Determined to end this fight, Bron grips his war hammer in both hands as he swings his weapon, aiming for the large ants head.
Stone bashes the last ant with his nunchaku, but the insect brutally slashes him in return (9 dmg). Then a hail of blows from Bron and Daegan finish the creature off.
No more sounds issue from the house. Peering inside, the adventurers see a bakery that has been torn apart by the huge insects. Bags of flour have been ripped open, and jars of honey and dried fruit lie smashed on the floor. But not all of the stains are from pastry ingredients; there's a conspicuous dark stain on the ground that looks like blood.
There's a counter to the left, two ovens against the back wall, and a set of stairs that lead into a cellar.
Stone looks at the two gashes across his chest, the front of his robe covered in blood. He chuckles slightly and puts his weapon away.
"Not yet master," he thinks, "Almost - but not yet."
"It appears that more of my blood has been spilled than that of our foes! May I trouble one of you to take care of my wounds?"
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"Thaank you mistress, for our victory. Now, bless my companion and heal his wounds." Daegan approaches Stone and casts cure light wounds.
Cure Light Wounds Results & Recharge Time
My friends, shall we look around. Perhaps Gjoren and Bron might take the lead.
As Stone asks for aid with considerable aplomb considering the gravity of his wounds, Myvannuii stands a moment longer peering into the depths of the bakery over the bodies of the ants, her heart still pumping some last adrenaline through her system, and her mind still occupied by her slowly returning spell power. “Would that I could,” she murmurs, and then snaps back into a more normal mood.
Glancing from Stone’s bloody robes and Bron’s wound to her unharmed self, Myvannuii says, “Not a particularly glorious beginning for me, I’m afraid, and letting others suffer all the blows…” She shrugs apologetically. “It takes time for me to recall the power for my spells, particularly if I armour myself with magic, so I do not wish to do so until I must. Unfortunately, when not using spells I am best served by my bow, but I doubt that I’m skilled enough for you to happily have my arrows flying about you in the press.”
She points to the stain on the ground inside the bakery. “That looks interesting, but we might want to look through the whole mess to try to see what happened here.”
Blood and skin tingle as the tears on his flesh retreat and vanish – two thin pink lines a bare hint of the damage inflected moments before. Stone ties up the torn corner of his blood and ooze stained robe.
“Thank you,” he says to Daegan, and bows his head slightly.
Stone steps into the room, moves slightly to the left and looks at the counter. He makes sure not to block the doorway, touches nothing and stays out of the way of his comrades in case they wish to search the room.
Taking charge as Deagan heals Stone's wounds, Bron says, "Gjoren, why don' you have a look and see what you can make of that strange spot, I'll keep an eye on the stairs heading to the cellar and we can all move to investigate the rooms below once we have finished searching up here. With that, Bron keeps his hammer out and he stands nest to the stairs, drawing his kukri as he moves.
Daegan spends a minute or two channeling the power of the gods into healing energy, and Stone's and Bron's wounds knit together as if they never existed.
Behind the counter is a mess of chewed food -- bread, sweet buns, flour, dried fruit, etc. A look at the ovens, however, reveals something strange. One of the ovens appears to have been disused for a while, and for good reason: where the bottom of the oven should be is a man-sized hole that leads to a dark tunnel. The tunnel appears to slope towards (or under, rather) the crater wall.
A peek into the cellar shows that it contains a modest set of living quarters as well as some storage. Anything food-like has been ransacked by the ravaging insects, it seems.
Myvannuii strolls around the bakery, deliberately keeping her posture casual but looking the room over carefully. Poking her head into the ovens as she passes the back wall, she exclaims, “Hist! There’s a tunnel here!” She blinks in the darkness and runs her hand along the tunnel mouth, hoping to spot or hit a trace of passage. After Myvannuii finishes her search, she steps back from the oven, shaking flecks of soot from her hair.
She stands behind the counter to give Daegan room to check the oven. Pausing for a moment, Myvannuii starts to think out loud, “There’s not much sign of the bakers having been caught up here. If the ants had caught them, wouldn’t there have been more of a mess?” She points at the food scattered about. “The ants don’t seem to have felt like carrying their food away. Could they have come in after what happened here?”
Myvannuii crouches down and starts poking through the mess behind the counter, working from the oven tunnel to the large stain on the floor. Extracting an intact date from a split bag, she blows off an invisible speck of dirt and starts chewing on it while she goes back to work. As her hands get covered with flour and tacky honey in the search , she looks up at the others from the mess. “I was just thinking,” she explains, “If Mrs. Oakleg’s children were taken through here and the ants did arrive afterwards, could the mess they made have covered something left behind first?”
She stands and wipes her hands clean as best she can before displaying anything she might have found. “Who tunnels into an oven anyway?”
“Hmmm…could a tunnel been built here without the owners of this building not knowing about it? Unlikely. That blood on the floor suggests something happened here recently and then the ants came…unless that tunnel leads to an ant colony that recently tunneled their way here…”
Stone shrugs.
“I don’t believe the ants have anything to do with the missing children. If they did - we would have sadly discovered their bodies here. Perhaps Gjoren can study any tracks or signs of life and shed some light on this. Once we search the room, the tunnel – and where it leads - may be our next destination.”
None of you are experts on stonework , but it looks like the tunnel is at least partially artificial; it looks like there are tool marks present.
"Stone and I will search further in the cellar area"
A search of the main floor doesn't reveal anything of particular interest; there are a few silver and copper coins scattered in the debris.
Gjoren examines the area around the bloodstain. It looks like a small person (either a child or a halfling or a gnome) bled on the floor and then left through the front door; that matches with the tracks that were found outside. Any other tracks there might have been on the ground have been obliterated by the mess. Tracking in the tunnel will be difficult because (a) it's dark and (b) it's made of hard rock, mostly. Perhaps with a long inspection Gjoren might find something.
The basement contains furnishings sized for a small person, suggesting that the baker is a gnome or halfling (or maybe a midget). A careful inspection under the bed reveals some recent digging has gone on there.
A shocked man's voice calls from outside the house.
"Andoren's head! What the devil happened here? Master Ghelve, are you all right in there?"
Bron, having gotten to work searching, sheathed his weapons and started looking around. As he was finishing up his search, he heard someone from outside calling for who seemed to be the owner of this place. Taking a step outside, Bron wears a friendly smile as he says "Good day friend."
Hearing the call from outside, as Bron moves to intercept the visitor, Myvannuii moves to the middle of the room where she can watch through the forced door. In case Stone and Daegan didn't hear from the basement, she stamps on the floor to signal that something's happening upstairs. She hopes that it's only a curious neighbour and murmurs, "It appears that we may have some explaining to do."
At the door is a man in the uniform of the city watch. A couple of neighbours are watching furtively from a distance.
"Bloody hell! What happened here? And where's Keygan?"
He looks suspiciously at the broken door hinges and the armed folk with torn armour and weapons covered in bug goo.
Bron, understanding the way the situation seems to look, says, "I understand how this may look, but I can assure you that we are simply following a line of evidence related to the kidnapped Children. My name is Bron and these are my associates. We were recently at Ms. Oakleg's place when we found some tracks leading to here. Hearing odd noises, we forced the door, only to be attacked by the giant insects you see outside. Then motioning to the insect carcasses, he continues, "As you can see, we dispatched the bugs only to find that the owner of the shop...this Keygan...is no where to be found. But we have found evidence that might show some involvement between Keygan and the kidnappings, or at the very least, evidence that shows that Keygan's disappearance my have some connection with that of the children missing."
"Oh." The guardsman looks unsure, but not obviously hostile. "I'd better call for help. Gee, do you think those ants could have eaten Mister Ghelve?"
He brings out a cow's horn, takes a deep breath, and blows it like a trumpet several times.
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Hearing the horn call from above, Daegan looks to Stone as they finish searching the cellar area. "Perhaps we should return upstairs, my friend. I see nothing here of the lost children, nor what has happened to the absent baker. Between us, I fear the tunnel makers have done for him, and these ants have cleared away their deed."
Cautiously, Daeg moves up the stairs to the ground floor, if possible remaining unnoticed by the guards. Wouldn't want them to mistake a kidnapping investigation for the looting of a private dwelling. He makes sure his tabard and holy symbol are prominently displayed. Iomedae willing, this will go well for us.
Daegan moves to stand near Myvannuii, trying to look like nothing more than a seasoned adventurer and concerned citizen.
Hearing the horn call from above, Daegan looks to Stone as they finish searching the cellar area. "Perhaps we should return upstairs, my friend."
"I agree," Stone replies.
Stone walks up the stairs to the ground floor. He keeps his hands to his side, plams open and stands with his group.
Myvannuii fidgets while the guardsman sounds his horn, knowing that human views on law and order tend to be a bit more stringent than elven, and hoping that she can avoid airing a flippant remark about it. “Now is not the time to expatiate on the power and freedom of change, or the trust that should be placed in individuals,” she thinks. “Thankfully, the suspicious stain and the tunnel should justify our actions. We would either not need to break the door down or, as it is, have the time to dig so far ourselves.”
After a few minutes, some additional watchmen arrive including a sergeant. The sergeant asks: "So, why have you broken into this building, and where is the owner?"
Gjoren replies: "We found some fairly fresh tracks leading from Madam Oakleg's house leading to the bakery."
"Greetings," Stone says to the guardsmen and bows slightly.
"We hoped the tracks would lead us to the missing children. We knocked a few times and although there was no response we heard movement inside. Fearing that the children may be in danger, we broke in and as you can tell by my appearance - were attacked my giant ants. We talked to Madam Oakleg just moments before - asking if she could share anything that would help us find her children. I am sure she can confirm that much of our story. I will be happy to pay for the damage done to the door."
The sergeant nods and passes out some orders to the other guardsmen. "Flask, you report to Captain Skellerang and get a tracker down here. Oleg, you go get Father Iverson; I think he'll want to hear about this. I'll stay here and make sure nothing funny goes on."
The two guardsmen swiftly move off and the sergeant keeps his eyes trained on the party.
About twenty mintues later, the two guardsmen return with Captain Skellerang and Father Iverson in tow, as well as an older Mwangi chap. The tracker squats down and peers at the traces of passage on the ground both inside and in front of the bakery (somewhat obscured by more recent footprints).
Father Iverson frowns, and pulls at his beard irritably. "This is ill news indeed. I suspect Ghelve the baker must know something about the children's abductors.
I have two suggestions: either you may wish to track down Ghelve or you may wish to find the kidnappers without his help in whatever way you like. But I will not give you a single penny from Abador's treasury until the children are conclusively found, do you hear me?
Captain Skellerang would be delighted to give you any assistance in this matter, I'm sure. Wouldn't you, Captain?"
Delighted is not how you would describe the look on Skellerang's face, but he grudgingly agrees. "Yes...although it would really be these fine folks who would be assisting the town watch, not the other way around."
Doing a bit of thinking, Bron then says, "Well, we have plenty of men here that I say why don't I and my comrades go into the tunnel and check out what we can find there, while the Constable's guards and tracker try to find the baker. If the baker hasn't gone through the hole, then the Guard my have an easier time finding him, since they know this city better."
"All right, I'll allow that," Captain Skellerang grudgingly replies. "But you must take one of my men with you. Flask, you'll go with them."
The guardsman salutes and gives the searchers an appraising glance. "Well, at least I know you can handle a bunch of ants, by Gorum!"
Father Iverson waves his hand dismissively: "Yes, yes; find out what you need to. I'm a busy man, I can't stand around here all day. Let me know when you bring the children back and I'll provide Abadar's reward."
He strides off purposefully as the party re-enters the house.
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The tunnel within the oven is made out of soil at first, but soon it becomes clear that some force has carved a path -- or enlarged an existing fissure -- through the crater wall. The party produces lights, but after a hundred feet or so the tunnel begins to rise and a square of sunshine shows the entrance to the surface. They climb out of the hole and get their bearings; they are close to the crater wall on the north-east side. The hole they climb through is a neat square, and a corresponding piece of sod attached to a wooden backing is nearby, obviously intended to cover the entrance.
Gjoren scans around and finds some large bootprints and ant tracks leading off to the northeast.
"Well, what now, gents?" Flask inquires.
Hmmm...let's follow the tracks...I wonder if someone has "trained" the ants to serve him or her....
Still blinking as her eyes adjust from the darkness of the tunnel to the light of day, Myvannuii watches as Gjoren picks up a fresh trail. Nodding as Stone replies to Flask, she adds, "It's strange that both sets of tracks run the same way - I suppose the ants might have been led here in the hope that they would obliterate any traces left by the original tunnelers. Or perhaps the ants found the track and followed it later, so we'll have to see if the tracks separate further along."
As she speaks, Myvannuii unslings her bow from over her shoulders, taking it in hand now that she no longer has to squeeze through an enclosed space. From her previous travels in the wilderness, knowing that it's often easier for things to sneak up on one than one might think, even in relatively open terrain, she prefers to have the bond that she needs for her spells ready, though she's not so nervous that it doesn't rest lightly in her grasp.
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Hefting his shield and giving his sword a few swings to workout the kinks, Daegan looks around the area and to Gjoren.
"Friend tracker, are these tracks fresh enough to follow? This fellow may have taken the children, who even now rest in the clutches of his insects. Possibly he has the baker, soon to become a meal for his hive queen and their emerging brood. We should hurry as quickly as you lead, while the daylight lasts."
Looking to Flask the guardsman, Daegan nods and addresses him.
"Good trooper, it seems a new entrance to the city has been discovered, or an old one reclaimed. It's finding should come to serve you well in your duty, but perhaps we should cover it for now, lest some unsavory passersby use it for dishonorable purposes. I fear though, such already occured, and from the looks more often so than desired."
"That plan sounds like a good one, though granted, I prefer the weight of my hammer over the lightness of a bow. I'll follow in second, but will be ready to close the distance if need be. Lead on Gjoren and we will see where these tracks lead us." With that, the strong warrior draws his hammer and prepares to head out as soon as the tracker has started along the trail.
"Agreed," Myvannuii says, dragging the turf of sod over the entrance to the tunnel before running to take her place in the group, standing just far enough to the side to ensure a clear shot past Gjoren. She takes a last look back at the covered tunnel, trying to remember where to look for the edge of the turf if they need to return this way.
Master Flask looks alarmed and says: "All right -- you stay here and I'll go back and report to the captain."
He heads off back through the tunnel.
[assuming the party waits for half an hour]
Trooper Flask returns with a more determined air about him. "I've reported to Captain Skellerang and Father Iverson; they suggested that I accompany you on your tracking mission. Do you have enough provisions? No one knows how soon we can catch up to the kidnappers."
"There is more than enough food Master Flask," Stone chuckles, "Let us be off...the longer we wait, the harder the trail becomes to follow."
In response to Flask's question, Myvannuii joins the confident chorus affirming readiness, "All should be well, provisionally; as long as we can stop to refill waterskins as necessary, I have sufficient supplies to meet my needs for a few days."
Gjoren leads the band through the grasslands. The track is not too difficult to follow; four hulking figures and three small humans have trampled a path through the dry veldt, and a set of giant ant tracks run alongside it. After about an hour, the ant tracks diverge.
Gjoren opines: "I bet those blasted insects followed their scent back to the city. There must be an anthill around here somewheres.."
Time passes as the adventurers continue to follow the trail. Occasionally they catch sight of herdsmen tending their grazing cattle, and once Stone thinks he spotted a lion lounging in the distance.
Eventually the sun dips low in the sky. To go any further would require moving with lights (mundane or magical) and a forced march.
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"Master Gjoren, with the coming nightfall, will you be able to follow the tracks well, from dusk through dawn? I possess a torch blessed of my Lady that will burn with her eternal flame, as long as we need it, though I am uncertain this is the avenue we should consider.
Perhaps we should take time and rest, striking out once more just before sunrise. We have pushed pretty well, and should be gaining on the wee ones, but I fear blindly stumbling around in the dark, or bearing torches and marching onwards, may only alert the kidnappers to our pursuit. Iomedae willing, our quickened pace will allow us to intercept and rescue the children before the sun sets once more.
How say my companions, shall we rest or shall we proceed? I bow to the will of my allies, my sword ready to serve as you all decide."