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explosive runes! Shoo!
You've spent a boring day hunkered down and awaiting the discovery of your setup. The intermittent rains let up around midday. You observe no comings or goings from the fort until the sun is dipping low in the west and the gate shudders open to allow the evening patrol to egress. Once again, it appears to be three footmen and one rider. They circle wide around the base of the hill upon which the fort sits, giving it an obvious wide berth. The patrol scouts up the slow, sulfurous river to the west for a couple miles before swinging north and back east. The patrol gets to the Shrike river, and turns south to follow its course to the lake. None of the three footmen seem to be paying much attention to their surroundings, and are boasting and bantering loudly. The rider is considerably more competent and keeps a good lookout.
You get a better look at the bandits from your hiding spots as they pass by at about a half-mile's distance. The rider looks older, with some grey on his helmetless head. He is clad in scaled armor, and has a battered sword at his side and shield of equal condition on his back. The footmen mostly wear leather and motley, and appear to favor the short sword as their weapons.
The patrol comes to your staged scene at the ford just as they're about to turn west for the fort. You see the rider hold up a fist in signal to his troops. They spread out, drawing swords and advancing cautiously towards the river.
The bandits are acting like they expect an attacker to come boiling out of the river at them.
After some tense minutes of wariness, the patrol seems to let their guard down and starts investigating the horse. The footmen stand guard as the rider goes through the saddlebags. The rider takes what he wants from the horse, then stands off a ways while his footmen push and shove each other and hurriedly loot the horse. You see some bickering and at least one punch is thrown as the bandits have a candid exchange of ideas and work out their differences.
The excitement concluded, the patrol returns to the fort, leading the bait horse.
Darkness falls, and torches are lit on the fort's walls. There are four torches, placed on the northwest, northeast, southwest, and southeast corners of the palisade. There is an additional torch burning in a sconce attached to the front of the guard tower, where you can see, from this distance, the faint form of a human keeping watch. The light from the fort only illuminates the gloom for thirty feet or so from the walls. Beyond that, the enveloping mantle of cool dark night cloaks the land..
"It means they were expecting to find the raider, so they fell for our little scene. Now we just have to give it some time for the boss to get drunk and for Fat Norris to take over duty." She removes the chain shirt that protects her, and gets ready to move soon enough, taking the climbing kit with her, if that was necessary.
"So, we get ready, approach undetected in the darkness, Sera makes me and the rookie invisible, and we move in. We climb or get past through the wood stakes, then kill the sentry and open the gates. I'll warn you, once I kill the sentry, I'll send Jegred to open the gate and will try to open the Owlbear cage, although I'll not be invisible anymore by then. I just hope there are no torches close to the cage door, so it will work. So, if you hear a freaking ROAR, it would be wise to stay at the gate and kill whoever you can see at distance, but let the bear have its revenge..."
"Do you think they have had encounters with the same revenant we have?" she said, remembering the terrible figure that had walked across the water, crying for vengeance against the Stag Lord.
"Actually, Kivan must cast Invisibility. My Vanishing trick is only up to about 18 seconds now. But I can give you Magic Armor." Sera will cast Mage Armor on Pretty, since she is leaving behind her armor.
"Whomever kills the sentry should also raise the gate since they are both in the guard tower. The other should free the Owlbear, if you decide that is wise. Let us agree on a signal to come in or to stay out depending on what you achieve inside."
"I like the idea of a cloud of fog to conceal our approach. Can you dismiss it when you want to, Jegred? If so, that could be a signal."
Seraphina turned to Bara, "Did the Stag Lord have any race other than humans in his service? Can you tell if that is the lazy sentry on duty now?"
"Do you have two invisibility spells available Kivan?"
"Jegred, do you think you can eliminate Fat Norris?"
I will keep my armor if Kivan has an extra invisibility. If not, I will remove it, but would be greatly obliged if anyone has an extra Mage armor. Sicarius will stay with you guys. I can take out the sentry.
Jegred removes his armor if invisibility is not cast (hopefully, someone will cast Mage Armor as well), and casts barkskin, levitate, and longstrider on himself, before sneaking up to the fort.
When he reaches the wall, he levitates up, and attempts to run Fat Norris through on his greatsword.
"I only prepared one invisibility."
Kivan gets his wand of magic missile out and gives out the invisibility to Pretty. Then he will use his Mage Armor on Jegred.
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"Besides me? No." Bara replies to Seraphina's question. "As for the sentry, you shouldn't need my help to identify Fat Norry. You do have eyes."
As the welcome cloak of night envelops the land, you leave your mounts behind and creep slowly across the plains towards the light of the Stag Lord's fort. From a few hundred feet away, you can hear the bantering and hubbub of rough men at leisure: Laughter, yelling, thumping, and even the jangly sound of a badly tuned and badly played guitar. It appears that the Stag Lord's bandits are sufficiently secure in their stronghold as to not worry about attackers. The sentry and the torches seem to be their only nod towards security.
The sound and darkness conceal your approach to the edge of the darkness. From your position, you have a pretty decent view of the front of the hill, the palisade, and the guard tower. The hill is very steep, rising about forty feet in a like amount of distance. The palisade is made of rough-cut logs, sharpened on top. They still have knots and branch stumps, and have a three to four inch gap between them. Pretty estimates that she could easily climb the wall.
The first sentry of the night does not fit the moniker of "fat" either literally or in the ironic way of naming a skinny man "fat" or a large man "tiny". He appears to be an unremarkable example of banditry, clad in leather armor with a cloak wrapped around for warmth. He watches fairly attentively from the tower, but he doesn't seem to be expecting an attack.
After a four hour watch, the sentry stands up and disappears from sight through the back of the tower. A moment later, his replacement arrives. It's a very large man, pushing three hundred pounds at a height of less than six feet. Face flushed from the exertion of climbing the thirty feet to the tower, the fat man takes a seat. After settling his bulk and giving the surroundings a cursory glance, the fat man reaches into a satchel and pulls out a roasted haunch of elk, to which he devotes far more attention than his duties. He gets to work on the meat, pausing to lick his fingers every couple of bites.
Idris will have her bow in hand, ready to fire when the time comes. She will also have used the whetstone on the masterwork sword she carries, although of course the +1 sword doesn't need it.
Sera watches and listens for signs that it is time to move in, making sure she has the burning hands wand tucked into her belt as well as flasks of acid and alchemists fire. She quietly loads her crossbow, preparing it to fire.
Kivan has the wand of magic missile out and ready to fire at the guard if Jegred's attack doesn't kill him.
Pretty will wait outside along with the others. She will use her Darkness spell-like ability to allow us to move closer to the wall, in the dim-lighted area, as soon as Jegred leaves with the invisibility. Probably Fat Norris would not notice the difference in the light strength, since while sit he will not have a good line of sight of the immediate ground. We will gain the equivalent to a move action, anyway, and some benefit with the stealth...
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When you judge the hour is right, you put your plan into action.
Kivan intones twisted syllables of the language of magic and makes a few gestures. As the last words roll off his lips, the darkness flows and ebbs around Pretty until she completely vanishes from sight. The only trace of her presence is a pair of small bootprints crushing down a patch of wet grass. Silently, she advances up the path, the minute crunching of her boots on the gravel nearly undetectable. A few seconds later, Seraphina's Magic similarly conceals Jegred and he too advances on the fort via the path, heeding Bara's warning against danger on the hillside.
Pretty reaches the gate undetected, and begins to climb. The rough-cut logs are full of splinters and sharp branches that insult her hands even through her gloves. Without protection, she'd likely be leaving bloody prints to mark her passage. Wasting no time, Pretty deftly scales the gate and lowers herself carefully down the opposite side.
Jegred has a far easier time of it. Jogging to the wall, he turns inward and taps his innate magic to pluck himself from the grasp of gravity and sails up over the wall, landing gently on the open top of the crude watchtower. Despite his care, the floorboards creak alarmingly at his weight, startling Fat Norry. He gasps and turns to look beside him, seeing nothing until Jegred's invisibility strips away. A sudden pain blossoms in his chest, and Norry's eyes trace down from Jegred's face to his outstretched arms, to the greatsword piercing his body. He opens his mouth to scream, only to be blasted in the face by Kivan's magic missiles. Soundlessly, he sits back on his stool and slumps against the wall of the tower, breath bubbling out of his chest with his lifeblood. His hands fall to the side, and the haunch of meat that was his last meal falls to the floor with a greasy thump.
In the center of the keep, Jegred sees a lumbering brute of a man sprawled on a straw matress on the crumbling roof of the ruin. Paying no mind to his exposure to the elements, the large man lollygags on his belly, playing with toys. Miniature knights and dragons, carved from wood and cast in pewter, are strewn around his matress, and the man is playing with them and making noises with his mouth like a child. A simpleton, it seems, but the childlike picture is spoiled by the blood-stained club hung at the brute's belt. The man meets the description of Auchs given to you by Bara.
Meanwhile, Pretty surveys her surroundings. Two horses are tied to a post staked into the ground. They've eaten all the grass that their leads let them reach, and are futily combing their area for more. A pair of bandits sit against the inner wall of the fort, being loud. One is playing a guitar that has seen far, far better days and singing, the other is clapping along and keeping a bad rhythm. The performance is of a lewd drinking song.
"Fisherman, fisherman, standing by the sea
Have you got a crayfish that you can sell to me
Yes sir, yes sir, that indeed I do
I have got a crayfish that I can sell to you
Well, I took the crayfish home, and I though he'd like a swim
So I filled up the chamber pot, and I threw the bugger in
In the middle of the night, I thought I'd have a fit
When my old lady got up to - wash her face!
Husband, husband, she cried out to me
The devil's in the chamber pot, and he's got hold of me
Children, children, bring the looking glass
Come and see the crayfish that bit your mother's - face!
Children, children, did you hear the grunt
Come and see the crayfish that bit your mother's - nose!"
In the center part of the old ruin, more bandits game at cards around a wooden table and benches. One in particular gets your attention, as he meets the description Bara gave you of Dovan of Nisroch - a pale, creepy man with elaborate tattoos and piercings, dressed in disturbing leather gear. He's leaning back with crossed arms, listening with a sour face to the bandit across the table.
"y'see, the Ace o' Dragons makes th' hand th' opposite way than regular, exeptin' the three o' knaves which ain't effected. That's why my hand's a winner."
"Jeb, you're not going to fool me. Pay up the proper amount, or you'll taste my blade! Topper! Ayles! Cut that damned howling out, you'll wake the Stag Lord and then it's a beating for all of us!"
The music and singing from the wall stops. "ah, piss up a rope," gripes the singer. "Did'ya see how much whiskey went up those steps with 'im? He's gonna get a right proper drunk on, and be senseless to the morn. 'Sides, you ain't in charge here no more since Akiros showed up. You ain't s+*@ anymore, so shut yer face hole."
The other bandits are watching the exchange closely, clearly expecting some entertaining violence. One bandit leans uninterestedly against the wall next to a rusty old portcullis that has been fashioned with hinges and bolted into the wall as a crude gate.. From behind this portcullis, Pretty hears hooting and screeching, and an intermittent clattering. She glides silently through the common room, shielded by invisibility. On her way to the portcullis, she sees an additional rubble-filled room to her left, where two more bandits are roasting chunks of boar meat on spits over an open fire. It smells delicious and familiar - you have a good idea where that meat came from.
At the innermost portion of the ruin, Pretty sees a barracks room, where five more bandits snooze on bunk beds.
When she reaches the portcullis, Pretty sees a gristly sight. The grate has been hauled in front of a breech in the wall, where a cave has been constructed by digging out rubble. In this cave, a hefty owlbear paces around the remains of a horse. The monstrosity hoots softly and scrabbles at the stone walls of its prison. It looks to have been severely injured at one point, with patches of missing fur and chips on its beak. One eye doesn't seem to be working properly and rolls around in its socket. Flattening herself against the cold iron of the portcullis, Pretty gets to work on the lock. It's a simple lock, but rust and neglect makes it difficult to manipulate. After some effort, Pretty jiggers the tumblers into place and quietly turns the lock open. With a slight push, the portcullis-door eases inwards. The owlbear notices instantly, and with the focus of a raptor at hunt it lunges for freedom.
With a raucous clatter, the owlbear hooks the gate aside and darts out into the hallway. All the bandits turn to look at it in shock, and there's a moment of silence as both parties size up the situation. The owlbear hoots menacingly, and the bandits back away, hugging the walls.
"Ak-Akiros!" calls out Dovan. "You better get the boss, the owlbear's loose!"
Seraphina crouched, tense and listening intently. She held her breath, trying to judge if what she was hearing meant success or failure for her tiefling friends. Finally she thought she heard someone shout that the owlbear was loose. "Lets move closer, in case they try to escape through the gate." She moved 30 ft up the path and held action to fire her crossbow at anything that wasn't a Pretty or a Jegred coming their way.
Kivan will begin to move up the path and he will cast a spell to make himself ready.
Jegred flips the lever to release the gate quickly, before narrowing his eyes and charging at the brute, hopefully surprising the dumb man.
EDIT:
Seraphina notices Sicarius sticking very closely to her, and bears his great fangs in the direction of the gate.
Not identifying Akiros, who's the second in command, Pretty will activate her darkness spell-like ability on the padlock, decreasing the illumination level in one step, and then slowly move behind Dovan, awaiting with her daggers out for the moment to strike him. She does it as soon as the gate opens.
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Idris moves alongside Sera an arrow knocked in the bow. If there is a clear shot at any of the bandits, she will take it.
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Dovan snarls as Pretty's blade draws unexpected blood. Although Pretty's attack was aimed straight for his vitals, he seemed to anticipate the strike somehow and shifted just enough to spoil your precise aim. "Aaaah!" he hisses through clenched teeth. "Whoever you are, I'm going to repay that cut ten thousand times before I let you die!" Dovan whirls around to face Pretty, drawing a rapier. He sees the open gate and hollers: "Hey! We're under attack! To arms! To arms!"
Provoked by the shouting and violence, the owlbear lets loose a deafening screech and lunges for the nearest bandit. The common hall dissolves into pandemonium as bandits draw weapons and mill about, trying to figure out just what's happening.
On the roof, Auchs looks up, startled from his games. He sees Jegred and scowls. "Hey, I no know you," he complains, grabbing for his club and starting to rise to his feet. "Now I gotta squish yer head in!"
At the outbreak of hostilities, Bara tucks her head and pumps her elbows, charging into the fray.
The owlbear hoots delightedly at its chance for revenge as it rushes the nearest bandit in a whirl of beak and claw. Undaunted by the darkness, it strikes! The poor man goes down hard, spraying blood from severed arteries as the owlbear's beak finds his neck.
Seraphina looked surprised to find the saurian beast sticking to her heel, and smiled when she realized the reason why. She clucked her tongue the way she did when encouraging her mare and spoke softly to the spinosaurus."Come on, Sicarius. Let's go find our friends."
She felt a thrill run through her as she sprinted toward the fight. She raised her hand to lips and kissed Kesten's ring for luck and leveled her still loaded crossbow as she neared the gate. She had a bead on one of the bandits straight through the gate and she was not going to waste the shot.
Jegred smiles wryly at the large man as he moves up next to him. "I hope you don't kiss your ogre mother with that mouth of yours."
Sicarius' eyes bulge as he smells blood, but he dutifully stays by Seraphina to protect her.
Pretty got a little confused by the last moment's dodge from the creepy fellow from Ustalav, but she disguised her surprise pretty well, although her eyes began to watch closely as the man fought and tried to understand how did he manage it. Was it luck? Heightened senses? Or some other uncanny unknown ability? Whatever it was, she would learn it, so she kept battling with the man, and although her daggers didn't do much damage, the Owlbear will certainly make the man's life worst a few levels much worst. So she hold her ground and attacked again. "Will you Donovan? Do you promise?"
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Kivan steps forward and unleashes the wand's power against Donovan.
Idris moves forward through the gate and fires her longbow at the bandit ahead of her.
Idris drops into snake style, ready to read the motions of anyone who attacks her.
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Idris' and Seraphina's arrows hit the same bandit, who yells in pain at the injuries but stays up and fighting. Pretty scores another hit with her dagger, twisting it to make a point, and Dovan seethes. "Yes, I promise. I'm a man of my word, b%!%~!" A moment later, Kivan's magic missiles hit him as well, provoking curses.
One of the bandits recognizes the adventurers streaming through the open gate. "Hey, watch out! Them's the one's what took out Kessle and her whole crew!"
Topper, the bad singer, sees Bara fighting for you and spits out "The orc's back, an' she double-crossed us!"
The chaotic mess of bandits is rallied when an older man wearing rusty plate armor comes into view in the barracks room. Wielding a longsword and shield, the man has the air of a commander and matches the description you have of Akiros.
"Form up!" he bellows. "Form ranks, keep three paces between ranks and move to engage the owlbear! Cover for each other and surround the beast. Thump it good, but don't kill it. Jeb, get around to its other side and flank it. Styles, go get the Stag Lord and tell him its serious. Rest of you, hold off the mercenaries! Kill the redhead and the elf first! Auchs, get down here!"
Under Akiros' direction, the bandits sort themselves into something resembling a cohesive fighting unit. The bandits milling about form ranks as ordered, with the outlying brigands advancing towards your spellcasters. Not willing to risk your blades, they bottle neck around Pretty and Bara.
Dovan seeks to avenge his injuries on Pretty, but she twists aside and his rapier thrust goes through empty air.
The two bandits near Pretty find her likewise an elusive target, and their swings are too slow and too predictable for the wiley tiefling.
The owlbear isn't as fortunate, and it takes a couple of sword wounds as the bandits start to envelop it.
The two music makers converge on Bara with anger in their eyes. "I'll show you how we treat traitors around here, greenskin!" one yells, as they clash. Bara suffers a wound to her arm as she is unable to parry all the swings directed at her.
On the roof, Auchs whimpers as Jegred slams his sword into the big man as he gets up. "No fair! I wuzent ready! Gonna squish your head now!"
Auch's blow is staggeringly powerful and crashes into Jegred's midriff, where it meets unexpected resistance from the druid's magically hardened skin. "NO FAIR! GONNA HIT YOU HARDER!" he whines, drawing his club back for another strike.
Bara grits her teeth and meets her attackers, but her falchion can't find a target through the defenses of the bandit performers.
The enraged owlbear grabs one of the bandits that hurt it and hooks it in with wickedly sharp talons, where it delivers horrible blows with its beak. The man slumps, badly wounded, in the owlbear's grasp.
One of the bandits disappears out a back door to the barracks, evidently to warn the Stag Lord.
Jegred swings at Auchs again, grinning wickedly as the battle-fury consumes him.
Edit:
The smell of blood drives Sicarius into a frenzy, and unable to restrain himself any further, he leaps into combat, attacking one of the bandits attacking Bara.
Dropping her bow, the young warrior charges forward, drawing her sword and striking at the wounded bandit ahead of her.
Seraphina drops her crossbow and saunters through the gate, drawing her alchemists fire from her belt. She spots 2 bandits moving toward herself and Kivan as ordered by Akiros. She wags an admonishing finger at them as she moves closer, preparing to hurl the flask.
"Now, now, boys. That's no way to greet a noble Lady! And here I expected a warmer reception... shall I demonstrate?"
She waited until the closest one came within range and tossed the flask of Alchemists fire with all her might, aiming right for his chest.
"Oh nevermind, the real second in command just arrived!" She teases the rogue.
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"Hey Kivan, can the owlbear understand us?"
"It might understand the druid, but not us."
Kivan continues forward and begins chanting. At the end of his chant a small puddle of grease under the creepy man and the bandit next to him.