Dramatis Personæ

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

Of Blindness and Recovery

10 May 2014

Continued… The Heroes collected their light-coins and dragged the bodies of the slain guards, and the one dead Templar, to the shadows of the keep, as Brother Mendel finished healing his wounded comrades. They began to look for a way into the keep that did not involve the front door, which they knew to be guarded by another Templar wizard (wounded by Dane’s arrows). Gabriel, his leg restored, climbed up to the keep’s second-level balcony and tried the doors there, but found them barred from the inside. Just then, another guard rounded the keep’s corner nearly on top of them; Rainald threw his spear, striking the man in the shoulder, before drawing Gramjarn to charge; at the same time, Merasiël sprinted and rounded behind the guard, stabbing him in the kidneys, and he fell. Rainald dragged the guard’s body over to his fallen brethren, while Merasiël climbed up to the balcony to aid Gabriel. Meanwhile, the others examined the keep’s windows at ground-level and found them also barred from the inside. Gestlin cast Apportation to remove the bar on one of the windows, on the slim chance he might succeed, and was surprised to find it had worked; he then informed the others of the open window.

The Heroes crept through the now-open window into the compound’s refectory as quietly as could be managed. Merasiël went through before, and helped her less-stealthy fellows, but a misstep while aiding Gestlin resulted in him stumbling over one of the tables. The scant light in the room came from the night sky through the window and a crack of light under one of the doors to the interior of the building. In remedy, Gestlin passed around a few Night Vision potions to the others; Rainald drank one, knowing not what it was, and was surprised at the result. Gabriel and Merasiël listened at the “lit” door, and heard hushed voices beyond; dropping to the floor to peer through the crack under the door, they could also make out a swirling mist beyond, much like they encountered in the courtyard outside at the hands of the Templar—their enemy was clearly prepared for an attack. Quietly, the Heroes concocted a plan: Brother Mendel would cast Dispel to remove the magical mist, to be released once the door was flung open by Gabriel at Brother Mendel’s command; at the same time, Gestlin would cast and hold a Fireball, hoping to target the Templar wizard once the mist was cleared; the others took up positions around the door, ready to rush in and attack. With everyone in position, and spells prepared, Brother Mendel signaled Gabriel to open the door.

A familiar “thwack!” preceded a crossbow bolt struck deep in Gestlin’s chest; by will alone, he held onto his Fireball without dropping it. Nearly simultaneously, Brother Mendel loosed his spell, which instantly negated the swirling magical fog that concealed their enemy in the adjoining, well-lit room—three mercenaries, one at the far end bearing a crossbow, and a Templar amidst them, all hastily equipped, having obviously been roused from sleep. Rainald and Merasiël charged through the door, followed by Gabriel, but were met at the threshold by a shield-rush to prevent their advance; Merasiël managed to slip past and circled ’round to flank the crossbowman; Rainald met force with force at the threshold; Gabriel tumbled over Rainald and through the shield-wall, and bore down upon the Templar, who appeared to be casting a spell with his sword; Dane, seeing the blockage at the door, found the other, and through it, hasted toward the enemy’s other flank. Suddenly, there was a brilliant flash of light centered on the Templar, unbalancing all save the two mercenaries that had their backs to him; Rainald, and Gestlin (still holding the Fireball), were effectively blinded for a few moments. Rainald held fast at the threshold, blindly swinging Gramjarn in front of him, while the mercenaries tried to find the gaps in his armor with their spears; some wounds were exchanged, in spite of the difficulty, to both sides. Brother Mendel healed Gestlin of the bolt-wound but could do nothing for his blindness, nor for Rainald. Meanwhile, the Templar’s second spell backfired before he abandoned his spellcasting altogether to defend himself, backpedaling before Gabriel’s continued press. Dane appeared through a side door to the flank and began to loose arrows at the enemy. Merasiël had bolted ’round behind the crossbowman as he reloaded his weapon, and slashed his throat, though not deeply enough to kill him outright; he turned to face her and produced a shortsword, but in that instant, Merasiël saw an opportunity as Gabriel backed the Templar toward her, and quickly plunged her blade deep into the back of his skull. At the same time Gabriel, Merasiël and Dane finished the crossbowman, while Brother Mendel had struck one of the mercenaries with a Sunbolt, wounding him deep and setting him aflame, Gestlin’s and Rainald’s sight was returned (though blurry as the others’); Rainald brought down his hammer upon Brother Mendel’s target, breaking his arm, while Gestlin finally loosed his fireball past Rainald at the other, throwing the mercenary mightily backward and killing him instantly.

All enemies lay dead or dying; those not dead, Gabriel hurried along. The Heroes made a quick check of their foes’ persons and found little of use or value, but Brother Mendel picked up the Templar’s hand-and-a-half sword and determined it to have some magical properties, and so kept it. Gestlin having scouted the building earlier in the week (through his Possession of a cat) knew the way, and pointed the group to the basement stairs; Gabriel and Merasiël went ahead, and found a padlocked-and-barred (from the outside) door, which Merasiël picked open. The two proceeded into the total-darkness cautiously, and discovered the prison there, reeking of filth and sickness; Merasiël retreated, reminded of her own past encounter with such a place. As the others filed in behind them, bringing light, Rainald stayed at the top of the stair to keep watch, joined at the bottom of the stair by Merasiël. There were a handful of pathetic folk in the cells there, maltreated and malnourished, one of which answered to the names “Etmund” and “Wallace” by retreating further into his cell, muttering; the man they barely recognized as Etmund Moree, Lord Wallace’s Master-of-Coin, was so traumatized by his torturers that his mind was utterly broken, such that he could hardly respond to the Heroes’ questions—Brother Mendel cast a Forgetfulness spell upon him, hoping to unburden his mind of any recent torturous moments, though it eased him only a little. Gabriel was adamant that all the prisoners should be released, and set about opening their cells and arming them with the mercenaries’ weapons, though naught was truly expected of them but more cowering should they meet their captors in battle—it was all the Heroes could do to coax them into leaving their cells at all, they believing their release a test of loyalty by their masters.

Too late to hide, Rainald spotted another man—a priest, perhaps—stepping into the hall before him; as the man cried out to his fellows, Rainald moved to throw his spear, but the butt of the spear struck the wall behind him, knocking it from his grasp—he toe-flipped it back to his hand, to try again, but the alarm had already been raised. To be continued…

Notes

• Magnifico’s player had to sit this session out on account of a case of houseguests; the character mostly just hung back for the duration
• Gestlin rolled a Critical Success on his Apportation of the window, not even really expecting it to work at all (-10 for not being able to see the bar)
• Merasiël rolled a Crit Fail to assist Gestlin through the window
• This session was mostly fighting; wrapping up last week’s tussle, and another. Having already figured out the Dispel trick to get rid of the “mist,” fighting the second Templar wasn’t as bad, though the “flash-bang” was a well-placed surprise (no defense against the -3 DX is pretty rough). At least this one wasn’t in the dark
• The Templar ended up rolling a Crit Failure on his second casting; result=took a point of damage
• Merasiël was in a position to ambish the Templar from behind, but was engaged with the crossbowman and did not want to turn her back to him; the GM coaxed her into it with free CPs. She actually didn’t do enough damage to knock him down at first—a point shy of a Major Wound—until a few rounds later, we remembered the knife she used was of Fine quality; the GM retconned the result
• Rainald ended up rolling two 18s; one on a Block defense that made his shield unready (which he just ignored), and the other on the spear-throw at the end