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Arabella limps over to the table in pain, glad to Orchid quickly available to treat it, as her knee hurt rather too much for her to intelligibly contribute to the conversation right away. When it was properly bound up and had a soothing ointment, she gingerly hops to her feet, then nods at Bunnit's suggestion. "Alright, ready for you to open it, I think."
"What the..." Arabella starts, but decides to stop and focus when it looks like the creature is about to lunge, even as her mind tried to work out what this assailant was. She whirls the weapon she had been lugging along to her side, and hurls the head at it, once she was ready.
”Well, I hope it does what its supposed to and reduce the fighting we have to do.” Arabella says as she glances at the symbol hopefully, even as she gives an affirming nod for Orchid’s reasons. There might be other, more personal ones that intrigued her, but this fellow did not need to know that.
Arabella returns the bow respectfully, as she latches her unusual mace more securely about her waist to free her hands to search. "Arabella, lately of Cheliax." She offers to help bring out the storage box with Alak so that it could properly be inspected.
Arabella's eyes blink open, as she seems to be trying to make sense of what had happened. Her hands grasp on the rent the foe's halberd had made into a joint of her cuirass, and finds the bleeding there much reduced. She reaches for the handle of her mace, and staggers to her feet, before wincing as she still sees their skeletal foe still standing. Too weary for words, she takes another swing at it with her mace.
Arabella peers around her small buckler, trying to find an opening, but frustrated by the halberd...until she sees her foe startled by Larachelle's wonderful magic. She gives rather inarticulate voice to her frustration with a growl, before finally managing to chide, just before she swings her mace wildly at the foe before her, "Your underlings are all gone. Down, dead thing!"
Arabella's injury closes but briefly before another swipe digs deeply into her armour, causing her to stagger again, and she only manages to put forth a single swing, before raising her buckler to try and protect herself from further harm, the tall redhead not looking particularly energetic as the skeletal knight withdrew its halberd.
"G-aaah!" Arabella cries out, as the halberd manages to hit her outside her cuirass, even though the other skeletons fail to land their blows. She seems a little dazed by the pain as she recovers the chain she had whirled.
Gritting her teeth, as she blinks some tears clear from her eyes, she then glares back at her armoured foe, trying to find any openings in his stance and swings her flailing mace in response.
Freed of having to bear Orchid again, Arabella was free to advance upon the new enemies, intent on barring their advance on her companions, whirling her long mace to strike the closest foe.
"Let's follow what's gotten us here so far, right being right and all..." Arabella says, unslinging her mace again, as she starts stepping that way. She was still a little grumpy about not knowing what a Cinderclaw was though.
"Yes, what sort of people are the Cinderclaws? My size? Bigger or smaller? But yes, we'll work to clear out the vaults for you, then we can go see this door." She glances at Calmont then, before adding with a slightly suppressed grin, "And certainly we'll not shriek and flail to see those doors, yes."
Arabella nods, then turns and calls over to the goblins, "Ah, so, does any of you speak Taldane then, perchance?"
Arabella sullenly continues to stare at Calmont, so that Orchid could talk, even as she glances over at the goblins now and then, wondering if they would actually have better fortune getting information from them than Calmont had. It seemed like avoiding violence was the best way to get that information, as far as she could tell. Softly, she asks the others, even as Orchid sealed her agreement, "So, I don't think we've anybody who actually speaks Goblin, do we?"
Arabella stares back at the knife pointed at her, suppressing the impulse to pull her own weapon out or flinch. With Orchid talking, she decides it was best to keep quiet and maybe try not to look so smug. She even leaned back just a little to try to avoid like she was looming over the shorter halfling.
Arabella raises her brow, absorbing the information, but doing her best not to look perturbed. Instead, she gave out a rather overly dramatic laugh that might be mostly that way to hide her nervousness, "Hah, is that all?" She brings up a hand to stroke her chin, "This is your amazingly valuable idea? Magic doors sitting in a ruined castle that haven't been used in who knows how many centuries? You do realize doors go both ways, right? And yet nobody's come through from the other sides of these doors in all that time, else they would have headed to the stores in Breachill and the rest of Isger to trade their exotic goods for tidy profits." Chuckling, she carries on, her words starting to turn into biting mockery, even as she was voicing the implications she was thinking of out loud, "Take it from this sales broker, dear. Rich people would love the idea, sure, but they hate an honest day's work. They wouldn't pay for anything less than a properly proven and protected route. But surely, it has occurred to the brilliant Calmont that if he find these lost elf gates, they probably don't lead anywhere particularly safe? And so, to secure your venture, after vanquishing every single one of us as well as all of the goblins here, you are thus bravely prepared to go forth into the unknown of every single one of these long unused doors, by yourself, without any help, to make sure they are indeed harmless and inexplicably abandoned passageways that pose no difficulty at all to access and are in beneficial locations that would facilitate trade and resource extraction. How audacious! I applaud your courage, sir." She even follows that up with a very slow clap.
"We did see everyone's faces. We were there, and it wasn't funny." Arabella frowns, though she keeps her tone as calm as she could manage. She then presses on, with a proposition that might hopefully be acceptable, "Anyways, so we are here now, and nothing you do will change that, so perhaps you might just use that instead. If you hurt that goblin, then you're definitely not going to find those elf gates anymore, whatever those are. Even if we don't get you ourselves, every goblin here will be out for your head. So what about you just let her go and we help you find those elf gates?" Even as she says this, she is wracking her head for what elf gates even were.
Arabella frowns as she gets up amongst the goblin, glancing down to make sure the others were also climbing up. She puts a hand on her hip, but doesn't pull out the handle of her mace, not wanting to alarm Calmont further, while standing still to allow Orchid to descend if she wished. She isn't sure what to make of all the goblin jabbering, but she assumed none of them wanted their leader's throat slit. The soldier turned merchant tries to inquire in as pleasant a tone as she could manage, "Burn in the fire? But dear Calmont, both I and Larachelle are some of the best customers of that shop you work for. Why ever would you want that?" (if needed)
Arabella puts her weapon away, upon seeing she would likely need both hands free to ascend, and that there seemed to be no hostile creatures left to stop them. "Ah, looks like we've done it and found the Bumblebrashers." She pauses at the bottom of the rope, and turns about to wait for Orchid before climbing, "Guess I'll need to bear you for this bit."
"Fine, it's a Grauladon! But I think I see our goblins...we can get to them if we get rid of this, yes!" Arabella slightly repositions herself before winding up with her mace again.
"Back up. Let me get at whatever this thing is!" Arabella warns, as she winds up with her chained mace, trying to find a spot on the smelly creature to bring it down upon before advancing to the fore.
Arabella seems to be agreeable to that idea, letting the archer have a clear shot if she wished, but moving right alongside so that she was ready to jump in front in case the creature managed to survive and charge them. "Perhaps you ought to strike it as well at the same time, Larachelle? Exotic beast or not, we need to be rid of it to investigate the noises above, it seems."
"Why would the goblins live here if such a dangerous creature was around..." Arabella looks puzzled, rather startled to find this beast having taken up the courtyard for its lair. She glances past it to the staircase, then frowns, "And yet it seems like the people we are looking for are up those stairs. I don't think I've seen another way up yet, though we haven't fully scoured this keep for one."
"What's the matter? What are you two- oh." Arabella inquires, walking over to the pair as she wants to found out the reason over what seems to be a growing argument in the rooms beyond. She blinks, and backs away from the creature, thinking back if she might have seen that in a book before.
Arabella doesn't immediately hear the noises coming from the north, and does glances through the cabinets, making a mental note to try and recover any relevant papers on the way out that their horses could afford to bear back to Breachill. It is only after some delay that she realizes some manner of confrontation or dispute might actually be taking place nearby, thus causing her to straighten up and tighten her grip on her mace again. "Anybody able to make out what's going on?"
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.)
"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.
"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."
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
"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.
"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."
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!”
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.
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.
"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.
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."
”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.
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."
"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.
"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."
"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.
Arabella nods, agreeable to the terms, and letting the others take their pick of which elixirs to carry, even as she glances over her companions. They seemed...competent, despite their size. No gnomes amongst them, but having spent a lot of time with gnomes, she'd never really though a smaller size was much of a disadvantage. A thought did concern her, however, and she strides over to Warbal, "Before we go, Miss Warbal, is there a sign or gesture we can make to assure the Bumblebrashers that we are helpers coming from the town? I'm not sure how common it is for townsfolk from Breachill to visit them as opposed to them visiting us."
Wiping the sweat from her brow, as she looks at the hearty celebrations, the Chelaxian soldier seems rather swept up by the vigorous response from the townsfolk, though looks a little awkwardly left out when she finds she doesn't have anybody to hug. She just steps back over to Orchid, who had helped her, taking in the positive atmosphere. Arabella frowns when she hears an accusation levied at Calmont. A cad? Inept, maybe, but he didn't strike her as some manner of roguish plotter or vigilante. How could he have done all this? It would certainly be rather bad for the reputation of her favourite enterprise. "Well...I put in my application, I'm here, and I'm certainly willing. Though, I've not seen Calmont do anything more harmful than dropping a tome on my toes before. Doubt we'll clear things up without going though." Besides, Hellknight Hill seems like the sort of place a travelling Chelaxian interested in the country's history might eventually want to see.
Arabella sees the line shaping up well and deciding that the councilors would probably be better suited to keeping everyone organized, given what she assumed their authority in the town would be, goes in to join the chain. She glances down now and then, wondering when the buckets would start arriving.
Arabella hears Orchid's calls to the people being rescued about organizing outside, and now that she see their section of the mess was fairly clear, she tells the poppet. "Alright, I'll go outside and see if we can get the people organized for that. It seems like it'd be a waste to lose this building." With that, the Chelaxian lass strides towards the main aisle to get outside, and see if she could get some people in line. "Well, we've saved most of the people...it'll be easiest to save the rest if we work on saving the building. Let's get a line of folks to the closest water pump!"
Arabella focuses on helping those who had tripped over or fallen under the benches near her, trying to get as many as she could coax or drag to leave, as the exit hopefully started to clear with those who were able to move out quickly on their own. "Come on, come on...we can't stay here, folks. We need the room free of people if we're to fight this fire."
Arabella had been listening intently to the introduction, especially when she noticed there actually was a gnome on the council, but her attention did start to lapse a little when Miss Warbal started to speak, since she'd heard it once before. The cries of fire got her to her feet though, and she scowled when the panic started to take hold. Calling out in a stern but even voice, she requested, "Slow down, everyone. Let the children out first. You'll hurt them if you all push for the exits together! Children out first!"
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