Round 1:
Gethric moves forward and unlimbers his chain at one of the guardsmen, aiming for the spikes to strike the man on the cheek...
Spiked Chain: for
...roaring with glee at the man's face blooms in ruinous crimson. "Come maggots, you have looked down on my kind too long"
That was fast.
Before the guards can even react Gethric rips ones head off and the other drops to Psyana's hex.
Shaking her head again.
Well, finish him off. We have eliminated everyone else, one more makes no difference.
Psyana then heads back to the broken window and climbs in.
Gethric gives Squid a passing remark "Kill the man, I'll deal with any more guards." before kneeling over the sleeping guard and opening his throat...
Coup de Grace:
..before moving further towards the front of the house - making no attempt to hide himself.
Perception:
Smoke listens at the door to what is hopefully the master bedroom before attempting to open it.
Csiza spots no alternate exit out of the room as she hears more activity happening within the house.
Gethric, swinging bloodied chain in hand moves towards the front adn finds that all the guards in the courtyard have been killed.
Psyana slips into the window with Csiza.
So what's Lilith doing?
Cats
Felgrael
Turning over in his sleep the man grumbles agrily about noisy cats. Felgrael's turn is up.
Seeing that all the guards outside have been slain, Gethric continues to circle around the compound checking and then back to the opened window.
Csiza crouches low and carefully peeks out into the hallway, thinking it odd that no one has come to investigate.
I immediately look for a way to the second floor. Either the murderer will follow us, remain outside on guard, or flee. Either way our target is on the second floor. If I see a staircase, I immediately head to the second floor.
"Damn sloppy work. Professional as a thug shaking down a street walker."
Lilith slurs in the language of devils, her expression pinched. "At the very least, at the end of this... disgusting display, I can honestly say that I have not the displeasure of finding myself acquainted with a single one of you," she hisses and moves with Squid towards the second floor.
"The most professional thing to be done now is to ensure that the target is spread across his hallowed halls as well, hmm?"
We discussed non-leathal force for the guards, and then our muscle showed up with a spiked chain. So far I have put almost all of them to sleep as agreed.
Content that the need for absolute stealth within the compound has long past them, Gethric starts humming as he stalks the grounds gore-covered and with spiked chain soaked in blood.
Careful, the next one might have eaten his spinach.
As Gethric struts the grounds outside like a boss Csiza peeks outside adn sees a single guard standing by a lifted up stair case that cuts off the upstairs while revealing a staircase that leads into the basement. Holding his sword he appears very nervouse as their is activity coming from the door behind him.
Smoke draws his morningstar and then moves slowly towards the sleeping figure, careful not to disturb the cats.
Gethric completes his circuit of the house, and if there is no sign of life, he climbs through the broken window when he reaches it.
Gethric slips through the window without much trouble. Meanwhile there is commotion from upstairs and the guard distractedly looks up the stairs.
It sounds like somethign has made a pack of cats very angry.
As you reach around in an attempt to end things quickly the cats attack!
Claw
Claw
Bite
Claw
Claw
Bite
[ooc]Taking 3 nonlethal as the cats scratch adn snarl and tear into your flesh.
Perception:
To the Abyss with this, can nobody do anything by the plan.
I run up the stairs expecting to find the vampire being eaten by cats.
Perception:
Hearing the commotion Gethric begins to move through the house towards it.
Candy snerks at Squid's observation, and flails her arms about wildly as she attempts to follow the female who suddenly dashed in front of her.
"One slightly more observant might also have noted that I have not the greatest senses," she says, and then laughs softly.
Silence sees her opportunity and jumps the guard, attempting to muffle him and keep him from shouting.
As csiza tackles the guard to the ground the other two bring the stairs down on top of a pair of guards trying to come up from the basement. There is knocking and banging as Psyana, Lilith and Gethric bring the stairs down leading to the second floor to block off the basement and lock them in place standing on top of them to let their combined weight make the efforts futile.
The grappled guard, suddenly struggling for life or death whips his club around while struggling fiercely landing a solid blow on her face and shattering her nose.
Meanwhile up above.
If there is a guard where I can see him, I Slumber Hex him. - DC 15.
Gethric growls "Hold him steady" at Silence, before stepping up and heaving his chain in a rising arc - seeking to open the man's back from arse to armpit....
Spiked Chain: for
...barbs on his chain carving a ruinous track across his body.
To clarify: Were Csiza able to speak she would have told you the guard was standing at the steps downstairs. However the steps up stairs are raised, think like the entrance to an attic. In this case however when you raise or lower said stair case it cuts off a portion of the house. In its raised state it gives access to the basement (where most of the guards are) while making it impossible to get to the second floor. In a lowered state it makes it impossible to get to the basement while giving access to the second floor. It's an economical way of boosting security and hiding the unsightly. I assumed that you would grab the staircase and drop it on the guards comign up rather than try and fight them then and there. Meanwhile Csiza's got a sizable knot on her head.
The guard falls over and Gethric takes his time to rip the mans throat out. As you head up stairs it sounds as if all hell is breaking loose as the guard you killed outside flees from one of the rooms covered in a number of deep scratches and bruises. He slams the door behind him as he turns away.
That is an interesting trick, guess he needs to die twice.
Slumber Hex on the resurrected guard. - DC15
Will Save if allowed to see through any illusion:
Felgrael slams the door behind himself and takes a deep breath. Damn cats. Straightening up, he spins at the sound of running footsteps. Psyana tears around the corner and Felgrael smiles briefly before remembering that he's still under the effects of his extract.
As she begins muttering the words that would put him under Felgrael drops his disguise. Psyana halts her hex as suddenly where the guard once stood is Smoke, still covered in scratches and barely on his feet. He looks back at the door, his voice a whisper. Job's done.
Gethric's wary pose relaxes when he sees Smoke's face "If the mark is dead we should be away... over the wall?"
Psyana lets out a sigh of relief when she seed Smoke appear. You are lucky. About 6 seconds more and you would have been napping with Spawn's chain around your throat. In the future you might want to let us know what you are doing before running of and disguising yourself as the enemy.
After hearing Spawn's question.
Wall is probably safer, we should be able to find something to climb it with so that we do not get cut this time. Or we could just go out the front door. I imagine that we may be followed as we were not the most stealthy. If necessary, we can lead any followers to the nearest river or pond and just lose them there. I can help you all breath underwater.
Psyana stops for a few moments.
Did anyone see anything of value here? Right now it looks like a murder gone wrong, which is what it is. If we take some valuable we make something for our time and effort, and it makes the crime look more like a botched robbery.
I begin quickly looking around the house.
Perception:
Appraise: .
"Of course!" Candy answers Squid's inquiry and laughs. "A botched robbery with two points of entry into the house, and several mercenaries butchered in their sleep. How will the guard tie this to our professional group?"
Candy marches up to Spawn and grins. "If you can throw me over the wall, I'll reconsider grabbing a set of pots and pans and calling the patrol on you all," she challenges, sparing a glance for the gore on his spiked chain.
Looking at Candy in disbelief: You do realize that conspiracy in this city carries the same horrible death that murder does. The only difference is that you would likely be tortured a little more to see if you have more information.
Shaking her head, Squid continues to search for whatever can be quickly pocketed.
We do need to leave, I am sure that those guards in the basement will take off and search for the patrol before long, then we will have a much bigger mess.
Candy giggles and covers her eyes. "But I've seen nothing," she insists.
Spawn merely smiles at Candy's taunt before stalking out to the wall where they entered. Upon the walk he turns to Silence, drawing her attention before mouthing Where your rope?
As all of you make your way out of the house things appear eeril quiet. The banging on the stairs is gone and as you leave through the window you notice that your "sentry" is gone as well. That's when a certain 6th sense kicks in your soul and you realize that you need to leave and get as far away from here and hidden as possible lest you have to explain yourselves to an iron faced inquisitor.
I think that it is time we disappeared. We reconvene at sundown tomorrow at the tavern we met at yesterday. Anyone not there will be assumed to be a turncoat. I am looking at Candy as I say this.
If there is any lake, pond, brook or river nearby, I go swimming and offer to help anyone else who wants. If not, I take off for the shortest way to the lakeshore.
Did I manage to grab anything of value before we left the house? I would have cast detect magic and grabbed anything magical if it was easily grabbable.
"You should consider carefully who you are threatening," Candy purrs at Squid's insinuation. "If you do not believe that I will hear the four of you murdering every random citizen I maintain about myself in your ill advised attempt to assassinate me..." she allows her intent to hang on the air, pulling her cloak of stars about her and melts into the surrounding night.
Smoke simply walks off as the others waste time and words with hollow threats. Good gods, they make too much noise even when they're trying to escape. We'll see how many make it away from here and back to the tavern alive with all their bickering.
Shaking her head at the others, Psyana begins to head off looking for a water source to disappear into:
Stealth:
Before she leaves she turns to Spawn - While I enjoy some good bloodflow as much as the next girl, you might want to find a less deadly means of disabling those who are not our targets. One death is a poorly done investigation. Multiple murders - a much bigger manhunt. I would prefer not to be on the sought after end of the larger manhunt.
Gethric seems to be the only one who remembers to get out of the compound before trying to hide, moving to the same place on the wall that they first entered and using Silence's rope to assist in gaining egress.
Once outside the walls, Gethric makes for Dice End and the anonymity that being among the destitute provides.
The would be group of hired killers makes its way in various forms of skulking, running, runnign while skulking, and skulking in plain sight it is only a matter of luck that the hellknights heavy armor prevents them from getting their with anything that amounts to speed.
As various women throw themselves into the river Gethric and Felgrael make it a point to clean themselves as best as possible as nothing will catcha guards eye better than a shady looking individiual covered head to toe in blood.
Psyana manages to cram a pillow case full of silveware and various untraceable goods worth about 50gp. A pittance compare to what you may receive for the work completed.
The next day's headlines speak of a tragic massacre that the highly censored press believes to be a horrific initiation rite by an infernal cult of tieflings. After a "thorough interrogation" of the witnesses they have identified at least two of the witnesses. Artwork depicting what appears to be a monstrous half orc and a terrifying tiefling is an almost laughable description of Gethric and Psyana. Yet, it reminds you of the man you left to "guard" the basement and realize that if it were not dark, and if he were not human, things could be very different indeed. And considering the nature of the highly controlled and parsed information coming out of the Chelaxian government who is to say that this in and of itself was not merely a length of rope being handed to you?
You meet the next night at the agreed upon spot. The third note laid in front of you at the center of the table. Around you the muffled moans and groans of a night's business go on unabated by the dark business within the room.