The veteran orc shakes off the residual fogginess of the unnaturally compelling tale, and looks to the orc yelling from within the cell. His eyes go wide, and he scans frantically.
He does not see the female in the southwest cell either. In a mad panic he rushes to the cell door now holding an apparently suitable enough facsimile of his fellow orc. He brings up the keys to grip the correct one between his fingers... looks up again with his eyes narrowing at the imposter orc. When the imposter orc yells again he moves forward quickly again. In his rush, he stumbles across the real fellow orc jailer - invisible and slumped to the floor in front of the cell door. The veteran jailer barely keeps his feet but drops the keys when he grabs the bars for support with his right hand.
The keys skid across the floor.
CMB
Hoping the veteran guard is too surprised and distracted to notice the fate of his keys, Varian uses mage hand to slide them over to his own cell and into his possession.
Apparently the firewall at work blocks the sites that use the maps.
The imposter orc reaches through the bars and hinders the veteran orc's recovery of his balance... helping him strike his head against the bars with a fair amount of force.
The veteran orc focuses on grabbing the keys first, but they are already en route to the human two cells down.
He turns his head to the south door and starts to yell out.
In the meantime.
The room is 50' by 50'. There are four 10'by 10'cells on the west wall, and four on the right. There are doors on the north wall, and south wall with torches on either side.
In the center of the room is a large table with a lantern, and a couple chests and other items on the end.
Cell occupants
Zed...........Lyrralt
empty.........empty
Varian........empty
Sunny.........some Ko'd dwarf
Lyrralt will step back up to the bars and wait and see if the veteran orc stumbles back within reach.
Zed winds up and brings his head into the bars again, then calls out calmly "If any of you have a plan, now's the time"
Pressing his face against the bars and looking to the south Lyrralt asks, "How is it coming with those keys? Time is of the essence, my friend!"
The keys reach Varian's hand.
The veteran orc yells "Help! In here now!"
Varian tries to unlock his own cell, reaching around through the bars to manipulate the key in the lock, trying the most likely looking key first, maybe the one with the most wear on it - since there are so many cells here, it should be the one most used.
Lyrralt will hold until an enemy gets with reach or perhaps his cell is opened.
As soon as his own door is unlocked he moves over to the cell on the end tossing the keys to zed through the bars, he stands over the wounded guard and very quietly demands "silence if you want to live" As a swift action he extends a large sword from his hand as if it were a living part of himself and holds it menacingly.
Zed arcs a curious eyebrow as a sword appears out of thin air, reaching around to unlock his cell "Now that's a nifty trick. And here they thought they crippled us" he chuckles "It seems all they did was make us use a little imagination" Zed pales, then swears loudly and dismisses his invisibility spell
"Whoa! Handy ability you have there! Got another one you could loan me?" Lyrralt says with a grin. "Well, maybe one of a more delicate nature. Say a rapier perhaps?"
Zed gives a look to Varian "Well if you want silence..." he flicks his wrist at the orc and a suffocating silence surrounds him
Seeing Zed free, "How about tossing those keys over here? It looks liek the party is about to start and I want to make sure I can enjoy it to it's fullest!"
Sunny, having spent a good amount of time getting sneaky and comfortable, is not quite sure yet if she should undo all her hard earned contortioning...
So, for now, stays hidden under the bunk.
You hear muffled voices outside the door, then the creak of the bar. The door opens "Prisoners givin you troub-" A duergar stands there stunned for a moment before drawing his short sword. He scans the room, then starts to backpedal out of the room.
The veteran orc starts to speak... perhaps testing Varian, but just a raspy whisper comes out. You see the will to fight leave him at that point.
The other orc starts to shake off his paralysis, and immediately begins equipping his gauntlet. He takes a hard angry swing at Zed.
Zed bellows in rage and jumps on the orc he's impersonating "He is fake! Pretend to be me!" he tries to wrestle the orc to the ground
CMB
Bluff
Varian leaps toward the orc with the armored fist and strikes at him, leaving the one without the will to fight on the ground with a whispered "Move and you die next."
"Don't leave, help!" he shouts to the duergar
Lyrralt, seeing the duergar about to leave the room and possibly get help once again leaps into a story.
"Duergar! Have you heard of the great treasure of mighty Incendius, the powerful red dragon that lairs near here? You should see all of the gold and masterfully crafted weapons and armor! It is quite easy to find...if you know what you are looking for. First you head south...."
Lyrralt delves further into the lair of Incendius for the dwarf, giving him a good vision of the great treasure.
Varian's summoned greatsword guts the enraged gullible orc just as Zed is about try to tangle with him. The orc falls dead to the ground.
The duergar grits his teeth and shakes his head at Lyrralt. "No no can't hear ya." He shuts the door, and you hear the bar clank into place. You then hear his bootsteps running off yelling something in his dark tongue.
The veteran orc nods thoughtfully looking at his fellow fallen orc, then to Varian. He says in a raspy whisper "Clean death... good."
Varian moves to the door, grumbling under his breath... "Set the others free, since you have the key," he says to Zed and tries to slip his blade between door and jamb to push the bar up.
Zed looks at the dead orc for a moment, bowing his head. He approaches the dead orc and says something in an undertone, then reaches in his pocket. He remembers he has none of his possessions, then takes out the pouch of the winnings the gullible orc has. He takes out two coins and places them over the orcs eyes. The next thing he says is soft, but just loud enough for the others to hear "May Milani let your soul fly free" He turns to the veteran orc "I apologize for the trickery, you two were only doing your job. However I have more important things to do than rot in a hole. As long as you don't cause any trouble I see no reason to bring you any further harm" halfway through the speech he runs around unlocking everybody. He looks at the orc for a moment, then decides it doesn't matter "Listen, I don't know why you're in here and right now I don't really care. All I know is you are dangerous" he smiles deviously "Right now dangerous people is what we need. I don't know your skills, I don't know what you can do. But by my fathers' grave I know that we're going to get out of here" he turns serious again "However we're on the clock. We need to get moving." he turns to the orc once more and squats down by him "Do you happen to know where our possessions were taken? We're going to have one hell of a time getting out, and it just isn't right for a man to die without a weapon in his hand"
Perception (for anything approaching the door)
Diplomacy
The orc smiles and whispers "I almost feel bad for you... for what you don't know..." He looks to the north door. "May be a few things in there... and the chest here, but your armor and your weapons..." He shakes his head, and looks to the barred door to the south.
"These are vicious creatures... and strong, but you have been you longer than they..." His eye twitches as he looks up at the goose egg on his already protruding forehead. "... longer than those empty skin suits... face stalkers..." He looks at you curiously as if wondering if you follow what he is talking about.
Zed signals for somebody else to go search for their equipment while he keeps talking. He also takes the mace, knowing that even if the other members don't need a weapon that he would use it "What? Where are our weapons and armor?" he pauses and looks at him seriously "These face stalkers...can you tell us anything else at all about them?" he looks around to see if anybody recognizes what he's talking about
Sunny sighs as she wriggles out from under her bunk. thence she stands and awaits the opening of her cell door.
"Ah, free at last!" Lyrralt walk down to look at the unconsious dwarf in the southern most stall.
Perception
Happily smiles and waves to every one else about the prison. (^_^)
The veteran orc responds to Zed; still raspy from the enchantment "They come in while you are unconscious, drink your blood, and steal your face. Brolsch the dirt dwarf says they take your memories too. Says that they are new, and learning..." He clears his throat as his voice returns. "They have your weapons, and they have your armor."
"I know little more than this. I work for dirt dwarf mercenaries of the Cruel Citadel. They work for Sirius Horth. He works... for those called "the Voices"." He shrugs. "There are none whose death would darken my mood."
The dwarf has two black eyes and a broken nose. He is out cold, but breathing. He is in simple clothes and shoeless.
...Aaaand you have heard the name Cruel Citadel in connection with the cube artifact your employer was searching for.
Sirius Horth...I wonder if that's the man who saw me. He did give me the chills. The Cruel Citadel...this sounds less like an army and more like an out of control cult
"Where do they keep our armor and weapons?" he turns around and looks to the elf "Time for long greetings later, we need to stay on the move. Can you check the back room and that chest for any of our equipment?" He glances towards Lyrralt and the unconscious dwarf, then looks at the door "Unless you have healing abilities spend your effort getting that door open. All the plans in the world won't matter a bit if we can't leave this room" he tosses the mace over to Lyrralt and turns his attention back to the orc "Are there any other weapons in here?"
If sliding his sword between the door and the doorjamb isn't working to slide the bar up , Varian's great sword disappears back into his hands and an earthbreaker emerges. He casts lead blades on it. .
When that is done, he takes a swing at the door, not worried about noise, because stealth is no longer an issue.
A few splinters of wood fly off as Varian slams his enormous hammer into the door. You hear the clang of the bar banging against its fixture.
"By the way, my name's Varian," he calls back over his shoulder as he strikes the door again. "I should be through this door soon - grab whatever weapons you can find, we will probably have a fight on our hands when the door gives way."
Sunny first skips over to the currently co-operative Orc and takes a dagger from his person. Thence she moves to the furniture and proceeds to smash it up a little in the aim of seeming to do no more than make splinters. She even gathers up some of the more choice pieces taken off the door by Varian.
"Oh! Naffy!" She chortles quietly with glee at her finds. (^_^)
Then skips back to the fallen Orc and cuts strips of cloth from what ever he's wearing to make simple bands which she ties around her fore-arms and thighs, the better to seemingly keep her collection of wooden splinters upon herself. If she notes any one watching her actions, she just shrugs.
"No pockets..." Is all she says by way of explanation. (^_^)
"Here? Is that another door?" She points 'South'.