"My love, being careful around a blind mop of a wolf like this seems to be unnecessary." he tries to taunt the talking wolf and fails.
"What's that, a speaking wolf? I'm sure I have something for those..."
"If you could just get out of the way, though; I can't see the speaking wolf!"
Trying to aim through the crowded doorway, Larachelle raises her staff and chants a few magic words, causing a small flame to spring out of her right arm. She swings it in a wide arc and attempts to hurl the fire at the wolf, to the best of her ability.
,
The speaking wolf comes under a barrage of attacks and in a flurry of teamwork, Bunnit's rapier passes cleanly through its chest and it collapses to the floor before it could even attempt to dine on little Orchid.
The wolf had emerged from a grim administrative office that contains a heavy wooden desk, armchairs, and filing cabinets which are still largely intact, though most of the furniture drawers have been pulled out and ransacked.
Most notably, the room is littered with piles of stinking filthy blankets, half-gnawed bones, and other signs that the wolf was squatting here. Amongst the litter is a pile of filthy blankets draped over an overturned chair, serveing as a nest for two small little puppies, about the size of a cat. As you enter the room, their heads pop out of their make-shift nest curiously before baring their teeth at unknown strangers.
"That was a warg." Orchid says, examining the beast carefully from a short distance away. "More intelligent than wolves so they often end up leading packs. I'm glad we got rid of this one quickly though."
The sight of puppies in the next room makes the poppet squeal in apparent delight and she approaches them both slowly, making soothing noises as she does so.
"Don't be afraid little ones. I'm not here to hurt you."
"The girls would be in love." Bunnit said with a smile at the cute puppies "Though the rest of our house would be in tatters." he adds looking around at the mess the pups had made.
"Where is its pack then? Why would it be here alone?" Arabella inquires rhetorically, as she recovers her mace, wiping off the bludgeoning head from where it had broken bones. She does look warily at the puppies, unsure if the creatures could be acceptably tamed, if raised from this younger age.
"I wouldn't recommend making the commitment to raise them, unless you're hoping to use them as steeds in some form. I imagine they'll grow as big as that one we had to put down."
At the steeds comment, Bunnit laughs, but the laugh grows softer before it dies out. Arabella reminds him of their mother and that they just killed her. Out of self-defense of course, but still, it feels Heavy in one's heart.
"Well, we'll figure out something, between us and the town, maybe the goblins. Cause we can't do nothing." he says firmly, but with a look toward his wife.
"I will take them in." Orchid says firmly. "Puppies this young can absolutely be trained and I'm confident they'll be a boon in the future. And if they don't mind I could use a way of getting around faster."
She puts tiny hands on tiny hips, clearly daring anyone to disagree with her. "Besides, killing puppies would just be wrong."
After making sure no one was hurt by her stray fire spell, Larachelle follows the party into the ransacked room. Before she can begin to inspect the wreckage, she notices two tiny canine heads pop out of a mess of blankets.
"Oh, little puppies! Ahem--worry not, helpless puppies; I, Larachelle the Dazzling, have arrived to save you from the big bad wolf!"
After hearing Arabella, though, Larachelle's expression darkens a little. Maybe the little puppies did not need saving after all.
To distract herself from the pangs of guilt, the mage starts going through some drawers, hoping to find something of interest.
"Take a look, Arabella - I found this book that might interest you. Looks like some Hellknight Order protocols and how they relate to the law in Cheliax. And there's a dedication to the Lictor of the order, too!"
Bunnit looks relieved at the firmness of Orchid's declaration of no killing puppies. "We can't really take them with us at the moment... not while we're exploring." the halfling says as one starts to gnaw and pull at his scabbard. "We can come back after we find our lost goblin tribe?"
Valda gives her husband a stern look when he suggests bringing the puppies home. "No. We have our hands full as it is with our little ones. No pets until they're old enough to take care of them!"
She agrees with Bunnit's last statement. "Yes, we'll bring them with us on the way out. We still have goblins to find."
"Hrm, if you say so. Hellknights are nice to look at and ought to be respected, but..." Arabella sighs, shaking her head. It was one of the family outlooks she somewhat agreed with, and one that got her into trouble in Cheliax itself. Still, if there were Hellknight histories here, perhaps she could pick up things they kept from the imperial public at large.
"I'll give it a look later. We need to make sure those goblins are alright before we can be a little more leisurely in our search." Arabella says, once the others finally appeared quite done with the puppies. She started down the hall, intending to make for the door on her right first.
Witht he puppies safely closed away in their rather disgusting nest, Arabella leads the exploration forwards continuing to look for Calmont and the Brambashers.
The first door on your right finds you in a prisoner intake area. There are long benches, rings on the walls for shackles, and an administrative area which occupies this room’s western end. To the east, behind a raised iron gate, several prisoner holding cells stand with their doors hanging open. Storage lockers line the walls to the south.
"Looks like the kind of place that might have keys, The tribe might have gone through everything already, but it doesn't hurt to look and hope" so Bunnit does just that. Look around.
Valda looks around as well, though she keeps her bow ready just in case.
Orchid nods her agreement and sets to work helping on the search.
Arabella heads into the room, though not very far. She keeps her weapon ready instead, since everybody already seemed to have searching well in hand. The Chelaxian decides to watch the door, in case anything unpleasant tried to hem them in the room.
Bunnit, Valda and Orchid begin searching the room as Arabella and Larachelle stand back to watch. No keys are found, but it is clear the storage lockers are locked tight from intruders.
The floor of the four eastern most holding cells have rag-covered bodies so badly decomposed as to be merely bones.
As soon as the Bunnit goes to examine the closest storage locker to check for anything useful, as the sound of bones chinking against each other is heard from the cells as the bones animate, standing upright, forming bodies with scimitars gripped tightly in their skeletal hands.
Locker 1: a low-grade silver flail and lesser darkvision elixir
Locker 2: A low grade silver mace, lesser darkvision elixir and scroll of magic missile
Locker 3: A low grade silver light hammer, lesser darkvision elixir and a potency crystal.
Locker 4: A low grade silver morningstar, a lesser darkvision elixir, a jade cat and a lesser cheetah's elixir
Bunnit had been peering at the locks, wondering if he should pick them open or leave them alone, since whatever was in them wasn't theirs. "My uncle..." his thought interrupted by rattling bones. "Skeletons?" the questions changed to "SKELETONS" when he noticed that his Val was between him and them.
Bunnit has never truly been called Brave in his heart, but he wanted to be do tried desperately. At that moment, there was no trying, simply running as quick as he could to put himself, his sword, and his shield in front of his wife.
Orchid knows that she has the tools to be very effective in this fight but that requires getting closer to the enemy! Still she knows that it's the right thing to do and follows Bunnit, although she hides behind Valda rather than moving in front of her.
Arabella turns on her heel when she hears the commotion, then, after a pause to gulp and steady herself, comes to a stop barring the passage from the storage lockers, and swinging her mace over at the head of the closest one. She grunts as the chain gets caught on a cell frame, and has to angrily pull it back without striking a foe.
+ Weakness 2 or more depending on Exploit result.
"They sure look like skeletons!", Larachelle cries, taking cover behind a counter. "Hold them back, Arabella, I'll figure something out!"
Larachelle squints as she looks at the living bones approaching her party. Skeletons, skeletons, how do you deal with those?
"Stay calm," Valda says as she takes aim at the nearest skeleton. She opens fire, missing twice before landing a shot in the skeleton's skull.
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"I am Calm, dear" his voice squeaks, not-calmly, since there are Moving Skeletons coming at them, but his sword and shield are both steady, and he had not turned into a bunny. Given those variables is calmness was a scale instead of a boolean, he would be much closer to Calm then not-Calm.
The glowing light from Orchid phases through the wall, missing the skeletons entirely just as Arabella's mace hits the same exact place in the wall with a thud.
Unfortunately, Larachelle fails to recall anything of significance about how to defend against skeletons and all but one of Valda's shots go wide, ricocheting against the wall. There is something very enticing about this one special section of wall it would seem.
The Skeletons stride forward, meeting Arabella in the confined space but are unable to get past their companion. Fortunately, the skeletons seem about as competent as the Heroes and their frontline attack misses Arabella spectacularly.
The two at the rear drop their scimitars and reach for a bow, firing down the line in front of them, an arrow whistling toward Arabella.
1 damage - red
Arabella winces as an arrow nicks her shoulder, but leans upon her training to try and fend off the skeleton bearing down upon her before it even got in close.
Unfortunately, she mistimed her assault, as it rushed with its scimitar blade forward at the same time, ducking under her swing. Sidestepping the slashes, she attempted to bring the mace back down on her foe. Seeing more skeletons beyond that, she prepares to attack again, but hears her companions requesting she give way.
Grudgingly, she withdraws, keeping her shield up to protect herself. "A-Alright, I'll trust you know what you're doing."
*Ignore if not Needed
+1 More if targeting different Skeleton due to Sweep
"Fall back!" Orchid calls. "I can't get them when you're there!"
She has no illusions about what happens if her eminently breakable frame gets too close to those skeletons.
With Orchid yelling and Arabella retreating, Bunnit stays as part of the wall (a small part). He lifts his shield, and readies his blade. "Come on, Bones, come on"
Valda continues to calmly fire more arrows. Her first one hits the skeleton's center mass, and as it crumbles, she turns to mark the next one and fires a shot past it.
As the first skeleton falls, Larachelle realizes her safe hiding spot is too far from the fray to be of any use. Steeling herself, she leaps over the counter and conjures a bolt of fire to sear the skeleton.
,
Arabella's mace passes under the skeleton's ribcage, but doesn't connect with any other bones as both Orchid's attack goes wide again.
Valda manages to hit such a vital point on its spine that the whole skeleton just scatters across the floor in parts. Larachelle sets another on fire and it clatters to the floor, bones blackened.
One of the remaining skeletons strides forwards and swings its scimitar rapidly towards Bunnits face but passes over his head, but Bunnit also misses in retaliation.
Three more arrows fly towards Arabella yet again, causing a bloody gash to open along her cheek.
Arabella winces as she takes another cut, this time a rather visible one that she quite hoped wouldn't scar.
"Grr...someone deal with that archer. Rather busy with this wretched one up here." This time, the chained mace seems to be easier for her to employ, with more room about to swing it.
Orchid, seeing that the numbers have been swung sharply in the parties favour, tries to hit the wall again.
And succeeds admirably!
Bunnit rolls to the other side of the skeleton, quite gracefully and then manages to stab nothing.
Valda shifts her aim to the skeletal archer, but her shots go wide of her target.
Larachelle looks at the scorched pile of bones, half surprised with the damage she herself inflicted, before snapping back to the matter at hand.
"I'd love to help with the archer at the back, but there's a skeleton in my way. Ah shoot," she mutters as another one of her flaming bolts goes wide.
,
Arabella managed to shatter another skeleton, with only the archer left, who fires off three more shots, this time towards Bunnit but fortunately, the arrows whizz past the shorter halfling.
Bunnit ducks and covers (with his shield), when the arrows fly at him. Not gracefully, rather bunny like in truth. A frozen little ball that anyone sparing a glace might notice the whitening of sprouting fur.
"nononononono" the hair poofs back in at the chant, then the halfling WARRIOR charges the archer and stabs it twice.
Arabella rushes forward to go assist Bunnit, even as she looked rather impressed by his ability to evade arrows. Admittedly, she had a disadvantage given her larger bulk, but she rather hoped to put any further arrows to an end.
The skeleton raises its arms defensively, but has not shiel to protect it as Bunnit manages to shatter enough of its bones to cause it to disassemble just before Arabella catches up to them and the room falls silent.
Orchid decides not to risk firing off another missile. With the luck she's having she'd probably nail Bunnit in the back and she likes the halfling too much to risk that.
Thankfully the others do indeed finish off the skeleton and Orchid's non-existent blushes are spared.
"Finally...I think we're safe." Arabella mutters, as she puts some pressure on the cuts she'd received to hopefully arrest any more blood. She then goes back to resuming her post near the room's entrance, while warning the others, "Careful what else you might disturb in here."
"You're hurt!" The poppet exclaims, seeing Arabella pressing on her wounds. "Come here and I'll patch you up perfectly!"
The poppet's medical kit is... unusual. Most of the bandages appear to be pieces of differently coloured, and rather bright, fabrics and she has a number of smiling faces on paper and a little chart which ranges from a happy 1 face to a frowning 10 face on the inside lid.
"There you go!" Orchid says cheerfully a minute later, having applied a bandage. "No need for stitching, and you were very brave so you get this!" She pulls out a wrapped sweet from the bottom of her medical kit and offers it to Arabella.
"Erm, no, it's not that...ah...alright." the Chelaxian feels rather awkward about refusing the little poppet, and eventually agrees to take a seat and let the priestess fuss over her.
She dabs awkwardly at the bandage when finished, then looks at the sweet with some confusion, unsure what she'd done that had portended bravery. Still, she ended up unwrapping and putting it in her mouth, assuming it had some medicinal property before getting back up with her mace in hand.
When it indeed seems that the skeletons have been taken care of, Larachelle steps carefully towards the cells, picking up a bone and inspecting it as she does. She was lucky the undead enemies didn't attempt to hit her this time, but a more intelligent enemy might find the unarmored mage an easy target; and what would she do then?
"Do you think the goblins knew they have some animated skeletons lurking around their fortress?", she asks to take her mind off the sudden bout of fear. "Could these be from the days of the Hellknights?"
After his heart stops about to explode in his chest, Bunnit goes back to his wife with a smile. "Are you okay, dear?" looking over her for any wound, just because he Needs to.
"Oh, I remember I was going to look at the lockers. My uncle taught me locks, for when we might gets an unopened crate or something similar without the needed key. Buying as is and unknown is sometimes interesting. As long as it isn't food left for ages..."
While Bunnit it testing out his old skills Orchid takes a few minutes to herself to pray and restore her connection to the Pantheon.
After taking a breather, everybody continues around anti-clockwise. Rows of desks here are bolted to the floor, though many of the cramped work spaces have been smashed to pieces or otherwise defaced. Wooden chairs have been thrown aside like discarded playthings. As you search through the room, a giant bat swoops down from the rafters as you distrub its home. Fortunately, its not too challenging to defend yourselves and Valda manages two well-timed arrows to down the creature.
After a quick moment to gather yourselves again, you continue your search for any sign of Calmont or the Bramblebashers opening the door into a smaller room. This wrecked room holds toppled shelves and filing cabinets. Its southwestern wall has entirely collapsed, revealing the verdant weeds and undergrowth outside.
Owing to its exposure to the elements, most of the surfaces of this room are covered in moss and vines, including snarls of wild blackberries. Along the room’s southeastern wall is what looks like a mound of meat
or dirt.
"Good job Bunnit!" Orchid encourages the were-rabbit as he opens the lockers. "I'm sure these will be useful!"
Soon afterwards it becomes clear that Orchid has no sense of smell - given that her nose is two lines of thread sewed onto her face this is unsurprising - but it does come in handy occasionally, like when helping deal with a gangrenous wound, or now, when a decomposing body needs to be dealt with.
She retrieves the two potions and then produces a small cloth from her bag which she uses to fastidiously wipe down her small hands and then rolls up tightly and slides into an outside pocket for later cleaning - or destruction.
Every now and then, Arabella picks up the heavier items from the lockers that appears to have some value to lug along, but otherwise lets the others busy themselves with the various elixirs and other trinkets. She felt fairly confident about being able to hold her own against reasonable opposition with just the protection of her mace and shield, after all.
The Chelaxian does blanch from the awful smell that Orchid had ignored to recover more potions and doesn't protest when the poppet moves to keep them for now. Glancing at the door, she asks, "C-can we move on? It's...well, a bit much, that smell. Still haven't seen any sign of goblins."
(OOC: Going through SE door into roundish room.)