Jory makes a face, clearly remembering the frozen bread you gave him before you left last time. "'s long 's we don' get parsnips. Or radishes."
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Jory makes a face, clearly remembering the frozen bread you gave him before you left last time. "'s long 's we don' get parsnips. Or radishes."
Magdi clucked in a mock demonstration of offence at Jory's comment, nudging him playfully with an elbow, but not letting go of his hand.
"You're probably right, Sam," she admitted, "we ought to find some kind of food to bring with us, the bakery might not be a bad place to start. Before that though, does anyone have a preference as to which way we should take out of the Spire itself?" by the last part she had really meant she had no clue which way to go, but was hoping that wasn't too obvious to Jory.
"We can probably go back out the way we came in. Head back out of this room and go to the room with the ladder, climb up, then follow the tunnel out that way. Should be easier going down that smooth incline then it was trying to go up it." Sam smiles a little at the memory of their clumsy attempts at trying to scale it.
Sorra nods. "Sounds good. And more food would be nice."
She glances back at the others and then starts walking.
You head out of the room, up the ladder, through the darkness, through the maze of tunnels, back to the place where the secret door into Myrain Medicine meets a door and an irrationally steep set of stairs. Jory squeaks in fright at the magic darkness and squeezes Magdi's hand even harder- as a dwarf, he has likely never been so blinded before. Down the stairs is easier than up the stairs (though by scooting down the stairs, your dignity may have been irrevocably slain in Jory's eyes), and then you are back where you began, so to speak, in the Elven Culture section, on the first floor of the library of Sunpeak Spire. The broken tiles are difficult to walk on, but you manage. It is snowing again.
Sam looks around as they get back to the main part of the library, hoping to spot any scavengers or predators that may have came into the library proper while they were exploring it's secret areas.
SpoilerSpot check: [roll0]
Magdi squeezed Jory's hand back when he got frightened by the magical darkness. She understood: the pitch blackness had been an alien experience for her too.
Scooting down the stairs was embarassing to an extent, but she felt the damage it did to her image was fairly minimal as Jory and probably the others too, had already seen her as a slightly silly figure.
Once they'd reached the ground floor she cast her eyes about for the ghastly lantern. She knew she couldn't protect the boy from every horrible sight he was going to come across but she couldn't help fretting about it all the same.
SpoilerI'll go ahead and roll a spot check while we're at it too (not that I doubt the power of Sam's 5)
[roll0]
Sam
Spoiler
You spot nothing.
Magdi
Spoiler
The lantern is still there, though a fine coat of snow covers it.
Eztra clearly remembers the lantern as well, her eyes darting to where she thinks it is. "We aren't going to find food in here," she says rather quickly. "How about we head back out to find some food? No turnips," she adds, at a glimpse of Jory's expression.
Magdi nodded. "The bakery is probably a fairly safe bet. The Gilded Steeple has stores and a kitchen but I don't know that we'd be able to salvage much from it and besides I..." she hesitated. She didn't want to find the bodies. If the bodies were found then Hywellen and the rest really would be dead. "...well, it'll probably all be smooshed up together. Better to find something less damaged and trodden on. There are plenty of other places." She could go near the place, in fact to an extent she wanted to - incase Blodwyn, or even some of the staff, were waiting outside - but she wasn't sure she'd be able to bear going inside again.
With an air of trepidation, she edged towards the outside, mindful of Nohar's makeshift burial mound. It was bitter cold alright, but at least the fresh snow pulled a light shroud over the corpses and the gore. It was just a pity they were going to need to sift through things to get to the food.
SpoilerBakery bakery bakery bakery bakery. (Bakery)
(moving on)
You leave the ruins of the Spire behind, heading back out into the biting wind and falling snow. One good thing about the snow is that it makes it harder to see that dead giant. You move past that quickly, mostly to keep Jory from having to see the grotesque sight.
After a little poking around in various buildings, you find a place that might have been a tavern. Around a quarter of the building has been smashed into splinters, but it's not nearly as bad as some of the other places. It was probably called the Silver Stag or something like that, judging by the broken sign made of some dark wood you find near the remains of the door. It depicts the head of a male deer in chipped pale grey paint. The chain it must have once hung from is tangled around a pole.
Sorra edges slowly toward the entrance of the building with her sickle up, knowing it's probably stupid--no one's alive, not anymore--and peers inside.
Spot if I need it. Otherwise she's just making sure there's nothing dangerous or terrifying inside. Also, guys, I have a departmental thing this weekend, so I'll be gone from Sunday afternoon to Tuesday afternoon. The only day I will be entirely unable to post is Monday, so hopefully it won't disrupt anything. [/spoiler]Spoiler[roll]1d20+7
Magdi looked the place up and down nervously. "We'll have to be careful we don't knock anything in case the place comes down on top of us" she whispered to nobody specifically. After a few moments she ducked and clambered in, moving very cautiously.
SpoilerRolly Poly time.
[roll0]
[roll1]
Unless she spots or hears impending doom or somebody tells her that they do, she steps in and begins to poke about for stuff:
[roll2]
Magdi, Sorra
Spoiler
You see nothing threatening or dangerous in the tavern.
Magdi
Spoiler
Nor do you hear anything dangerous. Come to think of it, you don't hear much of anything other than the crunch of the snow under your boots and the wind, hollow-sounding in this ghost of a city.
Magdi cautiously enters the building. She roots around a minute, but finds nothing of note.
Samuel joins Magdi inside, hoping to find something. He peers around, looking for anything at all out of the ordinary that might indicate a hidden cache of money or food, money because they would need it once they got to Navek, food because they'd never make the trip without it.
SpoilerSearch roll: [roll0]
Disappointed at not uncovering anything, Magdi tried to rack her brain for any details on what the tavern had been like in days before and for peculiarities of its owner. If the proprietor or one of their staff was particular to a bit of hunting or some such hobby then perhaps arms might be kept somewhere in the establishment which they could take to make them look more menacing should they come across any enemies on the road. Of course, Sorra cut quite a menacing figure just with her sickle, and Samuel had already considered himself ready for a fight when the need had arisen last night. Even if knowledge of the tavern's people proved not to be useful to them she couldn't help but wonder what they'd been like. She rather hoped not to come across them in the wreckage.
"It seems to be safe," she told Jory and the girls somewhat cautiously.
Spoiler[roll0]
Magdi
Spoiler
You know only a little of this place. It was indeed called the Silver Stag. They stocked good beer and cheap food here. The thing most remembered about the Silver Stag was that they kept a troll employed as a bouncer and the building was generally quite friendly to those of disparate sizes.
Samuel
Spoiler
You manage to locate an extremely crushed and somewhat splintery basket of rolls under an overturned table, as well as six silver pieces in some rather malodorous snow.
Samuel smiles as he stands up and reveals his discovery to the group. I appear to have found a basket of rolls, and a couple of silver coins to pay for a meal or a stay at the Inn in Navek. That was pretty good luck I think. Samuel divvies up the silver coins with Sorra and Magdi, giving 2 to each. Then, in a moment of spontaneous generosity and kindness, hoping to make Jory feel a bit happier, he gives one of his silver coins to the boy. Here you go Jory, I'm sure you can find a use for this once we get back to Navek Samuel says with a smile on his face.
Sorra follows the others in searching, turning over the ruins of the tavern looking for anything edible or useful. She takes Sam's coins with a terse nod and puts them in her belt.
"Thank you." She looks around the room again. "Do you think we should try to get more food, or head for Navek while we still have the light?"
Spoiler[roll0] for the room, just in case.
Magdi hesitated, then took the coins, pocketing one and rolling the other back and forth between her fingers.
She should have remembered the Silver Stag. People had told her more than once that this was the establishment she ought to have worked at. Perhaps she should have applied for a job here once, it could have been a nice experience. There wasn't any chance of that happening now. She wondered if the bouncer had been able to put up a bit of a fight or if he'd been taken utterly by surprise like most of the city.
At Sorra's mention of the light, of which there was very little in the winter, Magdi became anxious again. She agreed with the plan to take Jory to Navek. It was a good plan, and the decent thing to do. She still felt very uneasy about leaving Sunpeak though.
On the other hand, spending the night in the city after everything that had happened to it might be dangerous. Violence changed people. Everyone who was left now would be pretty desperate.
"I don't like the idea of travelling without supplies," she began, waiveringly, "but if we hang around too long it will get dark, you're right. And then we'd have to worry about aranging a watch rota between the four of us - people who are still growing need more sleep than people who won't get tall anymore - and we might not get much rest in the end..."
She trailed off, uncertain if she was really making a point or just making sounds.
"Either way, I think I would like to pass where the Gilded Steeple stables were in case Blodwyn came back. It isn't a huge detour..."
Sorra nods and turns for the door. "All right, then. Let's go."
You leave the Silver Stag and head over to the Gilded Steeple. The eponymous not-quite-gilded steeple, also known as the second and third floors of the building, has been broken off and is lying in the streets. There are smears of dark blue congealing blood on the newly accessable top edge of the walls. The oak door hangs open, and you can see inside. The sunlight illuminates the building, now that it has no ceiling. The floor and the remnants of the tables are dusted with snow. While much of the furniture is smashed, not all of it is. The bar has been smashed into the wall, and the hearth that would likely be behind it in a normal setting has been ripped out of the wall and thrown halfway across the room. You think you might see a boot peeking out from under it.
Magdi
Spoiler
Food would be kept in the cellar, behind the bar. Unfortunately, as mentioned, the bar has been smashed into the ground and getting at the food might be difficult.
Magdi had become very pale, her hands appearing now to be attached to her face. She stared at the chaos, bewildered. From above and a distance it had looked bad, but close up it looked real, which was worse.
She found herself inexorably drawn to the boot under the bar.
"We keep the food in the cellar" she said in a wobbly voice, not turning back to the others as she sunk down in front of the footwear. "The opening was somewhere around there..." she gestured in the vague direction of the probably buried trapdoor.
After some moments in silence with the boot, she began to root around the room fervently without a particular aim.
Spoilererm, search check maybe?
[roll0]
[roll1] (that's for indoors)
I don't know if Magdi is skilled at determining much about bodies or what have you from boots, but she's looking at the boot and its immediate surroundings.
Magdi
Spoiler
Well, the boot clearly belonged to a human-sized being, rather than a goblin-sized being.
Your determined searching reveals a quarter-wheel of not-quite-frozen hard cheese as well as about a quarter of an only slightly grimy honeyed ham, a dagger about the right size for you, and most of the corpse of an elf. Most, because his right arm is missing. Not Hywellen, but it could have been.
Magdi gathered up the ham and the cheese, brushing the former off a little to clean it up a bit. With the little dagger, she reached up and hacked down as much of a long and rather cherished tapestry as she could safely reach and she used this to cover the remains of the elf. In all honesty, it didn't really work: the cuts the goblin had made were rather haphazard and the makeshift covering still left the lower two thirds of the corpse out in the open. It was more attention than most of the bodies were going to get though.
Once she'd done her piece of arranging the man in as dignified a position as she could, she trudged out to meet the others.
She produced her edible findings and presented them to her new friends. "...And so the General said to Ragged Ryszard: tonight you shall have meat - for tonight you fought for it."
Magdi had scarecly been in anything that a proper goblin would fairly call a 'fight' in all her years, but she certainly felt like they'd been through enough to deserve the food today.
She passed the ham and the cheese up to Samuel to see then shuffled close to Sorra and huddled against her. The girl looked to be less than half Magdi's age, but she had a very motherly quality about her all the same.
"You lot can have a look around inside if you like, but there's not much there," she said quietly, "there are at least two bodies, but not much else" She hugged herself and rubbed her arms.
The news that there are dead people in the Gilded Steeple seems to halt any further thoughts of investigation. Instead, you head around to the back. There is no pony there, and the roof of the stables is caved in. Straw is scattered everywhere. There is still the faint imprint of a giant boot, even with all the snow.
Magdi surveyed the scene and nodded.
"Well... I can't say I blame her for being frightened of coming back." She said with some finality. "Sorry for dragging you guys all over here. At least we got a little bit of food to show for it, I guess."
She thought about the blue blood on the upper walls of the building. Perhaps the giant, or giants, in question had grazed itself somewhat when annialating the inn. She prodded her feelings but couldn't pick much pleasure out of the realisation. Overall it didn't improve the situation any.
Sorra puts her arm around the goblin woman almost absently in response, looking around the building. Finally she shrugs.
"Food's always good," she says in what she hopes is a reassuring tone. "But unless you think there's something else here, we should get moving. Navek's a ways away."
Glad of Sorra's presence and focus, Magdi wiped her nose on her sleeve and then answered.
"I ...can't think of anything else, no. I checked on Mum when we were in the spire and everything seemed alright. I think she'd think I was being over-indulgent if I went to say goodbye to her and I kind of already did that up here." she put a finger to her temple and smiled slightly.
Samuel looks around pensively, noting the time of day, then speaks to his companions. "Well, we have some food, we have some coin. I think we should maybe try to begin the trek to Navek, I really don't want to be around here after night falls. That's when all the predators will really start to come out, and things could get really dangerous, really fast for us, and with our younger companion, a fight is not something I want to get in."
Jory stares at Samuel, his lack of comprehension clear on his face. He's shivering a little-his festival clothes, while nice looking and actually quite warm for their weight, don't offer as much protection as a coat. The bells jingle in the wind. Eztra pulls her coat a little closer around her, one mittened hand around Jory's much smaller one. "What sort of predators?"