approach the door in the Northwest and see the door to this outbuilding has been nailed shut, and additional boards have been nailed over these nails. The door itself is cracked and splintered in
places. Two dead goblins, their heads crushed in by something heavy, lie in the dirt by the door, their ripening bodies covered with flies.
"I think we're meant to stay out of there..." Garrok says as he turns north and examines the north-facing door. Upon finding nothing unexpected, he carefully opens it.
As Garrokmal walks away from the nailed door, Hieronymous stares blankly back at it, "Did anyone else hear a horse?"
He slowly follows Garrokmal, still looking back at the door with a look on his face that might suggest he is trying to remember something.
Garrok opens the door to the North to see a darkened wooden hallway leading back to another door facing East. As you step through, you hear the snort of a horse come from behind the nailed shut door on the outbuilding.
"Hm - maybe you're right; we could see about that horse..."
Garrok, having missed the sounds it made earlier, returns to the boarded up door and listens to the sounds from the other side. Stowing his sword and shield, he pulls out his warhammer and begins attempting to remove some of the boards.
With considerable effort the four of you remove the thirty or so nails holding the doors closed. As the door swings open a very large horse rushes through the gap, knocking the door aside and causing you all to dive for cover.
The horse is a magnificent, black, heavy war horse, but appears to have suffered mistreatment at the hands of the goblins. Several cuts are visible along his flanks and legs and the bones of his spine are just starting to show along his shoulder blades. It looks like he may not have eaten in a week. The horse paces opposite you in the yard, eyes wide in fear as it looks for an exit.
Ithrinniel quickly gets back on her feet and moves toward the horse, as she gently begins her charm to calm the beautiful, but very frightened, being before them. "Shhhhhh strong one, we mean you no harm. We want to help you."
Nuala simultaneously takes off toward the gap, seeking anyone else who might be injured or too frightened to come forward.
Hieronymous smiles as they work to free the horse, glad that he wasn't imagining things. Not used to horses, he stays far away from the frightened animal once it is free.
Lulled by Ithrinniel's magic, the horse lowers its head and takes a few sheepish steps toward the elf girl, it keeps a wary eye on Garrok and Hieronymous and the glinting metal in their hands, but its draw toward Ithrinniel is stronger. The stallion reaches forward with it's muzzle inviting a gentle stroke.
"Now we've done it.... I don't suppose we can just let the thing run off."
Ithrinniel, relieved that the horse seems to trust her, gently lays her hands on the horse's muzzle to comfort. She nods at Garrok, agreeing with him (for once, it seems) and turns to the group "What do you think we should do? The horse needs food and rest, but we might be able to protect it as we go."
"Properly fed, I bet that brute is a hellion in battle. I wonder if his rider is somewhere within..." A thought come over the gnome and he blanches a little before muttering "I just hope they weren't in that meat locker."
"Seriously though, why don't we just burn this place down? Timbers look untreated. Wood's not too damp, either. Thisteltop needs to be scoured from this earth."
"I agree Zafzalurg, but we haven't found the source of the Sandpoint attacks yet and still need to see what's beneath this place - Fire may or may not harm whatever it is and we have to be sure ... An effective fire would start on the lower floor, anyway."
Looking at the three others with the horse and thinking of the area they've explored so far, Garrok makes a quick decision. "Stay here for a moment - I'm going to see what's down this hall. Then we'll have to choose between going downstairs and returning this unfortunate creature to Sandpoint."
He then quickly moves up the short hallway and opens the door at the end as quietly as possible, just to peek inside.
Garrok pushes the door open to see another small hallway, two doors stand at the end. He listens at both and hears nothing. Shield ready he opens the door to the south, its empty except for a large table and a few ratty chairs. The door to the North presents yet another small hallway and two East facing doors. Again he listens to hear nothing.
He opens the south-most door to a wave of rankness the likes of which he'd never experienced before. This small, foul-smelling room features little more than a reeking hole in the ground, its rim stained
with refuse and waste.
With revulsion he starts to close the door, but something catches his eye about the back wall, it seems to not join together properly. With a yank, a hidden door pulls free.
Sitting on the dirt floor of this hidden room is an extra-large sea chest, with a heavy iron padlock.
A quick look behind the remaining door reveals another set of stone steps leading down.
Eyes going wide, Garrok stows his weapon and hustles back out to the courtyard. "Master gnome! Bring that keyring this way, will you? Hieronymous, make sure these two are safe - we'll be right back."
Garrokmal and Zaf try the keyring keys on the padlock on the chest.
Hieronymous nods at Garrokmal, taking up a position as near the middle of the courtyard as he can without getting within 5 feet of the horse. Someone once told me horses smell fear, he tells himself, I'm not afraid, but why take a chance that this horse smells fear where there isn't any?
He leans against his spear waiting for whatever might be occupying Garrrok and Zaf.
Curious, the gnome hustles to see what the barbarian has found.
"Patience, Garrokmal, these legs don't have the same yardage as your own."
Zaf arrives and sorts through the keys trying one after another in the lock. The fourth try and the key slides into the lock.
The gnome steps up to the chest, takes a deep breath, and with a tight grip on the key, starts to...
"Hold on. You'd think I just stepped out of the warren into my first sunlight."
Zafzalurg steps back and casts detect magic on the chest. Barring not finding anything untoward (like the lock glowing menacingly), he re-inserts the key and turns it left.
@Zaf - You cast the detect magic spell and study the chest for a few seconds to see if there are any detectable auras. Seeing that there are not, you stick the key in the lock and turn it to the left.
A rusty jagged blade springs out of the lid of the chest and glances off of Zaf's buckler making an earsplitting hiss. The rustedness of the blade is a sure invitation for lockjaw, that you've managed to avoid.
The violence of the trap forces open chest to reveal a trove of sparkling coins and items.
The chests contents consist of 7,432 cp, 2,490 sp, 89 gp, 3 pp, a leather pouch of 34 badly flawed malachites worth 1 gp each, a Medium chain shirt, a Medium masterwork scimitar, a pair of masterwork manacles, a gold holy symbol of Sarenrae worth 100 gp, a
jade necklace worth 60 gp, and a fine blue silk gown with silver trim worth 150 gp.
Garrokmal winces (privately) just as Zaf manages to evade the trap, then his eyes go wide at the contents of the chest. "My little friend, if you had any financial woes, they are safely put to rest... Time to make some hard choices. Let's talk with the others."
Heading back down the hall to the courtyard, he reports on the find. "So again, we need to choose between venturing on downstairs and returning as briefly as possible to town. I hate to say it, but at this point, we may benefit from a strategic withdrawal for the night."
[ooc]Don't forget that this guy can carry more than what he is already carrying.[/ooc}
While they're considering, Garrokmal notices the door on the south side of the courtyard. Hey, what's in there?
He crosses the courtyard and opens the door.
Shelves lined with crude tools, nets, and tack for goblin dogs line the walls here. To the northeast stands a large L-shaped wooden cage that contains dozens of rabbits.
Hieronmyous thinks carefully, and then says, "I'm think you are right Garrokmal, we should withdraw for now, bring this fearsome animal to town and rid ourselves of all these items. With any luck, the goblins we trapped up above will still be waiting for us when we get back."
He then proceeds to stuff everything else they found into his bags and prepares to leave.
"I don't know if I love this plan, friends. Right now, we have the element of surprise on our side. Who knows if we'll be as lucky tomorrow. Who knows what they'll move or fortify while we are traveling. What ambushes they'll set for our return."
"I know we've seen horrors this day. Enough to send sane creatures screaming into the night. And we have dealt a small modicum of justice, but there is more to be done. This is day. Not the next, but now."
The gnome looks to each of his companions in turn trying to gauge their response.
"I've said my peace. Whatever the group decides, I will abide."