Quote from DirtyDogP >>

Rogram stops and turns around. "Stuff's missing," he says to the others. When they look his way, he turns back toward the barrels and speaks over his shoulder. "There should be a lot more barrels than this if it's what was unloaded from the caravan." He turns around again. "Unless there's another place the rest were put, I think we missed a transfer last night."

He looks at Karib, a grin appearing. "Karib! Where's the ring?"

Karib nods when Rogram mentions the missing barrels, glancing around the room.

He nods at the half-dwarf's request, focusing his mind on the ring, trying to sense where it might be hidden.

Hono Perception: 20
Merric Perception: 7

Mathon's name is nowhere to be found inside of the ledger, but while Rachael searches, Rogram creates an image of the door, intact, just beyond the actual broken door hanging into the strong room.

Hono searches with Merric around the room while Karib concentrates on the energy cast into the ring that had been placed with the cult's shipment. The cleric concentrates on the signature of the item, but senses nothing in return, no direction entering his mind.

At first, the room appears to be a dead end, with no adjoining exits or openings in the walls or floor. It's only when Hono leans up against a crate in consternation that the truth becomes evident, the crate tipping backwards from the genasi's weight and nearly causing him to fall over. The crate is attached to the floor along only one side, allowing Hono and Merric to tip the crate upward to lean on its side, an easy task, as the crate feels as though it is empty inside. As the crate tips, it opens a trapdoor in the floor that leads to a 5-foot drop into a dirty tunnel.

OOC: Excuse me while I react to posts not yet posted.

Rogram's face droops as he watches Karib's expression change. "What does that mean?" he asks, hoping it just means the ring is too far away right now. Could this be a good thing? he wonders.

He is still pondering this development when Rachael remarks that Mathon's name does not appear in the book. The half-dwarf looks at the human. "What is the book anyway?" He leans over to peer at the names himself when he hears an exclamation near the crates.

He turns and makes his own sound of surprise and delight as Hono and Merric tip the oversized trapdoor, exposing the void below.

"Let me look," he says. He gets down on his belly next to the hole and leans his head and shoulders in to look around. (darkvision 60 ft.)

Karib purses his lips, "It's already been moved," he says, just as Hono stumbles on the the tunnel. "Probably through there," he adds.

He then casts around the room, looking for anything else out of place.

"Well?" Rachael says. "Seems we've found the tunnel. We might as well see where it goes." She looks down at Rogram. "What do you see?" 

Hono raises his hand to throw the fire in his hand at the blasted trick box. How dare this box humiliate Hono in front of company! Realizing what the box exposed didn't remove as much of the sting of stumbling as one would think. "Well... follow the flow I suppose. I give you the elusive tunnel you have been searching for. Let's clean our tracks and start down the tunnel before anyone stumbles upon our search efforts." Hono will try to inspect the tunnel from above for any dangers before entering.

Perception: 9

The tunnel looks to stretch onward as far as the eye can see beneath the Carnath Roadhouse. The smell of damp, stale earth wafts upward with the trapdoor open. As Hono inspects it and drops down, Carlon clears his throat. "So are we all going?" he asks, his voice still gravelly. Jamna replies, "Doesn't make sense to stick around, does it? The door's blown open, figuratively and literally."

"That's exactly what I mean," Carlon says. "We left the clearest path we possibly could. They'll know exactly where we went, and we'll have them on our tail the rest of the way. Unless..."

"...Unless you stay back and cover our trail," Jamna finishes for him. "Well, you'll need my help. From what I've heard, last time you were on your own against the cult, these guys had to dig you out of it...figuratively and literally."

Carlon chuckles at the running joke, then looks to the others, particularly Karib, who first rode with him on the caravan. "Copper for your thoughts?"

Rogram rolls over to relay what he's seen when Carlon and Jamna speak up. He startles, not realizing the gnome has joined them.

Sitting up, the half-dwarf frowns. "Isn't there something else we could do?" he asks, not waiting for Karib to answer. He motions toward Hono. "He's been wanting to start a fire all morning. We could get one going, and it will cover our tracks. I don't want to leave either of you behind." He motions toward Jamna. "You saved us from those spikey things." He looks at Carlon. "And you ... well, I'm sure you're good for something."

Merric bites back a laugh at Rogram’s comment to Carlon, but looks to him and Jamna. “Are you sure?  You are putting yourselves in danger, it is just as likely they will pin the blame for this on you both.”  He glances at Jamna “Still, I guess you could try to frame the thieves we found upstairs, divert some attention from us all for awhile.”  Merric shrugs. “The decision is yours, but we should move quickly.”

Merric drops down in the tunnel, eyes adjusting to the dim light and scouts a few feet forward, looking for any signs of traps or danger as he waits to lead the others forward.

"Perhaps breaking down doors was not the best idea," Rachael says shaking her head. "But that is done. Since we don't know where this goes or what our options will be at the other end, it would be best to not have people after us immediately."  She looks to Carlon and Jamna. "If you think you can help us by staying behind, then we will be indebted to you."  

Karib draws a deep breath. Carlon and Jamna had both been welcome additions to their small group. "I am not convinced we should break up. As a group we have worked well in the past and -- with the new additions," he nods at Hono and Rachael, "I think we might have some success in the coming challenges."

He looks at the door and ponders their tracks, hopefully disappearing in the rain and mud, then turns to Carlog and Jamna.

"If you really think that there is something you can do to cover our tracks, then perhaps we can do that and stay together. If Rogram is still able to make one or both of you invisible, would that be enough? And if we get separated, I can contact you to arrange a meeting, perhaps."

Then he grins, "If all else fails, then we can start a fire...but this place is not just a tool of the enemy, it is also an important staging post for the Lords Alliance, I think. Destruction would be my last choice."

Hono looks back at the rest, "do as you see best, I'm more of the keep moving forward type and then you don't have to fear what's behind you. Of course I don't tend to leave much to walk past... either way, choose quickly or the choice may be made for you." With that Hono turns to continue onward.

Rachael agrees with Karib and Hono both. "I'm not completely sure of the situation, but I'm not sure it serves us for this whole place to be burned to the ground. Or even part of it. Let's just move quickly."

Rogram stands and blinks at Karib. "Wait. You think ... I didn't ... " He looks at Rachael, a big smile brightening his ruddy face. "If that's true, than you should know! Can't you just ... arrest the cult members? Then we wouldn't need to worry about them following us."

After the group's debate, Jamna says to Karib, "There's no getting both. If one or both of us stay behind to throw off the trail, it's not likely we'd be able to get back to this tunnel. Assuming this leads where we think it leads, they aren't about to leave it unguarded now that they know it's been found. So, if we're going, let's go now."

Carlon shrugs and chuckles, "Saves me from getting buried alive again, I guess. Alright, let's get moving."

The short drop into the tunnel has a soft landing, the ground covered in a layer of grimy muck that attempts to swallow your boots. The scent of earth and stagnant water is inescapable beneath the roadhouse, and the tunnel stretches on for at least half a mile, a light at the end barely visible.

As you walk, the narrow nature of the tunnel provides an echo of bestial voices that carries from somewhere further ahead, growling and murmuring indistinctly. Hono recognizes the language as Draconic, though the words are too indistinct to be comprehensible at this distance.

(OOC - I suppose I should ask, does Rachael know anything about this place being a staging ground for the Lords' Alliance? Should I roll?) 

(( ooc: this could also be my mistake: I thought they were behind the road building, or something? )) 

"...So, if we're going, let's go now."

Karib draws a deep breath and nods, smiling at Carlon's remark.

As they move on Karib keeps a hand on a wall, barely able to see in the darkess, his eyes focuses on the light ahead.

"You see anything, lad?" he asks Rogram in a whisper.

Rogram marches along in the midst of the others, a grin beneath his beard, despite the mud attempting to remove his boots. They're moving again, which means they're getting closer to his Pa, and that's what matters.

He turns his head slightly at the sound of voices. It doesn't sound like any language he's heard before. It's certainly not anything anyone spoke in Greenest.

When Karib whispers down at him, the half-dwarf makes a point to look as far down the dark tunnel as he can. He shakes his head and whispers back, "Nothing important."

Still walking, Rogram raises his whisper to a level he thinks the others can hear. "Before we get too close to those voices, I can do a couple of magicky things that might help. I can make myself look like someone else, maybe one of the cult members we were with on the caravan. Then I can make one or two of you invisible. The disguise will stick for about an hour, and as long as I can keep concentrating on it, the invisibility spell will also last an hour."

(OOC - I suppose I should ask, does Rachael know anything about this place being a staging ground for the Lords' Alliance? Should I roll?) 

OOC: Probably some wires getting crossed on this one - Briferhew had mentioned having contacts in the Lords' Alliance when Rogram inquired in Waterdeep, and had insinuated that he was at least loosely affiliated with them, and his message before the caravan left Waterdeep to come to the roadhouse would have been the catalyst for Rachael's addition to the party, but as far as the party knows, the Lords' Alliance has no idea of the Carnath Roadhouse being anything other than a simple roadside warehouse for rebuilding the road to Neverwinter.

The tunnel emerges from the ground beneath the roadhouse in a spot a few hundred yards away, screened from the direction of the camp by a thick copse of trees and brush. From there, a clear, visible trail leads onward directly into the Mere of Dead Men, a worn path of muck that crosses through the brackish water of the mere following the higher ground where it can.

The voices stay at a distance, never becoming revealed through the tunnel or at the exit.