'I guess these ruins were a part of Mosshaven once in the past? No, the walls have been there for so long that I doubt these ruins predate them. It's more likely it was a forward base at some point in the past. Either way, what is this…this much ornamentation on an underground door couldn't be just for another hallway.'
Looking back, he saw G with their doublet on and the metal leg in their hand instead of the spear. They appeared to be walking without strain, so Alex started down the hallway. Deciding to use (Echolocation) just in case, he listened to the echoes of his low shout bounce around the smaller stone hallway. Outside of the open door behind them, all Alex could sense was the stone making up the hallway, the sconces lining the walls, and the ornamented door opposite him.
Not sensing any immediate traps in the passage, the duo approached the door. From up close, it was clear the crest was slightly different than the one they had seen in the streets of Mosshaven, whether on the guards' tabards or banners on the wall.
"Maybe it's an older version? But why would a city that old change its crest…"
"They could have had a change in leadership at some point. If the ruling family changes, or the council or whatever group rules the city, then it stands to reason that the crest representing them would change as well. Besides, that doesn't matter right now. Let's go."
Moving to the door, G avoided the expensive looking parts of the door and pushed it open. The door was even harder to move than the doors before it, likely due to the dense metals making up the ornamentation.
"Help me out here, this thing's heavy."
Moving to assist closer to the wall, Alex pushed against the door as well, and it started to slowly move. The bottom of the door grinded against the stone flooring, as if whatever hinge holding the doors were giving way to the incredible weight. With no gap for air underneath or in between the doors, a burst of stale air escaped from behind the ornamented door.
Making sure there was enough room to squeeze through the gap, the 2 stopped pushing and looked past the door. There was no lighting in the next room, but Alex could still see an altar in the middle of the room. It looked to be around the size of a billiards table, and was slightly tilted forwards, allowing him to see the surface of the altar. On it was a skeleton encased in plain looking plate armor, similar to what the guards wore in Mosshaven, tabard and all, except there were 2 main differences. Firstly, the crest in the front bore the same differences as the door, showing instead a barren tree with a scorching sun shining down on it. Unable to see the colors, Alex couldn't see if there were more differences with the tabard. The other inconsistency with the armor was that it didn't have a helmet, unlike the armor the guards wore, allowing them to see the skull encased in the armor at a glance.
Looking elsewhere in the room, Alex saw racks of weapons on the left side, holding a myriad of wares, though most were worn or rotted with time. He could see what he guessed were the desiccated remains of bows, spear handles, staffs, and other wooden arms, as well as dusty but still intact blades, such as various swords of different lengths, shorter, triangular edges likely once belonging to daggers or spearheads, and rounded pieces that likely belonged to blunt weapons. On the right side of the room lay 3 chests, each open and containing 3 unworn sets of plate armor, these ones being identical in contents to the ones worn by the guards of Mosshaven, aside from the crest adorning them. While some of the straps for the armor looked unusable, for the most part the armor looked to be in fair condition.
Unlike the sides and center of the room, the back wall didn't appear to have any weapons or armor, instead bearing a partially torn cloth banner with the same crest as the armor. The banner itself was serving as a backdrop to a rounded metal shield mounted on the wall in front of it, bearing the same crest.
Using (Echolocation) to make sure nothing was hiding in the room, Alex walked into the room.
"It looks all clear to me. This place…it must have been a store for some noble clan or something. The insignia that was on the door is on all the armor as well, and on a banner on the back wall."
Taking a step forward as well, G entered the room behind Alex. Walking to the center of the room using the glowing moss still on the silver leg in their hand as a torch, G inspected the armor.
"It looks like it. This one must belong to someone important, since the armor is made of something else. I can't quite tell what it is, but it's definitely not metal…"
Walking over to the weapon racks, Alex looked for anything still decent. While the wood and leather handles of the weapons were decayed and unusable, the metal itself was still in great condition. He could see a few arrowheads lying on the ground without shafts, as well as a few metal balls, but nothing else he hadn't seen before.
G, still inspecting the armor in the middle of the room, was taking a closer look at the limbs of the armor. The gauntlets were sharpened at the end, like a beast's claws, and the lack of a weapon on the altar as well indicated that the armor itself was used as the skeleton's weapon. Assuming they fought with their hands and it wasn't just for show would likely mean that the armor was still easy to move in despite being stone.
"I'll take this armor if I can figure out how to put it on. Hopefully it's just like the other stuff; it would be a shame to leave this here. Did you find anything interesting over there?"
Turning back to the altar, Alex looked across the room towards the chests of armor against the opposite wall.
"Nothing asked from old weapons. There are chests of armor over there; we could probably empty them out to carry some of the lighter items. I'll go check them."
Nodding, G got to work removing the armor from the altar and skeleton. Undoing various straps on the gauntlets, pauldrons, and grieves, they slowly removed the various pieces until it was just the skeleton on the altar.
"Alex, you go ahead and get whatever you can; it will take me a while to get all of this on, so you've got some time to burn."
"Alright. We should head back to Mosshaven once we're done here. I'm running low on energy, and you probably need to recover somewhere. I'll gather up what I can while you gear up, then let's go."
Moving to the other side of the room, Alex looked through the open trunks containing the armor. The chests were all the same size, being about 80 centimeters wide and 30 long. Each one contained a leather bag underneath the disassembled armor, likely for carrying it on horseback or moving it for cleaning. With little room in the trunks for weapons, he closed one of the trunks, and lifted it.
'It's heavy, but not so heavy that we can't bring one. 2 is probably 2 much if G is wearing some, even if stone is lighter than metal."
Emptying one of the trunks, Alex moved back to the weapon racks holding the now empty box, and moved any of the usable looking metal into it. While not enough to fill the box even half way, it was still a fair arsenal. Moving to the back of the room, Alex looked at the banner. The shield and banner both bore an insignia that may get them in trouble, but that would only be if it was out in the open. He doubted that a merchant would drive away a wall piece like this just because it belonged to a fallen noble. Worst case, they could keep it until they leave Mosshaven. Putting the shield into the trunk as well, Alex brought it in front of the door they entered through, and sat down to rest while G put on the stone armor.