Jarrin looks at the mess in the kitchen before taking a step back, grabbing the sharpest kitchen knife she can and starting to slice through the straps holding her armor on to get out of it as soon as she can.

"Go help them, give one of the dwarfs my sword!"

She nudges the real guards forward as she turns to let someone grab the sword at her side.

Initiative: 11

Vonth initiative:  10

     Vonth watched Godrick advance, black robes whispering around him like smoke. The robed man halted before Korda and spoke—loud, theatrical, words meant to stir chaos. “This is your moment. Do what you will with it.”

     Before anyone could test that invitation, two guards rushed in.

     “Everyone just stop where you are!” Culver barked. “Get back—”

     He was trying to contain a storm with commands. Words where force was needed. Vonth respected the effort, but it was a doomed approach. Culver was a good man in the wrong kind of moment.

     Godrick’s hand moved—a flicker, nothing more—and a lance of blue energy tore across the hall. It struck Culver squarely, lifting him off his feet before dropping him, a smoking scorch mark in his chest.

     Vonth’s eyes tracked the bolt without a flinch. Culver had shown decency, and Vonth bore him no ill will. But he was still a guard. Their paths were never meant to align for long.

     Solomona stepped forward, voice raised—not in fear, but in warning, trying to steer the remaining guard toward his fallen partner. A distraction offered without realizing it.

     Vonth moved.

     Silent. Direct. Purposeful.

     While Solomona held the guard’s attention, Vonth closed the distance with the singular  intent of putting the man down quickly and taking whatever weapons he carried.

     The world was cracking open.
     Tools would be needed.
     And Vonth intended to claim them.

((Will wait for turn in initiative before making any attacks or such...  But to begin, at least, Vonth will be making non-lethal attacks intended to subdue rather than kill.))

Fury sings down Avaria's veins and the rage (BA) bubbles over.  Taking the borrowed longsword in both hands, the shifter charges towards the black clad soldiers, abandoning all pretenses and attacking recklessly.

As she runs into position, she shouts "WARDEN!!!!" how the woman not only disobeyed her suggestion, but left these bastards within the walls with their weapons is beyond her.

Taking her fighting stance, she slashes away at the soldier.

Attack 1 w/adv due to recklessness: (crit!) 28, Damage: 17 + 2 due to rage
Attack 2 w/adv: 27, Damage: 9 + 2

She then backs away from them, attempting to draw their forces towards her and away from Hammerdasher and Ula.  (Due to the totem of the eagle, all AoO have disadvantage against her)

IN THE KITCHEN:

Avaria's fury surprises the black clad soldiers. The one she leaps on (Soldier 6) and savagely hacks is badly injured, blood pouring down his shoulder and arms. Three of her opponents are within reach to slash at her as she bounds back and away and while they all hack out with their longswords, two miss completely, and one brushes against her sword arm but isn't able to even draw blood.

The six however are trained soldiers and they don't fall for the feint and they hold their ground so they can support each other. None of them chase after Avaria. Instead, they focus on Hammerdasher and Ula. Forming a slightly curved line, three each take a shot at the two dwarves. Each one slashes out twice. With the flurry of blades, Avaria and Jan can see Hammerdasher take two solid blows to his shield arm and Ula gets hacked three times.

Hammerdasher bellows at the guards and seeing the one Avaria bloodied, he thumps down hard with his meat tenderizer, smashing the soldier in the face, causing more blood to flow.

-----------------------------------

Marrin/Jarrin is up.

IN THE PANOPTICON:

Godrick turns his head to look at Vonth and nods.

"You have made an unwise choice, my friend." Godrick says.

Another flick of his wrist, but this time two slashes of blue energy rips across the prison and stab into Vonth. While not deadly, Vonth is still injured (14 force damage).

Solomona notices a shimmer of energy surround Godrick, giving the black robes man the appearance of being covered in frost.

Korda laughs at the melee that has begun.

"Can't have you getting in the way of a good business deal," Korda says.

Tattoos on both of Korda's arms light up with what appears to be dancing flames on her forearms. One of the flames leaps up into the air and flies at the still uninjured guard. The other does the same but darts through the air to Culver. The standing guard manages to dodge to the side, bumping into Vonth as he does but still avoids the magical flames. Culver is not so lucky and just as he looks to be trying to stand up takes the full blast of the fire in his face, knocking him back again, where he collapses, unmoving.

----------------------------------------------

Vonth and Solomon are up.

Vonth...

     “You have made an unwise choice, my friend,” Godrick said.

     Vonth heard the words, but they slid off him. He was not Godrick’s friend, and he had made no choice except the obvious one—move toward the guard, take a weapon, prepare for whatever storm this was. He saw no reason Godrick would object to that.

     The flick of a black robed wrist answered his question.

     Two arcs of blue light lanced across the hall. One carved into Vonth’s back. The impact rocked him; heat and pain spread like a crack through ice. He grunted—more surprise than agony—but did not break stride.

     Pain was familiar. Pain could be dismissed.
     He drew a breath, forced focus inward, and found the wound was less deep than it felt.

     “Can’t have you getting in the way of a good business deal,” Korda called.

     Business deal?

     Vonth did not understand. He had no interest in interfering—only in surviving what they unleashed. But puzzling over motives could wait.

     Twin streaks of fire flashed past him. Korda, presumably. The unnamed guard twisted aside from the flames, slamming into Vonth as he ducked. Culver—trying to rise—was not so fortunate. The fire struck him full in the face, knocking him back to the floor where he lay still.

     Morc!
     Vonth spat the curse in his mind. He’d hoped to spare the man. But the longer this chaos unfolded, the less space he found for mercy.

     A quick assessment:
     Two guards. Two weapons.
     Only one guard still needed his.

     Vonth allowed himself to be redirected by the nameless guard, using the rebound to propel himself toward Culver. He dropped to one knee, hand bracing briefly on the dead man’s head as he grasped the sword.

     “Lasd,” he murmured—rest. A giant’s blessing, or a plea to hold the spirit close a little longer. Even he did not know.

     Sword in hand, he searched Culver’s belt—keys? Anything useful?—but the moment was fleeting. His attention pulled back to the robed casters whose magic had already torn lives from bodies.

     “Viful na,” Vonth whispered, dragging his fingers along the cold blade—wake now.

     Then he rose and charged toward the wizards, intent clear as a falling stone.

-----

Reaction - Stone's Endurance to reduce damage taken by 1d12+4 = 7

On his turn:
Movement - To Culvert's body and then at the very end, whatever is left back towards Korda and Godrick.
Action: Spare the Dying on Culvert, pretty much on accident.  This is assuming spells do work for all now...
Bonus Action:  Divine Favor if spells are working, and again basically by accident, to do more damage going forward.  Hopefully.
Free Action / Object Interaction: Take up Culvert's sword and quick glance to see what else he may have on him?  Or just know from seeing him around?

If Culvert does have keys on him (or a shield or something else that may be of interest) Vonth may stay there to grab next turn rather than using any remaining movement to head towards the spell casters...

IN THE PANOPTICON:

Vonth is able to grab Culver's longsword. At a glance all he's able to see is that Culver is wearing the same splint-mail armour he's seen on all of the guards. There's a pouch at his belt but nothing else of apparent interest. Vonth remembers that he's never seen any of the guards carry keys. They've never needed them to open doors. Locks appear to be keyed to guards and the cell doors are controlled somehow by someone in the Surveillance Hub.

He can feel the power of his faith bubbling through his body and into the air around him. Whether his divine gifts did anything for Culver or not remains to be seen.

((If Vonth doesn't stop for the pouch, he would get within about 40' of Godrick and Korda)).

-------------------------------------

Solomona is up in the Panopticon. Marrin/Jarrin is up in the Kitchen. Jan is up in the tower whenever she likes (she's not in initiative at the moment).

Solomona looks around at all the prisoners out of their cells. They must be so happy to be free! They must really want to get out of here, and go home to their families. He doesn't know what Korda and the black-robed man are up to, but they are dangerous and cruel, and seem willing to hurt people who get in their way. 

Without contemplating any further, Solomona begins to run... he runs around and to the left of the central surveillance area, as if making for the dockside exit on the north side of the prison. As he sprints (faster than a man of his stature should be capable of), he calls out to all the prisoners standing around their open cell doors, his voice louder but still with a gentle, sing-song tone:

Exit time, cousins! Freedom's waiting.
Quick feet now, eh? Out to the docks.
Hey bro, you's waiting around for dinner? Chop chop!
No time to think. Just time to go!

Somewhere deep in his simple mind, Solomona knows that clogging up the north exit might limit Korda and Godrick's options of escape. The two seem pretty lethal across the intervening distance, but things might be different in close quarters...

-----------------------------------------------

Using Move (40'), Action: Dash (40'), and 1 'uho' point for Bonus Action: Step of the Wind (40') to circle around the left of the central room. Solomona will not leave the Panopticon however, but will stop somewhere to the right of the passage that leads between the cells to the north, as though ushering the prisoners out through the passage. This should put him closer to and on the opposite side of Godrick and Korda than Vonth, but not making any threatening actions toward either of them (yet).

Jarrin is worthless until she gets out of the armor and knows it, she keeps cutting with the knife to get it off as soon as possible.

((If Vonth doesn't stop for the pouch, he would get within about 40' of Godrick and Korda)).

((Vonth holds off on the pouch and instead moves towards G&K))

((Can Solomona please give a charisma - persuasion roll - his actions and words are convincing but herding convicts to work together is a bit more of a challenge))

Jan has paused, extending her senses through K to ensure that there is no one present in the adjoining room, before opening/picking her way into the chamber beyond.

K doesn’t sense any movement in the room and Jan hears nothing. The same can be said for down the stairs. No sounds come from the barracks, almost as if it’s completely empty.

CHA (Persuasion): 15

IN THE TOWER:

After hearing nothing, Jan realizes the door is slightly ajar, the latch apparently not having completely engaged after the last person left.

Nudging the door open reveals a spotlessly clean, stone room conforming to the shape of the tower. 

Jan finds herself pretty much exactly in the middle of the eastern wall of the room (it’s approximately 50’ long and straight, except where it bends to match where the central staircase would be on the other side). The opposite wall curves to match the curve of the tower. At its widest, the room is approximately 40’ wide. Two windows let gray light in, illuminating a long, slightly curved table with eleven chairs behind it. They all face towards where Jan finds herself standing now. 

The middle chair has no special adornments, while the others have banners hanging over their high backs, each one emblazoned with the crest of some lord, prince or another. Banners hanging on the walls display a golden crown on a red field.

This must be where the absolution council meets

There’s nothing on the table and no other furniture in the room. There are, however, two more doors in the eastern wall, one about 15’ to the south of Jan and one about 15’ to the north of Jan. If she has to stake her life on it, from how she’s oriented and from what K’ saw through the other windows, the room to the south is likely the office she saw and the room to the north is likely the warden’s bedroom.

—-----------------------------------------------------------

IN THE KITCHEN:

Marrin/Jarrin manages to slice through the main buckle straps of the splint armour she has be wearing. It should be an easy job to get out of it next round but it’s unlikely that even a talented armourer will be able to salvage what’s left of the material.

Ula squares herself so as not to allow any of the black clad soldiers to get behind her or Hammerdasher. As she does, she holds out one of her frying pans and points it at the soldier Avaria and Hammerdasher already injured. A ripple of energy moves along her arm and then around the cast-iron pan, rippling like a wave on the ocean, building until it blasts off in a flash of light and slashes out at the soldier. 

He gasps and then collapses to the ground, dead.

The two prison guards who had entered with the patrol crew, do their best to maneuver through the jam up of people near the entrance to the kitchen and work their way through the kitchen, stepping around worktables and benches. All they manage to do though is get themselves into line next to Ula and Hammerdasher.

Geffroi sticks to the doorway and looks back behind the group to make sure no one is coming from that direction.

Soren takes in the situation and sees what Marrin/Jarrin is doing and realizes that’s his best option too. He similarly grabs a knife from the worktable near the doorway and starts sawing away at the straps holding his armour in place.

Avaria is up.

-------------------------------------------------------

IN THE PANOPTICON:

The handful of prisoners who have come out of their cells on the western side of the Panopticon look confused for a moment but once Solomona begins speaking they do appear to listen and start moving towards the northern hallway.

“The ice skiff better be there, or we’ll freeze our arses off once we get to the dock,” a grizzled and heavily tattooed halfling says as he runs to catch up to Solomona.

A couple of prisoners do get to the hallway about the same time as Solomona, creating a bit of a logjam.

The prisoners on the other side of the Panopticon, having seen Godrick and Korda send magical energy flying and now seeing the large goliath charge into the fray are starting to wonder of Barlo Rageblade had the right idea and maybe back in their cells was the right choice.

The lithe elf however moves quickly. She doesn’t hesitate and doesn’t spare a glance at Godrick, Korda, or the goliath. She quickly disappears down the eastern hallway and out of sight.

Culver doesn’t move.

The other guard sees he’s alone and greatly outnumbered. He bolts for the Surveillance Hub doorway, managing just to get to it after sprinting.

Godrick sees Vonth coming his way and nods his understanding. He flicks his hand out towards the advancing goliath and twin beams of energy leap from his finger tips, crackling towards Vonth. Both slam into Vonth’s chest, searing the skin (28 to hit for 15 force damage and 31 to hit for 7 force damage).

The black robed spellcaster looks quickly at Korda and indicates they should go. Godrick then moves 30’ towards the north side of the Surveillance Hub and out of Vonth’s field of vision (he’s about 60’ from Vonth now). However, he’s still well within Solomona’s view, and about 20’ straight south of the monk.

Korda also watches Vonth’s determined advance in her direction and once again, fiery energy dance up from tattoos across her shoulders and back where they rise up then leap through the air, racing straight for Vonth (16 to hit for 8 force damage and 16 to hit for 7 force damage). She then follows after Godrick and disappears from Vonth’s view (but remains seen to Solomona).

Solomona and Vonth are up.

Vonth...

     Vonth staggered as the magical forces slammed into his chest one after another.  The pain was sharp, bright, jagged brands across his flesh—but his mind, as always, remained cold. Focused. He could hate them later. He could break them later. Right now, survival demanded obedience to reality, not pride.

     He pivoted away from the retreating silhouettes of Korda and Godrick, jaw clenched so tight his molars hummed. Each step back toward Culver felt like swallowing glass, but he forced himself into it. Better a cell, better humiliation, than dying on the floor like prey.

     He dropped to one knee beside the fallen guard.  Vonth closed his eyes, bowing his head as if leaning into a sudden weight. His voice rumbled low, in Giant: “Hail na…” It was not a plea so much as a declaration, a command spoken into the unseen. Healing, strength, purpose—he didn’t know the shape of the power he invoked, but he accepted it. Even a warrior must sometimes lean on something beyond steel.

     After his prayer warmth flickered through his ribs. Muscles knitted. His breath steadied. The Second Wind rolled through him like a small tide, nowhere near enough—but enough.

     Vonth exhaled once, sharply. Done.

     His eyes opened again, flat and practical, all sentiment burned away.

     Culver’s pouch caught his notice first. He snatched it up, flicking it open with quick, efficient movements. Next he looked over the guard’s armor—measuring plates, straps, the cut of the chest piece. It wasn’t a perfect fit, not for someone of Vonth’s size, but perhaps…

     He began searching the body fully. Not to help Culver. That moment had passed.

Now Vonth searched only for what would help him survive, escape, and—when the time was right—repay the debt of pain Korda and Godrick had chosen to incur.

-----

Movement:  Away from Korda and Godrick and instead back to the fallen Culver.
Action:  unintentional(?) casting of Cure Wounds upon himself (if spells working) to heal 3 whopping HP.
Bonus Action:  Second Wind feature to regain 6 more HP.  (These added, will wait on if the spell worked or not to add those...)
Free Action: Grab pouch and assess what else Culver may have that Vonth can use...

Jan shakes off the feeling of intimidation that even the empty chairs generate, and moves towards the office door, again using K and her skill with locks to determine if it's locked/trapped, etc, and dealing with it if it is. 

Thieves tools: 12

((If she can get adv with K's tremorsense...  16))

IN THE PANOPTICON:

Vonth does feel the power of his jumbled, cacophony of faith rise up and try to stitch his wounds together. It almost surprises him. The beliefs that have kept him going while locked away in this dark pit are now showing their true power once he has been freed of the confines of his cell. While the healing affect is minor, it hints at a growing power inside of him.

He might be able to jury rig some of the armour into separate pieces to cover his shoulders and his chest, maybe even part of his back. But that will take time (as this is not Goliath sized armour, he will need to take it apart, adjust straps and the like, then get it over his frame - that will take at least 5 minutes or 50 rounds).

Inside the pouch, Vonth sees a black, worn pipe; a tarnished brass ring; and a metal bottle, with a metal stopper attached. The bottle sloshes with the sound of liquid.

Solomona is up.

IN THE TOWER:

Jan kneels down, takes a breath and prepares to work at the lock of the door only to see that there isn't one. Then she remembers that the prison guards have been keyed into the 'system' to unlock doors when they touch them. Risking it, she reaches forward and puts a hand on the locked office door. It clicks open.

A heavy desk stands in the middle of the room with parchment, quills, and ink at the ready. Five heavy wood cabinets line the east wall.

Jan slips inside, hoping that the keying of the guards into the locks doesn't record which guards entered where when... She lets her eyes run over the windows, clocking if they are openable enough for a small elemental to slip through if needed. Her eyes continue scanning for the ledger, or any secret places one might tuck a ledger away for safe keeping.

Investigation: 2

:facepalm:

(sorry, just a cheat post today) 

Solomona doesn't engage with Godrick or Korda yet, but keeps ushering prisoners into the hallway. If the two join the throng, then Sol slips into the mosh with them, preferably just in front of them, or between if possible. Will see how they go trying to squeeze around the big guy...