Briggi takes the crossbow.
As they are heading that way Tisha pipes up:
Do we perhaps want to sneak in like we did at the Fishery?
Might give us a chance to get the drop on one of the remaining ones.
"You think these guys have the whole building, not just a shopfront? That's a pretty big building for just 5 guys to be staying in... Well, on the way there, we'll walk all the way around the building, keeping our eyes open. If the butcher's isn't open at this time of night, I think a sneak might be a good idea. But let's do a better job of reconnaissance than we did at Lamm's hidey hole..."
As you arrive it is well past sunset and dark. The butchery is closed and the front door locked. Light is only seen in the upper floor.
Behind the house the cattle is held. This large pen is open to the air, and the stink of manure, mud, and animal is strong, despite the breeze that wafts through the stockade’s wooden fence. To the south stands a
roofed shed containing a straw-filled wagon. Both the pen and the shed have an outside door. Both locked, both probably noisy to open.
Tisha tries to sneak around the and see if she can see anything else in any of the windows.
She even tries to pull herself up and looks to see if she can see any animals in the pen or can reach the wooden shed roof and peer into the second story windows.
If nothing else is appearing as a better option she tries to unlock the shed door and tries to find a way to quietly open the door.
[ooc]Note she is not opening the door unless she thinks she has a way to keep it quiet.
Tisha climbs the shed, which causes the cows to make some noise. But after a short while it becomes clear that no one reacts to that. Climbing from the shed to the roof is easy. Sneaking up to the window with the light in Tisha can spot a man in Korvosan guard armor sitting at a table. A single large desk stands in the eastern part of this large office, transformed into a makeshift bed by a bedroll and several blankets and pillows. A chamber pot sits under it. A table and three chairs sit to the west; several papers lie strewn over the table’s surface. One of the papers is pinned to the tabletop by an exquisite silver dagger .
The door to the next room is closed, so there is no easy way to tell what is there.
Before Tisha goes sneaking off, Narciso casts Message (twice) to link the party into a whisper net (with Narciso as the hub)...
Tisha reports back in a whisper as she finds info
one armored man upstairs in makeshift office bedroom.
Can’t tell where other two are but nobody is responding to cattle being disturbed so might be out.
We should take him quietly now as he isn’t expecting trouble.
Want to go in front or back way?
Back door,
"First, if we're not going to be able to play tricky games, give me my spear, cestus and crossbow back... Second, back door. Tish can set a rope at the back corner and we can climb into the wagon yard. Then into the loading doors.
...
To the south stands a roofed shed containing a straw-filled wagon. ...
Briggi does! He had great rapport with cows
Tisha continues to wait in a shadow on the shed roof ready to jump down if the group in the cow pen pull in a merc, or once they open the door.
Briggi climbs over the wooden fence, which is an adventure of its own. The fence as a whole is sturdy, to keep the animals in, but the single branches it consists of, are rather elastic, when the whole weight of a guard is put upon it. And getting over it, with nothing above to hold onto isn't easy.
But Briggi manages and lands on the inside and on his feet. Which bestows him with a bunch of new friends. He gets swarmed by four cows who loudly demand to be fed.
Briggi gets out some of his rations and shakes them over his head. Fooood Moooo! Foood! He tosses them over the cows to distract them so he can get some room.
The cows watch with interest as the rations go flying and gallopp to get it.
2 rank +3 trained +2 wis+2 racial
Narciso uses his message spells to communicate: "He's looking out the window! Everybody hide until the cows calm down. We should be able to get away with it; he's a human looking out into the dark."
+2 dex
Briggi takes cover with the cows
Tisha continues to hold still trying to stay in the shadows and watching what happens.
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"Good plan," Narciso hears Ernhild's answer in his mind.
If spotted, she will try to act black-out drunk. Sadly, she did not prepare for the role, and the transition between not-so-stealthy burglar to drunkard-impression is a bit too obvious not to notice. "Damn it," she slurs after a moment's hesitation. "Forgot my keys...?"
Tisha notices in time and hides just under the window, out of sight. The others all have a wall or a fence in the way and the darkness isn't helping the guy either in seeing what is going on.
After a moment he turns and moves away from the window.
|
|
Ernhild holds her breath until the guard has walked away.
"Briggi, I'm going to have to pass you my shield and my backpack to stand a chance to climb over this."
It takes a while, even if Narciso's tall height can be of some help. When she's finally got nothing but her armour on, Ernhild attempts to heave her old bones on the other side of that damn fence.
She's far from the most graceful climber, and almost remains stuck straddling the thing - but finally, she makes it safely on the other side, and retrieves her equipment.
"Hello, girls," she whispers to some inquisitive cows. One licks her hand with her coarse tongue. In the darkness, the cleric's small smile turns into an expression of disgust. "Where to, now?"
Briggi helps Ernhild over and points towards some doors they can enter.
Narciso climbs over the fence into the cow byre, joining Briggi and Ernhild.
Then he quickly checks the doors into the wagon shed to see if they are locked...
The doors into the shed are not locked. But the one close to the fence hasn't been used in a while and is stuck. The one close to the house doesn't have this issue.
Meanwhile the cows are back and demand more food.
Tisha stays on the roof watching and listening to see if anything changes with the man in the upstairs window or any sound of combat from the group downstairs.
Briggi tosses another day of rations for the cows.
Narciso calls Tisha down with his message spell, "Tisha, get down here, we have a way in..."
Then he heads into the wagon shed through the door nearer the house...
Creeeeeeek. The door opens easily enough, but not silent. The door into the house is locked though.
Tisha freezes and watches if there is any reaction to the creak of the door.
Tisha quietly lowers herself down and tries to open the locked door.
Then she hides to the side of the door and motions brigi to open it.
Tisha whispers to tell the others what she sees.
Take cover you have someone checking out the door
Ernhild doesn't notice anithing over the ruckus the cows make.
Tisha finds, that the lock is not that good. The door also makes some noise when opening - the effect of the butchery being closed for months. But the cows aren't exactly silent either. On second thought, this might be the bigger issue, because when there is noise the door kept out, you for sure notice an opened door.
The floor of this grim chamber is strewn with blood-stained straw, and the reek of slaughter is almost overpowering. The room is a killing floor. Meat hooks dangle from a metal track affixed to the ceiling that allows the hooks and their gory loads to be moved easily around the room. In the northwest corner, a large hammer sits on the floor amid a permanent bloodstain. To the south, a bloodstained grill covers a wide hole in the floor. Just north of the grill sit two large vats of water, one boiling and one cold. Two large butcher blocks stand to the east next to barrels of salt, and in the southeast corner sits a reeking vat of cast-off meat and bones.
There are three sets of double doors to the north.
If we see no reaction Tisha slips into the killing floor after the others enter and she shuts the door behind them as quietly as possible to block out the cow noise.
If there is still no reaction Tisha looks at the others questionably and points at the far set of north double doors (B3).
Then she waits quietly as she tries to hide behind the water tanks in case someone comes through the double doors while they decide what to do.
Briggi moves to the door to B3 and checks to see if it opens
The air in this room is stale, stinking of day-old meat and blood. Straw litters the floor, scattered to catch the drips from the meat as it hangs. Meat hooks are affixed to the walls and ceiling on metal rods. To the north is a low blood-stained table and two barrels of salt. An iron bar extends through a narrow hole at the top of the doors; the bar runs along the ceiling for five feet before ending at a vertical pole running floor to ceiling. No one is here either.
Narciso whispers "Quick! Find a way upstairs so we can get to the guy upstairs before he figures out what's going on..."
Narciso heads over to the door besides the one that Briggi has opened, and tests it gently (and quietly) to see if it's locked. If it's not, he opens it a crack to peek in behind...
+2 dex
The door Narciso opens leads to a hallway with stairs leading upwards. And the guy from above coming down the stairs.
"Parns, Karallo, is that you?"
+2 dex+4 init