5 The grand hall

Pushing against the double doors, they opened a smoothly and silently, to the great relief of Finn, who after stepping through them entered into a large open room with a high ceiling and chandeliers. He quickly realized the room had two levels and he was on the upper level. There was a grand staircase leading down into a larger central area that seemed to be some sort of assembly hall. The second level, where he was standing, wrapped around the four walls, and like a continuation of the hallway behind him had numerous doors leading to unknown locations and rooms.

'This place is bigger than I expected,' thought Finn to himself, ' I don't have time to explore the whole place, just need a way out.'

The chandeliers must have been enchanted with some sort of magic because the many small candles burned steadily casting their light on the lavishly decorated room without the wax seeming to melt. The room was much lighter than the hallway and Finn could see detailed tapestries hanging on the walls picturing all sorts of scenes, from portraits to scenes of adventurers fighting magical beasts.

Looking over the edge of the railing the majestic feeling of the room was destroyed by a gruesome scene below. There were about a dozen or more dead rats spread out like a trail from the stairs to a door, some killed by a bow or crossbow, judging by the protruding shafts in their bodies, but most had been slashed with a sword. There were also a few human bodies, two near a door downstairs and one in the stairway. Judging by their positions, it seemed like the rats had chased after the escaping people, and caught up to one on the stairs. The other two casualties should be swordsmen who were left to guard the door while the others escaped.

It seemed that the hadn't lasted long, as the door behind them was wide open, and the trail of rat bodies could be seen continuing down the hall there. Either way, Finn now knew which way he was not going to go, as he wanted nothing to do with either of the parties at this moment. It was clear however that downwards was the way to escape, why else would the other people run that way.

Making his way to the staircase, he saw the guard who fell there still had his equipment. Although most was damaged beyond use, the guard's belt, his money pouch, and case of what he now could see were crossbow bolts could still be used. The rats had unfortunately found and eaten any food supplies, and he couldn't find any more of those fragrant leaves. Fastening another belt around his waist and fastening the case of bolts to it, he looked around for anything more he could take. Looking towards the door the guards had died to defend he though he caught the glint of steel, probably a sword, that would be nice. 'But after that I'll quickly move on.' thought Finn.

Making his way carefully past the dead rodents, he almost stumbled when he kicked against something hard. Crouching down he found a crossbow half buried under a dead rat. Barely managing to lift the rat, he grumbled about his skinny build and lack of nutrient rich food. After Succeeding in shifting the rat, he carefully recovered the crossbow. As expected, it looked gross, with dried rat blood and hairs stuck to it. Finn hoped it still worked, testing it, he found that although the winding mechanism made some noise it was covered, protecting it from getting ruined. Thinking it just needed a little grease, he cut some fat from a nearby rat's tail and hoped it would work. Popping open the cover he quickly worked some of the fat into the gears and scraped the worst of the blood and hairs away..

As he finished up, a distant screeching and squeaking snapped him back to reality. Frustrated at how quick he had lost his focus again, Finn stopped breathing to better hear where it came from. Noticing it came from the door the guards had died to protect, he immediately gave up on finding the sword, snapped shut that cover on his new crossbow and ran towards the staircase. Not wanting to be seen by however many rats were coming he dashed up the stairs two steps at a time. and only stopped when he reached his old lookout spot. Ducked down he left only a bit of his head exposed so he could see what was coming.