(I/C)
Brendon knelt by one of the dead hobgoblins and whispered “thank you” you it again while cleaning his boots on its shirt. Lannis, doing similar and going around the room to smear other prints said, “Well, that was fun, but we should be going. Perhaps we should take one of the Hobs with us as a meat shield, I'm sure Robert is well suited to the task.”
“Senor Offpth,” Abraxas started, trying to shove the chainmail armor he had taken from the dead hobgoblin leader into his backpack, “the hobgoblins are all dead…”
“Good!” Both Kovid and Wyn exclaimed, eyeing one another and then smirking.
The Fighter continued, “So they will not be shielding our meat nor would they be inclined to, but being as it may, which one was Robert?”
“All of them are Robert.”
“Really?”
“Aye. Like all goblins are Bob.”
Lyra sighed. “I don’t like hobgoblins or goblins any of more than the rest of you.. but using them as a meat shield? Isn’t that a bit barbaric? As well as that ear cutting. What use will those be?”
Abraxas, giving up on packing the chainmail away shook his head. “That is a stupid way to name each other.” He kicked one of the hobgoblins in the ribs. “You are so stupid. Dead and stupid, Robert!” He looked at the door, “Senor Lake, come with me double quick. We go to the ballista room and drop off this armor to take when we leave on our way out. Too heavy to carry for now.”
Brendon shrugged. “Quick and quiet. And then I want to go to the door the hobgoblins…”
“Robert and the 4 Roberts, Senor,” Abraxas interrupted.
“Yeah, them. Where they came from…”
“Do we know exactly which door?” Lyra asked.
The other 5 party members all pointed to the door and then east again, causing the Cleric to mumble to herself and continue to smear footprints. Brendon continued, “If there are any more, we have the momentum and the surprise on our side.”
Kovid had drawn out his larger tarp and was using it to obscure large swaths of our footprints, spitting on each goblin as he passed them by. “Sounds good, hurry back. Let’s see what other wonders this castle holds.”
Abraxas nodded his head, shield and sword at the ready, chainmail armor under his arm, Brendon had taken the torch we had lit earlier and held that aloft, his own short sword out and ready. “Aye, Senor Cofax. Let us see.” They opened the door, looked out, and then entered the hall turning south, Abraxas whispering in a singsong manner, “Look at this trove…treasures untold…how many pesos can una caverna hold…” before Brendon tapped him on the shoulder and shook his head. “Lo Siento.”
Wyn stayed by the door, opened a crack and listening, while he separated the elf and goblin ears – not wanting to mix them together. The rest of the party made short work of the room. Lyra who was down to 6 good sized slinging stones kept a keen eye out, finding 4 more stones that would be perfect for her to use, refilling her pouch back to 10 (Add 4 stones).
Luck was with Abraxas and Brendon (WMC: Red/Black 5). The two of them were generally faster members of the party and since they were not looking for traps or secret doors or trying to do anything other than in haste, they made short time down the hall, to the west, and back to the main room we entered. From there they opened the Ballista room with the dead rats in it, stuffed the chainmail armor behind the war machine. From there they shut the door and returned to the party with all haste.
Meanwhile the group felt they had (+10 General Check, Red/Black 6) done a decent job of hiding their footprints in the room and Kovid refolded his tarp stowing it away as the other two returned lighter 40 lbs of chainmail armor. “Done.” Brendon said. He pointed to the door on the east wall across the hall. “Let’s go.”
The group filtered out and took up positions again, Abraxas extinguishing the torch once more to be used again later (it was about half of its useful life remaining), as we approached the door once more. Brendon gave it a final look over (no roll needed) and declared it ok. Swapping with the dwarf, Kovid grabbed the handle and pushed the door in in a single fluid hard motion.
Revealing a set of stairs going DOWN.
Huh.
According to the lantern light, the steps went down a full flight and ended a door maybe 20’ away. Since this was the direction we had chosen, Brendon and Kovid went down the steps looking carefully for any problems and the thief checked out the door at the bottom (Hear Noise, Red 06) while Kovid was pursing his lips, head tilted, a bit more than half way down the steps (Stonework, Yellow 1).
“Door isn’t locked, no traps, its closed with a turn handle and opens away from me and to the right,” Brendon said. “I don’t hear any movement anywhere nearby, nor any voices. But I can feel a very faint movement of air under the door and the faintest of whistling sounds from a breeze somewhere far from but beyond this door.
Kovid grunted. “I agree with the Manling on this. It’s not quite still but I can scent unworked stone somewhere within 100’ to 200’ of here carried on that faint breeze.”
Time now is 12:27
(OOC)
What to do? Open the door – nothing more I can hint about it. Hobgoblins DID come from this way. Or go back up the stairs and further down the hall to the door on the left or into the uncharted area?
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