Chapter One

[Eiji]

After Eh'mera finished looking at the miner -- there were claw marks on his body, not just burns -- she walked over to the three doors. There wasn't a way to open them from the side she was on, so she began to examine the walls nearby. Some people had secret corridors in their houses, only accessible by pulling a candlestick or shifting a stone in the wall. Perhaps the same would apply here.

Either that, she thought, or the doors weren't meant to open on this side. Maybe they only let whatever's behind them out...

[Zennshi Dormu]

The similarly-sized claw marks on the walls were the only distinguishing feature, Eh'mera found. No secret switches or buttons appeared to exist.

[Dav Flamerock]

Rathi knew that he could get in if he really wanted to, but his magical ability was highly limited. As such, if there was a means of getting in that did not require him to pray to the Ancestor, he would most definitely take it. So far the bolt had not moved to a knifeblade, but if he was deft enough he did have one method of lifting the bolt remaining.

Uncoiling his whipchain, Rathi focused carefully and attempted to get it wrapped around the bolt which was situated on the other side of the door. If he could get it wrapped around and subsequently get ahold of the chain’s other end, he could conceivably lift the bolt from its cradle and unlock the door.

[Zennshi Dormu]

OOC: Your dexterity is 10. You succeed in grabbing the other end of the chain pretty much automatically.

[Dav Flamerock]

Having gotten ahold of both ends of the chain, Rathi carefully lifted the bolt out of its frame and let it fall to the floor. Finally with the door unlocked and unbolted, he stowed his whipchain and pushed open the door, lighting the room up with his torch.

[Dallas Mathews]

Satisfied that there were no hidden instructions on the console, and unwilling to simply start pressing buttons, Artrius turned away from it, and returned to the door that they had just come through. Without any particular hurry, he re-cast the spell that he had previously used to open the door.

[Zennshi Dormu]

There was even less in the Captain's office than there was anywhere else. There was a bookshelf, a bed, a desk, and a rack that held a lot of badly rusted armor.

Artrius felt a slight level of relief as the door shuddered back open again, content that the closing mechanism only served as a minor delay.

[Shardi]

"I feel that this room will prove to be very important to us later, Artrius, Eh'mera." Reln said, leaving the room last. As soon as he left the room, it slammed shut yet again. "Well...investigations here are fruitless, so what will our next plan of action be? It may be reckless...but if we are being hunted, then perhaps we should start hunting."

[Dav Flamerock]

Stepping into the Captain's room, Rathi passed his torch over the desk and bookshelf, looking for any new additions to the guard's story.

[Zennshi Dormu]

The desk appeared to have nothing on it, and the bookshelf contained many dusty tomes and bad fiction novels. Inside one of the books, Rathi discovered a rusted key.

[Dav Flamerock]

Chuckling at the bad titles, Rathi withdrew a particularly bad novel and a rusted key clattered to the ground. He knelt and picked it up, spending a moment to string it on his belt before replacing the book in its shelf. He then stepped back and passed the torch over the rest of the room, looking for anything remaining before leaving the room and approaching the rest of the group in the first room.

[Zennshi Dormu]

Finding little else of value, Rathi returned to the group. He suspected there were only a few possible places that the key could be used in this fort, if indeed there were any. All he could remember is a single door in the barracks that he only now had even acknowledged being there.

[Eiji]

"Find anything?" Eh'mera asked, hoping Rathi had more success then they had. She was glad to be finally out of that room; she hated feeling trapped.

[Dav Flamerock]

“Nothing singular, aside from some papers and a wand,” Rathi replied. “The guards were blaming Interpreter Ssakath for the demon attacks, but he was innocent. Oh hold up,” Rathi muttered as his hand passed over the items he had found, stowed as they were in his robes. “There’s this key from the Captain’s room… and a locked door in the Barracks. Come on.”

[Shardi]

"Everyone get ready then. Everyone keep at least one weapon or spell at the ready when we open the door." Reln advised, following everyone back into the barracks. Rathi slid the key into the lock, and turned it to hear a satisfying click. It was at that moment the door flew open, several bodies tumbling out with the smell of decay right behind them.

Reln was the first to investigate the bodies, shocked at the conditions they were in. "They've been...eviscerated. The only reason they still resemble bodies is because their skeletons were left in tact..."

To show the proof of his words, Reln flipped over one of the bodies. The abdomen was completely gone, shredded skin and chunks of meat hanging off of bones. "Whatever did this...is more than likely hungry for more."

[Zennshi Dormu]

A few of the skeletons inside showed signs of alternate causes of death. The heads and limbs of more than a few of the bony corpses had been cleanly sliced off, and in one of the skulls, there was embedded something very peculiar. It was a small blue circular disc of some kind, with three viciously-sharp blades protruding from it. It appeared that whatever had originally killed these few had simply been eaten by the demons afterward.

Inside the room, there was also a metal wheel with a chain attached to it.

[Eiji]

Eh'mera walked over to the skull with the disc in it. It resembled something like a throwing star, and she was able to pull it out after a few jerks. She was able to examine it closer then, still wary of the sharp blades.

OOC: In before "IT'S A TRAP"

[Zennshi Dormu]

Eh'Mera had only heard of such a weapon before in stories. But both Reln and Artrius recognized it as a Vahnatai weapon. A Razordisk. Made from an amalgamation of metal and crystal. These were somewhat of a common sight during the Avernum-Empire war, and were usually found lodged in Empire soldiers not unlike this one.