Dane presses his way through the mass of bodies trying to get in through the door, hops over the sleeping guard, and makes straight for the guard closing on Mordesel's flank. Seeing the guard fall thanks to Mordesel as he approaches, he swings his sword downward in a furious stroke.
"Surrender now Warden! No reason for you to die today!"
The guard is swiftly cut down by Dane, decapitated by the brutal strike.
The warden's eyes open wide in shock and rage.
"I wouldn't expect vile criminals to understand honour! I will NEVER submit!" He snarls through gritted teeth.
Mordesel quickly reaches down, in an attempt to kill the sleeping guard.
Donovan runs past the newly decapitated guard to flank the old man engaged with Sion.
I hear the warden's been a bit lazy these days, downright slothful isn't he? Repent sinner! Donovan shouts as he tries to grab the man with his glowing blue hand.
Mordesel slays the sleeping guard with ease. Both guards now lie dead.
The old man on the staircase casts a spell, his eyes staring intensely at Donovan. Clearly the old mage is not amused by Donovan's imitation of a Mitran priest.
Old man casts Flaming Sphere.
@Donovan: Reflex save DC 17 negate Damage if reflec fail: 3d6 ⇒ (6, 3, 3) = 12
Donovan screams in pain as the fiery ball envelops him, and promptly collapses to the floor.
Donovan falls to the ground, engulfed in flames.
The witch grits her teeth and tries the same trick again, this time on the warden.
But the old man shakes off the mental attack.
Anton continues to orate to his allies, urging them to greater feats. He then rushes over to Donovan to grab him and drag him away from the ball of flame and out of sight of the warden.
The warden grins smugly as Donovan falls before turning his attention to Sion.
Ignoring Dane's demand, the warden attempts to cast a spell.
But curses as the spell fails.
Seeing Donovan fall, Grumblejack lets out a roar of rage.
Shoving his way into the room he swings his club at the mage.
Very nearly crushing the wizard in one hit, Grumblejack inflicts serious harm on the old warden with his club.
Sion grimaces against the flames that lick at him and steps behind the old man cutting diagonally leaving a large gash. "I am protected by the flames of hell, yours cannot harm me old fool!"
Sion's words accompany his attack, cleaving the already injured mage down. He groans for a moment, flashing Sion a defiant look before collapsing on the stone stairs.
The battle is over.
"I don't think I heard any signal horns blown so I think we are safe here for a minute. They will focus on the main building first also." Sion sheaths his longsword and watches the flames die out next to him. Then he kneels down and searches the former wizard.
"Agreed, I'm thinking if it's long enough, it may be wise for us to just barricade the tower and scale the walls with the rope, we're down a man and I don't want to have to fight every guard in this prison if we don't have too." With the battle over, Dane breathes a quiet sigh of relief. Taking the warden as a hostage would have been a BAD idea, but one Dane no longer needed to worry about. Dane turns his attention to the aftermath. "Good job Jack, that one was a big help." Dane smiles as he realizes that the ogre is beginning to view his fellow prisoners very communally, he'll be easy to control. But realizing that the danger has certainly not passed, Dane begins calling out orders. "Everyone inside! We're barring this door behind us, get Donovan in and hopefully we'll find something we can get him up with, otherwise we carry him with us. Our..." Realizing himself in the presence of outside ears, Dane glances at Dale and changes what he was saying. "We don't leave one of our own behind."
If the door doesn't simply bar itself visibly, Dane searches the nearest guard for the key he must have had to unlock the door. Once everyone is inside, he locks and bars the door, then returns to searching the bodies for anything of worth.
As Dane begins ushering everyone inside, Mordesel begins to search the body of the man he killed. Once the door has been seen to, and the dead men looted, he looks around the room.
Donovan, hand locked in a death grip around the holy book, let's out a faint groan.
The guards have little of interest. Standard weapons and armor (longsword, shield, longbow, arrows and chainshirt).
The warden is more interesting. On his body is a plain dagger, an ioun torch and a wizard college class ring (gold with diamonds in it. Looks expensive). He also has 2 potions (labelled Cure Light) and 4 scrolls. No sign of any spellbook though.
The chamber itself is not especially interesting. The various plaques tell of deceased nobles and deeds of minor note. Irrelevant histories almost forgotten by all.
Slightly more interesting is a particular old tapestry that depicts Castle Branding being turned into a prison with the motto “His Judgment Cometh and that Right Soon”. It looks valuable, although transporting the thing would be somewhat awkward due to its weight and size.
Once the door is bared and the bodies are searched, Dane takes one of the Potions of Cure Light Wounds, tips Donovan's mouth open, and feeds the potion to him.
Glancing at the tapestry, Dane snorts in amused contempt, but feels that this would be a particularly symbolic victory, and begins to take it down.
Mordesel raises an eyebrow as Dane begins to take the bulky tapestry. He shakes his head moving over to the stairs and peering up. I'd imagine that everyone in this tower was down here, ready to fight, he says quietly, but I'm going to look. Just to make sure. Mordesel then steps slowly up the stairs making little noise.
Moving stealthily upstairs, Mordesel comes to an impressive library. Hundreds of books line the walls of the chamber.
The room is otherwise devoid of life.
The spiral staircase continues upwards.
"If he doesn't keep his spell book with him. Perhaps he keeps it in his quarters?" Sion follows once Mordesel gives the all clear and moves up into the library. He takes a look around but doesn't touch anything or say much. He motions up the stairs to Mordesel, wondering if he thinks there could be anyone hiding up here.
Mordesel steps back down far enough for his quiet voice to be heard, All clear on the first level. Just a library.
Mordesel then continues up the spiral staircase.
The spiral staircase comes to an end at a stone landing. A single burning torch set in a sconce sheds light in the area.
To the north is a door bearing a plaque that reads “Office”. The southern door has a similar plaque that reads “Private: Keep Out!”
This landing is otherwise empty.
"You take the office, I'll search the private quarters."
Sion enters the room ignoring the sign to keep out and searches the room.
Mordesel waits for Sion to open the southern door, then opens the office door, stepping straight in.
Dane in the meanwhile spends a bit of time searching the library. He rarely had learned anything from a book, most training was through demonstration or lecture where he came from, but he was interested if he could find any books on metallurgy, mining or smithing techniques amongst the collection.
In the more scholarly section, there are fifty five books on subjects ranging from magical theory, history and astronomy. After some searching, you suspect each book worth about 3gp. You have difficulty understanding these scholarly texts, except for one called the “The Floralegium” by Branthus Hart. An imposing tome of no small age, this beautifully illustrated book of flowers from the Caer Bryr is obviously something special. You would value it at an impressive 250gp.
There is nothing about crafting, metallurgy or mining.
Inside the wardrobe is five sets of noble outfits. Made of mostly silks, they could fit almost anyone. They're worth about 375gp for the lot.
Of more interest is a sturdy oak chest pushed into one corner of the Warden’s private chambers. It is packed with alchemical equipment, reagents and chemicals. You'd wager it would be worth around 150gp.
The desk has a locked drawer.
He looks for a sack or something to pack the clothes into. They could be useful in future if they were to escape and survive. He leaves the alchemy gear as not worth the bother and leaves the room and heads back downstairs.
Donovan flicks open his eyes as his companions start to turn their attentions elsewhere. With a groan, he pulls himself to his feet and shuffles over to where the warden lays freshly bleeding upon the floor. After a furtive glance to check if anyone is watching (and regardless of if anyone is), he bends down and sinks his teeth into the warden's before jerking his head away to swallow flesh and blood alike.
Aaah. Not the best meal I've had but still a meal nonetheless.
Wiping the blood froms his face, Donovan stands looking very satisfied, then calls out to whoever may be in earshot. So, what's next on the agenda?
Hmm, Feast Unknown states "any time you completely consume the flesh of a sentient creature, you regain 5 hps per HD." The word 'Completely' does imply that you pretty much need to eat the whole body... Which in hindsight is a hell of a lot of eating.
My ruling: Blood is the Life can be used once per target (so no draining the same creature twice). But that's an obvious one.
Secondly: Consuming a recently deceased creature takes time (although cooking it is unnecessary). For the sake of realism and game balance, I'd have to say that it would take 10 minutes. In this particular case, you can consume one dead guard, but the other will be too cold to consume afterwards (the feat does not say the victim needs to be alive).
Incidentally, the dead guards are 2nd level warriors, so will heal you 10hp.
Considering the shortage of healing spells and resources in the party, I have no problem with this and, like you said, it won't matter much in the long run anyway.
Mordesel calls out, All clear here. He walks over and examines the map a moment before pocketing it. He then begins searching around the room to see if there are any instructions for calling off the alarm.
Quietly skimming the books with disinterest, Dane flips through the pages with little but the occasional scoff. This library was the monument when coming across the elaborate Floralegium, Dane realizes what he's found, takes a quiet look around, and quickly stows the book before continuing on upstairs.
As far as Mordesel can tell, there is no clear way to call off the alarm.
Dane glances in at Sion rummaging through the Warden's private quarters and decides there's little use of him entering, and instead enters the office. Talking rather freely, Dane asks casually, "Find anything useful?" As he proceeds to rummage through the office himself, the locked desk causes him little pause before he braces the desk with one hand and attempts to wrench open the desk with the other.
After breaking the lock you find a tome in the desk drawer. This beautiful book is made of fine cerulean leather embossed with gold leaf. Its edges are reinforced with brass fittings and strange arcane symbols adorn its covered. It bears the draconic rune of “R” in the center of its front cover.
Anton looks askance at Donovan's not-so-subtle feasting on the blood of the warden. To each his own... I wonder how much sustenance one could gain from that? It has some great symbolism, to feast on the flesh of one's enemy. Perhaps that's something to add to a new organization. He then shrugged and joined the others up the stairs, helping to search the area for valuables.
Dane looks at the large book and lets out a small, appreciative grunt for the craftsmanship that went into it. "Looks like something magical, and valuable too. I wonder why he saw fit to lock this up? Is it the value, or is there something else he wanted hidden away?" As he muses on the contents, Dane passes the book to Mordesel.
The book is, undoubtedly, a spell book (with 63 blank pages).
1st – alarm, charm person, expeditious retreat, feather fall, mage
armor, magic missile, mount, shield, sleep
0th – all cantrips in the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Core Rulebook
The book has considerable value.
Perhaps going along the top of the walls will get us closer to the exit with least resistance." Sion looks at their prisoner. "How many guards will be patrolling the walls during the alarm?" He looks darkly at the man. His smile, sickening. If looks could kill... "You are doing well so far little man. Perhaps you will live to tell our tale after all. Perhaps we will use your body as a shield from their arrows. What is the easiest and quietest way onto the walls? Is the guardhouse accessible in any way from the wall?"
As Sion enters the room, Dane offers a quiet scoff towards the Drow, but then once Dale has finished his blubbering, offers the suggestion, "One thing we haven't considered yet is perhaps merely climbing down the walls with the rope. Assuming we've enough cordage here, it should be relatively easy."
Dale shakes his head.
"It's a long drop off the side of the walls, and then a hard swim to dry land... If the waves don't smash you against the rocks first."
At this point you hear the sound of barking dogs and the yells approaching guards.
It seems Sergeant Blackerly has finally organised himself.
Anton sighs. "Well it seems that time for thoughts of running have themselves run out. Any thoughts on how we may wish to handle a large group of guards... and from the sounds of it dogs? Perhaps a choke point on one of the upper floors, holding them to the stairs and preventing actions from their archers as well?" While I stay out of view and harms way... I can still empower their battle while remaining relatively safe... Unless they all fall to the last. I suppose we'll have to wait and see.
"We can hold them at this door. The hounds will no doubt sniff us out and lead them here." Sion walks up to the door and stands next to it. "There is nowhere to run, will I stand here and fall alone? At least I will not die a coward." He holds his shield up and takes a defensive stance, ready to strike if anything comes through.
Dane try to find a window from which to get a clearer view of the grounds and see if he can detect if the guard is truly closing on the Warden's tower, or if they are assaulting the main keep with no regard to their current position.
If it does seem like the tower is the goal, Dane suggests the following plan. "Let us make a stand in the library first. The door to the tower is barred and should hold them for a time, long enough for us to get some defenses set. The books and the bookcases can be used to make some defenses."
Assuming he does not go alone, Dane sets the following defensive order.
1. Moving the bookcases so that these can simply be thrown, Dane scatters the books from the cases throwing them down the stair case and in the entryway of the Library. This is done to hopefully make the stairs and main battle ground of the entryway a place of treacherous footing of shifting books, not suitable for combat.
2. Shifting two of the book cases onto their sides, Dane makes an L-bend at the top of the staircase, with the opening facing right. The backs of the book cases face the stairway. The opening of the bend is to be defended by Sion and Dane, and for Grumblejack to stand behind the bookcases on the left. All this to hopefully lead to an entrapment and allow attacks to rain down from both sides.
3. As a third and final project, Dane would attempt to make a raised, defensible platform out of any tables and book cases remaining, for those with a more ranged or magical mindset to use.
With any and all of these preparations complete, Dane takes his position alongside the door, and readies himself for the coming attack.
Mordesel joins Dane in his preparations, making suggestions here and there.
I suggest we leave one bookcase propped on the top step, I can push it down the steps towards them as they come up, then retreat behind the cover to fight.
The barking outside continues, but neither hound nor guard tries to enter the tower. A few moments pass when you hear an all-too familiar voice shout out over the barking dogs.
"Oi! Criminals! This is Sergeant Blackerly. I bet you all got yourself fortified in there real good, haven't you?"
There is no doubt, the vile Sergeant Blackerly is doing the talking, the same man who gave you all your brandings when you first arrived in Branderscar.
"It won't help. Reinforcements from Varyston are being sent for as we speak. There will be fifty men here by dawn, more than enough to smoke you out of your hole. Heck, I got no problems with letting you starve to death in there, unless you fancy a swim first of course!"
He begins to laugh, which is echoed by half a dozen guards.
"I'm not uncivilized though. Surrender now and we'll make it a nice, quick firing squad. My men are good shots with their bows. Come on out while I'm still in a good mood!"
EldonG
