Pocky sees Dervak standing before the chain. “Oh, you know you want to.
“You mentioned unnatural abominations a moment ago? What abomination is worse than this? Let’s break the chains and break the masters.”
Allegra studiously considers the lines and form of the giant bell while Dervak and Pocky work.
“What abomination is worse than this?”
"...you don't want to know.
This? This is just the ordinary evil of the world. Not my crusade to end it, but since we're here and fighting these slavers, might as well release these ones here."
I agree with Mara. We should be quick about the actual slavers themselves.
Allegra detects no magic on the bell.
With a single swing Dervak's falchion cuts through the chains holding the slaves. It's not nearly as clean a cut as Allegra's axe might cause but it gets the job done. The slaves begin to look between themselves, "Where are we supposed to go? Did you bring a ship?"
Another pipes in, "I saw the gnolls went that way." She points the way you came.
A third adds while indicating the doors to the south, "There's one more of us in a solitary cell."
Pocky says to the slaves, “Let us kill the oppressors first. Then there may be a way for you to leave here safely.”
She heads south to save the other.
Again, she checks for traps.
"You can take weapons from the gnolls as we kill them. Stay together. Maybe you are not trained warriors, but there is strength in numbers."
He follows Pocky to the solitary cell.
Ci Ci moves to the door to the tiger den, remaining floating above the floor, in case the beasts are hungry for seconds.
She keeps close watch on the curved hallway from the East, wary of any approaching gnolls or other denizens of the keep.
Mara wondered if the prisoner in the solitary cell could be the source of her vision. She headed toward the southern doors, checking quickly for traps before trying each one.
Mara's keen senses find no hidden needles dripping with poison or trip wires.
Within the cell to the west is a frail old keleshite woman. She's bound with a trio of chains and fetters. Mara, Dervak, and Theo recognize her immediately despite never seeing the woman before. Their vision blurs and they're stand in a featureless plane where rocky sandstone cliffs flicker in and out of existence. As reality flickers the woman flickers as well jumping between her and a strange creature with a conical body topped with four rubbery appendages. The vision fades as quickly as it began.
The woman doesn't speak but everyone hears her, "Please you must hurry and free me. This body is frail and if anything happens to it I will perish forever. Lowls visited this place days ago and is even now headed for Neruzavin, I can help you journey there."
Mara healed the old woman and helped the others remove her restraints. "I saw you in a vision! And I think you've reached out to some of us before, including me, when we were far away in Thrushmoor!
After the old woman was free, she said, ""Where are my manners? My name is Mara bint al-Katheeri. I'm glad to finally meet you in person."
Dervak breaks the chains or removes the restraints. He tries to recall if he has any idea what sort of creature the old woman's other form might be.
"I am Dervak. I think you spoke to me as well."
Pocky replies to the woman, “By perish forever… you mean it is not just your body, but your soul that is in danger?”
She turns to the others. “I want to kill every slaver here, but… if my riling the unleashed tigers provides cover for escape, perhaps we should consider this a successful rescue, and move out.”
"The slaves we just freed will not get far if we leave a fortress full of gnolls to hunt them down."
Allegra frowns, looking back the way they'd come.
"We have what we came here for. Do we need to spread more death today?"
Mara voiced her strong opinion, "The lives of the slaves here are in our hands. We have to get them safely to freedom!"
"They seem reasonably safe here, even if they aren't free. We risk their lives if we take them into danger. Or do you simply want more blood on your hands, if we continue further?"
"I have no problem with more blood on my hands, if it is for a good cause.
I serve the god of war.
The only thing I am good at is violence.
If my talents can be pointed towards a good end, maybe that can make up for some of the harm I have caused.
I don't know, I'm not a philosopher. But I think we can do some good here. You can do as you wish. We don't owe each other anything."
Pocky replies, “They are not safe. They are malnourished. I am indifferent to killing the slavers ourselves or using the tigers to distract as we escape.
“I have my opinion on what course is best, but as long as we can all agree to the goal to take every slave out alive, I’m game for fight or flight.” She asks, “Which do you honestly think best accomplishes this?”
Theophilus greet the elder warmly.
Theophilus Carter, at your service. We shall deliver you to safety; then perhaps return to eradicate the vermin running this den of evil!
Theo grants her a Healing Hex also.
He lays a hand on Dervak's shoulder. He can because he is also tall.
My friend, we should make a path to safety for these prior to delivering judgment.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The old woman stands up shakily and the same voice filters throughout your mind, "Thank you Mara and the rest of you. I have been trying to reach you for some time but something has blocked my efforts until just recently. The journey to Neruzavin is long and we will need to bring supplies, beasts of burden, food, water. If your concern is the other slaves, know that the number here account for only half of them. Biting Lash will also surely seek revenge if she's not dealt with."
Pocky hears the voice. “Well… that answers that.”
She says to Allegra, “If we move as one, we can overwhelm the remaining foes. Dervak is correct that escape is not guaranteed. The tigers may delay the gnolls’ exit, but escorting starved prisoners will be slow, whether we save one or twenty-one. And the law is on the side of Biting Lash; they need not chase us at all. A sending stone could spell our doom.”
She tightens her little fists. “The dead cannot send magical warnings across the land.”
She tightens her little fists. “The dead cannot send magical warnings across the land.”
They can't?
There's ghosts, of course.A severed head washed up on shore can still Speak With Dead.
Maybe some sort of death-curse that makes the killer proclaim their own guilt...
Dervak nevertheless keeps quiet and nods.
"Leaving a vengeful enemy behind sounds like trouble, and slavers are hardly worthy of compassion," Ci Ci says. "On the other hand power, especially corrupt, uncaring power, abhors a vacuum. Who knows what avalanche we will cause by obliterating this stone? We could end up making a bad situation worse. I do not think we have the time to be philosophical. Either we kill every slaver here, or we leave. Given the limited information at hand, I am fine with either choice."
Let's leave no slaver unturned!
"I am not about to abandon my companions here, so security it shall be."
"While our usual approach has been to prepare with spells and then just plow ahead, I did rethink that after the room with the inevitables.
I got some gloves that will let me see through a door or wall, but only once a day.
Do any of you have magic for seeing at a distance? Things like Arcane Eye or Clairvoyance?"
Semore has some good Stealth skills. He has been training as a rogue.
Theo grins.
The White Rabbit is seen wearing a ninja outfit.
“It is draining for me to become ethereal, but I can.
“Perhaps the gloves will suffice and, depending what you see, I have my way of peering into or passing into the next unknown.”
"I'll keep the gloves in mind the next time we come to some doors. Though right now it is a curving wall blocking our vision, and so I guess we should go around clockwise.
Theophilus, I don't know how often you can summon Semore, but you can do that if you really want to."
Theo frowns. He looks down at the White Rabbit.
They may be on to us.
"OK, time to move!", Mara said. She was wary or the tigers, so she waited for Pocky to move forward and keep the big cats at bay with her unsettling presence. She kept her distance from Semore because he wad thoroughly evil and not to be trusted!
Pocky does her part to keep the cats in their cages. She suggests the slaves remain with the elder, and vows to come back for them. If I survive.
"I can help with stealth reconnaissance. She won't be as skilled as Pocky, but she also won't be as abhorrent as Seymore, and perhaps a little more available."
Allegra will spend a blessing to summon a Hound Archon, which can turn into a cute and totally not suspicious dog, and also cast message to relay its findings to us. Stealth +13.
Pocky thinks the summoned dog is cute.
But she does not step within 30 feet of it.
Cute though the dog might be, Dervak keeps a respectful distance from the heavenly champion of Law and righteousness.
Theo actually hisses; before he looks embarrassed.
Excuse me! That chili was a bit spicy.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
The hound archon takes the form of a dog and trots around the corner and begins to whisper in truespeech through a message spell, "Wow! Much gnoll. So concern." It isn't immediately cut down so you assume that your attempts at stealth were successful.
Ci Ci calls upon her power to turn invisible.
"Hey Allegra, you want to be a giant?"
Dervak will cast Long Arm on himself, and Enlarge Person on Allegra if she wishes.
Allegra opens her mouth to launch into an indictment of the savagery of the majority of giant-kind, then abruptly closes her mouth and just nods.
Mara intoned a protective prayer and flew along behind Pocky.
Dervak casts his spell and Allegra grows to a towering height of 12 feet, as tall as a Stone Giant. Her greataxe is now bigger than Dervak himself. He looks at his work with approval.
"There you go. Let's go see what the dog found."
Pocky does not come up to Allegra’s knee once the transformation is complete. “Well, if you’re ready to squeeze through the door, I will gladly follow.”
Dervak will advance with Allegra around the corner.