Filbert's angry words are met with a resounding silence broken only by the steady patter of the rain. Agrippa spends several minutes banging on the door finding it to be of an extremely solid construction that's barred from within. Eventually the banging draws a response from within. A tiny peep hole opens enough for somebody to take a quick look and a tired sounding older make voice demands, "What's all this noise? What do you want?"
Filbert listens to the tired sounding voice above him, hearing a familiar timbre to it, falling off at the end as if always out of breath. Shaking his head,
"Cesyll? Cesyll Parker, I'm telling you that pipeweed will be the death of you. Filbert here, now why is the fort quiet as the church's cemetery is supposed to be? We need to speak to the Magistrate Tillus Padgett. Some strange goings on in the town."
Constable Parker. We are here at the behest of the Count. Let us in.
Agrippa makes a "go along with it" motion with his hand to the others.
Lizzie stays quiet.
It seemed Agrippa was a good bluff, at least to her impression.
"Guys, when there is time, Luxina and i have some information to share, regarding a pier."
Luxina puts a hand on Lizzie's shoulder.
"All in due time Lizzie. First we handle this, afterwards we'll drop by the pier."
Filbert catches a glimpse of a red faced man in his 50's with an immaculate moustache, dressed in the blue uniform and cap of a constable.
Agrippa tries to bluster his way in, but Parker replies gravely, "I'm afraid that's not possible sir. The Magistrate is away and he ordered the fort locked down during his absence. I'm afraid only he or the count may countermand that order, and only in person."
Nonsense! You know why we are here! Open the damnable door Parker or its your head. You know the Count will not be in a forgiving mood. Agrippa continues his ruse, attempting to bully his way into the Fort.
Pompously Parker replies, "I'm sorry Sir, I can't do that, Orders are orders. You are right about one thing though, the Count will not be in a forgiving mood if I open this door." A little suspiciously he adds, "Say did Cesadia out you up to this? She said something similar yesterday. I'll tell you what I told her. My express orders from the Magistrate are to wait for his return before letting anyone in or out, no exceptions."
Lizzie is about to say something, but it dawns on her those words might fall on deaf ears.
Looking back at the others.....
"I'm not in favor of destroying public property, but maybe beating down the door, for the sake of discovering this sinister situation, will be justified."
She silently makes a short prayer towards the skies, hoping her judgment to be right.
Agrippa knows when he's been bested, but his keen mind hatches a plot.
Come fellows. Parker is sowing the seeds of his own demise here.
with a whirl, Agrippa stalks off back towards town. Once the group is far enough from the Fort to not be seen, he says .
We can scale the walls under the cover of darkness. Let's go back to the Inn and rest, we will only need a few supplies. Perhaps Mistress Wentz can provide the items.
Agrippa explains that a with a couple hooded lanterns and grapples or ladder and they can climb the walls.
On the way back to the Inn Agrippa stops off and asks Cesadia and Winter if they might assist in breeching the Fort. Agrippa will promise not to harm anyone, they are just checking it out and making sure that nothing untoward has occurred. Agrippa is positive that it has though.
Upon hearing the plan Cesadia replies, "You want to break into to Fort Hailcourse? Good luck! Oh wait you're serious? You want to go over the wall, hmmm. Well we do have a couple of grappling hooks and 100' or so of knotted silken rope. Please be careful, I'd feel terrible if you fell."
Agrippa confers with his colleagues. His preference is for sudden decisive action now, but he knows he cannot venture into Hailcourse on his own.
Indeed. What will it be then?
No matter their decision, Agrippa will pay Sentilar Roy a visit.
When they reached the keep where Constable Parker was at Momijii was about ready to try and show them what she could do when she wanted to, unfortunately she remembered her recent maiming and knew that the damage it had dealt to her was still there in some ways. She knew she just needed a chance to rest and meditate to put it behind her but that wasn't happening anytime soon and so she hesitated. This gave time for Heinrich to start in trying to lie their way in and while his attempt was good it seemed it simply wasn't going to be enough. She thought about trying to batter down the doors right then but knew it was likely an exercise in futility. Instead they retreated and met up with Cesadia once more to try for a means of getting over the walls.
Luxina whispers to the others.
"Allow me to make this easier for us."
Luxina takes over some of the ropes and grappling hooks and imbibes a flask she has concocted earlier.
She scales the walls easily, trying her best not to be detected.
If not spotted and on top of the wall, she will affix the grappling hooks and ropes and let them down for the others to climb up.
Once Luxina affixes the grapple, Heinrich will quaff his invigorative (False Life ) and climb the rope as quietly as possible
Once over the wall, Agrippa begins silently scouting as best he can. The darkness hinders his eyesight, but the first thing he looks for are lights and sentries.
Luxina also looks for any sentries as she climbs up the wall.
Thanks to her alchemy, Luxina quickly and easily scales what would otherwise have been a nigh impossible surface to climb, so slick where the fort's walls. Once up top it was a simple matter to secure the grappling hook. She drops the knotted rope down with a faint swish. Agrippa gamely climbs up although he nearly slips a couple of times, still he caught himself with no harm done.
Up top all is quiet, and there are no lights within the compound. In fact there's almost no light at all, bar a little moonlight filtering through the cloud. Luxina strains to see anything in the murk.
They are humanoid in shape but are standing totally still.
Agrippa thinks that the complete lack of light in the compound is...disturbing. Anything human would require a light source...
Agrippa slinks a little bit closer to the trio, trying to identify what he was dealing with.
Lizzie is Climbing after Agrippa.
"See anything?"
Heinrich believes he's unnoticed so far. Lizzie can't see much from the grounds outside.
With their preparations completed and the wall before them Momijii waited patiently until Luxina had made it up and secured the grappling hook. She made her way up when it was her turn but lost her grip almost immediately as the thought of the distance to climb made her a little queasy. She'd always been afraid of heights, ever since the puppy fell, and though she tried to hide it it was obvious by the fact that she fell like she did. She gathered her courage and made a second attempt, this time reaching the top with ease. Once there she took a look around for any signs of their being spotted. She saw nothing of concern as she looked around and hunkered down as best she could, just in case something was keeping a look out.
Lizzie scales the wall, and awaits for the others to join her and Agrippa.
Lizzie makes the climb with ease.
Filbert waits till last, climbing never one of the things he wished to do. His first attempt almost got started, but a misplaced step wound up giving him nothing but a kiss from the wall.
Pickup a loaded wagon, no problem, climb up a rope big problem. <sigh> I may get there before the sun rises.
Dusting himself off and looking at the wall above him, Filbert squares his shoulder and begins climbing, concentrating solely on the areas his feet and hands were being placed. With much grumbling of the mind he finally reaches the top and eases through the crenelations.
Spotting the trio Agrippa is shadowing, Filbert moves to join Agrippa, indicating to Lizzy and Momijii where the three are.
Luxina can't quite see the trio just yet. She gathers up the ropes and grappling hooks and stows them in her backpack once more.
The clouds above churn and the rain lashes down. By some chance of weather or godly design the clouds part momentarily allowing the light of the full moon to reveal what was previously unseen! To the south a trio of humanoids in battered watch armor gaze unceasingly upon the courtyard. Your heart lurches when all three as one wheel about and start marching clockwise round the battlements!
With equal suddenness the clouds cover the moon plunging everything into darkness.
Lizzie whispers.
"Hey guys, hang on. I believe i heard our friend inquisitor discuss a special kind of zombies once. Juju zombies, she called them."
Agrippa nods and whispers We know enough now. The cult has the Fort. We should go, and return in the daylight...with allies.
Nodding Filbert moves back to the top of the wall where they had come up, only to find Luxina stowing the rope and grapple. "Hook it back up!" he hisses "We need to get down from here now and out there not inside here"
Standing guard he'll let the others go first, he can't climb well but figures between Momijii and Agrippa, they could catch him enough to keep from breaking his fool neck.
"Go! I'll guard here till you're down."
Filbert grabs the rope, and begins climbing down to the others, aiming for Momijji's shoulders.
, once on her shoulders he grabs the hook with his Mage Hand ability and brings it quietly to the ground
Luxina was just rolling up one of the ropes when Filbert mentions hanging them out again.
"Okay. I'm sure you guys have seen something I haven't. The rain is obscuring my sight."
Luxina hangs back the rope before climbing back down again via the wall. She tries to assist Lizzie and Heinrich as they are descending the ropes and waits for Filbert before coming off the wall herself.