And so, after Judoc and Finn rest for a time, Judoc again casts his spell of invisibility on the rogue and the other vanishes from sight completely. Even those that had seen Finn the moment before can just make out the barely audible sound of his breathing, which after a moment, seems to disappear altogether.
As for Finn, he does not waste a moment of his invisibility.
Immediately after the spell is cast, the thief breaks into a jog, running up the plaza and taking the turn to the right, towards the door that Magnus had pushed open some five or ten minutes earlier, thinking for the group to search the remainder of the compound before approaching the Wazifis... and just like the minotaur, when Finn pushes open the door, he sees a short but wide hallway, with three doors on the opposite wall.
Closing the door behind him, Finn waits for his eyes to adjust... though the process takes longer than he would like and the thief after only a few moments pulls the small lighted necklace chain out from under his leathers, casting a light down the hallway well enough to see by. Running first to the doorway to his far right, Finn listens first at the portal and hearing nothing, he pushes the door open.
He almost immediately regrets the decision.
From within, a blast of fetid shit stench smacks him in the face, assaulting his nostrils. The surprise of the smell takes him off balance for a moment, though as he clamps one hand down over his nose and takes in the the small room within he sees little room to dwell longer for the room is obviously a privy - with a bench style toilet at the back, no doubt with a drop some twenty feet down to a sewage pit that has been sitting stagnant for hundreds of years... Without taking much else in, Finn retreats, knowing there is little place for people or treasure to be hidden, other than within the toilet... a prospect which does not settle the stomach...
Closing the door to the small room, Finn rushes to the next in the line, finding this time a somewhat larger room with a wide table and a pair of doors at the other end of the room. Closing the door behind him, Finn searches farther, finding a small dilapidated bedroom beyond one door, the beds in various states of decay and bits of clothing and flotsam flung across the room, three footlocker style chests laying open and empty. It is obvious the place has been previously searched and that there is no one here, so Finn closes the door and proceeds back towards the other doorway, opening it to find a small storage in much the same chaotic state. Things and bits of cloth hurled this way and that, with nothing of value anywhere in sight. After inspecting the last bit of the area, which proves to be another garden, Finn closes the door and retraces his steps back to the courtyard.
Stepping back into the sunlight, Finn decides to make his actions unpredictable and so he rushes back towards the plaza, running southward towards the last building in the courtyard that remains uninspected. Opening one of the two doors after again listening for a long moment, Finn sneaks himself within and takes in what he can over several moments. Unlike much of the last several rooms he has inspected, here there are high windows in the room which cast enough light for him to see without taking out his lighted stone. The room appears to be a library of some sort, for there is a wide bookshelf running the long ways down the center of the room and each wall has shelves of its own. Though the shelving seems to run from the floor to five or six feet off the floor, only the occasional book lines the shelves, a decayed bit of leather binding or just blackened pages sewn together with thread.
As Finn glances down towards the northwest corner of the room however, something gives him pause... Motion... a head perhaps. Not breathing and barely daring to think, Finn watches until the thing moves enough for him to get a good view. Some two feet off the floor, he sees the triangular furry shape of a rats head, glancing this way and that as if looking for something - perhaps the thing already smells Finn. The thing is
huge some two feet tall or more, well larger than any rat Finn has ever seen. Not wishing a combat, or indeed any interaction that could cost him the benefit of his spell, Finn silently ducks back out of the door and closes it silently behind him.
Rushing farther south, Finn checks another door in the courtyard, finding a much similar compound, complete with living area, bedroom, storage and garden (this one with skylights rather than window openings at the wall), all of which has been thoroughly ransacked and combed over. Thinking his work done, Finn closes the door again and makes ready to head back towards the others.
But something is wrong. As he glances to his right, Finn can't help but shake the feeling that something...
something doesn't add up, and after a few moments thought, Finn finally recognizes what it is. The doors are too big.
The giant double doors, the ones some ten feet high on the cathedral or temple... the building where the Wazifis had been hiding, were simply too big. Certainly, the doors on the other side of the building had been much more massive... Fifteen feet wide and nearly as high they had towered up and been hard to open when Finn had originally looked inside... But the doors on the other side? Finn couldn't shake the feeling that they should be barely over six feet.
Unable to shake the feeling, Finn jogs over to the large doors, listening first and then pulling open one of the massive portals. Finn nearly smacks his head when he looks within, for there is not a large, open room as he had expected, but a shallow back room, with doors ahead and on either side... When Finn had visited the shrine previously, he had simply thought that the back doors had led back out onto the courtyard, when instead there was a whole separate set of rooms beyond. Looking to his left first, Finn sees a small storage room, an upright small table stands and the dust is disturbed... Finn takes the moment to grab a small clay pot sitting in the corner... Peeking in the doors opposite, Finn sees a large set of steps leading downward.
Fuck. Finn thinks to himself, crouching downward to search the stone floor for clues as to where the Wazifis went. Though he dust is heavy in the corners, it's hard to make sense of the multitude of footprints that go here and there. The only thing that he is even moderately sure of is that it doesn't
look like twelve men traveled downstairs in the last two or so hours.
Some several moments later, Finn stands amongst the others in the stables.
”I saw a lot 'a nothin'. More broken stuff. Alot 'a empty rooms. But I did find this. If you're worried about another fire fill this with water. Have it ready in case the Arabs throw more torches.” Finn hands the clay pot to Rondald, who gladly takes it, pouring out a bit of water from their barrel.
Again the wizard Judoc rests for several minutes, leading on a half an hour before he nods again and casts his invisibility spell again on Finn.
The thief again rushes out of the stables, heading straight back to the stairwell in the building the Wazifis had been using. The room is dark, and the stairwell seems darker, though Finn decides to keep his light hidden this time, fearing the possibility of detection if he takes it out. Finn feels his way down the stairwell until he hits the hard dirt of the level below - but still there is not even a bit of light to see by. Again, Finn smells a horrible stench, though this time it is the smell of death and decay... unwilling to tempt the fates, Finn scurries back up the stairs rather than to unveil himself by bringing out a light, alone as he is.
Instead, Finn jogs back northward, running into the first doorway on the east side of the plaza on the northern side of the courtyard. Again he finds the same layout, a small compound of rooms, privy, living area, storage and bedroom, with a large garden. However, this time as he walks into the garden, Finn recognizes the bashed out opening in the wall and the narrow hallway beyond, leading to the stables. Looking the other direction, Finn sees another hole in the wall, and decides to go directly into the next set of rooms...
OOC: It is 1705 on May 14th. Finn, again thank you for helping me get through with a month's worth of posting in about an hour and a half. Some of the post above may seem a little unfamiliar and for that I apologize, though I don't think it will affect the long term outcome of the game. The map has been updated (both the site map and the adventure maps thread). In order, Finn looked at rooms 16, 13, 8, 12 and then 12 (and down the stairs for a hot moment), 1, 2. Judoc and Finn are both at full fatigue and we can go for another scouting mission or move the full group if you guys decide.
Rodent in room 13