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"Well... it wouldn't be a problem in modern Kintargo for us to look into if it was just an old tomb. Hellfire, even the old wrecks and tombs we look into show signs of active life." Shaking his head, he jumps down after Adonara and Ryker.
After she jumps into the noisome shadows below, Adonara helps the others down, continuing to offer what she hopes is quiet encouragement, though her optimism is obviously a bit forced. “True, but we can hope. Even the old livery wasn’t too awful, all things considered, and that was actually raided. I suppose it depends on who’s watching us, who left that flower…” Her nose briefly furrows in thought, or perhaps just as the full force of the stench in the basement hits her.
Despite her fine airs, and though she grows somewhat pale, Adonara meets the situation with aplomb. She continues breezily, her mind still on whether Thrune's rumour-mongering concerning the Gray Spiders is merely coincidental, "Whoever it is, they'll find out soon enough that I don't appreciate people getting strange notions into their heads about who gets to yank whose chains. That is, after all, my prerogative."
Nodding at Kira's wordless suggestion, Adonara steps forward, producing her new wand with a flourish as she steps up to the eastern door.
The gesture is somewhat dampened by the fact that it takes her two tries to coax a spell out of the wand, but she's not too put out. She checks the door for traps, and then gives it a try, though she suspects time, if not locks, might prove an obstacle.
Ryker has experienced sterner stuff than some garbage and rot. He keeps his food with room to spare. An Ogre den would reek havoc on them if this is doing them in.
As the search for traps begins, he draws on his past failures and experiences to inform his search.
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Valekar, you are unable to recall much about the Lucky Bones as the government kept most of the details away from the public domian. You do recall a rumour that one of the members of the Luucky Bones was a halfling called Lorelu who was fond of gambling.
In the basement Ryker you spot two creatures in the pile of filth in the middle of the room. They are three legged creatures consisting of mostly mouth. Three tentacles, two tipped with barbs and one with eyes, extend from their sides.
Ryker motions for everyone to stop with a raised fist. He gives one of the goofy creatures a hard, long look...
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Ryker you recognise the creatures as otyughs. They carry the filth fever disease and they have 10 foot reach with their tentacles.
Ryker, Valekar and Adonara you also spot that there is a trap on the lock of the door to the east.
The otyughs currently appear to be looking at you all intently.
"Should we talk to them, shoot them, or ignore them?" Valekar asks.
Pellius stumbles along behind them, vomiting further. "Ugh! I... will need... water... after..." he attempts to smile, struggling to clear the residual smell and taste from his mouth and nose.
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Testing the weight of the lock by giving the door a light push, Adonara’s trained (and spell-enhanced) ear catches a tell-tale note from a bit of mechanism that is certainly not just part of the fastening.
“Oh, how clever,” she breathes through a tense grin, before Ryker and Valekar’s signals drag her attention away. It takes her another moment to see what they’re getting at, and she gives a slight start when she does.
"Should we talk to them, shoot them, or ignore them?" Valekar asks.
“It depends on how our Spider friends want to play it, I suppose,” the courtesan says, hoping that whatever the tentacle-beasts are, they don’t catch on that Valekar’s talking about them. She continues just that little bit nervously, her tone wavering between airy and what she hopes sounds like good-natured griping, “Don’t mind us! Just finding the right key. Serves me right for not preparing my own light…”
Of course, what Adonara actually reaches for is a suitable lockpick, even as she catches Ryker’s glance and tilts her head in a small, inquisitive toss to gently ask about the other side of the nearest tripod creature , before continuing her unthreatening chatter, “It is a fine day, though, isn’t it?”
Kira doesn't see the creatures at first, but Ryker's gesture catches her attention and she peers deeper into the muck.
The sight does not help her sensitive stomach.
Valekar's question makes her do a double-take at the thought that these creatures might actually be intelligent. If they are, she supposes there's no harm in trying, and if they're not, they shouldn't even realize she's talking to them.
Please don't vomit, please don't vomit...
"Um. Hi there. You...people...in the middle of the room. We're just passing by and don't intend to cause you any harm. So. Any chance we can walk through this door and you can stay in this room and no one gets hurt?"
If the otyughs show no sign of responding, she'll repeat the same sentiment in every language she knows. Just in case.
"Talk?" Ryker asks, a little flabbergasted. "Never tried to speak to an Otyugh before, but I suppose it is worth a shot?" he admits hesitantly.
The grip on his sword remains firm, however, and he gives Adonara a knowing nod. Usually just attack this sort of thing before it decides I'm food, but the ways of these Kintargans have worked before.
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"Give us food and we will let you pass."
While the rest of you watch the creatures Adonara tries to disable the trap. Unfortunately she is distracted at a critical moment and a thin stiletto blade shoots out of the lock towards her hand. She just manages to dodge out of the way in time
"Food?" Kira repeats blankly. She hadn't really expected the creature to talk back. "Um, I don't think we have any, do we?" She directs the question towards the rest of the company, (unfortunately distracting Adonara in the process).
Valekar shakes his head to Kira. Food would be a handy thing to keep around for uses like this he thinks to himself
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"Give us food and we will let you pass."
While the rest of you watch the creatures Adonara tries to disable the trap. Unfortunately she is distracted at a critical moment and a thin stiletto blade shoots out of the lock towards her hand. She just manages to dodge out of the way in time
Adonara jerks her hand back with a shake of her head, which gesture fortunately suits the conversation going on around her.
“What sort of food do you mean? I think I might have an apple and a biscuit in my purse, but I imagine that’s hardly enough for … such fine fellows as you two,” she says politely, trying not to think too much about what creatures so large and so content to lurk in such environs are likely to eat.
As she talks, since the trap’s been sprung, anyway, she determinedly proceeds to trying to pick the lock proper.
Focus. Don’t worry about hungry tentacle beasts behind you.
That's easier said or thought than done, and the courtesan turns around after another moment or two, carefully keeping her exasperation with herself from her face. Something sly does flash across it briefly, though, and she teases out, addressing the other Ravens first, "I'm sorry, friends: I really will have to talk to Lippo about keeping the door properly! And in the meantime talk to cook about getting some grease. The lock's stuck."
She's not sure how adept the bizarre creatures are at reading humanoid facial expressions, but she smiles at the otyughs, and hopes her unnatural emphasis in her last statement has visions of unhealthily rich fare dancing in their thoughts. "How does this sound? As soon as we're downstairs, we'll get them to send up a feast."
"We could send someone out for food if we really want to avoid... this," Ryker suggests. "It'd be quieter to keep the peace, but take longer." Feeding Otyughs? Need to start keeping a list of firsts with these people!
Adonara you manages to open the lock on a second attempt.
"Ok, get us some food from downstairs and we won't attack you when you come back."
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"We could send someone out for food if we really want to avoid... this," Ryker suggests. "It'd be quieter to keep the peace, but take longer."
Goddess bless the child, Adonara thinks fondly, seeing the hand of providence at work , though she’s sure a hardened mercenary like Ryker would probably not like to hear it phrased quite that way. Aloud, she addresses the otyughs as graciously as she can, “Thank you, we’ll do our best. Although, just out of curiosity, depending on what we can whip up, how do you feel about blood pudding? We might also be able to do that, but that might involve a bit of a walk and need more time. But you can tell us when we get back.”
Urgathoa can choke on it, Adonara crows inwardly, knowing the goddess of excess and undeath has pitifully unrealistic aspirations of rivaling the Lady in the Room. Regardless, while the otyughs consider their options, after a tense few seconds more work, Adonara mercifully hears the lock click, and she swings the door downstairs open with a tiny flourish.
She makes sure to invite poor Pellius, still greenish about the gills, into the less frightful air of the stairwell beyond first, and then falls in line after the others, closing the door behind them. She murmurs, with only a slight and vicious grumble, “That went surprisingly well. Though if there are any Spiders left here, and not just their webs, by the love I bear the goddess, I’m tempted to say we should feed the Norgorberite vermin to those things out there once we’re done with them. In any case, shall we continue?”
Kira has no idea what Adonara means by blood pudding, but she's willing to go along with it. "Um, yes. We'll see what we can get you from downstairs, and then we'll talk about other options." She doesn't wait around to see how the otyughs react to that; practically lunging forward as soon as the door opens. Once it's closed and she can breathe a bit more freely, she takes several large swigs from her waterskin. She could practically taste the foulness there, and needed something to wash it away.
"That was unpleasant." She starts to take another sip, then has to stop as a nauseating though occurs to her. "What do creatures like that even eat?"
She's very, very glad she hadn't thought ahead that far while still in the room with them.
Bewildered, Ryker looks at Adonara with a mixture of disgust and awe before pushing forward to the front. She plan on cooking our foes after this? The f~%~ is this woman? I'll do a lot for gold, but I draw the line at the kitchen.
He shakes his head and brings his focus back to pressing forwards.
Pellius wordlessly follows Adonara into the next room, looking a bit less green and a bit more hale.
"With any luck, their food won't cause me a second episode. Still a bit urpy though. What now?"
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Bewildered, Ryker looks at Adonara with a mixture of disgust and awe before pushing forward to the front. She plan on cooking our foes after this? The f%%# is this woman? I'll do a lot for gold, but I draw the line at the kitchen.
He shakes his head and brings his focus back to pressing forwards.
“Ryker seemed to recognize what sorts of creatures they were,” Adonara says, acknowledging him with a glance as she takes her best guess at Kira’s question. “For my part, just based on what that cellar was like, how big they were, and that we haven’t heard panicked outcry about inhuman horrors dragging people off the streets around the ruins of the Lucky Bones … I would surmise offal, filth, and possibly ordure? I never made it to Korvosa during my time in Varisia, and Vyre was a bit out of the way for my journey to Kintargo, but I suppose those must be the sewer beasts some cities have. Osyluths, or something.”
“Even if we can’t find anything down here, there was that mess of gore below the Fair Fortune from when the Asmodeans raided. Luckily, our hungry guests here don’t seem too particular about freshness.” Her attempt at a callously bright tone is belied by its shakiness, and her pallor.
“Or perhaps there’s another entrance somewhere. I’m not sure those accidental guards would pique themselves on loyalty either, if they got too bored or hungry. But now,” she continues in answer to Pellius, moving to resume her position at the front of the line to keep checking for traps, “we see if there’s anything to rescue from the Spiders’ webs.”
Beyond the door you find a set of stairsd going down, on a small table there is a silver comb worth 50gp, an iron chalice inlaid with pearls worth 200gp and a bead of force. The stairs lead down about 3 flights and end at a stone door. From beyond you can hear the faint murmur of low voices, unfortunately you cannot make out what they are saying.
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The baubles just lying about on the way down are a promising sign, but the muffled whispers beyond the stone door at the end of the stairway are certainly enough to give anyone pause.
Falling into a rhythm apt for a den of thieves, Adonara resumes her breaching spellwork as she whispers, “I’m afraid we should probably expect trouble here. Just give me a nod when we’re all ready?”
The further they get away from the otyughs, the easier Kira finds it to think. While there is a certain elegance to Adonara's plan, she sees one immediate problem with it. "How exactly do we plan on escorting those creatures across half the city without being stopped by dottari, driving innocent citizens into a panic, or both? Even if we're sneaky, they aren't. The smell alone would be noticable from hundreds of yards away."
Downstairs while Adonara works on the lock, Kira presses her ear against the door and sees if she can make out anything that's being said.
Valekar silently marvels to himself at Adonara's grim creativity.
He waits outside the door, trying to hear what is going on on the other side.
Pellius attempts to listen and look for signs of the mysterious whisperers, but the lingering effects of the first hallway down continues to distract him.
"I doubt... they are peaceful... but they might be willing to exchange their freedom... for passage. After all.... they don't even know about... Thrune."
Ryker nods at Adonara's deductions concerning Otyugh diets. "Essentially anything. Can't speak to their tastes, but this wouldn't be the first time I've seen work clean up duty," he mentions darkly. No need to worry about corpses when your bodyguards finish them off. Can't say if that's better or worse than trudging waist deep through city-s%++ to find one guzzling that mess down.
Hearing voices, he makes sure his sword is couched on his shoulder and waits for the nod to proceed from the others.
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“Mm. Cozy,” the irrepressible Adonara teases the others, quirking a suggestive eyebrow as the whole group crowds around her at the door while she checks for traps.
Their zeal is certainly appreciated, however. She turns briefly to thank Ryker for his reassurances that she’s not crazy for piecing together what few rumours she’s heard about sewer monsters the way she did, at least, before offering what reassurances she can to Kira’s misgivings in the moment.
"How exactly do we plan on escorting those creatures across half the city without being stopped by dottari, driving innocent citizens into a panic, or both? Even if we're sneaky, they aren't. The smell alone would be noticable from hundreds of yards away."
“Honestly, that’s probably third on my list of options, at best. Hopefully it won't come to that.” Even as her hand runs over the doorframe one last time as if to brush away, Details, details, for now, the sparkle of her eyes betrays the cascade of ideas entertaining her devious elven mind. If nothing else, we could attempt disguises and try to cheat the curfew. After all, who else would be pushing their luck so rashly? As much as she’d be loath to admit it, Adonara is rather enjoying the whole situation, down, for various reasons, to the likelihood of combat, even. She herself is given pause by details she'd prefer not to think about until she has to.
“Feeling at all better, Pellius?" she checks. Probably not the time for me to speculate as to who knows what, exactly, given our mysterious shadow and her floral compliments. It would only make him queasier. Adonara’s not entirely ruthless, but predictably more than willing for a certain amount of knifeplay, and once everyone’s ready, she prepares to open the door quietly but decisively to see what she can see.
Adonara you do not find any traps on the door and it does not appear to be locked.
Kira and Valekar you hear a muffled conversation. "That ghost freaks me out, she's all fine initially but then she gets hysterical after you've played a few rounds of cards with her. Thank goodness Luculla can control her."
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Focused on the immediate obstacle, Adonara lets the muffled whispers from the other side of the door wash over her without quite registering. As she satisfies herself as to the physical safety of the entrance itself, she quickly considers her tactical options.
“I can offer a quick blessing or two first, but next could we give a couple of the more insidious of us a few moments to get in position? And then just be ready for the alarm to be raised?”
Once everyone’s comfortable with the preliminaries, Adonara draws her cloak close, and tries to crack the door open unobtrusively just far enough for her to slip through and find a shadow to hide in on the other side.
"They're saying something about a ghost, and someone named Luculla. The ghost apparently freaks out about cards, not sure what that means." Before the door is opened she brings her hands together, offering a quick prayer to Desna. I know we're nowhere near the stars, but please let your light shine upon us anyway.
With Desna's blessing washing over all of them, Kira nods at Adonara. "Ready when you are."
Once everyone has had a chance to prepare, Ryker counts to five before slipping off after Adonara. Unfortunately, he underestimates the size of the doorframe and scuffs it a little with his boot. F~$%! This better not turn out like that Sandpoint job with Crash and Jenkins. That a@~*#~@ might as well have tied bells to his damn feet. Not that I'm one to talk after this...
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Valekar opts not to cast any of his spells or use any of his wands, hoping that these foes will be less dangerous than the ghost or Luculla creature they speak of
Pellius holds up a hand.
"I will... be ready in a moment. Just need to get the... last of that smell out of... my everything."
He gives them a smile that is less green than before... but still not 100% normal.
Opening the door a crack you see twin rows of stone pillars supporting a shallow vaulted ceiling ten feet above the floor of this wide room. A number of wooden doors hang half open on rusty hinges to the north and south, and fragments of tables and chairs lie in various states of ruin throughout the room. To the west, a stone stage stands empty, while empty torch sconces line the walls between the doors. Images of a one-eyes insectile face, smeared on the walls in what appears to be blood, decorate the spaces between sconces. In the room are 4 female figures in leather armour. They do not appear to have noticed you as yet.
Pellius finally is able to get his stomach to stop feeling upset as they open the door, but the only thing he can recognize is the room is the stage and the disrepair to its environment.
"Good afternoon, ladies. We will not trouble you long, so please pay us no mind. I am just trying to determine how much work it will be to get the stage ready for my upcoming performance of Count Giova later this month. I think the stonework here will make the acoustics sound superb." So saying, he gives a quick tonal rendition of the main overture as he heads boldly up to the stage.
"Sorry, it really sounds better when played on the proper instruments... but that even my poor rendition reverberated just fine within the space... this will do nicely!"
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Adonara smiles grimly to herself as she slips through the crack of the doorway and from shadow to shadow, the cover of a battered table here, a vault pillar there, trying to get as far into the room as she can without drawing attention to herself.
As she draws up in the most promising bit of shadow, aiming for one that will allow rapid intervention in case a fight breaks out, she considers the scene while Pellius provides an exquisite distraction.
Unfortunately, keeping out of sight and on her toes preoccupies her too much to really worry about the primitive decor.
The Insect God, she scoffs inwardly, not without irony, given the symbolism favoured by her own faith. And ... her, if she so much as twitches the wrong way.
Kira doesn't recognize anything about the decor or the creatures, but she doesn't need to. That's not her role. Her job is to help Pellius distract them until everyone gets into position. So she cheerfully (and obviously) follows Pellius into the room.
"I don't know, the acoustics are wonderful but the location might discourage some of the audience." She sniffs, then holds her nose dramatically. "And the work it would take to clean this place up! We'd have to hire a whole team to get...is that blood?!"
Valekar sneaks into the room behind Adonara
Awkwardly, Ryker keeps by the door as the others file past. Damn that's embarrassing. Like I got new feet or something. At least Pellius can spin a yarn on demand. Suppressing his feelings, he eyes up the nearest stranger. Just in case.
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Pellius hops up upon the stage itself and gives a few paces. "Yes... yes... I can see the statue scene happening over here... and the torch bearers coming from those alcoves over there...." The singer almost is speaking to himself as he says this, briefly looking up at Kira's counter point. Good the others are in position if they don't buy this...
"I know, isn't it wonderfully atmospheric? We can hide the blood symbol until the final scene where the Count finally must pay his pact to Asmodeus and have the torch-bearing demons come from under them as they are revealed!" Turning to the nearest armored woman, he smiles. "Of course, you all will simply have to be there. It is, after all, your stage. Tell me, where would you suggest we have the orchestra to maximize the sound? Down at the foot of the stage or perhaps at the back of the room where we entered?"
Unfortunately you are unable to recognise the religious sy,bol or what the creatures are.
As Pellius and Kira spin their yarn the rest of you sneak into poistion. The female figures are completely taken aback by Pellius' entrance and seem to buy into the idea that Pellius and Kira are meant to be there.
One of them, a little braver than the rest speaks us.
"Can I help you my lord and lady. We were not expecting visitors."
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Adonara can’t blame the strange women – the newest Spiders, she guesses – for goggling at Pellius and Kira. She is in awe of how well the pair's audacity seems to be working, and tries to size the residents up, as she skirts the edges of the room. They’re polite, so far, for a rabble inspired by the shadow of cutpurses, slavers, and vermin of the ilk.
They also seem to be guarding, more or less, the way forward, from what she can tell, as she passes a set of cells off the hall and spots, from the corner of her eye, a set of double doors to one side of where the Ravens came in. She hugs the closest patch of shadow on the wall nearest to those doors, and waits for inspiration or guidance. Lyceria would probably just crack some skulls and worry about the details later, she thinks, remembering her old rival with something almost like admiration. And based on what we know of this place, and who the Spiders are, I think she might even be right, here.
Pellius almost looks offended as the bold one says they were not expecting them. "You were not informed of us arriving? Of our visit? He turns to Kira and gives her an exasperated look. "Honestly, what do you pay your people for if they cannot even be bothered to let the residents know prior to our arrival? That is twice now they have done this! If your half-brother was not in charge of them I would be inclined to fire them all by now." He shakes his head, turning back to the woman who spoke to them. "I am so terribly sorry about the mix up. Our people were supposed to have talked with your people by now. We are considering using this stage for the production of Count Giova, what with the main opera house being... occupied." He smiles at her and says, "Pellius, by the way. A pleasure to meet you I am sure. Now, as for ways you can help me... let me see." He tsks to himself. "Well, you can start by showing me where you find the harmonics to be the most balanced in this room. We would normally need an orchestra of at least thirty people, but given the small space I want to see if we can get away with halving that. This would require that where they are playing has natural resonances to compensate..." He shakes his head, smiling. "Oh, and you could send someone to fetch whomever is in charge as well... I want to hammer out the details on what we need and what we can logistically bring into the space."
Ryker does his best to keep a poker face and watch Adonara's twitching dominant hand over her whip... If it comes to that, we'll have them down in moments. We've numbers and unless they act as well as Pellius, the jump on them.