On the walk Gethric squints then utters "Hold up a moment" before going to retrieve a scrap of parchment from nearby brush. He takes a look over it to see if there is fortuitously writing 'pon it.
Revka takes the opportunity of the break called by Gethric to relay Warbal's information. "Darla, Gellius, I was talking with Warbal. Do you know that Hebla has been the chief who took the Bumblebrashers into the castle. And that she's still their leader?" She looks very impressed, but figures she might have to explain for the benefit of the others. "This was over eight years ago. It's really rare for a goblin chief to be in position for that many years. Many goblins don't even life that long! She must be really smart and wise!"
Indeed, the significance of Hebla's reign would have gone over Darla's head had Revka not explained it. "Is it also because of Hebla's leadership that your tribe has lived in peace with our town?"
"Is it also because of Hebla's leadership that your tribe has lived in peace with our town?"
"Ye-es?" Warbal answers Darla uncertainly. "Helba says the Bumblebrashers must be good neighbors to longshanks; then maybe longshanks will be good neighbors to us." She beams. "And you are! Heroes are coming to help Bumblebrashers! Helba is very wise."
Frowning at the parchment, Gethric shares to one and all "It's from Master Trenault's stack of papers... he must have awayed this away"
"That's odd," Revka remarks to Gethric. "That's from the scared man who made a speech at the Call? He came here after he left?" A thought hits her. "Do you think he went this way to deal with the Bumblebrashers himself?" She looks a bit anxious at that prospect.
Aronida frowns at the paper. "I don't think he would...it wouldn't be very smart for him to try and take on an entire tribe of goblins by himself." Plus it seems likely he started the fire in hopes of framing the Bumblebrashers for it. Why try to do that if he planned to go after them himself?"
It is very odd though. What other reason could he have for fleeing out this way? Shouldn't he have stayed in town, both to allay possible suspicion and to continue spreading rumors?
Aronida picks up the pace, suddenly very concerned. Something's wrong here.
Still all a frowning Gethric ventures his thoughts "Can't imagine he'd be up for taking on a cantankerous toddler let alone a tribe of what he's fearful of... doesn't bode much for the good though, that's for certain."
Gellius nods in agreement with the others.
"I'm more and more convinced he was responsible for the fire," he offers. "The guard at the gate said someone matching Calmont's description came running up and told her he'd seen the culprit. Yet how in the world is a torch wielding arsonist supposed to have got out of town unnoticed? It has all the hallmarks of a clumsy attempt at framing the Bumblebrasher tribe. The story makes no sense, unless you're already of a mind to blame them for anything."
"I'm sure he'll be steering well clear of the citadel," he says to Revka. "I suspect he just happened to head this way. I wonder if once he put his plan into action, things just spiralled out of control. Perhaps the scale of the damage he caused surprised him - people don't always make good decisions when they're upset or frightened."
Gethric frowns a mite, but doesn't raise any objection or inflection to Gellius' counsel. Shrugging he instead adds "Enough to keep an eye out for at any rate... any luck he'll leave a trail of read-crumbs along the way to let us know which way he went" a quizzical head lean and pause once sentence is completed as though he wasn't sure to be proud or embarrassed at his pun.
The party begins moving again, with a new uneasiness fueling their steps. They meet with no further reason for delay as the ground gradually rises away from the valley through which Breach Creek runs and grows more rugged. After something a little less than an hour, they can see a looming structure of crumbling stone and still-imposing battlements rising from a hilltop ahead. Nature seems to be slowly reclaiming the former home of the Order of the Nail Hellknights, but a flicker of fire can be seen on the roof of the keep's central tower.
"There," Warbal points. "The Bumblebrashers are up there -- or they were when I left." New respect for the little goblin's bravery is enkindled at the sight: the top of the tower from which she was lowered with a rope is at least thirty feet above ground level.
The gate-like doors which the road leads up to hang ajar -- not surprising, since no one has maintained this facility in years.
"Eep!" Revka squeeks as she watches the structure. "You really climbed off that?!" She shivers then suddenly considers a different perspective (literally). "The view from up there must be really good. You can see reeeeaaaaly far, can't you?"
She then considers more practical matters. "I suppose we have to go in the front door. Any idea what we'll find there, Warbal?" She speaks Taldane for the benefit of the others, but is perfectly happy to translate if Warbal struggles with any words or phrases.
"Eep!" Revka squeeks as she watches the structure. "You really climbed off that?!" She shivers then suddenly considers a different perspective (literally). "The view from up there must be really good. You can see reeeeaaaaly far, can't you?"
"Too far, too far," Warbal wails, shivering. "Looking so far can stretch out goblins' eyes; stretch too far and they break! Only Helba was brave and strong enough to look. She said she saw all the way to the Longshanks town." The goblin sounds awed at the thought.
"I suppose we have to go in the front door. Any idea what we'll find there, Warbal?"
Warbal shakes her head sadly. "The Bumblebrashers lived underground, where our eyes were safe from stretching. When the dragons came, we ran, ran up the stairs as fast as we could go; no time for looking around." She thinks hard a moment. "I know there is a big open place, hard dirt and weeds and stones, with walls all around and stairs going up, up, up."
It sounds like the battlements are accessed from an open courtyard or atrium.
Musing at the sight Gethric ponders "Worth a stalk and looksee at least as close as we can get? Could be something in the tower for the hearing?"
Aronida nods, crouching down to hide further in the underbrush. "Let's get as close as we can."
Crouching back with the others, Darla sheathes her rapier and produces a sling and bullet, which she readies for any impending hostilities. Looking to Gellius and Revka she quietly asks, "What sort of weapons do you two favor? It's a rapier and a sling for me, mostly."
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Gellius is looking over the citadel with undisguised pleasure, admiring the sweep of design and the well built fortifications and defensive measures.
"Don't get too close," he warns absently as Gethric and Aronida prepare to scout up ahead. "It's beautifully built. See? Those windows there, staggered to provide near all-round vantage points? And the way they've chosen the site. It won't be easy to approach without those inside knowing we're coming. Our best bet is that whatever has come up isn't interested in mounting guards."
"It's going to take longer than it looks to make our way to the Bumblebrashers," he continues, pulling out some parchment, quill and ink to begin a brief diagrammatic sketch of his guess at the layout. "We'll need to find the central courtyard where there should be stairs up to the keep and battlements. I presume we'll look in on the tribe first?" he looks to the others for confirmation.
"Anyhow, first thing we'll probably find when we enter the doors is that we get turned into the walls of the citadel itself, he continues, gesturing to his crude but neatly drawn sketch. "These places are designed to turn intruders into narrow passageways in the wall so that any potential attackers have to fight for every foot of passage, all while being harried by the defenders. It will take some twists and turns, but I think we should make our way into the central courtyard. Look in on the tribe to make sure they're okay and see what Chief Helba can tell us. After that, we can look to make our way down into the tunnels beneath. Do what we can to earn our title of heroes!"
"I mean....I know we're not expecting a true defensive force," he concludes, looking up from his drawing with a beaming smile. "But the design isn't going to help us. We're unlikely to get much warning if we stumble into any dangerous animals. It's so exciting to finally see it. I can't wait to get inside!"
Looking to Gellius and Revka she quietly asks, "What sort of weapons do you two favor? It's a rapier and a sling for me, mostly."
Emerging from his excited sketching, he notices Darla's question and indicates first the weapons at his hip, then the longbow slung over his shoulder.
"Rapier and Main Gauche for me," he says. "I'm trained with a bow and a passable shot, but I'm generally more comfortable with a blade."
Copying her, he prepares to provide support for the scouts, unslinging his longbow and nocking an arrow, just in case anything should happen to them as they creep ahead of the party.
Battered reinforced doors hang slightly ajar at the main entrance to Citadel Altaerein. Above the doorframe, a tarnished seal depicting a sunburst made of nails stands out in relief on the keep's stonework. Under the seal runs a worn but clear line of carved text. No sounds are immediately discernible from within, but there is a definite funk of animal musk with an undercurrent of decay wafting out from between the doors. Something alive has been in there more recently than eight years ago, but whether it's still there, or still alive, is unknown.
Despite what Warbal says, Revka would like to see the view from up top one day. Maybe if one of the Longshanks hold my legs, I won't fall off. And I wonder if you can touch the clouds on a good day?
She pays little attention to Gellius long monologue, still up in the clouds with her thoughts. Rather, she looks at the drawing he made. "Oh, you draw very well!" At Darla's question, Revka pulls the starknife from her belt. It's adorned with ribbons and streams in various colors. "This is my weapon, a gift from Selenie. It's for slicing and for throwing! I added streamers, so that I can throw it further - farther...? More far." She shakes her head, frustrated with the difficulty of Taldane. "And of course, I can bite someone too!" She opens her mouth wide, showing a row of razor-sharp teeth.
"Speaking of which, walking has made me hungry." She looks ahead. "We have to wait for the two short ones anyway." Revka digs some slightly bruised tomatoes from her backpack and starting eating them with visible delight. "They're my favorite! Do you want some as well?"
Gellius smiles somewhat unconvincingly but takes the proffered, slightly damaged fruit and makes a show of enjoying it.
“Thank you, Revka,” he says. “Simple food is sometimes the best.” As they wait for Aronida and Gethric’s return he briefly considers his family back Home. I wonder what they’d think to see me sharing food with not only a commoner, but a goblin, no less?
Aronida tenses as she sees the writing. It's not like she didn't know this was a Hellknight citadel, but somehow the Infernal phrase makes it seem more real. They're gone. They left. Even if they were still here, you're a free citizen now. You don't have anything to be afraid of.
Her mental reassurances ring hollow.
Aronida bites her lip and forces herself to focus on the task at hand. Instinctively she wants to scope out the entire place. Knowledge is power, and more importantly, knowledge means not getting caught by a vicious monster you would have seen if you'd just been patient.
"Let's keep going around," she whispers. "See if we notice anything."
And options exist. As you move south along the front wall, you note another set of double doors in the southern wing, though these are not ajar. Following the side wall to the west, you find that the wall has collapsed near the back corner; without approaching too closely, you see what seem to be humanoid figures standing upright but eerily still within.
You turn north and continue around the back of the citadel where, just north of the central tower, another portion of exterior wall has collapsed. It looks to have fallen several seasons ago, as the underbrush outside has grown well into the small room, snarls of wild blackberry climbing up and around what appear to be shelves or cabinets within.
Continuing around the northern wing, you turn east and find a large section of wall collapsed toward the northeast corner of the citadel. The ground here is sodden and swampy; perhaps a natural spring underground has caused the masonry to collapse. A large puddle lies half-in and half-out of a debris-strewn room, an armored corpse on a muddy lump in the midst of the water.
Turning the final corner to the south, another small portion of exterior wall has collapsed. Ahead, you only return to the main gate and, past that, to your companions.
Revka digs some slightly bruised tomatoes from her backpack and starting eating them with visible delight. "They're my favorite! Do you want some as well?"
Warbal considers the squashy tomato with evident interest but shakes her head. "I will eat when the Bumblebrashers eat," she concludes with great self-abnegation.
Aronida nods and starts making her way back to the rest of the group. Once they meet back up, she reports, "There's several ways in. More doors a bit further south plus three places where the walls have crumbled enough that we could slip inside. One to the south, there's something in the room but I'm not sure what. Statues maybe? The west has an entrance near the central tower with some shelves but not much else. And north there's a swampy area with a corpse. Not a goblin, it's too big. Probably human."
She considers their options. "Gethric suggested checking out the north first, and I agree with him. I don't like that human corpse. There shouldn't be anyone here except the Bumblebrashers. Should there?" She looks at Warbal just in case she's mistaken and there are in fact humans at the citadel. "Otherwise I'd vote for the west entrance; it's the closest to the tower so we might be able to get to the Bumblebrashers more easily from there."
Tilting his head to one side as Aronida lays out the report, Gethric waits patiently before adding at the end "Body's a bit ripe... think its been there a while. Not suggesting we necessarily go in through the puddle, but it's worth a closer look first?"
"I don't like that human corpse. There shouldn't be anyone here except the Bumblebrashers. Should there?" She looks at Warbal just in case she's mistaken and there are in fact humans at the citadel.
Warbal shakes her head vigorously. "Bumblebrashers," she begins to count out the known inhabitants of the citadel on her fingers, "Big Bumble, goblin dogs, Pib and Zarf, dead longshanks ... It could be the dead longshanks! Helba says the other parts of the castle are dangerous because of the dead longshanks. Bumblebrashers stay away!"
Taking a mental pause, Gethric backs up his train of thought to a previous station and queries "How long has the dead longshanks been dead? - was it ever alive?... and whats this about dangerousness? Does it have anything to do with the man-figures?"
"Loo-o-oong time," Warbal answers. "When the longshanks who lived in the castle left, they left behind their dead longshanks. Helba says it isn't safe to go where the dead longshanks are, so Bumblebrashers never go on that side of the castle."
Revka listens to Aronida while she chomps down on the last of her tomatoes. "Sorry, all gone," she offers as a sincere apology to the returning halflings, opening her mouth wide as proof of her statement.
She's not too worried about the mention of a corpse at first, until Warbal mentions Helba's warning. "I don't like that. Don't like that... Longshanks corpses shouldn't be dangerous. They should be just... just corpses." Revka looks worried and grabs one of her ears in each fist, pulling them down to cover the sides of her face. She looks at Aronida. "If you don't like that corpse, then shouldn't we avoid it, stay as far away as possible? Couldn't we slip into the walls where you saw, and find our path to the Bumblebrashers that way?"
"Could these dead men be...undead?" Darla asks the others. "I've heard stories of such, but...well, to be honest, they frightened me and I didn't listen very closely to them."
Aronida considers. "I don't think the corpse we saw was undead, or at least it wasn't moving around." Glancing at Warbal, she asks, "Which side of the castle do the Bumblebrashers avoid? Is it the north side?"
"The primary reason I want to check out the corpse is because I don't like it. For there to be a corpse someone had to come here, relatively recently. Why? What were they hoping to accomplish? And more importantly, what killed them?" She sighs. "That being said, whoever it was probably died a few weeks given that the body was partially decomposed. So maybe it isn't important right now. I think slipping in through the west side would get us the closet to the Bumblebrashers, although without a map of the citadel it's hard to tell."
Looking up (literally if not necessarily figuratively) Gethric seeks Gellius to weigh in with opinion. He doesn't seek to add specificity beyond "Whichever way we breach I think we try to come in softly softly cheeky monkey on the sly... just with the full force in case the cider topples over and we end up in a sticky mess."
Glancing at Warbal, she asks, "Which side of the castle do the Bumblebrashers avoid? Is it the north side?"
Getting to her feet, Warbal looks intently at the citadel, turns her back to it, takes a few shuffling steps forward, moves her hands to one side, then to the other thoughtfully, apparently orienting herself to the underground part that can't be seen. "This side," she finally says decisively. "Bumblebrashers live here, this side is where the dead longshanks are." She seems to be indicating that the goblins live under the northern wing and avoid the southern side because of Helba's interdiction.
Revka doesn't know, and likewise looks up at Gellius to decide where to go. After all, he knows the most about castles.
Gellius considers the report from the scouting party but finds himself as torn as the others.
“It seems to me that we can’t really know what’s best,” he concludes finally. “Any of the entrances we choose could be the most dangerous or could allow us easy passage to the tribe. So I think we should take the one likely to yield us the most information.”
“I doubt the corpse you saw is one of the undead,” he continues. “I’m no priest, but from what I’ve read they generally shamble around rather than just lying there. However, it’s the one most likely to teach us something new. Let’s be careful, but I vote we head that way.” He smiles somewhat apologetically as he confesses an ulterior motive.
“I will admit, I’m also very keen to examine the damage to the structure,” he says. “I think this could be a valuable asset to the community. But a castle without walls is….well. Not ideal.”
Gethric perks up as Gellius puts his nominal vote water-wards, and looks about on the ground for a couple of good sized rocks... for which he clarifies "We peg the body a couple of times... make sure it's real dead and not fake dead... then we can wade in" with a wink.
Aronida nods. "That sounds like a good plan." One corner of her mouth twitches upward. "After all, we halflings are known for our skill in throwing rocks."
Once the group is ready, she leads them through the underbrush to the north side of the citadel.
"All right," Revka quickly concurs, trusting in Gellius' judgment and keenly aware that any delay might put the Bumblebrashers in more danger. Once the decision is made, she hop from foot to foot with excess energy, eager to get going.
"Seems reasonable," Darla chimes in on Gellius and Gethric's plan.
Aronida and Gethric lead the others back the way they came. There are numerous rocks to choose from, some naturally occurring and other pieces of crumbled stonework from the citadel.
Gellius moves as quietly as he can as the group skirts the citadel grounds.