Dogura listened silently to what the Horren had to say, and he was particularly interested in a certain word: "Rope," He spoke quietly turning back towards the basement. I don't recall seeing any of those things down there... "It's settled then. If there is a rope in the basement, it's all we need in combination with Saber's ladder to reach the barricaded house's window." He stated calmly, as he made way for the door. "I'll go let Saber know we've got a rope. If someone would be so kind as to fetch the rope, I'll be back with Saber in a moment." Dogura walked outside and rounded the corner in search of his saber wielding companion. "Saber! Where've you gotten off to?" he called out as he looked around. He turned his eyes to the ground, and noticed a trail of ink leading around the house.

He figured perhaps a scribe passing through must have a busted bottle of ink, but decided to follow it anyhow. As he rounded the house, he noticed a scorch mark on the ground, along with a few rocks littering the area. The samurai was quick to put the pieces together, and he looked onward. A battle had taken place here... Why hadn't anyone heard the bomb that had gone off, as evident by the scorch mark. Rocks laid around the ground, and the ink was just the icing on the situation. Octoroks. If they were able to take down Sabertache, then there must have been a good number of them. Dogura narrowed his eye as he searched around for their tracks. Octoroks weren't very hard to track, and the samurai happened to be pretty good at tracking enemies. He scanned the ground for any prints that may lead in the direction of the creatures, if in fact his assumption was correct.

[Track]

Aria's nonsensical "Scan Diary Check" turns out to be a poor idea; its failure ensures that she finds none of the probably useful information in the book (8+3 vs. 15 Fail). It's too bad she had tried to act all high and mighty and turned her scanning into a check; had she merely decided to look for information, then chance would have played no role and instead of wasting time she'd have been given the details immediately. Of course, that assumes that there is some all powerful overseer who is in charge of how much information is handed out to the characters... Ridiculous, right?

(OOC: There's a reason I don't care for nonsensical checks, HNS. Not only are they nonsensical, but more often than not they're time wasters as well. *shrug*)

"Check the last entry," Horren suggests, watching her slowly flip through the pages, of which there are many - looks like this journal was being kept for several years worth of time. "I imagine that will have the most useful information concerning the fate of Saria Town." It might also have information on their current predicament, but that's pretty unlikely, so the Brigadier decides not to get his or anyone else's hopes up by mentioning it.

Alpha spends several minutes searching the remaining architecture of the room before his eyes finally manage to land upon a viable location with which to hang a rope (10+5 vs. 15 Pass). While Leth looks around all confusedly for a few seconds and Horren shakes his head at the man's lack of attention, the Sheikah spies a large wooden cabinet that has been slightly burned away at the top, revealing the metal framework that lies beneath. There is one rod in particular that looks like it could be lassoed without too much trouble - one would simply have to aim it well and have a long enough rope. And if the rope in the Chores List is able to help them clean windows on the second story, then it's likely a pretty long rope.

Dogura's Tracking ability has always been first rate, and this time in no exception. After all, he'd managed to find the exact alley Saber had traveled down without any issues, even though it was a block or two down the road from the houses. However, nothing can make up for the water covering the ground; the ink has been washed away or spread about by the water, spreading it along the ground in all directions. It's impossible to tell which way the Octoroks went (6 + 9 -30[RG's Will] vs. 15 Fail).

Special Effect: RG's Will - if I don't want you passing a check, then you ain't passin' the check. Get it? Got it? Good. ^^;

OOC: Long story short, Saber is being...well, punished isn't my favorite term for this, but it is probably the most fitting. The fight was actually intended to just occupy his time for a little bit, but with the lucky rolls those Octoroks got ... well, let's just say I've got a few more ideas on what we can do with him now, and a rescue operation is not on that list.

OOC: If you insist, RG.

IC:
Nothing. Not that Aria was trying too hard; this was an evasion of privacy, after all, and Gerudos never took privacy for granted. Their tents were designed to keep what they do in there unknown to those outside it.

But the mind digressed. The ranger flipped through the diary until she got to the last page, as Horren had suggested. Once there, she began to read the still somewhat strange characters of the Hylian script.

The ink around the corner was everywhere. There were absolutely no prints, or anything to give the samurai a lead to where Sabertache might be. That damn fool... He got full of himself after taking on a horde of Octoroks, and ventured off on his own to find more...The samurai heaved a sigh, and returned to the house. If he could recall correctly, Alpha had a ladder as well. After a few moments he was back in the house and waiting in the entryway. Soon, they'd ascend to the second floor, and they could all move on. Finally, they were getting somewhere.

OOC: RG Will huh? That's a new one.
But why minus thirty? You only had to fail my check, not ram it into the ground XD

Alpha's eyes searched the upstairs area for several minutes before he finally spotted the piece of metal sticking out from the top of the burned cabinet. "If we find that rope you mentioned," he said, looking to Horren, "I think I've spotted something we can hook it onto." He pointed to the cabinet, pausing as he waited for anyone who wanted a look to come see it. "Can't know if it's nailed down or anything, but it looks large enough to support the weight of us long enough for at least one of us to climb up, provided they're fast enough." The look on his face suggested that he'd be willing to volunteer if necessary.

They could also try Dogura's idea, using a ladder in conjunction with the rope to get straight up to the second house. No doubt it would reach far enough, so the only problem there would be finding something to lasso the rope around . . . he could recall whether the window opened out or inwards; if it was the former they could just try the window and hope that the hinges would hold their weight. Otherwise things would be a bit tricky; it might be better to try getting to the top floor here and seeing if they could find anything to get the rope around up there.

But whichever way they did it, one prerequisite flashed through his head: they had to find the rope.

The Sheikah glanced back as Dogura reentered the household, completely ignoring the Brigadier and Aria's search through the diary; again, if they found anything worthwhile he felt confident that they'd inform him quickly enough. Had he been in the basement he might have known about the hole Aria had found, but no one had bothered to mention that fact to him. So unfortunately, he was left annoyingly ignorant.

If one realized that no one had bothered to speak about the downstairs they probably wouldn't be surprised when he looked to Dogura and asked, "Where was this trampoline?"

Dogura lifted an eyebrow at the man's question, and shrugged his shoulders. "Trampoline? I've seen nothing even closely resembling a trampoline since I was only a boy." Dogura couldn't help but wonder what inspired such a random question. "Why do you ask?" The samurai was perplexed by the question, but searched his mind for an answer.

It was possible that Alpha just wanted to burn off some stress. Everyone needed to have a little fun every once and a while. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, right? Well, this certainly wasn't Jack, and Alpha's type of fun involved more blood than a trampoline would inspire. It was a mystery to Dogura, plain and simple, and he would eagerly await Alpha's response.

Alpha jerked a thumb towards Horren and the note of Chores he was holding in his hands. "The note references the rope to being hidden somewhere behind a trampoline. If there wasn't one down in the cellar then . . ." he trails off, looking around in confusion for a second. "If there wasn't a trampoline, then there must be another basement area, right? Any idea where that would be?"

He glanced around; though he hadn't explored much of the house himself, he'd hadn't heard talk of any stairs other than the ones he had seen: the one down to the Cellar and the burned down ones that they were wishing were intact so they could simply walk right upstairs. Where could a third group of stairs have been located?

"If there wasn't a trampoline, then there must be another basement area, right? Any idea where that would be?"

Aria looked up at this. "I did find a hole in the wall, and there was open space behind it," she reported. "But it was blocked by bars, and Dogura thought it might have been for drainage. We couldn't see anything in the darkness, and I didn't want to risk any more damage to the house, so we left it be. At the time, it didn't seem important, but maybe that is where the rope and trangolean are." Gerudos obviously never had to use anything to jump high into the air with.

"If you think you can remove the bars without bringing the house down, then go ahead. I'll stay up here and finish translating this entry."

The ranger remembered that funny smelling food and decided to warn him about it. "Oh, and there's a container of food down there that has gone bad. You should probably stay away from it."

OOC:

ZeldaVeteran wrote:But why minus thirty? You only had to fail my check, not ram it into the ground XD

Had to make sure you would recognize the futility of the situation. Wouldn't do for you to keep pounding away at your poor idea even after I'd already hinted at its pointlessness by having you fail over and over and ov--wait, when did I start talking about Saber again?

IC: As Aria flips through the pages of the diary, Horren comes over to stand directly beside her, glancing alongside her as the Gerudo finally locates the final entry of the journal. It's a very short entry, it seems, but after reading over it the reasons for that is clear.

'Woke up last night to hear people screaming - went outside to find Knights and monsters fighting everywhere. Haven't seen an Octorok or Zola inside the town before, but there they were, all of sudden pouring in from the river - only place that the city walls don't protect us. Figures. I grabbed my sword and helped out where I could, but I don't think I did much good - I'll take life as a trader at the marketplace over life as a Knight any day of the week. Anyway, we cleared the first force out, but it looks like more will be coming soon, if they aren't already here. Hard to say.

Nice thing about having the Mayor as a next door neighbor, though - you get to learn about his decisions pretty quickly. Heard from David himself early this morning that a mass evacuation is gonna be instigated. Heading down to some secret hideout that he and the Knights started preparing back when Dark Link and Ganon attacked; word on the street is that the Old South Road is blocked off again, and there seems to be trouble brewing in the North-South Pass. No telling what that's about, but whatever it is, it's making sure we can't head north for this one. Gotta grab what we can and gather at Town Hall by three o'clock this afternoon.

Melissa and Megan are already working on packing things up; Peter's been recruited to help David board up his house, and I'll be joining them once I'm done here. Apparently our good Mayor's chosen to leave behind a few things in there - hopes are that when help arrives they can get inside and learn of our fate.

Just wish he'd tell us where we're all heading...

I think I'll be leaving this diary around the house - put it in the safe, where none of those stupid beasts are likely to find it. Maybe, sooner or later, somebody smart - somebody human(oid) - will come around and be able to get inside. If you smart folks are reading this, then feel free to take anything we've got lying around! There's not much, I know, but we left a few things in the basement area that you might deem useful. There's a door underneath the central stairwell in the entry hall - we made it to look like a closet, but it's got some stairs leading downwards. Long as this isn't more than five or six months after I'm writing this, then the swords and shields I've got stored down there shouldn't be too rusted over from disuse.

Good luck, everyone. May the goddesses bless us all.'

Unfortunately for anyone looking to nab some free weaponry, the entry is dated as occurring a little more than a year ago, and with all the flooding that seems to have been taking place, there's little doubt that those items are ruined and worthless now.

Of course, that hardly matters, right?

Aria read the passage out loud for everyone in the house to hear, stumbling over a few characters only once or twice.

"So they evacuated," Aria restated. "That's a relief."

The Gerudo made her way over to the ruined staircase. She hadn't seen a door there, but she was looking for it now that she knew it was there. "The weapons may be useless," she voiced her idea, "but do you think they kept something else there?"

"The weapons may be useless, but do you think they kept something else there?"

"I'd imagine so," Alpha replied firmly, glancing at the rubble of the staircase. For a second he considered just throwing out a Fire spell . . . but that was too risky; it might cause the whole building to ignite, and then how would they get into the second house? The Mayor's House, he amended mentally, glad that they finally knew why it had been deemed necessary for special defenses. The Mayor, David, had apparently left some stuff inside that would be useful for anyone who came along - such as the Adventurers. Maybe something inside would point them towards the hideout spoken of in the diary entry.

But enough of the realizations - they had a rope to find, and until they did there was no point in musing about what they may or may not find in the Mayor's House. "If there's supposed to be a staircase leading down to a second area of the basement," he said, continuing his earlier line of thought, "then perhaps that's where this trampoline is - and where the rope is, too." He swiftly joined Aria in her search, letting his eyes scour over the rubble as swiftly as their crimson gaze would allow.

No one even seemed to notice Leth as he entered the downstiars basement. Good to know i'm loved here. Leth thought bitterly. He listened in silence to the things being said, and was very intent on the reading of the diary. Apparently they survived, that was good... but there was no mention of the rangers, only knights. What had happened to them? Where were they now? Leth was absorbed in his own thoughts for a few moments before realizing they still had some searching to do. "Another staircase, eh?" Leth mused to himself "Okay, lets find this staircase." He cast his gaze around the room, searching for anything... awareness check

Why must I have a knack for attracting the hatred of deities?

Things were not going well. He had nearly killed himself with the bomb, and now the street he was turning down ended up being more of a dead-end alleyway. Not good at all. He could have sworn that wall wasn't there before, either. It was like some child with his Linkin Logs was reconstructing the boundaries and barriers of Saria Town whimsically at his playset, or perhaps not so much whimsically as with great purpose, trying to trap the little red mouse as he darted around the board pursued by a quartet of even smaller cracker-sized blobs of red and blue.

Now he turned, the Octoroks filtering into the alley to face him once more. Things had gone horribly, horribly wrong. There was a terrible feeling in his gut that told him he wouldn't be scraping by as he did several times in the Gohma battle; and as his foes simultaneously fired at the boxed-in mercenary, all the agility in the world wouldn't prove that intuition wrong.

________________________

It was a common saying that, just before dying, every living thing would relieve themselves, emptying the bowels prior to their conciousness. Growing up, he had seen several cases of such a fact, but also noticed that those who died calmly did not seem to share this phenomenon. Theorizing that only those who experience a sudden and painful death clear the various tubes in their bodies, the scruffy-looking lad had never imagined that ten years later he would be testing that theory.

And, of course, to end the string of horrendous events so far, he discovered that he had theorized correctly.

But wait, was he still concious to discover this triumph? He had thought for sure that his number was up. In spite of all logic and reason, he had seemed to pull through, though he wasn't out of the woods yet. Rough, inhuman voices reached his elliptical ears, though little of the converstaion made much sense. Unable to shake his head clear for fear of compromising his safety, Saber instead attempted to assess the situation with any working brain cells that remained.

Who knew how many monsters were nearby? He only heard two or three, but there could be countless more, and he dare not open his eyes to check. He could not fight in his condition even it were but one foe. Suppose that was his first order of business? He could ask the Godesses for assistance. However, speaking was a no-go. He could pray mentally, which had worked before, but then there was the triad of lights to contend with. Surely the monsters would be alarmed at the spectacle, and a fight would ensue soon after. He would need to be in a more favorable position than the current for sure, with his body already in the hands of the enemy. There was still so, so much left up to chance. All he could do was rack his brain to try and rationalize the best path, even if it was just to lay low. [Insight Check]

HP: .1/44
SPL: 14/14
Will: 9/9

OOC: If this check fails I'm organizing a coup.

The goron followed in their wake, the first suspicions of weariness beginning to seep beneath the satchels of sleep that swung slowly beneath his eyes. It'd be nice to see that the rope was left in pristine conditions, perhaps even on top of a center table in this hidden room that stood in the guise of closet.

It had been some time now since they'd all entered the house and the shadow of the mayor's humble abode was beginning to cast through the windows and leave him droopy of another moment scavenging about. In any case, he stuck with the group, muffled complaints were subdued behind the low gurgles of his stomach as he waddled behind, beard in tow.

As Rosen watches on, both Aria and Alpha begin studying the staircase's remains, while Leth wanders off back to the Cellar, looking around for something that simply is not there (1+3 vs. 15 Fail). (OOC: At least, I assume you went downstairs to search down there for the staircase; didn't get a good grasp of your goal in that post, Leth ). He sees nothing new in the basement, especially not this fabled second staircase.

Perhaps, though, that's because the diary had referenced it being in the Entrance area, not the Cellar. As it is, Alpha and Aria have much more success than their Sheikah Ranger friend (13+3 vs. 15 Pass, 17+5 vs. 15 Pass). It isn't exactly obvious, but towards the edge of the pile of rubble the pair's eyes fall upon a still mostly-intact doorframe and door buried underneath a few planks of burned wood. It doesn't look like the thing's in very good shape; it's cracked apart, and the boards atop it don't appear too sturdy either. They could either move the boards, or apply enough weight to it to collapse the door and reach it much quicker.

* * *

Saber's groggy body may need time to recover, but at least his brain is working well. It is definitely wisest to lay low and not let his captors know he has regained consciousness, making use of the time by gathering information about the situation and come up with some sort of plan of escape. The first thing he should notice is the obvious - for one, he has not been bound, and it seems as though his weapons have not even been touched. Apparently those Octoroks know nothing about taking hostages, meaning that should he attempt an escape he'll at least be able to fight...at least, as soon as his body recovers.

In the meantime, though, his brain works at lightning speed to determine the number of enemies in the immediate surroundings. The Zola is one, and the Octorok in charge of dragging him about bumps the total upwards by at least one more, but he needs something more - and he gets it (18+3 vs. 15 Pass).

It's been called many things in history - warrior's instinct, a sixth sense, spiritual detection...the list goes on and on. But regardless of the title, the ability remains the same: people who are desperate or skilled enough are sometimes able to sense the people around themselves without the use of sight. Saber could be thought of as being in both of those groups, so it isn't too surprising that he is able to employ the ability.

As he lies still, waiting, he can distinctly sense seven different presences. Three share similarities to the beast that has him still gripped by the leg - likely all four are the Octoroks he had battled. That could be good; it would mean that the two that had taken the bomb's blast will likely have not yet recovered from the attack. Similarly, the remaining three beings seem to have a similar aura; and since he'd heard at least one Zola, it shouldn't be too much of a stretch to assume that the others are Zola as well.

Four Octoroks and three Zola. While two of the former group are still injured, those are remain terrible odds - he'll need to wait for some to leave before he can chance trying to escape. Or he could try to get some of them to leave somehow.