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Message: <blockquote data-quote="carpedavid" data-source="post: 944753" data-attributes="member: 6971">Session 5, Part 3Pushing the frightened janitor in front of her, Quara leads the party to the stairs. "Take us to the warden," she commands, "Now!"Sean the janitor tries not to wet himself as he forces himself to place one foot in front of the other. With every step, he hopes for an arrow in the back from the intruders, because he is truly scared of what the warden will do if they don't kill her.The next floor is comprised of cellblocks, like the floors far below: four long corridors radiating from the central shaft, with an iron catwalk connecting them. Quara looks for signs of activity, and seeing none, urges the janitor to continue up. Just as they begin moving again, Shoji hears the sounds of hurried footsteps coming from above. He taps Quara on the shoulder, and points upward, "Movement up ahead."Quara lets go of the janitor who promptly collapses against the wall. She draws her bow, and says, "Let's meet them halfway." Erendil and Laurel fall in behind her, while Shoji takes the lead. They move about ten feet up the stairs when several robe-clad figures appear in front of them. Quara looses an arrow over Shoji's shoulder, and strikes the lead figure square in the chest.Shoji attempts to follow up Quara's attack with a punch to the chest, but the arrow's impact knocks the man back far enough that Shoji's fist only makes contact with the hem of his robe. Erendil already has his bow drawn by the time that Shoji's strike misses, and as the monk's body moves with the momentum of his punch, he sees an opening. His arrow flies over Quara's shoulder, past Shoji's ear, missing by a fraction of an inch, over the head of the first robed figure, under the upraised arm of the second, and hits the third robed figure in the stomach.Laurel nocks an arrow in her seldom-used bow, and manages an expert shot of her own. She fires past her three companions and hits the second robed figure."Hello!" quips Wrayce as he pokes his head around the corner and fires his wand of magic missiles at the same figure that Laurel hit.The man that Shoji missed recovers from the impact of Quara's arrow, pulls a mace from under his robes, and slams the flanged metal head into Shoji's ribs. He smiles smugly as the cracking sound of bones being broken echoes up the stairs.The second figure pulls a silver amulet in the shape of a coiled whip from beneath his magic-missile-charred robes, holds it aloft, and invokes the power of his goddess. "Lady of Pain, grant my prayer and hold him fast!" he says while pointing at Erendil. The elven archer feels his muscles begin to go numb, and struggles to free himself of the magic. He manages to shake off the effects, and the cleric of Dominique looks crestfallen.The third cleric, who was the victim of Erendil's marksmanship attempts to take advantage of the archer's distraction and pulls a crossbow from under his robes. A sharp pain distracts him as he lifts his arms, though, and he fires wildly, the bolt splintering against a wall."Oh s---!" exclaims Wrayce as he sees, from his vantage point at the bottom of the stairs, two more clerics walk out onto the catwalk above. "There are more out here!" he yells to his companions.Erendil hears Wrayce's warning and fires one last arrow into the crossbow-wielding cleric before moving back down the stairs and out onto the catwalk. Wrayce fires two more golden bolts at the second cleric, and smiles in satisfaction as the man clutches his chest and drops. He then joins Erendil on the catwalk. With her original target out of the way, Laurel drops the third cleric with a well placed arrow, and then moves out onto the catwalk as well.Shoji takes another blow from the remaining cleric's mace, which distracts him enough that he misses with a counter punch. "I'm on it," Quara says to Shoji as she fires three arrows over his shoulder in rapid succession, piercing the cleric's abdomen.On the catwalk, Erendil is too busy trying to figure out what the two other clerics are doing to notice the warden fly down from above. She lashes at Erendil with her whip as she flies to the center of the shaft, where she can reach anyone on the catwalk. "You will all die here!" she exclaims, as Erendil's shoulder in filled with a burning pain.He growls and fires three arrows in retaliation, each landing with deadly accuracy. Wrayce follows suit with more golden bolts from his wand, and is pleased to see the warden wince in pain.Meanwhile, Shoji blocks another attack from the cleric and tries to land a kick to his head. He slips, though, and stumbles back into Quara as she fires, knocking her shot wide."When I kill you, I'm going to resurrect you, just so I can torture you and kill you again!" the warden screams as she sends the end of her black leather whip flying through the air, bridging the gap between villain and hero, and hits Laurel in the face. All consuming pain wracks Laurel's body; she feels like her nerves have caught fire and her blood has turned to acid. It takes all of her concentration just to keep herself breathing, and she collapses on the catwalk, convulsing.Uh-oh, Erendil thinks as he watches Laurel collapse. He turns his attention back to the flying warden and lets loose three arrows. She screams in frustration and swings her whip in retaliation. This time, it connects with his bare flesh, and he feels the full pain that the whip in capable of inflicting as he, too, falls prone, spasms wracking his body. Wrayce pats his trusty wand and sends more missiles at the flying warden, raising bright red welts where they hit her milky-white skin.Shoji and the cleric continue to exchange ineffectual blows, so Quara decides to aid her friends on the catwalk. As soon as she turns away, Shoji finally lands a punch, which hits with enough force to break the cleric's sternum. He stumbles back and collapses on the corpses of his fellow clerics.Quara emerges from the stairway just as Wrayce points his wand at the bruised and battered warden. He lets loose with another volley of missiles, and his target slumps over. Now unconscious, the warden looses control of the magic that she was relying on to keep her aloft, and begins to fall. Quara steps up to the edge of the catwalk and places three more arrows in her as she falls fifteen stories. "Just to make sure," she tells Wrayce, as a sickening wet thud echoes up from below.Quara and Wrayce help Laurel and Erendil up, and they rejoin Shoji. "There are more on the next floor up," Erendil reminds them, and they turn their attention to the two acolytes who had been, until now, quietly trying not to get killed. "Don’t hurt us," they both say in unison.The five heroes ascend to the next level and confront the two priests, who have raised their hands and are trying to appear as non-threatening as possible. "We'll do anything you want," one says, "just please don't kill us.""We're here to find a prisoner," Quara says menacingly, "You're going to help us find him."The two clerics lead the heroes to the remaining living prisoners, where they find the Terrelian spy, Edmon of Willoughby. He is naked, emaciated, bruised and beaten, bound and gagged, and lying in a pool of refuse, but he is alive."We're here to rescue you," Wrayce says to the man as he mentally negotiates with the spirits of nature, and then, striking a deal, cures his wounds."Thank the gods," Willoughby croaks hoarsely as Wrayce and Quara help him up."We need to get going before reinforcements show up," Shoji says."What about the other prisoners?" Laurel questions."What do you mean, what about the other prisoners?" Quara responds."I mean that we can't just let them stay here and die.""Why not?""Because it's not right!""We could leave them for the ghouls," Erendil suggests, drawing a shudder from the rest of his companions."They're here for a reason," Quara says shaking her head."Yes, the reason is that they're enemies of Avengard," Laurel says emphatically."That's true," Wrayce says, "they could have information valuable to the war."Quara considers this for a moment, and then nods her assent. "Where are we going to put them?" she asks."They're probably going to have to go in the cargo hold," says Shoji."That's not very humane," says Laurel."Yes, but it's better then where they are now," Shoji retorts."True.""We're going to need to go back through the ghoul caves to get to our ship," Erendil reminds his companions."Well, we'll go get the ship, and then bring it around to the front door," Laurel suggests.The rest of the group agrees to the plan, and within twenty minutes, the five heroes, their bounty, all of the gold in the prison's treasury, and as many prisoners as they could fit are aboard the Displacer Beast and sailing back toward Terrel.Now back on board the ship, the group relaxes somewhat. Erendil pulls out a large sack and removes what is obviously the gear of the warden and her brother, sorting it out on the deck."How did you get that?" Laurel asks."From the ghouls," he replies, matter-of-factly, "I told them that if they gave us this stuff, they could have whoever we left behind."Edit: I forgot they grabbed the gold as well as the prisoners. Oops.Session 6 coming soon... including a knighting, roughing up merchants, and a wild goose chase.</blockquote>

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