Reginald feels Squeaks emotions flair maybe 6 or 8 times in about a minute before he returns. There is an abjuration and an enchantment aura on the chest.
Dahlia does find old shift schedules with names and times, but unfortunately not today's one. Possibly Blackerly keeps it on him. Each shift schedule follows the same pattern, sometimes new names are added as guards get rotated in and out from Varyston according to other documents. Shifts are 14hrs as well as a break or two and scheduled rotations to keep guards fresh and alert instead of falling asleep from standing in one spot for too long.
On the edge of the map the road is labeled with an arrow The Old Moor road - to Varyston. Branderscar is not isolated from the rest of Talinguarde by more than a day or 2 of travel around the Moor.
The bed makes a loud cracking and ripping sound as a leg is ripped off. You realise you are quite safe as the thickness of the stone walls has already kept anyone from hearing the fighting previously. The only thing that would likely be heard through it would be a sound amplified somehow, by magic or implement, say a signal horn.
Eat-in-Shadow opens the door of smelly bodies which is the guard's quarters. Simple wooden bunk beds line 3 walls. There are snoring sounds, but one guard is sitting up with his back to the door, "By Mitra! It's not time to get ready for next shift already is it? I can't sleep. Only two more days of this until I'm back in Varyston with Amelia. Would you come in and shut the door already? The light is hurting my eyes. Wait... why isn't the light hurting my eyes? Who put out the torches?"
As Edward talks, Tartarus waggles a tendril at him from side to side as if saying "No," followed by a fair impression of a big eyeball complete with "eyelids" and a dimple for the iris, which stares at Edward for a moment before melting back into a flat wall hanging.
As the barracks door is opened, Tartarus flattens herself onto the messhall door alone and keeps watch for any boots about to exit it.
If Augier hears, he points towards the door Eats-in-Shadow opened. Awake man He whispers.
Igoroskandrallanotly looks at Edward and says, "A strong swimmer, are you? I imagine that the riptides and currents around such a rocky island are quite powerful - the sort that could easily pull someone under and drown them, especially if they are wearing armor." Still in human form, he smiles a not-quite-friendly smile at the boarman, then leaves the bedroom
Walking through the office back into the main hallway, he sees Eat-in-Shadows standing in front of an open door. Silently cursing, the doppelganger, still in human form, rushed towards the barracks, hoping that the darkness would help mask the fact he wasn't actually a guard. Once there, he casually said, "That's my fault. I threw up and knocked the torch out of its sconce, then we had to put it out before it burned the carpet. I'm heading off shift."
Dahlia whispers, "I suggest we leave at least one alive but incapacitated...my poison can take care of that relatively quickly if we hold him down, but he'll recover after a few days. And we leave a copy of these records with him."
Then she wraps the robe and a cloak around herself to hide her less-human features and heads towards the barracks doorway.
Fear the dark and fear the night,
As you lose your precious sight,
I can smell and taste your fright,
Snuff a life like candlelight
Eat-in-Shadow is about to pounce on the guard as Igor comes forward with a bluff. Instead of going for the man's throat, the bogeyman sticks to a corner, hidden in his own darkness.
Kahmunash quickly moves over to Igor, and implants the fearsome guise trick in him again, restoring the guard disguise.
The man turns to look at you and recognises the guard you are impersonating. "Ah Ferrish, can't believe the Sergeant let you off shift early, even if you are sick. Being up there having to check on those monsters would make me sick too I reckon." He doesn't notice the two dark figures of Eat-in-Shadow and Mei. There are 7 others sleeping here. By each bed are personal footlockers, the little key that you have found on each of the guards you have killed look like they would fit here.
Dahlia requests that one of the larger fellows holds down one of the sleeping guards and she covers his mouth, then her snakes will bite him a few times nonlethally and let her strength poison run its course until the guard is at 0 strength. Then she'll pick one of the several incriminating documents, put it on his chest, and then tuck him in under the blankets. "Do be a dear and give this to whichever self-righteous knight comes to rescue you in a few days, please."
Once the violence starts, Augier rushes in and brings his sword down upon a sleeping human. With a grin that stretches ear to ear and a gleam in his eye, he hacks through the man's throat and works his way down until just meat remains on the bed.
"Yeah, especially some of those pulsing masses of...whatever they are. It will be so good to see them put down..." As he talks, Igoroskandrallanotly walks towards the awake man. Once they gets close, they say, "Hey, I gotta tell you something..." The doppelganger motions the guard to lean forward. Their hands shift under Kahmunash's disguise, and they lash out with a claw into the guard's throat, digging in and ripping it out.
Eat-in-Shadow grabs one of the guards by the throat. As the poor sap wakes up, he crushes his windpipe, savoring the scent of fear as he slowly suffocates, his eyes unable to see anything in the darkness surrounding his killer.
Kahmunash waits in the corridor until he hears Igor strike, then quickly ducks into the room, ready to stare and casts Daze on the guy, just in case Igor didn't drop him in one blow. He'll leave the slaughter to the rest of the party, as he just got this nice suit and he'd rather not get it all covered in human blood, thank you very much.
Tartarus rolls in silent as a shadow and wraps herself around the head and neck of a guard, silincing him and applying a bloodchoke that puts him out in seconds. Then she melts off the bed back into the shadows again.
"Yea, makes me sick. Can't wait for them to be out of here." The sleepy guard replies, "Yea, what's tha-" he turns around to see what you might want to tell him and claws cut off his question into gargling blood.
The rest are ended with swords or claws through throats. 8 more guards out of the 60 are dead, though these only have their personal key around their necks and simple bed clothes on them with their uniform folded by the bed. Their armour and weapons are stored in the armoury.
Guards(on duty) 32
Guards(off duty) 12
Sergeant 1
Warden 1
Cook ?
Servants ?
Monsters 22
Igoroskandrallanotly, the business done, wipes his claws on the guard's bed and heads over to Dahlia to look at the map, consider. "I'd say let's go to the armory, but it's probably locked. The guards in the mess hall may be unarmed and unarmored - we can catch them unawares. First, though, we should secure the kitchen - with a door leading outside, we don't want any of them escaping through there and alerting the guards on the walls. Shall we make those our next targets?"
"It sounds as good a plan as any, if we wish to slaughter them all."
"We could try the armory first at least, yes? Otherwise, yes, I agree. Perhaps we could even set the kitchen alight before we leave it, and head off in the opposite direction. That would cause a welcome, and believable, distraction."
KItchen and armory, yes. I can dispose of those in the kitchen if any wish to join me. perhaps we can get ourselves a bit of food for the escape. Augier moves to the kitchen door.
Squeaks was able to rely me some information from in the other room, anywhere from 5 to 9 people are walking around it seems, we should strike swiftly, and precisely. We have managed so far, but it would be best to continue to keep the odds in our favor. Reginald makes ready to enter the next room after the smaller folk.
"Can't you be more specific, rat?" The Hound asks peevishly. a disturbingly deep emitting from his mouth as he addresses the Familiar.
the field rat looks up at Fiain for a few seconds before twitching its nose and scurrying away towards Reginald.
"Let me shroud them in darkness, and strike as their sight is clouded."
Igoroskandrallanotly nods. "Darkness makes for a good ally, and an advantage for us against the humans. Do so."
To Dahlia, they say, "Were I the Sergeant of this place, I would lock away the weapons in case somehow prisoners were to escape. This place was specially re-designed to hold us - before that, they probably had common criminals here. I wouldn't want them to be able to get into the armory if they escaped, would you? If we find this Sergeant in the other room, we can kill him and take the keys away."
The doppelganger moves to a position to open the doors, the disguise Kahmunash put on him still in place. Hopefully it would continue working until the room was plunged into darkness and they could kill the guards within.
"I agree, mess hall first, then armoury. It is most likely to be the most heavily guarded, and anything to stop us being flanked while assaulting it would be the most prudent manoeuvre."
Being dressed in a sergeant's uniform is a personal affront to The Captain, and he tears of the markings indicating it as such.
Ready to go.
"I guess it is time to tidy things up then."
Kahmunash will ready up on the door, making a mental note to quickly check the kitchen after the group bursts into the Mess Hall.
The plan is set, some guard the hall and the rest of you get ready to storm the mess hall. The wooden door creaks slightly as you open it but it seems to go unnoticed. As you look in through the widening crack you can see 8 more unarmoured and unarmed off-duty guards talking and laughing and eating and yelling over some bread and soup. A regular nutritious, but bland, military meal.
The room is 25ft. wide and 70ft. long with three large and one small table right through the middle There is one open door 30ft. away from you that leads to the kitchen. Smells and sounds of food cooking come from this door.
Only one of the guards looks at the door as it opens, seeing the disguised Igor. "Joffan! Lucky for you the Sergeant already did his rounds. Did one of you fall over?" he laughs, "We thought we heard some commotion out there." Now more of the men are looking your way.
”Ferrish was goofing off and took a tumble, yeah. I’m just gonna slip out through the kitchen and hit the garderobe. Don’t want to soul my armor.”
Auggh is annoyed that he is stuck behind everyone and starts sweating more.
Kahmunash will stroll in almost nonchalantly, hoping that Igor will get everyone looking in the Doppleganger's direction just long enough for them to all notice him at the same time and only once he's in place. He stops at the head of the table and turns towards the soldiers sitting down. With a wicked crocodile smile, he whispers "Surprise" and casts color spray, hitting the 4 southernmost guards in the 15ft cone while staring at the top-rightmost one of the 4 for -2 to Will Saves.
Reginald will enter the room after the others and ready an action to cast grease in front of the back door should anyone attempt to escape through it.
Eat-in-Shadow calls on the darkness and rushes in the door, light fading as his presence calls on the primal fear of the unseen.
Once the magic goes off, Augier enters and ends his movement in front of the door.
Dahlia moves into the dark area of the room, keeping herself between the off-duty guards and the door to the kitchen.
The Hound rushes through the door, moving to cut off escape into the kitchen, readying an action to attack if anyone not of their group comes within striking distance.
"Beg for your pitiful lives, mortals." he growls.
Igor crosses to the kitchen without problem. The door to it is already open and inside he sees a cook as well as two servants, a male and female, helping him prepare the guards food. The cook is focused on the big cauldron in the fireplace but the servants notice the disguised Igor though they return to their task of chopping vegetables and pounding dough almost immediately. There is one door in the wall to Igor's left that is closed, leading outside according to the map.
Kahmunash moves into the room and covers the 4 men with magical colours, incapacitating only 2 of them with his spell. The others move in and block off the exits with more blocking the hall door as well.
The guards immediately stand up from their seats, terrified that the nightmares upstairs had somehow escaped, thoughts about 'Joffan' betraying them somehow are burried underneath the desire to survive. They try to run. One screams in the darkness. One grabs a torch off the wall to use as a weapon. The one closest to the kitchen tries his luck and dashes towards it.
The servants and cook hear the commotion and the talking hound and stare in horror. "Out of my way!" The cook pushes one of the servants over and races to the door and opens it, about to flee. "Amy!" The other servant runs over and helps the first up off the floor so they can both flee, "Thankyou Rory", she says, holding onto him.
Igorskandrallanotly is slightly annoyed by everyone else crowding towards the kitchen. They'd scared the kitchen staff, who were more likely to run than the guards. Kitchen workers were just as good at sounding the alarm as guards, after all.
Idly he lashed out with a claw as a guard tried to run past him before moving to the door and shutting it, looking at the cook and the others and saying, "Please don't run - just stand in the corner and you might make it out of this alive."
Augier's orcish eyes pierce the gloom and he dashes 25 feet north, slashing the northmost guard with his longsword to bring him down.
Assuming that hits, the guard is affected by poison: fort DC 15, 6 rounds, 1d3 str, 3 saves to cure.
Dahlia doubles down on Igor's threats. "It's really not the food we take issue with, dearies, it's more the service and accommodations. Now sit tight and you'll be fine. Run or scream and we'll make your last hours terrifying and miserable."
Reginald clubs at one of the guards with his hand, it morphs in a clawed fist before impact, and slowly morphs back to the meaty hand afterwards.
Kahmunash will quickly glance behind him, and spot the many cooks that Igor is trying to corral. He lets off a faint sigh, and mentally triggers a shift in Igor's disguise, making it appear that his flesh is searing away to reveal a grinning and flaming devil underneath the outer layer of skin.
He then strolls over towards the door to the kitchen, fixes his eyes on the cook and then cast Daze on him. "Let's not be too hasty now then good sir"
Aggghhh, Mei and Reginald attack the helpless guards stuck in the darkness brought by Eat-in-Shadow. "Where are they?", "Help me!", "Signal the Sergeant!" The guards cry out, unable to see, tripping over chairs, trying to climb onto the tables or find a way out of the darkness. . The guard that grabbed the torch moves back away from the monsters but this only gets him stuck in the corner.
The cook pauses in his tracks, hand already firm on the door but he stops fleeing, Igor tries to close the door but is unable to push him out of the way. The bright light from outside reveals the daytime that was masked by the lack of windows. A dirt path runs along the edge of the building and one also runs towards the nearest section of the wall about 100ft. away. The two servants now up on their feet again and holding hands run past the cook and Igor and out the door, terrified of what they have seen.