Ventus smiles at their attempt to "trap" him up there. Had he not been distracted by his eagerness to get to the top and perform the illusion, he would have pulled the rope back up or dropped it--he shouldn't have left it visible, he knows that now. But he never planned on climbing down in the first place. Ever since his school days, he'd been able to make himself fall lightly as a feather at will.
He continues his illusion, and, thinking the cleric bit had worked before, leaves his holy symbol visible rather than tucking it into his robes as he usually does. He advances the illusion as before, running 120 feet into the forest.
The outside guards continue to yell at Ventus to come down, while the ones in the doorway fidget with their armor, obviously tired.
Geoffrey approaches the guards from the street.
"What's all the bother about? "
The barbarian watches at a distance and is not happy. What is Geoffry doing? He could blow this for all of us. It has to look like we all got away. He should trust the wizard to be able to get away from a few guards. He is a wizard after all.
The guards in the door glance at Geoffrey.There's some crazy fellow up on the tower muttering to himself. We got enough to worry 'bout already, what with the escaped prisoners. Heh..one of 'em is a angel-blood like you. Tell your friend to go back to jail where he belongs, huh? The guard snickers to himself and glances up at the stairway.
With a feeling of relief, Ventus sends the phantom versions of himself and the others the final distance into the forest and makes the phantoms disappear out of sight, though he spends a moment considering if the spell had exhausted its usefulness--after all, as long as he maintains his concentration, he can keep the spell going. In the meantime, he makes an illusion of a feather appear on the floor next to him while he tries to think with the part of his brain not consumed with the illusion...
Ventus notices a conveniently placed window-ledge about 65 feet below him. Underneath the ledge are a series of gargoyles he could probably climb down.
Ventus continues mumbling and gesturing and then releases his hold on the feather illusion, which vanishes. A feeling of weightlessness envelopes his body as he concentrates on the power of the wind, mimicking effortlessly and spontaneously the Lapsus Pluma spell he'd seen others diligently prepare at the Academy. He then steps off the edge of the bell tower toward the window-ledge he spotted below...
Ventus falls gently as a leaf in autumn down to the window ledge. His spell gives out 60 feet down, his weight returning during the last 5 feet, but seems no worse for the wear.
Taking only a moment to recall the power of weightlessness, he jumps off the window ledge again and back onto the ground.
Beorn, seeing the mage moving down changes his position to be closer and if he can do so away from the eyes of any guards abandons cover completely, walking quickly up to the mage and tossing his cloak over the mage's shoulders, effectively changing his appearance. Pulling flask from his side he takes a quick swig, passes it to Ventus and walks with him away from the church.
"Too many crazy people in this town." Geoffrey walks off in the shadows.
The guards enter the tower as Ventus falls, yelling up the stairs. Luckily none seem to have seen him leave.
Cillian nods to himself, stepping further back into the shadows. It wasn't quite done, but it looked like Ventus had gotten through the worst of it.
Wizards sure have handy tricks.
Ventus accepts the flask with a quick thanks and takes a swig, then mumbles a few arcane words and changes his hair to jet black as he did when they first escaped. He flashes his compatriots a smile and speaks in a low voice.
That went better than expected. Now let's get out of here. Keep your guard up, I wouldn't be surprised if there's more trouble ahead. I should warn you, if we get into a fight, make sure to step away from me. I have no time to explain now, just keep back at least 5 feet from me in a fight. Keeping a steady pace, Ventus keeps his eyes and ears open to detect any shadowers or approaching guards.
Shall we go to our usual haunt or should we step into the next pub we cross?
The streets seem empty near you. The air is quiet, so you have a greater span of hearing than normal. There are guards, but most are up on the walls, still recovering from the spectacle that was Ventus's illusion.
Cillian stepped out of an alley and into stride with the pair without missing a beat.
"Back to the warehouse. There's one more quick step to take before we can risk being seen in public. Then we can go enjoy a drink."
As you all step into the warehouse...
Did you guys hear that glass shatter? Ventus whispers frantically, That window across the street. 2nd floor. Do you think we're spotted?
"Dammit! One thing after another. Fine. Everyone down to the basement. If any of the doors open, it'll set a bell off down there, so we'll know someone's coming. I have a hatch into the sewers down there that Harzhen doesn't know about. If we get company, we can bug out. Hopefully we'll have enough time to change how we look."
Cillian moves into the cargo container with the hidden entrance to the basement. "Hurry up."
"This doesn't seem safe anymore."
Geoffrey follows Cillian into the basement.
Agreed. Let us bug out now. the barbarian adds as he is moving.
Cillian opened up a chest and pulled out a case. Beneath the case was full of clothes, all fairly nondescript and well made, of a variety of sizes. They were definitely a change from the clothes they had been captured in.
"Get changed. Grab whatever fits, just as long as it isn't the sort of thing you'd usually wear."
He opened the case and revealed a barber's kit.
"Then everyone gets to change their hair. I have dye, bleach, sheers, and a straight razor. If we don't get interrupted, we should be able to leave here looking pretty unrecognizable."
Geoffrey changes into a plain brown pants and vest, rejecting the change to his hair. He opts for a small cap instead. "I do not know this city."
Beorn is on board but draws the line at coloring his hair. Not gonna happen. I can wear a hat pr the wizard and presto it or something.
I can only effect temporary changes in hair color--an hour at most. Ventus sighs as his shoulder-length hair is cut up to his ears. And I think we'd all agree I have better uses for my time in the long run than magically maintaining your hair.
After a few minutes of changing his hair color through every color in the spectrum in the mirror with magic, he settles on a tube of jet black dye for his hair.
So am I right in thinking you have another safehouse in mind, Cillian? he says as he exchanges his wizard's robes for a white tunic, green vest and black trousers. A pity I have to leave the robes behind. I never liked pants.
He takes only a moment to retrieve his spellbook from its pocket in his robes and stow it carefully in his vest and put his holy symbol of Nethys around his neck once more.
Beorn watches the wizard change his own hair for minutes after complaining about his request to do it once, shrugs and puts on a fisher's cap. Wizard's got strange ways of sayin thanks for watchin their backs. he mumbles as he pulls on his own disguise.
Ventus sighs in frustration. This was a team effort. You watched my back, I faked your flight from the city. But if it means that much to you, I can cast the spell and change it. I just wanted you to know I'm not casting the spell every hour for you. We're trying to keep a low profile, and me throwing a cantrip at you all day would turn some heads. Ventus points his finger at Beorn's hair, changing it to red.
"Hair color and style is one of the most important parts of the body when it comes to description. Its right up there with skin color, which we can't really change. If you don't feel like dying it, you might consider cutting it, or even shaving your head. By the time it grows back, hopefully not many people will remember you to recognize you on site. A hat is a good idea, but it isn't like you can wear it all the time."
While he talked, Cillian cut his hair much shorter and then began working a dark dye into it.
"I have safehouses all over the place, but most of them aren't as well stocked as this one. We're going to have to find a new place better suited to a long term operation. I have some ideas, but that's a couple steps down the agenda. For now we can make due with what we have."
It's eerily quiet outside-the chilling silence of midnight has set upon you. If you all don't leave soon, Harhzen is bound to come back here-and probably with a squad of Hellknights. There was also the figure across the street that seemed to be watching you. You're operating on limited time. What's your plan?
Harhzen might have think he knew what they were going to do, but Cillian had a combination of foresight and paranoia that bordered on mystical.
The basement was nearly impossible to find for people who didn't know it was there, and twice a day it was mostly flooded, meaning that even if the hell knights did find it, there was a good chance they wouldn't be able to get down there in the first place.
While they had been changing their appearances the tide had started coming in leaving them with only a thin strip of dry land toward the higher side of the large room. As they finished with things, Cillian tossed them as far back into the water as he could.
When they were done, he passed out a couple ruck sacks he'd prepared before getting arrested and showed them the hidden sewer entrance.
"We have about ten minutes before it floods too. We don't want to get stuck down there in the old sewers when the waters come in. We should have plenty of time. Let's go."
Once down in the sewer tunnels, Cillain pulled two chains across the other side of the access hatch. In order to follow them, the Hellknights would have to find the basement, find the hatch, and then break the chains, and they wouldn't be able to do any of it until low tide.
He hurried through the old sewers, lighting the paths with a torch. Because of the frequent flooding whenever the tide was particularly high, this part of the old sewer system was almost always empty of the criminals and the destitute that lived in other areas, but that didn't mean the sewers were empty. He'd heard stories of all kinds of things living down here. Hopefully tonight they wouldn't run into any of them.
Impressive. Beorn comments as he observes Cillian's preparedness. He moves quickly and easily keeps up.
The sewers are grimy and dark, and as you hurry you can't help but feel an urgency to your movement and an unnatural fear of the darkness. The water rises and falls as it flows, and you realize you can't really see what exactly is in this water.
Cillian slows and looks at the wall, pointing out a door there, putting a finger near his lips to signal everyone to be quiet.
Trudging through the sewer with the tide rising is not Beorn's idea of fun. He spots the side door, and thinking it might be a way our decides to have a look. He sees Cillian shushing him and promptly ignores the man. What could be down here? Nothin 'xpectin us I'd guess. Weapon ready he opens the door.
Cillian looks momentarily shocked when Beorn opened the door without warning, but recovered quickly. He rushed in behind the big man, leather sap in hand, ready to bring down anyone who happened to be in the room.
There's no one in the room. It's a small room, with iron floors and walls. Rust creeps along the ground and up the sides of the doorway, and in the middle sits a wooden table, chairs, and a pile of tools.
This room must not flood, at least completely. Beorn notes as he goes in and begins to look over the tools. If anything looks of masterwork quality he will 'borrow" it. And if there is a crowbar he will take it. I wonder if there is another way out?
"We don't have time to go exploring right now. This is a good find, I'd like to come back to take a closer look, but for now we need to keep moving unless we want to be stuck in there until the tide goes out again."
There aren't any masterwork tools, although there is a flattened pipe that could, in a pinch, be used as a crowbar.
Not finding much of interest Beorn grabs the pipe and indicates he is ready to move on.
Cillian continues to lead them through the sewers.
As you walk all seems calm. But without warning, a bright light fills the corridor, and as you turn, you see a few goblins, each carrying torches in their hands, screaming and giggling wildly while sprinting towards you. You hear their twisted song, "Break the bones, throw the stones, goblins eat, goblins beat! Steal the blades, make our raids, goblins eat tonight!
.
The first of the goblins leaps at Beorn, jabbing a rusty knife at his head, but missing and slamming into the wall with a howl.
The barbarian, itching for a fight he understands takes his frustration of the city out on the little green guys. Pulling his great sword he allows a controlled range to overcome him (+4 strength) and swings at the one brazen enough to attack him using his most powerful swing (power attack)