Jurgrindor grumbles and heads into the opposite room to continue convalescing.
Looking into the adjoining room, you can see floor-to-ceiling shelves cover the walls of a well-stocked pantry. The shelves contain various salted meats, loaves of bread, sacks of grain and flour, and an assortment of potatoes and vegetables. Twelve barrels sit against the west wall.
Amiri, Harrim, and Valerie lie unconscious in a tangled heap in the middle of the pantry floor. They’re bruised and battered, their hands are bound with rope, and their weapons lie nearby. Occasionally, one of them lets out a soft groan.
After quickly making sure that none of the three would perish in the next few moments, Vesi begins to rummage into the baskets and crates in the pantry, muttering under their breath as they name and categorize all the fruits and vegetables. After about ten minutes, they emerge holding their prize - a small weaved bowl lined with cloth, holding several fistfuls of fresh berries.
Taking two of those, the druid works their magic once more, then places them between the lips of Valerie and Harrim. "Oh, I hope this works..."
The berries revive Harrim and Valerie. The pair sit up woozily, Valerie reaching for her sword and shield. "Where is the frost giant? Did you defeat him? He is a formidable foe!" she asks.
Harrim clutches his religious symbol. "Groetus has ordained our time has not yet ended.” He channels healing energy into everybody.
It's enough to get Amiri on her feet, though the barbarian remains badly wounded. She grabs her oversized sword and growls angrily. "Where is that godsdamned giant? I’m going to cut his head off!”
"Hold up there, Amazing Ami, he's off licking his wounds and getting ready for a later rematch. Much later." I hope.
"You think it might be a good idea to do the same?"
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Russ nods along with Vesi and Blaze, "The giant has left for now, we will find and fight it again later, when it is a proper challenge. We killed an ogre and saved Linzi on way."
Russ holds out the dagger clean of blood, "I was unable to land a solid blow on it with your gift before it was put down however."
Amiri pushes the dagger back to Russ'ruk. "Keep it. There will be more foes to fight before the night is through. And I look forward to carving a swath through them."
Harrim shakes his head. "Not me. I've no wish to test the limits of the reprieve my god has granted me. I shall return to the room and wait out this siege."
"I will ensure no further harm comes to him," Valerie says, moving to follow Harrim.
Amiri scoffs. "We don't need them. Lead the way, and we will slay our enemies together!"
Linzi stays with you as well. "I'm ready. Let's go!"
***
The door that the frost giant was guarding is barricaded from the other side. Knocking on it causes some of the house guards on the far side to answer. When you explain the giant is no longer a threat, they unbar the door and allow you to pass into the Great Hall.
The Great Hall looks much different than it did hours ago during the feast. Three of the long tables have been turned on their sides and pushed against the large entry doors to the south to form a makeshift barricade. Dishes, broken goblets, and bloody stains mar the floor, while at least a dozen bodies lie against the east wall. Lady Jamandi’s guards gather at the barricades and in front of the double doors leading into the west wing. These doors are sealed, and several tapestries have been torn from the walls and wedged into the gap between the floor and the door in a feeble attempt to keep smoke from flowing into the hall from an apparent fire in the manor’s west wing.
Ivenzi, a lieutenant of Lady Jamandi’s guards, holds the Great Hall along with a half dozen other guards. A large man with gray eyes, closely cropped black hair, bushy eyebrows, and a thin mustache, Ivenzi greets you enthusiastically when you enter. ”It’s good to see you alive. None of the other adventurers invited to the feast have made their way back to the hall, so I had feared they were all slain. What happened in there?”
"Are you sure you don't want to come with us? Safety in numbers, innit. And we managed pretty well so far..." Vesi offers to Harrim and Valerie. In the end, even having only Amiri join them is a boon, as the warrior certainly seems like she could hold her own against an ogre!
As they enter the Great Hall, Vesi sighs in relief at seeing that at least other people were still alive. "None of them? Oh no, that is terrible!" The undine shakes their head, tears in their eyes, as they try to process the enormity of the catastrophe.
"We, uh, we were awoken by shouting outside our room. My companions fought their way through six... no, seven of those people with the dark armour and the eye tattoo... then an ogre. And then, erm, we encountered a frost giant."
Vesi's gaze drops, as they imagine that the guard lieutenant would not approve of the enemy being healed and allowed to leave in peace. "His name was Jurgrindor.
Trying to forestall questions on the latter topic, they point to the western doors. "Is there a fire somewhere? I can make some water and try to put it out."
Ivenzi frowns. “Aye. The hallway leading from the Great Hall and several of the guest chambers next to it are ablaze, but we also heard clashing blades coming from the west wing as recently as a few minutes before you arrived. So, I think the rooms further west are still safe. Getting to them is risky, but certainly possible.
"Lady Jamandi ordered me to hold the Great Hall, then took a squad of eight guards with her and went to clear out the West Wing. Her goal was to retake the Dueling Hall at the far end of the manor, so I’ll wager you’ll find her there. Please, try to reach her! I wager she is going to need as much help as she can get!"
Okay, payroll plan's out, long-term plan's in.
"Vez, dry 'em up; wick's still burning on a lot of these details. The other adventurers aren't all dead anyways. A bunch probably just decided to loot whatever was closest and leave as soon as it got noisy and, y'know, unguarded. So let's go clear some other bandits out, you can be the firefighter while I'm fire-fighting."
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Russ brims and slides the dagger back, "Then we shall fight the continued battle together... er, minus the dwarf and lady Valerie. Do be careful the both of you."
Upon Vesi explaining the situation to the guards Russ looks to the direction indicated by them. "Then it's decided, you should stay here and hold the hall and assist anymore who make their way here. We will reconvene with Lady Jamandi and provide what assistance we can. If we're lucky they haven't dealt her any lasting harm. We'll repel this invasion soon enough though. There's a tied up mercenary in the courtyard near the waterway injured but alive, might do well to bring them here for the Lady to interrogate later."
With that Russ checked his armor straps and looked to the other members of his troupe, "Last chance to back out, though I hope you'll stick through to the end."
As you prepare to brave the burning west wing, Amiri begins tearing strips of cloth off of the tables here and fashioning them into makeshift scarves. She douses them with water. ”Put these over your faces. They will help us breathe through the smoke.”
When you are ready, you enter the west wing of the manor. This wide hallway is filled with billowing smoke. Further ahead, on either side of the hall, several open doorways are illuminated by flickering flames.
Each of these guest rooms is completely ablaze. The doors to each have burned to rubble, but not before the doomed adventurers sleeping within perished. Left as they are, the rooms will continue to smoke and burn. Fortunately, the manor’s stone walls and the lack of carpet or other flammable materials in the hall prevent the fire from spreading through the rest of the manor.
You attempt to put out flames by kicking apart burning debris, smothering smaller fires, or moving unburnt items out of the path of flames. Attempt a DC 15 Acrobatics, Athletics, or Survival check to determine the level of your success. If you use water as part of this action, you gain a +2 item bonus to this check. Alternately, you can use a spell to Fight Fires by attempting a spell attack roll as you Cast, although you’ll need to describe how you’re using the spell to the GM, who will then decide if the plan has a chance to succeed. If the spell has the Water trait, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus to this check. Certain spells, at the GM’s discretion, may automatically grant a critical success or instantly extinguish the flames.
Critical Success You gain 2 Extinguish Points.
Success You gain 1 Extinguish Point.
Critical Failure You lose 1 Extinguish Point.
An out of control blaze is nothing new to... Blaze, so she stirs up her surroundings, shaping and pulling stone and earth to smother the flames in piles of inert debris.
One wet scarf tied loosely over her mouth and nose and their hair tucked out of the way under another, Vesi rushes towards one of the burning rooms, their hands raised and the words of an incantation spilling from their lips.
Water begins to form in their cupped hands, flowing to the floor, steam hissing up as it touches the burning surfaces. Vesi flings their hands forward several times to try and spread the water over all the parts of the room that were on fire.
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Russ takes the wet rag for a bit but soon see's the situation is quite out of control and decides it may be best to use his chilled breath to aid in snuffing the fire out.
But the tiny lizard's best efforts seem in vain especially when the smoke prevents him from breathing in well, resulting in more of a wheezing cough than any powerful icy storm. So he instead tries to beat the flames out using a not quite caught on fire tapestry.
Blaze and Vesi make progress towards fighting the flames, but Pekk and Russ'ruk struggle to do so. The heat begins to take its toll.
The frantic rolling about seems to work, and Russ'ruk manages to finish extinguishing the flames. You break open the windows in the bedrooms as well to allow the smoke to dissipate.
There is another room in this hall that is not a bedroom. This room’s plain stone walls and polished floor have already become stained with smoke. At the far end of the room—atop a stone dais—stands a marble statue of an armored half-elf woman. One of her hands clutches a heavy shield, while the other is clenched into a fist over her heart. The statue seems to radiate a sense of safety and calm.
"Whew!" Vesi wipes a soot-stained hand over their face, smudging it black. "Let's take a breather here, make sure the fire doesn't start up again."
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Russ sighs in relief as his clothing stops being on fire as well as the nearby flames being reduced. Traveling on to the statue the soot and blood coated kobold doesn't even attempt to wipe his face clean, he'll have to wait for a bath proper going forward.
Seeing Vesi take a break and refocus herself Russ looks at the destruction and contemplates the happenings of the night and who or what would send such a destructive force this way.
Blaze gives a quick warm smile as she sees Milani's statue, then offers a somewhat desultory smack to her own chest in salute to the goddess.
"Good to know she doesn't think the bandits need help overthrowing Jamandi..."
Feeling rejuvenated, you proceed along the west wing, exiting the first hall through double doors at its end. Drifting coils of smoke waft in the air of this finely furnished room. Padded chairs and side tables are set along the west wall and a thick burgundy carpet covers most of the floor. Oil paintings hang on the walls, and shelves contain statuettes and other small art pieces.
The smoke in this room is slight and doesn’t hamper vision or breathing. The gnome Tartuccio lies sprawled on the floor near the entry doors.
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Shaking his head clear he waits for the others to catch their breath.
"Come now Blaze, there isn't time to joke like that when lives are on the line."
Russ spots the gnome, but is weary of thugs laying in wait... he doesn't look terribly injured and while he was at the party and said some crass things he hadn't interrupted anyone's good time thanks to Pekk.
"Don't see any assassins. Vesi could you check on him. I'll cover you."
He draws his blade in both hands protectively while inching forward.
Not waiting to be told twice, Vesi kneels by the gnome's side to check his vitals, and stabilize him.
Tartuccio is alive, and Vesi's ministrations bring him around. He sputters and coughs as he staggers to one of the padded chairs to slump into it. "Ah! My loyal henchmen! Thank you so much for coming to my aid. Now, get me out of here! Escort me safely back to the Great Hall."
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This might be one of the few times Russ actively has to stifle a full snarl at someone as his teeth are bared for a fraction of a second before he breaths deep and composes himself.
"Legs aren't broken, so unless you'd like to follow us to save Lady Jamandi first, you can escort yourself. The path is clear."
Tartuccio scoffs and wrinkles his nose. "Bah! Fine." He mutters under his breath as he scurries off past you down the corridor to the Great Hall.
"What a pompous blowhard!" Linzi remarks. Amiri shares a similar sentiment, though her choice of words is decidedly more foul.
You move on through a partially-stocked armory and into a parlor. This large room contains several padded chairs, a comfortable-looking pair of couches, several side tables, and a finely crafted billiards table.
The elf Jaethal is sprawled on one of the couches with her mouth gagged and hands tied behind her back with rope. A trio of cutthroats are preparing to interrogate her, including a sinister-looking man wielding a pair of sharp knives.
Unfortunately, they notice you and turn to face you before you can get the jump on them! They move in to attack Russ'ruk. The leader lands a good hit with one of his blades, and the others move to flank the kobold, each scoring a hit. Russ'ruk is badly wounded!
"You leave her alone!" shouts Vesi as they spot Jaethal about to be tortured. Their defiance turns to a gasp as Russ'Ruk is almost killed, so the druid immediately heals him and then raise their shield protectively. These people were ruthless!
"Trust me, they're right: Not even torture will get her to engage in smalltalk."
Blaze plants her feet, shimmering the air between the two bandit henchmen with heat until the slightest spark ignites an arc of electricity between them both. Then with a flick of her wrist, she tosses the remaining heat as a bolt of fire towards whatever remains.
Blaze's electric arc fries one of the lesser thugs and wounds the other. Russ'ruk steps back and unleashes his icy breath, further injuring the second mook and lightly wounding their leader. Pekk conjures a blast of water to take out the lesser thug!
Now on his own, the lead cutthroat snarls as he steps up to slice at Russ'ruk again. He hits with one dagger.
Blaze continues to pour on the fire, filling her palms with flame as she dares this brigand to continue facing her!
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Russ tries and fails to guard himself from the slippery dagger and retaliates in kind with a slight feinting backstep to gather range again before lunging forward with a stab towards the man's gut. Attempting to pull the blade around his insides as much as possible before retracting to defend himself.
Blaze scorches the cutthroat with her fire, then Russ'ruk scores a critical hit, tearing the man's guts open with his blade! The thug tries in vain to hold his intestines in before he collapses to the floor in a pool of blood!
Once you untie and ungag Jaethal, the elf thanks you for your aid. "I am lucky you came along when you did. I shudder to think what would have happened if you had not. I must confess that I am a little rattled from this whole ordeal. I shall return to the Great Hall to gather my wits. But I overheard those ruffians mention that the 'boss and those two giants' have cornered the lady of the manor in the dueling pit. You should hurry to her aid!"
"Oh no, those must be Jurgrindor's brothers." Vesi gives Jaethal a sympathetic look. "Of course, you went through a terrible thing. Please take care of yourself, and I hope we will see you again once all of this is over."
The undine nods towards one of the healing vials. "Russ, you were badly wounded, best drink one of those. Meditating earlier refreshed me, but now I am feeling a little exhausted again and I won't be able to use my healing magic."
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Russ nods to Vesi clearly looking exhausted after that ordeal. He gently tilts one of the potions into his gullet and shakes his head as his wounds magically seal with fresh grey scales.
"I will be glad to rest for real once the night is done but this works until then. Take care Jaethal, Tartuccio should be there as well and the path clear. We make to assist Lady Jamandi in clearing the dueling hall."
With Russ'ruk healed, you move on into the dueling chamber. A large recessed area sits in the floor of this enormous chamber. Racks containing practice blades and stands holding suits of padded armor line the north and south walls.
Lady Jamandi is here, facing off against a pair of frost giants in the open area to the northwest of the dueling pit. At the same time, an auburn-haired woman with a wickedly curved greataxe enters from the opposite door, accompanied by two more Black Tear cutthroats. Lady Jamandi you and points out the woman, yelling, “Just in time! That’s their leader; take her out while I deal with these oafs!”
"I'll take the grunts," Amiri says. "You guys get the leader!" She hefts her oversized sword and charges into battle with a growl.
"Ah, a fellow bandit queen, eh? Last chance for a parley. I won't ask for a second."
Blaze's eyes flare with unnatural light as she works her will on the ground beneath the axewoman's feet, which warms in a steady pulse before it almost seems to sweat a thin, slippery grease.
Blaze successfully demoralizes the commander, but she manages to keep her footing on the grease. She steps carefully off of the slippery floor, then strides up to attack Russ'ruk with her greataxe! She slices deeply into the kobold, nearly taking him out with one strike!
"Don't give up! Your story doesn't end here!" Linzi shouts encouragingly. She casts a spell to soothe Russ's injuries before beginning an inspiring chant.
Blaze gives the rival bandit a fearsome jolt, then withdraws to a safer position.
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Russ barely blocked the incoming axe from the leader of the assassin bandits, but she struck him with such force it cleaved down and into his shoupder nearly ending him there. With Linzi's magic bolstering him back to strength Russ pushed the blade back and made to strike back with a flurry of vicious swipes.
"You'll not end us so quickly cur!"
Pekk moves in to flank the leader with Russ'ruk. The kobold unleashes a flurry of brutal strikes, each one hitting the commander of the Black Tears. She cries out in pain as her blood flows, then Blaze unleashes a blast of crackling lightning. The commander does her best to avoid the electricity, but her efforts are not enough to spare her from being painfully shocked. She falls to the floor, twitching and smoking.
Amiri finishes off the other two thugs, then you watch as Lady Jamandi guts one of the frost giants. As the giant staggers and doubles over, she runs up his body, leaps, and slices open the throat of the second giant! Both mighty foes crash to the ground as Lady Jamandi lands in a nimble crouch and flicks the blood off of her dueling sword.
"I thank you for your heroics tonight," Lady Jamandi says. "I promise to reward you suitably, but first we must secure the manor and tend to the wounded."
Vesi picks their jaw off the floor as their companions and Lady Jamandi make very short work of their opponents. Recovering their wits, the undine nods to the noble.
"That last part I can help with, innit." They glance quickly at the frost giants to see if one of them might seem familiar, then beam at Linzi. "You have healing magic, too! We must compare notes once this is over."
Blaze looks bemused by Vesi's excitement. "Sure she does - not like healing's hard. You just don't work the bellows quite as hard so you don't overdo things. See?"
The runic flare around her hands is tighter and more focused as Amiri's skin gets prickly as if with a sunburn, sharpening at the points of her wounds into spikes of cauterizing heat.
Vesi's blue eyes go very big as they watch Blaze at work healing Amiri. "Yes, of course, I am well-versed with the healing properties of water, also in its forms as draughts, potions, antidotes and elixirs, it stands to reason that fire and heat can be used in ways that, while not similar, lead to similar results, although by necessity the mechanism would be different, to burn out infection, stop bleeding..." The undine trails off, continuing to mutter under their breath about magical medical theory, completely absorbed by the topic.
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Russ lets his blade drop and he needs a breather after the injuries from the last few fights despite the magical healing.
"Well done everyone. Linzi thank you for the healing, excellent spellcasting Blaze, Vesi. Pekk. Amiri I'm glad to add your sword arms to my own."
He rips the greataxe from the former bandit queens cold dead twitching hands. "Lady Jamandi, the pathway to the dining hall is cleared, we dampened the fires but there was significant damage to the quarters there. I'll gladly join you in clearing the floor and looking for more survivors after I catch my breath. I'm better in a fight than my bedside manner. Only know how to bandage up basic wounds and splint some bones."
"You have healing magic, too! We must compare notes once this is over."
Linzi grins sheepishly. "Just that one spell, yeah. It comes in handy in a pinch."
Amiri grimaces as Blaze heals her with fiery magic. She inspects the sealed wounds before nodding with satisfaction.
”I doubt there are many more foes left, and with their leaders dead, they likely won’t have much fight in them,” Lady Jamandi says to Russ'ruk. ”You’ve done more than your fair share. My men and I can handle things from here. Rest if you need to.” And with that, she is off.
***
Getting things in hand takes the rest of the night and most of the next morning. A few hours after dawn the next day, the situation at the manor is more or less under control. Engineers from Restov have arrived and are busy surveying the fire-damaged parts of the manor to plan repairs, while the dead have been gathered and are being prepared for funeral services. Servants are busy throughout the manor and grounds, making minor repairs, cleaning up bloodstains, or recovering from the ordeal.
Lady Jamandi offers each of you a reward of 50 gp and two lesser healing potions for your valorous deeds the night before. She also allows the you to keep the magic weapons from her vault, in addition to as much bandit treasure and gear as you can carry, though she hints that she will put any looted gear you leave behind to good use.
She asks you to reconvene in the Great Hall at noon when the other groups of adventurers who had been staying off-site will return as well.
At noon, you gather once more in the Great Hall. It’s shocking how quickly Lady Jamandi’s staff have restored the manor’s Great Hall in the space of a few morning hours. Very few signs of the violence of the night before remain, and things have been mostly returned to normal. As the adventurers who survived the assault take seats at the tables, other adventurers who arrived just today settle in as well. Even with these newcomers, though, there are far fewer heroes in the hall than there were the previous evening, and the atmosphere is serious and somber.
One of the newcomers is seated at your table. He is a ysoki with a large rifle strapped to his back. Some of you may recognize the gunslinger Knaxshi...
Vesi had accompanied Lady Jamandi the night before as she and her men swept up the last of the attackers - not to fight, but to help preserve the lives of any grievously wounded but not yet dead that they might encounter - guards, servants, other adventurers.
In the morning, as they gather again in the Great Hall, the undine spots a familiar face and waves enthusiastically at the ysoki. "Hi! I'm sorry, I don't remember your name, but I remember your horse!"
"Ah the name is Knaxshi. You saved our horses from some nasty stomach problems, Vesi. Thank you." He further looks around the room. "Ah, Russ'Rulk. I see you've started putting the lesson from your book into practice." Finally he turns with trepidation to the last face. The most recent he has seen. "I don't think we've been introduced. I hope that we can build some trust and work together."
Blaze beams. "It's a different name by now anyways. Good to know you Knaxshi, I'm Blaze!"
Turning to the others, Blaze yanks the front of her dress down to show off a nasty-looking scar just beneath her right shoulder.
"He's a really good shot!"