Not surprised that her companions had left off discussion of future planning to go wander about the ruined keep some more — honestly these Ashford folks had the attention span of kittens in a yarn shop! — Angel took the opportunity to hang back and have a private word with Pinna.

Yry has largely just been clinging to and fussing over Pinna but she smoothly moves back to the group when Angel seems to want to speak to Pinna. Yry uses a brief word of magic to cause one of her daggers to glow brightly with a clean white light. She then holds it up to help the others see a little better.

Alyssa starts tapping nearby bricks and finds one that isn't actually  mortared in. It looks like it but the mortar is just a cleaver disguise allowing the brick to pivot and hit some kind of hidden latch that swings the hidden door open revealing a long tunnel cut into the rock and soil underneath the castle grounds.

Cautiously the party  follows the tunnel finding that it leads to a secret emergency supply room. A combination larder and armory it is designed as an escape route if the  castle is breached. Fleeing knights could rest and recouperate here and either plan their escape or counterattack. Unfortunately nothing the supplies that had been stored here were not protected from the elements and the larder is full of shrunken, pitch black nuggets that was once food that had rotted away years ago. Likewise the swords and chainmail hung on racks has rusted completely to the point of uselessness. Perhaps an armorer could salvage the pieces but right now they were functionally worthless.

The tunnel continues on past the room, winding around the structure of the castle and coming up to a trapdoor concealed in the eastern courtyard. The trapdoor is overgrown with vines and the hinges are rusty but otherwise is serviceable.

Judging by the tracks in the dusty hallway the orcs had figured out there was something there but hadn't had time to explore it further so the actual location of the escape hatch is likely only known to the party (and Edmund who is ever present trailing behind the party as they explore).

"Do we want to explore that tunnel or go back and check the other rooms first?" Orila asked before she pointed to the stairs. "That stairs leads back up to the floors above."

---

OOC: Just getting my bearings again. We are on the ground floor and we took a set of stairs down from the 2nd floor. And this fort is only 2 floors correct? We don't know how much of underground levels there are at this point.

Talia just shook her head and returned. It was best they learned what all was occupying this place with them. She was stilla  bit worried over mentions of cghosts and such, but that was back to the top. "We'll scout it later. If nothing came through it to attack the orcs, it is not a pressing concern. Let's finish exploring the dungeons."

With that, Talia returned and moved to the next unexplored door, (C), where she hesitated before the door then shrugged and tried opening it.

Alyssa nodded in agreement with her companions. "I think that would be best. As far as I can tell, neither the orcs or anything else has been through here in a very long time! Lets have a look at the other rooms down here before we get too far ahead of ourselves."

Alyssa followed Talia back out into the corridor and tot heh next unexplored door.

This room has been set up as a combination of living quarters and shrine to some dark orcish god. Assembled out of rusting weapons coated with dried blood, the shrine has a brazier with something oily residue at the bottom.

The smell from the room was horrendous. Orcs weren't known for their pleasant body odor to begin with but whatever they were burning for their rituals was particularly foul and pungent.

"Eugh, it's disgusting," Yry notes, unhelpfully, putting a cloth over her nose. She moves in along with the others, cleaning the most offensively odorous areas with a quickly muttered spell, trying to stop the eye-watering stench.

After a quick scan of the room Alyssa couldn't handle the stench of the chamber and moved back out into the hallway. "What is it with the stench! It'll take longer to air out these chambers then it will to rebuild the keep!"

After a moment Alyssa gathered herself and moved to the next door in the corridor."Anyone want to put money on what's in here?" but before she got a response, Alyssa opened the door.

---

OOC: Trying door C, please.

"Let's be quick about it." Orila left the last room in a rush.

I thought we already did room C (msg 330). How about B? Unless the letters changed, then C ;p

Talia held her nose and just kept her face from turning too green to manage. She followed along behind the others and shrugged, "We already found the latrine, yeah? The chieftain's chambers?" She braced herself for a surprise.

OOC:
In reply to Orila (msg # 335):

Yes, you're right. I was going off the map I can see. B works just as well for me.

It looks like this space had been dedicated as a burial area for the nobility of the castle however instead the orcs used the space to set up a shrine to their god, Gruumsh One-Eye.

Using mud and sitcks the orc tribal shamans were able to craft a crude effigy of Gruumsh and in the one eye socket is a large fist-sized sapphire. In front of the shrine are bowls of congealed blood and burnt entrails creating pools of sludge on the slab in front of the effigy.


Treasure: Large sapphire lodged into Gruumsh effigy shrine.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:00, Thu 13 Jan 2022.

Talia waved at the air in front of her nose as it wrinkled. She eyed the shrine with mild disgust, but not more. Other peoples' beliefs were not hers to criticize. This would be yet another place that would require a lot of labor to cleanse and rededicate to its original purpose.

Huffing sadly, she motioned at the effigy, "I've no compunction over destroying that thing. The orc god can be as angry as he wants about it. That Sapphire will fetch a pretty price to pay for what needs doing."

She then looked around for the next closest unopened door to explore.

Orila hefted her maul. "I'll smash this in no time." She brought down the maul several times before she kicked aside whatever was left. "Let's keep going."

---

Room A :)

Yry holds up the sapphire, admiring its facets and color. She cleans it off and quietly fusses over it, apparently quite taken by it. "See there, beauty can even be found in the most squalid of environs." She felt no compunction in replacing the dragon tear she gave up with the sapphire.

Alyssa stands on her tiptoes to look at the sapphire in Yry's hands. "That is a beauty. Makes you wonder where they found it... and why they left it behind?" With a noncommittal shrug, she turned and followed the others to the last unopened door.

When Orila smashes the shrine it feels like the hammer blow resonates through the stone floor. Or perhaps it was the orcish god shifting in anger. Everyone pauses but there is nothing else that happens and the party moves on.

Decision: Smashed the orcish shrine

---

Opening up the final door reveals a solemn burial chamber. Ten rows of stone sarcophagi forma  sepulchral procession down this hall. As they prepare to enter Talia gets a sudden sense of warning and the hairs on the nape of her neck stand up. There is some kind of hostile presence the room even though nothing is visible to their sight. The room is unlit and with the bend of the hallway their torches and Pinna's magic do not penetrate very far into the crypt.

Reacting quickly, Talia steps to the fore and blocks entrance into the room. She squints at the dark before them and lets her gaze slowly move over the umbral space. A hand idly reaches up to rub at the nape of her neck as she scans. "This room feels wrong."

Shifting her gaze, she runs it over the sarcophagi and grunts sourly. "This. is. not... I cannot say for sure. But I wonder if we should explore it. This and that specter you mentioned before? There will be civilians and, potentially, children here and we cannot leave such for them to stumble on."

She looked to her companions.

"I think you're right, on both accounts. It does feel wrong, but we should also not leave it for more vulnerable or less organized people to find unaware."

Orila lifted her maul. "You want me to smash all of these as well?" The goliath stared at the sarcophagi lined in the room.

"I don't think the sarcophaguses are what's off with the room, but that's the sentiment." Turning her gaze back into the burial chamber she nodded to Talia's statement, "As much as I don't want to meet whatever is giving you the goose flesh I don't want a villager to stumble in here even more.

"Someone lead, I'll follow."

Orila will take the lead. She moved beyond the corner and continued. She'll stop and point out if one of the caskets are open.

From out of the darkness of the crypt a shadow emerges. Its shape and form hints at some kind of ancient knight or noble however it seems to consist only of darkness and shadows...and a pair of glowing green eyes.




"Youuu....should...not...be....hereeeeee!"

Talia had an idea. From whence it came, she knew not. She stepped in and around Orila and planted her feet. "Specter! We accompany the rightful and true king of this nation and lord of this castle. He has granted us the lands and properties upon it making me the rightful lord of this keep. And by what right do you deny us? What penance or what evil keeps you here spirit?"