"I hoped you would scout with me, Wraith. We don't need light; we can spot patrols before they see us. Climbing a rope isn't so hard, but if you really aren't up for it, I can go up with just the ogre....with Grumblejack."
Geborah hands Grumblejack the rope. "The plan is to smash the boss first, before he knows we are coming and runs away. From the roof we can find the tower he sleeps in. Climb up, then lower the rope for us. Stay low and quiet and away from light." She pauses. "Here....accept the blessing of Asmodeus, who favors dark doings."
"Who this Asmodeus?" Grumblejack asks confusingly as Geborah offers him a divine blessing
“Be sneaky? Grumblejack have no problem with being sneaky. Grumblejack quiet as death! One time, Grumblejack sneak up on a farmer to steal sheep. The farmer turned around and look me straight in the eyes. He so scared, little man make water. Grumblejack asked him if he saw anything. Farmer say no. See...Grumblejack VERY stealthy.”
With this declaration, chuckling at the memory, Grumblejack takes the rope and walks into the fireplace, wriggling his way into the chimney and climbing up, any difficulty being that the chimney is a little too narrow for him.
After he manages to emerge from the chimney, you wait a moment before the rope drops down to where you are so you can climb up.
With the rope to brace against, Geborah is able to easily climb up.
Once you reach the roof, you easily spot Grumblejack poorly hidden behind the chimney, with the rope securely tied to the stone battlements of the roof. You can see the prison is centered in the grounds, surrounded by a curtain wall with 6 towers - five small and round, the other large and more square - clearly the tower the guard was talking about, where Warden Richter keeps his rooms. At the front of the wall you see the gatehouse for the castle. Torches on the top illuminate the shape of two guards keeping watch, one facing out towards the causeway, the other looking in on the keep. The closest looks to be nearly 200 feet away, and this is the dark time of night.
You also spot the light of a lantern moving along a segment of the wall adjoining the gatehouse. Once the light reaches the edge of the gatehouse, it stops, and then turns around to begin moving back the other way along the wall. The wall is definitely high enough that someone on it could see onto the roof of the keep.
Finally realizing the plan Wraith nods to Geborah. "I just didn't realize what the plan was, I'll follow you up the rope."
Once Grumblejack is up and Geborah as well Wraith grabs the rope, taking his time as he knows he's not a climber by nature.
Once up there with a bit of exertion Wraith has a pleased look at he clears the chimney. Making sure to stay in the shadow of the chimney to stay out of any patrolling guards view, Wraith decides not to chance it as well by laying flat on the roof as well.
Whispering to Geborah, "Do you see anything?" as he waits for a response he takes his own look around.
Jezabel laughs in amusement at Grumblejack's tale and claps her hands.
She waits at the bottom, singing nonsense to herself, while Wraith, Geborah and the ogre scout the rooftop.
Geborah's eyes search the night.
"I see a little too much ogre, is what I see," Geborah whispers back. "Grumblejack, you did great. Why don't you go down and see if Jezabel and the others need help getting up--I think she likes you. Tell them that Wraith and I will jiggle the rope when it's safe for everyone to come up. Got that? Come up when we jiggle the rope."
As the ogre clambers back down, Geborah draws her dark dress tight around her and does her best to blend into the night.
She whispers right into Wraith's ear as they hide against the chimney. "Thinking fast: when that patrol is moving away from us, we tug on the rope to call the others. When everyone's up, we move the rope to the roof edge near the big tower. We shimmy down, starting with Skorn so he can unlock the tower door. We get in there and out of sight. Last person on the roof grabs the rope and climbs or drops down. Can you improve on that?"
"Sounds good, I should be able to magic the rope off saving us someone jumping down." Wraith takes a moment to put some thoughts together before adding something to the plan.
"Before having them come up, we should check the grounds to make sure there's no roaming patrol or where it is so we're not surprised in an open area."
After whispering his plan, Wraith starts crawling to an edge to look into the yard around the building.
The wait for the guards to pass by are some of the longest minutes in Geborah's life. She disciplines herself to stay still and quiet by squeezing the Archstar until its edges feel like they are burning into her hand.
They do not see me. The darkness blinds them. They are bored and careless. They watch the courtyard, not the roof. They are feckless and undisciplined. The chimney hides me. They are too far. Asmodeus and Alichino shield me. They do not see me...
Balam hauls himself up the rope with ease, despite the metal weighing him down. In truth, the chain shirt moves almost like a second skin, his moves are so natural and free. Even the shield is more an extension of his arm than a solid mass of unwieldy metal. Atop the roof, he clings to the shadows with ease, keeping himself low to the tiles and near flat to the angle of the roof. At a distance, he would look like a gargoyle or a piece of the chimney or defenses, and not a man sneaking about the rooftops.
Grumblejack shrugs and wiggles his way back down the chimney to the others. Once there, he says, "Little girl says to wait 'til rope jiggles, then everybody climbs up. Grumblejack help those not climb up well."
The guards pass by Wraith and Geborah's hiding place without noticing them, moving through their patrol. Wraith's careful examination of the open area they're heading to reveals no sign of patrols, although he notes the guards on patrol along the walls could possibly sight them if they aren't careful.
Geborah tugs on the rope as soon as the guards pass. She explains the plan as people emerge from the chimney.
"There's the door to warden's tower. When everyone's up, we'll get the rope from the chimney and shimmy down on that side. Skorn will go first and unlock the door. Wraith will go last and magic the rope down after us. Quick and quiet will see us through."
Jezabel smiles at Grumblejack and pats him on the arm. "Thanks, friend." she says.
When the rope gets tugged she climbs up carefully .
Climbing the chimney slowly and safely, Tatienne crouches and moves forward. As the others assemble and lower the rope from the roof, Taty focuses her mind on the hunting of a cat, silent paws through underbrush. Taty takes a quick breath and follows Balam down the other side, her chain shirt barely clinking as she moves.
climb: 1d20 + 3 - 4 ⇒ (11) + 3 - 4 = 10
stealth: 1d20 + 4 - 4 ⇒ (19) + 4 - 4 = 19
perception: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (15) + 7 = 22
when Balam's supposed to climb up with the others..
Balam hauls himself up the rope with ease, despite the metal weighing him down. In truth, the chain shirt moves almost like a second skin, his moves are so natural and free. Even the shield is more an extension of his arm than a solid mass of unwieldy metal. Atop the roof, he clings to the shadows with ease, keeping himself low to the tiles and near flat to the angle of the roof. At a distance, he would look like a gargoyle or a piece of the chimney or defenses, and not a man sneaking about the rooftops.
Have we a plan?
"I think so, first" Wraith then goes over the plan Geborah proposed with his minor change of dealing with the rope himself.
"Everyone clear on that?" Realizing he'll have to go over the plan each time someone comes up.
FireSkorn scampers up the rope, followed by Grumblejack once again, who, after emerging, pulls the rope up and hands it to the little rat man. FireSkorn then goes over to the edge of the keep and ties the rope off before climbing down and sneaking over to the Warden's Tower, pressing himself against the stone and hiding in its shadow as he goes to work on the door. He quickly opens the lock and slips into the tower.
DD:(20) + 12 = 32
DD:(11) + 12 = 23
DD:(2) + 12 = 14
DD:(15) + 10 = 25
DD:(17) + 12 = 29
Jezabel suddenly falls quiets. She no longer hums or sings or mutters. She's silent as a stalking predator...
Jezabel follows behind FireSkorn, shimmying down the rope with ease and slinking over to the Warden's Tower slowly and silently.
She follows FireSkorn inside.
Tatienne, thinking again of the prowling cat, touches each villian on their shoulder as they go, and then, nodding to Wraith and touching him last, makes her way down the rope and towards the tower.
Seeing the ogre trying to be sneaky, Wraith give a smirk before crawling over.
"Ok big guy, I have a trick for making you a better sneaker that might be helpful," seeing the confused and possible doubtful look on the creatures face he continues. "No really, it the one I always use when I hide."
With a quick look around he goes into his explanation, "First thing you need to do is pick a very sneaky creature, like a snake, mouse or shadow. Then in you head you keep repeating that you are that creature as you move or hide in one spot. Then poof, like magic you are even sneaker and the people after you never seem to see you."
After giving the ogre a bit of "moral support" in his hiding skills, he waits for the group to hurry down the rope before the guards notice.
Balam nods his thanks as he feels Tatienne's power flow into him. Asmodeus guides his hands as he and his fellows make their way from their prison cell to the Warden's tower. His armor reassures him of his purpose; the weight of his metal skin pulls at his limbs, confines his movements and breath, and deadens the distractions of the world. The chill wind, the roar of the crashing waves, the pain of harsh stone grating against his skin; all of it is mute against the ever-present closeness of his armor. He is focused, of single mind and purpose: He will climb to the top of this tower, and serve his companions as their sword arm and shield, slaying the foolish servants of Mitra the Deceiver.
His hands slip a few times as he scales the wall, but his will to serve the god of this world is too great, and he steadies himself. Soon, he hauls himself over the edge, ready for action.
Once Grumblejack follows Balam down, Wraith slides down the rope.
With an almost stumble, Wraith makes it down. Once down he takes a quick look around before hugging the wall, to keep out of sight while quietly chanting, once mage hand is summoned he commands it to untie the rope.
Once it falls down he quickly grabs it before sneaking across the yard to join the rest of them.
Geborah slides down the rope just before Wraith, but knocks a loose stone from the wall that falls with a clatter. Muffling a curse, she moves to Balam and Tatienne.
"If the guards heard that and challenge us, step out and use the password. Tell them you're bringing Grumblejack to the warden for some wizard business. Asmodeus will help you find the right words," she says, giving Guidance to Balam. "But if they don't believe you, we'll have to rely on your bows."
Grumblejack nods to Wraith's advice and says, "That make Grumblejack even sneakier than already am."
Once everyone is down the rope, Wraith casts mage hand to lower it down to him. Coiling the length of rope back up, just as he prepares to move, he suddenly freezes as he hears the laughter of one of the guards, and they come around the corner of the walkway that goes to the outside of the Warden's tower on their sweep of the wall. He holds perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe, in the hopes they won't notice him. Luck - or, perhaps, a sheltering divine hand - keeps them from noticing him as he waits for them to pass before crossing the gap and joining the others within the Warden's Tower.
The first floor of the Warden's Tower appears to be dedicated to the history of Castle Branding, as well as the subsequent events that led to the Castle becoming Branderscar Prison. It consists of mostly a series of uninteresting plaques telling of nobles and deeds long since forgotten by most. There are a number of banners and flags.
One of the flags is that of the Order of the Brand, a Hellknight Order that split from the Order of the Rack to establish a foothold in Talingarde. Shortly after founding the order, they sided with the Barcan regime in the Battle of Tamberlyn and were slain to the man. No one has attempted to resurrect the Order on the Chelaxian mainland.
One of the wall hangings is an old brocade tapestry depicting Castle Branding being converted into a prison with the motto "His Judgement Cometh and that Right Soon." It looks like it might fetch a decent price, although quite heavy and awkward. There is a spiral stairway leading up to the second level, and the room is lit by four torches in sconces.
Jezabel follows our fearless leader--FireSkorn--into the tower. As she passes by the plaques and deeds she giggles, spitting on some, and tearing others up.
She looks around the tower, looking for stairs, listening for noises, and keeping and eye out for anything entertaining.
Balam stands guard with the Grumblejack until everyone's inside, to give the appearance of transferring the ogre. Then, he slips into the tower. He scowls at the tapestries lining the walls, silently cursing the fall of such disciplined servants of order. But, he has no time for such worries! He readies his sword and shield and slips forward, preparing to attack or deceive any who heard their entry.
Giving the tapestries barely a glance, Tatienne draws her dagger and moves up the stairs. Her shield scrapes the tower's wall as she moves. Cursing silently, she continues...
Geborah follows the 'guards' Balam and Tatienne up the stairs, giving the brocade a smirk as she passes.
As the group ascends the stairs, they come to the second floor of the tower. Though the stairs continue up to the next floor, if you stop to look at this floor you find the walls of the room, apart from the four torches in sconces, to be hidden behind bookshelves featuring a large array of books and scrolls, across a variety of subjects. A cursory glance at many of the shelves reveals the vast majority to be "penny dreadfuls" - poorly printed compilations of lurid tales ranging across the whole gamut of adventure genres. However, you notice that the one genre over-represented is bawdy tales featuring amply endowed young maidens in grave peril.
Fortunately, these are not all the library possesses. There is also a more scholarly section, featuring what looks to be over 50 books on subjects ranging from magical theory to astronomy to history.
This text is the Astra Mysterii, a rare treatise on astrology written by the mad monk Clivarus, worth 75 gold to a collector.
This is The Travels of Titus the Mendicant by Artus Vellor. This is a valuable first edition, published before the author was well-known. Collectors would likely pay 120 gold for this book.
The Floralegium by Branthus Hart. An imposing tome of no small age, this beautifully illustrated book of flowers is obviously something special. This could easily fetch 250 gold from collectors.
"We can hunt for the wizard's spell book in here after we take care of the wizard himself," Geborah whispers to Wraith. "Before we go any further...what arcane traps might be laid for us? Do you have a way of detecting such dangers?"
Taty stops cold in the library, her mouth dropping. "Reminds me of home..." she whispers, and closes her eyes, thinking of the library of her family manor. Opening them again, she begins scanning the shelves, before plucking a couple of titles and tossing them to Geborah (or whoever holds the sack). "A valuable first edition."
"As for arcane traps, perhaps if that is a fear, we shouldn't be hunting wizards?"
Jezabel glances inside the library, curious if they have any good cookbooks...
Turning her attention back to her comrades, Jezabel replies in a sing-song voice. "I caaaaaan..."
With a swirl of her hand and a flicker of green in her eyes, Jezabel casts detect magic and scans the area ahead of us for magical auras, as well as the library.
Seeing Tatienne wander into the library, Jezabel smiles. In addition to looking for magical tomes with detect magic she looks for cookbooks by perusing the shelves. She also picks up a penny dreadful that looks amusing, lets out a giggle at it's absurdity and keeps it.
She also pulls down a book called Astra Mysterii with a glint in her eyes and keeps it.
"Personally this looks like a library and the time to search is time for people to know we're missing, and I for one am not the type of person to hide their spell book amongst other books, I feel he'd keep it close or in a study of some kind." he replies quietly to Deborah.
As he ponders about magic traps, " As for traps it could be anything, an alarm, words that explode when read, my favorite was commanding a shadow to hide in a book and touch people other than me," with a long of longing he continues. "Oh how I miss Shay, to be honest 8 wouldn't touch those books with out having cast magical detection on them. But alas it seems I'm too late, people have already start touching them." With an excited look in his eyes he watches as people go through the books.
As he watches he quietly casts detect magic and scans the books, if nothing pops out he'll say nothing, if one does he hopes its before someone can touch it to warn them.
Balam shakes his head at the useless knowledge on the shelves. What good were books if they did not tell someone how to better control the masses?
He stands ready by the door, waiting for the first sign of danger from above or below, while still trying to look as though he's guarding Grumblejack.
Wraith and Jezabel's scans for magic find no auras within the room, leading them to conclude none of the books has been warded or alarmed in any way, nor are any of the books magic.
You notice a book called The Floralegium by Branthus Hart. You know this book is an incredibly detailed and beautifully illustrated volume of plant life - it is surely valuable, but you cannot say for how much. Perhaps someone can appraise it for you?
The library sufficiently searched, you ascend the stairs further, to the third floor. You emerge onto a small landing. It appears that, at one point, the stairway had continued up to the roof but has been modified to end at this floor. The landing is lit by a single torch in a sconce, and you can see two doors, each bearing a plaque. The one to your left reads Office, and the other reads Private: Keep Out! There are no signs of any guards.
As she's about to continue up the stairs, another book, bound in white vellum with a hand-painted flower inlay, catches Tatienne's eye. Reaching out, the relic hunter pulls it from the shelf and flips the book open to the title page. "I thought so! The Floralegium by Branthus Hart. This book is an incredibly detailed and beautifully illustrated volume of plant life. It is immensely valuable, but I cannot say for how much."
--------------
Pausing at the top of the stairs, Taty once again thinks of her stalking cat, and then brushes her hand by each of her companions, before entering the room last. As she enters, she runs her elbow into the stair's banister, giving off a loud clank!
As he continues to follow up the stairs, he nod with approval at Tatienne's assistance, before wincing at the clanking noise she just cause....Ouch, I hope nobody heard that but us! Taking a quick look around, with his ears wide open.
Pausing at the noise Wraith crouches lower trying to find a shadow to hide in.
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Rolling her eyes in exasperation, Geborah is about to protest wasting time in the library when she catches sight of a title: Pauline in Peril, Part Four: Enslaved in the Vampire Crypts of Alichino. She discreetly tips it into her bag on top of Tatienne's find, along with Part Five: Vampire Rebellion Below Karcau: the Ensparkling.
She slips upstairs with the others, motioning for them to stay quiet as she listens at the doors.
Jezabel slinks up the stairs with her books, scanning for magical auras as she goes.
Unfortunately she forgets halfway up the stairs that she's supposed to be quiet and begins to sing under her breath.
Balam tempers the frustration and anger that flares up inside him at Tatienne’s apparent clumsiness. He reminds himself that she is not a trained warrior. She is a scholar, her role is to think for others and to plan. Perhaps, later, she will be the voice that commands his sword and shield. Perhaps she will simply advise the one who does—Geborah seemed a likely candidate; the child claimed to obey a Lord of Hell, after all. His training had drilled in him a natural acceptance of the dominion of the clergy.
Still, he couldn’t help but press his lips in a tight line as he softly walked up the stairs. He mentally readied himself to pose as a guard. He kept a tight grip on his sword and shield all the same.
Geborah hears nothing at the Office door, but she does hear what sounds like very faint snoring behind the other. Both doors are locked.
Geborah's eyes seem to glow with anticipation. "In here, asleep," she whispers, pointing at the 'Private!' door. [b]"Check for wizard's traps and snares. Then Skorn opens it up. Then we go in--Grumblejack can go first, and snatch him out of bed."
Jezabel aims her detect magic spell at the doors.
"He's a wizard. Let's not give him a moment. Leave the door open for the light. I'll slit his throat while he sleeps."
Dropping her shield silently to the floor, Tatienne draws her longsword and slips into the room. Standing over the sleeping warden, Taty thinks of the white oaks of the Empire's forests; hulking trees with wide boughs, immovable and ancient. The relic hunter opens her eyes and finds herself towering over the wizard, twice as tall as she was just a moment ago. Raising the longsword, Tatienne snarls, and drops it down on the wizard's neck...
Balam nods. Aye, better to kill him first, without waking him. We have little need for information from him. Let's kill him and be done with this place. He stands in the doorway, blocking as much light as he can, and ready to pounce on the wizard should he survive Tatienne's blow.
FireSkorn easily and quickly unlocks the door, and Tatienne slips in, longsword out. Once next to the sleeping wizard, she suddenly grows to Grumblejack’s size, and the sword appears not only bigger, but heavier. She brings the sword down, easily decapitating the Warden and slicing through the bed. He makes not a sound - indeed, he likely did not even know it happened.
The killing was not completely silent, however. Tatienne hears a rustling of feathers, and everyone hears a loud hoot, as the Warden’s familiar awakens.
"Well, that was anticlimactic," says Geborah. She steps inside the room with the others and shuts the door, then scans the walls for open windows that the owl could escape through. "Mind killing that damned bird, too?"
Jezabel leaps at the bird, trying to knock it to the ground.
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