Mao's fort ST
, -2?
Mao is also in the same boat and is quite tired after the journey. Rather than enter without scouting you decide (by GM fiat) to watch for a day. You hide yourselves in the woods and set up a watch for the night while you take turns resting.
The night is uneventful, though Aurus does hear some tromping come close during his watch - enough for him to wake everyone up, but it never gets near enough to be a threat.
You rise with the dawn and notice that a mist has risen from the river and crept up to within 50' of the outer walls. Not close enough to help you sneak in; also, it evaporates within an hour anyway. You all move around the periphery of the scene, trying to get a sense of their routines and looking for a way to get past the guards. You figure from the height of the keep and the outer walls that they would be unable to see anyone that actually made it up to the walls. Well, except for the part that is broken down near the front doors in the south which is guarded anyway.
With a better angle and the light of the new day you discover a few interesting things:
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From his position laying down in the woods, Aurus still manages to spot a few things. "Literally no one but hobgoblins on the wall? Nirmathas and Molthune are human countries right?" He grumbles too. "No windows, no arrow slits - folks were building for a long time, not for a good time. Means we're looking for doors in."
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"The keep seems pretty much unscaleable unless you are a very good climber AND very lucky."
"The western, eastern, and southern parts of the keep have ramparts manned by lookouts, but the north side does not! I think we could get to the outer walls without being seen at night from the north."
"The mist that rises in the morning will probably reappear again tomorrow and could provide concealment.
So, the plan is to wait until the following morning, add some mist and approach from the riverside and do what?
You manage to evade any patrols they send out. There are not all that many at the moment but, then again, they have no idea you are out here.
In the morning you implement your master plan, creeping up in the fog and adding a spur to the bank so that you can get close to the wall without being seen. This works like a charm and you creep up unnoticed.
Time for some perception rolls as you look for the entrance you were told about!
Jack is the first one to spot the marker, a stone etched with the pattern of 4 interlocking circles in red, but it takes Goldur's stonecunning to ferret out where the door is. Instead of being in the logical place, as part of the wall, he figures out that it is a trap door in a stone frame covered by grass and sod. You are presented with the challenge of opening the door with so much dirt (about a quarter inch) and grass over it while leaving as little trace of your passage as possible.
All eyes turn to the only expert (one would hope) they have in such things, the ranger, though Nemrok has shown a surprising breadth of knowledge so who knows?
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Jack manipulates his Traveler's Any Tool to form a small shovel, then carefully levers up large square sods of soil, using sticks to hold them aloft, and create a shallow 'ramp' above the excavation. Goldur and Uldar can use Prestidigitation to clean up any soil that escapes the excavation site.
Once the tunnel is revealed, the trapdoor can be lifted slightly, allowing the party to slide inside. The last person can remove the sticks, allowing the sod to settle back down on top of the trapdoor, which can then be slowly lowered into place.
Under the trap door is an old and rickety ladder that, though it looks dubious, proves sufficient to carry your weight. You each descend and the last person carefully lowers the door plunging you all into darkness. The passage is a good 10' wide, which would provide a good sally port in a siege, and about 200' long. When you get to the end there is another ladder leading up to a trap door which appears secured from above.
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Aurus watches Jack's work with interest, and insists on taking the vanguard, taking the sticks out far more delicately than is necessary before finishing his climb down the ladder.
When in the tunnel, Aurus taps his breastplate, and the sylized dragon etching on the frontpiece begins to glow brightly. "Let's go," he says seriously, his earlier impatient energy now focused.
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Nemork knows well how to garden. He takes some herbs he knows that could survive easily a pick up, and help Jack preparing to hide their passage with them.
Once inside the passage he casts message on Aurus, Jack and Uldar.
Now we can converse without being heard by most people. If necessary I have my wayfinder to light the place.
He then tapes himself with his wand of mage armor.
The angle is bad, the ladders is untrustworthy, but sheer persistence and brute strength proves adequate to pop the thing open, thogh not without a heck of a lot of noise. Fortunately, the door opens to a quiet dusty corridor. You look around but see nothing but walls and the corridor.
; darkvision
; darkvision
; darkvision
You start exploring and find that you are in one big circuit within the walls of the keep. You find a number of things of interest. First, there is another trap door that leads to a ladder beneath the keep, though the passage goes only a short distance and you figure it must empty out into the inner courtyard (A4). There are ladders that lead up into trap doors to what must be the next level and a couple of well hidden secret doors to rooms on the first level. Well, not secret from your side, but apparently secret from the other side, at least from the traffic patterns you can see in the dust at your feet. Speaking of which, it looks like you have company for there are some recent tracks, the most recent of which look like someone is running from you.
So the tracks are mostly concentrated around the door in the southeast where there is a sort of nest or lair or hang out. Some clothing wadded up as a pillow, old bones from food eaten tossed in a corner, a few odds and ends like a dinner knife and military issue plate. A number of the tracks lead up to the wall by the door and you figure out that there is a peephole by the door that allows you to see into the room. It looks to be a storage room complete with lots of shelves, empty shelves, which suggests why all the food remnants are old.
A voice comes from down the hallway around a corner. "I guess it doesn't much matter who you are. I'm a dead man if I stay here. At least with you I might stand a chance."
A pretty pathetic looking man, not only hungry looking, but also with a nasty half healed gash across his left arm walks into view. He looks to be Molthuni military and is trying his best to carry himself with dignity.
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I was right!
We are not enemies, soldier. We are Pathfinders says Nemrok who shows his wayfinder.
We have been sent by both parties as neutral agent to take back the...
Looking at the uniform, Nemrok realized that the soldier he was talking to was from the invading forces!
He takes a step back and adds suspiciously.
Why are you hiding here, molthuny? Aren't you the invaders?
The man looks a bit sheepish.
"Ah, so you are Nimrathi, then. No point in hiding it. Yes, we took the fort for a while, but we no longer control it. Our treacherous leader or his even more treacherous woman hired some hobgoblins to slaughter us and do what we would no longer do. I hope you came with a sizable force and wipe them all out."
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We are not Nimrathi, but as I said before, we have been sent by both parties, Nirmathi and Molthuni, to take back the castle. The hobgoblins are not with you?
It seems that your commander is even more treacherous than his superior believed. He was not authorized to seize this place in the first place. That's why we have been sent with a small party, not an army.
Without more suspicion he asks Can you tell us more about what happen? The strength of the hobgoblin army? their leaders and yours?
He gets a little excited by the news at first then looks at you with dubious eyes.
"You do know that these are hobgoblins, trained from birth to be fighting machines. You look... well... a little 'underdressed'? Then again, these others are wearing decent armor. Maaaybeee you could do it. Do they know you are here? I didn't hear them sound the alarm. You might have a chance if they don't know you are here and you take them apart piece by piece."
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Goldur nods. "I believe you, soldier. This is quite a predicament you've found yourself in. I must admit, it's hard to sympathize with a man who mutinied against his country to conquer foreign land. But perhaps you're being presented with an opportunity to atone for it-- if you can tell us what to expect up there."
The man glares defensively at the insults of his arrogant saviors.
"Well, I don't know what a pathfinder is, but my name's Akre. Akre Belring. Pathfinder sounds like something the Nimrathis would call their rangers."
Turning to the dwarf, he responds, "And I don't know what the big deal is about invading your enemy. It was Vos's idea, not mine. Save your insults for him. All I know is that Vos was hell bent on finding something under the fort and promised us riches. After taking this place he had us digging trenches everywhere until he found his way down in the mess hall. Then he started sending US down."
The man shudders.
"Don't know WHATs down there and I don't want to know, not any more. But it's well trapped and I DO know it's suicide to go down. And so did the rest of us so we decided enough was enough. So what did that villain Voss and his tart Elessia do? They hired a bunch of hobgoblins to ambush us. It was a slaughter." He shakes his head in sorrow, practically tearing up.
Finally, after a long pause, he does his best to answer Jack and Nemrock's more practical question about the force that wiped his friends out.
"It was dark and they could see in the dark and we could not, not to mention that we were all spread out. I really can't give you a specific number, but it could have been as few as 20 or as many as 50. I can tell you that they took their time killing us when they could. I managed to find this place by pure luck and had the UNluck to discover that screaming can penetrate even these thick walls. I hope the creepy gobs have figured the same thing that we did and dismantle Vos piece by piece. He's nothing but a user and a liar, and his promises mean squat."
Looking around the odd eclectic group sprouting odd weapons and musical instruments, he gets a curious look. "So what exactly are you here to do?"
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As I said before, we are part of an organization, the Pathfinder Society, that have been charged by both parties to take back the keep.
It seems that your superiors were not happy about Voss' rogue operation to retake this keep.
That's why, with the Nirmathies accord, we are here, through a secret passage only known by the them.
So, our goal was to take care of Voss and make sure the Molthunies were all sent back to Molthune. But it seems that the situation has changed quite a lot but our mission remain the same, clear this place.
"Well, then, we both want the same thing. I'll help however I can, though as you can see I'm in no shape to do much."
He really does look pathetic. Though he has not had much of a chance to lose any weight, he is pretty badly injured and that, combined with no food, has made him listless and he has that haunted look in his eyes.
"Yes Elessia is a cleric of Calistria and can be a real b+%!@ when she''s not a riot. Never knew where I stood with her and mostly just kept my distance. As for being a medic, she never did seem to use her connection with her goddess to heal. Every time I saw her flash her holy symbol, folks dropped. Another good reason to keep your distance. She did heal, but it was mostly the mundane sort. Kind of weird looking too, with one blue eye and one brown. Or maybe red. or rust. Weird."
"Here's what I do know. There are two secret doors on this level, one which leads to the barracks and one to the pantry. There are peep holes next to both. The gobs tore through the pantry room pretty quick and there's nothing edible left there now. I keep looking in hopes that they restock, but no luck. Besides, the cook is a nasty bugbear and he keeps watch over things from the kitchen. I haven't eaten anything but the the remnants from a gob gnawed bone or two in 3 days. The ladders lead up to an armory upstairs but I've had no reason to explore and every reason not to."
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Jack nods thoughtfully.
"Well then, we might as well check the armoury, then take a look through the peep-holes... if we can catch some Hobgoblins napping in the barracks, so much the better!"
Noting the man's heavily injured state, Jack taps him a couple of times with a healing wand (the command phrase for which is 'walk it off!').