Amaya avoids the dead rats, and especially the corpse, though the smell alone is enough to keep her at bay. "Seems that this place hasn't been preserved any better than the rest of the keep."
After a moment's thought, she turns to Alak and asks, "Why did your people abandon such an impressive structure?"
Alak gets a faraway look at the question, a shadow of regret passing across his features. "Queen Domina of Korvosa. She wanted her own pet Hellknights, so she offered to fund the building of a bigger and better citadel, as well as a lot of coin, if only the Order of the Nail would relocate to her city." He snorts. "She expected this would make us indebted to the crown, but Hellknights are not so easily tamed. We still helped the city, but on our own terms and according to our own ideas." He tilts his head back to gaze around the room, following a particularly tenacious vine that has snaked its way up to the ceiling. "But you are right, it is an impressive structure, even in its decayed state. It would serve well anyone who would dare claim it and put in some work to fix it up."
Karana sits cross-legged on a bench.m, content to let the others search about.
She responds to Beau, “The metamorphosis is exhilarating… but disorienting. I am still very new to this, and my forms are not like the powerful animals my father could become.
“How many children get piggyback rides from their father becoming a wild boar?”
She breathes in deeply…
“Please forgive me. I should not babble while I rest.”
…and closes her mouth. And closes her eyes. And tries not to keep thinking of her father. Karana does not wish to cry in front of everyone.
Bea nods at the suggestion, not that many of them spend time looking down so she adds "Falling ceilings are a problem. Heads are important. Unless you happen to be a creature with your brain in another location, or lack one all together."
"You'd be surrprrised by the amount o' people vith theirr heads stuck in theirr assess, Bea!" Gofran jokes.
Gofran seems unaffected by the presence of the corpses. "Oh!" he exclaims as picks some of the blackberries and eat them. He points to the door to the east. "I believe that door vill lead us to the courrtrroom." He picks some more blackberries for later.
Bea gives out a little snort of a laugh, like it ambushed her. And gives the dwarven ranger a shy smile of thanks for it.
The door that Gofran opens leads to a short, narrow corridor that opens into what must have been a waiting room. He sees the same tattered curtains and heaps of rotting trash on the floor, and an open door leading north through which he can see a semi-open area with view of the courtroom. The northern area is likewise littered with trash, although the scattering of bones, feathers and bits of fur indicate the lair of some kind of predator. In the far corner of the room, a pile of blankets is draped over a large piece of furniture toppled on its side.
Beau pads Karana on the shoulder and gives her a stoic nod. "Blabbering happens when the soul is overflowing, so don't hold back, but do as the drunkards do." With that said, he gives Karana the space she needs, and he moves on to assist Gofran.
Looking between people and through legs, Bea sees the pile of blankets "Oh, do you think the Thing The Eats is under there?" she of course doesn't approach it, but stays behind the others.
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Karana can’t answer right away. She clings to her holly and mistletoe, focuses on the panting of the goblin dog, her only connections to nature.
No.
People are nature too.
After having sat a while, Karana has thought through what she wants to say. She can say it without making a waterfall of her face.
“Beau, I think I understand Calmont’s anger. I lost my father to goblins. But I also lost my brother to wild dogs, and killing many dogs did not make things better. And my mother died giving birth to me, so imagine if my father and brother had held this tragedy against me.
“My father was taken from me and I miss him. But he died by war. Wars end. They only continue when people like Calmont continue the wars in their mind.
“I am glad to be part of a group aiding goblins. I think I honor my father and my tribe by being a part of a healing process... umm... between goblinoid and humanoid... uhhhh......” What?
Karana was just sad from thinking about Druidic piggyback rides. She hadn’t really thought of this mission as being important in a world-stage way. The words from her mouth are strange to her. She almost laughs at herself.
“Oh! Should I have an alcoholic beverage when I say things like this?” She blushes a bit. Karana feels a little embarrassed, but also like a burden has been lifted.
Gofran returns to the others to inform what he had found. "Some signs o' a prredatorr ahead... bones, featherrs and furr. Do ye vant to check it, Karrana?"
Karana’s sense of duty snaps her back into the here-and-now.
“Oh, yes, Gofran.”
She uses her darkvision and tries to determine the scent. Dead prey, or is there a live predator as well? Is it an animal?
As Karana re-enters the room, this time in her elf form, she can smell the stench of rot and decay, and the unmistakeable odour of death. Rustling sounds come from underneath the blanket-draped furniture, which this close turns out to be a heavy desk. As the druid carefully lifts one corner of the blanket with the but of her javelin, two pairs of shining eyes train on her.
"Grrrrrrrrr."
The growling comes from what Karana thinks are wolf puppies, likely no more than a few weeks old, who bare their little teeth at the intrusion. As the elf extends her hand in a non-threatening gesture, they sniff it and stop growling. One of them even licks it.
“Beautiful children,” Karana whispers. Once again, her rations go to animals.
Not wanting to accidentally attract the ire of the parent(s?) of these pups, Beau unintentionally drops into what could be called 'stealthy' mode. With a hushed voice, he shares what he knows about the pups. "These are warg pups, Karana. You know, the smart kinda wolf. Bloodthirsty buggers, by all accounts, so eh, do take care."
“Oh, I hope my animal magnetism is as attractive to their mother, should she find us here. Please give me a moment. I will calm the playful creatures so they do not follow me as well.”
Amaya gets closer to Karana, hovering over her shoulder a liit, watching her play with the pups. Without interfering, she tries to see if she can judge the general health of the animals.
"Varrgs? Arre they those evil volves the goblins use to rride into varr?" Gofran asks, suspicious as to why 'peaceful' goblins would keep these dangerous and evil animals around.
He moves around, trying to figure where the parents of the pups are.
Karana wonders aloud, “To a goblin, the war horse may be the evil animal.”
She leaves it at that. The pups are too cute to be hellspawns. Hellspawns are not fuzzy.
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Alak comes over to see what the fuss is about, and sucks in air through his teeth when he sees the warg pups.
"Damnation. No wonder that warg was so ferocious, she was protecting her spawn."
If that was indeed their mother that the armiger had killed, her absence is noticeable in the two puppies, who are skin and bone and obviously very hungry. They whine and push each other away as they snatch the strips of jerky from Karana's hand and wolf them down. How they manage to also growl while eating is a mystery, but also a little amusing. Once fed, they come out of their nest when coaxed, playing with the feathers in Karana's skirt. One of them sits on its haunches, looking straight at the druid. "Vvaarrr." The other bowls its sibling over, yipping. "Eev-beel!" Those familiar with wargs are reminded that they are much smarter than animals, and can speak, sometimes multiple languages.
Gofran walks around, and following the stench of carcass soon comes upon the dead body of a full grown warg, sword wounds evident upon it.
Amaya looks at Alak at the mention of killing the mother, but doesn't chastise him. She couldn't say that she wouldn't do the same thing, would that such a creature attacked her. Of course, she couldn't be certain that she would be as successful.
"If the mother is dead, shouldn't there be a father somewhere? Doesn't look like they have eaten in some time. What are we to do with them?"
Gofran comes back and picks the puppy that spoke 'vvaarrr'. "Arre ye mockin' me ye fluffy thin'?" He eyes the puppy challenging, it to speak again with a dwarven accent.
Gofran laughs (either if it speaks again or not). "I like ye. Do ye have a name?"
Kyrie kneels down to pet the puppies herself, a calm and earnest smile creeping onto her face. "I am pleased to meet you. I like you. I hope you like me." She is very tentative with her movements, not wanting to frighten the little creatures by moving too fast.
Karana is unfazed by Alek’s admission to killing the warg mother. “You did not know. Every feather on my skirt may be from a mommy-bird or a daddy-bird. Even when I stopped hunting, I caught fish. How many never returned to their eggs, just to feed me?”
Hearing the wargs speak… that’s totally new to Karana!
She laughs. And at Gofran’s mention of a name, asks, “What might you name them? They are both female.”
"Arrrr," responds the puppy held by Gofran, although it might also be a growl. Then she begins to chew on his beard, shaking her head as she tugs on the strands.
The other one nips playfully at Kyrie's hand, mock-growling. "Youuu,", she says.
"I can't name 'em." He says, then thinking this might be strange, he explains. "I do not name animals underr my carre until I know 'em forr a vhile... the sounds they make, theirr mood, theirr behaviorr and so on vill tell me theirr names. Hoveverr, if this puppy is smarrt enough to speak, I can't name herr. Eitherr she has herr own name, orr she vill choose one forr herrself. I have no rright to do so forr herr."
Amaya leans down to peer at the pup in Gofran's grasp, looking her intently in the eyes. "Perhaps she already did," she offers, then says "Arrr?" questioningly at the pup.
Kyrie nods along with Gofran's take on the situation. "I also do not want to name them. I think everyone should pick their own name. I did so. I think choosing a name for someone else risks the weight of expectations. I think a child is a fragile being, full of potential. I think any chain placed upon a child's being must be considered with great and earnest care."
Gofran tries to remove her from his beard, taking a jerky from his own pack to distract the puppy. "I think she is not that smarrt actually... 'Arrr' vould ve a too confusin' name, Amaya. I think she is just rrepeatin' vhat ve say."
Gofran nods to Kyrie as she agrees with him, though now he is suspecting these wargs are still too young to know their names, if they have one. "'Puppy' vill do forr now, since vhen she gets biggerr, she vill choose herr name."
The pup shies away from Amaya's questioning gaze. She happily takes the jerky, but she's seemingly done with being held and starts squirming in an attempt to escape.
Karana always loved naming animals. She will not push this, but says to Kyrie, “I like your chosen name, Dame Kyrie. I am sorry your experience with the given name differs from mine.
“My name was given by my father. He is dead now, and the only gift he gave me that I can keep is my name. And every name I gave to animals was from a place of love, not expectations. Rontu was the first animal I named. He killed my brother. When I named him, it meant forgiveness.”
She casts her eyes down. “Fox eyes. That is the literal meaning. The act of naming was forgiveness—me forgiving him, and also my asking forgiveness for shooting him—forgiveness, and the recognition that his life was meaningful.”
Gofran puts Puppy on the ground. "So... ve can't brring 'em vith us vhile ve explorre the rrest o' this place. Perrhaps ve lock 'em somevherre save and pick 'em up vhen ve leave?"
He then looks around, trying to drag some of the still sound benches around to trap the puppies inside where they are and prevent them from venture do dangerous places and from finding their dead mother. Who knows if this will impact.
Kyrie listens thoughtfully to Karana's story, internalizing every word and trying to divine the meanings behind them. "I understand your perspective, Karana. I think that love and expectation go hand-in-hand when it comes to parents. I think it is hard to untangle one from the other. I suppose I cannot bring myself to cause a kind of deep pain that I have felt myself to another unless there is no other choice."
Bea looks at the fluffy bundles of teeth and then looks in a bit of wonder at all of her companions turning to marshmallows. Canines of most forms are not her thing.
Instead, while they gush she reaches into her satchel to scratch Matilda under a tentacle.
Karana smiles at Kyrie. “I think I understand yours too.”
She agrees with Gofran’s advice and uses more jerky to keep the pups occupied. “We shall return.”
Beau is having trouble alternating between the philosophical discussion(s) and focusing on the task at hand. "Ain't it up to us to give meaning to the names we carry? Hrm, might be a matter of perspective, I guess ..."
Dragging benches and other pieces of furniture and assembling a puppy corral is easy enough, and the two miniature wargs are left inside with some food and water.
The room in which the body of the adult warg was found seems to have been a reading or research room, as evidenced by the heavy writing desks and the bookshelves against the wall. A book in a forgotten drawer has been miraculously preserved, its cover only slightly warped by humidity. It seems to detail the history of the Order of the Nail, starting with its founding in 4638 AR, the same year in which Citadel Altaerein was built, and ending several years before their relocation to Varisia in 4682 AR.
West of that there is a large room with rows of desks bolted to the floor and the remains of wooden chairs scattered about. The corpse of a giant bat lies on the ground, a sword stab wound the evident cause of death.
"Ah, another of my kills," grimaces Alak. "Swooped at me from above, not unlike that hell monkey earlier."
Beau spots a metal lockbox, its lock half-rusted and easily snapped with a bit of pressure. Inside there are compartments containing sheets of parchment, pens and vials of ink, although the latter has dried up and needs some water added to become usable.
Wedged up underneath one of the desk drawers, Karana finds a large claw set in an iron clasp with a thin chain attached to it. Beatrix feels a magical aura emanating from the claw, and manages to identify it as an owlbear claw talisman.
North of the puppy pens is an office, where the heavy wooden desk, armchairs and filing cabinets are still largely intact, though most of the drawers in the desk and the cabinets have been pulled out and ransacked.
"This must have been the lictor's office," muses Alak, "the leader of the order."
Even with the loom having already been looted, Amaya spots a book tucked into the back of a drawer under a pair of mouldering leather gloves. Flipping through its pages, it reveals itself as a treatise on Order of the nail protocols as they relate to both Chelish and Isgeri laws, and explanations of various interpretations of them as they apply to past cases against local criminals. At the beginning of the book is a personalized dedication that reads: "To Lictor Acillmar, with thanks for your interest in my work. Together we shall quell savagery. - Hellknight T. Stagram, Esq."
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"Stagram...." Amaya muses out loud. "Alak, isn't that your family name? Do you know the writer?" She hands over the book, if he asks, having no reason to keep it from the man.
"What? Let me see." Alak reaches for the book, turning to the guard page where the signature is. "Ajiet Stagram, my grandfather! He was a barrister for the order. What a find!" He starts thumbing through the pages before adding a belated "Thank you." After a few moments, he remarks "Lictor Acillmar was the grandmother of our current paravicar. He might like to see this as well."
Amaya nods at the armiger with a small smile. "You are very welcome."
Happy to hear Alak found something that warms his Asmodeus-loving heart, Beau offers the armiger a smile. He then quickly moves on to the north-eastern corner of the room and checks out the door. He presses his ear against it, but imagines that what must be a closet space won't be harboring a warg or one of those dragon-like creatures.
Moving towards the north-eastern corner of the room, Beau gets a better look at the collapsed outer wall, where the ground seems to have subsided, and a pool of brackish water has formed. A corpse in rusty chainmail is lying atop a muddy lump on one side of the pool.
Most of the offices along the northern wall are a mess of rubble and broken furniture, all valuables long gone. However, in the one office that has a door, Beau finds two scroll cases in the hidden compartment at the back of a drawer, as well as scattered coins totalling 5 sp and 40 cp.
Gofran ignores the dead body for now. "Ve can check it beforre ve leave, and brring it back to Brreachtown forr identification and a prroperr burrial." Instead he enters the northern room, towards one of the closed doors.
Gofran moves to scout beyond one of the closed doors, which reveals another room dedicated to archiving and storing documents. The closed doors seem to have sheltered the long room from the elements, as the row of mostly empty bookshelves is remarkably untouched, although a thick layer of dust rests upon them and the smell of mildew permeates the air.
A door to the north stands open, providing access into an area that has all the trappings of a jail. A prisoner intake area with long benches, rings on the walls for shackles, and an administrative area occupies the western end. To the east, behind a raised iron gate, several prisoner holding cells stand with their doors hanging open, while storage lockers line the walls to the south, padlocks still securing each one.
Beatrix pokes her nose to the jail cells, happy there are no bodies left in them. "The hellknights left this place for better quarters, right? So why did they leave so much stuff behind?" she handed the scrolls Beau found to to a waiting tentacle coming out of her bag. "Like those..." she points to the storage lockers "Even if they are empty, the padlocks are good. Why leave them?"
Karana cannot break into a locker (except by turning into a bug, but then what would she do in there?)…
But what Karana can do is sniff around. She tries to get the goblin dog to do the same, in case it finds a scent familiar, or perhaps significant.
“I hope this is not a place where undergarments are stored,” she says as she very casually inhales through her nose without looking like she is inhaling through her nose.
Bea will scan the area for magic, because she also knows nothing about locks.
Bea will scan the area for magic, because she also knows nothing about locks.
Beau tries not to chuckle and, instead, blows hot air through his nostrils. "Maybe because this is a remote place and they couldn't be bothered to make yet another up-and-down trip? Must be nice, being that flush with silver."
Beatrix perceives several magical auras in one of the lockers, bunched together - two of them with the sharp, peppery flavour of evocation, while the third has the metallic tang of abjuration.
Karana smells nothing more than dust and mould, while the goblin dog finds the mildewed straw in the holding cells fascinating and begins rolling around in it, adding to the dust that floats in the air.
Beau gets to work on the padlock securing the locker that Beatrix indicates, managing to get it open on the second attempt. It seems empty at first glance, until the gnome directs his attention to the bottom of the locker which, once lifted, reveals a hidden compartment in which a metallic box rests. Inside the box, there are two elixir bottles, carefully corked and wrapped in cloth, a cat-shaped talisman, a faintly glowing fluorite crystal and a scroll case.
Karana thinks the cat is pretty, but she doesn’t claim any treasure. She has no use for the darkvision elixir. She does find the cheetah’s elixir interesting. How does one make such a thing? she wonders.
As for the goblin dog, Karana just smiles. “You are a very silly dog.”
She starts toward the unexplored territory, but knows Dame Kyrie prefers to be on the front line. Karana will stay close and keep her shield. Of the darkvision elixir, Karana asks, “Kyrie, do many people benefit from this? I recall early in life that my eyes were slow to adjust to the darkness. Since being alone on my island, I have not had this trouble. No matter how dark, I can see things too far for me to smell.”
She speaks some Druidic words and a light emanates from her own shield.
She offers, “If you would find a light spell helpful, and you do not mind the risk of drawing attention, I can cast this on your shield.”