Marrin first sees Geoffroi and Hammerdasher trying to make sense of the pile of gear that was dropped. Soren stands down the hallway at the junction, looking down the other three hallways. Ula stands quietly nearby, her eyes closed, trying to center herself.
When Soren sees Marrin come out he says "Looks clear. Though it sounds like chaos in pretty much any direction we pick."
The sounds of shouting come from the north, shouting and fighting from the south, the alarm sounding from everywhere, and voices from the west, in the panopticon.
Geffroi looks at the closed armory door behind Marrin.
"Do we need anything from in there? I'm sure I'm still a prison guard as far as the guardian of the armory is concerned."
"Geffroi, I think that is a lovely idea. I think I will join you and getting some weapons. New people, as a sign of good will for your not trying to kill us, do you have any weapon or armor requests?"
She heads that way, tugging Geffroi along,
"Oh, we should definitely get Ethel. And the rest of my things."
Vonth cast a quick glance over those who had made it through the door with him. He fixed their faces in his memory. Allies were rare, and it would be wasteful to mistake one for a target later.
His attention returned to the door at once. He tested it, looking for anything heavy to brace it with—tables, racks, broken iron—anything that would slow pursuit. Soldiers pressed when they smelled weakness. Time mattered.
As he worked, he listened.
“Do we need anything from in there? I’m pretty sure I still count as a prison guard to the armory guardian.”
Vonth recognized the speaker well enough to know he was a guard, though he had never learned his name. Curious company, given the circumstances—but the whole day had abandoned sense long ago.
“Geffroi, I think that is a lovely idea,” one of the strangers replied. “I’ll join you. New people, as a sign of good will for not trying to kill us—do you have any weapon or armor requests?”
Vonth snorted softly.
Plenty of time left in the day to decide to kill them.
Weapons, though—that mattered.
“Quick best,” he rumbled, without turning. “Shield be good. Armor takes too long.”
He considered warning them about the floating eye-beast in the armory. Considered it… then dismissed the thought. Geffroi seemed to know what lived behind those doors.
And if he didn’t?
Their reaction would be informative. And possibly entertaining.
Vonth returned his focus to the door, stone-set and ready, while chaos continued to roar on the other side.
Recovering from her abated rage, Ava turns towards her friends and a smirk appears on her lips as she regards their words to each other. Finally she shakes her head, "Focus ladies!" Then turning towards Solomona and Vonth, she raises an eyebrow. She recognizes these two and wonders how they got out, but either way - maybe they can help. "You two, our focus is Korda, do you know where she went? I'm assuming she's out if you two are as well."
While the others talk and keep an eye on the door to the kitchen, Geffroi opens the door to the armory and steps inside. Marrin, having indicated she's accompanying him in steps across the threshold into the armory for the first time.
Marrin takes in the room. Red lights on the walls illuminate wooden racks filled with weaponry - skewing more to longswords and polearms of various sorts, but also with a few maces, Morning Stars worked in. Heavy and light crossbows hang from hooks, along with quivers filled with bolts. Several chests line other walls. Suits of scale mail and leather armor are piled in a corner and several shields line the far side.
A wooden ladder leads to an iron hatch in the ceiling.
However, weapons and armor, and the ladder are not all this room contains. Floating in the middle of the room is a spherical creature with a large central eye and four writhing eyestalks - familiar to almost everyone except Marrin.
The Armory Guardian:
The floating eye and tentacles looks at Geffroi once, raises one eyeball stalk up and down and then ignores the scholar.
But, when it sees Marrin all of the eyeball stalks swivel around and focus on the bard. The creature floats closer to Marrin, the eyeball stalks moving up and down while they examine her,.
Marrin hears a voice in her head "You are different. You move differently. You look the same but different. Who are you?"
((Only Jan, and Avaria - along with Soren and Geffroi - have been in the armory before. Solomona and Vonth have looked inside but not entered. This is Marrin's first encounter with the room - and while she currently still looks like Jan, she's not sure if the disguise is fooling the creature or not)).
In the hallway, Vonth is not able to find anything to wedge or secure the doorway to the kitchen. His own strength and size would probably hold the door for now against the three soldiers still inside.
Marrin takes in the floating mass of eyeballs, and that Geff isn't screaming and running away before answering mentally and then verbally, if needed,
Just like one never steps into the same river twice, we're all in a fluid state of change, never the same person. Now I'm Jan, who knows what tomorrow will bring.
She waxes philosophical, before saying/thinking more flatly,
As far as moving differently, the armor was very uncomfortable and I've got a cramp across both my shoulders from the weight. I am also experiencing high amounts of stress from having just fled a fight and a fire. Oh, and there is an ongoing assault on the prison.
The floating ball extends its four foot long eye stalks until the eyes are almost touching Jarrin/Marrin. They pause for a moment, then they turn and the creature floats back to the middle of the room. One eye at the end of one stalk stays focused on Jarrin/Marrin, but the creature does nothing else but watch. The other eye stalks appear focused on the open doorway now.
Shields, standard swords, pole arms, daggers, crossbows and bolts along with splint-mail and leather armor are all easy to get a hold of. There are a lot of crates and boxes and there could always be more exotic weapons and equipment closed up for the taking but they will take time to search through.
Geoffroi bumps into the ladder that leads up to a hatch in the ceiling, before grabbing a shield for the big Goliath. He decides the first one is too small and drops it to grab the largest one there.
---------------------------------------
In the Hallway
Anyone looking into the armory sees the floating creature examine Marrin (who looks like Jan) closely but then leave her alone.
Vonth feels someone try and push against the door but he barely registers it as his size alone likely makes it a challenge for those on the other side to push against. He does see smoke starting to drift out from the door frame.
Jarrin holds her ground but can't hide her distaste/discomfort from the close encounter. When it relents she takes a quick deep breath in before noticing Geffroi messing with a big shield.
"Geffroi, great you're helping the new guy but maybe also think about Ava, Ithel and Ula. I'm sure they'd appreciate having shields. Maybe a hammer or sword too."
As she speaks she edges away from the eyeball on her she goes and starts grabbing three light crossbows and as many quarrels as she can manage.
She'll take them out slowly, giving the eyeball monster a nod. Once out of its sight, she'll pass one of the crossbows to Soren,
"One more for Geffroi..."
She turns to head back in then pauses and turns back,
"Actually, you know what Soren, can you help Geffroi in there? That eyeball monster was giving me the eye..."
Solomona runs out into the main floor again (the panopticon?) to see what the state of affairs is now, whether the north exit is still congested, or anything else that might be going on. Otherwise, he uses what energy he has to move west, trying to get a bead on whether Godrick and Korda are still present, then report that back to the guard that is always smirking...
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Soren and Geffroi begin grabbing some more shields, just in case as well as a couple of maces (they don't find any hammers). All of Avaria's gear is in a pile in the hallway outside and she can grab all of it.
Vonth feels a concentrated effort to push the door open, but it shouldn't strain him too much to keep it closed (Athletics check - DC 8).
Solomona is able to get into the Panopticon proper. He can see down the north or south entrances because of the angle caused by the central surveillance hub. But he also sees no bottleneck or sign of any prisoners to the north, though he can hear some shouting from that direction. To the south, he can see some smoke near the ceiling, though it's not heavy (yet). There are the sounds of fighting but he hears what could be horses too. Any view of the western side is blocked by the surveillance hub in the center.
A doorway to the hub does open and two guards emerge, stopping when they see Solomona.
"You, prisoner. Back to your cell."
While the one guard speaks with authority, neither seem to keen on moving towards the monk.
Vonth and Solomona are only aware of the Icelake skiff as a means of leaving the prison. The others know of the horses the soldiers arrived on. Other than these two options, leaving the prison puts you on an icy plateau and a long walk back to town (Peltarch).
From the hallway, the armory, and the eastern side of the panopticon, there's no sign of Godrick, Korda, the other Hargroves, the warden, or Ethel.
Grabbing gear doesn't take much time but what is the group doing next?
Because she is a professional, before they depart (and after everyone has gotten what they need), she'll poke her head in and ask the floating eyesore,
"Just out of curiosity, what about my movements made you think I wasn't me? It was that half hitch in my left knee when I walk? Oh, was it the perpetual 'I'm up to something' slight squint? The slight jaw clench when I talk to Geffroi? Maybe the way I swing my arms back a bit too far like I'm carrying two half filled pails of water?"
Once she gets her answer, or Blinky gets hostile, she'll say,
The door shoved hard against Vonth’s back as weight gathered on the other side. More than one body. Maybe many. Desperate strength, driven by fear.
It wasn’t enough.
Vonth set his feet and leaned in, stone against wood and iron. The door held because he did. It would move only if he allowed it.
Still, he was not foolish. Even stone cracked if pressed long enough. He glanced toward the others, measuring their readiness, willing them to be done with whatever decisions they were making.
A shield was thrust into his hand—fresh from the armory.
Vonth took it with a brief nod and slid his arm through the straps without shifting his stance. The added weight felt right. Familiar. Better.
He returned his shoulder to the door and waited.
For orders. For movement. For a plan—any plan.
He had cast his lot with them now. For good or ill, he would see it through.
"I was... out of touch for a bit, though my efforts were successful, and have been stowed for safekeeping.", Jan (who looks like Marta, who is a dwarf approximated version of Marrin) says, with a bit of emphasis on the last word that will mean something to her longer term companions.
"As far as I'm concerned, the big boys here have been deputized to help against the Hargrove incursion, though I suppose that's your line to try to sell, if anyone takes issue... Unless you want to swap back now?", she asks Marrin (who looks like Jan, instead of Marta).
If Ethel's location is given by Ula, or Hammy, she'll move in that direction with Marrin (who looks like Jan).
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
DM:Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Marrin first sees Geoffroi and Hammerdasher trying to make sense of the pile of gear that was dropped. Soren stands down the hallway at the junction, looking down the other three hallways. Ula stands quietly nearby, her eyes closed, trying to center herself.
When Soren sees Marrin come out he says "Looks clear. Though it sounds like chaos in pretty much any direction we pick."
The sounds of shouting come from the north, shouting and fighting from the south, the alarm sounding from everywhere, and voices from the west, in the panopticon.
Geffroi looks at the closed armory door behind Marrin.
"Do we need anything from in there? I'm sure I'm still a prison guard as far as the guardian of the armory is concerned."
Jan will hold some blasts at the ready for any Hargrove soldiers... Or if the prisoners from the kitchen show signs of turning on their 'guards'.
DM: Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Active Characters:
Breldo, Halfling Ranger | Kathryn, Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger | Kroshav, Dragonborn Paladin | T'laren Farsiel, Wood Elf Fighter | Trill, Kenku Bard | Val "Janellae", Mark of Shadow Elf Warlock
"Geffroi, I think that is a lovely idea. I think I will join you and getting some weapons. New people, as a sign of good will for your not trying to kill us, do you have any weapon or armor requests?"
She heads that way, tugging Geffroi along,
"Oh, we should definitely get Ethel. And the rest of my things."
As she passes Jan she'll comment,
"You're looking quite lovely today!"
Vonth...
Vonth cast a quick glance over those who had made it through the door with him. He fixed their faces in his memory. Allies were rare, and it would be wasteful to mistake one for a target later.
His attention returned to the door at once. He tested it, looking for anything heavy to brace it with—tables, racks, broken iron—anything that would slow pursuit. Soldiers pressed when they smelled weakness. Time mattered.
As he worked, he listened.
“Do we need anything from in there? I’m pretty sure I still count as a prison guard to the armory guardian.”
Vonth recognized the speaker well enough to know he was a guard, though he had never learned his name. Curious company, given the circumstances—but the whole day had abandoned sense long ago.
“Geffroi, I think that is a lovely idea,” one of the strangers replied. “I’ll join you. New people, as a sign of good will for not trying to kill us—do you have any weapon or armor requests?”
Vonth snorted softly.
Plenty of time left in the day to decide to kill them.
Weapons, though—that mattered.
“Quick best,” he rumbled, without turning. “Shield be good. Armor takes too long.”
He considered warning them about the floating eye-beast in the armory. Considered it… then dismissed the thought. Geffroi seemed to know what lived behind those doors.
And if he didn’t?
Their reaction would be informative. And possibly entertaining.
Vonth returned his focus to the door, stone-set and ready, while chaos continued to roar on the other side.
"One shield coming up..."
"Why thank you! You look radiant without being burdened by that armor!"
DM: Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Active Characters:
Breldo, Halfling Ranger | Kathryn, Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger | Kroshav, Dragonborn Paladin | T'laren Farsiel, Wood Elf Fighter | Trill, Kenku Bard | Val "Janellae", Mark of Shadow Elf Warlock
"Feel like a new woman!"
Recovering from her abated rage, Ava turns towards her friends and a smirk appears on her lips as she regards their words to each other. Finally she shakes her head, "Focus ladies!" Then turning towards Solomona and Vonth, she raises an eyebrow. She recognizes these two and wonders how they got out, but either way - maybe they can help. "You two, our focus is Korda, do you know where she went? I'm assuming she's out if you two are as well."
While the others talk and keep an eye on the door to the kitchen, Geffroi opens the door to the armory and steps inside. Marrin, having indicated she's accompanying him in steps across the threshold into the armory for the first time.
Marrin takes in the room. Red lights on the walls illuminate wooden racks filled with weaponry - skewing more to longswords and polearms of various sorts, but also with a few maces, Morning Stars worked in. Heavy and light crossbows hang from hooks, along with quivers filled with bolts. Several chests line other walls. Suits of scale mail and leather armor are piled in a corner and several shields line the far side.
A wooden ladder leads to an iron hatch in the ceiling.
However, weapons and armor, and the ladder are not all this room contains. Floating in the middle of the room is a spherical creature with a large central eye and four writhing eyestalks - familiar to almost everyone except Marrin.
The Armory Guardian:
The floating eye and tentacles looks at Geffroi once, raises one eyeball stalk up and down and then ignores the scholar.
But, when it sees Marrin all of the eyeball stalks swivel around and focus on the bard. The creature floats closer to Marrin, the eyeball stalks moving up and down while they examine her,.
Marrin hears a voice in her head "You are different. You move differently. You look the same but different. Who are you?"
((Only Jan, and Avaria - along with Soren and Geffroi - have been in the armory before. Solomona and Vonth have looked inside but not entered. This is Marrin's first encounter with the room - and while she currently still looks like Jan, she's not sure if the disguise is fooling the creature or not)).
In the hallway, Vonth is not able to find anything to wedge or secure the doorway to the kitchen. His own strength and size would probably hold the door for now against the three soldiers still inside.
Vonth...
Vonth pressed his shoulder into the door, bracing it with his weight in case those on the other side decided to test it.
“West,” he said, answering the question about Korda without turning. “With Godrick.”
When he didn’t immediately hear screams or the unmistakable sounds of battle from the armory, Vonth raised his voice.
“Bows may help,” he called. If the armory was letting them take gear, they might as well take whatever could be useful.
Marrin takes in the floating mass of eyeballs, and that Geff isn't screaming and running away before answering mentally and then verbally, if needed,
Just like one never steps into the same river twice, we're all in a fluid state of change, never the same person. Now I'm Jan, who knows what tomorrow will bring.
She waxes philosophical, before saying/thinking more flatly,
As far as moving differently, the armor was very uncomfortable and I've got a cramp across both my shoulders from the weight. I am also experiencing high amounts of stress from having just fled a fight and a fire. Oh, and there is an ongoing assault on the prison.
Performance/persuasion (?): 24
In the Armory
The floating ball extends its four foot long eye stalks until the eyes are almost touching Jarrin/Marrin. They pause for a moment, then they turn and the creature floats back to the middle of the room. One eye at the end of one stalk stays focused on Jarrin/Marrin, but the creature does nothing else but watch. The other eye stalks appear focused on the open doorway now.
Shields, standard swords, pole arms, daggers, crossbows and bolts along with splint-mail and leather armor are all easy to get a hold of. There are a lot of crates and boxes and there could always be more exotic weapons and equipment closed up for the taking but they will take time to search through.
Geoffroi bumps into the ladder that leads up to a hatch in the ceiling, before grabbing a shield for the big Goliath. He decides the first one is too small and drops it to grab the largest one there.
---------------------------------------
In the Hallway
Anyone looking into the armory sees the floating creature examine Marrin (who looks like Jan) closely but then leave her alone.
Vonth feels someone try and push against the door but he barely registers it as his size alone likely makes it a challenge for those on the other side to push against. He does see smoke starting to drift out from the door frame.
Jarrin holds her ground but can't hide her distaste/discomfort from the close encounter. When it relents she takes a quick deep breath in before noticing Geffroi messing with a big shield.
"Geffroi, great you're helping the new guy but maybe also think about Ava, Ithel and Ula. I'm sure they'd appreciate having shields. Maybe a hammer or sword too."
As she speaks she edges away from the eyeball on her she goes and starts grabbing three light crossbows and as many quarrels as she can manage.
She'll take them out slowly, giving the eyeball monster a nod. Once out of its sight, she'll pass one of the crossbows to Soren,
"One more for Geffroi..."
She turns to head back in then pauses and turns back,
"Actually, you know what Soren, can you help Geffroi in there? That eyeball monster was giving me the eye..."
Solomona runs out into the main floor again (the panopticon?) to see what the state of affairs is now, whether the north exit is still congested, or anything else that might be going on. Otherwise, he uses what energy he has to move west, trying to get a bead on whether Godrick and Korda are still present, then report that back to the guard that is always smirking...
How does a red dragon blow out the candles on its birthday cake?
Soren and Geffroi begin grabbing some more shields, just in case as well as a couple of maces (they don't find any hammers). All of Avaria's gear is in a pile in the hallway outside and she can grab all of it.
Vonth feels a concentrated effort to push the door open, but it shouldn't strain him too much to keep it closed (Athletics check - DC 8).
Solomona is able to get into the Panopticon proper. He can see down the north or south entrances because of the angle caused by the central surveillance hub. But he also sees no bottleneck or sign of any prisoners to the north, though he can hear some shouting from that direction. To the south, he can see some smoke near the ceiling, though it's not heavy (yet). There are the sounds of fighting but he hears what could be horses too. Any view of the western side is blocked by the surveillance hub in the center.
A doorway to the hub does open and two guards emerge, stopping when they see Solomona.
"You, prisoner. Back to your cell."
While the one guard speaks with authority, neither seem to keen on moving towards the monk.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Vonth and Solomona are only aware of the Icelake skiff as a means of leaving the prison. The others know of the horses the soldiers arrived on. Other than these two options, leaving the prison puts you on an icy plateau and a long walk back to town (Peltarch).
From the hallway, the armory, and the eastern side of the panopticon, there's no sign of Godrick, Korda, the other Hargroves, the warden, or Ethel.
Grabbing gear doesn't take much time but what is the group doing next?
Marrin needs to get her stuff and Ethel, so once equipped she says so.
Because she is a professional, before they depart (and after everyone has gotten what they need), she'll poke her head in and ask the floating eyesore,
"Just out of curiosity, what about my movements made you think I wasn't me? It was that half hitch in my left knee when I walk? Oh, was it the perpetual 'I'm up to something' slight squint? The slight jaw clench when I talk to Geffroi? Maybe the way I swing my arms back a bit too far like I'm carrying two half filled pails of water?"
Once she gets her answer, or Blinky gets hostile, she'll say,
"Keep up the good work!"
And depart for her room.
Once back out she'll ask Ula,
"Where's Ethel?"
Then,
"Anyone seen Korda? We probably should decide what we're doing. If we help out here we're going to fall behind."
Vonth...
DC 9 Athletics check: 14+7 for 21
The door shoved hard against Vonth’s back as weight gathered on the other side. More than one body. Maybe many. Desperate strength, driven by fear.
It wasn’t enough.
Vonth set his feet and leaned in, stone against wood and iron. The door held because he did. It would move only if he allowed it.
Still, he was not foolish. Even stone cracked if pressed long enough. He glanced toward the others, measuring their readiness, willing them to be done with whatever decisions they were making.
A shield was thrust into his hand—fresh from the armory.
Vonth took it with a brief nod and slid his arm through the straps without shifting his stance. The added weight felt right. Familiar. Better.
He returned his shoulder to the door and waited.
For orders.
For movement.
For a plan—any plan.
He had cast his lot with them now. For good or ill, he would see it through.
_____
Shield added to inventory and donned.
"I was... out of touch for a bit, though my efforts were successful, and have been stowed for safekeeping.", Jan (who looks like Marta, who is a dwarf approximated version of Marrin) says, with a bit of emphasis on the last word that will mean something to her longer term companions.
"As far as I'm concerned, the big boys here have been deputized to help against the Hargrove incursion, though I suppose that's your line to try to sell, if anyone takes issue... Unless you want to swap back now?", she asks Marrin (who looks like Jan, instead of Marta).
If Ethel's location is given by Ula, or Hammy, she'll move in that direction with Marrin (who looks like Jan).
DM: Forged in Chaos, Spiders of the Abyss, The Sundered Way, Champions of the Citadel
Active Characters:
Breldo, Halfling Ranger | Kathryn, Wood Elf Rogue/Ranger | Kroshav, Dragonborn Paladin | T'laren Farsiel, Wood Elf Fighter | Trill, Kenku Bard | Val "Janellae", Mark of Shadow Elf Warlock