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After a pause, Addas seems to accept the story.
"You have free reign at my inn, and I hope that its humble facilities meet your needs for trade and rest. To be honest, business has been very slow, as the shepherds and farmers who normally frequent my common room are off to Xer for a major market day. It could be a while before they return to their usual carousing, as market day tends to be a calendar event set to empty their pockets and their savings"
"Eugenia! Tarsi! we have guests and they look quite famished!" your hostess calls, and moments later the other old ladies emerge from the kitchen, the family resemblance reasonably obvious; Eugenia wears a yellow scarf around her neck and Tarsi appears to be missing a few teeth (in a comical gap tooth fashion) but otherwise the three are practically interchangeable.
Hearty stew is served in copious volumes and the ale comes out thick and fast. A desert platter of jams and fresh breads and pastries is also laid on. Tarsi pinches Daeris with some concern, mumbling something admonishingly about her being too skinny, and lays on even more bread and butter on her Daeris' platter. Adrianna gets a similar treatment moments later.
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Adrianna takes her cues from Amris and acts less like a rich merchant's daughter than just another member of the 'entourage'. She saw the gleam in the old lady's eye and didn't want to give the wrong impression about their willingness to spend money! Still she keeps her eyes and ears open for information...
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"Yes dear, of course you need to examine the rooms, and as you say as a merchant you need to think about your horses when it comes time for that"
Tidying up after dinner, Addas leads you over to look at the stables.
An expansive smithy is set up in the west end of the stable, one corner of it occupied by a small cot and a neat pile of clothing. To the east stretch a number of stalls for horses and other animals. Rosh is their "Our dear, simple nephew Rosh seems to have some skill with animals and their care, the only real work he can get sadly. We do what we can"
Your perusal is very brief and cursory before being guided back to the common room where Eugenia leads you to the rooms, strangely though her tone is a bit short and snippish.
The smaller rooms feature a comfortable feather bed suitable for a single occupant. "Five silvers each"
The fine guests rooms have a double bed in this more finely appointed bedchamber with a rich quilt and fat pillows. It comfortably sleeps two or three occupants. "Three gold the room"
The Lavish Guest Rooms have silk sheets and a thick comforter covering their large beds in a lavish chamber. "Five gold the room"
Eugenia eyes the group "Are you staying more than one night, and will that be FOUR rooms, or is it just two rooms?", her tone a little judgemental and terse, "And were you looking for the nice rooms, or something a little...cheaper?" her eyes wander past Adrianna. Her wrings her hands at Amris rather pointedly - she is no doubt expecting money up front.
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"You certainly are proud of your prices. Now, why we pretend we have haggled for a good long while, and you give me the price for someone you hope to have a longer term relationship with? With prices that high, I might get scared off and have to look for other strategic partnerships elsewhere. I would have two of the fine rooms. Unless anyone objects?"
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"As I do not require sleep, the young lady will have her room to herself. I prefer to keep watch over both rooms from the hall, but I would be happy to pay for kitchen privileges during the night. I'm afraid I have a bit of a nocturnal appetite. Hopefully I will not disturb anyone."
She thought the offer of more gold along with the suggestion that she might be heeding the ladies' advice to eat more might help settle the old girl.
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"You certainly are proud of your prices. Now, why we pretend we have haggled for a good long while, and you give me the price for someone you hope to have a longer term relationship with..."
The old lady watches with an appraising eye, and you can see the cogs turning, "Times have been poorly and the farmers being away leaves us in a pickle..." she continues like this for a short period, then agrees to a markedly reduced rate.
"As I do not require sleep, the young lady will have her room to herself. I prefer to keep watch over both rooms from the hall, but I would be happy to pay for kitchen privileges during the night. I'm afraid I have a bit of a nocturnal appetite. Hopefully I will not disturb anyone."
"We'd prefer not to have our guests wandering willy-nilly through the place and traipsing dirt around the place and crumb trails...speaking of which, the baths are at the end of the hall. The lounge is near the common rooms, we only allow the overnight paying guests to avail themselves of those facilities. Please use those if you feel the need to stay up all night reading" with that, she tidies her affairs, takes her coins, and wanders back off leaving you to your own devices.
It is now well after sunset, and nightfall has descended.
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"I volunteer to inspect the baths!" Adrianna says with a smirk. "I wasn't kidding about washing the sea smell away..." she mumbles under her breath.
"Maybe we can get the old ladies to talk about past 'guests' over some hot tea later - that might give us a clue if the people we are searching for were here and when they might have left."
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The fine and the lavish guest rooms are as described and Aeris and Nitrus find things as they'd expect them.
Adrianna and Amris inspect the bathroom.
Two large claw-footed tubs flank the fireplace in this bathroom. Several metal buckets sit by the fire for heating water that’s drawn from the well in the courtyard. Adrianna decides that a scrub in the tub is well and truly in order and summarily evicts Amris to enjoy some privacy after a long journey and the lack of ability to have a warm bath.
As she prepares to dip into the bath her eyes drift to the floor near the northernmost tub and notes scrape marks, as though the tub has been frequently moved northward.
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Always the curious one, she decides a bath can wait until this is investigated more fully. First she will try to move the (empty) tub herself along the same route the scratches indicate. Depending on what she finds, she will gather her companions. But if the marks are just made by an over-zealous bather, she doesn't want to disturb the others...
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After making sure the tub is out of the way you crack open the trapdoor. A wooden ladder descends from above into a cluttered
and dimly lit L-shaped room. Crates and bits of furniture are
stacked against brick walls and oaken doors lie to the east
and south
The walls of this subterranean area are made of brick, the floors hard packed dirt and stones. An everburning torch rests in wall sconce. The doors are of heavy oak and have obvious locks.
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This area is bare save for a rickety side table and chair set against the north wall. A set of keys lies on the table, alongside a browned, half-eaten apple, stale crust of bread, and dull paring knife. Ironbound oaken doors lie on the eastern and western walls, and a door-lined corridor stretches to the south.
The surface of the table is carved with swirls and chipped
grooves incised by an untrained hand; The key ring has
eight blackened iron keys on it.
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Amris moves over to the table to examine the keys and table. He spends some time trying to see if he can find a discernable pattern or shapes. He also takes time to search around and under the table for an clues. He tries to pull on his knowledge of Arcana, Dungeoneering, History, and the Planes.
He hands the keys off to Adrianna to investigate.
"Hmmmm...yes...interesting... check the doors, we may need to secure ourselves."
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Amris moves over to the table to examine the keys and table. He spends some time trying to see if he can find a discernable pattern or shapes.
Amris doesn't recall anything in particular, but notes the word "Rosh" carved in amongst the swirls. He also notices a loose brick in the wall...
There is a clatter as you head down the hallway, clearly stealth is not the collective strength.
You check the first cells - the door to the first jail cells have a small window at eye level, blocked by three vertical iron bars. Matted straw is strewn across the floor, and a set of manacles hangs affixed to the wall opposite the entrance. Two buckets sit at the center of
these dank prisons.
Moving further along, the next cell is the same as the above, but appears to have an occupant - possibly a dwarf, under a blanket.
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Seeing the figure in the cell, Adrianna tries to unlock the door using the keys she is carrying. "Master dwarf," she whispers loud enough to get its attention, "can you stand? Are you injured?" She doesn't enter the cell - in case it is a trap or the prisoner is crazed. Either way, she would not be attacked by surprise.
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The keys turn over in the lock just fine, but the cell door remains closed 'in case'.
The shape stirs and looks above the covers, revealing itself to be a female dwarf.
"Help has arrived!? I am Rakuska, we bypassed Xer only to be waylaid by a faith barge and had all our funds extorted before we were captured—though not without a fierce fight. The three of us were brought to this place with hoods over our heads, which our captors removed only when we arrived at the inn’s gate. We’ve been interrogated twice by a merciless Razmiri cleric calling herself Holy Ahendile, she is convinced we are in the country for some subversive, nefarious purpose. The Mute has brought us food infrequently, even sneaking us treats from the kitchen on a couple of occasions. We saw some smiling old ladies when we first arrived. I've also heard nasty gargling speech in the jail corridor at times, as well as a wet, sliding sound, like a mop being dragged back and forth across a floor" the stream of information is simply blurted without you getting a word in edgeways, she seems to be in pretty bad condition. She looks through the bars on her doors at the other cells "The three of us are down here"
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Nodding, Adrianna opens the cell door fully. If the dwarf is not otherwise chained to the wall, she will say, "We are here to rescue you. Let's find the others and then we'll talk more...but for goodness sake keep quiet!" She smiles at the end to take away any sting her words may have caused, and makes sure the others in her party see she has found someone.
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Daeris was not accustomed to such fortuitous circumstances and was surprised to have found their objective so quickly.
"Yes, do keep your voices down. We will get you and your friends out of here and back to safety. Let's get the others out of their cells and heal them if they need it. Take this, I carry a healing wand but I am unable to cast it. I will check the remaining doors."
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The cell door gives an almighty creak on its hinges, even worse than the clinking alchemist.
Two creature roil forth from a secret door, shapeless masses of quivering flesh with knobby, flailing limbs. The congealed forms just over 4 feet tall but mostly consist of not much more than lumps of melted flesh and malformed features. They make an inhuman wailing noise as they move to engage.
Adrianna
Amris
Daeris
Nitrus
Fleshburgers
R1
Nitrus
Fleshburgers
Daeris
Amris
Adrianna