DispelAkimbo
Explorer
"You.....you.....you killed him?" Zander asks aghast as he spots the bloody remains of Margarians opponents. "You.....you.....you murderer!" He adds, with zeal, eager to have the finger of guilt pointed at someone other than him and his brother. Margarian sighs before speaking.
"They were up to no good, no-one will miss them and he attacked me first. Didn't mean to kill 'em anyway, was an accident."
"Yes, this is not good." Eben chimes in. "Dead bodies create no end of legal complications, there will be questions asked, paperwork to fill in, motives questioned. Frankly this is not what we need right now."
"Accident."
"You've got to take more care Margarian." Jaider adds. "Use the flat of your blade like this." He swings his sword through the air, flat of the blade first. "Subdue opponents and take prisoners!"
"Look it was an accident okay!" Margarian replies, his voice slowly rising in volume. "I'm sorry it happened but it was not intentional. Now, do want to go first in future Jaider?"
The group falls silent for a few moments while they finish searching the rest of the crates, bodies and cellar. They find no more clues and step back into the corridor to continue along it looking for the cloaked man they saw in the street talking to the old man on horseback. Jaider Lightbringer leads the way, with Margarian carrying the lantern and Zander, Rowan, Eben and Jalderin following. The underground passageway continues for another fifty feet, slowly descending under the city and slowly getting colder.
"Door." Jaider turns and silently mouths to those behind him. He spends a moment looking at the floor in front of the door and also manages to convey by way of gestures, the fact that he thinks there is a pressure plate in front of the door and presumably another scythe blade trap or similar in the wall. All nod in agreement and resolve to avoid the stone in question.
Suddenly a voice is heard from the other side of the door. "They will be here any second. Do not let them pass this room!"
In the passageway, the group draw weapons and prepare for another fight. All hoping to take prisoners this time. Jaider tries the door handle to the room but finds it locked. He steps to the side of the door and motions for Margarian to use his brute force to open the door.
Margarian steps up to the door, carefully avoiding the pressure plate and slams his shoulder into the wood. He is rewarded with two bent spikes on his armour. Zander takes a step back when he sees the look of fury on Margarians face.
"Dent my armour will you? RARRRGGNHGHGGHH!!!!!" Margarian launches a tirade of curses and expletives at the door, with each syllable being accompanied by a punch, kick or shoulder slam. After only a few moments Margarian is bright red in the face, frothing at the mouth and the door explodes into mere splinters.
Four crossbow bolts thud into the doorframe and wall near the raging barbarian. A fifth one hits him squarely in the chest and bounces off his armour. It catches his eye for a moment and he brings his gaze to bear on the figure inside the room that fired that particular bolt.
While Margarian spends a split second fixing the rogue with a vicious, threatening glare, Jaider steps into the room and squares off against one of the other rogues.
A rogue within reach of Jaider drops his crossbow and draws his long sword. As he does so Jaider makes a casual looking backhand swing with his sword and the flat of the blade clangs loudly as it strikes the skull of the rogue. The rogues legs buckle and he drops to the floor, alive but stunned.
Margarian lets out another growl and surges forward, arms outstretched toward the throat of his target. The rogue side steps his movement and just manages to bring the butt of his crossbow up into Margarians chest. The crossbow bounces off and does nothing more than infuriate the plainsman.
With the rogue stepping to the side, Margarian gets a clear view of the back of the room. In the corner he just manages to spot a trapdoor in the floor closing.
"Door!....Trap!....Gnnnh!....Trap door!....back of room!" He spits out, to his companions. The rogue he is engaged in combat with drops his crossbow and reaches to draw his sword from his side. Margarian uses the momentary drop in the rogues defences to lunge forward and slam the rogue into the wall. Trapped between the wall and Margarians armour spikes, the rogue instantly expires leaving Margarian with some nasty stains and some excess baggage on his armour.
With one fluid movement, Jalderin steps into the room, swings his long sword at a rogue and causes him to collapse with a single blow.
Zander and Rowan Helmsblade step into the room next and Zander calls upon his magical endowment and sends a bolt of pure magical energy flying into another rogue.
Finally, Eben Hakkan steps into the room and sidles around the edge of the room with his back to the wall, until he is in a position to flank one of the rogues.
The one remaining rogue wielding a crossbow drops it and draws a bastard sword from his side, taking a defensive stance as he does so.
Jaider manages to find an opening in his opponents defences and swings a precisely placed strike into the back of the rogues head, knocking him unconscious too.
While Margarian spends a few moments prying the corpse from his armour spikes Eben attempts to distract and hinder the rogue he is flanking to enable Jaider or Jalderin to more easily land a successful blow.
One of the remaining thugs manages to swing a dangerous blow in Jalderins direction, but he parries it to the side at the last moment.
As the rogues body slowly leaves Margarians armour spikes and slides to the floor, it leaves a large bloody smear on the wall. Margarian feels his battle rage subside, leaving him out of breath and slightly fatigued. Looking round he concludes that the combat is largely over anyway and he tries to open the trap door at the back of the room. It appears to be locked.
Zander sends another missile of magical energy slamming into the final rogue, who in response swings his sword at Jaider. The sword lands squarely on Jaider but his armour prevents him from being wounded.
Margarian seeing the single rogue still fighting takes a couple of steps forward, remaining on the rogues blind side and brings the flat of his two handed sword down hard on the top of the rogues skull. "There, prisoner subdued." He casually says as the man drops like an anvil from a cliff. "Now lets get this trapdoor open before that cloaked guy gets away."
While Zander, Jaider and Jalderin tie up the subdued rogues, Eben draws his dagger and moves to the trapdoor and sets to work jimmying the bolt open.
"Here, I've seen this symbol before somewhere." Jaider says, lifting a symbol from around the neck of one of the rogues. "I can't remember exactly what it means or who it represents, but I'm sure it pertains to the dark god Morgoth in some way. This is not good news."
"There, bolt opened." Eben says stepping back and sheathing his dagger. Jaider steps forward and slowly lifts the trap door.
"Come on, hurry up, he'll be getting away." Eben impatiently says to Jaider.
"I'm lifting it slowly because it's difficult to open and heavy, not because of stealth reasons! Someone give me a hand!" Jalderin steps forward and kneels to look what is making the trap door so difficult to open.
"Chain hooked to the bottom of the trapdoor." He reports. "Rock on the end of the chain. Hold on while I un-hook it." He does so and the trapdoor is soon wide open, revealing a thirty foot descent into another dark corridor.
"I can hear water, running water." Jalderin reports while crouching and examining the passage floor. "Can't see any footprints though, the surface is too hard and there's not enough light." They follow the passage for a short distance and arrive at a t-junction. With no obvious signs of footprints, Jalderin heads right towards the sound of running water. The passage runs straight for thirty foot and opens into a small circular room that has a hole in the middle of the floor.
The running water can be heard coming from the bottom of the hole and several rusty iron rungs are attached to the side of the hole. There is no obvious sign of usage though so Jalderin returns to the t-junction.
"Can't tell if he went that way, lets try the left passage." They slowly follow the passageway, which begins to slope downwards after a few feet. After fifty foot it opens into a fifty foot wide cavern. Two huge brewing vats occupy a majority of the room, with crates of empty bottles filling some of the remaining room.
"Looks like this is where the cheap grog above is produced." Rowan Helmsblade concludes.
The group spreads out and slowly circumnavigate the two huge brewing vats. Their exploration reveals two exits from the cavern on the far side of the vats.
"Don't move! Pit trap in front of the left exit!" Jaider points out as he spots some inconsistency in the floor in front of the exit. Jalderin nods and checks there isn't one in front of the right exit. It seems clear so he proceeds through it, spotting some footprints as he moves through.
The passage way immediately curves around to the left and Jalderin only has to follow it for ten feet before he sees a lantern lit room. The room contains a desk, some draws, a chair and piles of paperwork on every surface. The cloaked man they have been tracking is stood in the middle of the room, in the process of pouring a liquid that smells like oil, over all the exposed paperwork. Jalderin, assuming the man means to send evidence up in smoke moves to stop him.
Stepping forward, Jalderin manages to grab the man from behind, wrap his arm around the mans neck and land a punch all in quick succession.
Back in the large cavern with the brewing vats Margarian tilts his head to one side. "We've got company coming through the left passage!" He announces, casting a quick glance around to take stock of his environment, ready for any opponents that emerge.
Zander Helmsblade follows Jalderin into the right hand passage and also sees the cloaked man dowsing the paperwork in oil. However, as Jalderin grapples with the man, Zander spots that the man is holding a lit wick in one hand and could easily set the room alight just by dropping it. He casts a quick spell and uses a magical, invisible hand to extinguish the wicks' flame.
After a few more moments of struggling with each other, Jalderin manages to drag the cloaked man out of the small office-like room and they tumble out into the main cavern.
Seeing the cloaked man struggling to escape from Jalderin's grasp, Eben takes three long strides forward and aims a vicious punt-like kick at the mans crotch. The mans eyes open to almost double their normal size when he sees the kick coming and some how he manages to twist Jalderins grapple enough at the last minute to make Ebens kick miss.
Jaider steps forward and stands next to Margarian to prepare for whatever is approaching from the other passageway.
"They were up to no good, no-one will miss them and he attacked me first. Didn't mean to kill 'em anyway, was an accident."
"Yes, this is not good." Eben chimes in. "Dead bodies create no end of legal complications, there will be questions asked, paperwork to fill in, motives questioned. Frankly this is not what we need right now."
"Accident."
"You've got to take more care Margarian." Jaider adds. "Use the flat of your blade like this." He swings his sword through the air, flat of the blade first. "Subdue opponents and take prisoners!"
"Look it was an accident okay!" Margarian replies, his voice slowly rising in volume. "I'm sorry it happened but it was not intentional. Now, do want to go first in future Jaider?"
The group falls silent for a few moments while they finish searching the rest of the crates, bodies and cellar. They find no more clues and step back into the corridor to continue along it looking for the cloaked man they saw in the street talking to the old man on horseback. Jaider Lightbringer leads the way, with Margarian carrying the lantern and Zander, Rowan, Eben and Jalderin following. The underground passageway continues for another fifty feet, slowly descending under the city and slowly getting colder.
"Door." Jaider turns and silently mouths to those behind him. He spends a moment looking at the floor in front of the door and also manages to convey by way of gestures, the fact that he thinks there is a pressure plate in front of the door and presumably another scythe blade trap or similar in the wall. All nod in agreement and resolve to avoid the stone in question.
Suddenly a voice is heard from the other side of the door. "They will be here any second. Do not let them pass this room!"
In the passageway, the group draw weapons and prepare for another fight. All hoping to take prisoners this time. Jaider tries the door handle to the room but finds it locked. He steps to the side of the door and motions for Margarian to use his brute force to open the door.
Margarian steps up to the door, carefully avoiding the pressure plate and slams his shoulder into the wood. He is rewarded with two bent spikes on his armour. Zander takes a step back when he sees the look of fury on Margarians face.
"Dent my armour will you? RARRRGGNHGHGGHH!!!!!" Margarian launches a tirade of curses and expletives at the door, with each syllable being accompanied by a punch, kick or shoulder slam. After only a few moments Margarian is bright red in the face, frothing at the mouth and the door explodes into mere splinters.
Four crossbow bolts thud into the doorframe and wall near the raging barbarian. A fifth one hits him squarely in the chest and bounces off his armour. It catches his eye for a moment and he brings his gaze to bear on the figure inside the room that fired that particular bolt.
While Margarian spends a split second fixing the rogue with a vicious, threatening glare, Jaider steps into the room and squares off against one of the other rogues.
A rogue within reach of Jaider drops his crossbow and draws his long sword. As he does so Jaider makes a casual looking backhand swing with his sword and the flat of the blade clangs loudly as it strikes the skull of the rogue. The rogues legs buckle and he drops to the floor, alive but stunned.
Margarian lets out another growl and surges forward, arms outstretched toward the throat of his target. The rogue side steps his movement and just manages to bring the butt of his crossbow up into Margarians chest. The crossbow bounces off and does nothing more than infuriate the plainsman.
With the rogue stepping to the side, Margarian gets a clear view of the back of the room. In the corner he just manages to spot a trapdoor in the floor closing.
"Door!....Trap!....Gnnnh!....Trap door!....back of room!" He spits out, to his companions. The rogue he is engaged in combat with drops his crossbow and reaches to draw his sword from his side. Margarian uses the momentary drop in the rogues defences to lunge forward and slam the rogue into the wall. Trapped between the wall and Margarians armour spikes, the rogue instantly expires leaving Margarian with some nasty stains and some excess baggage on his armour.
With one fluid movement, Jalderin steps into the room, swings his long sword at a rogue and causes him to collapse with a single blow.
Zander and Rowan Helmsblade step into the room next and Zander calls upon his magical endowment and sends a bolt of pure magical energy flying into another rogue.
Finally, Eben Hakkan steps into the room and sidles around the edge of the room with his back to the wall, until he is in a position to flank one of the rogues.
The one remaining rogue wielding a crossbow drops it and draws a bastard sword from his side, taking a defensive stance as he does so.
Jaider manages to find an opening in his opponents defences and swings a precisely placed strike into the back of the rogues head, knocking him unconscious too.
While Margarian spends a few moments prying the corpse from his armour spikes Eben attempts to distract and hinder the rogue he is flanking to enable Jaider or Jalderin to more easily land a successful blow.
One of the remaining thugs manages to swing a dangerous blow in Jalderins direction, but he parries it to the side at the last moment.
As the rogues body slowly leaves Margarians armour spikes and slides to the floor, it leaves a large bloody smear on the wall. Margarian feels his battle rage subside, leaving him out of breath and slightly fatigued. Looking round he concludes that the combat is largely over anyway and he tries to open the trap door at the back of the room. It appears to be locked.
Zander sends another missile of magical energy slamming into the final rogue, who in response swings his sword at Jaider. The sword lands squarely on Jaider but his armour prevents him from being wounded.
Margarian seeing the single rogue still fighting takes a couple of steps forward, remaining on the rogues blind side and brings the flat of his two handed sword down hard on the top of the rogues skull. "There, prisoner subdued." He casually says as the man drops like an anvil from a cliff. "Now lets get this trapdoor open before that cloaked guy gets away."
While Zander, Jaider and Jalderin tie up the subdued rogues, Eben draws his dagger and moves to the trapdoor and sets to work jimmying the bolt open.
"Here, I've seen this symbol before somewhere." Jaider says, lifting a symbol from around the neck of one of the rogues. "I can't remember exactly what it means or who it represents, but I'm sure it pertains to the dark god Morgoth in some way. This is not good news."
"There, bolt opened." Eben says stepping back and sheathing his dagger. Jaider steps forward and slowly lifts the trap door.
"Come on, hurry up, he'll be getting away." Eben impatiently says to Jaider.
"I'm lifting it slowly because it's difficult to open and heavy, not because of stealth reasons! Someone give me a hand!" Jalderin steps forward and kneels to look what is making the trap door so difficult to open.
"Chain hooked to the bottom of the trapdoor." He reports. "Rock on the end of the chain. Hold on while I un-hook it." He does so and the trapdoor is soon wide open, revealing a thirty foot descent into another dark corridor.
"I can hear water, running water." Jalderin reports while crouching and examining the passage floor. "Can't see any footprints though, the surface is too hard and there's not enough light." They follow the passage for a short distance and arrive at a t-junction. With no obvious signs of footprints, Jalderin heads right towards the sound of running water. The passage runs straight for thirty foot and opens into a small circular room that has a hole in the middle of the floor.
The running water can be heard coming from the bottom of the hole and several rusty iron rungs are attached to the side of the hole. There is no obvious sign of usage though so Jalderin returns to the t-junction.
"Can't tell if he went that way, lets try the left passage." They slowly follow the passageway, which begins to slope downwards after a few feet. After fifty foot it opens into a fifty foot wide cavern. Two huge brewing vats occupy a majority of the room, with crates of empty bottles filling some of the remaining room.
"Looks like this is where the cheap grog above is produced." Rowan Helmsblade concludes.
The group spreads out and slowly circumnavigate the two huge brewing vats. Their exploration reveals two exits from the cavern on the far side of the vats.
"Don't move! Pit trap in front of the left exit!" Jaider points out as he spots some inconsistency in the floor in front of the exit. Jalderin nods and checks there isn't one in front of the right exit. It seems clear so he proceeds through it, spotting some footprints as he moves through.
The passage way immediately curves around to the left and Jalderin only has to follow it for ten feet before he sees a lantern lit room. The room contains a desk, some draws, a chair and piles of paperwork on every surface. The cloaked man they have been tracking is stood in the middle of the room, in the process of pouring a liquid that smells like oil, over all the exposed paperwork. Jalderin, assuming the man means to send evidence up in smoke moves to stop him.
Stepping forward, Jalderin manages to grab the man from behind, wrap his arm around the mans neck and land a punch all in quick succession.
Back in the large cavern with the brewing vats Margarian tilts his head to one side. "We've got company coming through the left passage!" He announces, casting a quick glance around to take stock of his environment, ready for any opponents that emerge.
Zander Helmsblade follows Jalderin into the right hand passage and also sees the cloaked man dowsing the paperwork in oil. However, as Jalderin grapples with the man, Zander spots that the man is holding a lit wick in one hand and could easily set the room alight just by dropping it. He casts a quick spell and uses a magical, invisible hand to extinguish the wicks' flame.
After a few more moments of struggling with each other, Jalderin manages to drag the cloaked man out of the small office-like room and they tumble out into the main cavern.
Seeing the cloaked man struggling to escape from Jalderin's grasp, Eben takes three long strides forward and aims a vicious punt-like kick at the mans crotch. The mans eyes open to almost double their normal size when he sees the kick coming and some how he manages to twist Jalderins grapple enough at the last minute to make Ebens kick miss.
Jaider steps forward and stands next to Margarian to prepare for whatever is approaching from the other passageway.
