"It is," Kiley answers Sasha. The young tiefling stays close to Shaggar as they move past the portcullis and the battered skull of the beast.
"Ruti, thanks for doing that," she tells the halfling before looking down into the tunnel. "I guess this is the only way to go," she says as she puts her sword away and pulls out her bow.
"I'm fine, though I am SO glad you're all here," He is't too proud to say so , "And happy to be of help, this is why every group needs a 'right sized' member"
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Shaggar had to credit the halfling's pluck. He nods in agreement, "Yes, helpful and bite-sized."
Despite her dark mood, Kiley lets out a snicker.
"For you maybe. He'd make a whole meal or three for me," she retorts before looking to Ruti. "I'm glad your back safe. I don't suppose you found anything that tells what happened here."
"I think it's a bit redundant to say 'Nothing good'," Ari remarks, looking at the piles of bones. "Not my area of expertise but can anyone tell how old they might be or what might be responsible?"
An exaggerated HURUMPH at the bite sized comment but he smiles, then answers "Documents in Dwarven, look like trade documents to me. I don't read dwarven but the flow if it looks similar to some merchant style papers... oh, Dwarven money, notice the symbols?"
Sasha looks at the papers and shakes her head. "I can't read it, though the runes have a certain nice squareness to them," she says. With a click of her tongue she moves further inside the doorway, looking out to try and make out the lay of the tunnel beyond. "I think we are all very blessed to have found each other - all bring different valuable skills and talents to this venture and everyone is supportive of the others'...eccentricities. That is a rare thing, and very nice..."
"Honestly, I'm just happy that you all trust Shaggar. I owe him a lot since he helped save me from the Zhentarim and several times since then."
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Shaggar continues snooping into a room further down the hall but his voice echoes back up the bone-filled corridor. ”Gnolls are a trustworthy race. Trust we’ll try to eat anything that looks tasty… and some things that don’t.”
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Ari nods at Kiley's words rather than uttering a reply, biting down the laugh that rises to her throat. Trust is something that still does not come readily to the tiefling. She's been burned before and her default assumption remains that people are ultimately out for themselves. Besides, most people who look at her tend to react initially with the same fear and suspicion they do when greeted with a gnoll so it's not like she's in a position to judge.
Still, she realises that she does trust the group to have her back at least, for reasons of mutual protection if nothing else. They're an odd collection of misfits and outsiders and perhaps that's why it works. The others all seem to have accepted her for what she can do at the very least, and don't seem concerned about what she is. As for who she is, it's not like she's offered up too much of herself - better that way, cloak yourself in layers for your own protection - but they seem to work alright as a team. She's not here to make friends. Probably. Or so she tells herself.
Best not to dwell on such things too much though, lest she is forced to examine things more deeply.
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Rutilux smiles "I never had a doubt about you folks, but then my family is used to dealing in 'Odd Goods'" A chuckle
"My parents told me that all adventurers are oddballs and have to find a place they fit in," Kiley says as she studies the coin.
Exploring the rest of the rooms in this little gatehouse leads you to believe that is it exactly what it seems to be: a sort of checkpoint guarding the way into the city itself.
3. Records room: this chamber is lined with meticulously organized shelves containing stone tablets, rolled parchments, and engraved metal slates, again all in Dwarvish. You'll have to find a translator or something to make any actual use of them, but they seem to be some sort of standardized form with names across the top.
4. Main Office: a large well-crafted mahogany deck sits against one wall of this once richly decorated office. You can see from even the dilapidated furnishings that this was likely a high ranking official's office. On the wall above the desk hangs an elaborate dwarven mechanism that appears to be some sort of time keeping device. Whatever it is, it's no longer functional.
A skeleton (that's obviously a dwarf) languishes in the rotting chair behind the desk, slumped over it face down. It is around the same age as the bones in the hallway, but there is no discernible cause of death. Been too long, likely.
5. The door to this room is actually unable to be opened. Not locked per se, but instead sealed. The rune encrusted iron door looks almost like a vault door, but has no normal keyhole. Instead, a strange
indent in the shape of a 6 pointed star sits on the door where the handle should be. Seems as if the 'key' is missing.
The rest of the rooms don't hold much of interest, with 6 and 7 being emptied out storage rooms and 8, 9, and 10, serving as a guard station with a cell. Shaggar finds a handful of serviceable (yet still empty) barrels with various labels in dwarven, should you have any use for those.
Once you're ready to move on you move down on the hallway, which continues for a few hundred feet beyond the abandoned and empty gatehouse. The walls are lined with small glass orbs hanging from the rock on either side at about the height of Shaggar's shoulders. The beginning of the entrance tunnel is cloaked in darkness but about halfway down the way the glass orbs are actually on; whatever magic keeps them alight with magical flame seems to be working this far in.
Up ahead is another portcullis, though thankfully this one is already raised. Looking up you catch sight of hundreds of murder holes drilled through the ceiling above, indicating at one point archers shot down from above upon any invaders. This city is extremely fortified, or would be if anyone was stationed here. The rooms on either side of the hallway leading in have also been searched thoroughly by someone or something, being mostly empty. The only exceptions are the two rooms with more barrels in them, this time full of arrows and bolts. Most of the ammunition is mundane but a quick search of the barrels (and a detect magic reveals 10 aberration bane arrows in a small quiver in the southern storage, 25 cold iron arrows, and 25 silver bolts.
Another heavy set doors of metal sits at the end of the tunnel. This one looks relatively undamaged compared to the one facing the elements outside, and likely won't need to be
After collecting the useful or valuable ammunition, Shaggar continues on to the door, ready to open it once the others are prepared.
Eyeing the murder holes warily, Ari pads over to the doors. They look chunky and well-made so she's got her tools accessible in case there's a lock that needs a little assistance. Her other hand holds a dagger, naturally.
Sasha lets the others take the lead after seeing the second portcullis down the hallway. She looks around warily, quietly observing the signs of ruin and death with a somber expression.
Her quiet pays off when she hears the sound of fighting ahead. "There! Ahead of us through those doors - there is a fight on the other side. If we hurry, we may be able to help the forces of good!" she urges the others as she and Pheliks both hear the noise and rush to try and open the heavy metal doors.
Ari holds up a hand, not sharing Sasha's eagerness. "Exactly what 'forces of good' are we expecting to run into down here? So far all we've found is a bunch of dead dwarves, a singing bird woman and her tentacled bug thing. Somebody went to a lot of effort and magic to make things look welcoming and normal, when quite clearly they're not, and I doubt they had our best interests at heart." She gestures with her dagger at the doors. "We don't know who's fighting in there or what it's about and I doubt they're going to politely stop and tell us. If it's somebody murdering some more of those crawlers then I'm happy to leave them to it. Likewise if it's, I don't know, a drow gang and some illithids kicking lumps out of each other, I've got no desire to get in their way and better for our chances of staying alive if they take each other down."
Chagrinned, Sasha stops at the door and listens, considering Ari's point but obviously unhappy with the implications.
”Still, this is our path. Let us see if there is someone worth helping.” The gnoll isn’t sure if it is possible to ‘stealthily’ open a massive metal door but he gives it a try.
"Ari's being practical, but I'm with Shaggar ... let's at least see. Sasha's making me hope there IS some good folk down here. Be worth the gamble, be nice to see good folk aside ourselves in a place like this."
"There are dwarves... somewhere. Aiding them is a good strategy." ... because while the others will likely get the benefit of the doubt, I'm likely to catch an axe in the face.
Ari's shoulders drop, clearly outvoted. She considers a prayer to Leira that the others are right and things are obviously black and white, then decides that the goddess of illusions and secrets is unlikely to be the right choice when hoping for clarity. She swaps her tools for another blade and prepares to slip in after the others.
Unfortunately for Ari and the group, things don't look like they'll be black and white. As Shaggar opens the door the sounds of the battle immediately escalate, and you can see that the fight is right upon you. A crossroads formed from the walls of several buildings spreads out in front of you, and you see two separate factions of serpentine humanoids brawling amongst themselves in said crossroad.
One side, on your left, is smaller but more numerous, their hide a dull grey. This smaller group wields no weapons but instead has two hands full of sharp claws. The other side, to your right, is larger than the dull grey ones and have a thick looking rich green hide. They wield shields and morningstars, and look to be more organized than the smaller reptilians.
On the far side of the fierce melee, a handful of pale skinned gnomes sit on their knees. Even from here you can see that they are restrained somehow, and obviously not part of the combat in so far as being participants.
It doesn't look like any of the groups have noticed you, yet.
Init, Round 1
24- Ari
23- Kiley
16- Rutilux
16- grey scales
6- Shaggar
5- Sasha
5- green scales
"I think we should help the green ones," Kiley says. "Lizardfolk, savage, but not necessarily evil. The grey ones are troglodytes. Don't get too close unless you want to lose your breakfast," she tells the others.
Kiley identifies the strange pale gnomes as svirfneblin, a variant of the upper world’s gnomes that are often a bright light amongst the rest of the horrors of the Underdark. As with everything down here they aren’t often immediate allies, but they at the very least won’t try to kill and eat you.
Svirfneblin are often taken advantage of by other races as slaves and forced to work in all sorts of awful conditions building or mining. Their lower physical combat prowess makes it hard for them to fight back against other races’ aggression, having to rely on a handful of defensive racial magic, most notably blindness/deafness. But even that can only be used once per day per gnome, so isn’t of much use against larger packs or tribes of underdark creatures.
"The gnomes are svirfneblin. Not quick to trust, but they also don't try to kill, enslave, or eat you," she adds. She thinks about their options and looks to the others. "What do you want to do? They'll spot us unless we close the door before too long."
a soft huff "What do we do? is this a question? we sneak in somehow and free the short folk." While they're not halflings, he could imagine if they were
Kiley takes a look at the battle happening between them and the gnomes before turning and giving Rutilux a raised eyebrow.
"That's not going to work, I think."
"That's my understanding of things too," Ari says to Kiley. "Trogolodytes have the worst reputation. And freeing the svirfneblin probably meets Shaggar's aim of aiding those in need. I'm still not keen on jumping into a conflict we know nothing about though so I'm sort of happy to sit and wait for them to play it out and then deal with the victors. Unless you think they'll decide to team up because they like the look of us even less than they do each other?"
Kiley shrugs. Most of her knowledge of the wider world comes from what she picked up from her family's library or Aunt Dora's tales when she came by to visit.
Kiley is in tune with the emotions of combatants to understand that while the troglodytes are seemingly in possession of the slaves as it were, there is something unusual in just how fervently they're fighting over them. There is likely something beyond what you can see to the entire situation with the trogs.
The lizardfolk on the other hand are fighting much more defensively and don't seem particularly interested in the svirfneblin at all beyond ensuring they don't interfere in the combat. To her, this looks like the trogs are trying to push in on the lizardfolk territory they love defending so much rather than an aggression on the lizards' part.
"Just a hunch, but it looks to me the troglodytes are attacking and are much more interested in the svirfneblin than the lizardfolk are. I think if we help them they wouldn't mind us freeing the gnomes," she tells the others as she nocks an arrow. "If we attack the troglodytes, I think we could make two sets of allies here."
Sasha nods and says, "Let's do it. Walk on the moonlight platform I'm about to conjure - it will give us a height advantage!" Then she leans back and prays to Selûne silently before opening her eyes and gesturing before the party.
In the next instant a sparkling ramp made largely of light appears in front of Shaggar and Kiley, angling up at about 30-degrees so that they can walk forward on it and end up about 10-ft above the stone street before the melee. Pheliks stays next to his mistress, prepared to defend her as she slowly begins to ascend it about halfway (to demonstrate its trustworthiness to the party).
The reptilians on either side don't notice you at first, as distracted by the situation and combatants as they are. The troglodytes strike first, quickly closing the gap and attacking the lizardfolk's ordered line.
A handful of lizardmen take a couple of scratches from the onslaught, but none of them seem super worried by the damage they've taken quite yet. The strain of battle shows, but none flinch. Curiously, none of the lizards seem to be distracted by the stench of the troglodytes, leading you to believe that perhaps this war has gone on long enough for them to be used to the stench by now.
Init, Round 1
24- Ari
23- Kiley
16- Rutilux
16- grey scales
6- Shaggar
5- Sasha
5- green scales
Round 1
Initially, Shaggar considers using his sling to snipe at the trogs without getting too close. But he imagines the lizardmen respect strength, so a demonstration of force might establish the team’s reputation. He charges forward across the bridge, flanks with one of the lizardmen, and tries to bury his axe in the troglodyte’s spine. Unfortunately, the troglodyte stink makes his eyes water at the wrong moment.
Bullets (20): xx
Arisen 3HP (1):
Moonmaid Reroll: x
Effects:
Arisen - Die at -18 HP
Diehard
Rutilux gawks as the bridge appears and is tempted to exult at how amazing it is, but then realizes making noise right now isn't wise until he has to... and he needs to get on that thing and use it. He takes a deep breath and goes up the bridge and flings a jolt of lightning at one of the trogs.
Sasha tells Pheliks to, "Guard me," and then casts Divine Favor on herself. "Goddess, grant me your luck in my attacks..." she prays as she aims down the sights of her crossbow while walking slowly forward.
Sasha's bridge springs into life and both groups of reptilians are caught off guard by the sudden verticality, but don't seem particularly afraid of it. Shaggar's strike is thrown off by the disgusting stench of the troglodytes, but thankfully he is not sickened or anything worse.
The lizardfolk strike back out in kind against the troglodytes, and even in this small few second retaliation you can tell they're more disciplined than the brutish trogs. They stretch out into a line in the crossroads, allowing each member to attack.
Unfortunately, it seems as if their discipline leads to a less ferocious (and therefore less successful) attack.
Round 2
24- Ari
23- Kiley
16- Rutilux
16- grey scales
6- Shaggar
5- Sasha
5- green scales
Skirting around the shimmering bridge - she does her best work up close and personal - Ari positions herself next to Shaggar and ready to leap in when a suitable opportunity arises.
Kiley pulls out her bow as she runs up the moonlight ramp and takes aim at the troglodyte just off the end.