While Lily hesitates, Varuzhan is more practical...they had broken into a Inquisitorial Black-Site. IF they got caught, the fact they did, or did not steal any of the spices from the pantry would not make any difference...picking those most rare and flavorful with a eye trained in the use of nature's bounty, he fills Lily's backpack with them.
Miranda sneakily opens the door, with the Soldier standing next to her with a grin that could be considered creepy as he listens in to the sounds now more audible than before.
Taking a moment to search with her small mirror, she quickly finds the couple - the place indeed seems to be a dining hall, and they are busy on one of the tables in a row close to the door. The woman, a young brunette, sits on the table nude, her legs wrapped around a muscular guy with a beard, a couple years older. They are moving rhythmically and breathing heavily. One could assume, from the panting and stuffled moans, that they are pretty close to finishing.
"All-right..." Miranda reports back, slightly tinted towards red. "They look about done. Maybe they'll just lazily snooze off afterwards? Or if we go now any yells *might* be confused. And they aren't armed."
Varuzhan whispers back. "Of all the things . . . I say we strike while they're distracted." But Varuzhan waits to see what the others think. Worst case, they would end up just letting the couple finish and leave.
"There's also the... ahem... possibility that the voyeur devil is as interested in this display as Boros." Lily remarks, quietly.
A patently false expression of wide-eyed innocence on his face, Boros looks at Lily and quickly shakes his head. "I'm doin' no more than ensurin' there's no danger waitin' for us in there. Besides," he adds with a dismissive wave of his right hand. "There's nothin' happenin' in there that I ain't seen done better elsewhere, and the lass is nothin' special to look at either. You and Miranda got her beat by a good distance, even with yer clothes still on." After another look past the door, Boros shrugs and draws his gladius, giving him two weapons to use now in a fight. "Miranda and Varuzhan have the right idea, hit the pair while they're gruntin' away and hope that their squallin' and yellin' get passed off as part o' the deed."
"That does not make it better. That does not make it better at all.". Lily mutters, tinging deeper and looking away from Boros.
"Right. I had almost forgot about the bloody devil..." Miranda cursed a bit under her breath and looked into her mirror again. But where would it hide? She started off by looking at any spot she would try and hide - but that didn't narrow it down very much. Especially if the annoying thing was invisible... Annoying!
Oh, also, there's an Oil Lamp on the table behind them, so there's some light in the room, it's not completely dark. I did forget to mention that, but being typical human specimen, they don't have darkvision. Vision, obviously, is not a necessity for what they are currently doing, but it helps with not stubbing toes on tables or tripping over chairs, so...
In a democratic process where only Miranda gets to vote she decides to use the See Invisibility scroll and then take another peek!
Hmm. Maybe I should just tip over that lamp - that's ought to distract them a bit more!
Nobody else is watching the Scene, as far as Miranda can tell using her small mirror to check the room as thoroughly as possible without giving away the groups presence.
Upon hearing of the devil, Varuzhan replies quickly. "Pretty sure the accuser devil would be more interested in spying on the prisoners than this couple. It'll have an invisible device somewhere near the prisoners to catch their conspiracies when they think they're not being watched. Which means it's time for us to strike."
"All-righty then!" Miranda puts away her mirror and readies both of her daggers. Then a deep breath. What they were going to do felt ... weird ... but she suspected they'd have to do worse if they wanted their city to be free again. And besides she didn't really think those two were completely innocent either this being an black site and all. Just felt odd to face people without pants. Very odd. All-right all-right that's not what you are supposed to think about!
Miranda tip-toes out as quickly as she can and then she goes for anything that might look like a weapon or something close to the pair. If they were pantless and weaponless they might even just give up!
A mean part of Boros wants very to burst in and startle the pair quite unpleasantly, but he firmly quashes the urge and instead follows Miranda's lead, trying to move as quietly as he can manage. Now that it's time for working again, he spares the couple only a passing glance before fixing his attention on the dining hall's eastern and southeastern doors.
Varuzhan takes the direct approach, moving in to engage, then attempting to knock out one or both lovers with a pair of non-lethal strikes with his quarterstaff.
; ;
; ;
;
Lily takes a moment to gather herself, and then moves forward after everyone else; things seemed to be going... alright. And while they could likely use her help in ensuring that there was no alarm, she wasn't quite sure how to actually do that. She unshoulders her crossbow as she goes but isn't quite sure how she feels about using it. Then she opts for casting light on the loaded bolt.
As the group rushes into the room, the two lovers take notice...the girl attempts to cover herself with her hands, starting a scream that is silenced a moment later when Varuzhans quarterstaff knocks her out with a hit to the temple. Unconscious, she falls backward, coming to rest on the table.
The man seems more resilient - though the quarterstaff scores a hit that could kill a lesser man, he remains standing. Even before the girl comes to rest, he whirls around, an animalistic howl the only noise he makes and murder in his eyes as he starts hitting Varuzhan - he clearly is trained in using his body as a weapon as the Strix finds no opening during the surprising assault.
Miranda, meanwhile, collects the piles of cloth. At least those in range...the undressing procedure seems to have started near the southern door. The only weapons she sees are near there, too, a matched set of shortswords.
Boros moves into a tactically advantageous position, keeping watch on the doors...both are closed at the moment, and both seem to be illuminated from the other side.
Lily does, a moment later, provide some more light in this room a moment after she unshoulders her crossbow.
Girl(unconscious)
Man(enraged)
Round 2
Miranda
Varuzhan
Boros
Lily
Girl(unconscious)
Man(enraged)
Receiving a solid blow, Varuzhan immediately slumps unconscious!
Satisfied that the swords were kicked well out of reach Miranda turned around to realize the man didn't look like he needed them. Oh. Well that wasn't really expected. And he didn't look like he was about to give up either. So she simply stepped up behind him to apply as much violence as she could muster - though waiting briefly for a re-flank if needed and possible.
Watching from his current position , Boros sees things get off to a bad start with Varuzhan knocked out. As Miranda moves to put blade and tooth to use, the soldier rushes across the room to menace what must be guard and distract him.
Lily moves across the room, using Varuzhan's unconscious form as an impediment - along with Boros's body as a shield. Motes of color swirl around her hand, coalescing into gold laced with crimson, before she touches Varuzhan's still form.
Miranda starts assailing the angry man who just knocked out one of her allies. With no restraints, and Boros helping distract his attention, both her blades bite deep into his back and leg.
Boros own attack is less lucky, and the large mean readily dodges the Rapier, less with pure swiftness and more with a sort of intuitive reflexes that stem from years of training.
Lily quickly rushes to Varuzhans side, healing him. He does seem rather unhurt, but remains unconscious - it would seem he was knocked out cold with a lucky hit, but not really hurt all that much.
Both Varuzhan and the girl remain out cold...but the (supposed) officer whirls around and swings fists at the Half-Tief-Ling that seem almost as large as her own head. And his fists hit hard...not hard enough to knock Miranda out, but definitely hard enough to momentarily make her gasp for air.
Round 3
Miranda - 18 damage received
Varuzhan
Boros
Lily
Girl(unconscious)
Man(enraged) - 17 damage received
AaaoOoh! Miranda does her best to keep the scream on the inside. And the blood. While the former did work out, she could feel how her nose was letting her down on the later. She'd had to clean that up or else ... Ouch she didn't want to think of Lord Thrune and his dog-fetish right now. Better to focus on the most intermediate problem!
Taking a quick step forward, Boros plies his twin blades with gusto, slashing and stabbing at the naked man as he swings on Miranda.
Lily takes a deep breath as she moves away from Varuzhan's unconscious form. She'd never seen someone throw a punch quite that hard. And then he'd followed up with Miranda's face. She quickly takes a few steps back to place a table between herself and him, and line up a clear shot. She fumbles with the crossbow for a moment, before flicking the safety off, leveling it with her full body, and exhaling as she pulls the trigger. A conscious choice to do harm to another.
Miranda, wanting to use Boros as a distraction, waits until her ally is in place, and stabbing at the Officers back, then quickly scampers up on the next table to keep the man in a disadvantageous position, then stab-stab-bites at him some more.
For a moment, the man seems to sway, but remain standing, before the characteristic thud of a crossbow bold makes him keel over...yet even as he falls, a rage burns in his eyes, and in an attempt to take SOMEONE with him, lands one last half-hearted blow against Boros before losing consciousness.
Combat over.
Miranda quickly sheaths her steel dagger and pinches her nose to stem the bleeding. Ow. Still better then being stabbed she thought and tried to survey the scene. "Well, I clearly won't fib in eiber of bose uniforms - but maybe bey'll be enough to fool the obers if only for jusb a momenb?"
"And *uh* how do we do wib be wibnesses...?"
"Assuming our disguises hold up, we let them live." she says, tending the wounds with a quickly muttered cantrip so neither will bleed out, if she can help it. "All things that live, love beauty, and it is our job to guide them to it. If we slay them, we doom them to Hell's eternal machinations. If we prevent them from dying, they are posed a question about who they're fighting. Because enemies don't let you live."
Moments after, Varuzhan comes to again...
Both of them are stable...the girl was knocked out cold by a single blow from the Strixs staff, and the man also received a good blow from him before returning the favor.
Varuzhan staggers back to his feet, rubbing his head. "Ugh. . . well then, I'm glad you all took care of business." Just in case, he searches the equipment they've found for magic. "Guessing we have maybe 20 minutes before people wonder where these lovers went? Best get moving."
"Ehhhh I woulbn't be too sab if that one went to Hell ..." Miranda mumbled and smirked. Ow. Still ow. At least she wasn't Varuzhan. Or stabbed. But that wasn't so important to think about right now. "All-right. Boros and Lily, would you get into those uniforms? If we are spotted they might by a moment or two; even more with a good bluff I think. And I'll take a look in the next room while you get dressed."
The tiefling then moves to examine both the doors peeking trough keyholes and placing her ear against them. She also motioned for Varuzhan to help her out a bit since she knew that he seemed to have eyes like an *uh* owl. Is that speciesist?
"If we use the uniforms, we have to show our faces. There would be questions about why we were covering them. So only those of us who don't mind wanted posters or who have other ways to hide themselves should wear them." she says, nodding towards Varuzhan. "Though, I suppose it wouldn't be too odd for one of us to be wearing a mask." she says, as she twists the cufflinks on her shirt while steadily studying the outfits. She unpins one of the links and slides it back into place, and her outfit begins to shift to match that of the woman's, though with a lower cut - something that would draw attention away from her face, along with the simple coverings she'd worn on her face transforming into an elaborate black and gold mask that covered the upper half of her face, followed by a hood forming from nothing around her head to conceal the rest of her person. Mysterious, strange, but not out of place.
The lower cut left much to the imagination thanks to her mythril shirt, however. "Varuzhan should take the other and use his hat to disguise himself, that would add some degree of time for us."
"That's probably a better idea ..." Miranda concurred. It hadn't really occurred to her that even the inquisitors might frown upon too elaborate masks in the workplace.
After the fight, Boros helps ensure that the interrupted pair won't be making any problems for the intruders, particularly shouts for help or alarm. He then considers the man's uniform with an eye to following through on Miranda's idea, before regretfully shaking his head. "Good plan, lass, but my armor would spoil it. It's not Chelish military issue, and I don't think goin' without is the best o' plans in this place." He then watches without comment as Lily uses what is a pretty interesting piece of magic to imitate the female's uniform, though with a somewhat nonstandard cut to it. Only when she's clearly done making her adjustments does he step close and examine her disguise.
"Not bad, but that mask is a bit too fancy for uniform kit, it'll draw more attention than wearin' one at all," the soldier finally remarks after his careful inspection is complete. "The hood can be explained by claiming ya' stepped outside for a bit though, so leave that. But mind the rank yer wearin', eh," Boros adds with a fingertip tapping against one the faked insignia. "Yer a common soldier, not an officer. That means ya need to act right too." With that said, Boros gives Lily a quick and basic course in appropriate behavior, though it naturally lacks some of the Chelish-specific details.
Miranda hears nothing when listening. The southern keyhole is dark/black, the eastern keyhole shows a dimly lit room, similar to a lobby or waiting room in fancy places of business. I mean, who has a room with the whole purpose of waiting for something. Can't people just wait in front of the door or in a different room with more possibly uses?
"South is peek-proofed. Could just be a bunch of junk stacked against the door. Or something hanging on the handle. East seems like a lobby. Dimly lit but quiet." Miranda reports to the others. The tiefling gave her dressed-up companions (well Lily) an curious look. Would it be weird to say someone looked good in the inquisitorial outfit? she mused as she waited for everyone to get ready.
Looking at Varuzhan for a moment to see if the strix will don the uniform, Boros eventually shrugs and does so himself, the outfit going on over his armor in a poor attempt to fill it out some.
Examining himself, he shakes his head with a disgusted grimace; even he can tell that this won't work out favorably. "No," he saya as he quickly removes the clothing and stuffs the bundle into Varuzhan's arms. "I don't think I'll the one wearin' this kit after all. So it's yerself or Rexus to do it."
Varuzhan holds the clothes up for a moment, trying to assess their use. "Well, guess I could try this, might work well with the old hat I've got."
Varuzhan tries to make his outfit more like that of a guard.
"If the way East is clear, maybe we try that?"
Lily looks down at the outfit, pursing her lips, for a moment, and looks back to the uniform. "Oh. Right." she says, making a few quick adjustments by tugging off the cufflink and putting it back in. The end result is nearly as successful as Varuzhan's.
After a few more moments of inspection, she nods, then picks up the handcuffs. "Miranda, you're going to want to put these on, I think. It should get us close enough to anything we need to do to get you into position to take them down quickly." she says, holding them up to show that they're much too large for the halfling's hands. "Oh... and..." she gathers some of the energy of her goddess into her hand as she places it on the halfling's shoulder, pulsing the magic into her quickly, twice. She then tugs out the wand, and taps it to Boros's chest.
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With everyone approaching readiness, Boros takes up a position at the party's rear, where Lily and Varuzhan with their "prisoner" will obscure his presence and hopefully draw the initial looks from the prison's staff, and so let him go unnoticed for a few precious moments. "Right, night's runnin' out, and Aldous probably feels like he's been in that lockup for months , so let's get goin'."
"Okay!" Miranda replies in a tiny whisper. She really didn't want to be anywhere near a pair on manacles but ... Lily was right they couldn't even fit her. And having most of her ache and pain go away were a really good carrot. "Mmm. Let's see what's behind the eastern door..."
"Got it." Realizing he's feeling much better than he thought , Varuzhan nods and moves with their "prisoner," Miranda toward the door. "Come on then, time to get you to your cell!" he jokes.
Varuzhan will then open the door to the East.
"Oh no...!" Miranda certainly doesn't giggle. Now that would just be unprofessional!
As several members of the group dress up, and, possibly more important, heal up, you are all ready to progress.
Varuzhan attempts to open the door...and finds it locked.
"It seems most likely that they came through the door that isn't blocked and is locked... given that I would think most would lock a door before..." she flails her arm in the general direction of the woman behind them. "Which means that is likely the way we should be going. And also means..." she kneels down to pick up the key ring (s?) to hand to Varuzhan.