"I will carve a way to the nearest door through flesh and bone and wash these halls with blood before I go back down that hole," Molly says as she reloads her crossbow.
It might occur to the others that she has not mentioned whose flesh she is willing to carve...
Walking out the room and looking over the wall where everyone else was. Looking over the edge leading to the outside "Like I was saying before. Storn, Dieter, how much longer do you all have being that size? can you jump down there and carry us down. We can make a run for it that way"
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Quill looks at Kipa, then Molly.
"What is wrong with you people? I walked around this entire structure and can guarantee you that there is no exit this way unless you're going to jump off the tower or off the walls. If we want out, we have the pooper and the front gate. Let's not go headlong pretending another exit exists...BECAUSE IT DOESN'T."
Quill looks at Kipa.
"Make a run where? Which way and why?" Quill shakes his head. "If you want to go die, fine. You go without me. If you want to fight, let's find a good place to make a stand and fight. But going that way or this when we're injured and hurt and crying like babies...uh, I'm not doing that."
Sander dithers, wanting to trust Quill's investigation.
He knows the entire fort has been alerted to their presence and actions, but ... now what their reactions are.
He heads back out toward the bridge, to look.
"Can anyone see what they're doing?" he asks. "If they're coming this way, I think we need to go back out through the sewer. If they're all fleeing, maybe we can try to barricade ourselves somewhere?"
"Aye. I say we wait them out." Dieter looks rather tired after all the fighting.
muttering to himself "First they want out. now they want to stay." With that Kipa starts doing the rouge thing and checking bodies for loot, followed by seeing if there are ways to secure the door some if they decided to fortify it some
There wasn't much on the ogres and ogrekin, other than their greatclubs, which were more like tree trucks with ion spikes driven through them, and their leather armor. Even the armor was ridiculously low-quality. In the end, about all that Kipa found that was worth anything was a handful of cloudy gems and some coins.
It was hard to see anything at night, especially from the wall you are on. Maybe the tower would get you a better vantage point. Or, perhaps, whatever is downstairs could lead to a better viewing angle. One thing was for sure, though. There was an uproar going on outside the gates, possibly due to the news that Grenseldek was dead.
Walking over to the wall edge , Kipa looks over the side to judge how far down it is. He then looks at the group.
"ok, so if we want out of here, our choices are to go the way we cam... which none of us want, Go over this wall and run for cover that way before we are seen, through the tower & hope we can find a way out that way, or kill our way out the front gates. Any one have a favorite course of action? I am sure our magical members would like a way out hat is less confrontational to keep reserve of whats left of their powers till we can rest up."
Storn looks around the room, shaking his magically oversized head.
He looks over to Kipa.
"I have no issues looking around if everyone is ok with it. I was figuring that if everyone was looking for a way out we could just get out quick, but if we are ok with staying and holding up someplace secure no problem here. My Abilities dont take anything out of me like our magic wielding friends.
Kipa takes a moment to center him self and sets off in the direction of the load noises. He uses all the cover he can to help along the way. Skittering behind barrels. Ducking behind low walls. What ever he can to help cover his path.
"We need sleep. Sleep and NOT crawling through sewage. Yes..." He looks around. "We may need to wait until we shrink a bit, but the chaos should ensure we are safe. We just need to find a room that would have nothing of interest for these brutes to loot."
Storn grunts over to Dieter.
Going out the door where he had scattered caltrops, Kipa snuck along the parapet wall over towards where the noise was coming from. In the dark, it was hard for him to distinguish details, but it seems that Storn was right. The army was falling apart. Groups of ogres pounded on giants. Giants tore orcs limb from limb. Orcs ran in circles trying to get away, or formed ranks and assaulted the larger monsters with disciplined attacks. in any case, it didn't look as if anyone was going to be looking for you any time soon.
Sander sighs in relief as Kipa relays the situation.
"So we might actually survive this somehow?" he muses, mostly to himself.
"We should find somewhere they probably won't come -- maybe the top of the tower -- and then explore more tomorrow, to see if there's any other threats here we need to be aware of before we go home."
"Lets make our way to the top of this tower and see if we can get a better view of everything. Rest and wait this out some.
"Let's wait for the shouting to grow quiet. When that happens, we'll be reasonably sure two of the sides have either cacked it or run, and we only need to deal with the survivors," Molly suggests -- rather callously. The curse of despair affects everyone differently...
Storn nods, satisfied he was right but with his personality still muted.
Kipa slowly makes his way to the top of the tower checking for traps and locks as well as keeping an eye out any stragglers that the party may have to deal with.
The rest of the night and early part of the next morning passed without too much incident. The tower turned out to be a bell tower, and there wasn't much room to spread out, but at least it was defensible. The noise from the clashing groups of giants, ogres, and orcs below came and went. It appeared that the giants finally left the fort to the remnants of the Twisted Nails orcs, and one ogre band that threw its lot in with the greenskins. The rising sun showed that the battle had been brutal on all sides, and the dry moat outside the fort was littered with bodies of all sizes.
Amazingly enough, none of the groups had really made occupying the fort a priority, though that may have had more to do with the fact that the portcullis was jammed into the bodies of a pair of giants than any real desire not to come inside. Still, out of the hundreds of defenders you saw the night before, only a small portion remained.
Quill, up early to look around from his vantage point in the high tower spotted the latest signs of danger. Not from anything the orcs were doing, but from the sweat that drenched Molly's face. Kipa also looked bad, his small face blotchy red and beaded with sweat. Storn's face was too covered with hair to see the blotchiness, but the way the big man had thrashed about in his bedroll, and the hair plastered to his head exhibited all the same signs. Quill, too, felt flushed. Was he afflicted too? Was it the plague? Was it the curse? Was it all in his head?
thrashing about Kipa doesnt feel as great as one who just rest for 8 hours should.
Molly tosses, turns and frowns in her sleep, muttering over and over: "Stop calling stop calling stop calling..."
Sander will try to look them over to see if there's anything he can do to help.
"You all don't look so good," he says, concern in his voice. "Hold still a minute."
Storn awakens feeling physically as well as emotionally miserable and he is as dour and sad as before. Moreover, worried about the weird blotchiness that's affected him and a couple of others. He takes some time to figure out what's going on. Regardless of his situation, he looks over the keep and manages a grin.
"Let's loot this place."
"Let's kill whatever's still breathing inside these walls and then loot it," Molly growls as she lurches to her feet.
Dieter nods in appreciation. "Aye. As Lord Gorum teaches -- Gratuitous violence is the best medicine."
"No offence to you, but I don't care about Gorum; I've just been having some whoppingly bad days," Molly grumbles.
After a bit of scouting, Quill and Kipa report that the only serious concentration of orcs remaining appears to be in the guard rooms in and around the gate. There are two doors on the lower floor leading to rooms you have not yet explored, one on the northern wall, and one on the south. Neither appear to have anyone guarding them, but the door on the southern wall is slightly ajar.
After reporting to the others what they have found "Lets take a quick look inside those 2 rooms before we move on to trying & dispatch the rest of the orcs at the gates. We can either find more to help us or make sure we dont get any surprise visitors when we are already dealing with the other guard."
With that, Kipa will show them the way to the south door. After taking a moment to do the normal rouge things (even though its ajar, its better safe then sorry) , he slowly looks in, try not to disturb the door too much so not to draw attention to anything inside.
The room was about 15' x 15' and had a round hole leading downwards to gently flowing water. He recognized the room as the well room Storn had lowered him through earlier, and sure enough there was a rectangular hole in the ceiling leading up to the room above.
[b]"Looks like its the room I was lowered into earlier. Lets check out the other one real quick[/ooc]
Leading everyone over to the north door, Kipa presses an ear to the door to see if he hears anything before starting the rouge duties.
If he hears anything he will signal the others that he does
With all that done, Kipa steps out of the way for one of the taller members to step up and be the sheil.... first to enter.
Sander, feeling happy he's had a chance to refresh his magic, follows along, having downed his extract of barkskin and his mutagen as they foolishly set out once more to look for danger.
Storn grunts and just goes along with Kipa, feeling miserable in a million different ways but at least happy that there's some loot to be had and orcs to kill. "At least I get to murder something to glorify my bloodthristy God," complains Storn. "Something to look forward to."
As always, he stomps in the lead alongside Dieter. After Kipa checks the door - providing there's no nasty surprise - he casts a spell and boots i open.
Molly just rams a crossbow bolt into her crossbow and starts moving in accordance with the patterns of her martial art.
Storn took the cue from Kipa and kicked open the door in the northern wall. The unlatched door slammed against the wall and rebounded, nearly closing again. In the brief moment when it was fully open, you saw a large room filled with pews and a stone altar at the front, with a lectern beyond. On the ground near the door is a fallen statue of a stern-looking woman clad in plate, brandishing a longsword and shield. Apparently you have found the keep's chapel. On the ground is a rough sign that had fallen from the door. In red paint, the same message was scrawled in two languages.
Keep Out! Scary Ghost Inside!
"The filth put up a sign to warn of a 'scary ghost' in here," Molly translates. "If it spooked them, it might be a friend to us. Let's check it out."
Rolling his eyes at the young elf. "You heard the lady. After you big guys"
Once inside , Kipa starts the roguey duties of finding hidden things, traps and loot.
"A ghost? That's not good. How likely is that there's a friendly ghost?" Sander mutters.
He lets the others precede him inside.