The group pushes through to a short hallway that takes a right turn at the end, only thirty feet down. While the end of the hallway the party is on is dark, a small bit of light trickles in from around the corner. Moving to the end of the hallway near the turn, the hall extends another sixty feet, lit by a torch burning on a sconce. There are five doors in this hallway; two on the left, two on the right, and one at the end. Karl immediately recognizes this area as housing for the four captains of Balentyne. Bellams older brother, a Captain himself, once brought him here for drinks in his room after a particularly frustrating encounter with Lord Havelyn. It is disturbingly quiet.
"Too quiet in here. These boys love to party and snore like a herd of cows, they wouldn't be this silent."
Dreading what he'll find, Karl begins opening doors.
Cal moves to cover Karl with Mathilda, the monstrous crossbow primed with a fresh magazine of bolts loaded.
Each of the doors on the sides of the hallway are locked.
Kyriel looks around as Karl tries the each of doors in succession.
Now just where did you all get to...?
"Karl, what's at the end of the hall?"
[oc]What is at the end of the hall?[/ooc]
While Karl mulls it over, he gives one of these doors the same treatment as the one to the cellar earlier.
Tracks on the floor indicate a great deal of movement throughout the day, possibly guards coming and going. The most recent movements have been through the door at the end of the hall.
Barging through the door, Karl finds Captain Barholde, dead on the floor. The wardrobe, desk, chair, and bed are all dented, broken or pushed about, being slammed into during the obvious struggle that occurred here.
"Shit. I was afraid of that. Bellam's not gonna take this well."
"We don't have time to check the rest, they're probably dead too. We need to get moving and find these bastards." Karl says, thoroughly pissed off at this point.
He stalks onward, trying to follow the trail as best he can.
Somber, but determined, Kyriel follows along, keeping an eye on the most recent of the tracks.
"They're set to ruin this place as much as kill the soldiers. They hit the forge and the officers already. What would be the biggest and most time consuming asset to hit here? They'd probably be saving it for when they don't have to worry about the noise and all the easier stuff is out of the way," Cal said, taking the pragmatic view once again.
Various wounds cover Captain Barholde's body, ranging from slashes made from large swords, bite and claw marks, and even burns. He certainly did not die a swift death.
Moving through the door at the end of the hall, Karl enters the main thoroughfare of the keep: a twenty-foot wide, one hundred and sixty foot long hallway with massive double doors on each end. From his experience here, Karl would know that taking a right through the double doors would lead to the drawbridge that connects the keep to the gatehouse that serves as access to the savage north. Going left would lead them out and to the road leading back to Aldencross. There are three doors on the wall opposite the side the party enters from, all closer to the left exit. There are also two doors on the same wall the party comes in through, further down on the left.
"You know him better than us, Nukilik. Where would he be? Does he have a safe place to hole up in? Or would he be facing the threat head on?"
"Havelyn's a hard-ass but he's no coward. I wouldn't be surprised if he's set himself up to face the bastards blade to blade. Assuming he knows they're coming, though, which he might not."
"Up!" Karl agrees, and goes.
The room above the smith once served as to commemorate Balentyne. Where banners of recognition once proudly hung from the walls, now only tattered cloth remains. Two guards have been murdered here, their bodies discarded to the floor. There are two additional exits: a door heading to the northwest, and a set of stairs leading up.
"Nukilik, Karl. How much higher up do we have to go?" Kyriel asks, pausing for just a moment at the bodies of the guards."I'll want just a moment to prepare before we confront our quarry, ideally."
The group continues up the tower, the next floor was once a supply store for arrows, but they have all been recently burned. The lack of smoke would suggest magic may have had a hand in the destruction.
Finally, one more floor up, they reach the top of the tower. Two large double doors at the top of the stairwell are burst open with such force that one lay on the floor. The room itself is an orgy of death: dead bodies of dozens upon dozens of messenger ravens litter the floor, surrounding their keeper, Martin. He lay on the floor facedown in a pool of blood large enough to indicate he could no longer be alive.
From the opening in the wall used for the birds to come and go, much can be seen:
The top of the tower is two stories above a courtyard, with a keep in the center. A stone watch-wall is erected around the perimeter. Centered on the western wall, a small access bridge leads from the watch-wall to the gatehouse, where Karl would know a lever is placed to raise and lower the drawbridge beneath.
In the middle of the access bridge, everyone can clearly see Lord Commander Havelyn fighting off three attackers. One is short, lithe and garbed in black dancing agilely around Havelyn and laughing. Another is adorned in plated armor as black as the night itself, gripping in his hand a sword larger than most of you. The final remains in the back, throwing divine incantations. They are roughly a hundred feet away and two stories down.
Initiative:
19 - Kyriel
17 - (Enemy)
10 - Cal
8 - Karl
8 - (Enemy)
6 - (Enemy)
5 - Lord Havelyn
2 - Nukilik
As Kyriel moves towards the opening in the wall, he pulls his bow into his hands, and takes careful aim at the short, laughing man, hoping he's not been noticed. He carefully draws, aims, and looses.
Kyriel lets loose a shot worthy of a tale to tell his grandchildren. The arrow catches the man in the neck; while he remains on his feet, the wound is clearly mortal. He snarls out, taking one last stab at the Commander.
Both the crazed man and Commander Havelyn fall to the ground.
Karl, the crazy bastard, leaps out the window!
He slams into the hard stone 20 feet below, then picks himself up and dusts off.
He slams a hand to his chest and bolsters his ability to deflect harm even further.
The plated man turns slightly, half-facing Karl and half the Commander laying on the access bridge. He smiles wickedly at Karl before yelling out "Have you come to save your precious commander!?".
Without hesitation, he brings his blade down on the back of the commanders neck.
The plated mans ally rushes behind him, chanting briefly...
"Nah!" Cal shouted out the window, "Got a report of some dogs gone rabid. Figured we'd do the civic thing and put them down." He hated guys like that. 'Knights' and their ilk were a waste of meat.
He took careful aim this time and snapped off a shot from Mathilda, treating the sword wielding sociopath to a taste of his capricious lady's scorn.
"Hey Karl! I changed my mind! It'd be more amusing to watch you beat Captain Overcompensation there to death with your fists."
Karl spits to the side in disgust.
"Havelyn knew the risks when he signed his commission, but I'm not about to let you get out of here with your skin intact for killing him, boy."
He moves as fast as he can hustle in plate and closes much of the distance.
"The man in back, he's a healer!" Kyriel calls out as he watches the man cast his spell.
Kyriel nocks another arrow and looses it at the knight, then throws a mocking salute to Cal, before dropping off the tower with a sly grin,
"Tower's all yours, Cal!"
"The only thing you're about to do is taste Asmodean steel!"
The towering figure charges down the causeway towards Karl swinging his blade with all his might, each hefty step on the way sending vibrations down the narrow bridge.
The other mysterious man moves towards the gatehouse, digging through his robes to produce a flare. Pointing it straight up, he fires it into the sky, cackling fiendishly. "Talingarde will taste the might of Asmodeus!"
"The only thing you're about to do is taste Asmodean steel!"
Karl takes the blow like it's nothing, catching the man's sword arm with one hand, stepping a little to the side, and uppercutting him with his Cestus.
"Have to try harder than that you limp wristed little git."
"Look mate, if I ever wanted to taste 'the Might' of someone I already know plenty of accommodating ladies and a few lads as well. They charge very reasonable rates and look better in leather," Cal shouted from his perch after fetching the priest a glancing shot from Mathilda.