Morossa slips down the stairs silently, but the effort turns out to be for nothing, as she comes across a very bland landing room with a closed door and torches--nothing else.
Megirege made sure to try and take one of the torches with her. They weren't fancy, like the metal brazier she used to wield, but they'd do. She just needed to be careful with the flames.
"An empty room right behind a door. Be cautious. That door probably leads to somewhere important."
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Amanda says, "It is grand to meet all of you. Indeed we should not doddle long here lest the patrol's replacements might arrive. I just want to take a souvenir first."
Amanda grabs the poker that was used to brand them. "I have someone just in mind to leave my mark on."
She then moves silently toward the stairs about 10 feet behind Morossa.
Morossa listens at the door, and if she hears nothing, attempts to open it.
Morossa can hear the flicker of torches in the vast hall beyond the door.
Two men speak, and unlike the two guards previously dispatched, their voices come through clear, words concise and unslurred.
"That Blackerly is a damned thief! That game was rigged last night!"
"If it’s rigged, why do you keep going back to the gatehouse then?"
"The beer’s passable."
A laugh is heard. "Drinkin’ on duty! Damn, this place has gone to hell. Captain Callidan would have never tolerated that crap. That’s for sure!"
"Captain Callidan … he left, what? Two years ago?"
"Almost three and since then the place has been straight down the shitter. That old wizard never leaves his tower. He stays up there reading his books and petting his owl!"
"Petting his owl? Is that what they call it these days?" The guards enjoy a bit of a laugh.
Morissa puts a finger to her lips indicating for the others to remain silent. She continues to listen trying to determine whether the guard voices are from some type of a patrol, and if so, how much time it takes them to make one round of their patrol.
The voices remain stationary, though the way their words carry tells you they're facing away from the door and standing a short distance from it.
Morossa attempts to sign to the others that she hears two guards who are staying near the door.
<-- hey, half decent at least
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Amanda nods understanding what she's talking about. She gets close and whispers "I could create an convincing imitation of one of the guards. Ask them to help out in the cell block because the prisoners are getting roudy and need a thumping. That should attract them towards the door and then we can take them down. That or we could rely in the Wizard to do hist trick again."
Whispering: We do not know what the protocol is. That is why killing both guards was a mistake. There might be a password, or a secret knock.
Although if they were drunk, then some mistakes might be acceptable.
Morossa looks to the men:
Are either of you good at disguise? I can help some. If you look like the guards here, we might be able to get a jump on them. One of you could stumble out claiming to need to relieve yourself.
"This wizard does have a name, Zinbah, in case you are interested." Zinbah whispers testily in reply. "I only may cast the spell once, until I can find my spellbook."
He strokes his scraggly beard, wishing he could shave them off. "I have some other magic, minor cantrips yet still useful for distracting those guards. As for disguising myself as one of them...I have little skills in such, but perhaps one of you is more skilled in such?"
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Amanda whispers "I am experienced in disguise although the problem is that there are no female guards in this prison as far as I've seen. I would have to keep my distance and have some shadow cover for the uniform I just snagged to work."
She looks like a guard at least until she's up close as she's wearing a uniform. Taking the initiative she puts away her weapon and opens the door a crack making sure to use the darkness to disguise her features and attempts to fake a guard accent resembling one of the guards they heard before "Oai there fellas. Them prisoners are acting up in the cells back over there. We could use a hand show em whose boss, ha ha ha. Thought to call on ya to give ye some entertainment and give em a good thump in. Gotta work on ye old back-swing don't ya know."
The second guard realizes something is amiss about the person approaching, but it hasn't occurred to him that Amanda is an escaped prison. "Who let you in there?" he asks, turning toward Amanda and looking at her curiously. "There are no woman guards here by captain's orders."
As introductions are being made, Raymond offers his hand to each person in series.
"Raymond K. Hessel, racketeer and all-around Wiseguy, at your service. At least for now. When we get outta here, all I wanna do is get a crew goin'. This place is ripe for pickin', and before I got busted I didn't see no real competition neither."
Raymond calls out from the stairs, trying his best to imitate one of the drunken guards, "Hey, woman, just remember, you're not getting paid until I get my service, and I can't get my service until these prisoners are under control."
Raymond's lie convinces the guards, and the tension and confusion lifts. "Oh, I see. Hannigan's brought a tart up with him and dressed her like a guard. He's even letting her pretend to be a guard! That's cute."
"I hope you're willing to share! I'll throw in a few coin for some relief."
Morossa stands just inside the door, a handful of ashes at the ready, prepared to disable the first guard through.
Stealth:
Zinbah nods silently, readying one of his minor spells against the first guard to approach.
Lisbeth growls out an agreement and waits on the other side of the door, ready to cut down anyone who makes it through that isn't disabled.
Megirege makes sure to go out of her way, speaking once again in Celestial, quietly, hushed. As she did so, her words spoke in favor of Asmodeus, and her hands were blessed with a divine energy as she laid them on anyone not trying to be the distraction (so she could avoid throwing them or the others off).
Surprise Round: Guards unaware.
Zinbah's spell manages to dazzle the first guard, who cries out, "My eyes!" as the blinding magic makes his vision burn and bloom.
Grumblejack's size lets him swing down his makeshift club without standing too conspicuously near the door; he understands rudimentary stealth just fine without needing to be told. He slams his iron bindings down on the second guard.
But he misses yet again, not accustomed to the unconventional 'weapon'.
Lisbeth slowly, very slowly, swings her sword with both hands at the unblinded guard.
Surprise Round
Morossa moves close to the blinded guard, assuming that Lizbeth's blow with her sword should slow down the unblinded one.
Round 1
Deciding that the guard already seems to be unable to see, Morossa instead knees the guard where it counts.
CMB-Dirty Trick: <-- if successful, Sickened for 1 round, 2 rounds if more than 5 over CMD, may remove by spending a move action (per RAW)
That will teach you not to play with bad girls.
No guards seem to be on their way, the noise of the fight low and contained. So long as the signal horns sitting on their belts are not blown, there should be nobody coming in to check on the noise.
Amanda and Lisbeth's attacks both strike the guards, who are unable to avoid the strikes as they're caught absolutely by shock.
For if we even get into round 1 so ignore this for now:
Morossa's dirty trick manages to floor the unblinded guard, who clutches his groin as he falls to his knees, groaning in pain.
Raymond lazily points at the blinded guard and Sammy moves to engage with his arms extended.
Sammy continues to fight the guards.
Megirege kept careful eyes on her allies, monitoring their positions, and fending the rear flank of their group. If someone came from behind, sandwiched would be bad.
She didn't want to see allies hurt either, so she split her focus. If a guard came close to her, she'd whack them with her Torch.
"So it looks like one of these poor saps is still breathin'. What say we bring him around and ask him a few questions? I'm pretty good at gettin' people to tell me what I wanna know, and when we're done we can just cut his throat and be on our way."
Zinbah is silent for a moment, impressed by the efficiency of his newfound teammates. I can see us working well together for a long time...
He nods to the others, "Well done. Now let us first get these bodies out of sight. We can put them in the upstairs guardroom with the others." Seeing one of them is still breathing he adds, "Perhaps this one would feel amenable to...helping us?" An unpleasant smile forming on his lips as he nods in agreement with Raymond.
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"Indeed, perhaps a little interrogation would be in order to get some further information on this prison. Our main goals at the moment finding a supply room, taking out the Warden and the Guard Captain and then escaping the prison. Hopefully this guard can enlighten us further on the defenses we may still face. Let us move the bodies and see what this fool has to say about the prison."
Megirege grinned.
"Interrogation is something I may be able to help in."
This might just be her chance to shine. She didn't know. She knew that if she managed to keep a congregation in line, she could certainly get one man talking.
She placed her torch aside and clasped her hands together in what seemed to be prayer.
"Sammy, pick up the one that's still breathing and bring him back upstairs. Drag the dead one up with you. I'll be waiting."
With that, Raymond turns around and heads back upstairs. Sammy picks up the unconscious guard and slings him over his shoulder, then grabs the dead guard by the throat and begins to head up the stairs.
When Sammy gets to the top of the stairs he finds Raymond pointing at one of the chairs.
"Drop the stiff and show our guest to his seat."
Silently, Sammy obeys.
Morossa looks to the others:
I will stay down here watching and listening. Make your questioning quick, we do not want a new rotation of guards to arrive and wonder what happened to these two.
Morossa then finds a place in the room to hide and begins to watch the the hallway, listening for any more guards. (If there are no barrels or anywhere
"So who here's got the know-how to bring this guy back around?"
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Amanda says, "I could roust him with a healing spell. However I can at most use only two such spells a day. They will probably be far more useful in case we get in some other engagements with the guards. The potions are also far too valuable to waste on a pathetic guard we're going to kill anyway. Perhaps Megirege can give him enough care to wake him without wasting potential resources."
Megirege approached the unconscious guard and knelt in front of him, assessing the wounding. A short period of time later, she stood again.
"Does someone have a method of securing him? This will be quickest done if I take care of his wounds, but we must ensure he cannot retaliate. Mere rope should work if you can find any."
She intended to use a Cure spell, as it'd bring him out of it quickly. But he'd then be capable of moving. Not the wisest thing for them to do right now without taking some measures.
"I would not waste any of our limited resources on this one." Zinbah replies.
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Alisha nods to Zinbah's suggestion and says to the group "Yes, Zinbah does have a point. Lets just slit his throat and be done with him. We do not have resources to waste on a mere guard. We should concentrate on accomplishing our goals and escaping this prison. We could keep him as a hostage but I doubt the guards would go out of their way to save one of their own. Finish him off and let us carry on."
Lisbeth stands to the side, assessing everyone's intentions with the guard. She notes everyone in favor of gathering more information, those concerned about supplies, and those who wish to just kill the man and move on.
Each of you will have a place in my army, if He allows it.
Finally she speaks up, "The man's naked, stripped of all armaments and protection. Sit him in the chair, hold a blade to his chest. He will not move. Ask your questions, then slam the blade into his chest. Or kill him now, gather Morossa back up, and head out of here."
She looks from one to another, "I care not, but more information on what lays ahead is always of value. Otherwise, let's not waste anymore time."
Megirege closed her eyes and sighed before giving the mere minimums of stabilizing treatment to wake him up enough for a thorough questioning.
As she did so, she glanced at the others. "Let me do most of the talking. Too many voices may confound him to the point of not divesting any information at all."
After finishing, while waiting to see if he would wake, she'd cast Enhanced Diplomacy upon herself.
Megirege would cleanly look into his eyes, her common clothes and hair hiding most of her scarring for the time being. She brandished her torch, and held it before him, ready to set him aflame should he make a move.
"Sleep well? The nights can be hard you know, what with the high stress of dealing with some of the toughest criminals in the land, and a good rest is essential to answering their surely illimitable questions.
Of course, should you tire of answering them, you can get back to sleep, although no guarantees you'll awake again, as I may not save you a second time. However, I digress! This shouldn't take long. Just answer our questions, and I won't make you look like me."
She brushed her hair aside to flash her scarring, immense as it was, across the right side of her face. It didn't look survivable, and was something akin to a powerful magical burn, yet, there she was standing before him. Her torch was ready to go, the fire probably intense enough by proximity to him.
Megirege stood and sighed. "Hrm. He may be beyond my capabilities. Conserving resources is sound though, so let's go ahead and leave him."
Megirege placed her hands to each other as if in prayer.
The guard slowly came to with a groan, memory cloudy as to exactly what happened, only to find all seven prisoners armed and standing before him. "Hrn, w-what's--oh, gods!" The sight of you provides a fairly nasty wake-up call. His eyes are still half lidded and he begins mumbling nonsense as he stares, barely listening to Megirege until she bares her scars and threatens him with the torch, at which point he goes still in absolute terror. "What do you want?"
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Amanda says to him, "Hello guardsman. As you know we are all some pretty nasty customers here so if you are looking to survive I would answer our questions honestly and truthfully. If you do not."
She holds up the poker with the brand symbol on it in a threatening manor. "I will take this branding iron and brand this F on your forehead. So first question, where is the Captain of the Guard? Second question what do you know about the Warden of this prison. Third question, how many guards are in this prison. And finally where are the supply areas for the prison."
The threat of being branded a Forsaken scares him into squirming, eyes widening immediately in utter terror. "Sergeant Blackerly runs gambling every night in the Gate House with a guard from every post except the cell block and the entry hall. The warden would be livid if he knew, but he never leaves his tower. I think he's got some rare books or something, he doesn't care at all about running a prison. T-there should be three guards on duty, three with the Sergeant in the Gate House, and a couple in the Barracks. Uh, supplies, supplies..." The words spill out of him so quickly that once he has a second to breathe, he begins panting heavily, face going red as he tries to save himself by spilling out every piece of knowledge he can think of. "Uh... T-there's the storeroom, the barracks, the Sergeant's Quarters, the kitchen, and the warden's tower. Anything of value is there. Blackerly's been skimming and embezzling most of the prison's money, so there's not much useful outside of his and the Warden's quarters."
As he wakes up more, his eyes go wide. "Please spare me," he begs. "I-I'll do anything. Swear loyalty to anyone. I just want to live. I promise I won't tell them you escaped, and if you send for me, I'll come alone and be your servant or your slave or whatever you want. I can't die. Please!"
As the guard spills his guts, Raymond steps behind him. When the guard finishes he leans down and puts his mouth right beside the guards ear. Through a smile he says, "You won't tell? You promise? For some reason, I believe you..." Meanwhile, he makes a motion with his hands for Sammy.
As Raymond talks Sammy grabs the guard's head in his clawed hands, waiting for the word to either twist it right off his neck or to crush it like an overripe fruit.