Jonagher finishes off the creature before looking around for further danger. This room is clearly a former office, and its contents are still reasonably intact. Behind the desk, a door is slightly ajar, leading into what looks like a records room or small library; bookshelves stand in a neat if dusty column, like an array of dutiful but forgotten toy soldiers.
Shaserai strides towards Ragna and Highness, already taking out his healing supplies as Ragna calls for him. "Don't worry, it isn't a serious wound." He gets to work on the goblin's lacerations.
"It's certainly not somewhere I'd like to live, if it's all like this. But both the graveshells and this thing where really close, and so far we've seen no signs of the tribe on this side of the citadel."
"Both creatures could talk..." Jonagher responds to Shaserai as he moves behind the desk and approaches the open door behind it, "Maybe they were allies...of sorts?"
Seeing the bookshelves beyond, his eyes widen with potential opportunity. "Hey! What have we here?" he notes aloud to everyone, "Looks like there's a library or archive back here. Might be a useful place to rest. We could search it, too. Maybe there's information about the citadel we could use to locate Alak's ring? What do you say, Hellknight? You wanna give me a hand exploring this stuff?"
Ragna sets Highness on the tabletop while Shaserai tends to his wound. ”Wolves and turtles can’t open doors. Someone put it in here, unless there’s another entrance through the library.” She retrieves her shield, experimentally waving it through the air to see how the movement effects the magical light cast on it, then turning it over in her hands to inspect the battle damage. It would need repaired. The shields of the northern peoples were designed to allow weapons to bite in to them and potentially trap the opponents weapon, but that also left them vulnerable to things like giant talking turtles. ”Are the books in there intact?” She calls to Jonagher, setting the shield on the table next to Highness. ”Jorell Blacktusk would likely be interested in them.”
"Uhhh...I'm not sure. It's pretty dusty inside, but all the bookshelves are still standing, so it looks undamaged. I'll check and see..." Jonagher carefully moves into the next room while the others continue tending to Highness. His sharp eyes look carefully for unexpected surprises...like more hidden monsters...or traps.
"Looks like there's a library or archive back here. Might be a useful place to rest. We could search it, too. Maybe there's information about the citadel we could use to locate Alak's ring? What do you say, Hellknight? You wanna give me a hand exploring this stuff?"
A faint grimace washes momentarily across Alak's face at the moniker. "Surely," he responds, following Jonather into the next room.
There are eight bookshelves aligned in the room, but most of the shelves are empty of anything but dust and cobwebs. "I expect the Order took everything valuable when they decamped to Citadel Vraid. They would only have left duplicates behind for the skeleton crew that remained. I suppose the contingent that stayed on might have made records pertaining to their administration of the citadel." He picks up a book and blows the dust off its spine.
”Are the books in there intact?” She calls to Jonagher, setting the shield on the table next to Highness. ”Jorell Blacktusk would likely be interested in them.”
"Indeed," he calls back to Ragna. "Better the books should be cared for in town than left to deteriorate here."
At the far end of the room, an arrow slit lets in a narrow shaft of sunlight. Two doors are set in the southern wall of the narrow library and one in the northern wall.
”I need a few minutes to fix my shield. I guess I should have brought two.” Borrowing Shaserai’s tools and laying them out on the table. ”See if there’s anything interesting in those books. Something about talking animals, maybe?”
At the mention of a library, Irenaeus quickly joins the half-elf and their sort-of employer in the room where the books are. After giving Jonagher the time needed to make sure there are no traps present, of course.
"Duplicates or not, I think they are worth a look," the Chelish mage says as he starts making his way to the shelves to check what tomes and records remain. "It is certainly a good idea to bring them back of course, but why not see what we have here first?"
Ragna spreads the tools out on the desk to attempt to repair her battered shield, while Ren, Jonagher, and Alak investigate the library.
At one point, Alak surmises, this was the law repository, and the office it connects with would have belonged to the citadel's lictor, the head of the Order. Now, however, the only law books remaining are old copies, those with missing pages or outdated laws; the recopied and updated versions were relocated to Citadel Vraid with the Hellknights.
There are, however, some records of the Order's time in Isger: notes on the citadel's construction, annals of the Order's activities, and so on.
A large folio contains architectural plans for the citadel. A natural spring was utilized to direct fresh water into the central courtyard in case of a siege; one may suspect that the pipes have become clogged or broken, and that backup resulted in the damp, marshy ground that caused the walls to crumble where the graveshells were lairing. The plans reveal that there are two subterranean levels of the citadel, which look to be accessed by a stairway in the central courtyard. Handwritten notes in the margin of the lowest level mention mysterious ruins guarded by a stone construct. 'Now that the method of placating the construct has been ascertained,' the notes conclude, 'suggest storing valuable and significant paperwork here, putting the strange magics to positive use.'
A final slim volume details the decision in 4682 to accept the generous funding of Queen Domina Arabasti and move the Order to Varisia. The contingent of Hellknights remaining to monitor the premises took part in a number of skirmishes in the Goblinblood Wars, their victories and casualties listed in the book's pages. The final entry was made in 4711: All forces recalled to Citadel Vraid in Varisia. Citadel Altaerein officially decommissioned. Deed hidden and in play. After that, the pages are blank. In the back of the book are a stack of faded receipts for minor repairs from Posandi Brothers Masonry in Breachill.
Highness kicks away from the creature his arm slowly oozing only to be caught by Ragnhild "Stupid warg. Thinks its so sma...aaaaaah!!!" Highness panicked as the warrior grabbed him, freezing for a second with confusion.
As Highness was set down on the table, he rolled away and came to his feet in a smooth movement, eyes darting around, his thundering heart only slowing as Shaseri tended his wounds.
Arm bound, Highness dropped to the floor, kicked the corpse of the warg once, then began wandering around, searching.
"The longshanks is right. The warg couldn't easily open and close the doors. It is smart enough to do so, but why? Easier to leave the doors open to come and go as it pleased. So it had another way in likely, or its nest is in here somewhere." he said, moving into the other room with the books, which he pointedly ignored.
Jonagher nimbly climbs down one of the empty sections of bookshelves with a slim book in his hands. "Well, I doubt this Treatise on Order of the Nail Protocols is much of a page turner," he quips, and then sends the book on a lazy spin in Alak's direction so their benefactor can catch it. "It does appear one of your ancestors penned a dedication to a Lictor Acillmar inside the front cover, though. Might that be of interest to you?"
Alak snatches the book out of the air and opens it to read the inscription. "Hm. My father," he remarks, an inscrutable expression on his face. He snaps the book shut suddenly and smirks. "Clearly, Lictor Acillmar treasured the gift." He gestures sardonically around at the abandoned tomes in the dusty archive.
After treating Highness' wounds as well as he can for the moment, Shaserai moves to the library to see what Ren and Jonagher have learned.
"It seems there's a construct in the basement, maybe some kind of golem" he remarks, looking at the citadel plans. "If I wanted to secure something valuable, there doesn't seem to be a more ideal location."
”Be careful in there.” Ragna calls absently after the goblin, considering what she could do to reverse some of the damage her shield had sustained.
"Hmmmm..." Jonagher squints over the other discoveries, particularly the architectural plans. When Shaserai mentions a 'construct' he diverts his attention momentarily to read thru those notes in the margin. "What does 'placating the construct' mean exactly? That sounds rather ominous...like it was a guardian of some sort. If there's a secret to getting past it, we'd do well to figure it out before venturing there." He glances over at Alak. "And I have a feeling we'll definitely be venturing there...especially if it was the citadel's most secure vault. Maybe that's where they stored your ring? If so, it's likely still there...safe and sound."
”Is the vault in the basement?” Ragna asks, stowing the metalworking tools and joining the others in the library. She hadn’t the knack for smithing her mother did, but she had managed to undo most of the damage done to her shield. ”That’s where our goblins are supposed to be.” The high concentration of dangerous talking creatures was causing her concern for their wellbeing to grow. ”This place is too large to throughly search every room and turn over every bit of debris for a ring before nightfall.” She says after consulting with the schematics. The citadel had been an impressive structure sitting imposingly in the distance for most of Ragna’s life, but the schematics somehow made it seem even larger on the inside. ”I say we clear out the remaining talking animals and search the ground floor while the arrowslits still provide some natural lighting. Or does everyone want to head straight for the vault?“ She hands the schematics back to Alak and draws her axe, the light from her shield casting dancing shadows on the southern wall as she passes each bookshelf. If the wolf did have a den, the single entrance room to the north would be a good place for it.
Jonagher squints at the arrow slit on the far side of the room to gauge the waning light as he follows Ragna. "I can still see fairly well, even in dim conditions, but yeah...probably best to make things safe up here before venturing down below. We wouldn't want something trapping us down there or blocking our way back." He motions for the rest of the team to join them outside the northern door and draws his blade. "If those drawings are correct, this room should be self-contained. Let's check it out and then we can turn our attention to further south."
Ragna opens the door in the northern wall. On the other side is a sturdy counter wrapping around a single chair. On either side of the door is a long wooden bench with rings set into the walls behind them to attach shackles. On the northern wall is a set of closed lockers. To the east an iron gate stands ajar, behind which are what appear to be holding cells. The air in here is stale, and the floor dirty.
"Hmmmm...a prison, it seems. I guess the Hellknights of Citadel Vraid dispensed their own brand of justice on whoever ran afoul of the law," Jonagher says aloud, "You suppose there's anything left in those lockers?" He points along the north wall. "Or the holding cells?"
”Only one way to find out.” Ragna replies, striding into the prison. Not wanting to relinquish her weapon after being ambushed two times in about as many minutes, she flips her axe around to bring the armor-piercing spike that balanced out the blade to bear, hooking it though one of the handles on the old locker and pulling. ”What do you think they meant by ‘Deed hidden and in play?’” She asks, referring to the final passage of the journal. ”Deed for the land? Why would they need to hide it?”
Jonagher moves along beside the warrior, noting her method of opening the locker with just a small degree of concern. "Ummm...is it locked? If so, I might be able to open that more easily with a bit less brute force and a bit more finesse, if you'd like?" As they stand over the box, he looks around the rest of the room to see if anything else of interest might be nearby...including a set of keys, perhaps.
"I don't know about that whole 'deed' thing," he adds, "Maybe the Order needed to register the citadel with Breachill? Hellknights are renowned sticklers for doing things by the book. If there is a deed, you think it would be something our friend Alak there might have inherited? Or, is it more of a 'he who bears this decree holds ownership of these lands' kind of thing?"
Shaserai follows the others into the old jail, looking around trying not to miss anything.
"If the deed is for the citadel I'd expect it to mention explicitly the Order of the Nail." He says at Jonagher's musings. "If it was made out to the holder any "savage" could get it, and I don't think any hellknight of the Nail would be happy with that."
"Fair point," Jonagher shrugs, "Maybe the deed is for some other property they acquired? After all, the Hellknights did leave this citadel at some point. Maybe once the deed was 'in play' that was the call for them to relocate elsewhere."
Jonagher glances over at Ragna still trying to pry her way into the locker. "You might break your axe, you know? You sure you don't want me to examine it first?
Ragna surrenders her place in front of the cupboards to the rogue with a shrug, holding her shield to provide light on any sort of locking mechanism they might have.
Highness scratches at his crown, deep in thought, wondering about the warg and where it came from before simply shrugging his shoulders and moving on. Seeing that the longshanks have moved over into the other room, he crouches down next to the southern door and tries to listen and look under the door.
"I am more concerned about the construct rather than the deed," Ireaneus offers as he looks around almost casually. "If it is something akin to a golem we may very well be unable to defeat it. As for placating it, perhaps a riddle that needs to be answered or some item that needs to be presented to it?"
Ragna finds that the lockers don't readily open. Rather than smash the doors off, she lets Jonagher attempt a less destructive method first.
"I don't know about that whole 'deed' thing," he adds, "Maybe the Order needed to register the citadel with Breachill? Hellknights are renowned sticklers for doing things by the book. If there is a deed, you think it would be something our friend Alak there might have inherited? Or, is it more of a 'he who bears this decree holds ownership of these lands' kind of thing?"
"The Order generally goes to great lengths to avoid subordination to local governments," Alak puts in. "I would expect any deed to the citadel to be worded to eliminate possible entanglements with the Isgeri authorities. Though why it would be 'hidden' rather than taken away by the last lictor, I couldn't say."
”Maybe the ‘deed’ controls the construct and they wanted it hidden nearby for any Hellknight that returned to the keep.” Ragna offers, expanding on Irenaeus’ thought.
"Wow...there's four of these things, and they look pretty secure," Jonagher says as he squats down at eye level with the lockboxes. As he takes out his tools, he nods towards a dirty trail leading from the door and back towards the cells. "Looks like someone's been here before us, so I'm kind of surprised these lockers aren't already looted...or, maybe whoever was here last left something behind, but failed to return? Doesn't seem like they were much for keeping the place clean, though, judging by the mud they tracked back and forth. So, I doubt they planned on staying for long..."
"Piece of cake on these three, but that second one's just a little rusted out," he states, "Or, maybe the lock's just broken and stuck? I've got no idea how old they are..."
He opens the lids on those he's unlocked so everyone can see what's inside.
Highness's ears twitched once, his mind barely registering the sound before the ingrained reflexes of a born survivor triggered, and he moved.
Highness kipped to his feet, and shoved off the wall like an arrow shot from a bow, slid on the floor past Alex and used the edge of the bookcase to change his direction slightly so he passed through the door diving past the mage and into the room, looking for any threats in the depths of the room, a dagger between his fingers.
As Jonagher has just finished with the lockers, Highness suddenly dashes into the room holding a dagger and peering into the dimness containing the holding cells.
Before anyone can question him, a skeletal figure emerges from the last cell on the right and advances toward the party. Highness throws his dagger when he has a clear shot, but it clatters against the door of the opposite holding cell. The bony figure slashes at Jonagher with sharp fingers that slice open the skin on his arm; a follow-up attack fails to find the half-elf's flesh.
Shaserai recognizes the creature as an undead skeleton, which is difficult to harm with piercing and slashing weapons. He wards the bleeding Jonagher against further attacks from the monster.
The next moment, another skeleton emerges from the nearest cell on the north and attacks Highness, its bony fingers swinging wildly over the goblin's head.
Despite his initial surprise at the appearance of a pair of animated skeletons, Irenaeus wastes no time before bringing to mind a by now familiar cantrip. A word and a sweeping gesture of his free hand later and lighting dances between the two undead creatures. With the spell done, the Chelish mage takes a better look at the foes, trying to bring to mind anything he may have learned about them.
Ren summons lightning to dance over the bones of the two attackers, though in retrospect he recalls that skeletons are resistant to many energy types, including electricity...
A third skeleton emerges from the farthest holding cell on the left and pushes past its fellows to reach the party. Its bony fingers tear at Jonagher, warded against the first skeleton by Shaserai's magic but vulnerable to this new arrival to the fray.
Ragna had been placidly watching Jonagher as he worked the locks and did not see Highness appear like a little green flash, only alerting to the danger as the goblin sends an errant dagger towards the skeletons. Sandwitched between Shaserai and the mostly unlocked lockers, there is nothing she can do as the skeletons descend on Jonagher and tear into his unarmored flesh. "Move your skinny elven body!" She shouts uselessly to the bleeding rogue, ready to rush into the gap should he create one.
With the taste of blood in his mouth, Jonagher heeds Ragna's words and ducks behind Highness to make room for her, hoping the armored warrior will have better luck fending off the skeletons. As he comes alongside Shaserai, he shakes his head to clear it and draws his blades.
Ragna brings her shield up and launches off her back foot into the gap created by Jonagher, nearly clipping the rogue with her shield as she slams into the skeleton across from Highness, the weight of her body behind her shield.. ”So much for dogs eating bones!”
Ragna steps into the space vacated by Jonagher, bringing her newly-repaired shield to bear against the skeleton, which just manages to step back enough to avoid a bone-crushing blow.
Alak draws his sword. "Why are all the rooms in here so crowded!?" he complains from outside the door.
Another skeleton emerges from a holding cell but, like Alak, cannot find a way to the front lines.
"Step back, Ren..." Jonagher encourages the wizard to move away from the door ( so Alak can join the battle. "I'll do the same..."
The goblin king delivers a roundhouse kick to the skeleton in front of him, which scatters it into a rain of loose bones, and follows up with a fist to the skeleton to his left, which also collapses. Stepping up among the osseous debris, he tries similarly to finish the skeleton still in the corridor between the holding cells but slips momentarily on a rolling phalanx and misses the enemy entirely.
Shaserai intends to keep the protective enchantment on the half-elf, but seeing Highness enter the fray he decides on a different course of action. He takes the silver holy symbol of Torag in hand, and raising it up he chants the prayer that will channel his deity's healing power.
The wave of magic washes over the group, closing their wounds and also clashes with the animating energies of the skeletons, attempting to unravel their unholy existence.
"Step back, Ren..." Jonagher encourages the wizard to move away from the door so Alak can join the battle. "I'll do the same..."
Ren quirks an eyebrow and gives a slight shrug of the shoulders. He releases the staff from his hand, and it supernaturally flies between Ragna and Highness to deliver a sharp rap to the skeleton by the wall before returning to his hand; then he steps back to make room.