Hélène: Further onward

Looking around on the first floor, we found an opulent reception room of sorts, with a throne in the far centre of the room, and space for supplicants in front. Looking around, Master Krastus founds a small compartment under the throne, where a small bag with valuables was stashed. There appeared to be no other exits to thir soom, however, but we rightfully suspected that the host would not enter the same way his guests do. Searching the panelling on the far wall, the Captain found a hidden sliding door, leading further into the building.

As he moved through however, one of the floor tiles he stepped on conspicuously depressed with an audible click, and he froze in his movement. If this was an alarm of sorts, we would now be undone, but if this was another trap, nothing had happened yet, but that might change as he shifted his weight off that tile. Sira and I hustled to find a large vase in the reception room, carried it over rather awkwardly, and proceeded to slowly set it down on the tile, while the captain moved off. It seemed our effort was well spent, as nothing further happened, and we moved on.

We found another set of stairs leading upwards, and I scouted ahead on tiptoe. There were another two guards on the upper landing, but they did not become aware of me. I decided to signal my friends to stop, and then prepared to stun them with a spell. This time, this worked perfectly, and my friends rushed up to subdue them, more violently than I'd hoped, but nobody wanted to hold back now as we had come this far.

The centre door opened into a large living area, with further openings to the sides, which we silently inspected, one by one. These appeared to be the sleeping quarters of several members of the Lieutenant's household. We could see the shapes of persons lying and one of the rooms had obviously barred windows, and the Captain found a girl chained to the bed.

At this time, however, we were finally undone, and the inhabitants awoke, became aware of our intrusion, and soon there was a fight at hand.