“...Doublecheck the coffins!” Erwin declared.
“You think Rodrigo might be there?” Finn queried.
“Rodrigo not been Trimmed.” Erwin replied. “If he not there, then Erwin know he must be in East Door.”
“I see.” Finn glanced over the scene. “There’s a Spider Golem there. You’ll have to get close and make a few rolls.” The dragon held out a D20 and Erwin took it. “Give me a stealth roll.”
Erwin took a breath and rolled the die.
It landed on….
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Charlie crept over the flagstones to the wall of coffins swaying on their respective meat-hooks.
He hadn’t seen Rodrigo when he’d first looked into the room, but given the distance he’d examined the coffins from, it was very possible that he’d simply failed a Perception roll without knowing. Which meant that he needed to examine each coffin up close.
Tiptoeing into the Processing Chamber, Charlie skulked past a Spider Golem that seemed oblivious to his presence. As he cleared the golem, he reminded himself to thank Palseks for casting that invisibility spell on him – the last thing he wanted to do was fight another golem right now and the spiders were seemingly the most dangerous.
Once past the golem, Charlie took a few minutes to begin scrutinizing the individual coffins hanging from the ceiling. Rodrigo was a wolf, so Charlie didn’t bother with the coffins containing other races. Unfortunately, there were quite a few wolves and they all seemed like guards.
Carefully, Charlie crept from coffin to coffin, making sure not to touch anything. But after a thorough examination of the coffins, all Charlie managed to find were guards. Whether he should be thankful for that or not, he wasn’t sure.
Oswin was an ass, as was everyone else in this shitty little town. If Rodrigo died and took them all with him, it was no skin off his back. Hell, it could have even made a good hook – Veles captured by a band of rangers who suddenly drop dead, freeing him to rescue Charlie and the gang. Given how horrible all of these townsfolk were, the only reason Charlie had for helping them out was the fact that Veles had been trimmed by the rangers.
Veles’ new body was supposedly Oswin’s old boyfriend. Charlie didn’t really understand much about how trimming worked, but he did understand that if Veles got the boyfriend’s body, he might have gotten the boyfriend’s curse too. Which meant that Rodrigo’s death could very easily mean Veles’s death as well.
So, at least until they could break the curse, Charlie had to help the townspeople – and Oswin – if for no other reason than to keep Veles safe.
Having finished with the coffins, Charlie double-checked to make sure he hadn’t missed any more secret hallways, but found nothing. Taking a breath, he scooted back out past the golem just as it was reaching for another coffin.
The eyes swiveled and he froze, pressing up into the shadows, hoping it wouldn’t see him.
He thought he heard a dice roll and held his breath.