"Well now, he looks interesting; like a man who knows where he's going." Commented Anumil as he looked around again when the duergar surrendered.
Anumil chases after flame head.
"Secure the gatehouse! Allow our armed allies here to scout ahead!"
The recruits collar the surrendering duergar, and assist the half-orcs in taking command of their weaponry.
Anumil is in the lead in pursuit of the flame-topped human in robes.
Anumil chases after the flame-topped human. If he gets close enough, he will try a grapple.
Sunny, seeing the fleeing little light and Anumil chasing after it, simply extends her wings and leaps for the balcony/parapet she's standing on.
Gliding towards the receding flicker.
Anumil catches up to the robed figure, but fails to get a solid grip on him. He gestures and mutters dark speech.. his hand passes through the flame above his head and then reaches out for Anumil.
The hand flashes with flame as he swipes, but he fails to connect.
Switching to his bow, Ǽmon draws a bead on the fleeing arcanist with the flame above his head. Using the bobbing fire as a guide he aims and looses an arrow.
Evrail looks about before charging at the enemy in hopes to slow him down from his running away and to give the others a chance to do something to slow the man down.
*Flap, flap, flap...*
Evrail slices into the robed figure as he recovers from Anumil's attempt to collar him.
Aemon's arrow gouges the man's forearm as he throws it up defensively to swat at Evrail's strikes.
Sunny glides from the gate, and reaches the bridge a little too low to easily land upon it.
You may try a climb check to grab hold and pull yourself onto the bridge (DC10), another fly check (DC15), or you may land on the ground anywhere on the map.
Ǽmon takes aim with his bow again, drawing the fletch infra of another arrow to his ear.
Round 2_____
Anumil will try another grapple.
Suny lands and scampers up to Mr Zipo... (^_^)
Anumil fails to get a grip on the now flailing caster. The flame-topped man hisses as he steps back... "Yes... burn through your resources. Drain your strength fighting me when there is nowhere for you go. The fort has fallen, the village is on the precipice, and every inch of land for miles in sowed with the bones of the angry dead."
He thrusts his hands forward - wrist together and palms facing out...
"Insladti hrosis!" a fan of flame shoots forth at Anumil and Evrail.
Aemon's arrow finds its way through the melee, and into the flamecaster's chest. It sinks deep enough to pierce a lung. The man grits his teeth and scrunches his eyes.
Anumil stumbles back, taking the full force of the fire blast.
Seeing the man turn to fight, and his last arrow well placed, Ǽmon dashes forward a few strides before once again drawing aim with his bow. He looses another arrow, hoping to drop the evil magi this time.
Evrail grunts as the blast of fire catches him fully on before he moves forward to attempt to get the robed man again before he could use more magic against the group since some of what the robed man said had a ring of truth to it. The longer the group takes here the the more spent they will be.
Furling her wings slightly, Sunny moves closer to Mr Sparkle head, though she looks with concern towards Evrail.
"Behave, be good or be punished!" She exclaims.
The caster nearly loses his footing as Aemon pelts him with another arrow.
Evrail slices at him, but his blades hit only empty cloth as the man's arms flail about.
Round 3_____
Blinking the tears out of his eyes from the fire attack, Anumil ran after after the caster. He flipped his sword around...
... and swung the hilt at the casters legs in a trip attack.
vs CMD
Ǽmon follows up his last shot with another, hoping that the fleeing man will soon be brought down.
The man takes a step back and reaches into his robe as Aemon's arrow strikes him. He drops the flask he had been reaching for, and slowly crumples to the ground with a slight sneer frozen on his face. The flame on his head goes out a few seconds later.
Beyond the fallen caster you see the slight curve to the tunnel which - from what you saw on the wall-map, should be right by the exit.
Suny skips over, absently furling her wings tightly behind her back, and bends over the still and crumpled form,
"Awe...tha' light went out..." She sighs. Then looks around inquisitivly.
"Here. There be a light at maybe tha' end of tha' tunnel." She points out
"Check this guy out. I'm going to see what's up the tunnel ahead of us." Anumil grinned at Sunny and Evrail as he sheathed his sword. He quickly grabbed up his crossbow, reloaded and hustled forward up the tunnel.
"Well I thought there would be a bit more than that but be careful there might be more about than we think. More so that this guy thought to say about as much to us, though that might of just been a ruse to trick us. Guess only time will tell?" Evrail says to the others as he looks down at the man that just fell. With that he follows behind Anumil now wishing for the man to go on ahead alone.
Sunny nods, grins then spins in place before skipping back down the tunnel to where all the other people are gathering. (^_^)
Ǽmon approaches the corpse and rolls him over onto his back. After assuring that the fiend is in fact dead, and not just playing possum, he searches the man's robes thoroughly, looking for any sign of his identity or his aims.
Aemon finds a spell component pouch, and slim spellbook. The fallen man has one silver ring of better than average quality. His garb is torn and worn, but his cowl has remained undamaged.
He has a suede satchel which contains three potions, 48 gold pieces, several jars (sparkling powder, coarsely ground bone with lingering smoke, black glossy stones), and a sturdy parchment tube.
The parchment tube contains one page. The page contained one brief sentence and a signature.
"I hereby accept the terms proposed."
(signed) Migthwet
The remaining Black Arrow and half-orc escapees gather by Aemon. They have the Duergar who surrender bound.
"We can question them when we get somewhere safe."
*** *** *** ***
To the west the others go around the spiraling tunnel to a wide stair. The steps lead to a platform at the bottom of a shaft roughly 60 feet in diameter. There is a lattice of gears around and leading up the shaft, and a lever in the center of the platform.
This is quite clearly the way up.
Gathering and bringing all the other former prisoners up to the shaft Sunny comes to a stop and looks up.
"That's a long way..." She opines, even as she places a re-assuring hand on 'her' Duergar friend's shoulder.
Anumil returns to the rest of the party and reports his discovery of the stairway leading to the massive lift shaft.
When they all gather, he will use the lever in the center of the platform.
Standing on the platform, Ǽmon stands facing the outside, holding his bow ready, in case any threats should emerge while the team is rising on the lift. If a threat does appear, he will wing off the platform in order to get batter angle on the attackers, and so that all his allies are not in the same place.
The platform begins to rise. You see the latticing spiral of gears turn as you move upward.
Above you, there is a dim rippling bluish light. It looks like water, and as the platform continues to rise it appears you are going to go through it.
You reach the suspended water and begin to hear and feel a vibration that seems to emanate from the platform itself. You then feel a push.. like the repelling of two magnets. A hole in the water forms and widens to the diameter of the platform.
You see the water rush around you in a perfect circle.
The platform comes to a stop shortly after. You are standing in the middle of a slow-moving river at the end of a wooden pier.
The charred remains of a building is on the pier side of the river.
There are dozens of bodies and piles of bone around it.
The sun is near the horizon, and other than the pier, platform, and smoldering building... you are in the wilderness. No immediate signs of life.
Anumil jumped up onto the pier and looked about for threats.
Sunny 'Ooos' and 'Ahhhs' at the magic water that the platform moves through. She keeps a reassuring hand on her friend's shoulder.
Once outside and above ground she unfurls her wings and simply basks blissfully in the freedom and feeling the cool breeze of the fresh air across her skin.
Once the platform ceases its upward movement, Ǽmon scans the area for any hostile threats. When he sees none evident from the ground, he spreads his wings wide and leaps into the sky, gaining a little height in order to examine the terrain in the surrounding area, and also to get an idea whether any hostile forces lie nearby, but outside line of sight.
There does not appear to anyone/anything living on the pier side of the river. The bodies are more duergar, skeletons, and derro (like the the "Grafter" who escaped with you, and disappeared.)
There is a thick column of smoke coming from the center of the burned out building... likely an opening to below which is still burning.
You get your bearings quickly... the cliffs and mountains far to the north, the sun is moving upward low on the east horizon. The area is mostly wooded.
This river runs North/South. The pier and attached building are on the west side, the clearing on the east.
There is a thick column of smoke coming from the center of the burned out building... likely an opening to below which is still burning.
On the other side of the woods you see a large rectangular clearing. There are two stacks of lumber.. the area has been cleared to hold ten times that amount. It is likely a staging area for river shipping.
Further south, there is a waterfall and rapids beyond. East of that, the woods look "patterned" like a farmland.... ordered rows of trees.
You spot a couple humanoids scrambling toward the rest of your group.
They enter the 40-50 foot wide band of woods between the clearing and river...
You lose sight of them before you can identify them or determine if they saw you.
A moment after you all step off the platform, it descends. Sunny's charmed duergar sighs and takes the couple steps necessary to stay in the shade of the treeline. He looks over the fallen which surround the smoking ruins, shakes his head.
Sunny obligingly raises a wing to help shade her freind. (^_^)
Ǽmon drops back down to the others on the peer. Pointing he says, "There are figures approaching from that direction. Only a few, but I couldn't get a good look at them before they were lost in the trees. They will be here soon, and I cannot say whether they might be enemies, or other refugees from the jails or the surrounding area. We should get ready, in case they are hostile."
Anumil shakes his head.
"No one left alive, or undead, or... you know what I mean. A lot of duergar, skeletons and, derro I think they're called."
He looks at the smoke coming from the burned out building, as if considering investigation.
Nodding at Aemon, Anumil reloads his crossbow with a *snik*, then conceals himself behind a handy treetrunk.
Sunny continues to watch along with her friend. She seems not too keen on getting all 'sooty'...
A voice comes from the treeline.. on the side of the river opposite the pier. "Lower your weapons now!... your allies are dead. The Black Arrow Militia has you surrounded!" The quiver in his voice suggests he may be a little short on backing up his threat.
Though not an insurmountable misconception.. until Evrail and the other Black Arrow arrive from the second trip of the lift, the hidden speaker does not sound terribly interested in making nice.
Putting protective wings around her friend, Sunny peers across the river, trying to make out the speaker.
She begins to shuffle towards the rest of her group,
"Um...who d'ye think they be talkin' about? We jus' got here?" She asks, clearly puzzled.
"Young lady... stay where you are! Send the... Send the duergar over here."
He has a sword tip at his belly.... someone hiding behind the trunk of an fat oak. They way he leaned toward the tree before saying duergar makes it look like his words are from the sword-holder's coercion.
Anumil cannot make out who is speaking.
Deciding to stall until backup arrives, Anumil shouts a challenge.
"YOU IN THE TREELINE! NAME YOURSELF!"
Sunny hugs her special friend a little tighter,
"Nuh-UH!" Is her succinct reply, reinforced with a shake of her head.
"Who be ye self, any ways?" She calls back.
The man stammers for a bit, then you hear another lower grumbly voice calling in an unknown harsh and textured tongue.
Then... Sunny's "friend" answers in the same language.
"Andraka shel burga flawd!"
The new speaker steps forward... it is another duergar though with lighter armor and lighter skin. He pulls a manacled member of the Black Arrow militia alongside him with a sword to the man's belly.
They come to the edge on the far side of the river.
"Flawd?! Shel flawd? Ha ha!" The lighter skinned duergar smiles and nods to each of you. The captive human looks deflated when it appears the newcomers are allied with his captor.
"Daywalker, this-is my ally'
"Ally? This-is ally?"
Sunny grins as she snuggles her friend, leaning closer and whispering,
[b]"How's about ye get him ta' put his sword away an' such while we works out a way ta' get over to him?"