The soldier snorts dryly. "That was no trap, just the wonders o' nature makin' themselves known to us. We could have taken a different route and seen none o' the bugs or that plant."
As the others discuss the wonders of nature and the beauty of the swamp - Kith seems to be fascinated with it, despite its dangers, having commented on some rare plants you passed - Varuzhan stepped inside the building cautiously. The inside is clean, there is a rough-hewn Statue of Saint Senex at the front, with very small shrines dedicated to Gozreh and Desna to the sides.
In the center between them is a large prayer mat, and towards the entrance, there are small pews to the left and right where one could kneel in contemplation or prayer.
Other than that, the interior seems empty - but it is clean, with no traces of dust, and both at the statue of the saint and at the side shrines, swamp flowers have been arranged recently.
Varuzhan starts walking around to peruse the space, but doesn't touch anything.
"Seems like a perfectly nice, well-maintained, and empty shrine," says Varuzhan. "Perfect for the humans among you to worship your gods. And no Hellknight in sight."
He looks for any doorways that might lead elsewhere.
Bringing up the rear of the party, Boros looks around the shrine's interior curiously, then fixes his attention on the mat covering the floor. "How about we try rollin' that back and makin' sure there's no secret hatch underneath it," he suggests with a flick of his rapier towards it. "Might be the result o' hearin' too many stories with that as a plot device, but it's a plot device because it happens."
"Aye, sure!" Nez shrugs, and goes for the mat at Boros' request.
Below the prayer mat, there is very much a hatch. It's not even very well hidden, the mat seems to be a more recent addition.
It seems neither locked nor trapped.
The soldier's eyebrows rise as his guess proves to be surprisingly accurate. "Huh, I'll be honest here and admit that I really wasn't expectin' that." His expression of surprise then turns thoughtful and he looks around the shrine again. "Mind, I think we should search the rest of this before messin' about with that hatch there, because I'm also minded of somethin' else from those stories, and that's how the hatch gets covered up again if everyone's busy hidin' under it."
"Nice find, Boros," says Varuzhan as the hatch is uncovered. "Guess we'll see if our friend's down there." Varuzhan is ready to descend.
"Just a peek couldn't hurt..." Nez smirks before attempting to open the hatch, just a little bit you know, and peek through.
Boros sighs and shrugs as two of his companions are apparently ready to head straight down. "Alright, but if somethin' hits us from the back, I reserve the right to loudly declare 'I told you we should have searched first' while we're bein' mauled." With that said, the soldier firmly closes the door leading outside, ensuring that it there is something outside, it'll at least have to make that tiny bit more of an effort to get in.
Beyond the hatch, there is darkness. Opening it up some more reveals a ladder down. The stone shaft seems smooth, as if worked by magic. With the help of your Darkvision, Nez estimates that the shaft is approximately 30 feet straight down. It's dark down there but a corridor seems to lead away from the ladder.
Varuzhan peeks down, shrugs, and jumps down. He uses his wings to control his descent. Then looks around.
Nez'll widen her eyebrows a little at the maneuver but then shrug as well and follow via ladder.
As soon as Varuzhan lands and turns to look down the corridor, he finds a Heavy Blade in his face, wielded by a Hellknight in full armor stepping next to him:"Barzillai will even chase me here? Drop your weapons and surrender, or I will vanquish you."
Behind the Hellknight, there seems to be a small room, including a middle-aged man with a longspear and a middle-aged woman with a bow. There is no source of light down here, but despite seeming human, they stare right at Varuzhan.
"Oy, not Barzillai! We've got a... We had a code thingie we were supposed to say, one sec..." Nez tries to remember back. It seemed so long ago they had set out.
"Wait, no the code phrase was with the gate guards.. Um.." Nez continues.
"Bugger, Setrona sent us! Said to help you out." Nez just explains it.
"We're all like trying to make a new Silver Ravens and whatlike. Made a flag and all!" Bumping and rustling, as Nez tries to pull the flag out while on a ladder in a constricted space, can be heard, ending in a yelp and terse curse as an elbow bangs against something solid.
Up above, with the others, Boros just sighs and squeezes his eyes shut for a moment. The conversation from below, clearly audible, is enough to explain the situation, and all the soldier can do is hope that it doesn't go terribly awry.
Varuzhan refuses to drop his weapons. "Really, do I look like a Hellknight to you? This is a quarterstaff--a little too nonlethal for you folk."
He really hopes he doesn't have to use it, but he's not ready to leave himself undefended.
"Hey, sounds like we've found him at least!" Though she suddenly remember how pig-headed every single Hellknight she had ever met was. This one is probably the same ... Ah, she ought to have a smoke-bomb or something to drop down. Just in case.
"What does your looks matter. You are here. And claim it is to help me yet refuse to lay down your arms? What fool do you take me for?"
In a swift motion, he withdraws the heavy blade and swings it upwards, then bringing it down on V's quarterstaff, clearly controlling the force of his blow to not outright destroy it, and pulls it free again with one fluid motion.
"If you wish to talk, drop your weapons - all of you - I will not ask again."
The two middle-aged people behind him seem nervous but resolved.
Rolling his eyes, Boros approaches the hatch and calls down. "Look, we're not disarmin' ourselves, for the same reason that you want us to; no trust. Now, Setrona sent us out here to pull your sorry ass out o' the fire you managed to land it in. But if you don't want that help, that's fine. We'll head back to Kintargo, tell Setrona that you had your head too far up your own arse for common sense to get through, and go about our lives. And you can get back to suckin' the meat off o' bugs for your meals until Barzillai actually does send someone out this way."
As he speaks, Boros sheathes his swords and draws his pistol, checking to see that the various magics on his harness have it properly loaded. "On the other hand, you might decide to make it a fight, and that's fine too. Sure, we got a couple o' ours right down there with you, and I think we'll be needin' to discuss the whole 'leap before you look' bit later on, but I'm still up here with a pistol, and I'll put a lead ball through your brain the moment you finish hackin' down my friends and start up that ladder."
"Uh... Well, I can't drop my weapons cause I'm in a bleeding chimney and can't draw the daft thing... And even if I could, I don't want to drop it on my friend's head? So, tell ya what, I'll go back up the ladder, and drop my weapons up there, and we can have a nice shouting match betwixt us through a thrice damned chimney."
Nez starts her way up back the ladder, shaking her head, and leans her scimitar against a wall before returning to the hatch.
"Alright, I dropped my weapon. Happier? If I convince the rest of my friends to set down their weapons up here, will you be cool with talking?"
"Your friend up there does not seem to agree. And your ally here is still considering his options, I suppose.", Octavius responds: "But certainly. If you come unarmed, we can talk. There is little else I could do except kill you, and what good would that do me?"
The middle-aged woman speaks up with a slightly shaking voice: "Could we maybe not kill anyone in this shrine? I'd much prefer that."
Varuzhan is certainly startled as his quarterstaff is nearly shattered. "Watch it--that has sentimental value!" says Varuzhan defensively. It was pretty much a worthless piece of wood that was easily replaced--except for the fact that it had come from his home in the mountains, in the days before his exile.
Perhaps more importantly, Varuzhan realizes he's facing up a guy with a large sword and is now unarmed. "Please, let's listen to the nice old lady back there and not kill anyone right now. We're here as a favor--seems someone misses you at home."
"I'm certain that I am missed in Kintargo, by friends and enemies alike. But with no means of knowing WHO you work for, surely you understand that I must be cautious? You claim to be sent by Setrona, yet you insist on meeting me armed and in superior numbers. I wish what you say were true, but you ask too much in terms of trust.", he responds, holding his position, but clearly ready to strike even if the old ladies request seems to have given him pause.
With another roll of his eyes, Boros calls down the shaft. "Use a bit of sense, man. If we wanted your death, we'd drop a lot o' somethin' nasty down there, slam the hatch shut and pile the pews on top, and then wait until the screamin' stops. Or just knock the whole damned shrine down in a pile o' rubble and walk away."
"At this point all I want is if you got anything you wanna tell Setrona, well wishes or whatnot, and if you're willing to not rat out our descriptions under torture if you get captured. Then we can go back to Setrona, tell her whatever and that you think you got things handled, and then we get on our way with revolution. That cool? Figure even if you think we're bad guys, there shouldn't be nothing wrong with that."
Nez offers her negotiation tactic.
"Really? Your other companion up there seems eager to get to murdering things. And for that matter, a bit of sense tells me you'd still need to verify I'm here before destroying the place and claiming mission accomplished, or that you may have been sent to capture me. And I honestly doubt your ability to blast this whole rock we're in away just like that.", he responds, but does not keep his eyes from Varuzhan, who still clings to his damaged quarterstaff.
"And you see, the fact you now know I am here complicates matters. If Setrona had indeed sent you, I doubt it's to say hi and check if I'm eating proper, so your eagerness to be gone, together with your friends fantasies to murder my companions and I does send some mixed signals, there."
He gives a hand sign with his off-hand, and the Woman with the bow nods reflexively and runs into one of the side rooms.
Varuzhan catches on. "Right--sounds like it's time for us to get going. I'm sure that's what you want, right? We'll be out of your way in just a bit." He picks up his broken quarterstaff and retreats back up the ladder.
The moment Varuzhan starts climbing the ladder, Octavius steps forward to the bottom of the ladder, using Varuzhan as cover, and pulls on the ladder. The magically formed stone in front of him slides forward in an exact fit, about as high as the corridor he was standing in.
shouts Varuzhan as a heavy stone door slides over the passage. He then looks back upward. "This paranoid ass is TOTALLY not worth our time--or all of those awful swamp creatures."
He completes his climb back up. "I mean, were you being serious there Nez? I wasn't totally sure."
"Aye, he doesn't want naught to do with us. We can return to Setroni and say he didn't want our help, sorry, nothing we could've done but knock him unconscious and drag him home to her." Nez offers a hand to help V up at the lip.
"That said, dragging him back unconscious would've probably been necessary even if he was willing. Not much one for subterfuge I'd think." Nez ponders.
"That said, we to took the first opportunity to head here. We could come back with Setrona at the 'three days out' shift if we're really adamant to save this guy." Nez offers her last plan for fixing this fiasco.
With a disgusted expression, Boros steps back from the now-sealed shaft and shakes his head. "I doubt he'll still be here in three days," he remarks in response to Nezari's suggestion. "In fact, I'll wager him and the other two will be gone before sunset, even if we stay up here watchin' the shrine. If that little hole of theirs doesn't have a back way out, I'll go and kiss that plant beast."
Wiping his hand down his face in frustration, he holsters his pistol and takes a seat on the nearest pew. "While I'm well and truly minded to do as I said earlier, and just leave him here to fend for himself, we did tell Setrona that we'd help him. And we definitely need what she's offerin' in exchange for bringin' him, either in word or person, back to her."
Nez shrugs. "Well, soon as you blast open that solid stone, we can rush him, knock him unconscious, and take him back to Setrona, if you've no like for any plans what involve bringing someone he'd trust."
"The way I sees it, we can either do a weak second shot what's not likely to work, but we'd be genuinely giving it every chance we could. Or we can say we tried a good shot but no dice, Desna must've been lookin' somewhere else today." Nez shakes her head.
"... Less you can blast it open?" Nez pauses for a moment.
Nezari's question is met with a swift shake of his head, and Boros explains. "Nope, blastin' requires some pretty particular bits o' kit that I don't have. And while I do have the knowledge to make that stuff, I don't the materials I'd need for it. Plus, blastin' ain't exactly quiet and subtle, and if Thrune's got people out there lookin' for this fellow, they'll know exactly where to come after we pop that block down there."
The soldier's expression returns to its prior state of displeasure. "And I've no doubt that the silly bastard would take our blownin' a door into his little hidey-hole as proof that we're his enemies, and come out swingin'. Tryin' to take him alive while he's doin' his best to open us up is not a fight I want to deal with."
"It's probably not a stone-shaping spell working right now. If they had that there wouldn't be a ladder in the first place. So ... just try and drag it? It's probably not soundproof either, if they do stick around." Miranda offers on the rock issue. The other stubborn piece of stonework though ... "Wish she had bothered with that token. Hmph."
"Well, I'll take a look down there I guess, see if there's some way to start the conversation again" says Varuzhan, as he heads back down the ladder for any possible means past the now sealed door.
Varuzhan heads back down and inspects the stone. The line between shaft and block had not been visible when he went down before - and seemingly for good reason. The block seems to be a perfect fit for the corridor.
One could probably attempt, with enough force and grip, to try and shift it from the top - but if there were any means of securing the stone block it would be all but impossible to move it.
However, while water and food COULD be procured magically, there needs to be SOME sort of ventilation into the chambers below, or they would need to unseal the entrance regularily.
After satisfying himself with the search, Varuzhan heads back up. "Sealed all the way tight. But! There must be some airway to keep the place ventilated, or they would surely run out of air. Maybe even a secret exit as you say. We may as well try looking before we trudge through the swamp again."
And with that, Varuzhan starts searching for anything that might somehow fit the bill of a ventilation shaft.
"Yeah, I'm not in a terrible hurry to get back on the road. Sleeping somewhere sheltered is nice, even if we have to keep someone watching for sneaking hell-knights."
The tiefling hops to her feet and looks for a torch or something. She'd heard of people dowsing for drafts that way; while they were on a windy peak it *might* work? "Let's check indoors first; someone though should probably watch outside just in case they leg it through some backdoor."
"Makes sense, but I think the second shift of those guards we've got contacts with is three days? So that's our time limit one way or another."
"Thought it was more like the same folks every three days? So we get another chance three days later if we miss?" Varuzhan is suddenly not so sure of his understanding of the situation, as he continues to investigate.
While looking around, Varuzhan takes note of an Albatross circling overhead. It seems rather slow, and a clumsy flyer(not that they are graceful flyers to begin with).
Something does seem off with it.
Noticing the strange albatross, Varuzhan tries to naturally conclude a portion of his survey before catching up to the others. He talks relatively quietly.
"Don't look now, but have you noticed that albatross flying around? Being one myself, I know a thing or two about flying creatures, and that albatross is awfully clumsy. Like it's not a real albatross, but something pretending to be one." He looks in the general direction of the albatross, but not directly--he didn't want to give away that he knew.
As he looks, Varuzhan considers whether he had seen an albatross before arriving here, worried that they had been followed.
"Anyone here have a trick for catching clumsy birds?"
Boros is quiet during the search conducted by Miranda and Varuzhan, until the latter points out the odd bird. Noticing how the strix doesn't look directly at the bird, the soldier likewise tries to be subtle in his observation, doing so under the guise of a stretch and a roll of his neck. His voice quiet, Boros replies. "Unfortunately, no. Not unless you want me to try takin' a shot at it, but I doubt my pistol would reach. Not to mention that knockin' it down from that height'd likely cause it considerable damage on hittin' the ground, and since you did specify 'catch' instead o' 'kill', I'm guessin' that's not an outcome you want."
Varuzhan considers his options. "So it's not my favorite idea but . . . I could try to blind it with some magic--hopefully it'll want to land but it won't completely fall after I do that."