Knowing the dagger won't do much against well-armed guards, Gildevar tries to distract and blind one of the guards fighting Tawg by shining a beam of bright light right at him.
"We need a guard alive!" Ceres shouts, moving towards Tawg. As the goblin shifts back, Ceres steps into his place, and delivers a swift kick to the nearest dog, grunting with satisfaction as her foot meets fur.
Hearing Ceres call, Araton moves past the grappled guard towards the one that Tawg is fighting against.
"Don't kill him Grengar, leave that one alive!" Araton says as he steps in close to the oversized goblin. Striking at the other guard, he watches as the hounds rush up staircase.
The guard actually did scratch Tawg a little with the longsword.
Gildevar is unable to focus the lantern in any way that would blind anyone.
Grengar knocks the guard around some more, he can't take much more of this beating.
Tawg maneuvers away from the growling hounds and delivers another solid blow to the guard who is now seriously wounded.
Ceres and Araton both come to Tawg's aid with Cere's kick causing the hound to growl and focus on her. Hilda moves in and also kicks the hound within an inch of its life.
"Die filth!" The guard strikes back at Tawg and cuts the filthy goblin with his longsword.
The grappled guard knows he is fighting a losing battle but with what he thinks will be the last thing he does he tries to bring down the large man with him and strikes Grengar.
The first hound focuses on the new target of Ceres and a bite to her ankle and a yank pulls her off her feet. The other hound tries to bite her also but the trauma from the beating from Ceres and Hilda was too much and it now succumbs and drops, dying.
Grengar sighs, listening to Ceres' plea and letting his anger slip away.
With that he wraps his massive arms around the guard to pin him in place.
Landing with a thud on her back, Ceres snarls and sitting up, grabs the hound and tries to wrestle it to the ground. She casts a quick glance down the stairs as she does so, looking to see if more enemies are coming.
Ceres sees no one down the stairs. She does see an open wooden door 20ft. from the bottom of the stairs that the guards and dogs have come through. You see a tiny bit beyond the door but see nobody.
Tawg's vision, blurry and bloodshot with anger, is filled only with the face of the guard. A trickle of sound makes its way into his Goblin brain and, hearing that Grengar has pinned a guard to the floor, looks to end the other guard's life. Callus-covered pale green fists fly at the guard, not looking for a weak point, but simply trying to punch through his armor.
Tawg is unstoppable, crushing the guard's windpipe with one and savagely knocking the remaining hound (being restrained by Ceres) down with a blow to the head. No foes remain standing but the sound of boots running your way comes from past the door.
The guard pinned by Grengar sties desperately to escape but is held tight.
"You thinking what I'm thinking on that guard Ceres? Using him to bribe our new friend back there? Or did you have other ideas?"
As she talks she hops down among the dead dogs to cover for her now wounded companions should more guards come their way. She pushes one corpse down the stairs a bit to hinder coming guards.
With a wink to Tawg - thanks - Ceres let's the dead hound go and answers Hilda. "Information, and if he's uncooperative, then yeah, he's a bribe!"
And if he's cooperative, he's still a bribe.
Araton moves to the head of the stairs, lifting his blade and shield and assuming a combative position. It was better to die here than surrounded by the burning pyre.
You hold the stairs as 2 more guards enter the stairwell through the door. They almost trip over the falling bodies of their hounds. The leashes on their belts show they are the ones that sent the hounds in here. They think twice about assaulting up the stairs, seeing how their fallen friends have fared. "The cell block is lost. Fall back!" They retreat to the door intent on leaving.
Tawg's ears begin to droop a little and his muscles ease as he comes down off his high. Through rapid blinking, he sees the guards running away and chases after them, stopping at the door. "And stay out!" He yells at them as he slams the door. He then braces himself against the door in a way to hold it shut.
Tawg sees a long bare hallway. On the left side there are 2 doors and on the right side of the hallway is a single door which one of the guards goes through. At the end of the hallway is a set of large reinforced double doors that are currently open which the other guard is retreating towards. It is light outside, sometime in the afternoon. Though the upper level had no windows and was kept dark, it is not night time currently. Unlit torches in sconces line the hall.
Ceres hoists the dead dog over her shoulder and follows Tawg, dropping the dog in front of the door. Then, keys still in hand, Ceres inserts each one into the door's lock and twists hoping to hear the tumblers turn. Next, she goes for the next dog, and then the nearest guard's corpse, and stacks them, like logs, atop the first dog, only pausing to check the guard for anything of potential use.
"Somebody bring me something to bind this one then!"
When Ceres comes down, Tawg looks up at her with wide eyes. "There's light out!" He dodges out of the way of the dropped dog while holding onto the door knob. "There's also a hall!" He continues to yell after Ceres as she runs away and returns. "The guards ran away in different direction!" He hops up as another dog corpse falls to the floor. "When do we get to kill them?"
Once the door is locked and the pile is fully placed, Tawg clears his throat towards Ceres. "Ahem..um...could you excuse me for a second." He turns his back to Ceres and digs his face into one of the dog's stomach, his teeth ripping into its flesh. After a few moments, he stands up and gives a satisfied exhale. He wipes blood off his face onto his clothes and turns back to Ceres (and whoever is down there). "Ah, much better."
Ceres blocks the door with bodies but doesn't have a key to lock this door.
There is enough time to get the armour and weapons from all the guards you have killed and gear up. Whatever the guards are up to or preparing for, they aren't keen to try and force their way in to fight you.
Veil (daggers x2, silver holy symbol of Asmodeus, bullseye lantern, rope 50ft., spell component pouch, set of common clothes x6, MW Thieves' Tools, Window (permanent once used), Potion, 100gp)
Manacles (improvised weapons with club damage) x12
metal chain 50ft.
Signal Horn x2
Jailer's Keyring (cell doors and manacles)
Bullseye Lantern x2
Leather Club (nonlethal) x4
Longsword x4
Chainshirt x4
Heavy Steel Shield x4
Talinguarde Soldier's Outfit x4
Personal Locker Key x4
He may not be the brightest, but Tawg knows that being bound makes it difficult to fight back. Hearing the big man's call, he grabs a set of manacles off of one of the bodies and runs up to Grengar. "I've seen how these attach!" With Grengar's help positioning the guard's arms behind his back, Tawg manages to clamp the manacles around his wrists. "There! Now you're free to punch!" He grabs the guard by the scruff of his shirt and starts walking towards the cells. "Let's go show the guard to our ogre friend," he calls out, dragging the guard across the floor.
Walking up to the ogre's door, Tawg stops just outside of it and sits on the guard's back. "Hi! My name's Tawg. This is..." He leans down to the guard. "Tell our friend who you are." Tawg's rancid breath falls out of his mouth and across the guard's face.
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The battle was over for now, a breath of relief leaving Araton's lips. Yet even this momentary respite spelt poor tidings for them; they were trapped within the prison bloc and it was only a matter of time before reinforcements would arrive. They knew it was still bright outside though, waiting for darkness would be their best course of action.
Araton follows behind Tawg, his steps calm and careful as the fierce goblin dragged the man before the cell door that held the ogre within it.
"I think our friend knows exactly who waits behind that bar; ogres are rarities here in Talingarde, after all." Araton says with a wicked smile. He crouches down on his heels, looking up at that door. "Between Grengar and this ogre, I think Hilda would be able to drink your insides"
"That will be your fate; to be ripped apart, consumed, and die in as slow of a painful death as we can imagine here. Or...you answer our questions like a good dog should. Which will it be? Ground to meat...or obedience? If you answer our questions, I will do my best to ensure that you live." The last words from Araton roll out like a growl and even with the concoction in him, the jail cell's shadows seem to stretch and grasp for the living around them.
Now freed of the guard, Grengar goes about collecting the 50 ft. of chain.
He walks over to the guard and leers at him menacingly.
Then continues to where the ogre is.
"Come on you dumb brute, then," he says in giant.
With the captured guard forced towards the ogre's cell, he begins to panic. "No. Don't! Please don't! No! NO! You can't do this! Don't let him have me!"
He doesn't respond to Araton right away but after a moment what he said clicks. "I'll answer your questions. Just don't give me to that thing."
A croaking laugh comes from behind the cell door. "Grumblejack know you come back. Can smell your fear."
"What big man say?" He stands up, looking as large as he can.
"Hoh, hoh, ha! Little man. . . I'm BIGGER than you- and don't forget. I can crush you when want. Come. There will be smaller things for you to eat."
Ceres watches the others drag the manacled guard off to the ogre, and shrugs, a habit she's picked up over the last few months when talking to her mentor, whos crustaceous countenance tended to instill a little inscrutability in the Ceres' own demeanor. The nobleman was glib-tongued, the goblin was a distant relation to the ogre, and the giant Gengar was well... giant. If anyone could get the guard talking and bring the ogre to heel, it would be them.
Lacking charisma or a fearsome physique, Ceres' skills were better set to more brute applications, like barricades. The once-housewife shambles to the meeting room and lifts one end of the large table there, dragging it effortlessly down the stairs, where she flips it, tableside first, onto the corpse pile at the door, further barricading the group in.
Stopping for a moment to admire her work, Ceres next turns her attention to the fire, grabbing a chain shirt and examining the chimney while she dons the shirt.
The chimney is full of smoke and brings warmth from below where a fire burns. It is large, 10x10 ft. chimney that wouldn't be difficult to climb up or down if it wasn't for the smoke, which makes it hard to what anything below or above.
Hilda watched them drag the guard away and grinned. That should convince the ogre and if it didn't they could just leave the brute here anyway.
She then looks around and as she sees Ceres get herself a chainshirt from one of the guards, Hilda decides to follow that example. She saw how the big man was battered and stabbed so he would probably have more use for armor, then again these things wouldn't fit him anyway.
Araton watches as the guard thinks for a moment, a sigh leaving him before he nearly rises and begins to gesture to let them have their way. The guard's plea brings a satisfactory smile to his face and tired eyes. Crouching down, he looks the young man in the face for a few moments before nodding.
"Good man. Firstly, what is that fiendish concoction your fellows forced us to drink and how long does it last for? How many men are here in the prison? Where is the armory? Do you have spellcasters on your side? Don't lie to me or I shall cut off some of your fingers and feed them to Hilda. That...or just let her bite them off herself."
Ceres thrusts her hands into the smoke, smiling at the warmth that comes with it. Having the run of the guards' part of the cell block was a massive quality of life improvement, though of course it would be even better to be free as a bird. Closing her eyes, Ceres thrusts her head into the chimney and listens for any sounds coming from the room below.
Ceres hears the crackling of the fire, the bubbling of a cauldron and smells the soup being prepared. Ceres hears the sound of 2 voices, male and female but cannot make out what they are saying.
"Ok. Ok." The guard swallows nervously and tries to answer your questions, fear evident in his voice. His fingers form fists by his side to protect his fingers. "You don't need to do that. The Warden did that to you. I don't know anything about it except that he said it would make you easy to handle. He said it was going to make him rich. That's all I know!"
"There's usually about 40 guards on site at one time including off duty. Don't you see? You can't escape. No one escapes here."
"The armory is downstairs."
"Spellcasters? No. Why would one want to work at a prison?" You feel he knows more than he is saying about spellcasters.
Grumblejack takes offense to Grengar calling him little and growls. "You are little man. Grumblejack gonna crush you! You too scared to come close."
Araton listens to the young guard talk, his dark eyes focused on his face with an almost unsettling intensity. After a moment though, he lets out a sigh and shakes his head.
"You were doing so well..." Araton tsks softly, standing up straight. "You're lying to me about the spellcasters. I know that there would be some here. There are always spellcasters in a dangerous place." Araton begins to step away, moving closer towards the door where Grumblejack growls in anger at Grengars words. He looks over his shoulder with an almost sorrowful expression. "Now I need you to tell the truth and something I don't already know. Otherwise, you belong to the Ogre. Araton's attention shifts to the door where Grumblejack is, clearing his throat as he steps close enough to be seen through the bars on the door window.
"I do apologize for my large friend's mood; he has been slashed and cut by the weapons of these guards and that has left him in a poor mood. I can see that you are quite large, quite powerful too." Araton's tone is reverent and polite, his cold eyes staring at the ogre. "Like you, we were all prisoners here. Now we are going to escape...or kill as many of these men that we can. The only difference I can see between us is that my shackles are off and yours are on."
"Join us. We have a safe place to escape to if we can escape this place alive. I can lead you there but you must work with us. Lend us your strength and we shall crush these puny foes in our way!" As Araton speaks, his eyes slowly begin to burn red like coals stirred to life.
"No wait! It's the Warden. He's the one in charge of the experiments on the monsters we keep here. I haven't seen him cast any spells, I barely interact with him. Blackerly runs the place! But I've heard things the other guards have said. He has a pet owl and talks to it. Sometimes strange sounds come from his tower. Please! That's all I know."
Grumblejack grins at the description of Grengar. "Big man weak. Need Grumblejack to crush Blueshirts for him." He laughs a deep, croaky laugh. "Grumblejack escape whenever he want. Waiting for Blueshirts to come here. But they forget Grumblejack. Now I hungry. Give me that Blueshirt. Then escape." You get the sense of a very strong, independent ogre who don't need no rescue. And proud too. But he seems willing to help escape if you give him food.
Araton chuckles with the ogre, looking over his shoulder to give Grengar a sympathetic look. The giant at least seemed a little more intelligent and hopefully would let his pride slide for the moment. They needed all the allies they could get.
"Let me think about it for a moment. I did say I would do the best I can for the poor man." Araton would turn and make his way back towards where Gildevar, Ceres, and Hilda were. He could see them donning armor and gave an approving smile as he stepped in closer. "I need the key. The ogre will work with us. He just needs a snack." Assuming that they handed him the key, he would make his way back to through the cells, quietly humming a song his caretaker used to hum when he was a boy. He returned to where Tawg and Grengar were, the guard squirming on the ground futilely.
"Well, I did my best." Araton says matter-of-factly, unlocking the door and grabbing the guard by his shoulder. "I hear screaming and pleading pleases his kind. If you do it, perhaps he'll kill you quickly." With a bit of help from his allies (if they choose to help), he would toss that guard into the reach of the ogre with a wicked smile. "There. Eat well. Then we plan."
Having no desire to watch the guard's terrible fate, he would begin making his way back towards where their supplies awaited them. There was armor to finish putting on after all if they were going to fight their way out of here.
"Grumblejack, you little in the brain and in the body. Grengar is the biggest man there is- Grengar is stronger than you and bigger in brain and body."
Grengar comes to where he can look the Ogre eye to eye and stare Grumblejack down.
.
Ceres savors the smells of the soup simmering below. It was a simple meal; the smells not so unlike her own kitchen. A surpising - and sudden - pang of loss wells up in the once housewife, and she holds the memories of home in heard along with the scent of the soup, before the smoke forces Ceres to pull her head from the chimney.
Blinking, Ceres finds Araton in front of her, talking of keys. Handing them over, Ceres smiles. "A man and a woman - cooks - below us. Soup pot simmering on the fire. Looks like they haven't been alerted to the situation above them... yet. Gag the guard before you feed him to the ogre. No need for his screams to alert the cooks - or tell any outside the cell block door our captive is dead."
"I'm going up. Going to see what the view shows us."
"Grumblejack crush you! I have big brain and big body!" He doesn't like being insulted like that and will slam into you with a fist repeatedly if he can. The whimpering guard scurries into the corner of the cell.
Ceres climbs up the smoke-filled chimney with ease, holding her breath.
The top of the chimney is closed all around with slits for the smoke to escape (something like these). Daylight shines, marking the time as early afternoon.
From this hidden vantage point you get a good look all around at the layout of Branderscar. The building you are in is 2 stories high and not connected to the wall surrounding it. The wall has multiple towers, one of them larger than the others to your west, 3 stories tall. Past the wall the cliffs fall into the ocean. A dangerous drop into rocks and choppy water. The only road to and from the island is a stone bridge a few hundred feet past the large gatehouse building to the north.
The gatehouse and the large tower are not connected to the tops of the walls by doors, essentially splitting the wall walkway in two sections, west and east, requiring climbing, or a long walk via stairs and the ground to move from one section to the other.
View from the Chimney
Guards can be seen patrolling the west and east runs of the wall, 4 in each group as well as a canine accompanying them. Another 4 are also stationed on the roof of the gatehouse.
Tawg happily sits on the squirming guard's back while Araton uses his words to make the man talk about the prison. Tawg was very impressed. There weren't many smart talking people in the pits. He hears the man with the fancy cloth say something about feeding the ogre and Tawg claps with excitement. After a moment and a look from Araton, Tawg quickly hops up off the guard and gets two handfuls of the guard's clothes. "You heard him! You get to meet our friend!"
Tawg drags the guard to the door. "Um, hi ogre friend! I just had a snack, so here's one for you. Mine was a lot smaller than him," he looks at the guard and then himself, then up at the ogre. But you're a lot bigger than me, so you get a bigger snack. Eat well then come with us!" Tawg smiles up at the ogre and rips a large piece of blood soaked clothing off of himself and shoves it in the guards mouth before tossing him into the cell and turning and joining the rest of the group in the guard's room, passing Grengar as he goes, smiling up at him as well.
As he walks away, Grengar and the ogre get in each other's faces and sees the tensions rise. Tawg runs back to the cell door as things erupt and yells at the two. "Please please! You both have big brains and big bodies!" He tries to calm them down and also block the door to keep the guard from running away.
Ceres blinks, dazzled by the afternoon sunlight, and lets her eyes acclimate, before taking in the view. The setting was pretty dramatic; if Brandescar weren't a prison, it would have even been pretty. Looking along Brandescar's walls, Ceres notes the guards, counting numbers and watching routines.
Next she concentrates on the wall, and on the main building, looking at the slope of the main building's roof and the distance from its roofline to the ground, and then trying to judge the distance from the top of the walls to the ground. Last, she notes the entrance and exit points for the walls, tower, guardhouse, and any that she can surmise about the main building.
With one last longing look at the outside world, Ceres descends again into the prison.
Grengar strikes Grumblejack once, then backs away out of his reach, relying on starting before the ogre to protect him as he moves.
They seem alert and have longbows as well as longsword.
The edge of the roof is 30ft. from the ground. The roof would be difficult terrain.
The smaller towers along the wall have doors on the ground that lead up to the walkway. The guards walk through the smaller towers in their patrol back and forth along the wall. The wall towers also have arrowslits in the wall. The Wall walkway is 30ft. high.
The gatehouse and large tower both have only 1 entrance.
The stables have been turned into a doghouse and several hounds are still inside.
Grengar misses and moves away before Grumblejack can hit him. Grumblejack lets out his croaking laugh again. "Big man run good. Grumblejack hungry." He turns away from Grengar, seeing the guard in the corner and decides eating is more important than fighting. He corners the guard who backs himself into the corner, cowering in fear. Several muffled screams and snapping bones are heard before he dies.
With the scuffle seemingly finished, Tawg smiles at himself for a job well done in breaking it up. He turns and leaves the ogre to his snack and returns to the guard's room with the others. He looks around at who is currently there and sees that the creepy hair lady his missing and the rest of the group is scavenging through the guard's stuff. He plops down by the pile of goods and takes a closer look at the goods, eventually finding one of the signal horns. He takes it and attaches it around his waist. "Don't worry! I won't blow in it. I'm smart enough to not do that." He gives a proud smile for knowing how to be helpful.
Back in the cell block, Ceres approaches the stairs to make sure nothing is happening on the other side of the door, stopping to pause at the corpse pile to listen intently for a few seconds.
As the two giants collide and Ceres heads out to scout, Gildevar busies himself with strapping in for what's to come. A chain shirt might not be enough to stop a bodkin arrow, but it might cushion enough of the deadly projectile's speed and force to change what would be a lethal hit to a mere serious wound. The horrifying reality that he has no access to any healing or curative powers makes him feel like an idiot for thinking the armor might change his future. Reason and rationality come together to clobber the emotional breakdown, chastising it before it can grow roots. Have some faith in yourself, Gild. Someone else does, or else you wouldn't now be busy breaking out of this accursed prison!