One archer moves up to Camlo, flips him on to his front, and begins pinning his arms behind his back and slipping on manacles. The halfling's body is floppy and nerveless, clearly affected by some sort of extraneous effect. The other four take careful aim at Hudak. And wait. The bridge continues to burn, and Illes is clearly unconscious and on the verge of being overcome by the smoke and flames.
Climb roll:
I'm trying to get the hell off the bridge as expeditiously as possible, carrying Illes.........
Vethran leans against the stone wall, badly burned and drained from the poison. He casts his gaze to the south, glaring at the wand-wielding flyer...
I'm trying to get the hell off the bridge as expeditiously as possible, carrying Illes.........
Vethran leans against the stone wall, badly burned and drained from the poison. He casts his gaze to the south, glaring at the wand-wielding flyer...
The osyluth crouches down and leans close to Vethran, as close as his warding spell will allow. The bone spurs on its knees scrape against the magical barrier and sizzle slightly, but the devil doesn't seem to notice. "Little wizard, I know you are thinking of what spell to cast. It is in your eyes. You think you can get away, but you can't. You can't hurt me. You can't get off this rock and the poison will soon leave you paralysed. And these are the hellknights. You don't escape from the hellknights, anymore than you can escape Hell. You didn't really escape last time, you just ran a little, like a mouse in a bottle. Pointless and futile. Give it up, and maybe you will be shown mercy. Maybe." It grins.
"Ah. A little help? Please? Ghl..." Alwyn disappears below the waves.
The archers have no obvious targets, so they move over and complete securing Camlo.
"Ma'am, should we go down and get him?"
"Eventually. Let's give him some time to think about his situation first. See if you can find the elf woman, while you are at it." Two hellknights bang their fists to their armoured chests in salute and take to the air, angling down towards the water. She begins rapping out more orders "You four - get across and secure the situation over there. Hopefully they can be disuaded from doing anything stupid."
Surrounded, outnumbered, poisoned, and near death, the Varisian spits at the nearby fiend.
"Fine. Fine!" he calls out to the airborne knights. "I yield."
Dejectedly, the wizard collapses to his knees and places his hands above his head.
Vethran slowly manages to fend off the effects of the poison, but the damage has largely already been done.
I'm trying to get the hell off the bridge as expeditiously as possible, carrying Illes.........
I'm doing that. Quickest way off that burning bridge.
Didn't anybody tell these bastards never burn any bridges?......
Hudak starts unstrapping his weapons, silently, and places them on the ground, after he's lowered Illes to the turf.
First his bastard sword, then his bow, and then his daggers.
Then, he starts disrobing.
"Hudak... there is rope... in my pack," with his strength sapped, the mage finds speaking difficult. "I'm too weak to haul Alwyn up... but maybe you can. I don't know... if it will reach..."
Vethran gestures weakly to his satchel, which he has discarded next to himself.
As Alwyn manages to break the surface, two more hellknights drop from the sky and grab him under the arms. They haul him upwards, out of the water and towards shore. They fly high - any struggles would lead to another fall, probably fatal this time. Others grab Hudak, Illes and Vethran and do the same.
The group are dropped off in a clearing in the forest - literally, from several feet in the air. The hellknights have turned it into a small encampment, with a contingent of soldiers to guard the perpetrators. They are swiftly and efficiently manacled and shackled. Their more grievous wounds are treated with a tap from a wand. Then each has a bridle-like affair placed over their heads, with a bladed, spatula-like tab projecting into the mouth to prevent speech (and spellcasting) at the risk of receiving a badly lacerated toungue. Iron mittens are slipped over their hands, to prevent fine manual movements. A heavy metal belt is placed about their waists, and their manacles, shackles and headgear attached to it by long chains - but no quite long enough, forcing the head back awkwardly and the spine to curve. Then further bladed attachments are added to the belt, so that any vaguely vigorous movements would leads to painful cuts. The weight is enough to the leave the poisoned Vethran panting.
A spellcaster then stands over them, clearly with a detection cantrip up to find their magical gear. "Sword, armour, scroll case..." he says in a bored voice. Other hellknights then strip them, straps or belts cut to speed the process, and piled up. Another hellknight then catalogues it, before turning to the sergeant in charge.
"We'll have to get them to sign receipts for this stuff."
The other one stares at him.
"Hey, it's regulations!"
The other continues to stare.
"Fine! I'll just sign it myself then. Don't blame me when the auditors come looking for you."
The group are then dragged into the centre of the grove. Hellknights stand in a row, greatswords points-down in the ground. An officer in full plate armour and a woman in military uniform and the component pouches of an arcane caster watch impassively. She is dark-haired and dusky-skinned, her hair drawn. The hellknight officer turns to her and she nods. He steps forward.
“Did you find the elf woman?”
“No, sir. The currents are treacherous there, she probably drowned.”
“Perhaps. It doesn’t affect the matter at hand.” He takes out a scroll and begins reading aloud. “You have been found guilty in absentia by the Court of the Order of the Nail of the following: Breach of the Peace, Use of Deadly Magic in an Urban Area, Assaulting a Hellknight, Arson, Assisting an Offender, Failure to Register an Artefact, Tax Evasion, Murder. Under the principles of Common Purpose, sentence is passed upon all you. That sentence is death, to be carried out summarily. Carry on, sergeant.”
The hellknights executioners each take position over the captives. They carefully raise their swords and prepare to give the killing blow.
The woman abruptly raises her hand and speaks.
"Stand down. Is the halfling still incapacitated?" Seeing no response from any of the other Hellknights, she leans in toward Camlo. "Do you have use of your body again yet, little man? If so, blink twice. No, don't nod your head. That could be bad."
The smile she graces Camlo with does not quite reach her eyes somehow.
The hellknights step back and lower their swords.
"Hmm, no?" She walks over to where Alwyn is restrained. "How about you?"
She doesn't appear very happy to be talking to the Gorum worshiper.
Hudak's chillin'. Today, he kilt a dragon, got barbecued, and almost exemickuted.
It's overwhemled the poor simple bastich, and now he's got a razorblade pacifier in his mouth.
The most he can manage is
Aubrey:
He's trying to memorize all these guys' faces for later payback-is-a-m+#!~#%*~%$~ protocol........if they are all masked, then well.....he's just looking for a chance to excape.
bluff
"How about you?"
*nod*
The animosity is clearly mutual. However, Alwyn does not meet the Hellknight's gaze - which causes some difficulty, as he is as tall as her even though he's kneeling.
"Good. Understand that while we talk, your friends remain in their restraints and you and I will be watched and heard by my allies. If you do anything foolish - well, the execution order remains in place. I imagine that's clear enough. I've heard many things about you, Gorumite, but stupid is not one of them." She motions to one of the Hellknights that does not have his sword readied. As he steps forward, face unseen behind the helm of his armor, he pauses next to the woman.
"Need I spell this out? I cannot speak to the man. Release him." She points to two more rank-and-file knights, "You two. You will accompany me and the accused." They each salute, banging a gauntleted hand against their chest while a spellcaster begins the actions of a spell.
When the restraints are removed, they are replaced with much simpler - and relatively speaking, comfortable - manacles at wrists and ankles. The weight is significant, but allows Alwyn to move under his own power and his tongue is no longer restrained. "Don't make me regret this." The armed escorts come forward and she motions toward a different part of the clearing about 20 feet away. She clearly expects the big man to lead the way, closely followed by the two knights.
as they move away, the woman nods to the sergeant, who barks out another order. The executioner knights move up behind their assignments and wait. Alwyn's erstwhile executioner remains where he was, watching the four as they move the short distance.
Almost as an afterthought, the woman beckons to a scribe, who hustles over to join the four of them.
Alwyn shuffles dejectedly after the Hellknight leader.
She speaks to Alwyn in a low enough voice that the others can't really make it out.
"As for your 'games', I have no idea what you are talking about. I have never seen a hellknight in my life before, much less interacted with one. And showing up with fifty men and your pet demon hardly seems like any kind of game I'm familiar with."
She smiles without humor.
"As for the 'games' - perhaps someone did not share everything they knew with you."
"In a nutshell, I can stay the execution at least until we return to Magnimar. I believe I can make a case that you and your friends be spared in exchange for a service rendered to the city. Something you might actually enjoy."
She stops to get his reaction.
She looks at the other Hellknights, then walks over to the sergeant to speak to him in a low voice.
The sergeant nods, turns and walks back and begin barking out orders.
"Get them in the wagons, we're moving out." He notices Hudak. "What are you staring at, Baldy?"
As the woman walks past, another hellknight approaches her. "Ma'am, we are in position. Permission to commence burning out the goblin nest?"
"Of course. He claims that the dragon is no longer be a concern, but be on your guards, just in case."
The adventurers are hauled off. A cart sits on a rough track leading out of the wood, and they are unceremoniously dumped in the back. Driven by a couple of hellknights, with two more in the back, it bumps uncomfortably out of the forest towards the road accompanied by a contingent of mounted hellknights. Once there, it turns south for Magnimar. It is late afternoon, and the column continues until it reaches the campsite Vhiski's caravan had been at the previous night. There, the hellknights pause their journey.
The prisoners are taken out of the wagon. Stakes are hammered into the ground, and their bindings are attached to them by short chains. A hellknight them comes round and removes the bridles, and then a couple more begin spooning gruel into the prisoners' mouths.
"Ah, well", Alwyn mutters to the others. "These a~!#%~!s have some kind of plan for us - we'll do them some kind of unspecified 'favour' in return for not getting murdered right away. There are too many of them to fight, Vethran and Illes are pretty messed up... I think we'll need to play along for now." His face gets an unpleasant cast to it. "Try to remember their names or faces. Once we've repaid their so-called debt, assuming they don't just kill us then, I'll make them regret ever messing with us. I'll save the little girl for last, and nail her to the doors of Wormwood Hall."
"I never forget a favor," Hudak says, wolfing whatever gruel it is proffered.
"What'd we do? I mean, besides savin' their city from a bunch of demonic dead bastards?"
"It'll be interesting to see what kind of charges they've cooked up to manipulate us with this time. We complied with their investigation in Magnimar. It was only when they tried to take us into custody without proper cause that we resisted."
Vethran, still weak from the poison, has some difficulty with eating the gruel he is given. He turns to look down the row towards the others.
"I hope Elisile managed to get away..." he lingers a bit. "Maybe she'll get the word out."
Turning back to the Hellknight feeding him, Vethran swallows before scowling. "Your sergeant should consider himself fortunate that I trapped him in a bubble instead of roasting him alive. I'm sure you're all very knowledgeable about my particular talents. I showed mercy. I didn't have to. Just remember that."
"Heh heh. Yeah! That's right! I am mighty Hudak, mighty among a mighty race of men known as Shoanti.
I have a rattlesnake for a neckerchief. I wear two live wolverines for boots.
And I killed Black Magga using a tower for a sword.
So, let's hear what you need us to do.
I'm getting wroth over here, and I'm ready for action."
The woman that spoke to Alwyn steps around the end of the line so they can see her as she speaks. "They do not know and they do not need to know. I will tell you what I can when I can. Now is not yet the time."
She looks at Vethran. "Master Tallomane, we are indeed familiar with your talents. Perhaps it will please you to know that our assault plans included contingencies specifically based on what we know of your skills. Your restraint was noted and included in my report. I have ordered the Hellknights remaining at the goblin den to provide aid to the elf if they locate her. Her talents would be welcome for the task ahead."
She stops speaking and watches the gruel-spooners complete their task. She stands back so that she is not in their way and where she can observe each of the captives.