Slashing his opponent again, Marius moves away around the stack of crates at his back. Sighting the grey-haired leader, the nobleman affixes him with a threatening grin and advances.
"So... don't suppose you would like to surrender now? Just to throw that out there. You might make it out of this alive yet," Rose says to the caster when all other enemies are down and no one on the team seems injured - other than herself, that was.
Marius scores a clean hit on his opponent, dropping the woman to the sawdust-spattered floor before moving to support his companions. In response to Rose's offer (and her bolt whizzing a good foot or so past his leg), the white-haired man laughs once, mirthlessly. "If this is the worst you can do then no, I don't think so."
Instead, he hops from one crate to another to get behind Konstiantina and slash at the paladin with his sickle, but he almost loses his balance and instead flails about for a heart-stopping moment before recovering.
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Konstiantina tenses as the man drops behind her, then reverses her grip on her longsword, grasps it with both hands, and slams it backwards into the man, not bothering to even turn to face him.
The man gasps as the longsword goes clean through his gut and and out again, his eyes bulging before he coughs a cascade of blood down the front of his leather armour. He sways a little, almost losing his footing on top of the crates, but does not fall.
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To add insult to grievous injury, Lotti's magic finally catches hold of the white-haired man's mind, and his eyes glaze over.
Watching this unfold, the remaining thug decides that enough is enough, and legs it towards the exit. He attempts to scale a pile of bales, but his foot gets hooked under one of the ropes tying them together, and he crashes to the floor in an undignified pile.
With a sigh, Marius gives Konstiantina a nod and strides over to the fallen thug. "Stay down, if you value your life," he warns the prone man, laying the falcata on his shoulder, edge by his cheek.
Konstiantina looks over her shoulder at the gray-haired man, her one visible eye narrowed in distaste. Seeing his dazed expression, she turns and places the length of her blade across his throat.
When his focus returns, she speaks, her voice low with lethal warning.
"This is your first and only chance to surrender. I'd take it if I were you."
"I must admit, I feel a bit left out in that apparently my previous offer of surrender has already been forgotten! Ah, the woes of my frail and delicate heart. Still, you should take her offer now, sir assassin, if not mine," Rose adds, and reloads and readies the crossbow for the first target that does not surrender to either Marius or Konstiantina.
"I mean, really... are *these* the guys I was so worried about earlier? Maybe Lotti wasn't off with their grossly unprofessional notes and how it reflects poorly on their assumed quality."
There's wilfulness, and there's stupidity. In the face of overwhelming odds, vulnerable, outnumbered and out-powered, the two still facing Martella's agents acquiesce to their defeat, although Mr. White Hair does so with many dark looks and clenchings of the jaw.
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"You made the right call, my incompetent friend," Marius assures the fallen assassin(?) as he rolls the man over and binds his wrists. "Blood is terribly hard to get out of wooden floors, far better to keep it safely in your veins, mmm?"
That handled, the nobleman rises and affixes Whitehair with a piercing look as he approaches. "Good evening, sir, I don't believe I caught your name, before. My companions and I are looking for Lady Martella Lotheed--might you point us in the right direction?"
As Marius approaches, Konstiantina keeps the edge of her wickedly sharp longsword pressed to the gray-haired man's neck. Not pressing hard enough to cut the skin, but making it clear that he's but a second from spouting his life's blood all over the crates.
Meanwhile, Rose decides to bind the other prone man, then knocks him out with the but of her rapier and proceeds to search the fallen bodies of him and the three dead assassins(?). Marius and Konstiantina seemed to be having way too much fun interrogating the grey-haired caster one to interrupt!"Dear servant, please aid me in my search. We have the room to do afterwards too. No use standing by idly, hm?" she says to Lotti as she gets to work.
The white-haired man gets a stubborn look on his face as Marius begins to speak, but Konstiantina's sword as his throat seems sufficient cause for reconsideration. Trying to not move, he looks pointedly at the floor. "Below," is all he says, swallowing hard.
Meanwhile, Rose and Lotti make short work of disarming the thugs, although searching the myriad boxes, crates, bales and barrels would be a very time-consuming endeavour. Peeking in a few of them reveals little of value, in any case - seasonal decorations, old clothing, out-of-fashion furnishings and drapery, mismatched oddities.
Konstiantina rotates the blade just a fraction to once again impress its presence upon the man.
"And who sent you? What else do you know of their plans? What other allies do you have in the building?"
Rose eyes the medallions thoughtfully, then glances the assassis over as a plan begins to form in her mind. Her crossbow still loaded and the top pointed down, she begins dragging the remaining conscious guard (?) over to Marius and Konstiantina.
Even in his dire situation, the white-haired man smirks at Konstiantina's first question, glancing contemptuously at the thugs laying on the floor. "No-one sent me, I am a freelance agent. I associated myself with the Brotherhood in the hopes that... well, it does not matter now. Clearly they are incompetent." He hesitates before adding. "The ones below are less so, though, and especially her. Wyssilka the Fantabulous." A grimace, then, "They have the Princess's spymaster prisoner in her own safehouse. Ironic, wouldn't you say? I believe they mean to kill her, but that would be a foolish waste of juicy, tasty secrets. And Wyssilka is not a fool, her disguises notwithstanding."
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"Wyssilka," mutters Konstiantina, and looks sidelong to Rose. "You called it."
Then, with a surge of violence, she cracks the pommel of her blade into the white-haired man's brow, seeking to drop him there and then.
That done, she glances around the huge room. "Best we continue. And given whom we're up again, we should be ready for Wyssilka to present herself under a disguise of some sort. Ready? There must be a hidden trapdoor around here somewhere..."
Unless the trapdoor presents itself, Konstiantina then leads the group up the stairs to explore the chamber from which the gray-haired man emerged.
"Wyssilka," mutters Konstiantina, and looks sidelong to Rose. "You called it."
From kneeling position, taking stock of the new inventory and testing the balance of the knives, Rose nods. "There are times I wish I was wrong more often." She grimaces momentarily and places the back of her right hand over her eye, suppressing a flash of headache. "The senate, first and foremost. But there was that incident in the crypts too, and before that..."
"But each of us is here for a reason," she decides, and rises just as Konstinatina knocks out the presumably hired wizard.
"Best we continue. And given whom we're up again, we should be ready for Wyssilka to present herself under a disguise of some sort."
"Maybe. But judging by how overconfident she's been so far and how careless with hiding her identity, I'd sooner think her to approach us in the open, or at worst lead us into to trap. That said, I think it's reasonable to assume everyone we find in the building, excluding Martella , are with the Brotherhood. Even other captives, I'd leave them until she can verify they're really on our side. Anyway, there are a lot of pipes around that have no structural reason to be here. Something definitely is hidden down there, somewhere."
Just as they're about to move on, Rose eyes the gash on her arm and sighs. "Oh, right. Konstiantina, if you can spare it, could you perhaps heal this before we move on? It's not that bad, and it feels wasteful to drink an expensive potion for it. But I could if you prefer not to."
A quick scan of the main warehouse area floor reveals no trapdoors, so the group moves to explore what seems to be the office. The metal pipes glimpsed from below ascend through the northwest and southwest corners of this room, while the window overlooks the myriad crates and boxes stacked below. An oak desk takes up considerable space on the eastern side, together with a large, intimidating chair. An open door to the south reveals an unused and empty storage closet.
As she walks past the northern pipe to enter the room, Rose notices several barely-visible seams. At first glance they look like they are part of the construction, but subtle irregularities prompt the noblewoman to inspect them closer. Pushing the metallic surface in several spots yields nothing more than a high-pitched creak as the tube shifts slightly in its housing. Experimentally, Rose shifts her grip horizontally, and... click. A large panel slides smoothly aside, revealing a series of metallic rungs affixed to the inside of the pipe, descending into darkness that seems a lot farther than the warehouse floor.
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"But each of us is here for a reason,"
"Indeed," Marius replies dryly. "We walked through yonder door to rescue our patron."
++ ++ ++ ++ ++
Marius follows Rose and Konstiantina in their search of the rest of the warehouse. When Rose finds and reveals the hidden door and ladder in the pipe, the nobleman makes a wordless but impressed noise. "An almost literal bottleneck, I suggest we avoid announcing ourselves. Do any of you posses magic capable of dampening sound?"
"I don't, alas," whispers Konstiantina as she placed a hand over Rose's wound, and will's the grace of her patron into her companion. "In fact, I've very little ability to move quietly in this armor. Perhaps I should go last?"
"There," she says to Rose with a smile, and gives her a shoulder a squeeze. "All better."
Rose chuckles and rolls her eyes at Marius' earlier comment as the group begins the search in earnest, ending in her finding the path down. Truthfully, she might not have found the seems if not for the clue that the pipes were both very big and structurally unneccesary.
But she didn't feel particularly pressed to make that admission.
"Do any of you posses magic capable of dampening sound?"
"You mean to say you find my talents magical? Thank you for the compliment, though I'm afraid it really is just skill with me," Rose replies in good humor.
"There," she says to Rose with a smile, and gives her a shoulder a squeeze. "All better."
Rose tries moving her arm. "Indeed! Most appreciated, Lady Mokei," She gives the paladin a warm smile before turning back to the dark descent in front of them and growing more serious.
"Marius is right - we'd be very exposed moving down. And if they're clever, they have people waiting down there watching the descent. That's a big IF by now, but let's assume the worst. The only possible advantage I see is that they might not have heard the fighting from below. Maybe they have a password to descent safely, one we could trick from the surviving guards here. Would require waking up two of them, but I have an idea for if we do. Or we could take our chances and use the smoke pellets Martella gave us to obfuscate our exit. That grants some measure of protection when we emerge, at least."
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Lotti glances at the pipes. "Silence, no. But perhaps we do not need to give them silence, but rather something that's not out of the ordinary to listen to instead." She pauses for a moment and clears her throat.
"I am a freelance agent. I'm so much better at my job than anyone else ever could be, and my breath smells like old cheese."
The sound isn't a perfect match for the pale-haired man lying on the warehouse floor, but it's clear at least who the old gnome is impersonating. She shrugs and clears her throat again. "Don't know if that'll help though. If he's more of the silent type usually, it'll make folks suspicious. I'd recommend pinning one of these," she passes out the starry-eyed mask symbols, "in a slightly-prominent place in case someone's waiting at the bottom. And, in the worst case and we are surrounded by hordes of Wyssilkas, we can always pretend to be new recruits. Clearly their standards are... low."
Rose grins at the idea. "Impersonating the voice of their mage. Clever. That might put them off-guard as we descent. But the moment we get down... well, the letter suggested they knew who we were. Or at least Wyssilika does. Still, we could wear the amulets just in case."
Konstiantina frowns.
"There's always the more direct method. We descend and subdue whomever we come across."
But then she gives both Lotti and Rose a wry smile. [b]"...though I'm probably the only one in favor of such a method. The main question is the order of descent. Should the quietest go first, to ensure as much surprise as possible, or should I go first, to hold the ground as the rest of you descend?"[b]
"If we're simply going to cut our way through, I would like to volunteer myself to be first through the breach."
Rose rummages in her backpack and takes out the large shield the group received from the museum curator. It was a finely crafted thing, unblemished by time and surprisingly light to wield - that was, for its size. "Actually, I'll go first. If there's a trap in there, I don't fancy a vertical tango to get down to where I need to be."
She tries on the magical shield and takes an experimental thrust, not missing a beat, and nods. "It'll throw off my aim, but it should keep me safe-ish. Plus, I have the best reflexes, and if I get injured then either of you can heal me. I can't do the same for you," she declares, then approaches the ladder. "Okay, Lotti. On your mark. Oh... and do you have something to light the handholds on the way down? "
Marius pats at his pockets for a moment before coming up with a small sunrod, which he promptly cracks and shakes for a moment before handing it to Rose. "Please be careful, Lady Talbot. We'll be right behind--well, above--you."
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“No, no, don’t bother yourselves.” Lotti pulls on the bridge of her nose to give her voice a bit more of a nasal twang. “I have to do everything around here myself, don’t I? No, that wasn’t a question, you dolt! Now stay put and I’ll be back in a few minutes. Just stand there and look threatening since you couldn’t hit a brick wall in front of your face.” She winks at Konstiantina as she says the last part.
Konstiantina's eyes widen for a moment at the sheer virtuosity of the impression; it's beyond uncanny, it's... perfect.
Then she catches Lotti's wink and her own face relaxes into a smile, complete with an admiring shake of her head. Blade drawn, she returns Lotti's wink, and then turns back to the well to watch Rose's descent.
"Iomedae watch over you," she whispers.
As Rose descends, the light of the sunrod illuminates the narrow, claustrophobic descent. The first dozen feet or so are tightly packed earth, but as she climbs down older layers of the city can be glimpsed as here and there bits of worked stone, crumbled bricks and cobblestones emerge from the sheer walls. Step after careful steps on the slick, half-rusted rungs, and the temperature drops noticeably even as it gets damper, with drops of moisture forming on the stonier portions of the vertical tunnel. The combined effect tends to chill one to the bone, and Rose finds herself shivering before long.
At long last, just as her arms had begun to ache unbearably from the strain of holding herself and all her gear up, her questing foot finds the bottom of the passage - the rough floor of an excavated cavern of irregular shape. What was obviously meant to be a secret door stands slightly ajar to the south east, but as Rose takes a step towards it a tiny glint of light off a tripwire laid in front of the passage alerts her to danger.
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After noticing the trap, Rose stands her ground for a few seconds, kneeling behind the shield and ready just in case someone was waiting. When nothing seems to happen, she glances back and alerts the others to the tripwire when they make it down. "Not the most pleasant experience, but at least we're safe for the moment. I think I'll try and disable whatever that wire is attached to. It's a bit high to step over, and it wouldn't do to leave an active danger behind us."
Just as she says it, she looks back at the giant climb behind them, which would most certainly make escaping when followed impossible.
"...Well, more than one at any rate."
Unless stopped by the others, Rose takes out Imistos' thieves tools and momentarily hangs her weapon and shield on her belt. Then, she approaches the trap and studies what it connects to before trying to sabotage the trap. "I wish Mirann was still here... I have a sneaking suspicion she'd be a lot better at this than I am."
After the all-clear is given, Marius descends as quickly as is practical. "Well done, Rose," He whispers when he sees the severed wire.
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Konstiantina brings up the rear, moving slowly and carefully so as to cause a minimum of a ruckus coming down. When she emerges into the small chamber, she draws her blade once more, and frowns at the revealed secret door.
"Why leave that ajar with a trip wire before it if they didn't expect hostile forces to follow? Looks like we're expected."
"Well done, Rose,"
"Definitely a step up from breaking into the closet with the cookie jar. Young me would be proud," Rose responds, smiling faintly, but it drops quickly as the others arrive and the impending next fight gets closer.
"Why leave that ajar with a trip wire before it if they didn't expect hostile forces to follow? Looks like we're expected
"Yes, probably. I'll head in first again. Just in case there's another trap," she answers Konstiantina, silently donning her shield and rapier a second time. Then, she slowly creeps towards the door, trying her very best not to give into nerves. It had been easy this far, but what if the next group wasn't so incompetent?
But even more worrying...
What if they held Martella hostage at knife point?
Rose hears nothing suspicious through the crack of the door, so she eases it open a little more to peer into the space beyond. The sunrod provides plenty of illumination, but even without it this room would be comfortably lit - one of the stones in the ceiling glows with a steady, warm light. Aside from this notable feature, the narrow chamber is quite unremarkable, appearing to be mostly a storage chamber for food, water, basic tools, and other supplies. Two passages lead south and west, although the one to the south simply ends in a wall after a few feet.
"Hold a moment," Marius whispers, then invokes a prayer for Kelinihat's blessing over his companions. "Very good, let's proceed.
Konstiantina inclines her head gratefully to Marius, mildly taken aback by his ability to confer such a blessing, and then leads them to the southern passage, convinced that there must be a secret door located somewhere in the environs.
Rose watches as the divine light from Marius' spell envelops everyone, after which she feels notably more calm. It was definitely comforting, to have conduits of divine energy on your side! "Thanks. If I could return the favor, I would."
She nods silently and moves onward to the suddenly halted passage. "Yes... this feels very out of place to me too," she says to the paladin and starts her own search.
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Konstiantina runs her hand over the surface of short wall of the passage, but there is no door outline, or hidden handle. As Rose steps up to help, she feels the faintest whiff of a stench beyond the mildewed smell of damp earth, and notices a hairline crack running jaggedly through the joinings between stones.
Careful tapping and pressing of the wall sections to either side reveal the hidden opening mechanism, and once that is activated an entire section of the wall swings outwards.
And now everyone has the dubious privilege of noticing the source of the faint smell that Rose had noticed earlier, as the natural cavern beyond opens into a worked stone tunnel through which foul-smelling slurry flows, its choking stench filling the air. Judging by that obvious characteristic, and the difference in stonework between the tunnel and the chamber at their back, it would seem that this hideout has a hidden connection to Oppara's sewer system - or at least an ancient section of it, this deep down.
Within the caver, the eastern wall is mostly covered by a putrid rainbow of fungus, forming the backdrop for a curiously-looking mushroom of incredible size. Even as Rose watches, several bright violet tendrils begin to emerge from within hollows in the pointed cap.
Konstiantina's eyes water from the stench and her gorge rises, but she marks the mushroom and immediately pulls Rose back, tugging at her shoulder so that the secret door can swing closed once more.
"No need to fight that thing if it's but an old escape route to the sewers," she says, resisting the urge to hawk and spit so as to clear the film from the top of her mouth. "It's very presence indicates nobody's been through there in a very long time. Shall we explore other options?"
Blade held down and at the ready, Konstiatina begins to make her way along the western passage, trying, perhaps futilely, to make her approach silent.
Lotti nods, her eyes watering. Her hands are too busy clutching a writhing Wobblekins to wipe away the tears, which leak down her face slowly instead.
Konstiantina makes her way half-blind down the western passage, shoulder-checking a wall as she stumbles while trying to wipe her watering eyes. A different kind of bad smell greets her as she steps into the room, the stink of spoiled food. The space seems a common room of sorts, with a couple of tables occupying most of the space, their surface holding several plates covered in scraps of rotten meat and spoiled vegetables. Shelves of preserved foods line the walls to the north and south. The worked stone passage branches off to the south, while another section of the natural cavern continues past the western end of the room, and a closed door sits in the north-eastern corner.
"As safe houses go, this one is in dreadful taste," Marius complains when he spies the rotting food still sitting on the table. Still, he starts a quick sweep of the room with his usual professionalism. "Bad as the smell is, it could certainly be worse, I suppose. Small blessings."
If nothing noteworthy is discovered, the nobleman's attentions turn to the cavernous section to the west.
"Another facade?" Konstiantina moves to stand beside the tunnel that leads west, peering around the corner to see what she may divine from the depths. "Perhaps our patron's hideout lies beneath this one..."
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“Certainly odd to have rotting food out in the open,” Lotti muses. “It would rot away completely if left alone long enough, so someone would have to, hmm, refresh it periodically. And for what purpose?” She squints suspiciously and wrinkles her nose. “The other straightforward explanation is that this room was used until recently and then abandoned. And if that’s the case, I’d be very curious as to why it was abandoned in such a rush.” Curiously she rubs her eyes and studies the room for any traces of magical auras.
"Hm... I believe fungi grow over spoiled food, and we just saw a giant moving mushroom. Could there be a connection of sorts? Though I confess the point of it eludes me. Unless the mushrooms are part of the natural defenses and are cultivated on purpose. Oh, by the way, Lotti? Does anything around here check as magical?" Rose says and asks, before moving towards the locked door in the room.
"Perhaps what's behind here can tell us more."
However, halfway through the motion, Rose sees Marius and Konstiantina both peering west and decides to wait in case they did see something important first.
The western passage is quite short, only 30 feet or so, opening into another room. The floor of the passage has clearly seen a lot of traffic - the earth is hard-packed from the countless steps, and where the rock is exposed in places it has acquired a polished sheen from wear.
Beyond, the room is mostly filled by a long table and the nine chairs arranged around it, four on each side and one at the far end, a closed door behind it. At the head of the table sits a child, a girl of no more than ten, with long black hair loose over her skinny shoulders, wearing a light-coloured sleeveless smock. The girl is humming and kicking her legs, seemingly absorbed in playing with finger puppets.