With a quick glance at Erevan, Felrin confirms that the man has done his part smoothly and quietly. He moves soundlessly to the next sleeping guard, notes that his partner in death is ready, and tears out another throat.
In a deadly game of stealth, the duo of Felrin and Erevan advance on their next targets and repeat the process, slaying two more guards while they slept.
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Barracks, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:52 am (Day:One)
Felrin lifts a clawed hand, watching the guard's blood as it drips along his fingers, across his palm and down his wrist. Though it is not easy, he fights off the temptation to exult loudly in the deaths of these Mitra-worshipping humans. Focusing on the job at hand, he calms himself enough to move quietly to the next guard. Extending two stiffened fingers on each hand, he drives his claws through the guard's eyelids, straight through his eyes and into his brain.
At the sound of the thump as Grumblejack drops the box on the table, Hecate runs in, stumbling slightly as she does so "Is everything ok?" she whispers. "What are the others up to?" She blinks in the dim light, trying to get her eyes to adjust.
With Felrin taking care of the one of the two remaining sleepers, it falls to Erevan to end the matter and dispose of the last guard. A mere soundless step brings him next to his victim before he dispatches him like the other two, his face expressionless as he does what in his mind needs to be done and brings his spear down one more time.
Felrin stealth-fully takes out the remaining guard on his side of the room, his hands now completely covered in the blood of the dead.
Erevan moves in and finishes off the last sleeping guard.
Tkaara Charisma Boost +2 expires at 3:15am
Tkaara +2 alchemical bonus on saves against mind-affecting effects expires at 6:15am
Hecate Mage Armor on Erevan expires at 3:19am
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Barracks, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:53 am (Day:One)
Felrin moves to the door of the guards' dormitory, his right hand hanging by his side, blood dripping off it as he walks. "No more guards in here," he says simply, "let's search the room a bit and then check the other door."
He turns and moves back into the room, wiping his hand on the first guard's bedding. He then rummages through the guards' belongings, starting with each body in order to find keys to the locked chests.
Etna tilts her head to answer Hecate's question "Brutally murdering people in their sleep, dear."
--------------------
The sorcerer nods at Felrin, and then moves into the room to investigate.
"Not brutally, no. I should think the kills were quite clean, all things considered," Erevan interjects, his weapon's blade already cleaned of blood. "Well, for one of us at least," he adds as he glances towards Felrin wiping the gore of his hands.
Tkaara listens at the southern door for anything that may be noticable but does not here anything.
Felrin searches the guards and finds the keys to open six of the twelve chest, he begins to open them quickly.
Chest #1
Has 6 gold pieces in it.
Chest #2
Has a silver holy symbol of Mitra and a Mitran holy book.
Chest #3
Has a bottle of fine whiskey without a label.
Chest #4
Hidden under peasant garb are two decks of cards (one regular, one marked) and a pouch with 12 gold pieces.
Chest #5
Has a vial of Ink, quill and a personal journal that reveals this week’s password “Hesterfield” – the Warden’s home town – and the details of Blackerly’s illicit gambling sessions.
Chest #6
Has 3 gold pieces in it.
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Barracks, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 2:54 am (Day:One)
"They weren't clean, but they were quick," offers Felrin, "which is more than they would have given any of us. Now let's see if any of these other chests have anything worthwhile in them."
He sets to opening the remaining chests with his lockpicks, calling on Asmodeus to guide his still blood-stained hands as he works. He takes a moment at first to work out the mechanism, but it turns out the locks are all of identical design and he quickly pops the rest of them open, saying to Erevan, "Would you check them as I get 'em open? We'll be done a little quicker here that way."
"Oh." Well, she did ask, she reminds herself. Suppressing a shudder at the exchanges between Erevan and Felrin, and trying not to look at Felrin's gore-covered talons, Hecate nevertheless walks into the room, muttering a spell to make her shiv-comb shed some light.
She carefully examines what they have found in the lockers.
"Well, if you say so." Etna remarks to Erevan with a chuckle, as she flips trough the guard's diary. "A password, uh..." she says to no one in particular, as she takes the journal.
Felrin quickly begins to pick the remaining locks while Erevan checks the contents.
Chest #7
A map of the nearby town of Varyston including the Old Moor road. From the map legend it seems that the salt mines are located there as well as the town has a population of about 1,200 people. It is the closest settlement to Brandescar prison.
Chest #8
A small bag of doggy treats.
Chest #9
A surprisingly well written love letter ending in a proposal of marriage to someone named ‘Michelle’ and a sapphire engagement ring.
Chest #10
A bottle of absolute rot gut whiskey just like the others in the case that Grumblejack is carrying.
Chest #11
A whetstone, cleaning supplies for chain shirt, extra bowstring, and a small book of military regulations.
Chest #12
A masterwork lute.
As Hecate comes into the pitch black room and conjures up some light, Felrin and Erevan reel from the sudden brightness. She is shocked by the scene before her, every bunk dripping blood and pooling on the floor beside it. A drip trail can be scene where the two men moved from bunk to bunk snuffing out the life from their victims. Silently but deadly. It is almost to much for Hecate to bear but she focuses her attention on the items in the chest and tries not to look at anything else.
Hecate slowly made her way around to each chest and begin to appraise anything of note and take a quick inventory of items. She strictly spoke of market value and not of usefulness....
21 gold pieces.
Silver holy symbol of Mitra would bring about 25 gold pieces.
The Mitran holy book about 5 gold pieces.
The bottle of fine whiskey about 25 gold pieces.
The decks of playing cards was worthless.
The ink quill and journal was mostly worthless.
The map was worthless.
The doggy treats was worthless.
The sapphire engagement ring was worth 100 gold pieces.
The bottle of rotgut whiskey was worth 5 gold pieces.
The whetstone, cleaning supplies, extra bowstring and small book of military regulations was worthless.
The masterwork lute was worth 100 gold pieces.
Etna came into the room and quickly took the journal, ink and quill and slipped it in her pocket.
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Barracks, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 3:00 am (Day:One)
"Hmm...," the Doctor muses to himself. These could be useful.
He takes the packet of dog treats and tucks them into the sack.
Hecate shudders but keeps her stomach under control. Slowly, she forces herself to look around: this is her life, now; this is what she has chosen. There can be no squeamishness, no going back. There is nothing to go back to. Aside from a few rapid blinks, her expression remains unchanged.
Hecate shakes her head swiftly and concentrates on what they have found. "Ha - that'll come in useful." she pounces on the map. "Where did your ... supposed friend say we should be heading towards, Doctor?"
She also takes the book of military regulations, for further study. Know your enemy, and all that. When not directly occupied with other matters, she will leaf through it to see what she can learn.
Felrin strips a pillowcase off one of the beds, then considers what they've found. He tosses in the gold pieces and the sapphire ring, as well as the Mitran holy symbol and book. If I need to pass myself off as one of them, those things will come in very handy.
He then tucks the top of the pillowcase through his belt and loops the end around a few times, so it's reasonably secure and doesn't jingle much.
After the group clears the room of everything but the two decks of playing cards, whetstone, cleaning supplies for chain shirts and the extra bowstring they regroup in the main mess hall to continue onward.
All torches on this level have now gone out. The only light in the area is Hecate's light spell.
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Barracks, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 3:01 am (Day:One)
Etna nods at Tkaraa's suggestion, storing the guard journal in her own prison rags.
Ottakar answers Hecate's question: "An old manor on the Moor Road outside of town. I cannot say I have ever had occasion to travel that road."
Noticing that no one else is stepping up to check the door at the pretty lady's request, Grumblejack leaves the strongbox on one of the tables, removes his club from the top of it and steps to the southern door, motioning for Tkaara to move aside, he grabs the handle "Grumblejack take care of this."
He opens the door.
Grumblejack opens the door and a rush of bright light eminates from beyond and you smell the odor of cooking food very strongly.
This room houses a well-stocked kitchen and pantry. Besides, the usual collection of plates, bowls and other cooking paraphernalia, there are two large knives here (equivalent to a dagger) and a long meat cleaver (equivalent to a short sword). There is also roughly fifty days’ worth of food stored here – forty days’ worth of perishable and ten days’ worth of iron rations.
The fireplace here is a relic of the old castle great hall. It is almost comically large. A fire is burning in the fireplace and is currently stewing tough cuts of meat, baking bread and boiling bones for broth.
There are four servants here, two are male and two are female. They are crouched behind various tables and items in the room or backed into a corner crouching down. They all have large knives (equivilent of a dagger) in their hands and are unarmored. Upon Grumblejack opening the door one of the ladies screams in horror "It's that thing!"
They begin flailing their knives around randomly as to keep anyone from approaching them. "Stay back or I'll cut you!" says one of the men while the other one says "Go on now, shoooo , we want no trouble."
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Barracks, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 3:01 am (Day:One)
Looking at Erevan as it becomes clear there is a problem to deal with, Felrin grins, exposing his newly-lengthened teeth, and says quietly, "Coming?"
He then steps past the ogre and into the kitchen, where he points with a bloodied claw over his shoulder at Grumblejack and says, "He's with us. Drop your weapons and I won't have him hurt you."
"Gentlemen, ladies," Erevan says pleasantly, yet with the spear still in his grasp even if it is held non-threateningly. Stepping into the room alongside Felrin, he takes a look around before his eyes fall on the two men who spoke up.
"We have no quarrel with you and we will have no quarrel with you lest you decide to use those knives in some other way than what their maker intended," he continues in that same pleasant tone. "You are neither killers nor guards, I wager," he says, the distinction between the two categories hinting at the Forsaken and their jailers respectively. "So do drop the... weapons and no unpleasantness need happen here."
"I am unconvinced, herren," the Doctor states as he enters the room. "Our best bet to delay pursuit would be to kill absolutely everyone in the prison. That way no one will be any the wiser until the next time a supply shipment stops by." He walks directly up to one of the servents and looks at him coldly, as one might look at an insect. "It is nothing personal, you understand. Merely logic."
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Tkaara walks in following the men, her gaunt and unnaturally emaciated appearance readily apparent. She looks at the Doctor:
No, we are killing those who would impede our departure. If they drop their weapons and allow us to knock them unconscious, then we will bind and gag them and put them in a storeroom. After all, someone needs to be able to tell the authorities that we broke out without any assistance from the famous Branderscar prison. If they choose to resist, . . . she leaves a long pregnant pause . . . then Grumblejack will have another meal.
She then looks at the lady who spoke first:
Your food smells good, although you too appear tender. It really is your choice.
Intimidate: <-- extra +1 from Silvertongue
Etna enters the room, shaking his head as Ottakar speaks "Forgive my colleague, he is a little rough around the edges: years working in a basement had a negative effect on his conversational skills. I instead support the proposal of my other companions to let us pass and not hinder us.". She briefly gestures to the room behind her "We have asked the guards to point us to the exit, but they weren't very helpful: they went silent all of a sudden and they won't talk with us anymore!" she adds with a soft chuckle, obviously hinting at the guards' fate. "We don't want to bother you or them unnecessarily , so could you tell us the quickest and more stealthy way to leave this place? Oh, and if you could let yourself be gagged and bind like my friend over there asked you, it would be lovely."
Hecate lurks at the back, watching as the others menace the servants. She has nothing to add to what they've said. She agrees - in theory - with Ottakar: the longer it is before anyone finds out they've left, the better. The difficulty comes, of course, in putting that into practice.
She remembers the old joke from one of her lecturers: "Theory and practice are the same in theory, but different in practice." It doesn't seem quite so funny, now.
The young woman gives a small sigh, but is otherwise silent.
The Doctor glances contemptuously at Tkaara, then responds. "I shall ignore, for the moment, where you find the gall to order me, and shall instead address the matter in the only way that matters: logically. You may wish to taunt the authorities and establish some sort of reputation for yourself, but such a desire is as dangerous as it is childish. I would burn this place to the ground, if we had the resources, and make it look like we burned with it so that they did not think to bother to pursue us at all. The next best thing will be to make sure no one here is able to go haring off to tell them about our escape after we have made it. It is a simple matter of practicality, of covering our own tracks.
That said, there is a compromise that could accomplish both of our goals. I meant it when I said I have no personal desire to kill them, merely to make sure they cannot go tell the authorities until after we have made good our escape. Therefore we can simply bind them securely and leave them here. There is a chance they will starve to death, but also a chance others will come to the prison, find, and release them before such an event occurs."
He looks back at the servants dispassionately. "That is the best chance you are going to get, so, in your own self-interest, I suggest you find us some rope or other such implements to secure you. Unless you would like to be manacled in one of the cells?"
Felrin rolls his eyes at the notion that they want to do this fast, but they're going to take the trouble to tie them up and gag them. "There is a faster way," he murmurs, but waits while his companions do things their way.
Grumblejack makes his way into the room and sits down at the kitchen table and begins to eat. "Why everything got to be dead when you eat it. Meat cooked so long it no longer even red."
As Felrin is the first to enter the kitchen and makes his statement the servants look to each other but have no answers for the sight they see before them.
As Erevan enters and tries to calm the servants a little with diplomatic words the tension seems to ease a little from the servants faces as they again look to each other for what to do.
As the doctor enters and approaches the closest one speaking of killing everyone the servants again tense up and as the doctor gets within striking range the servant grips the kitchen knife tightly but does not act on the emotion running through him. Although from the wet stain on the front of his trousers now he is pretty scared.
As Tkaara enters the room and makes her play of intimidation and the offer not to kill the tension again lightens in the room and then when she mentions the ogre and a meal their faces go white and they drop the knives on the floor, they move back and bunch in a corner "Please don't hurt us, we do not wish any trouble. We are just cooks and servants. We are not trained guards or militia."
When Etna enters one of the male servants perks up a little to get a better look and one of the women slaps him in the back of the head. "This is not the time Sam!" the lady says, she then turns to Etna "We could be locked up in the cells, with food and water of course. It may be a long time before someone from the city comes a calling if you leave no one else here. And to just think, you will be the first ones to ever escape from here. You will like be famous and all. You really need to leave someone behind to tell the tale. The cells upstairs will plenty hold us and that way we don't have to be tied up and we won't starve to death either. See it like works out for all of us."
Hecate moves into the room just as her light spell fizzes out. Really not a need in the bright lit kitchen anyway.
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Barracks, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 3:02 am (Day:One)
"How much food or water may be left with you is entirely dependent upon the usefulness of any information you may be able to provide and how forthcoming you are with it."
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I think the plan is to take them up to the cells, shackle, gag and manacle them, and then KO them. Lets see if they have any info, their reward is surviving. The headsman is supposed to be here in two days, so it is unlikely that any of them will starve.
We can role play this, although it seems that we have the plan and I think having it done will allow us to move on to more interesting things, like getting out of the prison.
So the group begins the process of interrogating the servants....
The group learns that the four servants (Sam, Myrtle, Gregor and Irena) who toil in the kitchen are all unarmed and unarmored save for grabbing a kitchen knife. Sam and Myrtle are usually here during the day. Gregor and Irena are here at night. Only for special occasions (such as the executioner coming in a few days) do all four servants work the kitchen. Gregor is a large man who has been known to go into town in the middle of the night to pick up bundles of firewood. Anyone wearing his large green cloak and hood and giving the password will not be accosted by the guard house security. The servants all know the password “Hesterfield” to cross the bridge.
After shackling the servants upstairs in the cells and returning to the kitchen the group ponders their next move. With Gregor's green cloak in tow the group waits in the kitchen. Grumblejack mentions something about taking food with them for the road.
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Kitchen, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 3:12 am (Day:One)
Grumblejack returns to the mess area and collects the strongbox sitting his club back on the top and brings it into the kitchen and sits it down on the table. "So now what? Grumblejack ready to go, belly full."
Felrin dons the cook's green cloak and says, "I have been disguising myself longer than most of you have been alive, I think I'll take this. I wonder if we can find a wagon outside this door and just have everyone lie down in the back of it? We could ride on out of here once we're ready to go."
"Before we do, though," he adds, "let's listen to the wise ogre and collect a bit of food for the journey ahead." He collects a sack and puts a few days worth of iron rations in it, adding a few apples and onions and a loaf or two of bread before tying it off.
He moves to the door leading outside and lays a hand on the knob, saying, "Ready when you all are. Since I'll look a bit like Gregor from a distance, why don't I step out first and take a look around? I'll see if there are guards in sight at all and make sure the coast is clear."
Hecate nods at Felrin's suggestion of gathering some food and will help with this.
"Erevan, the spell protecting you will run out soon; um, you might want to get something from the armoury before we continue."
"Is that so? Then I thank you for the timely warning, Hecate," he says with a pleasant smile before doing exactly as advised. Although there is a brief expression of disappointment as he examines the somewhat cumbersome armor, it is quickly chased away by thoughts of the protection it will provide him once he dons it after the young wizardess' armoring spell expires.
Etna smiles complacently when Felrin proposes to sneak out in a cart.
Told you so. Everything is going swimmingly, minor setbacks aside.
While Erevan goes to don the armor, Etna helps Felrin and Hecate to gather supplies.
Felrin cracks open the kitchen door and peaks outside, it is a full moon so the outside holds dim light but not darkness. There are a few passing clouds here and there so you do get moments of complete darkness but no where near constant.
To the east is a small vegetable and herb garden in the courtyard. A gravel path leads along the building north toward the front of the building and well trimmed grass leads out in all other directions.
You can see the guard towers in the distance, these towers are each three stories tall with a stout but aged door at their base.
A pair of four guards can be seen patrolling the wall in your area mostly looking for activity in the courtyard. They have a strong bullseye lantern and pass it around the grounds as they walk, you also notice that one of them has a signal horn in case of trouble.
Prison Map from Blackerly's Office
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Current Location: Branderscar Prison: Kitchen, Date: Oathday, Erastus 25th,(Summer) 4714 Time: 3:15 am (Day:One)
Hecate looks thoughtfully at the patrols. "What do you think? Can you shoot them, or should we watch their routine and avoid them?"
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Looking out, Tkaara whispers:
We should wait for the guards to move out of sight. Then make for the first tower. If we clear the walls, then we can hit the tower without worrying about the guards hearing us. I would think that the Warden would be asleep at this time of night.
Tkaara will also take a sack and two rations.