[Game Thread] Welcome to Belhaim

[Khalil]

At the mention of the kobold, Raufinus attention seem to perk up. Kobold you say? Across town?! Either way, these findings are peculiar. The ones I found upstairs where already dead. They had empty satchels even thought they remained with the rest of their equipment. It's as if they came with empty bag to fill them up. Raufinus spoke as they walked. I guess the question would be "With what? Raufinus followed with the others, keeping a wary eye into the shadows where the lights would not drift into.

[zevonian]

"Empty satchel? Like this?" Alun held up a well scorched, once well made and fully intact, bag. "I can possibly salvage it in the morrow. But for now, just a souvenir of a place where someone died."

And then with a thought, he angled one of his wisps over him, and checked the satchel once more for anything inside.

[Avelestar]

The pair spend a few minutes going over the satchels. They are identical and also obviously not kobold made. The satchels are leather, expertly tanned and supple, very different to the rough leather the kobolds were wearing. There are no identifying marks on the satchels, patterns or dyes, these were mass produced but done so well. No hidden pockets or seams can be found. Meanwhile Rone tugs at the door in the south wall to no avail, though it is old the lock still holds tightly.

[DoverianDragoon]

Rone raised an eyebrow at the door when it didn't budge. He hadn't expected the door to be locked, though the apparent torture device put that in some perspective. He rejoined the others and stared at the jumble of bones for a long time.

"... Door's locked." There was no hint of defeat in his voice. This was apparently his way of collaborating, of seeing if the others had better tools to deal with a locked door than he did. "... There's more to this town than I thought."

[zevonian]

"We used to know a locksmith." Alun nodded his head towards his sister as he pulled something out of one his wrist sheaths. "Well, I knew him anyway." It was a small metal tool, perhaps something the guards failed to confiscate. 'I'll give it a try, but if there's anything you can spot as a makeshift shield, pick it up and be wary if I get this open."

Alun crouched down in front of the door, searching for a proper locking mechanism that he could access. As he did so, he also looked upon the floor, walls, and ceiling for anything that could be tripped or triggered. Once satisfied with the way things appeared, he proceeded to tend to any device he could find.

[Khalil]

Raufinus stood back as Alun fiddled with the lock. While the Medico Assistant was somewhat familiar with fiddling with different mechanisms, the actual picking of locks (as it was called), was still an experience the sheltered half-orc had never really done first hand. He observed very closely to Alun's technique, almost as if he were watching a surgeon working on a patient. In the back of his mind he kept thinking about the satchels and the kobolds strange appearance into town. He kept trying to put the pieces of an unkown puzzle. Raufinus liked puzzles and thinking games, two things he did a lot of when there was no medical work to do. It is odd that these creatures would be causing trouble in both the buildings of a small town where their mystery is as obscure as their hazards. A coordinated strike? Are these "Kobolds" usually this coordinated? He stared at the Iron Maiden in contemplation. What is this place... and what could they want here? Did they make it past this door? Or did ther mission end in failure? As he stared at the instrument of torture and conjectured theories a thought came to his mind. Raufinus's hand slipped into his satchel and his fingers wrapped around the rusted key. He pulled it out and brought it up to his face where he stared at it. His eyes then drifted to the door. His head then turned towards the jumble of bones that fell out. ...I wonder. Wait... let me try this. He moved over to the door and tried to open the lock with the key. In the back of his mind he tried to Dice Heal check to determine decomposition time.: 1d20+5 (20)+5 Total = 25 analyze how long the body had decomposed.

[Avelestar]

Alun barely puts his pick into the lock and he hears the pins clunk into place. Puzzled he thumps on the door and it locks again, raking a single pin is enough to unlock the door again. It's faulty he mused, probably locked behind the kobolds when they closed the door or kept locked to keep the centipedes out. Thinking back he remembers that the castle fell centuries ago, its not a surprise everything is broken down. With the door now unlocked Alun hushes those around him and opens the door slightly, peering out into the unknown. It seems safe enough from the doorway so he opens it fully and examines the area infront of them.

The door leads to a pair of hallways directly infront of them with two jail doors in each. Raufinius' orcan heritage allows him to see further in the dark than the others and he notices that both passages continue directly forwards and have a branching path. All four stand quiet for a few moments, watching and listening for any sign of more kobolds but can only hear the sound of each other breathing.

 

OOC Is the map clear enough? I have a master photoshop document that I'm slowly revealing and I'll post a map so far as you know in the information thread once you discover enough. Forgot to black out the space around the first room, there's nothing out that way.

[zevonian]

"No need, I have it." Alun whispered to Raufinus after putting his singular piece of equipment away. With no danger noticed, he opened the door.

It was at this time that a little fox's face was noticeable as it popped out from under Alun's cloak. "You can perch." The four legger deftly climbed up Alun's arm, thinking that a shoulder was safer than the rubble strewn ground below.

"Need to recast. Should I aim my lights as far as they can go, draw out anyone somehow still down here?"

 

If no one objects, Alun thinks forth a four pointed line of lights, starting about fifty away from him. Each wisp is about 10 feet away from the other past the party, and they angle to the left. If nothing important is revealed, the line than goes to the right.

[Coelubris]

Dania was looking around with interest, her crystalline green eyes almost luminous looking in the dim light, but she seemed to be able to see just fine. She was checking everything over, her own quartet of lights, three teal and a bloody red one circling the area to keep her from being surprised by anything. She headed toward the jail cell doors, sending two teal spheres into the one closest to see what lay beyond.

[Avelestar]

Alun sets up a line of dancing lights down one hallway and Dania the other. Shadow's dance across the hallway as the lights float towards their designated places but lay still afterwards. No movement or sound can be heard from either direction, and it appears safe. A pair of empty cells sit in both hallways, the doors slightly ajar. In the hallway to your left the branching paths both stop within thirty feet of starting but you can't see exactly what is down there from your position near the barracks door. The hallway to your right is similar, yet the righthand branching path appears to continue on into the darkness. Also there is a stone pipe in the roof, appearing from one wall and disappearing into the darkness of the right path.

 

OOC: I assume you're all either having holidays with your families or just waiting to see what Alun's plan reveals so I'll just skip ahead a little bit. The red line on the map represents the pipe. You can tell from the map that there are 4 more cells but your characters don't know just yet. For future purposes any cell that is fully revealed is empty, dark ones are not. Was writing this while Coelubris made her post, but it still works I think!

[zevonian]

Alun, walking stick in hand, adjusted his hat and took a step forward and to the right, away from the barrack doors. "We each light a path, far as we can? I'll do by the pipe." Words for his sister. The now familiar casting followed after that, and a quartet of purplish wisps stretched out, starting halfway between where he now stood and the nearest inch of the stone tube.

 

Can you put a simple red x to indicate what squares we roughly inhabit on the map, as if looking at a "you are here" directory in a shopping mall?

[Coelubris]

Dania nodded to Alun, and said softly "Absolutely, little brother. Just be careful, you know I will do the same." She directed her spheres of light out in front of her, illuminating what lay ahead, and moving at a steady walk, but not fast, so she could

Dice Perception check:

1D20+2

(2)+2

Total = 4

look things over well as she moved.

[Avelestar]

The party splits in two to carefully examine the hallways, Rone and Dania take the left with Alun and Raufinius the right. The corridors are dry and dusty, the floor appears undisturbed other than a few small footprints in the right hallway. Alun and Raufinius agree they are kobold sized and lead down the same direction as the pipe. Both groups stand at the branch of each hallway and must decide which way to investigate. Dania finds nothing of interest on the floor or wall that she has passed so far.

 

OOC: Let me know where you're heading, there are pretty much two cells on each side that you can check out, or on the pipe side a hallway as well. I'll just assume you're moving the lights along as you go, don't worry too much about the exact placement.

[Coelubris]

Dania, not liking to leave anything behind her that could come around and sink it's fangs into her buttcheeks if she let it, was moving toward checking the hallway she could see, after examining both cells on that side to see if they were empty or what. She was not intending to let anything sneak up on her while she moved, so she kept her lights at a good thirty feet ahead. She said quietly to Rone "I do not trust the centipedes already dead to be the only things down here."

[DoverianDragoon]

Rone kept step with Dania, joined her in poking around the old dungeon. "... Mm," came his reply, with just a hint of approval. Though he seemed relaxed, his sword was ever-present in his hand. "... I doubt the kobolds were after old bones, but we should check all the cells."

Rone moved ahead, worrying little for behind them (though he occasionally looked up) as

Dice Obligatory perception check:

1d20+5

(15)+5

Total = 20

the group searched.