Zeylud looks around in alarm as his familiar flies into his arms and the trapdoor is slammed shut.
He starts squeaking dramatically.
Even if he can gather rats and have them swarm about and up and out of the cellar....he still needed to hide. He was afraid Meeks would have to somehow slip out with the swarm.
Freyr blinks as he looks around the corner and shakes his head. "I'm not even sure I want to know," he mutters under his breath.
With Rohkar out of the room Frjya leaned close to the Lady and spoke lowly. "We're trying to get you out of here and back to the town. We where told of your capture and where asked to help." She explained. "I know this is a lot, but I rather not speak about it before the bandit that kidnapped you..."
Yes, yes. Better not speak about it in front of the bandit. Speaking of which, what's going on there? I want to know!
Satu moves over to where the bandits vanished and tries to get a grip on the situation there, trying to listen at the door or peak through if possible.
Nox sighs as she begins to stand. Her dress moves the bench out away from her so she doesn't trip. "Perhaps we should take advantage of this momentary lapse in Rohkar's attention."
Coinciding with these last words, Lanyssa is divided between just grabbing the woman they're here after or going to the other room and see what's happening there. She looks at Frjya and shrugs, trying to obtain an answer.
Satu sees Ten-Penny walking down going down the trapdoor.
As she begins looking around you time your movements to move from behind one crate to another at just the luckiest moment to avoid being spotted.
They are going down a trapdoor that was hidden under the bear rug before. We have the women. I say we fight now and get what we came for.
Zeylud eases around, either he was far better at hiding than he thought or perhaps her attention wasn't as good as he figured. All the same, it was time to go ahead and slip upstairs. He really did hope that she was the only one who had been in the room.
He darted up and out the trap door and looked around to see what was going on before he saw his earlier entrance closed, a boarded set of door and...well being trapped like a rat in another room. He figured he was least expected and probably there was less people...upstairs!
"I'll back your play, Satu."
As Zeylud runs up the stairs he forgot to take into consideration that there are other bandits who might be waiting at the top of the stairs for him, and that they will have the high ground, which resulted in a rather painful stabbed at his shoulder.
Rohkar was also upset by the wound. He was hoping to dig into the shoulder, giving him the leverage he would need to kick the rat face creature down the stairs.
Freyr sighs. "Somehow, I have a feeling this is going to end poorly." He glances sideways at his sister. "Shall we simply take the noblewoman and go while we have the chance? Or would you rather stay and finish dealing with this?"
"I think she is in a daze brother... so it might be a good idea to run down... though he might track us down still..." Frjya replied before she looked to the other two. "Let us go now." She told them agreeing with Satu. "We may not get another chance."
Uh this is a bit unfortunate, but the rat they are chasing and stabbing over there is actually with us. Guess we can't leave him here like that. He was supposed to wait and watch out in the trees!
Frjya raised an eyebrow at Satu's words. She had made a comment about who Frjya was and it turned out to be Satu that was keeping secrets. "And do you want to go tell them that?" She asked her.
For a seemingly long moment, Satu looks into Frjyas eyes deeply.
I'm not for senseles heroics and he brought himself into this situation and us possibly in danger by not watching our back. Luckily for him though, there happens to be quite the bounty on Rohkars head and we were tasked to collect that. It seems the stars align and give you the opportunity to show what you are made of, princess. We trusted you so far and followed your lead, now we will see wether you got a heart or just a lump of ice. Bringing down a band of raiders who abduct people will definately be considered a good thing, at least on this side of the border.
Satu opens the door and steps through, closing in on Rhokar as near as possible, glaring at him:
What's going on here? Making a princess wait and taking a break to stab people? Put the weapon down!
Lanyssa is waiting up to the moment when she senses there's any kind of a fight. Leaving the rest behind (or going with them) she directs her steps towards the mayhem, worried and curious about this ally of Satu they haven't been warned about.
"Do you not see the oversized pest that broke in here!" Rohkar says, taking advantage of Satu interruption to sink his blade into the distracted rat-faced creature, then uses his leverage to send it tumbling back down the stairs, past an oncoming Ten-Penny, knocking it out cold. "Ah Ten-Penny, just leave it down there, I'll dispose of it later."
He turns to Satu with an apologetic smile and says, "Sorry about this, this is the first time weave had rodents in here. I can assure you that this isn't a common occurrence just give me a moment to clean my blade, if you'd please"
"Of course.... You know what I'll even do you one better." Fryja said seeing an opening. "You two." Fryja said as she pointed to Satu and Nod. "Take this, creature, as Rohkar has put it out and take care of it. Go ahead and take it into the woods. No reason to leave it close to the lodge." She told them as she met Satu's eyes, a small gleam in them. This was likely the only chance Fryja could give them to get their friend out of here. "And just wait for us out there, we are done here and will meet you soon enough." She instructed.
Finally she looked to the Lady they had come to get. "Are you ready to leave this place."
Freyr remains quiet and watches, trying his best to look grim and professional. This sort of fast talking diplomacy was always his sister's specialty, not his own. If Rohkar decided to make a fuss, then he'd get to show off his specialty.
Nox moves forward to help Satu pick up Zeylud. If we can just get him outside, healing him won't be a problem.
Satu looks a bit confused by the developments, as she clearly expected things to turn violent. As Zeylud falls down the stairs her hands twitch as if to catch him in vain. She then nods to Frjyas request.
That's my rodent, better leave it alone now. And give me some space on that stairs, i don't like people looming about with blades while i climb. I'll bring it to the woods and dispose of it.
She moves over and will climb down the stairs after Rhokar stepped away a bit.
"Your rodent?" Rohkar blanks before looking down the stairs at the rat-faced creature after Ten-Penny climbs up the stairs. "Well I'm sorry but it's dead now anyway so it doesn't matter, and it's best to just leave it down there. If we throw its body out it will attract beast hungry from the unseasonal weather, and a hungry animal is a dangerous creature that I don't want to mess with."
If no one moves to stop Rohkar he will close the trap door, lock it with a padlock and move the bear rug back over the door.
Slowly Frjya stepped in and moved calmly up to Rohkar, "Rohkar, Rohkar, Rohkar." Frjya tisked as she shook her head. "I'm offering you a gift by letting them remove it now." She said. "A bit of advice as you're dealing with the nobles of Irrisen, never decline a gift from the royalty. Because it swiftly can change." She explained before she waved to Satu and Nox.
"Go on, he will not stop you. After all tis a gift from me. A thanks for being such, a good host." Fryja told them. "And Rohkar if you're worried about the body attracting beasts than we'll take it with us, ensure it is placed away from the lodge."
Nox is pretty sure she heard Satu saying something about 'her rodent.' That must be Zeylud. She heads into the trophy room, following Frjya. "Ooo, I can probably use rat pieces in one of my spells anyway," she says. Technically, true. Though not the kind of thing I normally deal with.
Although they have always been moving a bit before, Nox's clothes begin to truly writhe now. Her belt and edge of her vest seem to stretch to impossible lengths as they snake out and pick Zeylud up off the floor.
"Well, if it's his rodent, just let him take it with him" Lanyssa states. "He might want to do some funeral rites or whatever."
Wanting to adress important matters, she goes on. "Anyway, we'd like to go, I guess. So if yu're so kind as to turn away the dead rat, we'll just leave you to your chores and importunate you no more." Lanyssa puts her body weight on her falchion, in a relaxed manner, as if waiting. "I think the twins are in some kind of a hurry."
At first Rohkar looks like he's going to argue against Frjya taking the corpse, but at everyone's insistence he simply steps away from the trap door saying, "Alright princess take the corpse at your own risk, but don't curse me for whatever happens to you."
Nox's clothing tendrils reach down the stairs and pick up the fallen ratfolk. One of the cloth tentacles closes the trap door almost nonchalantly as she passes by. Another whips out to grab the door handle as she marches to the door.
Ah well, now this is settled ... do you have any other rodent problems here? Or Intruders? This is such a nice lodge, i would really love to get a full tour. No? Too much asked?
As Rohkar ushers you all out of the trophy room into the unseasonal snow outside he offers you one final smile. "Goodbye, stay safe and don't be strangers. You can come visit whenever you like!
As you all leave the log's porch Nox heals him heels Zeylud back to consciousness. The sun is shining overhead but it's creeping towards the tree line. There are only a few hours of daylight left.
"What? Why?" the voice of Ten-Penny asks.
"Because they'll kill us if we're still here when they come back."
"But they already have the gir—"
Which is why they'll come back. You think she's going to let being taken prisoner stand?"
"But—"
"But nothing. They said which was true enough, but do you really think Teb wouldn't tell us when the girls escort was coming? Or that he wouldn't personally escort a princess who he supposed serve? There's clearly some discord in the ranks, and I don't think he's going to forgive us for handing over are prisoner."
"We can take them."
You hear Rohkar let out a laugh. "Two versus who knows how many? I'm not taking those odds."
"We may be better in a fight but the boys can hold their own."
"Where are they?"
The only thing left to hear is there footsteps.
Zeylud eyes slowly flutter open "Ugh....who hit me with the plow? Did...we kill em? Where are we at...also who are these people?" he asked trying to piece it all together.
on Zeylud
Nox's cloak gently helps Zeylud to his feet. "Well, that could have gone better. Could have gone worse as well, I suppose." Her cloak whips back around her to keep her warm.
She turns to the others. "Now then, I'm not entirely convinced that burning this place to the ground is a terrible idea. But I'm willing to listen to other opinions."
With only a few hours of sunlight left, it might actually be better to stay at the lodge overnight. Although his behavior was a bit strange he did invite us i think? I'm not really good with such things. Anyway, that's my opinion.
She turns to Nox.
If we burn down the place there would be a good fire to sleep nearby tonight, but i think sleeping inside would even be better. We could still take them, now that this princess is in safety. What do you all say?
Satu looks around seeking an answer from everyone, but then stops at Zeylud.
Except you. What was that just about? You said you would keep our backs, instead you abandoned your post and got yourself nearly killed?
Fryja stayed back from Satu, Nox and Zeylud. As she was not as familiar with them it wasn't her place to chastise Zeylud. Not to mention Satu seemed like she was going to do that.
"We could go back in and request a place to rest." Frjya said with a small smile as she looked to them "I understand that not everyone can deal with the cold like I can, but when it comes to burning this place down well... I am not in favor for it." She told them "Those who are ill in there would have no chance to escape or even know what is happening... I just don't find that fair."
"You're still soft with people who would kill you if they were well," Freyr says, though he doesn't sound particularly upset about that. "Removing them while we have the chance to avoid fighting the lot of them would be simplest, but we have a noblewoman to get home and I'd rather she didn't run off and get lost in the woods while we're fighting. The last thing we need is for her to get eaten by a troll."
Zeylud raised a brow at Satu's words. "First off, our plan was to take advantage of these two's distraction to try and get information and get the drop on the bandits. You guys failed, I couldn't have told you I had your back even if I wanted to tell you...so I proceeded with the plan as we agreed. Hide, gather information, and try and get the drop on them." he said a bit annoyed at Satu's assumptions.
He moved on "Then, I noticed that the bandit's were hiding something. I assumed, I had the opportunity to find out what they were hiding given there was only one actually locked area...so I tried. Unfortunately, I chose poorly in my timing and got caught. But, I still tried to weasel my way out of it and failed. Now we're here." he said summarizing everything from his point of you.
He noted the mentioned of ill people "Forgive me, but I saw no ill anywhere. I think that was a lie." he said simply.
He shook his head once everyone had finished talking "Our mission was to kill the bandits, doesn't look like that's happening and I'm not a fighter so I'm not gonna fight to go fight. I'd rather thank whatever deity or persons involved with keeping me alive instead of a ratling-kebab and move on with my day." he said now looking like he had nothing left to say.
"Although I do appreciate how polite Rohkar has been, I still suspect he had something to do with the lady's kidnapping." She turns to the ratling. "Zeylud, I'm just glad we were able to get your out in one piece, more or less. Did you notice whether or not there were any horses in the stables?"
Well we have the information now, also that noble woman, but we probably lost the surprise moment. Should we go back now, they're probably watching. If they flee, it's probably the other direction. We could go around the house in the woods and take a look what we see, then go get them. From a different direction.
Zeylud shakes his head solemnly "Sorry luv, I got a bit over zealous once you guys got inside and I didn't check the perimeter well enough. Honestly, would've been smart of me to steal a few horses for us." he said admitting his ignorance.