As Sileven enters the room, he glances over the bodies and sees an aura of power coming from the small hide armor that the deceased goblin is wearing. Though the bow is nicely made, it does not have such an aura.
In the other passage, Milah finds that this next area seems to be a storage of some kind. Crates, barrels, and mounds of miscellaneous refuse lie heaped against the stone walls, some of which have been broken open and the contents spilled onto the floor. A closed wooden door leads away from this cove and further inside the island. Flickering light spills from underneath it.
Since he can't squeeze through the narrow passage to the West, Drek decides to check the room directly South.
Drek'Thar approaches the wooden door and sees that it is closed, but does not appear to be locked. Through the seams on the side, he can see flickering light, but little else. There is no sound coming from the other side of the door.
Milah joins Drek'thar at the door, stepping over the vine creature's corpse and drawing her rapier once more. She nods to the others, ready to proceed.
Drek raises his hand, asking for a second. He invokes the life spirits to help Milah, then nods back to her in agreement.
Ellyn answers with a nod off her own, sword and chakram ready.
Sil stands ready, blades in hand, finally making a motion with his hands like he's pushing the others forwards.
Milah silently opens the door and peers inside.
The door opens with a slight creek and in the hallway beyond, you spot a lit lantern hanging from the wall. It is the source of the flickering light that illuminates the area. The hallways continues for a bit and then splits to the left and right. In front of you however is two large stone doors that sit in the western wall, their faces carved with images of horrific, deformed monsters clawing their way out of pregnant women of all races.
Milah ignores the images carved into the doors and makes her way to the intersection beyond the hallway. She listens for any sign of opposition before stepping into the small antechamber.
"The Mother of Monsters... Interesting. That would explain what we saw outside."
"How? I don't get it."
Milah listens for the sounds of any activity or even a sense that anyone knows that you have infiltrated the lower part of the island. There is nothing but the faint sounds of the waves far away, crashing against the side of the island and the wind blowing past the opening you came in through. The doors to either side of the large double doors are no where near as intricate. They are only wood with iron hinges. As you near the decorated doors however, Milah's fur begins to stand on end and thee is something itching at the back of her mind..
Milah shudders slightly at the feelings of unease, but without a target to attack, she does her best to ignore it. "Let's leave that door for last." She makes her way to the right and listens beyond it.
Milah listens to the door on the right side and hears very little but the sound of her companions traipsing around the antechamber near the big doors. Every once in a while, she swears she could hear some sort of low growl and sometimes something of a higher pitch, but still guttural. It fades quickly though and could be very distant.
The elf will watch the door while we can still see it, but he's not going to argue if Milah wants to continue exploring on this side of the door first. Well, not much. "You think that might be our way into the keep? Not sure how much else might be down here . . .."
When the faint growl is detected, Drek's face turns worried. "The Mother of Monsters' cult is known for the many aberrations and twisted creatures it breeds. That might explain the tentacled remains we found outside" he replies to Sileven, "and the growl Milah has just heard. We should be careful."
Milah shrugs. "I have no idea what the best way might be to get into the keep, but I know that we need information, and that could be anywhere."
"One second" Drek asks.
He conjures once again the forces of life to protect Milah.
[b]"Ready."[/ooc]
"the last monster didn't seem much of a threat, so let's just pick a door, we should clear the whole basement before we move up, cause I don't want whatever they bread in our back."
As Milah carefully opens the door, her nose is assaulted by some sort of smell, the likes of which is usually found near privies. The lower four feet of the walls in this small empty room are covered with crude drawings in mud, blood, paint and something else.
Most of the drawings show goblins engaged in some sort of violence against humans, horses, or dogs. One picture on the north wall is at least three times the size and complexity of the other scrawlings. This image shows Thistletop from the side, the goblin stockade perched atop it like a crown. A cave has been drawn into the center of the image, and looming inside is what appears to be an immense, muscular goblin with snakelike eyes and a dogslicer in each taloned hand. If the scale compared to the rest of the drawing is to be believed, this goblin must be at least thirty feet tall. So far, you haven't encountered anything like it.
On one side of the room is another door that is also wooden and bound in iron. It appears slightly open and leads to a short hallway that ends in yet another wooden door...
Milah continues on, opening the door at the end of the short hallway.
"Delusions of grandeur, I guess. Goblins don't get that big." Sil still adjusts the grip on his weapons as the group continues along.
"I guess they could, with the proper magic... or the proper cult worshipping."
Drek has a look around in case there's something interesting, and quick, so they can leave this stinky toilet to rot.
The room with the 'art' is otherwise empty and Drek is glad to move away from it quickly. As Milah opens the door to the next room, she sees a large table surrounded by chairs that take up most of the space. A slate board to the north is covered with scribblings in chalk, but the map of what appears to be Sandpoint that has been carefully inscribed on it leaves no doubt as to the purpose of this room—this is doubtless where the recent raid was planned. Several sheets of parchment lie strewn about the table as well, many with drawings and crude symbols. Two doors lead away from this room.
Milah holds up her hand, motioning for silence, then whispers, "There's someone behind that door..." She makes her way to the door opposite the one they entered and confirms that everyone is ready before opening it.
As Milah opens the door, she sees a dark skinned woman poring over a large wooden worktable in the middle of the room, its surface cluttered with scrolls, books, stone tablets covered with dense, spiky runes, and fragments of carvings that appear to have been chipped off of statues or bas-reliefs. She is speaking to herself perhaps, or maybe the mangy looking cat that is lazily cleaning itself on one of the books. To the north, a floor-to-ceiling set of wooden shelves sags with picks, shovels, brushes, lanterns, and other equipment one might expect to see at an archaeological site. The cat notices Milah and looks up, hissing at her and alerting the woman, who turns to face you.
"I don't recall Nualia hiring any more mercenaries, so I'm going to assume you don't belong here. Turn around and return from whence you came or become another of her sacrifices." You see a nimbus of cyan energy starting to wind its way around her.
Milah sees an opportunity and quickly shifts her focus. A sneer makes its way onto her face and into her voice. "And Nualia tells you about all of her new hires? Who are you to justify such treatment?" She waves to the tablets and other paraphernalia on the table. "What's all of this, anyway?"
Ellyn, realising what Milah intends, turns to the swashbuckler, wearing an unhappy"I-told-you-so look" and suddenly talking with a chelish accent " I told you, the contract sounded fishy, too good pay, too much hush hush" and adds after a long suffering sigh " but, by Asmodeus' balls, we signed the contract, so we are in, for good or ill."
"Aahh, riiight..." Drek gets what they're trying to do. He's no good with tricky words though, so he elects to stay quiet and see whether the con goes through.
The woman looks at each of you, her eyes narrowing. "I suppose it was only a matter of time before she needed to get more people. After those goblins came back from Sandpoint a few days ago, they kept talking about some out of towners that sent them packing. I guess you're the ones Nualia wants to go and kill them." The light blue energy field doesn't go away and the woman's cat still glares at you. "This," she waves her hand over the gathered materials, "is mostly stuff that has been brought up from the excavations below. I've been studying it for some time, trying to discern the meaning behind some of the runes. I don't suppose any of you thugs are versed in Thassilonian or arcane history at all?"
Milah shakes her head as she attempts to discern the woman's disposition towards her and her companions.
"Excavations?" she asks, letting the word hang in the air...
The elf moves his fingers over the grips of his blades, wondering if this has really worked and he should sheath them, or if he should just walk over to the woman and try to cut her throat. He settles for being uncertain and remaining quiet . . ..
"I don't have to lie about this."
Drek shrugs. "No idea."
A questioning look crosses her face and then quickly disappears as she sighs. "That is unfortunate. Yes, this place used to be a temple for some cult. She's down there digging up its remnants. Thing is, most of it was sealed off, like on purpose. Probably by the cult themselves. At least according to these runes." She stops to pet her cat, who seems to be nudging her hand quite a bit. "I know, Skivver, it's okay. I'm sure they know Orik and when he gets here, they will go and find those interlopers." She then looks to you. "That is what you are supposed to be doing and not interrupting me, right?"
Something sounds the alarm in Drek's mind. "That's why I hate to lie like that. How do we know if there's even a guy called Orik? She might be making it up just to catch us." He leaves it to the others, though, given his few social skills, making do with a deeper examination of her voice and movements and a readiness to cast an invocation if everything goes down the loo.
"Maybe. But we're here and you've got us, well me, curious. Anything interesting on the table right now?" Sil moves forward, still holding his blades, but not up and ready. He lifts the smaller one and points at something on the table. "What's that?"
Sil's blade comes to rest on an open book with several spiky runes written within. "That is a journal of some kind, or someone's spellbook, or both. It is hard to tell and the entire thing is covered in protective wards, so I imagine there is more I haven't unlocked yet, so unless you are going to help, I suggest getting going finding the ones Nualia sent you to find before they get here and interrupt me further." At this point, her narrowed eyes and forward shrugged shoulders suggest that she is now irritated and would like to get back to what it is she was doing.
Ellyn tries to judge if and how completely the woman bought the bluff.
Milah smirks. "Found them..." She advances on the woman, hoping to bring this to a swift close.
"Oh, well, then. No, we're not hirelings of your mistress." Sil notes for clarity as he follows up on Milah's decisive action.
Sil attempts to stab the woman with his larger blade.
Sill attempts to drive both of his blades home.
Milah and Sil decide to shorten the conversation by force, both pressing the attack into the woman. Her magical field slows their assault, but not by much. As she starts to recoil into a defensive position, you see her image shimmer a bit as she starts casting another spell..
Drek quickly closed in to near the sorceress, trying to cause some damage or at least disturb her casting with his knife.