Bastet1002 wrote: ↑Thu Apr 28, 2022 3:52 am
"I'm sorry Kiplyn," says Robur blocking the entrance to room 12 with his broom. "But I was here first..."
The friendly manners of the owners surprised Robur, but they still gave him no clear answers about the dumped barrels of excellent wine and mead. He really wants room 12 to set up his base of operations, and once he gets Kiplyn to leave, he will check the owners' rooms using the door at the end of the hall. (He will use the thieving skills moving silently going there and while looking around for papers and such for anything that might be a little suspicious.) If he is somehow gets caught, he will profusely apologize about being lost while "cleaning" with his broom.
OOC: Robur aces his move silent check with a roll of 1d6=6!
Mike and Darby are totally overwhelmed by the pressures of being new business owners, giving Robur plenty of time to snoop around their apartment. The door is not locked...
Robur is new to human culture and society; it's tough to say what would qualify as 'suspicious' or 'unusual' from his perspective. Clearly the new owners are still unpacking, but they are doing an admirable job making sense from the mess left behind by the previous owner. Robur senses that the occupants are 'neat freaks.' Everything is neatly organized in its place. Mike and Darby each have their own bedroom, and a shared common room.
Robur does a sweep of the apartment looking for
papers and notices an interesting pattern: one of the bedrooms has stacks of paper (Darby's room; more on that in a second) but the other bedroom (Mike's) is totally devoid of any reading materials whatsoever.
Mike's room is the larger and 'nicer' of the two rooms. The room is meticulously organized, but differently than how Robur might organize his own room: Objects are neatly arranged by color, shape, and texture (rather than by category or purpose). Robur finds no books, paper, or writing utensils of any type. He gets the sense, could Mike be illiterate? One final item of note is that Robur finds a (human-sized) suit of chain mail, helm, shield, and mace.
Darby's room is slightly more cluttered. His mace and shield are leaning by the fireplace and his mail hauberk is draped over the back of a chair. Darby seems to be an avid reader in his (limited) spare time. His desk is cluttered with religious pamphlets. Or maybe 'religious' isn't the right word; maybe it's more of a philosophy or self-help guide? The general theme is: Do not deviate from the straight and narrow path. We live in troubled, confusing times. The way to deal with this uncertainty is: Always stay focused, and keep a narrow mind!
The pamphlets are focused on earthly affairs and don't mention any gods or the afterlife. The penmanship is blocky, almost mechanical. There are no pictures or illustrations. Everything is printed in black and white.
A recurring theme in these philosophical texts is the absolute importance of
teetotalism or abstinence from alcohol. Robur deduces, this is why Mike and Darby were destroying the leftover alcohol from the Inn's former glory as the Wanton Wench. Robur realizes, if he wants any of the Inn's leftover beverage stash, he needs to find it before Darby and Mike can find it and pour it out. Where could the good stuff be squirrelled away, wonders Robur?