There are no threats and nothing of particular interest other than the numerous crates. On the far side of the room are three doors.
"The captain said there was something here. Could have been lying, I guess." Alejandro says with a shrug. "Let's make sure there's no-one waiting in the other rooms, then check the crates."
He runs nimbly across to the northern door, and listens at it. If there are no sounds within, he'll open it.
AyeSigrid listens into the middle door.
Gheorix waits between the two doors his comrades are checking, nervously tapping the weighted butt of the spear against his boot...
Agripos readies himself behind Alejandro, his longspear and shield ready.
Alejandro swings open the door to reveal a dark room other than the small amount of light that filters in from the large room to the east. Two heavy wooden workbenches line the north and south walls. Sigrid likewise opens a door. This room is dark other than the small amount of light that filters in from the large room to the east. Two anvils stand near the door and a large forge is in the center of the room. A heavy work bench stands against the west wall.
Big anvils for a group without metal weapons Gheorix remarks, moving to the other door, Ready? before opening it and expecting more of the same.
Gheorix opens the door to reveal another forging room.
"Good point," agrees Agripos. "But nothing here that seems biological."
Agripos exchanges his shield for a torch and lights it, then goes into the middle room in search for clues.
Gheorix casts light in the room, Quickly though, we don't want the Imperials closing us in here, might be a spot of trouble to get to the next building. Anyone see a back door?
Agripos and Gheorix check their respective rooms but find nothing important or of interest. The forge room shows signs of having been used to work metal as the anvils are well beaten. The room Agripos is in appears to have been a storage room of some sort. Following up on Alejandro's earlier suggestion, he scans the crates while the others are in the rooms. He finds they are labeled to include: steel, cold iron, armor, weapons, adamantine, and one that says Do not open.
Agripos goes back to the main room at Alejandro's discoveries. "All this metal's probably worth a fortune! If only we weren't surrounded by enemies."
When Alejandro finds the box marked DO NOT OPEN, he's definitely tempted to open it. But first, he searches for evil auras, worried that the thing inside might actually be alive.
No evil is detected. Inside are several blankets, in the midst of these blankets is an arm. It is a five fingered, greenish-gray arm with black claws.
"We should check it to see if there's anything we can grab, even if we can't take the whole crate." Alejandro says at the discovery of the crates of metal.
At the discovery of the arm, he turns a shade paler. "Ugh. This might be what they were talking about? But why keep just an arm? I don't think we should touch it. Does anyone know what it's from? he asks, racking his brains over creatures he's seen and tall tales he's heard. "They do have weird creatures here, but maybe this is something they haven't seen before."
"It makes no sense--how could that be a weapon? We're missing something here."
Maybe that's it? It could be a biological agent? Gheorix looks as confused as the others.
No one can identify the arm for sure but the skin and flesh is somewhat reminiscent of a goblin but the claws are wrong and the size is twice that of a goblin. Alejandro notes it appears to have been severed by a sword stroke.
You hear a loud thump against the front door.
The large thump reminds him of the urgency of their situation. "Damn it, we'll figure it out later. Still need a way out of this deathtrap."
Without touching it, Agripos quickly wraps the arm back in some of the blankets and shoves it into his backpack. He then closes the crate back up, trying to hide the fact that it had been opened.
He realizes something a bit odd. "This room up here comes up a bit short compared to the other one. Could there be a hidden space?"
He'll knock on the wall and try taking a look.
Assisting
Circle around me, we shall ermerge victorious
Casting protection from evil communal (assuming that a couple of them are evil).
She then adds an even more angrier red rune to the door.
Agripos and Sigrid do indeed find a secret door. After locating a hidden lever under the nearby bench it swings open scraping on the stone of the floor as it does so.
While the others open up the crates, Alejandro opens the crates marked with metals, looking for any weapons or anything useful.
Gheorix checks the crates while Agripos and Sigrid locate and open the secret door. Hope that's a back way out of here, I'd rather not fight the entire fort if this arm is what we're looking for.
Alejandro opens a couple of crates marked with metals and finds 5 pound ingots of cold iron, adamantine, and mithril. Meanwhile, Gheorix pops open a crate of mithril chainmail and mithril full plate. A large boom comes again and with it a splintering crack.
The others peer into the hidden hallway and see stairs leading down.
Lets joink that and bugger off.
Sigrid motions to the the hidden hallway.
Preparing to teleport She says quite loudly, in the small room while winking at the party
We fake having teleported to gain additional seperation from them.
She casts several light spells, making them look like a circle.
Alejandro wraps up the arm and hurries down the stairs. "Let's hope they don't know about this passage."
Agripos is feeling greedy and tries to grab the valuable mithral armors and some more valuable ingots before dashing off!
Sigrid sets up a light circle while Agripos (and others?) grab a suit of armor and some ingots. Then they all move to the hidden room. There is a simple handle to pull the door to with. The team no sooner than pulls it closed than they hear what is likely the final crunch of the door.
Gheorix will help shoulder the load, already slowed by his armor he stoically picks up either a suit or some ingots, throwing them in his pack.
If someone else has the arm Alejandro will grab a couple of cold iron and adamantine ingots before making his way down.
Alejandro looks around.
"Is there another way out of here?" he whispers to the others.
Standing in the secret room you can hear men entering the large room beyond. The dark stairwell awaits with Agripos and Gheorix carrying armloads of armor. How do you proceed?
Gheorix continues down the staircase, seeing what the darkness holds and casting light before the party without saying anything as they try to make their escape. This is a metal-poor civilization, why all this secured? Unless its just for the truly elite? But how would they have the skills to forge this kind of metal into ingots and armor, when the practice doesn't exist...
Agripos awkwardly heads down the stairs as well, the stolen armor hanging awkwardly around his shoulders. He knew the metal was immensely valuable--he just hoped the burden of carrying it wouldn't end up contributing to their demise.
The hall opens into a sizable room. The now familiar light from bowls on the wall permeates the interior. There is one large workbench across half the north wall and anvils along the west wall. Two men wearing leather smocks stand in the middle of the room. They immediately put their hands up when you enter. "Don't kill us, please," one intones.
"What are you doing here?" Alejandro asks. "And are there any other ways out?" He sidles into the room, watching the two men carefully.
We won't, but what's going on here? Gheorix adds to Alejandro's question to the men, while scanning the room for obvious exits.
"You're not with the imperial soldiers are you?" One of the men asks. Once given confirmation they each begin to speak, picking up where the other leaves off but spinning the full thought.
"We're trapped. There are soldiers above and monsters out the back. We are merely armor and weapon smiths, not warriors. Even using our own creations we did not think we could make it out. Besides, we have no transportation off the island."
The men seemed genuine, but just in case, Agripos calls on the wisdom of Athena to check the men for signs of evil.
"Well, your odds of escape just went up. We have a way off the island, if we can make it out the back. Exactly what kind of monsters are we talking about here?"
Could you tell us your names, the names of those who assigned you to be here and how you were doing in terms of food and drink in the interrim? Before our arrival? Any information of the monsters is also appreciated.
"I'm Masik," the thinner of the two says.
"I'm Arn," the other replies.
Again, the two tend to talk over one another, finish each others sentences, and stumble along through the conversation, "Well, the Council of Lords had us setup shop out here to develop special weapons to be used in the fight against the empire. Food has not been an issue although they are only travel rations." They point to a pair of crates under the table. "There were six of us and the other four were killed by devourers when we tried to flee out the back. They've apparently nested in our escape tunnel. As for water," they point to the quenching barrels near the anvils. "As to what the devourers are we aren't sure. Our security team noted their arrival a few months after we got this facility constructed. They actually start off as weird looking armored worms and then grow into large, perhaps 18' long, creatures resembling armored snakes but with four arms similar to that of a mantis. Horribly scary."
"If that's the way out, we'll have to try and take it." Alejandro says grimly, moving over to the far door and peeking outside. "Did you say you had weapons that might help?"
"What happened when the empire attacked here?" he also asks.
The two men bandy back and forth with one another about sharing before deciding that putting the armor in the hands of those fighting for the Counsel of Lords and possibly getting rescued outweighs continuing to hide and risking the armor being lost to the empire.
"So, we, plus the others who have died, made these." Arn says as he touches a spot on the southern wall.
The wall splits where Arn touches it to reveal a hidden room. Inside are nine suits of armor. "I do not believe you can defeat the monsters on your own. These," Arn says gesturing to the armor, "we made for the rebellion to be given to an elite group who could turn the tide. But there is little we can do if we are dead or captured. These armors accentuate the wearer's natural abilities but they imprint with a single individual. They will help you defeat the creatures, but once you wear them, they won't work with anyone else."
There is mithral full plate, mithral breastplate, and darkleaf leather. "The full plate, Masik says, "Primarily enhances strength, the breastplate is a balance between your physical abilities and the darkleaf leather primarily enhances dexterity."
Just then, you hear a bump on the wall from up the stairs. The imperials may have found the entrance.
Agripos turns toward the noise upstairs with alarm. "Looks like our attempt at escape led the imperials here. Can we hide in this room?" asks Agripos. "Or is there some better place to hide?"
Debtating between the breastplate and the plate armor.
She attempts to identifiy the armor about its specific characteristics using detect magic.
"I don't think we can hide here, the imperials would ransack this place. I think we need to make a stand." Alejandro says. "If you want to put on the good armor, we can try to hold them back in the passageway."
"Fight or hide, we need time to get into this armor," says Agripos, entering the secret room. He grabs ahold of the plate armor and points to Arn and Masik. "Unless you have a better place to change, we'll close the door and do it here. We need the two of you to help us in and out of armor."