Scatter the Pieces [IC]

[Ajadea]

The three women set off down the tunnel. Magdi first, then Eztra, then Sorra bringing up the rear. Ten or twenty feet down the tunnel, the lantern begins to dim, almost struggling against the darkness. Half a minute later, it seems to go out entirely, though a very swift touch reveals that the lantern is still very hot, and the oil is almost certainly still alight. Even Magdi's sharp goblin vision cannot see through this pitch blackness.

Magdi reaches the edge almost a minute before the other two, stopping less than half a foot from the drop. There is indeed a ladder to your left. It feels like metal, rough against your hands and rungs spaced so that a halfling or a human could easily ascend or descend. But it is slightly hidden by the wall, and you probably wouldn't have found it if you didn't look.

[SPoD]

Eztra watches with rising panic as the lantern dims in defiance of all logic. She reaches her hand out and holds on to the hem of Magdi's clothing, hoping that she can see a little better than Eztra herself can.

When they find the dropoff, Eztra calls, "Samuel, are you down there? We're here, but I can't see anything."

Reaching behind her to find Sorra, she asks, "Should we go down, or should he come back up and we explore the other passageway?"

[PollyOliver]

Sorra stops behind the other girl. She blinks repeatedly, but there is no difference. A small flame of fear starts to rise up in her, but she crushes it mercilessly. This has to be part of something important, and there's no time for fright any more than there is for tears. She licks her lips in the darkness, making sure her voice is steady before speaking.

"Someone put this magic here," she says, thinking. "They had to be hiding something, or protecting something. Why else put darkness on top of a cliff? It might be something important. But I guess it depends on what it looks like down there. She raises her voice a little. Sam, Magdi, what's down there?"

[Starwulf]

"There's a ladder that leads back up to you all, and there is a tunnel that is slanting downwards. No idea where it leads, but if you ask me, it's likely important" Samuel yells back, happy to hear his companions voices so close after being alone for a while.

[PollyOliver]

Sorra nods, not that anyone can see it.

"We should head down, then," she says to Eztra.

[Eleanor_Rigby]

"...wait, you two can't see anything either?" the goblin gave a huge sigh of relief. "I'm so glad to hear you say that! I thought... thought I might have been struck blind or something..." she shook herself and came to the ladder. "Ok, I've found the ladder you mentioned. I'm on my way down now..."

[SPoD]

"We should head down, then," she says to Eztra.

Eztra nodded—then, realizing her mistake, added, "OK, Sorra. I'm touching Magdi's clothes, so I'll follow her down the ladder."

[Ajadea]

One by one, you climb down to meet Samuel. There is a tunnel, large enough for all the humans to stand up straight in. IT is dark as well, though the light from Eztra's lantern and Samuel's ring seem to penetrate the darkness effectively. As such, it is likely that the darkness beyond is simply created by distance.

Roll Listen checks, one each.

[Eleanor_Rigby]

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Listen (1d20+2)[16]

[Starwulf]

Samuel attempts to see if he can hear anything down the tunnel before he and his companions proceed.

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Listen check: (1d20-1)[5]

[PollyOliver]

Sorra strains her ears, peering ahead into the blackness beyond the light thrown off from the lantern and ring.

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(1d20+3)[22]

[SPoD]

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Listen: (1d20+3)[11]

Added text to make sure the board doesn't tell me my message is too short.

[Ajadea]

Magdi, Sorra

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Something is ahead of you. Magdi cannot make out more than that, but Sorra's keen hearing catches the sound waves.

Sorra

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Whatever it is, the thing seems to be sobbing.

[PollyOliver]

Sorra stops suddenly, sickle coming up before her, still squinting out past the lamplight. Soft, snuffling sobbing. The sound eats at her, and she feels the irrational urge to reach out and put a hand on Eztra's shoulder.

She shakes her head hard. She has to focus.

"There's something out there," she whispers. "It sounds like it's crying."

[Eleanor_Rigby]

The goblin hadn't been able to determine what the noise had been. It was just a quiet murmur of indistinguishable sound, but when Sorra offered an opinion as to what it was, Magdi's decision was instant.
"Then we'd better see if there's something we can do for them." she said firmly. "It sounded like they were further down the tunnel..."

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Maybe they're still a bit far away but I'll roll a spot check anyway. Ajadea can ignore it if she likes. (1d20+2)[4]

[SPoD]

Eztra nodded in agreement with Magdi. If there was another survivor, then they should help them, the same as they were helping each other. It was too much to hope for that the survivor would know something about why this tragedy had happened, but Eztra caught herself hoping it anyway.

[Starwulf]

Samuel hesitantly moves forward, following the others as they investigate the source of the mysterious sobbing sound. He is very wary, however, wondering if this is perhaps a trap. He scrutinizes every detail as they move forward, trying to search for traps before it goes off on them.

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Search check: (1d20+2)[12]

[PollyOliver]

Sorra peers forward for the source of the sound as they head toward it, gripping her scythe tightly and trying to get the sound of crying out of her head.

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Spot (1d20+7)[12]

[Ajadea]

None of you see anything of note until Magdi sees a half-open door in the darkness, about thirty feet away in the left wall. It is made of dark wood of some sort, with soot-black hinges and a knob rather than a handle. The crying is definitely coming from behind it. All of you can hear it now, faint sobs and sniffles echoing through the dark.

[PollyOliver]

Hands shaking, Sorra nonetheless holds herself back. She carefully examines the door before them.

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Searching the door. Taking 20 or 10 if possible, for 25 or 15, otherwise (1d20+5)[16]

[Eleanor_Rigby]

Now that they were rather closer Magdi could hear the crying too. She glanced at the others, trying to gauge their reactions. She wondered whether she should call out, to tell the person they were there. She couldn't think what to say. She wished she could. She wondered if one of the others ought to go first: well intentioned though she was, Magdi was aware that a goblin face wasn't the most comforting for many races.

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If it's allowed I suppose I'll try a spot check? (because Magdi excells at them) (1d20+2)[13]

[Ajadea]

Sorra

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Someone has apparently carved a crude smile into the bottom of the door. The hinges are on the outside and slightly dusty. A spider's web, still mostly whole, dangles from a corner. This door must not have been used very often at all.

Magdi

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Through the slightly open door, you can see the edge of what looks like a rug, and a mouse-shaped doll made of patchwork.

[PollyOliver]

Sorra looks over the door carefully. "I...don't think there's anything wrong with it," she says finally. "Except that it's not well used. Is everyone ready?" she asks, looking back over her shoulder.

When everyone is, she swallows hard, gets ready to swing her sickle if something attacks, and tries to open it.

[Starwulf]

Samuel tenses as Sorra starts to open the door, anticipating the worst, but hoping for the best.

[Eleanor_Rigby]

Magdi caught Sorra's arm before she could open the door. She'd positioned herself on the opposite side of their leader to Eztra and Samuel so the others might not have seen her do it.
"Sorra," she whispered, "there's a doll in there... I think it might be a child."
The implication that Sorra's siblings were no more had been fairly clear so Magdi wasn't sure how Sorra might react to seeing another child, particularly a potentially injured one. She might as well give her a heads up.

[PollyOliver]

Sorra takes a deep, shuddering breath, and nods, hard, as if the force of the gesture might push the meaning behind the goblin's words out of her head. Then she carefully moves Magdi's arm, glances back at the others, and opens the door.

[Ajadea]

The door swings open to reveal a ratty little room, with a ceiling somewhere under 6 feet in height and slanting downwards to 4 feet or so. A braided rag rug covers a good deal of the floor. There is also a small table, again sized for small folk or small children, with what looks like a card game on it.

There are sweet wrappers and a toy mouse made in the same patchwork style as the quilt on the floor. Fat pillows as well, including at least two that look like they might have been stolen from the library. In one corner lies a crystal ball that is quite clearly fake, a small pile of smooth rocks, three small sheets of parchment, a very old-looking checkersboard, a chunk of quartz of the sort that you could have gotten for a silver or two from any dwarven gemseller, a bundle of twigs, the stub of a grayish candle, and a rather unfortunate snake-like toy with button eyes.

The walls of the room are covered in scribbles and crude drawings, smiles and notes in charcoal and colored chalks. The wall next to the door is covered in swirls of mostly-brown paint that might be meant to depict a fish. A lantern hangs from a metal hook in the ceiling, with a stool beneath it.

In the far corner of the room, there is a small mattress, sized for halflings and goblins and such, with a shuddering, sobbing lump curled up underneath the faded patchwork blanket that covers it.

Overall, the room looks more like a child's hideout than anything else.

[SPoD]

Eztra covered her mouth at the sight of the room. She instinctively understood that this is what a child's room should look like, even though her walls had been decorated for her by a professional artist and she would have been beaten like the Help for drawing on them.

The sobbing bulge beneath the blankets simply made her nervous. While she had grown up with a younger sister, she had managed to escape childhood with no particular attachment toward her. She had never had call to comfort Irshara; most of their interactions could be summed up by her younger sister calling her freak or monster—or in one particularly lucid moment right before Eztra left for University, cashed-in meal ticket.

She looked at Sorra—clearly the mother figure here—and waited for her to do something.

[PollyOliver]

Sorra's feet move for her. The sickle is back in her belt, and before she even realizes it she is sitting at the foot of the tiny bed.

"It's okay," she says, again the voice she uses on Ama when she won't go up a particularly steep section of trail. "You can come out now. They're gone."

[Ajadea]

A tiny finger peeps out from under the blanket and curls into a hook shape. Slowly the being under the blanket pulls it away. It is a dwarven child, male, with a hint of red in his shaggy brown hair. His eyes are wide in fear. "I want to go home," he says plaintively. He must be a Spire native-there is not a trace of a dwarven accent in his Erlisan.