Dragons of Autumn-DL III-Pax Tharkas

[Toliudar]

Pearl nods at Tygerlily's news, and gestures for the others not guarding the stairwell to join her. Carefully, holding her lantern high so that it illuminates her own face clearly, she opens the door that Gneiss had checked out.

"Hello?"

[wxdruid]

By the time Pearl and Tygerlilly make it back, Gneiss has gone 50 ft down the corridor to the next door, where he pauses to listen.

Pearl attempts to open the door and finds out it's locked. Tygerlilly is quick to whip out her set of lock picks and she fiddles around with it for a moment. She's having a bit of fun with it. The sounds on the other side of the door stop for a moment and soon enough, Tygerlilly is flinging open the door and saying hello to the group. She doesn't even pause to register who they are before she says it. Pearl peers into the dark, dirty and smelly room and spots groups of young women, from adolescents to middle age. They are staring at the door, unsure of what to do or how to react to a Kender and what looks like a knight at the door when they were expecting something completely different.

[Toliudar]

Pearl smiles a bit uncertainly at the group of women.

"Hello. My name is Pearl Kharlas, and this is Tygerlily. We're with a group sent to rescue you. Are you all from north of here? We can take you to a safe place. Does anyone need any help in walking?"

[Philistine]

Gneiss listens carefully at the next door, grimacing a little at any noise from behind him.

Spoiler

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Listen: (1d20+9)[11]
Move Silently: (1d20+8)[18]
Search: (1d20+12)[17]

[wxdruid]

Rm 1 w/ Pearl and Tygerlilly

One of the older women nods, We can all walk... Pearl doesn't immediately recognize anyone in this group.

At door number 2 w/ Gneiss

He hears much the same thing at this door, soft talking and it sounds like women.

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri swims through the crowd of captive women in pursuit of Gneiss.

"Nees" he booms conversationally, "For vat is only vomen in cassle? Vyrm men are veak un stoopid. I fear more if ve find vomen zan vyrm men! Feet to sneak, mouths to feed, but no arms to row!"

Lagri was as a whole frustrated by the construction of feudal system. The lords kept their women from the mill and oar and put them in big stone houses.

"Vere is safe place? Forward is not safe vit flank of maids. Back is tall stone-tree ve might hide zem. But is only until zey are found."

Lagri stands rail tall as he faces Pearl, he pulls Tygerlilly next to him and leaning over, whispers "I put five silfer on dragon. In ze mead hall. Vit feast of guards."

[SilentNight]

Kalrin moves up to Pearl's side and adds some questions of his own. "How exactly did you get here too, do you know if there are any more dragon men on this floor?"

[wxdruid]

Tyerlilly grins up at Lagri, Really? 5 silver on the dragon? And you say, in the mead hall with guards? I like that. What color do you think? I'll put 5 silver on a green one. I haven't seen a green one yet, have I? She can't remember all the colors she might have seen, only Kethend and she knows he's a bronze dragon. But...green sounds interesting. What kind of breath weapon does a green dragon have?

[Toliudar]

Pearl is mesmerized by the faint sound of tormented Abanasinian language, as it struggles under the lash of Lagri's cruel mastery. She forebore to point out that just because they'd only found women so far didn't mean that there weren't men close by. She forebore pointing that out primarily so that he wouldn't rush off and try to locate them. And then, presumably, either punch them or get them drunk, as befits a Real Man.

"Er, yes. I was rather thinking of ushering them back into the tunnels."

She turns back to the women and waits until they've had a chance to respond to Kalrin's question.

"So...are you ready to follow us?"

[wxdruid]

The women look at each other and back at Pearl, But, um, what about the others?

[SilentNight]

"Others? Are they in the next room?" Kalrin asks.

[wxdruid]

Yes, she nods, there are other rooms down this hallway with other women in them and the children are kept separately. The women are getting used to the new people. They haven't seen any normal people in quite a while.

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri groans loudly and obviously.

"Is as much trouble to safe all ze thralls as eet is to kill eferyting not-a-thrall."

"Perr-ril!" Lagri mangles their commander's name, "Is not possible all ze thralls are not guarded. Take hyur thralls vere hyu please. But leaf me un utters to ambush dragon men. Zey leaf thralls here, zeir guard comes here on patrol."

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Perr-ill nods - after a moment - and smiles.

"That's an excellent idea, Lagri. A few of us can guide these women back to the door, learning what we can about where the others are kept, and the rest of you can stand ready to deal with any of the dragon-army that come by looking for them."

She steps back from the door and gestures for the women to follow her.

"Right this way, ladies. You can tell us where to find the others as we walk."

[SilentNight]

Kalrin moves next to Lagri, ready to aid the ambush with an illusion.

[Philistine]

On seeing Pearl step back out into the hallway, Gneiss waves. "More in here," he calls softly. [COLOR="rgb(160, 82, 45)"]"I'll keep looking for more."[/COLOR] With that, he turns and heads farther down the corridor.

[GrassyGnoll]

Lagri watches the captives file away from the front and after Pearl's lead. The barbarian begins to overturn what furniture there is to find in the castle halls. He trashes the store room and vacant holding pen until makeshift barricades and rubble strew the floor.

{Attempting to make difficult terrain and spaces with cover. I have no clue how well the castle is furnished, but Lagri is ready to go to town on the place like a barbarian rock star.}

[wxdruid]

The women don't quite file in the way the group wants them to. They mill around in the small corridor, looking up and down, wanting to talk to the other women before going anywhere.

Lagri can certainly set to destroying things in the holding cell and store room. Tygerlilly will help him for the shear fun of doing something different. Kalrin heads back to the store room to keep an eye out.

((New computer, better speed, now I won't dread signing on to it to get games updated! Although my old art program for maps won't work anymore, I'll be finding out how well Inkscape will work for my maps.))

[Toliudar]

Pearl attempts to facilitate the mutual conversation, while impressing on them the need for haste.

Spoiler

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I'm assuming that the women prisoners can lead the way to the other women prisoners, so as to have that conversation?

[wxdruid]

Once Pearl finds the woman who is in charge and gets her ideas across, she follows Gneiss down the corridor to the next door. She tells Pearl that there is one more door further down and all the of women are kept down here. The other two doors are locked.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl explains the women's desires to Gneiss and asks if he might be able to assist in opening aforementioned doors. Before Lagri becomes extra helpful in this regard.

[Philistine]

Returning to the group, Gneiss gets to work on the locks.

Spoiler

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Open Lock: Take 10 for 22

[wxdruid]

Gneiss pops the lock and opens the door as the women shift from foot to foot waiting to see the others.

Inside there are approx 60 women crowded into the squalid room. They are between 18 to grey haired and they look up when the door opens. Staring at it like deer caught on the road, unsure of what is going to happen, especially when they spot a dwarf...

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Holding her lantern high, Pearl steps in next to Gneiss and smiles at the women.

"Hello. This is a rescue. It will only work if you all follow me. We don't have far to go, and can talk there. Right this way."

She steps back and hopes that there will now be an opportunity to get back to the escape tunnel.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Holding her lantern high, Pearl steps in next to Gneiss and smiles at the women.

"Hello. This is a rescue. It will only work if you all follow us to a safe place. We don't have far to go, and can talk there. Right this way. Now, please."

She steps back and starts walking towards the store-room that leads to the escape tunnel.

Spoiler

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Diplomacy: (1d20+15)[26]

[wxdruid]

The other women politely tug on Pearl, and the ones in the room tell her that there is still one other room, down the hallway, with more women. Also quite a few of the women mutter that they aren't leaving their children in this place and Pearl can see that there aren't any children with these women.

[Toliudar]

Pearl patiently - well, somewhat patiently - gets Gneiss and/or Tygerlily to work on the third room, and asks the women if any of them have any idea where the children are being kept?

[wxdruid]

Well, they're pretty sure they are held elsewhere with a dragon nursemaid. The leader of the women is in the last room and Tygerlilly skips on down the way to inspect that door and pop it open. With all the noise in the hallway, it isn't too long before Maritta is brought forward to meet Pearl. She's a bit diffident in front of so important a person and waits to see Pearl's reaction. Back in the third room a handful of women are hanging back with someone else. Some of these women are recognizable as being from Solace and the surrounding area.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl the group together, along with Maritta and a few of the other female prisoners, for a recap.

"...and the woman are reluctant to head off without the children who are being cared for by a 'dragon nursemaid'. Which brings me to...what does that mean, Maritta?"

After waiting for a clearer explanation about what this nursemaid is, and how she knows about it, Pearl addresses her colleagues.

"Maritta, there are dead guards down here, and Lagri has, well, redecorated one of the rooms. There's no way that we can just lock you back into your rooms and not have our presence known. If we find the kids and bring them back down here, the women will find it acceptable to escape? Is that correct, Maritta?"

Pearl spoke as softly and patiently as she could, but her frustration with the situation, when a passing guard could quickly destroy any hope that they had and the women refused to be rescued, was growing.

[Philistine]

Gneiss interjects himself between Pearl and the apparent leader of the prisoners. "I'll be down the hall keeping watch," he growls. "If guards come before this lot sees sense, I'll at least try to make enough noise that you can get a head start." He walks off, shaking his head with frustration and grumbling half under his breath. "Crazy townies - no telling what they think they're gonna be able to do anyway."