Following Marikel's sense of ease, Vhailor shrugs and moves to join him outside.
Vhailor heads out the door and down the stairs.
Alicia strains her hearing, trying to catch the half-orc's introduction, and (assuming she succeeds) wracking her brain for where she has heard that name before.
It was just a few minutes ago, when Meriman was listing the names of the traitors in the Howling Hound....
"Meriman?" he replies with a lazy grin. With surprising quickness, he slams his boot against the priest's ankle and leaves him sprawling on the ground. "Brother Hound will learn that suffocating would have been the easy way out when the Twisted Nail get their hands on him." He brandishes his great-axe threateningly.
Eyes going wide, "REAVER!" the dwarf yells as he races toward the healer and the half-orc, telling his avian friend to attack the latter.
Skyreaver moves outside before taking to the air.
Hearing the sounds of a resumed scuffle, Alicia pops her head out the window, firing off her hand crossbow at the half-orc traitor. With that, she dives out the window, rolling to break her fall and moving toward Vorom, rapier drawn.
"If you're the smartest the Twisted Nail have got, I think Brother Hound is quite safe."
Marikel frees his shield and draws his sword, but doesn't rise.
Alicia's bolt strikes an intervening tree branch at the last moment, but the girl herself jumps lightly out the window and heads toward Vorom, taking cover behind the tree trunk.
Marikel rearms himself in his vulnerable position.
Curious and confused more than alarmed, Vhailor continues on his relatively unhurried way towards the doorway. However once outside and in sight of the unfolding situation he rolls his eyes and hustles a mite faster, ruffling his feline companion as he does.
"If you're the smartest the Twisted Nail have got, I think Brother Hound is quite safe."
"Smart enough to fool you, priest," he scoffs, "and Brother Hound. You holy men are all the same." Vorom steps out of the flank and swings his axe at the prone figure at his feet, but Marikel manages to interpose his shield and deflect the blow.
"Quit your yappin'! Doesn't matter, you'll be eatin' dirt soon enough." Dorn brings his hammer down toward the face of the half-orc, hoping to shut him up.
Skyreaver moves with the half-orc and repositions himself to flank with the dwarf once again.
The crowd now precluding his ability to render his higher art, Vhailore settles for drawing a little closer and attempting to momentarily cloud the axe-man's mind.
Vorom deftly dodges the dwarf's hammer, swinging his own axe at the roc as it moves once again to flank him. Skyreaver's beak comes away from its peck at the half-orc with a gobbet of bloody flesh from the arm that wasn't quite quick enough to retract.
Alicia dashes toward Vorom and attempts to stab him in the side.
Alicia dashes around the tree but trips over the dead half-orc in the road just enough to send her rapier awry.
"Oh, you fooled us alright. You were given every chance to live and instead you chose death. Real smart."
Marikel rises and steps across Vorom's swing to flank with Alicia , before driving his sword into the enemy.
Vorom is prevented from responding to Marikel's sarcasm by Vhailor's cantrip, which momentarily prevents him from reacting.
Seeing the half-orc just stand there and looked confused, Dorn takes advantage and hopes to put an end to the half-orc here and now.
Skyreaver follows suit and attempts to tear into the half-orc with claws and beak.
The half-orc is still standing after the dwarf's blow, but the roc's follow-up attack drops him to the road, bleeding.
Clapping his hands together Vhailor squeaks "Well... another one down, bit of luck eh?" before trudging over to nudge the body with a toe. Once confirmed as unresponsive, he crouches to ferret through pockets. Carbonel leaps from his shoulder as he does so, moving to one side and licking absently at one paw.
Besides the well-made greataxe which fell to the ground from Vorom's hand, the half-orc was also armed with a sap and 4 javelins. There are two more vials in his belt-pouch, both labeled in Orcish. In a sack are a gold necklace, a gem, and 24 gold coins, probably looted. He is wearing a masterwork breastplate.
Alicia takes a step closer to the fallen traitor, and inspects his belongings. She pauses when she gets to rifling around in his belt pouch, and pulls two vials out, which she reads aloud.
"Cure moderate wounds. Enlarge person." She glances at the empty one that she had shot him for drinking. "Bull's strength."
She snorts and gives Marikel a dour look. "You apparently forgot that Brother Hound named him as one of the traitors. Maybe all that time in your holy book has crowded out more useful things like short-term memory."
With that, she pockets the two unused potions. Who better than her to carry all the important stuff?
Dorn will help himself to the javelins. "Ya never know when these might come in handy." He then notices the fine armor the half-orc is no longer interested in wearing. "Ummm, I don't suppose any of you are gonna be wantin' his armor, are ya? Because I'm thinkin' that would be a nice addition to me person," he says, nodding as if he just hit on a grand idea.
From the sounds carrying in the air, it would appear that the battle at the palisade has now been joined. If the defenders at the wall are forced to fall back, they will expect to come through a Lower Gate manned by friends and neighbors; if they are instead met by the remaining traitors from the Howling Hound, they will be caught between two hostile forces. Katrezra, named as the leader of the treacherous half-orcs and said to be possessed of magic powers, has still not been met.
For that matter, Zechariah Landon is still unaccounted for, as well.
Marikel rounds on Alicia, apparently upset at having his shortcomings pointed out to him.
"You forget yourself, girl," his tone low and severe. "If you had shouted that information it would have been far more useful than a stray arrow. And that holy book is the reason you, and Ruby, and countless others have a home that is fighting for your lives instead of abandoning you to these killers."
Marikel points his sword at the fallen half-orc.
"I also offered him one last chance at redemption... which he ignored."
Marikel slides the blade into the half-orc's throat.
"Now, are you intending to use that Enlarge Person, or are you going to furnish it to someone who can fight properly?"
Marikel sheathes his sword and holds out his hand expectantly.
"Dorn, you can take the armour, but find the rest of these traitors, NOW! Where did this one come from?"
Nodding, "Thanks!" he says happily. Just as he's about to remove the armor from the half-orc, he stops a moment in thought. He looks to the healer and then to Vhailor before leaning in toward his gnome friend. "Is it me or is he a bit on the cranky side? I don't know about you, me friend, but I'm thinkin' him and the lass would make a pretty good pairin'," he says, chuckling under his breath at the thought of those two as an old married couple, sitting on the front porch crankying each other all day. "Ah those two know where me funny bone is, I tell ya," he says with a grin, leaning back out and returning to the task at hand.
Alicia narrows her eyes at Marikel. Slipping the sack the half-orc was carrying behind her back, she tosses Marikel the Enlarge Person potion, then turns her back on him and looks over the contents of the sack. She then secures the sack at her waist for the moment.
"Where did this one come from?"
When you saw Vorom enter your field of vision from the window, he was coming from the direction of the Lower Gate. It could have been from the gatehouse itself, from one of the buildings near the wall, like the Howling Hound, or from the Lower Quarter beyond.
Marikel's shoulders slump as Alicia turns away and he looks blankly from her to the potion in his hand. He pockets it, takes a deep breath and turns back to Dorn.
"Where are they?"
His eyes scan the surrounding buildings for movement or danger.
"Is anyone hurt... wounded?" he asks the others absently.
Looking around a moment, somewhat confused, "Where are who, lad?"
Marikel pauses for half a beat.
"The traitors," he explains patiently.
"That half-orc woman we first met told us the traitors intend to cut off our forces as they fall back. Othdan said there were more- Katreza and his followers."
Marikel gestures at the fallen.
"Find where these scum came from, now."
Dorn straightens up and salutes, "Aye, aye, Captain!" He then turns to head out and stops in mid stride as something just occurs to him. Turning around, "Um, I don't suppose any of ye have any idea on where I should start lookin', do ya?" he asks innocently.
Alicia doesn't even bother glancing at Dorn as she gestures toward the Lower Quarter.
"This one wandered up from the Lower Gate way..." gesturing with his hand.
Marikel marches off in the appropriate direction.
"Come on. If we can't root out the traitors, we can at least warn our forces before they get ambushed. We need to get there first."
Alicia runs over to Othdan inside the building. "Go to the upper gate and warn them," she commands, then charges down the stairs and out after Marikel.
Othdan stumbles out of the doorway, still coughing slightly. He looks down at the bloody corpse of Vorom bleakly for a moment, then firms up his jaw with an effort. With a determined nod to Alicia, he starts uphill.
Vhailor re-seats his lensless glasses and sets to follow Marikel with Carbonel at his heels.
Dorn thinks it's a good idea to follow the others. "Reaver!" he calls, his avian friend taking to the air and following.
The party approaches the Lower Gate, in function and appearance the twin of the Upper Gate through which they passed earlier. Here also, barricades and sharpened stakes are set up to hold off attackers, just this side of the gate.
Unlike at the Upper Gate, the doors to both towers are closed. One of the two portcullises which bar the way has been lowered, making an obstacle to any defenders who might try to retreat this direction.
Spotting the trouble, Alicia hunkers down behind one of the barricades and peers at the towers, looking for any arrow slits or windows facing this direction.
"I'll check out the tower on the left and see if there's company inside," she says, sneaking forward. "Be back soon."
"Alicia. I... be careful."
Marikel turns to Dorn.
"They shouldn't be expecting trouble from behind... like our own troops. We should be able to use that to our advantage."
Dorn cuts his eyes toward Marikel before looking back to the towers, "That's me hope as well, lad. No matter, though, they'll not be winnin' this day, Padre," he states as a matter of fact as he gives a nod of determination.
The towers are designed to be fortresses when the doors are barred; any fighting is meant to be done from atop the walls. Alicia picks her way silently toward the closed door of the tower on the left.
Alicia pauses long enough to listen at the door, then checks to see whether it is locked--and picks it, if it is.
Vhailor and Carbonel keep towards the rear of the group, keenly watching proceedings and seeking to define a point where their intervention might be welcomed.