Although she is obviously in great pain, Aubrin is conscious, and manages to raise herself some. She leans against the wall, using an elbow for support. As she hears the noise outside she says:
“It... it sounds like there’s an army outside the door. How did they fall on us without being seen? These damn plains are so flat you can see an elk from two days off, let alone an army!” She winces and presses her hands against the bloody hole in her chest. “They sound large. Too large to fight on the
ground like honest fools. We need to gather what we can, cross the bridge, and hide out in the Fangwood. I—I know a few secrets that may keep us safe. Should probably figure out how to take down the bridge while we’re at it, else they’ll just march themselves across before we have the chance to hide.”
Jet and the inn's other visitors haven't waited for Aubrin's assessment of the situation. As soon as it's safe to move around in the place they begin to gather whatever supplies are on hand, food and water, preparing to flee.
Jet mentions "There may be people upstairs still in their rooms. Someone should check!
Looking out the door, Caeleron and Azure see that the hobgoblins and their various allies, they see some patrols with worgs, and a bugbear or two at least, are not massing in the commons, but fanning out through the town. Almost as quickly as they can exit the tower they march off.
The commons square is littered with bodies, only here or there is anyone left fighting against them. A quick estimate would put the hobgoblins' numbers over a hundred easily.
As some information comes in from Azure and Caeleron, and Aubrin gathers her wits a bit more, she adds "We have to get out as quickly as we can. One of the things they will do is set pickets at all the town's exits to prevent escape. But we'll need as supplies, as much as we can get, to make it for any length of time in the forest. And we must gather anyone we can, save as many as possible."
"There are some places close by where people might shelter and that will have things we need. Oreld's shop, and the Trading Company are nearby. There's tools and weapons there. People may have fled to Riverwood Shrine. Someone help me up, it's time to get going!"
Skalla puts a solid shoulder under Aubrin's arm to help her stay upright. If nobody is headed upstairs to check for more people, she nods at Callistra to kindly do so.
Addressing the elf, she says. "Stay with us. I don't think you know the town that well yet, and with this chaos and confusion it's easy to get turned around. Just keep your bow ready."
She turns her head to ask Aubrin. "Oreld's shop first? We can go clockwork-wise around the commons and end up at the bridge."
Azure shakes his head and says, "First things first." and runs up the stairs to check for people in the rooms above them.
His sword is drawn, and he is checking every door for stragglers.
Erastil, guide my hands. Protect these people in this season of strife.
Those bodies lying on the ground. People he knew. People who had made him laugh. People he had fed. Azure escaped this. He was rescued from this.
And those we cannot protect, give me the valor to avenge.
Callistra ignores Skalla's order to check up stairs. Instead she moves to Aubrin and tries to get her wounds bound.
After knocking on one of the doors upstairs Azure receives a reply. He hears a man's quavering voice answer "Leave us be, it's not safe out there!"
Azure sheathes his scimitar and rests his forehead against the door. He considers his fearsome appearance and glowers. He wishes Faunra or Skalla was with him, someone who knew honeyed words to speak. Someone like...
"Aubrin is with us. You're safe here for now. Not for long. They will come here. They will find you. The rest of us are fleeing into the woods. There we may have a chance. Stay here, sure as sunrise, you will die. Open the door. Do not grant me the guilt of returning here to find your body. That's if they don't take you prisoner."
Faunra sobered herself as her friends began making plans and organizing their escape.
Aubrin needs to be taken to the Doctor's, but I'm not sure there is much he can do under such constraints. Such a large group of people, no matter where we head... So most of us here should head to the forest right away... Then there's those in the Shrine, and the supplies at the Trading Post...
"I know this might not be a popular opinion, but I think we need to split up. A few take Aubrin to Oreld's, a few head to the shrine, the rest into the forest."
The forest...
She silenced the sing song voice that always seemed to call her to the Fangwood before continuing.
"Skalla, I think you most of all should go to the shrine. It's where most of the people will go to hide. The buildings in between here and there may also have stragglers. The families here will need you to keep order and protect them.
Those here who can't fight should go straight to the forest. The less people we have the easier it will be to not attract attention.
I... I can fight.
Azure should take Aubrin, maybe with Callistra. She can identify things to pack should Oreld be there and able to treat Aubrin.
Those at the shrine can supply at the post. It's closer, with more cover from the Greens.
If we go around the whole area, it could be too late for those at the Shrine. It's an obvious stronghold.
If we arrange to meet back here, then those who arrive first can assess the situation at the bridge. Or someone can stay to watch it, go across with the others...
I don't know! All I know is that with Aubrin injured it will slow our speed and maneuverability down and that there will definitely be people at the Shrine! Noelan and Rhyna aren't fighters! Kining might be with them, but it won't be enough!"
Faunra's head buzzed. Who knew strategy was so complicated? So many variables, where to go, how many, what order, what direction. She longed for the peace of the Fangwood, the hum of the trees. A place where she knew the way, and was certain.
But she was needed here. If she ran into anything hostile, she couldn't defend people on her own.
"I do not know many of the people of this village, but we should save as many as we can before the whole place is overrun," Caeleron says matter-of-factly. "We should not split up - individuals will be easy prey for the invaders. We will last longer as a group, even if we are slowed. If you do not wish to risk bringing the injured then they should make their way across the bridge now."
Caeleron is clearly anxious to leave the inn and though he is not a native of Phaendar he has no wish to see another village and its people destroyed.
"We need to gather up the villagers, and we need supplies to ensure their survival in the forest. The Fangwood can provide much, but it likely cannot support so many refugees without our help. I agree that we should go to the shrine first, and then gather supplies from the shops. We will need people to carry the wounded, and the equipment they will require in the forest."
"Azure! Did you find them?" Skalla races up the stairs to see what's keeping the hunter. His difficulty is apparent as he stands in front of one closed door. Skalla calls out to the ones inside, and anyone else who might be hiding in their rooms, in the tone she customarily uses to tell the children that break is over.
"Alright, people, let's move! We have supplies and we have a plan to escape! Come out now, we won't leave anyone behind to be butchered or enslaved by these brutes!"
The voice behind the door seems to converse with another for a moment. To Azure and Skalla it sounds as if the other voice is much more emphatic in tone than the one who answered them.
Soon a response comes through the closed door.
"We're staying here thank you. It's not safe outside. Much better to wait for things to clear. You should do the same."
Downstairs, provisions have been gathered and distributed among the people for carrying. That taken care of, Jet, with an expression of "ick!" on her face turns over the bodies of the hobgoblins and checks them for gear.
She finds that they seem to have already done some looting. One has a masterwork backpack containing a wand, a scroll, and some sheep's cheese. The other has a jug of sheep's milk, some dried goat meat, and a bandolier holding six potions, clearly marked with labels reading Guidance. One also carries a heavy crossbow along with 20 bolts.
Jet also rips the patch off the arm of a hobgoblin's tunic. Both of them wear the symbol. "So as not to forget" she says.
Callistra attempts to identify what spell the wand has?
And she looks at the scroll to see what spell it has?
Callistra is able to identify both items quickly.
The wand holds 11 charges of Magic Missile. The scroll holds three spells: Calm Animals, Cure Light Wounds, and Magic Stone.
Azure looks exasperatedly at Skalla, knowing that neither she nor anyone else would approve of what he is about to do and says, "I understand you're scared, but I won't leave you to die or be enslaved while we flee to safety. Either you open this door,
or I OPEN IT FOR YOU."
Caeleron makes ready to move, checking that he has all of his equipment and that his blade is easily accessible. He draws an arrow and notches it to his string, before looking around outside to work out a safe route to the shrine.
The swirling chaos of a village overrun makes discerning a safe route virtually impossible, and he turns back to the common room.
"Jet, please help Aubrin. Everyone else gather what food and weapons you can. We need to move quickly."
Skalla gives Azure a firm nod, then backs up to the other side of the corridor and adds her shoulder to his. They could not leave people behind, even if that meant dragging them out from under their beds, kicking and screaming.
"It's for your own good!" she shouts to those inside.
Faunra hears the sound of two half-orcs resorting to force upstairs.
She'd giggle if the situation weren't so dire. Saying no to either one of her friend's was a bad idea, but them both? She had to shake her head at it all. Having to force people to be saved. They couldn't possibly be locals.
Though she supposed it a bit late, or at least now a bit harder, she headed upstairs to see if she could at least talk these people into coming. Dragging unwilling people around was unsafe for everyone.
"Callistra, could you help me with the people upstairs. I can talk to them, I'd just like them to see someone... normal?" she gestures with her green hand to emphasize the point. "They'll be less frightened of two teenage girls than two half-orcs who just attacked their... door, I assume."
Azure and Skalla burst the door's latch, flinging it wide with the force of their shoulders. Their momentum carries them a step forward, into the door's entrance, and they see two men inside.
Both men are of middling years and clearly terrified. They scramble as far back into the farthest corner of the room from Azure and Skalla as they can, cowering there.
One of them, not the one who spoke with them through the door, cries out "I told you! It was a trap! It's the raiders!"
By the men's clothing it is obvious they aren't local. Their accents suggest perhaps a Chelish origin to both Azure and Skalla.
Azure immediately dismisses his animal focus and attempts to look like a normal, run-of-the-mill, horrendously scarred and immensely tattooed half-orc.
His face still contorted into a scowl from the effort of knocking in the door, his tusks jutting from his lower lip, he says in a calm, flat voice, "We are trying to get you to safety. We will get you out of here. You can walk, or you can be dragged. But your death will not be on our conscience." He nods to Skalla. "Your choice."
Callistra takes the masterwork Backpack, piling the food into it and then taking the potions bandolier and the crossbow.
Hearing the noise upstairs she hurries up with Faunra, giving the two men cowering in the room an unimpressed look. "Look will you stop sniveling and get a move on! We're evacuating. You can stay and die when the legion burns the place down if you like."
Faunra looks at the scroll in her hand and sighs.
"Too bad they aren't animals..."
With the commotion upstairs likely to draw attention, Caeleron begins gathering the inn's patrons, making ready to move. "Pick up anything that will serve as a weapon - kitchen knives, table legs, anything you might defend yourself with." He tries to get them ready to flee, assembling the group by the door. He leaves them under Aubrin's watch then strides over to the bottom of the stairs.
"We have to move. Now," he calls up to the others, hoping that they won't waste any more time gathering up recalcitrant stragglers.
"Time to go!" Callistra says, hearing Caeleron's call. She gives the occupants of the room one last look. "Come or die. It's your choice."
Azure conjures his best expression of sympathy and says, "Don't be fools. What you're doing is suicide."
Getting frustrated, Skalla growls at the two recalcitrant, brushing splinters from her shoulder. "Like he said - come or be dragged. You are not from around here, you don't know just how much danger you are in. They casually slit the throat of a merchant downstairs just for... just for being. Your only chance of survival is to come with us."
"We'll do whatever you say, just don't hurt us!"
The two men cower past you as they hurriedly leave their room. You're not sure they understand who you are, or really believe what you say.
Faunra gathers with the others, hoping their unwilling new additions don't cause them any trouble.
She gives Meadow a comforting pat, comforting for her anyway.
Please be at the temple... please be at the temple
She mostly hoped that they had already escaped to the woods, but Faunra just wanted to see her parents were alive as soon as possible. If that meant that they were still in the temple, so be it.
She looked over at Azure, knowing of his faith in Erastil, and wished she had a deity of her own to ask for strength or guidance, even reassurance.
She looked down at her tiny spirit animal, and felt calmer.
She had something just as powerful, she only wished she had discovered it sooner.
Everyone at the inn is gathered, and provisions from the place are collected.
Azure draws his scimitar again and heads downstairs. His face takes on a more aquiline shape, and he is, in an instant, covered in tiny, almost translucent feathers. When everyone is ready, he opens the door, ready to brave the battleground his village has become.
The survivors group up and leave the Taproot Inn through the backdoor. With Caeleron in the lead, the group moves toward Riverwood Shrine. Staying off the main streets in favor of alleyways and the available trees for cover, they make their way among the buildings.
While crossing an part of town where the buildings are circled around like a cul-de-sac, Caeleron turns down an alley to find a wolf. Its back is turned toward him as it growls, peering at something underneath a wagon parked there.
The wolf, intent on its prey, does not seem to notice Caeleron at all.
Caeleron holds up his hand, signalling the group to stop, when he spots the wolf. Whether it had been drawn into town by the scent of blood or brought by the hobgoblin invaders, the wolf posed a danger to the inn's survivors.
Peeking round the building, Caeleron tries to see what has caught the creature's attention while making sure that he doesn't get seen.
The distance, angle, and poor lighting make it difficult for Caeleron. But it's the wolf in the way that really gives him problems. As best he can tell there's one, possibly two, roughly human-sized creatures under the wagon.
"What is it, what do you see?" Skalla hisses from behind Caeleron, her flail ready in her hands.
"Get away from there, mangy beast!" she growls, stomping towards the wolf and brandishing her weapon. She hopes it's just the one here and not a whole pack; lone wolves usually turn tail in the face of danger, but a pack would be dangerous. She summons her most menacing expression as she bares her fangs at the wolf to try and scare it away.
Azure's scimitar is drawn, and he advances on the wolves. If Skalla doesn't scare them off, Azure would show they why they should have been scared. Did these wolves belong to the hobgoblin, or did they smell a chance at food. Probably the former: the chaos would have chased the wolves away, not drawn them.
He growls as menaciningly as he can at the wolves, joining in Skalla's threat.
"A wolf, interested in something beneath a cart. I believe there are people trapped there," Caeleron reports matter-of-factly. Before he can formulate a plan, Skalla and Azure have stepped out to try and scare the wolf off. Caeleron steps around the corner behind the pair, bow ready but not drawn, waiting to see how the wolf reacts.
Callistra will gesture the refugees to stay low, she looks around in case someone else is drawn by the sounds.
The wolf spins about, startled. It does not flee from Azure and Skalla, but takes a defensive stance, ears flattened and teeth bared, as it growls back at you.
skalla steps forward, swinging her flail two-handed at the wolf. "I said... GIT!" As she does so, she attempts to get a better view or what, or who, is under the wagon.
The wolf seems unafraid of the group, a sign perhaps that it is one of the hobgoblins' attack dogs rather than a wild specimen. Though the wolf does not deserve to die, Caeleron has people to protect, which takes precedence over the life of the wolf.
He moves sideways across the alley trying to get a clear shot past Skalla, before drawing his bowstring back and loosing an arrow with the smooth motions of one who has spent their life honing their skills.
Faunra doesn't want to harm the wolf. She also doesn't want to use force either, mostly from her lack of experience.
She pulls out the scroll from earlier and reads the first spell.
"Calm down, big boy. We don't want to kill you."
Faunra draws her shortspear, it feels strange using it for attacking target than defending. But the wolf is in pain and on its last legs.
She doesn't want it to continue to suffer.
She want strong enough to take it on close up but she hoped she could throw it well enough to end it.
[ooc]Move action: draw weapon. Attack action:
Faunra sighs shakily.
She knew that this was necessary and hoped that it didn't draw any unnecessary attention.
Creeping forward, she tries to see what the wolf was so intent on hunting.
"It's safe to come out now. We're here to help"
The wolf bolts sideways with a yelp when Caeleron's arrow sinks into its flank. Its sudden movement causes both Faunra's and Skalla's attacks to miss it.
The wolf whips around on Skalla, biting at her. Its teeth find a purchase in Skalla's calf, tearing at the muscle.
"Keep it down!" She hisses, "We're trying to sneak our way to safety."
Callistra's bolt strikes the wolf in the throat, killing it.
Caeleron looks round as the wolf falls to the floor, hoping that their brief fracas hasn't drawn any attention. He moves over to check on whoever is underneath the cart. "You are safe for now. If you wish to leave the village, gather your provisions and join with us." He tries to take on an air of kindness, but he is fully aware that he is an outsider here, and that he may not be trusted.
Skalla grits her teeth from crying out when the wolf's fangs sink into her calf. Once the animal is dead, she hurriedly rips off a strip of cloth from her tunic and ties it tightly against the wound, although the blood flow has already stopped, and for anyone watching closely, the wound has begun to close. She waves off any offer of assistance and rushes to Caeleron's side to help him coerce the people under the cart to come out.
"Who's under there? Ma Pinagh, is that you? Come out now, quickly. We are getting everyone into the forest that we can find, we'll be safe there."
Azure looks at Skalla's wound, then to the fallen wolf. Caeleron and Skalla will tend to the survivors. Azure looks over the band they have assembled. Too few fighters. At least they have Aubrin with them. Azure peers around the next corner to see if anyone is standing between them and their next destination. For some reason all this chaos and carnage would make more sense if only it were the Molthuni. His heart is pounding in his chest. He tries to hear above it...