Than also continues down the stairs, moving over to Aella.
Everyone is up, feel free to post when ready.
Aella will move to the open door and look inside, also keeping an ear out for anyone approaching from the other doors.
Aella peeks through the door and sees a large room containing a number of large wooden tables and benches. The faint smell of past meals permeates the room, with a stronger smell of roasted meat coming from the closed door at the southern end of the room. A banner emblazoned
with the emblem of Branderscar prison hangs on the eastern wall. The northern door in the room hangs open, through which Aella can see a bed and a number of chests.
Aella doesn't hear or see any hostile enemies.
Elaine follows Aella, keeping her ears open. She moves over to the first door on the left.
Elaine moves into hall next to the closed door, and doesn't hear anything threatening.
Grumblejack moves down the stairs out by Aella and Elaine, sniffing the air.
"Mmm. I smell meat. Let us eat. Cooking makes meat taste better."
Than moves up behind Aella and says quietly, "Which way do you guys think leads out of here?"
Dav halts his story, to allow his comrades to hear better. He follows them down the stairs.
At the end of the hall, the two huge double doors swing open with a loud creak, revealing two guards wearing the same chain shirts, clubs and shields as the other guards. Behind the guards, you can see an old man with long white hair dressed in exceedingly fine clothes, who promptly speaks up as he sees your group.
"The prisoners are escaping! Block them from getting through and wait my signal to attack. Use minimum needed force, we're expected to execute them, not kill them here."
The guards are standing in a courtyard, which seems to contain some sort of fountain. From the golden light filling the courtyard, it appears to be around sunset.
Dav moves to back up his allies, while continuing his tale.
"Jothar and Arnkel approached the fire in the overhang. As they got close, they recognized Thorfinn in the light of the fire. As they reached for their weapons, Thorfinn spotted them too. Seeing that there were two of them, the outnumbered Thorfinn spoke a verse:
Ill luck as of the Strong Outlaw has found me (Strong Outlaw = a reference to Grettir the Strong)
The heat-giver with me is no fighting-friend now (heat-giver = the fire, fighting-friend = fellow warrior)
-I cannot remain with the holders of breakers of shields- (sword-holders, i.e. warriors)
In the wind-with-weight, it will be more useful. (Heavy wind = the snow-filled air)
Thorfinn then escaped, taking with him a burning log from the fire. Jothar and Arnkel gathered the remaining burning logs and reconstructed the fire. Thus they managed to weather the storm, which went on through the entire night."
Elaine moves closer to the guards in the front, and gets ready to throw her bomb.
Grumblejack roars at the new guard presence and runs at them screaming, attempting to skewer the closest guard with a charge.
The man in the fine robes rapidly breaks into a chant as Grumblejack approaches, pointing at the ogre as he nears the two guards...
Grumblejack rushes towards the guards, and approximately 20 feet away from them stops and falls to the ground, incapacitated with paroxysms of laughter.
Aella and Than are up, remember you're at +1 to hit and damage from Dav's story.
From her new vantage point, Elaine has a better angle and can see more of the courtyard. Beyond the fountain, there is a three story stone structure, with huge wooden double doors. Off to her right, Elaine sees Sergeant Blackerly and another guard opening the door to what appears to be a small stable of some kind.
Aella is going to double move forward, eyes on the caster as she does.
Than double moves forward after Aella.
The wizard gives direction to the guards after Grumblejack falls laughing.
Fight your way to the ogre, he won't be down long!
The guards step forward and try and hit Elaine and Aella with their clubs.
Elaine and Aella both duck in unison under the guard's clubs.
Elaine
Dav
Wizard
Grumblejack
Aella
Than
All the other guards.
Elaine takes one step back and charges the bomb she is holding. She winds up and throws, aiming for the guard closest to her.
Elaine goes to throw the bomb at the guard, but it slips from her hand and falls almost directly to the ground, catching herself, the guard and Grumblejack in the explosion.
Everyone involved manages to shield themselves from the explosion to some extent. Elaine, the Guard and Grumblejack all take 3 damage.
Dav flinches at the sound of the blast, but manages to continue his story.
'In the morning, the storm subsided. The day dawned clear and cold. Unfortunately, the cold reminded the warriors of the famine that had been afflicting the northern island for a long time. The staple crops had not grown well, and food supplies had been running very slim.
When Arnkel and Jothar had gotten up and moved down to the beach, they noticed something large had beached itself. At first, they thought it was one of the boats, but when they got closer, they saw it was a fin-back whale. This was a large animal, and it would provide many important supplies. The whale meat alone could feed the entire region for quite a long time.
The men got closer, and they saw that their enemies had been flensing the whale for a small time before they got there. Fearing that their food source would be gone, they planned to attack!'
The wizard carefully moves closer, staying behind his guards, and quickly snaps off a spell pointing at Elaine.
Grumblejack continues to laugh and laugh, deep booming peals of laughter tinged with pain.
The Wizard speaks immediately after finishing his spell.
"My dear, I've come to rescue you! Guards, hold them off while she escapes! Come quickly, they won't harm you!"
A small voice deep in her mind screams silently in horror as it recognizes the casting and effect of a Charm Person spell, but it is sealed away by magic from affecting Elaine's actions.
Elaine
Dav
Wizard
Grumblejack
Aella
Than
All the other guards.
Aella and Than are up when ready.
'He's come to what now?!'
Sense Motive on the sketchy wizard! I strongly suspect he needs punching.
Aella is pretty sure that whatever that wizard is up to, he most definitely is not legitimate, and is quite likely in need of a good punching.
Going to try to move acrobatically to pass by the guard and go punch a wizard.
Ouch. Well, I do get +4 AC on AOps for moving.
Aella tries to tumble past the guard, who is almost taken by surprise by her maneuver. At the last second he takes a swipe at her with his club...
[dice=Damage]1d6+2[/roll]
...and swings far too high. Aella comes out of her roll next to the wizard, who looks very unhappy at this development.
Now that Aella is in the courtyard, she can see the fountain and surrounding area. The walls are all approximately 20 feet tall, with the gatehouse and towers stretching up three stories. The top of the walls and the gatehouse are all covered in crenellations. Aella can see the guard on top of the 3 story gatehouse aiming towards her with a bow. He seems to be waiting to get a clear shot without the fountain getting in the way.
'That guard on the tower may be a problem... I've got an idea, but I would need to go back to that room with the barrels. Let's wallop these guys first!'
Dav glances over at Elaine. Has her enthusiasm level for escaping changed drastically since the wizard cast that spell?
Elaine looks pretty much the same, as far as Dav can tell.
Gonna punishing kick me a wizard! Gonna try to knock him prone!
Than holds up his wooden Holy Symbol of Urgathoa and start channeling negative energy at all living things in a 30ft radius of him (minus Aella, Grumblejack, and Dav).
with DC 14 will save for half.
Aella kicks the wizard hard in the knee, but it deflects off an invisible force.
Elaine, both guards and the wizard all flinch as they're inundated with negative energy.
The wizard yelps as Aella's kick comes too close for comfort.
Ahh! Keep her off me!
Both guards move over and take swings at Aella.
Grumblejack laughs and laughs, then abruptly stops.
Aella takes a glancing blow off head, just barely avoiding being solidly struck on the temple.
Elaine
Dav
Wizard
Grumblejack
Aella
Than
All the other guards.