It's actually not very hard work at all, once the pair begin to pick at it. After a bit of effort, the pair dismantles enough space for a small person to comfortably move through, and a normal person to squeeze through. Taking out too much more would begin breaking into the true outer wall of the building and might risk a collapse... as well as more visibility.
Hmph, took them long enough...
Scath thinks grumpily, and begins searching around in earnest. Something's making him itchy, and he doubts it's fleas.
Unless maybe it is, stupid goggies probably loaded with them. May have to pay for vermin spell...
As Scath begins to groom, he notices that he has a rather sizable number of lice crawling all over his body. The kind that eats hair, not the kind that drinks blood. They're not all localized to one place, but he can feel them creepy-crawling all over him. Though, probably, a sizable portion is simply his imagination.
Stupid goggies....
Scath gnaws at the larger concentrations of lice, then looks around the place for something to drown them in. He makes that growl that Sanita is trained to know means there's something wrong.
Sanita hears the growl, slips through, and checks on Scath.
"Oh, ewww, this place is infested with lice. Probably those stupid dogs." Sanita actually kind of likes dogs, but knows Scath doesn't. "We'll all need to get some lice repellent..."
Tobias helps out Victor with dismantling the wall and steps through easily into the next area. "So..." he says, somewhat confused and somewhat irritated. "Should we look for a...trap-door? We're looking for a secret hideout or something, yeah?"
Scath grumbles, but begins sniffing around, looking for a change in smell, dead air, or letting his whiskers catch a hint of draft from a hidden entrance...
"Find the hidden door Scath! You can do it, I'll help..." The girl says, covering Scath's grouchy mood with her own 'pep'.
Sanita looks around as well.
Victor works his way through the gap, doing his best to squeeze through the stones. Brutus noses his way through without too much trouble. "Trap door, secret passage, something along those lines."
For those taking the less scenic route, the interior of the room with the portcullis has several crates covered in tarps that haven't been disturbed more than to leave tracks across the top in any recent time. A thick coat of dust lies overtop the thin tarps meant to protect the wood from moisture.
Off to the right is the very obvious 'secret' passage that was likely once well-hidden, with enough space to pass rather large objects through. With the paint peeling, it looks more like the area was bricked in, to remove a previous door than that the door had simply always been there.
As anyone approaches the door, the smell of sewage and rot becomes significantly more obvious. Looking through the doorway reveals an area with crates that have been gnawed on, and any leather bits chewed until they're unrecognizable, leaving only metal and splinters behind.
There's a thick pile of moldy detritus seemingly cast aside in one corner, with the chewed on crates occupying two more. The corner nearest to the secret door is empty, save for the same layers of dust the other room had had.
Down in the middle of the floor, made obvious by the block of wood propping it open, is a trap door. Had it not been for the fact that it was propped open, it looks as though this particular door would have been significantly better hidden, as the tiled floor likely would have hidden the small space with considerable ease. Now, though the metal grating that peeks out from beneath the tile speaks volumes about where it leads: Into the sewers below. Which also explains where the other half of the sewage-and-rot smell is coming from.
Tobias approaches the propped-open trapdoor. "Convenient but strange. Is this an entrance or an exit?" He looks over at the "secret" passage. "And that... is that supposed to be the hideout?"
He frowns. "I'm confused. What do we do?"
"I don't know anymore than you do," Victor says as he carefully peers through the grating. "I suppose we're supposed to go down there, but it seems like an odd entrance for a secret hideout."
Brutus whines and backs away from the smell, shaking his head like he's trying to clear the smell from his nose.
"That it is open like this is not a good sign," Armon remarks, keeping his head turned away as though doing so would help him avoid the smell. He could not imagine how terrible this must be for the dog. "One would think that someone friendly would at least hide the entrance again after passing through."
"But... I suppose we do not exactly have much of a choice." The noble does not seem at all happy to admit this.
Juniper holds her nose at the stench. "Whatever is making that smell needs to seek medical attention. I'll wait out here, let me know if you find anything not repulsive."
Perception DC 17:
Perception DC 22 (same roll):
What do you do?
Misha joins the others and inspects the trap door. After giving it a once over, she opens and peers down it to see what's below.
Misha calls for some light and sticks her head down, seemingly oblivious of the odor coming from below. "There's something in the corner there... A pile of furs? Ugh no, that's a pile of rats!" she exclaims.
Scath's ears perk forward, and pads over to the door. "Rrrreeooooowwwggghhhh....." A low growl comes out of his throat as his head pokes into the open door, his darkvision picking out whatever is below.
"Oh. Lovely. I suppose we're going to have to deal with that if we're going down there, aren't we?"
"Ewwwww, rats. I'll stay here..."
Scath hooks his claws into the side of the doorway, and claws his way across the roof of the underground room, leaving room for others to get down, that way he can release and instant-flank the rats when someone else goes down.
Plus his being on the ceiling will likely act as a decoy to allow others to get down the ladder without getting attacked...
Armon grimaces. If this were not such an important matter, he would very much share Juniper's sentiment. Wearing his extravagant garb to the protest suddenly seemed like a terrible idea. He tugs on his purple collar, popping the top button.
"Just some rats, that's... no big deal," he forces himself to say, taking a step closer to the trapdoor. There was still some reluctance, there. "Can we... take care of them up here, somehow?"
"Or... we could let the cat take care of them. From each according to their capabilities, and all that." he says, with a small smile. "Or, I could try to knock all of them out, though I'm a little limited in magic, still. I would be quite pleased, regardless, to put my minor talents to use in your favor." Rexus responds.
Victor peers through the trapdoor and sighs. "While I wish that we could, I wouldn't put my money on any fight between one cat and a pack of dire rats. He'll need at least a little help. So, who wants to go first?" He's looks at the others, fully expecting no one else to volunteer.
"Everything under control in there?" Juniper starts 'wiping down' some of the nearby small objects with her Prestidigitation.
As the lynx slinks down through the open grate, and across the ceiling, the rat that's eyes lit up in the light looks up to him, and makes a few small noises... which has the added benefit of waking the other mice up. While the floor of the other room is made of wood (and by extension, the ceiling), the walls are made of worked stone. It's rough in patches, but not enough to get a solid grip on. As a result, the mice can't get to the cat without climbing the ladder... which would expose them to the rather large crowd of people. While they're awake, and alert now... they don't seem too keen on approaching.
Scath moves along the ceiling, claws digging into the ceiling's wood.
He growls and hisses at the dire rats as he moves, until he's over the old desk, looking down, and opposite the ladder and hole, distracting the creatures until someone can come at them from behind.
The little rat's eyes follow after him, but he's still... at least partially out of their reach. Now that he's more inside the room, he's able to make out that they've gnawed a small corner out of the door... impossibly small for him to squeeze through, but it seems to be a way for the rats to come and go, and also that pesky gremlin.
Victor sighs as he quickly realizes that his assumption was absolutely right. "Yes. Yes, everything is under control. I suppose I'm just going to have to go down there and help Scath deal with these rats then."
Victor draws his polearm and braces himself as he jumps down the hole. Despite his not terribly limber frame, he lands cleanly, ready to fight the rats without a problem. He whistles and steps aside enough to let Brutus leap down with a growl. The black dog snarls at the animals and bears his teeth as the two take a fighting stance. "Any time cat," he says, glancing up at Scath.
Scath drops to the top of the desk he's holding above...
...an growls...
Tobias had gotten thoroughly distracted helping Juniper clean the room (his servants' instincts had kicked in) when Victor originally asked for volunteers to head on down below. When he hears the large man jump down, he frowns with displeasure at his own lack of perception.
Then he follows the man down the ladder. "Those rats are mine, Baldhead Victor!" he shouts, hopping down the ladder alongside Victor.
Somehow he's not as nimble as Victor is... Somehow. He resents the larger man for rolling better.
"I think there's enough for everyone pipsqueak," Victor says as he eyes the oversized rodents. "Be careful though. They might eat someone as small as you if you let them get too close."
There's an angry-hungry sound that comes from each of the little rats as they fan out towards different foes, but their opponents clearly have the jump on them, as they hadn't expected any of that movement. Even if that prone halfling looks particularly appetizing.
Scath let's out a hiss and growl and swipes at the nearest dire rat (Green I believe)!
The first claw digs into the rat, tearing out a broad swath of flesh that leaves it in a state of shock and helpless, if Scath swipes with his other paw (as intended), he'll leave the creature just above lifelessness. Strangely, though, he misjudged the distance, or more likely the health of the rat, as his maw comes up short. More probably he just decided he didn't want nasty rat in his mouth.
Tobias rolls onto his front, pushes himself up off of the ground and then takes a quick step forwards, towards the rats. His sword is in hand as he slashes out at the creature.
Victor steps back to give himself space to slash out at the nearest rat , then lunges with his polearm. "Brutus, kill." His hound leaps at the same rat, his jaws attempting to close on the thing's neck.
Tobias puts another rat into a catatonic stupor, while Victor and Brutus combine efforts to not only kill one of the dire rats, but worry it into oblivion.
There's only one rat remaining in the room with the trio... and the poor thing is surrounded.
Misha looks for an opening as the others rush in to fight the rats. She spots one off in the back and begins to focus. Electricity begins to arc between her hands again, but this time she reaches out and unleashes a bolt towards the rat furthest from the others.
The small nimble rat proves to be a difficult target for Misha's lightning bolt, simultaneously too small and too agile to be struck directly.
Peering down the trapdoor, Armon watches as the others make quick work of the rats, leaving only one alive. With the situation more or less handled, he shrugs and starts down the ladder, not intent on leaping down as the others had.
As the fight whimpers on, several things all happen at once. In the room up above, there's a sound similar to 'Wagha Wubba!' from the opening in the ceiling, and suddenly the floor, indicated by an orange square, is filled with gooey greasiness. And by some odd twist of fate, Misha topples over, resulting in a cackle from whatever just did that. Probably a gremlin.
Rexus shakes his head "I can't get a clear shot."
Down below, there's a sound reminiscent of 'HORK!' from the small gap in the doorway, and a line of pea green goop filled with bits and pieces of metal, wood, and days-old chicken, hurtles through the space of the small room, covering the ground in a thin, putrid line. It somehow manages to miss it's two targets, though.
And in the midst of all of this, the tiny, cornered beast that is the rat dives towards the weakest looking target between himself and freedom. Which means not the terrifying cat, but instead the halfling. Same size, but less teeth and claws. If not by much. Not that it matters, as in its panicked state, it doesn't even manage to nip his pant leg.