Gunter does, indeed, open the doors for the others, pressing himself against the wall to allow the other's to push right past him. One day, he'll be a bit more useful, but for now, he'll leave the more... Hardcore stuff to the others.
As Darsis rushes into the room, he manages to brutally hack the singing woman open. She drops her bowl of radishes, which falls to the floor, quickly becoming covered in her blood. The other person in the room, a large man wearing a forest-green cloak, gapes in horror. "Irena! You-you killed Irena!"
This room is obviously a kitchen. Bread is baking, apples are being chopped, and some sort of stew is being assembled. In addition to the food currently cooking, there's much more food that's stored on the shelves here and there. Perhaps 40 days of perishable food and ten days worth of iron rations is available, as well as various knives and cleavers for usage. The man is pinned against the table he was working at, gripping it tightly with his hands. There's a large fireplace, that probably connects to the one from upstairs.
Sighing at the obvious mistake Darsis has made, Lysander summons his mind blade as he steps out into the doorway, throwing it at the man.
The man collapses to the ground, clearly dead.
Neither bodies have much on them, both have stored any valuables elsewhere. The only thing that could be worth anything is the man's beautiful cloak and matching hood.
This room has a door to the east.
"While this is a prison, and I'm sure the food is awful, was it really necessary to kill the cooks, Darsis? I for one wasn't even here long enough to have to suffer through a meal."
Darsis nods,
"Yes. If we intend to kill all of the guards to buy ourselves time for flight, we would have to be addled fools to leave any alive who could take word of what happened here to the so called authorities. You do not leave witnesses behind when they can hurt your cause."
He snatches up the cloak and carefully ties it into a bundle stuffing in rations.
In honesty, boy, the other is correct. "It was still rash," Lysander mutters, drawing his mind blade into being once more so that he needn't hesitate at the next conflict. "That man spoke, and could easily have yelled."
With that, the soulknife carefully creeps forward to the next door, treading softly and placing his ear against the wood.
Point taken--I tend to forget about that DC, and assume that whispering is fine enough. However, between the door, distance, and the fact that the woman was singing and the man was working, I doubt they could have heard us even on a relatively good roll... Maybe we should all take a rank of Linguistics and learn actual sign language, heh.
Darsis shrugs, taking a great bite of rations and gulping them down before wiping the crumbs from his face,
"Someone tell me this fancy cloak isn't magic, I doubt it, but then its hardly the kind of thing you expect a prison cook to wear. I'll keep it for disguise once we get out of here otherwise if nobody objects?"
Katrin would have left the cooks alive, maybe tongueless, but alive. She says nothing though. Simply watching with cold eyes as the others chastise Darsis. She will go to the eastern door and put her ear to it listening.
Mavro steps gingerly over the body of the dead woman, hardly even glancing at her before grabbing one of the apples and happily munching away on it.
He points to his blood god's avatar and motions for it to move over closer to the door.
"Well, what's done is done."
Taemon'dow moves in and scoops up a bowl of stew from the pot. He takes it down quickly with a hunk of bread while stuffing food into a potato sack with the other hand.
He takes two days worth of perishables, and another two days worth of the iron rations.
"Grab some supplies. Once we are out of this place it is a bit of a hike to meet up with our benefactor. And we have no idea how well supplied they'll be when we get there."
Outside the eastern door, one can hear little but the wind softly blowing by.
"We should just go. We've gotten revenge on the Sergeant, it would be foolish to go farther into the prison looking for more of a fight."
"Agreed"
"If we do that they will be on our trail in minutes. Were I this wizard I would come with full force save for one man sent to alert the authorities, that's if I did not have magic to do so... We would exchange a number of scattered surprised foes for an organized force that is aware of us, that is a very bad idea."
"Leaving does not have to mean a full scale assault. For instance, we have the Window on the veil. I am not certain exactly what it will do, but if it creates a portal through a wall... if we could get to the exterior wall of the prison, we could potentially use it to get outside, and bypass the guard station entirely. Leaving silently in such a manner, it might have taken till morning before they noticed we were missing. Of course, since someone killed the cooks, they'll notice this butchery as soon as this meal fails to get served, so our hand may now be forced in that respect."
Lysander shakes his head. "The deaths of these two are unfortunate for our cause and escape, but they ruin nothing. We need to move quickly and quietly while we still may. If the alarm has been raised, so be it, but we must move now. I see only folly in attempting to kill a wizard in our current state."
Darsis scoffs,
"Yes I'm sure the cooks wouldn't have noticed the guards were dead when they took them their meals, or the men failed to collect ours. We cannot afford to be soft these are our enemies the best course is to kill them all. That will almost certainly delay our pursuit, and will surely make this benefactor respect us more."
"I do not disagree that these vermin should be put to the fire, or crushed beneath our heel, or suffer any hundred other terrible deaths, but we won't be able to meet our benefactor if we don't escape."
"Regardless, let us be to it then."
Oooh. Fire! Lets light part of the prison on fire as a distraction and then kill them while they're running around like chickens with their heads cut off."
These fools won't make it out of the prison alive at this rate, the voice hisses. I would advise cutting the ties here, but your chances of escaping alone are even slimmer.
"Are we so intent on drawing so much attention to ourselves? Are we so intent on slaying every man" the soulknife points to the corpse of the singer--"and woman in this prison? We've been lucky thus far; Asmodeus has watched over us. How far shall we push that guidance?"
"I could care less if we kill everyone. However Taemon is the one with the contact. I'm sticking with him. I've got nothing else on the outside anymore. As I said, I'd prefer to leave now. But if we have to kill everyone, which would give us longer to run, we should create a distraction."
Darsis shrugs,
"Asmodeus means little to me I just prefer my enemies dead. It is the middle of the night there is no better time to strike! If we can find the guards dorm the fat Sergeant mentioned we will find sleeping men without armor. It will be a slaughter, by the time theyknow what we are doing half will be dead! And as for the wizard he is likely to be the one directing the hunt for us, if we kill him we deny them leadership."
"Do we even know how big this place is? Our mute here has already exhausted his supply of healing magics if I'm not mistaken. We are branded, everyone is our enemy, FOREVER. Best get used to it."
Gunter, frustrated with his companions everlasting concern with killing everyone, quickly scribbled on his board with neat, slightly slanted hand writing.
Can we just get out of here?! Seriously, we were so concerned about escaping, now you wish to kill everyone? Let's just leave this place! Certainly, you'll all have the chance to kill again once we are free! I'd rather have that happen when we are less likely to get ganged up on!
"Lets just f*cking vote and see where everyone stands. I vote we leave. Mute votes we leave. Mindblade boy votes we leave. The rest of you?"
"I vote for an expedient departure. We can kill whomever we need on order to get out of here, but I agree that to go after more is to invite disaster."
Darsis jaw tightens and his knuckles whitening about the hilt of his blade, but he believes in nothing more than self mastery,
"Very well. I suppose we head outside then."
"Send the summoned snake out first, I presume if it dies it can be called back later."
Mavro narrows his eyes at the woman. Speaking darkly and casting the apple core over his shoulder, he moves forward with intent.
"Well yes, if it does 'die' I can resummon it again... only after a day of recovering the necessary strength and performing a ritual again to summon up the snake made weaker from an unnecessary sacrifice, leaving me exposed and our party down a combatant. But I'm sure it was worth it to scout out a bloody doorway."
Pah, out of all the lowlife scum here I would have never figured you, woman, for a coward. And, yes, that is 'woman.' If you are going to refer to my blood god's aspect as 'the summoned snake,' then I suppose I shall have no patience for your name either. My snake's name is Aspros, and I assure you it is just as intelligent, perhaps more so, than you. Now, if are truly to escape, then I suggest we stop acting like a troupe of mummers and get on with being Talingarde's most dangerous criminals.
With that, Mavro opens the door to the outdoors, stepping aside, and motioning his arm in the same way a doorman might entreat upon nobility with a flourish of his arm and a bowing of his head.
Darsis moves out, nodding to Mavro, his greatsword sheathed and shield in hand, scanning the area.
Lysander also moves forward, crouching, blade in hand. Now that you're moving, best not to get caught. Just go quickly and stealthily.
"If it's so intelligent, why do you speak for it? Why does it follow your orders? F*ck you, and your snake." Katrin says, before chopping Aspros's head off.
As the outsider disappears she looks right at Mavro. "Ooops!" She says with sickening mock sweetness. "Guess you'll have to summon him again anyway. Next time you insult me, it will be your neck." She shoves roughly past the orc and the others to go outside. Nobody calls me a coward!
______________________
Making a discussion post about this.
Watching this whole thing play out, Gunter just stared in awe at the two and their little argument. Then poof, there goes the snakes head... How the hell was he going to get out of here alive with such angry people around!
Of course, if he let them lead on ahead, there would be a greater chance for him not to be used as cannon fodder. After all, how big of a threat would the little boy be compared to this crazy woman and the ogre, both of which seem to be having a contest on seeing who could cause the biggest ruckus.
Katrin turns to the eidolon, "If you're so smart why do you let that d*ckhead talk for you? He mistakes wanting to stay alive with cowardice. Would you not scout for us Aspros? To protect you master's sanctimonious green arse if nothing else?"
Outside, there is a small vegetable and herb garden growing, carefully organized and once tended by the servants the escapees just killed. Various plants that spiced up the variety of the prison's diet were there, though there is one plant, set off from the rest, that looks much more interesting- a shrub with dark purple-black berries and light purple flowers.
For the prison's defenses, there's a high wall that separates the main body of the prison from the island's shore- if the cliffs on the edge of the island can even be called that. The wall is quite thick, and from here you can see six smaller guard towers, the guardhouse, and one larger tower. The walls are around sixty feet tall, and the towers extend for another eighty feet.
"So," Lysander whispers, keeping his voice low enough that only those near him can hear it, "Now where to? The gate out, or do we find an alternate route? The cliffs around this place are steep." Though with Asmodeus' guidance--and your gifts--you may well be able to survive the drop.
"We should have tortured one of those cooks to tell us the back way out. Where they bring food and supplies in. Or at least found out if there was one. No way we're making that climb without several ropes and some grappling hooks."
The eidolon is about to speak when Mavro cuts it off. He is a summoned being of my design and of my make. He is mine and he listens to me. I will not allow myself to risk it. It is a part of me and without it I am defenseless.
"The climb is treacherous. Even if it were possible we could clamber down these rather intimidating crags, there's still the guard towers to contend with. I've scaled walls before, yes, but not while a fusillade of arrows are hurtling toward me. The Gate seems the only option.
Katrin's right though. There might have been a back way. We could look for one, but it'd be tricky moving out in the open with the towers looking towards us."
Mavro edges out of the door to take a quick peak around at the walls.
I don't see a staircase up onto the wall either from here.
Ignoring his master's whims however, Aspros slithers in between his legs and out of the door, keeping to the wall and peering around it with its sinuous form, returning back after it got a glimpse around the corner.
The snake speaks to the group. There isssss a building around the corner. However, I can't see much passsst it.
Katrin walks back into the dining room and opens the other door, sword in hand.
Katrin walks into a room full of drowsy, awakening guardsmen. As they notice the woman entering the room, they reach for their swords.
Katrin:
Mavro:
Lysander:
Gunter:
Darsis:
Taemon'dow:
Guards:
Group A:
Katrin
Darsis
Lysander
Mavro
Gunter
GUARDS
Group B:
Taemon'dow
The oracle seems to recall retrieving a rather large amount of rope from their earlier escapades. Although Katrin runs off, he does not follow, instead, scribbling quickly onto his board.
We have rope, can someone create a grappling hook or something? I imagine it wouldn't be too hard to escape, and we can go on about our way, instead of going back and causing more of a ruckus.
Lysander glances as the woman wanders off, but he is more concerned with the immediate issue of escape.
"That may not be wise, Chosen," the soulknife replies to Gunter's writing. "There are steep cliffs all around, and guards besides. Our best chance would be to sneak out through an entrance--preferably a rear, less-used and less-guarded one. Although we still have that "window"..." Lysander turns to Taemon'dow. "You have no idea what it does?"
"No; and from we've seen of the other objects on the cloth, we only get one chance to try it."
Katrin raises her polearm in a defensive posture and waits for the guards to get close. "Found some more guards." Katrin says over her shoulder.
Darsis hurls himself forward at the nearest guardsman buring the greatsword in the man's stomach and kicking him off the blood slicked blade to land on the floor in a swiftly expanding pool of his own gore!
Lysander turns around as he hears Katrin's words, and runs after Darsis, calling his mind blade into being as he moves into the dining room.