It is a poor performance from the escapees as each and everyone manages to miss the poor sergeant save the great ogre who lands his fist squarely in his face which promotes a swift response from the sergeant's sword. Staggered from the blow he still manages to lash out at Stanislav, injuring his left arm.
Round 4 go.
Thomas grew frustrated, and struck again.
Thomas' qiuck one-two results in one dagger missing its intented target by a mile while the other punctures the good sergeant's heart. His sword clatters on the ground as he drops it and sinks to the floor. "You bastards," are the last words that escapes before everything is gasps.
For a man like Watch sergeant Tomas Blackerley the room is remarkablely pious. The large room has a wardrobe, a bed and a table with a couple of chairs. However looking under the bed you find an iron strong box, heavy to bout. The sergeant's corpse isn't uninteresting either. Besides a master worked longsword the good man carried 30 gp, his chain shirt and a most curious metal flask.
It is a potion of cure light wounds.
Taking a whiff of the flask, the Rogue hands it to Stanislav, "I believe you'll need this."
Thomas then takes a look at the strong box.
While the flask easily relinquished its secrets, the strong box almost taunts Thomas, refusing to yield its content to the prying rogue.
"Thurr urwa az Th'azwak." the young man mutters as he fiddles with the lock.
Thomas keeps muttering.
"It's a Death Demon. Its Fear Aura is too strong, you can't roll a successful save."
"Incorrect."
"What is your will save modifier?"
"Plus 9."
"The DC to beat this demons Fear Aura is a 32. You would need to roll a 23, on a 20 sided die in order to succeed. Now I don't have a math degree, but that's impossible."
"A Natural 20 is an automatic success, no matter the circumstances."
"You only have a 5% chance of rolling that 20."
"Can at least get that roll? I mean, it's in the rules."
*Rolls a 1*
"Ooooooohhhhhh! A Fumble! That means you're completely compelled, and I get control your character until you snap out of it!"
*Reluctantly hands over character sheet.*
"Since we're playing by the rules, I know you don't mind."
"Oh shut up, Kevin."
Realizing this lock was beyond his skills, Thomas looked for keys.
Nadine gives a throaty chuckle as Blackerly falls to the ground. She grabs the keys off his belt and tosses them at Thomas.
Then she steps forward and makes good on her comments. In less than a minute, she has mutilated the Sergeant's body, wrapping an eye, his tongue, and several pieces of skin, muscle and bone into her pouch. She looks at her bloody hands and simply shrugs. "Almost there, Robbie. Mommy will make you a nice bit in a while."
She straightens up with a cheerful smile. "Now, perhaps we should see what Irena has made for us. I'm hungry!" A piece of skin falls from her dagger to the floor.
The wounded fighter stores the long sword he was carrying in favor for the one the sergeant wielded. His two cuts are actually quite serious. He holds the potion of healing ready to drink it and looks to the group before doing so. Before I consume this resource, Is there one of you that might provide me some healing?
If Stanislav does not get substantial healing he drinks the potion.
After some healing he examines the sergeant's chain shirt. Is it of any better quality than what he is wearing?
And Stanislav, despite himself, almost recoils from Nadine's action. A good reminder of what my new friends are capable of. he thinks to himself.
Robert moves over to heal Stanislav.
CLW
Shifting through what Nadine left in her wake, Stanislav finds that the watch sergeant didn't place his safety above his men and didn't bother procuring better armour.
Removing the now bloody armor he offers it to his team. Does anyone need armor?
Vank looks surprised but not at all discussed by Nadine harvesting and nods to her "Me too, this one was strong if you don't mind I'll take his heart to strengthen the tribe." Vank pulls up his armour and starts the messy and long process of carving out the heart with a dagger.
When he finishes he start ripping it apart with his teeth and eating it while watching the others search the room.
Taking the keys, Thomas opens the chest.
Nadine looks disgusted as Vank bites into the man's heart. "Oh Vank, please! At least do it out of sight if you must. That's barbaric!" She turns away to avoid the sight and tucks the pouch of body parts into her dress.
"Now, let's go see what Irena has made." She walks back towards the kitchen.
"Uh....right....lunch plans. Very...instructive, Vank. I would guess a lateral cut on both sides of the rib cage would allow easier access to the chest cavity, or even an incision between one of the ribs followed by its spreading by means of a tool..."
Shifting through the sergeant's keys Thomas finds one that might fit and surely enough, the strongbox snaps open with the first try. Opening the lit you see why it was so heavy, it contains a case of rotgut whisky and more importently alot of gold (1235gp), way to much gold for it to be the result of honest work.
"Well it seems our Sergeant wasn't so clean after all. Stanislav mind brining that bag over here?" Thomas helped get the gold into the bag, then a thought occurred to him, "We should check the other rooms for more supplies. Then pay a visit to the Warden." The Rogue seem to have an inner flicker of flame in his eyes that indicated a burning hatred.
Nadine steps back out to the office. She starts to head towards the kitchen, but stops and points to the door on the left. "What's that? Perhaps we should find out what's in there first." She waits expectantly for the others.
Vank looks surprized at Nadine's disgust but shrugs and wanders back to check the other room from the sargeant's office while finishing the heart.
The ohter door in the sergeant's office is locked. It won't budge as Vank tries to open it. Grumblejack, who followed Vank, looks on in frustration and slams his fist against the door, causing it to shake under the pounding, but still keeps the prisioners out.
Producing the sergeant's key chain, a suitable key is found and the door opens without any truoble. Inside is a dark room, illumiated only by the light from the doorway, which is partialy blocked by a very interested ogre.
A quick glance quickly identifies this as a storage room. There is pleanty of rope, lampoil and rottening rations. More interesting to you are the branding irons on the left wall. The runic F matches the one on your arm.
"Bah, rotten supplies and those blasted brands! Pha!" She spits on the ground in disgust. She takes a deep breath and regains some of her composure.
"Now, let's go see what Irena has put together."
"Lamp oil, eh? That may prove useful. Ser Grumblejack, would you be so kind as to grab some of that?"
"Wasn't there another room? I think we should have a look, just to make sure we didn't miss anything important."
Vank grins "If you are going to burn this place down we should put some guards in to our shackles so it looks like we died in the flames."[/]
Nodding to Thomas he conitinues [[b]"There might be something worth finding in here but I'm not wasting my time looking through here. The other room was this way." Vank walks back out to the coridor and tries the other last door.
Stanislav gathers the gold into the backpack. He also adds a rope and some lamp oil. On an impulse he takes a branding iron from its place on the wall. I could later brand everyone I meet - if everyone has a brand it will cease to identify us as escapees.
Nadine stops as Vank heads to the last door. She rolls her eyes, but then comes to join him.
Standing before the last door you haven't breached, Vank tries the handle, it is lock and it seems to be one of the better locks you have encountered so far.
Having mastered the door it opens without problems. There is no light in the room, the only illuminations is provided by what pours from the hall. What little light enters is however reflected of metal surfaces. This is the armoury and there are several sets of swords, shield, bows etc., enough to equip at least half a dozen guards (6 sets). Perhaps more interesting is the heap of mixed weapon in the far end of the room, loot that the guards have confiscated over the years.
"Hmph. More toys. Boys, have at it!"
Deciding it would be quicker, the Rogue found and used the sergeants key to open the door.
Thomas stepped into the room, carefully, and looked for some light, non-clanking armor, , as well as a short sword or two.
Vank walks to heap of mixed weapons and picks a couple up and tests their weight before discarding them until he spots a great-sword, testing the weight he shrugs and drops the club he had been carrying into the pile of weapons. He them take a quick look to see if there is anything Grumblejack's size.
Stanislav also looks through the weapons and armor. He will choose a good pole arm, preferably one designed for tripping like a glaive or glaive-guisarme, and if there is a strength bow he will take it as well (I doubt it, but a strength bow does not have to be masterwork :) .[/ooc]
If there is medium or heavy armor he will consider upgrading to better armor as well. Chain mail would be tempting and full plate would be a must.
Nadine wanders in after the others and looks around, slightly bored. Then she spots a crossbow hanging on the wall and it piques her interest. Taking it down, she finds a reliable weapon if not one with much style. "I suppose this may do for the time." She grabs a pouch of bolts and slings them over her shoulder.
It is with great disappointment that you realise that this is not the treasure chest you had been looking for. While Thomas is able to find a pair of short swords, Vank a great sword, Stanislav a glaive and Nadine a crossbow, there is unfortunately not any weapons for Grumblejack and the only armour here is chain shirts like the ones the guards are wearing.
Thomas sheathed the short swords, walked over to Nadine, and handed her one of the daggers. "Milady, I believe you may want this."
Nadine takes the dagger from Thomas. "Thank you, Thomas. A sharp blade always seems handy." She sheathes it on a belt around her dress.
"Now, shall we go see if Irena has lunch for us?"
"Should we have the time, I will gladly take the sergeant's breastplate. The more metal between our enemies and my vital organs, the better."
"Sure, a little more food couldn't hurt. We should plan where we go from here while we eat. From the map the only normal exit is out onto an open court yard which will make easy to see us. There aren't many guards left so being spotted now might not be a problem but I'd prefer not to give them a chance to run or send a message."
Nadine leads the way back to the kitchen area. She purposely doesn't call out until she opens the door to the Kitchen. "Irena, what do you have for us?"
"We are not leaving until the Warden is dead. I will not leave the Wizard alive." Thomas said with what appeared to be a burning hatred in his voice.
Hatred that strong demands a steep price my new friend. Let us see if we can do this thing, as I too do not want the warden coming after us, but we must be practical. If he is well guarded...
"I'll be practical," Thomas unconsciously touched the scar on his face, "he wouldn't be the first Wizard I killed."
Stanislav, his new pole arm in hand follows Nadine to the kitchens.
It is a grotesque walk to the kitchen blood an body parts litter the way through the halls of the main building of Branderscar prison. Entering the mess hall a strange sound can be heard, someone is nervously whistling a tune, quite well actually. Walking into the kitchen you find the source. Irena is working her but of preparing food as requested. you interrupt her mid apple pie. She looks up from her work, the sight of Grumblejack still terrifies her looking at Nadine she asks: "Yes mistress?"
Nadine smiles broadly as she sees Irena preparing the apples. "Excellent, my dear! We had to tend to some unpleasantness. It's good you were here instead. That looks positively delicious." She walks over and searches for any bread.
"Alright, gentlemen. It seems some of us would like call on the Warden. We also have several guards on the walls and the gate still too. However, we have seem to have secured the building and Irena is working on provisions for us. So we have a moment to spare. Thomas, you may want to try those chests again. Take Grumblejack with you so poor Irena can concentrate. Commander, perhaps we should consider our next move." Nadine finds a bit of cheese and uses her dagger to slice a piece for herself. She nibbles on it.
Putting his right fist over his right shoulder, Thomas responded, "Yes, milady." Turning to make his way back to the chests, the Rogue looked at the Ogre, "Coming?"
Once back at the chests, Thomas began his work.
Seems to me we have a go at the warden next. He will come after us, directly or through agents, if we leave him behind, of that I am sure.
"I think we need to take out some more guards before we can get to the warden. That map said that we had to go out into a large open area where any patrol could see us. I wish... Give me ten minutes I'll ask." Vank says as he wanders out the room. Finding somewhere quiet he speaks in goblin. Over the next few minutes his voice changes several times along with his mannerisms.