The front door of the Longacre Jail bursts open as the familiar red-headed, scarred woman with a fur cloak and swords at her hips enter.
”Alright guys, listen up!” Sicaria points at Zelicia. ”Dunno who you are, so get the hell outta—“ The woman then notices the burn of the Hellfire Compact on the back of Zelicia’s hand, glances back up to look her in the eyes, then slowly lowers her pointed finger.
”Ahem, so, turns out that Razelago and the Archbaron were already aware of the incident that occurred at the Godclaw citadel, but as for that pile of pork,” She points at Caggan. ”We are to continue as normal until the next full moon nears, then we’ll follow up with Razelago and/or the Archbaron; nothing is to change—we put him out in the stocks, keep him alive, the works. If, and only if, he turns again before we hear back from our superiors come the next full moon, then we are given permission to kill him for resisting.”
Sicaria folds her arms and shakes her head. ”I’m not exactly keen on it either, but Razelago made his point very clear.”
Two days pass with little trouble, Caggan's back to his quiet, though slightly resistive self, and the townsfolk don't seem to have heard anything of Caggan's transformation, as if they'd even believe that.
As the miscreants prepare to go about their daily lives, the wind itself almost seems to whisper in the familiar voice of Razelago and his strange fly-baby-mouth-thing. "Longacre Castle's Gate stands open and unguarded. The gate guards may be plotting with the Reclamation. Find them, interrogate, and then close the gate."
The miscreants pack their things for the day and head to the gate. It is, in deed, wide open: a blatant violation of the Archbaron's decree.
Retrieving the gate's duty roster, Marcianus identifies the gate guards for the day as Bo and Dent Gramel. Sicaria and Wolfgang will remember delivering the missive requiring the gates to be closed to Bo and Dent.
A few carefully worded questions posed to citizens reveals the location of their house, near the gate.
"We should stop by the Gramel's house first. They may have been hurt in some way. Even if not, we may need some key to close the gates properly and will need to rouse them back to their duty post regardless."
Sensing a possibility for trouble, Marcianus uses two charges from his Mage Armor wand before arriving at their house.
"Agreed, but let's make it quick; we need to make sure that gate gets—and stays—closed."
A few pointed knocks on a solid oak door gets the miscreants within Bo and Dent's place.
After a bit of questioning through some initially hostile people, Bo and Dent finally learn of the gate opening and their eyes fall on eachother. "S+@@!" Bo shouts. "We've taken to sleeping in since the gate was closed. No need to man a gate if nobody goes through it, right? But...it's open? Only way to do that is with the lever inside the eastern tower. Did anything happen to the castle!?"
Sicaria looks legitimately shocked at the Gramels’ response. ”Wait. You didn’t open the—?” She stops herself as her eyes wander to the open gate. Her face hardens and her eyes narrow as she wordlessly bolts away from the rest of the miscreants and dashes right at the open gate.
Who the f*ck opened the gate?!
"Well?! Hurry! Get to the lever and close the gate. We'll follow and can check on the castle after we are sure the way is closed for anyone else to get through."
"Listen, man." Dent speaks up. "You need that gate closed now? You do it. I've got to get my armor on before I'm willing to go out there, and I'm not nearly as fast as I used to be. Besides, that crimson chick's already gone."
Marcianus' face grows angry, and he holds up a finger toward Zeke, who grins and starts cracking his knuckles.
In a no-nonsense tone, Marcianus adds. "If you wanted armor on, you wouldn't be lazing about in bed, would you? The weight of whatever happens because of this lapse will be on your heads either way.
Do you want to compound that by adding the delay of us not having a key to open the tower or not being able to find the lever right away? We are going regardless, but I want you there to make sure we don't take a wrong turn.
Make your choice. But, if we reach the tower before you and are forced to perform your job, be sure that we will return to get paid for that job one way or another."
Regardless of the impact, Marcianus will turn and start jogging after Sicaria.
Wolfgang casts mage armor on the way over to the gate.
"Come on, Zelicia. If we don't get over there and find out what's going on quickly, Sicaria is liable to get herself knocked out again."
Rapier drawn, Wolfgang follows Sicaria while Marcianus and Zeke are bullying the gatekeepers, keeping to the shadows and letting the inquisitor charge in first.
”Damn it!”
As the other miscreants approach the gate, they find Sicaria struggling to open a door to the castle with the gate lever.
”Someone’s barricaded it from the other side!” She pulls out both of her swords. ”We’ll talk to the Archbaron about property damage later; we need to get inside! Zeke, mind helping me out here?”
The crimson woman then proceeds to begin tearing away at the door with her swords, hoping the eidolon will join her in committing breaking-and-entering.
"Let's give this a try first"
Pulling a crowbar from his pack, Zeke wedges it into the door frame and pulls repeatedly.
Zelicia brings up the rear as she skips in. "Ooo, breaking and entering? My favorite!" She stands there excitedly waiting for the door to be pried open, not moving to help out.
"Just to make sure you don't get blown up in the process, let's do this." Zelicia casts Detect Magic.
Zeke quickly pries at the door before he notices there's just stuff stacked on the inside. He quickly changes to just brute forcing the door after Zelicia confirms that nothing magic appears within the tower. The tower's base opens up into a small, mostly-empty room featuring the lever for the gate and a ladder, but nothing more.
Keeping an eye out for traps or hidden foes, Zeke walks toward the level and pulls it to close the gates.
As Zeke goes to pull the lever, he notices something strange before he pulls the lever.
The ropes have been cut. The lever will not work. You'll either need to fix the ropes with some extra materials that should be in a nearby chest, or find another way to close the gate.
”Oh you have got to be kidding me!”
Sicaria sheathes her weapons as she begins climbing the ladder in search for the nearby chest.
Sicaria climbs about halfway up the ladder (10 feet) before she hears the sound of wood scraping on wood above.
A heavy wooden chest falls from above, smacking Sicaria square in the face.
But Sicaria holds on to the ladder as the chest splinters against the ground, revealing nothing more than a small, but well-crafted sack.
Sicaria growls as she rubs her sore neck.
First hot chili now a chest to the face?! Why is it always me?!
The woman looks down at the chest then at the rest of the miscreants and motions her head toward the top of the ladder, as if to say Come on.
She then continues up the ladder.
Marcianus jumps back as the chest appears as if from nowhere. Casting Detect Magic quickly, he concentrates and noted the aura from the sack.
"Wolfgang, do you think anything in that sack can fix the lever? It appears to be magical, so be careful."
Glancing up at Sicaria, he motions to Zeke. "Go help her. There must be someone up there."
Zeke breaks off his frustrated flipping of the broken lever and starts climbing the ladder.
Zelicia chuckles at Sicaria getting a faceful of chest and stands a safe distance from the ladder as they climb up.
Sicaria gets to the top of the ladder, followed by Zeke.
But, all too late, Sicaria grips one of the top wrungs of the ladder, and the entire thing makes a horrid cracking sound. The ladder cracks right at Sicaria's feet, splitting the ladder in two as it tumbles to the ground.
Both manage to jump off the ladder before it clatters to the ground. Zeke narrowly avoids plowing into Zelicia, while Sicaria tumbles a bit at the bottom to help disperse her momentum. Though a bit scraped and bruised from the landing, Sicaria appears unscathed.
However.....There is no longer a ladder in here, and the floor above is 25 feet up.
Retrieving a grappling hook and rope from his pack, Zeke begins tying them together.
Zeke's grappling hook finds a perch and locks in place. Climbing a rope with a wall to brace against is a DC 5 climb check.
Sicaria falls to the ground and glares up at the trapdoor in the ceiling, her hair flowing almost as if it were on fire.
"WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME?!?!"
Without waiting for another opinion, Sicaria stubbornly grabs hold of the rope and begins climbing up as quickly as she can muster!
Within seconds, the redheaded—and VERY angry—woman practically runs on the wall she is using for support and makes it up to the next floor.
Zeke quickly goes hand over hand up the rope, hoping to get to the top before someone can knock the hook free.
Wolfgang casts mage hand to pull the contents out of the sack, then casts detect magic to identify the object, whatever it is.
As Sicaria and Zeke fall to the floor amid the wreckage of the former ladder, he growls, "Do you mind? I'm trying to concentrate!”
Wolfgang identifies the bag as a Type 1 Bag of Holding! Inside are six flasks of Alchemist's Fire, a Thunderstone, and several strangely shaped pieces of metal meant to temporarily repair ropes.
Meanwhile, as Sicaria and Zeke make it to the top of the ladder, they hear a tiny voice squeak from a strange creature in the middle of the upper room. It's small form reminds the two of a cat, but the creature seems anthropomorphic and wields, of all things, a smoking pipe.
"No!" he shouts, defiantly. "The gate has no need for you! You abandoned the gate! Left it to rot! I can do the gate alone!"
Assuming Sicaria and Zeke don't immediately back down....
Initiative - the BOLD may act!
Active effects: Assume all doors are open except the one to outside
-----------------------------------------------
Sicaria
Cat thing
Zelicia
Wolfgang
Marcianus
Sicaria blinks several times at the thing in front of her.
”You’ve got to be kidding me.”
She sighs as she pulls out both of her swords. ”Screw it; guess I’m killing a cat today.”
She turns her head to look at Zeke. ”Seriously, though,” She motions her arms toward the cat-thing. ”That’s why the gate’s open?! What?!”
Sicaria approaches the cat and slashes at it, but its hide seems to resist a bit of the damage. (This thing has some DR)
"THIS THING IS CALLED SNIVVI AND YOU NEED TO LEAVE!" the creature shouts.
The creature then steps forward and attacks the unaware Zeke, provoking from Sicaria.
Initiative - the BOLD may act!
Active effects: Assume all doors are open except the one to outside
-----------------------------------------------
Sicaria
Cat thing (-6; DR once)
Zelicia
Wolfgang
Marcianus (Zeke: -4 & Unlucky 3)
Zeke has combat reflexes and will take a Slam AoO (obviously not holding a weapon after climbing)
Taking a careful step back, Zeke tries to grab the creature.
As the thing darts out of the reach of his hands, he calls out, "If you are taking care of the gate, why is it wide open and the closing mechanism broken?!"
Looking up at the thing on top of the stairs, Marcianus tries to think of what the creature might be.
Unsure if it will be effective, he draws a few mystical symbols and casts Daze on it.
"Zelicia! Get up there and see if you can help."
”Actually, cat, it’s you that needs to leave. And you’ve chosen the hard way, so stay still!”
Sicaria steps forward, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet and slices at the freaky feline!
Zelicia skips over to the rope, giggling at Sicara's pain, and looks up at the cat. Her eyes go wide, exclaiming, "Ooo! A kitty! Come here! Let us play." A sinister smile adorns her face. She then uses Misfortune on Snivvi.
What the blazes is that?
"Wonderful!" Wolfgang palms a couple of flasks of alchemists fire and drops his backpack into the extradimensional container. "Did you see that? It holds everything and weighs just the same! It does not even look as though there is anything in it! Marcianus, Zelicia, did you ... ah, yes. Something going on upstairs?"
The tiefling takes a moment to listen to the combat above, then eyes the rope swinging against the wall and the remains of the ladder. He sighs and pushes the flasks of alchemist's fire into the empty loops of his bandolier, then gestures to the rope. "So, hrmmm," he growls, "ladies first?"
Zeke squishes the creature as it moves in (and takes much less damage. Sorry I missed the Combat Reflexes.) and fails to grapple it. Marc tries daze.
Sicaria moves to attack the thing! Hitting once and killing the creature before those below can react.
It's a simple process to fix the gate from there using the metal devices found within the bag of holding. The miscreants return to the Gramels, who take responsibility for the event by purchasing equipment for and providing the labor to repair the gate.
However, as odd as it may seem, nothing happens over the next two days within the castle walls. An no matter how much the miscreants search, they cannot find anything missing, out of place, or hidden within the castle grounds.
---
So, like that, three days pass. And it's not until the evening of the third day that something seems off when the miscreants hear whispering echoing from a small-barred window within Caggan's cell. However, a cursory glance reveals that Caggan isn't responding to the whispers at all. In fact, the man seems almost asleep in the light of a rising, waning moon.
Wolfgang spends the next couple of days alternating between trying to figure out whether there is anything interesting about the metal pieces that were in the bag of holding - They can't only be useful to hold broken pieces of rope together, can they? - and honing the blades of his rapier and daggers (+1 to damage on the first hit with each). He does do a little shopping for mundane tools and equipment, now that he does not have to worry so much about the weight of his backpack.
whisper whisper whisper
Wolfgang looks at the other Miscreants and puts a finger to his lips. He pulls a paper sack from the extra-dimensional bag at his wait, then steps quietly into the jail area and strains to hear anything intelligible.
Sicaria likewise tries to listen in, similarly curious at what is going on.
Marcianus and Zeke look up, curious to see what is causing the whispers but wait for Wolfgang and Sicaria to suss out the source.
None of the miscreants can make out the words. All they can sense is that Caggan is definitely not responding to them.
Wolfgang motions that he is going to go around the building to see if there is someone outside the window.
Drawing his rapier but still holding onto the bag of flour in his other hand, he heads outside. Sticking to the shadows, he moves around the sheriff's office to peer around the corner at the space outside the window of Caggan's cell.
Sicaria nods at Wolfgang and pulls out a small scarf, wrapping it around her mouth and chin and pulls out her sabres as she shadows the tiefling.
With The others moving outside, Zeke picks up his Lucerne Hammer and stands where he has a view of Caggan's cell.
Zelicia stays back, quietly bouncing on the balls of her feet, waiting for the action to start.
Caggan begins snoring from within his cell, as per usual for this time of night.
Sicaria’s voice echoes from outside the jail. ”And what in the nine hells do you two think you’re doing?!”
Sicaria’s voice echoes from outside the jail. ”And what in the nine hells do you two think you’re doing?!”
Wolfgang barks out a few words of arcane power and disappears from sight before following Sicaria around the corner .
"That seems like a signal, Zeke. Caggan isn't going anywhere, let's go see if they need help."
Zeke and Marcianus move toward the door, ready to swing around the jail in the opposite direction that the others used.