Into the castle!

[Ismaels-Legacy]

Saul looks at Dale and asks, "Shall I go or you?" gesturing toward the doorway.

[Stik]

Christopher continues up, to the next floor, to see if the steps and ladder continue to the roof. If so, he'll attempt to open the roof hatch for light.

[Breila]

The old keep is a very high building. The story Christopher arrives in consists of one large room. Here at least, some of the loopholes are bigger and shuttered. Another staircase leads up still higher. If he opens the shutters, he will get a little more light, though it is questionable how much of it will filter down through the small trapdoor. Keeping the door they came through open would probably provide the most light.

[Jenara]

Throwing her hands in the air Eloise waits for the next person to enter the room and darts up the stairs after the warrior.

[Kafen]

Dale says. "In we go..." He follows along with Thelma and the others as they move.

[Breila]

(I presume you are watchful and don't all stay on the far end of the bridge together.)

When Thelma, Saul and Dale rejoin the others in the circular room that makes up the whole floor of the keep, they can all smell human excrement. There are heavy footfalls from above, but a quick glance shows that Christopher is not in the room, and the pace is known to them, as is the occasional clink of the squire's armor coming through the open trapdoor.

A rope is hanging from the central ceiling beam, gently swaying as Christopher's weight moves the floorboards. Below it lies a trapdoor. the rope runs along the central beam, passing through a series of hooks, and is tied to hooks in a wall to their right, with quite some length of it still lying on the floor.

[Ismaels-Legacy]

Saul shuffles forward and stoops slowly to lift the trap door a bit to see where it leads....

[Breila]

The trapdoor is simply a hole in the floor, there are no stairs or ladder visible. On the other hand, there is a ladder in a niche on the back wall.
Lifteing the door just a bit, all Saul can see is darkness. The oder of human excrement, however, gets a little more pronounced.

[Breila]

Christopher had proceeded upstairs and left all the trapdoors opento led in more light. However, since the upper sotreys have only loopholes as windows, this does little, far less than leaving the entrance door open.

Some straws on the floor, close to the walls above the entrance level suggests that this could have been used as a sleeping place of last refuge, and a few discarded coarse sacks with patches on them testify to the stores that have probably been kept there, though any grain has been eaten by mice and/or insects.

[Ismaels-Legacy]

"Hrumph. I think I may have found the emergency latrines." Wrinkling his nose, Saul lets the trap door slam shut. Perhaps the noise will shock the rest of the party out of it's stupor.

[Jenara]

The smell had caused the young Eloise to hang back, she'd smelt far worse but there were others who could deal with it.

"Emergency latrines?" The young girl asks, "This place is horrible..." She searches slowly and carefully, looking for anything else that might be a door.

[Breila]

There is no door, just the ladder in the open niche at the back wall. Of course, the smell of excrement comes from there too. But it is not overwhelmingly strong, and it wasn't when the trapdoor was open either. It was not the smell of a latrine, rather what happens if somone is forced to use a bucket or a corner of a room because there is no latrine...

[Jenara]

Eloise scampers up the ladder, not bothering to wait for anyone else.

[Breila]

The ladder goes both up and down.

One floor above, Eloise finds herself almost nose to nose with Christipher who had finished exploring the upper levels using the stairs. The ladder does not go any firther up.

[Jenara]

"Down..." She mutters, sliding down the ladder using her feet as brakes as she passes the group, stopping just below the level they are all on.