Darla's admonition seems to have come a little late; as Jonagher picks up the metal till box, he finds it unexpectedly light, with no sound of a rattle or shift of weight from the interior. There are certainly no coins inside, although it's possible there could be paper or something similarly insubstantial.
Highness hears nothing on the other side of the unmarked door, and Jonagher detects no sign that it may be trapped. It is, however, locked.
"Well...no coin left behind in the till...all the doors seemingly locked. I guess we're on our own here. I suppose there's no one else around. That means we've got the place to ourselves. We might as well try and uncover any clues we can as to why Calmont was at the citadel and whatever he or Voz may have wanted there."
Jonagher steps away from the locked door to examine the other one across the room, checking it for any traps, as well.
Once he has an idea of their options, he returns to the first locked door next to Highness. Then, he leans back and cracks his fingers before retrieving his lockpicks. "Let me try my hand at this thing and we'll see what lies beyond."
Darla steps back to allow Jonagher to work on the locked door. Not wanting to lollygag, the bard searches for any secret compartments or the like near where the empty till box was discovered.
The door marked "Staff Only" also does not appear to be trapped.
Darla steps behind the counter to give the area a closer examination while Jonagher lays out his lockpicks and begins to work on the unmarked door. She finds several broken quills, some half-empty jars of ink, and, on a bottom shelf, a rather squishy and malodorous package wrapped in greasy brown paper, which looks to be a several-days-old bacon sandwich, but no secret compartments or further clues.
With a satisfying click, the lock on the door yields to Jonagher's intrusion.
"And...we're in..." Jonagher announces to the room. "Anyone care to have a look?" He nudges the door open as he starts to collect his lockpicks and return them to their pouch. He then waits for Ragna or Darla to lead the way.
"Hrm. This is feeling less and less legitimate as we go on." Ragnhild grumbles, nudging Jonagher's door open and seeing what lies beyond.
The door swings open only a few inches before hitting something inside the room. Ragna steps back quickly, her hand going to her weapon, but all is quiet; after a moment, she carefully peers in and sees that the door hit a narrow bed shoved against the opposite wall of the narrow room, barely more than a closet, really. It appears as if the walls were once lined with shelves from floor to ceiling, but the lowest shelves were removed to make the bed fit and now stand leaning in a far corner. The higher shelves now hold folded clothing and personal belongings, as well as some books and papers.
The narrow and windowless room is dim and cramped. There is barely room for a single person to squeeze through the door in the narrow opening constrained by the placement of the bed and to edge down the near wall alongside it; to reach the items on the shelves, one would have to stand on the straw mattress itself. Oddly enough, the only sizeable floor space is at the far end of the room, toward the front of the shop. There a rag rug covers the bare floor at the foot of the bed, and a looking glass hangs on the wall; pushing the bed to that end of the room and putting the looking glass at this end would allow the door to swing open freely.
"Kind of an odd setup..." Jonagher comments as he peeks past the door and Ragna's broad shoulders. "Tucking a bed behind the door seems like something you'd do if you were worried about intruders. I guess that includes us...but what would Voz have had to fear before our arrival? Wasn't she on pretty good terms with the rest of the town? Maybe Calmont had her creeped out or something?"
He leans to the side to look past Ragna at the rest of the chamber. "Kind of small. You want me and Highness to search it while you check the other rooms? Or should we all stick together until we confirm the whole place is safe?"
Darla waits her turn to peer through the cracked doorway into the cramped room beyond. A thought occurs to her.
"Whoever goes in there...check underneath the old rug for a trapdoor in the floor. Pushing the bed against the door to access it makes a certain amount of sense."
After a pause for a bit more logical thinking, the bard adds, "If my guess is right, whoever used the trapdoor can't have exited through this door; they're still below...unless there's another exit down there."
"Sure. Okay. Give me a minute and I'll check things out. Highness? You want to check under the bed?" Jonagher slips past Ragna and into the room as he starts to search.
Highness nodded quietly to Jonagher's request and scurried into the darkness beneath the bed, his eyes adjusting to the darkness in an instant.
His hands felt the floorboards under the bed, both looking and feeling for anything odd.
Using Search activity
Jonagher side-steps down the edge of the bed to the standable square of floor in the room in front of the looking-glass. He has to put his heels against the wall to cautiously toe up the edge of the rag rug; the edge flips up, but then he meets resistance. Bending down to look closer, it appears that the rug is attached with tacks to the floorboards beneath. Checking around the loose edges of the rug, Jonagher does find a hinge. It appears that the rug has been attached directly to the trap door so that it remains concealed after someone has climbed through and closed it behind them.
Highness flings himself down on his belly and shimmies under the bed. It is quite clean underneath; no dust-bunnies have gathered. Voz Lirayne may just be a neatnik ... but the goblin-king also sees scuff-marks extending from the legs of the bed, as if it has been regularly moved from one end of the room to the other.
It occurs to Darla that there should be a window in this room; when she made a circuit of the outside of the shop, she saw a small window high in the wall on this side of the building. The only thing hanging on the exterior wall is the looking-glass, but why would anyone cover the only window in the room? She steps to the door to alert Jonagher to check behind the mirror and feels something tugging at her feet; looking down, she sees goblin fingers emerging from beneath the bed and pulling the ends of her bootlaces.
"Should we check the other door before we delve too deeply in there?" Alak suggests. "Someone coming up behind us and barring the trap door once we've gone down would be disadvantageous. Hand me the key to the shop we used to get in, and Shaserai and I will see if it fits the staff room as well."
Highness grinned a toothy wide smile in the darkness under the bed as he fiddled with Darla's boots, his red eyes glittering with mirth.
After telling Jonagher about the small window she noticed on her perimeter search, Darla takes an awkward step back when she feels something tugging on her bootstrings. "Hey! Cut that out!" she grumbles at the hidden goblin. She nods at Alak's words of wisdom before realizing that she's been negligent about scanning the bedroom for magical auras. Casting detect magic, the bard examines the room for unexpected auras before moving to the Staff Only door.
Darla...steps to the door to alert Jonagher to check behind the mirror.
"A window? You think it's covered by the mirror? Okay. I'll check it out. Maybe it's just meant to close off an annoying glare of sunlight in the morning or evening...or to peek thru in case anyone's skulking around out back? Seems a bit odd for a bookshop, but this is a bedroom, right? The lady's entitled to her privacy...umm, except for right now, of course. We need to get to the bottom of what's going on..."
"Should we check the other door before we delve too deeply in there?"
"Yeah, sure...Darla's still got the key, I think..." Jonagher waves at Alak's suggestion as he looks carefully at the mirror, sliding it aside to see if there's a window or anything else of importance behind it, including the reverse side of the mirror in case there's something attached.
"Hey! Cut that out!"
"What?! Why?" Jonagher looks back over his shoulder at Darla and then sees the goblin hands messing with her boots. "Yeah. He does stuff like that from time to time. Goblins, right?" He rolls his eyes and gets back to the mirror. Once he's satisfied with that, he'll then kneel down and examine the carpeted trapdoor, as well. "Wonder where this goes? Think this place has a basement or a root cellar? If I was up to anything underhanded, this is probably where'd I'd hide all the incriminating evidence. And if I wasn't pursuing such activities, this is still where I'd hide my valuables."
Jonagher lifts the looking glass carefully off the wall and discovers that it is, indeed, concealing a small window near the ceiling. As the bard's arcane light spills into the small glass-paned cavity, it reveals several scrolls of paper lined up on the sill.
Darla casts her cantrip as Jonagher removes the looking glass, and she is newly aware of the presence of magic. She is willing to bet that at least one of the scrolls on the windowsill is magic.
Alak takes the key from Darla, and Ren ignites his own magical light as he and Shaserai follow the Chelaxian to the door on the back wall. Alak raps cautiously on the door and listens for any response for a moment before putting one hand to the hilt of his sword and using the other to unlock the door. He pushes it open in a single quick motion, stepping back and drawing his blade, while Ren shines his light through the open door over his shoulder.
When nothing comes out at them, Alak sidles into the room and looks around. "That's odd," he calls to the group in the other room. "This is a much larger room -- a fireplace, windows, plenty of space for furniture -- but there's nothing in here but a worktable and stool and some crates and supplies, nothing that wouldn't fit in that small room. Why would she live in the storage closet and store things in the living space?"
Darla quietly calls out that there's a magical aura coming from the scrolls. Then she wanders to the staff room to see for herself what Alak's talking about. She voices the best theory she can come up with: "Maybe Voz used the smaller room as her bedroom because she didn't want Calmont--or anyone else--discovering that trapdoor?"
From beneath the bed the goblin called out, "Or she liked the room, like a little nest. Its cozy in here."
A dismembered hand attached to a slim silvery chain emerged from beneath the bed and began to snake its way across the floor towards Darla's boots.
There are five scrolls Jonagher carefully scoops off the hidden windowsill, one larger than the other four. He takes them back out to the main room to examine on the counter. The large scroll appears to be a map of Breachill and its environs; the small ones have spells inscribed upon them: acid arrow, false life, obscuring mist, and touch of idiocy.
Darla crosses to the other side of the shop to peer in the door marked "Staff Only." As Alak intimated, it looks like a residential room for a shopkeeper, with large windows and a fireplace but is bare of furniture save for the worktable and stool in the middle of the room. Crates filled with straw are scattered around the floor, and extra rolls of brown paper lean in a corner. Unsurprisingly since it is summer, there is no sign of firewood on the hearth, but there is an ashy smudge in the middle of the fireplace, where it appears that paper has been recently burned.
Highness is disappointed in his attempt to make his mummified elf-hand seize Darla before she walks away, as she is not an unattended object of light Bulk or less.
Highness, frustrated, rolled out from under the bed and popped to his feet.
"So are we going down through the trapdoor? Or are we going to keep picking at the trash and ashes?" he grumbled.
Darla peeks into the staff room and starts detecting for magic, surreptitiously including Alak in her scan. I don't know much about him; I ought at least know what magical gear he carries! she reasons silently. At the last moment, she trails her glowing rapier awkwardly behind her, hoping that some of its light can still spill into the tiny bedroom where Jonas and Highness remain.
Darla senses the familiar magic of her own magic, Ren's own light cantrip, and the annoying presence of the goblin's mummified hand, but there is nothing new that she can detect in the staff room.
"So are we going down through the trapdoor? Or are we going to keep picking at the trash and ashes?" he grumbled.
Alak glares at the goblin. "We have to assume that anyone down there is ready to blast us as soon as the trapdoor opens," he points out, "with all of us tramping about on the floorboards above their heads. Are you volunteering for us to toss you down first and see what happens?"
"So are we going down through the trapdoor? Or are we going to keep picking at the trash and ashes?" he grumbled.Alak glares at the goblin. "We have to assume that anyone down there is ready to blast us as soon as the trapdoor opens," he points out, "with all of us tramping about on the floorboards above their heads. Are you volunteering for us to toss you down first and see what happens?"
Highness looked quizzically at Alak for a moment, unsure of the reason for the glare. Then Alak's suggestion tickled at his brain, and as a grin spread across his face, his pupils dilated.
"Being thrown through a bunch of explosions right at the face of the enemy would be a song that could be sung for generations. Oh yessss." he hissed excitedly as he nearly bounced on his feet with potential energy.
"He will open the door, and then you will throw me through as fast as you can." he commanded, pointing first at Jon then at Alak.
"I found a handful of arcane scrolls here...various spells on them...could come in handy, maybe?" Jonagher announces, "But there's also this map. Looks like it depicts Breachill and most of the surrounding area. I assume it's important given it was hidden with something as valuable as the scrolls." The half-elf calls everyone together to take a look at it. "Darla? You've been a local here longer than most of us. You see anything important marked on it? Or anything you don't recognize? Maybe there's a clue to Voz's whereabouts?"
Darla nods, takes the map from Jonagher, and starts to scan it for anything unusual. While she's quite thorough in her work, she still takes the time to occasionally glance in Highness's direction, just in case the goblin's up to more of his hijinks.
The map looks like many Darla has seen, but there are a few hand-drawn additions to the countryside surrounding the town: small circles that have then been come back to and crossed out. Citadel Altaerein has a large, emphatic circle and an equally emphatic X through it.
Northwest of Breachill is another circle, this one not crossed out. It seems to be in the area of Guardian's Way, where Neven Deckard's group of Heroes was recently sent to deal with supposed bandits.
After examining the map, Darla reveals what she's noted. "I don't like that Guardian's Way is circled but not crossed out, and that just so happens to be where Neven's group was sent to deal with reported bandits. I don't believe in coincidences...."
”Come on, come on!” Highness said impatiently as he bounded over, and snatched at the map. Darla, having eyed the goblin earlier simply raised the map over her head for a moment.
”Everyone knows words and scribbling will rot your minds, until they dribble out your nose like worms trying to escape. If it was important, there would be a story about it!” he continued, frustrated with the lack of activity and promised explosions.
Darla glares down at the goblin. "Well, if there's a 'story' here, I can't figure it out!" she huffs. "Maybe the whole 'throw-the-goblin-into-the-secret-cellar-and-see-what-happens' plan is worth a try...."
"Well, it does seem to be our signature strategy most of the time. Not by our choice, of course. Highness has enough enthusiasm to just throw himself into anything. And usually before any of us can stop him..."
Encouraged by the change in direction, the goblin flashed a quick grin. "First, let's see if there aren't traps on the trap door." Highness said, pointing at the carpet. "The pun is too funny to pass up, and I want explosions down there, not up here." he said, a serious frown on his face as he contemplated the utter dramatic failure of an ill timed explosion.
Highness got down and started to feel around the edges of the carpet, trying to determine both the size of the trap door and if there was anything suspicious.
Ren looks at the map with a frown. "I suppose there's no chance the town council will agree to let us look into Guardian's Way until we've located the missing ring. They do seem to be a bit ... rigid." He taps the counter thoughtfully. "Correct my memory if it is faulty, but the explosion at the town hall: that was just as Mr. Deckard's group was accepting their task, was it not?"
Before the others can get distracted again, Highness flips up the corners of the rug that covers the trap door. It is perhaps three feet square, large enough for several goblins to tumble down simultaneously but perhaps only accommodating one larger kind of person at a time. He notices nothing overtly dangerous.
"I don't know," Jonagher replies to Ren. "The council seemed more interested in funding Deckard's mission to remove any banditry threats from that area than ours. If they haven't reported back, they might want us to follow up on it. We should show them this map, discuss Voz's disappearance, maybe interrogate Calmont again to see if he knows anything more about this...and then see what they decide."
Jonagher suddenly hears Highness scuffling around the trap door and turns to see the goblin checking for traps. "Of course, we should also see what's hidden or stored below first. There might be more information to share, if that one doesn't get us killed first." He leaves the map with Darla and moves to join Highness. "Hold on there," he advises, "You might want to leave this to the professionals..." He then does his own inspection of the trapdoor.
Darla stores the map in her backpack and then draws her rapier, ready to proceed into the hidden cellar. After Highness, of course.
As well as Jonagher can tell, the door does not appear to be trapped.
"Everyone ready?" Jonagher looks around, "Okay, let's see what we've got here. Highness, be ready to jump down." The half-elf knows better than to ask the goblin to stay put until any of the rest of them can descend. With that, he opens the trapdoor.
As the door opened, Highness, unable to contain himself, dove through the space in the floor, cackling madly as he fell.
Jonagher works his fingertips into the crack between the trap door and the surrounding floorboards, edging it up enough to slide his hand under and flip it up. As he does so, he feels a sudden sharp pain as spikes shoot out from the frame around the door and leave his hands bloodied and torn.
Waiting only for the door to open, Highness leaps down into the darkness before he has registered Jonagher's injury or, indeed, that there is a wooden ladder he could have climbed down instead. He lands, with a grunt and a bounce, on a dirt floor some six feet down, leaps up and looks around. He is in a roughly-dug root cellar with white-washed walls, and apart from some spiders and centipedes which scurry into cracks at the sudden arrival of the goblin-king, he appears to be alone. There seem to have been some recent damage to the northern wall, as if it has partially collapsed and been rebuilt; a few strong pieces of fresh lumber are dug into the dirt floor and braced against it to support it.
"AAAIIIEEE! Son of a b&+@@..." Jonagher recoils from the trapdoor, gritting his teeth and looking at his pierced hands in horror. He doesn't even register Highness leaping through. Instead, he rolls back and writhes in pain on the floor. "I may never draw a bow again!" he laments.
Highness bounced and rolled to his feet, hands out and ready to engage any sort of attack. After a moment of nothing leaping out at him, he relaxed slightly and peered around.
"Nobody here!" he called up towards the trap door, disappointment evident in his voice.
"There is something that is either a tunnel or a really neat trap though." he said, eyeing the construction on the north wall.
"Already...found...the trap..." Jonagher groans quietly.
Darla winces at Jonagher's agony before reaching for a vial tucked into her bandolier. "This is the last of my healing," she tells him, offering the potion.
Jonagher winces as he tentatively reaches for the vial, but then hesitates. "Maybe you should save it for that emergency you mentioned you were preparing for..." he suggests, "Shaserai's done right by us on the mending of flesh and bone. Is the priest still around? Send him my way if you can find him."
Darla moves out of the way so Shaserai can make his way into the cramped bedroom. "Why does a mild-mannered bookseller need such a dangerous trap?" he wonders as he unpacks his healing kit and begins to tend to Jonagher's wounded hands.
"A fine question," Ren agrees from the door. "Er, your goblinship!" he calls down to the unseen Highness. "You say there is no one down there; is there anything down there? Something of value?"
"Nothing yet!" Highness called up to the waiting longshanks. "No explosions, no giant centipedes, no animated statues...pretty dull actually. There is a pile of dirt that I am going to dig through a bit, so hopefully there will be something bitey hiding in the dirt." he said with a bit of optimism.
Highness scurried over to the pile, wary of it collapsing further, and dug a bit at the pile and the wall behind in an effort to find if something had been hidden here somehow...perhaps buried under the dirt?