Senna explains, "Yash is going to scout the corridor."
Mama nods and takes a seat on a short fallen stone. Whew. This adventuring stuff is exhausting! She casts a spell and a barely visible humanoid form appears. Jeeves! she addresses the force, The fan, please.
The force-construct takes a mid-sized fan out of her pack and starts fanning her like a queen. Ahhh. That's better.
Cookie takes a well-earned break, getting herself and her overheated CLW wand cooled off...
Lady Sable starts checking bodies.
Looting what is at hand... Sable strips the warleader of a bag of gold, his fine (MW) kukri, and his fine (MW) banded armor. While taking incidental valuables off the dead bugbears near the dining table, she notes a curious set of tubular cloths that were being used as 'napkins' at the grisly feast on the table...
Senna is able to confirm they are magical:
You've also found a barrel of wine (#1) and a case of goods (#11) you were seeking for Nine-Toes.
Backtracking back into the room where the others were busy, Yash paused a moment at seeing Mama being fanned by an insubstantial figure. He nodded before heading towards the western passage, and followed it's turn towards the south.
Yash and Xing have the same idea. Heading down the corridor, they spot a variety of disarmed traps that would have made the length of the hallway a killing ground. At the end is a circular room that was clearly the warleader's bedroom and a shrine to his foul god.
They find much of interest:
1. Another case of goods they needed to recover (#12)
2. Another barrel of rum, also part of their mission (#4)
3. piles of gold (roughly 300 GP - I'm tracking it so you don't have to)
4. a Pearl (Pearl of Power (1st) - Cookie's Wishlist)
5. a rune-carved crystal (Spell Lattice (1st) - Senna's list)
6. 1 case carrying 3 potions (3x Enlarge Person - for Yash)
7. 1 case carrying 3 potions (3x Enlarge Person - For Xing)
8. A note written on what appears to be skin in a language neither Yash nor Xing recognize. It also stinks of sulfur.
Xing busies herself by rolling the barrel and carrying the crate back up to the main room.
While having herself fanned to get any unfeminine dewiness off her features, Cookie notes a glint off some object down the southern corridor they traversed earlier. She fans herself briefly while she sends Jeeves to retrieve it. The spectral butler returns bearing a fine (MW) greataxe that the archer neglected to retrieve while running for his life.
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Yash, not wanting to be outdone by Xing, grabs everything else he can carry and hauls it back to the others. Setting everything down as gently as he can muster, he presents the written note to Senna and asks "read?"
Senna's nose wrinkles at the smell coming off the 'paper'. "Uff! Pachnie jakby diabeł wytarł sobie tym tyłek..."
She rubs the paper a bit and looks at it hard, "This may be human skin." before turning to the language itself and studying the message for a long moment. "I'm certain this is Abyssal - which I don't speak. But here... I'm pretty sure this is 'Threshold' written phonetically. This looks like an order or a command of some sort." She translates her analysis into Ork so Yash doesn't have to guess at her exact meaning.
Sabelina asks "Is the writing for summoning that demon?
She looks over the text again and casts a spell, "I don't think so. This looks like a letter, not the formulae or sigils for a normal spell or even a scroll."
We should make sure this gets back then. I'm sure someone back in town can read it.
”Agreed.” She rolls up the note and places it in her bandolier.
The team moves along the northern corridor until they see the bridge extending to the other side of the 'water room' and a corridor beyond that.
Moving forward, Yash approaches the bridge. He looks to the others and shrugs before cautiously testing the bride with one foot, not daring to trust his full weight to the narrow crossing.
"Yash...last?" he asked.
Before he can approach the bridge, Grandfather whispers a warning to Yash which stops him in his tracks. He finds a hairline separation of the floor tiles where the two passages cross. It appears to be a pit trap that drops the unwary from the upper corridor down into the lower one some 40’ below.
success
success
success
Lady Sable takes a look at the trap to see what she can do.
Sable manages to wedge the trap door shut and makes it safe to walk across. Naturally, they test that assumption by pushing the old Halfling across it first.
Our heroes proceed across the trap and across the narrow bridge and see...
Realizing that the bridge was indeed trapped, Yash offered "toss cookie?"
He shrugged and stepped back as Sabelina went about disarming the trap. Once across the bridge, he turned and proceed north through the tunnel. At seeing the piles of crates and barrels, he called back "more stuff."
In the storeroom, Yash finds nearly half the goods on Nine-Toes list, sadly the ‘Honest to Cod’ barrels – the most important ones – are not here.
As Yash is counting up the barrels... He spots something small, black, and multi-limbed leaping for his face! Yash tries to pluck the creature out of the air but it eludes his grip and lunges for his throat.
But instead of choking the life out of the half-orc, the creature – which appears to be a dismembered, black, shriveled, and nearly skeletal hand – clings to his armor and stops there.
Startled at the hand's appearance, Yash fell back half a step, bringing his axe up in reflex. As the hand grasped onto his armor, he thought better of swinging his axe at himself. Still pondering how to get the disembodied hand off, he soon realized that it did not appear to be trying to kill him, which was a first when it came to disembodied hands. The spirit of his grandfather muttered a simple sentence.
"It will protect you."
Yash nodded and slowly rose his hand to touch the clinging appendage. Seeing that it didn't stir, he shrugged, noticed the many other bones hanging off of his armor, and readied his axe. He proceeded north through the passage, coming to the turn and halting. He looked back at the others and waved them forward.
"Come."
Mama looks a little concerned that Yash has aquired another hand... but he didn't seem concerned. At all. [i]What wonders we have seen today.[/b] she muses as she obeys and falls in behind her big boy.
Our heroes proceed north and find a long stairway heading down. They vote on how to proceed by a simple hand count… with Yash now having three votes, his desire to press on wins!
At the bottom of the stairs, the corridor continues by turning to head in a southerly direction. In the distance, the more keen-eyed heroes spy what appear to be more barrels. Sable and Xing see nothing as some cobwebs brush across their faces, distracting them.
Closer at hand is something a bit curious. At the base of the stairs, along the corridor, the floor is a bit sandy and there are some very indistinct bugbear boot prints. Further, the sand seems to thin out and then disappear going up the stairs and down the corridor.
Mama takes a deep breath. I smell the sea. Might be a good place to load the wagon if the sand is agreeable
Yash nodded at Mama's wisdom. Yash turned and looked at Xing. "Xing scout?"
Without waiting for a response, he turned and headed south down the tunnel, axe still clutched in his hand. After a few feet, he stopped and tapped his chest and refreshied the light spell radiating from one of the little bones tied there.
Xing starts searching in the corridor and quickly finds a secret door... and then another one 20' beyond that one. It opens and a blast of sea air and the noise of breaking waves echoes in the corridor. The second secret door opens onto the strand further down the beach than the cliffside climb. From here, Xing can see all the way up the beach to the shipwreck.
Yash leads the team into yet another storage room with a fair number of barrels and crates. Comparing them to the inventory list, you check off all of the remaining goods that Nine-Toes wanted... as well as a few others that are extraneous cargo from the doomed ship.
Lady Sable sighs with contentment when their new findings check off against the list.
"It's a shame about the crew, but there's nothing to be done for it now. What say we get to making the cargo fit for travel and be on our way back to the city?"
Mama nods. I'll get the wagon. I won't be if much use hauling.
Jeeves! Help. she orders her unseen servant who manages to do so without getting in the way to much. Surprising!
And a few minutes later she's out of the crumbling fort and retrieving their ride.
Day 2: Eventide
Cookie drives the wagon along the beach to the secret doors while the rest of the team rolls barrels, carries crates, and generally moves an awful lot of goods around the labyrinthine ‘fort’. Four sweaty hours later… the wagon is piled high with all of Nine-Toes’ goods along with an ample supply of additional merchandise and even few fairly nice – if musty – rugs.
The heavily laden cart is a burden to move across the sand. In the end, Cookie drives the wagon and cheers on the oxen while the rest of the team pushes the cart and keeps it from bogging down in the sand.
As evening falls, our heroes are back where they started the day – atop the bluff looking over the wrecked ship.
Mama recommends the bluff for purely non-tactical reasons. It's a lovely view here! And I can use my old fire pit tonight! she cheerfully adds.
Either way, that evening as people get the camp set and her tent appears to assemble itself thanks to Jeeves, she cooks a quick pot of carrots, onion, and celery with beans and small bits of salted pork. She then cuts generous hunks of bread and serves dinner with a little watered and spiced wine.
Eat up, my dearies. Tomorrow will be hard too, what with all this stuff we have now, and not a little slower, I'll bet.
Under normal circumstances Sabelina would probably have argued for moving on to the tree line. Her view tends to be one of out of sight being superior to defensible. Generally having the former erases much need for the latter.
Sabelina is tired though, so she's agrees the bluff is fine.
Day 3: Morning
The night passes without incident and the weather the next day is bright and beautiful along the coast. Your aches and pains from yesterday's exertions are a faint memory and your powers are restored!
After a simple breakfast, you break camp and get the wagon rolling slowly towards Threshold. At this pace, you realise that you will likely spend another night on the road and arrive in Threshold some time tomorrow, fully a day ahead of the Transit.
Mama alternates riding and walking as Lady roams to find her own breakfast. It doesn't take long before vague 'breakfast' becomes 'slightly too plump to dodge me rabbit'.
All in all it's a nice walk, though the concern over monsters or thugs keeps a nice, light tension in every passing hour.
In the morning, Senna sets off into the woods alone briefly... and returns straightening her shirt and with Lazy Sausage in tow, now that the foreseeable dangers have passed. She offers an offhanded comment, "Aside from the ettins, demon-worshipping bugbears, and cannibalized sailors... this really is quite a lovely locale."
The pig quickly renews his friendship with Lady, giving her a friendly nudge with his snout and a companionable oink.
Lady Sable has to agree with Senna.
"Makes you wonder how anyone can ever manage to have a nice picnic doesn't it?"
The slower rate of travel back grates on Lady Sable. Out of boredom she occasionally ranges on ahead or out to the flanks of the wagon to do some 'scouting'.
If there are any good vistas or long-range views, she fiddles around with her new sextant toy to look at far off things from the highest point she can manage to reach atop the wagon.
The pig quickly renews his friendship with Lady, giving her a friendly nudge with his snout and a companionable oink.
Lady yips cheerfully to see her partner in hijinks. Saucy! Great to see you again! I'm glad Senna finally let you out! Can you even see anything when you're put away??
Sausage lets out a squeal of irritation, seemingly about being trapped in the archer. Then gives something between a nod and a head bobble about seeing anything. Lady interprets that to mean Sausage perceives things but it isn't exactly sight.
The pig nips at Senna's heel as punishment.
"Hey!" The sorcerer exclaims at the bite, "Point taken - you were penned too long..." she says, enjoying the double-entendre of a pig that becomes a tattoo being 'penned'. "Enjoy yourself."
The fox giggles? Yips? Squeaks in joy? Then takes off with Sausage not far behind. She said to enjoy ourselves let's goooo! she howls.
The animals race back and forth across the sward then play chase in the edge of the forest. The fox dodges the obstacles of roots, limbs, and bushes while the pig crashes through the undergrowth - occasionally stopping to root out delicious tubers.
Day 3: Evening
The grand vistas, pleasant weather, and tedium of a slow-rolling wagon wear on Sable... who finds the entire day of scouting and trying to occupy her thoughts unmarred by any monster attacks or mysterious events. She grinds her teeth.
As the afternoon rolls on, the terrain becomes more undulating, and the trees draw closer to the cliffside.
Evening falls and our heroes set up camp in a sheltered glade. Cookie and Yash compare their land navigation skills and determine that the group should reach Threshold no later than midday tomorrow.
Day 4: Morning
Another night passes without any menace creeping out of the woods. Soon the small caravan is back on the road. In a few hours the wagon trundles among the low hills and scattered copses of trees that surround Threshold. In another hour, our heroes walk the wagon over the rise and see the improbably perfect circular wall, the multi-story block-like buildings, and the white Campanile bell-tower (sans bell) glittering in the sun like a spike at the heart of the city.
The wagon rolls down the long final hill that leads to one of many openings in the wall...
Day 4: Noon
The heavily laden wagon clatters across the cobblestones that line the High Street as the team navigates their way from where they entered the city at High Gate, through The Rows and Market Square, to their destination near their apartment and Nine-Toes’ office on the edge of Low Gate.
Their wagon draws more than a few interested looks, especially among the merchants of Market Square. The team has no illusions about arriving unannounced. With the transition imminent, each opening in the wall is manned by a child or adult with a clipboard. They check off everyone who enters or leaves the city at this point. The heroes’ names are dutifully taken by a child barely into her teens. Her grey eyes widen at their names then she gives them a polite curtsy and immediately heads to a nearby placard to pass the news.
So, before they reach Low Gate, it comes as no surprise when Odelai ‘happens’ to cross their path on the High Street and she decides to escort the group.
”Welcome back! How was your trip?”