Not seeing anywhere else to go, Arkady slowly leads his group across the courtyard, taking in as much as he can as he goes.
As the party dismounts from the sleds and moves towards the double doors with icicles hanging above, Arkady notices some movement among one of the kennels to the South. A giant maw with a massive underbite and tusks pokes out at first, sniffing the air, before a giant bluish head follows, licking its lips. The beast appears to be eyeing the dogs still reined up to the sleds, and the dogs whine nervously at the attention.
Arkady eyes the creature across the courtyard warily ...
Arkday realizes from the tusks that the creature must be some kind of troll capable of regeneration, such as the one they faced before going through the portal to Irrisen.
As the group continues to advance through the courtyard, the creature seems to pay only fleeting attention, focusing instead on the dogs still attached to the sleds. Above, the guards have returned their attention to outside the walls, not paying much heed to the group.
Arkady positions himself so his face can't be seen by the guards, then quietly asks Nadya, "What now? Go on in?""
I can't believe this is working. I can't believe this is working.
Cervin keeps his face shrouded in a heavy hood and moves as if injured. Nonetheless, he peers about, frantically trying to take everything in.
WHAT THE HELL IS THAT THING?! Doens't matter. Get inside, get inside.
Yagello sees the creature eyeing the dogs and he sends its a fleeting glance of revulsion and disgust.
If this were any other time, I would send you to the grave for making any move against these animals. Dogs, a hunter's best friends, are NOT fodder for an abomination's hunger...
He forces himself to focus on the doors ahead, glad their plan seems to be working but also eager to get the rescue attempt underway.
The doors easily swing open, and the dangling icicles above mercifully stay in place as the group moves inside.
Steamy air fills this inner gallery, emanating in lazy wisps from a bubbling pool recessed into the floor of a raised dais surrounded by six pillars of ice. Four foggy mirrors hang from the walls near ice sculptures of helmeted pike-wielding warriors. Two small doors are at the other side of the room, and two passageways lead left and right. There appears to be no one in the room. A bluish tint colors the room, perhaps refracted through the ice walls all around.
Old Deadeye walks with me. I have no fear. I am the hunter's arrow. This is my quarry.
Cervin looks around the room in wonder, doing his best to keep his jaw from dropping open. He confidently steps inside, still acting as though wounded. Once the group is inside, he closes the door and leans in to whisper as quietly as he can manage.
"I don't think we expected to get this far. We're going to have a fight on our hands the moment somebody speaks to us. So we want to fight under our conditions."
Cervin looks around for a way to block the door from being opened from the outside.
Arkady nods at Cervin. "I agree ... how do you recommend we approach it?"
As the group moves into the room, they can see the hallways extend a bit further to more doors. Each side ends in an alcove, where a glassy pattern of striated, crystalline ice covers the tiled floor, illuminated by a soft, blue light.
Cervin does not see anything in this chamber with which to barricade the door, other than the large ice sculptures and the large mirrors, although they do not appear to be easy to move.
With the doors closed, Cervin relaxes a bit, but still speaks quietly.
"Let's bring perspective. Our goal is to free Heldren, free Nadya's daughter, and if we can gather information on our larger goal. So we can either strike for the top of the tower, or explore. I tend to favour the former so that we don't have a powerful enemy at our backs."
Cervin looks miserably at the door behind him.
"Weapons out, I'm certain that we will be in a fight the moment someone tries to speak to us unless we have great faith in our subterfuge."
With that Cervin begins to approach the door to the south, listening carefully.
Yagello frowns slightly and turns to Cervin, "Wait my friend, the time for violence will come soon enough. Be patient, we need to see this all the way through."
He gestures towards Arkady and continues, "I have complete faith that Arkady will be able to carry on with our ruse if we are confronted. We can't afford to have an entire garrison of thirty souls on our backs right now!"
He also brings Nadya into the conversation, "Our ability to act will also be limited as long as our enemy has an innocent in their clutches. Nadya, there truly are some wonders in this tower. Things an unbearded like myself never would have ever dreamed of seeeing! Do you have an idea where they might be holding your daughter, perhaps a brig of some sorts?"
When the conversation dies down, he also takes a minute to listen at the south door.
Nadya shakes her head sadly. "I never come inside. Just bring food to gates."
Nadya also listens for sound, and together with Yagello pinpoints voices coming from many of the western doors. Cervin is surprised, as he hears nothing himself.
Arkady also watches and listens.
"Let us start by checking doors that have no sound.". He leads the way to the northern alcove. Motioning for Yagello and Cervix to watch the western doors where voices can be heard, he quietly checks the eastern doors for traps and locks.
Arkady feels around the edges of both doors, and can not find any traps. He tests the doors in turn quietly, and each slides slightly ajar as Arkady pulls on them discretely. They both appear to have no locks.
Arkady confirms both doors easily open, then starts by carefully opening the northern door and looking inside.
Behind the door is a small room housing a latrine. Continuous running water flows through the open latrines of this privy, obviously for carrying waste-water away, although it's not clear where the fresh water is coming from.
There are no other obvious exits inside.
Arkady closes the door and looks at the next.
Cervin creeps alongside the group, his eyes darting nervously to the west doors.
In the next door, Arkady sees a set of stairs leading upwards before turning a corner. Arkady moves to the southern alcove and checks again for traps or locks. Finding none, he peeks beyond those doors as well. The southern nook features another latrine and another set of stairs in a mirror layout to the north nook.
An outburst of laughter from the west doors causes Cervin to jump for a moment. Anyone beyond those doors appears to be involved in their own affairs for the time being.
The group appears to have a choice between the two sets of stairs, or confronting the boisterous party beyond the western doors.
Yagello ponders their choices for a moment before speaking up, "I say we travel up these stairs and try to continue our subterfuge for a little while longer."
"I'm completely guessing here, bit I imagine Nadya's daughter wouldn't be held in an entry chamber on the first level. If we can find her first, our options inside become much more palatable..."
"Agreed, also if we attract attention from below it's much easier to hold off a rush of any guards from a stairwell," says Cervin. "Lead on."
Arkady nods. With the others watching for trouble, he carefully enters the room with the upward stairwell. Checking for any signs of traps or other danger, he ascends quietly.
Arkady follows the stairwell around a corner, where it leads to another door. As far as the Varisian can tell, the door leads to the level that the guards were watching the gates from.
Arkady whispers to the others, "This looks like it leads to where the guards on the gates are. Do we want to engage them, or try the stairs down instead?"
Cervin scowls as he looks upwards.
"We continue," he says quietly. "If you - or even Tsuto can look at the level we can see if it's plausible to sneak through. If we can't, then we bring down the guards as quietly and quickly as we can."
Arkady nods at Cervin, and waits for everyone to be ready. He then very slowly opens the door just a tiny crack, and allows Tsuritsa to look in, waiting for her to indicate if she finds the area safe or dangerous through their empathic link.
Yagello nods at Cervin and whispers, "Yes, we continue to use stealth as long as possible, but once force becomes necessary we hold nothing back..."
He grabs the pommel of his sword and braces himself as Arkady swings open the door.
The door opens onto the parapets surrounding the exterior courtyard. The three guards are focusing outwards roughly evenly spaces. Below, the creature is moving towards the dogs still at the sleds.
Arkady pushes the door open just enough for the archer to see the guards on the parapet, then looks over at Cervin questioningly.
Yagello waves his hand dismissively at the guards. "I still say we find the girl first and then fight our way out of here if needed."
He shivers from the cold and rubs his arms trying to restore the lost feeling. He also looks over at Nadya and Nevinia and adds softly, "Are you two doing alright? "
Cervin nods over to Yagello. "I thought there'd be more up here - let's take the stairs down."
Arkady carefully closes the door again, and the group heads back down the stairs. He leads them back to the southern alcove, and listens again through the door, attempting to discern who is behind it.
Nadya looks at Nevinia briefly and smiles before turning back to Yagello as he is still shivering. "I am saving daughter," Nadya says defiantly. "And I dressed warmly. Nevinia does not mind cold either. Maybe Yagello needs warmer shirt?" Nevinia softly chuckles at Yagello's expense as they head back down the stairs.
Arkady leads the group down to the western door in the southern alcove, and listens intently at the door. He hears at least four different voices that sound like men and women, toasting in Skald to long lives. Arkady can hear the clink of tankards, and the jingling sound of chain armor as some of the people move about the room.
From what Arkady can hear, the leader of the group inside is one of the women in the room named "Yana". The others say her name with deference as they converse mainly about personal details, and speak of their last fruitless patrol.
Arkady whispers to the others about what he hears, and motions as if to ask, What now?
Cervin unhooks his bow and look helplessly at the rest of the group. He pitches his voice as quietly as he can.
"I'm running out of ideas. Where's the way up? It has to be in one of these rooms."
As Cervin looks aroud, Arkday hears the voices rise slightly in the next room, loud enough for him to hear details.
"Must we leave so soon?" one of the men says in Skald. "We've barely had time to warm up!"
"We cannot let Radosek down," says a woman, speaking firmly, clearly with authority. "Nearly everyone is out looking for the Black Rider, and we cannot rest more until we catch him and bring him back. The Rider is a traitor to our land, and must be stopped."
"Did anyone else hear about the foreigners? I heard they were hiding out in Waldsby." This from another woman's voice, more hesitant.
"Mierul has met them and they should be easily caught, they are with Nadya," the first woman replies. "Volan is likely on his way back with them now."
"Volan always gets the easy work," comes a complaint from a second man with a deeper voice. "I'd better drink up before he comes back and takes my share!"
Arkady hears a cheer and more clinks, and assumes the group is having another round of drinks.
Yagello smiles gently at the interplay between himself and the two women, but the humor quickly drains from his face as Arkady relays the details of the conversation behind the door.
"The time for action draws near, but I would still prefer to rescue Nadya's daughter first. Arkady, can you perhaps listen behind the other doors and see if you pick up any more voices? Perhaps a child's?"
Yagello steps backwards and walks around the chamber himself doing his own listening as well. He may not understand the language but strains his ears to pick up the tones of a child's or teenager's voice.
Yagello listens at the four doors in turn. There is definitely no child's voice, and most of the voices seem to come from full grown men and women, with perhaps one or two younger men.
One difference Yagello does note is that the door in the northern alcove appears to have less boisterous people behind it, with mostly hushed tones and slow movement, contrasting with the obvious drinking behind the doors in the southern alcove. Standing near the double doors in the fountain, Yagello can hear the louder voices only coming from the southern door of the pair.
Yagello wipes a tiny beat of sweat forming on his forehead. "Well, I think the time for action has come. We've finished our reconnaissance and have as much information as we're going to get."
"The voices behind the topmost northern door seem quieter and more sedate. Should we try there first?"
He grabs the pommel of his sword as he speaks, squeezing the cold metal in a syncopated rhythm.
Arkady nods. "The louder ones are less likely to hear any noise we make, so starting at the quiet end makes sense."
Cervin nods once over to Yagello.
"Let's get this over with. You open up and I'll fire as soon as you do. If we can prevent a larger alarm from being raised we're happy."
Nine double bunks, little more than straw mattresses and heavy blankets on raised blocks of ice, occupy most of the space in this partitioned chamber. A single wooden chest and a weapons locker furnish the rest of the room. Five men are lying or sitting on some of the bunks, and they all look up as Yagello opens the door.
Yagello quickly evaluates the room's threats before rushing head first into the fray! Drawing his curve blade, he stops between the first two men and attacks the one on the north bed with all of his might!
As the door swings open, Cervin looks for the first guard he can see and he looses an arrow through the crowd.