Rose grabs one of the guard's suits of armor and pulls it over her fencing jacket.
It was far too large and hung past her knees. She gave it a dirty look and found a belt to synch it tight around her waist. She looked like a child playing dress-up with her parents clothes.
After a few failed attempts to roll up the chainmail sleeves, she sighed and let them hang over her hands.
"When I get home I'm going to have to have a talk with Tia about remembering to pack my armor when she makes up one of those veils of hers..." she mutters to herself.
Shaking her head, she said "Someone make sure Ulrich doesn't get himself spotted while he's traipsing around in the garden. We need to find Blackerly's card game."
Quomaugh pulls his weapon from the sheath and hefts his blade over his shoulder. "Don' look a' me, lass. Ain' nothin' I c'n do t' keep 'at loony in line," he says, but he moves ahead, ready and willing.
Nodding in assent to the exit iead, Kyras added "After our departure, you must tell us more about this Tia of yours. She seems to be quite the lady of power and import."
Rose smiles. "I'll tell her you said so. Flattery will get you everywhere."
In the garden, there are various vegetables and fruits, though one subshrub, set off to the side, commands Ulrich's attention. With leaves, light violet flowers and dark blackish berries, he can recognize this plant as Belladonna, or Deadly Nightshade. The plant seems to have been recently harvested, though there's still quite a few berries left.
Grumblejack, who has very much been following you the entire time, grimaces at the plant. Clearly he's had a bad experience with this it.
"Finding this card game may not be as important as simply getting out of here. Why not head for the gatehouse next? This card game might be there... and if not, it is the way out... or did you mean to climb the wizard's tower and perhaps find there a foe we can't defeat?"
Ulrich's eye catches the Night Shade and the ogre's distasteful reaction to it. He plucks every good berry and flower he can use, stashing the harvested components in his pouch. Standing straight up, declaring, "I am done here." With that, he heads for the guardhouse, fingers twirling the syringe.
"The gatehouse seems to be the most direct obstacle between us and freedom; let's not postpone it."
"If there are guards still in the prison proper, or on the walls, they'll see us crossing the courtyard. Maybe there's a way onto the walls from inside the prison. If there is, we can skip the courtyard,move along the wall, and enter the guardhouse from above."
Sholano nods in agreement with Rose. "Sounds like a plan to me. The less we run around in the open, the better. The, ah...direct approach has been working out so far, but sooner or later I think it might catch up with us."
"The doctor headed out from the garden straight to the gatehouse. While I hate to admit he may be right, considering what he's done so far, I haven't heard any shouts, screams or the sound of missiles hitting ground or flesh. Perhaps straight across the grounds might be the quickest, safe route after all. I'm all for expediency at this point."
"He did what?" Rose's eyes flash. "Fine. He's hellbent on getting the attention of every guard in this place, let him. He'll make a great distraction. Anyone who feels like following him, go ahead. I'm sticking with my plan."
Sholano nods again, looking grim. "Loath to leave a companion behind, but it would seem he's made his own decision."
Bloody madman, we're probably better off.
Not in the mood for a babag at the moment, Kyras acquiesced silently to Rose; addled easily by taken out of his carefully crafted nest of home, he felt vulnerable and without fervor for such argument.
The longer they stayed though, the greater his anxiety grew.
Ulrich steps out from the garden, eyes noting the wooden structure just by the guardhouse. He peers at the walkways and towers, briefly noting what he can see before approaching the door, hand gripping the needle very tightly now. He puts his ear to the door and listens.
Ulrich is able to see at two large angry, bored looking dogs of unknown breed in a kennel. What they're doing is unknown.
He's also able to see that there are two guards patrolling the tops of the walls, armed with bows and arrows. IF the group doesn't move fast, the guards will most likely spot them.
Ulrich's eyes widen briefly as he tucks and turns back to the others. Rose was most likely leading so he interposes himself with her and whispers, "Back!" He shoves her back if she doesn't comply, the broad armed man tougher than he looked. He waits for the guards to pass before relaxing with a sigh and whispers, "Time to depart yes?"
Rose hadn't followed. She hadn't left the kitchens, obviously not having any intention of following Ulrich out into the courtyard.
"Welcome back." She said sarcastically. "See something out there you didn't like?"
Ulrich looks about at the others and Rose, stating, "Yes. Guard dogs actually. We should probably rub dirt on our skin lest the smell of blood drives them wild." With that, he waits for the guards on the wall to pass, then steps back in the garden and gathers some top soil, rubbing his face, hands, and neck with it assuming manure wasn't the source of fertilizer.
Rose sighs at the the crazed doctor's antics. He was madening, but they weren't caught or dead yet, so his behavior was somehow a bit endearing. She had a special place in her heart for the mentally unhinged.
She looked around the kitchen. "You're going about this wrong, Doc. We are going to have to get past the kennels eventually, and we're in the perfect place to deal with them now. Don't suppose that in all your medical training you ever learned how to make poisons?"
"We have this sleeping draught that I found... maybe we could lace some meat with it and offer it to the dogs?"
Ulrich looks at the group and says, "What do you mean? I took this nightshade to create antidote! I'm a doctor, not a crazed assassin." He looks down at his belt pouch and mumbles, "Though the plant is already quite toxic by itself. Even if I had no idea what I was doing, just crushing the fruit would be enough..."
He blinks and jerks his head back and upright, looking around at everyone and says, "But that's why I need these to make antitoxin for it...oh right, that's why I didn't bring it up.." He shuffles through his pouch and walks past the others, looking about the kitchen. He's about to reach for something when he notices the remains of Myrtle's headless corpse in the adjacent room.
He just stares at it...
Rose considers pursuing the matter with Ulrich, but after a moment's pause she just shakes her head and turns to Travis.
"That sounds perfect. Let's see if we can scrounge up some meat while the good doctor admires his handiwork."
Travis starts searching the kitchen for some meat to lace with the sleeping draught.
"While you prepare dinner, I'll keep an eye on that patrol." Kyras did not know, in fact, if the guards were patrolling or just wandering about, but he did know if there was a pattern to their movement, they would need to use the ensuing blind spots to their advantage.
Staying near the wall and keeping a low profile, he kept still, he eyes the only things moving. Fortunately, the drab garbs he had didn't call attention to himself. Not exactly something I endeavor to do at the moment.
His senses on alert for foes, he waited for the group to finish their culinary creation.
Travis is able to find any sort of standard meat to work with for his opperation with the dogs. The pantry is mostly full of beef, though some chicken, sheep, and pig are also represented here.
The guard still don't seem to notice the group, though they are coming closer to a point where they could potentially see them...
After soaking the meat in the sleeping draught, enough for several dogs, just in case, he tries to sneak across the open area, careful only to move when the guards are not in position to see him easily.
When he gets near the kennels, he tosses the meat to the dogs, in the hopes they will devour it and fall asleep.
From the shadows of the kennels, he will motion to the others once the dogs are sleeping.
Still as a tree trunk. Kyras watched and waited, his eyes darting to the kennel, then back to the guardsmen, then to Travis at the kennels. Quickly, damn it! Soon the guards would see them, but before they did, the transmutor would need to break for the kennels and tell them. He just hoped the dogs were asleep by then...
Concerned about the boldness of Travis' actions, Rose pulled on a spare apron, grabbed a loaf of bread and stepped out for a moment to throw it up to the roof for the birds, hopefully distracting the guards.
If any of the guards glance her way she gives them a cute wave and quickly goes back inside.
Sholano hunkered down, slipping his knife sideways into his belt as he mimed rubbing at the stone. If any guards chanced to glance this way, he hoped to appear like a cleaning servant until they passed by.
The dogs are quite excited about the arrival of fresh meat, and soon begin to devour it with glee. About a minute after they begin to eat, they fall asleep quite instantly. It doesn't seem that anyone has noticed. The birds at the very least are excited about being fed.
Travis hunkers down near the kennels and motions for the others to join him as soon as the coast is clear and the guard patrols are as far as they get from this part of the open space.
Quomaugh readies his weapon, hiding with his back to a wall. A grin rests easily on his face, far too calm an expression for this tense situation.
Sholano nods back at Travis, and starts timing his breaths to even intervals, forcing himself to stay calculatingly calm as he waits for the right moment to dart across to where the tiefling waits.
Making his way over to the kennels after he sees the canines have taken to napping, Kyras walked as carefully as he could, keeping low to the ground.
When arriving, he says in a low voice: "They didn't seem to have noticed us. We should be clear to move out if they take their eyes off our exit for a minute."
Now that the dogs are asleep, Travis creeps over to the doors to the gatehouse and awaits the arrival of the others...
It doesn't seem like anyone has been noticed at the moment, though on top of the gatehouse there does seem to be something moving. It's about three stories up, and it might be people, but its hard to tell...
Rose waited inside the kitchen doorway with Grumblejack. She was not happy about the fact that the group had apparently decided to wander out into the courtyard.
Who knows how many guards left behind us, including that damn Sergeant, the Warden still in his tower, and these people decide to go for a nice stroll. It's no wonder they were caught in the first place. These can't seriously be the people daddy wants to bring into the fold. Father help me.
"Jack, if they get spotted, they're going to run back here and then every guard in this place is going to come down on us. We need to be ready to barricade these doors."
Travis listens at the doors to the gatehouse. Again he motions for the others to cross the yard area when the guards seem to be at the far limits of their patrols, and away from this open area.
When the guards have passed their point of vision on the kennel, Kyras says in a hush to the others "Shall we make a break for the exit? Now's as good of a time as we can expect."
The doors to the gatehouse seem quite quiet, like there's nothing behind them, nobody there. The guards on their walkways walk quickly, as if they're just going through the motions of walking along. Though it may be a good idea to be careful around them, they don't seem the most diligent of people.
After the group waits for a spell, seeing no difference in movement from above, Kyras motions to them. "Now's as good a time as any. Come!" he says in a forceful whisper. Keeping low to the ground, he trots as quick as he can while keeping his upper body steady along the wall to the gatehouse doors.
Sholano shakes his head once, wondering once again at the pack of lunatics he's been saddled with, then ducks his head and dashes along behind Kyras.
The two patrollers don't seem to have seen anyone, as of yet. The gatehouse doors seem unlocked, easily opened despite their large size, curiously unprotected. To go through them would be a simple task.
The other doors you can see from here are those that lead into the largest tower of the complex.
Rose eyes the ogre behind her, thinking that they were completely insane to think that the big brute had any prayer of not being spotted. She shook her head and waited for a time that the rovers were least likely to see them, and then she moved.
Once all are across the yard, the dogs still silenced by the sleeping doses, Travis listens at the door one last time before attempting to open it. If he hears nothing, he opens the door.
Nothing heard at the door, Travis opens it to see... nothing. Well, nothing except for large ladders leading to the upper floors of the gatehouse, and a door to the west. The room they enter is smaller than the gatehouse itself, leaving room for rooms on both sides.
Well, as it is, there's a large door, almost identical to the one just entered, leading outside and onto the bridge. Is a run to freedom imminent?
Travis enters the room and creeps silently to the west door and listens there for any sounds that might be behind it.
Nothing can be heard from behind this west door. But something can be heard to the east, two people talking to one another.
"Sounds like there's someone down there!"
"No, no, it's probably just nothing."
"No, I'm going to go check!"