Dramatis Personæ

Brother Mendel (Herodian)
Dane Sardock (Winston)
Gabriel Auditore (Rigil Kent)
Gestlin the Unpredictable (CommJunkee)
Magnifico the Clown (Feste)
Merasiël Alethmist (Melissa)
Rainald North-Hammer (Gigermann)

Of Break-Outs and Break-Ins

9 May 2014

Continued… On the Bannock arena floor, beset on either side by armed men intent on seizing the Heroes, Dane loosed arrows at the remaining guard to the one side, while Gestlin directed his conjured wind-storm to envelop the guards to the other side, throwing them around like rag-dolls until there was no will to fight remaining in them. The thousands of patrons in the crowded stands had panicked at the storm, and were scrambling for the exits; in the dignitaries’ box, the stranger bearing the cross of the Order of Talos and the arena-master were nowhere to be seen, having already fled. In the tunnels beneath the stands, after having secured the portcullis on Aamir’s behalf, Rainald headed toward the main entrance prepared to fight his way out, encouraging those that would to follow him; Gabriel insured the fallen guards would never rise again, deducing that these were not “city” guards, but employed by the arena-master, undoubtedly ordered to capture the Heroes for the substantial bounty on their heads. But as far as the Heroes could tell, there were no guards remaining to oppose them, so they stood down, and gathered themselves up, and the wagon and horses, and left the arena in an orderly fashion, joining the crowd on the road heading the short walk back to town, after apologizing to their sponsor, Aamir, for the ruckus. The crowd on the road gave the Heroes a wide berth, unsure what to think of what they had witnessed; the guards at the city gates allowed the Heroes through without incident, confirming the Heroes’ suspicion that the attack was the work of the arena-master.

It was now evening as they made their way to the Gleaming Endeavor at dock, where they were met by Captain Finn asking after the situation. They told the Captain that, lest they suffer an attack on the ship, they would cast off immediately as the wagon and such were loaded, and anchor some distance downriver, out of sight of town, where the Heroes would disembark to see to the rescue of Lord Wallace’s man, Etmund, still a prisoner of the Order of Talos. The dragons were to remain aboard under Radskyrta’s usual supervision, as was Gabriel’s horse, Cometes. The Captain was instructed that the ship should remain moored for two sunsets before leaving for Qazr as-Sawh to wait as long as they dared for the Heroes’ return.

And it was so, at a bell past midnight, that the Heroes came ashore and made their way back to town. They were allowed through the city gates without complaint, though they were armed for battle, and found the fortified compound of the Order of Talos, where Etmund was kept. The streets about the compound were empty and dark, with but a waning moon to light them. Gabriel, Merasiël and Dane climbed a nearby building as before and spied inside the compound, seeing but four guards, two of whom were Templars by their dress. Together, the Heroes planned that the more stealthy among them should scale the walls and open the gate for the others, while Dane should remain aloft where he was to overwatch and support them by bow-shot.

Silently, Gabriel and Merasiël climbed the compound wall near the stables, within sight of the single entry gate. After the patrolling guard had passed on his way, Gabriel crept up behind the guard at the gate, followed by Merasiël; an ill-timed scrape caught the guard’s attention, and Gabriel stabbed him through the throat as he turned to face the sound, lest he should cry out. Merasiël found the gate key while Gabriel stood the now-dead man up at his post, hiding behind him in the shadows, that he might fool the now-returning patrolman into thinking him unharmed at a distance. But by some miracle, the guard, one of the Templars, saw something amiss and retreated back toward the door of the keep, raising the alarm. Gabriel released the dead guard and bolted for the near-side of the keep to draw their attention, hoping he was the only one seen; just after, Merasiël set immediately to unlocking the gate and opening it for the others; while at the same time, Dane having seen the guard at the keep’s door—the other Templar—turn and appear to fumble for his keys, loosed an arrow out of the darkness, then another, wounding the guard through his mail. Rainald, under the influence of Gestlin’s Haste spell, followed by Brother Mendel, Magnifico, and Gestlin, piled through the now-open gate and rushed toward the backpedaling Templar in the yard; Brother Mendel flung his copper-piece, upon which he kept a Continual Light spell, ahead of them into the courtyard, to provide illumination. Just then, both Templars threw some small object to the ground and stamped it with their foot, and they were immediately surrounded in a swirling cloud of magical mist, such that they could not be seen at all. With nothing more to shoot at, Dane scrambled down from his perch and hasted to the compound’s gate to join the others; Gabriel and Merasiël also charged toward the Templar in the courtyard, now hidden in a shroud of mist, intending to catch him up before he could reach the keep. An unseen blade slashed Gabriel’s unarmored leg to the bone, nearly severing it, and he fell. Then Merasiël was also struck deep in the shoulder, though she managed to stay on her feet, turning instead to Gabriel. Then Rainald was struck hard in the legs, though his armor was strong enough to bear the attack, and he continued skirting around the mist-cloud, straining his vision to find even a shadow of his adversary to attack him. Then as Gestlin commanded Smil-Blam to conjure up a wind-storm to blow away the mist and reveal their enemy, he was also attacked by the invisible blade, and cut deep; as he barely held onto consciousness and his spell, he realized their enemy was using a Distant Blow spell, and called out to inform the other casters, who were now running to the aid of the fallen. The other non-Templar guard had rounded the keep, and now charged over to Merasiël as she helped Gabriel to his feet, and stabbed her with his spear, before Gabriel, balanced on his remaining leg, managed to return the “kindness” two-fold with his family blade, aided by Merasiël as she struggled to remain consciousness. As Brother Mendel passed by Rainald, also rushing to help retreat with the wounded, he quickly cast a Minor Heal spell on his leg wound, and then Dispel Magic on the nearest Templar’s mist, before turning his healing on Gabriel and Merasiël. No longer hidden by the magical mist-cloud, the Templar in the courtyard faced an angry Rainald, who threw his spear before charging in close with his hammer, Gramjarn; they exchanged blows on each others’ shields, though Rainald landed a heavy hit on the Templar’s sword-arm, before Dane finally reached the courtyard and put an arrow through the Templar’s ribs, dropping him to the ground, after which Rainald’s hammer finished him. Gestlin was also healed by Brother Mendel; all having been healed, and the tide having turned somewhat in their favor, the Heroes gathered themselves and determined to assault the keep’s door. To be continued…

Notes

• Depending how the rescue goes, we’ll be having some words with the arena-master as well—give him the “hard goodbye” before we leave town; either way, though, we won’t be hanging around for long. We expect Proximo’s going to be a bit put-out when he hears of what happened, though it was truly not our fault
• As usual in these matters, a lot of time was spent planning the assault; ideas included a lot of spells to get everyone over the walls at the same time, but we ended up deciding to keep it simple, and save the spells for when it mattered most. It was reluctantly decided to leave the dragons on the ship, as they aren’t conducive to a proper stealth operation. The assassins got some spotlight time, and would have been more if not for the oddly-prescient guard
• Fighting in darkness sucks. ’Nuff said
• The Distant Blow thing was a bit of a shock to the players, especially combined with the mist—normally you get a defense against the “distant” attack, but if you can’t see the attacker, it’s just free damage for them. Technically, Gabriel’s leg suffered injury enough to sever it, but the GM allowed the usual HT roll for Lasting Crippling, which was succeeded. (Gabe’s considering his armor choices differently for the future as a predictable result.) We were pretty much in full retreat—three PCs making consciousness rolls or Crippled—until Gestlin’s player figured out what was going on, and Mendel’s player had the Dispel epiphany—good thing we have a mega-healer in the party 😛