The Hound is frustrated and throws caution to the wound, mauling at the Warden with everything he has.
Trying to carve a hole in the defensive wall of soldiers in front of him, Eat-in-Shadow unleashes a flurry of attacks.
Igor's claws fail to find purchase on their target as Dahlia prepares to catch the Warden's next bomb. Reginald moves around the guard's right flank to punch the warden with a meaty fist, and Augh gashes a guard with his blade. Mei moved along the ceiling and struck at the warden, catching him with a kukri, but Captain Richter isn't so lucky with his blade against the guard, who blocks the skeleton's attack with his shield. Fiain throws caution to the wind and bites the Warden, but his claws scrape off of magical armor providing him protection. Eat-in-Shadows' claw finishes off the guard Augh wounded, although his other attacks do nothing to the adjacent guard.
The Wardens steps back from Fiain, Mei, and Reginald, and directs his flaming sphere to burn Edward Mulligan. The wereboar lets out a scream as the flames burn him to ash. The Warden fixes the monsters with a glare and shouts, "You will all burn as Mitra's cleansing fire destroys you!" He then throws a bomb at Lierin, with all the monsters on the other side of the room except Gop. Dahlia's attempt to catch it fails as the Warden's will is too strong.
Lierin catches fire, and all the other monsters except the Fire Giant Fiori and Gop the goblin perish in the conflagration.
The only remaining guard on the left side of the room desperately swings at Richter. Of the four guards on the other side of the room, one moves to strike at Fiain, two move to attack Fiori, and the final strikes at Gop.
The guards are mostly ineffective, but one gets through Fiori's defenses and rams his longsword to the hilt in the giant's stomach, bringing low the fearsome warrior.
Gop feebly stabs at the guard in front of him.
Augghh steps up and hacks at the warden
Tartarus sees the bomb and flattens herself to the ground, almost like a puddle of melted shadow, letting the flames whoosh above her and feeling very little of the concussive force driving the flames outward.
She pauses a moment, hoping the guards next to her think her dead from the flames. She is ready to grab at one if he strikes at her.
The Captain swings at the guard in front of him once more, imbuing his blade with necrotic energy.
->
Reginald uses his reach and power to slam at the warden.
"Bite and tear and slash and hack
Paint the town in red and black
Turn that human into shreds
Paint the town in black and red"
Again, Eat-in-Shadows attacks with preternatural weapons, manifested from the most common fears of humankind.
Igoroskandrallanotly claws at the guard before him.
His claws only scrape the armor.
Igor's attacks miss, but Eat-in-Shadows and Richter manage to bring down the final guard on the left side of the room.
Augghh, Mei, and Reginald attempt to slay the warden. Auggh's attack bounces off the wardens protective magic, as do two of Mei's attacks, but one of her kukri gets through and slashes the Warden, while Reginald's mighty fist smacks him on the head. Together they finish the old man off, and the flaming sphere winks out of existence.
None of the guards seems to notice Tartarus is still alive. One moves to assist his compatriot with killing Fiain, the other to assist in killing Gop.
The two guards manage to just barely bring Fiain down, and Gop is hacked to bits by his two guards.
Now that the guards turned away to attack others, Tartarus fires a blast of shadowy stuff at the nearest guard.
Augier moves up and slashes
Reginald takes a step back and waggles his fingers and utters an arcane phrase.
xarzith Nar
and a deep blue beam erupts from his index finger towards the guard.
Exhilarated by the bloodshed, Eat-in-Shadow pounces on the closest of the guards, shadows and blood mixing on the tips of claws and fangs.
The Captain steps up, flanking if possible, and swings with his signature move once again.
->
Dahlia pops off a shot at whoever's still standing.
Igoroskandrallanotly moves towards one of the guards. He has to wait to set up a flank, though.
Now that the guards turned away to attack others, Tartarus fires a blast of shadowy stuff at the nearest guard. It strikes him in the back, making him grunt with pain.
Augier moves up and slashes, but his sword misses.
Reginald takes a step back and waggles his fingers and utters an arcane phrase "xarzith Nar" and a deep blue beam erupts from his index finger towards the guard. The guard shivers slightly as the cold seeps into his armor.
Mei attacks the guard in front of her. Her first kukri misses, but her second and the bite both hit.
Exhilarated by the bloodshed, Eat-in-Shadow pounces on the closest of the guards, shadows and blood mixing on the tips of claws and fangs. His claws finish off one guard, and his fangs bite into another. Darkness spreads, blinding the guards.
The Captain steps up, flanking if possible, and swings with his signature move once again. Unfortunately, the angle is wrong, and his blow misses.
Dahlia pops off a shot at whoever's still standing, but the arrow misses in the confusing melee.
Igoroskandrallanotly moves towards one of the guards. He has to wait to set up a flank, though. Still, the claw bites deep into the guard.
Two of the guards in the dark lash out wildly at Igor and Eat-in-Shadows, missing. One runs to strike at Tartarus, but misses the tar-like creature.
Guard 2 HP - 8/22
Guard 3 HP - 19/22
Augghh hacks at guard 1
Reginald can't get a good shot due to all the chaos of the melee.
Dahlia fires at guard 2, cowering in the darkness.
Tartarus blasts the guard that closed up to her, keeping low and blasting upward.
"...bite and scratch and hurt and fight
they can't see without a light..."
Eat-in-Shadow attacks the guard who was just hit by Aggghhh's greatsword, in case it's still standing. Otherwise, he moves to the next closest one, bringing darkness and pain.
Igoroskandrallanotly strikes at a guard within the darkness, trying to bring him down.
Augghh hacks at a guard, gashing him badly.
Reginald can't get a good shot due to all the chaos of the melee.
Dahlia fires at a guard cowering in the darkness. Her arrow flies true and hits the blinded guard. He barely stands.
Tartarus blasts the guard that closed up to her, keeping low and blasting upward.
Eat-in-Shadow attacks the guard who was just hit by Aggghhh's greatsword, shredding him and bringing him to the ground.
Mei attacks again on the guard in front of her, eviscerating him
Igoroskandrallanotly leaves the darkness, to strike at the guard attacking Tartarus, taking advantage of the tar-creature's position to flank.
Richter moves to attack the same target.
But he misses.
The final guard, noticing there are three monsters on him and no longer able to hear his fellows, drops his weapons, puts his arms up and shouts, "I surrender!"
Surrender? What is that word?
Tartarus oozes around the room, letting the others handle the difficult for her task of speaking to this guy.
She looks for any useful items, secrets, etc.
"Of what value are you to us, guardsman? Prove yourself."
The guard gains a hunted look. "Um, well, I mean, you're, uh, that's...no, you probably wouldn't have been given mercy. But, but I can be useful! Yeah! I can tell you the password to get past the gates! You let me live, and I'll tell you the password so you can walk right out the gates."
Tartarus, searching about the room, finds that the Warden's furniture is very nice quality, although getting it out would be difficult, to say the least. Within his wardrobe is a collection of mostly elegant silk robes and other noble finery that looks to be worth quite a bit. There is also a wooden box on a shelf inside the wardrobe. Opening it reveals a dull gray stone with wreathed in flames that don't give off any heat.
The guards all have the same equipment as every other guard in Branderscar. The warden possesses several other items on his person, as well. Tartarus finds a vial, some scrolls, a dagger, and a very expensive ring on his finger that he recognizes as being from one of the rare wizard's colleges in Talingarde.
The vial is a potion of cure light wounds.
The first scroll is of magic missile.
The second scroll is a scroll of sleep.
The third scroll is a scroll of hideous laughter.
The final scrolls is a scroll of invisibility.
This is an ioun torch.
This finery is worth 750 gp in all.
This jeweled ring is worth 500 gp.
Kind of hard to walk out when the entire keep was put on alert Augier thinks
"Password? He thinks that we will be allowed to simply walk away? Eat-in-Shadow thinks that we would be too easy to recognize. And I think this one's whimpering is annoying me. Let us rip him apart and be done with it."
Tartarus slurps up her findings, though the finery is a bit too much to hold, so she goes humanoid for a moment, and wears it. She walks around a bit to get a feel for this clothing thing.
Dahlia sidles up to the guard and her snakes start wrapping around his head, shoulders,and neck. "Let's give the dear a chance at least. Go on, what's the password?"
Hmm, let me have a look here...
Reginald asks to look over the scrolls and items. As he looks over the ring, he seems to light up.
Ah, the old wizard I used to watch had one of these as well! It seemed to be regarded highly, I remember it being worth about 500 gold. As the others speak about the remaining guard, he looks over absentmindedly
We could always use him to lure others into a trap perhaps. In exchange for his own life.
The guard blanches as he realizes that giving you the password so you could walk out the front door won't work, and Dahlia's snakes are clearly making him uncomfortable. He stutters, "Uh, um, uh...well...uh... the password is Hesterfield. I'm sure I could be useful, okay? Yes? Maybe don't kill me?"
Igoroskandrallanotly takes a look at the finery.
He shrugs. "It looks well-made. If I had my full abilities, I could manage an excellent impersonation of the Warden with it. Gather it up. Maybe we can sell it."
Igoroskandrallanotly looks at Reginald and says, "For a wizard, he doesn't seem to have had a spellbook on him. Do you think it could be in that other room?"
Augier grunts. Huhahahuhuh. Maybe dress him up like Warden? They less likely to shoot.
Tartarus waltzes around in the clothes for a moment in an exaggerated impression of the warden.
At mention of a spellbook Tartarus responds in her weird voice, "Spellbooks are for dumb wizards." her emphasis of "dumb" is hardly noticible in the weird fuzziness of her voice.
Reginald glances up from the scrolls.
Ah, well, these are scrolls of magic missile, sleep, hideous laughter, and... interesting, a scroll of invisibility. I dare say companions, that the final scroll could quite well be beneficial in our next forays, I'd like to keep the scroll of magic missile and sleep on my person, as I am nearly out of spells today. Though I cannot particularly use the remaining one. But you are correct, I would love to find his spellbook, or my own for that matter. It would be quite inconvenient without it. Though, I am unsure of what the glowing stone is, though it most certainly is magical in nature.
At tartarus's quip, Reginald turns.
Now now, there is no need to call that which you do not fully comprehend dumb. I assure you dear sir... or madame..., I am anything but at this point.
"Shall we search the books downstairs then? There may prove to be many...interesting things held in the library."
Dahlia grabs the guard's arm and starts dragging him towards the staircase.
"Bah, books dustier than my bones will not help us escape this place. Let us be gone. I say we fight our way out. Use the guard as a hostage, it might buy us a few feet of crossbow free escape."
You clever types might think of something. have the Tarball dress up in warden clothes. get us closer.
"Guard boy, do you execute prisoners within the walls or at a more public spot outside?"
The guard visibly shakes as you surround him. "Um, well, you were all supposed to be executed in combats at the fairgrounds they've erected outside the city walls for that purpose. Usually we'll build a gibbet, headsman's post, or pyre just outside the walls."
Igoroskandrallanotly looks at the clearly still tar-looking human-shaped Warden, then says to Augh, "While it isn't a bad idea, I don't quite think they'll believe it. We might have better luck getting myself and someone else with invisibility on them inside the walls as a fleeing guard."
Looking over the room, the doppelganger turns to Reginald and Kahmunash and says, "The Warden has an Office across the hall. What do you say we take a look in there and see what we can find?"
"Ah, do you mean to have this one build a gibbet for himself? Dramatic irony is not lost on me!"