PBEM, Episode 82 - Slime, Food, Night 2

The cake became a running Discord and Email joke at this point from the throwaway line Lannis made some posts ago about a piece of cake. So it keeps coming up again and again. And it's great!

Follows:

EIGHTY TWO

(I/C)
The group discussed options and decided to go down the stairs next. "Down de stair den, oui?" Wyn asked.

"Another basement, good, just what we needed,” Lannis moaned. “I was worried we wouldn't make quota."

Kovid had walked closer to the steps and was hunched low, feeling the air current (Stonework, no roll). “Heat rises, cold sinks. But we are feeling cold at the top of the stairs.” He paused. “Faint breeze too. Very faint.”

“What’s that mean, Senor?”

“Don’t know. But it’s not normal.”

“We’ll be on high alert, Kovid,” Brendon offered. He pointed to the steps and the entire party went down them. The stairs were in good shape and had been here for many centuries. At the base of the steps the party walked forward a few paces and set themselves up with Kovid and Abraxas at either end.

The Fighter tapped Lannis and asked, “Señor Lamars, have you made any cake yet? I could really go for a piece about ahora."

“What? I don’t have any cake.”

Lyra grabbed Lannis’ free arm, “WHOA wait, cake? Who’s making cake? I vote we take a cake break.”

“There isn’t any cake.”

“Si! You have to finish the majik of the cake spell like the brujah”

Brendon hissed. “Enough. Seriously.” He looked disgusted. “You’re a piece of work, Lannis. Wyn and I go off and risk life and limb and you do cake while we’re gone.”

“Oui! It is Pah-Thee-Tick!”

“Holy Shitnuggets,” Lannis swore. “There. Isn’t. Any. Cake.”

The party just looked at him, disdain on their faces. “So selfish,” Kovid muttered.

“RRR….”

“Let’s go, Monsieur Lac.” Torch still held high, Wyn and Brendon crept down the hall to the corner, listened carefully, and then proceeded around the corner. The air was indeed cooler down here, at least 15 degrees, and now that Kovid had pointed it out, they noticed a faint flickering of their torch as an unseen current of air blew against them. The scout (<Move Silently, Red 25) and the elf (>Move Silently, Orange 9) crept down the hall, eyes peeled as they proceeded, Wyn’s boots scraping against the stone floor once or twice but no one was nearby to hear it.

They walked with care, 30, 50, 70, 90’ down the long hall until it ended a closed door. The door here had numerous cracks and splintered running through it and it hung in the frame awkwardly. “Forced,” Brendon whispered as he looked the door over, “From the other side.”

“Goblins?” Wyn asked.

The scout shook his head. “No, it older. I’d say when the rainbow ward went up, this door took the brunt of something from the opposite side.”

“Locked?”

“Nope. No lock, No flange either. Door opens towards us.” The two of them listened hard (>Hear Noise, Red 40…>Hear Noise, Orange 1). “Clicking, I can hear some distant clicking.”

“Moi as well.” Wyn leaned closer. “Ha! And ze kobold voice in ze far distance.”

“You sure?”

He pointed to his ears. “Zhey are not just a fashion statement. I am sure. Not close though, but I can imagine zhem being somewhere past thees door.”

“Let’s go back and fill them in, we’re a bit past 10 minutes now as it is.”

Wyn looked at his torch. “Oui, and this brand is about spent anyway. Let us go.”

The two friends returned down the hall and around the corner where they shared with the rest of the party what they had learned.

Time now is 3:52
(OOC)
Up to you guys! What’s next? The kobold noise Wyn heard is NO WHERE near on the other side of the far door and is quite some distance away – but he rolled a perfect 1 on listening, so I gave it to him. “Wyn! What do your elf ears hear?!”