The half-orc waves off Marikel's apology. "Urnsul's room is upstairs. Third door on the right."
"Many thanks."
Marikel turns to the others and leads them upstairs to Urnsul's door, where he knocks a trifle more delicately than before.
The door opens, but only a crack, and a single eye peeks out. "Yeah? What do you want?" a female voice asks warily.
"Good morning Miss Urnsal. My name is Marikel, and this is Vhailor and Kaleb. We recently discovered some mining equipment in the caverns and were wondering if you could help us?"
He looks up and down the corridor
"Could we come in perhaps?" he smiles gently.
"There's no room. I don't know anything about any mining equipment." She makes a move to close the door again.
Kaleb gives Marikel a brief, apologetic glance which gives way to a brief smirk. The athletic Halfling then trips, losing his balance but somehow regaining it in time to plant his shoulder against the door- hard! Whatever clumsiness Kaleb manages to feign, his intention is to force the door open.
"My apologies, two left feet Madam Urnsul, that's what Cham always said..."
The halfling barrels into the door, trying to reverse its direction. Taken by surprise, Urnsul reacts too late to put all her strength into opposing him, stumbling backward to avoid being hit in the face by the opening door.
The room is, indeed, small, with barely room for a bed, an ink-stained table with a chair pushed up to it, and a narrow wardrobe that looks like it is fashioned from an old shipping crate turned on it. Urnsul is a muscular half-orc with close-cropped dark hair who you can well believe has worked in Clamor as a smith. She is barefoot and wearing nothing but a single earring that looks like it was made from a twisted black nail and a loose dressing gown which shows a tattoo on her left thigh depicting two gauntleted fists.
Kaleb stumbles a little past the door into the room before seeming to swiftly regain his balance.
"So sorry again, Madam, I seem to have made quite the nuisance of myself!"
Kaleb is keeping his eyes peeled for any pockets or folds of clothing that might be storing a weapon, or indeed, any other object.
Marikel tries not to smile at Kaleb's help and takes a half step forward into the doorway. He lowers his voice and his tone is urgent.
"We recently captured a troll that was working with Daktani. This could be anything from novel prospecting to opening tunnels for an invasion force that would kill everyone you care for. We believe that you can help us. Especially since you haven't slept here recently."
Marikel points to the unused bed.
At Marikel's words, Kaleb's hand moved back to his rapier as he slowly began to interpose himself between the half-Orc and her weapons in the wardrobe.
"A troll?" she asks, pulling the wrap more tightly around her. "I don't understand. What are you talking about?"
"My companions and I were investigating the caves into the plateau. We found a lot of mining equipment. We also captured a troll nearby. It said it was working with Daktani. Naturally, we want to find Daktani as soon as possible and find out what he's up to. Can you put our minds at ease?"
Alicia leaves the door leading down the basement and heads for the entryway. As she enters from the kitchen corridor, a man in simple brown robes steps into the foyer from the hallway leading to the ground-floor bedrooms and gives a startled jump at seeing her. "Where did you come from?" he demands nervously.
"My companions and I were investigating the caves into the plateau. We found a lot of mining equipment. We also captured a troll nearby. It said it was working with Daktani. Naturally, we want to find Daktani as soon as possible and find out what he's up to. Can you put our minds at ease?"
"What makes you think I know anything about Daktani's whereabouts?" the half-orc counters.
Alicia brusquely replies, attempting to project the impression that she belongs here. "Just slipping in--long shift. There a bathtub around here? Starry Embrace knows I could use a bath."
Marikel ably handling the talking part of the conversation and Kaleb seeing to the more forthright body language aspect, Vhailor keeps his expression neutral and extends a hand to his shoulder to give Carbonel a scratch upon the feline equivalent of the withers. The cat purrs quietly.
Alicia brusquely replies, attempting to project the impression that she belongs here. "Just slipping in--long shift. There a bathtub around here? Starry Embrace knows I could use a bath."
"I...." The man puts one hand gingerly to his head on the side of his walleye. "I'm sorry; I didn't.... The tub is at the end of the hall here, sister," he gestures to the other ground floor corridor, "but the water will have to be drawn and heated."
Alicia sighs. "Never mind. I'll deal with it later," she mutters, and walks off in the opposite direction Othdan had entered from ().
Ali climbs the stairs to find a corridor lined with doors leading away to the left. One of the doors is open, and Vhailor with his cat is visible in the doorway, along with the back half of Marikel, their attention focused on something inside the room.
Alicia sneaks up behind Marikel and jabs him teasingly in the ribs (or as best she can in his armor, anyway). She looks past him into the room at Urnsul and narrows her eyes, sizing the half-orc woman up.
"What makes you think I know anything about Daktani's whereabouts?" the half-orc counters.
"Apart from your reluctance to cooperate and your unused bed?"
Marikel smiles gently. "Glurk!!"He glares at Alicia, forces the smile back onto his face and turns back to Urnsul.
"We know you were with him. We're not the town guard. But trolls are dangerous creatures and it's already killed someone. Daktani could be in danger. The town could be in danger. If you tell us everything, no one need ever know of your involvement. Please."
"I...." Urnsul's eyes flicker from Marikel appealing in front of her to Kaleb threatening behind her and over Alicia and Vhailor largely observing. Then she presses a finger to her lips urgently and wordlessly gestures for the door to the hallway to be closed.
Head tilted slightly to the side at Urnsul's response Vhailor doesn't move to squish into the room. He lets the others press forward - keeping his own self on the outer and observing.
Alicia slips into the room, warily eyeing the half-orc woman.
Vhailor and Carbonel are left outside in the hallway as the door closes between them and the rest of the group.
Inside the small bedchamber, the other four are standing uncomfortably close in the limited floor space. Once the door is closed, Urnsul goes on in an urgent whisper, "A lot of the people living here are working with him. I'm not sure how many. You can't let them know I told you anything. I'm afraid of what they'd do."
"He just told me he'd found a map of the Sawyers' old mine, that it wasn't all played out and we could strike it rich, but we had to keep it secret or Baseil Sawyer would get to it before we could. He said anything in the hill belongs to whoever gets to it first, that property lines don't go underground. I didn't know anything about a troll, I swear. I don't want to get in any trouble."
Inside, Marikel listens and nods slowly.
"We're trying to avoid trouble. Do you know if this is Daktani's idea, or if he's being played by someone else? Do you know where the entrance is? These trolls travel in pairs so we don't want anyone else getting hurt."
"There's a group out of Freedom Town. I think they wanted locals doing the work, figured we'd attract less attention than a bunch of strangers. You know how Trunau is about people from Freedom Town. A man comes from there to check up on us and deliver more supplies every few weeks. Always a man, always a half-orc, but never the same man twice."
"There's an old mineshaft partway up on the west side, with a tunnel barricaded off. That's where they're trying to get in to the old Sawyer vein."
The description matches the tunnel where you found Kerst's hopeknife.
Marikel frowns.
"Always a different male half-orc? That's either a disguise or a lot of outsiders. This sounds more suspicious every minute. Do you know where Daktani is now?"
"He's been staying outside the walls, keeping an eye on the mine to make sure no one steals our dig out from under our noses."
Alicia continues to stare Urnsul down. At length, she says, "What's in the basement?"
"The basement?" she frowns at Ali, the question catching her by surprise. "Which basement?"
More than one, hm? "The one you get to via the storage room. Full of lots and lots of junk, and some old maps," she replies. "But let's talk about that other one, too."
"He's been staying outside the walls, keeping an eye on the mine to make sure no one steals our dig out from under our noses."
"Outside the walls, hmmm? Well we didn't see him yesterday. And that mine shaft looked more like it was being used to store blackpowder than for tunneling. And all that was behind the baricade was undead creatures. It certainly hadn't seen the sort of traffic that a lot of you living here would create. Do you have any other information?"
Marikel looks directly into her eyes."Like where you were last night?"
"Outside the walls, hmmm? Well we didn't see him yesterday. And that mine shaft looked more like it was being used to store blackpowder than for tunneling. And all that was behind the baricade was undead creatures. It certainly hadn't seen the sort of traffic that a lot of you living here would create."
"You removed the barricade?" she looks at him in shock. "We never.... It isn't safe. We were trying to bypass the haunted tunnel. You closed it up again, didn't you?" She seems genuinely alarmed.
"Do you have any other information?"
Marikel looks directly into her eyes.
"Like where you were last night?"
"I was in this house, though not in this bed," she admits with a shrug.
"The one you get to via the storage room. Full of lots and lots of junk, and some old maps," she replies. "But let's talk about that other one, too."
"This basement? In this house?" She shrugs. "I don't know. Whatever Brother Hound stores down there, I guess."
That the fellow wandering around downstairs in brown robes?" Alicia asks.
She nods. "It's not his real name; it's just what we call him."
Ali grunts and gives Marikel a look. "I'll be outside," she says, slipping out the door into the hallway and shutting the door behind her.
The door outside which Vhailor is standing opens to let Alicia slip out into the hall; then she closes the door again behind her.
Alicia's near-perpetual scowl deepens, and she glances at Vhailor. Drawing her hopeknife, she kicks the door across the hall in.
Marikel looks quizzically after Alicia then turns back to Urnsul.
"So you know about the barricade, and the haunted tunnel. What do you know about the troll? Its stench and stuff were there as well."
Vhailor has the time to half-open his mouth before Alicia decides upon some percussive interior decorating. His half-open mouth is joined by raised eyebrows as the room opposite is laid bare before them...
"So you know about the barricade, and the haunted tunnel."
"It's why Sawyer shut the mine down. That's what Daktani learned, that the ore wasn't played out, they just hit a tunnel that raised the dead."
"What do you know about the troll? Its stench and stuff were there as well."
She shakes her head. "There wasn't a troll there when I was there. I swear."
There is a sudden bang from the hallway outside Urnsul's closed door. The half-orc jumps, startled at the sound.
-------------------------------
Alicia suddenly jumps across the hallway and kicks open the opposite door. It opens to reveal another small room similar to Urnsul's, but in this one is one of the most repulsive male half-orcs Ali or Vhailor have ever seen. The exposed flesh of his face and arms looks almost ... melted, ridged and pock-marked in some places and in others shiny and stretched as if it has been burned. Wide, staring eyes look surprised for an instant; then he shows crooked teeth in what might be either a gap-toothed smile or an intimidating grimace.
Alicia's scowl is quickly replaced by a smirk. "Katrezra, I presume." The rogue gestures vaguely over her shoulder with her free hand. "Wondering what all the commotion is about? Or maybe you'd like to help us--" The rogue pauses long enough to replace her dagger in its sheath, then continues. "Seen Daktani lately?"
After a moment's hesitation, her smirk softens into a smile. What would Marikel say? she thinks as she tries to turn on the charm. "We were at the mineshafts outside of town, and heard that he'd been looking at prospecting. In fact, we're a bit concerned he's been taken for a ride with this prospecting business. Have you seen him? He could be in danger."