Alicia frowns when her search turns up empty. She stands and retrieves the torch from its wall sconce. "Well, there was something in there, once...." she sighs, and heads for the corridor that once held a portcullis.
Alicia [...] heads for the corridor that once held a portcullis.
Looking up with a hand-in-the-cookie-jar expression Vhailor blanches before professing his innocence "Nope... nothing to do with Iomedae... honest..."
Marikel looks up at Banny's comment, then across to Vhailor.
"Well, if it's not something to do with Iomedae maybe someone has been here. What is it?"He crosses to the gnome, but asks Alicia, "Did you find anything?"
Banny looks smirkily amused at Vhailor's answer, and glances to Marikel expecting him to sternly intercede on behalf of the church, yada-yada-- what he actually says makes her jaw go a little slack. The dwarf blinks, then pinches at the bridge of her nose.
"Lemme get this straight," she says aloud. "In th' cellar of a church of your god, behind a rusty ol' portcully, when we still have seen no blasted signs of a damn soul other than us comin' through here-- no tracks, undisturbed webs, a locked door, wild animals on this side of the door-- anyway, down here, he finds a fancy, gem-an'-gold encrusted book an' jus' happened to try an' slide that book sly-like into his bag, an'... I give him a bit'a guff for it... he answers it's got nothin' to do with your goddess......"
Banny reaches for her flask, then remembers it's empty. "...an' your response is not to ask him what's it 'bout then, or to come down on him for takin' pure money from church property-- it's to say, 'Oh, okay then, well gosh, guess it's proof someone else was down here!'?
"Right."
Banny shakes her head, sits down in the corner, and crosses her arms. "You folk do what the heck you want. Let me know when we're ready to go follow the trail our murderer probably used. An' Mister Falk: you can start claimin' gems an' goods for your lonesome when you get your hands bloody in the gettin' to 'em, clear?"
Vhailor shows the cover of the not really a book anymore to Marikel "See... Aroden..." before smiling and holding the book cover betwixt them in view.
The rest of Banny's tirade washes over him as water across rocks, leaving little disturbed by it's passage. He raises one eyebrow to repeat Alicia's discovery "Someone was here recently though... they took something from the chest." looking to the thief for confirmation. He lets the rest of Banny's words pass without comment. Not sure why bloodying my hands would equate to rights to take things though... perhaps that's more dwarvish customs...
Vhailor shows the cover of the not really a book anymore to Marikel "See... Aroden..." before smiling and holding the book cover betwixt them in view.
"Aroden!?!" Marikel snaps. "Iomedae is the Inheritor of Aroden's legacy! Look, just bring everything but we will be showing it all to Miss Varvatos. We're looking for things that aren't meant to be here. Not looting the things that are."
Marikel glares at Banny. "I did ask him what it was! I can't see in the dark like you. We've only been here a few minutes. If you'd like to help search for clues" Marikel turns his glare upon Vhailor briefly before continuing, "then we can be on our way. I don't think that your tunnel is going anywhere in the next hour."
Finally he turns upon Alicia. "Was there something there or not? Is recently the last few days, or the last few decades?"
Marikel scowls and folds his arms.
As Alicia and Marikel turn their attention to the corridor past the empty doorway and twisted hinges, both of them notice something suspicious about the floor. It looks as if some of the paving stones have been pried up and reset recently. It would be prudent not to take this corridor until it's been investigated further.
At the same time that Marikel and Alicia have just made this discovery, everyone suddenly smells the same foul, rotting smell that was in the cave in the cliffside.
"Yeah, the path will still be there-- don't mean any clues will--" Banny begins, but the wafting scent of rotting flesh turns her words into a muffled gag. Her head snaps up and she stares a moment at the north-western doorway.
"Oi, Falk! Get the hell back from that hall! There's trouble comin' from there!" she shouts in alarm, scrambling to her feet.
Vhailor's mouth is half agape in mustering an addition to the conversation when he's drawn to his feline companion. A look of dawning surprise and concern forming as the gnome's reaction to the intrusion is dampened into slow motion.
Vhailor's feline companion arches it's back and hisses at a deep and worrying timbre.
Alicia wrinkles her nose in disgust at the smell. "What is that smell?!" she exclaims, turning around and tensing in anticipation.
Alicia moves closer to the northwest corridor, leaning forward to peer down it toward the source of the smell. Her rapier in hand, she squints into the inky darkness.
Drawing her rapier, Alicia quickly crosses the room and prepares to attack whatever comes down the corridor.
And come it does. With a leering grin that exposes more long teeth than is comfortable to think about, the thing dashes down the corridor toward Banny, like a wild animal pouncing on its prey. Alicia stabs at it as it approaches but just misses. As it rushes past her on to the dwarf, she takes the chance to stab again, but this jab hits nothing but air.
The creature's first claw just scrapes over the surface of Banny's chain shirt, but the second finds a gap and rips deep into dwarf-flesh.
"What in Desna's Starry Embrace is a flood troll doing so far away from water?!" Alicia exclaims as the creature lashes out at Banny.
"A flood troll? This must be the thing that was in the cave."
"It's a fast-movin' sonuva-- awrrrgh!" Banny shouts as claws rip into her. "Nhhh..."
That... that one hurt. Aware that blood is pouring out her side, Banny takes a rasping breath that seems slow, like time itself is muddying down. The applejack's making her loose, dulling the pain maybe... but she doesn't care to get hit again. No. Inhale... exhale...
Her gaze becoming unfocused, Banny takes a swing at the thing's face that seems almost like a loose slap rather than a strike.
Staggered by the speed at which the beast lunged forward and the spray of red blood that's liberated from Banny, Vhailor takes a staggered step backwards carrying his cat with him. He follows up with a stammered calling of words arcane exhaling towards the troll and seeking to cloud it's mind "Kamili ilivyo fikra na macho kufunikwa"
If the troll succumbs it's subjected to it's eyesight being swallowed by the imprints of crawling ants and the white noise of a rushing beach fills it's ears.
Banny manages to punch back at the creature, which grunts as one of its long teeth is knocked loose and skitters across the stone floor. Perhaps it's the pain from the injury which helps the monster keep its focus and shrug off Vhailor's mind-fogging magic.
Marikel rushes to join his friends, the recently acquired sword still in hand.
"Me, you brute! Attack me! he shouts to draw its attention. Marikel stabs hard at the creature with the sword.
Marikel slashes wildly at the troll.
Carbonel contents himself with hissing at the troll.
The blond rogue dives into a somersault. Coming up behind the troll, she jabs at it again with her rapier.
Alicia steps behind the troll and jabs out with her rapier. The thin blade pierces straight through the meat of the monster's shoulder; Banny sees its tip, besmeared with blood and gore, dart out quickly and then disappear again, as Ali draws the weapon back.
The flood troll half-snarls, half-gasps. Its tiny, orcish eyes flash at the two open corridors, as if considering fleeing, but at the last, its inborn viciousness seems to triumph. "Men panjasida ustida mitti yuragi qoni bilan Urxehl kutib olaman," it growls, slashing again at Banny with a cruel claw before collapsing into unconsciousness on the stone floor.
"Banny!"
Marikel focuses intently and a pulse of warm healing energy bursts forth over everyone... except the troll.
He turns to the others.
"Well done. I wasn't really needed."
He nods slowly at Alicia. "Well done indeed."
Banny hisses as the claw finds her again despite her best attempt to avoid it. The pain makes her reel... but she doesn't fall, and there's a grim pleasure in that, in watching the beast collapse while she's still on her feet. A second or two later, Marikel's healing washes over her, at least stopping the flow of blood though she's still badly hurt.
"Hnn. Thanks," Banny wheezes. "Alright.... you all... were right... this had to be what we were smellin'... now what the hell's a 'flood troll'?"
"I wonder if this leads to the other side of that barricade," Alicia ponders aloud, pointing at the corpse on the ground with the point of her rapier as if to answer Banny's question.
Without waiting for further conversation, she turns to peer down the hallway the flood troll came from, torch in hand.
Narrowed eyes in recognition of the troll's final words Vhailor mulls them over "Kim u, bu Urxehl bo'ladi ..." before looking up and clarifying "It wanted to bring your blood to Urxehl... is that some kind of trollish god?"
He is taken aback as Alicia snatches the torch from his hands, but doesn't seek to stop the urchin. Instead he pushes his glasses up the bridge of his nose before nudging the troll's body with the butt end of his staff "It's still breathing?..."
"Hmm. Never heard of Urxehl. But if it's working for someone that's bad news. Even worse news if it's involved with Kerst's death."
Marikel places his sword against the creature's throat.
"I can stop it breathing, but it may be able to answer further questions. Someone tie it up and I'll return it to consciousness for Vhailor to question."
The troll is still alive, although leaving a spreading sticky stain on the stone floor. It is neither armored nor armed, apart from its wicked claws, which Banny can attest are nothing to sneeze at, and it is wearing only a rough, loose-fitting tunic which, lying awkwardly as it is, reveals that the creature is female.
Carrying the torch to the end of the hall, Alicia can see that the flood troll came out of a small cramped chamber. In the corner is another tub, this one looking like part of an old boiler. The floor is muddy, and the stench is overpowering.
Alicia cautiously approaches the doorway into the chamber, bringing the torch with her. Rapier in hand, she continues her deliberate advance into the chamber, on her guard as she sweeps the room.
Alicia carefully enters the damp, foul-smelling room. Except for the worked-stone walls and right angles, it is not that different from the irregular chamber in the cliff wall: the tub half-full of dirty, debris-strewn water, the muddy floor, some broken and gnawed bones discarded in the refuse. Behind the tub, in a particularly fetid puddle, is a primitive satchel made of the same rough material the troll's clothing is fashioned of.
In the southern corner of the room, Alicia notices some unusual cracks in the brick of the wall. Upon further examination, it appears to be a secret door .
"I think I found something in here!" the rogue calls back to the rest of the group. She steps closer to the hidden door and searches it thoroughly for traps or other 'surprises,' then opens it, blade held at the ready.
After receiving Marikel's instruction to tie up the troll, Vhailor looks to Banny with a plaintive expression. "Can you?... I've never tied someone up before..."
Following at Alicia's call the gnome regards the second tub "Two tubs either means the ugly got moved around... or there is two of them..."
Banny wraps a hand around her ribs, still woozy from the quasi-shock of pain followed by healing in such short order. She stands still, breathing shallow, her eyes a little unfocused, until Vhailor's words penetrate the fog in her head that's half-ouch and half-applejack.
She rasps a little laugh. "An' you think I have?" she says, very wry. "Not in much habit of tyin' up the orcs, when they come to burn down Trunau..."
Despite what she says, Banny gingerly crouches, and fishes out her rope from her pack. Huffing for breath, she rolls the creature onto its back, drags its thick wrists together, and starts to loop the rope around them without particular gentleness or kindness. Gods-damned thing...
"Could still use... a bit more prayin', if you got any," she says to Marikel, her words a bit slurred. "Still havin' all manner of hurt, right here. Be nice if'n Iomedae could help a bit with that... fore we wake this ugly whoreson up... or go openin' further doors, or anything...."
"Alicia, get back here," Marikel whispers loudly after her. "We're going to find out from this thing if there's any other dangers around here."
Marikel turns back to the others and, once the creature is bound, channels another pulse of healing energy about him.
The wounds of both Banny and the troll partially fade away.
Alicia opens the secret door to reveal a dark and narrow corridor leading back toward the southeast. Both the stale, damp smell and the thick cobwebs which bar the way testify that the passage hasn't been used anytime recently.
Back in the room with the mosaic floor, only Banny can see comfortably as Alicia carries the torch around the corner, and only some of its light spills back down the corridor. Marikel channels divine energy that slightly reinvigorates Banny. At the same time, the flood troll on the ground groggily comes to, realizes her circumstances, and suddenly jerks against the ropes Banny has just tied, clearly trying to break free.
Alicia rolls her eyes at Marikel's whisper. She takes a step back away from the door and hesitates. After a moment, she slowly makes her way back toward the group, warily watching over her shoulder.
Banny breathes out as the pain eases a bit more at Marikel's second invocation of Iomedae... though there's still enough sore to go around, she reckons.
She keeps close to the troll, wanting to be ready with a solid fist to the skull should the thing manage to burst her rope or her knot. To aid in that endeavor, she's got a knee in the small of the troll's back, keeping the creature face-down on the floor, and one hand on the troll's shoulder.
"Were it up to me, you'd be good an' dead right now," Banny remarks conversationally, as the troll bucks beneath the ropes. "But the priest's got a notion to get answers from you. So you can talk, or I can slam your head into this floor a bit until I feel we're about even for what you did to my ribs, it's about all the same to me."
Course, the troll may not even speak Common, Banny muses to herself. Whatever it had been speakin' before sure wasn't any tongue she knows; good thing the gnome can manage languages. Still, she figures threats are kinda universal, like.
Vhailor takes a step back from the troll as Marikel announces that it's to be awakened. He raises an eyebrow as he waits to see if the troll understands common, before looking to the priest as to see what he might desire translated.
The troll's piggish eyes betray no comprehension of Banny's words.
"Looks like it doesn't speak Common... try Orcish..." pausing for a few moments before adding "It's one I haven't had a chance to pick up yet."
Marikel still stands above the creature, his sword at its throat.
"You were talking to it before," he mutters to Vhailor. "What language was that? Why not use it?"
Pushing his glasses back up the ridge of his nose Vhailor clarifies "It talked, then fell down... I just translated. It was speaking it's natural tongue - Giant. It doesn't know we speak that yet... at least I don't think... if it understands Orcish then that means it's spent time with orcs at some time... could mean that orcs of some kind are involved in putting it here in the tunnels." pausing a few moments before shrugging "But if you want me to speak Giant at it that's fine as well, just let me know which bits you want translated."
Banny shrugs. She doesn't enjoy speaking the harsh Orc tongue-- the way she learned it was hardly an enjoyable experience-- but, whatever, worth a shot:
"Do you hear? Do you listen?" she growls.