TWO HUNDRED FIFTY EIGHT
(I/C)
Abraxas rubbed his neck in thought, holding his hands up for Wyn to toss him another candle. "This seems the safest place por ahora, amigos. The halls are fill'ed with enemies, and it seems none of them have a key. Perhaps The Duchesseses' favor can be bought? So we should remember that next we run into her.
“I agree with Doc,” Brendon said. “We might as well finish cleaning the items before moving on.”
“If and when we do go, high alert, people,” Lannis offered. “Maximum nipple protection. As for your thought, Antonio, it does seem like Duchess is a scout of some kind, that's good to know"
The Fighter nodded, lighting the new candle off the dregs of the old one. “Perhaps an offer to pay her debt may avoid a confrontation altogether, if she truly is only here for money. There's still 200 coronas each waiting for us back home once we get that crown. So maybe we can just pay her to leave us and be on her way, cuando we cross paths.”
Kovid picked up Lyra’s flail, the Cleric smiling sheepishly as she handed it over. He turned it around and squeezed a tiny pit of polishing paste out before going to work on the weapon. He pointed east to the Jail door, “Still pretty busy out there, might as well capitalize the time we have. When I am finished here, perhaps we do another sweep on the first floor for resources and to clean our bandages. We are familiar with the floorplan down here as well, in case we get into a fight. Taking out who we can in known territory would be to our advantage."
The Magic User smiled. "If we give them your map they'll never find us, good thinking.”
Kovid flipped Lannis the Friendship Finger and returned to his work. Abraxas sighed, “Maybe once the Statue and Flail are back in working order, we can go to the Sulfur Pool and restore the Ban-dah-jes. Hope Hoots can take down some more of the Hobs, Gobs, Robs, Bobs, and Orcasas before we get back."
Stretching to loosen up and then rooting in his bag for lunch, Brendon suggested, “While we’re down here should we stock up on water and hopefully meats? They might have left the food in the freezer.” He frowned and then suggested, “If we’re going to the sulfur room and we don’t need to orbs, could they be sunk in the pool?”
Munching away on her own lunch, Lyra laid a hand on the dwarf and sincerely said, “Thanks for this, Kovid.” The dwarf nodded in reply, corner of his beard lifting slightly to show his smile. She then looked over at the Scout and exclaimed, “And oh! Yes we should hit the sulfur pool. Cleaning the bandages is a great idea - as for dumping the orbs, are we sure they’re no use?”
“We don’t want them to be a use for Corfard,” he replied.
“Everything we’ve pretty much left behind to “get to later” has been taken, broken, or turned to slime. I’m not sure of this being a good idea.” She shook her head. “And the sulfur pool is not clear, is a gaseous burbling grey pool of noxious water and the crystals would either be forever gone, never sink, or who knows what. I think they are safer with us.”
“I guess,” Brendon gave his rations a deep stare before taking another bite. “Maybe we could eat some turkey tomorrow and be thankful for being alive.”
“Dat I kin agree wit, mon ami,” Wyn smiled. The party ate lunch in silence while Kovid worked on cleaning the flail and distant patrols continued to make their way around the Ispan’s Castle. As the impromptu meal was being finished, the elf asked Lannis, “Monsieur Offop, cen I borrow yer read language scroll for de hour? I want to copy it into my book while we waitin fer de shining crew.”
Lannis took it out and handed it over, looking at his Detect Invisibility scroll and shrugging. The two of them drew closer to the candle and proceeded to write the spells into their book. As they were about to start working in earnst, Wyn absently asked, “Monsieur Offop, are you goin to retrieve yer arrow from Dobbie? I tought you wanted to do dat."
The Magic User raised a single eyebrow and looked at Wyn over the top of his own tome. “Lestat, you can take the scroll, sure. But the arrow? Why would I do that though? Arrows are for people without real power."
“I’m pretty sure he meant me,” Brendon replied, heading off to the cell with the goblin in it.
“Then he should have said you,” Lannis answered snarkily.
“Tanks, Du Lac. Dats what I meant.”
The group heard Brendon in the other cell and then a “snap”, followed by a muttered string of curses and the Scout coming back out with a sour expression. “So, where’s the arrow?” Lannis asked mockingly.
“It’s going to be up your ass if you don’t knock it off,” he answered to the tune of the wizards chuckling.
The rest of the time passed without issue. Wyn and Lannis finished scribing their respective spells, Kovid finished cleaning the Flail and then spent an hour (and another one of Wyn’s Candles – dropping the total to 1) polishing the Statue once again. As for the outside, Lyra and Brendon had paid extra time and attention and it seemed that about every half hour, another patrol made its way through the local halls – meaning the group could move and soon in one of the windows after the patrols had moved on.
Closing up everything behind them, the party made their way to the main door and about 5 minutes after the last patrol had moved on, Kovid relit his lantern (2 hours, 25 minutes of oil currently remaining at this moment), and then entered the hall beyond the Jail with Brendon leading the way and Abraxas taking up the rear.
Wyn made it his business to lock the Jail again and the group lined up ready to go. Bow, Hammer, Flail, Bow, Magic, and Scythe – the group proceeded to make their way through the rough stone corridor south, ears perked up and eyes searching.
Since they had already been through here and mapped it before, they were able to move at a slightly faster pace and still maintain good party discipline and caution as they travelled on. In five minutes they approached the western “T” and (WMC: White 2 – no!) hearing nothing in any direction, turned to the east, making their way in the direction of the BeeKeeper’s chamber. Along the north wall was the open door that had lead to the Orc Barracks at one point and the group had the chance to look in through the portal.
The chamber had been tossed. Beds upended, tables thrown, the bear’s carcass was gone. Any place that looked like someone could hide had been searched to the extreme. Even the large crate that Brendon hadn’t gotten a chance to look in a few days ago was missing. Not open, the entire 3 foot square locked box was missing. “Fuck,” he cursed quietly. “Bet it was filled with treasure.” Clapping him on the back and muttering his sorrows with a smile, Kovid goaded Brendon to keep going and the group went on their way.
They passed through the open door that the Orcs had used to fire arrows at Lyra’s back; a fact that had Abraxas and the Cleric looking behind them with some minimal concern. From there they headed on eventually hoping to make it to the Sulfur Chamber when they arrived at the Beekeeper’s door. They could hear voices and Brendon peeked in (empty) but the sounds were coming from further into the room. The Beekeeper’s chamber did eventually lead to the portcullis room and we stopped to listen (<Hear Noise, +20 bonus being quiet, Red 45).
“That’s goblin they’re speaking,” Brendon whispered back. “Deeper. Hobgoblin’s I’d guess.”
“Roberts,” Abraxas muttered. “Cuantos hay?”
“How many?” He paused. “Not a lot of chatter. Only hear 2 different voices. But it sounds a bit like a heavy guard position.”
“So more than 2?”
“Yeah. That’s my guess.” He looked back. “Sneak past here, they are at least 40, 50 feet away and through a pair of rooms and a short corridor, or go in and take a look?”
Time now is Day 7, 2:40 PM
(OOC)
Don’t want to make assumptions for the group. If you run into any possible real pockets, I’ll stop the narrative and let you guys decide what to do.
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