Dropping to his knees, the guard cries out for Mitra's salvation before crumpling into a pool of his own blood. The remaining four guards remain in place, unable to move or preoccupied smiting themselves.
Bognus strains against his chains, both physical and magical, settling his grip and bracing himself as only a true dwarven battlerager can.
Grinning in twisted satisfaction at the death of her opponent, Nuandis diverts her attention to the guard directly in front of Karactus, releasing him from her current enchantment in confidence he will succumb to her next.
There was something different about the way she addressed the guard, the cruelty and vindictiveness in her voice melted away to sweet, high effeminate tone.
"Won't you please unbind our new friend?" she asked politely as her eyes shifted to Ulmah.
"Free my new friend..." the guard replied monotonously. He twisted away from the battlefield, unhooking his key ring on the way and unlocking the shackles on Ulmah's wrists.
The sword-and-board guard before Seth remains in place, fear and hatred burning in his eyes.
"Thank you, lovely one. This will be quite fun, I think. If only I had a few of my soulstones..."
Ulmah calmly focuses her psychic energy on the last guard fighting Karactus and uses boneshatter on him.
Ulmah walks out of the room, watching her new friends intently. She ignores the guard who just unlocked her, as he's obviously no threat.
"What is thy name?" the guard cloaked in shadows asked the woman from the cell. As he spoke, the angry lash coiled around his arm continued it's terrible work.
"I am named Ulmah. I was imprisoned simply for using some flesh for creation of minions. These people and their obsession with 'honoring' their dead disgusts me. Perfectly good deceased flesh, wasted, buried in the ground! Once we retrieve my possessions, I will create us an army of undeath."
"Thy name is listed. I am here to see to thy escape. Only one remains. Bognus. A dwarf. "
As he spoke he walked back up the stairs. Moments later he came back dragging the corpses of the guards slain above.
In short order the bodies were loosely piled together. He raised a hand gently. "R̝̦̬̳̼̯̝̀i̛̘̖̖ͅs͎̭e̳̙̖̺͎̮̘.҉̯̟"
The corpses twitched and shuddered, flesh withering and tightening until it was little more than a bloody carapace stretched over raw bones. They stood, the burning mark of the Forsaken cracking forth from beneath the skin of their chests spreading fire beneath their cracked skin. Where their blood dripped to the floor it sizzled and blackened. In moments they were mockeries of the Mitran faith they once embodied.
"Obey Ulmah as though she were me." he said to the undead. They turned their gaze upon her and waited.
Nuandis peeks from behind Karactus and wrinkles her nose, looking at her new undead companions with a mild level of disapprobation.
"But they usually smell so much better alive."
"I'm Nuandis, I didn't really do anything wrong. I was clearing the streets of Daveryn of the filthy beggars and selling them off to people who could actually make use of the peasants. And this is..." she pauses, looking to her new guard-friend.
"Oh never mind sweetheart, your name isn't important. Come here and draw me a map of this place pretty please? Make sure to put a big "X" in the room with the one called Bognus!"
"Well now, aren't you just a peach? Thank you, friend."
"I am Karactus." the not-guard rumbled.
He scanned the room, reading the story of days, weeks even, told by the scuffs and prints in the dust.
"Here." he rumbled, moving to the door to the cell and using the guard's keys to open it.
On the other side of the door, Bognus continued his snarling assault on his bindings.
"They're the two?" He glanced at the broken chains around the vampire slightly impressed. Even weakened by the magic here this one was strong. It was time to figure out the next part of their plan. If we have one
"Signs of Dwarf" were not hard to find: once the affair with the guards ended, the sound of snarling and chains rattling, groaning and popping echoed from the doorway opposite of Ulmah's cell.
Bognus stands there in an orgy of metal, only a couple chains left attaching him to the walls of the room.
"They are." Karactus answered Sethirom.
He passed a woman's kerchief behind him to the others. "This was gifted by our benefactor. Unravel the embroidery."
Leaving them in the entrance way to the Dwarf's cell, Karactus braved the frothing prisoner's rage and provided a key for the remaining chains.
As the kerchief is passed along, each person finds only one embroidered Aegis that is able to come off.
+1 Furious Dwarven Waraxe
Anaconda's Coils
Gauntlets of Skilled Maneuvers (Grapple)+2
A Three-slot Wayfinder with a Dusty Rose Prism Ioun stone already placed in one of the sockets.
+1 Titanic Bracers of Armor
+1 Lifesurge kukri
+2 Deathless mithral scale mail
Amulet of natural armor +1
Pearl of power 1
Vambraces of Defense
I don't have a list from you, send me a PM about what Nuandis prefers
+1 guided heavy adamantine spiked shield
+1 guided adamantine heavy mace
+1 mithral breastplate
+2 headband of Wisdom
+2 belt of physical might(dex/con)
+1 ring of protection
Seth rips off the patch that is his revealing a number of his missing possessions. "Such a boon. I thought I would never see these again." He takes some time to don his armour and adjust to the extra weight by swinging his mace a couple of times. "Better than ever." he says with a wicked grin.
"These are from...my shop?"
Nuandis's smile brightens, a relic of her ruined former life was uplifting. Adjusting her new gear, she turns to Karactus.
"You said a list? You were sent here for us? I'm curious who would go through the trouble."
Ulmah smiles when she pulls the stitches off and gets some of her more precious items returned to her. "None of my soulstones, but this will aid me."
Ulmah then casts greater false life on herself.
"That tale will be told once we are free of this place. Our benefactor does not wish to risk incrimination, should any of us be captured while escaping." Karactus said quietly, waiting for the dwarf to come his senses and cease his struggles.
As the other prisoner came into his cell, Bognus roared at them at first, then swiftly quieted, confused. He said nothing for a moment as the strangest one came to release his shackles. When they fell away, he grunted and flexed, reveling in the return of his strength. He eyed them for a moment, then reached down and, almost casually, tore the remaining chains from the wall out of spite.
That done, he planted his fists on his hips and glared up at the rest, his eyes occasionally flicking to the doorway as he contemplated escaping the room and its artificial sunlight. "Wha's all this then? Somebody's lookin' to set the likes of us free, are they?"
He snorted. "Out o' charity for poor misbegotten pris'ners, I'll jest bet."
Then, though, they passed the kerchief around to him, and his eyes went wide after he suspiciously peeled away the patch that looked like a bare fist dripping blood.
"Well, alright then! Tha's more like it!" he exulted, hastily strapping on the belt, bracers and gauntlets. He squinted distrustingly at the Wayfinder compass with its faintly glowing gem, then shrugged and tucked it inside his shirt.
I s'pose there wouldn't be much point in smuggling in traps along with this much gear when they coulda jest left us to rot.
Finally, equipment in place, he hefted the axe with a grin, his now-gauntleted hands twisting the handle with a sound of protesting metal. His teeth bared in a terrifying grin.
"Alright then. There a plan beyond kickin' in the teeth of everyone between us and the exit?" he said, stepping out of the room and into the relative darkness beyond. "'Cos I'd be jest fine if there's not."
"Oh, aren't you just a beautiful specimen? We will have some fun, I think, won't we, dear?"
Ulmah smiles viciously at Bognus, sizing up his power. "Yes indeed, this should be very interesting..."
Seth looks askance at the vampire. "You can feast on any that get in your way as far as I care. Now that we are free I want to get out of here. Not too sure about meeting whoever sent you here," he says to Karactus, "But let's be about it all the same." And he thumps his shield with his mace.
Using a retrieved dagger from a fallen enemy, Karactus scraped a map of the prison on the wall.
"This is our prison. The erstwhile Castle Brander."
He pointed to the prison block, and then moved along, describing the entire place. "This is where we are now. The warden's tower is here. Kennels here. Kitchens. Barracks."
He pointed to a building set into the exterior wall. "The gatehouse. From it is a bridge that spans a chasm over the sea. At the far end is a guardhouse. Beyond that, the marsh, where we will vanish."
"We have two options ahead of us. Either, we stealthily make our way toward the gatehouse, slay the archers on the walls and the gatehouse guards, and run."
"Or, we make our way through the whole complex, killing everyone we come across, and walk across the bridge with this place in flames behind us."
Nuandis eyes Bognus curiously, she could swear she'd seen him in her shop before, but he must have looked much less ghastly then. Refocusing on their present circumstances, she turns back to Karactus to reply, "I like the second option, at least then we can fake our own demises and have less attention drawn to us."
Bognus stepped out of the doorway and the rays of magical sunlight pouring from it, giving Ulmah a consternated glance as he passed, and immediately felt an intense relief so intense he almost stumbled. All the minor bruises and cuts of his capture and struggle against his bindings immediately fell away as his vampiric power came flooding back, and he grunted in satisfaction.
Without turning back to the others, he called over his shoulder, "Aye. Let's tear tha damn thing down, brick by brick if we have tae." He started limbering up, stretching like a prize fighter before a bout. "Oughta be a nice warmup."
"Stealth will avail us. None yet know of our escape. Catching as many unawares as possible would be wise." Karactus said still scanning his makeshift map. Behind him, his shadow stalked through the silhouettes of trees that were not there, a massive horned man.
Greater Magic Weapon +2(adds +1 on mace)
Magic Vestment +2(adds +1 on breastplate)
Heroism +2 morale bonus on attack rolls, saves, and skill checks
Freedom of Movement Free movement?
Heightened Awareness +2 perception and knowledge(dismiss for +4 to initiative)
Magic Circle against Good +2 deflection and resistance bonus
Seth nods at Karactus and when everyone is ready to go speaks a magical phrase disappearing from sight.
He heads slowly down the stairs looking out for more soldiers. If he encounters doors he will scan, detecting good first.
"I am fairly adept at keeping myself hidden. We should be able to sneak up on any we need to, as long as my friends here (she points at her skeletons) stay several yards behind us. They are not naturally very quiet."
Bognus grunts. "A bit borin', but yeh, I kin do tha sneaky thing." Scanning the group, he adds, [b]"I'll take tha front o' tha main group, 'less there's any who feel like scoutin' ahead."
The next hall down proves similar to the two preceding it, with a distinct lack of guards. Perhaps all of the cells on this floor are empty? There are two doors on each side of the hall, with another set of stairs at the bottom. The chatter of men can be heard coming from the floor below, echoing up the stairs.
Ulmah follows close behind, her skeletons staying a safe distance behind the rest of the group.
If Seth isn't able to Detect Good or Law behind any of the doors he will try to open them.
If he detect something he will let the others know to get ready to fight.
The entire floor seems empty. No good, law or even sound comes from behind any of the cell doors. The chatter and laughter of men continues to echo up from downstairs. There are at least five men below.
Karactus was not one to stand idle. He opened each door just to be sure they did not house anyone asleep, or some item they might found useful.
When he was done with his search he moved toward the stairs with Sethirom.
Nuandis creeps a few feet behind Seth and Karactus, silently augmenting her form with magic.
If they find nothing in the rooms on this level Seth continues on down the stairs slowly.
Bognus reached up to place a meaty hand on Nuandis's shoulder. He threw a thumb over his shoulder with his other hand before flicking it in a surprisingly deft series of gestures, his thick eyebrows raised expectantly.
His intent seemed clear, even if the more complicated signals weren't; let him go first. He started to move past her, flexing his fists.
The bottom of the stairs opens to a cafeteria with two double doors exiting to the north. Scents of stewed pork fill the room and linger up the stairwell. There are three tables with ten eating and laughing guards sitting around them collectively, with shields leaning against the table and swords sheathed at their hip. Two more men stand away from the tables near the westernmost door.
Karactus crouched int he shadows of the stairwell and silently motioned the others forward.