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We be stabbin by longshank, then we stabbin back. Now, we be savin longshanks? Confused, Gurk shrugs it off and leaves the dead rat-longshank. "We still be goin up?"
Walking around the rest of the floor you see no obvious ways to proceed any further. Either this is the end of the complex or you are missing something.
Remembering all the stairs, Gurk looks up and tries to find any passages through the ceiling, specifically in the room that the longshanks were guarding.
Once the wererat has been looted as well, Lexi sings a song to the gathered treasure.
"Hello loot pile! Anything magic? Seeing no auras would really be tragic!"
As Gurk searches for a secret door, Lexi calls out, "My first hunch is that you're searching in the right place. Upon further review, though, none of the Tower Girls tried to make a run for the back hall here to try to escape. So either they're really loyal and dedicated to their guard duty or maybe their escape passage is located in one of the rooms to the east."
Turning to Verris, Lexi smiles and suggests, "Maybe you can get some info from the Tower Girl Bixby knocked senseless with that awesome spell of his."
Lexi looks over the loot but doesn't find any signs of any magically infused items. Gurk starts giving the room a serious look trying to find any hidden passage ways. He finds a piece of wood near the south west wall, which seems a bit out of place. Upon closer examination of the wall, Gurk locates a hidden hatch in the wall.
"Gurk find tunnel. Gurk know best spots for hiding," Gurk announces, thumping his chest.
Lexi congratulates Gurk for his sharp eyes and takes one last look at the treasure pile. She selects the three smokesticks and one of the heavy tanglefoot bags and adds them to her stylish backpack. After trying to claim the silk ropes, grappling hooks, and climber's kits as well, the scrawny gal staggers a few steps, puts her back to a wall, and slides slowly to the floor.
"Too heavy for weak little me," she announces, sloughing the coiled lengths of rope off her shoulders and then discarding the climbing kits as well. "Too bad we didn't bring along a beast of burden to carry this stuff."
Her face goes blank for a few moments before her eyes widen. "Maybe if we found some live donkey rats we could train them to carry stuff!" she suggests. "After all, they're half donkeys, right?" Then the weird girl is off on another of her giggle fits.
Verris sighs in disappointment as one of the women bleed out. She shakes her head but her practicality as a worshipper of Erastil shines through as she begins to gently but securely tie up the woman they managed to save with the standard rope from her pack.
Verris listens to Lexi's request and is about to agree when Gurk calls out saying that he's found a hidden tunnel. She smiles at Lexi, saying "Guess it ain't necessary anymore."
She agrees to help carry a good portion of the gear they took from the thugs, trying to package it in a way that would allow her to easily drop it to the ground should they get into another fight.
"We should move the captured tower girls to different rooms out of the way of the main corridor. Just in case someone comes back from the city. Ain't exactly gonna fool 'em for long but might stop 'em findin' 'em for a short while at least. Should gag 'em too, stop 'em from callin' out." As she finishes speaking she cuts a clean section of the thugs' shirt to use as a gag and begins moving them to one of the rooms out of the way. As she does so, she'll have a quick look around the rooms for anything interesting.
Amelexis helps Verris transport the captives to a back room, carrying each by the bound ankles and letting Verris lug what she believes is the heavier end. As they enter the eastern rooms, Lexi looks around a bit as well.
Looking around in the other room there isn't really anything else of interest. As best as you can gather this was some sort of advanced watch camp but everything else you have seen has been picked over and pretty empty.
Ready to move on, Gurk slips into the tunnel and begins to scout ahead, alert for both longshanks and more possible snacks.
Lexi fidgets a bit while the others get into formation to press further into the dark heart of the Crow piling. She secretly spies on Adistan to see if the fighting man arms himself with the silver weapon she lent him or his quarterstaff. Depending upon the man's choice, Lexi chooses the opposite sort of bolt for her crossbow. Then she falls into her usually place near the rear of the party.
"You hardly need to carry that all yourself, Lady Verris. I would hardly be able to call myself a gentleman if I didn't share the load," Temmer gently remonstrates his companion, trying to take as much of the equipment as she'll let him.
"Well done, Gurk," Temmer congratulates the goblin, resuming his place at the front of the rest of the group.
Verris nods at the man, sharing some of the load with him before getting back into the rear-guard position of the formation they had agreed to, ready to proceed with the rest of the group when they are ready.
Once everyone is ready Gurk opens the hatch and crawls through. On the other side the murals in this room are scratched and faded. Several
portions of the wall and floor show signs of past chipping. An empty plinth where a statue once stood rests by a small alcove.
The room opens to the west where a ledge festooned with old bird nests looks out over a shaft dropping nearly two hundred feet to sea level below. A large coil of rope sits on the ground near the shaft, one end anchored to a large piton driven into a crack near the wall. Opposite the shaft is another ledge with a window looking out over Magnimar’s harbor. The ceiling is a mere ten feet above, and crisscrossed by a complex tangle of stone arches that support the roof. Between the two ledges, a five-foot-square wooden platform hangs from four thick ropes that hang from the stone arches. The platform is further anchored by two thick ropes to spikes hammered into the walls near the edge of the western ledge, while another pair of ropes hang from the ceiling above, anchored to a hook driven into the wall near the same ledge.
Lexi fearlessly walks to the edge of the precipice and gazes down into the water far, far below. Uttering a low "Whoa...," she then backs away from the edge slowly, looking a lot less fearless.
"Um...," the aasimar lass begins, sounding less know-it-all-ish than usual as she tries to figure out how the rigged platform is supposed to work...and if it seems safe. As her brain continues to process what she sees (and she slowly screws up her courage), Lexi comments, "Gurk has a ring of feather falling. This might be a good place for us to utilize it."
Gurk picks up the rope, his eyes trailing across the gap. Gurk cross ropes with hands? Longshanks no have chance. Gurk must go on by self.
Verris will point out to Gurk that they got some gear to aid with climbing from the thugs they defeated below: including 3 grappling hooks with 50 ft of silk rope, 3 second story harnesses and 3 climbers kit with pitons, crampons etc. All these items together seem almost perfect for this situation.
Verris stands thinking for a moment and will then suggest that whoever is best at climbing try to cross first. The climber can use the large coil of rope secured to the wall as they cross to the platform, using one of the ropes connecting the platform to the wall near the ledge they are on. This is to prevent them from falling to the sea below if they should slip. Once the climber reaches the platform safely, they can throw one of the 3 grappling hooks back to the party, securing the rope side to one of the ropes hanging from the ceiling securing the platform. On the ledge, the party can secure the grappling hook to the piton holding the coil of rope, or another one they secure themselves, to form a simple rope bridge across to the platform.
The climber can then tie the two remaining grappling hooks (rope side) to another corner of the platform, throwing the bottom one to the far ledge with the grappling hook to allow them to cross. The second grappling hook can be tied around themselves to make another simply rope bridge when they make it fully across. If they should fall at any point they will be secured by the large coil of rope (if it's long enough to make it all the way across) or the grappling hook tied to the corner of the platform (if the large coil of rope is too short to make it all the way) and can, hopefully, climb back up and try again.
Temmer nods.
"I don't think there's reason to cross, unless we want to look out the window," he says. "This looks more like a cargo crane to me -- we get on the lift and let ourselves down to the bottom of the shaft. We have the climbing gear as another option, of course. And Gurk's ring..."
...
Verris nods back at Temmer's assessment. "Didn't think of that. Seems more likely alright. Suppose we should try and look around, see if we can spot somethin' like a doorway or passageway that'll let us know fer sure. Or maybe some tracks from the Tower Girls that have passed through here."
As they discuss their options Verris looks out to the far ledge and doesn't spot anything or note. She also doesn't see any sorts of signs of recent passage here on the stone floor.
Adistan considers the apparatus or boards and ropes and realizes, after he mentions it looks like a crane, that there is no means to lower or raise the platform. It is solidly fastened to the ceiling of the chamber.
"We're not making any headway just standing here," Temmer says. "If I might borrow your ring, Gurk, I'll see if I can make it onto the platform and if that helps us at all."
He picks up the ropes and otherwise plans to follow Verris' plan.
"Longshank no make sense, jumpin off cliff," Gurk comments, handing over the ring.
After borrowing Gurk's ring Adistan grabs a hold of the ropes, steeling his nerves, and then begins to climb across. He makes it looks easy though as he reaches the platform with ease.
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"You know Verris, I don't know about your teachings that well, but your time and effort could be better spent on sick and injured children from the slums... we came here to fight. I do find your actions noble to a point, I'll admit, but to a certain level wasted. I thought your god was about killing monsters in the wilderness to protect small communities? this here is similar to werewolves preying on logging camps or small villages. If you let one bite the good folks... they'll turn to monsters. We have to be unwavering here, despite their cute human appearances at the moment... for the good of the poor folks of Magnimar especially. I don't think the law will want to stick out their necks and touch this with a ten foot pole either. It's too risky to send patrols here in this... rat's nest. We'd be doing everyone a favor by mercy killing them on the spot. To incarcerate were creatures in close quarters to other convicts is a disaster waiting to happen..."
"This can't be the way forward, ladies and gentlemen! regardless of how nimble these wererats are, there's no way they would risk their lives like this every single time they want to cross that ledge over there. It just makes no sense. Either there's nothing in that room over there, or we missed something in the previous rooms or this is the end of the line. This... reminds me of an elven wizard I've seen before using a levitation spell to move across a temple's ceiling to do some restorative paint work... if this ledge is meant to be accessed it isn't by regular means... could be that other platforms are also present but invisible... How about we double back and search those rooms to the east inside out? In the meantime, let's see if magic is at work here..."
Davor finds no magical auras.
Verris listens as Davor makes his argument against healing the Tower Girls and nods.
"Ye got a point with what yer sayin' Davor, but yer missin' some of it. Ol' Deadeye does task some of his faithful with killing monsters and other dangerous creatures to protect their communities. It's only a last resort though. His teachings talk of tryin' to live with nature. To take only what needs to be taken, hunt only what ye need to eat. Same is true here. Not all these folk are wererats and not all deserve killin'. I'd wager many of these folk are only here cause they got no other choice, forced into it to survive in the city. So if we bring 'em back to the guard, they'll know their crimes and the guilty will face justice for 'em."
She pauses for a moment, then looks back at Davor. "Don't get me wrong though. I ain't no pacifist. I'll fight if needs be, you've seen that. Just won't kill if I don't have to."
Verris will shout over to Adistan on the platform. "Can ye see anything from there?"
Turnin' to Davor she says, "Ye might be right, but Natalya did say there was a difficult section where we'd have to climb. Seems like this fits with that. Could be we're missin' somethin' though."
"Gurk no thinks longshanks get across easy neither," Gurk points. "Seems almost like old goblin trap. Hang fake board across water and wait for food to step on it and fall. Lots of food that way."
Temmer looks around to see if he can make any more sense of this puzzle from this different vantage point.
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Bixby is incredibly relieved as the talk turns from crossing the deathtrap chasm to finding another way across. The gnome tries looking at the horizon, rather than down, to calm his churning stomach.
"There has to be some other way--let us exhaust all possibilities before we attempt something as clinically insane as crossing that--"
Gurk follows the fellow greenshank back into the other rooms to help search. "Gurk be finding all the nasty secrets here," he states, beginning to scan the empty eastern rooms.
As the others walk off Adistan looks around for any sorts of clues. Finally he looks up and notices a piton hanging from a crevice in the ceiling. He pulls at it and a secret door opens that looks like it had a fold out ladder to climb up into the ceiling.
Amelexis's wide eyes widen a bit further as Adistan discovers the secret door in the ceiling. "I'll go fetch Davor and Gurk," she tells the others, and an instant later she takes off like a spooked deer, using long, graceful strides to propel herself back into the heart of the Crow to find Davor and Gurk. When she does, she informs them of Adistan's discovery and jogs back to the hanging platform.
Temmer passes over the ring and then prepares to climb up the ladder before the next person crosses to the platform.
"Perhaps you could join me, Riverside, or you, Lady Verris. Whoever it is should be prepared for close combat with whatever's up there."
Lexi hesitates before speaking up, not wanting to appear to be an insufferable know-it-all...but heck--that's her bread-and-butter.
"Um...maybe folks who can see in the dark should climb up the ladder first; that way, Adistan's light won't be an immediate giveaway in case there's another guard post nearby."
Verris accompanies Lexi to tell the others about the secret door, just in case there are still hidden enemies lurking about.
She nods as the others suggest passing the ring around to make it easier for everybody. She nods again when Lexi suggests someone with darkvision going first. "Sensible precaution," she says over to Lexi.
She'll offer to stay as rear-guard until everyone else has safely gone across, keeping an eye on the way they've come so that no returning gang members easily surprise them as they try to cross.
"Gurk see well in dark, yes," Gurk replies, going next and heading up the ladder. Once up, he will look around in the darkness to see if there is anything of interest. Preferably shiny or tasty or trapy.
Gurk makes his way over to the platform and heads up in front of Adistan, checking for traps along the way. It is a narrow 5 foot wide by 3ft tall tunnel in the ceiling necessitating most to crawl. It leads south, east and south again until coming to another hatch with a ladder leading down into a hallway.
Once Gurk gives the all clear the rest of the group follow behind. At the end of the hall it opens into a larger room with the hallway continuing onward. The walls along this room bear murals showing strangely dressed Thassilonian priests placing bodies into crypts. Where the hallway continues to the west several niches in the walls may have once been burial crypts themselves, but today, the hall is strewn with bones and the niches lay empty.
Bones mean meat. Meat means food, Gurk surmises, going to sift through the bones as the longshanks gather in the hall.
Once she's finished crawling through the low tunnel, Lexi stands again and begins brushing dirt and dust from the knees of her dark leather breeches. When she sees the Thassilonian murals on the walls, though, she's drawn to them like a moth to a flame. She stands before them wide-eyed, lifting one leg and then the other to blindly complete brushing the dirt from her knees as her eyes take in the majesty and mystery of the ancient burial customs.
She's somewhat put off that the area has apparently been desecrated and wonders if there are angry spirits about. When Gurk starts pawing through the bones, Lexi figures the group will find out soon enough....