Oathday, the 23rd of Neth--Day 4--Breakfast
I've a few threads to unravel today. Most promising is that we've learned that the mad raven-keeper never leaves the rookery...so how do the ravens get their food? Perhaps we can take their communications out with your arsenic.
Let's finish up our information-gathering week, then ambush the patrol on their second night at the Rock, next Moonday. Then we'll forge a message to the fortress that gives an excuse for the delay and draws the priest out to be ambushed in turn--perhaps a report of a soldier so injured they can't move him until the priest heals him.
When the priest doesn't return, they'll surely realize there's something amiss. We'll need to have the ravens down by then. I hope to be hired for the fortress on Sunday. Balam, we've had you and Timeon watching people come and go from the fortress for a few days now...what servants have you seen that live in Aldencross and work in Balentyne? If one of them is unable to work, my chances improve.
After working at the manor, "Auntie Geb" visits the grocer or similar figure in the town. "I'd like to buy some seed for my pet bird, please. Is this where the raven-keeper of Balentyne has the soldiers buy food for his birds? I expect he knows best what's good for them."
No arsenic at this time, the man was a little too curious near the end plus the cost of it was beyond what I deem acceptable at this time.
Thinking on the problem, What about creating a couple undead that can climb the walls, I believe some lizards hold that ability. Spiders are out as they have no bones. Also what about this secret tunnel you've heard about?
I thought we might investigate the cellar tonight, if you can prepare spells that would prevent us from being discovered.
As for the arsenic, perhaps we should simply steal it. If we replace it with some other white powder, the shopowner might not realize until well after the attack.
The shopkeeper shakes his head. "No, he doesn't buy it from me. The keep typically buys their food directly from the farmers themselves. Some of them sell to me, but most prefer to sell themselves. There's a market day next Starday - a lot of merchants and farmers set up in the town center once a month. Good deals to be had, then. Now, how much bird feed did you want?"
Balam reports that the Keep's servants travel from the town to the Keep in the morning just before breakfast, and then leave in the evening after dinner. Small groups of off-duty soldiers make their way to town throughout the day. Otherwise, there is little traffic to and from the keep.
This morning, as Falken Gren comes down to breakfast, he sees the Dwarves, eating their morning meal. Barnabus sees him and waves him over. "Ye bested me at the drinking game, and it occurred to me that while I can't show you what we're doing in-person, I can still tell you about it." Barnabus unfolds a complete architectural schematic of Balentyne. Pointing to the gatehouse, he says, "I keep this in my room, so I have it when I need it. We're working on re-pointing the stonework here to make sure it's stable. Once we finish that, we're moving on to the keep proper to do some work there." As he tells you what they're doing, he points a finger at each of the points they're going to be working, going on about patches and mortar and carving, as well as the logistics of getting quarried stone, should they need it, up from quarries that are further south.
Wraith will do his best to memorize the map he's being shown.
or
"Wow, you guys really get to rework all the keep. Isn't that dangerous this close to the border?"
Tatienne spends the day rumor hunting as Kala, frequenting places that she thinks soldiers and servants may hang out, hoping to find some more information on the Keep.
You're unable to completely memorize the map - but, now you know Barnabus keeps it in his room, and he has a tendency to drink a lot. You also know of a cantrip called scrivener's chant that you could use to make a copy.
"Nae, lad, not so long as you do it right. Besides, we aren't touching the rookery, and as long as Balentyne can call for help, those filthy bugbears from the north will get massacred upon the fort's walls, just like they always do. Besides, we'll be able to help defend the keep if it comes to it."
You learn that the soldiers live and sleep in the fort, and the servants live and sleep in the town before heading to and from the fort each day.
Steeling her courage, 'Auntie Geb' goes to visit the Church of St. Alden. She approaches whichever slave of Mitras is on duty, and plasters on a smile.
"Excuse me, your worship--I've heard that the blessings of the church can ease pain and suffering. Could you do anything about stiffness in an old woman's joints after a day of hard work? I understand that it's customary to make a donation to the upkeep of the church."
She leads into a discussion of the feats of healing the local clergy, and especially Father Donnagin, may have been seen to perform. She hopes to find out how powerful of spellcasters the local clerics of Mithras are.
'Auntie Geb' returns to the Lord's Dalliance after her day's errands, and silently informs her pactmates about her discoveries. There's no easy way to get poison into the ravens' food from outside the keep. We'll have to get in. Be ready to sneak down into the cellar tonight once sweet Golachab tells us the way is clear.
She spends time in the inn's common room, chatting with the locals, probing for anything that might be of use in their mission.
Then she retires to her room, but only to doze while the inn empties out. When Golachab alerts her that even Bellam is in bed and the way to the cellar is clear, she rouses her pactmates and leads them downstairs to investigate. Once at the cellar door, she drops her disguise, and changes to look like a common soldier she's seen in the inn. "Best not to be caught as ourselves if this goes poorly," she whispers.
The only priest you can see smiles and shakes his head. "I'm afraid I have not made the journey to the Vale of Valtaerna to be granted with the gift of Mitra's miracles. I am Brother Justin of Travismere. I work at keeping the Church of St. Alden in working order, and leading typical services. Father Carthas Donnigan, up at the keep, has such gifts, but he only comes down on holy days - his duties keep him otherwise occupied at the church. Perhaps the town alchemist, Master Teryth Caldwin, could help you with your aches. He's an odd fellow, to be sure, but he likely knows some remedy that may help you."
You know that most of Mitra's clergy don't actually have spellcasting ability. Of those who do, the majority are located in the Vale of Valtaerna, a sacred site to Mitra.
Pondering what she has learned of her opposite number in the fortress, 'Auntie Geb' returns to the Lord's Dalliance.
When the way is clear, Geborah adjusts the circlet on her head, choosing to disguise herself as one of the common soldiers she's seen often at the Lord's Dalliance.
Perhaps she should have studied him more carefully. Still, even if her disguise isn't very convincing, at least she doesn't look anything like Auntie Geb.
She leaves her armor and shield behind so that they don't clatter on the stairs. She may not have much practice with stealth, but she knows that much. Trusting to Asmodeus to keep her from being heard by the inn's sleeping residents, she joins the others and slips down to the cellar.
You overhear one of the soldiers saying, "Lord Thomas Havelyn is the most honorable and capable commander that Balentyne has ever had. If he can’t keep the Watch Wall working, then no one can!"
Never much for stealthy endeavors, Tatienne elects to remain near the top of the cellar stairs, with the goal of taking to the steps at the sound of conflict. She keeps her armor in her room, but brings the trident and her dagger. Pausing before she hits the common room, Tatienne uses her circlet to appear as an old, indigent man - one that could have feasibly snuck in an unlocked door or window for a little warmth or food...
Crouching just behind the cellar door, at the top of the stairs, Tatienne focuses and listens.
The three of you are able to creep down to the main floor. You move behind the bar and through the kitchen to the trap door leading to the basement. Tatienne takes up a position at the top of the stairs to keep an eye out, and Wraith and Geborah descend the stairs.
Thanks to their darkvision, neither has any difficulty seeing the basement is filled with casks of drink, crates of wine bottles, and storage shelves. Whatever Bellam was doing down here, it will clearly take some time to figure out.
At the top of the stairs, Tatienne signals that all is silent.
Geborah strokes her familiar absently as she hunts through the clutter of the basement, searching the walls for any sign of a secret passage.
Wraith finds a crate of wine bottles that looks closed and expired according to the date on the crate, but the crate is actually open. A peek inside finds several bottles of wine.
Geborah knows there's a secret passage somewhere in the basement - she just knows it! Eventually, behind a shelving unit, she locates a slightly discolored stone. The shelves will probably have to be moved out of the way, but that just might be the passage she's looking for.
As she searches, Geborah idly pulls a wine bottle out of the box Wraith found and peers at the label. Are you fond of wine, Wraith? she asks silently. I have no head for it myself, but drinking a measure of red wine is part of some Asmodean sacraments--I suppose the symbolism is obvious--so I've acquired a taste for it. There were racks and racks of the stuff in the cellars beneath the house I grew up in, one of the few traces of the Stokers of old that my fathers--she spits reflexively--never tried to dispose of. Oh, but if they had known of the rites performed in the vinyards... She seems wistful. Is there anything special about this vintage?
Once she finds the suspicious stone, Geborah quietly signals Wraith, who looks about as strong as the innkeeper, to move the shelf aside. She helps as best she can, taking care not to leave scratches where she grips the shelves.
Wraith takes the wine bottle from Geborah and scrutinizes the label, estimating the vintage's value.
Working with Geborah, Wraith leans against the shelf, slowly and carefully lifting and pushing it away from the wall.
Geborah and Wraith are able to move the shelves surprisingly quietly, with barely a scrape and without bumping into anything or dropping them. Geborah moves to examine the oddly colored stone. Pressing it, a 10-foot section of wall behind where the shelves were swings in, revealing a long, pitch black passage heading in the direction of Balentyne.
There's no label on the wine bottle, but Wraith studies the glass consistency and color, as well as the shape, and is able to determine that the wine is a fine Kyonin vintage from the mainland, worth 100 gp a bottle. Not only difficult to acquire in the rather xenophobic and isolated Talingarde, but also quite high quality. It definitely doesn't belong in the box it was found in.
Perched at the top of the stairs, Tatienne's back aches, her legs are stiff, Still she would not give in to the discomfort and lean against the wall, and give any enemies that extra second of mental and physical preparation, should they be discovered.
Breathing in, the relic hunter centers herself, and counts silently to ten, and then again to ten, and again...
Geborah sticks her head out the cellar door and addresses Tatienne wordlessly.
We found it! A hidden portal, of a sort I've seen before. I wonder if the lecherous lord who installed it was a diabolist? Come see, Tati. You'll need this... The priestess produces the lantern from Tiadora's silk veil and ignites it with a red-eyed glare. She hands it to Tatienne with a mixure of pity and contempt for eyes that will never truly know the beautiful dark.
Though regretting her decision to leave her armor behind, Geborah steps first into the dark tunnel. If the group is stealthy and wary enough, perhaps her keen eyes will notice trouble before trouble notices them.
The three walk down the tunnel, Geborah slightly ahead of Wraith and Tatienne, who have the lantern with them, with the light as limited as they can manage.
After about fifteen to twenty minutes of walking, Geborah came to the end of the passage. Before, easily noticeable on this side, was the door at the end of the tunnel. Cautiously and carefully, Geborah pressed the lever, and the door swung inwards, revealing...
A large room, filled with crates marked as iron rations and large barrels marked as being water. Apart from a set of footprints leading to one crate that looks different from the rest, a thin layer of dust covers everything. It is clear that this room is visited very infrequently. The construction of this room is of very high quality - you suspect it to be Dwarven in origin. In the center of the room, a ladder leads up to a trap door.
You recognize that the crate that looks different from the rest appears to be marked as being a fine elven wine from Kyonin.
Moving forward, Tatienne makes sure to stay within the footprints on the ground. Slowly, reads teh markings "This crate," Taty whispers, "Contains fine elven wine from Kyonin. Our inkeep is likely stealing the wine from here, yes? Wherever 'here' is. Shall we open it?"
Leaning in, Tatienne squints in the dim light, trying to note if the crate is secured or locked.
Geborah looks around the room without entering and disturbing more dust. This must be some sublevel of the fortress, yes? Wraith, is it on that map the dwarves gave you? Can you guess where that trapdoor might emerge?
I'd like to find out where else we can get to from here. I suppose if we destroyed these supplies, we might reduce the fortress's ability to withstand a siege, but that seems like a small benefit to risk discovery for. We should see if there are higher value targets through the hatch, if we can remain undiscovered. Perhaps it's time for your invisibility spell, Wraith.
The dwarf did not give me the map, he merely showed it to me. I may be able to make a copy of it if someone can get him drunk again, so I can sneak into his room at night to grab it, copy it, then put it back. I'd like to save the invisibility spell in case we need it later. Let's see if it's necessary and check if anyone is in the floor above. A trapdoor opening to no reason will give us away just as badly as sabotaging these supplies.
Geborah climbs the ladder and listens, hearing nothing, and finding the trap door unlocked, she opens the door enough to see that the room is dark and no one is standing guard there. Emerging into a wide, circular room, she sees that the room appears to be an armory and smithy, with a fully functional forge. There are small chimneys to vent forge smoke - too small to properly vent the smoke, so you imagine that the room gets quite smoky if used too long.
On racks are twenty halberds, longswords, breastplates and heavy steel shields. All are marked with the symbol of Talingarde, making them difficult to sell. There is a set of stairs on the south wall leading up, and a single door leading west.
You appear to be on the first floor of the tower.
We are in a basement below one of the fortress's towers, Geborah communicates to the others. Perhaps if we all disguise ourselves as soldiers, we could make our way to the top, and spy on the whole of the fortress from that vantage. But let us be stealthy, and avoid the sounds of guards--it is too early still to risk any exposure.
Tatienne nods, grim. It wasn't how she had planned to enter the fortress, and carried much more risk.
But it was an entry none-the-less. Shifting her circlet as she dons a breastplate, shield, and longsword, Tatienne takes on the appearance of one of the guards she'd drank with at the tavern, hoping her memory got the details correct...
Wraith takes on his own disguise as a soldier, and together, the three of you make your way up to the second level of the tower. This circular room is empty, and leads to a room where the banners and honors of the garrison are kept. Six large flags hang from the walls - they should make excellent hiding places, if needed. There is a door in the northwest wall, and a set of stairs leading further up.
Geborah listens intently at the door and attempts to peer through its keyhole and underneath it to see if she can tell what's on the other side.
Hmm. Let's proceed up the stairs--getting a view of the whole fortress from its top is still my goal.
Tatienne nods, silent, and gestures towards the stairs, before taking the lead.
Upon climbing to the next floor, you find the tower wall has several regularly placed arrow slits. Quiver upon quiver of arrows sit on racks, ready to be used. This is clearly an archer's strongpoint - destroying these arrows would likely weaken the archers' worth in a prolonged siege.
You realize that you already possess a crude map of the tower - Timeon drew it for you. You also know that the top level ends at the rookery.
What we are seeing seems to match up with the map Timeon drew for us, and what the dwarves described. That means the rookery is likely on top of this tower. Our first target! Let's have a look to see how it's secured, then retreat for now. Likely this will be our first avenue of attack, once we have exhausted our covert options. We can bar the tower entry from the inside, eliminate the birds, then set fire to this room full of arrows, and while the fortress is distracted trying to break in and put out the fire before the wooden support beams give way, we can hit other targets.
Geborah circles the room, looking out all the arrowslits to see what else she can learn of the fortress.
Is there a way to poison the birds ahead of time, I wonder, and make it look like misfortune, rather than malice? Make it appear as a batch of bad feed, or something similar? If we can eliminate the birds ahead of time, it will buy us time during the assault. It will take time for the birds to be replaced - it could be one of the first salvos in our war..."
It's not impossible, but the deception will last a day at most. There's a simple divination any true representative of the gods can perform--if their miracle-worker doesn't have it already prepared, he can petition for it overnight--that reveals the presence of poison. Also, if even a single bird is flies back from a mission after the poisoning, they'll be able to raise an alarm. To really stop their communications, I think we'll need to kill the raven-keeper too. That will be hard to make look like an accident...unless an "accidental" fire sweeps the tower? Probably not even then.
So I think this should be our first open salvo. First I want to try ambushing the patrol and luring the miracle-worker into a trap.
Ready to check the rookery floor? How about you, Wraith, you're uncharacteristically quiet. Should I assume you've finally decided to follow my lead without complaints?
Just going over the detailed map the dwarf showed me, trying to figure out what's on this level that might help us out at the moment.
For the most part, no. The map marked off the rookery at the top of the tower, and some general structures were denoted - gatehouse, keep, etc - but there weren't any specifics you can recall. If you manage to get either the map or a copy of it, you might be able to get more.
Looking out the arrowslits, Geborah can see the exterior of the keep, the courtyard, with a fountain in it, the outside of the Cathedral, and the roof of what looks like a stable. She can also has a view of the outside of the gatehouse, the ancient Dwarven bridge over the River Tyburn, and, strangely, a second, smaller bridge above it and off to the side.
Ascending the final stairs, you find the stairs end in a small landing before the doors to the rookery. There isn't much room for all of you to stand before them. There are no guards, but the rookery entrance is set up so that if the alert was sounded and guards posted, they would be able to hold against a superior force ascending the stairs for quite some time.
Rookery is good Geb, lead the way.
Geborah's brow is troubled. I think we've seen what we need to see. The rookery seems like an easy enough target when we act. That gatehouse--that will be the real work. We'll have to plan a way across the upper bridge to get to the mechanisms that control that drawbridge, and probably a portcullis and other defenses. Otherwise Sakkarot's horde will be marching into a meat grinder.
Geborah has a quick listen at the door and peeks through the keyholes, hoping to get an impression of nighttime activity in the rookery. Then she leads a quiet retreat back down the stairs.
A thought strikes her as she descends. How quickly could you scribe scrolls of invisibility, Wraith?
You hear faint rustling and the occasional caw of a raven, along with what sounds like snoring. There are no lights on that you can see through the keyhole, and you can barely make out a sleeping human shape in the room.
With no distractions and material on hand, 1 or 2 a day. How many were you thinking of needing?
Make as many as you can--I'm sure we'll find a use for them sooner or later. For the assault on the fortress, though, I was thinking we could come up from the secret passage, bar and spike the door from the inside, kill the ravens and their keeper, set the arrow storeroom on fire, then descend invisibly from the roof to the walkway below and cross over to the gatehouse to sabotage it while the troops are distracted by the burning tower. Your spell would work on a rope ladder too, would it not? For a paltry few hundred gold, we'd take the defenders completely by surprise.
Unless the others want to push their luck exploring, Geborah is content to return to the inn with what they have learned and return its basement to its original condition so that the innkeeper won't suspect anything.
You successfully return to the Inn without notice, and put everything back where it was and head to bed, a successful night's scouting in the books.