After much consideration of the door, Callum is dispatched to fetch a balk of timber from the rubbish piles in the main hall area while Edgar interrupted in his return to the group flies up to inspect the nest of the slaughtered nestlings.
After a couple of minutes Callum returns, grinning, with a 7 foot long length of 6x6 roofing timber over his shoulder.
** ADMIN DELETE September 3, 2001, 1:38 pm **
** ADMIN EDIT September 3, 2001, 1:39 pm **
While Callum is away Peter responds to Rolf’s question. "The floors upstairs were wooden, just normal floor boards - we could pry them up, I suppose." He looks up towards the ceiling and notes that the joists are showing, and that this area at least does not have a ceiling suspended under them. "If the ceiling is like this - we should be able to lower one of the smaller ones in without too much difficulty." He looks specifically at Zhiri and Elsbeth, as he says it.
"Good," Rolf nods to Callum at finding a suitable ram. "But let's see about getting a look in there first. Callum, Elsbeth and I will see about getting a look in from the ceiling. Madelyn, please keep an eye on things here. Anyone got anything suitable for ripping up a floor?"
"I don't mind getting up there," Zhiri shrugs, "Though she is better dressed for it than I."
The last is said with a rueful glance down at her green dress, somewhat grubby along the hem.
Ravn responds to Rolf's request for tools with digging into his bag of carving tools and produce his small chisel and mallet.
"These tools I use for carving runes in wood - maybe we should begin by making a peekhole..? And later we could maybe carve out enough material in one end to set Callum's stick as a lever?""
"My thanks, my lady." Rolf replies to Zhiri, "Let us get a look into the place, then we'll see who, if any, are to be our scout. Then, Ravn makes his own suggestion. Rolf turns to Ravn, his features composed, though not without a cost. "A fine suggestion, master Ashengrey. If you would be so kind...." Rolf makes a come-along gesture as he continues onwards to the room in the far right corner.
Clearing the way, he motions Ravn to the floor he deems to be over the sealed room.
*HACK-CHUNK-HACK-CHUNK-CHUNK-HACK-HACK-HACK-CHUNK-HACKETYHACK-CHUNK-HACK-scratch-scratch-scrape-scratch-HACK-CHUNK-HACKETY-HACK-scratch-scratch-puff-puff-wipe*
"There you go, Constable!"
Ravn stands back up and away from the small hole in the floor, motion for Rolf to take a look for himself.
While Ravn is hacking at the floor boards he notices that they are secured with nails to the joists beneath.
As Ravn cuts the hole he realises that it is dark in the room below, and if Rolf looks into the hole, all he can see is darkness.
Callum swings the balk of timber off of his shoulder and looks around. "Yon priest might finally be useful for something if he were here." he looks around those still assembled and calls over to Madelyn. "Lass, you've a fine sword arm on you, will ye be lending me a hand here?"
Edgar flies back down from the nest, alighting on Mandrake's shoulder, confident that the gnome will not be pressed into service with the ramming detail.
"I'd thought perhaps the bird-woman might have shared with my certain of my kin the urge to collect shiney items," he explains, "but I saw no sign ..."
The raven trails off, as he peers at the door, joining in the excitement.
Kerim watches the scene unfold, the destruction to the floorboards, the intended ruination of the door.
He wanders to himself that if it were he inside he'd long since have gone, would that there be another exit and taken what treasure he could carry to boot.
He moves off from the demolition site and calls the talking Crow over to him, trying his skills at animal handling upon it. He holds a piece of cheese in his hand (not that which has been placed in his ears), knowing that many a midnight feathered bird find it hard to resist.
If Edgar comes to him he's going to ask Edgar to scout for anyone leaving through another exit, and give some form of warning. Then try and determine where the Crow means.
OOC: Ought to be fun.
Standing next to Rolf and looking at the hole he just made, Ravn cannot help but share the Constable's limited pleasure.
"Hmmm - well, it's all pitch black down there so we won't see anything unless we hoist some sort of light down, and far down at that lest it blind us. And the floorboards being secured with solid nails we'll probably find it a grueling task to remove them, even with a lever - it will probably break before the boards bend."
He looks at Rolf and shrugs.
"Realization of limitations is better than stubbornness - I suggest we try the ram instead."
Madelyn stands patiently in thoughts of her own until she is asked to watch out downstairs as the others go up. She patiently watches as Callum fetches a plank of timber, and at his request for assistance, she jumps at the opportunity of something to do.
Rolf sighs, giving in to the fact that the room would not have a safe and simple answer. Following in Madelyn's wake, Rolf moves over to Callum as well, ready to lend his efforts to Callum's plan.
** EDITED September 6, 2001, 4:14 am **
Callum organises Rolf and Madelyn on one side of the timber and himself on the other, lined up in front of the door. "Now, lets see what we're about..." he begins a rhythmic chant, obviously some kind of working song, which sets up a good paced swinging of the timber.
As Rolf's abandons the floor drilling scheme and Callum starts setting up the ramming team, Ravn rolls up his sleeves to reveal a set of potent muscles, offering his contribution with an almost humbly apologetic smile.
"..er..I'm no weakling, either, so I could lend a hand, too, if there's room...?"
Without breaking the rhythm, Callum moves along the timber and indicates for Ravn to join in.
Taking a careful aim the foursome start to swing the big timber. Boom, Boom, Boom the timber strikes the door close to the lock plate, and three stikes later they are rewarded with a slight cracking noise.
Another three blows and the door is starting to move against the frame. One last blow forces the door completely open and with a loud crash it swings back against something piled behind it.
A quick inspection shows that it was the door frame rather then the door itself gave way.
After the seven jarring blows, Rolf lets go of the tember and wipes the sweat from his brow. He rubs his eyes in light of the sudden dust cloud caused by the door. Then he notices that in truth, the door did not give way at all. For some reason, he finds that funny and chuckles. "Damn fine door. I wonder if the artisan is about, he'd build a fine house if I'm any judge."
Stepping forward with blade drawn, Rolf steps through the ragged gap that once held the door frame. It's dim and he notices a faint light from above, mute evidence of Ravn's earlier handy work. He looks about carefully, wondering anew at what was deemed worthy of so stout a door.
Ravn stares blindly into the darkness of the room but fails to see anything other than Rolf as he becomes engulfed in the lightless void of within.
Ravn turns to the others.
"Does anyone have a lamp or a torch or something like that?"
The inside of the small room is dim and dusty, although a cloud of dust was disturbed by the opening of the door.
There is a sack behind the door which seems to have a couple of large objects in it. Inspection will reveal 2 large silver soup tureens, now slightly dented.
There are shelves all around the room, and dotted around on these are small sacks and barrels. Seeing these, you realise that the faded smell that had been making your nose twitch, is the aroma of old spices and herbs.
A quick look will show you that the herbs and spices are much too old to be of any value, and that only the tail end and opened packets were left behind anyway.
Some of the small casks clearly contained wines and spirits, although most have been opened and the liquer either spoiled or evaporated.
There are, however, 3 wax sealed stone bottles marked 'Ramanan Dessert Wine' and a small unbroached cask marked '***** Brandy'.
Affronted by Kerim's approach, Edgar turns away from the trader, ignoring the proffered cheese.
When the door finally opens, he peers in, ducking and diving as he tries to see past those before him.
Although the dim light is more than adequate for him to see, it does not occur to him that others might not be similarily gifted ... though he sees precious little of interest to himself.
Seeing nothing threatening, nor of anything of any particular interest, Rolf backs out of the spice closet. Motioning to Kerim and Peter, he says, "It seems safe, but not worth the effort. You two want to look it over?"
Moving over to stand beside Madelyn, he says loud enough for any interested to hear, "It's just some left-overs, nothing much worth bothering with. I saw a bit of silver in a bag, but no point dragging it out now."