CH. 12: Testing Grounds

[djhyland]

Despite her claim that she would share the bread with the boy, Arulia makes no move to take the remainder from him. "It's nice to meet you, Aaron," she says and smiles again. "What brings you to the market today?"

[JadedDM]

Kendra Greylock (Central Haven Sewers)
"I can try and eavesdrop and hope I'll hear something," Pen says. "But I'm not sure anyone would take the word of a kender as evidence for anything."

Tulbas Erogund (Tower of Wayreth)
Tulbas steps out into the hall, a bit disoriented. He remembered the elven woman was in the room across from his (blue door), the half-elven woman was two doors to the right (green door), and the human man was in the room next to the elven woman's room (green door). The room to his right was the one where he overheard the conversation (purple door). He wasn't sure what was in the other rooms. He just needed to decide where to begin.

Tower of Wayreth 01.jpg (39.21 KiB) Viewed 5560 times

Arulia Seroth (Market Square)
The child thinks over the question, as if not sure how to answer. Finally, he says, "Sometimes people drop coppers while shopping in the market and leave them there. I scoop them up when I can find them."

Grubnick (Happee Ohgr Tavern)
"Oh, the parade? It's in honor of that soldier who killed that fire monster that attacked the city," the bartender says. "Yeah, they say she single-handedly took it out while dozens of draconains were unable to even touch it. They call her the 'Hero of Haven' now. The parade will go down market street from one end to the other, and she's going to give a big speech in the square. It's one week from now."

Ne-Chanz (North Haven Sewers)
Shima returns long enough to tell Ne-Chanz he's found a chest, then leaves again. Ne-Chanz stops pacing and braces himself in case he hears fighting in the distance.

Shima (Central Haven Sewers)
Shima jabs the chest with a spear and nothing happens. Then he leaves the room, returns to the tunnel, walks all the way back to the spider room, tells Ne-Chanz of the chest, then walks all the way back to the room with the chest. Then he searches the room for hidden passages, but finds none. Then he checks the chest for traps. Not finding any, he starts picking at the lock. Once he unlocks it, he opens it and a series of spikes immediately jut out of the chest, stabbing him. Fortunately, his armor absorbs the worst of it.

Inside the chest is a rusted long sword and a small, pink gemstone.

==============

Shima attempts to detect sliding/shifting walls [TN 4] (1d6): 1, pass. He finds none.
Shima searches the chest for traps [TN 20%] (1d100): 49, fail. He finds no traps.
Shima attempts to pick chest's lock [TN 50%] (1d100): 9, pass.
Shima takes (2d6): 1,3 = 4 damage from the spike trap. Shima is now moderately wounded.

[HorizonsDream]

"There is always some truth in the stories that kenders weave," Kendra says with a small smile. "And besides, I think a kender is the best person for the job. You guys are great at gathering all sorts of information."

[Chris1234]

'Hell of a way to learn more about traps', thinks Shima. He picks up the gem and studies it, trying to get some idea as to its value.
Then, without another thought, he tucks it away out of sight.

The little fellow picks up the rusty longsword and examines it to see fit it's truly ruined or merely needs a damn good cleanup.

After a final poke around in the alcove to check whether the chest holds any more secrets such as a hidden compartment or indeed a loose flagstone beneath the chest itself, Shima goes and fetches Ne-CHanz, saying, "The chest had a rusty longsword in it and the trap caught me a pearler but could have been worse. There weren't any other exits or passages. There's a bridge there that looks a bit dodgy. Pretty sure it wouldn't take your weight. One door left, not locked. Happy to get through there?"

He heads back to the southern door, checks it for traps and, if none found, opens it for a look through.
(Otherwise he tries to disarm any trap and then opens the door..)

[djhyland]

Arulia nods in understanding. "It's okay, Aaron. I know how difficult things are." She sighs and falls silent for a long while. "For now, I'm fortunate enough that I don't have to scrounge for coins, but I don't think that that will lost for much longer. I can barely afford bread as it is. But you needed to eat." She sighs again and looks at the boy. "You're here by yourself, aren't you? Otherwise, you wouldn't be sitting here with me. Or do you have someone to look after you?"

[BishGada]

Tulbas looks to both sides making sure the attackers had cleared up. He quickly goes through the rooms checking if anyone is still here. His first concern is their health and later they might come up with a plan what to do next. The room opposite to his own seems like the natural place to begin looking for the others.

=======================================================================
(OOC: Tulbas will start with the blue room, then the red next to the blue, then the purple and then the red next to the purple.
Also, in what direction did the attackers gone? Up or down the hall in the map?)

[TristenC]

Oh, wow, the whole length of Market street huh? Just for protecting the soldiers? he lowers his voice so only she can hear. I heard the church was behind it anyway, and it was all political. They wanted to make it seem like some heretic is around so they could get more folks to turn on their neighbors and turn em in. That way it would make them more appealing to the locals. The army got lucky and that girl was there, otherwise that thing might have killed a lot more of those soldiers.

[JadedDM]

Kendra Greylock (Central Haven Sewers)
Pen thinks it over. "Well, okay. I've got some plans of my own, but I think I can squeeze in some eavesdropping over the next week. Where should I meet you to tell you what I've learned?"

Tulbas Erogund (Tower of Wayreth)
Tulbas looks down both sides of the hall. It appears clear, at least for now. He steps into the room directly across the hall. It is a guest room, almost identical to his own. Or it was, before it was trashed. The door has been blasted off the hinges and is charred and blackened. Most of the furniture has been upended. He spots the elven woman he met earlier, the Qualinesti. She is trapped underneath a fallen armoire. Blood trickles from her forehead. She is conscious and attempt to slip out from under it, but cannot. She looks up at him as he approaches, rage glinting in her eyes. "Ah, so the Black Robes don't see me a threat worth neutralizing themselves. They sent one of their apprentices to finish me off instead?" she asks venomously.

Arulia Seroth (Market Square)
Finishing the bread, Aaron says, "My parents are gone. We fled here to get away from the war. But it followed us here. Father died on the way, and mother was killed by goblins just outside the city. But a nice lady took me and some other kids in before the occupation, so we didn't get sent away even though we don't got any parents." There had been lots of homeless people living in the streets before the occupation. They were all rounded up and sent away when the army came in. Evidently, despite his status as an orphan, Aaron was spared this fate.

Grubnick (Happee Ohgr Tavern)
The goblin chuckles. "Where did you hear that? Interesting theory, but it doesn't really add up, though. You said it yourself, the parade was for the soldiers. If the church was trying to spook the people, why not attack them instead of soldiers? There were no civilian casualties at all."

Shima (Central Haven Sewers)
Shima looks over the small gemstone, trying to determine its value. But he has no idea. He pockets it secretly, deciding not to let the minotaur know about it.

He then examines the long sword. It doesn't appear to be completely rusted through, just the surface. It could be cleaned and sharpened again.

Not finding any secret compartments, he walks all the way back to the spider room and tells Ne-Chanz about the chest and the sword, but not the gem. Then he walks all the way back and tries the southern door. He finds no traps on it, so opens it up. Inside is a small room. On the other end is another door. Inside the room are five more giant rats. Their red eyes, glowing in the darkness, turn toward the dwarf hungrily.

Shima makes an appraisal check [TN 3] (1d20): 18, fail.
Shima checks the southern door for traps [TN 20%] (1d100): 82, fail.

[TristenC]

Grubnick shrugs, Just what I heard. Maybe they were trying to hurt the army's rep by making them seem ineffective against the threat, but I guess if that's what happened it backfired. Anyway, the church and army don't seem to get along too well anyway. He finishes his ale and thanks her, then heads off to the next nearby stop to ask about the women.

[HorizonsDream]

"Thanks Pen," Kendra says. "We could meet right here. It seems private enough, even though it reeks."

[BishGada]

"Calm down," Tulbas raises his hands forward in a calming manner. "I got myself slammed to the back wall in my room as well. I'm coming to help you out of the wardrobe, OK?" Although it was a question Tulbas advances slowly and tries to help the woman back to her feet. He rummage through his belonging looking for small patch of cloth to give her to wipe her blood. "I heard they skim something through a crack in my wall but before I could find a way out the room or warn someone the attack begun. All I can say, they didn't all agreed to attack today. I believe they want either to capture the tower or eliminate the other masters of the orders. Both sides magical strength is at their max tonight..."

[Chris1234]

Shima's a bit shocked by the combination of a gang of huge rats and the absence of Ne-Chanz.

If he's speedy enough, the dwarf will shut the door, swap weapons to the longsword and go fetch Ne-Chanz so that the latter can stand at the eastern branch of the crossroads to get in on the action. (Shima suggests this to him on the way back to the crossroads).

If not speedy enough, Shima equips the longsword to give that a tryout and attempts to use he doorway as a bottleneck to limit the number on rats that can get at him. Using lonsword and buckler, he tries to dispatch the first rat to move up to him and call out to Ne-Chanz "Rat attack. You coming?" (If Ne-Chanz does make an appearance, the dwarf continues, "Hold just east of the crossroads and I'll try to pull these rats to you..")

[djhyland]

"I'm very sorry about your parents," Arulia says. Unable to think of anything to say that might make Aaron's situation better, she instead looks down at her feet in silence.

Eventually, Arulia speaks again. "I am happy that you have someone to look after you and that you didn't get sent away, you and the others that she took in. But how does she manage? What does she do? I have three sisters, and I can't support even them. How can she support all of you?"

[spyguy1503]

Ne-Chanz heads over to Shima, and waits where he asks him to, attacking any rat that comes close enough.

[JadedDM]

Kendra Greylock (Central Haven Sewers)
"Alright. Here in one week then," Pen says. "I should get going, though. I still have other stuff to do today before curfew starts."

Tulbas Erogund (Tower of Wayreth)
Tulbas finds that the woman is trapped underneath the wardrobe and cannot be pulled out easily. He tries to lift it off of her, but it's much heavier than it looks. Throwing his back into it, he manages to lift it up high enough for her to wiggle out from beneath it before he drops it again. His back aches a bit afterward, but he got the job done.

The elven woman gets to her feet and limps over to the bed to sit down. Her leg is bruised--all purple and black. She's clearly having trouble putting weight on it. The wound on her head seems to trickle blood. She wipes it up as best she can with the cloth he offers. "Thanks...but you are saying that your master isn't part of this then?" she asks.

Tulbas makes a STR check with a penalty of -2 because it's so heavy [TN 6] (1d20): 4, pass.

Arulia Seroth (Market Square)
"We all work to help," the boy says. "She says there's lots of coin out there if you know where to look." He looks a bit guilty. "I'm not supposed to talk about it."

Grubnick (High Hand Inn)
Grubnick makes his way to the High Hand Inn, the last place on his list. Green Tears is tending the bar, and as usual there are a pack of draconians drinking and carousing at their own table. He spots a few other regulars that he recognizes spread about the area--the man whose nose is always in a book is by the fireplace, and Harrin, the would-be lute player, sits talking with a pair of women who clearly wish he would go away. Finally, there is a huge, hulking man at the bar, speaking with Green Tears. Grubnick realizes he is an ogre, or at least partially one.

Shima (Central Haven Sewers)
At this point, Shima has 'scouted' so far ahead that even if he were to yell out for Ne-Chanz, it's not entirely certain the minotaur would be able to hear him from here. He quickly slams the door shut, but a moment later he hears the rats ramming against it. This particular door is not reinforced with iron or steel like the others, it is simple wood. And it is beginning to rot. It's clear he has a minute, maybe two, to act before the door comes crashing down and the rats swarm him.

(OOC: Shima has 1-2 rounds to act. Ne-Chanz is over 100 feet away in an entirely different section and room. He'll only be able to hear Shima if he passes a DN check from this range. Shima will need to get at least within 50 feet to be heard clearly.)