Quomaugh glares at the woman for a moment. "Me hands are bolted t' th' wall! Wha' in th' nine 'ells are ya talkin' 'bout!" he shouts, making sure to emphasize that he isn't trying anything. "Ya ain't e'en me type! No meat on ya a' all!" he states, full of conviction.
The woman looks the group up and down, but is about to go when her keen eye catches something... off. "What the hell's going on in here?"
She pulls out her club, about to strike the prisoners into unconsciousness.
Roll for initiative.
Guards:
Kyras knew not what drew the jailer back, but he hoped it had nothing to do with him given the looks of that club; maybe his age would pass her eye over him as a threat.
Sholano swore again, in the silence of his mind. They were so close.
Knowing it was almost certainly futile, Sholano falls back on his best weapon - his voice. "Whatever do you mean, officer? Nothing wrong here." Even as he does so, though, he gives the set of picks a toss with his wrist, hoping to somehow drop them into the alchemist's hands without being noticed.
The woman notices Travis first, with the manacles draped over his hands. Holding tighter onto her club, she gives him a firm whack with the club, hoping to send him into unconsciousness and to make the other prisoners think twice before attacking her.
And if successful:
Half of the damage being non-lethal.
Travis growls at the woman and strikes back by trying to grapple her into submission.
The tiefling successfuly grabs the unsuspecting and ill-defended guardswoman, and despite her struggles she cannot squirm out or retaliate.
Travis holds her tightly, hoping that his companions will kill her off with a few well-aimed strikes now that she is relatively defenseless. He looks at the rest of them, his eyes flashing red in the dim light of the cell. He growls out a soft whisper, "Finish her..."
Rose slips out of her open manacles and quietly rises behind the grappled woman, slamming her head into the stone wall
Rose is easily able to grab and slam the woman, and as her head crashes into the wall a thin trickle of blood comes from her already bruised and scraped forehead. She's still conscious, though, and lets out a small groan. Her hand futily grasps around her baton.
Ulrich wakes with a start when the fight breaks out, just barely catching the glint of metal flying towards him. He catches the picks and takes a deep breath, tapping his numb fingers along the ring of the cuffs to find the groves and keyholes, gaining perspective of the device. He cared not who saw him try to get out, so he simply gets to work on the manacles.
Quomaugh grits his teeth as he starts struggling against the bonds restricting him, his eyes becoming bloodshot as calm fury surges through his veins. "I've 'ad enuff waitin'!" he states in a harsh, low growl, too focused on freeing himself to yell.
Despite his efforts to break free, the bonds still hold Quomaugh tight. Dr. Ulrich is similarly not having much luck either- his attempts to pick the locks on his manacles are unsuccessful. It seems luck is not on their side at this moment.
>Group A
Sholano
Kyras
Guards
Group B
Travis
Quomaugh
Rose
Ulrich
"Blast it," Sholano mutters, and gives up on subtlety. He dashes over to the alchemist and snatches the picks from his hands, going to work himself. He continually checks over his shoulder, praying that the other guards take their time getting in here.
Not able to do much physically, Kyras could but talk them along.
"Hurry - they won't be long to find her." Kyras gazes at Sholano in waiting, hoping his fingers will not fail him.
Travis whispers very quietly to the guard, "Make any sound and I'll snap your neck like a twig."
The guard tries to escape from the grapple, hoping for a miracle.
She fails miserably at her attempt to escape, however.
Travis attempts to damage the guard with a knee to her kidney while maintaining the grapple.
Quomaugh struggles against his bonds again, still gritting his teeth.
With a sudden, decisive blow, the guardswoman falls unconcious with only a soft grunt. With both her internal and external bleeding, it seems likely she will die in a matter of moments.
The door to the cell is still open, and the guardswoman has various items of interest. She wears a uniform with a chain shirt over it, and carries a club and a heavy steel shield. She has two other weapons- a sheathed longsword and a longbow with 20 arrows. She also has a small key attached to her belt.
Watching the mongrel of a man struggle against his shackles, he felt a pang of disappointment. That drive could be put to good use if he were released. What a waste. It seemed the guard was faring rather poorly against her "captives" though, and excitement began to fill Kyras as he realized freedom may indeed be had by him just moments from now.
Travis lowers the guard to the ground as quietly as possible, searches the body and takes the key first to Quomaugh's bonds, and tries it, to see if it is the right key. If it is, he'll move on to Kyras next, then to the doctor if he's not already free on his own.
The key is most definitely the wrong key. Not only does it not open the lock, but it's a bit too small for it anyway.
Quomaugh continues to be unsuccessful in breaking his bonds.
Travis just waits for the lockpicks to do their work then... he shows no interest in any of the armor or weapons on the guard. He does offer Rose the uniform to replace her prison garb if she wants it. It might be handy to have at least one of them wearing a guard uniform if a ruse is necessary, though she might want the chain shirt as well to complete the 'costume'.
He does shrug toward Quomaugh as a sort of apology for not being able to free him, and tries to assist him in breaking the bonds with sheer strength.
Unfortunately he only serves to get in the way, and he stops with a sigh, shrugs again, silently moving back and out of the raging dwarf's way.
Quomaugh sighs and seems to slump in his bindings. "Jus' use th' damn lockpick, ya ninny," he grouses, giving Travis a frustrated look.
Travis whispers back, "Sorry I don't know how to use them... maybe Sho can get you free with them?"
Sholano, sweating a bit at the tension of the situation, continues to work on the locks of the alchemist.
The manacles finally give way with a satisfying 'click', and Sholano moves on without a word, intending to get to work on the dwarf's bonds. About to set to, an idea comes to him, and he hands the veil over to Rose with a light toss. "May want to see if you can get anything else useful out of that, milady," he whispers urgently.
Ulrich's heavy arms fall to his sides, blood rushing back into his cold digits. He slowly staggers back up, more blood rushing from his head after sitting down for such a long time. He cracks his neck and muses, "Still intact...a shame that she be too much of a burden. Oh well, perhaps next time." He walks over the fallen guard and relieves her of her chain shirt, donning the armor for himself.
He pulls out the longsword and extends it to the "orc" once he is free. As for the other items of interest, he sets them each aside for the others to collect, searching a last time for anything he may have missed. Once he is done, he stands and rubs his wrists, saying, "Mind indulging us on what your 'visitor' had in mind after this stage?" His heavy gaze rests on Sholano.
Sholano grimaces slightly at the question, annoyed by how little he actually knows. He keeps up his work on Quomagh's bindings as he quietly speaks. "First, getting out of here. After that, if we feel like showing our gratitude, our mysterious friend would like us to find our way to a manor house across the moors."
His fingers slip on the wire, and he loses one of the tumblers he had in place. Muttering to himself, he returns to work.
With another few seconds work, he smirks, pleased with himself, and sets the dwarf free. That done, he moves down the line to the last of their little group and begins working on Kyras' manacles.
Quomaugh finally pulls his hands free and stands, cracking his back. He takes the dagger he had hidden under his leg and hands it to Ulrich, taking the Longsword in return. "Now 'is is more me speed," he says, smirking.
Rose takes the veil and looks over the embroidery left on it.
What else did Tia send me?
The veil still contains one bottle, one sack, one five-pointed star, one window, one rope, one stack of small round items and one lantern.
Nothing immediately useful. Later. This needs to be well planned.
Travis whispers to Rose, "Maybe if you put the window against an outside wall, we can use it to crawl out and climb down with the rope?"
Sholano's head pops up from his intent work on Kyras' bonds when Travis mentions the window's possibilities. He hadn't had much experience with magic, so far, mostly having done his best to dodge the arcane whenever possible, so this idea hadn't occurred to him.
The 'clink' of a wire slipping out of place throws his attention back to the locks, and he frowns, mock scolding the wire with a wagging finger. Again, he tries to set the other half-elf free.
"Hah," he breathes, having freed all of them at last. Dusting his hands lightly, he rolls the set of tools back up and tucks them into a fold of his rags.
"Now then. First things first - does anyone know the layout of this damned place? Wouldn't want to waste that window on a wall that doesn't get us out of here."
"Howwwwww about, we walk over into the other room, and ask those guys?" Rose said sweetly.
Sholano looked at Rose, only barely hiding his surprise at the suggestion. "That's...an option, I suppose. But I'm not certain we can take them all without rousing the rest of Branderscar. If we still have other choices, I'd think we might try to avoid folk likely to want to lock us back up."
Kyras nearly collapses to the ground, his joints stiff and circulation stultified. He had been wondering if the lockpick had forgotten how to use his tools. He caught a few breaths before slowly standing.
"Both of you have the right of it. Him in words, her in spirit," chimed Kyras to Sholano and Rose. "They'll look for her and sound the alarm anyway, so we must dispose of this batch of guards. It may be best to let them come to us though - unaware of trouble. An ambush sounds better than a fair fight to me."
He walked slowly in a small arc, his legs gradually remembering how to function. He looked to Travis, a mutt of ... something more. "Do you think you could knock the wind out of them? The less they could scream with, the better."
Those other two are bizarre though. One doesn't seem to know the meaning of quiet, the other in his own world. This will be a tricky escape.
"Unless you can fly, there are only two ways out of Branderscar. One involves a two or three hundred foot dive down to freezing, churning water full of sharp rocks. The other involves going out the front gate and walking across a very long bridge with guard posts on both sides."
"I'm not the best swimmer, so I plan on leaving the way we came in. I don't plan on leaving people behind who might follow me."
Quomaugh grunts as he sheathes the plundered longsword at his side. "I ain't ag'inst fightin' all 'o th' guards... though 'at di'n't go so well las' toime... what d' ya folks wanna do?" the "orc" asks, while attempting to stretch his sore arms and legs.
"Maybe it didn't go so well last time because I was the only one fighting until Rose was free. I'm sure we'll do better with you free and armed, Quo."
"I could use some healing if anyone has the capability. That guard hit me pretty hard."
Ulrich smirks as Sholano expresses his discomfort. After Rose finishes her explanation, he says, "Then it's settled; we'll take the front door out...and with as much supplies as we can reasonably carry." He gathers himself up and looks out the door, listening and watching briefly before ordering, "Take the front orc. It'd be rude of me to rob you of any bloodshed you'd wish to impart on our humble hosts."
Since no one else expressed any interest despite his offer, Travis takes the guard's uniform and puts it on. It may not fit him well, seeing as how it belonged to a female guard, but it is better than his prison garb by far. Without the chainmail, it might not go far to identify him as a guard, but Quo already claimed and donned the chain shirt . He does hold the guard's club and longbow out and offer them to the others, if anyone wants them, since the 2 daggers and longsword only arm part of the group.