Seeing Gareth heading for the door, Martin makes no move to follow him and instead says,
"Wait, I'm confused. Didn't we come to see if we could try and find the control mechanism for those golems here? Shouldn't we at least check out the office? Also, look at those doors down there. Those things are built very solid, we have some time before anything break through them. Isn't it worth it to at least take a look for the control mechanism?
To Gareth: Those bastards from Goldcrest took all my gear. It's Achaekek's own fortune we ran into these guys, out of all the assassins Goldcrest could have hired. He puts on the helmet. What'dya think?
He doesn't take any of the rest of the Mantis gear, and he won't make too strong of a bid for the chain shirt, given that he's getting the magic sword. He'll ask around if anyone wants the +1 shortsword, and if not he'll strap it to his back. The MW shortword he'd been carrying goes into the pile. If no one takes it he'll just leave it there.
We came here to warn the city! Let's get up there! He follows Gareth and Jamros.
To Pygrado: "Honestly?" Gareth chuckles, "I don't know how you see outta that thing." He points towards the helmet. "And it looks a little creepy. You... probably don't want to wear that anywhere near the palace, or we might have some problems with the guards." He seems to be a bit uneasy.
---
Gareth beckons for Martin to come, "Forget the golems. It sounded to me like Dulff had the controls anyways. Leto said all there was in that room was... wait, powder filled sacks? You mean, like, explosives?" Gareth stops in his tracks, a bit concerned. You get the sense that he would entertain ideas to explore the office a bit more carefully.
---
"I don't know, maybe" Leto says. "The room has a sign that says "Caution - no fires" on one wall."
Another impact sounds from the door to the escape tunnel. The door looks undamaged from here, although some dirt seems to be coming loose from the wall around it.
Gareth grits his teeth as he hears the door impacted again. "They're planning on trying to collapse the palace, remember? If there is a bunch of explosives in there, and they get their hands on it, we're gonna have problems. Let's take a look, but we gotta be fast!" He snaps his fingers for effect as he darts towards the office.
Side note retcon: As Gareth puts on his armor, it changes its form to look like his old breastplate with the insignia of the Silver Guard.
Inside the hallway leading to the back room is a control panel at waist height (for a human) with two steel levers. One labeled "Mine Access" and one labeled "Escape Tunnel Access." Both levers are currently angled downward, pointing toward a marker that says "closed." Pulling them upward will open the corresponding door.
Inside the center room is the main office. Apparently Visran's (judging by the dead gnome on the desk), it appears to have served as an office, bedroom and laboratory all at once. A small alchemy set stands in one corner, a large mahogany desk covered in papers (and Visran's corpse) dominates the center of the room atop a green shagpile carpet, a long curved cabinet containing vials and bottles filled with liquids of all sorts of colors stands in the northeast corner of the room, a spartan bed rests in the southeast corner, and a small wardrobe stands in the room's southwest corner.
The southern room contains two long, low tables with a narrow aisle between them. Smelling strongly of saltpeter and sulphur, alchemy stations cover every square inch of the tables. A note written in a strange tongue on brown paper has been pinned up on the wall at the end of the aisle. The note reads: "Nigra pulvo recepto: Aldonu unu parto sulfuro, du partoj karbo, unu parto salo petro. Miksu bone, moisten kun acida botelon kaj lasu seka. Loko en sakon kaj gardi en seka, vekis libera spaco. Enhavo malstabilaj kaj danĝeraj!"
The northern room contains a massive stack of bags filled with black powder. Those of you who were in the Vista group recognize it as blasting powder.
To Gareth: Pygrado chuckles a bit. Well I'll remove it in the presence of the king if we run into him. I was brought up with manners.
So, can any of you wizards make some water? I recall this stuff doesn't work well when it's damp. And I certainly don't think we can carry it all out.
"Or..." Gareth mentions, his grin widening, "What if we collapsed the escape tunnel on the dwarves? That could buy us enough time to stop the assassins and send word to town." He pauses and scratches his head. "Err, do any of you know how or if we could do that? I'm pretty new to this whole blasting powder scene."
From behind a blood matted face, you also see a grin starting to spread across Martin's mouth. "I think your right about the blasting powder. Worst comes worst, if it all goes up, it'll make one hell of a sound, which will warn the city to investigate. And at the best, it might just work. Well, this has just been my kind of day, let's go take a look.
Martin starts heading towards the office door to examine the powder.
Inside the powder room, you see a large number of bags filled with blasting powder. Each weighs about five pounds, and it looks there there are about one hundred bags . The bags appear to be in good condition - there are few to no powder leaks, and the powder appears to have been kept dry.
It's blasting powder. Fire or electricity will trigger combustion, and individuals trained in its use can calculate where and how to place the powder and in what quantity to produce a desired effect. Alternately, one could pile it up somewhere before setting it alight and hoping for the best.
Does there appear to be any sort of container to carry them? (backpack, wheelbarrow, or otherwise)
There are two masterwork backpacks hanging from pegs on one wall. Each pack can hold sixty pounds . Both packs appear to have been waterproofed .
Well, I can shoulder some of the burden.Martin says, lifting one of the backpacks from the hook. After quickly examining the inside, Martin begins packing the powder into the back. He's careful not to jar the powder too much, but is also trying to move quickly.
Gareth helps Martin with loading up the two backpacks, preparing to take whichever one Martin doesn't grab. "I'll take the other pack. Caladrius, you got any room in your haversack?"
He suggests, "When we get them all in place, I can light them from afar with some of those magic arrows I just picked up. No need to put any of you in harm's way. Just, someone let me know how where we should set these charges and how many."
It will take one minute for a person to load and carry a backpack elsewhere in the chamber and dump it out. How many bags of powder do you want to move, and where do you want to place them? Also, on which floor?
Bear in mind that the crashing noises continue to come from the metal door.
Two hundred pounds of powder detonated on the lower level by the door would destroy the door and collapse the tunnel nearby. This would require several hours of expert digging to get through. Four hundred pounds of powder on the upper level would achieve similar results, but comes with the risk of collapsing the passage up to the palace as well.
Three hundred or more pounds of powder detonated on the lower level would completely cave in the tunnel near the workshop , requiring days of mining activity to clear. This would also render the passageway to the palace inaccessible. Achieving a similar result from the upper level is not possible with the amount of powder you have.
A detonation of 100 pounds of powder will damage anything within 30 feet of its origin, and will instantly kill anyone within 15 feet (the chunky salsa rule applies). A detonation of 200 pounds of powder will damage anyone within 60 feet, instantly killing anyone within 30 feet. Detonating 300 pounds of powder will damage anyone within 90 feet, killing anyone within 45 feet. Detonating 400 pounds will damage everyone within 120 feet, killing anyone within 60 feet. This is before calculating the effects of cave-ins. Being within the damage radius allows a reflex save for half damage. You are allowed a fortitude save versus massive damage if you are within the kill radius, but you are considered to automatically fail the reflex save.
Knowledge(Engineering) Fffffffffffffuuuuuuuuuu...
Well unless we want to bring down some of what's above us, like, say, the palace, we'd want them as low as possible. But I really don't want to go down there with those horses. Jamros, were you trying to indicate you could control them?
Ignoring Gareth's request for help with the bags, Caladrius shrugs and says "That would be bad, but how much do we need to use? Also, why don't we just shoot the horses?"
We need to decide what effect we want. With a little powder, say, 20 bags, we can damage the door enough to slow them down. Forty bags will collapse the tunnel and hold them off for a few hours. Sixty will bring down this whole room, and probably our route out of here with it.
And we sure as a blade in the night won't want to be here when the powder goes off, regardless of how much we use.
"A few hours isn't enough! We gotta bring down the whole room. And who says we all need to take the route to the palace? We can send a couple of us right now towards there to send word, then set up the explosion. Everybody else can take the mine access. There's the lever over there to open the door. Jamros said he could deal with the golems now, anyways."
Jamros shakes his head, motioning that the smaller golems wouldn't attack him or anyone else within 60 feet as long as he controlled the dagger. He looks confused and scared.
as long as he wielded the dagger. :)
The drone hovers around, quietly observing your deliberations.
Finishing up his packing, Martin shoulder the bag and begins passing back and forth.
Strategy has never really need my strong suit, but it seems to me any blast we do down here would probably make enough noise/ impact to be heard in the city. THis would certainly warn the city to look into the mines, and any spies that might be coming from. This is how I see it, we can only take these two bags with us anyway right? I say we take what we can, light a fuse in this room and then run through the escape path. Even if it's not the best spot for the blast, it should cause enough delays for us to get a head start. Do we know anything about the defenses up ahead, because I don't think we're in any fit shape for another fight.
knowledge local:
Gareth huffs at the group agitatedly, "No, no, don't you see? If we put the powder where it needs to be, and we collapse this room on the army, they have to walk ALL the way back or spend days diggin around. Why wouldn't we want to stop them in their tracks? Collateral damage? There's gonna be more collateral damage if that army reaches the city or grabs hold of the rest of the powder. No point in skipping off to save the king while the palace falls and our people are slaughtered anyways!" He looks at the group expectantly, then adds, "C'mon people! This is our big chance!"
Leto looks at the people around him and the silence that had taken the group. "Our goal is to warn the king and stop the army." Leto says with emotionless features. "Let's stop them. We can't fight them in our current condition and we have to send a warning. The best way to do that is to collapse the room and stop them from getting through. For the little time we have it is the best option."
With that Leto begins to use what little strength is contained within his thin, childlike body to drag the bags over to the door.
Gareth nods at Leto, "Good kid." He drags his backpack filled with bags to the door. "We'll have to deal with those mechanical horses to get the bags in place. My arrows won't strike their metal very hard, but that's all I got."
As Gareth draws his bow and prepares to notch an arrow, he adds, "When this thing goes off, if all goes right, the palace way is going to be blocked. It'll take some time to go through the mine access route. Someone needs to split from the rest of us and deliver the message to the palace. I command some respect in the Silver Guard, I am willing to do so."
He glances around at the others, "Unless you need me to set off the trap. In which case, someone else should go in my stead."
There are fuses inside the room with the powder. You could likely leave a long enough fuse burning to allow everyone to escape before detonation.
I think we take what we can, set this place alight before we head out, that way they don't get the powder, and we can wait for a more strategic or accesibl point to place the charges."
"This place looks as good as any for a strategic point to me. So, are we gonna chuck those bags down there, or set a fuse, or what?"
Leto looks at them. "I think I might have a useful spell for this occasion. I have a spell that can light something on fire from up to 35 ft away. I suggest that we toss the powder down there with a length of fuse on one of the bags, and blow the place to kingdom come."
Gareth smiles at the mention of Leto's useful spell. "Sounds handy. And fun. Just make sure we're way the hells back before you cast it."
Martin will chuck one bag of powder down towards the door, to see what happens. (hit ac 5)
Gareth is right. Blowing the whole room is a gamble, but the payoff seems great enough to take the risk. C'mon, we don't have much time.
Pygrado shrugs off his pack and the shortsword and grabs a bag.
Leto tosses down all the bags against the door shoving a fuse into the last one and tying two fuses together. And steps back "Let's get this show on the road."
Gareth corrals the party to the palace stairway exit as Leto prepares to set the fuse. "Get ready to run, kid!"
Martin is going to keep 5 bags of powder in his backpack rather then letting them go to the overall explosion.
Anyone else going to keep any?
Sure, why not? Gareth keeps 5 bags and the backpack on him. He should still be on light load.
Leto looks at the powder than over at Gareth, "This seems like a much worse idea than it did a few minutes ago."
Leto stands 35 feet away from the pile, as close as he can get to the way out, casts Spark, and runs like hell as fast as he can out.