A Keep On The Borderlands: Arrival

[jkason]

Bastian holds back a sigh at the reminder of leaving the horses, but steels himself in readiness. He nods toward the underground exit.

"If we're leaving, I suggest we move. No idea when our host might get tired of playing patient with us."

 

[Dr Simon]

Beneath the trap door is a shaft with rungs set in it. This heads down before opening into a tunnel. Once more lit by Comoray's hovering light the group heads down the tunnel before arriving at a room with two other tunnels leading from it. Sh'aah and Comoray recognise it as the place where they found Rexun, and the dwarf supresses a shiver.

"That way was where Haxmar was coming from," he says, pointing to the tunnel leading off to your left, towards the inn, stables and mountainside. "This way to the other tower leads," he nods at Sh'aah and Comoray "Where we were last time escaping."

 

[jkason]

Bastian, sword at the ready, flinches a bit as his armor clatters in the tunnel, but there was little enough he could do about that, other than giving up his best protections.

"If you've already found a way out that way, I say we take it," The Last Lion offers.

 

[Shayuri]

Arcata frowns a little.

"If you knew this tunnel was here, why didn't you mention it before, when you were being rescued?"

 

[Dr Simon]

Rexun shrugs.

"I am seeing it when I am prisoner held," he says, "but until now, where it is going I am not knowing. Not until your men that way taking me before." He holds up a hand. "It is still inside the towers leading, but this time to the south. But there is a way to outside, if we are climbing, yes?" He looks to Comoray and Sh'aah for confirmation of the route that they took last time.

 

[Axel]

Sh'aah grunted. "Quicker out the window. What way to under wall?"

 

[Kaodi]

Comoray nods his assent to Rexun's words. "I was curious as to what the third tunnel led to before, but it did not seem appropriate to investigate it at the time."

 

[Shayuri]

"Out the window is too obvious. And to be frank, I neither have the arms for, nor am dressed for, climbing sheer walls. The tunnel it is. Just a moment."

She turns and gets her things from her room, then advises, "Search the tower quickly, take anything that looks useful. We won't have other supplies after this until we reach the Keep."

When that was done, Arcata went back to the hidden opening. "A great rot has set into this part of the world," she said with a grimace as she looked around. "I can't help but think these events are related. The fall of the Keep, and the...changing of these dwarves."

She looked at the tower's door, torn. "Are we doing the right thing, fleeing? What if we could fix this, instead of leaving it to fester? It all comes down to that cursed medallion, I'm sure of it. If I had time to study it maybe..."

 

[jkason]

Bastian quickly searches as instructed, collecting what he can as they prepare for departure.

As Arcata begins waffling on her decision, the Last Lion places a hand gently on her shoulder. It is, strictly speaking, probably too familiar a gesture, but fleeing for one's lives will tend to blur the lines in diplomatic interaction.

"There are far too many, and too well-armed, for us to get close enough to that medallion," he offers in consolation, a wry grin falling on his features as he continues. "Trust me, I'd much rather be tackling these kinds of things head on, but dying now kills all hope of repairing this damage later. It's a tonic I've had to swallow far too many times, but I cannot deny its benefits. We find the help we need, then we do what needs doing."

 

[Dr Simon]

The group strip the tower of anything that might be useful, and head into the tunnels, travelling through the room with three exits and down to a cellar room almost identical to the one that they have just left. A set of rungs leads up to a trapdoor above, but this room is also open to the air. Part of the wall has fallen away leaving a gaping hole out onto the cliffside, with a dizzying drop down into a tree-line valley far below.

However, it would also be possible to climb up to the road south of the waystation without too much difficulty.

[sblock=OOC]
I won't give a list of everything in the tower, but I think it would be safe to improv any kind of useful "adventuring" equipment that might be found in a guest chamber within reason - no flasks of alchemists fire for example!

Map repeated below - the positioning of the characters is wrong as a just pulled up an old map, but you can see the tunnel system if you look closely. The characters are below the bottom tower.



[/sblock]