Orchid takes the various alchemical items and then presses a healing potion onto each of Valda and Bunnit, before putting the other vials into her pack. They take up a lot of the space but the poppet seems confident with them at least.
"If we're going out to the fort I'd appreciate a lift." She says politely. "I can run over short distances but that is a very long way for small feet like mine!"
Larachelle safely stows away the group's supply of gold in one of her pouches and thanks Greta with a wide grin. She then turns to Orchid, hearing the poppet's request, and presses her finger to her chin.
"Oh, if transportation is an issue, I'm sure we could rent some horses and ponies from my family's stables. My brothers will provide us only with the strongest and bravest steeds, guaranteed! And perhaps we should hurry," she continues. "We don't want to give the perpetrator time to escape, of course."
"Hurrying seems like a bright idea." Bunnit says, after giving both children a long hug and a whispered request to be good. "Beginning the adventure by being indispensable, Ms. Larachelle." Bunnit gives a nod to the wonderful notion of horses, as he stows a healing potion in his pack.
Valda gives each of her daughters a kiss on the forehead as she sends them off with their aunt and uncle. She nods to Larachelle. "We will ride swiftly so we can track down the arsonist and ensure he faces justice."
Easily able to rent a few horses at a very reasonable rate, you head out to the Citadel the same afternoon. The ride itself is luckily uneventful, and you have time to be able to converse as you ride ahead.
The light slowly begins to fade as the Citadel begins to appear ahead of you on the road.
Rising from the hilltop above in the darkening sky is a looming structure of crumbling stone and still-imposing battlements, though verdant nature is reclaiming the site. Plumes of red smoke—which ambassador Warbal believes to be distress signals from the Bumblebrasher goblins—rise from the roof of the keep’s central tower. This place can only be Citadel Altaerein, the infamous former home of the Order of the Nail Hellknights, now fallen into ruin. The gate-like doors in the center of the keep hang ajar—not surprising since no one has maintained this facility in years.
"I feel it's best for us to shelter inside, even if the hour grows late. It'll be easier than a camp in the open. Perhaps the goblins will be easy to find." Arabella comments, as she stares up at the citadel. Others might find it imposing, but a Hellknight fortress could arguably be thought of as comforting for a Chelaxian, even an unofficially exiled expatriate as she was. She dismounts, intending to lead her rented horse in, unless the others seemed quite against the idea.
"What if something bad has happened and taken over the fort?" Orchid asks. "I don't have much experience but is it wise to go straight into a building that is probably held by people who are... less than friendly?"
"It's a tough choice, I guess. If they're less than friendly, they could also shut the gates on us, and we'd never get in with just what we have, I think. I don't see anybody manning the parapets yet though...but admittedly, I don't have a scout's eye."
She glances at the others, and asks, "Perhaps one of you can tell if somebody's been by recently? Not sure if the hill's too rocky for that or not."
Valda hops down off of her pony as she gazes at the fort. "I will see what I can find," she says to Arabella, kneeling down to examine any tracks that may be there.
While his wife searches for clues on the ground, Bunnit stares at the doors and building, something bugging him. Unfortunately whatever it is, is just out of reach.
Dismounting off her steed, Larachelle stretches and jumps straight to action inspecting the doors to the keep. Her parents had told her tales of this citadel and others like it, and of their many quests alongside and against various Hellknight orders, but this was her first time actually seeing the old keep up close.
"The doors are ajar. Doesn't look like they've seen much use lately, and no one bothered to lock them. I agree," she nods at Arabella, "I'd rather camp indoors than outdoors, and by the look of things it doesn't seem that the goblins--or anything else, for that matter, hang around the entrance too often."
Valda cannot find any tracks of significance, only a few deer prints that have passed through in the last day or two. She does however find a good sheltered spot for a viable camp.
"I suppose we'd best go inside then." Orchid says when Valda reports her findings. "I don't suppose anyone would have been hiding inside for days just in case they needed to ambush someone..."
"How odd? Perhaps they were wrong about that apprentice fleeing here, or they didn't come through the front door. Still, if nobody's been by in a while, then it ought to be safe for us to go in." Arabella says, trusting to Valda's assertion...and perhaps still a little intimidated by the Ravoundel expatriate.
She does unwrap her chained mace though from where it hung about her armour. "But...just in case..." and then she tugs on her horse, intent on going inside.
Battered, reinforced doors hang very slightly ajar at this main entrance to Citadel Altaerein, once the headquarters of the Hellknight Order of the Nail. Above the doorframe, a tarnished seal depicting a sunburst made of nails stands out in relief on the keep’s stonework. Under the seal runs a worn but clear line of carved text.
You notice rust and dents around the doors’ hinges and realize how noisy simply shoving the doors open would be. You can hear dog-like whining coming from behind the doors.
Arabella approaches the fortress with her weapon and buckler at the ready, tugging at her horse's reins. "So far, so good." Pausing at the door, she glances at the hinges.
"Oh, these are going to be real noisy. I...think there's something actually behind them." She stops, and tells the others, "You might want to have your things to hand before I shove this open."
Bunnit got off his horse, the doors still nagging him. Getting close, he hears a whine from the other side. "Sounds like a... dog. On the other side, I think." he tests the handle, how stuck they are "I think we could push them open, but its is going to be gods-awful Loud." he looks to his wife, with a pained smile of memory "Like Poppi when she stubbed her toe that time and nearly broke the windows our with her distress." he points to the hinges "Its the rust and dents here that I think might be the problem."
"These doors do seem awfully rusty," Larachelle quietly confirms as she draws her staff. Though only faintly, she hears what sounds like a whining dog on the other side of the goods; and though she's always glad to help an injured animal, "I'd heard one too many tales about awful monsters that lure you by mimicking cries for help. Do we want to, maybe, look for an alternative way in? One that wouldn't force us to announce our presence?... as much as I enjoy announcing my presence," she blushes.
"Oh, I know! Ranks," she says as the ferret climbs up her back and onto her shoulder, "how would you like to go on a scouting mission? Just pop in there, take a look, and come back!"
"I can go too..." Orchid offers. "That's plenty of space for me to take a look."
She accompanies Ranks to the gate but does little more than peek around the leaves of the door - not wanting to take any risks. Just in case.
Ranks and Orchid manage to slip through the small crack in the large doors into a large room.
The large room beyond is a cluttered amalgamation of a formal receiving parlor and a ruined husk. Dented, rusted, and otherwise ruined suits of outdated Hellknight armor line the north and south walls; each display is leaning or entirely tipped over and missing its helmet, gauntlets, boots, or other pieces.
Broken furniture is scattered about the area, as are what look like the half-chewed carcasses of several small prey animals. A wide but dirty stretch of black carpet leads to two large doors, one to the northwest and one to the southwest Scuffs on the walls indicate where valuable paintings or framed documents once hung. Prominently displayed on each wall is a seal depicting a sunburst made of nails, carved in relief and identical to the one above the front doors to this area. Toward the ceiling, running the length of each wall is a motto, the same as outside above the doors.
More importantly, as Orchid and Ranks slip through, they see 2 dog-like creatures lying in the far corner, one cleaning itself and two more sniffing the outer edges of the room. All four of the dogs have their rib cages prominently showing through their coats.
They look up as their landscape changes with two interlopers and their noses twitch as they sniff. After a second or two their lips begin to curl and they growl with low growls that vibrate through Ranks and Orchid. The two dogs lying on the ground rise onto their haunches.
”That didn’t sound good.” Arabella stiffens at the faint growls, then levels her shoulder into the gate and pushes with a grunt, It seemed to her it was best to discard further subtlety in favour of making sure she and the others could get to Orchid’s side, noisy gate or not.
"No, it did not," Valda agrees. She nocks and arrow and moves to follow Arabella.
Bunnit was contemplating the hinges, wondering if lamp oil might serve as a lubricant, when whines became growls. Quickly he ran over to help Arabella push to open the doors.
"Oh, just don't do anything hasty, everyone," Larachelle says worriedly as she trails behind the group, "these could be the goblins' pets for all we know."
When the two reunite, she lets the ferret slip back up her legs and into her backpack.
As the doors swing open, the dogs all group back together, their teeth bared, inching slowly forwards.
"Does anyone have any food?" Orchid asks, "They look very thin. They might be hungry."
"I got jerky." the halfling had planned to soak the hard dry meat in a stewing pot to make a decent broth, but if it would help he would sacrifice his dinner.
Pulling out several chunks, he threw them toward the dogs "Good doggies, have some Not Us meat."
The dogs' noses twitch trying to smell out what Bunnit is offering them. The largest of the four dogs stalks forwards to get closer, but cautiously halts just over an arms reach away.
"There you go." Orchid says softly, taking some jerky from Bunnit and stepping forwards slowly. "There you go, nice meat!"
Arabella relaxes her stance, lowering her buckler, as she eyes the others offering the dogs meat. She looks a little puzzled at their presence in the fortress, as she asks aloud, glancing back at Larachelle, "Goblin pets? I might be misremembering what I read, but I thought goblins hated dogs."
"It's horses they don't like." Orchid replies over her shoulder. "Normal dogs aren't goblin fans and the reverse, but these are 'goblin dogs'. You can see they're hairless, more or less. Not well cared for though."
The bigger of the four dogs creeps forwards a little further before snatching the jerky from Orchid and dashing to the other side of the room again. The others all creep further forward hoping that there is more food available for them.
"Hmm, I see...I think I purchased some in town a few days back as well, let me look..." Arabella puts her weapon down and start searching through her pack, not inclined to let Bunnit use up all his packaged food on the dogs. She fishes them out after a bit to have Orchid pass on to the dogs.
With Arabella's purchases Orchid moves forward to encourage the dogs, seemingly fearless as she dispenses food, kind murmurs and the occasional pat on the nose.
"We need to open the door a little more." She says. "Keeping them here is cruel. If they don't want to go, that's fine, but they should have the choice at least."
Valda nods in satisfaction as the goblin dogs are dealt with. "I'll scout ahead some," she says as she moves up to the doors across the room and quietly opens them.
This narrow corridor stretches around the octagonal center of the keep, and is divided into segments by doors leading through this level of the towers or into interior rooms. Here and there, a few remaining paintings of dour-faced Hellknights still grace the walls between high, narrow windows that let in limited light.
Heading to the right, after Larachelle offers up her words of wisdom, "Right is always right!", the door opens to a small circular room as part of a tower with rubble taking up most of the left-hand side. A door just ahead opens further into another corridor. The corridor has a further door to the left but also opens up into a larger room ahead.
A judge’s bench, a witness stand, and councilors’ tables are the only remaining indication of this room’s previous use as a formal courtroom. Benches have long ago been smashed to fragments and strewn about the gallery, covering the floor of the room in debris. Through several empty doorways to the north, a large, ragged opening in the citadel’s wall is visible—along with what appears to be a corpse wearing silvery armor, lying on a muddy lump in the center of a pool of water that has filled much of the collapsed section.
The area to the west, , is separated from the larger room by a 3-foot-tall partition with several openings as if viewing panels.
The archways to the north lead to several small rooms, with some barely recognizable desks and chairs scattered around. The ground here has subsided, resulting in a sizable collapse along the outer northern wall and forming a 5-foot-deep pool of brackish water. The wall is severely crumbled to the North and allows the light to come streaming through.
As soon as Valda scouts ahead, two corpses emerge from the water, impaled on large spikes which continue to advance. After a very short moment, it is clear that they are attached to the shells of two large predators! The monsters resemble no known animal and their toothy maws snap at you all, as their next meal. Fortunately, Valda leaps back quickly and fires a quick arrow before the rest of the party come to her rescue and dispatch of the two beasts.
You defeated 2 of the following filler monsters!
You find all of the doors unlocked, and the offices similarly plundered. However, in the room furthest to the south you find two scrolls.
The bodies atop the graveshells are clearly long dead. They both still wear a chain shirt and carry a total of 6gp and 9sp in small pouches.
Arabella cleans her mace after the brief battle with the large but ungainly beasts, glad to see that nobody had come to harm. She then lays the coins out on one of the surviving desks to clean them as well, finding them to be the only things worth taking from the corpses.
Only after that will she help search, just in case the others hadn't quite completed their search of the adjoining small rooms. She adds any more coins found to the pile on the desk, also cleaning them with a rag.
Being close to the ground Orchid is easily able to help Arabella with finding loose change, but the most interesting discovery is when she locates a pair of scrolls in a thin drawer at the bottom of an otherwise plundered desk.
"These may be useful." She says, reading them both. "A warding spell to protect and area and a spell to make a foe retreat. I can use them both unless you'd like to Larachelle?"
Once the question of scroll ownership is dealt with Orchid checks around once more and finds nothing. "Let's check that door we came past on the way in." She suggests.
Bunnit is following the others from room to room, his sword out and ready, but nothing is seen as of yet. The crashing sound of something exploding out of water makes him (and everyone else) run forward to where his wife is. But his darling archer is fine, just a little wet, and the two strange creatures are dead. "Two shots, two kills." he congratulates her with a long hug and a soft kiss on her forehead.
Orchid begins to check out the doorway you missed before.
Once-plush crimson curtains hang in tatters on the walls, and scuffs reveal places where portraits once hung. Trash and rotted food lie in heaps on the floor like tiny moldering corpses. Other doors in this room open to the north and southwest.
Its obvious the North door opens up into the other smaller gallery, but the southwestern door opens further into the Citadel. Continuing with your quiet attempts at exploration, you head through.
Although many of the circular tables and heavy wooden writing desks here are tipped over or otherwise ransacked, the bookshelves against the wall and the nature of the furniture suggest this was once a room where significant legal research took place.
You are able to piece together the general history of the Order of the Nail.
The Order of the Nail is an order of Hellknights based in Citadel Vraid near Korvosa. It concerns itself with quelling "savage" practices and bringing their idea of civilization to the inhabitants of the wild frontier.
This order built its headquarters, Citadel Altaerein, atop the rise, and the site has been known to the locals as Hellknight Hill ever since.
When the Hellknights dug into the hill to excavate crypts, vaults, and dungeons for their fortress, they discovered the ruins of a magical circle of arches but no purpose can be found in these tomes.
Arabella secures the coins for now, assuming the others would ask for their share at some point, before following Orchid through the next doorway.
She glances at the books and seems tempted to pull them out and browse, but then shakes her head. Glancing at Larachelle, she mentions, gesturing to the various manuscripts, "Perhaps later, if we have time and space in the saddle bags, we ought to bring these back to the library. Feels a waste to just let them molder away here, but let's press on for now."
The Chelaxian steps over to the door going northwards from the room, wondering what lay in that direction.
"You can keep the scrolls, Orchid. Not to brag, but I have access to a grand array of spells already, thanks to my studies and this staff!"
Larachelle follows closely behind Arabella as she goes to inspect the books, but stops herself when the Chelaxian turns to her.
"Ah, yes. We cannot delay now. Though I will say, diving into a Hellknight Order's library sounds thrilling..."
Bunnit is following the others from room to room, his sword out and ready, but nothing is seen as of yet. The crashing sound of something exploding out of water makes him (and everyone else) run forward to where his wife is. But his darling archer is fine, just a little wet, and the two strange creatures are dead. "Two shots, two kills." he congratulates her with a long hug and a soft kiss on her forehead.
"All in a day's work, Honey Bunny," Valda says with a smirk as she returns the hug. "Let us press on."
The unlocked door opens easily, this long row of mostly empty bookshelves is remarkably untouched, though a thick layer of dust and the smell of mildew permeate the air. A door deeper in the citadel to the east hangs conspicuously open.
A shadow passes just past the other side of the open door as you glance in its direction just before you hear a low snarl and out stalks a wolf, teeth bared.
"Bad wolf!" Orchid commands. "Sit!"
Bunnit quickly rushes over before the small doll, worried the wolf might use her as a chew toy. He slashes his sword in front of its face, more to distract than with purpose.
"Wolf!" The beast replies, its voice a growl. "You better run, little one, before I rip you to shreds"
The speaking wolf looks away quickly as Orchid lets off a flash of bright light but unfortunately for it, not quick enough. Bunnit, surprised by the wolf's reply misses it entirely.
The beast snaps its jaws at Bunnit, its closest prey, but thanks to Orchid, the wolf can barely see!
Orchid does retreat somewhat, but that opens up more room for larger and more capable combatants. As she goes she throws a shard of bright light at the beast!
"Be careful!" Valda calls to Bunnit as she raises her bow, marking the beast and opening fire!
Arabella is briefly taken aback by the talking wolf, but when it didn’t seem to be any friendlier despite having a language, she tries to focus on bringing down quite forcefully with her mace. ”You’ve walked into the wrong crowd, beast. Time to turn you into a rug!”
+ Weakness, if Exploit succeeded.