"I don' know what yer asking," said Ric, and he seemed to be quickening his pace to move back up the stairs, as he seemed to be satisfied that no one was going to impede his trek back for his clothing, though he seemed to be limping slightly--perhaps that leap to the first floor had not been quite as smooth as he had thought, now that adrenaline was starting to wane.

"Why are you here and who did you meet?" Storm asks while keeping pace with him and gesturing to his friends to follow behind. As he walks, he will be wary of traps and the like.

Seeing things were calming down, Wick puts away his own blade even if Ric kept his in hand.  After all, if Storm couldn't handle the fellow, then Wick wasn't going to have a lot better luck.

But what Telemachus said raised a lot of questions for him.  Looking up at Telemachus, Wick gives a nod.  "So, what's the story?  You found the guy tied up here?"  That didn't sit well, the house didn't seem to be quite as abandoned as it had looked.

Looking down through the hole he nodded, "Yeah he was bound up here to a chair missing most of his stuff except that knife he hid on his person.  Said he was coming here for possible work in that mine that opened recently and when he was passing the house someone hit him from behind."

Looking over to Westin he asked the two of them, "Westin?  Wick?  Think you two can check the outside of the house?  Karel was circling on one side and hasn't come in yet.  I want to make sure that whoever Ric said had hit him over the head isn't still around and waiting for us to leave and did something to Karel..."

Wick shrugs.  "Sure thing."  He glanes over towards Westin to see if the fellow is up to it after his ordeal.  "With people getting hit from behind around here, it's probably best we don't wonder around alone."

Ric continued up the stairs, stopping one room before the one in which he had been tied up when the group first found him.

"There's folks don't want any investigatin' in this old house," said Ric.  "An' to keep ya's from finding stuff out, distractin' like.  An' I ain't gonna get paid none, but I be headin' to Shipton after an' if ya go back ta Monteci, ya kin say what ya killed me.  Better be thought ta be dead than to be dead, ya unnerstand?"

"Certainly," Westin says with a smile but inwardly glad to get further away from Ric. "let's go, shall we?" he asks Wick.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:17, Wed 06 Nov 2019.

"I believe that can be done," Lenelle assured Ric.   She didn't care for lies, but murder was far worse.

"And, it might help us to protect you more, if you tell us something about these 'folks' you mentioned. What is it they don't want found, here?"   

Ric opened the door next to the room he had been bound in, and carefully circled opposite the way that had been safe in the other room.  The floor here looked similarly suspect to the floor in the other upstairs room.   A small chest was in the room under the window, and he opened this, pulling out clothing, boots, and leather armor, and he began dressing as he spoke.

"I don' know details," said Ric.  "What ya don' know, ya can't betray.  Jus' somewhere's there's meetin' for some business o' movin' stuff fer extra coin.  An' I be supposed to get ya to leave off pokin' about, 'cept I guess he didn't know how suspicious you was, so it ain't much use and I get hit on th' head fer nothin'.  Hit me harder'n need be, too."

It was more than plausible -- some sort of criminal operation. She tended toward believing this explanation.  So, then what about the item they'd come here seeking?    Did they have it?

She wasn't sure it was the best idea to mention it to him.  However it was a chance to learn whether or not it was here.

"Are there any books left in this house?"

Storm considers what has been said and asks,"So did the man leaveany detail as to where you are to meet him or how you are to cntact him for further instructions or jobs? If you have seen him before, could you describe his features?"

Dak continued to search the remaining rooms on the first floor.

Having exhausted the possibilities in two wings of the house, Dak re-traced to the entry room.  The last unexplored wing stretched away from where the others were grouped upstairs, and narrowed into a hallway with a door on either side about midway down the hallway and a large opening into what appeared to be another room at the end of the hall.

"I don' know about no books," Ric replied.  Dressed now, he looked like the sort of man that would definitely have raised suspicions if he had met the group before.  The lump on his head was still visible, though.  "He jus' had me come upstairs, didna give me a tour of the place."

Crossing to the last wing, Dak checked the open room at the end of the hall first.

Dak followed the hallway to its end, where the hall opened into a large room with another fireplace opposite him.  To the right, he could see windowed doors, showing beyond the overgrown patio that he and Wick had passed on their way into the house.

In the corner just to his left was a pile of trash.  There were signs of a trail in the dust leading toward the door to the patio, although stopping abruptly before that point.  Glinting from the edge of the hearth was something that appeared golden, though Dak would have to get much closer to tell details about the very small object.

It looked as though someone had come in to look out the patio window and then turned back.  Or at least that's what he thought it looked like.  He wasn't any tracker, but the dust looked obvious.

A little wary of fireplaces after the spider incident, he went over to spread out the trash with his javelin first.

In reply to Ric (msg # 135):

Storm looks at ric’s dressing and asks what exactly did the man ask him to do again

Moving to his left, Dak spread out the trash that had accumulated in the corner, finding that this was a mix of chewed and moldy fabric, what appeared to be stuffing material from furniture, copious amounts of droppings, and a silver hoop earring.

Upstairs, Ric reached into the chest again, pulling out a belt with a short sword in a scabbard.

"He said I was to get ya ta leave off investigatin' th'house," said Ric, holding belt in hand as he edged back to the hall.  It appeared he was attempting to get closer to where Telemachus was last seen, but he was not attempting to belt on his sword.  "Tha's all I know.  I don' know where ya find what ya ain't supposed ta find."

While it was possible Ric knew more than he was telling, it made sense his employers would have told a hired flunky as little as possible.    She had no more questions at this point, reckoning more would be learned only through finishing the investigation of this house.     She awaited to see if Storm had any other questions for him.

Telemachus put away his sling since that wasn't needed at the moment but he did keep his scimitar at the ready knowing that Ric, despite him being helpful in some ways, was still a possible threat.  Looking out the window again he turned back to the doorway and uttered his question to the presently unseen Ric but who he knew was well within range of hearing his request, "And the window frame?  Use a light or mirror to signal someone else if everything was okay or was that for something else?"

After picking up the earring, Dak stirred the debris one last time in case it's mate appeared.

Looking back to note there wasn't a door to close in case of spiders, Dak went to the fireplace to poke around for that reflection he'd seen from the doorway.

"I ain't seen anyone comin' up here afore ya did," said Ric, sidling down the hallway to the doorway of the room where Telemachus now stood, still holding the belt in his hand.  "Didn't hear anyone about, neither."  He looked decidedly uneasy.

Downstairs, Dak stirred through the trash, but found nothing else of note.  At the fireplace, he found that the glint that he had seen from a distance was a small, very detailed, leaf which, other than being made of gold, looked like it could have just fallen off a rose bush.  There was, perhaps to Dak's great relief, no sign of spiderwebs or spiders coming to investigate his presence.