I creep back down the stairs and tell Siri and Zayva what I heard.
"Now what? Do you want to go up and see what is there?
Siri nods,
"I say we head up," and she moves stealthily to follow Muhoro.
Muhoro heads up the stairs with the two women.
You're in the middle of the staircase - there's about 25 steps total - when you hear two sets of boots walking toward you from above.
Zayva gives Muhoro a look along the lines of 'I thought you said there was no one.' Slightly panicky but after a moment she steels herself, looking at the others. She motioned back downstairs before motioning towards the noise with a questioning look on her face. Mace in hand she was willing to ambush if the others were as well, because how much longer could they keep running and hiding?
Siri nods her array of weaponry readied.
In response to Zayva's look, Muhoro shrugs his shoulders with a puzzled look on his face. He also retreats down the stairs and readies his weapon for possible combat.
"Didja hear about the fracas in the arena downtown?"
"Yeah. Pity about the victims...whoever they were." You hear a cruel chuckle that is cut off into a gasp when the two guards round the corner.
"Slave fighters? 'Ere, 'oo're you? I've never seen you around the compound..." the first guard asks - that's all he has time to do, if you guys plan to ambush. If you wait to attack, initiative will be rolled normally and you'll sacrifice your surprise round. Whoever acts first - either to lie or to attack - will probably dictate the actions of the group.
Before either guard has a chance to say another word, Muhoro swings his tetsubo at them.
Attack-Melee:
Damage: 1d10+7=17
Sorry, I updated the map - battlemap now - and didn't mention it. xD
Siri lashes out at the flatfooted drow with her morningstar, hoping to finish them before they can act.
Her Curse, feeling the rush of adrenaline, took hold. All the drow spoke was gibberish to her.
Zayva took a five-foot step twoards them and attack the drow in front of her.
Zayva stayed put, motioning at her companions with best wishes, अपने हमलों सच हड़ताल कर सकते हैं!
Muhoro, Zayva and Siri move forward with the quickness of striking snakes, lashing out with their weapons as one. All together, their weapons connect with the young males' temples, knocking them out cold instantly.
They fall at your feet in crumpled heaps. One of their necks is bent at a slightly worrying angle as it rests against a stair. The sounds of bustling in the kitchen behind you continues on unabated.
Siri points at the still living drow and looks to Zayva,
"Can you stabilize him without waking him? If we take him to the storeroom we entered by we can try to question him, and hide the other one's body to."
Muhoro hefts the dead Drow's body over his shoulder and begins to move back to the storeroom with the others.
"I suggest we wake him blindfolded, and I try lying to him first. Maybe say we are from House Kashi come to aid after against an ongoing assault and that I need to know where the portal is? If that does not work we can resort to intimidation to get our answers."
Muhoro nods his agreement to Siri's plan. He hides the other body in the back of the room, but first searches it for anything of use/value.
Siri drags a sack in front of the door, endeavouring to make it look like it has casually fallen - more to give warning of entrants than to prevent entry. She then uses some sacking to bind the unconscious drows eyes, and looks to Zayva to revive their prisoner.
Muhoro, you find a pair of coinpurses on the males. With infernal oni counting speed, you determine that they contain coins and a few small gems worth 1500gp or so. You also make a strange find...a small, tightly wrapped piece of parchment. Unfolding it, you see that it appears to be a map that depicts the agricultural district and specifically, a lake therein. There appears to be an X under the lake. You also find two potions of water breathing - their motivations becoming clear to you.
Siri, you think you make a passable scene. Probably wouldn't fool a skilled investigator, but one can never tell who would find such people.
After the two fell, Zayva had moved to check both of the drow males' conditions. If one or both were still alive, yet dying, she simply touched the one that was closest to death first, willing it to live, before moving to the other and doing the same. If one of them was already dead, there wasn't much she could do.
Thanks to Zayva's efforts, the males' conditions stabilize. Neither are at imminent risk of death, though they may not be able to see straight for awhile and they will have a hell of a headache.
"Did you find anything of use? Do we need to wake them still? Or, should we just leave them here. They'll likely be out for a while unless I heal them. Even then, might not see or think straight. I'm not sure they will even remember us, with the blows to the head they took. It might be best, to leave it that way instead of waking them?"
Muhoro shows the others the items he found on the 2 Drow.
"Looks like we are in the wrong spot. Should we try and locate the others to check out this lake?"
Siri frowns, "We need to be sure don't we? It certainly seems likely that this lake is connected with the portal, but these are drow, they have many different schemes in motion no doubt. I would not wish to break in again, I think its worth waking him and ensuring the information is correct. Perhaps if I said I was from House Kashi and we just needed to know the portal was not here, and that we did not need to defend it?"
Muhoro, out of the corner of your eye while Siri's speaking, you see that one of the drow guards, with his eyes still closed, is surreptitiously moving his hand toward his pocket.
Acting with lightning speed, Muhoro snatches the drow's wrist just as it dives into his pocket. Yanking his hand out, you see that he was about to retrieve a hidden item with a button on it from a hidden place in his pocket. He struggles against your grip, trying to break free.
His hand breaks free and presses the button! The drow male, still looking somewhat dizzy from the blow to his head, nonetheless manages to smirk as an alarm sound rings out through the entire complex.
Muhoro grimaces as the alarm sounds.
"Sorry..I tried..." he says as he punched the Drow back into unconsciousness.
In the hallway outside, you hear the door to the kitchens bang open, and a bellowing Duergar voice yelling and demanding to know what all the alarms are about.
Zayva gave the now once again unconscious drow a glare, before looking at the others. "Hide them and hide ourselves? They may think it's a false alarm." She whispered, just loud enough for Siri and Muhoro to hear.
|
As the others leave, Alec waits for several minutes to make sure their exit hasn't been noticed. Hearing nothing, he creeps to the door immediately to the right of the storeroom, peers through the keyhole, and is just pressing his ear against the door to listen when an alarm goes off upstairs. Grimacing to himself, he darts back into the storeroom.
"I heard someone talking in the storeroom! Intruders!" the door you just entered to get into the storeroom bangs open, and the stocky duergar female stands there, rage lighting up her face. She's flanked by several of her kitchen helpers, who appear to be backing her up out of fear. "You foolhardy slaves are the ones that set off the alarm, didnt'cha? You pulled me away from my stove and my stew is going to burn! DIE!" with that, she flings her meat cleaver at Zayva.
Alec and Alaria can roll their inits, I can use the initiative rolls from before for the others.
Initiative order:
Duergar female
Muhoro
Kitchen helpers
Siri and Zayva
???Alec/Alaria/Beldrek???
The duergar female moves into the room aggressively, drawing another cleaver from her apron.
Muhoro moves towards the duergar and strikes her with his tetsubo.
Attack-Melee:
Damage:
Siri casts haste, targeting herself, Alec, Beldrek, and Zayva before zooming around behind the duregar and setting herself up to flank with any ally who takes on the formidable cook.
All of the hasted creature's modes of movement (including land movement, burrow, climb, fly, and swim) increase by 30 feet, to a maximum of twice the subject's normal speed using that form of movement. This increase counts as an enhancement bonus, and it affects the creature's jumping distance as normal for increased speed.
When the alarm sounds, the guards jump at the sudden sound - clearly they had largely been relaxed. You have to shake your head at their inexperience. You see a guard wearing a fancier hat then the others arrive from the ground floor of the wall and begin issuing orders to the guards - many of them stay on the wall, grasping their weapons with renewed determination to find exterior threats, while many others - you count about 10 - hustle into the tower proper. None of them pay you or your hiding spot any mind.
She pulls out her masterwork kama and Goes to flank with Muhoro.
Zayva tensed, adrenaline rushing through her vanes as the door flew open. Once again the words said changed from understandable to gibberish. She looked confused at the duergar female spoke, well more yelled at them. She stayed ready. Maybe she would just berate them with gibbe--nope. Her eyes grew wide as the cleaver flew at her, hitting her, before narrowing.
"यह दूसरों पर चीजें फेंकने के लिए अच्छा नहीं है."
It's not nice to throw things at others.
She moved to start taking care of the helpers. She didn't want them to rally to the female and overwhelm the others while they tended to the cleaver throwing menace.
Initiative order:
Alaria
Duergar female
Muhoro, Alec
Kitchen helpers
Siri and Zayva
Beldrek
The drow rush into combat formation. As their first real fight as a team, they don't start off with inspiring results - the spry deurgar female dodges all of their attacks at once, saying "Hup!" after every dodge. She weaves an attack into her defenses, lashing out with a cleaver and slashing Alaria across the thigh.
With a scream, she taps into her innate ability to enlarge herself and grows Large!
Alec lands a solid hit with the tip of his wand! Driving it deep into the duergar woman's flesh in a painful spot, the spell activates, firing a painful pulse of electricity into her body!
Watching the diminutive creature grow right before his eyes, Muhoro grips his tetsubo tightly and swings with all his might.
Attack-melee:
Damage:
Sorry, forgot to describe it! But yes, you landed a solid blow to the duergar woman with your tetsubo, slamming into her powerful knee and knocking the wind out of her.
Right after Alec stabs lightning into the duergar, Muhoro swings his giant club in an arc and smacks the cook across the face. Bloody teeth go flying, but the cook merely spits out blood and grins, a little drunkenly-looking.
Immediately after, she bellows, "GET IN HERE AND HELP ME, YOU LAZY SLAVES!" and her helpers move into the room. They don't look like warriors, but they're certainly more afraid of her than they are of you. Two of them flank Siri and swing their meat tenderizers:
From out in the hallway, you hear a voice cry, "Suck on this!" and suddenly, a giant octopus and a pot of hot water go flying through the air. The duergar gives a cry of despair, shouting "MY CALAMARI!" but it's too late - it's smacked Zayva right in the face.
A creature that is glued to the floor (or unable to fly) can break free by making a DC 17 Strength check or by dealing 15 points of damage to the goo with a slashing weapon. A creature trying to scrape goo off itself, or another creature assisting, does not need to make an attack roll; hitting the goo is automatic, after which the creature that hit makes a damage roll to see how much of the goo was scraped off. Once free, the creature can move (including flying) at half speed. If the entangled creature attempts to cast a spell, it must make a concentration check with a DC of 15 + the spell's level or be unable to cast the spell. The goo becomes brittle and fragile after rounds, cracking apart and losing its effectiveness.
You hear the sounds of running feet as one or perhaps two more humanoids are coming to join the fight from out in the hallway.
Initiative order:
Alaria
Duergar female
Muhoro, Alec
Kitchen helpers
Siri, Beldrek and Zayva
While the guards on the wall are focused on outside threats, Beldrek falls into step behind the guards who go to the tower. The others will need his help. He waits till fancy hat is not looking and then he moves to join the guards.
"Let's see if their inexperienced minds notice this." he thinks as he readies his axe.
A bold maneuver. For now, you're not sure whether your ruse will work...but you're in the main entrance hall of the tower, one stair's flight below the battle. Nobody has looked your way yet.