OOC > Not for me, mind you.

[ooc : it's me!]

Ilena, looks back at Pascal and then over at Drusk with hope in her eyes even as she holds her still aching side.

[ooc : me and Ilena really want to search the mindflayer's room, but Ilena and her 4hp are also screaming for some kind of rest.]

"Maybe a quick search of the room and then we can head off.  Hildi is pretty good at looking at stuff!"

...eight foot tall, four foot wide black hole in the south wall of the large chamber. It is completely opaque, and obviously magical, not a normal hole in a normal wall...

(If the magical hole isn't bothering anyone else, or the prospect of being an ant under a mind-flayer's boot, then search as desired.)

Drusk will wait by the north exit to the room with Floon, until everyone else has finished their business. He will keep watching for more bandits, mind flayers, or activity from the strange hole on the south wall.

Timekeeping: 
Dithering is had about staying or searching : 42 seconds have passed
Drusk helps Floon to the north stairs down while others organize what they will do : 48 seconds have passed

Hildigrim gives a one-finger salute (not the bad kind) to Jorin, having seemed to completely forget the man was just trying to squash his pals, and sneaks over to peek behind both curtains stealthily (south first, if that matters).

Stealth: 20

Perception: 8

OOC > The Hildigrim show!

Fleet and silent, head on a swivel, Hildigrim pads forward, taking one of the torches from the wall to light his way. He twitches aside one curtain and peers in, then the other, and both rooms turns out to be dirty, dishes, with straw pallets on the ground and manacles bolted to the wall. He creeps up the stairs to the chair, finds it boring, except for the small chest concealed under it, which he brings back to the party, after stopping by the corpse of the split half-orc to retrieve the man's... book!

Finally, as he gathers with the rest at the north entrance to go over the loot, he recalls that there was "something strange" about that first room he slipped into when hiding behind Drusk and Ilena, and he goes to look, and finds a loose flagstone.

Twelve seconds into his one-man ransacking of the room, there is a soft pop and the mysterious portal in the south wall of the other room disappears. A plain, unfeatured wall is revealed behind it. Nothing to see there.

Map:

OOC: Gotta love a helpful DM!

Hildigrim will check for traps on the flagstone and then move it to see what's underneath.

D20 in case it's needed: 14

@DM: Finding a book would have given Hildigrim pause in his ransacking to at least flip through it to see what might be contained within. In character, I'd say that would have added some time. Depending on what he found, it might have completely interrupted his search. *shrug* Though, if someone were to remind him of what he was doing, he would have jumped back into action with no complaint.

Quote from DirtyDogP >>

@DM: Finding a book would have given Hildigrim pause in his ransacking to at least flip through it to see what might be contained within.

(OOC: Why rush through a book, when he can leisurely leaf through it later with better lighting? I assume he is taking the book, not putting it back on the shelf.)

Everyone is unreasonable about at least one thing. With Hildigrim, it's knowledge.

At the *pop* of the portal, Jorin's head snaps over in that direction.  His eyes narrow and he lets out a sharp tsk, "It seems we will not be hunting the tentacle face any more today."

Drusk will drag Flim-Flam over to Hildi and the loose flagstone.

If there are no objections, Drusk will carry the small chest (found by Hildi) until the party reaches a safe place to examine it.

Hildi (after a desperate moment thumbing through the half-orc's book it appears to be a spell book) checks the flagstone over. Clearly a trap door, and hidden, it is not trapped. With some help from the bigs, he manages to move it aside. There is a ladder down to a roughly hewn tunnel that heads north, under the sewer you came through way back when.

Floon looks at the hole in the ground and back at you all. "Is that how you came? Is that why you smell so bad?"

The hole in there ground actually doesn't smell bad at all. Musty, disused, but not like sewage.

Here is a full map of what you know of the hideout...

Jorin peers into the hole and says, "This could lead to a way out.  A way that might not be heavily defended either."

Floon looks aghast. "Defended? What? Did you... are there..." he seems to notice the fresh half-orc guts on him for the first time, and retches. If he'd had any food recently.. oh, wait. He spews much of his recently acquired ale onto Drusk's boots.

Hildigrim starts to climb down the ladder — adventure awaits! — when Floon's question and subsequent digestive complaint causes the halfling to pause. "This new passage may result in our desired escape, but verily, we have no way of knowing. Perhaps we should retrace our steps." He places a finger to his chin. "The question is what to do about that primary goblin guard? By my calculations, we seem to be traveling in somewhat of a circle. Perchance our quarry is through the next room?"

Quote from Mingofaust >>

He spews much of his recently acquired ale onto Drusk's boots.

(OOC: I'd guess that Hildi got hit as much as Drusk's boots.)

Quote from Quasimodal >>

Drusk will drag Flim-Flam over to Hildi and the loose flagstone.

After listening to Hildi and Jorin (and wiping his boots on Floon's back), Drusk is uncertain. "As much as I'd like to follow this passage, what if it leads to a bandit headquarters?... It would be good to take out the goblin guard before backtracking. But we also saw the calamari master walk over there. If it is still over there, we'd be in big trouble."

Jorin nods, "I think you may be right, and we are injured.  I will lead us out, since we know there are no traps the way we came in." Jorin turns and waits for the others to be ready before heading back the way they came, both axes at the ready.  

Ilena looks a little bit hopeful when there's mention of another, less disgusting path, and then looks disheartened when Drusk and Jorin decide that it's best to return the way they came.

After a great deal of sloshing and backtracking, you all end up where you fought the little gazer, with the ladder leading up to the inn kitchen you explored before. Nothing has jumped out at you, the hideout seems deserted.

Floon has spent much of the trek gagging, and/or answering any of your questions.