Dragons of Autumn-DL III-Pax Tharkas

[wxdruid]

Maritta tries a little smile of bravery, I will come with you. They know me and I'm the one that is supposed to lead the way. She just wants out of here, to have everyone escape.

[Philistine]

"We've already left behind too much evidence in too many places, so we'll have to move a lot faster this time," Gneiss says, looking back up at the stairs with a certain fatalistic dread. "Anyone not going up with us should start herding kids back toward the storerooms and the Sla-Mori. If the Dragonarmy comes down those stairs before we do, well... remember that one or two people can hold a doorway against an army, for a little while." Gneiss looks around, meeting the eyes of each of the Elves and the surviving Human militiamen in turn.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl nodded, and pulled out the cloak that she'd used to pretend to be a prisoner.

"Right. We travel with these - hopefully, they'll keep any guards looking long enough for us to shoot them. Ranged weapons at ready. Be ready to shoot...well, pretty much anyone we're likely to meet here. The longer we can avoid raising an alarm, the more likely we are to live. Maritta and Gneiss, you're up front, but just a little ahead of the rest of us. Let's not stop unless absolutely necessary."

She hustles her team back out into the hall and on their way.

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Wxdruid, can I get a rundown on who's coming with us at this point?

[wxdruid]

Staying behind: Women, children, Laurana, Solon, Hamel, Rhys. The militiamen and the teenage recruit will go with the women to protect them and get them back through the Sla-Mori.

Going with the Group: Maritta, Gilthanas, Tygerlilly, Eben, Hector, Bryce, Lagri, Gneiss, Kalrin, Pearl

Maritta bundles her cloak tightly around her, Tygerlilly tags along right behind her, hanging onto a corner of her cloak, looking like a small child. Gneiss takes the lead with Maritta and she points the way ahead as they head back up the stairs and to the right and a set of doors. ((currently headed away from where the two guards were killed)) The others have wrapped themselves up in the cloaks, disguising their shapes and weapons. The double doors are unguarded and it's unknown whether they are locked or not. Maritta is looking around anxiously.

((Make listen and spot checks and this is the door she wants to go through))

[Philistine]

Gneiss pauses with his hand on the door instead of immediately pushing it open.

Spoiler

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Listen: (1d20+9)[22]
Spot: (1d20+9)[27]

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Trying not to trip over the robes as she readjusts to them, Pearl is still and as silent as she can be.

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Listen (1d20-1)[7] Spot (1d20-1)[6]

[SilentNight]

Kalrin pulls his hood back a bit, sacrificing anonymity for greater perspective.

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Spot:(1d20)[20]
Listen:(1d20)[12]

[wxdruid]

There's not much to see around here, Gneiss listens closely and he hears a mumbling sound from the other direction, but nothing from behind the door.

Staying behind: Women, children, Laurana, Solon, Hamel, Rhys. The militiamen and the teenage recruit will go with the women to protect them and get them back through the Sla-Mori.

Going with the Group: Maritta, Gilthanas, Tygerlilly, Eben, Hector, Bryce, Lagri, Gneiss, Kalrin, Pearl

[Philistine]

Gneiss pushes the door partway open and slips through, one hand raised behind him to signal the others to follow him or hold their position depending on what he finds.

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Listen: (1d0+9)[10]
Spot: (1d0+9)[10]

[wxdruid]

Gneiss looks inside, and with his dark vision he can see that this is a giant corridor. There are massive winches at intervals and it looks like they continue down to the end. All seems to be quiet in here...

[Philistine]

Gneiss moves farther into the room, signaling the others to join him. He peers at the nearest winch, trying to discern its function, though he doesn't yet leave the immediate vicinity of the door. "Maritta, do you happen to know what those are for?" he asks softly.

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This looks like a job for Disable Device: (1d20+12)[29]!

[wxdruid]

Maritta shakes her head and quietly says, No, we just go between them.

As Gneiss inspects them, he realizes it would take several of the stronger members of their party just to turn one of the winches to move whatever it is they move and they probably move something huge and heavy. The winches are also stopped at different points, leading Gneiss to think that whatever it is, one is higher/more open than the other. When looking up, the ceiling is lost in the darkness.

He also finds an alarm pull near the doorway.

[Toliudar]

Pearl slips forward to join Gneiss at the winches. She bends to speak softly with him.

"Something to do with the mines, do you think, or would that be somewhere else? I guess these could be to raise the gates. Pax Tharkas has these massive gates, right?"

[Philistine]

"Yeah, that could be," Gneiss agrees thoughtfully. "Maybe on the way back we can slam the doors on this place."

He looks up, eyes tracking the cord from the alarm pull. "I don't want to leave that connected behind us," he says after a moment. "Go on ahead and I'll catch up in a minute."

Spoiler

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Disable Device: Take 10 if possible, for 22;
if not, (1d20+12)[31] to disconnect the alarm pull.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl nodded as she realized what Gneiss was intending with the alarm pull.

"Good idea.

"Um. I was actually thinking that it might be good to know how to set these gears in motion in case we need to open the gates. Say, when we're leading a bunch of rebelling miners. How hard would it be to figure out what we'd need to do, without actually doing it?"

[wxdruid]

As Gneiss stares at the alarm pull, he realizes it wouldn't be difficult at all, just a little poke here, a cut there and and it would be silenced without anyone else knowing the difference.

As for the gigantic winches, it would take several of the group just to get one to move and it wouldn't close/open anything quickly.

Everyone else has filed into the huge room and closed the door.

Spoiler

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Staying behind: Women, children, Laurana, Solon, Hamel, Rhys. The militiamen and the teenage recruit will go with the women to protect them and get them back through the Sla-Mori.

Going with the Group: Maritta, Gilthanas, Tygerlilly, Eben, Hector, Bryce, Lagri, Gneiss, Kalrin, Pearl

[SilentNight]

Kalrin also inspects the winches, focusing on the stops. "That's not a bad idea, once we find the men if any of them are still in good health we could maybe assemble a team to cover our retreat."

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Pearl nodded, and gestured for the group to get moving again.

"Right. Well, we can't afford to leave anyone here now, and we don't know yet if this is even what these winches do. Let's get going."

[wxdruid]

At the far end, Gneiss will find another alarm pull that he can disable the same way he did the other one (if he wishes). The doors here are open and lead into a dirty hallway. The floor is covered with mud, several broken chairs and a small table, with only two of its four legs intact, are the only furniture. There is a pair of double doors to the right wall and a single iron door in the far wall. They are all closed. The double doors look as if someone has hacked at them with a blade of some kind.

((make listen checks and state your actions))

Maritta is looking around nervously, she whispers to Pearl that there are guards around here somewhere, usually the guard that takes them to and from the mines deals with these things, so she isn't sure how many or what they might look like. She points to the iron door as the one they need to go through to get to the mines. She also whispers that she thinks there are more women prisoners somewhere in this section of the fortress.

[SilentNight]

Kalrin looks around the room, poking at the mud with his staff and keeping an eye on the door. ((Readied action to color spray anything that comes through the closed doors))

Spoiler

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Listen:(1d20+8)[18]

[wxdruid]

Kalrin moves closer to the far door and pokes through things as he listens. He can hear Tygerlilly roaming about the room, and making comments on the broken chairs and the fact that she wishes she could take the table with her, who wouldn't want a table like that, so many things she could do with it... Eben is impatient to continue and checks on the side door and finds it unlocked.

((Does Gneiss pause to disable the second alarm?))

Spoiler

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Staying behind: Women, children, Laurana, Solon, Hamel, Rhys. The militiamen and the teenage recruit will go with the women to protect them and get them back through the Sla-Mori.

Going with the Group: Maritta, Gilthanas, Tygerlilly, Eben, Hector, Bryce, Lagri, Gneiss, Kalrin, Pearl

[Philistine]

Gneiss waves the others onward as he approaches the second alarm pull. He attempts to disable it in the same way as the one on the far side of the room.

Spoiler

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Disable Device: Take 10 if possible, for 22; if not, (1d20+12)[15] to disconnect the alarm pull.

Listen: (1d20+9)[27]

Also, sorry it's been so long since my last post.

[wxdruid]

Gneiss disables the second alarm and continues into the smaller room with everyone else. Tygerlilly is hanging back at the rear, so many things to look at in this room. She pushes at the mud with her hoopak, hoping to find something in the muck, so far, no luck.

[Toliudar]

Pearl

Sharing in Eben's eagerness to be underway, Pearl opens the side door a bit and peers through.

[Philistine]

Hurrying now after the delay to disarm the alarms, Gneiss bustles into the small room and immediately moves toward the the far wall. "Shouldn't we spring the prisoners from the mines before we go looking for people that we don't know where they are, or if they're even here?" he whispers as he passes by Pearl and the others at the side door. He pauses a moment by the iron door to listen for noises from the other side; if he hears nothing, he'll open it and proceed through.

Spoiler

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Listen: (1d20+9)[22]

[wxdruid]

Pearl and Eben check on the side door. She peers in to see that this is a dimly lit room with a number of fireplaces and the air is yellow with smoke. Many long tables and benches sit in the shadows and the stench of foul food and stale beer fills the air. There are a number of indistinct shapes sitting around the tables, a few of them look like they have wings. They seem very intent on eating the foul smelling food.

Gneiss heads for the far door and listens carefully. He can hear indistinct but gruff voices through the door. It sounds like a conversation, punctuated by laughter, but Gneiss can't make out any words.

[Toliudar]

Pearl grimaces, and closes the door as carefully as she can. Turning to the rest of the group, she pantomimes the need for quiet, and the presence of dragon-men on the far side of the door. Pearl waits at the door, sword in hand, to guard against the possibility of guards coming out after them. She'll wait until Gneiss has given instructions on further movement to the group.

[Philistine]

Alerted by the sounds of voices on the other side, Gneiss slowly and carefully cracks the iron door open to peek through.

Spoiler

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Spot: (1d20+9)[28]
Listen: (1d20+9)[22]
Hide: (1d20+8)[25]
Move Silently: (1d20+8)[24]

[wxdruid]

When Gneiss tries the door, he finds out it's locked. He'll have to work on unlocking it before they can go through.

The others, watching Pearl, quiet down and Maritta shivers a little in apprehension as Tygerlilly bounces across the room to see why it's taking so long to move forward, she almost says something, but stops before anything comes out, she wants to follow what Pearl says.

Spoiler

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Staying behind: Women, children, Laurana, Solon, Hamel, Rhys. The militiamen and the teenage recruit will go with the women to protect them and get them back through the Sla-Mori.

Going with the Group: Maritta, Gilthanas, Tygerlilly, Eben, Hector, Bryce, Lagri, Gneiss, Kalrin, Pearl

[Philistine]

Gneiss looks back over his shoulder and whispers, "Locked. Just a moment." Taking his tool kit from his belt, he stoops and applies himself to opening the way forward.

Spoiler

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Open Lock: (1d20+14)[34]