The broad shouldered Iron Circle guard Leth considers RL's words.
"The town of Harken will likely go the way of Marl, I've heard them talk about it, saying they would do it if they looked like being kicked out of Harken. Scorched earth policy. What happened to Marl was horrible. It probably won't happen to Harken overnight though, but I guarantee they will take more hostages because they will feel safer. AND you will have a much harder time freeing them next time."
Esa climbs off Igron's body, looks at RL and smiles. "Mind dragging him into a cell for me? I'm not really built for manual labor."
She heads over to the prisoners while RL and Leth talk. "I'm sorry for scaring you, we are here to rescue you. Come over here away from the cells and let me look at your injuries."
Esa climbs off Igron's body, looks at RL and smiles. "Mind dragging him into a cell for me? I'm not really built for manual labor."
She heads over to the prisoners while RL and Leth talk. "I'm sorry for scaring you, we are here to rescue you. Come over here away from the cells and let me look at your injuries."
RL will drag the body into a cell and search him for any valuables. He gos back to the table and picked the money from the card game as well. He will cast cure wounds on Alesia 6 points of healing.
Then he will do a quick search of the other dead guard and the barracks and store rooms.
Baron Jonn Stockmer points to the storeroom door on the north wall.
"They put him in there on his own. They didn't want him encouraging us or giving us news from the outside. Alesia was too badly hurt to do that so they just threw her in with my wife."
The dead guard Igron has 2 silver pieces and 14 copper pieces in a purse. He has a dagger, a mace, and the keys to the cells and the guard room. He is wearing leather armour with an Iron Circle tabard.
When RL opens the storeroom he finds Old Kellar looking at him, sitting on a barrel. "About time," the old dwarf says. He gets off the barrel and comes out into the guard room.
The storeroom has a bit of everything - food, rope, spices, mops and buckets, cleaning products, nails and tools.
Alesia's facial swelling goes down somewhat and she opens her eyes. "Ow, my head," she says. She still looks bad.
DM note: she has two levels of exhaustion and the Stockmers have four levels of exhaustion - using our One DnD rules for exhaustion means a minus one penalty to every roll for each level of exhaustion. Old Kellar is fine, having not been assaulted and when they threw him into the storage room they forgot he had access to food.
Alesia's facial swelling goes down somewhat and she opens her eyes. "Ow, my head," she says. She still looks bad.
DM note: she has two levels of exhaustion and the Stockmers have four levels of exhaustion - using our One DnD rules for exhaustion means a minus one penalty to every roll for each level of exhaustion. Old Kellar is fine, having not been assaulted and when they threw him into the storage room they forgot he had access to food.
RL will hand the mace & leather armour to Alesia, 'just in case' and the dagger to one of the barons sons, 'its not much but your not supposed to fight'.
RL will look at Esa, 'ok decision time, if you reduced any of them could they get out the window? or do we stick to the original plan of leaving via the secret entrance?
If we are walking out we should get the kitchen staff and head to the north tower to make our exit. Everyone go slow and hang back, let Esa and I clear out areas first.
"I should be able to reduce them all, or I can make them all invisible. We really have two options.
If we shrink everyone down, we could sneak them back to the window. We still have those two humans that way to worry about, so we will want to be careful. I'm sure how friends pretending to sleep in the kitchen can find us some oil or fat to help get them through the windows.
If we try to get them through the gate, we may end up drawing more attention to us than need be. I'd rather not adventure further now we have civilians with us. Plus, if we fail to open the gate before running into enemies, we run the risk of being trapped inside with civillians and combatants, without fast support.
To me, the easier choice is the window. Here is my suggestion. 1. Let me speak to the kitchen staff and get something to grease this lot up with. I also have something I wish to discuss with them before we leave anyway... 2. We move to the window with you and Leth leading the pack in case those two humans awake. 3. While you and Leth grease everyone up I'll begin casting. 4. With Leth holding the rope from the window and you up here for reinforcements, we start getting everyone to climb down to the ground. I'll stay outside as a look out. If anything goes pear-shaped, you and I are on fighting duty while Leth gets them all out. 5. Once we're all out, we make a beeline for the others."
Esa then looks at Leth. "Do you plan on leaving with us?"
"I should be able to reduce them all, or I can make them all invisible. We really have two options.
If we shrink everyone down, we could sneak them back to the window. We still have those two humans that way to worry about, so we will want to be careful. I'm sure how friends pretending to sleep in the kitchen can find us some oil or fat to help get them through the windows.
If we try to get them through the gate, we may end up drawing more attention to us than need be. I'd rather not adventure further now we have civilians with us. Plus, if we fail to open the gate before running into enemies, we run the risk of being trapped inside with civillians and combatants, without fast support.
To me, the easier choice is the window. Here is my suggestion. 1. Let me speak to the kitchen staff and get something to grease this lot up with. I also have something I wish to discuss with them before we leave anyway... 2. We move to the window with you and Leth leading the pack in case those two humans awake. 3. While you and Leth grease everyone up I'll begin casting. 4. With Leth holding the rope from the window and you up here for reinforcements, we start getting everyone to climb down to the ground. I'll stay outside as a look out. If anything goes pear-shaped, you and I are on fighting duty while Leth gets them all out. 5. Once we're all out, we make a beeline for the others."
Esa then looks at Leth. "Do you plan on leaving with us?"
Sounds like a plan, I want tom go and open the secret door so any staff can escape, the kitchen staff can pass the word and we might have an easy way back in. I still want to take out the leader and the mage tonight though but will talk to the others. That cool?
"I should be able to reduce them all, or I can make them all invisible. We really have two options.
If we shrink everyone down, we could sneak them back to the window. We still have those two humans that way to worry about, so we will want to be careful. I'm sure how friends pretending to sleep in the kitchen can find us some oil or fat to help get them through the windows.
If we try to get them through the gate, we may end up drawing more attention to us than need be. I'd rather not adventure further now we have civilians with us. Plus, if we fail to open the gate before running into enemies, we run the risk of being trapped inside with civillians and combatants, without fast support.
To me, the easier choice is the window. Here is my suggestion. 1. Let me speak to the kitchen staff and get something to grease this lot up with. I also have something I wish to discuss with them before we leave anyway... 2. We move to the window with you and Leth leading the pack in case those two humans awake. 3. While you and Leth grease everyone up I'll begin casting. 4. With Leth holding the rope from the window and you up here for reinforcements, we start getting everyone to climb down to the ground. I'll stay outside as a look out. If anything goes pear-shaped, you and I are on fighting duty while Leth gets them all out. 5. Once we're all out, we make a beeline for the others."
Esa then looks at Leth. "Do you plan on leaving with us?"
Sounds like a plan, I want tom go and open the secret door so any staff can escape, the kitchen staff can pass the word and we might have an easy way back in. I still want to take out the leader and the mage tonight though but will talk to the others. That cool?
"Sounds fine to me. I'll be low on magic by the time I'm finished getting everyone out."
Esa makes her way to the door to the kitchen and moves inside. "You can stop pretending to be asleep. We shall not harm you, but I wish to speak with you." She says softly to the staff.
Esa will tell them. "We are delvers, here to free innocent civillians and not looking to shed the blood of bystanders. We are in need of fat, butter, grease or oil, anything we can use to help squeeze people through a tight gap. I'm hoping you might point us in the direction of some?"
"Once we get these people to safety, we will give you, and any others, safe passage from here and back to town. Leth, the guard, is defecting. Any of the other guards, servants, or slaves that might be here are welcome to make the same choice."
"You can also choose to stay. As long as you do not try to harm us, we will leave you be, but we will not guarantee your safety from crossfire when the fighting starts."
The servants all rise from the floor, clutching their blankets. A middle-aged halfling woman steps forward, she has some bruises on her face, some old ones going yellow.
"I'm Thanis Puddifoot, we'll leave if we can!" she whispers. "You should keep your voice down, there is a guard upstairs, and it might be one of them dragonmen. Now, we can give you all the oil, lard, and butter you need. But I don't think you're going to fit anyone through a six inch gap! Not unless you want them as mincemeat on the other side."
Leth says "The other factor you might want to consider is the exit from this tower is a drawbridge on the second floor which is always raised at night. It makes a racket being raised or lowered. On the second floor you have two dragonborn officers and a bunch of cultists turned into guards, and Kaltis' personal hobgoblin bodyguards. Then on the top floor we have Kaltis and his consort, Gronner. Kaltis is scary, you haven't seen anything like him before, I'll wager. Rumour has it he has met an avatar of Asmodeus! We don't want to attract his attention, he'll target the innocents first!"
"And as if that isn't bad enough," continues Leth, "there are three devils in the desecrated chapel, two with weird barbed tentacle beards, and one with spines that flies. They don't sleep so sometimes they roam the courtyard at night. They will definitely investigate any noise, especially the sound of a drawbridge being lowered when it shouldn't be."
"What's all that noise?" a gravelly voice growls, calling down from the stairs. "Is that you, Leth. Is everything alright?"
"It's fine, Balasar," replies Leth, putting a finger to his lips for the others benefit, rather unnecessarily. "I'm just talking to the servants."
"Well enough," the dragonborn named Balasar replies. "Keep the noise down, eh?"
Leth waits for a minute, then whispers, "Balasar is the easy going dragonborn, although I wouldn't want to take him on. The other dragonborn Narida is a dragonborn warpriest, she is as nasty as they come. Fits in well with the Iron Circle. Now if we're doing something let's do it. I'm getting my armour on and my weapons."
Esa leads everyone to the window and tells them to grease themselves up as quietly as possible. She hands RL the rope and tells him to lower it down and Leth to help hold it but be ready to defend RL and the others if anyone comes in.
When everyone's ready, she exits out through the gap, flying close to the building and gestures one of the sons forward. "Slide down as fast and quietly as you can. When you get to the bottom, hug the wall and wait."
She looks to RL and whispers, "Be careful." Before casting Reduce on the son.
"Are there any windows nearby facing outside that are at least 2ft?"
"The only windows on this floor are 3ft tall and around six inches wide. There's only two in the bunk room there," Leth points to the room Esa and RL first came in. "The windows on the next floor up are actually wider, so more than one archer can fire down at attacking troops, but still not very wide - nothing human sized could get through it."
The broad shouldered Iron Circle guard Leth considers RL's words.
"The town of Harken will likely go the way of Marl, I've heard them talk about it, saying they would do it if they looked like being kicked out of Harken. Scorched earth policy. What happened to Marl was horrible. It probably won't happen to Harken overnight though, but I guarantee they will take more hostages because they will feel safer. AND you will have a much harder time freeing them next time."
Esa climbs off Igron's body, looks at RL and smiles. "Mind dragging him into a cell for me? I'm not really built for manual labor."
She heads over to the prisoners while RL and Leth talk. "I'm sorry for scaring you, we are here to rescue you. Come over here away from the cells and let me look at your injuries."
RL will drag the body into a cell and search him for any valuables. He gos back to the table and picked the money from the card game as well. He will cast cure wounds on Alesia 6 points of healing.
Then he will do a quick search of the other dead guard and the barracks and store rooms.
Where is Old Kellar?
Baron Jonn Stockmer points to the storeroom door on the north wall.
"They put him in there on his own. They didn't want him encouraging us or giving us news from the outside. Alesia was too badly hurt to do that so they just threw her in with my wife."
47 copper pieces on the table.
The dead guard Igron has 2 silver pieces and 14 copper pieces in a purse. He has a dagger, a mace, and the keys to the cells and the guard room. He is wearing leather armour with an Iron Circle tabard.
When RL opens the storeroom he finds Old Kellar looking at him, sitting on a barrel. "About time," the old dwarf says. He gets off the barrel and comes out into the guard room.
The storeroom has a bit of everything - food, rope, spices, mops and buckets, cleaning products, nails and tools.
Alesia's facial swelling goes down somewhat and she opens her eyes. "Ow, my head," she says. She still looks bad.
DM note: she has two levels of exhaustion and the Stockmers have four levels of exhaustion - using our One DnD rules for exhaustion means a minus one penalty to every roll for each level of exhaustion. Old Kellar is fine, having not been assaulted and when they threw him into the storage room they forgot he had access to food.
RL will hand the mace & leather armour to Alesia, 'just in case' and the dagger to one of the barons sons, 'its not much but your not supposed to fight'.
RL will look at Esa, 'ok decision time, if you reduced any of them could they get out the window? or do we stick to the original plan of leaving via the secret entrance?
If we are walking out we should get the kitchen staff and head to the north tower to make our exit. Everyone go slow and hang back, let Esa and I clear out areas first.
Reduction should allow any of them to squeeze out of the window with some difficulty and some pushing, and maybe some butter or oil.
Esa thinks for a moment.
"I should be able to reduce them all, or I can make them all invisible. We really have two options.
If we shrink everyone down, we could sneak them back to the window. We still have those two humans that way to worry about, so we will want to be careful. I'm sure how friends pretending to sleep in the kitchen can find us some oil or fat to help get them through the windows.
If we try to get them through the gate, we may end up drawing more attention to us than need be. I'd rather not adventure further now we have civilians with us. Plus, if we fail to open the gate before running into enemies, we run the risk of being trapped inside with civillians and combatants, without fast support.
To me, the easier choice is the window. Here is my suggestion.
1. Let me speak to the kitchen staff and get something to grease this lot up with. I also have something I wish to discuss with them before we leave anyway...
2. We move to the window with you and Leth leading the pack in case those two humans awake.
3. While you and Leth grease everyone up I'll begin casting.
4. With Leth holding the rope from the window and you up here for reinforcements, we start getting everyone to climb down to the ground. I'll stay outside as a look out. If anything goes pear-shaped, you and I are on fighting duty while Leth gets them all out.
5. Once we're all out, we make a beeline for the others."
Esa then looks at Leth. "Do you plan on leaving with us?"
Sounds like a plan, I want tom go and open the secret door so any staff can escape, the kitchen staff can pass the word and we might have an easy way back in. I still want to take out the leader and the mage tonight though but will talk to the others. That cool?
"Sounds fine to me. I'll be low on magic by the time I'm finished getting everyone out."
Esa makes her way to the door to the kitchen and moves inside. "You can stop pretending to be asleep. We shall not harm you, but I wish to speak with you." She says softly to the staff.
Esa will tell them. "We are delvers, here to free innocent civillians and not looking to shed the blood of bystanders. We are in need of fat, butter, grease or oil, anything we can use to help squeeze people through a tight gap. I'm hoping you might point us in the direction of some?"
"Once we get these people to safety, we will give you, and any others, safe passage from here and back to town. Leth, the guard, is defecting. Any of the other guards, servants, or slaves that might be here are welcome to make the same choice."
"You can also choose to stay. As long as you do not try to harm us, we will leave you be, but we will not guarantee your safety from crossfire when the fighting starts."
"What do you say?"
The servants all rise from the floor, clutching their blankets. A middle-aged halfling woman steps forward, she has some bruises on her face, some old ones going yellow.
"I'm Thanis Puddifoot, we'll leave if we can!" she whispers. "You should keep your voice down, there is a guard upstairs, and it might be one of them dragonmen. Now, we can give you all the oil, lard, and butter you need. But I don't think you're going to fit anyone through a six inch gap! Not unless you want them as mincemeat on the other side."
Leth says "The other factor you might want to consider is the exit from this tower is a drawbridge on the second floor which is always raised at night. It makes a racket being raised or lowered. On the second floor you have two dragonborn officers and a bunch of cultists turned into guards, and Kaltis' personal hobgoblin bodyguards. Then on the top floor we have Kaltis and his consort, Gronner. Kaltis is scary, you haven't seen anything like him before, I'll wager. Rumour has it he has met an avatar of Asmodeus! We don't want to attract his attention, he'll target the innocents first!"
"And as if that isn't bad enough," continues Leth, "there are three devils in the desecrated chapel, two with weird barbed tentacle beards, and one with spines that flies. They don't sleep so sometimes they roam the courtyard at night. They will definitely investigate any noise, especially the sound of a drawbridge being lowered when it shouldn't be."
"Are there any windows nearby facing outside that are at least 2ft?"
"What's all that noise?" a gravelly voice growls, calling down from the stairs. "Is that you, Leth. Is everything alright?"
"It's fine, Balasar," replies Leth, putting a finger to his lips for the others benefit, rather unnecessarily. "I'm just talking to the servants."
"Well enough," the dragonborn named Balasar replies. "Keep the noise down, eh?"
Leth waits for a minute, then whispers, "Balasar is the easy going dragonborn, although I wouldn't want to take him on. The other dragonborn Narida is a dragonborn warpriest, she is as nasty as they come. Fits in well with the Iron Circle. Now if we're doing something let's do it. I'm getting my armour on and my weapons."
Esa leads everyone to the window and tells them to grease themselves up as quietly as possible. She hands RL the rope and tells him to lower it down and Leth to help hold it but be ready to defend RL and the others if anyone comes in.
When everyone's ready, she exits out through the gap, flying close to the building and gestures one of the sons forward. "Slide down as fast and quietly as you can. When you get to the bottom, hug the wall and wait."
She looks to RL and whispers, "Be careful." Before casting Reduce on the son.
"The only windows on this floor are 3ft tall and around six inches wide. There's only two in the bunk room there," Leth points to the room Esa and RL first came in. "The windows on the next floor up are actually wider, so more than one archer can fire down at attacking troops, but still not very wide - nothing human sized could get through it."
Leth puts on his chain shirt and bits and pieces, then grabs his spear and shield and puts them close. He then helps RL with the rope.