Demlin nods and waits for her window of opportunity to sneak across. She tests the door and if it is locked gets to work unlocking it.
Demlin finds the door locked, but is easily able to pick the lock and open, slipping into the gatehouse. His room is 90 feet long to a curved wall at the front, and 30 feet wide. In the center of the room is a ladder leading to a trap door on the second level. The left wall has several arrow slits in it. It looks like a highly defensible position.
Wesh and Amalrus wait until the next switch before darting across the gap. As they do so, dogs in the kennel on the opposite wall begin waking up and barking.
Eventually, the guards look over at the barking dogs and, seeing nothing, one of them shouts, "Quit barking at squirrels! It's late out!"
The guards resume their patrol.
Wesh breathes a sigh of relief that the guards remain oblivious to their escape. They still have a ways to go before truly escaping is likely. It would have been a pity to fail so soon.
The fighter gestures toward Grumblejack and Hel to continue the crossing once the dogs have calmed down.
When told to, Grumblejack darts across the courtyard as quickly as a large, lumbering ogre can move. The dogs start barking again, but he managed to get inside the gatehouse before either guard could look.
"This sneaking around is fun."
Gallen holds position letting the dogs settle down again.
Hel nods in approval at Gallen's caution; this is not the time to rush things. As she listens to the dogs along with him, she frowns, having a thought. "Go with Rigel when you're ready," she murmurs, touching him on the shoulder. "I want to look something up. Remember, steady but brisk."
Quickly, she crosses the hall and re-enters Blackerly's study, going to the duty roster. Her eyes flick down, finding the names of the men assigned to the gatehouse roof for this evening; repeating them to herself several times, she hurries back to the doorway, darkening her lantern to nudge the door open and get an eye on the gatehouse rooftop, listening to the dogs.
And, when it comes her time to go, she does, swiftly but quietly.
And for sneakiness:
Gallen moves across the area briskly when the time comes. It was a shame they'd have to leave this place be reclaimed by the Mithran lap dogs but they lacked the numbers and resources to hold it... and hubris wouldn't be allowed to get the better of them.
Once everyone has crossed the courtyard into the gatehouse, Demlin cautiously climbs the ladder and lifts the trap door. Looking through it, she sees no guards on the second floor of the gatehouse. The 140 foot wide room has arrow slits every 10 feet or so - a well-supplied archer could hold this gatehouse from all sides for days. Directly across from their trap door is another open trap door, from which laughter can be heard. Towards the front of the gatehouse are the ladders leading up to the roof. Finally, seated in the center of the wall facing the courtyard, is a beaten and bloodied human man. He is chained to the chair, and his head is down. He appears to be breathing.
Gallen walks over in the direction of the strange man... and stays outside spitting distance. "What I might wonder landed you here?" He smiled a little to himself, he looked reasonably like one of the guards but if the man raised his head would likely be very confused by Grumblejack.
Cole's head lifts slowly as the door opens and the man approaches. Noticing them not dressed in the manner of guards and also bearing the same branded "F" he spits a mouth full of blood on the floor before nodding his head toward the trap door with laughter coming from it. He motions there again as the man begins to speak.
He whispers: "Shut and lock that first."
If the beaten and bloodied man is some sort of trick played by Blackerly or the late Warden, it's a pretty poor one. Wesh figures he can kill the man with a single swing in his current state, two swings at the most.
The fighter locks the door as the man requested then walks over to him. He doesn't unchain the man, but instead extends his greatsword and rests it casually on the man's shoulder.
Then he says, "The door is shut and locked. Now, why don't you tell us who you are and why we shouldn't just kill you now and feed you to Grumblejack?" Wesh gestures toward the ogre to indicate who Grumblejack is.
"Good. Blackerly is down there along with a few men playing cards. That door should hold them at bay long enough to plan on how to kill them. Me, well I'm "forsaken" just like all of you, but my crime was against soldiers like these men, well and they gave me special treatment. Name is Cole. As to why you shouldn't kill me... Well maybe you should. I am no different then any of you. I have a small bit of divine ability if you have wounds. That is all I have left to offer."
He spits another bit of blood out on the ground that has pooled in his mouth while talking.
As Wesh shuts and locks the trap door, he hears voices react to the sound of the door closing. Shortly after Cole finishes telling them who he was, you hear a thump as one of them tries to open the trap door, and a muffled voice says, "Very funny, Al. Now open the trap door back up."
Grumblejack ascends the ladder and, looking at Cole, sniffs at him and says, "Who this? He snack or friend?"
"Let's say friend for now. Give him a chance to prove himself." Gallen starts examining how the man is chained up to see how best to unbind him.
"Grumblejack, would you be so kind as to stand by that trapdoor and snack on any of the guards who manage to open it."
Cole nods to the ogre.
"Friend." He gulps at the though of the ogre eating pieces of him.
"So how about these chains. I wouldn't mind helping to kill Blackerly."
Wesh sighs and shrugs his shoulders. The man bears the characteristic 'F' that all of them do. That's enough to vouch for his trustworthiness, or at least his usefulness.
The fighter glances over at Demlin, "Do you think you could open his chains?"
To Grumblejack, Wesh says, "You may need to put some weight into that trapdoor if they try to break through."
To the rest, he says, "But we shouldn't linger long. We need to get this Cole unchained then get in there and silence those men before they start calling for others."
Cole stands and stretches rubbing his bruised jaw.
"Good thing you guys came now. Not sure I would have lasted when they were done with their game down there."
He nods to the man and takes the shield and dagger.
"Well if you are here did you leave any guards behind? What are we looking at just the ones we have trapped now and the ones above? We cold deal with them first while, Grumblejack was it? Guards the trap door there. You lot have got this far though so what you have been doing has been working so I leave it to you. Just making a suggestion."
Wesh shakes his head at Cole and says, "I'm afraid there are likely more than just the ones trapped and the ones above, but we should certainly deal with those two groups first. We may need to deal with the guards Grumblejack has trapped first. Otherwise, they may alert the guards above and any others that are within earshot. Whatever we do, we need to act quickly or we may finally lose the element of surprise."
Cole shrugs.
"Either way, you have given me a fighting chance now. For that I'm grateful. I'm ready."
"We've thinned their numbers by a considerable amount already but there's enough to cause us trouble yet. I say with stick with the plan and deal with the guards up above first. They have smaller numbers and even if the ones below use a signal horn it will be muffled a little by being indoors... not much but hopefully we can dispose of those above before they figure out what is going on."
Cole being freed from the chains and the chair, Grumblejack looks at the chair, picks it up, and puts it on the trap door. "No one get out now."
The yelling from below seems to be getting more urgent.
"Good, do we have any ranged weapons? If they were not yelling from bellow we could try and lore them in. It may be best just to rush them with the surprise advantage."
Hel gives the Branderscar-seared man a fast hard look before prowling through the rest of the second level of the gatehouse. Returning in time for the closing and locking of the hatch, she gestures to Rigel. "Here -- sit on that for a bit, make sure they don't come up. If they start smashing it, let us know. Don't get hurt."
"Wesh, don't trust the man halfway -- you have your greatsword, give the man your longsword. Your name is Cole? Cole, I don't intend on fighting fair if I can help it. Sir Gallen, one of the soldiers on the roof is named Al -- call him down here. Tell him Blackerly wants to see him. It isn't," she adds, "like you'll be lying; Blackerly thinks Al is sitting right there right now." She points to Rigel.
"Wesh, Sir Gallen, and Demlin will be near one of the trapdoors up; Cole, Grumblejack, and I will be near the other. We stay ten, fifteen feet back from the door so we can't be seen if he just opens it up and looks down. Once he starts coming down, when he gets to the shoulders, we yank him off the ladder and onto the floor. The hatch closes above him, and we kill him. After that, especially if he's got the horn, we go up top and kill the other one. I'd prefer throwing him off the roof myself, but that's just because I've always wanted specifically to defenestrate someone." She pauses, her face becoming oddly serene. "It's such a wonderful word -- defenestrate. Anyhow."
"Once we take care of the two up top, the keep is ours; a couple of us go back, get the oil, and get the card players to start to come up. Pour the oil down, and -- Wesh, it was you I promised I'd let you drop the flame, wasn't it?"
Wesh smiles at Hel, but not in an entirely friendly way, after she speaks. He replies, "I'll consider giving him my longsword if he proves to be useful in the coming fight. He's not getting it a moment before then.
"I get to kill Blackerly, if that's the promise you're referring to. Let's see how the conflict with this 'Al' and the other guard above goes before we move on to the ones below."
Wesh gestures toward Rigel and says, "She's not going to be able to hold the trapdoor alone. Grumblejack should help her. The other five of us should be plenty capable of handling the two guards above. This plan depends on keeping the ones below trapped, so I don't want to take any chances."
"Better for this place to burn than be used by Mythran lapdogs. The keep of a noble and true Hellknight Order turned into a prison for traitors and pawns... worse than that a badly run prison at this point."
Once everyone is in position he calls up. "Al, come down here for a minute."
"Who said anything of fair. I like where your head is at. Here."
Cole gestures toward one of the torches on the wall assuming that is what is providing light. He speaks a quick divine chant and water pours over the torch extinguishing it.
"Invite Al down to relight the torches so the card game is not interrupted. I will put the rest of the torches out. Let me and the Ogre take care of Al, we can see in the dark. As for the sword, keep it. I can take Al's once we deal with him." He smiles widely.
Rigel smiles at Hel and says, "Well, sugar, I suppose my feet were getting rather tired." She sits on the chair to add more weight to it.
Grumblejack nods and says, "Grumblejack grab person and pull them down."
"Stop that," the young woman scolds Cole. "I can't see in the dark. Wesh, Rigel's there to keep the lid on the pot as long as it's reasonable and to warn us if it starts to boil over, not to be a clamp for a pressure-cooker. The thing is locked; let them bang, so long as they can't get leverage to break through it.
"And I made no promise of you getting to kill Blackerly; I said that if we could let you we would, or if we do the lamp-oil thing we would let you drop in the match. I have no intention of reversing my willingness to do so, so be patient -- but at the same time, I'm not going to go out of my way to risk my neck just to make sure you get your revenge." She looks towards the hatches leading up, and nods. "In considering one's desires, one must determine what is desired, what is possible, and what is practical. In executing them, one must focus first on what is practical, then on what is possible, and finally on what is desired. So let's keep on with the practical, shall we?"
She goes to the side of the second hatch opposite its hinge along with Grumblejack and Cole, and nods as she hears Sir Gallen call out to 'Al'; she backs off a few steps, just in case.
She nods to
Once everyone is in position he calls up. "Al, come down here for a minute."
Cole shrugs at the womans words.
Now's not the time to argue over the poor tactics. They did free me.
Cole stands at the ready with dagger and shield. Nodding when he is in position.
Wesh moves into position and nods to the others that he's ready. He wields his greatsword, ready to chop down any guards unfortunate enough to come in range.
Gallen calls out for Al, and a minute later, the trap door around Wesh, Gallen, and Demlin opens, and a guard appears climbing down the ladder.
Once the trap is sprung and everyone moves forward and drives his blade into the man's thigh.
Wesh smiles as Al climbs down the ladder. With luck, the man will lose his head before he even knows what happened.
Swinging his greatsword, Wesh aims for Al's neck.
Gallen's thrust causes Al to fall from the ladder, and Wesh is quick finish the guard off. The whole thing took barely any time at all, with no one the wiser.
Cole watches as the man Wesh delivers a devastating blow to the guard, frustrated at his own inability.
"Well struck."
Cole watches as Al hits the floor.
"May I use his gear? Of course we should take care of the other one first."
"Shall we have a few of our more covert members sneak up and finish the last one off?"
"I could disguise myself as the now dead Al, it is dark up there. I could probably get close enough to knock him off the gate house. Or just cut him down."
Wesh stares at Cole for a few moments. If the man intends to betray them, letting him go up to confront the other guard would be the perfect opportunity for him to do so. On the other hand, it could also definitively prove that Cole is trustworthy, at least to some degree.
Eventually, Wesh says, "If you think you can sneak up and get close enough to slip a dagger between his ribs or knock him off, feel free."
Cole begins to undress and put Al's stuff on assuming his role.
"How do I look?"
He smiles as he begins to climb up the ladder.