Very well done. It seems this place is teeming with oversized vermin.
Fala and Bal are beginning construction of a more firmly supported platform over the sinkhole. We should have a lift built by nightfall. That first chamber is large enough to use as a staging point, so our plan is to make it defensible to give you all a place to retreat to should you need it, and use it as a place to transfer supplies and any uncovered relics. Also, if you get hungry, we have a stew bubbling.
Bağışlayın Nisfeollyn, ən azı .. Bu Nisfeollyn kimi, mən Arrgh. Biz stinking bulud gagging, və əlbəttə siz başa olmayan lil Mephit, mübarizə edirik .... siz dərk edə bilməz səslənir." came the sound of Lyla's frustration tinged voice over the message cuff.
"No problem at all, he can sit on my shoulder", Cadeyrn replied to Nisfeollyn.
Cadeyrn posed for the picture with Wuntholor on his shoulder.
"I have no problem with you having the dice if that would make Wuntholor happy. And if you really want to protect the wine against wandering laborers, go ahead." Cadeyrn said after hearing Nisfeollyn's suggestion.
"Bladud, have you found any trace of where the spider might have gone to or did we take the wrong path?"
Bladud doesn't look up from his search. "No, but ah've just got'ta---"
Whatever he was saying is cut off by Lyla's voice in the still room. Bladud stops in his tracks and looks at the crew, his face a thunderhead. "Thah's no good. She does thaht when she's in trouble. It's Aklo."
”Yes, it does appear that she’s reached her stress point when Aklo is the only language she speaks. I recognized my name and ‘mephit.’”
”I would not worry Bladud. The others are all capable. Plus anyone in the group can contact us if they need our assistance. Now then, do you think it is worthwhile to cast a spell to detect secret doors here? I think the chance of one being here is very small.”
Nisfeollyn places a die on his open palm. Wuntholor pecks it from his hand then drops it to the ground.
”Four,”Wuntholor caws in Arcadian.
The southern door Bladud was looking at did seem to be webbed over. It wasn't likely that the spider went through it.
Spiders and scorpions were natural enemies, so it was a good guess that the spider went the other way, though it could have gone through the open wooden door to the north.
”Mephits,” Nisfeollyn says, "are servants of powerful elemental creatures. There are many varieties associated with the basic elements. They are resistant to magic, can see in the dark, heal quickly, can cast minor spells, and breathe fire, ice, acid, or another element-associated ‘cloud.’ If you can remove it from, or counteract, it’s preferred environment, it should lose its ability to heal quickly. I will tell the other group what I know about them. Perhaps it may help.”
Bladud nods to mage, but he's clearly distracted at the thought of Lyla's plight. Regardless, he goes back to business. "Checking for magically-hidden doors is smart. I didn'a find anything. I don't see that'tha bloody spider went this way, either, so the south door is mah call." He looks around, "Anyone think different?"
Bladud signals for quiet then moves to the southern door , and begins running his hands over it's edges and mechanisms looking for traps. The he presses his ear to it, listening for anything on the other side.
[ooc]go ahead with that door i'd say :)
Realizing it was time to explore more, Nisfeollyn put the two dice into a pouch at his belt. The elf held up his forearm for Wuntholor to quietly perch while Bladud inspects the door.
Once the webs were cut and burned away, the door was found to be good and stuck.
"Need some help getting the door to open?", Cadeyrn said after seeing the situation.
______________________
Bladud fishes a crowbar from his pack, lending his own strength to the attempt.
Dvalin helps, too.
Dvalin's sledge does the trick, bursting the door out of it's warped frame and violently exposing a short hallway that ended in a cave in. It appeared this passage had been blocked when the ground shifted and the foundation cracked.
After opening the door, Dvalin remarks, "Look, the passage has been blocked when the ground shifted and the foundation cracked. The crack the other group slipped into was probably caused by that same shift. It's likely we'll find these sorts of things all along the fault line where the foundation moved."
"We're ok boys, just had a fight with an ooze mephit. The filthy little bastard practically had us all doubled over sicking up. But we're fine." came Lyla's voice coming over the cuffs, refreshingly in Common.
"Shall we proceed to the north then?" Cadeyrn said after inspecting the blocked passage.
Dvalin takes a last drag of his cigar and carefully extinguishes it on a clean patch of stone. He returns the unlit cigar to his mouth and hefts his warhammer with a slight wrist twirl. "Ready."
"Indeed, the north door is our next course of action. Dvalin, do you think the foundation cracked due to some large creature? Or perhaps a natural process that occurred with the weight of years?”
Wuntholor ruffled his feathers and bobbed his head towards Bladud.
The elf dropped his voice to a whisper, ”Ah yes. I know, I know. Bladud, shall have silence.”[b] Nisfeollyn covered the glowing feather in his headband with a hand. The light that seeped past his palm and fingers was as faint as a candle. [b]”And near darkness, since you don’t need the light,” he whispered. ”We will continue after you have looked for traps.”
Dvalin turns to the elf, "Large creature? Doubt it. It happens naturally." He returns to his ready position.
Bladud relaxes visibly at Lyla's voice, and then nods to Dvalin, "North it is." He skulks across the room, giving the northern door the same treatment despite its corroded components.
The door opened easily revealing a room nearly identical to the one they had found the scorpion in. In fact, aside from the distinct lack of scorpions, the two rooms had the same dimensions.
The old molding and ruined beds and broken frames gave purpose to this chamber. It seemed to have originally been a barracks or housing for laborers. It appeared to have too many beds piled along the south wall. It looked like the other room may have also been a barracks room, but the beds had been moved to this one to clear space.
That was Bladud's best guess at any rate.
"Hmmm," Bladud grunts as he carefully and quietly walks into the room, senses straining for threats or traps. "Anyone fancy a quick nap?"
He waves the group in as he begins searching the floors for footprints and the walls for hidden doors.
Dvalin moves behind Baldud's signal and prays quickly to Hriedmar ending with his eyes flashing blue for a moment. He surveys the room looking for anything interesting.
Nisfeollyn stepped lightly into the room to stand next to Bladud. With Wuntholor on his arm, he gazed around the room letting the feather cast its light.
Cadeyrn followed the rest of the group into the room.
The room appeared to be mundane, and now that they were all inside they could see another exit to the west that had previously been blocked by precarious piles of old bed frames. The room reeked of mildew and animal urine.
There seemed to me no magic and nothing hidden. The dirt on the floor made picking out tracks easy. Bladud could see droppings and scuffed imprints left by some kind of animal all over the room, leading to a chewed through hole in the wooden north door. He would normally have guessed that they were rat tracks, but the tracks were about the size of a child's hand.
"Nisfeollyn, can I see that book for a moment?" Cadeyrn asked when they were done surveying the room.
After he inspected the map for a short while,
"I think the door to the west might lead back to where we started. Maybe we could check this out first so we have another passage back if the need arrises?"
Bladud nods at his fellow highlander’s suggestion, heading to the western door before giving it the same treatment.
Nisfoellyn passed the book to Caderyn with an encouraging nod. After the suggestion of going west, Nisfeollyn said, ”That sounds like a prudent idea.”
He remained where he was, watching Bladud inspecting the door, with his right hand lightly touching his longsword’s hilt.
Again, the door seemed stuck. It appeared that the shifting of the building's foundation had warped many of the door frames.
Bladud rams his shoulder into the door.
Bladud, slayer of doors, burst through revealing another short hallway that lead to another doorway.
From this side, it was clear that Travigan's guess was correct. In the room they had entered from they could hardly see the open archway through all the webbing and accumulated dirt, but from this side they could hear and faintly see the workers lowering equipment down into the chamber they had all fallen into at the start.
The work crew stopped at the sound of the the door crashing open and two guards leveled spears toward the webbed over archway.
Fala wiped around at the sound. "If that's a survey team, you have two seconds before we start with the stabbing and burning."
"Survey team, coming through."
The spearmen on the other side of the archway relaxed.
"Good. Lets get this webbing cleared." Fala says to the workers who brought over torches and quickly burned an opening.
"How are you all holding up? Heard about the scorpion. When it showed up in the book I think Jonas about pissed himself."
"I did no such thing!" Jonas' voice rang out from the hole above.
Bladud barks a laugh, "You should'a been in mah'boots, lass." He shakes his head, "Gonna need to change ma'kilt soon."
He looks briefly at the workers, then back towards the door he just busted down, "Guess we should head back that'way, eh?"
"Oh no? Then why did you drop the book down here and make us rig up the tackle early to get it back to you?" the sharp-tongued crew chief called back up to the surface.
"You need anything?" she said to the surveyors, "We're not done getting set up here, but we have a couple supply crates prepped. Anything you want added in the first load, we can probably do."
"We've got some stuff you can tag and bag. It's in the room with the dead scorpion."
Fala nodded. "We should be all set up to receive finds down here in about an hour. That rickety ground up there is making it hard to use the regular pulleys. We're having to build a reinforced platform. Sorta like a big raft with a hole in it."
"Fair enough. We'll jest leave what we've got off to'tha side." He considers the contents of his pack, "Do the supplies have any healin' wands or draughts? Might be the difference between an extended trip or one cut short because we're too cut up to continue."
He barks out a laugh, and claps Dvalin and Cadeyrn mightily on the shoulders, "Gotta keep these two focused on the problems at'hand instead'a constantly sewin' me up."
Bladud nods, then gives the team a moment to ready themselves, then he heads back into the through the hallway and to the northern door. "We'll be headin' north initially." He gives the journal a look, "Though ah'guess you'll be knowin' that."
He then moves back into the room they just cleared, quietly approaching the western door to check for traps and beyond.
"I know Noros has a few potions on hand. How many do you want?"
Dvalin follows Bladud with his warhammer in hand.
Nisfeollyn hands the needed coins to Caderyn to make up the difference. ”A commendable idea to have magical healing.”