Once they’re out of the shack, Ipkiss changes to his raven form and perches on Eve’s shoulder.

And she would be very happy if they find a hot breakfast after the night they had.

Breakfast can be found back at The Uphill Climb just down from the Caer. Roark is there and only a few others so seating is readily available.

"Mornin folks. Looks like you found some accommodations for your night." 

"Eventually. We got to do some sightseeing. How long has Dinev's Rest been out of business? I stayed there last time I was in town, but that's been years ago at this point."

"The old inn's been boarded up near on a year now. Previous owner up and left one day, said they'd had enough of the cold and not having any business. Every once in a while someone'll claim to hear or see somethin in there, but I reckon they are just jumpin at shadows."

Maudath rubs his shoulder where he can still feel the hit he took from the duergar.

"Mighty solid shadows, those," he says through mouthfuls of food. "We got the cold shoulder up at the Caer last night. Someone's not letting anyone in. Assuming it's the same again today and those folks want to keep our healer here from helping the lord mayor or whatnot, do you know of any other ways in."

Roark blinks a few times and says "Fraid not. Maybe you caught them on a bad day. " before heading off to another table. 

Maudath nods his thanks to Roark and the quickly polishes off his breakfast.

"That hit the spot," Maudath says. "Now I only want to bat that gatekeeper about the head a few times rather than tear it off."

He rolls his shoulders as the tension eases.

"Back to the Caer?" he asks the others.

Ryhunis got close to the professor and whispered
"Enthralling character isn't he? You know what would be alot more fun though? If we knew more about who the hell this bastard is!!! Who knows who he is? Might be an old competitor of mine, and that isn't something we should deal with!"

"No way to be certain except to go back and knock on the door again," Maudath says as he hears Ryhunis' whisper to the Professor. He taps his ears. "I might not understand everything but I do hear it."

If there are no objections, Maudath picks up his gear and heads back outside and up the short path to the Caer and bangs on the door/gate.

Eve is with Maudath (always!), and flanks him all the way up to the gates again, raven on her shoulder.

After a good meal you all head out and up the rest of the way to the Caer. Its currently "daytime" so you can see a bit more of the area. The fortress has several emplacements where guards could sit and rain down arrows from above. You don't currently see anyone there but it wouldn't be hard for them to hide from those down below. There are torches set about the outside wall to keep any potential foes from sneaking up in the darkness.  The doors are still closed as they were last night when you all arrived. 

"Maudath... before you apply boot to behind... it's possible that the guard sent us there on purpose, but with good intent? If something prevented him from saying what was there that needed dealt with, but could tell we were a group capable of handling it, he may have pointed us in that direction in hopes we settle the matter. If he was prevented from discussing it directly, there may be other things at play, perhaps we don't start by throwing him against a wall and yelling about gray dwarves?"

His thoughts on the matter shared, the Professor waves at the door for his goliath friend to do some knocking.

Maudath pounds on the door but then looks back at the Professor.

He takes a deep breath then steps aside allowing the Professor to be the voice.

"My mom said if you can't say anything nice," Maudath starts then adds "then keep your big gob shut."

Before anyone can answer the door, Eve whispers/thinks to Ipkiss, “Go up and check this out, huh?…”.

Ipkiss turns invisible and flies straight up to around 90ft and takes a look beyond the wall and gates (thinking/reporting back what he sees. Anything odd?)…

Ipkiss’s perception check: 4 (passive 11, darkvision/devil’s sight 120ft)

Ipkiss flies up and can see that the castle consists of 4 rounded towers with walls between them. There is a small courtyard between the walls and the main building. He doesn't notice anything much beyond that. 

A few min after knocking the same gatekeeper answers. After looking over the group and with a small smile "Welcome back, you all look well rested. Please do come in." And with that he opens the main gate fully for you all to enter. 

"Yes, we had a lovely night, thank you so much for the recommendation on lodging. The staff there was quite hospitable."

"I'm sure they were very accommodating." 

Maudath looks from the gatekeeper to the Professor and back again. His fists clench and then relax. Then he tries reading the gatekeeper's body language and tone of this voice to see if he's just screwing with them or if he's clueless as to what he sent them to last night.

Insight: 9  

Looking closely at the gatekeeper his demeanor is casual and very polished. You get the feeling he would be very hard to read either way. 

"Indeed. Food was perhaps a bit lacking, but we received a warm welcome. There are quite a few of us, and some of them were even so kind as to give us use of the best room in the place. Do you often send business their way? Do you get some sort of finder's fee or commission? I don't recall getting your name last night, otherwise we could have mentioned that you sent us."

The Professor has made his way in so far as he chats with the guard?