In reply to DM Bard (msg # 45):

Spotting their reticence, Delta shakes her head, and puts away her water skin.

"There is still a gap between now and your eventual release. It certainly wouldn't hurt you to be friendly with those of us who may, or may not make that happen."

She replaces their gags, and walks away. These two men had made an enemy...

When Delta questions the uninjured man again, he adds, "Let my friend go now, I will answer your questions, and I will fight with you to the end, and if I live, I will try to learn the ways of Erathis, though I've never been much good at learning".

The other man is older and gagged and seems to object to this statement, grumbling something at the younger man in protest.

In reply to DM Bard (msg # 47):

"This one seems willing to be helpful," she said to Mattias and the others. "So tell me, what do you know about the reason for the attack on the unicorns?"

"We're wasting our time here," Matthias adds, annoyed. "Neither is to be trusted, this much is clear. There as likely to turn against us as they are to flee as soon as are eyes are turned elsewhere."

Then, seeing Delta persist, Matthias allows her to continue while he moves on to discuss tactics with Tanyl and Vala. "I will call for Erathis' blessing right before we take up arms against the dark elves. Hopefully that, combined with a swift strike, will give us the edge we need to prevail."

Something seems to have changed within Matthias. His tone is less uncertain and he now speaks with conviction and urgency.
This message was last edited by the player at 19:10, Fri 21 May 2021.

The mention of 'dark elves' sparked a deep, memory in Delta's mind, a nightmare from her childhood.

She tried to put it out of her mind, even if Matthias didn't wish to trust this man, she could ask her questions. If they lived, they would be setting them free, she had no doubt. Might as well try to make some use of them.

"Also what do you know about the blood priest, did you have a description?"

Kellen shrugs, "I'm with the cleric, let's gear up and go kill the dark elves, they are lowlings anyhow and probably don't know enough to be worth our time!".

Delta waits a moment longer to see if the guy starts talking. If not, she replaced the gag and moves on with the others.

Having tightly bound and gagged the entry guards, the party moves to the east passage, and follows it carefully, not entirely trusting the word of the men left behind.  Good to their word at in least some respects, you find a northern passage that contains three very small doors with bottom slits (like you'd feed a wild dog through, or perhaps, a prisoner), further north is another door, and then the passage turns to the west.   That passage has a southern door that seems likely to enter the same room as the other door just as described.

ooc: for ease going into the weekend, here is the map with more detail than you've actually seen yet :-)..

"Should we release the sisters first?" Tanyl whispers as he inspects whether he can unlock these doors without the aid of the keys the guards supposedly possess.

"If you can, yes, that would be great."

Matthias nods in agreement with the suggestion to check in on the sisters' condition. Even if they remain in their cells for the time being, it will put the cleric's mind at ease to know whether they have indeed remain unsullied by Tegroth and his brutes.

Then a thought occurs to him and he kneels down to whisper into the slits, "Hello in there. Do not be frightened. We are here to help." He hopes that the sisters are indeed in the cells, but awaits a reaction.

Vala also checks the doors with Tanyl. It has occurred to the warrioress that sometimes a shoulder charge from someone present works better than a missing key.

A quick check of the three small doors reveals that they were probably meant to house guard animals, likely war dogs.  They are locked but barely so and not requiring much skill and certainly not a key to open.  Two are empty, the third contains remains of very young unicorn, its horn missing, its eyes gouged out, and obviously killed by neglect.

Delta stifles a gasp, but does nothing to hold back the tears at the sight of the poor tortured beast.

"Someone will pay for this," she whispers thru gritted teeth.

She is so upset at the sight, she fails to register the fact that the two women are missing.

Matthias' heart sinks when he takes in the sight of the slain unicorn colt and he has to steady himself against the doorframe to avoid collapsing to a knee in grief.

"Why?" the kind-hearted adept asks. "What manner of evil must dwell within a man's heart to do such a thing?" he asks, completely at a loss.

The young man feels his blood boil and his heart race wildly as impulses of visiting great destruction on Tegroth begins to well up within him. Now, in a sterner, grimmer voice, agreeing with Delta, "Tegroth will pay for this. He better pray to whatever unclean gods he holds dear the sisters have not been treated as such..."

Matthias is now ready to proceed with all due haste and is no longer thinking clearly. Any around him would notice a rashness seems to have come over him.
This message was last edited by the player at 01:04, Mon 24 May 2021.

Vala quickly steps between Delta and the awful sight and reaches down, giving her friend a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry, we'll make them pay, and we'll see this little one properly buried."

"Weren't the sisters supposed to be in there?  Why would they lie just so we can see . . . this?"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:39, Mon 24 May 2021.

"We could go back and ask them, but in all honesty I suspect they weren't high on the need to know list, if the sisters were moved. It might mean they were recently moved though, maybe we should hurry forward?"

Delta choked back her sadness, trying to put it away in the back of her heart for another day. There were more urgent issues to be dealt with right now.

Tanyl moves to the door beyond the three cells and listens and tests to see if it's locked.

Tanyl hears movement inside, its very quite, almost like someone or someone's trying to be quiet.  The door however, is unlocked.

While Tanyl checks out the first room door, Kellen motions with his hand his intent to go forward and cover the other door.  The ranger moves off quietly and disappears around the corner of the hallway.

In a low whisper, Delta turns to Vala. "There is no way that could be the same baby unicorn, could it? Can we even trust Kellen?"

Her standard paranoia is kicking in, but she watches carefully the direction the ranger went.

Matthias impatiently fidgets, each second lost filling him with new dark thoughts.

Hearing Delta's suspicions of the ranger, he whispers, "I don't know, I think so...but you never can tell what darkness may lie in man's heart."

Matthias forces himself to look at the dead unicorn colt again, trying to see any detail that might lead him to think this is the same unicorn colt he helped save not too long ago.

"Maybe they were siblings?" he adds, his tone tinged with uncertainty.

In reply to Matthias (msg # 68):

"If we survive this, I hope we can give the poor thing a decent burial. Some nice flower filled meadow somewhere."

Shaking herself, Delta attempts to refocus on the task at hand.

"What do you hear Tanyl? Anything?"

"Someone trying to be quiet.  Door's unlocked.  No clue what Kellen's doing, or if we should wait.  Part of me says to just burst in."