The bartender mulls Micheo's question, weighing whether the greater pain lies with betraying Bloodeye or protecting him.
"He is down in his basement," he whispers, leaning in close enough for the garlic smell of his breath to wash over you. "I don't ever go down there. That's where he conducts his...personal business."
Dugan's response causes the stubbly man to lean back and speak more freely.
"I know who you are. You're the crew that axed Kreed. I don't care what you say, stout one, I'm not mad enough to take you lightly. We all know you're just as dangerous as any wyrm or fey that lurks in the woods."
"Thank you.", replies Micheo as he takes his ale and sups it.
He turns to the others:
"After this, we have a chat?"
"No one could blame you for not stopping such a heavily armoured dwarf and his companions." He leaves his drink on the counter "I'd rather go down now to be honest."
"Fine by me."
The rear of the Rouge Lady conceals a long hallway behind the burlesque stage. Most of the doors along the length hang open, revealing fraying pillows, cots, and threadbare red silk hangings. Beyond these private "coupling" rooms, however, there is one last door - made of thick, reinforced oak and secured with a stout padlock.
Joanne seeing the lock
"Guessing this is the jerk's office"
Micheo quietly says:
"Should we wait for the others? Or will kicking in the door be enough of a signal for them to act?"
'Probably' Dugan says noncommittally one way or the other and nods down the hallway toward the bar, unshouldering his earth breaker 'Keep an eye out'
He takes a swing at the padlock.
Seeing worried looking people leaving, Ulark took it as his cue. ”Come on. Now or never, they may need us.”
Dugan's overzealous swing misses the padlock but connects with the door itself, splintering the thick boards and nearly wrenching it from its hinges.
The sound tears through the gambling hall, briefly distracting the patrons from their games. The bartender stoops behind the counter, worried that the worst has come to pass. A few toughs stand up and cautiously draw clubs and knives, edging towards the back to investigate.
"So be it.", says Micheo quietly.
He realises that his rapier will do little good against wood and steel, so he draws his warhammer and strikes the door with that.
Joanne replies back to Ulark
"Lets go then."
Perhaps haste saps some of his strength, for Micheo's blow does not knock down the door.
It hangs askew upon only a single hinge now, but it remains an obstruction in your path.
Ulark strode confidently to the establishment and past the tough (unless otherwise stopped). Once inside, not seeing his friends, he went straight to the barkeep. ”A dwarf came in here just now. Fully armored, you couldn’t miss him. Where is he?”
"Given our new career as foolhardy investigators meddling wherever we go maybe we should learn how to pick locks..." Inconnu says before swinging his longsword at the lock with just a little magical energy.
Seeing the others take the initiative on the door, Dugan reshoulders his earth breaker and readies Glintax and his shield. He takes position between the main room and the door.
Micheo also strikes, to ensure that the door this time is opened.
Inconnu's sword merely gouges a sliver-thin furrow in the iron padlock. However, Micheo's warhammer shatters the door in a shower of wooden shards. The way is open, and although the sound has likely carried, you are not discovered yet.
Hearing the sounds, Ulark strode past the barkeep and to the group.
”So subtle! Nervous people leaving and all this noise. We thought you were under attack.”
Inconnu puts his sword away and moves into the room over the splinters and fragments of the door.
Micheo shrugs as he wields rapier and shield.
"Let us proceed."
'The service wasn't up to our standards.' Dugan quips, walking backwards towards the doorway, continuing to watch the hallway to the main room of the establishment.
When Ulark approaches, the bartender grips his counter tightly, looking on the verge of ducking behind it for cover. He raises a shaking arm to point the way, but the sound of cracking wood finally sends him crouching in fear, while also answering the question for him.
As the imposing statures of Ulark and Joanne push past them, the patrons who thought to investigate the sounds from the hall shrink back to their chairs, clearly deciding to wash their hands of the mysterious business. With the party reunited and the door broken down, you descend into the Rouge Lady's basement.
The stairs are but wood planks embedded on earthen steps. Cheap clapboard lines the walls, mostly to secure the loose soil of the riverside. Dugan recognizes that the stairs aim northward, away from the river - the only way this building would have room for a basement, let alone without collapsing under sodden soil.
A long hallway extends from the foot of the stairs. The air is heavy with the damp smell of mold, accented by sweat and blood. Another thick door awaits at the far end of the hall, while a side passage, midway down, branches off to the east.
"I guess Bloodeye is more like a rat in sewer...
with Multiple ways to leave and escape if needed..."
"Then let us hunt this rat now, before he gets to use these ways out."
Micheo looks ahead, his eyes piercing through any darkness, seeking a sign of passage. If inexpertly.
Though the dark provides no obstacle to Micheo's eyes, he can pick out no details from the dirt-floored passage. Neither can his ears detect anything from the door or side passage, as any sounds are overshadowed by the clink of his own armor and the beating of his own heart.
Not a mote of light from torch, lantern, or candle can be discerned. Only the light from atop the stairs, filtering down, provides the barest illumination that highlights the shape of the walls - made of packed earth reinforced with wooden beams, like some miserable mine.
From down the side passage, Joanne can hear the sounds of muffled conversation and people hastily donning their gear. Further down, she can also hear the faint splashing of water. From behind the door at the end of the hall, she can hear the sound of clanging metal and hoarse, angry shouting.
Ulark was less than pleased with the reactions he was getting. In his old home, he was now a figure of fear. Up until recently he had been a simple man living a simple life. This reinforced how much had changed. But still, something deep within him felt deep satisfaction at it, as if though he were living up to what he was made for. Feeling that violence was imminent, he prepared as best he could.
With axe out, he looked to his companions and said ”We really aren’t the most subtle or diplomatic investigators, are we?”
"No, we aren't, we are more like a dragon in a china shop."
"Forward.", says Micheo, in agreement.
'It's worked for us so far!'
Inconnu casts light on his shield as they move forward. "This went poorly very fast."
Passing the branching passage, you have a moment to take stock of what lies that way. It stretches another thirty or forty feet to the west before opening into some kind of cavern or rounded chamber.
At the end of the hall, illuminated by Inconnu's glowing shield, you stand before a door made of thick darkwood planks, painted a deep red. A lock is built into the door, but it does not seem to be currently set. The earthen walls and floor give way to brickwork lining the doorjamb and likely forming the walls of the room beyond.
Joanne whispers under her breath
"Sneaky, Bastard... he's got a trap on the door."
”Hold.” Ulark held his hand up. ”Look there. The door is trapped.”
Micheo stands guard behind Ulark, in case someone attempts to strike at the group from another direction.
Ulark pushes the door open with his axe, and a filthy, notched blade swings out from the exposed recess. Had an unaware person simply kept their hand upon the latch, it could have been lopped off. As it stands, though, the trap's blade merely scratches at the haft of his battleaxe.
The door opens, revealing a room you'd prefer not to have discovered. The red brick chamber beyond is heavily perfumed with old, dried blood so pungent, it leaves a coppery taste in your mouth. A pair of wooden racks lean against the wall to your right, but the center of the room is dominated by an intimidatingly macabre chair.
A single door sits in the left wall, flanked by sets of manacles and racks of tools. Within the far wall you see the bars of a pair of prison cells, both occupied. One of the prisoners is too weak to react to your approach, but the other stands and clutches at the bars of his cell - it is Milon Rhoddam, the missing woodsman who previously helped you recover the Blackscour cure ingredients.
Ultimately, though, your attention settles upon the master of this torture chamber. Kabran Bloodeye stands beside his torture chair, clad in a shirt of mail and with a number of blades within reach. The light of Inconnu's shield catches upon his bronze nose piece.
"Coming down here is the biggest gamble a body can ever take in my establishment," Bloodeye muses, his husky voice unnervingly polite. He dabs a crimson handkerchief at a bit of mucus dribbling from beneath his nose piece. "I suspect that any number of things brings you to my...recreation room, yet I am willing to let you leave unharmed. I also know that you wish me dead, but it is very much in your best interest for me to continue breathing."
He suppresses a slight chuckle that sends a whistling breath through the crater in his face beneath his bronze nose piece.
Ulark’s eyes widened as he took in the sight. Then he started breathing heavily as righteous anger filled him. His grip on his axe tightened as his skin started taking on a more jade-like color and his features began shifting into that of his angelic ancestor. It seemed that he was on the verge of going “axe-mad” again.
"You better tell us why you should live, before Ulark turns you into hamburger."
Dugan shoulders his way forward to stand at the front. 'I'd kind of like to see what's behind that beak.'
The dwarf nods to Milon. 'You alright, Milon?'
"I'm quit happy to let you live and for us to leave. You and these people will be coming with us to somewhere safe." Inconnu smiled and put his hand on the hilt of his blade.
Micheo stares at the horror, and feels a twinge of interest. Keen interest.
NO., he thinks, focusing on the matter at hand.
"As my companion has stated, we will all be leaving here together."
"But of course!" Bloodeye responds with a mirth that climbs the brickwork and echoes off the walls. He pulls a keyring from his belt and begins unlocking the two cells. "These two were always Payday's problem, not mine. It's no more skin from my face if they walk out of here."
The barred iron doors grind open. Milon bolts out immediately and stumbles for safety by your side. The other man struggles to rise, so Bloodeye hoists him up by the shoulder and tosses him at your feet.
"Before you draw steel over that, you should know that I offer the exact same hospitality to my customers upstairs," he says with a jagged smile, seeing your reactions to the rough treatment.
"Now, as for why you should leave all my blood and bones right where they are," he declares confidently. "I could make threats regarding the boys I have down the way, cutting off your escape if it should come to that. I could even introduce you to the 'hired muscle' I have chained up in a cave over there," he says, gesturing in the direction of the side passage back out in the hall. "But for once in my wretched life, I think it's my words that are of most value."
Bloodeye begins to swagger about the torture chamber, running a calloused palm over the restraining chair as he circles it and talks.
"Those soldiers you brought to town - you want to give them dirt on the lumber boys, aye? Well, hows about I...what's the word again? Testify! I could testify about how Boss Payday, as acting head of the Consortium in town, abducted local workers and turned them over to...well, me...because they were speaking against the company. That seems like the sort of thing those Eagle Knight types could really sink their beaks into."
"We'll bring you to them and I'm sure they'll take into account your willingness to testify. You wont get off completely free I have no doubt but alive and better off than you'd be if you tried to resist coming with us."
"We need more.", says Micheo.
"We need hard evidence. Where are they keeping it?"
"I agree we'd need way more evidence,
And if your thinking dead men tell no tells,
Well you might be wrong and your corpse will spill the beans on everything without your cooperation..."
Ulark glared, doing his best to keep the righteous violence in check. Every fiber of his being screamed that the man was evil and should die, but the logical part of him, the part that was still Ulark, said that it was wrong to kill a man who was surrendering. Luckily the others were speaking quite well while he fought his internal battle.
Well versed in keeping alert for threats, Bloodeye immediately notices the subtle changes overtaking Ulark, cast in the dancing shadows created by Inconnu's glowing shield. His hand reflexively slides towards one of his blades, but he yet resists the urge to draw steel.
"Those two there aren't evidence enough?" Bloodeye sneers, gesturing towards Milon and the other freed prisoner. "Pay Day and his goons gave their heads a thumping, then delivered them to me. I'm sure they were already close to spilling some beans to those soldiers, 'else Pay Day wouldn't have wanted to disappear them.
"If you're looking for some ledger or papers that document the Consortium's...grayer finances, you'd best be looking in the late Gavel's manor. He kept all those secrets under lock, key, and trap."