"I'll think of something if the need arises, don't worry." With a curt nod from Rexus, the six of you disembark.
Slipping around to the back of the building, you all see the rear door. The night is quiet, the air still, the ground still damp from the recent rain.
Drawing his daggers, the Beast nods to the Pale Knight. "You're leading the breach, right? I'm ready when you are."
Adun steps up to the back door, nodding to the Beast, wriggling his fingers and rolling his wrists to keep his gauntlets ready. He listens for any sounds of movement or occupation before tentatively trying the handle.
Agnes loosens her lance so its easy to draw if needed.
The Pale Knight senses nothing behind the threshold. Turning the knob it spins freely, but when pushed the door doesn't move. Inspecting the frame, the Pale Knight can see a fair amount of rust covers the hinges.
"Rusted shut," Adun says, stepping backwards. He steadies himself then kicks the door right beneath the handle, hoping to force it open with his strength.
The Pale Knight's foot slams into the door, but fails to do more than generate a good amount of noise. In response, the sound of barking arrises within the Fair Fortune Livery.
Carl looks startled. "Are those dogs I hear?" he whispers. "Sounds like whoever is down there, they care little for Thrune's edicts. Perhaps we will find allies rather than enemies?"
"Or they're no one's dogs," The Blue Thorn jumps at the growl, but she formulates a new plan quickly. "Follow me."
Quick as she can, she takes off for the building's other entrance. She pauses as they near the main street to check for dotari. Regardless, she continues to the front door, stopping there to aid anyone who followed her through the gap in the chained door.
Adun's kick merely agitated a pack of dogs in the building. Stepping back from the door he followed quickly behind Blue Thorn, squeezing through the gap and ready for action.
The Fiend moves with Blue Thorn to the entrance. "We'll need to quiet the dogs. If they make too much noise, the dottari will certainly show up" he whispers to the group by the door.
As the three of you enter the Livery you find it is dark and unlit. Light is not needed though to hear the scuffling and heavy breathing of creatures inside. The loud bark continues, now directed towards those at the front door, but is accompanied by a few more shrill barks that almost resemble whines.
Seeing no immediate threat, The Fiend finds a small piece of debris and casts Dancing Lights 40 ft directly ahead of him so that his allies may better see the area as well.
"Seems like they've run to the back after The Knight struck the door, but there's a good chance they'll come this way now. Stay on your guard."
The beast follows the Fiend in, then moves in the direction of the barking, to shield the more vulnerable members of the team. The darkness is no barrier to his sight, even before the Fiend lights up the room.
"An accidental distraction is as good as a deliberate one," Adun mutters as he peers into the gloom. The light from The Fiend's spell provides some illumination and Adun takes the opportunity to look around the interior of the stable.
The Pack gestures to the silver shadow.
"Go. Let the others know I'll keep up the distraction."
The pack moves closer to the door, letting the dogs on the other side sniff the wolf.
To keep their attention, she lets Laika growl at the dogs.
Stepping forward into the light is a large mastiff, the dog easily being 4 feet at the shoulders. It growls and barks at the intruders while two puppies continue to whine behind it. The sound of growling from the rear door cause the large dog to turn and bare its teeth. Feeling cornered now, it takes an aggressive stance.
The Fiend, seeing the creature not yet striking, doesn't want to provoke it.
"Please tell me someone here is better with animals than I am? Perhaps we can open the gates and step aside to let them out?"
"We might contrive to magically stun them with a spray of colors, if we can keep them together," Carl whispers dubiously.
As The Pack suggests, he backs away to let the others know what transpires.
The dogs growl, standing their ground.
"We can take this mama without really hurting her, right?"
Blue Thorn sticks close to Adun; behind by 10 feet and a step to the right. and readies to aid his AC with a attack from her whip.
Adun steps slowly towards the growling dog, gauntlets ready in case it leaps at him. "We could use some help from The Pack," he calls, hoping his voice will carry through the back door.
The dog bares its teeth, pressing forward and trying to scare you off. The pups creep forward after the larger dog and begin barking rapidly.
Agnes tries to calm the poor mother dog down.
Speak with Wolfs
"Bark bark whine woof. Whine. Bark."
The dog turns its head to The Pack and barks back at her.
"Bark. Whine whine. Woof woof woof."
We just want to check. We do not want to take your territory. If we give you food will you let us pass?"
In common:
"The poor thing is starving. Do you have food with you?"
The beast continues its threatening stance, but no longer bares it's teeth.
As the pack is conversing with the large dog the smaller dogs grow silent. Nothing moves, for better or for worse.
The Beast shakes his head. "Not on me. What food I have is back in my apartment."
Never knowing when you have to distract a wolf, Agnes carries a few rations around with her.
She slowly retrieves them from her pack as to not to spook the dog.
"Growl. Whine. Woof woof woof. Bark bark. Whine."
Carl returns to the rest of the group.
Growling, the dog replies, "Leave the food, when we're done eating you'd better be gone."
"If any of you have any food, lets put it into a corner and give poor mama some space. I think we can explore a bit, but mama wants us to not overstay our welcome."
"Bark bark woof. Bark."
"I haven't got any food," Adun says, stepping backwards cautiously from the dogs. "We need to get past them at some point. We can't let some wild dogs stop us finding whatever we're supposed to find here."
"They are just hungry and scared. She wants to protect her pups."
The dogs cautiously move towards the food Agnes put down, the pups waiting for the mother to sniff it before exploring it themselves. With the little time that may have bought you, you begin to explore.
The entire stable is filled with worthless junk, clear signs of this place having been robbed several times before are everywhere such as shattered glass and overturned furnature.
Moving in further, there are two offices in the back corner. One was pretty clearly used as the dog's den, the other holds a flipped over desk.
Lastly, there is an iron gate door to the south that is locked and appears to lead to an additional wing.
Keeping an eye on the mother, agnes starts searching. She didnt give the dog all her rations yet, in case she needed to bargain more.
"Guys, there is some kind of ring in the ceiling. Could be a a hatch or something like that. Problem is... its way up there..."
Rummaging through the drawers of the overturned desk, the Beast comes up with a key. "Hmm. I wonder if this unlocks something around here."
The Fiend moves his lights to illuminate what Agnes is looking at.
When the Beast returns, he asks "Has anyone noticed anything with a lock?"
"What about the iron gate?"
"Give it a shot," Blue Thorn called out, still positioned to watch the feeding mastiff.
The Beast moves to the gate and tries the key.
"Being small is stupid...
Agnes wistfully stares at the ring in the ceiling.
"It shouldn't be too hard to climb up there," Adun says, seeing Agnes staring up at the ring in the rafters. "Particularly if we stack up some of this furniture. Will you give me a hand?" he asks her, moving towards an overturned dining table that should provide a good base to start from.
Agnes perks up now that she feels usefull again.
"Of course!"
Working the physically demanding job of running a stable has given Agnes a good set of muscles. Helping lift a table is no problem.
Carl does his best to keep watch while the others engage in more physically active tasks, listening near the door for sounds of approaching guards or other threats.
Moving to the gate, the Nightmare Beast finds the key unlocks it. After a moment the iron gate can be heard slamming shut again.
With the table in place, and a rickety looking chair stacked on top, Adun clambers on then uses the added height to pull himself up the wooden structure.
The Fiend tries to open the door again, prepared to brace it if something slams the door.
"There's something thing this way! The door slammed back once we opened it." The Fiend shouts towards the Pale Knight, knowing he was stronger than most of the group and could help force the door.
The Pale Knight climbs up a stacked broken desk and chair with Agnes help, but he loses balance and crouches back down before being able to reach the object.
As the Fiend attempts to push open the door his hand misses one of the bars and moves through it. Luckily it remained unlocked and as his arm brushed the bars the door slightly swung open.
"Im sorry Adun. I think I'm just too small to help you."