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After the hole in the roof in the stable is repaired Lilith excuses herself for a moment in whatever we are using for a privy. She quickly rejoins the group and continues to try to help. Sad but knowing all resources are needed Lilith examines the dead dwarf's belt. I noted this was magic before. She says. Maybe I can discern its enchantments.
After she picks up the flute, rubbing her shoulder as a wince of pain strikes her from the awkward movement. Reading the inscription she says sadly . It says "strength in numbers. I'd give a lot to have that fine dwarf as part of our number again. Strange we found no bite on him. She looks darkly at the group before asking quietly Are we sure the dwarf died and then animated?
The wind has picked up, rattling the shutters and lending an edge to the cold that hasn't been there in previous days. As you venture outside in to the crisp evening air, the dancing glow of the town fire is still cast across the sky, the acrid tang of smoke an omnipresent distraction. The immediate area of street between shop and inn is free of groaners, you can just about make out some movement near the bridge to the south, and north up the street you cannot see anything unusual.
The front of the inn has seen better times, the wood of the closed door and frame is scratched and gouged, huge chunks are missing like the door was struck with a heavy object multiple times. As well as the typical oversize handle on the door, there is a large ornate doorknocker in the shape of a dragon's head, with a rusty metal ring in its mouth.
As you look at the decorative fixture, it seems to melt in front of your eyes, inky blackness flowing down the door and across the ground before pooling at your feet. It coalesces in to a set of shadowy jaws that open and shut soundlessly before fading away.
The lower windows of the inn have been completely boarded up, and upstairs the windows are uniformly broken and dirty, also showing some signs of damage to their frames.
Azmerai looks around with the eye of the scrounger, trying to find weaknesses. He looks at the windows in the upper store. Uncoiling his rope he estimates the distance.
Polonius frowns at Lillith's insinuation but thankfully Kaiya is still too dazed to have heard it.
Let's talk about it later, Lillith. he says, his paternal instincts kicking in. I heard Kaiya trying to rouse him and then sounds of a struggle. She isn't ready to talk about it yet but I'm sure we will. Then, out of earshot of the girl he says;She's at breaking point. Just lost her mother, watched her brother die and now just had to take a man's life. That's a lot to process for anyone let alone a young girl. Just cut her some slack for now, ok?
Then louder;
Lillith, if you can see in there through a gap perhaps you can teleport in and see if the door is barred from the other side. Just be ready to get out of there if you sense anything moving.
Well if you didn't keep running off on your own... Polo thinks but bites his tongue.
Azmerai will nod to Lillith, indicating he is ready. His stomach is grumbeling, he knows food is needed.
Lilith conjures her dancing lights and they squeeze inbetween the shuttered boards and illuminate the interior of the common room well enough for Lilith to see that most of the furniture has been smashed, there are a lot of reinforcements that have been made to the window shutters using the wood from the furniture. There's a bar running the most of one wall, a couple of doors heading further in to the building and a flight of stairs headed upwards. You are just about to stop looking when you catch the glint of something metal, closer inspection under the spotlights of your spell shows the unmistakeable outline of a bear trap near the door you are considering going through.
Before Lilith can say anything, Lenneth steps up and grasps the door-knocker ring and knocks. There flash of light as runes light up all around the rusty ring, then a roar and whooshing sound as a burst of flames engulfs everyone around the door.
The door looks slightly singed, but no closer to being opened.
then the walls of your telepathic bond spring back up once more.
Barely evading the worst of it, Azmerai still takes quite a bit of damage.
Polo also just barely escapes the worst of the blast.
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Looks like the front door is... Lilith was starting to say as the trap goes off. Trapped.
Stepping back from the window Lilith exclaims Gods. Are you all alights? There is another trap or two right inside the front door. And the doors and willows have been barricaded up to keep walkers out. But I do not see anyone in there.
Shomari scowls at the trapped door and brushes a few sparks off himself. Using the reinforced shutters as hand and footholds, he climbs up to a second story window, peering in.
Shomari scales the inn wall carefully and quietly, and manages to gain the upper floor. He scans the room through the broken window, and can see what he assumes to be a typical soft race private room. Bed, chair, desk and wardrobe all made from cheap wood. There's no movement in the room or light underneath the door that leads further in to the building. Traversing across to the adjacent window, he sees much the same story, and notes that the linen on the bed and rugs on the floor are black and slick with mold.
Others watching the downstairs area, when their nightvision returns following the blast of flame, note no activity. No-one comes to investigate the trap going off. A quick glance up and down the street reassures you that there are no groaners headed in your direction.
Shomari will enter by the window and lower a rope for the others, tying it off on the bed. He will approach the door cautiously, looking and listening.
Lillith, are you able to teleport in amd lift that bar? Be careful of the trap you saw but I would rather have this door open in case we need to make a hasty retreat.
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Right. Lilith agrees, swallowing hard. As she musters her courage she spreads the 4 globes of light of her spell as wide as possible, illuminating the larges area, and then moves the lights so that they illuminate the area by the door and where she will enter. OK. I am going in. And with that she uses her third shift of the day. But thinking about the bear trap she saw, she imagines a similar trap directly under the window and shifts diagonally to one side of the window.
After she arrives she does not move for a long moment. She looks around being very quiet and perceiving with eyes and ears.
Polo cranes his neck to see through the crack in the window. At least with his darkvision even the gloomiest recesses of the bar are revealed to him.
Be ready to 'port out of there at the first sign of trouble ok?
Shomari listens intently, but can't hear any movement in the corridor beyond the door. The room smells badly of mildew, he estimates its been some weeks since the window was broken, and the room likely hasn't been touched in a long while before that even.
Lilith shifts in to the downstairs common room, holding her breath... there is no movement save some motes of dust disturbed by her entrance, dancing in front of her face, the dancing lights illuminating them starkly. Lilith and Polonius scour the room from their vantage points inside and out. The bar against the far wall has seen better days, there are various half-drunk bottles of alcohol, and many shards of glass. There was either quite a fight in here, or more likely someone was drowning their sorrows and got careless or carried away. The two doors leading furthe rin to the building are shut and there is no noise from them.
Eyes going to below the window she nearly ported through, Lilith notes a tripwire stretched across all the downstairs windows, maybe a foot or so in to the room. Following it to the far wall, she can make out a complex mechanism of some kind, metal bars bent and under pressure, and several chakrams are loaded on to it via short chutes. It looks like the entire room would be saturated with razor sharp metal disks should the tripwire be triggered.
Lenneth judges the roofs to be made of slippery tiles, ill-suited for travel by either footpads or strange robed creatures. Likely the thing must be very dextrous and quick-footed, or else has some ability to light-foot across the unsure footing. It would have had to leap between rooftops as well, as there are no convenient gangplanks or walkways, and nowhere tall enough to throw a grappling hook and swing. The thought suddenly strikes her that it could just have easily climbed down the stable wall and be on the ground with them right now, within striking distance.
The thought is not a comforting one.
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Not for the first time, Lilith wishes she could bring a friend with here when she ports.
If Lilith is confident that she can avoid the trip wires she will move to the door and examine it in the same calm and slow way she did the room (take 20 for a 28). If she finds no other traps she will remove the bar.
Holding his sibat at the ready, Shomari ever so carefully pushes the door open and peers into the space beyond.
Azmerai looks around, seeing all the dangerous things."Heard story of the birdmaster. Birdmaster was trainer for orphan thieves. He had many traps like here! What now?"
Lilith detects no residual magic on this side of the door, nor any mechanism's that might hint to a mechanical trap. She removes the heavy beam securing the door, and is able to open it for her companions outside.
Shomari is as stealthy as a mouse when he opens the door and peers down the revealed corridor. At one end are what he presumes to be the stairs down, along the corridor at regular intervals are perhaps half a dozen doors that might lead to rooms akin to this one, the other end of the corridor disappears around the corner. Reasoning it out, that might be where the staff or owners of this establishment sleep.
Lenneth, despite her nervous glancing around, does not detect anything or anyone watching the group. There is a loud thumping noise...but it proves to be Lilith removing the bar on the inn door.
Azmerai's comment prompts a distant memory for some
Very carefully Azmerai sniffs the air hoping to smell food.
Maybe hide under trap and trigger it
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Before she steps out of the way to let her companions in she painstakingly shows each trap and trip wire she has found. There are likely more than just the one's I have found. She surmises. Especially at other doors and windows.
Reminds me of the Juggler. Remind me to tell you that story some time. Everyone in so we can re-bar the door.
Shomari makes his way cautiously down the hall to the stairs, passing closed doors carefully, passing open doors quickly, with a brief glance inside. He descends the stairs to find Lilith letting the others inside.
"I would like to hear the story now. The thing we fought in the stable could well have been a juggler. If the tale can tell us anything that may help us in our next encounter with it, I would like to know."
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Speaking in a low and somewhat monotone voice Lilith tells her version of the story. Its more fun to tell by the camp fire…. My juggler was a just a thief. A good one, they say but a burglar just the same. It is said he robbed his way across Varisia, successfully stealing from all the major cites and never getting caught. He was famous for gaining access to the most guarded of items, and always left a calling card of sorts, the harrow card 'The Juggler' . The rumour went he, or she never stole from his own town, and as Sandpoint was the sole town in all of Varisia to escaped his activities, many believe the Juggle called this town home. It was well known that he must have been skilled in both the thieving and arcane arts, given the protections he was able to circumvent.
Do you think these traps are the Jugglers handiwork?
Polonius carefully avoids the various trip wires and devices and makes his way around the back of the bar. Once there he starts gathering up the half full bottles of spirits.
At least I can use these to clean tools and wounds alike.
I thought the same of Xand. Polo replies without emotion.
He takes out an extract from a loop on his belt and drinks it.
I've boosted my defences, for a few minutes at least. Just in case the Juggler is here and not inclined to receive visitors.
Azmerai's nose detects the odours of stale sweat and spilt liquor, with a slight touch of darker, more unsavory smells.
Thanks to Lilith's careful direction, no-one steps in either of the bear-traps by the door, or across the tripwire by the window. You all gain entrance and re-bar the door with no trouble.
Azmerai looks around and with a sniff shakes his head. Suddenly he notices the creaking upstairs, puts his left hand to his mouth and points upwards. Slowly so slowly moving up to the stairs ready for a groaner.
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Lilith hears it too, and acknowledges Azmerai's signal. She quietly moves so that she can see behind the bar and, before moving behind it, searches it for traps.
If its clear she will move behind it for cover and so that she may search it. Unless interrupted, she will cast Detect Magic as part of her search. The entire time she is mindful of the unopened door near her.
Polonius slowly draws out one of his bombs and begins to creep up the stairs behind Azmerai.
Fire Bomb
3/6
1st Level Extracts
CLW 1/2 (remaining one carried by Turrey]
Shield 0/0 (currently active)
Turrey fails to dodge and takes the blast of flame full on. Stifling a yelp, he pats himself down to make sure nothing has actually caught fire.
Once inside, Turrey will follow beside Polonius, looking for traps, and for any signs of another burglar.
Not sure what Azmerai heard, but ready to trust the half-orc's hearing, Shomari readies his sibat and follows the other up the stairs, slowly, staying as alert as possible.
Lilith looks behind the bar, and is surprised to see a fine-looking shortsword under there, in fact those could be runes on the bla..she freezes instantly, despite the now apparently deliberate distraction of the tempting sword on the shelf, she felt the pressure of another tripwire against her ankle as she leaned in to get a better look at the weapon. Very, very delicately she slowly backs off, and nothing happens to her relief.
Glancing at the tripwire, it goes in to a wooden box on either side, and there is another tripwire at the other end of the bar. There are a number of opaque bottles filled with dark liquid stacked around the wooden boxes. Once she re-focuses from the near miss, Lilith's detect magic spell does not make the sword glow, or anything else down here for that matter, including the wooden boxes and bottles.
Polonius, Azmerai, Turrey and Shomari step lightly but inexorably up the stairs, ears cocked for the slightest sound. As you reach the top you can now all hear a rhythmic creak, it sounds like something slowly pacing up and down and is definitely coming from the 'living' area at the end of the corridor.
The doors along this corridor all lead to guest rooms. Some look like they have been quietly moldering away for the last six months, others show signs of fairly recent use, but there is no gear in any of the rooms to indicate anyone uses them now. At the end of the corridor, around the corner, there is a large door in the far wall, leading in to the living area. Staring at the door, it's then you realise, the creaking noise has stopped...
Hearing Lilith and Lenneth discussing traps downstairs, Turrey calls back, "Stand still, or come this way! I'm happy to look them over but first...I'm worried we may not be alone up here."
Still actively looking for traps, he walks up to the door to the living area and listens. If there's no sound behind the door he'll rap on it with the butt of his dagger, calling out "Friendlies out here, looking for allies and to share resources. Anyone in there?"
Moving closer to the door Azmerai raises his open hand, counts down to 5 and opens it. Reading his halberd he tries to be prepared for the worst.
Lenneth's assessment of the door next to the stairs is that its safe, she can't see any tripwires, runes or anything else that might trigger a trap of some kind.
Turrey listens intently, but hears nothing. Following his knocking and shouting however, there is a large creak in the room behind the door.
Azmerai counts down and pushes the door open...
Inside is what was once a well-apointed, large living area, but is now mostly piles of clothing, wooden crates and bric a brac. Standing in the middle of the room is a human woman with a longsword drawn and pointed at you, her other hand is held behind her so you cannot see what it holds. She is wearing red stained leather armor, with chunks missing from it. One unmended slash on the upper arm reveals a black dragon tattoo entwined around her bicep. Her dark hair has two white streaks at the front, and it dank and dishevelled. Her face is very pale, with sweat dripping down it, you can see two fresh scars across her jaw. Judging from the bedroll in disarray just behind her, she's only just stood up, and looks very much ready to fall down again.
My name is Meiko, this is my home you're invading, armed and ready to fight...
she loses her breath and starts coughing, despite her best attempt to stifle it. Her sword point drops and drags against the floor. When she regains her breath she continues
I've not survived this long to be taken out by raiders, I'll make you pay dearly if you try anything...