IBGuard2's page

"That's right, son. That's why you'll put it in this-here chest"
He points.

There are only six manors in this neighbourhood and Tiadora leads you to what is, arguable, the most impressive and definitely the most opulent of them all. The front door is secured by two guards wearing armor and livery. The guards are polite, but firmly insistent that weapons must be collected. "No stranger may go before the Baron so armed."
However they do not search you - only confiscating your primary armaments.

At the door, you are greeted by a very formal butler and attended by a small squadron of servants who offer you brandy and hors d'oeuvres. The brandy is sublime, and the appetizers are a selection of tasty little beef skewers and cruncy, spicy crayfish puffs. Finally, after a fashionable delay, the baron makes his appearance.

half a mile away, on the sunny top level of the gatehouse(25), another guard notices the commotion.
"Huh? What the..."

It takes him a few seconds to fully grasp the situation, but he responds dutifully, and calls down to his colleagues.
"Light! Hey, Leers, Streak - one of you go get the capt - oh dammit, I keep forgetting, sorry'boutyerloss - Lord Havelyn. There's trouble in the courtyard!"

Streak draws the short straw, and runs off, starting to cross the Bridge of Death(24). Leers, who must've earned his nickname from his gawdawful squint, stands up and prepares for trouble.

Meanwhile, back in the rookery...

"Master Martin? We're coming in!"

A key turns in the lock of the heavy door that leads to the stairwell.
from behind the door, you hear "Stand well back, men! If there's trouble, get backup, don't worry about me."

The door slowly opens, and a guard cautiously sticks his head inside the room. This guard must indeed be some distance ahead of his colleagues, because they whisper "well?! tell us! what do you see??"

Of course, the very first thing he lays his eyes on, is the torched corpse of Mad Martin, the person he was looking for; but as if that wasn't enough evidence, the carnage of a few dozen mutilated ravens makes it clear that someone has been busy destroying the rookery.

He does not seem to mind, however. In fact, if anything, he relaxes his shoulders.

"For Light's sake...! Men - There's not a thing wrong here. Now quickly, go down, back to the infirmary. There's plenty of real work to be done there. I'll handle this false alarm myself."

The guard steps in, and closes the door behind him. Footsteps of his men running down the stairs again echo through the tower.

Then, the guard looks at Talon, and speaks again.
"Ah, master Martin. I'm sure, when you were given this horn, you were told to refrain from sounding the alarm in vain. You should Remember Your Lessons. Do not call us up again for nothing, hmm?"

Talon is chasing the last few obnoxious birds when there's someone at the door.
*bang, bang!* an armored fist smacks the door loudly.
"Master Martin? Everything all right in there?"

The soldiers immediately stand to attention as soon as they see 'Havelyn'. Their Sense Motive cannot reach 20+
"My Lord!"
But they do not step aside. Although they're not quite as assertive as before, when Caladwhen the Yokel stood before them.

"You...You instructed us not to let anyone by, you specifically mentioned not even yourself...without the password. Please? Sir..? "

Even being careful like they did, the guards are overwhelmed by Oret's spontaneous outburst. Guard2 is killed in two hard blows, and Guard4 yells in pain as his shield arm now points in an odd direction.
"hey - YEOOWW!"
how appropriate that you came up with 2 natural 20's! You may add +1 on the attack for elevated position BTW

Guard3 never new what hit him - but it will take Aerent some time to clean the bits of face off the trident.

Sarge's Sense Motive vs Aerent DC15: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (5) + 2 = 7
"what the - huh?! Wow, thanks - Now let's get him!!"

The brave Sarge uses his halberd to trip Oret: Trip vs CMD 23: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (12) + 7 = 19 but he's too confused, and Oret is too quick.

My guess is that within the next 6 seconds you'll have the tower all to yourselves :) at least, for the next hour or so..

Confident their plan will succeed, the first guard signals Aerent to open the door, counting down on his fingers. in 3...2...1...*nod*!!

The door opens quickly, and the men charge two steps forward as Aerent closes the door behind them.
Then, seeing Oret's black shadow just standing there, hands lowered, surrounded in surreal light from the light of the western window; the leading guard raises a fist, and the men immediately slow down.
Step by step they approach, as the leading guard commands:
"Well now son - we don't want any trouble."

guards move to these positions on the map - CTRL F5 to reload...

Jonas starts to bow politely, but that only causes him to meet the trident headfirst. "Thank you mila - urkkk,splutter, splutter, splutter"

Not a particularly impressive set of last words for this soldier - his last, nevertheless.

(Franz Mott)
"Talk it out you say?! After I catch you doing that to MY WIFE?!"
He draws steel.
"Never! A Duel! NOW!"

"he kinda looks like that guy cap'n B was talkin' about?"

Arryn's two sailors seem more committed by the minute. They have seen their captain burn in hellfire in a very efficient explosion of violence, and they've seen enough to know which is the winning side in this battle. They quickly step over to their sleeping colleagues, and without any visible hesitation, slit their throats.

with a diabolical squeal, the pressure release valves fully close. The gauge rises with jolts, steam flowing through the engine, with nowhere to go but into the pressure chamber. Yeah, the heat quickly becomes oppressive, and every now and then, the machines ever-so-slightly shake.

as Ricky makes it back up to the Quarterdeck where Jonas and Leroy are watching the smoke from the chimneys getting visibly thicker by the minute.
"Back! The commodore and the captain are really enjoying the ship!"

As Jonas stares at the smoke, he says: "hm. you don't say...Well, I hope they're done playing soon. We've got pirates to hunt while they play around with Andoran's taxpayers' money."

Then, a decidedly sooty-looking crewman Jonas appears and nods curtly. "pardon the interruption, commodore, SIR, cap'n; you'll be happy to know that the tasks have been completed, SIR." before saluting and running off, back to the quarterdeck outside.

"Aww cheer up, Ron; at least you won something tonight!"

"Michelle...?"

"DIE, you devil scu-. . . *cough* . . .. Oh, no..."
When he sees the guard run at him in a flurry of wild movement, Talon simply applies all his force to one great chop. As the sword digs deep and makes quite a mess, Talon's eyes light up with vengeance, enjoying every second of it.
Dan never 'saw' what hit him, until it was too late.

I was gonna say "don't spend it all at once", but holy cow that was quick. Well done. There's one more bonus if you can find the guy who took your other wing.

Guard2 wrenches his sword free from the half-orc's body and turns to assault Talon. He moves Z31 -> Y32 -> W32, technically provoking an AoO from Sindran.
Dammit. GUAAARDS! WE'RE UNDER ATTACK!!
attack on Talon: 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (5) + 5 = 10
damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (3) + 2 = 5

Talon, as he approaches, you recognize the face of the guy who applied the woodsaw to your wings earlier. I'm going to give you a +1 Now-You-Die bonus (circumstance) on whatever d20 you roll against this guy - until either of you stops breathing.

what the...? ALAAAAAAARM!!!
He sprints towards Sindran, grabbing his longsword on the way.
charge Sindran, provokes AoO: 1d20 + 5 + 2 ⇒ (13) + 5 + 2 = 20 damage: 1d8 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
guard has reduced AC for 1 round due to charge