Tung will accompany Silas into the school, keeping an eye out for his contact.
Once they find the contact or the headmaster, he will...
"Hello old friend!"
A brief exchange of handshakes.
"Unfortunately, I'm not here for more studies. We have a missing person we're looking for and hope you can point us in the right direction. Do you know of a warehouse directly behind a school? That's the only lead we've got right now."
Tung keeps his head a-swivel, looking for his old teacher. Letting others do the talking, he anxiously fiddles with the buckles and straps on his bandolier.
The team enters Master Allam's school and is approached by a middle-aged man with a full beard and spectacles.
"Eh, yes? Who are you?"
"Hello, my name is Silas. My companions and I are looking for two lost friends. A young man named Iltumar, and a bard named Lavis. Do you happen to know where we might find him?" Silas says as he watches for any sign that the man reacts to the names. He also sniffs lightly to see if the scent of Iltumar might still linger somewhere in the main room.
"No... they're not students, at least not by those names. Why do you ask?"
Tilver smiles. "As my friend said, we haven't heard from them lately. Someone had mentioned to us that they thought they saw one of them here. Are you sure you haven't? Perhaps they're not a student, but someone working for extra coin or simply seen nearby?" Tilver describes Iltumar to the man in case he used a different name.
"I am curious. What type of philosophy do you teach here, Master...?" Tilver asks, fishing for a name.
"I teach rhetoric, natural philosophy, history and poetry, sir. All to children of good families, I assure you."
"I'm afraid I haven't seen your young people here. Er, classes are about to begin or I would show you around. Take a look about if you'd like. No runaways here! But do not disturb the classes, please."
Master Allam seems sincere.
"Of course. Thank you for letting us look around. We'll do our best to avoid any disruptions to you or your students." Isabel gives the Master a smile.
Tilver bows his head to Master Allam. "Of course, sir. Thank you for your help." He turns and shrugs to the others. "I guess let's look around. I think we ought to sweep the alley too since that's where Lavis was supposedly looking."
If any students happen to be wandering about, Tilver makes a point to engage them without disrupting the classes themselves.
"Master Allam, before you go, would you know of any schools in Oldtown aside from your own that back up to a storehouse?"
Well, now that you look, yes. There is an old and apparently abandoned building behind the school. It looks dilapidated, its paint mostly gone and the doors and windows boarded up.
"Master Allam, before you go, would you know of any schools in Oldtown aside from your own that back up to a storehouse?"
Allam looks askance at Tung. "What an odd question, young man. I couldn't say. I don't normally pay much attention to what lies behind schools."
He follows Tung's gaze towards the storehouse. "That thing is an eyesore, though. I wish they'd tear it down before it burns down. Excuse me. I must get to class. Good luck!" He leaves.
Dain and Magill follow along in the others' wake. After the awkward encounter with the headmaster, he says, "Unless someone thinks Iltumar is...ummm...being held hostage in the school, we should probably go and look at the warehouse. That's where his jacket was found...and where Lavis was headed before she...uhhh...disappeared."
"That seems likely. Allam seems to honestly not know them." Silas shrugs and will turn to go check out the dilapidated building.
The old building looks half ready to fall down. It has one door on the side facing the school. A well-maintained picket fence separates the two properties.
Silas approaches the fence and looks to see if the gate is locked or if there is any sign of people recently entering the property.
Dain and Magill make their way along the fence, looking for tracks heading to or from the crumbling building.
Silas and Dain agree that there are signs that people come by here occasionally, entering and leaving the building. It could be just kids hanging out in the building, though.
Tilver takes a moment to examine the gate and tries to peek over at any latch. He looks to see if there might be a trap or alarm on it.
Tung hops the fence and proceeds to the door, inspecting it closely for any sign of use.
Isabel hangs back, and watches to see if anyone is paying attention to the group. She winces as Tung loudly vaults the fence.
Tung vaults the fence with something less than perfect grace.
This place looks for all the world like an abandoned building, complete with boarded-up windows and weeds growing through the walls.
Tilver sees no signs of traps on the gate, nor on the entrance to the building, a dubious and rickety-looking door that stands slightly ajar. Through the gap, Tilver can see an unsafe-looking interior with a sagging roof. The floor is strewn with refuse and mouse droppings.
Tilver walks through the gate and squats down to take a better look at the building to see if it's really unsafe or just made to look that way.
Tilver examines the building and thinks it's actually old and unsafe, but not so unsafe that it's in danger of crashing to the ground any time soon.
Recovering from his vault, Tung straightens and approaches the door slowly, trying to peek through the crack.
If he sees no danger, he'll try to open it, stealthily.
Okay, that's weird. Although the interior is stuffed with trash, debris and abandoned animal nests, the door leads into a small foyer, but there are no other exits from the room - most of the dilapidated structure is walled off. Weird.
"That's odd." Isabel sticks her head into the door and casts Detect Magic. "Let's see if something is hiding from us in here."
You detect illusion magic only if that magic’s effect has a lower level than the level of your detect magic spell. However, items that have an illusion aura but aren’t deceptive in appearance (such as an invisibility potion) typically are detected normally.
Magic exists in this chamber. After some work on triangulation, Isabel narrows it down to a small area of the back wall.
Silas stands off to one side and waits to see what the others can find with the magical area of the wall.
Tilver takes a deep breath. "Ok, I'll go in and take a closer look." He tries to slip inside without disturbing any of the walls to take a closer look at the back wall. He tries not to touch anything, wary of triggering a magical trap.
Tilver doesn't see a thing. Maybe they boarded over the entrances to keep kids out?
Tung moves to inspect the spot at the back wall Isabel indicates.
Detect Magic
Evocation.
Looking around carefully, Tung notices several small clues that lead him to believe there is a hidden door at the back of the small space, accessible simply pulling on it.
"Please step back a moment, if I take a fireball to the face, I'd rather take it alone."
Tung pulls an ash rod capped with steel from his pack, muttering a short incantation, the rod forms itself into a crowbar. He use the crowbar to hook the door and slowly begins to tug it, keeping an eye out for any traps it may be triggering.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Isabel happily steps back away from the hidden door.
Tung doesn't see any traps and opens the door.
Sadly, Tung missed the tiny runes on the hidden door that summon lightning into being.
The instant Tung saw the flash of runic magic, he dropped his grip on the tool. Lightning shot up the steel and ash crowbar. The bar lay smoking on the ground but Tung remained whole. He'll continue to open the door while stowing his any-tool.
"Is it safe to pass through now?" Silas asks as he knows little of traps but guesses being hit by lightning would be unpleasant.
"Are you ok, Tung?" Tilver warily pokes his head into the space to check on the man. "What do you see?"
Isabel pokes her head back in the door, "Want me to check for more magic?"
Without turning back to the group, Tung flashes a thumbs up and opens the door to see...
The trapped secret door leads... to another small ratty chamber inside the abandoned storehouse. Curiously, the interior walls here seem more sturdy than those on the outside. Two doors lead into the interior, one straight ahead, leading to the building's east side and one to the left, leading to the building's interior.
Silas moves into the area and waits to let Tung check on one of the doors.
Tung's golden eyes scan the small room for other dangers. He then cautiously moves to the nearest door, warily checking for traps as he steps and inspects the door.
Tung doesn't see anything that concerns him. It appears to be just a door. But now he hears something beyond - a faint hum or buzz from the room beyond.
Tilver slips inside as well, breathing a a sigh of relief that the building might not fall no them at any minute. He checks the other door for any traps. "Which way?"
"There's an odd sound coming from the door. I can feel it through the floor. Careful."