Breva reaches into his pack and pulls out a coil of rope. "Perhaps this will make the decent easier?" He sets about securing one end of the rope to something sturdy enough to hold even Tim's weight. "Who would like to go first?"
"I don't think you should take them," Roland motions to the prisoners. "Down there." He looks at Vinccenzo. "How sure are you that these other cells are secure?"
"This is the only passageway I found," the Sectarian Guard says with a shrug.
"If there are other hidden passages leading out of here, I'm not likely to find them even if I search again."
"Let me take a look," Tuck offers. The kobold urban ranger goes through the guard post in great detail. He finds some old dry rations stashed away in a hidden compartment in one of the wardrobes where extra uniforms are kept, as well as a couple of copper coins loose on the floor. He goes through the cells twice just to make sure that there aren't any other passageways and finds nothing.
"I can honestly say those two other cells are secure."
"That's good enough for me," Herleva says. She opens the first cell and ushers Mambru and Narzissa inside.
"But, I don't want to lock him up here," she says while staring at Solomon.
"He needs to go to the barracks. Roland and I will take him there. We can handle just him."
"One of us should stay here and watch them," Roland insists. "I'll take him to the barracks. It won't take long, and I'll send backup from Riftwatch."
"I'll be fine. I can handle those two and an unconscious doppelganger."
"Actually, we should take the doppelganger with us," Vinccenzo suggests.
"I don't want to let him out of our sight."
OOC: Tuck - Search Check: 1D20+15 = [11]+15 = 26
Akos frowns at the initiative.
"Why do we want to go down there? Are there tracks indicating someone recently went? I mean, it is a secret passage, not the main entrance."
"There are some strange footprints outside, but I don't know if they came into here or if they went somewhere else," Vinccenzo replies.
"Mutt and I can try to track them," Tuck says with a toothy grin.
"Show me what you found."
Akos watches as Tuck and the Sectarian Guard go out near the shallow puddle where the footprints are and the kobold looks for any signs as where the suspicious prints went. Tuck goes over the area numerous times while Mutt stands guard near the puddle. He growls at any curious citizens passing through the unguarded gate. The locals seem to think Tuck and the others
are the guards on duty, but when the urban ranger questions them about whether or not they've 'noticed any guards not where they should be', they become concerned that there is a crisis brewing.
"I haven't seen anything odd, at all," one elderly woman says. "I've been at the Sublime Bazaar. Oh dear! What has happened?"
Mutt comes right up to the old noblewoman and sits down in front of her in hope of getting some attention.
"Careful, he's fierce," Tuck says to her.
"Easy now, matron," Vinccenzo tries to sooth her worries while patting Mutt on the head.
"It's nothing for you to worry about."
"Oh dear, oh dear," she says again. She seems to be on the verge of tears.
Tuck simply shrugs and follows a few of the footprints towards the guard post. Near the entrance, he stops. He retraces the prints and they seem to go in another direction. He shakes his head in frustration.
"It's no good. I just can't tell where they went. It seems like they rushed back into the guard post, but these markings seem to say they ran off north. I can ask around, but it will take time."
More citizens are soon streaming through the open gate. The locals who had been hiding from the battle are now back out on the streets. Tuck and Vinccenzo try in vain to keep people from trampling over the prints but soon there are just too many people coming and gonig from the two wards.
"Damn! Too many feet!" Tuck says in frustration.
Roland comes out of the post to make sure that the citizens flow back a forth through the gate in a somewhat organized fashion. He is soon shouting for people going north to stay on the right and those going south to stay on the left. He stops a foreign merchant without any documentation and tells him that he needs to go to the Tribunal to get a writ to sell goods in Old City.
Tuck and Vinccenzo retreat into the guard post with the old matron in tow. She is completely beside herself with worry that guards are deserting the city or being killed in the night or that the fog whisked them away to another world...
Vinccenzo tries in vain to calm her down.
OOC: Tuck - Urban Tracking (Gather Information Check): 1D20+15 = [10]+15 = 25
Tim scoffs, jokingly, "Ok, you've twisted my arm. I will go first. I am broad-chested, but even I can fit in a 8-foot diameter hole. I'd estimate my girth, frontage-wise, as no more than five feet across. Maybe 7 feet, depending on what position I'm holding Rizvan in."
Tim grabs the rope, tests its strength with two, sharp pulls, and then lowers himself down into the unknown...
Just before Tim descends into the hole, Tuck comes up to him.
"I don't think they went that way, but I can't say for certain." He looks back at the wailing woman.
"But it's safer that dealing with that," he says in a low tone. The kobold urban ranger helps secure the rope with Breva
as Tim disappears underground.
"What about the doppel-?" Vinccenzo begins to ask.
"Go! We'll stuff him in a wardrobe if we have to... he's quite harmless tied up, gagged, and unconscious," Herleva insists. She's also put Solomon into the other cell, as soon there are a barrage of concerns and requests from the local citizens to the 'guards on duty'. She begins to tend to the old matron by offering her some tea.
Once Tim is down, Tuck grabs the rope and easily climbs down into the darkness.
Mutt doesn't wait to be lowered. He pokes his head into the opening and barks. He half falls, half jumps down to his pack mate. The big dog lands awkwardly on top of Tuck!
"Oof!"
Breva is soon climbing down the rope leaving Akos and Vinccenzo as the last to descend. The Sectarian Guard looks at the rope and then at Akos.
"After... you?"
OOC: Mutt - Jump check: 1D20+11 = [2]+11 = 13 | No damage to Mutt but Tuck takes
1D6 = [1] = 1 nonlethal damage.