Parrying the spear, Varielky uses the opportunity to thrust her sword into the guard's abdomen. Varielky then slashes twice, trying to retaliate for Benita's sake. First she slashes upwards, drawing a long bloody line across the man's chest. Then, she tries to bring the blade down on his head, but that is an awkward movement to pull for a short woman, especially when standing at a lower elevation, and the guard manages to block her attack.
On the bright side, pushing from below makes unbalancing people much easier, and Varielky uses this to her advantage, trying to knock the guard once more.
Reaction: Riposte manoeuvre against #5. 14+10=24 to hit, 2+9+4=15 damage.
Action: Attack #5 if they're still alive, and #7 if not.
Attack #1: 12+10=22 to hit, 4+9=13 damage.
Attack #2: 5+10=15 to hit, I believe this misses.
BA: Shield Shove to knock #7 prone, or #8 if the former is dead. Athletics: 18+8=26.
(OOC: all three doors look the same. Py is out of telepathic range.)
Auger and Snow are moving quietly, Tamazaert is not, for she refuses to move either quietly or slowly. This young woman was raised through her teen years by orcs, and from their example, learned to be yes, submissive, but also, direct and forthright, perhaps to a fault. Were she to stop and think about it, Tamazaert would only find bewilderment in Auger and Snow’s reticence. She pushes open the door and steps through, calling out for Sura.
You three are assaulted immediately by the smell of baby diapers, floral fragrances intended to cover up the former, and soothing tea, as you look into a large chamber whose floor is covered in soft clean rugs, small toys and blankets, and bags of knitting placed on side tables near comfortable sitting chairs. There are exits to this playroom on the south and west walls. Tamazaert, finding the chamber empty, no brown and black blanket to be seen, runs across to stop at the door in the western wall, shouting for her child.
Py sends to Auger, ‘They seem to have made it up the stairs. It is too far for me to keep in contact. I flew back to the tram landing level so I could tell you.’
VARIELKY
Guard #5 falls, collapsing on top of Varielky’s shield then sliding off to the cold stone steps. #7 parries one of Varielky's blows, after the other had sliced clean through the top quarter of his shield and broke through the chain shirt behind it, and then Varielky slams him to the ground. Benita finishes him off with a lighting quick lunge, and then #8 as well, whipping her rapier around to slash a deep diagonal cut from his left brow to right chin, then critting low with her dagger, severing an artery in his thigh. He groans in agony as he bleeds out. You see no more guards in your immediate vicinity.
The room whose threshold you now stand upon contains a fire burning in a small hearth straight ahead, interior doors beside it and right, a circular staircase leading up to your left, and a central wide double door on the left wall opening to the night outside where you hear people shouting.
As Granophyre joins Varielky and Benita at the top of the stairs, he says almost to himself, “I forgot,” producing the brass and gold statuette of his magical sparrow, which grows its mercury wings and whistles ever so softly a quizzical melody.
Auger detects a very familiar smell underneath the sickly flowery smell, but it just reminds him of when his own children were that age. And then thoughts of family brings his mind again to whatever waits above.
Come down here to us, and wait in the hallway. We need more eyes and warnings.
Auger steps in behind Tamazaert, motions to Snow to stay with her then steps over to the other door, and opens it. They were trying to be quick about things but he does think to step back in case something unexpected happens.
Details
Auger moves to D8, opens the door (free action) and takes the Dodge action.
Py has 40' of flight, so with a Dash might be down the steps and in the hallway at H3 or H4. Still invisible of course.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM of RotFM | AUGER the Warlock (Archfey & the Chain) / Shadow Sorcerer in Age of Resurgence | Rahui & Javier in Sea of Memory
Varielky walks past the bodies, giving no further thoughts to them. Their souls were now elsewhere, for these few possibly even in Hallvala. They didn't do anything special, to her knowledge, but they didn't do anything wrong.
"We need to find Sura," Varielky states the obvious, "in case he's up here, before they leave. I think the best way would be to deal with their escape option first," Varielky points to the double-doors leading outside, where she assumes the aerie is, "but that might be a harder fight. Besides..." she trails off for a moment, considering her words, "I fear these stairs might lead to some kind of guard tower or the like. Fighting while outnumbered, with archers shooting from a defensive spot is clearly a bad plan. Thus, I suggest we go up these stairs, first."
Varielky walks to the stairs, ready to ascend if the others agree to her plan, but also waiting to hear in case they have a better idea.
Benita and Granophyre follow Varielky’s lead, ascending the stairs in a defensive stance. There is a door at the top: locked, but Varielky could probably force it. Benita thinks she hears movement behind it and pulls another hairpin from its careful placement over an ear, causing a few raven strands to fall lightly over her brow. She blows them quietly aside and looks to Varielky with a cocked eyebrow implying, 'Your way or my way: I don't mind which.'
SNOW and AUGER
Auger opens the door slightly. Another empty room, for dining. More doors on the opposite wall, one of them open, and a quiet woman’s voice speaking intermittently and indistinctly echoing softly through that next door. Py reaches the bottom of the stairs
Tamazaert pushes through the playroom's western door into a small sitting room, crosses it, then passes through an open door on the far wall, into a hallway, calling for Sura, looking both ways, then crosses to open another door in that hallway. She steps through. Auger can’t quite see what’s happening there — her head whips back and forth.
No map is needed for Varielky right now. a small landing atop a round stairway facing a locked door.
Varielky doesn't have any moral objections to Benita's way... but a weak door was great to take out anger on, and Varielky's emotions were still far from quiet. Varielky stands ready in front of the door, and shakes her head to one side to indicate for Benita to move away. Then, after she does, Varielky kicks the door close to the lock, to break it open.
Strength Check? 9+5=14, +3 if Athletics for a total of 17.
Auger pokes his head into the southern room to make sure he can see all of it and all potential doors leading away from it. Then he closes the door behind him as he stays in the first room where Snow was located.
"Its a dining room. I heard voices from a room beyond it. This place is some kind of a rat's warren."Auger then turns to catch up with Tamazaert. "Py can watch our backs, lets search with Tama to speed things up. The Imperial Captain is getting closer."
Py. Position yourself so you can check on this room we are in and that hallway.
Details
Py movement: Starts going back and forth between O6 and P6. I would prefer that it lands against the wall so it can crawl back and forth quietly, but I am unsure if we have established its ability to cling to surfaces or not. It certainly does not have a climbing speed. Py ends the round in O6, hovering there if need be. If it can crawl then it will be making stealth checks to hide its sound while maintaining invisibility. I rolled for it using Auger's +8 check on the character sheet. 17 +8 = 25.
Auger movement: Moves to catch up with Tamazaert, dashing if need be. And poking his head through another door if one is already open. If there is any action economy left Auger uses it to aid the search, but he has done a few things in this round so that does not seem possible. He should end the round at D5.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM of RotFM | AUGER the Warlock (Archfey & the Chain) / Shadow Sorcerer in Age of Resurgence | Rahui & Javier in Sea of Memory
"Agreed, time is running out", Snow says as he follows Auger into the room Tamazaert is in.
He also runs as fast as he can, trying to get a view of what Tamazaert is seeing, what she is looking back and forth at. If there is nothing further to be done in that direction, he will back up again, not wanting to waste any time.
Action: Dash Movement: As close as he can get to Tamzaert, depending on what is there, he will either move passed her, or double back the way he came.
Rust poofs off of the hinges of the locked turret door, and the old heavy wood cracks audibly but the metal bracing keeps it in place—for now. Benita nods to the shield-maiden to hit it again; Varielky has the impression one more solid kick will do it. There is motion behind the door, and Benita holds her weapons in a coiled defensive posture in front of Strewn, her smooth features pulled taught as – Varielky knows how her friend thinks – as she tries to look through the door and imagine her first move when it opens and arrows fly out.
(OOC: Varielky’s second attempt, if she makes a second attempt, will be a definite success, no roll needed. It will count as Varielky’s entire round 11 move/action/bonus action [but not reaction]. The occupants will be able to carry out their own round 11 actions in response before she or Benita can enter the room.)
AUGER & SNOW
As the words “rat’s warren” leave Auger’s mouth, he may find that his feelings regarding the purpose of the place may not be in keeping with the physical surroundings themselves, which are clean and lived in, and not dirty, though not fancy either. The walls are painted in bright, warm colors, embellished at intervals by large words in Jenghen brushed inexpertly beside large painted illustrations of what the words represent: ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ ‘child,’ ‘dog,’ ‘camel.’
Auger moves quickly to the next room, then Tamazaert to the next room on that side of the hall — each of which is a bedroom for 4 or 5 or 6 toddlers or small children. The young mother continues to call for Sura more and more frantically. Snow opens a door on the other side of the hall, to another bedroom, also, empty, this one for adult women, the nurses, one might assume based on the furnishings.
"There's two more doors up there. I'll go check. Is anyone counting the number of babies and toddlers they kept up here?"This is insane, Auger continues in his mind. "How many children did they take?"
As he speaks, Auger moves up to the other two doors he sees and looks into the (open?) one and then opens the door to the other. I could use two more of me, right now, Auger thinks.
Details
Auger moves to D2, looks into E2 first (on the map the door looks open) and if he sees nothing will open the door at D2 to look into the F2 room.
Py stays where it is glancing into the hallway to make sure it sees what is going on there.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM of RotFM | AUGER the Warlock (Archfey & the Chain) / Shadow Sorcerer in Age of Resurgence | Rahui & Javier in Sea of Memory
"I'm not counting as such, but it must be dozens judging by what we have seen so far", Snow replies. "And they are all up where Varielky and the others are heading it seems"
He rushes down passed Tamazaert to the end of the hallway, checking as many rooms as he can, no longer worrying about being seen or heard. This place is far more extensive than he imagined and Auger was right, they wouldn't search it all before Sorakayoshi got here if they didn't throw caution to the wind.
Movement: South 30' to D14 Free Action: Open West door Action: Open East door
Varielky nods to Benita once more. Those inside will be ready for them now. "Get back, in case the readied crossbows or something of the like."Maybe the guards can hear her - they probably can - but if they know she's there, it doesn't matter anymore.
Once Benita and Granophyre find some cover, stand behind her or go a bit down the stairs, wherever she thinks she will be taking all the fire, Varielky kicks the door.
As the rusty hinges burst and the door cracks, the metal braces bending inward, the lock rendered useless, the door swings open. Three crossbow bolts immediately fire at Varielky:
15 for 8HP // 19 for 7HP // 19 for 3HP
You see the source of these attacks right away: three guards, two of whom are now dropping their crossbows and readying shields. The third guard has ducked around the eastern edge and is not in view.
In his troubled surprise, Auger may recall when he and the others rescued Tamazaert and Benita from the orc town Brod Khagkul, what the young mother told them, that the half-orc/half-human Jenghen children were regularly given up to the Empire. She may have mentioned roc riders coming for them. The southerner may also recall that when the party first met Shulong Xurl, the chief of that orc tribe, he had offered a bargain: safe passage through the Oraccan Steppes in exchange for captivity of Benita and Varielky, to use as surrogates; there was some mention of the Empire offering sums of gold for Jenghen babies.
The bard and the warlock go to opposite ends of the hall, opening door after door, nurses’ rooms on the eastern wall, children's rooms to the west, all empty. Until Auger and Tamazaert open the last nurse’s rooms. Auger pushes open the door, and finds a woman in a nightgown, sitting on her bed, then reacting in surprise, standing, wrapping her shawl tightly around herself and backing against the far wall, a nurse in her mid-30s, round downcast face, busty, Shian. “What do ya want?!?,” she forces herself to say, eyes wide, ears reddening.
Snow is closer when he hears Tamazaert push open the last door. “SURA!!!!!,” she shouts pointedly. “GIVE ME MY SON!!!”
“I knew someday someone would come,” comes the tense reply in a contralto voice.
"I count three!" Varielky calls, running into the room and clearing the way for Benita and Granophyre. "One went further inside!"
Varielky shrugs off the new wounds. Can't let them interrupt her. Not before she sees Sura in Tamazaert's hands. Running straight to the guards, Varielky gashes the guards twice with forceful attacks.
BA: Second Wind, healing for 8+6=14 HP.
Move: To C-2, then D-2 if #10 dies. If somehow both die, Varielky will continue further in to chase the third guard.
Action: Attack guard 10, 11 if the former dies to the first attack.
Attack #1: 16+10=26 to hit, 5+9=14 damage.
Attack #2: 17+10=27 to hit, 1+9=10 damage.
(I also rolled athletics for a shove, but then realised I already used a BA, so ignore that.)
Auger sees the round-faced woman standing there without sign of a baby and says, "Stay here. Stay quiet."Then he closes the door and steps back towards the others. As he hears Tama call out and sees Snow stepping over, Auger momentarily turns his attention back to the fact that they are being pursued without a plan to escape.
We have Sura. Go up to the tram level and tell me how close the tram is. Just peek and stay safe. That Captain could see you before.
Details
Auger to P5
Py - up the stairs to check on progress of tram. Auger wants to know if they are getting into a better crossbow range for attacking them all.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM of RotFM | AUGER the Warlock (Archfey & the Chain) / Shadow Sorcerer in Age of Resurgence | Rahui & Javier in Sea of Memory
Snow rushes into the room behind Tamazaert, whose arms extend demandingly, toward a woman sitting on a bed against the opposite wall, a heavyset nurse in drab but clean clothing, in her late 30s, carefully holding a sleeping toddler wrapped in a brown and black blanket in her arms. A glass of water and a small flask sit upon the side table, Snow notes, although there is no smell of alcohol. The nurse is looking up at Tamazaert, almost motionless, her face rather pale and drooping mournfully. The two women are in a tense standoff as Snow enters, Tamazaert not yet having had the opportunity to respond to the woman's statement.
Snow stands in the doorway blocking any escape, watching the woman, seeing her complexion and mournful look. His heart skips a beat, not understanding the words he heard the woman speak and her countenance.
Someone would come one day, surely she hadn't had the child that long?
"Come on now, hand over the child, no harm will come to either of you. And then how about a bit of an explanation as to what you mean?", he asks, trying desperately to get Tamazaert her child back as quickly and simply as possible.
Py buzzes away. The Nurse says nothing as Auger closes the door. He can only make it as far as N5 this round, but is within range of Py, who sends, ‘Yes, the tram is half-way here!’
In the room with Tamazaert, the nurse’s eyes turn to Snow as he speaks, and her hold on the child grows more protective. “Not the father, to be sure,” Snow almost hears the nurse think, but the bard's words are not hostile and she relaxes again. With slow, deliberate motions, she rises and hands the child to Tamazaert, who rushes forward to take him up in her arms, and the moment the little bundle is transferred, they both step back again away from each other. Tears of relief spring from Tamazaert’s eyes, though her face is red with anger too, as the woman clears her throat, sighs deeply, and begins her tale, hands held stiffly beside her. “I should have brought him up with the rest. But I couldn’t. He’s… so young fer the ride…”
The shield-maiden’s first blow crashes against Guard #10’s helm, his head whips to one side. Varielky’s red-steel blade then slices deeply into #10’s shield, collarbone, lung. He falls in a sputtering heap and Varielky advances on #11. Benita shouts, “Gotcha, Vee!,” makes an acrobatic vault over the intervening weapons cases, and catches #12 slipping behind the corner, slashing off three fingers from his right hand (for 14HP damage) as he attempts to reload his crossbow, but he uses the table and wall in his defense and evades her other blows. Granophyre enters the turret with his golden bird, which flits up to make circles around #11’s head, offering Varielky a help action on her next round attacks.
Backpedaling, #11 draws a longsword and slashes at Varielky, who easily catches the blow on her shield. Meanwhile, Guard #12, seeing #10 fall and that he is outnumbered, drops his crossbow and lifts his left hand in surrender, cringing and trying to staunch the bleeding from his wounded right hand by holding it under his armpit. “I yield!, I yield!,” he shouts. Varielky is now situated like so.
Parrying the spear, Varielky uses the opportunity to thrust her sword into the guard's abdomen. Varielky then slashes twice, trying to retaliate for Benita's sake. First she slashes upwards, drawing a long bloody line across the man's chest. Then, she tries to bring the blade down on his head, but that is an awkward movement to pull for a short woman, especially when standing at a lower elevation, and the guard manages to block her attack.
On the bright side, pushing from below makes unbalancing people much easier, and Varielky uses this to her advantage, trying to knock the guard once more.
Reaction: Riposte manoeuvre against #5. 14+10=24 to hit, 2+9+4=15 damage.
Action: Attack #5 if they're still alive, and #7 if not.
Attack #1: 12+10=22 to hit, 4+9=13 damage.
Attack #2: 5+10=15 to hit, I believe this misses.
BA: Shield Shove to knock #7 prone, or #8 if the former is dead. Athletics: 18+8=26.
Varielky
Round 8 results
AUGER and SNOW
(OOC: all three doors look the same. Py is out of telepathic range.)
Auger and Snow are moving quietly, Tamazaert is not, for she refuses to move either quietly or slowly. This young woman was raised through her teen years by orcs, and from their example, learned to be yes, submissive, but also, direct and forthright, perhaps to a fault. Were she to stop and think about it, Tamazaert would only find bewilderment in Auger and Snow’s reticence. She pushes open the door and steps through, calling out for Sura.
You three are assaulted immediately by the smell of baby diapers, floral fragrances intended to cover up the former, and soothing tea, as you look into a large chamber whose floor is covered in soft clean rugs, small toys and blankets, and bags of knitting placed on side tables near comfortable sitting chairs. There are exits to this playroom on the south and west walls. Tamazaert, finding the chamber empty, no brown and black blanket to be seen, runs across to stop at the door in the western wall, shouting for her child.
Py sends to Auger, ‘They seem to have made it up the stairs. It is too far for me to keep in contact. I flew back to the tram landing level so I could tell you.’
VARIELKY
Guard #5 falls, collapsing on top of Varielky’s shield then sliding off to the cold stone steps. #7 parries one of Varielky's blows, after the other had sliced clean through the top quarter of his shield and broke through the chain shirt behind it, and then Varielky slams him to the ground. Benita finishes him off with a lighting quick lunge, and then #8 as well, whipping her rapier around to slash a deep diagonal cut from his left brow to right chin, then critting low with her dagger, severing an artery in his thigh. He groans in agony as he bleeds out. You see no more guards in your immediate vicinity.
The room whose threshold you now stand upon contains a fire burning in a small hearth straight ahead, interior doors beside it and right, a circular staircase leading up to your left, and a central wide double door on the left wall opening to the night outside where you hear people shouting.
As Granophyre joins Varielky and Benita at the top of the stairs, he says almost to himself, “I forgot,” producing the brass and gold statuette of his magical sparrow, which grows its mercury wings and whistles ever so softly a quizzical melody.
You are now situated like so. Please post Round 9 actions.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Auger detects a very familiar smell underneath the sickly flowery smell, but it just reminds him of when his own children were that age. And then thoughts of family brings his mind again to whatever waits above.
Come down here to us, and wait in the hallway. We need more eyes and warnings.
Auger steps in behind Tamazaert, motions to Snow to stay with her then steps over to the other door, and opens it. They were trying to be quick about things but he does think to step back in case something unexpected happens.
Details
DM of RotFM | AUGER the Warlock (Archfey & the Chain) / Shadow Sorcerer in Age of Resurgence | Rahui & Javier in Sea of Memory
Varielky walks past the bodies, giving no further thoughts to them. Their souls were now elsewhere, for these few possibly even in Hallvala. They didn't do anything special, to her knowledge, but they didn't do anything wrong.
"We need to find Sura," Varielky states the obvious, "in case he's up here, before they leave. I think the best way would be to deal with their escape option first," Varielky points to the double-doors leading outside, where she assumes the aerie is, "but that might be a harder fight. Besides..." she trails off for a moment, considering her words, "I fear these stairs might lead to some kind of guard tower or the like. Fighting while outnumbered, with archers shooting from a defensive spot is clearly a bad plan. Thus, I suggest we go up these stairs, first."
Varielky walks to the stairs, ready to ascend if the others agree to her plan, but also waiting to hear in case they have a better idea.
Varielky
Snow shakes his head as Tamazaert rushes in.
As Auger motions to him he shrugs back, he has no choice right now, she would not listen to him.
He moves forward into the centre of the room so he can see both doors, and makes ready for what may come.
Movement: 20' to D5
Action: Dodge
Status: Tama still has bardic inspiration (d8)
Reaction:
If anyone he sees attacks them:
Cutting Words: 4+2=6
“Hurt us and Captain Sorakayoshi will flay you alive”
Round 9 results
VARIELKY
Benita and Granophyre follow Varielky’s lead, ascending the stairs in a defensive stance. There is a door at the top: locked, but Varielky could probably force it. Benita thinks she hears movement behind it and pulls another hairpin from its careful placement over an ear, causing a few raven strands to fall lightly over her brow. She blows them quietly aside and looks to Varielky with a cocked eyebrow implying, 'Your way or my way: I don't mind which.'
SNOW and AUGER
Auger opens the door slightly. Another empty room, for dining. More doors on the opposite wall, one of them open, and a quiet woman’s voice speaking intermittently and indistinctly echoing softly through that next door. Py reaches the bottom of the stairs
Tamazaert pushes through the playroom's western door into a small sitting room, crosses it, then passes through an open door on the far wall, into a hallway, calling for Sura, looking both ways, then crosses to open another door in that hallway. She steps through. Auger can’t quite see what’s happening there — her head whips back and forth.
No map is needed for Varielky right now. a small landing atop a round stairway facing a locked door.
Here is a map of the lower level. Please post Round 10 actions.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Varielky doesn't have any moral objections to Benita's way... but a weak door was great to take out anger on, and Varielky's emotions were still far from quiet. Varielky stands ready in front of the door, and shakes her head to one side to indicate for Benita to move away. Then, after she does, Varielky kicks the door close to the lock, to break it open.
Strength Check? 9+5=14, +3 if Athletics for a total of 17.
Varielky
Auger pokes his head into the southern room to make sure he can see all of it and all potential doors leading away from it. Then he closes the door behind him as he stays in the first room where Snow was located.
"Its a dining room. I heard voices from a room beyond it. This place is some kind of a rat's warren." Auger then turns to catch up with Tamazaert. "Py can watch our backs, lets search with Tama to speed things up. The Imperial Captain is getting closer."
Py. Position yourself so you can check on this room we are in and that hallway.
Details
Py movement: Starts going back and forth between O6 and P6. I would prefer that it lands against the wall so it can crawl back and forth quietly, but I am unsure if we have established its ability to cling to surfaces or not. It certainly does not have a climbing speed. Py ends the round in O6, hovering there if need be. If it can crawl then it will be making stealth checks to hide its sound while maintaining invisibility. I rolled for it using Auger's +8 check on the character sheet. 17 +8 = 25.
Auger movement: Moves to catch up with Tamazaert, dashing if need be. And poking his head through another door if one is already open. If there is any action economy left Auger uses it to aid the search, but he has done a few things in this round so that does not seem possible. He should end the round at D5.
DM of RotFM | AUGER the Warlock (Archfey & the Chain) / Shadow Sorcerer in Age of Resurgence | Rahui & Javier in Sea of Memory
"Agreed, time is running out", Snow says as he follows Auger into the room Tamazaert is in.
He also runs as fast as he can, trying to get a view of what Tamazaert is seeing, what she is looking back and forth at. If there is nothing further to be done in that direction, he will back up again, not wanting to waste any time.
Action: Dash
Movement: As close as he can get to Tamzaert, depending on what is there, he will either move passed her, or double back the way he came.
Round 10 Results
VARIELKY
Rust poofs off of the hinges of the locked turret door, and the old heavy wood cracks audibly but the metal bracing keeps it in place—for now. Benita nods to the shield-maiden to hit it again; Varielky has the impression one more solid kick will do it. There is motion behind the door, and Benita holds her weapons in a coiled defensive posture in front of Strewn, her smooth features pulled taught as – Varielky knows how her friend thinks – as she tries to look through the door and imagine her first move when it opens and arrows fly out.
(OOC: Varielky’s second attempt, if she makes a second attempt, will be a definite success, no roll needed. It will count as Varielky’s entire round 11 move/action/bonus action [but not reaction]. The occupants will be able to carry out their own round 11 actions in response before she or Benita can enter the room.)
AUGER & SNOW
As the words “rat’s warren” leave Auger’s mouth, he may find that his feelings regarding the purpose of the place may not be in keeping with the physical surroundings themselves, which are clean and lived in, and not dirty, though not fancy either. The walls are painted in bright, warm colors, embellished at intervals by large words in Jenghen brushed inexpertly beside large painted illustrations of what the words represent: ‘man,’ ‘woman,’ ‘child,’ ‘dog,’ ‘camel.’
Auger moves quickly to the next room, then Tamazaert to the next room on that side of the hall — each of which is a bedroom for 4 or 5 or 6 toddlers or small children. The young mother continues to call for Sura more and more frantically. Snow opens a door on the other side of the hall, to another bedroom, also, empty, this one for adult women, the nurses, one might assume based on the furnishings.
Py sees nothing which Auger does not already see.
Auger & Snow are now situated like so. No map is needed for Varielky right now. Please post Round 11 actions.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
"There's two more doors up there. I'll go check. Is anyone counting the number of babies and toddlers they kept up here?" This is insane, Auger continues in his mind. "How many children did they take?"
As he speaks, Auger moves up to the other two doors he sees and looks into the (open?) one and then opens the door to the other. I could use two more of me, right now, Auger thinks.
Details
DM of RotFM | AUGER the Warlock (Archfey & the Chain) / Shadow Sorcerer in Age of Resurgence | Rahui & Javier in Sea of Memory
"I'm not counting as such, but it must be dozens judging by what we have seen so far", Snow replies. "And they are all up where Varielky and the others are heading it seems"
He rushes down passed Tamazaert to the end of the hallway, checking as many rooms as he can, no longer worrying about being seen or heard. This place is far more extensive than he imagined and Auger was right, they wouldn't search it all before Sorakayoshi got here if they didn't throw caution to the wind.
Movement: South 30' to D14
Free Action: Open West door
Action: Open East door
Varielky nods to Benita once more. Those inside will be ready for them now. "Get back, in case the readied crossbows or something of the like." Maybe the guards can hear her - they probably can - but if they know she's there, it doesn't matter anymore.
Once Benita and Granophyre find some cover, stand behind her or go a bit down the stairs, wherever she thinks she will be taking all the fire, Varielky kicks the door.
Varielky
Round 11 results
VARIELKY
As the rusty hinges burst and the door cracks, the metal braces bending inward, the lock rendered useless, the door swings open. Three crossbow bolts immediately fire at Varielky:
15 for 8HP // 19 for 7HP // 19 for 3HP
You see the source of these attacks right away: three guards, two of whom are now dropping their crossbows and readying shields. The third guard has ducked around the eastern edge and is not in view.
You are now situated like so.
AUGER and SNOW
In his troubled surprise, Auger may recall when he and the others rescued Tamazaert and Benita from the orc town Brod Khagkul, what the young mother told them, that the half-orc/half-human Jenghen children were regularly given up to the Empire. She may have mentioned roc riders coming for them. The southerner may also recall that when the party first met Shulong Xurl, the chief of that orc tribe, he had offered a bargain: safe passage through the Oraccan Steppes in exchange for captivity of Benita and Varielky, to use as surrogates; there was some mention of the Empire offering sums of gold for Jenghen babies.
The bard and the warlock go to opposite ends of the hall, opening door after door, nurses’ rooms on the eastern wall, children's rooms to the west, all empty. Until Auger and Tamazaert open the last nurse’s rooms. Auger pushes open the door, and finds a woman in a nightgown, sitting on her bed, then reacting in surprise, standing, wrapping her shawl tightly around herself and backing against the far wall, a nurse in her mid-30s, round downcast face, busty, Shian. “What do ya want?!?,” she forces herself to say, eyes wide, ears reddening.
Snow is closer when he hears Tamazaert push open the last door. “SURA!!!!!,” she shouts pointedly. “GIVE ME MY SON!!!”
“I knew someday someone would come,” comes the tense reply in a contralto voice.
You are now situated like so.
ALL
Please post actions for Round 12.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Hearing Tamazaert call out, Snow immediately moves into the doorway of the room she stepped into to see what is happening.
Movement: 15' to D11
(OOC: Will continue the turn when I know what is in the room)
"I count three!" Varielky calls, running into the room and clearing the way for Benita and Granophyre. "One went further inside!"
Varielky shrugs off the new wounds. Can't let them interrupt her. Not before she sees Sura in Tamazaert's hands. Running straight to the guards, Varielky gashes the guards twice with forceful attacks.
BA: Second Wind, healing for 8+6=14 HP.
Move: To C-2, then D-2 if #10 dies. If somehow both die, Varielky will continue further in to chase the third guard.
Action: Attack guard 10, 11 if the former dies to the first attack.
Attack #1: 16+10=26 to hit, 5+9=14 damage.
Attack #2: 17+10=27 to hit, 1+9=10 damage.
(I also rolled athletics for a shove, but then realised I already used a BA, so ignore that.)
Varielky
Auger sees the round-faced woman standing there without sign of a baby and says, "Stay here. Stay quiet." Then he closes the door and steps back towards the others. As he hears Tama call out and sees Snow stepping over, Auger momentarily turns his attention back to the fact that they are being pursued without a plan to escape.
We have Sura. Go up to the tram level and tell me how close the tram is. Just peek and stay safe. That Captain could see you before.
Details
DM of RotFM | AUGER the Warlock (Archfey & the Chain) / Shadow Sorcerer in Age of Resurgence | Rahui & Javier in Sea of Memory
SNOW
Round 12 Results (partial)
Snow rushes into the room behind Tamazaert, whose arms extend demandingly, toward a woman sitting on a bed against the opposite wall, a heavyset nurse in drab but clean clothing, in her late 30s, carefully holding a sleeping toddler wrapped in a brown and black blanket in her arms. A glass of water and a small flask sit upon the side table, Snow notes, although there is no smell of alcohol. The nurse is looking up at Tamazaert, almost motionless, her face rather pale and drooping mournfully. The two women are in a tense standoff as Snow enters, Tamazaert not yet having had the opportunity to respond to the woman's statement.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Snow stands in the doorway blocking any escape, watching the woman, seeing her complexion and mournful look. His heart skips a beat, not understanding the words he heard the woman speak and her countenance.
Someone would come one day, surely she hadn't had the child that long?
"Come on now, hand over the child, no harm will come to either of you. And then how about a bit of an explanation as to what you mean?", he asks, trying desperately to get Tamazaert her child back as quickly and simply as possible.
Persuasion: 11+8=19
Round 12 Results (final)
AUGER & SNOW
Py buzzes away. The Nurse says nothing as Auger closes the door. He can only make it as far as N5 this round, but is within range of Py, who sends, ‘Yes, the tram is half-way here!’
In the room with Tamazaert, the nurse’s eyes turn to Snow as he speaks, and her hold on the child grows more protective. “Not the father, to be sure,” Snow almost hears the nurse think, but the bard's words are not hostile and she relaxes again. With slow, deliberate motions, she rises and hands the child to Tamazaert, who rushes forward to take him up in her arms, and the moment the little bundle is transferred, they both step back again away from each other. Tears of relief spring from Tamazaert’s eyes, though her face is red with anger too, as the woman clears her throat, sighs deeply, and begins her tale, hands held stiffly beside her. “I should have brought him up with the rest. But I couldn’t. He’s… so young fer the ride…”
Auger & Snow are now situated like so.
VARIELKY
The shield-maiden’s first blow crashes against Guard #10’s helm, his head whips to one side. Varielky’s red-steel blade then slices deeply into #10’s shield, collarbone, lung. He falls in a sputtering heap and Varielky advances on #11. Benita shouts, “Gotcha, Vee!,” makes an acrobatic vault over the intervening weapons cases, and catches #12 slipping behind the corner, slashing off three fingers from his right hand (for 14HP damage) as he attempts to reload his crossbow, but he uses the table and wall in his defense and evades her other blows. Granophyre enters the turret with his golden bird, which flits up to make circles around #11’s head, offering Varielky a help action on her next round attacks.
Backpedaling, #11 draws a longsword and slashes at Varielky, who easily catches the blow on her shield. Meanwhile, Guard #12, seeing #10 fall and that he is outnumbered, drops his crossbow and lifts his left hand in surrender, cringing and trying to staunch the bleeding from his wounded right hand by holding it under his armpit. “I yield!, I yield!,” he shouts.
Varielky is now situated like so.
Please post Round 13 actions.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer