Three of you move into the room as the gate continues to creak upwards and the dogs are finally loosed! They charge into the room, leaping at the three occupants. Osveta gets a nasty bite, while Pollo blocks most of an attack with his shield.
Pollo (-2)
Osveta (-8)
Anghariel
---
Doggos
---
Milo
Gigon
Milo moved into the room, into a flanking position with Osvetta, and then stabbed at a dog a couple of times. "I'll be in there in a moment, Anghariel!", he called out to the elf, who was also under attack.
His dagger in hand, Gigon moved forward to take a stab at one of the hounds.
The dog snarls as his bite is mostly thwarted by Pollo's shield, leaving a small scratch where a much worse wound might have been. The young man's mind reels as the dogs attack, worried about how he and his companions are the trespassers here, and the dogs are only doing their job. However, the man known as 'H' is almost certainly here, and must answer for his part in Bort's death.
Resigned to a task that will likely haunt him for a long time, he brings his flail to bear on the dog in front of him.
Spinning the flail head, he takes another swipe, praying under his breath that the dogs will run away.
Pollo turns his feet beneath him and hunkers down behind his shield again, hoping to ward off another attack from the angry canines.
The group quickly counterattacks, and although these dogs are clearly trained to fight, they are also dogs and you have swords. Within seconds three of them are dead or dying.
Anghariel, under attack from one of the dogs, quickly withdraws and fires out a ray of frost to slow it from pursuing her. The ray misses wildly. The dog quickly pursues her but stops as it runs into a wall of humanity and instead leaps at Osveta, biting her again.
Pollo (-2)
Osveta (-11)
Anghariel
---
Doggos
---
Milo
Gigon
Milo scrambled around a crate to attack the remaining dog, declaring, "Sorry, I can't have you biting my friends!"
They stop biting Milo's friends. The last dog goes down as Milo gets around a crate and leaps onto its back, stabbing down with his short sword.
End of Combat
As you recover from the short, but bloody affair with the guard dogs you take stock of the room. It has several boxes and crates, and a big strong-looking door which leads eastwards.
Milo hurried over to the far door and checked it for traps. Someone had released the dogs, and that someone could be getting away!
It's a thick door - you think you hear something like footfall but it's indistinct and fading. You can also tell the door is very soundly locked.
Ignoring the sadness at the sight of the dying dogs, Pollo turns his frustration at having to hurt them at the door. He gathers up a head of steam and within a couple of strides is up to full speed. He leans into the door with his shoulder, trying to break it free from it's locks.
Milo hoped Pollo wasn't going to hurt himself charging the door.
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With a heroic cry, Pollo has visions in his head of bursting down the door and confronting the villain Hallod. Certainly a reward for his efforts after Bort's murderer is caught and the town is saved probably. Perhaps a kiss from the turnip queen?
BANG!
Pollo launches into the door and crumples to the ground, holding his shoulder. It's really sturdy.
Milo calmly moves up to the door to show Pollo how it's done.
Okay no.
Almost.
There we go, the lock finally pops open as the group watches Milo work. The door swings open to reveal living quarters. There is a large wheel on the north wall and what appears to be a viewing slit in the door you just broke down.
The home is divided into three areas: a larder, a lavatory, and a living space. A tunnel leads into the earth to the southeast.
"This is where Hallod's been living, it looks like," Milo commented. "Not how I'd want to live."
We went back to check on Osveta. "If you're OK with sitting for 10 minutes, I can dress those bite wounds."
The elf lowers her slightly shaking hands, looking at the dead dogs now strewn around the room with some apprehension. “If there is anybody home, there’s no way they did not hear this racket,” she murmurs.
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Osveta can't help but giggle as Pollo slams into, and then bounces off of, the door.
When Milo comes to check on her she is caught off guard. "Uh, sure. Thanks."
Milo took out his healer's kit; he soaked a piece of gauze with alcohol and warned her, "This may sting a bit." He gently cleaned the wounds and applied a dressing to each set of puncture marks.
"It's fine," she tells the physician as he starts. "Thanks."
"Didn't we hear footsteps? Hallod is getting away!" Pollo says, trying to pretend his shoulder doesn't hurt.
“Um, I think it would be best if we moved on sooner rather than later,” Anghariel speaks up. “As long as none of you are injured too badly, of course. But if this Hallad is here, we probably shouldn’t give him enough to flee, or barricade himself in, or…whatever else he might do when faced with intruders.”
While everything else is going on around him, Gigon takes a look around the room to see if there is anything in the room that may be of use.
Despite the protests of Pollo and Anghariel, you spend the time to treat Osveta and the rest of you take a look over Hallod's domicile.
Gigon combs through the living space, and finds a few useful items:
- 15 feet of rope
- a whetstone
- a dagger
- a hammer
- 2 candles
- a coinpurse with 2 gold, 8 silver, and 14 copper
- a strongbox
The strongbox is made of stout wood, banded with iron, and is closed with a simple lock.
You can also take the time to search the larder or the latrine if you so dare.
Pollo is anxious, but accepts that Hallod had enough time to get a head start he wouldn't be able to overcome.
The young man rushes back towards the dogs in the other room, looking for one or two he might be able to save. Just something about slaughtering them was nagging at a place in his heart and mind that he wasn't comfortable with. Maybe if he could keep one at least from dying...
After discovering the various items, Gigon put the hammer and candles in his pack. The hammer for sentimental reasons, as it reminded him of his love he left behind to go on this journey to meet his father, and the candles because........of a thought he had on helping Anghariel with her scars.
Seeing Pollo go back into the next room he followed and asked, "Are you okay?"
Milo took out his picks and worked on opening the lockbox.
Pollo runs over to the dogs and finds one that has taken a nasty slash to the side and is effectively incapacitated. He looks around wildly, but thankfully this room contains a lot of useful storage and some lengths of cloth are procured. He manages to wrap the dog up and staunch the bleeding. He thinks she will survive.
Meanwhile, Milo gets to work on the lock box.
As Milo inserts the pick, a dart flies out of the box, slamming into his hand!
However, he quickly brings his hand up to his mouth, sucks out something bitter-tasting, and spits it out. He seems fine and gets back to work on the lock.
After a few more moments, he springs the lock. Inside the chest is a stack of 14 receipts that show several transactions with a merchant. These appear to correspond to what you recall from Bort's ledgers. Notably, there is a value for each item which is higher than what was paid - Hallod looks like he was skimming off of the top for whomever he was buying for.
There is also a substantial fortune, 21 gold and 37 silver are in the strong box.
Finally on the back of the transaction list is a crude map. It depicts a cave helpfully labeled “HIDEOUT,” next to a shape that might be a pond; from there, a winding path passes through a strange V-shaped chamber before ending at what appears to be a clearing with a tree stump labeled “DROP POINT.”
Osveta cranes her head to watch Pollo tend to the dog as she's treated, before a telltale thwip makes her jerk her head back towards Milo. "You okay?"
Pollo breaths a sigh of relief as it looks like the pupper is going to make it. He turns his head to respond to Gigon with a reserved smile. "Yea, I think so. A little better now at least." he says while patting the dog's scruff.
Wow... how in the nine hells did I pull that off? Must be fate...
Pollo opens his pack and pulls a couple of pieces of trail rations and offers them to the dog to see if she will take them. He looks around the room for some kind of leather strip that could be fashioned into a lead.
Pollo's attention is also grabbed with the sound of the trap going off. The young man turns his head in time to see Milo shake his hand and suck the poison out, then return to his work.
"Holy balls Milo... that was bad-ass!" he grins.
"So it looks like this guy is a middle man for... someone. Should we report this evidence now, or follow the rabbit trail further? We could scope out the drop point, or just go investigate this hideout." he offers what seem like the two obvious things to do based on their new evidence. "If there is a drop point, there must be some kind of signal to let the other person know there is something to collect. Hey... I wonder if Bort figured out what was going on here? Maybe he was killed because he knew too much? If that is true, who knows who we can trust in this town. Maybe we keep this info close to our vest until we find more out..."
The wounded dog takes the food greedily. She's in a bad state but she gets up and limps along after Pollo, a little hesitantly. It's clear Hallod has kept them hungry to keep them mean.
Milo cursed. Opening a lock without checking for a trap — he knew better than that! "Uh, yeah," he replied to Osveta.
To Pollo he said, "I vote we follow up now." He moved ahead and peered down the passageway leading away from the room. He advanced carefully, checking for traps as he went.
"Keep moving," Osveta chimes in as well, smiling at Pollo and his new dog.
Realizing that he had not looked about the attack dog room earlier, Gigon took a quick once around to see if anything caught his attention.
Unfortunately, his perusal was cut short by Milo's setting off of the trap.
Rushing back into the room and seeing the dart, the Alchemist picked it up an looked closer. A moment later he gave it a sniff to perhaps suss out what it was coated with.
Pollo looks warily at his pouch of food, wondering how long he can keep the pupper appeased. Guess it's turnip everything on the road for me! he thinks to himself as he begins to liberally offer treats. "I'm going to call you Phoenix." he says and carefully pats the dog on the head.
Agreeing with the others that they should move out, and happy that they have some concrete clues and evidence, Pollo gets ready to move out with them. Not before scanning the area one more time to look for any more food he could offer to his new pup, just in case.
The tunnel eventually changes into a system of natural caves. The path is not level, but it has been worked to allow for easy travel. Stalagmites have been cleared way in some spots and small footbridges have been stretched over pools of stagnant water.
After walking for around 10 minutes, you arrive at a small cave with a larger, more ominous pool of water in the middle.
The passageway opens up into a large natural chamber, the center of which is occupied by a pool of brackish water. Stalactites and stalagmites occupy much of the room, but a path between them leads around the pool and to another corridor on the opposite side of the cave.
As you come to the edge of the room, you see a strange blue glow start to emanate from the pool.
”Aaaand time to back up,” Osveta announces as the pool starts to glow.
“Oh, luminescence in a subterranean environment may have any number of causes,” the wizard murmurs as she creeps forwards to get a better look at the glowing pool, bare feet whispering across the stony floor. “I wonder…”
Milo moved forward so he could get a good at what was happening. He kept his distance from the pool, since who knew what might emerge!
Gigon pulled out an odd-looking stone from one of his pouches and continued with the others. There was one thing about being underground, at least he didn't feel like we being watched. As the glow from the pool started glowing, his curiosity was piqued.
"Oooo, glowing water," He says as he begins moving forward while drawing an empty vial.
”He gonna get eaten.”
Pollo raises his eyebrow and smirks at Osveta's quip, not necessarily disagreeing with her. He pulls his weapon and shield to prepare himself. This person they were chasing had already set a bevy of traps in their way to protect... whatever secrecy he had. Who knows what lie beneath the murky waters.
"Careful up there..." he says, his voice echoing in the cave.
”He gonna get eaten.”
Anghariel pings out a detect magic, and doesn't get anything back. Which is odd. Any item should surely radiate a magical aura. Unless it is a creature...
After you have a moment to react to the blue glow and begin to approach, a creature bursts from the water's surface! The head of a giant blue snake rises from the pool with sparks of electricity dancing between its fangs, while a metal, rattle-tipped tail pokes out of the water behidn it, audibly building up a charge with every flick of the rattle!
Anghariel
Milo
Pollo
---
Electro-snake
---
Osveta
Gigon
Anghariel grows a little paler in the face still when the lightning-touched serpent emerges from the pool. She quickly gets a hold of herself, though, and extends one hand towards the beast while uttering a string of baleful syllables, attempting to weaken it with a necrotising burst of dark energy. Having no wish to linger this close to such a foe, she then endeavours to get away from it as best she can.
"What the *&^*% is that!?", Milo cried. He ran around the pool and tried to stab it with his sword.
"Oh man this is going to hurt..." Pollo mutters as he runs forward, flail spinning in his hands. He grimaces as he steps into the water in order to get close enough to strike.
This is really going to hurt...
The youth spins the deadly spiked ball at the end of its chain and sends it hurtling in an upward arc towards the beast, expecting a jolt when it connects.
for
for
Anghariel channels a bit of dark magic to damage the giant snake while Milo beats on its scales uselessly. She then takes a step back to let Osveta in. Pollo manages to whack it solidly in the face with his flail while preparing for the worst.
The snake spots Gigon and Anghariel nicely line up and its rattle starts vibrating rapidly before a bolt of lightning fires from it through Anghariel and Gigon! Poor Gigon is caught totally off-guard and catches the lightning bolt full in the chest.
Anghariel (-8)
Milo
Pollo
---
Electro-snake (-12)
---
Osveta
Gigon (-16)
Milo stepped to the side to make room for Osveta to attack the serpent, and then stabbed twice with his sword. "You OK over there, Gigon?"
"S%+*shitshitshit" Osveta growls as she hustles around the others while drawing her sword.
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"GAH!!!" Gigon cried while nearly falling backwards away from the sudden appearance of this strange beastie. His utter shock of surprise however was nothing compared to the shock of the discharge from its tail however and for the briefest of moments, the Gnome felt his heart stop.
Shaking his head to regain his senses, he quickly pulled back and lobbed the stone in his hand at the oversized snake.
Feeling really good about his aim, he pulled his remaining stone.
Pollo furrows his brow when the snake jolts Anghariel and Gigon, simultaneously worried for how much it is going to hurt when it happens to him, and worried about how they fared. He has a momentary flashback to the acid spitting wolf...
... and an epiphany...
"Is this guy creating these unnatural beasts?!" he says, forgetting to remind the others the context of the wolf they encountered.
With renewed vigor, Pollo moves around the side of the snake, hoping to catch it off guard and keep it surrounded.
for
for
Milo scores a solid hit and Gigon has a moment of sheer panic as he is horribly electrocuted. However, there's still fight in the little gnome and he whips his thunder stone which goes into the snake's open mouth!
It closes its mouth and looks strangely at the group.
KABLAM!
Before its neck is blasted apart by the force of the stone! Snake chunks right down as Pollo charges in with what would have been a great shot, but it's already dead.
End of Combat