Archon's Way of the Wicked.

[archon_huskie]

Mira stabs at #2, but his armor does not allow for her sword to penetrate.
Caleb drops his club and wraps his limbs around the guard. He struggles to break free, but Caleb holds on. "Crap," he says defeated.
And to be clear, this is the same #2 who was so delighted for Danny to describe how to go to the bathroom. He is the one Grumblejack threw a bone at. He still has a broken nose, though it is bandaged.


(Artistic license taken for describing confirmed criticals. This does not conform to game mechanics.)
#3 does not do much better. As he runs past Inigo, the Talin Butcher shows off his acrobatics skills. First he slides under #3 causing the guard to trip and fall on the floor. Inigo follows up by bouncing off the heavy oaken doors of the main gate and cartwheeling back to the guard. He lands straddling the man's defenseless back which yields to the pressure of his dagger. His spinal cord is cut, just below the nape of his neck.

No new map as the final combatant is controlled in Caleb's Grapple.

[Farmerbink]

The voice of the Half-Orc rings down the hallway. "You all about done in there?"

[Ionbound]

Mira turns out and strolls into the hall, looking satisfied with herself as she heads into the room where Blackerly was as she says to X, "Quite. Now where is that Sergeant. I want to give him a piece of my mind."

[CasualViking]

As Caleb turns half a step, exposing the guards back to his fellow escapes, he asks him between grunts: "So. Would you rather die for Mithra or live for Asmodeus?".

[Farmerbink]

The Half-Orc's mouth splits into a wide grin at Mira's comment. "You might have trouble with that. Pieces of his mind are all over the place in here." He chuckles quietly at the joke, particularly mirthful for the veracity of the claim.

"Tell the rest of them we've got a boat to catch. The sergeant's little playmate says it'll fit all of us, and her life literally depends on it." A flinty, hard smile replaces the grin as he retrieves the dropped club and turns back into the room with Grumblejack and his snack on a leash. He turns his attention to the snack. "They'll be coming shortly. Now, which way to the waste chute?"

[dathom]

His clothes and arms spattered in the blood of his victim, Inigo rose with a smile of satisfaction on his face. Wiping his blade off on the guard's clothing, Inigo called, "An escape route is all well and good. But let's see what we cane get form the two rooms we discovered first. Seems one of them at least is an armory. Also, if one of these guards or what's left of the Sergeant has any keys, that will be helpful in securing others resources to help in the rest of this escape."

With that, the small man goes about searching the corpses that now littered the hall and armory.

[archon_huskie]

“If you are going to kill me, do it before your sermon.” guard #2 says.

Now that the battle is over the band of villians can take a better look at the Armory. The room is lit by a lantern labeled quarter lamp #3. There are spaces labeled 1-18 for each guard to stow their armor and gear. Stations 13-18 have a chain shirt, heavy steel shield, longsword, and longbow. These stations are dusty and have cobwebs. There is a rack containing 12 more of the leather-wrapped clubs. There is a barrel holding twelve full quivers of arrows (240 arrows total). All the weapons save for the arrows and club have markings identifying them as being the property of Branderscar.

There is a crate of random weapons labeled confiscated. They are a jumbled mess and lack proper care, but none are labeled as being the property of Branderscar. ^{If you look through this crate, tell me what type of weapon you are looking for.}

Each guard has a chain shirt, uniform, Heavy shield, longsword, and longbow and a quiver of 20 arrows. The guards in the hallway were burnt so their gear is charred. The bows and quivers have been rendered unuseable. Each Guard also has a numbered key the two burnt guards are #3 and #6. Danny's is #12. Guard3's is #4 and Guard2 is #2. He also has the master keyring containing all the keys to all the locks in the prison. (Blackerly had tossed it to him.)

Sergeant Blackerly has a burnt Sergeant's uniform. He wears chainmail as opposed to a chain shirt and he wielded a masterwork longsword. He also has an empty flask.

There is also the storeroom where Blackerly initially hid that has not been checked yet.

The mess hall is a large room lit by two torches. There is a door to the north labeled Quarters and a double door to the south labeled Kitchen In and Kitchen out This is the room where the staff of the prison eat their meals. It holds a few wooden tables and benches. Cheap ones that broken under Grumblejack's weight as he clambored through to his quarry. Blackerly's burnt body lies propped on on the benches. His face smashed in and oozing blood onto a table. The portly man cause of death may have been fire and Grumblejack's fist, but it should also be known that had he not been skimming money from the prison's funds, he might have instead invested in better upkeep. Stronger door frames, better locks, even a higher quality table in the mess hall might have provided a better barrier against Grumblejack's charge. Blackerly's greed was just as much responsible for his death as our villians. But to say something good about the man, his second to last action was to pour a healing potion down his dying lover's throat.

And where is his skimmed money? Well sitting on the floor across from Blackerly's body is Grumblejack. He holds a lockbox and it makes the rattle of coins when he shakes it. Grumblejack also holds his manacles. One end is chained to his left wrist. The other is around the neck of Irene, Blackerly's lady friend and one of the kitchen maids. She squats, nude, attempting to cover herself. Her ripped dress lays next to Blackerly's feet. She looks to any woman who enters the room pleadingly, hoping for sympathy.

“Animals don't wear clothing.” Grumblejack said. “That's what this 'un told Grumblejack when they brought Grumblejack here. The guards cut off Grumblejack's armor. It was made out of leather cured by me, caught by me, and they burned it in front of me. And this 'un gave Grumblejack food that made Grumblejack weak. So Grumblejack stopped eating to stay strong.”

He grunts, “Grumblejack promised to eat this 'un or ward'un next. But Dragon'un made deal with this 'un. She take us to magic boat, she not snack. She don't take us, she snack.”

[Ionbound]

Mira takes a quick look at Blackerly's longsword, picks it up, and smirks as she says, "Better and better..." A look of disgust and anger then crosses her face as she looks up and sees the state that Irene is in, and quickly heads back out, collects a guard uniform, then rushes back in as though to prevent something. She tosses Irene the clothes, and looks at Grumblejack as she says, "Luckily for her, she is not and animal. And you are not to treat her as such. Understand?"

[Farmerbink]

The Half-Orc frowns appraisingly. So far, they've done quite a bit of damage to Branderscar and its occupants. Good. For a moment, he peeks into the armory, particularly the barrel of confiscated belongings (looking for either a greataxe or a falchion, if one is present). With Grumblejack holding both a jingling lockbox and a leash on their ticket to safety, he doesn't leave for long, however. With or without a heavy-hafted blade, he rejoins his Ogre friend in the mess hall quickly, looking down on the cowering woman with something akin to indifference. He shrugs at Grumblejack when Mira makes her proclamation.

Spoiler: OOC

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He has the traditional Half-Orc familiarity with greataxes and falchions, and will take either if given the chance.

[CasualViking]

Caleb searches the lost-and-found for a longspear or boarding pike, a morningstar or heavy mace, and a crossbow and/or sling. Then he goes for the other storeroom.

[archon_huskie]

Grumblejack looks disappointed for a moment. Then a bright smile appears on the ogre's face. "hear dat? The smart 'un wants you treated like a person." he leans in. "dat means your prisoners treat prisoners better than your people. You dont have moral high ground anymore.

Irene reluctantly takes the uniform. She struggles with getting the pants over her hips, but finds no problem with the shirt. Grumblejack refuses to let her wear shoes though. uf she trues to run, she will have to do it barefoot.

[CasualViking]

Caleb would never be impolite to Grumblejack's face, but now he makes a mental note to not assume that the Ogre is stupid.

[dathom]

the guard's answer given, Inigo makes sure the guard is taken care of before the searching moves too far along. Before Caleb releases the remaining guard and goes to search the armory, Inigo says, "Hold him still Caleb, I'll take care of this one." With that, the Talin Butcher will jab his dagger into the guard's throat, dragging it across to open up the guard's neck.

Taking up the ring of keys, Inigo smirks to himself as he stores it under his shirt before heading into the armory, not interested in what might be happening in the kitchen until he can get some proper equipment. Evaluating what can be found there, the slim man begins shrugging into a chain shirt, deciding that the added protection outweighs the added encumbrance is gives the nimble man's movements. Once that is done, he looks in the box of confiscated weapons, hoping to find a short sword or rapier that would serve the man better than his own dagger.

[Zweanslord]

Amber Tash

Idly standing by as the others did their thing, from Inigo searching about, Caleb trying to persuade a guard and Mira moving to where Grumblejack, the half-orc and the woman are present. She moves out the room when Inigo takes care of the last guard. She smirks as she witnesses the scene around her, her confidence becoming clearer. Walking through the prison that had meant to hold them and already, they have gone through room after room. An idea strikes.

Moving to the room with Grumblejack and the woman, who is now putting on clothes not of her own wardrobe, Amber ignores the woman's situation, though does look at her as she asks: "So, where's your room, your things?"

[Hellfire014]

The ex-pirate, having been silent for a while, idly rubs her throat. Channeling too much magic through it tends to make it sore. And while she isn't close to that point, there's no reason to not let it rest when she can. Knowing that the fighting is over for the moment, she follows the cleric into the armory, to look for a light crossbow and some bolts. Or a basic shortbow, if there isn't one.

[archon_huskie]

The contents of the barrel are as follows:

A heavy mace. A woman's comb with the handle sharped into a shiv (stats same as a dagger). Regular spear, a set of nunchaku, a Falchion, a Scimitar with runes etched into it, a battle axe, a whip, two handcrossbows, and a Glaive.

Unfortunately the hand crossbows lack any bolts to accompany them.

Irene starts to point across the mess hall but then switches to the sergeant's quarters when asked about her room, "I sleep there if I need a nap. I live in the village and walk here everyday. Please I am not a bad person."

" The latrine is in the tower across from the kitchen's door. You will need rope to scale down. Lots of rope."(tower 6a on map)

[dathom]

After getting the chain shirt on and grabbing the hand crossbow in case they come along some bolts during their escape, Inigo moves quickly. Anyone he passes on the way to the Sergeant's office, he quickly tells of the equipment found in the armory. Hearing the ogre's voice coming form the kitchen, Inigo smirks as he darts into the office to check out what might have been stored int he room that the sergeant had originally hidden in behind the tapestry.

[Farmerbink]

The Half-Orc smiles wickedly, pulling the huge blade from the barrel. When he returns to the Ogre, it's leaned over one shoulder lazily, unconcerned with whether or not it nicks a doorway or hall. Somehow, his carriage is different- more confident, more self-assured.

He growls at the woman. "Has anyone seen rope, or do we need to start looking?"

[Zweanslord]

Amber Tash

"Ofcourse.." Amber lets out in an annoyed fashion upon hearing the woman is from the village. She ignores her statement about not being a bad person.

Turning to the half-orc, she asks: "Remind me, why do we want to go to the waste chute? Is the boat there?"

[Ionbound]

Mira shrugs and says, "That's a good question actually. Let's just...Go down stairs to the boat? Who's going to stop us?"

[CasualViking]

Caleb picks up the mace, and looks puzzled at the runed scimitar. Then he joins the others at the stair.

[Farmerbink]

The Half-Orc shrugs. "She said so." He points at the captive. "...doesn't seem stupid enough to lie, to me."

[archon_huskie]

Casting Detect magic on the rune-marked scimitar shows no magic on it. It is just a foreign sword with foreign writing on it.


Inigo returns to were he took a door to the face. The storeroom holds the mundane supplies for the prison. There are 6 barrels containing 50 torches each, additionally there are twenty lanterns and four ten gallon kegs of lantern oil, six sentry mannequins wearing guard uniforms, a dozen signal horns all of which are cracked, twenty 50ft lengths of rope, and a barrel labeled 'spoiled emergency rations – for prisoners.' Hanging in a special rack is also to be found several brands with the runic F symbol and a specially made brazier for heating them. Inigo immediately recognizes these items as the brands that marked them. Beyond this the store is empty. It could hold more, but that would have required Blackerly to follow his budget instead of hoarding money for himself.

Irene tries to explain. “The latrine tower has a cavern below it and lets out into the sea. There's a magic feather that turns into a ship. It was part of the noble's escape plan from when Branderscar Prison was Castle Branding back during the Civil War eighty years ago.”

[Farmerbink]

The Half-Orc eyes their captive, despite his words trying his best to ascertain the truth of her statement.

Spoiler: OOC

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sense motive: (1d20-1)[10]

He turns back to his unlikely companions with a shrug. "I won't mind if you'd all rather fight your way out. It'd be more fun that way," he comments with a grin, hefting his new blade.

[archon_huskie]

Irene is being truthful and is not trying to trick you. In the sense that she is repeating a story that she believes. She has never been down in the cavern personally, but two guards claim some veteran guards climbed down there when they were rookies and confirmed the story.

To compare a real life example. My High School had a sign at an entrance that said Bomb shelter. And in truth, when built in 1968, the school was reinforced to be less likely to collapse if hit by a conventional bomb. This lead to a rumor that there was a nuclear fallout shelter under the auditorium stocked with expired canned food. The rumor, while believable and often repeated, was not true.

Irene's story is true. the Nobel family who lived in Castle Branding did indeed have an escape route using the cavern and a feather token that turned into a boat. But is the feather token still there, or would Blackerly have climbed down there to steal the token and sell it?

[Zweanslord]

Amber Tash

There's a gleeful look on Amber's face as she answers: "Fighting our way out certainly does sound more exciting!" Clasping her hands together, she looks at the others, unsure if her excitement is shared. Doubt does flash through her facial expression, so she also looks at the others, leaving the voice of reason to somebody else.

"Think there is something useful around?" She adds a conversation topic, asking to nobody in particular, as she looks at the two other doors in the room.

[Hellfire014]

The as-of-yet unidentified pirate grabs a whip, and joins the others. She looks at the detestable branding irons, before an evil thought entered her head. "Here's an idea: they likely know of our violent escape, and would probably tell others of it." She walks over and grabs a runic brand, and grins. "Why not create some decoys?"

[Farmerbink]

The Half-Orc frowns. Despite the appeal of his companion's suggestion, he shakes his head. "It takes too long to heat those things up enough. Besides, didn't you kill all the guards we've seen so far?"

[dathom]

Frowning at the contents of the room, Inigo takes one of the lengths of rope before joining back up with the others. "There are some supplies in that room you arsonists might be interested in," grumbled the Talin Butcher, grimacing slightly at his injuries. "With everything they done to us, I'm all for sticking around and helping to burn this place to the ground," Inigo continues almost maliciously. "If we are going to continue, then it might be smart for anyone who can wear one of these chain shirts to pick one up from the armory. Might be a few shields as well. Then I suggest we try to find the barracks. Each guard has had a key to likely a different lock. Might be some supplies there we can use." Then, as if remembering something, he says to the ogre, "Hey Grumblejack...Let me see that chest, might be something in there worth something. And this key ring might have to way to pen it. let me see what is inside your weapon there and you can keep some of it."

[Farmerbink]

The Half-Orc turns his attention to Inigo with piqued interest. "Oh?" With a gesture he signals to Grumblejack that the Inigo's suggestion of what to do with the chest has merit, but makes no effort to compel the Ogre to comply. Then he walks into the mentioned storeroom. His eyes widen with excitement at the barrels, and he quickly sheathes his blade to begin hauling a pair of them behind him.

Spoiler: OOC

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Assuming density approximately in line with water, 10 gallons is ~80 pounds. The barrel are probably 10-15 empty, so that puts them at 90ish pounds a piece. That's squarely within X's medium load to move two, and he's not overly concerned with whether or not they spill some.

His prizes in tow, he returns to the room with a manic grin. "Girl, I do hope you're not lying about this cavern. It'd be a pity to burn to death or die of smoke inhalation. Point me to the latrine. Oh, and Grumblejack, you aught to hit people with this instead of the chest. Might make for a decidedly brilliant display." He grins at the thought of burning the place to the ground, perhaps starting with whoever proves foolish enough to stand in their way.

"Let's go."

Spoiler: OOC

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Barring objection, X will lead the way to the latrine. If they don't find anyone between here and there, he'll set up the barrels outside the room, puncture one, and light them as the last of the rest of the party makes their way down the chute. He'll then follow, hopefully interposing a door that will take a few minutes to burn down.