[NPC Post]

"What the- ah, Ser Cedrick. You're here very early." Anderson reacted just as a normal person would when a bear stampeded straight into their direction, though he remembered soon enough that he did in fact had a bear-man investigator. The squire wasn't sure why Cedrick was naked, but he's disinclined to comment on it. "Your lead brought you to this general area, I assume. Is there any new discovery?"

He spared a glance at the ancient architechture, still steadfast despite gradually losing ground against nature itself.

"I have no idea this place existed."

A dead person...

Well. He won't need his stuff anymore. Henri willed the corpse's pockets to unfurl, revealing some spoiled berries that contaminated the hardtack in the same pocket, a few copper coins, and a spool of bowstring. Additionally, on his belt, a small dirk. Partially rusted. He dropped it with a metallic clang. There's nothing good.
The unstrung hunting bow looks decent. He could probably fix the bow with that string, but bringing arrows is a hassle.

Arrows.
This must be one of the kidnappers... Then, the blood on the tracks... He must've offered to stay, then died after the kidnappers were long gone. No, he wouldn't be face-down if that was the case. Was he betrayed, stabbed in the back?

Henri walked towards the center of the room, willing the backpacks to release everything they held inside them, all neatly sorted on the floor. Then, he yanked upward gently at Matilda's shoulderplate with his Telekinesis. The cyan marking on it faded entirely.

[GM Post]

The backpack vomited numerous clothing article of varying stench, from shirt to pants and extra socks and underwears. Alongside was a few more personal articles, notably soaps, towels, a few razor, some water canteen, a compass, two deck of cards, a nail clipper, and small bottle of bug repellant. One bag was particularly loud as it disgorged a number of tin pots, pans, plates and cups alongside the cutlery and two wooden spatula. There's a sack of preserved food, enough to feed half a dozen men for at least two weeks.

The rolls of tools, meanwhile, was categorized by purpose. One looked to be a mix of outdoor tools and horse maintenance. Another was filled with medical kit. Finally, the last seemed to be nothing but torture tools.

"Food and cold drink, for starter. What you got?"

The bartender eyed one of the thermoses on the counter and smiled with subtle pride. "That will be our specialty, fresh iced lemon te--"

The noblewoman's nose wrinkled. "Do I look like a waif to you? None of those pompous leaf juice! I'm talking alcohol, yeah? What's in those kegs, huh?"

The bartender sighed. Already two people rejected his carefully blended iced tea today, and one of the rejections came from a tea drinker herself. In resignation, he just shrugged. If this lady didn’t like tea, that wasn’t his’s lookout.

"That would be corn whiskey—-fresh batch made last month. For the food, we have deep-fried chicken in batter."

"Sold!" The noblewoman smacked her hand on the wooden surface, disturbing Jazdia who sat on the other side of the table.

As the bartender skipped to fetch the order, Jazdia beckoned Kaito and Chounan to sit at the same table. She had finished one letter and had it compactly rolled into a small tube. Leaving them for a while, she saddled that tiny burden on a pigeon's back and walked toward the door.

"Rata forod meglin pad óurqu, noro lim meldë!"

Just to make sure, she had shown the bird the mug sketches of Cedar before letting the flying critter fly to the northern horizon.
Then she returned to the table. Might sound presumptuous, but the elf looked far more relaxed now. Maybe because of the tea.

Without preamble, she began. "Before I... my company took over this establishment, we conducted some research regarding potential competitors and other disruptive entities. One of these entities is The Black Serpent Guild. But our intel on them was sufficient for business purposes only."

There was a long pause.

"All we know about them is they are a prominent spices importer on the black market. Keito, Mr. Chounan, as someone who understands the street of Rascade, I would like to hear your input on this matter."

---

Solomon was standing in one of the abandoned rooms of the ruins after following Matilda inside. She continued on when Solomon stepped into a small room. The place reeked of stagnant water and mold. The surprising power of the water from the lake aged the tower considerably. It sunk into the ground, and many of the walls started to crumble. Solomon recalled seeing the structure manned with Kindeance soldiers, keeping eyes over the horizon of the water. It was a shame that the only time he was able to go inside was after it had fallen into disrepair after being abandoned several decades ago.

The room was probably a store room or a pantry, a place to keep things so they wouldn’t have to walk back and forth from an actual store room. The contents have long since been removed or decayed away, only a few scraps of rusted metal rings from barrels remained. He turned and looked out as heavy footsteps unlike Matilda’s permeated the otherwise silent corridor. Cedar and Henri had arrived it seems. It looks like the information they acquired from the horses led them to the same place. He left the room and followed Cedar towards Matilda and Anderson. He noticed that Henri opted towards a different path, and left him to his own devices. Perhaps there might be more clues on the first floor.

“This place used to be a watch tower. The last time it was used was during the war against the dark elves. They kept upkeep on it until improved naval forces made the strategic position redundant.” Solomon spoke up shortly after Anderson’s comment. He then looked around the remains of the floor. Horses were here recently. Not enough time had passed for the waters of the lake to clean out the stench. “The place looks to have been used recently, but it doesn’t appear like those occupants stayed down on this floor. The water creeps in and the few dry areas looked to have held their horses. Henri had taken liberty to explore the next floor. Perhaps we should join him.”

As if on cue, Matilda’s shoulder plate rose up slightly, a cyan glow quickly fading before it returned to its position. That was probably Henri, trying to grab her attention. Solomon turned towards the stairs. That was the way up. At least that was the closest way up.

After providing all of her requests and the elf began to compose her letters, the bartender faced Jazdia's newfound companions and humbly asked. “How can I be of service?”

"Please put the table's order on my tab and give us a meal for dinner and as much as bottle of sake." Chōnan replied to the service boy, paying it in advance, the change is for later and gave him two gold coins for the tip. It was for the compensation from what he did early. As the orders has been served on the table. Chōnan poured a sake on a small cylindrical vessels for Kaito to show a drinking etiquette natively from the two men's origin.

"All we know about them is they are a prominent spices importer on the black market. Keito, Mr. Chounan, as someone who understands the street of Rascade, I would like to hear your input on this matter."

"Hmmm... I didn't think I'm going to cross swords again with this type of Syndicate. Not just they run spices, they also run other filthy businesses around here in Kinderance. Slavery and Smuggling. In order to conceal my identity. I dressed up as a shinobi and started the secret quest from the top. Stealth and Infiltration. It's quite a long investigation every night and quite dangerous since they have an army of skilled mobs. Those fellas have markings of the serpent biting on it tail forming the shape of a circle as I inspected one of body of a slain member who I encountered with." Chōnan spoken up and also pulled out the rolled map. Some circle markings around the maps inside the Kinderance Kingdom are belongs to the Black Serpent's business buildings and an X mark is meant for their Headquarters. "They also have warehouses outside from the kingdom, I can lead you guys there once we are done here. Also, this kind of business from inside the kingdom is protected by Corrupted Officials and Nobles. So policing or invading this kind of business won't work and lead some conflict inside.

I'm sure Kaito-san will know the rest of it." He ended his turn and saving some inputs to kitsune.

-snip-

Kaito watched how constable Delving stormed off. The situation seemed resolved for now. The Fox was pretty sure that Aaron Delving would make a fuss about it in the future but that would be a problem for later. For now it was good enough that they managed to get out without being hurt or thrown into the dungeon while still getting some information from the crime scene. However the fact that contable Delving was so unhappy with them snooping around raised suspicion with Kaito.

The Kitsune quietly followed Jazdia and the others to her restaurant. As they entered it was clear that Lucas and Jazdia’s group were the only ones in the establishment. With the thick curtains closed and no patreons around Kaito felt comfortable enough to show his true form. “Aah, it feels good to be myself once in a while.” Spoke Kaito joyously as he ended the illusions that obscured his fox ears and tail while waving at Lucas.

The fox’s eyes followed the young bartender as he poured the tea and placed the deliciously smelling spekkoek on the table. He quickly took a sip from the tea and a bite of the spekkoek. People had their opinion about the Angel’s Share but the sweets were top notch just as the service.

“How can I be of service?” Asked Lucas as he looked at the group.

“Well, I can think of a few ways.” Spoke Kaito with a smirk as he playfully wagged his tail. “but…Jaz always demands of me that I am on my utmost best behavior when I’m here so I’ll just have to settle for the chicken and fried tofu again.” Said the fox as he playfully pretended to be dissapointed. “And don’t listen to this angry lady over here, she has no idea how great your hot leaf juice tastes.”

As Jazdia gestured to sit down, but a comment from Yvonne grabbed the Kitsune’s attention. Following her eyes, Kaito noticed the calendar with a rather revealing picture of a certain elf. He could not help but to smile about it. He had always thought that Jazdia would not even be remotely interested in doing such a thing. Judging from her annoyed look on the picture she was clearly out of her comfort zone. It made the Kitsune wonder what kind of coercion the creator of the calendar used on Jazdia. Even more interesting was the fact that the calendar was still hanging in plain sight. Lucas must have some strange magical powers to be able to get away with it.

“Wow, that swimsuit looks good on you, Jazdia.” Spoke Kaito as he gave the elf a genuine compliment. “I never expected you to be into such stuff. I guess you have a wild side after all.” Spoke Kaito as he finally sat down at the table.

As usual the elf directly started to talk business and this time it was the Black Serpent guild. It was pretty clear that they were somehow involved in the assasination attempt. But how exactly and if they indeed had some connection with the royal guards wasn’t entirely clear. “Aah yes. The black Serpent guild. Friendly bunch of people, except when you want to get a share of the spice trade. Then you end up six feet under. They practically own the streets of Rascade. Most shops, traders and artisans pay them protection money. If you don’t, you will get in trouble. They walk a fine line between enforcing their rule and attracting too much attention from the guards.”

Kaito paused a bit before he continued. “I think they have around 500 members in and around Rascade. Many of them get recruited from orphanages at a young age or where homeless kids. The guild offers them protection, purpose and a family like bond. They let them start out with running small errands, pickpocketing and later on enforcing their rule on the markets. Some others were recruited at later ages because they offer specific skills. The organization is strictly hierarchical. Their top brass are called dragons. There are 3 dragons, each has their own area of responsibility.”

Kaito raised his hand and an illusionary mugshot formed above it. The illusion showed a male human with well formed facial features and well kept long gray hair. “This is Gerald Grey. He’s the current ancient dragon, highest leader of the Black Serpent Guild. He has a large tattoo of a black serpent acros his arms and back. The tail end starts at his left hand and the head of the serpent is at his right hand. He joined the black serpents around 38 years ago. He was in his early teens back then. By the time he was 21 he attained the position of Dragon. He has been the ancient dragon for 20 years now. Nobody knows where he came from, however he is an extremely powerful man.”

“The Black Serpent guild owns many properties in Rascade and the city's outskirts. Many are warehouses for the various goods they trade in, others are used for housing members, gambling dens, taverns, brothels. You name it and they have a few of them. Their main base of operations is the old Royal Rascade Trading company building just behind the market. The ground floor acts like a lousy tavern called the Drunken Dragon. 90% of the people you see hanging around in the tavern are guild members. The other ten percent are there to do business with the guild. At the back of the tavern is a door that gives access to the backrooms and other floors. The top floor is where Gerald Grey holds office. The rest of the space is mostly office spaces, meeting halls and stuff like that. The basement is absolutely off limits for everyone except the dragons. The door that gives access to that area is sealed off with powerful magic.”

“Usually there are a few dozen members hanging around in the tavern. Those guys are the run of the mill small time crooks. The door that gives access to the rest of the building is always guarded by one or two people. The people selected for that job are competent and not easily fooled. The headquarters also holds a dozen or so staff. These people are mostly administrators as many of the guilds activities are at least pretending to be legal businesses. The offices of the dragons are always guarded by at least two guards if they are on site. However the lower dragons do much of the important deal making in the city and beyond. Their whereabouts are unknown”

“If we want to find some information that can link the involvement of the black serpent guild to the assasination attempt on the king we’ll need to get into their headquarters. There are basically two ways in. First we can walk in through the front door of the tavern for all to see and ask to do business with the dragons. We’ll be needing a serious business proposal. I heard some whispers that the Black Serpents are looking for high end slaves. You know, people with speciality skills or dashingly good looks, like an elven beauty.” Spoke Kaito as he looked at Jazdia. The fox was pretty blatantly implying that they could use their leader as a pretend bargaining chip to get in. A plan that might be good enough to get in, but getting out would be difficult.

“Or we can try to sneak in at night. There is a small window in the back alley that leads to the staircase to the basement. Slender people like us can squirm through it. Chounan will need to keep his armor home. The door at the bottom is the magically sealed door. The door at the top of the staircase only has a regular lock that I can pick. After that we can look around a bit in the office spaces. The headquarter staff will be home at night and the dragons all have mansions in the best parts of the city and are unlikely to be around either. We only have to watch out for the guards that are patrolling the place. However, if we get caught we’re toast. The dragons simply cannot allow such a transgression to go unpunished. They have a reputation to keep up. We’ll suffer a horrible slow and painful death and will never be heard from again.”

The fox paused once more as he was sharing a lot of information about a criminal organization that was supposed to be rather secretive. He was sure that his companions would certainly have questions on how he knew so much about the inner workings of the Black Serpent guild. “Any questions?”

Decks of cards, huh... This'll be good to pass the time. It's not as good for throwing as metal ones, though. He'll take one of the 52-card decks, nevertheless.
The bottle of an unknown, unlabelled liquid caught his eye. He wouldn't know that it's bug repellent, because he never had a need to use one.

A dead person.
He scratched the back of his neck. It bothered him. He checked the wound. Looks like a deep stab.

He never did quite check if Inorganic Heal worked on corpses. Looks like it really doesn't. No matter how much he wills it, the stab wound refuses to close. He could close it another way with Telekinesis and then cauterize the wound with Temperature Increase, though, but best to not tamper with evidence.
It's not because his spell has stagnated, right? He just used Inorganic Heal this morning in front of Antigone. He grabbed the broken hunting bow beside him, and tried to cast it again but it also didn't work... Wait, this one's not broken. It was intentionally unstrung. He snapped the bow in half then cast it again. Oh, that worked.

He walked back to the center of the room. So many items to sort out. Seems like they've prepared themselves to live here for weeks before the attack. So much food. This fortress seems quite a considerable distance away from the capital, so he wondered how they could coordinate the attack so well. Were they delivered the attack orders through mail? There are no papers to be found here, though. They must've thrown it away, or burned it...?

Henri approached the toppled cookpot, and the pile of ashes mixed with tiny scraps of miraculously unburnt paper. This does look quite like a dead end, these pieces are blank... but he hadn't been taught by the great Smoldering Ember for nothing.

He scooped up as much ash and paper as he could with his hands wearing Cedar's oversized gloves, and cast Inorganic Heal on them.

"Please put the table's order on my tab and give us a meal for dinner and as much as bottle of sake."

The bartender Lucas froze for a brief second upon hearing that. He eyed the host, Jazdia, and obviously, there was confusion between all parties until the elf shooked her head and suggested that he might take the tip.

"Good sir, there is no need... to compensate." said the bartender embarrassingly. If you look at Jazdia, you can see her face souring a bit. "Milady had arranged the accommodation for her esteemed companions, please don't trouble yourself with the arrears and enjoy our service to the fullest."

Deliberately trying to avoid more banter and confusion, he turned to Kaito. "Mister Kaito, you are known to us. But still, what can I get you?"

“Well, I can think of a few ways. but…Jaz always demands of me that I am on my utmost best behavior when I’m here so I’ll just have to settle for the chicken and fried tofu again. And don’t listen to this angry lady over here, she has no idea how great your hot leaf juice tastes.”

"Iced leaf juice." Lucas insistently corrected as if the mistake of guessing the serving temperature bothered him more than a blatant transgression referring tea as leaf juice, but then, he was a jovial man again. "An iced tea, a bottle of saké, fried tofu, and dinner for two. As soon as may be!"



“Wow, that swimsuit looks good on you, Jazdia.” The fox chirped. “I never expected you to be into such stuff. I guess you have a wild side after all.”

The compliment was as genuine as it gets, but the timing couldn't be any worse. She tried to evade this when Rosenving daughter brought it up but, now... not so much anymore.
Sipping audibly, Jazdia gulped down more of the chamomile tea that it was advisable to drink in one sip. She should have known she won't be getting away from this

"There is nothing daring or wild about wearing swimwear." Jazdia was more embarrassed when she realized her voice was getting squeaky. Clearing her throat, she tried to deepen her tone.
"It was one of our marketing team's bizarre ideas. Making photoshoots sessions for every stakeholder's daughters as models and having the result printed on a special calendar. Now, don't look at me like that. I was just doing my part as the owner of the company. I can arrange such session for Yvonne Rosenving if she wished so."

The noblewoman almost spurted her whiskey. "No way!"

There were jokes and hearty banter between the two, and it would be a while until they can discuss the more important matter. But Jazdia let them have their laughs. After all, they were on a break right now, and might as well use the time to lighten the mood after this long day.

“So, about The black Serpent guild. Kaito began. Friendly bunch of people, except when you want to get a share of the spice trade. Then you end up six feet under. They practically own the streets of Rascade. Most shops, traders and artisans pay them protection money. If you don’t, you will get in trouble. They walk a fine line between enforcing their rule and attracting too much attention from the guards.”

"Hmmm... I didn't think I'm going to cross swords again with this type of Syndicate." this was Chounan now who spoke "Not just they run spices, they also run other filthy businesses around here in Kinderance. Slavery and Smuggling.

He then described his findings about their warehouses and his method to spy on them. Quite a fascinating story and Jazdia would be having a hard time believing his story until he pulled a map.

"I'm sure Kaito-san will know the rest of it." he concluded.

“Indeed. I think they have around 500 members in and around Rascade. Many of them get recruited from orphanages at a young age or where homeless kids. The guild offers them protection, purpose and a family like bond. They let them start out with running small errands, pickpocketing and later on enforcing their rule on the markets. Some others were recruited at later ages because they offer specific skills. The organization is strictly hierarchical. Their top brass are called dragons. There are 3 dragons, each has their own area of responsibility.”

And the top dragon was now a man called Gerrald Grey. White-haired, with a unique snake tattoo; The tail end starts at his left hand and the head of the serpent was at his right hand. Jazdia tried to remember this.
Needless to say, they needed to get into their HQ to capture the man.

"It will be like storming a fortress. 500 people and we don't have any reinforcement, no thanks to Mr. Delving." Jazdia forked the last piece of vanilla spekkoek before continuing. "We need a distraction. A big one, something that can lighten the security in their HQ. And I think I have an idea."

Gathered in a worn-out quiver with an adjustable sling, the arrow looked alien. Its fletching was three spongy fins with textures like cured leather, glued onto a shaft composed of equally strange material. On a closer look, the shaft looked like it was crafted from very smooth ebony, but lighter and less stiff. At the end of the shaft was an unbarbed diamond-shaped steel arrowhead, and that was the only part of Jazdia's arrow that looked ordinary.

As the elf held the arrow by its nock, a stream of energy wrapped its shaft and spread forward, forming a purplish flame on the metal arrowhead and turning it into amethyst-like crystalline. Jazdia's eyes glowed in a similar luster as she did the same to three more arrows.

She placed the arrows on the table, separated from the other, unenchanted arrows on her left side. In front of her was Chounan's map, and with a graphite stylus, she marked three warehouses with crosses; one in the south, one near the Guild's HQ, and the last one was the warehouse near the harbor. While The other two were marked with circles. Both were situated in a venue with a considerable distance from the HQ.

"When they realize someone is sabotaging their warehouses, the bulk of their security will be directed to the unharmed warehouses to prevent more damage. If it goes as planned, it will take a while for them to return to the HQ even if they got a wind of our infiltration."

"Mr. Chounan can I entrust you with this task?" Jazdia presented the four arrows on the table and to the bewilderment of her companions, she revealed: "Those are explosive arrows."

She eyed them and spared some time to savor their panicked expression, considering it as some sort of payback. "Relax. I instructed those arrows to be fully cooked in 8 hours from now. And even if those things are still with us after 8 hours mark, they will not go off as long as I am still here.

She turned to Chounan again. "The plan is simple, fire those arrows on the marked warehouses and report back here once the task is completed. Be quick and don't get caught. I heard you are a fine archer and can ride swiftly. I am counting on you."

"I hope you are not forgetting that the HQ is heavily guarded no matter what." said Kaito, explaining that the HQ also has a magical seal blocking its door to the basement. Kaito's story about those dragons feels rather surreal somehow. Anyway, with the plan laid out, it was obvious they would not sneak into the place in the dead of the night.

"With so many security details, it would be impossible to not go loud on this operation, and that would beget another problem. Geralt may escape when he realized his place has been compromised. that would make things unnecessarily complicated indeed."

Another silence fell until Kaito came up with a very absurd idea.

"We’ll be needing a serious business proposal. I heard some whispers that the Black Serpents are looking for high-end slaves. You know, people with specialty skills or dashingly good looks, like an elven beauty.”

He smiled, and that one smile so wicked Jazdia considered enhancing another arrow and stuck it in his behind as a punishment. No, she wasn't the one doing it. No matter how sensible the plan seemed to be, her pride was too huge to be tarnished like that she would rather close the place down and never come back to Kindeance, ever again, dead prince be damned!

She breathed rapidly, before regaining her composure. "let's not overcomplicate things. We blast their door open and get the man. I don't care if we will have the entire basement caved in!"

"Uh, one question. Wouldn't it be more feasible to grab the man in his mansion? Or better yet, when he's on the way home." No matter how reinforced a carriage was, it wouldn't hold a candle to a properly set up building. Not as many guards too, and reinforcement would be both slow and scarce. Hit it fast, hit it hard, and be gone before anyone can process what happened.

"On a side note, I'm against walking up on their front door. They'll inevitably recognize us, and when it comes to these kind of folks they can hold grudge for a really long time. Unless we completely uproot the entire band in one go." A more troublesome aspect was them going after the people around oneself. Yvonne couldn't care less, Foxxie probably would just disappear, but they wont hesitate burning this place down to hurt Sparky here for one. Dunno if the foreigner have family or acquaintances here, but they too would be a target. No, pretending to be businessmen had more trouble than its worth.

"Uh, one question. Wouldn't it be more feasible to grab the man in his mansion? Or better yet, when he's on the way home."

"If you ask me, I don't believe this entire Mansion thingy. In the times like this, strongmen usually will be more vigilant than ever. They wanted to be closer to their empire. Making sure it runs smoothly while at the same time remaining low profile. Remember that Gerald's face and his rank were barely known. This means the man is paranoid and rarely makes a public appearance. He would stay on his throne even if his empire is on fire. And don't forget, if the assassination attempt is any indication, they seemed to have a very extensive tunnel system, and they can and will use those passages as their primary means of transporting.

"On a side note, I'm against walking up on their front door. They'll inevitably recognize us, and when it comes to these kind of folks they can hold grudge for a really long time. Unless we completely uproot the entire band in one go."

"Our options are either that or have one of us cuffed." Jazdia shrugged. "Why? Do you fear those kinds of riffraff? If we can prove their involvement in Fred's assassination, I am damned sure Kindeance would have the entire guild purged until there is no single snake scale left."

"Our man need to sleep somewhere, yeah? Good point though, so we go in fast and hard. You got our exit planned?" This felt kinda rushed, unless Sparky here secretly already kept a plan to assault the target. Wont be too surprising if she did, honestly. The elf had way too many obstructive layer to be just a disposable pawn like the rest of the team. Just what kind of company was she running?

Yvonne took another bite out of her chicken. Whatever company it was, they made some damn good chicken.

"Yeah, nah. Let's just attack them as your initial plan. If it goes well there should be no tangible way to connect it to us." As if any plan ever went well. If it require more than two steps it's less of a plan and more of wishful thinking, but Yvonne just shrug. She'll improvise on the fly if it's necessary, it's nowhere near her first time up shit creek with no paddle. "You sure our target will be there? It's well past midnight in eight hours."

[GM Post]

The idea was solid, but plain physics dictated that it wasn't a possible outcome. Converting the ashes back into paper was a slow, energy consuming process, but as it went there's clearly something wrong with it. The reproduced paper was based on the remaining corners - ergo, completely blank. Combustion tend to be a one way street after all.

A fly buzzed and landed on the paper. It rubbed its front pair of legs impertinently.

The fly was incinerated upon approach, and he irritatingly shot the ashes and paper in his hand forward, making a cloud of black smoke and a decent smear on the wall.
His usefulness to this team at this point was already questionable, but it only seems to dwindle further.

No, there's one more foray left to tackle. Henri moved closer to the stairs and carefully discarded all the items that weren't his but Cedar's, then headed down the stairs, meeting the other four members mid-way.
As he took something off from inside his coat, "Cedar, I left your stuff in there. Matilda," he handed back her family's medallion, and walked past them. "I'm going to check the submerged floors."

His shoes make an awful amount of clacking noises without Cedar's boots, huh. Putting bronze soles on his shoes for easier sliding and skating... It definitely is one of the ideas of all time.
After making sure that all the items within his body are fully sealed to prevent water damage, and depraved of air to prevent buoyancy, he walked down the waterlogged stairs and into the water.

[GM Post]

The submerged level was pitch black. Moss grown on just about any surface, while tiny fishes lazily floated around the room without much care to the world. The layout was much the same as the floors above, and equally empty. Seemed that this level wasn't instantly flooded back then, allowing the content to be evacuated before the water took them. The structure itself was relatively well-preserved despite decades sitting underwater, though the great logs holding up the ceiling had shown some signs of rotting by now.

The stairs still continued down, to what must've been the cellar.

Kaito listened quietly to Jazdia’s plan. It was pretty audacious to just blitz in through the front door, grab the man and get out. However if they could manage to lure away enough people, they might make it to the target and get out. However, the aftermath could become problematic. The Black Serpent’s guild would see it as a declaration of war.

“I think it is plausible. With the distraction and the element of surprise to actually get in and get out. No one in the Black Serpent guild is going to expect anyone storming through the front door. So far so good. But the plan hinges on if we can find evidence of their involvement and if we can persuade the royal court to make a move. If we fail on that second part we’ll have the entire guild coming for our heads. I doubt constable Delving would be very pleased to raid the Black Serpent guild for us after today, in the case he’s not involved with them himself. Who do we present the evidence to?”

Invoking Golem Automaton's 30ft-radius perception to be able to 'see' solid surfaces and temperature in the water.

As he walks deeper in and the mineral oil grease seeps upward out of his body, he wondered. What exactly did he expect to find here? These lower floors must have been submerged for an innumerable amount of years, exploring this has a massive chance of being completely fruitless in relation to finding the prince.

Nevertheless, he pushed on, down towards the cellar. He was curious.

[GM Post]

An actual door actually barred the cellar entrance, though the once solid wood had rotten soft and the hinges rusted brittle. It detached and slowly fell backward with the slightest push, impacting the ground with a dull thud. There's many objects here - barrels by the dozens lined the walls on both sides, whatever it contained had long since compromised by the rotting wood. There's a sizeable wooden table down at the center, flanked by long benches, equally rotten to the rest of the room. On the far side was what looked like a well, its purpose made obsolete by the sheer amount of water available in the immediate vicinity.

On closer examination, a few chests were stacked at the corner next to the barrels. Rot had started to afflict the wood, but nowhere as severe as the rest of everything in the cellar. Was the wood treated before?