He finds the door locked.
Finding the door locked, he pulls out picks and fiddles at the door for a bit before shaking his head.
"Can't manage it, they must have different sorts of locks here." He puts his tools back and stands up. "Can't spend all day fiddling with it - let's keep going and see if we can find a different symbol. Bolts and hammers don't make me think brigs."
You continue down the hall and find a smaller (as in only 3 abreast vice 6) passage to your left. Do you turn or keep following the larger passage?
AGRIPOS
"I'm an idiot!" Nichodemus exclaims. "I don't think these guys are used to magic. They didn't do anything to keep me from using mine. I know a sleep spell and a charm spell, either might work but I'm not sure what we would do after that."
"What do we think? Smaller passage probably means it's more out of the way, so if we run into trouble there'll be less people to hear us."
Agripos's jaw drops. "Well well, you're definitely more than just a diplomat and singer! A bard, I assume? I'm not sure even a very friendly prison guard will let us out--so let's try the more direct approach. I'll get him here and you get him to fall asleep. As long as he's close enough, I'll grab the keys while he's down."
With that, he starts banging at the iron bars. "You there, guard! A grave injustice has occurred here. I demand that you release me and my fellow Atlantean so we can prove that we are on a mission of trade and peace! This is your last chance."
Gheorix nods at Alejandro, and heads down the smaller passageway. Chances are the big hallways are for moving lots of people, and the holding pens would be off to the side somewhere? Seems reasonable eh? the Celt hefts his shield and spear, making his way along trying to find that captain
In the hall...
The three Atlanteans make their way down the smaller hall. Soon they come to an open doorway and the sound of many in conversation.
In the brig...
The guard eventually comes by and raps his spear harshly on the barred window. "Hush your mouth before I still it for you." he declares. Then Nichodemus hits him with a sleep spell. The guard buckles where he stands. Luckily the solid wooden door has about a two inch gap beneath it and Agripos is able to pull on the guards raiment enough to pull the keys to him. Oddly, he finds the keys are made of a lacquered wood instead of iron.
"Aha! Keys!" Agripos snags the keys and quickly unlocks the cell, making sure tNichodemus also escapes. He then snatches the guard's short spear and gently slides the guard into the cell before locking it behind him.
"Nichodemus--Look for anything useful! I'll let some prisoners free."
He then starts working on the other prisoners' cells--but only if the prisoners do not appear evil based on what Agripos can tell.
Alejandro reaches into his pack and pulls out a mirror, using it to stealthily peek into the room.
In the Hall...
Alejandro looks around the edge of the door and sees a large dining facility, most likely a soldiers mess area. There are about twenty men seated or at a table receiving or serving food. Most are armored with weapons either leaning against their table or laid across it.
In the Brig...
The hall has numerous cells and a pair of stout double doors. The other prisoners can tell something has happened and are calling out asking what is going on. Agripos is pleased to see that two of his companions from their mercantile company, Hanshaw and Lutz, were in the cell next to his. Theron, the fourth member of your team was killed when you were taken captive.
"This is really the wrong way, there's a bunch of armed soldiers eating in there. Let's head back and keep going."
"Hanshaw, Lutz!" Agripos shakes his fellow companions' hands firmly, pleased to see them again. "I'm not usually for throwing open all the cell doors. But whoever runs this land sure doesn't believe in justice."
He heads toward the prisoners in the cell opposite theirs and sets them free. [b]"So, any of these folks in jail you think we shouldn't free?
The hall...
If nobody else who’s already set free objects and no prisoner appears as clearly evil via Detect Evil, Agripos is opening up all the cells!
Agripos has opened up the third cell when the call of "Guard!" comes ringing down from the north-west hall from several throats.
Agripos hands whichever ally looks combat-capable the shortspear he got from the previous guard. He then nods toward the northwest to the group and starts moving there, encouraging the others to meet the threat head-on. It seemed like they would have to fight their way out.
Gheorix will lead the group quietly back down the way they came, still looking for the cells.
Perblentious just keeps quiet, letting the others lead while he follows along. This is a very odd situation for him.
In the halls...
Reaching the larger hall, they turn left again and begin to make their way along its slightly curving path. There are still several doors but all of them have the cog or hammer symbols. Then they come to another open doorway. This one is quiet and a quick inspection reveals it to be a latrine. Oddly, it does not smell. Once more down the hall and they finally come to something different. In this part of the hall there are a pair of large iron banded double doors about forty feet apart. This primarily stands out because all doors prior to and after are regular wooden doors. A loud hiss of air or some other gas along with the periodic clang of metal can be heard beyond the doors.
In the brig...
In the brig...
Sigrid had just been hauled into the brig this morning after a tiring flight strapped to the back of a giant albatross. In her group's capture, she had used Command and Bless so after being chucked in a cell with Dupuy, an older member of her team who had been a soldier and a sailor, she opted to get some rest. She was awakened by all the commotion in the hall, particularly when other prisoners started calling out "Guard". Looking out her cell window she saw a young man, Greek she thought by his complexion, go striding by with an Italian and a few others she could not quite place.
Then she heard a voice from below the cell window. "Have you out in a jiffy." Said the voice. Then she heard the click of the lock.
Agripos with Lutz next to him and the two strangers from across the hall rounds the western corner. A guard is striding down the hall and stops when he sees them. The guard turns and flees.
Round 1
Soldier done
Agripos
Sigrid
NPCs
Prison break? Lady Ran smiles upon me! Pity I used command or I could make that guard approach and get clobbered.
Scheiße, was tun?, she thinks in German as she assesss the situation.
Crap, what to do?
She opens the door as her move action, without actually moving, then 5 foot steps to the side before speaking to Dupoy and blessing him with luck.
Dupoy, we need to stop that guard or the whole Drecks-prison will be upon us
Ran, hilf dem Freund deiner Dienerin As she gives Dupoy a bit of luck, allowing him to reroll all D20s in his next round, picking the more favorable result.
Ran, aid the ally of thy servant
Alejandro examines the large doors and checks to see if they're locked.
"Sounds more like a forge than a prison." he remarks. "Should we take a look?"
It wouldn't hurt to get the lay of the land I suppose. Gheorix agrees with Alejandro to check the heavy banded doors.
"Sure, but be careful. We don't want trouble before we have to. " he says nervously.
Agripos hurries after the guard! "Someone stop him!" he says in his native Greek, not at all sure if anyone would understand.
Alejandro peaks in. It is a huge room with four large cylindrical containers made of steel along the far wall. Air escapes the containers at various points making a loud hissing noise. Along the outer walls there are four alchemical tables. Alejandro cannot make out exactly what is on them but the nearest has a container each of red and blue fluid. There are numerous men working in here. Some are adjusting levers, others checking gauges, and some working at the tables.
Alejandro shakes his head. "Some sort of crazy alchemy, nothing I've seen before. Everyone looks busy so should be safe to take a peek if you reckon you can make more sense of it than me. No sign of a brig though."
Engineering...
Gheorix and Perblentious look in the door. As Alejandro mentioned, there is no brig here.
You believe the two tables are used to control the altitude of the island in the same manner that similar tubes and fluid were used to control the altitude of Captain Christoff's ship.
In the Brig...
Alejandro turns the corner in time to see the soldier run into the primary guard room. The guard does not bother closing the door but crosses the room and pulls the cover from a bird cage which holds an ugly, fat fairy and says, "Jail break!"
Pytheas after hearing the noise in the hall hears a small voice from below the cell window say, "Ok, you're next." The door pops open and standing to greet you is a smiling gnome. You recognize him from the day of casting. He was on one of the other teams.
Perblentious has no relevant skills, so he just waits to see what he fellows do.
I think those tables control this ship? How can a ship be so big? They are sort of like the ones on Captain Christoff's ship, just much, much bigger. Gheorix shrugs at this understanding and motions for the group to keep moving.
"Maybe we can come back and break things once we have the captain. Could keep them from chasing us. " he mentions quietly as they proceed on.
Pytheas' team ran into a tribe of stoat men when they first arrived. They lost two of their four members and much of their trade items before they managed to drive them off. To add insult to injury, when Pytheas and Annora (trade master of the group) arrived at a town they were arrested for merely being Atlantean. Like the other Atlanteans, you have been transported, hooded, until you arrived at your current destination and thrown into the brig.
This had not been Pytheas' first trip by far, but it had certainly been the most disastrous. One would have thought that circumnavigating wide stretches of land by boat and describing the oceans and tides would have led to more trouble. The Casting had gone well, but their encounters with native peoples had unfortunately gone poorly. Pytheas had been sitting in this cell with an empty belly, a headache, and the nagging empathic sensation from his giant elk's anxiety for...how long had it been?
And so when a gnome greets him and opens his door after all that commotion he had been hearing, Pytheas smiles. Perhaps fortune was turning around! He responds to the gnome in the Gnomish tongue, <"You are certainly a kind sight for sore eyes! I didn't catch your name.">
He stands up and stretches before approaching the door.
Agripos continues to chase the guard, though he's worried it's all for naught as the guard declares a jailbreak to some strange fairy creature. Could the fairy communicate that warning onward? Half his mind is elsewhere as he approaches and levels a heavy right cross aimed at the guard's head.
;
In the hall...
You close the door and continue down the hall. After a short length of hall with no doors they begin again. Now the icon on the wooden placard is that of a box. Checking one you find it to be a large walk in closet with basic items, this one has sheets and pillows. Continuing along this way you eventually come to a pair of double doors with a placard of a pair of outstretched hands. The hall only seems to go about another 50' before ending. The hall ends at a double door with a shelf and large shuttered window on each. Beside the door sits a small creature on a perch. It looks like a cross between a bat and a bird with fur, a beak, and leathery wings. From its short tail hangs a pull cord. Above the door is a placard displaying a barrel, a grain sack, and a shovel.
Several voices can be heard from behind the double door with the hand placard. As you consider the two options you hear voices coming down the hall. You figure the bend in the hall will conceal you until the voices get within 30'.
In the brig...
Agripos' blow is absorbed by the man's armor. The soldier turns, spear in hand and lunges. The spear just misses. Then the other men coming rushing into the door. One of them, you believe someone called him Lutz, has the previous guard's spear in hand and begins to circle behind the single guard.
The gnome looks at Pytheas and an even bigger smile creases his face, "Ahh, an educated man. I'm Nichodemus. Excuse me a moment as I feel I should get the rest of our erstwhile fellow prisoners loose from their confines." He nods and hustles to the next door.
"A gentleman and a scholar," Pytheas responds with a grin. "I'll leave you to it and lead the charge."
The dwarf walks past Annora with an 'Are you coming?' look and rounds the corner towards where he believes he hears the sounds of combat proceeding. He has surprising speed for a dwarf, moving as swiftly down the hall as a human twice his size.
Annora hustles to catch up to the dwarf. What do you expect me to do when we get up there, scream at them." she says waving her empty hands.
Round 2
Soldier done
Agripos <<<
Sigrid
Pytheas
NPCs
Agripos shifts over to try and flank his current foe. Having observed these guards, Agripos thinks he's figured out how to fight them.
;
Sigrid becons Dupuy over to assist in the armor stripping.
Seriously, getting stripped by just me would be far to pleseant.
In the hall...
In the brig...
Agripos gives the guard's side a crushing blow. Lutz moves to flank the guard before jabbing at him but fails to land a solid blow. One of the other prisoners moves to the desk and covers the bird cage. The other prisoner seems concerned about closing the distance with an armed man and keeps his distance for now.
Dupuy assists Sigrid in pulling the armor off the unconscious guard. Pytheas and Annora reach the door of the guard room and see the fight between four prisoners and one of the guards. They recognize two of the men as having been on the parade field the day of the casting on Atlantis (Agripos and Lutz).
The guard, feeling extremely threatened tries to bargain with those around him. "If any of you men help me quash this uprising, I'll speak on your behalf. You know there is no way out of here." As he speaks he punctuates his words with a solid stab of his spear into Agripos (Dmg 6).
Round 3
Soldier done
Agripos <<<
Sigrid
Pytheas
NPCs
"Don't think we can avoid confrontation any longer." Alejandro says, drawing his shortsword. "We should charge them once they're in sight - if we're quick we can hopefully avoid alerting anyone else."
So quietly and quickly? the red-haired celt asks. Lowering his half helmet, and adjusting his shield to take the brunt of the impending charge.
In the hall...
Two soldiers in full armor and armed come walking around the bend.
Surprise Round
Alejandro
Gheorix the Red
Perblentious
Round 1
Perblentious
Alejandro
Gheorix
Soldiers