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Message: <blockquote data-quote="sniffles" data-source="post: 2868752" data-attributes="member: 30035">Assault on Brimstone KeepI was so weary that I misunderstood the plan my friends had made to assault the keep. I rested while they discussed this stratagem with the Dragonfire Guild. Later Rock brewed a restorative tea for me and I recovered my strength. Once I was myself again I learned that it was not Pakkin who would enter the keep first but Erim himself. He intended to disguise himself with spells and slip into the southeast tower through the small doorway Jayda Foxfire had indicated to us. Whilst I had rested my friends had acquired a ladder by which to climb up to this door.While most of our group entered through this doorway, Rock and Pakkin would use the tattered magic carpet to fly up to the roof of the same tower, eliminate any sentries, and then to assault the gatehouse. Their purpose was to open and then disable the portcullis so that we would not become trapped within the keep. This attack would also serve to divert attention from our entry into the tower. As dusk fell Liadan called upon Lathander to grant Rock and myself several protections in the event that we should encounter Tellusk's pet mages. Erim also provided me with a protection from flames. Nekaya then expressed concern as to the disposition of Gadron's parcel. We did not wish to leave it behind, but Nekaya was unwilling to carry it into the keep in the event that Tellusk and his cronies were awaiting it. She determined to see what it was so that we could decide more knowledgeably. Rock protested, considering it impolite to open a package intended for another, but when he saw that she would not be swayed he withdrew his objection.The parcel was revealed to be a long wooden box containing a handsome longsword set with rubies. Runes were engraved upon the blade spelling out the name Brimstone. As it was clear this item was of personal value to Kal Brimstone, it was handed into Jayda Foxfire's keeping for delivery to her friend. Liadan made her swear that she would give it to him. We crept up to the tower under cover of heavy fog, as Blaze had predicted. Erim made himself both invisible and intangible to enter the tower via an arrow slit. Liadan had cast a spell of silence upon a coin and placed it in the magic stasis box we had acquired in Arrabar, opening the box once Erim had vanished. Nekaya remained beyond the area of the spell's effect so that she could hear if Rock's entry caused any alarm. After a few moments she alerted us that she had heard some noise from the roof of the tower.Mirra, the halfling woman, then opened the door. Liadan had shut the box so we could speak, and a strident alarm rang out, quickly silenced when Liadan reopened the box and clamped the coin between her teeth. Nekaya clambered up the ladder into the tower. I leaped after her, followed by Liadan. Within the tower we knew that there were barracks, and we found two men-at-arms present in full armor. I dispatched one of them while Nekaya took on the other. We then rushed up the nearest flight of stairs, with Erim following us now solid and visible.Liadan had taken the lead on the stairs and Nekaya is swifter than I, thus I found myself following the ladies. As Erim and I passed a connecting corridor, we caught sight of another guardsman. I lunged for him and struck him down. I then hurried on to the gatehouse chamber. There I saw Rock flanked by two more guardsmen, his movements sluggish and his beard matted with blood.Nekaya had badly wounded one of the armsmen, who attempted to escape by dropping down an access ladder. She rushed down the stair in pursuit of him. I stepped forward to meet the second man and swiftly sent him to whatever afterlife awaits worshippers of Bane. Liadan in the meanwhile had drawn a scroll from her pouch and chanted a healing prayer over Rock. Praise Corellon that she had the foresight to purchase such a treasure in Ankhapur. Pakkin had been valiantly struggling with one of the mages at the opposite end of the chamber, and had slain the wizard, though he had taken considerable hurt himself. Liadan offered him Lathander's grace, and he then took Rock's magical rod and used it to block the portcullis mechanism so the gate could not be closed. Nekaya returned moments later and we proceeded toward the chapel where we expected to find the priestess at her prayers. As we approached I heard the sound of armored bodies moving about and warned my companions. The chapel entry stood at an angle to the corridor from the gatehouse, and Jayda Foxfire had explained to us that one side of the inner wall was open there so that the lord of the keep could stand before the chapel door and address his subjects in the courtyard below. We would have to take care, for the space between the door and the opening was less than my height, and there was no railing to prevent a fall. I gave praise to Corellon once more that the fog would make it difficult for anyone in the courtyard to attack us with bows.We found three men awaiting us, for since the alarm had been raised by Rock's entry from the tower roof we had heard men pounding metal bars to alert the keep. The guardsmen fired upon us with crossbows, but Rock rushed one of them and I surged past to meet the second. In a few heartbeats all three had fallen, despite their skill with heavy armor and shields. Rock had used the adamantine axe the dwarves had presented to him to smash one man's shield to splinters. The third guard had pounded on the chapel door and begged to be admitted before my blades pierced his armor.Through the heavy wooden doors we could hear the sound of a woman's voice chanting, though Erim told us that it was not a magical chant. Rock lifted his indestructible axe and began to hew the doors. Quips & Quotes:Erim: "If you make a high enough Track roll you can tell if there's going to be a fight here. The DC's pretty high, though."Jubilee: "I hope you're going a little faster than a walk."Zora: "I might jog."Zora: "I'm Pakkin heat!"Erim: "Rock, you just died storming the castle! What are you going to do now?"Zora: "I'm going to Disneyland!"Hedrin: "Who gave a goblin experience?"Devo: "Pakkin doesn't do anything well with his Int."Sniffles: "Then don't do things with his Int."Devo: "He double-checks his stat card... and falls down."Hedrin: "He's between a Rock and an elf place."Player's note: Rock suffered some pretty horrendously bad dice rolls this session. He rolled a 1 vs a coup-de-gras. Since Devo didn't want a PC to die as the result of a bad roll, he ruled that Rock survived but was exhausted.(edit: I'm directionally challenged.  <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f609.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)"  data-smilie="2"data-shortname=";)" /> )</blockquote>

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