Talon stays in the back as Shadow and Del do their work ahead of them, the fighter idly drawing and sheathing his weapons as he waited for them to disarm whatever it was they found - he was quite grateful for the vision of elves, even if the two most recently entering his life were oddballs.
"...Hey, K'Nyaz. How long do you think we should keep going forward before we should head back?" He asked him, wanting an opinion. "I don't want to push our luck and force everyone to keep going when they're tired. We have no idea where this place ends, either. Think we should break and come back tomorrow after clearing out all the Tower Girls?"
K'nyaz is somewhat startled by the sudden speaking to him, "It is risky to turn back too soon, dey vill know somevone vas here, and dere could be retaliation. Ve also are not knowinG how many are live here. I yam say only vay to decide is ven ve realize ve may not have resource for another battle." he thinks a little before realizing it may directed at him somewhat, "It is still fairly early in day, and I have pace my resources. I yam personally still quite able for continue if everyone else is also."
Kelgeah snickers at K'nyaz's unintended 'query.' "Hah! Couldn't very well keep up my kind of reputation without a bit of stamina, now could I? There's plenty left to do, and we're in fine shape so far. Let's not keep history waiting, shall we?"
The tripwire leads to an easily disabled alarm.
From there, you enter the corner room and can see into the next room.
A hooded lantern sits on the lip of a fountain in the west wall. A tinkling rill of water runs from a demon-shaped mouth on the wall into the fountain. A bedroll and several bags of rations sit on the floor just to the north of the fountain.
Two women are present, one resting and the other awake and sipping from a waterskin.
"...It says something that I'm getting used to your innuendo, Kel," Talon mutters as he keeps to the rear for right now, staying back with the less stealthy members. Seems like their forward scouts had found something, probably more Tower Girls. Hopefully they'd take of them as he'd prefer - an attempt to get them to surrender quietly combined with tying them up and knocking them out to be hauled out later.
Shadow waits to see what the group wants before either getting into position or bypassing the Tower Girls.
Seeing the two women sitting so close to the room's exit, Delkaneth scans the room looking for some tactical advantage/
Raising an eyebrow, Kelgeah leans over to Talon and returns the low murmur as the scouts do their work, "I must be overexerting my wit. I'll have to 'wait between the lashes,' so to speak."
Trying to take advantage of the poor light in the room, Delkaneth creeps along the eastern wall, using the flickering shadows created by the lonely lantern to hide his movements. He starts to feel confident about his ability to maneuver past them and cut off their escape....then the woman stops mid drink and stares right at him. He freezes for a moment, hoping the look was a coincidence, then she makes direct eye contact.
Cursing under his breath, he steps out of the shadows and tries to raise a finger to his lips in the universal symbol for quiet. The gesture is a bit awkward since he has an axe in each hand.
"Keep quiet and don't sound an alarm, you may just make it out of here alive tonight. Hands on your head. Now!" His voice is a harsh whisper, sternly keeping eye contact with her to hold her attention so she does not notice his companions as easily as she noticed him.
Tellavee sighs, looks at her sleeping companion and at the door that would be her escape route and, seemingly, decides it's not worth it. She drops the waterskin and puts her hands on her head.
"Sorry Kel, but I'm not the kind of guy who likes getting whipped. I will put you over my knee and give you a spanking if you misbehave," Talon muttered back offhandedly, throwing her a metaphoric bone. "...That goes double for the princess."
The shortest member of the party (barring their latest addition) strides forward, glancing at the captured Tower Girls and nodding, keeping things to a whisper still. "Good work. Keep it up and lets try to kill only the wererats."
He leaned forward, smiling evilly at Tellavee. "So then, miss, would you kindly give us a head count of how many Tower Girls are left up ahead? Along with how many of them are wererats?"
Tellavee snorts. "Ha. If ya got this far, there's 8 left down below. 5 of 'em rats. If ya see anyone play'n wit a big rat, they're most likely one themselves."
Shadow creeps up after Kel intimidates the awake Tower Girl and walks towards the exit...
Once spotted, Shadow walks normally to disarm the sleeping tower girl as Talon approaches Tellavee and to wake her up the sleeping companion if she is not already awake.
Kelgeah raises both eyebrows at Talon's retort. I'll be damned...he actually doubled down on that one...
Doing her absolute best to keep from giggling like a child, she mumbles to herself as Talon moves in to the room, Misbehavior it is...
"Thank you kindly for your assistance in this matter. I'll see that the rest of your non-wererat crew is kept alive - I'd prefer not to shed any more blood than is necessary." Finished with the girl, he lets them get tied and gagged as he thinks it over.
Five more wererats - now he really wished that he'd finished his masterwork two-bladed sword. He wasn't used to short swords as much as his favored weapon, but they were the only silvered weapons he had other than the chakrams. Hopefully they would encounter them individually or in pairs, but they had to fight the whole rest of the gang all at once...
No need for hypotheticals now. The fighter looked over at Shadow and Del, nodding to both of them. "We still have eight more to take care of before we can start relaxing. I'm counting on you two to make sure we don't walk into an ambush."
Yazlenda wakens to find herself surrounded and being disarmed. She takes a wild, panicked swing at Shadow, then snaps at her companion. "Some guard you are!"
for
While disarming the sleeping Tower girl, Shadow nods at Talon, "Del and I will handle it for the party."
Shadow easily avoids the swing and places her blade at the Tower Girl's throat, "Do you have fight left in you or do you submit? And please sweetheart, say you don't submit."
Yazlenda surrenders as well, as her companion taunts her "Guess it will hard to marry into the upper crust as a jail-bird, sweetie-pie"
"Then you two go ahead - we'll cover the rear," Talon tells Del and Shadow, letting them go off while the rest of the party trails behind.
After securing your prisoners, you continue down the passage. To your right you pass a partially collapsed area that is now seemingly being used for storage. The eastern wall of this room -perhaps once a stairwell leading up- is buried under an ancient pile of rubble. Sitting near the entrance is a wooden crate and a dull gray amphora.
This passage ends in a stairwell leading down.
[note: the stairwell is the same on that ends in the upper left room in The Crow level 3 on the map.]
This stairwell ends in a large but seemingly empty room. There are three exits that you can see. Where too next?
Delkaneth cannot help but pause at the sight of the Thassilonian coins. He has studies history for so long he is familiar with the denominations and markings but this is the first time he has held a real piece of Thassilonian make in his hands. The statue too gets a close appraising look before the young man realizes that he may be holding up the entire group as he stares at the contents of the crate.
Once everything is stowed away he nods to Talon and resumes his position ahead of the group. At the bottom of the stairs he moves to his left along the wall, silently advancing into the corner. Moving his eyes left to right he looks at each exit checking for light or sound.
Talon whistles softly as he gets a look at the coins in the amphora - the values were vastly outdated, but he knew a good collector that would pay for such historical treasures. The statuette was also a find, stuffing both of them carefully in his pack, padding it with straw so they wouldn't break.
As they all filed down the staircase, the fighter glanced around, forming a plan: When in doubt, go left. "Scout out that way first - get back here in five minutes regardless." He whispered to Del and Shadow, hanging back with the wizard and cleric by the northern exit.
Shadow nods at Talon and then follows Del, and in a whisper, "Del, where to first? Although, we would recon more area if we split up but you know how unsafe that is. I'll lead if you are still uncomfortable of me being behind you but first I need to know which way you want to go."
Shadow looks side to side, remaining alert while waiting for a reply.
Delkaneth gives a silent nod to Talon and begins moving toward the north. He gives Shadow a look that's halfway between a disarming smile and a smirk that shouts 'don't quite think so'. With a wave of his hand he indicates the western hallway.
After a quick glance down the right passage to make sure the coast is clear, he waits for the woman to go ahead then hugs the left wall as they creep to the west.
She whispers jokingly, "I thought so."
Shadow creeps along (attempts to anyway) the right passage and hugs the wall as well. She keeps her Aldori Dueling Sword at the ready behind her to keep Del from following too close and ready to strike anyone coming from the front. She looks side to side looking and smelling for anything peculiar, and listens for any strange or familiar sounds.
OK, going by the 2nd map; you are in 15.
Del, there are rat sounds from room 18 to the east.
The room to the northwest is empty.
You hear nothing from the south.
Talon waits for the forward scouts to return and report, nodding quietly and glancing at the others. "Let's try and get the drop on these wererats - we'll be right behind you guys, so let's see what these rats are doing..."
After listening at each doorway, Delkaneth makes his way back over to the group. "I can hear rats coming from that eastern hallway. Pretty safe bet that if there's rats....." He returns an axe to his belt and draws another, this one gleaming with a silvery finish.
"Don't here anything nearby to the north or south." He casts a glance over at Shadow, raising an eyebrow as an invitation to add her opinion.
Once everyone is ready and prepared the young treasure hunter begins moving down the eastern hallway, staying close to the north wall and making his way toward the rodent sounds.
As she follows behind Talon's lead, Kelgeah draws her bow and flicks an arrow from her sheath into her hand. "Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for some pest control."
Note: I did misread one of Del's posts. Del, there are also sounds (voices) from the room complex to the northeast.
Moving into Room 18: You see two dog-sized rats with patchy white coats munching on what appear to be a spilled bag of grain, while a young woman (possibly the guard) sits on a barrel against the easternmost wall, drinking from a flask.
Delkaneth
K'nyaz
Kelgeah
Shadow
Talon
girl
rats
targets: Delkaneth=1, K'nyaz=2, Kelgeah=3, Shadow=4, Talon=5
Surprise Round:
Del
Shadow
Talon
K'nyaz
Kel
Round 1:
tower girl
Del
Shadow
Talon
rats
K'nyaz
Kel
What was it that minstrel used to say? 'Second vere, same as the first'.....
Knowing that no amount of stealth was going to evade the vermin, Delkaneth quickly steps into the room and left to clear the way for his companions. Based on the rats Dekaneth assumes the woman is another were-creature but wants to give here the benefit of the doubt. He sends an axe flying through the air at the nearest rat while tightly gripping the silvered weapon in his other hand.
Without even waiting for it to land he hisses a whisper at the guard. "No noise, no alarm, and you might make it out of here alive."
Even as he is speaking he grabs another axe from his belt.
Talon sighs, cracking his neck before stepping in, his two-bladed sword in hand. He doesn't try to intimidate the woman, focusing more on the rats and swiping at one with a single edge of his blade.
Talon slices his rat target in two.
Surprise Round:
Del: misses
Shadow
Talon: kills one rat
K'nyaz
Kel
Shadow follows Del into the room and follows his lead in making sure to allow other party members to rush in, she attacks with a double-handed grip the same rat as Del or attacks her own rat if the room is not big enough for two people to fit on one side.
,
,
Kelgeah nocks an arrow; not wanting to hit anyone in melee, she takes aim at the (likely still a bit surprised) girl and narrows her eyes with an evil smirk, bowstring almost taut.
K'nyaz merely waits as the events unfold. The room is full of people and there isn't much he could do from outside the room. He will act as soon as he can get into a decent position if the girl decides to make the foolish decision of fighting them.
Shadow's blow takes out the second rat.
Round 1:
tower girl
Del
Shadow
Talon
rats
K'nyaz
Kel
As the rats fall to the invaders, the startled young woman's form -blurs- hideously as she transforms into a large rat and attempts to flee.
Talon wasn't having that rat flee the scene on his watch, two silvered chakrams flying out at the creature. Both fail to meet their mark however, clattering harmlessly against the stone.
Damn it, another rat!
As the woman reveals herself as another of the tainted were-creatures, Delkaneth tightens his grip on the silvered axe in his hand and attempts to stop her.
At the swirl of form, Kelgeah's smile fades into a narrowed eye of annoyance.
"Damn. Another rodent."
She uncurls her fingers from her bowstring, but as the arrow twangs loose from the bow, the shifting form and ducking motion of the target cause it to whistle over her head. An aggravated Kelgeah
"So much for the silent treatment. Stop that rat!"
Without a word, Shadow readies her Composite Longbow, draws an arrow, and lets loose an arrow.
"Twang
,
The arrow goes wide due to the surprise of Wererat stumbling on the party and then running for either safety and/or raise the alarm.
Del's blow catches the rat-woman as she flees down the passage, squealing loudly, but is not strong enough to fell her.
Looks like the alarm has finally been raised.
Shadow curses in a low voice while accentuating her frustration with body language ... "Oh S+!@! Time for company or no longer an easy operation here on out." ... Shadow readies her Aldori Deuling Sword once again and attempts to slip into the shadows.
"Well, so much for taking them out one by one..." Talon mutters, looking over at the others. He sheathes his two-bladed sword and picks up the dropped chakrams, spinning them in both hands. "They'll be shoring up their defenses and waiting for us now, so new formation. I'll head the pack - Del and the Princess on my flank, Kay and Kel behind us. Let's get after her before they have a chance to really bunker down."
Shadow "Princess" comes out from the shadows with her sword readied and nods.
Kelgeah pops her neck in anticipation, staying near the walls as the formation moves.
"No senseless heroics, please. I can treat plenty of wounds, but death is a little trickier."
How'd she know I was about to charge down the hallway?
With a nod to Talon, Delkaneth retrieves his thrown axe and takes up the flanking position.
Shadow "Princes" takes her party line up at Talon's flank with blade at the ready and follows when he is ready to charge forward.