Hutch moves to the side of the building where the procession should be arriving. He stands against the building, his Halberd ready to make another kill.
I cannot wait to kill these guys. It will be my greatest proof of strength yet!
Get them out of the Church now! Their Gods wont save them, but their feet will! Besides if we get them out fast enough I can kill the enemy without worrying about loosing pay for one of their hides being lost.
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I turn to Father Falconmoon and nod. "Alright, beseems this is as good as it's gonna get, all things considered. Go ahead and stay at the head of the procession. I'll go to the rear and make sure everyone follows along well enough."
I raise the hood of my cloak and go to where the lines are ending, making sure that everyone is queued properly and gets to getting when the getting is good.
With the doors swinging open you get a glimpse of the crowd of villagers lined up roughly in two lines, snaking around the altar at the center of the temple. At the top of the procession you see the male half-elf who must've been speaking before, clad in the robes of a Chauntean priest. Whoever the other person speaking was, is not discernible at this point.
The villagers look frightened and confused uncertain whether they should go or wait. "Take the lead." the priest says.
Venali tries to maintain a smile as the doors open and he sees all the people inside, more than he had expected. I hope we can do this without too much of a problem. He gives the priest a nod before turning back towards the town and giving a motion for them to follow.
Taking a quick look both ways upon entering the street he turns left and makes for the back of the homes. When he thinks it's safe to talk he looks over his shoulder, "It's not much further, just at the bend in the stream up ahead."
The villagers pour out of the building, barely kept in line by the priest's guidance. Venali leads them trhough the narrow passage behind the nearby houses. Coming nearer to the keep, he can see the majority of the surrounding raiders must be concentrating on the opposite side, where the gate is, but with this many people in tow there is little chance they can move past and get to the tunnel entrance undetected.
You see a patrol moving around the back at the foot of the hill, mostly keeping their attention on the keep. There is only a single cultist, he is flanked by two large, gray-skinned lizards, big enough to ride.
Four armed men, wearing light chain armor under yellow and brown coats of arms follow him. They are carrying shields and spears.
Interesting, very interesting. Hutch thinks silently. Fellow sellswords... The name of the Chill reaches far, and they may abandon their current employers to work with me. Then again, mercenary companies aren't always friendly with each other. Lets see if they are worth their gear.
Hutch doesn't look at the escaping villagers, that would distract him from his goal. He needed to break the enemies charge. The bloodshed would be fun after all, and after proving his strength he could easily get a large reward.
His grip loosened on the Halberd, ready to tighten upon a strike, and he loosened himself up for a sneak attack when they come close enough.
Hopefully one of those fools stayed behind to back me up.
Hurry! Lets move!
"Erm...Mr. Mercenary? I believe we need your help to clear the path in case any enemies block our way..."
Zillyanna has her bow ready to shoot anything that appears from behind the church.
Noticing the enemies a bit too close to the Jeep's secret entrance than he'd like with all these people he turns to Evendur, "Get these people to safety as soon as they are out of sight."
He circles back and runs towards the group from tbe direction of the temple, feigning being out of breath. "Quickly, the temple! We broke through the door but the villagers, they had a wizard with them. The others," he pauses to take a haggered breath, "There was so much fire, hurry!"
The cultist looks hesitant, while the four uniformed warriors just wait for his reaction. Feeling the looks of the warriors resting on him, he caves: "A-alright, let's go."
The group makes for the street toward the temple. As far as you can tell, the path is clear.
Hutch takes off after the frilly elf, fearing for his reward if the elf dies, after all the Mayor asked that everyone gets back, and the elf was part of everyone. He comes in with his uniform visible under his armor.
I chased them as you asked cultist! Hutch states, addressing Venali, at least eighty percent sure that the mercenaries he saw earlier were with the cultists. They escaped, That wizard they were with, he glowed for a second then they were all gone. Swung my halberd around where they were so I knows they weren't invisible.
The cultist halts his squad: "They used magic to escape? Uhm... okay, nevermind, back to patrolling, boys."
"We're not yer boys.", one of the warriors protests, but falls back into formation as they turn to continue their slow round.
Hutch watches the cultists and mercenaries leave, then turns back to the secret tunnel. That could have been a good fight, but I would have had trouble he thinks to himself.
Rule number one of combat frilly. Don't ditch your team in the middle of a battle zone. Though I must say your talents with lies are good. Hutch states.
Venali gives Hutch a shrug, "One of the first things one learns at court. That said, their lives outweigh my own at this point. Let's hope they've all made it safely." With that he turns and makes sure the coast is clear before moving towards the tunnel.
Hutch goes with Venali, a new found respect for the elf discovered. Not the respect a warrior deserves, but a small amount of respect atleast.
The priest leads the rag tag group through to the woods and along the stream bed towards the castle, encouraging them to keep their heads down so they may not be seen.
"Could you take these men to secure the temple while we deliver word to Lord Cyanwrath that it has been captured?"
"I-I don't know," the cultist seems nervous "There was this dragonclaw here, said he came from the temple and then stomped off all furious when I told him, there was no order to scale the walls. Left just before you arrived. I really don't care to deal with him when he finds that his temple is empty now...", the mercenaries behind him chuckle.
As Venali keeps the patrol distracted, Evendur leads the peasants through the thicket and into the streambed. Some complain, as their clothes get snagged on twigs or they stumble into the shallow water, but altogether keep quiet enough. Father Falconmoon does his best to guide his flock through the thick foliage. Soon enugh, the whole congregation made their way into the stream bed and are on their way toward the iron gate.
You boys Hutch says when the mercs chuckle, adding extra emphasis on boys, as if dealing with people who couldn't tell which end of a spear to stab with.
What mercenary company are you from? Is it as sorry as the lot of you are? If you were in the Chill like I am you would have been killed for that laugh. You are getting paid. These folk obviously have a powerful wizard, atleast one strong enough to teleport the people there. Take these seriously, or I will laugh when it turns out you died from your own stupidity.
One of the mercenaries pipes up, making an aggressive step forward: "We're the Bear's Band and...", and older looking mercenary stops him, putting his shield in front of the younger man:
"The Chill? Oho, we're working with the big shots. Funny, I haven't seen any hobbers all night. Look, Frosty the Hobgoblin, I don't know what they told whatever band you're from, but we're getting paid to do what the grey cloaks say, so that's what we do. So if insubordination is on anyone, it's his ass.", he cocks his head toward the cultist.
Bear's Band? Never heard of you. I'm the only one here from the Chill, testing the waters of this deal to see if the Chill truely wants to continue doing business with this cult. We have a reputation after all. Besides, no one expects a human to be a member of the Chill. Humans are more expected to be as incompetent as you all. you give mercenaries a bad name. Hutch growls, his hand tightening on his halberd.
Even if the insubordination is on his ass, you should be organized. Only idiots think a simple raid is just that. Then again you all seem green, maybe you should be educated. After all only the green walk on to the battle field and expect it to be easy.
Hutch then gives a softer glance at the older merc. At least you seem to have something between your ears. Yes, I am from a far more renown group than yours. Remember it should we ever end up on opposite sides. The Hobbers as you called them grew quite fond of me over my near decade of working along side them. Wouldn't want an intelligent person to die for killing me. Good job keeping your fools in line.
"I-insub..." the cultist stammers "Okay we should go. Come on!"
The cultist starts toward the temple at a brisk pace, the lizards lazily stomp after him and as the mercenaries turn to follow as well, the older merc gives hutch a shrug and a wily grin "Good hunting to you." he says as he sets off.
In the meantime, Evendur and the local cleric manage to lead the crowd of villagers toward the gate entrance. As promised, Vorrak and Vak seem to have removed the corpses of the cult members, only a few bloodstains tell of the fight that went down here, but there was no way of telling it from the blood of villagers or animals that could've been killed and dragged off.
The tight corridor leading back into the keep while still dusty also seems to have been cleared of some of the webbing, making passage an ever so slightly more pleasant prospect.
"I'll...Keep watch untill Mr.Mercenary and Mr.Venalli come back", she says to Evendur, waiting outside the entrance and hiding in a bush with her bow ready.
Hutch turns from the mercs with a nod and heads back to the tunnels. He nudges Venali to do the same. He goes in a jog, with all the discipline of a trained soldier. His halberd held over his shoulder, he quickly gave a dark smile to the world, adjusting his drake head trophy in his other arm.
Venali shakes his head as he follows Hutch back to the secret tunnel, glad that the cultist and mercenaries either didn't notice or didn't care that Hutch was carrying around the head of one of their pet monsters.
Hutch reached the entrance, eyeing the opening he had kicked.
We should move some bushes here the mercenary said. I don't think I will get paid as much if we let in the cultists and other mercs. Venali, head in and let the others know how amazing we are. Need to move some bushes and maybe kill a few more fools.
He goes over to the nearest bush and attempts to pull it out of the ground.
Venali notices Zillyanna hiding in a bush as they approach and gives a slight nod her way. He walks past Hutch who stops at the bush, chuckling a bit before continuing into the tunnel, cocking an eyebrow as the man tries to pull the bush out of the ground. He moves through the tunnel quickly and knocks on the door. Knowing Zillyanna and Hutch shouldn't be far behind.
Zillyanna leaves the bush when she sees elf and mercenary coming back.
"For a second, i tought you two were in trouble..."
She follows Venali back into the tunnel, trying not to look at the hole in the wall with the rats.
The priest urges the civilians through the tunnel.
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Sublimely surprised that wayward mercs will live another day, I turn away and follow the tail-end of the civilian train into the secret path. Hanging back, I walk along next to Grim the priest. "I'm honestly surprised," I say, my voice husky and rich, like an old brandy served in crystal. "From what I had been told, I didn't think this group knew how to talk their way out of anything. That is...surprising. And not entirely bad."