Chapter X – What Did She Say?

"Let's get some light up here" said Llona as she put her lock pick back into her belt pouch.

"I don't need light" said Grumpy as he stomped through the door and into the darkness.

"Well I do" said Elvis as he removed a sunrod from his back pack and struck lit it.  Light from the sunrod illuminated an area of around 30 feet radius in bright light, and a further 30 beyond that in shadowy illumination; more than enough for the group to see by.

"So much for keeping quiet" said Llona in disgust as she stepped through the door with Shyne a pace behind her.

"After you Slobba" said Elvis politely as he drew his rapier to defend himself against whatever lay beyond the door.

Slobba nodded his head in thanks and also entered the building, closely followed by Alyse who had an arrow knocked and ready to fire.

When Elvis entered the door he saw Grumpy standing in the middle of the room with his axe casually sitting on his shoulder.  Even to Elvis it was apparent that the room took up the entire ground floor of the tower.  There were no furnishings inside and there was a thick layer layer of dust covering the floor.  At the edge of the light he could just make out a 5' x 5' hole in the ceiling by what he figured was the north wall. 

"Shyne, why don't you send your Imp up to investigate the hole in the ceiling?" suggested Slobba to the Elven Warrior Wizard.

“Gimp, fly to the hole in the roof and see what is up there” Shyne said to Reggie.

“Go fk yourself pr*ck” muttered Reggie softly without thinking.

“What did you say?” asked Shyne

“I said ‘that muck looks thick’” replied the Imp quickly as he pointed to the heavy layer of dirt on the floor.

“Why yes, I guess it does, but what does that have to do with the ceiling?”  

“Nothing Master, just an observation” said Reggie contritely.

“Well stop wasting time and do what I told you and be quick about it!” ordered Shyne in a commanding voice.

“Yes Master” replied Reggie before he turned invisible and commenced his ascent towards the hole in the roof.

As Reggie flew very slowly towards the hole, he thought about the recent conversation that he’d had with his wife on the crystal ball while the group was resting in the unholy Glade.  

He’d been surprised when his good friend William Bartholomew Simpson-Jones had answered, but it was good to know that Willie was keeping an eye on things while he was away.  His wife, Constance Charlotte Wesley-Smyth, had seemed a little flushed in the face and short of breath when she had come to the ball; he hoped that she wasn’t coming down with something.  

After they’d finished the standard small talk about who had murdered whom in their neighbourhood, the conversation had turned to their children.  It appeared that there was a problem with their son Edward Charles Wesley-Smyth.  Apparently his teeth were too straight and he needed something called ‘Bray-surs’ to make them more frightening.  Reggie had been staggered when his wife had told him that it was going to cost 5,000gp for a Shaman to cast the spells required to install the ‘Bray-surs’.  Of course he’d offered to knock them out himself but Connie wouldn’t have a bar of it.  Ever since he’d thrown the boy from the top of Widows Peak bluff to teach him how to fly, she’d constantly questioned his parenting methods.  So what if the boy had nearly died, he’d recovered eventually hadn’t he?  Besides, if he hadn’t started flapping his wings before he hit the ground he would have died so technically he had learned to fly!  

The problem, as Reggie saw it, was Connie was too soft on the boy; in fact, she actually still tore the hearts out of his food for him!  Were they raising an Imp or a Pixie?  

Reggie didn’t know where he was going to get all of the gold from to pay for the spells.  He’d managed to pick up most of the coins that had landed on the stage as the tavern had burned down, but that was still a long way short of 5,000gp.  Connie had insisted that he demand a raise from the Elf but as he didn’t get paid anything at all that was a dead end.  No, he’d have to come up with a plan, a plan that got all of it at the one time.  

As he approached the hole in the ceiling he peered into the gloom below and picked out the figure of Shyne standing next to Llona.  With barely a conscious thought he squeezed his bowels and sent a missile hurtling downwards.  Just before it hit, Shyne took a step to his right to talk to Slobba and the projectile splattered harmlessly on the ground right on the spot he had been standing on a split second before.  

‘BLESS IT!’ Reggie cursed to himself before turning and flying up into the hole.

"What was that?" asked Shyne as he heard something hit the ground behind him. 

"Gimp probably knocked something off from the next level by accident" replied Llona.

"Maybe" said Shyne dubiously before he brought his hand up suddenly to motion his friends to silence.

"Gimp says that there is a hideous creature sitting at a desk upstairs" he whispered softly "he doesn't think that it has detected our presence"

"Then we have the element of surprise" said Alyse as she slung her bow over her shoulder "The walls look like the can be easily climbed, I'll lower a rope when I get to the top" she said as she made her way over to the wall. "After I've lowered it Shyne can climb up first as I'll be better able to support his weight."

"Don't you think that Llona should go lass" suggested Grumpy "she has more experience than you at climbing things, her being a rogue and all".

"Nonsense" scoffed Alyse "I'm a Ranger, I've been climbing things since I could walk"

"Suit yourself" said Llona in a miffed tone.

"Elvis make sure you keep the light steady" said Alyse as she moved over to the wall and began to climb.

The party watched nervously as Alyse slowly made her way up the rough hewn bricks that made up the walls construction.  Ten feet from the hole the brick under her right foot gave way.  For a second Elvis thought that she was going to fall to her death but she managed to grimly hang onto the wall until she could regain her footing and continue her ascent. 

By the time she reached the hole Alyse was gasping for breath.  After she climbed through the hole, Alyse quickly scanned the area.  She was in a small 10' x 10' room with an open door in the south wall.  Although there was a dim light coming from the room beyond the door she could not see anything in it.  After she had her breath back she wasted no time in tying the rope around her waist then lowering it to her friends waiting below.  After she felt the first tug on the rope she braced herself and waited for Shyne to commence his climb up to her.

A few seconds later she felt a tremendous strain on the rope as Shyne started to make his way up the rope.  To keep from falling into the hole she locked her knees and leaned backwards.  Much to Alyse's relief Shyne quickly made his way up the rope and was soon pulling himself through the hole.  After he had rested he wound his hand around the rope and gave it a tug.  Almost immediately the rope went tight and someone began to climb, and by the weight Shyne thought that it must be Grumpy.  Sure enough just over a minute later the Dwarf's head appeared as he clambered through the hole.

As Grumpy disappeared from view Llona grabbed the rope and began to climb.  As he had done for the others, Elvis held the end of the rope to steady it.

'By The Living God those pants are tight' he thought to himself.

"Slobba?" he whispered.

"Yes Elvis" replied Slobba from where he stood guard near the door that they had come through.

"Can you lip read?" asked Elvis.

"No, why do you ask?" replied Slobba without taking his eyes off the door.

"No reason" said Elvis as he continued to watch Llona make her way up the rope.

'I think she said mumble mumble mumble Frahrp' Elvis joked to himself. 

Suddenly the door to the outside world began to make a grinding noise as it began to close.  Slobba made a dash to try and hold it open but it shut before he got there. There was no visible way to open it again and Llona was up on the next level. 

Unless she could open it when she came back down they were trapped.

Authors Note: Climbing is also a skill that requires a die check.  As per the perform skill a 20 sided die is rolled and the characters skill points added to it.  While making her skill check Alyse rolled the exact number she required and therefore very nearly fell.