You hear footsteps a moment too late as a tall middle-aged man rounds the corner behind you. He is slender, but also looks strong. He wears a tan colored robe dominated on the front by a rearing Black dragon. The robes cover what looks to be some sort of armor. "You there!" he exclaims. "What are you doing outside my door?"
His balding pate reflects the torchlight as he stares at you intently. He then pulls a small parchment out of his pocket and starts uttering some words that you do not understand. They sound like a chant, or a spell of some sort.
Uncomfortable by his chanting, Kat hastily moves to stand next to the man, prepared to draw her sword and attack if this turned into an offensive spell.
"I'm exploring. What are you doing?"
"I am going to my room. A room, I might add, that is locked for a reason. Finding you with you ear pressed against the door looks very little like 'exploting'." The man starts to walk toward the door. He continues past you, with his back to the wall so that his eyes are on you the entire way.
You must be one of those silly Gamblers that Lord Kent has invited." he sneers.
"You will leave this hallway immediately, and you will not return. This is your only warning, or you shall pay the consequences of your actions."
"And...who are you?" Kat pauses waiting for him to answer before continuing. "They said we could go anywhere that wasn't locked. They said nothing about not listening at doors to try to figure out what was on the other side."
"Who I am is of no concern to you. Be gone, or draw your blade. I care not which you choose, but I believe that you might, so consider carefully."
So basically, he's a nobody who can't tell me what to do.
Kat continues to stare the man down, neither moving nor drawing her blade. Slowly she begins to tap one finger against her chin, thinking. An inner desire to stare the man down on principle was at war with the desire not to waste more time than was necessary. Her superiors in the guild had always told her to temper that petty streak of hers. But it was so hard when giving in just felt so good. Shrugging, she gives the man a sudden grin. "I'll come back when you're in a better mood." She then quite literally skips off, humming a tune to herself.
She decides to head to the grand hall instead to grab some food she had failed to grab earlier.
On your way to the Hall, you take note of the stone well in the courtyard. It is of normal size, approximately 5 feet across with stone circular walls and a pulley system for drawing water.
Inside the Great Hall, you see Medifir. He is the man who lost to Llewellyn in the first round at Table 2. Medifir is sitting at a table, casually rolling his dice in front of a plate of food.
Hmm, may as well make nice. Might need to build up some goodwill in case I 'accidentally' find myself in his room later and he walks in.
Kat tosses some of the more portable food-- bread, cheese, fruit, etc-- in her bag, placing some pieces of the less portable variety on a plate and sitting down next to the name. "Hello, how goes? Some pretty rotten luck in the first round, yes? I'm afraid I might have insulted my dice by how they were rolling earlier." She pauses, both to give him time to respond and to start eating her food. She had forgotten how hungry she was.
"You look bored. Have you not found something to entertain yourself with yet?"
The man stops rolling dice and looks at you with beady eyes. Wearing plain leather armor, he smells of ... well something you can't really place, but he smells pungent.
"Bad luck, good luck, no luck. The luck of the dice smiles, it frowns, it ignores, and yes, sometimes it insults us. But alas it treats us all the same, in the end." He speaks with a lisp. He looks downtrodden and bleak.
"I am never bored. My mind is always doing things and I am never far from my next change. I have designs to win, you know? The purse from this tourney would go far to help me with my endeavors."
He turns his eyes back downward, looking at his forlorn dice on the table.
"Why are you bored? There is so much to do!"
Kat slows her eating. Partially to talk and partially because his smell had turned her stomach somewhat. Perhaps this wasn't the best decision I've ever made...
"Who said I was bored? I merely said you looked bored. What sorts of things does your mind do? And what designs do you have?" Gods, I really hope he isn't one of those crazy homeless people. Although he had to put together enough money to enter in the first place. Perhaps an alchemist of some sort? They're supposed to be a pretty odd lot, especially with so many of them trying their own inventions.
Medifir glances at you and takes a few seconds to respond, and then, speaking with a lisp that gets stronger with almost every word, he says.
"You said you were bored with the look in your eyes, and your motions, and your ambivalence. You came to speak with me instead of going to do whatever exciting thing you were needing to do. You are here at a tournament for who knows why; you must have better things to do if you are not otherwise bored. No?"
He takes a drink, and eats a mouthful of roasted beef.
"Mmmmm," he sighs with pleasure. "This is succulent. Did I tell you I am planning to win the tourney? I am practicing my dice, as you can see. Who are you anyway? Why are you talking to me? Have you seen my pet? He's around here somewhere."
He looks around with alarm flashing across his eyes.
He's observant, but his logic is lacking. Along with...a few other things. She ignores his first two questions; it seemed likely that answering them would do nothing given that he had already asserted why he though she was talking to him only to apparently immediately forget said assertion. Besides, the third question seemed more urgent.
"What is your pet? If you tell me, I can keep an eye out for him." Current bet: a giant snake of some sort that some unfortunate resident will sudden wake up to find sharing a bed with them. That seemed the most likely choice for something large and dangerous that could still be sneaky and easily overlooked. And he certainly seemed to type to have a large, dangerous creature that he viewed as a harmless pet.
Half expecting to suddenly get bitten by something, Kat also takes a moment to look around the room (especially under the table) for an unexpected creature.
"My pet? I do not have a pet. Do I? I have a rat ... friend. Yes that must be what you mean. He is here. Do you not see him? Of course not. He is good at hiding. You would not, no, cannot see him." He cackles with laughter.
The longer you speak, the more pronounced his lisp becomes. He takes another bite of his beef.
"Mmmmm," he sighs with pleasure. "This is succulent. Did I tell you I am planning to win the tourney? I am practicing my dice, as you can see. Who are you anyway? You never did say who you were. Why are you talking to me?"
He looks down at the table, grabs his dice, and rolls them again.
"No no no ... he sighs. That is not good." Agitation creeps across his face. "Where are you, my luck; my friend, my hope? Where do you go when you leave me alone? I cannot win without you. Come back to me!"
"Maybe I have scared away all your luck and if I leave, it'll come back. I've give you a heads up if I see your rat friend." Although it seems pretty unlikely that I'll be able to tell his rat from any other in the castle.
With that Kat takes the remainder of her food and head to the well, planning to continue eating while scoping out the place. As the only notable location actually in the courtyard, she hoped that anything interesting might be right next to there. Although admittedly, the smart move would have been to place something at a completely random location that no one would ever think to look at.
As she walks out into the courtyard, food in tow, she tsks to herself. Yes indeed, this was a very larger area. Searching every inch of it would not be pleasant. The kitchen would probably be her next best bet, but that was likely to be filled with people until at least after dinner. The great hall was smaller, but still pretty big. And with the guards out, she wanted to save those two doors off the courtyard until she would have at least some cover of night.
Kat places her food down near the well, careful to place it in such a way that it was extremely unlikely any of it would get accidentally knocked down in to the well source. She then lowers the bucket and rope down to pull out some water to drink, trying to gauge both how deep the well is and making sure it taps a clean water source.
Your thorough search of the area bore fruit, not to mention some strange looks from the guards and other passers by. Near to the door on the southeast side of the courtyard closest to the main gates, you discover a secret panel hidden in the foundation beneath the brick design. There are several loose bricks in this area, beneath which lies a panel that opens to a stairwell. The stairwell descends into darkness.
Now that's more like it!
Kat takes a quick break to restock on some food from the great hall (and hopefully get a few eyes off of her). Grabbing a pitcher of water, she wanders back into the general dorm-ish area where the rooms are and grabs and extinguishes a torch to take with her when nobody's around.
She then casually sits next to the secret panel, waiting and watching until no one is paying attention to her. If she gets a chance in the next 10 minutes, she then attempts to sneak into the area.
Well, I mean, technically it's not a locked door, so I'm not breaking any rules. But better safe than sorry. It'd be awkward if I were seen and they then amended the rules.
She does her best to re-cover the panel to make it less obvious to people outside while not trapping herself inside. She takes a moment to let her eyes adjust to the darkness.
With a final look around, you do not see anyone looking in your direction as you enter. As you step down far enough using the light from outside to see, the panel above closes automatically and with barely a sound. Blackness surrounds you, so you strike your sunrod and illuminate your surroundings.
The spiraling stairwell of this chamber is narrow, and lined with elaborate sconces, fashioned as dragons. Central to the room is a fountain with three dragon heads, each set with silver fangs. It looks as if the heads once spat water, but they appear to have gone dry long ago. A large set of iron double doors is set into the north wall, inlaid with black mosaic stones to depict a rearing dragon on each door. Four torches adorn the east and west walls; two on each.
Kat strokes her chin in thought. That fountain looks interesting. I will have to remember to check it out more thoroughly, but for now, I think it best to explore. Best make sure it's safe first though.
Hoping that she had adequately learned her lesson from the trapped bag, Kat makes sure to look around for traps, specifically around the fountain, torches, and the door.
First up was the fountain. The most likely trap would be something shooting out of the dragons' mouths. But those silver teeth also seemed a bit odd. After all, why add such a decoration in the middle of nowhere where no one would see it? While she supposed this could actually be a well traveled area, it seemed unlikely given that the fountain didn't actually work and none of the torches were lit. But then, maybe the fountain never actually worked? I dunno. She sighed softly. I will never understand nobles and their piles of wealth that they can spend and just forget about.
Next up on her list were the torches. Sure, they seemed like unlikely candidates for automatically triggered traps, but they could be triggers for manual ones. Like remove a torch and open a pit under someone's feet or something. Or perhaps you pull one and a secret passage opens up.
Finally, she came to the door. This was by far the most obvious candidate for a trap, second only to a treasure chest had there been one. She takes her time looking for all the most likely candidates: a wire that would get pulled as the door opened, a string connected to the handle, even a bucket of water balanced precariously above the door ready to fall on the first person to walk through.
Satisfied that she has done her best at making the room safe, she then moves to consider the door. Man, more of these dragons motifs. Kent must really love dragons.
Placing her ear against the door, Kat attempts to discern if anything is on the other side of it.
Carefully Kat draws her sword with one hand. She moves to open the door but frowns, looking at the sunrod in her hand. After a moment of consideration, she tucks it in to the side of her belt. She then carefully tries to open the door just a crack, making sure her body isn't visible through the opening. After a couple of seconds, she moves her head to look through the opening, at first keeping the sunrod away from the gap to avoid drawing attention but pulling it out to bring it up if the room inside isn't lit.
You carefully review the room, keeping a specific eye out for traps.
The torches and sconces in the room seem unremarkable based on your review.
You notice, when looking at the fountain, that one of the dragons is missing a silver fang. In addition, on the side of the fountain closest to the iron doors, there is a fairly large alcove that seems to have been worn out over time.
As you walk past the iron doors, you notice a very clever mechanism hidden carefully behind the lock that holds the doors shut tight. You don't hear anything from the other side of the door when you place your ear against it, but as you lift your head away, you notice a bright light coming from the stairwell where you came down. You then hear heavy booted steps. Someone is coming down the stairs!
Ah, crap. Just my luck. Realizing that she probably wouldn't have time to pick the lock, Kat quickly looks around for a place to hide.
As she looks around, Kat quickly sheathes her blade. After all, metal tended to reflect light and draw people's eyes to it. She then quickly shifts her backpack around and removes her cloak, prepared to shove her sunrod into it and wrap it in her cloak to hide its glow.
Kat crams herself into the alcove, shoving her sunrod into her backpack and wrapping her cloak around it.
You hear voices. "I fought I saw sumpin go down 'ere while ago." You hear booted feet come closer, and the shadow of an Orc passes in front of where you are crammed in the hidden alcove.
"Nevermind nuffin, Glush," says another voice. "Boss man says we gots ta hurry, an' hurry we gonna do, lessen ya wunts us ta leave ya here ta get caught?"
"Maybe we should just kill Glush, hey Urmug?" says another, more gutteral voice. He'll squeal loike a pig ifn 'he gets caught! Wunts me ta kill 'him?"
"I was just sayin' ya gits. Jus' wonderin' if dere were a spy! You'd be thankin' me if some sneak came up on us from behind. Did ya get dat door open yet Urmag?"
"I be wurkin on it," replies Urmag. "Gots ta be real careful." You hear a click and the scrape of stone as the doors obviously open. "Dere we go. Now hurry through before it resets!"
You hear the sound of boots, and then the scrape of a door, then silence.
Kat listens in silence to the orcs talking. 'If we get caught'? That's certainly not what I would expect someone acting on behalf of Kent to say. I wonder what they're up to.
Despite her curiosity, Kat waits a few seconds after the door has closed before starting to wiggle her way free. As long as whatever no good they're up to doesn't affect my job, I suppose it doesn't really matter what they're doing. Although if it does...not sure what exactly I'll do. Oh well, this gives me yet another bargaining chip if I get caught. I wonder if that halfling girl is in league with them... She files away the information along with that about the likely assassin (Even if she's not an assassin strictly speaking, it's certainly a reasonable guess. So what if it just so happens to be the kind of information more likely to seem valuable to others, making it a better bargaining tool?)
Pulling out her sunrod, Kat quickly makes her way to the door, hoping to catch it before it had 'reset' as the orc put it.
If those orcs could do it, I should be able to.
Sure, going after them was probably a risky choice. But on the other hand, 'I'm trying to follow some shady orcs who seemed to be up to no good' was a pretty damn fine excuse to be where she shouldn't be. And it was pretty unlikely she'd get such a chance in the future. And if she just so happened to get to explore more of the keep while performing her "civic duty," well, she couldn't help that, now could she?
As you reach toward the lock with your tools, you hear a click and feel a searing jolt of pain. You hear another click immediately after. Whatever triggered that trap seems to have reset itself.
Kat winces at the sharp pain. Today was really not her day. A couple more shocks like that and she'd be done for. And this was not the place to pass out in. She was torn: attempt to follow the orcs and possibly wind up very hurt in the process or lose this opportunity and play it safe by checking out the stairs.
She did have that potion of healing. But with the doubtless who knows how many guards around, she might need that in a more urgent situation. Then suddenly she brightens up. There might be another way around. Given that, I can use pretty much the same excuse if I run into anybody.
Leaving the door for now, Kat instead decides to see where the orcs came from. Carefully, she starts to move up the stairs, making sure to keep an ear out for others coming down. Once again, she draws her sword as she goes.
Kat bit her lip. She really didn't want to deal with the trapped door. Her healing was pretty limited and that trap had hurt something fierce. But she also didn't want to give up on her first decent lead since she got here. Otherwise she'd be just looking for more secret passageways (and who knows how many of those were actually around to be found).
On the other hand, she had found that extra healing potion. So...maybe one try couldn't be too bad? Just one try though. Then she'd try finding a different way.
You deftly maneuver the triggering mechanism away from the lock, realizing as you study it that the trap was self-resetting. As you try an puzzle out how they did that, it disintegrates into a multitude of tiny parts on the floor in front of the doors.
The door is still locked.
Kat wipes off a bead of sweat, pausing to take a quick drink of water. Skill or luck, I don't really care. I'm just glad it's gone. Hopefully no one misses it. Or thinks to check for it. Now that the trap was gone, it was time to try to actually unlock the door.
Try as you might, the lock just won't budget under your attempt to unlock it.
Assuming that is what you intend to do, you open the door to the following scene:
The floor of this octagonal chamber is painstakingly fashioned with an elaborate mosaic. An arcane design is set with black mosaic stones, in the center of which is an altar of a rearing black dragon. Atop the altar is a decaying, human skeleton, a jeweled dagger protruding from the ribcage. Before the altar, the mosaic is fashioned to portray the head of a black dragon. The rest of the mosaic stones are white, and in some places are tarnished with dried, deep red stains.
Kat feels the blood drain from her face. Dear lord, I sincerely hope this chamber is forgotten.
Swallowing nervously, Kat does her best to look for an exit out of the alter room of death without actually entering.
At the very least, I didn't hear the orcs screaming when they entered here. So it can't be too bad, right? Surely they would have tripped any traps in here? She represses the small voice in her head pointing out that if they knew how to open the door, there was a decent chance they knew about other traps and could avoid them.
Your quick scan of the room does not show any exits from the room.
Kat frowns. I really don't like this. But there's definitely a way out of this room. She takes a moment to prop the door open and cautiously enters, sword at the ready. She does her best to only step on white tiles, avoiding the arcane symbols in the mosaic. I really need to find a wizard travel companions.
She carefully begins circling the alter, alternating looking for signs of an exit in the walls of the room and looking for traps. I don't know what's more disturbing: the dead body or the fact that whomever killed the poor sod just left it there. The overbearing aura of death make her skin crawl. Normally corpses didn't bother her. But mix a corpse with a clearly magical setting and bad things were bound to happen.
Your search for traps turns up empty handed.
Kat grimaces as she fails to find anything. Reluctantly, she move close to the alter, prepared to smack the dead body if it should suddenly develop a hunger for her brains. Careful not to touch anything, she begins to search it for anything of interest, especially hidden switches and the sort.
Feeling slightly better now that she seemed to be in no immediate danger from being sacrificed herself, Kat settles in for a long, hard look, still doing her best not to step on any of the arcane writing. I know there's a way out of here. Those orcs didn't disappear in to thin air!
In the Northwest corner of the room, you find a faint outline; an impression more than anything else. One of the stones is ever so slightly out of place.
Silently very relieved that she hadn't someone blasted into oblivion, Kat moves over to the odd stone. In significantly higher spirits than before, she attempts to push it. If that doesn't work, she attempts to nudge it in various directions.
Who knows, if things go well, I might even have time to come back later and grab that dagger. Sure, she could try grabbing it now. But it wasn't part of her mission and didn't really look like it would be that helpful in a fight (although it did look like it might be worth a pretty penny). It was also in a rather awkwardly central/obvious position, should yet more people come by, making it more likely to be missed if she took it. No, there was really very little reason to grab it now rather than later.
As you push on the stone, a door opens quietly outward into a narrow hallway leading to the northeast. Peering into the hall, you note that about thirty feet from you, the hallway turns to the north.
With a sigh, Kat grabs the unlit torch propping the door open and then rushes into the new tunnel. Don't want to make it too obvious people were here. If it relocks, then let's hope I don't have to leave in a hurry. If it doesn't, then let's hope no one bothers to check if it's locked before trying to unlock it.
Once inside the passage, she pauses every few steps both to listen for returning orcs and to make sure she's not about to step on a pressure plate.
As she approaches the bend in the hallway, Kat slows down, trying to hide her light slightly. Crouching down low to the ground, she does her best to peek around the corner without being spotted. It's surprising how little people look below their eye level. And while this may not work if I were chasing halflings, hopefully it'll work for the orcs.
You do not see any traps.
As you peek around the corner, you see that the hallway ends in a small room. It is empty except for a pile of stone in the middle, but from here you can't quite tell what it is.
Hmmm, still no sign of those orcs. Although at least thus far there aren't many other places they could have gone, so I'm probably on the correct track.
Kat continues to move forward down the hallway, careful for any traps or sound of orcs.
When she gets there, she then takes a moment to look over the odd pile of stone.
An old well, the mouth being perhaps a little less than ten feet wide, is central to this chamber. Crumbling stone walls along its edge attest to ages of misuse.
You hear sounds coming from the bottom of the well.
Kat windmills her arms frantically as she attempts to regain her balance and avoid falling in.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she contemplates the noises she hears. The orcs?
The rocks crumble and fall down the side of the shaft. You hear them clatter to the stone bottom below, but manage to keep yourself from falling in.