Iris carefully lines up her weapon, and stabs deep where she thinks the heart is.
The hydra shudders and dies, never having woken up.
"Gross." says Iris as she simultaneously kicks off with her boot and draws her rapier from the dead hydra. She cleans the blade and sheathes it.
"Is anyone injured? I've got a magic stick."
Bran nods and heads on the causeway, "Lets check out that wagon first, if there is someone injured underneath it or something they may need it more than I."
It takes a little bit of wrangling, but the bog is just annoying, not actively dangerous. At least when there's no hydras around.
Dislodging the wagon reveals the bodies of several hobgoblins, certainly prior prey of the hydra's. Most of their gear is destroyed, by either the hydra itself or water damage afterwards, but one thing is a salvageable - a shiny breastplate made of mithral.
Iris whistles admiringly. "It's beautiful!"
"That's beautiful. It must be so light that swimming and climbing around would be no problem." His eyes don't leave the piece of mythical metal, "Haven't seen something this well crafted since I left Cheliax."
He tries to hide his excitement but its no use, "I can imagine how much faster I could run in that, how much faster I could climb! I would love to try it on if no one has any qualms." He rubs his side and the banged up breastplate that took more than its fair share of hits.
Good job, Iris. - said the witch with a kind tone, leaving the hydra's body behind. Isawa was a little injured, but didn't want to bother anyone with the wounds, certain he just needed a good night of rest.
The Samsaran walked with the others and helped investigate the wagon, and didn't object to anyone who wanted to try the armor.
"Cleanly done. Someone help me cut up the body. It's too big to just leave here to rot, without risking it attracting more trouble."
Yulai sets about the task, pausing only to give some of the interior muscle to Yuki when he props his head up, and offering a small piece to Boots if he seems interested. As the companions discover the armor she's arm deep in dismembering the beast and waves consent.
"By all means, I'm content with mine. If you're done with the wagon, and it's not salvageable, it could be a serviceable pyre. Or we could just throw the bigger chunks in the bog and put our trust in vultures to clear off the rest I suppose"
She eyes the wooden bridge a moment, dubiously.
Once the wagon has been looted, Iris assists Yulai with the dismembering the hydra and cooking at least a portion of the beast on the ruined vehicle.
"This smells good. I'm going to try some."
Yulai and Iris cutting up the hydra takes a good half-our of fairly hard work. Still, you soon have the beast cut up into more moveable chunks.
Sadly, the wood that makes up the wagon is far too soaked to be flammable, and you'd probably need a lot more wood to build a pyre big enough to burn all the hydra chunks.
Dumping the lot in the bog would be the easiest way to go about it.
The meat should keep for a few days, if you want to bring hydra steaks along, at least within the pleasant cool of the forest.
Iris takes a few raw hydra steaks for a little culinary experimentation. She also keeps enough skin for a belt and some boots. Then she helps Yulai dump the rest in the bog.
"Shall we go? Our mission awaits."
Bran helps pushing the hydra into the bog and then looks further ahead, "I'm ready to go whenever, though I wouldn't say no to any magical blessings."
Except yours. He thinks of Tal and hides his shuddering.
"Of course, my good sir."
Zelligar pulls out his wand.
"Thanks Zelligar. Also I apologize for leaving you back there with the hydra, I was running out of options after its assault. I'll try not to let it happen again, the Strong Man wouldn't have it."
Healed of the worst of your wounds, the group presses on.
An hour or so past noon, you find the Old Forest Road crossing the Dawn Way, right where it's supposed to be. You turn west, as you were told, and sure enough, within the hour you spot the keep.
It lies just south of the road you're on, seemingly deserted from the outside. The only sign of activity is the small open field directly in front of the ruined gates; the grass here has been turned to packed dirt in many places, and large patches of dead grass mark where large tents were recently erected. There's also a huge, burnt out firepit, as well as a latrine ditch, dug close to the treeline, although not so close as get tangled in the roots of the trees.
There are no tents raised here now, but by the looks of it, this was a big campsite some days ago - easily thrice the size of the smaller camp you put to the torch yesterday.
The keep itself is a fairly simple affair. From this angle, you can see the northern and eastern walls. The northern wall has no openings, although the crenulations on top suggests that there's a platform for defenders to stand on behind it.
The eastern wall is where the gate sits - or sat, you suppose, given that it has clearly been ruined, the great wood and iron construction covering the ground in several pieces. The gate was originally flanked by a pair of towers, but both of these have been reduced largely to rubble - you can look directly into the ground floor of both of them. Both the ruined towers are shorter than the walls around them, now.
A clue to the cause of this destruction lies in front of the northernmost tower - the crumbling bones of a giant, easily three times the height of a normal man, you think.
Plainly, this destruction is not a recent affair - moss and lichen grows over many of the tumbled rocks, and the skeleton is in bad repair.
You can also see the main tower of the keep over the walls, in the southwestern corner. The top of the round tower has crumbled over the ages, but otherwise it seems untouched by the destruction that befell the gate.
If ýou've been spotted by the keep's occupants, if indeed there are any such, you can't tell. The place seems quite abandoned.
Isawa crossed his arms behind his back and smiled, following on his usual slow pace.
----------
So, this entire place seems abandoned. But looks may always be deceiving. - says the Samsaran - Even if this broken keep is unoccupied by soldiers, other wild dangerous animals might be lurking around.
He touches himself, eyes closed, muttering words in Samsaran.
Let's proceed with caution. - concludes Isawa, drawing his spear.
Iris averts her eyes while Isawa casts his spell. Then, with her bow at the ready, she scouts a little ahead of the main party looking for traps and enemies.
She whispers, "Follow me."
"No worries, Bran. I was prepared to conjure wards on myself and blast it until it fell, but Isawa proved that unnecessary."
Zelligar casts Barkskin and follows the group, looking around.
He will also try sneaking about 20' behind Iris.
Iris sneaks through the gates. The keep is made up of a single courtyard, containing three buildings. A mostly intact stable run the length of the north wall. In the southeastern corner sits a ramshackle building, its purpose unclear, with a giant hole in the roof.
The main hall itself is tucked against the round tower in the southwestern corner of the keep.
Interestingly, there's a fairly large gap in the southern wall, where a giant struck a hole in it, presumably by throwing a boulder. Another giant skeleton is stuck in the hole, as well as one leaned against the stable. Boulders and rubble litter the courtyard.
More immediately, Iris can hear muted voices coming from the stables. Whoever is in there will definitely be able to hear if her allies walk into the courtyard.
Iris sneaks back out to warn her companions about the voices coming from the stables. Once they have been warned, she dons her goblin mask and sneaks back into the courtyard and approaches the stables to see who is speaking.
The stable doors hang wide open, so Iris sneaks up to them and peeks in. She spots a pair of armored goblins relaxing. Both of them have shortbows close at hand, although they're focused on the game they're playing. It seems to involve skewering beetles on a hand-held spiked contraption.
One of the small troll-men is propped up against a veritable mountain of black fur, some kind of oversized wolf.
There's another wolf further back in the stable.
The goblins' animated discussion is interrupted by the nearest wolf giving a half-growl, and turning its head towards pretty much the exact spot Iris is hiding.
"What's up, Shiv? Smell something funny?"
Damn! They've got wolves! Iris tries scrambling up the wall, but she cannot find adequate hand- and footholds.
(Acrobat's Second Chance)
Not wanting to get caught alone, she runs for her companions.
"Manflesh," the wolf growls.
It takes the goblins a few moments to grab their bows and mount up - enough time that, even though Iris ends up wasting some of her precious head start trying to climb the wall, she still reaches the inner gates ahead of the wolves behind her, their riders screaming bloody murder.
Hanging back, the elf draws a slim wand, and with a flick and a word, conjures a ward into being in front of her.
Iris turns and fires her bow at the nearest goblin. She runs at full speed over the debris and into the southern tower.
(if wolf-rider is flat-footed)
(Acrobat: Ledge Walker - move at full speed across debris)
Zelligar unleashes the wrath of Nethys at the rider due west of him, then moves east 15' (if someone could do that for me).
The archers open fire while their mounts carry them towards the back of the courtyard.
,
,
,
,
Isawa moves some steps ahead, then mutters words in Samsaran, unleashing a wave of light against mounts and riders.
ספריי צבע
,
Isawa focus, and suddenly reality itself seems to - again - bend around the warlock. As dimensional lines twist around him, he shoots three toppling magic missiles against the enemies, focusing especially on the mounts.
Get the mounts down! - he says - This terrain here is more favorable to them. We need to pick our battlefield.
He five-foot-steps behind a wall to hide.
Bran doesn't even see the arrows coming as one flies directly through the man's new armor. The first shot is enough to make him fly backward before he has a chance to react.
"What th---"
A part of him laughs, Who did I piss off to deserve this?
He moves behind a rubbled wall, taking cover and drawing a potion.
Move due to difficult terrain into cover
Standard action to draw a potion of Cure Moderate Wounds
Isawa's missiles has one rider completely tangled in the reins and stirrups, halfway hanging off his mount.
The two wolves tumble to the ground in heaps with their riders on top.
Yulai fires at the riders, then moves into the remains of the tower near Iris.
"What else did you see, or do we just have to worry about our friends on the wolves?"
Zelligar fires two Magic Missiles at Rider #1 and moves behind the ruined tower.
Iris says, "All I saw was who's attacking us now, but there may be more of them."
"You look like a pin cushion, Bran. Didn't we just patch you up?" She draws her wand, which she casts on Bran. Then she five foot steps to the door.
Tal'ariel moves forward into a second tower doorway and puts away her wand.
The wolves and riders spend quite some time untangling themselves from their respective piles, before the goblins urge their mounts forward towards the gate. Deprived of obvious targets, they shoot at the partially concealed Isawa.
,
,
You also hear what sounds like large wings, although what exactly produces the sound isn't visible. It's coming from the building that connects to the southernmost guardtower.
Yulai peeks around the corner firing her bow at the nearest hob.
"Wings. That's can't be good. We're going to want to be inside sooner. Check that door."
Yulai gestures to the southern door.
Bran drinks the potion down, the wings that he hears means that sitting around near death was a very bad idea.
Standard Action: Drink Moderate Wounds
He takes a moment to center himself, nods at Yulai and approaches the door.
Move Action: Move to the Door
Isawa moves to yet another covered position. From the corner of his eyes, he casts Color Spray against both mounts and riders.
ספריי צבע
Both riders catch a faceful of sand, and are more or less incapacitated until they get it out of their eyes. Both wolves manages to twist their faces away and avoid the worst of it.
"If that sound is the manticore, we will have to deal with it sooner or later. I can make it land... but perhaps we should retreat inside to prepare first."
Zelligar pours on the damage to Goblin 1.
Iris stashes her bow and draws her rapier and sword-breaker dagger.