As Joren and Samir enter the chamber Marion finishes donning her own armour. Wordlessly she moves to aid Joren in his own armouring routines without making any comment on the situation at all. Respectfully she simply presents the individual pieces to him when he is ready, allowing him to make get his own fit and make his own adjustments without interference.
When they are ready to continue she draws her longsword and moves quickly at the head of the group keen to make up for lost time. As they move she briefly asks for more information from her friends as they catch up to Ashley. "It seems that much has happened as I...recovered from the ordeals of our journey. Am I right in presuming this minotaur figure is our new companion Silas?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Malachi follows Ashley and Silas to the opening of the room, then pushes past them toward the table and cages along the wall. His eyes widen in horror as he looks back at the innkeeper slung over Silas’ shoulder. Malachi is starting to piece together the madness of what the innkeeper already had admitted to while he slept. “Oh no”he breathes, almost in a whisper “What have you done? What would possess you to do such things?”
He peers toward the cages in the back, trying to determine who, or what is locked inside. “Can you hear me? You are safe now, what has he done to you?” He tries to determine how many and what condition they are in, but makes no move to free them until he learns more. Perception: 8.
He moves slowly toward the desk, waving the others to help, investigating the implements and notes to see if they can determine what strange magic or science drove this twisted experiment. Investigation 3.
The heavy bars obscure much of what lies inside the cages. At the sound of voices, two of the figures shift, drawing the tattered rags that they seem to be wearing tighter around them as they try to hide themselves further. The events of the previous night and the horror of the situation have Malachi on edge, and he recoils when they move, not sure if there was something unnatural about the way they did it.
(Investigation 4) He turns to the desk on the other side of the room and begins looking through the papers on it. Some appear to be notes, and others could be… letters? It’s hard to say, as everything seems to be written in a language he is unfamiliar with, with a system of choppy lettering that is unlike any he has seen in his time in Madurst.
Joren looks sheepishly grateful for Marion's help. That may the first time anyone has been helping me with my armor since I was first learning to put it on. Most of my fellow Khirian brothers in arms surely would not deign...
"Indeed La... ah, Marion, Silas is turning from goliath to minotaur. He seems to be having some connection or knowledge of all this. He was not attacking us in our sleep at least, so I am trusting him somewhat. Being famous last words..."
Throughout the journey down the passage and to the room at the end, Joren uses both his 60' darkvision and 10' blindsight to keep an eye out for hazards or unseen enemies or other features of interest that are not easily visible. (I'm assuming Joren, Marion and Samir are together bringing up the rear?).
Ashley is paralyzed for a moment as she takes the scene in before them. She knew it was going to be bad, but this? This was unimaginable. And there was a passage that continued, what horrors did that hide? Malachi rushes past her and she watches as he tries to talk with the things in the cage and then look over at the desk.
She doesn't even hear what Malachi says to them, but finally her legs will listen to her and she runs over to the caged humanoids. She gets on her knees and peers at them through the cages. She pulls at her hair and then puts it back in a low ponytail hoping to hide some of the flames from them, worried that the sight might frighten them more. As she tries to figure out what to say, she takes in the view of the situation
Perception 11
Once she finds her voice, she looks down, not at them, and says, "I am sorry we have found you in this state. We are here to help and rid this Inn of the terrors that happen here. Are you able to talk? Are you able to tell us what happened to you and how to help you? And are there others? Please, let us help."
Throughout the trip back to the others, Samir's attention is largely taken up by studying the talisman he has found. The brooch he quickly stashes in his bag along with the coins, making a mental note to show it to Ashley later. The talisman, however, now that is fascinating. He quickly demonstrates to Joren how it glows in the man's presence, and as they meet with Marion he again demonstrates its strange qualities. Faint blue orbs of light hover around him as they walk, courtesy of his Dancing Lights.
"Its very strange. I cannot yet fathom what its purpose might be, and I cannot for the life of me understand how it works at all. In fact, so far as I can tell, it shouldn't work. At all. Fascinating. I believe there may be some connection to whatever magic was used in the creation of the rat monsters, which also seems somehow connected to... Silas..."
Realizing that they have emerged from the passage and into a workshop of some sort, Samir looks around slowly, his voice trailing off. Tucking the talisman into a jacket pocket, he swallows hard, catching the foul scent of the cages. Seeing Malachi at the desk, he approaches to take a look himself. Perhaps something in his studies might help.
Walking down the tunnel, Joren is wary of openings and intersecting tunnels that may be hidden by the uneven walls from the direction of their approach, but as far as he can tell, the tunnel is just one linear corridor.
Getting closer to the cages, Ashley is able to see clearer into the cages. 18 People, 1 in each cage. Men and women of different backgrounds and races. From the back, their heads appear normal, but Ashley can see that they all have their forearms and shins wrapped in bandages like the ones on the table behind her. A sour chemical smell seems to come off of them. Ashley can see that the different people's bandages appear from their wear and yellowing to be of different ages, and the limbs wrapped in less fresh bandages appear far thinner. They all have varying degrees of muscular hypertrophy, though none so pronounced as the rat-men the group had fought earlier.
At first, they all continue to keep their backs turned in fear. Some of them are trembling, rocking, or mumbling incoherently to themselves. But when Ashley speaks, one of them with relatively fresh wrappings lifts her head tentatively and turns to look. Her skin is pale and her eyes are verging on hollow, but it is an otherwise normal face that rounds on Ashley. She shields her eyes even from the dim light coming from Vilus's torch in the tunnel, and the gentle glow from Ashley's hair. Her lips part slightly and Ashley can see small tusks. Between her colour-drained skin and altered musculature, those tusks are the only thing that mark her as an orc or half-orc.
She tries to speak, but it comes out as a rasp. She coughs to clear her throat, an act that clearly hurts. She must be parched. As the orc recomposes herself, Ashley hears another prisoner whisper hoarsely, "Don't engage, Rana. It's another trick." The voice comes from the cage below her. A dwarf with older bandages is curled up there, and they do not turn to look. Rana looks at Ashley anyway and croaks, "Is it true? Is it..." she coughs again, holding a bandaged hand to her dry throat. She hold up her other hand weakly in apology.
Whenever Samir holds the talisman closer to Marion, blue dominates the red, and the reverse is true when he holds it closer to Joren. When he approaches the desk, he quickly sees that whatever language is on the papers Malachi is looking through appears is like nothing he'd ever seen, even in the archives at Nos'Argo. He turns his attention instead to the desk. One of his dancing lights passes by a very thin, easy to miss drawer on the underside of the desk with a simple iron handle.
It pains Ashley to see these humanoids in such a state of despair. As one finally talks to her, she slowly reaches in her pack with one hand, the other palm up toward the..orc, half-orc? Once she finds what she is looking for, she pulls out her waterskin and tries her best to roll it to the woman. "Please, help yourself, it's water. And yes, all of us are here to help."
The woman named Rana seems to mouth what Ashley says like she is trying to recall every exact word Ashley used. She looks longingly at the waterskin and starts to reach for it, but stops herself short. "Only water?" she says. "Here to help how exact-" She gets cut off by another dry cough.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Silas' Minotaur form wares off after the hour and emerging from the tunnel comes Silas in his Goliath form as seen before.
As he heads over to the table he takes note of listening to the back and forth between the caged folk and Ashley, but his attention is first taken by the paperwork, He moves every bit of paper around apparently looking for something specific, In reality as he touches each piece of paper he notes how his buzzing connection effects his head. The runes if he recognises that they bare any resemblance to the tattoo or staples get stacked to one side and eventually slid into his bag. for the rest that don't get any ping in his head or recognition, get left behind. (investigation 13, passive for head 10)
once that is done Silas grumbles something toward Ashley a she tries to persuade the caged folk, "here on my shoulder should be enough evidence for them, right?" looking over and peering in between the bars and observing the state of the prisoners he follows up with, "tell them to take off their bandages, they won't be needing them any more and the longer they stay on the more damage is done." Reaching a hand to Ashley he leans in to whisper, " if this is too much let someone else take over, don't burden yourself with more nightmares..."with that he steps back but his eyes linger on Ashley's with a knowing stare.
Joren is thinking about the red vs. blue glow from the talisman from proximity to himself and Marion that Samir had showed them, then is about to help the artificer with the desk when the... captives register in his mind and he stops dead, heart clenched. He sees Ashley trying to talk to one of them in her compassion and Silas, back to goliath form, saying something strange to her. About nightmares? He swallows. He wants to protect her. Protect everyone here. But he is not sure he can. This is beyond him. Far deeper than him somehow.
This is a bad, bad place. Worse than anything I am seeing, even on the battlefield in victory or defeat or bloody stalemate.
He steps up beside Ashley, trying to give support with his presence if nothing else. He asks Rana:
"Was there anyone else abusing you other than this one?" (He indicates Razmus' slumped form on Vilus' shoulder, checking to make sure the evil man is still unconscious).
His hand touches the hilt of his greatsword subconsciously, though luck may have no meaning in such a cursed place as this.
Malachi is relieved to see the others enter the chamber, all together once again and safe, for now. “Did you find anything upstairs, then? Any sign of the other two…things?”
As Samir joins him at the desk, he is hopeful he can make some sense of the papers sprawled out across the desktop. “Can you make any sense of this? It is beyond me” As they find the thin drawer, Malachi will help Samir with any search or investigation.
As Rana questions the water, Ashley reaches back in, grabs the waterskin and takes a small drink and hands it back. "Yes, just water, and I'm sure my friends here will give the others here what they have as well. How? Well, hopefully stop whatever is happening to you and get you all out of here." She thinks more on that question, wondering what they can do and for the ones more gone, what their options are.
As she is thinking this, Silas whispers to her and when he mentions the nightmares, her eyes go wide and she just stares at him. How, does he know what nightmare I had? Her entire body visibly shudders at the memory and she is stunned for a moment briefly reliving it. As his words sink in, there is a sense of softness in them and that surprises her as she sees him as a hard uncaring brute.
She regains her sense and replies to him, "Thank you? how do you know about my nightmares? Actually, later, go check out that caldron over there, see if there is anything in it." and she turns back to the captors. "As you can see, we have the man that tortured you, and please, take off those bandages, they are doing you harm."
Vilus only finds a couple sheets of paper with the suspicious marking on them. They appear to correspond precisely to the ones on the staples, plus one other rune diagramed that he hasn’t seen. Everything else on the table is just normal writing as far as he can tell.
When Rama sees Razmus slung over the Goliath’s shoulder with a string of spittle hanging from his slack lips, she covers her mouth in shock, and her bloodshot eyes start to get wet with tears. She reaches out with trembling fingers, grabbing the water skin this time, and begins gulping noisily. It seems to take a great effort for her to stop before making herself sick, but she does manage to hand back the water skin, now half empty.
Wiping her mouth, she looks up at Ashley, Joren, and Vilus. “Is it really over? This isn’t another of their tricks? Jon… he looks for ways to dangle hope, just to take it away. To break our spirits. And sometimes there are others. They… they come from the other direction. Sometimes they play tricks like Jon, and other times they inspect us and take some of us away…”
At this point, the dwarf has turned a bit, but they remain silent. At this point, Ashley notices a small metal fastener on one of the dwarf’s wrappings, with a single rune on its face. Rana’s wrappings are likewise secured, with each fastener bearing the same rune. Rana makes now move to remove her wrappings.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Whatever fascination Marion had for the talisman that Samir had uncovered, and the way it changes colours in the presence of Joren and herself, is replaced by horror at the sight of so many victims being held captive within the cages. "By the Azure Queen...there are so many..." she absentmindedly speaks aloud as she approaches the cages herself, looking from one huddled figure to another as they cower in the shadows of their prison. As the others investigate the room and speak to the poor souls to learn more of what has been occurring Marion has but one thought upon her mind: to free these captives.
Examining the cage that the woman Ashley is speaking with is trapped inside she looks for sign of a lock. If the cage is locked with a padlock or some other relatively small mechanism she simply raises her sword and smashes the lock as forcefully as she can with the pommel in an attempt to break it. If the locking mechanism is too large and robust for such simple and brute force efforts to break then she would instead begin searching for a key to open them with.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Silas sighs and mumbles something about "hoping for another copy, didn't wanna take the first" before he turns from the paperwork leaving behind the ones that he has deemed unnecessary to take.
In response to Ashley, Silas blinks slowly, unused to being ordered around by people he didn't know he hesitantly makes his way toward the cauldron before the sound of Marion attacking the lock thunders through the room, he turns.
Seeing Marion set about the locks with brute force he raises an eyebrow and gives a tut, was it in distain or judgement? Unclear. But what he does next is bring out a set of dainty metal pins with wooden handles and assisting Marion opens some more of the cages by use of thieves tools 14.
He then speaks up, casting his voice over his free shoulder somewhat in a half hearted attempt to address Samir, "can you take a look at these staples? Not sure if they're gonna react to being pulled out or something, enough weird stuff is going on, we don't wanna harm these folk more than they already are by trying to help them, and oh! someone check the cauldron for Ashley... Umm, please."
Marion inspects the cage and sees a padlock holding it shut. (Investigation 17) She figures if Razmus had had the key on him, they would have found it while searching him, so it is likely in this room. She glances around but doesn’t see it anywhere out in the open in an obvious spot. Not wanting to waste time looking for it right at this moment, she looks at the lock again and then motions for Ashley to step back.
Glad to be feeling so much more like her usual self with the rest her companions had allowed her, she puts all her strength behind a powerful blow to the padlock with the pommel of her sword. The resounding clang causes all of the prisoners to flinch in their cages, and some cover their ears. It withstands the blow, so she launches another and another. On the third strike, she hears the mechanism break. One more bash and the lock disengages. She pulls the padlock off the cage and let’s it clatter to the ground as she opens up the cage door.
Rana tentatively uncurls and slowly moves toward the opening. As weak and shaky as she seems at the moment, her shoulders bulge as she lowers herself to the floor. “Thank you,” she says, standing hunched with her arms crossed as though still trying to make herself small. “Oh, th-the key. I always see Jon fiddling with that drawer over there whenever he needs to get someone in your or out of a cage. I’m sure that’s where the key is. We can get the others”
(Lockpocking 7) Vilus gets to work on opening the next lock, but the pins are heavy and are too stiff for him to rake open. He spends longer than he would have liked trying to find the binding pin as he goes about setting the pins one at a time. Finally though, after a few minutes, Vilus finds the right sequence and the lock clicks open. The person inside winces at the small click, but it’s a far smaller reaction than Marion prompted with her banging.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Vilus gives a small nod to the occupant and moves out of the way, overhearing Rana talk about a possible key he then gives up, too much effort, "nevermind, I'll do it" he grumbles somewhat dejected as he resumes his task of checking out the cauldron, perception for a quick glance in 19
As Joren and Samir enter the chamber Marion finishes donning her own armour. Wordlessly she moves to aid Joren in his own armouring routines without making any comment on the situation at all. Respectfully she simply presents the individual pieces to him when he is ready, allowing him to make get his own fit and make his own adjustments without interference.
When they are ready to continue she draws her longsword and moves quickly at the head of the group keen to make up for lost time. As they move she briefly asks for more information from her friends as they catch up to Ashley. "It seems that much has happened as I...recovered from the ordeals of our journey. Am I right in presuming this minotaur figure is our new companion Silas?"
Malachi follows Ashley and Silas to the opening of the room, then pushes past them toward the table and cages along the wall. His eyes widen in horror as he looks back at the innkeeper slung over Silas’ shoulder. Malachi is starting to piece together the madness of what the innkeeper already had admitted to while he slept. “Oh no” he breathes, almost in a whisper “What have you done? What would possess you to do such things?”
He peers toward the cages in the back, trying to determine who, or what is locked inside. “Can you hear me? You are safe now, what has he done to you?” He tries to determine how many and what condition they are in, but makes no move to free them until he learns more. Perception: 8.
He moves slowly toward the desk, waving the others to help, investigating the implements and notes to see if they can determine what strange magic or science drove this twisted experiment. Investigation 3.
(Perception nat 1)
The heavy bars obscure much of what lies inside the cages. At the sound of voices, two of the figures shift, drawing the tattered rags that they seem to be wearing tighter around them as they try to hide themselves further. The events of the previous night and the horror of the situation have Malachi on edge, and he recoils when they move, not sure if there was something unnatural about the way they did it.
(Investigation 4) He turns to the desk on the other side of the room and begins looking through the papers on it. Some appear to be notes, and others could be… letters? It’s hard to say, as everything seems to be written in a language he is unfamiliar with, with a system of choppy lettering that is unlike any he has seen in his time in Madurst.
Joren looks sheepishly grateful for Marion's help. That may the first time anyone has been helping me with my armor since I was first learning to put it on. Most of my fellow Khirian brothers in arms surely would not deign...
"Indeed La... ah, Marion, Silas is turning from goliath to minotaur. He seems to be having some connection or knowledge of all this. He was not attacking us in our sleep at least, so I am trusting him somewhat. Being famous last words..."
Throughout the journey down the passage and to the room at the end, Joren uses both his 60' darkvision and 10' blindsight to keep an eye out for hazards or unseen enemies or other features of interest that are not easily visible. (I'm assuming Joren, Marion and Samir are together bringing up the rear?).
Perception: 5
He would of course listen with great interest to anything Samir would want to say about the strange talisman.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest
Dyson/Eleo(Cleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(Druid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(Sorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(Monk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(Cleric3/Sorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Ashley is paralyzed for a moment as she takes the scene in before them. She knew it was going to be bad, but this? This was unimaginable. And there was a passage that continued, what horrors did that hide? Malachi rushes past her and she watches as he tries to talk with the things in the cage and then look over at the desk.
She doesn't even hear what Malachi says to them, but finally her legs will listen to her and she runs over to the caged humanoids. She gets on her knees and peers at them through the cages. She pulls at her hair and then puts it back in a low ponytail hoping to hide some of the flames from them, worried that the sight might frighten them more. As she tries to figure out what to say, she takes in the view of the situation
Perception 11
Once she finds her voice, she looks down, not at them, and says, "I am sorry we have found you in this state. We are here to help and rid this Inn of the terrors that happen here. Are you able to talk? Are you able to tell us what happened to you and how to help you? And are there others? Please, let us help."
Persuasion 21
Throughout the trip back to the others, Samir's attention is largely taken up by studying the talisman he has found. The brooch he quickly stashes in his bag along with the coins, making a mental note to show it to Ashley later. The talisman, however, now that is fascinating. He quickly demonstrates to Joren how it glows in the man's presence, and as they meet with Marion he again demonstrates its strange qualities. Faint blue orbs of light hover around him as they walk, courtesy of his Dancing Lights.
"Its very strange. I cannot yet fathom what its purpose might be, and I cannot for the life of me understand how it works at all. In fact, so far as I can tell, it shouldn't work. At all. Fascinating. I believe there may be some connection to whatever magic was used in the creation of the rat monsters, which also seems somehow connected to... Silas..."
Realizing that they have emerged from the passage and into a workshop of some sort, Samir looks around slowly, his voice trailing off. Tucking the talisman into a jacket pocket, he swallows hard, catching the foul scent of the cages. Seeing Malachi at the desk, he approaches to take a look himself. Perhaps something in his studies might help.
Investigation: 15
Walking down the tunnel, Joren is wary of openings and intersecting tunnels that may be hidden by the uneven walls from the direction of their approach, but as far as he can tell, the tunnel is just one linear corridor.
Getting closer to the cages, Ashley is able to see clearer into the cages. 18 People, 1 in each cage. Men and women of different backgrounds and races. From the back, their heads appear normal, but Ashley can see that they all have their forearms and shins wrapped in bandages like the ones on the table behind her. A sour chemical smell seems to come off of them. Ashley can see that the different people's bandages appear from their wear and yellowing to be of different ages, and the limbs wrapped in less fresh bandages appear far thinner. They all have varying degrees of muscular hypertrophy, though none so pronounced as the rat-men the group had fought earlier.
At first, they all continue to keep their backs turned in fear. Some of them are trembling, rocking, or mumbling incoherently to themselves. But when Ashley speaks, one of them with relatively fresh wrappings lifts her head tentatively and turns to look. Her skin is pale and her eyes are verging on hollow, but it is an otherwise normal face that rounds on Ashley. She shields her eyes even from the dim light coming from Vilus's torch in the tunnel, and the gentle glow from Ashley's hair. Her lips part slightly and Ashley can see small tusks. Between her colour-drained skin and altered musculature, those tusks are the only thing that mark her as an orc or half-orc.
She tries to speak, but it comes out as a rasp. She coughs to clear her throat, an act that clearly hurts. She must be parched. As the orc recomposes herself, Ashley hears another prisoner whisper hoarsely, "Don't engage, Rana. It's another trick." The voice comes from the cage below her. A dwarf with older bandages is curled up there, and they do not turn to look. Rana looks at Ashley anyway and croaks, "Is it true? Is it..." she coughs again, holding a bandaged hand to her dry throat. She hold up her other hand weakly in apology.
Whenever Samir holds the talisman closer to Marion, blue dominates the red, and the reverse is true when he holds it closer to Joren. When he approaches the desk, he quickly sees that whatever language is on the papers Malachi is looking through appears is like nothing he'd ever seen, even in the archives at Nos'Argo. He turns his attention instead to the desk. One of his dancing lights passes by a very thin, easy to miss drawer on the underside of the desk with a simple iron handle.
It pains Ashley to see these humanoids in such a state of despair. As one finally talks to her, she slowly reaches in her pack with one hand, the other palm up toward the..orc, half-orc? Once she finds what she is looking for, she pulls out her waterskin and tries her best to roll it to the woman. "Please, help yourself, it's water. And yes, all of us are here to help."
The woman named Rana seems to mouth what Ashley says like she is trying to recall every exact word Ashley used. She looks longingly at the waterskin and starts to reach for it, but stops herself short. "Only water?" she says. "Here to help how exact-" She gets cut off by another dry cough.
Silas' Minotaur form wares off after the hour and emerging from the tunnel comes Silas in his Goliath form as seen before.
As he heads over to the table he takes note of listening to the back and forth between the caged folk and Ashley, but his attention is first taken by the paperwork, He moves every bit of paper around apparently looking for something specific, In reality as he touches each piece of paper he notes how his buzzing connection effects his head. The runes if he recognises that they bare any resemblance to the tattoo or staples get stacked to one side and eventually slid into his bag. for the rest that don't get any ping in his head or recognition, get left behind. (investigation 13, passive for head 10)
once that is done Silas grumbles something toward Ashley a she tries to persuade the caged folk, "here on my shoulder should be enough evidence for them, right?" looking over and peering in between the bars and observing the state of the prisoners he follows up with, "tell them to take off their bandages, they won't be needing them any more and the longer they stay on the more damage is done." Reaching a hand to Ashley he leans in to whisper, " if this is too much let someone else take over, don't burden yourself with more nightmares..." with that he steps back but his eyes linger on Ashley's with a knowing stare.
Joren is thinking about the red vs. blue glow from the talisman from proximity to himself and Marion that Samir had showed them, then is about to help the artificer with the desk when the... captives register in his mind and he stops dead, heart clenched. He sees Ashley trying to talk to one of them in her compassion and Silas, back to goliath form, saying something strange to her. About nightmares? He swallows. He wants to protect her. Protect everyone here. But he is not sure he can. This is beyond him. Far deeper than him somehow.
This is a bad, bad place. Worse than anything I am seeing, even on the battlefield in victory or defeat or bloody stalemate.
He steps up beside Ashley, trying to give support with his presence if nothing else. He asks Rana:
"Was there anyone else abusing you other than this one?" (He indicates Razmus' slumped form on Vilus' shoulder, checking to make sure the evil man is still unconscious).
His hand touches the hilt of his greatsword subconsciously, though luck may have no meaning in such a cursed place as this.
Tanis(Ranger1): Shiverquill's Tempest City | Xarian(Fighter2): NioNSwiper's Tyranny of Dragons | Lyra(Warlock2/Bard4): VitusW's Silverwood Forest
Dyson/Eleo(Cleric4): Vos' Beyond the Veil | Soren(Druid5): Bartjeebus' Ravenloft | Ophelia(Sorcerer4): Ashen_Age's Risen from the Sands
Joren(Fighter6): NotDrizzt's Simple Request | Sabetha(Monk3): Bedlymn's Murder Court | Seri(Cleric3/Sorcerer1): Bartjeebus' Greyhawk
Malachi is relieved to see the others enter the chamber, all together once again and safe, for now. “Did you find anything upstairs, then? Any sign of the other two…things?”
As Samir joins him at the desk, he is hopeful he can make some sense of the papers sprawled out across the desktop. “Can you make any sense of this? It is beyond me” As they find the thin drawer, Malachi will help Samir with any search or investigation.
As Rana questions the water, Ashley reaches back in, grabs the waterskin and takes a small drink and hands it back. "Yes, just water, and I'm sure my friends here will give the others here what they have as well. How? Well, hopefully stop whatever is happening to you and get you all out of here." She thinks more on that question, wondering what they can do and for the ones more gone, what their options are.
As she is thinking this, Silas whispers to her and when he mentions the nightmares, her eyes go wide and she just stares at him. How, does he know what nightmare I had? Her entire body visibly shudders at the memory and she is stunned for a moment briefly reliving it. As his words sink in, there is a sense of softness in them and that surprises her as she sees him as a hard uncaring brute.
She regains her sense and replies to him, "Thank you? how do you know about my nightmares? Actually, later, go check out that caldron over there, see if there is anything in it." and she turns back to the captors. "As you can see, we have the man that tortured you, and please, take off those bandages, they are doing you harm."
Vilus only finds a couple sheets of paper with the suspicious marking on them. They appear to correspond precisely to the ones on the staples, plus one other rune diagramed that he hasn’t seen. Everything else on the table is just normal writing as far as he can tell.
When Rama sees Razmus slung over the Goliath’s shoulder with a string of spittle hanging from his slack lips, she covers her mouth in shock, and her bloodshot eyes start to get wet with tears. She reaches out with trembling fingers, grabbing the water skin this time, and begins gulping noisily. It seems to take a great effort for her to stop before making herself sick, but she does manage to hand back the water skin, now half empty.
Wiping her mouth, she looks up at Ashley, Joren, and Vilus. “Is it really over? This isn’t another of their tricks? Jon… he looks for ways to dangle hope, just to take it away. To break our spirits. And sometimes there are others. They… they come from the other direction. Sometimes they play tricks like Jon, and other times they inspect us and take some of us away…”
At this point, the dwarf has turned a bit, but they remain silent. At this point, Ashley notices a small metal fastener on one of the dwarf’s wrappings, with a single rune on its face. Rana’s wrappings are likewise secured, with each fastener bearing the same rune. Rana makes now move to remove her wrappings.
Whatever fascination Marion had for the talisman that Samir had uncovered, and the way it changes colours in the presence of Joren and herself, is replaced by horror at the sight of so many victims being held captive within the cages. "By the Azure Queen...there are so many..." she absentmindedly speaks aloud as she approaches the cages herself, looking from one huddled figure to another as they cower in the shadows of their prison. As the others investigate the room and speak to the poor souls to learn more of what has been occurring Marion has but one thought upon her mind: to free these captives.
Examining the cage that the woman Ashley is speaking with is trapped inside she looks for sign of a lock. If the cage is locked with a padlock or some other relatively small mechanism she simply raises her sword and smashes the lock as forcefully as she can with the pommel in an attempt to break it. If the locking mechanism is too large and robust for such simple and brute force efforts to break then she would instead begin searching for a key to open them with.
Strength Check for brute force: 14
investigation check if the mechanism is larger: 13
Silas sighs and mumbles something about "hoping for another copy, didn't wanna take the first" before he turns from the paperwork leaving behind the ones that he has deemed unnecessary to take.
In response to Ashley, Silas blinks slowly, unused to being ordered around by people he didn't know he hesitantly makes his way toward the cauldron before the sound of Marion attacking the lock thunders through the room, he turns.
Seeing Marion set about the locks with brute force he raises an eyebrow and gives a tut, was it in distain or judgement? Unclear. But what he does next is bring out a set of dainty metal pins with wooden handles and assisting Marion opens some more of the cages by use of thieves tools 14.
He then speaks up, casting his voice over his free shoulder somewhat in a half hearted attempt to address Samir, "can you take a look at these staples? Not sure if they're gonna react to being pulled out or something, enough weird stuff is going on, we don't wanna harm these folk more than they already are by trying to help them, and oh! someone check the cauldron for Ashley... Umm, please."
Marion inspects the cage and sees a padlock holding it shut. (Investigation 17) She figures if Razmus had had the key on him, they would have found it while searching him, so it is likely in this room. She glances around but doesn’t see it anywhere out in the open in an obvious spot. Not wanting to waste time looking for it right at this moment, she looks at the lock again and then motions for Ashley to step back.
Glad to be feeling so much more like her usual self with the rest her companions had allowed her, she puts all her strength behind a powerful blow to the padlock with the pommel of her sword. The resounding clang causes all of the prisoners to flinch in their cages, and some cover their ears. It withstands the blow, so she launches another and another. On the third strike, she hears the mechanism break. One more bash and the lock disengages. She pulls the padlock off the cage and let’s it clatter to the ground as she opens up the cage door.
Rana tentatively uncurls and slowly moves toward the opening. As weak and shaky as she seems at the moment, her shoulders bulge as she lowers herself to the floor. “Thank you,” she says, standing hunched with her arms crossed as though still trying to make herself small. “Oh, th-the key. I always see Jon fiddling with that drawer over there whenever he needs to get someone in your or out of a cage. I’m sure that’s where the key is. We can get the others”
(Lockpocking 7) Vilus gets to work on opening the next lock, but the pins are heavy and are too stiff for him to rake open. He spends longer than he would have liked trying to find the binding pin as he goes about setting the pins one at a time. Finally though, after a few minutes, Vilus finds the right sequence and the lock clicks open. The person inside winces at the small click, but it’s a far smaller reaction than Marion prompted with her banging.
Vilus gives a small nod to the occupant and moves out of the way, overhearing Rana talk about a possible key he then gives up, too much effort, "nevermind, I'll do it" he grumbles somewhat dejected as he resumes his task of checking out the cauldron, perception for a quick glance in 19