The group picked up a wandering monster and it just wasn't close enough to spot them, but it did follow them. And the group did not want to tangle with Hoots unless they had to.
TWO HUNDRED SIXTY ONE
(I/C)
There was a skritching noise as Kovid relit the lantern, light once again flooding the wreckage of the chamber. “Light’s on. Let’s go,” he muttered, stepping up right behind the Scout.
“Butcher’s first or straight to sulfur?” he asked as he stepped out and listened south, satisfied that the orcs had moved on.
"Pretty sure we said sulfur room first,” Lannis whispered, “sea water must be bad for the memory.”
The group hit the hall, turning south and heading back for the stairs going up. “Yea, agreed. Straight to the sulfur room,” Lyra replied nervously, Mace…Flail, it’s a flail, not a Mace. A Mace has a rigid shaft to support the heavy hammer weight and a flail has a chain instead allowing the weapon’s head to strike at a faster speed and do more damage. Yeah. FLAIL. Ahem…replied nervously, Flail held firmly in her grip. “We shouldn’t stop for anything. If there’s enemies, we might even want to try to find detours. No way of knowing if they have a way to alarm everyone else.”
As Brendon climbed the stairs to the top of the landing, satisfied no one was up there, Wyn also added, “Sulfur, du Lac. We go to sulfur first. We move. Tout de suite.”
Chuckling from the center of the pack, Lannis snarked, “Huh! Who knows though, Brendon. I could be wrong. There’s a first time for everything."
At the top of the landing they continued south to the “T” intersection at the Main Hall, Kovid glancing into the room that used to have the hanged Hobgoblin in it, as well as all the dead orcs we had stacked there. The room had been going under a reconditioning. “Thor’s Balls,” the dwarf swore.
The room had all the furnishings removed from it, leaving just the bodies and what seemed to be 2 large wooden boxes. Each of the over dozen orcish and hobgoblin bodies had been going through a flensing, where the skin, muscles, and sinew are removed from the corpses. It seems that most of the meat on the many bodies had been dumped into the boxes, leaving the bodies rather macabre and haunting as they still had their heads and faces but only raw meat and bones from below the neck.
Wyn peered in and just dry swallowed. “Let’s move on ‘afore my hatred for deez swine get de better o me.”
At the T, Brendon held his hand up listening (<Hear Noise +20 bonus, Red 27). “That way,” he pointed to the east. “Faint, in the distance, something moving. Regular sounding. Patrol would be my guess.”
“Coming this way?” Lyra asked, no one else in the group hearing anything.
“No. Can’t tell. Too distant. Just echoes. We’re good.”
“West, mon ami. To de Sulfur chamber, si vous plait.” Wyn tapped Kovid and motioned for the dwarf to move on. “Don’t look on de handiwork of de orcs. Dey are animals.”
As the group moved on, Brendon led us towards the statue chamber down the long hall. Kovid sighed, shaking his head. “I hear you, but did you see? Ugh. Speaking of, anyone else counting Orcs? Eight upstairs, five down here... think that’s it or more?”
Wyn shrugged from behind Lyra. “8 EVIL orcs upstairs. 5 orcs down here... though it’s possible that some of the orcs down here are the same ones since we were in the jail for a few hours.”
“Senors, they were making Dia de los Muertos decorations from their dead amigos. Sounds malvado to me.”
Kovid and Wyn chuckled. “Dat is a point.”
“Catharandamas mentioned 'THE Orc having his own mission'... wonder what they were up to,” The dwarf shrugged. “Anyway, Sulfur Room first for the bandages.”
"Si, Si, Rapido amigos, vamonos a el room de Sulfur.” Abraxas kept checking behind them as they made their way further and further down the hall, still seeing nothing behind them. “Limpiamos the ban-dah-jes, then check out El Carcinera's, si? Then miramos por aqua y oil, correcto? Andale, let's get a.... como dices... move down? Move out? Move...on?.. is. Let's get a move on."
At the statue chamber, Brendon led us in after a quick listen. The biggest thing different? The Ballista was missing. “Ah…fuck.”
“Oh, oh, Kovid I’m calling it now, that is going to bite us in the ass,” Lannis was covering his chest and shaking his head. “I’m pretty sure they didn’t just take it out to get it waxed you know.”
“Senor, it’s a huge war machine, they cannot set it up and shoot you while you duermas.”
“So where’d it go, Swayze? Think they took it out to get the tires rotated?”
Kovid held up his hand. “Wherever it is, we’ll address it at our convenience then, ok?” He shrugged. “Maybe they took it upstairs already. If so, they saved us the trouble.”
“Si! Would not want to try and lift it around the curved stairs. You ever mover un sofa? Dolor in de culo!”
The group moved to Grilljax’ chamber where Brendon checked the area where the throne used to be. “And they took the bolt as well.” He pointed. “That’s where we hid it.”
“Fucking shoot me in the nipples,” the Wizard growled. “I just know it.”
At the door, Brendon stopped to listen (WMC: Red/Black 1 – yes! Thanks’ Kelly. What: Revised WMC: Red/Black 3. Hahaha. 1-3 Ahead of the group, 4-6 Behind the group. White 6 – Behind. How far? 3+5=8x10 = 80’) and then after a moment, went BACK across the room to listen to the other door that we had come from.
“What’s up, Sparrow?” Lannis asked.
Brendon made a violent shushing motion and stayed there another few seconds before heading back to the group. “Company. Behind us. Don’t know if it’s coming or not, but you know the long hall that leads to the Butcher’s? I think it’s about there.”
“What is it?”
From somewhere behind us, muted behind a few doors and part of a hallway, the group could hear a muffled “Grrrrrhooooo---HAAAAAaaaaa.”
“Fucking Hoots.”
Abraxas gripped his Scythe tightly, eyes flashing with concern on another fight with the overpowered ursine. Kovid pointed south, whispering fiercely, “He doesn’t know where here. And as Lyra said earlier, we go. So let’s go.”
The group poured through the door and down the stairs, closing the portal behind them. At the base of the stairs where the cold in the hall was making their skin shiver, they opened the door to the east and made their way down the long, long hall of questionable length, lantern lighting the way ahead of them as they made their way finally at long last to the corner turning south.
(Hoots following? <Green 5 – yes) As they made the turn, just shy of the stairs going up, Brendon held his hand up so the party could listen…and from down the hall, and beyond the door they had closed, they could hear another door opening up with a heavy fumbling action, and a querulous voice sounding out, “Hrrrooo? Hrrrrrooo—HAAAAaaaa?”
Time now is Day 7, 3:10 PM
(OOC)
Hoots is following the group, but it doesn’t seem like he has their scent or is hunting them – could just be ‘wandering’ about. But it means somewhere about 120 odd feet behind you in an inquisitive Owlbear with the bad luck to be following the group down the pretty much one way so far that leads to you. If you guys have a plan, go to ground, stand and fight, hide out somewhere, think about it and let me know! Good luck! (And for those curious: Hoots has 42 hit points, three attacks with a fourth potential, and an AC of 15)
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