Lachen waits, curious to see, from a safe distance, what will happen.
Meanwhile, he chats amiably with Broom
You seem to have plenty of friends, milady..and you literally aren't afraid to "make" some new friends shall the need arise. That's an interesting skill to have
Is she afraid of loneliness? Maybe she doesn't trust outsiders.. and I won't blame her for that.
Broom smiles "Ever since We woke up just a week or so ago, We have been able to make plenty of friends! There was everyone We woke up with." her brow furrowed for a moment "But I think they all left, even Xander who We thought might have been our brother. But anyway, then there was the..." she lowered her voice "little rat guy that We made friends with, but John doesn't like us talking about him."
Broom grinned again "Then We met everyone here except you who We just met yesterday." Broom thought for a moment "We learned how to call the invisible friends to help while in Briarstone, We have met so many friends since We woke up. But, We don't remember anything before last week so it is hard to say how many friends We might have that We just don't remember any more. Perhaps its because We are calling Ourself Broom instead of Dr. Malbourne, or even just Mashiki and they don't recognize Our name? Maybe We should switch back, but it just sounds so strange to Us."
"Speaking of which, We don't know if Us would be called a friend since Us is and extension of Us, but she is somewhat independent of Us. Maybe like a child? But not really, not like Laura's was." Broom cocked her head to one side as if listening to something for a moment. "Us says that it might just be easiest if We refer to Us as Our familiar since according to Us that is the most succinct description of Our relationship." Broom smiled "Us likes using complicated words."
Broom's eyes suddenly went wide with as she had a revelation "OH! Maybe if we all want to get to know each other better and meet Us properly, We can all get together and use the incense this evening and share thoughts! Wouldn't that be great?" she asked excitedly.
John found a nasty poison needle trap on the lock but could tell that using the key would avoid it, so he went ahead and opened the cabinet. There was a small treasure trove inside, befitting a magistrate of a town this size: a hooded cloak made of some kind of soft, warm, but extremely light wool. At first it seemed dark brown or black, the same as the interior of the cabinet, but as it was lifted out of the dresser the color seemed to shift and change with the light and the material behind it, camouflaging itself against whatever was behind.
There was an ornately worked black belt and knife sheathe made of some kind of leather that almost looked like it was made of woven plant fibers instead of cut from cured hide. While the belt and sheathe looked sturdy as any stout leather belt it weighed next to nothing, and the dagger inside the sheathe was made of a glistening, silvery metal, elaborately etched with scrollwork that resembled clouds and blowing wind. Someone who could read Elven could just barely make out the word Sardo hidden in the clouds- the elven word for 'loyal companion.'
Last, there was a small but heavy wooden coffer full of coins.
Broom looked at the treasured with wonder. "What a great cloak! We wonder how it does that. We have never seen cloth like that before." She rubbed the material between her fingers to get a feel for it and examined it carefully. "We wonder if We could sew a cloak like this."
Next she examined the dagger, not so much the weapon but the belt and sheath. "And look at this! It isn't really even leather, or cloth. It kind of looks like leaves all pasted together, but its still really strong. What an interesting idea."
She neatly folded the cloak and arranged the dagger and sheath on the table alongside the coffer with coins. "Should we take these and give them to the Agency? Maybe they can find the magister's next of kin."
"Maybe we'll find a clue to the rightful owners at some point, but for now I think we should make use of these to help unravel these mysteries." John says.
"Everyone keep your eyes sharp for more of those fish people."
He goes to the door in the east wall and checks if it is locked.
If not, he'll open it a hair and peek inside.
To the east, John saw the Broom-ordered carnage the group had left behind in the fort's dining room. As far as he knew, they had explored the entirety of the fort above ground. All that was left was to go downstairs.
Broom's eyes suddenly went wide with as she had a revelation "OH! Maybe if we all want to get to know each other better and meet Us properly, We can all get together and use the incense this evening and share thoughts! Wouldn't that be great?" she asked excitedly.
Desdemona's brittle smile turned a bit sickly. "Well, we wouldn't want to strain Us, nor yourself. And if all that you know or have access to know came pouring in, the rest of us might not be able to tread those waters. I think I, at least, would prefer to remain with my own thoughts," she declined.
No chance for the darkness to pass on to others, like an infection. No chance for it to plumb her secret hopes.
The darkness seemed... ridiculing, somehow. She couldn't explain how. It just was.
Broom looked at the treasured with wonder. "What a great cloak! We wonder how it does that. We have never seen cloth like that before." She rubbed the material between her fingers to get a feel for it and examined it carefully. "We wonder if We could sew a cloak like this."
Next she examined the dagger, not so much the weapon but the belt and sheath. "And look at this! It isn't really even leather, or cloth. It kind of looks like leaves all pasted together, but its still really strong. What an interesting idea."
She neatly folded the cloak and arranged the dagger and sheath on the table alongside the coffer with coins. "Should we take these and give them to the Agency? Maybe they can find the magister's next of kin."
"Maybe we'll find a clue to the rightful owners at some point, but for now I think we should make use of these to help unravel these mysteries." John says.
"I agree, John. I'd say we have more need of them than the Agency does." Desdemona shifted lightly in a vain attempt to prevent the shadow from reattaching itself beneath her feet. "Where was it those nobles said they wished to find their object of interest here? I daresay we haven't found it yet. Perhaps it will... will shed light on these events. Come, if we've seen what there is to see here and above, let's have a look below. I imagine that's often where items of interest can be found in any noble's territory."
John will scout out the stairs.
(+2 for traps)
John didn't find any traps on the stairs or the door. It was cool and surprisingly dry underground, and the next room appeared to be a well maintained and securely fitted room for storing the fort's wood supply.
The walls were lined with shelves holding several cords of wood. A couple of woodaxes were leaned in one corner and a small hatchet was absently driven into the top of a large stump used to split smaller logs.
Two doors led off the wood storage room- one to the east and one to the south.
While the others had explored the desk, Reine simply stood aside and quietly examined the mirror. She did so while doing her best not to get in front of it. Something - possibly just her own paranoia - led her to think that standing before the mirror would prove a bad idea.
John motions up the stairs to show that the coast is clear, then he moves across the room and listens at the east door.
Lachen follows the ranger, hoping he knows what he's doing.
The warrior doesn't trust him, but feels that as long as John leads the way, he'll be the first one to be attacked or aimed by a trap.
And that suits Lachen.
John heard muttering on the other side of the door, sounding like normal idle conversation though he couldn't make out what was being said. Checking to see if the door was unlocked, he found that it was locked from this side but that the ring of keys they had recovered did fit the lock.
John backs away from the door and motions to the others, pantomiming that there are potential bad guys on the other side of the door.
Broom casually glanced around the room appreciating the neatness of the stacked wood. At John's motions she quietly nodded and got ready to confront whatever dangers were revealed.
With the door firmly shut, John is pretty sure his not-so-quiet steps weren't heard on the other side of the door.
Desdemona raised the keys, with a raised brow at the others. Reaching out, she endeavored to unlock the door as quietly as she could manage.
John unsheathes his swords and prepares to go through the door if Des opens it safely.
Ever practical, Desdemona quietly unlocked the door. John entered with his swords drawn, entering a dark hallway fitted with three doors along the north wall- each fitted with a small grate in the middle of the door. There is a single, non-grated door in the south wall.
More importantly, a trio of skum squat in the room, two of them talking to each other while the third snoozes against the far wall. They all turn to look at John as he enters the room.
John ducks to his left and slashes high and low at the closest skum!
Wand of death knell (18), Wand of infernal healing (18), Wand of bless (15)
Broom war ready for whatever lay behind the door. She had seen some pretty awful things in the last week or so, so she steeled herself for whatever was revealed.
The moment the door opened to reveal the prison cells and the skum awaiting in what was likely the guard room, she was suddenly startled by a voice she heard only in her mind "Look out! There are skum awaiting in what is likely the guard room!"
Broom glanced about in confusion for a moment or two before realizing that it was Us trying to alert her to the danger.
Desdemona acted without thinking, hissing, "Go!", and lobbing the dagger they'd just acquired directly at the nearest skum, even as the shadow pooled at her feet... and then slid forward, toward the fishman.
She was so busy trying to step out of the shadow that she almost didn't catch the dagger when it popped back into her hand.
I don't talk to scum.
Lachen follows the ranger and tries to strike at their foe, hoping to get it off guard
Reine was still adapting to having another person with the group to handle the front lines. She wasn't entirely sure where she fit in now. Not that she was complaining, however. She just... needed to find another way to be helpful.
With the fish-men, she felt no real concern. It had been the zombies that had left her almost doubting herself. These pathetic creatures, on the other hand, she could deal with.
Before anyone other than John could move, Reine, who had been looking through the doorway over the mens' shoulders, simply flicked her hand in the general direction of the three fishmen.
A subtle chime rang once in the minds of every being within 15 feet of any of the skum.
John dashed into the room, missing with his first slash but Red Destiny seemed to seek his opponent's blood almost of its own accord, stabbing with authority into the skum's chest.
Only the one furthest from the door resisted Reine's psychic power, the two facing the fury of the Briarstone survivors freezing momentarily in place out of shock and fear.
Desdemona threw her newly acquired dagger at the nearest skum, grazing it before the weapon reappeared in her hand. Her shadow rose up like a wave, descending on the skum nearest the door and leaving a dead fishman in its wake.
Lachen charged in to attack the next invader in line, nearly cleaving the huddling skum in two but not quite managing to kill it in a single blow.
Enraged, the one at the back of the room screamed something in a lugubrious, phlegmy voice and charged Lachen with its trident.
It didn't come close to breaching the new man's defenses.
Hammer time.
Lachen senses an opportunity for maximum carnage, and his earthbreaker takes the first skum at midsection, send him flying into the second skum, before the fighter pushes both bodies against the wall, crushing them like rotten fruits with macabre sounds.
He turns to the last foe standing with vicious glee, taunting him
Say hello to the Bad Guy.
He seems useful, Desdemona thought with approval - or something thought for her. It was hard to tell, anymore.
The shadow oozed forward, but stopped short of interfering with Lachen's game. It was... listening?
Red Destiny stabs out again, piercing the skum's defenses.
Dazed and confused by the experience of a new voice offering her advice combined with the suddenness of the assault Broom did nothing for quite a few moments as everyone rushed past her before simply flicking some black droplet from her fingertips in the general direction of the fish men.
She immediately regretted her action, worried that she may have accidentally hurt one of her friends as she recklessly flung acid through the crowd. It was an immense relief as the black droplets missed everyone and splashed across the skum.
Reine didn't say much. She merely watched as the new man seemed to dance on the edge of a beserker's rage and wreak havoc on the foes. Her gaze took in the way he moved, his angle of attack, and the vicious results thereof.
She gave a small grunt as John and Mashiki combined to finish off the last of the three.
Then she nodded, gave Desdemona a light touch on the shoulder - though whether a message of approval or support wasn't immediately clear - as she passed by the smaller woman and followed the men into the next room.
John and Lachen dispatched the three skum in a matter of seconds- in Lachen's case, with extreme prejudice- leaving the group to quickly realize the cells on the north side of the short hallway were full of people when they started banging on the doors from the inside. "Hey! Hey! Let us out!"
Wand of death knell (18), Wand of infernal healing (18), Wand of bless (15)
Broom's eyes went wide with concern upon seeing the prisoners. "Oh no! We shouldn't have left the keep. We could have freed everyone yesterday if we had just kept searching." She immediately began searching through the corpses of the skum to see if any had a key... and to surreptitiously begin tidying them up.
None of the three dead skum had a key on them- that probably meant they had been locked in here since at least yesterday, too, since the group had just come through a locked door. Speaking of which, the large ring of keys, once tried, turned out to contain the keys to even these jail doors.
Inside, the Briarstone survivors found 11 dirty, hungry, exhausted townspeople. Horribly, it looked like there had once been several more. "Thank the Lady for answering our prayers! Did you kill all these monsters? Can we go home?"
Broom looked a little perplexed at the prisoners. "Wait, you aren't from the keep? How did you get here?" She cocked her head to the side as if listening to something "Oh, that's right. Weren't we told about a string of missing people? It was being blamed on a Witch?"
"No! Some of us have been in here for days. There used to be others. The priestess was here when the first brought me. I don't know about a witch, it was a gang of people in yellow robes and hoods. They brought us through a hole in a wall! Grabbed me, stuffed a gag in my mouth and threw a hood over my head and walked me right where I know there was a wall. Pulled me right through someplace with cobblestone streets to somewhere outside, then marched me right to here."
"They didn't send you to rescue us?"
Reine quirked an eyebrow. "They?"
"We are Special Investigators sent by the Sleepless Agency to help find out what happened here at the Fort. Would you be willing to go to the agency so that we can ask you questions when we are done here? We are really interested in these yellow robed people and the walking through walls thing they can do.
Oh! And you said the priestess was here as well? Didn't the painter at the church say that the priestess went missing? We might have just solved a whole bunch of mysteries!"
Reine quirked an eyebrow. "They?"
The townsperson shrugged helplessly. "Anyone? No one was looking for us?"
"We are Special Investigators sent by the Sleepless Agency to help find out what happened here at the Fort. Would you be willing to go to the agency so that we can ask you questions when we are done here? We are really interested in these yellow robed people and the walking through walls thing they can do.
Oh! And you said the priestess was here as well? Didn't the painter at the church say that the priestess went missing? We might have just solved a whole bunch of mysteries!"
"She was here when I first got here. They took her out a while ago. Most everybody else here was brought in after that. Nobody ever comes back once they take you out of the cells."
"Can I go check in with my family? They must be worried about me." They glanced at Reine, thinking of her news that no one had been looking for them. "They'll be happy we're all home. I can come to the Sleepless Agency after that."
"I'm sure someone was looking for you, but it just wasn't us." John offers somewhat lamely.
"If you're going to leave, then we should probably walk you out. It has been pretty dangerous around here."
"Well, we were asked to look into rumors that the witch was abducting people, we just weren't doing that here." Broom smiled. "Lets get everyone cleaned up and escorted out. Then we can finish seeing if there is anything else to find here and anyone who wants to help us find the people that did this can meet us at the Agency this evening so we can ask our questions. Does that sound good?"
Having no clue about what happened before he joined the group, and no particular interest in showing off any social skills, Lachen stayed silent, and somewhat vigilant, just in case a new foe would jump on the occasion to attack
"Cleaned up?" Reine repeated, pointedly. Then she turned to the prisoners. "I think we'll escort you to the Agency first. They will be able to sent people to your families. If you scatter now, you'll be leading anyone who might be watching you right back to your families. Let's get you to safety first. It's less risky that way."
She did not point out that it would also be less risky to the party, should someone in the group be a spy.
"Anybody know where that door in the south wall goes?" John asks.
"If there are more skum behind it, we could deal with them now."
The prisoners, tired, hungry, and scared, didn't try to argue with Reine's suggestion.
The door to the south was locked but once again the key ring they'd confiscated from the fish-man on the roof turned out to open it up. The large room beyond was stale, motes of dust hanging heavy on the still air. Crates and barrels stood all along the chamber's damp stone walls, along with broken furniture waiting to be mended and disassembled weapon racks and stacks of out-of-fashion furniture in moldering piles, all showing signs of age and covered with a heavy layer of untouched, trackless dust.
The plaster over a portion of the wall in the southwest corner had even begun to crack, the damp room had been left alone and unmaintained for so long. It's clear that no one has been in here for years.
Broom fussed over the released prisoners, tending to any scratches or bruises they might have and giving them some food and water from her pack.
When the other door was opened Broom carefully made sure the townsfolk were distracted before releasing us to go help explore the room with John and Lachen.
Us happily skittered forward into the dusty room and began climbing all over the piled furniture and debris, poking into nooks and crannies excitedly exploring whatever could be found.
To Broom, it looked like exactly what it had appeared from the beginning- a long abandoned storeroom. She found sealed crates full of old clothing, out-of-fashion furniture, outdated militia uniforms, disassembled weapon racks, broken furniture that someone had planned to repair at some point, tapestries in need of patching, extra bedclothes and chamber pots, and older files that had been moved from the archives to make room for more
relevant records.
Broom and her friend would be able to put the dust and disrepair to rights relatively quickly but the cracking plaster in the corner would probably need real materials and tools to fix.
Desdemona seemed distracted, but that was nothing new. Her shadow slid over the walls and furniture slowly, as though the light were circling her... or the shadow was, like a wolf.
Des moved, dreamlike, after Broom and Lachen, looking at what they found interesting.
LOL