pneumatik's WotBS 1 - The Scouring of Gate Pass

[pneumatik]

Larion and Shealis leave without further ado. The two elven guards head up to the upstairs room, which you new know has little in it besides bedrolls and a few basic supplies. "Like Shealis said, you can rest here if you want," one of them says.

Once the party is alone, Torrent says, "Okay, my original idea for getting out of Gate Pass was to go to a city councilman named Erdan Menash. He always seemed to support the resistance, so I figured he'd be willing to help us get out. As a councilman he should be able to write orders for the guards at the gates to let us out. None of this is already arranged, thought. I'm hoping when we go knock on the councilman's door he'll let us in and not throw us in jail.

"My new idea is to go ask Diogenes if he can help us out. He seems definitely willing to help us. I would guess the remaining students at Gabal's school have some sort of plan to get out of the city, but I don't know.

"As far as resting, I'm fine with whatever you want to do. Resting would help us deal with whatever happens next, but on the other hand at some point the Scourge is going to get tired of waiting and come on in to the city."

[Rhun]

"I used little actual power in our earlier fight with Shealis," says Hollister to Torrent. "And while tired, I would just assume try to make our escape now, before the Scourge finds us. Let us make our way back to The Castle, and find friend Diogenes."

[renau1g]

Originally Posted by Rhun

"I used little actual power in our earlier fight with Shealis," says Hollister to Torrent. "And while tired, I would just assume try to make our escape now, before the Scourge finds us. Let us make our way back to The Castle, and find friend Diogenes."

"Yes, the longer we wait, the tighter those basterds will make the noose around our necks. We must get out of the city post-haste" Korrin agrees.

[Thanee]

“I do not need to rest at the moment. We can move on, if you want to. I do agree, that the longer we wait, the worse a situation we will have to deal with.”

[Rhun]

With the group agreeing, Hollister nods his head, and begins to lead them back to Gabal's School.

[Theroc]

Rae did not protest the course of action, agreeing that he wants to be as far away from whatever this scourge is as possible. He had no desire to stick around for a noose.

[Arkhandus]

"Very well. We will visit the School again and seek a way out of here. Rest will have to wait until we are well outside the walls, I suppose....." the heavily-armored elf confirms. He straps his armor back on, sighing once and then following the others out.

[pneumatik]

"Well, I guess we have a majority. Lead on, Hollister," Torrent says.

It's still cold out, and the beginning of sleep deprivation doesn't make it feel any better. After sneaking back into Gabal's school you head into the dormitory. The warmth and quiet is seductive. You want to sit down in the chairs in the common area and take a break.

Instead you knock on Diogenes' door. Twice. Thrice. It finally opens. A groggy Diogenes looks at you from a darkened room. "Hollister! And everyone! Long night for everyone it seems. Well, come in, I guess. There's room if we all squeeze. I think."

Diogenes turns up the wick on the oil lamp on his desk. His room is messier than Hollister remembers. To the rest of you, it's a non-functional messy. You have no doubt he would have trouble finding anything in here.

He sits in the only chair at the only desk and looks at you with a blank stare.

[Rhun]

Hollister sits and smiles at his friend. "We need your help, Diogenes. We have what we need, but we must needs escape the city. Certainly Gabal had a plan to evacuate the students before the Scourge arrives...do you know of the plan?"

[pneumatik]

Diogenes yawns. "Well, I have a plan to escape. My plan is to use, uh, hang on ..." He digs around in his desk drawers and pulls out a wand. "Use this. It's a wand of charm person. Anyway, I just use this on all the guards at a gate and then just ask them to let me out.

"See, I have a wagon right by where the secret way out of the school lets you out into the city. It has a cover so I can hide in it. It's pretty old, so there are plenty of splits in the wooden sides that I can see through. So I hide in the cart and get someone to pull it to a gate. The other person would talk to the guards until I've charmed them all. Then I get up and ask the guards to let me out.

"If you guys want out, I'll hide in the wagon and you can pull it to a gate. After I charm all the guards I'll ask them to let you out, and I'll come back here.

"Did that make sense? I'm pretty short on sleep here."

[Rhun]

"You won't be leaving with us?"

[Thanee]

“Well, if we are going to try that, I can probably help. I have similar... powers... at my disposal,” Lytha offers.

[pneumatik]

"No, I'm staying," Diogenes says. "That's about all I can say about that, really."

"Any help would be great, Lytha. I'm using the wand because it's easier than casting spells lying down under a tarp, though. Well, and the wand won't run out of spells."

[Rhun]

Hollister nods at his friend's words. "Well then, it seems that we now have a way out of the city then." He looks around at the faces of his companions. "We should probably make haste. Unless anyone has anything else they must do before we leave?"

[Theroc]

"I'm confused, weren't you planning on leaving before? Now you're not?" Rae asked, confused. He was happy for a way out, but it seems somewhat strange that the man's plans changed. Then again, he was rather out of his natural element, so most everything seemed a bit strange.

[renau1g]

"Well... I can't think of anything else, so sure, why not?" Korrin adds, the affects of the lack of sleep beginning to cloud his mind and he's fairly agreeable at this point.

[Rhun]

Hollister smiles at Rae's confusion. "Don't worry. Diogenes is a cunning one..." He offers his fellow wizard a wink. "If I read my friend here correctly, he has some tasks that remain to be done yet. So let's not worry about him, and instead worry about getting ourselves out of the frying pan."

[Arkhandus]

Liiros brings up the concern "How do we know the guards will all fall for your magic tricks....? Although the city's council were weak-willed enough to cave in under the threat of violence, we cannot be certain that the gate-guards are so weak-willed as to succumb to your magic. If they become suspicious, we might be attacked or detained. Certainly it is a better plan than no plan, but not quite what I had expected...."

He will go along with the plan if the others think it is worth trying, but has his doubts. And lack of rest is making him a bit irritable. His hands are cramped, he cannot feel his hindquarters, his feet fell asleep earlier and are still kind of numb, and he hasn't had a bath since this whole mess started. Even elves sweat when they march all over the place in heavy armor like his.

[pneumatik]

"When people get charmed you can usually see it in their faces," Diogenes says. "They're basically making a new friend. So I can tell if it works. And if it doesn't, well, that's why I've been saving this wand. It's pretty much full. I'll just zap them again."

"Well, we're not getting any sleep sitting in here. Let's try to get you out of the city before the sun rises and everyone wakes up. Everyone else, anyway." Diogenes leads the group back outside and into the school's surviving tower. He opens the secret passageway and you once again sneak out of the school.

At the end of the block from where you exit the secret passage, Diogenes has hidden a wagon. It's roughly three or four feet square with three foot-high sides and an open back. He pulls out a tarp and fastens it to the top of the three sides, leaving it to hang down in the back. "I'll hide back there, and one of you will pull the cart to whatever gate you plan on leaving by," he says.

He hugs himself and shivers in the pre-dawn cold. "So is everything cool? Lytha, you see any way to help?"


OOC: If people want to take their places, we'll move to a gate.

[Theroc]

"Where do the rest of us go? We just wander along beside it?" Rae asked. While he was bright, he was obviously a bit thrown off by all the social interaction and magic involved. Most of his life involved simple loner or pair tasks.