I'm fine with waiting. I will most likely still be around a month from now. :-)
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Kat hurriedly drags the body out of sight of the hallway before quickly but quietly moving to the first bend of the tunnel, ready to likewise ambush someone coming around that bend. If they do suspect that something is up, hopefully they'll be expecting me near the well's bottom instead of next to this first bend.
Waiting until her pursuer is about to enter the bottom of the well, Kat jumps out and strikes.
It looks like the stone along the wall is chipped in places, possibly some handholds for climbing, but you are not sure.
Well, that sounds...not great. Deciding that they weren't going to say anything more interesting, Kat slowly starts creeping away.
Should I head back to the hidden room area I found? Or simply back to the open air? It would be best to know where they are, but this also doesn't actually help with my mission. Sure, I'd like to know what's on the other side of that cave exit, but it's clearly not another room in the castle. Maybe I can figure it out from some maps or by seeing if there isn't a tower I can get to the top of for a good eagle-eyed view.
Ok, I'm back. Also, I believe it's your action (Kat is trying to eavesdrop on the orcs). :-)
Just a heads up that I'm going to be out of town from tomorrow through Tuesday or Wednesday. I will probably have internet access, but I may be distracted by spending time with people, so I don't know how much I'll be online.
Kat crouches down, stows her sunrod, and waits a few minutes, just to see if it looked like the group was planning on moving any time soon. If it looks like they're planning on just hanging out, she'll try to creep just close enough to make out what they're talking about.
Hmm, not to bad of a bonus. Done with this room, Kat moves back towards the entrance. Before unblocking it, she does her best to determine that the room on the other side is empty. When all appears clear, she makes her way carefully back into the bottom of the well, once again attempting to partially hide the opening. Then as quietly as she can, she starts moving once again down the passageway the orcs had gone down, keeping one ear out for signs that she was getting uncomfortably close to the men.
Hmm, well, better safe than sorry. Kat cautiously approaches the nearest chest. More out of habit than anything else, she checks it for traps and to see if it's locked or not.
Then, stepping behind the chest, she somewhat awkwardly pull the lid up, hoping that if she missed a trap, it will fire harmlessly into empty space. She does likewise with the other chests in the room, every once in a while looking around to make sure no creepy-crawly thing was sneaking up on her.
Well, I guess this is where fangy came from. No doubt there are more of the blighters lurking about. Before checking out the oh-so-tempting chests, Kat carefully circles the room, looking for the spiders she has no doubt are hidden somewhere. She makes extra certain to keep a close eye on the ceiling. It's times like these that a torch would be useful...
Hmm, on the one hand, it's unlikely any of my goals are down here. On the other, maybe I'll find a passage to somewhere useful? It will also give me a chance to avoid those damnable orcs... Kat takes a moment to try to arrange some of the rocks and spider corpse to hide the hole she made to the cavern. She makes it loose enough not to trap herself even though that likely meant it wouldn't hold up to a particularly close inspection. Pulling out her sunrod and holding her rapier at the ready, she attempts to move just close enough to the closest odd pile to try to determine what it is. I really hope this isn't yet another thing that wants to eat me...
She also keeps a look out for any other exits from the cavern.
Once they're gone, Kat slowly pushes her way out from under the rock pile, conscious that there may be something behind her ready to attack. When she gets free, she distracts herself from her desire to go kill the annoying orcs (most likely a suicidal course of action given that she'd be outnumbered 3 to 1) by carefully moving aside the rocks to see what had been behind her. If it didn't attack me, maybe it's not a living thing, but rather a tunnel or something?
Kat consoles herself about the rope. Hmm, well, good news is that he either didn't cut off very much, or he just took a lot of damage from jumping down. Although I'm not sure why he bothered in the first place given that there are hand and foot holds... She then immediately freezes as she feels stuff behind her moving. Ugg, what now? Hoping that whatever it is is less dangerous than three orcs, she does her best impression of a dead (and therefore uninteresting) body. Or a rock. An oddly body-shaped rock.
Think rocky thoughts. Gravel. Weight. Crushing.
From her rather uncomfortable hiding place, Kat silently glares at the orcs. They better damn well not steal that rope...
I really hope they're not following the blood trail. Kat makes a face :| as she looks around for some dark shadows or thick webs to hide behind.
Kat blinks in surprise as the spider topples over dead. She represses the urge to smirk. No time to get cocky now, Kat! She quickly shakes her head to clear it, nudging the body off to one side. She quickly stashes her light source, looking to make sure the other light and voices weren't coming any closer.
Kat grumbles to herself. If the spider wasn't going to leave her be, she'd just have to deal with it. Hoping to limit the likelihood of the other people hearing the battle, she moves forward to engage with the creature, drawing one of her potions of healing as she does so, just to be prepared.
Crap, knowing my luck, that's probably those orcs I saw earlier.
Attack if it's needed:
Kat gives the spider a dirty look. She manages to wrangle herself free, saying a few things in Elvish that would make many members of the dainty race blush. She moves backwards down the hallway, glancing back as it turns.
Just a heads up, I'm going to be at a reunion from Friday until Sunday afternoon, so my posting might be sparse.
Yup, just as I thought. Giant spider. Hopefully it's full of orc and doesn't want a small little morsel like me. Just in case though... Kat carefully draws her sword, trying not to startle the spider into attacking. She lets a moment of readiness pass before slowly using her sword hand to hold on to the rope. Placing her sunrod between her teeth, she uses her now free other hand to start untying the rope around her waist before letting herself drop to the floor, sword at the ready. She retrieves her sunrod with her free hand. Making sure to place a nice solid wall at her back, she slowly begins edging her way towards the tunnel. She only takes her eyes off the spider long enough to glance down the hallway and make sure there isn't another spider (or the orcs) waiting for her down it.
Kat pulls her sunrod out of her belt and uses that to look around.
Seeing that she at least stands a chance of using rope to catch her fall, Kat pulls out her bow and arrows and tries to toss down a few of the medium sized rock debris lying around in to the web. Maybe if I can make it seem like they caught something in their webs, the spiders might come out to investigate. If no spiders make an appearance, she tosses down a few more rocks, this time aiming to break up the web more, again waiting to see if any eight legged monstrosities dare to show themselves. If that still doesn't lure any spiders out, she puts up her weapons and attempts to tie one end of her rope to the sconce and the other around her waist, hoping to use it as more of a safeguard than for actually climbing down. The spare rope she loops around one arm, trying to slowly let it out as she goes down rather than hoping that the well is at least 50 feet deep to catch her. She then carefully tries to use what appear to be handholds to climb down.
Webs, great. Where there are webs, there are spiders. And knowing my luck, they are very large spiders. Kat takes a moment to look around to see if there's anything she could tie her rope to. If there were, then she could probably toss down a few more rocks to destroy the web. If there weren't, then, well, she might want to keep it as a safety net. Not that landing in a spider's web is particularly "safe". She also takes the opportunity to see what else is in the room.
Kat regains her balance. More carefully this time, she moves to peer down the well, using her sunrod for light. Did the orcs go down there? She glances around for a repelling rope that she might have missed.
Kat windmills her arms frantically as she attempts to regain her balance and avoid falling in.
Somewhere in the back of her mind she contemplates the noises she hears. The orcs?
Hmmm, still no sign of those orcs. Although at least thus far there aren't many other places they could have gone, so I'm probably on the correct track. Kat continues to move forward down the hallway, careful for any traps or sound of orcs.
When she gets there, she then takes a moment to look over the odd pile of stone.
With a sigh, Kat grabs the unlit torch propping the door open and then rushes into the new tunnel. Don't want to make it too obvious people were here. If it relocks, then let's hope I don't have to leave in a hurry. If it doesn't, then let's hope no one bothers to check if it's locked before trying to unlock it. Once inside the passage, she pauses every few steps both to listen for returning orcs and to make sure she's not about to step on a pressure plate.
As she approaches the bend in the hallway, Kat slows down, trying to hide her light slightly. Crouching down low to the ground, she does her best to peek around the corner without being spotted. It's surprising how little people look below their eye level. And while this may not work if I were chasing halflings, hopefully it'll work for the orcs.
Silently very relieved that she hadn't someone blasted into oblivion, Kat moves over to the odd stone. In significantly higher spirits than before, she attempts to push it. If that doesn't work, she attempts to nudge it in various directions. Who knows, if things go well, I might even have time to come back later and grab that dagger. Sure, she could try grabbing it now. But it wasn't part of her mission and didn't really look like it would be that helpful in a fight (although it did look like it might be worth a pretty penny). It was also in a rather awkwardly central/obvious position, should yet more people come by, making it more likely to be missed if she took it. No, there was really very little reason to grab it now rather than later.
Kat grimaces as she fails to find anything. Reluctantly, she move close to the alter, prepared to smack the dead body if it should suddenly develop a hunger for her brains. Careful not to touch anything, she begins to search it for anything of interest, especially hidden switches and the sort.
Feeling slightly better now that she seemed to be in no immediate danger from being sacrificed herself, Kat settles in for a long, hard look, still doing her best not to step on any of the arcane writing. I know there's a way out of here. Those orcs didn't disappear in to thin air!
Kat frowns. I really don't like this. But there's definitely a way out of this room. She takes a moment to prop the door open and cautiously enters, sword at the ready. She does her best to only step on white tiles, avoiding the arcane symbols in the mosaic. I really need to find a wizard travel companions. She carefully begins circling the alter, alternating looking for signs of an exit in the walls of the room and looking for traps. I don't know what's more disturbing: the dead body or the fact that whomever killed the poor sod just left it there. The overbearing aura of death make her skin crawl. Normally corpses didn't bother her. But mix a corpse with a clearly magical setting and bad things were bound to happen.
Kat feels the blood drain from her face. Dear lord, I sincerely hope this chamber is forgotten. Swallowing nervously, Kat does her best to look for an exit out of the alter room of death without actually entering.
At the very least, I didn't hear the orcs screaming when they entered here. So it can't be too bad, right? Surely they would have tripped any traps in here? She represses the small voice in her head pointing out that if they knew how to open the door, there was a decent chance they knew about other traps and could avoid them.
Kat wipes off a bead of sweat, pausing to take a quick drink of water. Skill or luck, I don't really care. I'm just glad it's gone. Hopefully no one misses it. Or thinks to check for it. Now that the trap was gone, it was time to try to actually unlock the door.
Kat bit her lip. She really didn't want to deal with the trapped door. Her healing was pretty limited and that trap had hurt something fierce. But she also didn't want to give up on her first decent lead since she got here. Otherwise she'd be just looking for more secret passageways (and who knows how many of those were actually around to be found). On the other hand, she had found that extra healing potion. So...maybe one try couldn't be too bad? Just one try though. Then she'd try finding a different way.
Kat winces at the sharp pain. Today was really not her day. A couple more shocks like that and she'd be done for. And this was not the place to pass out in. She was torn: attempt to follow the orcs and possibly wind up very hurt in the process or lose this opportunity and play it safe by checking out the stairs. She did have that potion of healing. But with the doubtless who knows how many guards around, she might need that in a more urgent situation. Then suddenly she brightens up. There might be another way around. Given that, I can use pretty much the same excuse if I run into anybody. Leaving the door for now, Kat instead decides to see where the orcs came from. Carefully, she starts to move up the stairs, making sure to keep an ear out for others coming down. Once again, she draws her sword as she goes.
Kat listens in silence to the orcs talking. 'If we get caught'? That's certainly not what I would expect someone acting on behalf of Kent to say. I wonder what they're up to. Despite her curiosity, Kat waits a few seconds after the door has closed before starting to wiggle her way free. As long as whatever no good they're up to doesn't affect my job, I suppose it doesn't really matter what they're doing. Although if it does...not sure what exactly I'll do. Oh well, this gives me yet another bargaining chip if I get caught. I wonder if that halfling girl is in league with them... She files away the information along with that about the likely assassin (Even if she's not an assassin strictly speaking, it's certainly a reasonable guess. So what if it just so happens to be the kind of information more likely to seem valuable to others, making it a better bargaining tool?) Pulling out her sunrod, Kat quickly makes her way to the door, hoping to catch it before it had 'reset' as the orc put it.
Sure, going after them was probably a risky choice. But on the other hand, 'I'm trying to follow some shady orcs who seemed to be up to no good' was a pretty damn fine excuse to be where she shouldn't be. And it was pretty unlikely she'd get such a chance in the future. And if she just so happened to get to explore more of the keep while performing her "civic duty," well, she couldn't help that, now could she?
Kat crams herself into the alcove, shoving her sunrod into her backpack and wrapping her cloak around it.
Ah, crap. Just my luck. Realizing that she probably wouldn't have time to pick the lock, Kat quickly looks around for a place to hide.
As she looks around, Kat quickly sheathes her blade. After all, metal tended to reflect light and draw people's eyes to it. She then quickly shifts her backpack around and removes her cloak, prepared to shove her sunrod into it and wrap it in her cloak to hide its glow.
Kat strokes her chin in thought. That fountain looks interesting. I will have to remember to check it out more thoroughly, but for now, I think it best to explore. Best make sure it's safe first though. Hoping that she had adequately learned her lesson from the trapped bag, Kat makes sure to look around for traps, specifically around the fountain, torches, and the door.
Satisfied that she has done her best at making the room safe, she then moves to consider the door. Man, more of these dragons motifs. Kent must really love dragons. Placing her ear against the door, Kat attempts to discern if anything is on the other side of it.
Now that's more like it! Kat takes a quick break to restock on some food from the great hall (and hopefully get a few eyes off of her). Grabbing a pitcher of water, she wanders back into the general dorm-ish area where the rooms are and grabs and extinguishes a torch to take with her when nobody's around. She then casually sits next to the secret panel, waiting and watching until no one is paying attention to her. If she gets a chance in the next 10 minutes, she then attempts to sneak into the area.
Well, I mean, technically it's not a locked door, so I'm not breaking any rules. But better safe than sorry. It'd be awkward if I were seen and they then amended the rules.
Ok, thanks for letting me know. Unfortunately yesterday I was busy with work and then a going-away thing for a co-worker. Yup, Medifir definitely has some screws loose. Kat is still wondering how he got together enough money to enter the tournament. But then, maybe the craziness is all an act...
"Maybe I have scared away all your luck and if I leave, it'll come back. I've give you a heads up if I see your rat friend." Although it seems pretty unlikely that I'll be able to tell his rat from any other in the castle. With that Kat takes the remainder of her food and head to the well, planning to continue eating while scoping out the place. As the only notable location actually in the courtyard, she hoped that anything interesting might be right next to there. Although admittedly, the smart move would have been to place something at a completely random location that no one would ever think to look at. As she walks out into the courtyard, food in tow, she tsks to herself. Yes indeed, this was a very larger area. Searching every inch of it would not be pleasant. The kitchen would probably be her next best bet, but that was likely to be filled with people until at least after dinner. The great hall was smaller, but still pretty big. And with the guards out, she wanted to save those two doors off the courtyard until she would have at least some cover of night. Kat places her food down near the well, careful to place it in such a way that it was extremely unlikely any of it would get accidentally knocked down in to the well source. She then lowers the bucket and rope down to pull out some water to drink, trying to gauge both how deep the well is and making sure it taps a clean water source.
He's observant, but his logic is lacking. Along with...a few other things. She ignores his first two questions; it seemed likely that answering them would do nothing given that he had already asserted why he though she was talking to him only to apparently immediately forget said assertion. Besides, the third question seemed more urgent. "What is your pet? If you tell me, I can keep an eye out for him." Current bet: a giant snake of some sort that some unfortunate resident will sudden wake up to find sharing a bed with them. That seemed the most likely choice for something large and dangerous that could still be sneaky and easily overlooked. And he certainly seemed to type to have a large, dangerous creature that he viewed as a harmless pet. Half expecting to suddenly get bitten by something, Kat also takes a moment to look around the room (especially under the table) for an unexpected creature.
Kat slows her eating. Partially to talk and partially because his smell had turned her stomach somewhat. Perhaps this wasn't the best decision I've ever made... "Who said I was bored? I merely said you looked bored. What sorts of things does your mind do? And what designs do you have?" Gods, I really hope he isn't one of those crazy homeless people. Although he had to put together enough money to enter in the first place. Perhaps an alchemist of some sort? They're supposed to be a pretty odd lot, especially with so many of them trying their own inventions.
Hmm, may as well make nice. Might need to build up some goodwill in case I 'accidentally' find myself in his room later and he walks in. Kat tosses some of the more portable food-- bread, cheese, fruit, etc-- in her bag, placing some pieces of the less portable variety on a plate and sitting down next to the name. "Hello, how goes? Some pretty rotten luck in the first round, yes? I'm afraid I might have insulted my dice by how they were rolling earlier." She pauses, both to give him time to respond and to start eating her food. She had forgotten how hungry she was. "You look bored. Have you not found something to entertain yourself with yet?"
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