Niss shook her head. "No. If you run into trouble and I'm not there to help, because of a stupid hangup...". She took a deep breath and approached the hole. "Just...talk to me, while we're in there?"
She tucked the front hem of her skirt up into her belt and sank to her knees by the opening. For another long moment she froze, but she ran a hand over her face, then balled it into a shaking fist and forced herself to follow after Fin and Baradim, eyes squeezed shut, panting with thinly controlled fear.
Nodding reassuringly, "Yeah, okay, I can do that." Once she starts in, Drake follows behind. Able to feel her fear, "I love your dress, by the way. It looks really good on you. Good choice. Did you get any more? What do they look like? Are they longer? Shorter? Are they darker? Or possibly lighter? I'd be willing to bet they look great on you just like that one."
She snorted a shaky laugh in spite of herself at the ridiculousness of talking fashion while in this place. "Admiring the view from back there, are you?" she quipped. She bumped into the rear of whoever had gone in front of her and fought a fresh wave of panic at being closed in on all sides.
The fear had its roots in reality. Lady Palina had many ways of punishing what she viewed as poor behavior, and she'd found Niss's weakness. Pain had made Inniska cry, but being locked away, alone in the dark, feeling the walls pressing in on her? That had been torture. And she'd been subjected to it often. She began to feel like she was there again now...
"Two others, " she heard herself say. "I think you'll like all of them. . Drake was here. Her friends were here. She would be strong for them.
Unable to see him grin wryly, "Of course I am. Do you blame me? I don't," he states in a tone that one could easily feel is followed by a smile. "And I can't wait to see them."
"I will take the lead. I am used to tight quarters and can see in this darkness. Make sure to have light ready if I need it or someone needs to crawl around me." Shouldering his shield, Baradim would take the lead into the claustrophobic tunnel. After about fifteen feet, there is a curse from him as he turns and says to those behind him.
"There is a trap ahead. A floorboard trap. Looks like it'll make things fall from above and try to crush us. You may need a torch to see it and undo it. Fall back." Baradim orders gently, unable to deal with the trap ahead of them on his own.
Drake backs out so they all can back out. Once everyone is out, "Okay, Fin, I don't have any tools to deal with the lock. So if you do, be my guest. Do we have a light for him?"
"Bah. This guy sure does like his traps, doesn't he."
Finoan turns around and has to wait for Niss and Drake to back up out of the tunnel before he can leave himself.
"Well, Drake. You said you wanted the next trap. Here's your chance. Though we may have to go back to town and get a lantern first. Unless someone can make a candle or torch or something out of the random junk here in this shack."
While he waits for Baradim to exit the tunnel, Finoan looks around the house trying to get a sense of the person who 'lived' here - or at least left all of these traps.
▸ Woodland Blight
▸ Owner of the shack (Hallod?)
Niss is more than eager to get out of the tight space, and volunteers to run to the inn for torches, talking fast and power walking as she leaves, gone before Fin and Baradim extract themselves. She returns within minutes with the torches in hand.
"I'llruntotheFeedmillberightback!"
"Thanks, Niss. Wish me luck. If this thing goes south on me, well, just listen for my screams." Lighting the torch, Drake enters the tunnel.
Making his way along, he turns a corner to the left and clearly sees the trap before him. "Seriously? How did that guy even get down here to set this? Oh well, here goes nothing."
Drake then goes to work, hoping to not bring down the entire house upon him.
Hearing a successful *click*, Drake breathes a sigh of relief. "Well alright, that wasn't so bad." Pondering on whether or not to return to the others, "You know, I'm gonna keep going. Hopefully, I can clear anything else that needs clearing before we all come through here again."
When he makes his way to the blocked door, he catches sight of the hatch and notices the rotten, rusty hinge. "Boy that's gonna make some noise if I'm not careful. I don't think he's here though. 'Think' being the operative word. Greater men have died with that type of mentality." Drake then works to be very careful as he tries to open the door quietly.
Just as he starts to open it, he hears the slightest *creeeeak* and stops instantly. He waits a moment and listens in, wondering if anyone - or anything - on the other side might have heard. After several moments and hearing nothing, he continues, albeit at a much slower pace...
...which brings him far greater success. Raising the hatch, he peers within and listens for anything while keeping the torch out of sight, for now, not wanting to give away his position just in case.
When Niss returned and saw Drake was going in first, she took a deep breath before following the rest of you back in. You can do this. You're not trapped. You're safe. She repeated the mantra to herself, trying to control her breathing.
Finoan lets Baradim go directly behind Drake. The torchlight should work just fine, but if it goes out he doesn't want the people in the lead to be completely blind.
As he passes the section with the trap, he checks it out. Yeah, that could definitely have been a problem.
"Well done Drake." Baradim murmured, crawling behind the man. Despite his bulk, it was Baradim's strength that helped push him forward and onwards. Once they got to the end where a hatch waited, Baradim's frown would grow.
"He has had much time to prepare, it seems. Or he wasn't alone." Both ideas were not particularly enjoyable to the soldier's mind.
Within the hatch, Drake sees a stone chute with handholds carved into the wall. With the light, it’s easy for everyone to make it down. The door is open, swinging on rusted hinges, revealing a room lit by a single, flickering torch. Through the gloom ahead, Drake sees piles of small crates and many barrels stacked up haphazardly on the south side of the room. Opposite The Princess Guard is a stout wooden door with iron bands, while the north side of the room is bare save for an iron gate set into the middle of the wall. The stench of smoke and wet dog hangs heavy in the air.
As you all enter the room , you all hear a loud, grinding metallic sound as if something is being turned, and watch as the gate on the north side of the room begins to rise. Four angry, emaciated dogs start to growl and snap, training their eyes on you all. If you look ahead to the door with the iron bands, Hallod’s ugly, grinning face appears behind the bars–you assume he’s the one who set the gate to turning.
Baradim follows Drake into the room just as the loud, grinding noise begins to echo outwards. The gate begins to move and these angry, starving dogs begin to raise up altogether. Hallod's ugly face, grinning like the cat that got the cream, stares at them from between the bars.
"Dogs? " Baradim roars, lips pulling back in a snarl. "I have fought the dead and you think dogs will stop us? You better run, human, or you're mine."
His attention is turned towards the dog, looking at the one in the lead closest to him. Baradim lifts his shield before pounding the pommel against the steel. The heavy, loud, rhythmic noise matches the grinding as the orc snarls, ready for the bloodshed.
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Rolling his eyes, "You have GOT to be kidding me. You've starved those dogs to nothing! And you really should run or the big guy is going to take your head. Which is the least you deserve after what you did to those dogs, pig. Oh! and Bort," he quickly remembers, going slightly red.
Drake draws his hammer in one hand and his hatchet in another, awaiting for Hallod to release the hounds.
Fin ◆walks in to the room and looks around. Seeing Hallod's face through the door he mutters to himself, "If I can see him, then I can hit him." He casts ◆◆Spout at the space on the other side of the door.
Cantrips
◆ Shield
◆◆ Spout
Niss dropped down off the last few handholds of the chute, relieved to be out of the small space. Hearing the growls, she ◆moved into the room, staying well behind Baradim and one of the crates she spied. Facing the dogs she thrust out her hand, lifting it sharply and then jerking it to the side.
Debris under the dogs lifted into the air then swirled around two of them briefly, the whirlwind she used against the wolves repeated on their domesticated cousins.
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Baradim’s shout terrifies the dog closest to him and sets the rest of the dogs to snarling and barking at the large orc, clambering to get at him as soon as the gate finished rising.
Finoan’s attempt to attack Hallod’s grinning face behind the iron bars proves fruitless and the water splashes ineffectively upon the door. Hallod’s face disappears from view and one can hear some clattering in the chamber beyond as, presumably, the brute flees deeper into the basement.
Niss’s psychic attack is relatively effective: debris slams into three of the dogs; two of them looking a little dazed by the hit . One of the dogs sees it coming and manages to dodge out of the way, letting its pack take the hit instead.
The gates finish opening and the dogs get ready to lunge, despite three of them looking rather beaten down.
"Rrrrrrr," Fin growls as he watches Hallod avoid his spell and flee down the hallway.
He turns his attention to the dogs that are now free. "The most merciful thing would probably be to just kill these ones. I don't think they will ever be pets again. And they have been suffering greatly before we even arrived."
"Unfortunately, I'm afraid you're right, Fin." Moving next to Baradim, the ranger launches his hammer and his hatchet at the dog to his left.
Drake's hatchet connects with the first dog, mercifully ending its pitiful existence. He swings around and connects the hammer with the dog next to it and the dog weakly growls at it, barely hanging on to life.
Baradim would keep his shield up as he stepped up into combat with these poor, starved mutts. He stepped over the dead creature, moving in to try and bring his sword down upon the pup that didn't seem stunned.
The blood on the floor causes the warrior to slip for just a moment before he rights him, focusing on his defense after leaving himself open.
The dog snarls and snaps at Baradim with his jaws.
The bite just barely lands; but Baradim raises his shield and deflects all of the damage. With a mighty, bellowing roar, he shoves the dog against the wall.
The dog's subsequent bites do nothing, as it's rattled by the shove and its rapidly waning grasp on life.
The dog is backed into a desperate corner and tries to snap at the massive orc as well, but its attempts are easily blocked by his shield.
The remaining dog stumbles around for a moment, then tries to snap at Baradim as well, its attempts as impotent as the others dogs’.
Realizing that there is very little room in that narrow kennel that the dogs were kept in and that Drake is likely wanting to also have some room, Fin decides to use his ranged attack. He casts ◆◆ Spout on the closest dog.
"Unfortunate things."
He also ◆moves over to the doorway that Hallod went through.
Niss hefted a rock with her powers, launching it at one of the mutts. She was relieved none had bitten anyone yet-- they looked like they might have mange or something similar, and worried for Baradim and Drake. She was glad, also, that she'd made herself follow them.
She's got a bad angle from here and didn't want to hit either of her friends nearby, so the rock smashes harmlessly into the wall behind the dogs. She shifts closer to the door Hallod escaped through.
Baradim moves with a practiced, disciplined movement. The rage, the anger, and the ferocity are honed into a keen weapon. The dogs were wild, hungry things but everything had a pattern to it.
"Block. Parry. Move. Strike. Parry. Move. Block." The mantra repeated in the orc's head, drills out in the yard of the fortress coming back to mind. How disorganized he once was, a wild and fuming thing that knew only instinct and anger. Now he had skill and precision.
The dog that was slammed into the wall, Baradim pushes his attack onto that one in particular. His longsword catches the light, aiming to be covered in red.
His attention moves onto the next dog, his blade spinning with that terrible sound that only a sword swinging through the air with killing intent could make.
If any of the the dogs survive, he would raise his shield back up in a defensive position. The steel had survived the damage these dogs could put out and the fewer there were, the less harm could come to him and them.
Whichever dog still stands, Drake draws a hatchet and launches it at the nearest dog before drawing one hammer after another and launching them as well, barring any are still left alive.
Between Baradim and Drake, all the dogs have been relatively obliterated--it's a sad and violent sight. Hallod clearly starved the dogs to keep them aggressive; yet another mark against the ogre of a man.
If you look about the room, you see intact barrels and crates among the debris. Other than the way you came in, the only other exit out of the room is the door you saw Hallod through.
Fin tries the handle of the door and finds that it is locked. "Drake, you still have the tools for this. You want to take care of it?"
Fin takes a quick look through some of the barrels while he waits, and tries to avoid looking at the bodies of the dead dogs.
Nodding, "Yeah, sure, I'll give it a shot." Drake then goes to work on the door.
Concentrating as he fiddles with the door, the next thing he hears is a *click* and he pushes the door open. Looking back to the others as he moves his arms out wide while sporting a successful grin, "Voilà! There you go. It's almost like shooting fish in a barrel. Well... this time." He winks.
Baradim wipes the blood off of his blade onto the fur of the closest dog, hefting his shield over his back again. He stares down the heavy door as Drake works at getting it open, his scowl deepening every second. There was no enjoyment in that battle. A bear was a mighty beast, proud and strong. The wolves were threats, hunters looking to take their lives. These beasts were starved, beaten, and made wild. They provided little challenge outside of being a distraction, a violent escapade.
"Ready when you all are." It was obvious that Baradim was eager to bring the man down at last.
Drake recovers his weapons and puts them away. Drawing his bow, "Alright, let's go. We've got a bad guy to catch."
Finoan rummages through the barrels and crates, finding 2 vials of lesser alchemist's fire, forgotten under a pile of straw within a crate.
The iron-barred door opens up into a short hallway--there is a large steel wheel on the wall; presumably, the wheel that opened the gate to the dogs. The chamber beyond is clearly Hallod's "home," divided into three areas: a larder, a lavatory, and a living space. The larder is a simple storeroom, filled with scraps of old meat, a third of a wheel of cheese, a sack of turnips, and a barrel of watered-down ale. There are a few empty wine bottles carelessly tossed in one corner. They were all good Chelish vintages, probably quite valuable.
The lavatory sits just off the main living space, and it is little more than an open pit. Given the scent of the room, it seems that Hallod also uses this room to dispose of his garbage as well as his bodily wastes. There are scraps of moldy food and junk in the corners of the room.
The main living area is a mess, with a cot in one corner and crude firepit in the other. A simple chimney leads up from this room to, you assume, connect with the chimney above. There are piles of debris and detritus scattered about the room.
An open passageway on the south side of the room leads off into the darkness.
Niss peers into the room but doesn't notice anything of note except the remarkably terrible smell. "Gods, no wonder the man is so awful, if he lives like this." She plugs her nose.
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Cringing, "You aren't kidding about that, Niss. I think we should burn this place down when we're done with it."
Drake will take a quick look but refuses to dig around too deep within the lavatory.
Niss cringes as she watches Drake search through the refuse, keeping her distance. She peeks into the larder.
Neither Niss nor Drake finds anything of interest in the larder, but to Drake, the lavatory and living space hold several items of interest.
In the living space, Drake finds a locked strongbox beneath Hallod's cot. There looks to be no key nearby or in anything you've searched. Drake also finds amidst the mess a whetstone, a dagger, 15 feet of rope, a hammer, 2 candles, and a coin purse with 8gp, 12sp, and 16cp.
In the lavatory, Drake peeks into the hole in the floor, his face assaulted by unspeakable scents. There is some trash mixed into the foul depths, but nothing that Drake feels is worth even considering the horrifying idea of riffling around in there. In a more approachable corner of refuse, Drake finds a number of small, identical bottles scattered among the trash.
The bottles all have a silvery residue in the bottom that smells strongly of both iron and something...else. Something terribly acrid that burns Drake's nostrils as he sniffs them.
Fin finishes searching through the crates and follows the others. "I found a couple of bombs if anyone else is interested. If not, I may use them."
"Whew, this place is a bit rancid."
He notices the empty bottles that Drake is carrying. "What did you find there? Maybe something he was feeding to the dogs? Fin takes a good look and a sniff of one of the bottles.
"If he did, it is no wonder they wouldn't eat anything."
Taking a moment to not lose what he's eaten recently, "Oh gods this place is disgusting. But I did find some things of interest." He shows the others what he's found.
He notices the empty bottles that Drake is carrying. "What did you find there? Maybe something he was feeding to the dogs? Fin takes a good look and a sniff of one of the bottles.
"Yeah, here, take 'em. I've no idea what they are." He hands them to the cat.
"I also found a strongbox underneath his cot. Should we leave it for now and come back for it after we deal with this guy? Because, if I'm honest, I really don't think he's going to need it when this is over. Just sayin'." He shrugs.
"That box is probably the only thing in here worth looking into. Maybe it has his master plans written out in stick figure pictograms or something like that. You still have those picks? Let me see here..."
Finoan's skill with a lockpick grants him access to the lockbox; however, an extra, rather distinct sound accompanies the sound of the box swinging open.
A dart shoots out of the lock and jabs into Finoan, an odd burning sensation radiating from the tiny wound.
"Yowww." Fin glares at the lockbox for several seconds. "I guess I deserved that. Trapping the front door is uncalled for. Trapping valuables that are locked up and protected..."
He cautiously checks the box for any other surprises and then opens it.
Within the box, Finoan finds a batch of 14 receipts that match the logs from Bort's ledgers, as well as a scrap of parchment that lists each transaction along with a value slightly higher than that listed on the corresponding receipt from Bort.
On the back of the transaction list is a crude map. It depicts a cave helpfully labeled "HIDEOUT" in clumsy handwriting 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 labeled "DROP POINT."
It is clear that Hallod was a middleman in these transactions: he is skimming gold from whoever had been buying supplies from Bort. Along with these receipts, there is a sum of money within: 21gp and 37sp.
"Hah. See, stick figure drawings." He reads through the receipts and checks out the map. "Apparently his master plan is to be a low grade lackey trying to skim money without getting caught." Fin pockets the evidence and the map as well as the money.
"A lackey for whom? I was hoping he was the mastermind behind the murder and catching him would clear this all up, and we could leave. Seeing this place..." she gestured around, "...that was obviously too optimistic."
Fin sighs. "No, he is probably just a psychopath who twisted things around in his mind. He skimmed a bit too much and got some heat for it and blamed Bort for it - as though Bort did something wrong."
He takes out a bit of gauze and quickly tapes up the small puncture wound on his hand. "That will keep me from bleeding all over the place. Shall we go? See what other body parts I can get shot, stabbed, slashed, burned, or dissolved before the day is over."
Fin heads down the passageway to the south, keeping an eye on his surroundings to see if he can find any more traps before tripping over them.
"I don't know, Fin, I'm thinking Niss is right. You look at that map and that tells me in and of itself, he's not smart enough to do this on his own. And with him being a lackey, that now means we're looking for two murderers. Hallod was just the triggerman. We need to find the guy calling the shots. What if Bort was just the beginning?" he asks rhetorically, pondering that a moment before shaking his head at the thought. "Gods I hate this place. This was just supposed to be a stopover!" He throws his hands up in frustration. Drake then follows after the cat-machine, his bow still in hand, ready to put an end to it all so they can get out of this town.
Niss ran a hand up and down along Drake's back comfortingly. "You and me both. I feel ready to jump out of my skin being stuck here knowing there might be people looking for me. And even if there weren't, it's a miserable little town and it seems like we're the only ones trying to fix its problems." She followed him as he followed Fin.