Victor watched as the woman attempted to flee. He didn't pursue her, convinced the woman was mostly harmless. However the guard preferred to keep her where he could see her.  "Miss I would advise against running or doing anything besides sitting next to old Abram here. If you don't stay next to him I'm afraid he will have to be punished." He shouted as he hefted his mace up and above the prisoner. It was an empty threat but he hoped the old woman would believe him.

21:35, Today: Victor Blackburn rolled 14 using 3d6 with rolls of 4,6,4.  Command.

The old woman stops in her tracks based on the steel she hears in Victor's voice. Trembling, she slowly walks over and sits next to her husband.

Rasal is not concerned about the old couple at this point.  Once the doors are secured he heads to the cellar that had previously been indicated.  If he can get the hatch open without difficulty he will go straight down.  If needed he will cast a spell for light.

By opening every door he sees, Rasal is able to find the door that must lead to the cellar pretty quickly, especially since it's in the part of the house that the old woman was headed to...

But it's locked.

Victor paced through the house. He routinely checked on the couple while he also checked through the windows to make sure no one else had arrived. He saw Rasal struggled with a locked door. "I bet one of the old folks has the keys. I'll go pat down the old man if you want to check the woman for the key, I don't think she'll cause any trouble," he suggested. He returned back to the couple and checked the pockets of the handcuffed old man for any key.

The old man doesn't have any keys.

The old woman trembles, admits that she has it, and hands it over.

Once Victor delivers the key, Rasal heads down to the basement as previously planned.  He moves as quickly as he can manage without feeling too reckless, given that he has now lost what he assumes is a very finite amount of time.

There is flint and steel near the inside of the cellar door, and a lantern filled with oil and some tapers.

At first glance, it's clear that the cellar contains many fine and aged wines...

An elderly call comes from upstairs: "Don't move the port! The port mustn't be jostled!"

(For more than expensive wines, you'll have to do a Scan roll (though I'm fine if you each do one...))

Rasal lights the lantern and starts searching around the cellar.  Some wine might be nice to celebrate a successful raid, but they'd better find something better first if they're going to call it successful.  He moves quickly more than cautiously, and doesn't take the time to consider whether or not he'll regret this.

Rasal rolled 7 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,5.  Scan.

"Quiet down," he scolded the old woman when she cried out. His curiosity peaked he descended into the cellar. He took a quick look around to see if anything was of value. He saw nothing of value so he trudged back up to keep an eye on the old couple.

18:25, Today: Victor Blackburn rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,3.  Scan.

(Rasal: 5. Mixed result.

Victor: 3. Fail result. You get 1 xp.)

Marks on the floor in front of one wine rack lead Rasal to look behind it.

Behind the wine rack, Rasal finds a sort of cubbyhole in the wall. In the formerly-hidden space is a large chest that one may slide out into the open (which, in the past, is what made the marks found on the floor).

As he's heading back up the stairs, Victor has an overwhelming moment of deja vu. He realizes that the cellar and especially the steps remind him of a very dark moment in his life... (Describe that moment and how it filled Victor with rage, fear, or both.)

As Victor slowly climbed the stairs his thoughts drifted back to an experience years ago when he had been a new recruit in the guard. Back then he took pride in his job, thoughts of justice filled his head. He had been tasked with collecting a man who was behind on his taxes. It happened occasionally, usually he would scold them or occasionally throw them in a cell for a day. Just enough to scare them into being more responsible with their coin. However on this occasion when he escorted the man back to the prison they instructed him to be taken to an address.

Victor had been confused at the time but he followed orders. The man had grown more anxious as they traveled and stopped at some noble's manor. He had knocked and a servant had led them into a dark basement. There were several men and a variety of blades, restraints, and other tools of torture. Victor had been shocked but the man he was escorting had been terrified. He asked those in the room what the reasoning was. Apparently this was something done from time to time. "To remind the populace to fear betraying their king," they said. Given to some noble to fill their fancy for violence. Victor still stunned by the display had simply nodded and slowly climbed the stairs out. The man who had simply missed a payment on his taxes begged with Victor as he climbed, he had pleaded to Victor until he was out of earshot, and as Victor climbed the stairs in some noble's lodge years later he still heard the screams.

Rasal tried to pull the box out from its hiding place, but had some trouble with it.  Oblivious to what was happening with Victor, he called to his companion for some help.

Victor had been lost in thought but his partner's call for assistance brought him back to reality. He turned around inspected the cubbyhole. He ducked in, grabbed the chest, and heaved as he tried to pull it out.

13:11, Today: Victor Blackburn rolled 11 using 3d6 with rolls of 3,2,6.  Smash.

The chest slides out comparatively easily. (Comparative to Rasal's previous efforts, that is.)

The chest is just over a foot across, and has a handle on each side.

It seems heavy, probably mostly due to the contents.

Rasal tries to open the chest and see what is inside before they put in the effort to lug it upstairs.

The chest is not locked.

It is, however, trapped, and a fine dust shoots out into the faces of both Rasal and Victor.

It not only makes you cough, it feels somewhat poisonous!

(Victor and Rasal each take 1 HEAVY stress.)

There's the glint of what looks like precious metals or gems in the chest now that it's open, but it's hard to see right this second, your eyes are watering so...

Victor hacked as he stumbled back from the chest, his arm . He felt his eyes water as the air had suddenly been filled with the mysterious substance. "Damn," he muttered out loud, "let's hope whatever that was it doesn't end us. Let the blasted chest air out before we attempt to move it." His voice was somewhat muffled as he covered his face with an arm, a vain attempt to prevent himself from further poison.

Rasal mumbles something about agreeing, and maybe also propping the door open in case there are any more traps for them to deal with here while they wait.

No other traps go off, but time is ticking away... That'll get stressful in its own right, sooner or later, but for now, the area around the chest airs out, and nothing else bad happens yet...

Once the air is a little clearer, Rasal quickly starts grabbing handfuls of the gems (or whatever is in there) and shoving them into the bag that he brought for this purpose.

There do indeed seem to be no more traps involved with the chest (good thing for Rasal, who keeps not checking). And it is also true that there are in fact quite a lot of gold coins and gemstones in there... this will in fact make for a very good start of The Sandstone's hoard...

Once the chest is emptied:

--is it time to get out of here?

--or is it time to look around some more?

--or something else?

--(Also, is that bag going to be big enough and sturdy enough to carry all this heavy treasure?)

Victor looked at their spoils. "That should be a decent start for us, I recommend we throw in some wine bottles and call it a success. Might look and see if you can find a more sturdy container up there. I'm sure they have a trunk you could easily empty if need be. I'm going to go look for the stable. A few horses will make our escape easier."

He climbed the stairs and peaked out the various windows. They had heard the boy exit the stables so Victor reasoned they should be fairly easy to spot.

(Finding the stable is easy, and it's been left unlocked. There are a number of fine horses there, although it will take a little longer to saddle two of them.

Finding a better container than the sack will take a new Scan roll... Victor can also Scan the stable for suitable containers...)

Rasal carries the sack to the stable (with Victor's help if needed) and searches for saddlebags so they can split the haul and get it home more easily.

Rasal rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,6.  Scan.