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[OOC] I was thinking about the stuff the guys were roasting. I figured there must be more someplace. [/OOC]

Saul hobbles to the end of the bridge, nearest the chest, adding his weight to the balance. "Tis a good thing there are no archers about! They'd have easy shots at us as we puzzle out how to open the far door, let along GET to it!"

Eloise rubs her head, people had reached out to open a door, yet the door didn't open.. pressing the doors surface she looks for a hidden catch.

As Eloise checks the door, she realises that its upper part is slightly more on the inside of the wall than the lower part, so that it stays closed even when it's not locked. She can simply pull it open, adding her handprint to the polish a the door's edge.

Putting her hand on the door she pulls it open slowly.

Dale keeps a hold of the platform until the others secure it. Waving Thelma over, he tells Thelma. "Help your sister."

Right now, there is no other way of securing the bridge than to keep the combined weight at the Palas's side higher than on the keep's side. If Thelma advances to join Eloise and Christopher, the bridge will stay in place as long as Dale and Saul remain close to the Palas (and the chest with the stones).

Eloise can open the door without difficulty. The hardest part was getting a grip on it since it has no handle. It will close again slowly under its own weight once she releases it.

The door gives access to a room that is much darker than the outside, because it has no windows, only a few loopholes. Once her eyes adjust to the low light, Eloise sees a single large room that makes up the entire floor of the keep. A few stone steps lead up to a coarse wooden floor. From the centre of the ceiling hangs a rope with a very large loop, and a basked tied to it. Underneath that there might be a trapdoor, but Eloise can't be sure from where she stands.

Straight ahead, there is a niche in the wall with a ladder in it which seems to lead both up and down. To the left of the niche, a set of stairs follows the wall up to the wooden ceiling where there might be another trapdoor.

"The sooner I step off this see-saw, the safer the rest of you are," says Christopher, and he advances into the room, testing his footing on the floor as he goes, in case there are other surprises waiting.

The stone steps are perfectly safe, and the wooden planks that make up the main part of the floor feel sturdy enough to support even Christopher's weight. Going forward, he notices that there is indeed a trapdoor below the hanging basket. To his right, he sees that the length of the rope is wound around two hooks fixed to the wall. There isn't much dust here, but the wear pattern of the planks suggest that people walk from the door to the trapdoor and to the hooks with the rope more often than to the ladder in the niche or the stairs that lead upwards.

The smell of human excrement is still noticeable, it seems to come from the niche/shaft with the ladder.

As Christopher moves around, the plaks creak here and there and his armor clanks, so his presence is likely to get noticed, but so far, there was no reaction.

"Oh come on." Moving the into the room she looks for something to wedge the door open.

There is nothing lying around, but Eloise could use her backpack or something from it to keep the door open.

"Stairs and a ladder. Stairs for regular use and a ladder for when the place is under attack, I suppose." Christopher works his way carefully up the steps and if possible will open the trap door at the top, so as to allow more light into the room.

Opening the trap door doesn't help much with the lighting. Apparently, the upper storey only has loopholes as well.

(what backpack ? lol

"This place smells worse than the streets on washday.." She mutters and waits for the others to catch up "Just go clunking ahead in that armor.. There is a reason I go ahead you know."

(@ Jenara: Oh right. In most adventures, the characters have them)