The Grinning Snake Group 1

[Exeson]

The Guard gives Galan an appraising look before frowning. "Yeh, right. Now scram before I find some reason to arrest you," With that he walks away muttering under his breath about insincerity.

You follow the final few turns and roads on the directions before you come to a very ramshackle house just outside the city walls. It is two stories high, made of wood with a thatched roof. A broken fence circles a very small garden that is overgrown with weeds. You walk through the gate and Galan unlocks the door, which creaks as it is swung open.

You enter the low door frame to see that everything is covered in a fine layer of dust. The ground floor is just one big room with a fireplace on one wall and a ladder to get to the second floor. The second floor is divided into three rooms, each with a bed which are about the only dust free objects in the building. On the mantle piece above the fireplace is a little note saying "Make yourself at home" and ten gold pieces.

[Beschoren]

Phin

The halfling is exalted and relived, as the encounter with the guard ended fine and he had somewhere to sleep now
"Great! It has a roof! Amazing!" he hangs at the side ladder. "What we are soposed to do now? I'm still pretty confused."

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occ: is there any furniture in the house? backdoors? I'll take 10 and search the house. Taking 20 if I have the time to spare

[Duke of URL]

Galan

"We're supposed to wait for instructions. Still, rather than sit around, we could clean the place up a bit and use the gold to get some furnishings and provisions. Let's leave the exterior alone, though, until we see what we're going to be doing here." He then starts chanting a simple tune and the dust begins to disappear.

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Casting prestidigitation (1st of 3 available 0th-level spells), which by my reading would allow Galan to clean up to 600 square feet (1 cubic foot per round x 10 rounds/minute x 60 minutes) in a single hour's time (spell's duration). Will cast a second time if necessary to finish the job.

[Beschoren]

phin

"hey! that's cool!" he takes a look at the vanishing dust for some minutes, as he finished getting himself ready, puting up his hair, finish the armor donning... and then climbs upstairs.
"hummm... guys? there are only 3 beds here... and we're four..." he then stais upside down on the stairs. preety silly, but he seems quite worried that there are not 4 beds.

"oh, and what we do until we recive orders? wait? that is boring..."

[Pink]

Serric

"Four of us...three beds...Enough for three people to rest and one person to keep a watch." Serric says, giving a stare to Galan as he uses what must surely be magic. Clearly there was a reason that the boss had chosen to include this one as well.

The youth then begins to walk through the house, thoroughly inspecting it, and looking for a goos hiding spot, loose stone, floorboard, anything that might be of advantageous to hide a small but crucial object in. Just in case.

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Taking 20 on search check for a total 26. Looking for good hidey holes, also for where the windows are and if there is any sort've attic or goos high ground look-out/sniping spot if need be.

After he's done his search he heads back to the ground floor and sets his pack in a corner for now. This was his gang...for now. Hopefully for longer. Best try to seem approachable. "So...the boss...Think he got away alright?" He says, picking up one of the gold coins.

[Exeson]

As the dust clears Serric and Phin discover a trap door in the middle of the floor, or at least you think it is, there is a hairline crack that is barely noticeable but there seems to be no way to open it, no lock or handle.

There is a window in the roof, which provides most of the light to the house, apart from that nothing.

however you also notice that something seems different about the fireplace, upon inspection you see that hand and footholds have been carved into the inside of the chimney.

[Exeson]

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Right, unless anyone wants to do anything else today or explore the house a bit more shall we skip to the next day? (sorry about the delay, exam revision)

[Pink]

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Well actually, I'd like to have some in character conversation here to get a feeling about how things are going to be done and such. These are four strangers afterall and Serric isn't exactly about to just go to sleep without Getting some amount of trust settled. However it seems no one else is here to post?
Also, I would like to investigate the trap door but I'm waiting to see if anybody responds to Serric's attempt at conversation before suddenly going elsewhere. Afterall, it is quite rude to ask a question and then go into another room before anybody answers.

[Beschoren]

Phin

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Phin is pretty wiling to talk off, but on the exact moment I have no creativity to say something cleaver. It would be something like "who are you guys anyway?", whit a large smile on the face

[Pink]

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Well, might be simple enough to start with a response to either "Four of us...three beds...Enough for three people to rest and one person to keep a watch."

or

"So...the boss...Think he got away alright?"

Course, I've no arguments for the other one too. Be in character and such. He has to find out who the rest of us are sometime.

[Beschoren]

Phin

"So...the boss...Think he got away alright?"

"who? the guy in red hat that prevented you guys into stabing me? Well, I hope so! Never know when I'll need another peacekeeping snake-tossing redhat-wearer to save my skin! If not for him, I would have to keep runing away from you guys for hours until you we bored of the chase. And likely lose some daggers in the way. You know, I hate when they survive and run away with my daggers on the back, or when it's just a bad idea to got back and pick them up."


"about the watch guy... good idea, but I don't know we will really need that just every night. No worries! I'd love to make my bed almost inside the fireplace. Prision teaches you to find a dry spot to sleep, and rest with an eye open and the other closed. Once there was that gnome..." He narrates a sotry about a gnome that went to a soft bed early in the night and woke up naked and upside down in the back of the guards room

[Pink]

Serric

"I...see...Spoon was it?" Serric replies to the story about the gnome, not quite sure how it fits into the conversation. His face doesn't seem to show much amusement during the one-sided conversation, a little bewilderment at the way some of the comments are just tossed out, but overall a serious expression. "Well...I lay no claim on the chimney if you want it for yourself. A handy little spot, assuming we don't have a fire going. We may need to get a lantern for light then. Also...I think I saw something in this floor."

Serric moves over to where he found the hairline crack and motions for any others interested to take a look. Running his fingers along the line, he tries to find the spot where it would be pulled open from and says, "I don't suppose anyone have a crowbar handy on them?"

If the answer is no, he'll sigh and use his shortsword to try and lever the trapdoor open.

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I'm assuming a strength roll. If needed he'll take out the hammer to add some extra force and such.
Str - (1d20+2)[4]
Edit: Well crivens. Serric looks like a weakling.

[Beschoren]

Phin

"oh, Spoon, Phin, Emptypockets, That-Damm-Halfling, Lichslayer, call me however you like. My poor mom used to say "phin!" but I had all manners of nicknames I almost forget who am I."

"crowbar? do I look like a vandal? I work with finesse! by the way, that remembers me of a gnome that..." he narrates another story of another gnome in prision that tried to break the prision bars using his own teeth. eventualy he managed to break one of the bars, but then fell unconscious and lost all his teeth. His halfling cellmate escaped the same night and was never seen again.

Serric's lack of joy dosen't seem to have afected him. Phin is very energetic when talking.

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take 20 on search check to find some weak spot on the wood of the trapdoor (total 28)

[Pink]

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Ahh, now this is more like it. Proper roleplaying. Course I find halflings the best foils for any party when it comes to breaking the ice. Kudos to Besch

Serric

"Lichslayer?...I'll stick with Spoon. Seems you've met your share of gnomes too...They are a bit of a strange breed. Also seems I'm not the only one whose run afoul of the guard, but I haven't been put behind the stone and metal bars yet. What did they get you for?" He says, trying to assist and be assisted by the halfling in opening the trapdoor.

[Exeson]

You are un-able to move the trapdoor, Pin is also unable to find any weak spots, it seems that there is a plate of metal on the inside of the trapdoor, whoever made it definitely didn't want people to get in easily.

However, during your extensive search you realise that this kind of trap door will usually be operated remotely, usually by a lever or button somewhere inside the building.

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Just to remind you Gnomes don't exist, so you can just replace gnome with halfing if you want.

[Duke of URL]

Galan

Galan just smiles, listening to the stories and banter, as he focuses on clearing the dust.

When he's done, he rejoins the others. "I think the boss will be just fine -- he appeared quite capable of looking after himself, and he seemed to be expecting the situation."

"And if he doesn't make it... well, it looks like we have a nice base of operations here for whatever we choose to do ourselves. I can only assume we were brought together in the first place because The Grinning Snake thought we had the skills to complement each other."

[Beschoren]

"Oh, it was some arguing about the actual owner of a purse... I was very young then.... my first roberry atempt, hehe...he...that was... though" for a moment Phin seems to be quite sad. likely it's a wound on his memories. but then he quickly regains his energy and smiles

"Oh don't worry - I made up Lichslayer but the folks didn't like it so much, then spoon is great! they caled me that because I used to trow spoons at the faces of some boring guys during lunch. hehehe, good times. Not when they get me however... once I had to hide from a half-orc for a week! well, I hit his eye pretty good and he became blind of that eye. My problems were over when I managed to hit the other eye! heeheh."

"the boss seems quite fit, yeah, I doubt THOSE guards will stop him. But i bet he has far more enemies... hope we are not some sort of bait"

"Oi, that trap door is quite strange... no one found a leveler anywere? maybe up the in chimney?

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yeah, I remembered the gnomes does not exist after I made the 2° post... could't we just assume they are so useless they're all arrested? if not, then halfling substitution.

[Pink]

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Would another search check have a chance of actually finding this mechanism since me and spoon have already taken 20 on a search of the house?

Serric

At the mention of blinding a half-orc with only spoons, Serric actually gives a crooked grin. "We'll have to ask the Snake about it if we can't find anything. By the way, my name's Serric." he says, introducing himself finally to the halfling.

"Anyway...I got enough funds for a couple days but then I'm going to need to get some money, boss or not. Might be a good chance to work as a team, plan a heist in advance. Unless you guys prefer other kind of work." He says with a look over towards Trevor at the last sentence.

[Exeson]

Now that the dust has been cleared up the place looks much better, although there are a few sneezes as it is stirred up. The sun has now reached it's highest point in the sky, or at least that is what the tolling of a bell you can hear in the distance is meant to signify.

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You have searched the house, but no one has investigated the hand and foot holds in the chimney. A hint: Spoon is on the right idea.

[Beschoren]

Phin the spoon

(quick post today)
hell, he goes right up on the chimney, complaining on how dark that was, cursing the dirt that was everywere and telling that he hated onion

[Pink]

Serric

"No complaining, you wanted to check up there. And what do onions have to do with a chimney?" Serric says, only showing a slight impatience with a tapping of his foot as he watches the fireplace, waiting for the return of the halfling or something signifying that the trapdoor will now open. His stomach growls, having only had a piece of bread and an apple for breakfast in the morning, but he ignores the cry for food for now.

[Duke of URL]

Galan

"Hey, be careful up there... I just cleaned this place!" He smiles as he turns toward Serric. "Galan will serve fine as a name for me, I've used it often enough that I shouldn't forget to respond to it. I'm not quite sure what kind of jobs we should undertake... personally, I'm more in favor of, well, convincing someone to part with their gold than just taking it from them."

[Exeson]

Near the top of the chimney Phin discovers an wooden door of sorts, it swings open easily and you managed to crawl though the tight space into a hidden room. You can not see anything in the dark but some feeling around you figure that there is just about enough space for two human sized people. You discover a lever and pull it down.

The people downstairs hear a click and the trap door swings inwards, revealing a square of inky blackness.

[Pink]

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Okay, Phin got the cool room

Serric

With another crooked smile, Serric shouts up the chimney "Oye, good job Spoon, you opened it right up." He then begins riffling through his backpack and grabbing out a tindertwig and a candle. Putting the pack back in its corner, he lights the candle and then uses it to try and peer into the darkness of the trapdoor.

[Duke of URL]

Galan

Galan pulls out his rapier, chants softly, and touches the sword, which glows with a bright light. He then carefully lowers it into the opening to see what can be seen from the room above.

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Casting light (2nd of 3 0th level spells -- 3rd of 3 if prestidigitation had to be used twice)

[Pink]

Serric

Seeing once again a demonstration of magic that produces a more brilliant light than his candle, Serric, slightly glumly, blows out the candle and walks back to return it to his backpack before returning to look into the trapdoors opening. He gives a slight mutter of "Bloody waste of a tindertwig." But otherwise seems more interested in what might be found.

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Assuming I can see enough to do a search check of the room now
Search - (1d20+6)[18]

[Exeson]

As your sword lights up the area you can see there is a small room with a wall and floor of stone. There is no ladder to get down or anything and it seems like a long way down.

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Duke: only 1 prestidigitation needed.
Pink: you need to first get down into the room to make a proper search.

[Beschoren]

phin the spoon

"Dammed god of hell I hate this place up here!" the halfling shouts, as a dark dust falls from the chimney to the just clened ground aound it's base "It's dark, nasty, dirty, and foul-smelling! almost remind me when my mom tried to fry onions with lamp oil!"

"ha! there is a secret room! it's mine! (leveler sound) the secret lever too! ha-ha! But We will need some light here...some light that is NOT coming from the fireplace"

I will try to explore a little more. If I find nothing, then I get back to find some light source.

[Pink]

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How deep is 'a long way down'? 10'? 20'? 30'?

[Exeson]

You judge the distance to be about 10 to 15 feet.

Phin discovers a sleeping matt in the far end of the room, he also discovers a little flap in the wall that can be opened to give a view of the street.