This old workroom houses numerous old slaughterhouse tools, veterinary equipment, and woodworking tools, all of which are covered with a thick layer of dust through which strange tracks and patterns have been traced. Heavy mallets, crumbling ropes, and tools for restraining animals hang from pegs in the walls or rest atop leaning tables. To the southwest, a trap door sits ajar, propped open by a block of wood.
Ben recognizes more of the Grimple tracks, which eventually all meander to (or from) the trap door.
Ben points to the trap door,. and holds up a finger to his lips to indicate silence.
"Shhh,... I'm hunting Grimples!" He says in a whisper, then tiptoes towards the trap door.
;P
Ben can see nothing in the pitch-dark hole until Rexus brings the lantern close. The light reveals a ladder descending quite a long way down a narrow shaft onto a level floor below. An eye-watering, ammoniac stench rises from the hole.
"This looks promising," Rexus says in a muffled manner as a handkerchief is clamped over his mouth and nose.
Ensis says, "Does it? It certainly doesn't smell promising..."
Ben takes a whiff, then a deep sniff, as only one who truly appreciates all the finer things in life, like ammonia and other chemicals, can truly do.
"Grimple Urine? Maybe,... is that whiff of,... nope. Can't tell from here." The green-tinged Ben shrugs.
Ben recognizes the smell as very similar to the alley behind his cheapest favorite bar.
"Sewers? Please tell me our path isn't into the sewers!" Dee says rather horrified, taking a step back from the hole and putting a hand to her face.
Green-skin Ben looks at Ensis and shrugs.
"OK. I won't tell you." Ben calls over his shoulder to Deanna. He seems completely serious.
She sighs heavilly, a practised trait that was usually a pre-cursor to a fight with her family over something that she'd rather not do; or upon occasion somewhere she already had been. However this time she sees that perhaps this is the only option, and that knowledge of the Silver Ravens is essential for the city - moreso that her personal comfort.
Looking to Val with a shrug. "We'll probably come back out here? I don't fancy trudging all around the city. They probably left something in a cistern, or had a base in one of the culverts."
Nothing so useful. The stable/slaughterhouse remnants were trash and a few old tools.
Ben looks at Ensis, and if the swashbuckler doesn't head for the ladder, Ben will go first. He makes his way down quickly but carefully as his Alchemically-altered frame will allow.
Ensis hold up a hand, "Maybe we should toss a light down first? Just to make sure the ladder doesn't lead into the maw of something just waiting to feast on alchemists... Or debonair swordsmen."
Rexus holds up his lantern. "Here you go, but I don't have a line and the ropes around here look rotten and untrustworthy."
"I've some silken rope that I'd prefer no to go down there." Dee says with a rueful tone. She steps back to let some of the others go first, and ties off her rope to a solid bar or beam. "After you."
She waits for the first ones to start to go down and looks at her boots which are likely to get ruined. Takes off her jacket and puts it to one side, before untucking her pale skirt and taking off her jodhpurs and placing it ontop of her jacket.
"Ben has this." Green-skin Ben says in his guttural voice, pulling out a length of finely woven hemp rope.
He fumbles with the rope for a minute, before handing it to Ensis with a rueful smile.
"Sorry. This mutagen not good for nimble work."
Bert peers down into the darkness. "Well at least we won't have to go down in the pitch black... I can't help but think this is going to be a very unpleasant trip though."
The young rogue blinks at Dee as she removes her jodhpurs "Umm Dee are you planning on going down in your underwear? I don't mean to question, it just seems... unconventional?"
Folding the trousers up and placing them on her jacket, she cocks her head at Bertom; "No, I just have no intention of walking through town with sewage stained trousers after we go down there. Anyway lets get going...." She shakes her head at all the dithering at the top of the cellar hole and climbs down the rope.
Ben looks slightly embarrassed.
"Ladies First?" He asks, then climbs down the ladder.
Ensis takes Ben's rope and the lantern, and ties several knots around the handle. "That should hold... I'd suggest lowering it enough that we can see the bottom and avoid any nasty surprises, but not drop it to the floor. Only question now is who fits first and who stays up here to man our makeshift chandelier?"
[ooc]This room is small with exposed beams. It would be very easy to tie off the rope and leave it. Unless you are worried about gremlins.[ooc]
"Just hold it until we get down there, I'll get it."
Ben says. He waits for the lantern to be lowered, and carefully follows it as he climbs down the ladder.
GM:
The lantern fully illuminates the small room at the base of the ladder. A curved stone surface makes up the east wall, while the remainder are sturdy wooden partitions. The western door is closed and that, except for the ladder to the upstairs, seems to be the only ingress or egress for this room. The place is a reeking mess.
The eye-watering stench of urine and feces fills this large room. Nests made of chewed crates and barrels line the walls, while rusty knives and hooks cover the tabletop.
Party Perception:
Party Initiative:
Init rolloff:
Ben: Dee:
R3: Ensis:
Everyone descends the ladder safely and has a few moments to survey the room before everyone but Ben hears a skittering, clawing noise from under one of the tables. Suddenly, two giant rats burst out of the piles of rubbish towards the party, fur dingy and patchy while their long incisors shine sickly yellow in the lanternlight.
Surprise round! A move or a standard action for those who are bolded.
Rexus
Dee
Ben (unaware)
R1 emerges from a barrel and lunges towards Ensis
R2 bursts out from the filthy debris of a nest below a table towards Rexus
Bertom
Ensis
Valexia
”Look out!” Rexus takes a stab at the approaching monstrous rat with his sword-cane.
The rat, thin and desperate, dodges the noble's attempt to skewer it.
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"Oh it's just a disgusting cellar, not a sewer!" Dee exclaims before the rats leap out from the detritus.
Quickly manoeuvring through the rubbish on her tip-toes, she mumbles softly; "I do remember a story about a young man who was asked to come down into a cellar to take care of some rats... although it had a different ending."
The rat takes a swift snap at the young woman moving to pincer it.
"Huh? What? Where?" Green-Ben rumbles, turning the wrong way and looking at,... nothing but the detritus, oblivious to the furry nasties crawling towards them,...
"Well, it's not the worst place I've ever been," comments Valexia as she draws an arrow and fires on the rat.
"Far from the best, though," she adds when her arrow clatters against the ground nearby, "Disgusting creatures."
Bertom skirts around the closest rat setting up in a good position to keep it between Ensis and himself. "These things look totally filthy, try to avoid a bite they could be disease ridden..."
Ensis spins gracefully as the rat approaches, timing the arc of his swing to strike just as the thing first enters his reach, Do that with a rapier, Master Greymalk...
for
Dee and Bertom scramble to reach the fray while Valexia keeps her distance, sadly missing the ravening creatures. Ensis cooly waits for one to approach before cleaving it in twain quite neatly with his longsword. It is the same rat Rexus missed. The nobleman looks sidelong at Ensis before replying to Valexia. "You've been in a worse place than this, my lady? There must be a story there. I'd love to hear it sometime."
Rexus is rudely interrupted by a third rat, apparently caught napping, which bursts from the detritus under a crate and lunges at the daydreaming Ben.
Rexus shuts up and hurries to skewer the new arrival, pinking its tail to little effect.
Round 1: Act if your name is bolded.
R3
Rexus
Dee
Ben
R1 (flanked by Bertom and Ensis)
R2 (dead)
Bertom
Ensis
Valexia
With a couple of quick thrust kicks at the rat, she hopes to quench Toby's hunger with pain.
Dee kicks at the nearest rat and squashes poor Toby into a furry, bleeding pillow.
Ben howls, but it is surprise, not pain, as he shakes off the vermin chewing on his leg. It seems that even the rats sharp teeth do not easily pierce mutagen-enhanced skin.
Ben glowers at the smelly rodent.
"Rat bite Ben, Ben smash rat!" Ben bellows as he swings at the rat with his heavy cane.
"Or,... Not?"
Ben's attempt to smash the huge rat comes to naught as it dodges the heavy cane.
Up:
Bertom
Ensis
Valexia
:)
The nearby rats dead, Ensis crosses the room, "Let's see if we can't make sure it won't bite Ben again...", he says with a smile, bringing his heavy blade down toward the rat.
The cornered rat tries to dodge the newcomer, but fails. Grievously wounded, it writhes and shrieks horribly.
Valexia readies another arrow, one of her durable arrows, and fires at the remaining rat.
"Rats," says the bard.
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"Rats," says the bard.
"Yes. Right there." Ben says, helpfully pointing to the one that Val just missed.
Bertom follows Ensis and nails the wounded creature to the floor through some vital bit or another.
"Uff, nasty place. I don't suppose they'd have stashed important things conveniently in the room at the bottom of the ladder?" Rexus wonders, poking around the bins.
"No, that'd be too easy."
Valexia walks over to pick up her durable arrow and comments, "These are very handy for when you're seeing double. They're hard to lose!" She starts looking around for anything else of interest.
Yanking his rapier out of the rat, and wiping it clean Bertom says "Well I guess that takes care of the rats... Anybody see anything that looks like it could be a Silver Raven lead?
He starts to take a look for anything interesting, or out of place.
Ensis shrugs, trying to suppress a smirk, "Maybe their plan involved rates, and we just ruined it?".
Rexus looks startled at Ensis' statment, then grins. "They'd have been better off using dogs. Might have taken over Cheliax that way."
He plops down on an old barrel in disgust. "I can't find a damned thing. Next room, do you think?"