Day Four
Village of Briarsgate
Evening. Wednesday, October 19th, 576 CY
Chilly, misty, thunderstorms
The investigators of the strange rumors of Briarsgate search for their missing friends at the Golden Grain Inn (6).
Inside the inn's common room, four of the adventurers converse with each other and with refined innkeeeper Bertram Beswill.
The diplomatic Bertram buys a round and says to the strangers, "Kindly accept this humble peace offering to make amends for any offence I may have inadvertently given. ...I don't want any trouble. ...I'll not send you out in such a storm. My offer still stands. Please be seated and I'll provide whatever assistance I can to help in this matter... but I must respectfully insist it be done with discretion and common civility. Please."
Long Bo brushes off the cold wind as he reenters the inn. He shakes his head at the others, indicating that he has found no sign of Hoom anywhere outside. He struts his tall frame right back up to Bertram. "Did you tell your secrets yet innkeeper? I have one more question for you if I may. This elven friend of ours that was mentioned, you spoke with him as well didn't you? Or, do you prefer to continue to pretend that you don't know anything about this?"
Bertram says mildly, "Elven friend? I only recall you having mentioned a half-elf and two humans."
Bo moves to the bar, getting closer to the barrels of ale stored behind it. They come from Hookhill and Hochoch and carry no markings that seem out of the ordinary.
Telkis says, "Grothnak, please, one moment. I don't know the reason for Hoom's behavior, but as you can see yourself, there is no sign of any struggle having happened here. There must be some explanation. I have a feeling we should talk to this man."
Grothnak does not sit down. He takes a position near the door with his back to the wall and watches wordlessly, Vadok at his side.
Telkis turns to Bertram, "You must excuse my friend - we are all a bit on edge, for good reason, I assure you. And though some of my friends may choose not to partake," he glances pointedly at the others, "I for one will sit and talk with you. And have that drink, thank you." He'll sit in such a way as to keep the other patrons in his sight, and drink very sparingly.
Bertram guides the strangers to the only open table in the common room. "Thank you, kind sir gnome."
Bertram has steins of his finest ale brought to the strangers, wherever they are in the common room. Telkis sips his ale sparingly.
Pelias watches the other patrons and other doorways into places unseen. The paladin replies to Bertram. "Yes, perhaps we've been too hasty. We'd gladly accept your round of drinks. If you'll have one with us. I myself will have water. Alcohol dulls the senses and clouds devotion to Heironeus."
Bertram stands at the end of Pelais and Telkis' table, seemingly honoring the etiquette of a good host and servant. "You'll not drink my ale, sir?"
Pelais says, "You must understand that we view each other with suspicion. Sharing a table will do much to break through any feelings of reticence, don't you agree?"
“You honour me, sir. But I’m afraid I really must rather insist,” says Bertram politely as, en masse, all the patrons of the inn’s common room rise from their chairs and move toward the strangers.
All warmth leaves Beswill's face as he steps back and says to the adventurers with icy politeness, “Please drink. I think you’ll find it quite a relief. A blessing, really. To abandon at last all the dreadful, worldly burdens you bear, many of which you’re entirely unaware until you’ve let them go. Your oaths, your duties, all your many tiresome responsibilities. The fear, the doubt, the very uncertainty of life itself. What a terrible weight. Be free of it, won’t you? We can help you do that."
As one, all the eyes of the many different patrons watch the strangers.
Beswill raises his glass. “May I propose a toast? …To knowing inner peace, clarity of purpose, unity, and contentment at last. Now, drink up, my friends. Drink up.”
The inn is utterly silent... The calm before the breaking of the storm.
Replies? Actions?
Telkis, please roll a Saving Throw vs. Poison at +4 for drinking "very sparingly." Thanks.
Map:
Meanwhile, unbeknownst those in the common room, Hoom Feethos is not more than 30 feet away. The elven thief crawls across the floor of a dark, empty bedroom in the northeast corner of the Golden Grain Inn (6).
Hoom pulls back the area rug and blindly touches the wooden floor beneath, feeling a circular trap door. He feels an iron pull-ring handle set flush into it, with hinges on the door and the pull ring, and no lock or latch. A sickly light defines the thin crack around the trapdoor's circumference.
Feeling around and locating the iron pull ring and hinges of a concealed trap door, Hoom reaching into his backpack and produces one of his bottles of lamp oil. He carefully uncorks the bottle and places drops of oil on the hinges and around the pull ring where metal meets metal. This was a trade secret that he learned from a former thief that had once tried to gain access to his parents jewelry store undetected. He waits for a minute, letting the oil soak in, using his time to secure the cork back in place and bottle which he has wrapped in cloth back into its secure place in his pack. When he feels enough time has passed, he slowly grabs hold of the iron pull and lifts the trap door just a few inches to get a peek at what lay below.
Hoom Feethos opens the trapdoor. For the second time, he opens a door in the Golden Grain Inn onto a scene of horror he’ll not soon forget.
Hoom breathlessly peeks through a crack in the trapdoor down into the deep, stone cellar beneath him. The trapdoor was thinner than the floor it was set into, hence its warmth.
In the 10' wide chamber below, lit by candles, are several iron cages suspended from ceiling beams by chains.
Cages for humans.
Inside three of the cages are Elden Vodarte, the Grey Mouser, and Ingrid Esthof.
All of them are blindfolded, gagged, and bound at their wrists and ankles. They are all slumped prone in their cages, unmoving. Their armor and weapons had been removed. Mouser has welts and bruises on the visible parts of his swollen face.
There is also a man down there; a dark man of darker mien, adorning an eyepatch.
He is standing, looking upward, listening intently to the voices coming through the ceiling, from the inn's common room to the west. He does not see Hoom.
Suddenly, it sounds as if every chair in the common room slid back as one!
The man with the eyepatch reacts and makes ready to leave the room of cages through a door in its eastern wall.
Hoom’s view looks south. To the north, there is more to the long, thin room that Hoom can’t see.
Actions?
Map:
Status:
Grothnak Uthglukh, Half-Orc Fighter 2: AC 4, HP 13/17
Hoom Feethos, Elven Magic-User/Thief 1/2: AC 3, HP 6/8, Spells: 0/1 1st lvl
Long Bo, Human Druid 2: AC 6, HP 15/15, Spells: 3/4 1st lvl and 1/2 2nd lvl
Pelias Blanchflower, Human Paladin 2: AC 2, HP 18/19
Telkis Brassfang, Gnome Fighter 2: AC 0, HP 15/19
Magic:
Protection from Evil (Pelias): -2 to AC and +2 to saving throws against evil, in a 10 foot radius around Pelias.
Map of Briarsgate
NPC List for Briarsgate
That's what you get for listening to a foolish Gnome fighter...
