Kelly slashes at the rats surging over Luci
The tide of rats catches people off-guard. Iomenna sweeps several away with a mighty blow of her hammer, but the others aren't so lucky - rats jump and bounce past Kelly and one even runs up Merlin's spear.
The swarm covers poor Luci and bites at her repeatedly.
The other fiendish rats leap up and run along the boards to the doorway, and the lead one also bites at Luci!
...even distracted by the swarm, Luci's defense is impeccable.
"Luci, take a step back from the door, let the big ones through one at a time!" Kelly says, continuing to chop at the swarm.
Darya strikes at the rats swarming Luci, her desire not to harm her by accident severely hampering her swing.
Instinctively, Luci shifted back, though internally she was screaming in blind panic and lashed out at the rats as she moved, triggering her divine healing in the process.
Iomenna slams her hammer down on the rat standing in front of her to defend Luci from further assault.
Frustrated (and disgusted), Merlin attempts to swing again.
The team lashes out, sending rat bodies flying, skewering them, cutting some in half, smashing others against walls. Gore and bits fly apart as the swarm disperses, the few survivors fleeing for tiny nooks in the walls or to the outside walls and down to the ground below.
One of the fiendish rats lunges through the doorway (5' step) and launches itself at Luci, trying to finish what its smaller cousins started.
It is unable to penetrate her armor.
The other two run back to the center of the granary and hunker down, hissing.
Kelly screams incoherently as one source of her recent frustrations presents itself. She swings with force and determination.
AC18 (T16 FF13) CMD16 | F+6 R+6 W+2
Controlled Rage: +2 STR, +2 DEX
World Serpent Totem: +1 AC vs. Outsiders/Aberrations
With fire in her eyes, Darya brings her sword slamming down on the rat Kelly pins in place, the blade biting deep.
Actually finding the fiendish rat less intimidating than the swarm, Luci put her full force behind her next strike.
Sario stays behind the people with large weapons, watching for any rats that slip by or try to circle around.
(Assuming the others slay the rats that have come out this far) Iomenna gives chase after the rays that had withdrawn back into the silo. With her hammer held high, she moves along the beam until she can reach one of the overgrown vermin, then brings her weapon crashing down.
Merlin watches along side Sario.
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The rat that was brave enough to step out is almost immediately slashed, stabbed, and smashed into the ground. Iomenna steps back into the granary and brings her earthbreaker down on another rat, turning it into rat paste.
The last rat dives into the grain and burrows for its pathetic life, and shows no signs of coming out any time soon.
The granary is... for the most part... free of significant vermin.
"Well that was thoroughly disgusting, how are you doing Luci?" Darya asks.
Kelly peeks over the side at the mounds of grain. "I still don't trust this stuff is safe to eat." she frowns, "Do we have someone who can purify it, like with a spell?"
Luci's reply started off in Abyssal as some rather un-diplomatic remarks regarding the rats' maternal relationships, before she caught herself and switched back to Common.
"If I ever seen another rat again, it'll be too soon," she looked back through the hatch where the last rat had gone. "Ballista not having to come back here."
Iomenna breathes a sigh of relief as the last of the rats dives into the grain and hides itself there. "Let's just hope it can't reproduce," she says, emerging back out of the hatch as Luci expresses her eagerness to get away from the granary. "For the mean time, though, how do we secure this place so no other vermin get in here and cause more havoc? Did anyone see a key to the place or anything? Are there any boards lying around we can use to patch up the holes the rats came through?"
I am sure that I could secure this place reasonably well, although, if a demon--or three--wanted to get in well..., the smith says, shrugging his shoulders.
"We didn't have a chance to go through the desk yet, we can see if there is a key and lock up the hatch here to prevent further infestation. DId you see anything wrong with the roof while inside?" Sario will check around the building.
Kelly lets the others search around and talk about what to do with the place, while she sits at the hatch, knife out, blinking through her post-rage fatigue, watching for movement in the grain.
The. roof looks intact, thankfully. The rats probably got in the way rats always do: through gaps in boards, knotholes, or just chewing through wood.
Sanrio searches the desk and does find a heavy padlock, but no key. Whoever had the key must've taken it along when the chaos happened.
Where to now?
Following the mostly decisive victory against the rats, Iomenna's spirits are lifted by the crew's success in securing the granary. Deciding to abandon the idea of locking up the building for now, she issues her decision about their next move. "Hmm...seems there's no easy way for us to secure the place. Well maybe we'll just have to hope we cleared out the infestation for now. We may have to send teams back periodically to clear out any new arrivals until we can patch it up more permanently. In the meantime, let's move on to the noble quarter. We'll see what we can find there, then grab as much grain as we can carry from here on the way back."
"That sounds like a plan. Let's go." Rested, Kelly gathers up her gear and starts down the stairs.
"We can go back to the Heart and have someone come look at the lock now and see if they can fix it before we head out or we can when we get back."
Sario says holding the lock in her hands.
I can probably do the job now. It should only take a couple of minutes.
Merlin begins working on the lock.
Guidance, please.
With some fiddling, Merlin is able to open the padlock; he should have no trouble getting it back off the door again, if he has a few minutes to fiddle with it. If you're fortunate enough to find a locksmith, you can probably get a new key made. For now, the granary is as secure as you can get it.
----------
You continue your expedition to the west, passing more burned-out husks of buildings. You find a few more bloodstains in the road, but the bodies that fell there are gone - taken? Eaten? Who knows?
At the entrance to the noble section of town, the portcullis is shut. Atop the section of wall that separates this section from the rest of the city is a crennelated battlement with a squat tower.
"Hold there!" a voice rings out from the tower. "No entry! Leave or be shot!
"Hold your fire!" Darya shouts up at the tower, striding to the front of the group. "We're fellow survivors, we came looking for others in need of help, and supplies for those in our care."
The voice in the tower shouts down, "Listen, lady, if that's what you are - we've had demons, we've had cultists, we've had desperate folks and wizards and who-knows-what trying to get in here. You're no different from the rest of 'em. You folks look like you got here all right, you can turn around and walk away the same way you came."
Iomenna steps up beside Darya, her hands raised as a sign of peace, and calls out to the guard, "Please, friend, hear us out. My name is Iomenna bet-Melkiel, daughter of Sergeant Melkiel of the Kenabres's 9th Battalion. I have been given the charge of leadership over this group and over those who remain in what we have been able to secure as our stronghold for now. All here before you are such as I am, children of the Crusades or Crusaders in their own rights. We have faced many trials, as you have, since the city's destruction, but now we seek to rebuild and to restore Kenabres to be the shining beacon it should be. Please, do not let fear cause you to abandon those who would join you in your fight against the hordes of the Abyss. Let us in so we may find how we may help one another."
While she hadn't been to this part of town regularly, it wasn't uncommon for her to accompany her father when delivering furniture to their wealthier clients, so tried to see if she recognised the voice. Or if not, at least think of someone who was likely to have been behind the gate when the invasion occurred and might still be alive.
Merlin peers around, expecting an ambush.
Merlin keeps an eye peeled for possible ambushes.
Iomenna hears a snort from above and the person in the tower responds, "Listen, lady, you could be an Andoran Eagle Knight and it wouldn't make a bit of difference. The folks in here pay me to keep anyone and everyone out when the end of the world comes, and that's what's happened, so I'm gonna do my job. I'm not here to fight the hordes of the Abyss or rebuild Kenabres into a shining symbol. I'm here to keep the riff-raff out, keep my employer happy, and keep having a safe place to lay my head at night behind these walls. You could be anyone - you could be a shapeshifter or an illusionist; we've already driven off one shapeshifting demon. So unless you have a personal invitation or a member of the nobility with ya, this gate isn't opening, and anyone trying to climb it or fly over it with magic is getting filled with crossbow bolts. We have all kinds, too - cold iron, silver, whatever it takes to get the job done."
"So we know there's still nobility in there, they're well armed, relatively safe, and not worried about food." Darya says turning to Iomenna. "What do you want to do?"
"We could ask if there's anything they need, maybe we could trade something for any fancy gear they might have?" Kelly suggests to the group.
"I wouldn't count on that working; that whole district's set up to be cut off from the rest of the city in case of a disaster to keep out the riff-raff. With how big the larders can be in those houses, they could probably last a while before having to leave." As she finishes talking, something seems to come to her.
"At least they could if the food's properly rationed... and they make sure it's all shared equitably..." She turned back to the gate and called out.
"Hey guard; have any of the survivors in there sorted out who's in charge? Or at least a way to make sure they make the most of what food they have in there? Because, and I may just be relying on stereotypes here, last I heard; the wealthy tend not to like sharing. How long do you think it is before someone finds out someone else is hoarding food for their own benefit and everyone goes for each other's throats?"
"You wouldn't want to find yourself on the low end of the pole when they decide who doesn't get to eat do you?" Darya calls out, taking a cue form Luci
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"What if we try tunneling under? I don't think we really need to get in there that badly but it could work?' Sario looks up at the guard, covering her eyes from the sun.
Merlin continues to keep an eye out for danger.
It's hard to see the guard - or guards, you're not sure - in the tower; it's built specifically to minimize the profile of the people inside, to protect against ranged weapons.
There's a bit of a delay after your latest barrage of questions, then the guard says, "Hey, each of the noble families has its own arrangements. My employer has more than enough goods to last for a year - more than enough time for things to stabilize here. If the city doesn't recover, we have an exit strategy, too. Listen, if you want to talk to someone in charge, I can go get someone, but unless you have some great or terrible news they're just gonna tell you what I told you."
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"They seem to be ok in there. I guess we can come back of there's something specific we need," Kelly says, "or something big happens out here."
"At this point they're as 'safe' as anyone in this city I suppose. One less thing to worry about, and somewhere we can petition to get in should things take a turn for the worse." Dayra says, considering Kelly's suggestion. "Might be worth it not to waste our time here while there's other people depending on us."