The first tentacle catches Blackerly cleanly, knocking the wind from him and bending him over. The next two, however, merely bounce harmlessly off his armor. While the other guards you've encounter so far might've been floored by this onslaught, Blackerly stands. Despite the stench whiskey rolling off him, he is no novice warrior. Taking a step back, he snatches his sword off the table and rips it from its scabard. "DAMMIT I always knew you were the traitor Wilbur! GUARDS!"
"You think your guards are going to save you? Where do you think I got this face?" Erebus laughed as he continued his onslaught.
A tentacle snaked out and grabbed Blackerly's longsword before he could reach it. The tendril then retracted and slapped into Erebus' hand. His hand reached behind him and turned the door bolt
"Feel free to scream louder."
You can remember Blackerly sneering as you were branded. The all-to-eager look on his face as you were handed over to his "care."
What a far cry that was from now; Blackerly backs himself up against his bed , cowering. "Please, I can grant you freedom. You'll never make it through the gates without me."
There it was. The sweetest nectar. Erebus smiled. His form shifted, slowly mirroring Blackerly's own.
"I can grant you freedom. You'll never make it through the gates without me."
"Please, I can make you rich beyond bel--" KKCHH! The door behind you rattles as something smashes into it. Blackerly retreats further into the corner. The door still stands.
"Stand there out of sight. Say nothing if you wish to live," he whispered harshly to Blackerly. "If this goes poorly, you die first."
Then he spoke up louder in Blackerly's voice. "What the hell?!"
He threw the latch and cracked the door to look outside, only his face and part of his shoulder visible. "Who's tryin' to break down my damn door?"
As soon as you crack the door, a large, ogreish foot slams into it, pushing you back and slamming the door open. "Hmmm, how to tell dem apart? The fake prison chief's got...ah...I forgot. But the real one's a COWARD!" Grumblejack roars as he advances on Blackerly, overturning the table in the the process. You have only moment to act before the ogre's sword will likely come down on the terrified sergeant.
Erebus knew better than to get in the way of a rampaging ogre. Oh well. Blackerly's fear was enjoyable and he could have been a useful pawn, but this was fine too.
Erebus gave Blackerly an apologetic shrug, his smile never leaving the face that wasn't his.
Blackerly still tries to dodge the sword, but it catches him under the arm and sends him catapulting across the bed. Still he pleads, "I can give you money, just let me live!"
From across the bed Grumblejack slaps Blackerly in the face with the flat edge of the longsword. The pitiful man crashes against the dresser, blood streaming from the side of his face. In spite of the beating he still stands. Grumblejack simply laughs. "Poisoned me good didn't you? Spose this beats you dying on me right off." The ogre tosses the sword aside with a clatter and cracks his knuckles, then speaks to you, "Tiny sword's got my hand hurtin'. You care to do the honors?"
Blackerly, all the more terrified, stares one final plea into your - his - eyes. "It's not me you want, it's the Warden. Spare me and I'll give you gold and the Warden."
"I like his whining. I was considering letting him live." Erebus mused. "If he brands himself."
"Yes anything," Blackerly moans, "But the warden keeps the irons up in his tower. You'll need to take me there."
Grumblejack's face tightens. "Warden. Another little'un who needs squashing. Coward, tried to cast his spells on me."
"Oh no, no. The only place we are taking you is the cells. We will come back with the brand. Then you will prove how much you want to live." Erebus smiled.
"Give me fifteen seconds, then bring him if you do not hear me talking with anyone," he said to Jack and walked back out the door.
The coast is clear. Grumblejack follows, dragging Blackerly by the scruff of his chainmail up the stairs. The sergeant nearly faints as he marches past the corpses of his former command, making it easy work for Grumblejack to toss him into one of the cells.
Erebus grabbed the cell keys and locked Blackerly inside the cage Erebus himself had spent the last few weeks in. As he did so his form shuffled through all of the faces of the corpses they'd walked past on their way here before settling again on Blackerly's own.
"I want you to think, Sergeant. I want you to wonder if next person who enters this room is who they seem. For the rest of your life, everyone, anywhere, might be me."
"Who am I?"
Whimpering, Blackerly retreats into the darkness of the cell. "No. No, no, no. What has Balin unleashed on us? Who are you? WHO ARE YOU?"
"I'm sure you'll figure it out if you think on it long enough. I'll let the mystery keep you up at night." Erebus smiled.
Then he left the whimpering coward in his cell.
Blackerly's room contains a bed, a small table, and a wardrobe. The personal effects in view are mostly worthless. In the wardrobe is what's now becoming a common sight in Branderscar - a flask. This one is almost entirely full of some foul, herbal-smelling liquor.
Grumblejack slumps down onto the bed, taking up almost the entire thing. "Can't wait ta get some sleep when we get free."
Erebus let the ogre enjoy the bed. He focused his attention on the desk and the wardrobe.
The wardrobe contains Blackerly's tabard, emblazoned with an icon of a fortress set upon an eight pointed star, to complete your disguise. The only thing of value at the desk is Blackerly's key ring.
Erebus shrugged into Blackerly's tabbard and swapped the guard's sword for the sergeant's own. Then he went into Blackerly's office and looked around.
Much of the paperwork is taken up by run of the mill financial accounts and guard reports. However, the real prize turns up buried in one of the stacks - a map of the prison annotated with guard posts and patrols!
Perfect.
Erebus took a minute to familiarize himself with the map, then folded and pocketed it.
Going back in the bedroom, he addressed Grumblejack. "I am going to continue scouting."
Using one of the keys found in Blackerly room, you unlock what is very clearly a storage room.
Inside are a few hundred torches, spare lanterns, two 10 gallon kegs of oil, extra guard uniforms, signal horns, quite a bit of rope and two barrels labeled ‘emergency rations’.
Hanging in a special rack is also to be found several brands with the runic F symbol and a specially made brazier for heating them. Looks like the irons were not, as Blackerly claimed, with the warden.
Erebus chuckled to himself. He was impressed, really. Not many people would think to lies so smoothly while they were in the grip of mortal dread.
"Jack." he said into the next room. "Change of plans..."
Erebus set the brazier down in the middle of the room. "You lied to me, Blackerly." he said to the man in the cell. "I understand why. It was a valiant effort. Still, I think you are now realizing that nothing you do will save you from me."
He stoked the fire and set the branding iron into it.
He looked down at his own forearm. A mass of fresh, still healing scar tissue rippled to the surface revealing where Blackerly had branded Erebus a few weeks ago. "The witch hunter who brought me... Balin, was it? He even warned you not to. I was not guilty of anything. Not then. The person I was had done nothing wrong. He was as much a victim as the corpses in the hallway. As you are now. He was a hero of your people. Cursed with me inside his mind. He was your ward, not your prisoner. This was simply the safest place to put him while other minds tried to come up with a solution to save him. And yet, you branded him anyway. You could not help yourself."
"There is poetic irony in that. I was so confused then. Lost, really. Still sorting out this mind and form. Not sure what to do next. The man who I used to be had a formidable will, and with help he might have been able to be freed from my influence."
"Do you know what brought me forth from my fugue?" Erebus asked. "It was this."
"You burned me. My true flesh. Not the seeming I wear. Me. I can hide it. I can move it. I can wrap it in other forms, but I can never be free of it."
"I don't understand how it happened. Some combination of my own weakness in my larval state, and the symbolism of what the mark means to the deluded worshipers of this land, combined with your wonderful need. Somehow, the fire you lit touched my very soul. It is a part of me now. There is some strange romance in that."
"I will carry your mark until the end of my days. In all my history, in every fragment of myself, in any dimension, none have ever given me such a gift."
His arm stretched unnaturally so Blackerly could clearly see the brand. "The pain you caused. Your desire to see me afraid. You reminded me who I am. You made me."
"You might not realize it yet, but this is my thanks to you."
Erebus picked up the brand, and snaked his arm though the bars again to hold it out to Blackerly.
"Take it. You've earned it."
Blackerly takes the brand.
"You bastard. Promise me you'll let me live." The hot end of the iron seems to vibrate in the darkness, what with Blackerly's trembling in fear. By the dim light you can see tears streaming down his face. Slowly, agonizingly, he rolls up his sleeve, and then...
"AAAAAAAAAH!"
Hot iron meets flesh. Blackerly screams as he holds the iron to his arm but does not remove it until the scent of cooked skin fills the air. The iron hits the floor with a clatter. So does Blackerly, who has fainted.
Erebus collected the brand and the braizer, putting out the flames and taking them back to their closet.
"I am impressed he had the will." he said to Grumblejack.
After dropping off the branding equipment he headed to the next door up the hallway and walked in with Blackerly's usual arrogant swagger.
Once again Blackerly's keys get you into a darkened room: the armory.
Inside are six spare sets of gear for guards: chain shirt, heavy steel shield, long sword and longbow; all bearing the mark of Branderscar just like the equipment you wear. There is also a rack holding a dozen more leather-wrapped clubs. Further, there is also a stock pile of twelve quivers all filled with arrows.
There is also a separate assortment of weaponry jumbled together and obviously little cared for - likely what the guards have confiscated over the years. The assortment includes: a shiv made from a woman’s metal comb, a heavy mace, spear, quarterstaff, battle axe, rapier, great sword, trident and glaive.
Grumblejack is quick to trade his longsword for the greatsword, still small in his meaty hands. "Better to chop 'em with."
"Wait here in the armory. Keep to the dark and watch those doors." he said pointing to the double doors just outside the room.
A number of small cots and chests mark this room as the barracks for off duty-guards. There are also a dozen locked chests in the room. True to Warden's orders, the watch has been increased, for no men reside here now.
Erebus looked at the chests, then looked at the keys he'd collected. Figuring he had a few minutes, he started testing keys in the locks.
You eventually match the four keys you've found with their associated chests. Inside is the following:
"Oh, Blackerly I am beginning to like you." Erebus chuckled at the revelation that the sergeant was running an illegal gambling ring.
Once he had used all the keys he broke out his picks.
You work your way through 4 more chests.
As you root around inside the fourth, you're interrupted by a scream coming from the direction of the south door in the dining room.
Erebus sighed. Grumblejack was proving to be a liability.
He jogged toward the sound of the screams.
Opening the kitchen door, you find yourself blocked by, unsurprisingly, Grumblejack. An unarmed man in common clothes struggles headlocked in one of Grumblejack's hands, while he holds his greatsword out in the other. Across the room, holding a kitchen knife as if in standoff, is a terror stricken woman.
"Fee fie fo--ah forget it, just gimme some food little'un!" Grumblejack gestures menacingly with the greatsword, knocking several pots to the floor in the process.
Erebus looked to the other door, making sure it wasn't open. The last thing he needed was some cook bolting out and raising the alarm.
From the angle it didn't look like he'd been spotted by the screaming woman. She was focused on Jack anyway, so he stepped to the side of the door, keeping an eye on the other entrance but otherwise waiting to see how this would play out.
"Please don't hurt him! The woman's knife shakes in her hands.
Grumblejack grins at her, "Okay," and brings his sword down on her head. Before she can scream again, the woman is dead.
The ogre's attack gives the man an opportunity to snatch a meat cleaver off the counter, and hack away at his captor's knee.
The ogre roars as the cleaver lands.
Erebus leaned against the wall, still waiting.
Grumblejack makes short work of the man and is no soon turning the kitchen over in search of something to eat. "Little bastard got me good." The ogre's taken enough wounds to put down two guards, but he doesn't seem to pay much attention.
Erebus leaned in the doorway. "Killing the cooks is not watching the door."
Almost in the blink of an eye the kitchen is in much more disarray. "Can't watch the door if I starve to death," Grumblejack says as he demolishes a hunk of raw meat.
"I freed you because I understood. I was caged as well. Predators are not meant to rot behind bars. Now, though, you have twice abandoned the simple task I gave you. That is a pattern."
Erebus pointed to the door that lead outside.
"If the woman had run through that door, you would have guards bearing down on you right now. You are eating now because of sheer stupidity on her part. You were lucky."
"I want to be extremely clear before we go anywhere else. If the kitchenmaid had run you would be dealing with guards. Alone. I can leave here at any time."
"Obviously that is not what I want. This conversation should be proof enough of that."
"I want you to think about what happens to you if I decide that the best thing for me is leave you here. Is that what you want?"
Grumblejack throws his sword onto counter defiantly. "You order a big dumb ogre like that and he'll crush you." He narrows his eyes at you. Suddenly, he bursts into an oddly mirthful laugh. "But I ain't a dumb ogre. I get it, you're the boss." He heaves the sword onto his shoulder. "So lead us to freedom."
Erebus let out a small laugh as well. "That's good. I am rather... pliable, so crushing me might be difficult." He waved his arm bonelessly back and forth in a way that was more bizarre than humorous.
"The next step is to deal with the guards on the walls. That is a task better suited to me. Your job is to kill anyone who comes into this building while I am away. When I return we will move on the gatehouse together."
"First though, I am going to go finish looting the barracks. Enjoy your meal."
The last three chests contain: