Nosh, in his fear, flings another blob of acid at the most active wolf, unaware of if it is even a threat anymore, but he doesn't even manage to hit one of the bodies in front of them.
Findlaine, who apparently is just a pro at fighting dogs, and Galen quickly take out the last two dogs before anyone else is hurt. They collapse to the ground.
End of Combat
The room you're in is full of barrels, and at this point you notice that the floor is slick with grease - a moot point considering how quickly you took down the dogs.
You can either explore the barrels, or try the east door - which appears to be locked.
Laurel shines his Dagger towards the barrels in case he can see recent signs of Hallod stirring.
Tracking 1d20+3
He decides to occupy space where there would be "overlap" between alternate divine influences of "truth" - wedging between the human and the elf - as the company continues to press forward.
Nosh approaches the locked door, alert for traps and says, "What do you think? Shall we go ahead?"
Zurkha nods at Nosh. "Da, please see to the door," he says, gripping his sword.
Galen stays back far enough to not be in the way but feels himself leaning forward to try to see through the door as soon as it is opened
Nosh twitches nervously as he looks at the lock, pulls out his tools, and gets to work, checking for any kind of trap that might be present as he goes.
There's no trap but what should be a fairly simple lock is just -not- working out for Nosh. The group gathers around which just makes the little goblin nervous as his work is examined. Finally, just as he thinks he's getting there... the pick snaps.
Laurel yawns...
Zurkha mimes lowering his shoulder into the door. "Do we want to try it my way?"
"I'm with Zurkha on this one, I don't want to give our opponent any extra time to prepare," Findlaine says, stretching out so that she is ready to help with breaking the door down.
Galen doesn't have room to get in close, and isn't really the strongest fo the group. he waits for someone to be able to get through
Nosh, confident at having handled the trap upstairs, gets his tools out to deal with the lock. Its not that hard of a lock and he can easily get past it...he thinks. After his first attempt, he shrugs and mumbles, "Bad lighting is all. Shouldn't be this hard." After the 3rd and 4th try, he is muttering curses under his breath and sneaking nervous glances at his companions and his hands start to shake. By the end, he is just jamming his tools into the lock wildly in frustration and the end breaks off in the lock and he just slumps in defeat.
Impatient, Laurel squeezes past Nosh "S'rry ol' bud yeh tried yer bestiss" between the Zurkha and the Elf, ready to throw his full body weight against the mass.
Findlaine tries her key as Nosh has a mild breakdown.
BANG!
The door flies open and the cursed lock is destroyed with it. Within is what appears to be Hallod's home. 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.
Zurkha nods appreciatively. "Khoroshaya," he says to Findlaine, clapping Nosh on the back with what is meant to be a reassuring gesture.
Zurkha enters the room, peering down the tunnel.
Galen recasts light on to his own sword, then slowly enters the room, weapon ready.
"this is quite a bit bigger than it looked from the outside. how far do you think this tunnel goes?"
"this is quite a bit bigger than it looked from the outside. how far do you think this tunnel goes?"
Zurkha pokes his head into the tunnel, "I'm hoping all the way to Hallod."
Nosh enters the room muttering under his breath and flinches at Zurkha’s contact. He begins to look for papers, especially those that might explain why Hallod had a grudge against Bort.
Laurel's tummy grumbles suddenly, and he finds himself searching the larder...
Galen will check out the Larder
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To Galen "Two shinin' sords we be, eh Galen? An' brinin' tha light whut put out e'er darkniss, en not jes teh see - but that too! - but ta shine tha truth upon yonder, an' fin' whut brute be done merderd ar' comrad, fallen to ternips this part'o'tha werld, an' our paths crossed, whut may we find 'ere?? - be it more poison ternips - or jus' more ternips - soon we can ta see." Laurel pauses to witness the effect his words have upon his friend (if any), then quickly "Ah'll go lo, ye ken go hi!" and goes about searching the larder Dagger first...
Having heard (but not really comprehended) Laurel's speech, Zurkha stops his advance toward the tunnel, and turns to face the boy, a puzzled look on his face.
Noting that no one else took the horrid task of searching the lavatory, Findlaine sighs, places a hand over her mouth and nose, and takes a look around.
Galen just raises his eyebrow at the young man. still having a hard time understanding all of what the boy says, he thinks he got the gist.
"yes, interesting fortunes to bring such a varied group together under such circumstances. as the boy leads the way intot he room, galen adds "do be careful. turnips might not be all we find in these tunnels. if nothing else I expect we will find a very dangerous man who possibly killed a very friendly dwarf already.
You all split up and start searching the area, wondering where the hell Hallod has got to.
The first thing you notice is the large wheel in the north - it was clearly used to release the dogs. If he was here to raise the gate, he escaped during the fight.
The larder is a simple storeroom full of scraps of food - meat, cheese, and weak ale. There is also a crate of wine bottles that upon a glass are good Chelish vintage, these were probably expensive. Also turnips because that's Plaguetsone.
The living area is a mess, with a cot in one corner and a crude firepit in the other. A simple chimney leads up from this room before connecting
to another in the house above. You find a few pieces of gear in your search:
- a whetstone
- a dagger
- 15' of rope
- a hammer
- 2 candles
- a coin purse with 2 gp, 8 sp, and 14 cp
But most interestingly is a strongbox made of wood, banded with iron, and closed with a simple lock. When rattling it, it sounds full of papers and coins.
Poor Findlaine sees nobody searching the lavatory and volunteers herself as tribute. She finds a number of small, identical bottles among the trash which thankfully aren't covered in gross. The bottles all have a silvery residue in them and smell strongly of iron and something terribly acrid.
Zurkha begins exploring the passageway which begins as worked stone but continues on quite a ways, turning into a natural cavern passage.
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Resisting the urge to scold the group for making their only female member potentially trudge through some miscreant's waste, Findlaine stops herself on account of the fact that if there was anything dangerous to be found she'd be happiest if it were her that found it. It was her duty, after all, to be the shield that guarded these people in the worst of times. Why does the worst of times have to smell so damn bad though? Findlaine returns to the group with the vials in tow. "Any of you good with alchemic things? Not really my area of expertise."
Laurel gleefully walks out of the larder with meat, cheese, and turnips chewing about in his mouth, impeding his speech as he responds to Findlaine's question:
"Ayyuph, aye dooth" Looking intently at a vile "Iss depfphnlly poiphhn" Casting his best "expert" glare at her, mouth still full, chewing away.
He spins on his heels, swallows the remaining snack, and walks over to Nosh "S'me are that Alves smells a'poorly an' ne'er notissed it til now?" scrunching his face into wrinkled nose with tongue sticking out...
Zurkha pulls a hunk off the block of cheese off Laurel is holding (if the boy protests, Zurkha give the palms up, "What are you doing" gesture, with accompanying raised eyebrow). As he pops it in his mouth he catches the smell from Findlaine. "Bozhe moi, woman, what was in there?"
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Flushing a deep red, Findlaine narrows her gaze to Laurel and Zurkha. "Please, I'd love to show you. It'd be a shame if you were to have an accident and fall into it, though."
"Please, I'd love to show you. It'd be a shame if you were to have an accident and fall into it, though."
"Of course, for the being careful..." Trusting Findlaine, Zurkha heads over to the door where she had been, his face wrinkling in disgust. "T'fu, it smells like someone s[bleep] in there!"
Nosh, busy with the main room, ignores most of the items, but grabs the money. When he sees the locked box, he sighs, pulling out his thieves tools and looks dejectedly at the broken tools. He tries to lift it, but the heavy box is pretty big. He looks up and says to Zurkha, "Can you open up this? I can't open this lock, but you might be able to break it open."
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Laurel - a "youngest" - flinches appropriately to allow Zurkha to pull off just enough to constitute less than perhaps the orc had intended but not so much so as to inspire a second robbery.
To Nosh whether or not he is listening "An' din't know Alfs could tern thet color, didja?"...
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Nosh turns around at Laurel's comment and sees all the others gathered around the latrine, Findlaine and Zurkha's obvious distaste and goes over to take a look. Nosh pokes his head into the chamber and says, "What's the problem?" and goes in, rooting around for anything of interest.
Nosh gives the interesting bottle a look over once he sees it.
Zurkha raises the box high over his head, then brings it down squarely on a stone protruding from the floor.
Galen takes an attempt at breaking the box
he comes closer to breaking his finger than the box. under his breath he says something that no one present has likely heard a cleric say out loud before...
While the adults busy themselves with less interesting details, Laurel attempts to track Hallod.
Tracking +3
The vials smell weird, but Nosh can't place them. Maybe someone else could figure it out.
Zurkha decides to solve the chest the old fashioned way, and slams it from overhead down onto the ground. A poison needle goes 'boink' out of it, but nobody is hurt because of the old-fashioned orcish key.
Document and money spill out of the chest. You find:
- 21 gp
- 37 sp
- A list of 14 receipts for fairly valuable transactions. A scrap shows the transaction with a value slightly higher than that listed. Looks like Hallod has been skimming off of the top.
On the back of the transaction list is a crude map. It depicts a cave helpfully labelled "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 labelled "DROP POINT."
Laurel states the obvious, outstretching his double-jointed finger and plopping it right on the words "HIDEOUT" on the map: "Aye - thinkin' we 'ud star makin' ar way ta here!"
Galen looks over Laurel's small shoulder. "well, that is less than subtle, isn't it? well before we go off in search of the hideout, we should probably find Hallod. maybe he can tell us where these locations are. this map is quite crude, I'm not sure we could find it on our own. i don't remember seeing a pond like this one on our grand tour of the village.
"I'm with Galen on this one," Findlaine says, poring over the receipts to see if she can glean what sort of transactions are being made. "We can't leave here without apprehending Hallod. The man has a lot to answer for."