"Can a dwarf ever really be on top of things?"
"Certainly... small things - shoe boxes and the like."
Cain's shit-eating grin at the dwarf is dripping with an unspoken taunt.
As the dwarf stands, Cain manages to pierce him through with the glaive, dropping to the floor as his blood spills out.
Xanos utters another spell and the central guard's mind suddenly becomes clouded, able to fend off the attacks coming at him but little else.
Price and Gwyn surround the southern guard and between their strikes finish him off.
Kalina attempts to strike at the remaining guard, but while unable to return the assault, he is at least able to keep his defenses up.
G2W
K LS ;
K D ;
Price holds up a hand to forestall her companion's attacks... for a moment.
"Drop the weapon, surrender, and answer a few questions... You'll be one of the few people to make it out of this prison alive." She gives him a smile that stands in sharp contrast to her bloody mace as she casts a glance at the cutthroats around her. "Or you can end up as worm-food right now."
Seeing the tide turn so suddenly, Cain sees an opportunity. He drops the glaive as he steps up to the remaining guard, Blackerly's blade flashing from its sheathe and hanging in a two-handed stance… ready to fall.
"Listen to the lady."
Xanos lowers himself down through the trap door slowly, like he was finishing a pushup, revealing himself to the remaining guard.
If thw guard had worked here longer than a few days he would have heard of who Xanos was by now.
"...or don't." he said behind the mask he still wore, his voice a low rumble of casual menace.
The combined mental assault of our three villains is more than this guard can handle, though to his credit he adamantly shows backbone in the face of danger. "Heh, guess we underestimated you." He throws his sword to the ground and gestures with his shield arm, as though asking if you want it removed. The tremble in his hand betrays his fear.
He eyes the fallen dwarf, blood pooling from his wound, "Whatever you want to know, I'll tell ya."
"Whatever we want to know? How generous of you. That takes quite a burden off of us." Xanos said conversationally. He moved a chair beneath the trapdoor and gestured towards it. As the guard made his way to the seat, Xanos continued.
"While I was making preparations to destroy this useless place I was having a discussion with Grumblejack. Have you met Grumblejack? Look up. Say hello, Grumblejack."
Xanos leaned against the edge of the table and smiled behind his mask as he spoke.
"The thing that we agreed on regarding the worst part of our incarceration was the lack of good conversation. He came to despise the silence. I had been gagged, you see, and he isn't much of a talker, but he does love to listen. We were quite the pair for quite a while. Apparently he has difficulty trusting quiet people. People he does not trust tend not to wind up eaten. I prefer simply keeping away from them, but who can really argue with the simplicity of his convictions? Now that you've met him, I believe we can agree that it's in everyone's best interests to keep him content. That puts you in a bit of difficult situation. You see, Cain here rather likes the quiet and gets irritated when people speak frivolously. He tends to silence people by removing the parts that make noise. As you can imagine it's been a bit of a balancing act keeping them both happy and we've rather exhausted our conversation options."
He leaned back, relaxed, like a cat watching a wounded bird.
"So, I'm afraid it's all up to you. Why don't you go ahead and just start talking. If you start getting eaten or cut, you'll know you need to be more creative."
And then he waited, letting the silence hang in the air.
Price listens politely to Xanos and lets the fear flower in the guard before removing his shield and tossing it to one side. She indicates he should sit then pulls up a chair and seats herself delicately. Price crosses her legs, taking the opportunity to kick the guard's sword across the room. She smooths her disguise as if it were an evening dress and clasps her hands in her lap - all smiles.
"Good evening, guardsman. I'm Miss Price. Why don't you start by telling us your name, how many men are down at the Bridgehouse right now, and everything you know about the Warden."
The surrender is no surprise. A sheep will be a sheep, he thinks as he takes the man's horn .
So Cain -- seeing the situation well in-hand by Xanos and Price -- sheathes Blackerly's blade and goes to making himself useful. He begins with a circuit of the room, using his nose as much as eyes, ears and hands to find anything useful about the room or its contents.
Following his circuit, he quickly searches through the gear and pockets of the two fallen guardsmen, taking a few moments to use the dwarf's clothes to clean the glaive's blade.
"..You see, Cain here rather likes the quiet and gets irritated when people speak frivolously. He tends to silence people by removing the parts that make noise…"
Cain lifts his head from where he's digging through the other human's possessions and gives the man one of his grins -- little more than a baring of canines. He shrugs at Xanos's observation with a nod that says 'It's true' before getting up and patting the man down for anything useful.
Looking between Xanos and Price, his gaze settles on Xanos as he answers, "There are three men at the forward gatehouse right now, a-and a dog. Those three are sober at present, and alert. Wil pulled a prank, but too bad for him Blackerly ended upon the receiving end. They were supposed to be up top, but me and," He looks ove to the dwarf and other soldier, "these two switched so we could get in the game. Looks like bad luck for us, heh." His laugh is a forced attempt.
"As far as the Warden, the guy doesn't pay attention to most anything down here. Blackerly is pretty much in charge. The old dodder just sits up there and plays with his owl. He's from Hesterfield, if that helps ya any. Learned that because it was tonight's gate password. I know he's one of them wizards, he's done a few tricks to prove it, try to make us loyal to him. Not sure much else to say."
Cain begins wracking his brain for any information he can recall about the wizardly warden or Hesterfield. "What kinda tricks?"
Price warms herself by the fire and ponders. She pulls a half-burned twig from the grate and uses the sooty end to take notes on the sheaf of papers they retrieved from Blackerly's office.
"And you are sure there are only three guards at the bridge? Your shift schedule shows three at the bridge and three off-duty. We haven't been able to definitively account for one of your off-duty boys... Grumblejack was a bit over-zealous and he didn't leave much to identify. I should caution you - Lying to me negates our offer. Care to amend your statement?"
Gwyn walks over to the fire and lets the warmth spread through her damp clothing and soggy cloak. She's quiet and doesn't do much.
...except send a dagger dancing over her hand.
"He'd make things glow, a show of colors. Not much to be impressed about to be honest, seen the same stuff at festivals as a kid. And honest, should only be three and a dog. Don't know nothin' about where he'd be if not at his post."
Price nods, "Fair enough. What's your name, soldier? And what do you know about the Warden's tower? Do you patrol it? Have you been warned about going up the stairs?"
"My name? Evritt. Warden's tower, it's three stories. First part's dedicated to Branderscar's history. Memorabilia and whatnot. Second floor he keeps his library. Lot of books there. Don't read too much myself though. Top floor's his quarters and his office. Only been in the office a few times, pretty sparse."
"Evritt, I need to know if you would like to live through the night. Do you consider yourself a hero, or a coward?"
Evritt gives a nervous laugh. "Heroes live forever in song, but not much else. If those are my options, I'll go with coward."
"As expected." Xanos said, geting up to walk over to the nervous guardsman. Touching the man's chest, a black spiral swirled out, broke in a number of places like it was being shattered, then froze in place and then sunk through his clothing to mark his skin. A moment later it faded from view.
"The kitchen is your haven. Go there. Do not come out until dawn. Doing anything else will set you against us a second time and we will not be so merciful. We are going to kill your fellows and the warden. I'm sure attempting to interfere will earn you a place in the songs you mentioned, in case you change your mind about being a hero."
Price shakes her head. "No. The girl is your affair, Xanos. This one is mine. I ensured his safety... and it will be on my terms. Evritt will be tied up and rendered insensible."
She turns to the guard. "You will live to see tomorrow. You will awaken bound in the courtyard with no more than a few bruises."
Xanos lifts his eyebrow and shrugs. "Suit yourself."
Cain carries the dead human up the ladder, tossing him up in front of Grumblejack. "All yours, big guy. Give you the dwarf if you'd prefer."
He descends a few rungs, hanging from one hand and foot. "We have anything else we need to do here? Still some work to do."
"I think we've learned all we can."
She turns to the guard. "We don't want to carry you... so you are going to come along with us to the guard post on the other side, the one with the door into the compound. There we'll knock you out and get about our business. If you try anything I don't like - you become a snack for Grumblejack."
Looking back and forth, the Evritt picks himself up, and though his knees are wobbly he does a credit to his post and doesn't fall back down. "L-lead on, milady." he says, half-joking though his eyes don't leave the whole in the ceiling where the ogre can be heard.
Without waiting, Cain grabs up the glaive and climbs back up through the ceiling. He lets Jakes help Price with the captive guard, taking point in heading out of the gatehouse and across the dark and rainy yard. A shadow in the night.
Our villains approach the tower of the Warden, south of the prison proper. As they make their way across, they notice a plant in the rain, separated from the rest of the garden.
The plant appears to be Belladonna. From this plant you could harvest 3 doses of the poison.
Belladonna
Type poison, ingested; Save Fortitude DC 14
Onset 10 minutes; Frequency 1/minute for 6 minutes
Effect 1d2 Str damage, target can attempt one save to cure a lycanthropy
affliction contracted in the past hour; Cure 1 save.
Continuing on, they see the Tower itself. Three stories tall, only the top floor with windows, shutters in place to prevent the rain from seeping in.
Xanos is clearly not paying attention to the prison's garden...
Price continuously sweeps the area ahead of them using Detect Magic and warning Gwyn and Cain (as the door-breakers) if she spots anything.
Price's scan of the door does not reveal the presence of any magical auras. It appears to be safe in this regard at least.
Cain waits for the signal from Price, then steps forward -- lock picks in hand. He does a quick check on the door for signs of any traps or triggers before checking the lock itself.
Price whispers playfully, "If that doesn't work, we've got about 200 keys here..."
Cain grunts, "Oh, sure.. if ya wanna do it the easy way."
Attempting to pick the lock of the door of the Warden's tower quickly becomes a moot point. The door itself is not locked.
Cain silently pushes the door open. "It's a wonder these guys can keep their dogs from escapin' 'round here... don't know if there's been a locked door in the joint."
He pokes his head in, straining with ears and eyes without actually entering. "Price, you wanna take point and sweep for magic?"
"Sure. Stick close. If we see that bird - hammer it quick - and we may have to rush to find the Warden."
Price peeks into the room, bathing it with her occult and ordinary senses, before sneaking in cautiously.
Cain nods, leaning the glaive against the wall as he grabs his bow. He strings it as he steps across the threshold a second behind Price.
This room is a testement to the history of this edifice, of it's rise as Castle Branding to it's eventual change into that of the modern Branderscar Prison. Plaques cover the walls listing the names of nobles and deeds long forgotten.
One of the wall hangings is an old brocade tapestry that depicts Castle Branding being turned into a prison with the motto “His Judgment Cometh and that Right Soon”. The tapestry is worth 150 gp. It is however very heavy (50 lb.) and awkward (-2 to any Acrobatics, Climb, Jump, or Swim skill checks while carried).
A set of circular stairs lead up to the next floor.
Xanos moves in behind Cain and Price, calmly surveying his surroundings. Grumblejack followed him, dragging a length of oily rope.
Xanos paused in front of the tapestries, saying nothing. Then he reached his hand back and said "Oil."
The ogre dutifully deposited it in the tall wizard's hand.
With a rag he applied oil to the bottoms of the tapestries, letting it run down the wall to where he pointed Grumblejack to drag the rope as they continued up the stairs.
Price ignores the propaganda and moves across the room towards the stairwell, scanning it with Detect Magic and her darkvision.
Cain turns and gives the tall man a grin, "I'm a huge fan of your work, but can we take care of the warden first? Love to have your talents on-hand in case he's not asleep."