Respar runs off blindly, looking for a convenient roof to use as a way to get distance from his pursuers.

Acrobatics 16

Stealth 22

Respar manages to swing up to the open second story window of a nearby house, change his appearance to that of a nondescript townsperson, and exit out the front door, quickly disappearing into the chaos on the street.

Meanwhile Blau makes his way into the Inn, then slips into the kitchen and down to the basement. The secret door is just where the others described, and soon enough the Oread priest is standing within the tunnel to the fort''s Vault.

 Selena laughs as she sees the elemental break Ms Mott's neck.  " Well done. " She looks back to Eya. " Thanks for the help. We had better clean this up quickly.  " Poe swoops down and lands on a nearby building. " Thank you Poe. Great job as always. " Poe takes a big bow on the edge of the roof. 

Once the battle is over, Eya communicates to the earth elemental in the strange harsh-sounding language, "Dig a hole and bury the two bodies back to the earth where they belong. And do it quickly. After you are done, you are dismissed."

Eya then turns to Selena and speaks softly into her hand as she casts a simple spell. Eya's voice is then heard in Selena's mind as she says, "Excellent work. I told the earth elemental to bury the bodies. It should be able to make quick work of it. Now let's change our disguises and meet back up with the others in the secret tunnel."

Cursing under his breath, Respar, now appearing as a person from outside town, makes his way to the inn, hoping to find the others there.  Since no huge alarm seems to have come from the keep yet, he assumes none of his compatriots have been captured thus far.

Finding some of the others, he sits down heavily.  "Damn it.  The jig is up for the fake Captain Eddarly.  That doddering old hedge wizard saw through the disguise, and even used  a scroll to shut down the circlet for half-a-minute or so.  I am worried when that news reaches the commander, he will drop and seal the gate completely.  I think our only chance to be inside again openly will be if the good father returns to help minister to those who have fallen sick.  Other than that, I think we may just have to resort to this tunnel, sneaking and killing as we go, and hope we can figure out the mechanisms for the gates."  He pauses, then says, "But I bet they will have Sacamore checking everyone that enters from here on out.  I know it's what I would do in such circumstances."

  Selena laughs quietly.  " We did it.  Yes, let us go.  That elemental was a great idea.  Killed Ms Mott and is hiding the evidence. The horse they were riding is right over there. " She gestures to where the horse died.  Selena then transforms into a dirty faced farmer.  She will head to the tunnel with Eya.  Poe flies up above them checking things out as they go. 

Soon enough the knot members, each with fresh blood on their hands, regroup in the deep storage vault beneath the fort. It's more than a bit dusty down here, but it is quiet. Poe is left to keep an eye on things from above.

Once she rendezvous with the others, Eya will take a small amount of time to see if she can quickly identify the magic items. Then, she tells the others of her plan to take the magic cloak. "Master Aloro, could you watch my back and keep watch?" she asks. "I'm going to sneak and try to grab it before our operation tomorrow."

Once ready, Eya will carefully make her way out and use invisibility to sneak back into the dwarf's room. She peaks through the keyhole and teleports into the room then looks for the cloak.

As each member arrives, Blau assesses their condition, judging if their soft flesh has been damaged enough to justify using up his Lord's healing gifts to repair them .Afterwards, he settles in for a long rest, enjoying the quiet and the subterranean feel to the tunnel.

Eya is frustrated by the ring and the wand, their properties eluding her.

The robes on the other hand are both enchanted with an illusory effect that allows the bearer to transform their appearance at a moment's notice. Given the twins' penchant for flamboyant clothing, you suspect that this trick is behind them apparently having much more in the way of expensive clothing than their budget or reasonable closet space would allow for.

After that, she slips upstairs. The place is remarkably quiet as she heads for the room of Barnabus, the chief engineer on the dwarven crew. The room is empty of life, and the cloak hangs on a peg near the door. While she is here, a finely crafted crossbow catches her eye as well, along with a silver tankard with runework done in gold inlay.

Eya does a quick lookover of the three items with detect magic just to check for any magical effects or traps and attempts to disable if any are there. If the coast is clear, she grabs the three items quickly and then teleports back out of the room to get back to her party members in the tunnel quickly.

Spellcraft on Wand: 14

Spellcraft on Ring: 13

"A noble effort I'm sure, dark one.  Now let me have them."  Kiven looks over the remaining items to discern their properties further.

Kiven also follows Eya halfway upstairs just to be a lookout.  He tries to just stay out of sight using his stealth but also assumes an appropriate false identity and tells Eya that he will shout a specific name as if looking for someone random if he sees anyone coming towards the dwarve's rooms.

Eya makes her way back to the tunnel to the others. She sends Kiven a message telepathically, "I'm done. Time to head back." 

Upon her arrival, Eya seems to be panting heavily and sweating a bit as if she's exhausted. She takes a deep breath then lays out all the items and says, "Let's try and distribute these." She eyes the wand longingly, "Personally, I really want that wand, Master Aloro. That spell...I really, really need that in my life. Powerful evocation fire magic...it's good we have this on our side now and can use it against them. That could have been really bad otherwise. As for the ring, we witnessed what it could do firsthand. I think it would be best on someone who needs to stay away from enemies. Master Aloro or Blau might be good fits. That leaves this new cloak. This is a very, very nice and powerful protective enchantment against spells and many other effects. It would be useful for any one of us, but perhaps people in the thick of combat like Selena or Respar might get the most benefit for now. What do you all think? There's a really nice, well-made crossbow here too. It would be a good replacement for this old thing." She lays out the old light crossbow that she took from the prison as those memories flood back to her, "We've been through a lot now together." She shows the brand they placed on her arm and grits her teeth angrily, "Tomorrow is just the beginning of the payback for what they did to us. Let's give them Hell."

"But, we should go over the plan. We get our rest then infiltrate the fort via this tunnel. What are our final objectives? We have siege weapons to burn as well as a gate we need to potentially sabotage or otherwise destroy somehow to allow our forces in. If the Prince and I get to the mechanism controlling the gate, we may be able to use our engineering knowledge to break it. Thankfully those dwarves talked a lot, so I already have an idea on how it works. There may also be key targets we need to take out like Havelyn or any archers. Should we disguise ourselves as guards or would simple cooks and workers be better? They know we are using magic to change our appearance now. Is there anything else that I'm missing in terms of targets? It would also be nice to have the mites do something useful. Perhaps they could cause a ruckus in town as we begin our operation as a diversion while we infiltrate the fort. Or we could have them join us shortly after we begin via this tunnel. It won't matter that they are seen once this all begins. We're in the end game now. Kili and Poe can provide us information from the skies. What does everyone think? Any other ideas on what we should do?" 

  Selena shrugs as she listens.  " That sounds reasonable to me.  Poe can help with the mites. In his larger form he can ferry them over the walls tonight.  He could drop them off anywhere inside. Of course that would leave their miniins behind.  He could fly to our advancing allies and then bring a couple of goblins over to sabotage the war machines.  " 

 After the discussion ends she will sit silently in the dark meditating.  Images of violence run through her mind.  She bites her lip as she sees blood covering the ground in her vision.  Blood trickles down her full lips unnoticed.  Her skin seems to grow even paler. 

OOC: After 10 minutes she has changed her readied maneuvers out. She now has Rapid strike, Thirsting axe strike, Headstone breaking strike and Stalking Ghoul ready. She is in the Starving Vampire stance. 

Blau speaks up from his prayers "We've alerted the Mitrans that their leaders have been killed, at the very least. They know something is coming now and we need to strike hard at the gate. If the mites and their vermin can do something to disrupt the enemy, let them do what they feel best. We have felled many of the major players in this story which will help our righteous goals, and Asmodeus' eyes are full of praise for our efforts so far, but we can't permit that gate to delay our invading armies. If we could even put something to stop the stone from completely sealing it, might be enough to allow us to force it back upwards. Once I have recovered my Lord's gifts, we shall see about turning these pathetic, soft Mitrans into paste with their own devices!"

"Excellent, your pet will be quite useful in flying the mites and perhaps some goblins in as you described.  They can raise trouble however they see fit."

"Do we have any means of removing the wall from the equation if we they do succeed in lowering it before we can intervene?"

The group settles in for what rest they can get down in the dusty vault. From above, Poe reports to Selena on developments. There's a good bit of chaos in town, as people look for those responsible for the fighting and the fire, and get busy putting the fire out. Barnabus and the other dwarves are spotted helping with these tasks. There's a good bit of running back and forth between the town and the fort.

Perhaps an hour after dusk, globes of pure white light are seen moving around the fort. Four of them accompany guards that descend on the village, clearly searching from door to door.

At about the same time, four men on horseback leave the castle, two headed east, and two west, both pairs riding at a fast pace, and bringing remounts with them. They're clearly heading for the next fort in the chain. With the remounts, they might make it to their destination by about noon tomorrow.

Eventually, slowly, the town settles back down, with people starting to filter back into homes to finally sleep around midnight. Poe notices that the western end of town is now largely abandoned, with many people taking shelter at the inn or with neighbors well away from where the hellhound had been.

The globes of light remain however, clearly patrolling town and fort, and more men have been posted on the walls as well. Poe would have a very difficult time approaching them unseen with a passenger.

But the appointed hour approaches. The mites are seen gathering near the edge of town, they bring with them a pair of giant spiders, perhaps a half dozen giant centipedes, and multiple swarms of other more naturally sized insects.

Respar says, "The gate mechanisms are our priority targets.  If that gate is not breached, the whole plan fails.  Once we have the secured, anything else is gravy.  Now of course, causing havoc, death and destruction along the way will only further our goals.  With those riders on their way, destroying the ravens is no longer a priority.  The ballista and archers up top though, we should get them quickly, if we can.  I am betting that everyone in the keep is under orders to stay in assigned places, due to our earlier disguises.  Probably the only ones who might have a chance of movement are guards.  That's my estimate only, of course."

Blau finishes his morning devotions, taking advantage of their hiding hole to remain as himself as he prays. Once finished, he responds to Respar "If we need to, we could act the part of guards, with a light globe. I'd almost bet those globes are some of their guardian spirits. I have a spell the group can share to protect us from them for a short time, but they will still be able to sense us if they are there. I'm not as fast you softies, but I'm sure we can make our way to the gatehouse and do what needs doing. Even if we jam something substantial under the block before it plummets to keep a gap open for our 'friends'."

OOC - Didn't Snowball already murder the birds?