Exploration

Huddled in the shadow of a grimy fish-oil shack, you peer across the muddy alley at the decrepit two-storey warehouse slumped against its fellows on the riverbank. You're a couple of miles from the bay but you can still smell salt on the breeze.

Father Anselm said this warehouse is where Bartoz has been secretly hoarding silphium, the wild herb desperately needed for treating the mysterious plague ravaging the city's poorest quarter. He's asked for your help.

Fahlasi is no stranger to Bartoz's cruelty. The man used to be a minor noble, oppressing the peasantry in the warrior woman's homeland. That was before she taught the simple folk to use farming implements as weapons so they could rise up and chase the tyrant out. As fate would have it, they both ended up here. She, as a mercenary, and he, as the leader of a rapidly growing smuggling operation. It seems all roads eventually lead to this city.

The east wall looks like it might be scalable. If you can get through or over the iron gate into the loading bay, a set of stairs leads to a door on the upper floor. One of Father Anselm's patients, a local urchin, says there's another way into the warehouse from the sewers. Judging by the smell, there's a manhole nearby.

Earlier, you watched some of Bartoz's men unload a wagon and leave. There doesn't seem to be any activity now—not even a guard posted outside—though it's a sure bet the place isn't empty and unprotected. You reckon there's about an hour of daylight left.

What do you do?

"Barthelme and I can handle this one, Fahlasi!" Alner says, his owl familiar perched on his shoulder. Alner whispers something to the owl, feeds it a tiny biscuit, and it takes to the air, flying over the wall. Alner's gaze goes blank as he looks through Barthelme's eyes.

When the owl crests over the wall, Alner will check to see if there are any windows in the building that face into the east courtyard. He'll ask Barthelme to do a fly-by and take a peak in any windows to see if there's anyone watching. Then he'll have the owl land at the back of the wagon and see if there is anything inside.

Fahlasi stands watch over Alner as his eyes go slack. she knows he can't see in both places, so it's up to her to watch for trouble on this side of the wall.

Elsewhere on the docks are abuzz with activity. Stevedores and sailors and merchants all finishing up the day's work and eager to carouse. But not on this street. Honest folk give this place a wide berth if they know what's good for them. Activity around here roils under the surface, like cockroaches under a floorboard, waiting for dark to fall. A cutpurse near the other end of the street sizes you up and decides there are easier pickings elsewhere and slips away.

Barthelme circles the warehouse, allowing Alner to survey the structure through the owl's eyes. Fahlasi has chosen your lookout post well; it's just outside line of sight of the north-facing windows on the upper floor.

There's no lock on the wrought iron courtyard gate, just a heavy bar that you might be able to reach from the outside. The wagon's empty. The horse is still bridled but unhitched from the traces. The chestnut-maned beast swats flies from its hocks as it drinks from a nearby trough.

Through skylights in the roof and large southward windows overlooking the water, you get a good peek inside the warehouse. The floor is stacked high with crates, barrels, and other containers. A wooden catwalk runs around the space and connects the office overlooking the street to the loading bay in the southeast corner. The bay doors have been left open, the large loading crane still burdened with a crate and poised over the boat moored to the wharf.

One smuggler that you can see has just come up from the basement and hoists bottles of booze in the air as his buddy cheers him on from the catwalk. Another man, slightly better dressed, pores over documents in the office. On the boat, a figure descends below deck.

What do you do?

Alner relays this information out loud as he sees it.

"Looks loose, I think we have a good chance. If we're going to make off with a decent supply, we'll need to load it in that wagon. How d'ya want to do this, Fahlasi?"

Fahlasi thinks for a bit.

"Here's the plan: we go through the front gate. I'll hitch the horse to the wagon and get it ready to load while you keep watch. Then we get that crane up to the loading bay doors, load the silphium, and drop down to the courtyard. We load the wagon and get out."

Alner cracks his knuckles. He hopes he gets a chance to pop a sleep spell on some of Bartoz's lugheads tonight!

"Hey, how do we know which crates' got the silphium?"

Fahlasi quietly unseats the bar of the gate and opens it. She makes her way to the horse.

"Look, I'm making this up as I go. We'll figure it out once we're inside," she whispers as she starts hitching the horse to the wagon. She sees Alner nod and switch to Barthelme's senses and gets to work as quick and quiet as she can.

It took two men to heave that beam into place. Then again, Fahlasi has bested many men in contests of strength before. Still, lifting this beam is no trivial task.

As Fahlasi rolls up her sleeves and spits on her hands, ready to lift the beam, Alner pipes up.

"There's gotta be an easier way!" he whispers as he switches to Barthelme's eyes to scan the area around the gate for some kind of bar to lever the beam out.

There's a block and tackle lying atop a stack of rope in the corner. Fahlasi might manage the lift without the apparatus, but it certainly couldn't hurt! While Alner conjures a spectral, disembodied hand to fetch the gear, Fahlasi tests the bar out of curiosity... and she does it! She hardly even breaks a sweat! With a grin she pushes the gate open.

The two of you slip into the courtyard and prepare the wagon as planned. The workhorse nuzzles Fahlasi's hand and doesn't make a fuss. Your getaway wagon is ready to go.

A seagull screeches from its perch atop the crane. Apart from that, all is still. What now?

Alner takes refuge behind some barrels while stuffing the block and tackle into his back pack. Then he returns to Barthelme's eyes in the skies and watches the warehouse for a clear moment to move forward.

Once Alner says the coast is clear, Fahlasi will move quickly to the crane and move the platform into the bay (or in front, however she can get it to work). Then she will lead the way up the stairs to the loading bay.

It's a tricky thing, as the two men on the catwalk settle down with their booze and their dice in the southwest corner, from where they have line of sight to the loading bay.

Judging that the men are too intent on their merrymaking, Alner decides to chance it, and gives Fahlasi the signal. The warrior woman unlocks the hand-crank and works the crane mechanism, causing the arm to swing slowly into the loading bay. It seems to take forever, and you're convinced the mechanism's clickety-clacking and ratcheting is loud enough to wake the dead, but it's probably just your nerves; none of Bartoz's men are the wiser as Fahlasi gingerly lowers the crate onto the floor.

The two of you skitter up the stairs and out of sight just as the man on the boat pokes his head out. The man half-heartedly scans the courtyard before returning below, from where the sounds of an off-key fiddle float up, followed by tittering laughter.

The door to the loading bay's unlocked. You crack it open and peer inside. You find all sorts of cargo, some covered with burlap. There's a trolley parked against the south wall. The dingy interior makes Alner want to sneeze. There's plenty more stuff on the ground floor, 15 feet below.

Silphium requires special handling; it must be kept dry. Which means you're looking for specially-made barrels sealed against moisture. You'll recognize them when you see them. They're not up here in the loading bay.

What do you do?

Fahlasi motions to Alner to sneak down to the basement. That crane that overlooks the main floor sure looks useful but Bartoz's men are having a party right beside it. Curses!

Well, first things first: locate the waterproof barrels. She leads down to the main floor and starts searching quietly.

Alner follows Fahlasi. He keeps his wand at the ready to cast sleep on the agents. He also armors up, casting mage armor on himself. But, he holds to the shadows and crevices as his first line of defense, hoping to avoid a scuffle.

As you descend the stairs to the main floor, Fahlasi's chain armor catches on a box of metal ball bearings, sending the box toppling from atop a bench. You catch the box, but the bearings spill across the floor. You duck for cover but the two drunkards are arguing loudly about their dice game and don't even notice. You'll have to pick your way carefully through those bearings if you don't want to slip and break your neck! (new terrain feature added)

As Barthelme watches from the rafters near the skylights, you search the floor but don't find any silphium. Could it be on the boat? Or down in the basement?

What do you do?

Alner quietly laughs at Fahlasi after they recover from her mishap. He's having a great time with this cloak and dagger stuff. After failing to find the silphium, he motions to the basement to check next.

Fahlasi curses at her clumsiness but then sends a words prayer for their good luck. She moves slowly through the ball bearings and gets back to the plan, searching hurriedly. When Alner motions to the basement, she nods and takes the lead down the stairs.

Down to the basement you go. Down here you can no longer hear the water. Everything is muffled, even your footsteps.

A ladder in the northeast corner leads up to a trap door secured on this side with a sturdy iron bolt, which seems to be stuck. By your reckoning this should come out right next to the warehouse's front door. Oddly, you didn't notice a trapdoor when you were outside.

At the foot of the ladder are another trolley, and a hand truck.

What do you do?

Alner takes a deep breath of the cool, musty air of the cellar. "This would be a great place to drag unconscious regards!" he says with gusto. "And that trap door could make a great back-up escape route." He climbs up the ladder and tries to undo the bolt.

He wanders around looking at crates and barrels and gets curious as to the contents. Grabbing a crowbar he attempts to pop open a nearby crate.

"Nggh!" he grunts as he really tries to put his back into it.

"Quit messing around Alner! Help me find the silphium!"

Fahlasi means business and methodically searches for waterproof barrels.

Alner checks back with Barthelme's senses periodically to make sure everything is going okay above them.

"Okay okay!" he responds and starts looking in earnest.

Alner manages to wiggle the rusted bolt loose but no amount of pushing upward against the door, even by Fahlasi, can get it to budge. It's like something very heavy is resting on it.

Fahlasi searches methodically but can't find the silphium. Suddenly, from the basement's south section comes the sound of a door opening and closing, then footsteps and tuneless whistling. There's someone back there!

What do you do?

"I think a tour guide might be helpful," she whispers to Alner as she draws her blade. "Have your sleep spell ready in case they try to yell."

She rounds the corner quietly and approaches the whistler, blade and shield drawn. Once she makes contact she'll give a fierce command: "Make any sound and you're dead."

Alner follows behind, wand in hand. "Go ahead, make my day!" he says to the whistler with heavy bravado, pointing the wand at him.

One look at the two of you and the stick-thin man faints straightaway. It looks like Alner's sleep spell won't be needed just yet. The bespectacled man looks like some sort of clerk, complete with some kind of ledger and a set of keys on an iron ring. There's no sign anywhere of the door you heard him come through.

What do you do?

"Was it something said? Or smelled?"

He checks his pits for comedic effect, and figures he catches a grin on Fahlasi's face for just a second. it bad!

"And look what we have here... jackpot!"

He gives a quick glance out of Barthelme's eyes to make sure no disturbance has been made. Then he tosses the keys into his pack, sits down cross-legged, casts Light on his wand and starts pouring over the ledger for silphium.

Fahlasi can't help but grin a little at the kid's remark, but stops herself. This isn't play time, don't encourage him.

She gets busy gagging and binding the unconscious clerk.

As Fahlasi secures the clerk, Alner flips through the leather-bound ledger. It's written in code, but it's hilariously easy for him to crack. He finds two relevant entries on the second-to-the-last page, dated two days, and three days ago:
The prices are exorbitant, and soaring as the plague raises the demand, and the hoarding shorts the supply. But where are these three barrels right now?

Checking on the goings-on upstairs through Barthelme's senses, Alner sees that the man in the office is leaning out the windows overlooking the main floor and yelling at the two drinking fellows.

"What the hell is taking that four-eyed dipstick so long?" the man roars, gesturing towards the cellar. "Go check on him!"

What do you do?

"Hey Fahlasi, I think we got company," Alner say. "And we gotta figure out where 'Cellar C' is. The ledger says that's where they stashed the silphium."

"Alright. Let's welcome our company with a nice sleep spell out of the shadows. Let's tie 'em up and blindfold them too. Rather not Bartoz know we stole from him. As for cellar c, we wake up the clerk (blindfolded of course) and get him to tell us. Sound good?"

She directed Alner to a shadowy crevice between crates to spring the trap from.

"Sure thing!"

Alner ducks behind a barrel and gets his wand out, ready to zap the bad guys.

The two oafs stagger down the stairs and fall easily to Alner's magic, hitting the deck with loud thuds. There's plenty of rope stored down here to tie them up.

The clerk quails when you rouse and interrogate him. "Please don't hurt me! Take anything you want, but don't make me tell you anything. I'm as good as dead if I talk! Take my keys. Dugan and Mutz are always threatening to cut my tongue out just for fun. Laslo tells them to quit tormenting me, but also says if I ever make any trouble he'll cut my eyes out along with my tongue and send the lot to my mother!" That was a lot of words for someone who says he doesn't want to talk, but the thought of his poor mother seems to be too much for him and he faints again.

You definitely heard a door open and close. It's got to be hidden somewhere in this corner here. Maybe there's a hole for one of those keys? (new terrain feature added)

What do you do about Dugan and Mutz? They're bound, gagged, and blindfolded, but Alner's sleep spell will only last about a minute.

Fahlasi finishes tying up the two sleeping beauties, as well as gagging and blind folding them, tearing off expensive strips from a nearby bolt of silk. She also relieves them of any weapons or sharp objects the night have, tossing them into the bottom of a random barrel. As they awake from the magical sleep, she delivers sharp blows to the backs of their heads with Alner's crowbar.

She returns to Alner. "Comon Alner, it's gotta be here somewhere. I'll help you look."

"Hmm, if I was a rare, expensive medicine, where would I hide?"

Alner ponders the ledger and tries to make sense of where it might be. He goes full Sherlock, considering the clerk's position, his footprints, and any other salient details.

Putting together the most minute details both seen and heard, Alner deduces the location of the secret door. Factoring in the clerk's height, the halfling directs Fahlasi to where the keyhole must be. The warrior woman starts clearing the shelf and soon enough finds the keyhole behind a loose wood panel.

You try the keys and soon find the right one. With a turn and a soft click, the lock disengages, and a door-sized section of shelf swings open to reveal a short stone passage that ends at another stone wall. It's blank, save for an arrow slit and another keyhole. What do you do?

Alner whistles at the mechanisms that operate the secret door. "Bartoz really is loaded if he can afford a setup like this." He casts Light on a small dagger and hoists it with his telekinetic Mage Hand. He floats the glowing dagger down the hall, looking for any sign of traps or secret doors. A loose flagstone might conceal a pressure plate, or a crack in the wall might shelter a switch.

Alner spots pressure plates placed in the center of this 20-foot passage. Along the north wall, about waist-high for Fahlasi and eye-level for Alner, is a row of small tubes. Poison dart tubes, perhaps? The only door is the one at the end of the passage with the keyhole in it and arrow slit. You wonder if that arrow slit is for shooting into or from the room beyond, and whether there's someone on the other side right now? (new terrain feature added)

Alner steps gingerly around the pressure plate, pointing it out to Fahlasi. "I bet my bottom guilder that key opens this door."

He sends his glowing dagger through the arrow slit and peers through it.

Fahlasi sidesteps the pressure plate and unlocks the door once Alner gives the all clear.

Sidestepping the row of pressure plates in the cramped tunnel is no easy feat but you do manage it. Peering through the arrow slit, Alner sees the three barrels of silphium sitting behind iron iron bars in a small room. This must be Cellar C!

Using the clerk's keys you unlock the door. After a careful search for traps you warily step into the room, which is sectioned off into three by strong iron gates, securely locked. The brandy is in the north section, the silphium in the south. The middle section contains a curious collection of varied items, including enameled armor plates and a round shield.

In the south and west walls are identical setups: a crossbow hung next to an arrow slit, and a wall lever. (new terrain feature added)

What do you do?

It is beginning to dawn on Fahalsi just how powerful Bartoz's operation is. "Let's get the silphium and get the hell out of here," she says. She tries the lock and sees if the cage with the silphium will open with the clerk's key.

"..."

Alner looks longingly at the cool artifacts but snaps back to reality and checks in with Barthelme.

The man the clerk called Laslo is headed out the office door.

The clerk's set of keys unlocks all three cages. The barrels of silphium are heavy, but Fahlasi is strong enough to haul them one at a time. Now you just have to get the precious cargo out of here. The trolley & hand truck might be useful but they'll be of no help getting up any stairs or ladders. The obvious escape route is through the loading bay and onto the wagon you prepared, but you recall there's supposed to be a secret way through the sewers. Might the lever on the south wall lead you to it? But even if it does, would that be a safer route?

What do you do?

"Uh, that Laslo guy that our friend back there was so scared of? He's on his way. Maybe we should give that secret sewer entrance that urchin told us about a chance after all. Probably stinks less than Bartoz's henchmen."

After disarming the crossbows with Mage Hand, he pulls the levers to see if he can find a room with a sewer connection.

Fahlasi agrees, and quickly returns to the basement (carefully sidestepping the pressure plate to fetch a hand trolley to haul the heavy barrel through the sewers. She jams iron spikes under the doors so Laslo won't be able to quickly follow them. She loads the silphium barrel onto the trolley and gets ready to run.

You take the silphium and pull the lever on the south wall, revealing a narrow but level passage that heads south and then turns east. There is a faint sewer smell. (new terrain feature added)

What do you do?

Fahlasi loads the trolley and helps Alner load his hand truck. Then she leads the way toward the sewer smell, hoping to double-back to the warehouse and load the horse and cart they had hitched at the start of this caper.

Alner curses at the weight of the hand truck but manages to find a decent balance. He goes to learn Tnesercs Floating Disc in the future while snapping back to Barthelme's senses to see how Laslo is progressing.

Laslo is heading down the stairs from the catwalk.

---

Hurrying along the narrow, dimly-lit passage, Fahlasi spots the tripwire just in time to stop her loaded trolley. Further examination reveals a heavy net poised to drop from overhead. More defenses to keep intruders away from Bartoz's business.

How do you get past this trap? You could just step over the tripwire but what about the silphium?

Alner pulls out a small knife and carefully cuts the tripwire and then high-tails it out of there. This Laslo guy is bad news, he can feel it.

You cut the wire and scurry out of the way of the net, which drops heavily onto the floor. After clearing the floor you continue down the tunnel, wary of more traps. You come to an intersection.

Alner is sweating at the effort of pushing the hand truck. He looks for signs for the right direction to go. Then he realizes, "Hey, if we're looking for a sewer, just follow the fart smell!"

Fahlasi tries to keep her mind focused on the here and now, but she can't help but imagine the look on Batoz's face when he hears the silphium's gone missing.

Alner's crude remark brings her back. He's not wrong!

Ignoring the side tunnels (who knows what dangers or what riches lie hidden there?) you follow the fart smell and soon find yourselves in the sewers.

It's fairly dark here and smells about as horrible as you'd expect. Stone walkways flank the narrow channel in the middle, flowing with murky sewage that reflects what little light that filters down through street grates every few dozen feet. The effluent is choked with all sorts of debris: broken furniture and crockery, dead animals, wire cages, the odd wagon wheel, old fishing nets.

In amongst the junk you also see things stacked in a purposeful way: a cache of half-rotten apples here, a broken crate filled with ragged clothing there. Unexpectedly, you also find a small stash of things probably stolen from an alchemical shop: a chipped beaker, a jar of sulfur, a bag of saltpeter. It seems not just Bartoz's people move about down here.

In time you come to a set of metal rungs set in the wall. By your reckoning you'll emerge not far from the warehouse.

There's a strange scratching sound coming from the darkness further down the tunnel.

What do you do?

Fahlasi is not relishing the task of hauling up these heavy barrels of silphium, but even less if the two of them were being assailed by something in the shadows.

"I don't like that scratching sound, Alner. Let's secure the area first."

She leads the two of them toward the noise, weapons and arcane focuses drawn, leaving the silphium by the metal rungs.

When Fahlasi strikes a spark to light a torch, the scratching stops. As you investigate, a pair of beady eyes reflect the torchlight in the darkness before the stooped, hooded figure turns and scurries away. Briefly you glimpse scraggly gray fur, a rodent's nose and tail. The wererat leaves behind a piece of graffiti crudely scratched into the sewer wall.



What do you do? Do you pursue the vandal, or go back for the silphium?

Fahlasi is tempted to pursue the ratman, but she didn't want to get caught up in a skirmish. Where there was one ratman, there was usually a half dozen more not far away.

She takes another look at the beast scratched into wall and shudders. No time for that now, they had to get the silphium out of here. She returns ladder and begins the processes of loading the barrels up it.

You put the odd, somewhat unsettling encounter behind you and return to your mission. Getting the barrels up the ladder turns out to be no easy feat even with the help of the block & tackle you took from the warehouse courtyard.