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In the back bedchamber, they find a secret door. Alzar disarms FIVE traps on the door and then picks the lock and they crack it open.
The wall at the end of this corridor looks exactly the same as the other outer walls in this fortress: dressed stones fitted closely together, with two brass sconces to hold torches. The footsteps in the dust lead directly up to the wall and then stop. The secret door is actually a heavy wood-and-metal door with a thinner stone facing mounted on the outside; it is triggered by pulling on both torch-sconces at the same time. If the characters think to look, they will notice that this door, like so much else in the fortress, has recently been rebuilt.
This is an exit to a secret cave complex behind the Keep
They head back up to level 4 and will come down here after finishing the tower.
Level 4 - This area looks like an antechamber. There is no furniture whatsoever, and the door beyond has not been repaired; it lies in splinters on the floor. Beyond the antechamber is a large chamber look as if it might have once been the master bedchamber. The room is filled by the remains of two large four-poster beds, several armoires, rugs, and tapestries. Two windows look out over the courtyard, with a large fire*place between them. Over the mantlepiece are the remains of a weapons rack, a jumble of rusted and broken weapons still dangling from it.
Characters who do a thorough search of this chamber will find several things of interest here:
A small, secret drawer in one of the wrecked armoires (stand*ard Find Secret Doors roll to find) hides a mouldy leather pouch containing 100 gold pieces, three gems (garnets) worth 100 gp each, and a finely-wrought ring. The ring has a crystal stone carved with a mountain-goat in a rampant heraldic pose; on the inner surface is carved the motto ''A Corran! '' Alzar grabs it for Jeddarin.
In the rubbish on the mantlepiece is a dagger on which there is not one trace of rust. It is a dagger + 2 with no extraordinary abilities. Alzar secures it for the lord as well.
There is a blank space on one of the walls. From the darkness of the surrounding wall, it looks as if a circular picture or some similar object once hung here and has been recently pried away. No trace of the missing object can be found in the chamber.
On either side of the fireplace in the old master bedroom are windows large enough for a thin human (or any halfling or elf) to enter. The remains of shutters still hang from hinges, and iron bars are still firm in the stones of the wall; it takes a normal Open Doors roll to pull enough bars free to allow someone to pass through the window. Evidently, these two windows were to be used for sniping down on any enemies who might have reached the courtyard.
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