Move 183: Dwarves, Priests, and Keys
Orc Caverns--Afternoon, 7 Eleint 1374 DROlaf prayed over Jana's wounds, and Tyr's divine healing left the woman looking somewhat better than she had before. At least she did not look quite so likely to fall over anymore.
"Thanks," Jana said with a forced smile. Her face got a little color back, but not all that much.
Jana struggled to her feet and gingerly touched her armor. When it was cool, she slowly pulled on her padding and chain and reclaimed her shield and sword, cleaning the blade of orc and lizard gore on one of the ocr's clothing.
"Well met," Arachne greeted the priest. "I'm Arachne, the worst fighter in Toril." She smiled shyly. "So I try to find other helpful things to do when a war breaks out." She shrugged. "Seldom with much success. Daelen --" She indicated the unconscious warrior. "He's not dying now, but he isn't good to go anywhere either. If some of us are going to go look for misplaced prisoners, I don't think we all can..." She frowned. "Since I did manage to avoid the fighting, I guess I should go on the hunt." She greeted the other priest and the dwarf, also.
Aloysius poured his remaining water on Jana's armor. The water immediately sizzled into steam, but soon after that, the armor appeared to cool off, still intact.
The light stone that had gone dark during the fight lit up again.
Several people went to check on Daelen and each other before speaking to Semheis.
"I will be fine," Semheis told Blacky in response to his question. "I do not know about him though," he indicated the man standing beside him.
"Don't think there be more prisoners here," the badly wounded dwarf who gave his name as Snagger inserted. "I think they sent all the rest below. The bastards just had me and Gerrd," he nodded in the direction of the silent man standing beside Semheis, "'cause whoever's getting them had no use for us. Left us for the orcs to eat. Them two," he nodded at Olaf and Semheis, "probably woulda been sent next time they came. When yer feeling up to it, I'll go with ye to look for more prisoners. I want to find me stuff too." Snagger turned a big smile in Echo's direction, "I knew the lassie'd be back fer me, I did. I knew if anyone could figure out how to get it done, it'd be her or Jelenneth."
"Do you know where Jelenneth is?" Jana asked quickly. "I'll help look for any other prisoners and your things," Jana added with a glance at Echo.
Snagger shook his head, "They took Jelenneth wherever they're taking 'em, don't know how long ago, before they brought Echo here. Jelenneth wanted to escape," he added sadly, "but they took her below with the other wizards and priests before we could make final plans."
Azrun began searching bodies, looking for a key to the doors. He found a fair amount of coinage on the various orcs. One of the shamen had a nice pair of sapphire earrings tucked away on his person and the other wore a silver studded belt with three elf scalps and a pair of dried halfling feet hanging from it. The orc in chain mail had a bag filled with gold coins and an ivory-handled gilded dagger. He also had a very small key.
The three long spears the two shamen and the champion had appeared to be finely crafted weapons. One of them, the one that had been wielded by the shaman fought by Echo, Aloysius, and Jana, had a symbol on it unfamiliar to the group. All of the orcs either had shields bearing the more familiar skull-and-arrows symbol or tattoos of the same.
At one point Azrun stood up slowly and stepped back away from the bodies, "Um guys, these two aren't dead," he pointed at one that Aloysius had put to sleepand then at the one Echo had knocked out with the color spray. "Should we keep them to question?"
"Can you tie them up?" Echo asked. "I think we should at least try to question them."
Blacky retrieved his pack and throwing axe. After digging through his pack he produced some rope left over from tieing up the goblins and hands it to Echo. "I don't know how helpful questioning them will be if we can't understand the answers. We better figure out how to open that door in case we need to make a hasty retreat in our current condition." Blacky said and walked over to the large orc champion and looked him and his equipment over. "If you guys want to search around, I'll stay here with Daelen. Aloysius, you wouldn't have another one of those detect magic spells would you?
"Nay, Eric, I do not," replied Aloysius quietly. He took Echo's waterskin and smiled gently in appreciation. After taking a long drink, he handed it back to her.
"Echo, Stargazer shall likely be of little assistance rather he stays behind or goes to seek other prisoners. That being the case, I would prefer to go along with you and the others. If we find not any additional prisoners within a reasonable proximity, it may well be best to wait until we can move further along as a group."
Echo gave Aloysius a confused look before nodding at him, "Okay."
"There's those goblins you made friends with," Arachne pointed out. "Before tying them up, that is, and leaving them on the other side of a great big door. Don't you think you should work on getting the door open and retrieving your best friends? There's a small keyhole on this side; you could start by looking around for a modestly sized key."
Aloysius looked as if he had been punched in the stomach. His shoulders sagged before he replied, "Nay, I'm sure they took the opportunity to leave as soon as they could."
"Oh." Arachne thought a moment, then suggested, "Well, I guess so. It's no fun getting tied up, even by someone you like." She glanced at Azrun. "If you do get the door open, could you just make sure that the goblins aren't being nice about it and waiting for someone to come back and free them? Or that we're not better at tying up goblins than Aloysius thinks?"
"I will look into it, little gnome. You guys be careful out there," Azrun smiled.
"Perhaps the orcs can tell us where the rest of the prisoners are, and where they've stashed the rest of our belongings." Olaf said. "But if the prisoners are out of reach, we should find some place safe to rest. None of us appear to be in very good shape."
"Oh dear," muttered Aloysius. "Mystra knows where they might be with such a headstart." He squinted around at the parts of the cavern he could see before directing his attention to Snagger.
"Are there many exits from this cavern, besides the one we came in? I am hesitant to suggest that we push on much further afore addressing rather obvious impediments. We are short on food and water, Daelen is badly hurt, as are most of the rest of us for that matter. I suspect that our other spell-casters, in addition to Stargazer, have near-exhausted their incantations."
"The ins and outs of the place, I don't know," Snagger replied. "I've been tied up most of the time I've been here."
Semheis added to the conversation as the others discussed stayings and goings, "I will stay here with Gerrd. There is little else I am useful for now."
Aloysius noted the orcs that Azrun had indicated were still alive. "Suspect do I that we shall have difficulties in communicating with them, unless one of the new-comers speaks orc."
Echo replied, "Maybe we can find someone who can talk to the orcs. Kuiper or Garyld maybe?"
"Yeah," Jana added.
Aloysius sighed heavily as the gravity of his wounds began to sink in. "Would anyone have a sip of water that I might have?" he asked wearily. "The remaining water I had was used up in . . .er . . . extinguishing Janathell's armor."
Echo handed Aloysius her water and picked up a crossbow. She looked the weapon over while she said, "The orcs lived here so there has to be water somewhere. They probably had something to eat too."
She looked at Daelen and Gerrd, "Someone needs to stay with them while some go look for prisoners so we don't miss anyone here. Jana, Arachne, and Snagger said they'd go. I will too. Who's going and who's staying?"
"If someone has a sack I can borrow, I'll carry all the empty 'skins and refill 'em if we find water," Jana offered.
"Perhaps those with healing skills should address our more seriously injured afore we depart to seek other prisoners," suggested Aloysius. "Janathell, in particular, hath need of aid. I would propose that our search party remain in the immediate vicinity. If no prisoners are apparent, Echo's suggestion of returning our orcish captives to Millborn in search of an interpreter is wise. That would enable us to renew our strength and possibly obtain some additional information about what is going on down here."
He glanced back into the far reaches of the cavern. "Where shall we begin our search?"
"How about by looking for a torch?" Jana suggested
"Take your light stone," Azrun added
"So long as you guys will be able to see," Jana said.
"Let Aloysius carry it," Jana said, looking over at the mage and gesturing for him to take the stone. "My hands'll be full carrying 'skins, in case we find water."
Azrun held up his stone and winked at her, "I got mine and we aren't going anywhere....at least I ain't."
Aloysius took the stone. "Let us proceed to the far end of this chamber so we can discern how many exits there are," he suggested.
"There's one exit out of this chamber," Echo said. "I've already been back there. Let me go first so I can show you where I've already been."
Aloysius nodded in agreement. "We must keep in mind that our light will herald our arrival. I've one web spell remaining, so those in front may wish to delay a direct charge if we encounter anything."
He stood ready to follow Echo.
Jana nodded her agreement, waiting for Echo to take the lead. She held the sack of empty waterskins in one hand, her sword-hand free.
Olaf went to the four worst off, one at a time, and prayed for Tyr to heal each one.
When finished, he began methodically looking about while asking "Have we searched every where that has been discovered so far?"
Azrun looked around at the group almost like he was counting, "Ok, so Jana, Echo, Aloysius, Arachne, and Snagger are going to look for prisoners. The rest of us will stay here and prepare to leave this damn place. Be on the look out for the key to them doors. I found this small key but I doubt it'll work those doors but I'll try it."
Once that was settled, Azrun dug out what was left of his rations and water, "Semheis, you and Gerrd are welcome to this bit of food. I can't imagine orcs feed their prisoners very well." He looked down at the gash on his chest, "Maybe I should hire a tailor to make shirts for me. At the rate I'm going I could keep him busy most of the time." With that, He tore off a sleeve and soaked it with a bit of water to wash off his wound.
Echo smiled in Azrun's direction, "I used to help my mom with the sewing she took in. I can fix your shirts for you."Rennirolas turned from his examination of the shaman's spear. "Your aid was most well timed Blacky," he smiled, the blood from his numerous wounds showed vibrant against his pale skin. "And I'm glad we managed to keep Daelen alive, we've had too much death already," he sighed.
"But, let me do what I can magically to heal the most wounded amongst us," Renn said as he cleaned his longsword on a scrap of clothing from a dead orc. "Before I break out my healer's bag to bind those wounds I have not the magic to cure as of now."
When he's performed his prayers and bound what wound he can, Renn sat beside the unconscious warrior's side. "I'll keep an eye on Daelen as the scouting party goes out," he said.
Olaf and Renn distributed their remaining healing spells among the most injured in the group, taking care of the worst of the injuries.
Aloysius, who was carrying one of the light stones, Arachne, Echo, Jana, and Snagger prepared to explore the rest of the caverns in hopes of finding prisoners and water.
The key Azrun found was clearly not going to work in the keyholes in the door once the two were compared.
About to follow Echo, Arachne said, "The lock on the huge doors is surprisingly small. Discreet, you might say. Trying not to call attention to itself. (You know, like me.) That small key may well work."
"Uhm," Jana said to Arachne, "You can you do one of those door thingies again if the key doesn't work, right?"
"Uh huh," Arachne replied.
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