Marcus has made his way to his feet, ready to rush out the door should the need arise. But once he sees Vera and Magda he inhales, nodding. Then goes straight to business. "Krovax has been healing us, everybody except him is in decent fighting shape, but we have no equipment. Free Shi first, she can help with the locks." He hobbles his way over to the door, peering out. "What's the situation?"
Shi jumps up seeing Vera, Magda and some unknown person who appears to be helping and nods to Marcus's words "Yup, get me out of these and I'll help free the others if you have some extra picks."
Dokren nods morosely and steps into the room, drawing another set of masterwork picks. He tries to free Shi.
But the lock is not so easily dealt with.
Shi frowns when Dokren can't free her but takes the picks and tries it on herself.
Shi takes Dokren's masterwork picks, leaving him with his that are made of shadow.
Shi is slightly injured as the manacles dig into her wrists.
Magda grins big "Situation... oh yeah, two guys beaten blue outside, so you can grab their stuff. Got a bag full of daggers and clubs for you all in case. Um... the house drakes are making an awful racket up stairs for us, and that old guy and our gnome buddy are trying to help upstairs as well." she explains as she pulls her wand out to heal. "Oh I got rations and water in by bag there if anyone needs food. And vermin repellant, since there are spiders everywhere."
"Shi, let him get you out, don't slice your arms open." Marcus goes to the unconscious guards to see what equipment can be salvaged. He also grabs a club and a dagger, going for a second dagger if there are enough of them to go around. "So, plan? Do we have any obligation to those upstairs, or are we just escaping?" He says while stripping the armor of the guards.
"We need to free the drake, cause that's why they are helping us." Magda points out. "All's clear behind us, and a boat just a bits away, in case things start going BAD again." she slips off her rope "And we need to tie them there up and gag them."
Marcus focuses on keeping lookout until his hands are free. "Magda, Vera, strip these guards of their equipment, we can't be running out of here naked."
"Oh, I can't believe this is working! This was all Magpie's brilliant thinking. I just hope all the distractions we're creating will hold up."
Doubling back, Vera locks any doors that can be locked from their side of the door. She'll then see what she can take from the unconscious guards that would be of use.
"lot of people, not just me" the half-orc blushes a bit, healing the wall one more time before hurrying over to the guard Vera isn't on to start stripping off his armor so she can tie him up.
Shi frowns when she unable to pick the lock, knowing how close she came she would have had it if she wasn't locked up in them in the first place. She looks to Dokren as she notes "Try it again?"
Vera focuses first on getting equipment to her allies.
If she hears the sound of potential enemies coming, she's going to pull out her scroll of Hold Portal and use it!
The sounds upstairs seem to quiet down a little, and the fluttering noise of wings is reduced. It seems as if the efforts upstairs to stop the disruption are working.
Dokren sticks his tongue out, concentrating, and tries to free Shi again, using his shadow picks.
Wiping sweat off of his face, he tries again.
And again, as he finds luck is not on his side.
Eighteen nervous seconds before he started, Dokren gets the lock open to Shi’s manacles, and frees her.
The armor, buckler, and saps are stripped from each of the two enforcers in short order, and handed to whomever wants them.
Shi goes to work helping Dokren free the other three.
After almost two minutes of work, everyone's free, and the party has the gear of two of the enforcers, as well as some clubs and daggers. The shouting above has abated and instead has returned to an indistinct laughing, boisterous and happy, the typical sounds of revelry in the throne room of Devargo Barvasi.
Outfitted with light armor and some basic weaponry, Marcus rolls his neck. He needed some food in his gut, but between the magical healing and his natural inclination to sleep in uncomfortable places, he wasn't feeling any more sore or bruised up than normal. He taps a club into his hand, ready to follow Vera and Magda's plan; they had gotten this far, after all.
Kali nods to Shi for freeing her and then slips into one of the armors provided, grabbing one (or two) daggers. She eagerly crams a fistful of whatever is edible into her mouth and waits for the go signal.
Magda whispers "So thinking the office next, there's a big chest there that I hope got your stuff." she points to the double door. She hands Krox her spear, pulling out her whip. "I go listen, maybe peek, then we go in, yes?"
"then we go pay our debts...though it is that way if we need to run." she points down the trap door to the bilge.
She'll pause to see if anyone has any other ideas or suggestions.
Shi will nod and follow Magda's lead since she has seemed to be capable thus far. "Just tell me where you need me." She grabs a club and a dagger just so she has something to work with.
Marcus nods. He had just bought that armor, on a loan no less, and would hate to not get it back. Clearly Magda was the best planner of the group, so he follows along.
Magda makes her way to the door to the east, and after the party checks for traps, they find the door unlocked.
A single low desk sits against the wall of this room. A large wooden door marked with a painting of a spider stands in the southern wall.
Just to the north, inside this meeting room lies Devargo Barvasi's private quarters. This wooden chamber is clean and dry. A four-poster bed with ornately carved posts and gauzy drapes rests against the far wall, while a single dresser and a round table and chair fill out the rest of the room. A wooden sea chest sits at the foot of the bed.
Dokren waits patiently for direction, though he seems nervous about the lack of a distraction upstairs.
"Shi or Dokren, one of you mind?." she points at the chest, then retreats back to the hall to keep an ear out with the others.
Dokren nods, with his shadow pick in hand, and moves in, fingers to his lips, gesturing for Shi to follow.
He attempts to get the lock open with his shadow pick.
Dokren boggles, and whispers, "superior lock - can't do it w...without my good tools. Or you t...try."
Dokren waits for a decision from Shi.
Krovax took the spears and blades, but deferred any armor to the others. He followed along with a grin but determined look on his face.
Shi follows behind cautiously but hands the picks over to Dokren as he seems a bit more skilled than she is with the tools. She looks around the room while he works seeing if there is any hidden chambers or the like.
Magda fishes out her own msk thieves tools, she got from somewhere sometime, and hands those over to Shi, since experience has taught her that while the halfling if better than the fox, the fox is better than the half-orc.
Shi doesn't see anything else of value or consequence in the room.
Dokren accepts his picks back gloomily, and gets to work trying again.
Magda guides Dokren each time, using her street magic.
The party almost holds their breath as they wait for a patrol to come from the deck upstairs, but nothing happens. After another 30 seconds of fiddling, Dokren pops the lock and lifts up the chest. He looks around inside, rummages, spots a sacks of gold, and grabs it, stuffing it into his satchel.
He stands up, wiping his hands and forhead, and says "I've d..done my part, and taken m..my fee. Best of luck - I'd r...run if I were you. D...D...Devargo is strong." Dokrne looks afraid and glances upstairs as he says this. He shakes hands with Vera and Magpie and starts to head towards the opening to the bilge, nodding at the former prisoners.
The sea chest is stuffed with your things, as well as a sizable amount of treasure Devargo had collected.
Magda gives the strange little man and smoothering hug "Thanks Dokrne, I owe you one, anytime, okay?" she grins at him "i'll put in a good word with the guard lady if I ever bring myself to be able to talk to her again that is."
Then she'll go back in the hall to keep watch, while the others get dressed.
Dokren smiles wanly and gives a hug in return.
Shi starts to grab her stuff and looks to the others "I think we should take his advice. I didn't think we should have started a fight here in the first place, we should take our stuff and the rest of his for the inconvenience of being locked up and be on our way. If you all want to fight, I'll try and help, but I think we should take the luck we have and get out of here while we can. I doubt he will be as forgiving if we attempt and fail another assault."
"Agreed. We need to retreat, fully heal, and formulate a plan for the next attack." Marcus grabs his gear, outfitting himself with everything except his armor, which he knows will take a few minutes to actually get on.
Magda looks shocked at the idea that they leave. "The drakes risked their lives to distract them upstairs so we could get you out. The old man and the gnome too. Everything is quiet up there now right, what if they are bleeding out, or are being tortured for fun? We don't know..." she shakes her head
"Narrow hallways, already know the back is clear, we have a chance, but yes it could still go BAD and we'd be dead. But we just don't know about them us there, the ones helping. If they are caught, they'll be just as dead. They'll take care of this back door too next time, set traps up above with ambushes and the like to make sure they are not taken unaware."
She sighs "But I'm just one. Hurry up and all of you say what you want."
Shi frowns but as she waits for the others to chime is she looks to Magda "Well if we are staying, help me get this armor on."
Marcus inhales deeply.
They did come back, they didn't have to. Perhaps there was something to be said about this group. At least some of them.
"With so many allies gathered and already inside, this is our best shot." Marcus pauses. How frequent had the patrols been?
"The patrols came every 5-8 minutes, we've been out here for 3 minutes, it takes 4 minutes to get full plate on, so it would be risky to get fully armored now. But it's usually one guard, sometimes two, so we can just get ready and ambush them, giving us another 5-8 minutes of time where we can get fully armored before going on to continue the fight."
"Only thing to be concerned about is quieting them quickly enough to prevent raising the alarm, and the fact that Devargo is a sneaky bastard and could be slinking around."
"I can help you with your armor, Marcus." She tries to lift a piece of the heavy armor, but can't seem to move it much at all. "Er, well, I can help you fasten things, anyway."
Krovax also begins strapping Marcus’ armor on him to help expedite things. ”Now is our only shot. This man knows some of your names. He won’t take this slight lightly. We end this now, or else we put those you care about at risk.”
As much as Marcus would like to be armored for their next confrontation, he shakes his head to Vera and Krovax. "Not enough time. We need to get ready to ambush the next person coming down to check on us. After that, Krovax and I will get our armor on. Then we strike."
As Marcus takes off his armor her took from the guard and starts putting his normal armor on Shi suggests "Krovax, why don't you put on that armor and pretend to be one of the guards, maybe lay slumped over against the wall or something. Then when the patrol comes those of us that are ready can ambush them? Maybe push him into the cell and knock him out as well."
As Shi finishes getting her armor on with Magda's help she looks to Marcus as she suggests "Let's set up an ambush here for the patrol. We already have the guards in the brig, leave them there, when someone comes to check I'll swing the door open and Marcus you push them into the room, then we block the hallway and try and knock him out in the brig?"
Marcus nods. "First priority is keeping him quiet. I'll throw him in, silence him."