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08:04, 29th March 2024 (GMT+0)

Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome.

Posted by The RaconteurFor group 0
The Raconteur
GM, 555 posts
Teller of Tales
Writer of Wrongs
Fri 24 Jan 2014
at 21:52
  • msg #1

Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome




Pisca dashed away from a surprised Kerr and Liseth filled with purpose, head buzzing with her own plans and schemes.  She knew what she was going to do, even if no one else did.  As she trotted down the street, the sun shone and the cool sea breeze made the day almost perfect.  Before long, she saw the Glassworks looming ahead.  Would she venture inside alone?




Pisca Neep Freemish
Gnome Archaeologist, 547 posts
The Gnome!
Fri 24 Jan 2014
at 22:54
  • msg #2

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome

Pisca's eyes shone as she arrived, out of breath at the door to the Glassworks.  This was it.  Chasing down the remnants of smugglers long gone.  They'd left their little mysteries behind, and now here was the gnome, come to seize them and drag them from their dark lair out into the light of day.

After slipping through the door and into the storage room, the gnome plunged immediately down the stairs and into the basement.  Well, not as immediately as that.  Pisca took a detour to close the doors to the glass working room.  There was simply too much horror and death in that room.  It was just simply a place that called for being behind closed doors.  Some places were like that.  And the gnome closed the trapdoor too.  She closed the trapdoor to let it know that she did disapproved of the way in which it had treated her on the way from the Battle of the Glassworks Room to the Battle of the Basement in which Tsuto had been so devastating.

"So there," she had said after dropping the door back into place with a rather satisfying bang.  It was now, once again, relegated to the obscurity from which it had briefly risen.  Empty and unused it would possibly remain for ages upon end, until another gnome would come upon the long unused ruins of the Glassworks, and, being sharp of eye, discover the trapdoor again.  This future gnome would find the small cubby below the trapdoor to be empty, and this gnome would know of the senseless existence to which Pisca had banished it.  It would be a moment of great pith and significance, Pisca thought.  If only she could do the same to the wheelbarrow.

After finally descending to the basement, Pisca made her way directly to the tunnel.  Following her Dancing Lights - now cast in the shape of a flying monkey - the gnome proceeded down the tunnel with great care and alertness.  Tsuto's note had mentioned sending freaks up through here from below.  Meaning that it was entirely possible that there were other entrances onto the smuggler tunnels.  And some of these entrances could lead to places into which the gnome was not quite prepared to explore.


Stealth and Perception Check, please.

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights 1m

HP 10/18
Archaeologist's Luck 1/7

The Raconteur
GM, 559 posts
Teller of Tales
Writer of Wrongs
Sun 26 Jan 2014
at 23:03
  • msg #3

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome




Pisca stood in the still, quiet room of the Glassworks basement, contemplating its tunnel.  Everything looked much the same as when she had departed with the others less than an hour earlier.  There they were:  the moldering furniture, the shy chair, the empty shelves.

And the tunnel itself.

It beckoned her with its seductive invitation.  Here were mysteries for the solving.  Here was a page out of a shadowy book of history to which few had access.  Few, but one more now that an adventurous gnome had chosen to crack its spine and learn the dark secrets of its past . . . and possibly of its present.

Pisca listened intently at the tunnel entrance, but heard nothing save the deep, almost oppressive silence of the underground.  The still air pressed in upon her, reminding her that she stood under a great deal of earth and stone.

The gnome was undeterred by the reminder.

Taking a deep breath, she ventured into the tunnel along with her bright, traditionally witch-related simian light.  The tunnel started out northward, but almost immediately began to bend to the east.  Pisca looked at the ground with great care but could make neither heads nor tails out of whatever tracks might have been left on the packed-dirt floor.  Her eagle, dark-adjusted eyes strove to discern any threat or interesting object that might warrant her attention, but here was nothing.

Nothing until, after traveling about 500 feet, she reached a junction.  Two additional tunnels branched off from the one in which she was currently traveling, one to the east, the other to the west.   These tunnels were of a similar construction to the tunnel in which Pisca stood; they looked to have been dug out and supported with the same kind of wooden beams and employed the same design.  The one to the west, however, seemed to have once been bricked over at the point where it diverged from the main tunnel.

Pisca stopped, looked, and listened at the junction.  She heard nothing.  She saw nothing.  Although she got the feeling that the air from the western tunnel was ever-so-slightly cooler than the air from the other two tunnels.

But it was hard to tell.  It might have just been her imagination.




Pisca Neep Freemish
Gnome Archaeologist, 549 posts
The Gnome!
Mon 27 Jan 2014
at 14:22
  • msg #4

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome

"Two, I expected.  But, three ... "  The gnome faced the three tunnels that had only, until moments ago, been a convenient and comfortable one.  It would have been so much better if the tunnels had branched off *after* letting out onto the cliff facing entrance that she had been looking for.  That would have taken all of the difficult decisions out of things.  But here she was, faced with not two tunnels, but three.  And there was certainly little hope in negotiating with them to rearrange themselves for her convenience.  Desna knows she'd tried that often enough to know.  Insanity was doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  Nope.  That was not her.  No sense asking politely.  She'd learned that lesson already.

The gnome squatted down next to the remnants of the brickwork that must have, for all intents and purposes, sealed the western tunnel at one time.  She could imagine Lord Kaijitsu sealing the tunnel room in the basement after the smugglers had been found out by the Black Arrow.  But who sealed this tunnel?  It would have to have been the smugglers.  But why?  Well, given that Tsuto's journal said that Nuteliana kept freaks down here, it sort of stood to reason that maybe the smugglers might have run into a few of these freaks.  Maybe in some of Cato's underground Thassilon ruins.  And now ... someone had broken the wall back down with the express purpose, no doubt, of releasing the freaks upon Sandpoint.

"Well, don't want to go that way," Pisca said to herself.  Or, perhaps she spoke to the tunnels, all three.  Or, maybe the words were for the flying monkey shaped light, her sole companion in this mad adventure.  The gnome rose and backed away from the Tunnel of the Freaks.  She withdrew with more caution than she had when she had approached, knowing now what she did not know then.  Or, at least, thought that she knew.

"Freaks.  Freeeeaaaaks," said the gnome in a voice, eerie and spectral.  She could feel the fine hairs on the back of her neck tingle as they stiffened in fright.  "Freeeeaaaaks," Pisca grinned wide as the delicious feeling of fright coursed up and down her body.  She nearly gave into the temptation to run screaming and laughing down the eastern tunnel, but reminded herself, at the last possible moment, of the serious mission that she was on.

East was the beach.  If there was an entrance that let out under the cliffs it would likely be in that direction.  So, the eastern tunnel it would be.  Pisca backed cautiously down the east tunnel.  The decision was made.  But this was still one of the most dangerous of times.  She'd had her moment of levity.  Humor had eased tensions just enough to relax her guard.  Or so the monsters would think.  A smile and a laugh made you vulnerable in the most classic of senses.  And monsters had an uncanny knack for sensing these moments.  That was a little known fact.  They knew, and this was always when they chose to strike.

The gnome drew her blade.  Her senses were keenly tuned for the low moan, the menacing growl, or the sudden shocking attack from the dark.  They might come, but they would not find this gnome unprepared.  Maybe she'd better run?  No.  That would be the worst thing.  People who ran always ran straight into whatever it was.  So slowly, agonizing step by agonizing step, Pisca made her way east.


Stealth and Perception Check, please.

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights 1m

HP 10/18
Archaeologist's Luck 1/7

This message was last edited by the player at 14:35, Wed 29 Jan 2014.
The Raconteur
GM, 568 posts
Teller of Tales
Writer of Wrongs
Mon 27 Jan 2014
at 21:25
  • msg #5

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome




Three was a sacred number for many faiths.  Pisca knew the number three had significance that went beyond the mere designation of a quantity.  Law, Neutrality, Chaos.  Good, Neutrality, Evil.  Faith, hope, and love.  Threes were everywhere.  The three cardinal virtues.  Three men and a baby.  Three little pigs.

Three tunnels.

Decisions.  Decisions were nothing more than choices.  But such choices could change the life of a gnome . . . or end it.

The eastern passageway beckoned, and Pisca made her decision, surrendering to its siren call.  Turning to the right, she crept stealthily through the eastern passageway, rapier drawn and glinting in the light of her summoned simian.

The quiet was eerie.  Nothing moved.  Nothing stirred.  The silence made the soft crunch of her footfalls seem to reverberate as loudly as clanging symbols, announcing her presence to whatever silent guardians might stand watch over this most eastern of tunnels.  The passage's wooden supports rose up above her, their interlocking design forming frowning expressions, as if they disapproved of this unwanted gnomish intrusion and did not care who knew it.

Ignoring their disapproval, Pisca traveled onward.

One hundred feet.

Nothing.

Two hundred feet.

Nothing.

Three hundred feet.

Nothing.

At four hundred feet, Pisca finally encountered it.  Her own personal recurring villain.  The one to whom she had lost as often as she had won.  Her eternal nemesis.

Disappointment.

Pisca’s careful creep down the eastern passageway ended with her staring at the total collapse of the tunnel.  Apparently, she thought to herself, every now and then they fall apart.  There was no way around or through, that she could find anyway.  The tunnel was well and truly blocked.  There was no sign of how or when the collapse had occurred, but her careful examination indicated that it was probably not extremely recent.  Not today, certainly.  Unfortunately, Pisca did not have a lot of experience with underground architecture, support, or collapses, so the blocked passageway revealed nothing more.  It was yet another mystery in (or under) a town apparently full of them.




Pisca Neep Freemish
Gnome Archaeologist, 552 posts
The Gnome!
Mon 27 Jan 2014
at 22:24
  • msg #6

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome

"Well ... that was ... disappointingly anticlimactic," said the disappointed gnome to whatever deities were in charge of receiving customer complaints.  "Even a blank wall would have been more ... mysterious."

But when Pisca frowned, it was not so much a frown of dissatisfaction as much as it was a frown of thought.  Tsuto and the Gobbies had to have gotten out somewhere.  Would they go down the Tunnel of the Freaks?  Tsuto sounded fairly comfortable with the freaks.  Enough so that he suggested sending them up through the tunnels.  What had he said in the journal?

The gnome stood alone in the darkness while she called up the scrawled handwriting that she'd read sideways on Lysa's lap.  ... We should get the quasit's aid.  Send her freaks up from below via the smuggling tunnel in the Glassworks, then invade from both there and the river ... '

Wait.  Didn't that imply that the freaks were not under the thrall of Nutricia?  Rather, they were minions of the quasit?  Did that matter?  Tsuto sounded decidedly as though he expected both the freaks and the gobbies to share the same tunnels.  So they could have fled down the Tunnel of Freaks.  Which made sense, given the connection with this quasit.  The tunnels must continue on to Thistletop somehow.

But where did that then leave the center tunnel?  Probably lonely and feeling rather put out.  Especially as it likely had interesting places to go.  More so than the disappointing east tunnel that always got the attention because it looked as though it was in some way connected to the beach.  That was it then.  She'd have to explore the central tunnel as well.  It was promising now.  More so than it had been with the deceptive eastern tunnel beckoning to her.

With that decision made, the gnome began the slow work of creeping back down the eastern tunnel to slip past the Tunnel of the Freaks.  The sorely unappreciated central tunnel awaited.  Hopefully it would yield the exit to the cliffs that she was so sure awaited.  As she worked her way back, the gnome observed the tunnels themselves.  If nothing else, there might be something to be learned here.


Stealth and Perception Check, please.

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights 1m

HP 10/18
Archaeologist's Luck 1/7

The Raconteur
GM, 569 posts
Teller of Tales
Writer of Wrongs
Tue 28 Jan 2014
at 07:23
  • msg #7

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome




Creeping was a slow process.  And occasionally a boring process.  Tunnels, Pisca was learning, could be mighty uncommunicative when they wanted to be.  Although the gnomish adventuress looked closely at the eastern tunnel as she returned from the area of its unfortunate collapse, it said nothing different to her than she had heard from the central main tunnel, which was mostly along the lines of “someone with access to significant resources and manpower built me, but somehow kept my existence secret from the bulk of Sandpoint’s population.”

As Pisca continued her creep, a more-helpful portion of the tunnel would occasionally throw in a “I’ve been here a while, what do you think, I was built yesterday?”  And as she returned the Junction of Tunnels, the remains of the brick wall that had been blocking the western passage almost screamed “someone in the past did not want me used, but someone more recent did.”

That was about it.  Unfortunately the identity of these various persons remained shrouded in anonymity.  But now that Pisca thought more about it, maybe the tunnels were saying quite a bit after all.

Standing in the junction, Pisca once again felt a thrill of fear and excitement as she stared down into the darkness that hid the western passage.  What exactly were these “freaks” that Tsuto had mentioned, and to what sort of purposes were they put?

Now was not the time to discover the answers to those questions.  Now was the time to solve the mystery of the central tunnel.  Pisca turned to her right and continued her slow exploration down this new tunnel, hoping that it would have a more-successful conclusion that she had experienced in the eastern tunnel.

As Pisca crept along the center tunnel, she discovered that it was something of a tease.  It just kept on going.  A hundred feet went by, then two hundred, then four hundred, then eight hundred.

And the tunnel just continued.

The length of the tunnel almost begged the question of if it ever ended.  And every foot of it carried on the same increasingly-monotonous conversation in which she had engaged with the now-distant pre-Junction tunnels.  I was built by someone with resources.  Yet I remained secret.  And I am not new.

Finally, well over one-thousand repetitive feet past the junction, Pisca found what she had been looking for.

The end of the tunnel.

Unfortunately for the beach-seeking gnome, it was a dead end.  The tunnel just stopped, as if its builders just could not have been bothered to engage in such a pointless exercise for one second longer.  A rough wall of dirt barred any further movement down the passage, and there did not look to be any way around.




This message was last edited by the GM at 08:44, Tue 28 Jan 2014.
Pisca Neep Freemish
Gnome Archaeologist, 553 posts
The Gnome!
Tue 28 Jan 2014
at 13:40
  • msg #8

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome

Who could have paid for all of this?  The gnome was more convinced than ever that the people who built this tunnel were the same people associated with the man from Magnimar who paid for his room at the White Deer in advance.  But how many dwarves did it take to build something like this?  And how long did it take?  Where could they have taken all of the dirt?  Assuming that the smugglers didn't get along with the freaks, they could not have taken the dirt down the Tunnel of Freaks.  It's unlikely that they could have remained undiscovered if they had taken the dirt out the Glassworks.  Besides, that would have meant starting the tunnel at the Glassworks.  Not likely.  That means dumping the dirt somewhere on the coast.  The cliffs were rarely visited, being the place where the garbage of the town is thrown.  That would be the most likely place to take the dirt out.  It could be dumped into the water to let the tide carry it out.  Who would notice?  A drunken half-orc?  Lunk, who no one paid much attention to despite him being a giant?

Maybe even a bigger question might be, why spend the time and money to build a tunnel like this in Sandpoint?  What was so hard to move in and out of Sandpoint that it required this much secrecy?  What was worth so much gold that it would make it worth the time, the gold, and the planning to dig these tunnels?  This might be understandable in Magnimar or Korvosa or places like Egorian where the guards watch everything.  But Sandpoint?

Curious.  And it made Pisca's nose itch.

And then ... it all ended.

Did they run out of money?  If they did, what was the ultimate destination of this tunnel?  They weren't interrupted.  The place was clean.  No old tools laying about.  No skeletons of slain dwarven workers, cut down as they labored on the ill fated tunnel.  It looked ... clean.  It was hard to believe that this tunnel had been completely unused for so long.  On a whim, Pisca examined the floor, searching the packed earth for footprints.  More specifically, her eyes cast about for Right Sized goblin footprints.

Maybe the gobbies had come this way.  Maybe ... just maybe ... there was a secret door here somewhere.  The end of the tunnel wasn't that big.  And she'd have a long way to go if she headed back now.  An even longer way if she headed back empty handed.


Perception 28 to search for goblin footprints / Taking 20
Perception 28 to search for secret doors / Taking 20

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights 1m

HP 10/18
Archaeologist's Luck 1/7

The Raconteur
GM, 573 posts
Teller of Tales
Writer of Wrongs
Tue 28 Jan 2014
at 21:28
  • msg #9

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome




Pisca leaned down to look at the tunnel’s floor, but could discern very little from the marks left in the dirt.  It looked as if some sort of creature or creatures might have moved through this area of the tunnel, but she was completely unable to determine the size of those creatures or how many there might have been.

Disappointment.  Again.  If only Liseth were here, the gnome thought to herself.  But there was nothing for it.

Unfazed, the gnome began searching the wall of dirt that kept her from progressing any farther.  As the gnome searched, something about the wall indicated that maybe it wasn’t as impenetrable as it wanted to seem.  That perhaps it had been designed to allow people through.  But only people who knew its secret.

People not Pisca.

The gnome grimaced, hoping that this wall wouldn’t retain its secrets in the same way that so many of Sandpoint’s other mysteries had.

Thank Desna, this time was different.  This time the gnome gave Disappointment a hearty smack in the face and sent it flying back down to the dark regions from whence it came.  This time, the gnome found a cunningly-hidden latch and pulled it, causing a section of the wall to swing away and allowing cool sea air, the screech of gulls, and the crash of waves into the formerly still and silent central corridor.

The corridor seemed unimpressed by the change.

The Wall-That-Was-Now-A-Door opened into a cave, maybe 30 feet in diameter, that looked to be located on the side of a cliff overlooking the Varisian Gulf.   A crude collection of goblin beds and remnants of goblin meals were strewn about the cave, but a quick search yielded nothing more than a more-detailed view of the refuse and fish bones left behind by its erstwhile inhabitants.  Pisca could find no sign of anyone in the immediate area.

Although the noise of the surf made it difficult to hear, so for all she knew the goblins were throwing a party outside.

Pisca moved to the cave mouth, finding that it sloped down to a narrow beach unexpectedly clear of both trash and partying goblins.  A brief look outside the cave confirmed that it was indeed located in the side of a cliff.  Looking to her left along the western portion of the cliff, she saw the distant jutting northern point of what must have been Chopper’s Isle.

No, this cave was nowhere near Junker’s Cliff.  In fact, Pisca suspected that it was somewhere east of Northgate, completely unknown to Sandpoint’s residents and unpatrolled by the Sandpoint Guard.  Anyone could enter the central tunnel through this cave, with no one the wiser.

Anyone.




This message was last edited by the GM at 21:33, Tue 28 Jan 2014.
Pisca Neep Freemish
Gnome Archaeologist, 554 posts
The Gnome!
Tue 28 Jan 2014
at 22:39
  • msg #10

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome

It was real!!!  It was really real!  The gnome had felt her heart thump-thump-thumping in her chest with the realization that what had lain beneath her hand was a latch.  It had been the latch to an actual secret door!  She nearly wept with glee as the door gave way to the validation of her guesses!  She was right.  She had been right!

Pisca stood at the base of the cliff with her arms raised up to the sky.  Cool flecks of ocean spray cooled her cheeks as she basked in the breeze that came in off the waters of the gulf.  It was glorious.

Of course the location of the entrance was further north than she'd thought.  But it was still perfect.  Closer to the White Deer.

At that thought, the gnome turned to examine the cliff face behind her.  She should climb up right now and tell Garridan what she'd found and how it related to her mysterious guest of years gone by.

Or ... maybe fall to her death before telling anyone.

Pisca raced back up from the beach and back into the cave.  Things were still quite dire.  Sandpoint was still in danger.  All this would be wasted if she didn't get back to the others and tell them of the secret door.  The Goblin Cave.  The Tunnel of Freaks.

She re-entered the tunnel and eased the door shut behind her.  Tools once more in hand, the gnome studied the latching mechanism for a long while.  Finally, she searched about for a stone of the right size and wedged it in just the right place.  Hopefully that would keep the door locked.  From the outside, at least.

With that done, Pisca headed back.  Of course she'd still have to pass the Tunnel of Freaks again.  But she'd done that twice already with no freaks to be had.  Where should she go when she got back?  Where would the others be?  Lysa was at the cathedral.  Stomper and Cato were at the town guard.  Only the Mayor had yet to be told.  She'd go there.  The others would surely be soon to arrive.  And, if things happened to detain them, if chance should provide some time before they convened, then she and the Mayor might just have a pleasant conversation about what a town library might do for the culture and advancement of Sandpoint.


Disable Device 26 / Taking 20 w/Masterwork Tools to Lock the Door

Active Effects:  Dancing Lights 1m

HP 10/18
Archaeologist's Luck 1/7

The Raconteur
GM, 577 posts
Teller of Tales
Writer of Wrongs
Wed 29 Jan 2014
at 07:36
  • msg #11

Re: Chapter #6c:  A Roaming Gnome




Pisca had not completely lost her head in the excitement.  Jamming the cave's secret door was a smart move, and not one that would have been taken by a gnome completely caught up in the moment, she congratulated herself.  She resisted the urge to run down the central corridor's tunnel, instead moving slowly and quietly so as not to disturb whatever Freaks might be lying in wait.

Fortunately, when she arrived the tunnel junction remained blessedly Freak-free.  The gnome moved past the junction, feeling that the cooler air from the western tunnel might well be the Breeze of Victory.  From there it was only a few hundred feet to the Glassworks' basement.

Pisca exited the tunnel into the basement's tunnel room, dashed out into the corridor, and ran up the stairs.

Straight into the surprised Sergeant Torv Tiller.

Sergeant Tiller, appalled by his just-completed inspection of the Glassworking Room, was shocked to see one of Sandpoint's most-recent deputies appear as if by magic from an as-yet-unexplored portion of the Glassworks.  As she seemed to have urgent business to attend to, he waved her on past the guardsman standing watch at the double doors leading into the building.  That was procedure, and her badge gave her access pretty much anywhere, even crime scenes such as this.

Still, it was peculiar.  Sergeant Tiller made a mental note to check on whatever it was the gnome might have been doing.

In the meantime, Pisca emerged from the Glassworks and began the quick trip north to City Hall.  She was absolutely certain the Mayor would want to hear all about the important information she'd discovered.

CONTINUED IN CHAPTER #6d: WAR COUNCIL




This message was last edited by the GM at 07:54, Wed 29 Jan 2014.
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