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Zergiot, Karabela, and Moriarty wake up in prison together, but in
separate cells with metal bars. All of them were dressed in prison garb.
None of them have met each other before and spend a little time
introducing themselves to each other. In another cell separate of all of
them is another human prisoner who doesn't look particularly strong or
smart. The extra prisoner (an NPC named Jack though no character ever
learned his named) never spoke but seemed to understand when spoken too.
There were no visible guards and one wooden door letting out. Not
needing clothing Karabela ripped off his prison garb. Moriarty and
Zergiot looked around their prison cells but found nothing beyond a very
nasty pad to sleep on. Karabela announced that he was a paladin on a
holy quest and demanded to know why has had been detained but no guards
came in or responded. Moriarty spent some time studying his cell and
then started working one of the bars that he determined wasn't situated
as well as the others. Zergiot grumbled that he had no magic since he
was missing his component pouch and had been without his spell book for
some time. Karabela tugged on his bars a bit but they would budge.
Moriarty managed to work the bar he was working on free but there still
wasn't enough space for him to squeeze through. Zergiot asked Jack if he
knew any way out. Jack picked up a rat and made some squeaking noises to
it. The rat went through a hole and a few minutes later came back with a
key. While doing this the party noticed Jack had a number of rats on him
that he seemed able to talk with though he never spoke in common. Using
the key everyone made it out of their cells.
Once out of their cells Karabela went towards the door and heard some
voices on the other side say "They're out of their cells! Lock the
door!" then heard the click of the door being locked.
Karabela tried the door and confirmed it was locked. He started knocking
and again announced he was a paladin on a holy quest and demanded to
know why he was being detained. There was no reply. He tried bashing the
door open but the door was too solid. While trying to bash the door open
the party felt the entire prison structure they're in shudder a little
bit and a very loud bellow from another part of the prison. The party
asked Jack if he had any way of opening the door. He again made
squeaking noises to a rat which went through a hole and came back with
another key a little while later. Examining the key Zergiot realized it
was identical to the key that let them out of their cells. While doing
this they continued to hear loud bellowing from another part of the
prison. Trying the key they were able to unlock the door.
As soon as they did so they heard a quiet "Crap, where'd they get a
key?!" and then another click as the door was locked from the other
side.
Karabela barreled through the door while Moriarty unlocked it again in
order to force their way through.
On the other side of the door they found themselves in a guard post.
There was another door directly across from the one they came through
and could tell that the bellowing was coming from beyond it. On the wall
to their right the party saw a ladder going up through to the floor
above and down to the floor below. On the wall to their left was a desk
with papers on it. Along all the walls were shelves full of supplies for
the prison, food, prisoner garb, shackles, etc. There were also two
guards in the room, one that had been knocked over when the door was
pushed over and the other sitting behind the desk. Karabela rushed the
guard on the floor. While doing this there was another loud roar and the
entire structure shook more then it ever had before.
The guard behind the desk muttered "By the nine, he's getting loose."
and rushed towards the door the party didn't come through and opened it.
Karabela fought with the guard who had been knocked over and did some
damage but not much. The other guard drew his weapon and went through
the door he had just opened. As he went through the door the party heard
a roar and saw a chain hit the guard and sever him in half. Looking
through the door they saw Dave who, wearing manacles on his wrists with
chains attached. Dave swung with the chain and the the other guard that
Karabela was fighting and kill him. The room Dave was in had another
dead guard in it and the party could see where chunks of stone in the
ceiling had been torn away as Dave had apparently been held in the air
by chains hung from the ceiling. It was obvious the chains had held but
Dave had managed to rip them from the ceiling. He was still manacled
with the chains connected but was using them as improvised weapons.
Zergiot claimed the sword and armor of the guard who hadn't been torn in
half. Karabela claimed the sword of the other guard. Moriarty took some
time to check out the supplies on the shelves but didn't find anything
too useful. Dave, seeing better food then the body of the guard, started
stuffing his face with rations from the shelves. Karabela looked up and
down the ladder. The ladder went down one story and then ended at a
stone floor, looking up he saw up one story and then a stone ceiling.
Karabela picked up the body of the uneaten guard and dropped it down the
ladder to see if there was a response. There was no response from down
below so he jumped down the ladder. Dave saw what Karabela did and
thinking that looked fun jumped after him. Karabela managed to jump out
of the way but the body thrown down was completely squished. Zergiot,
Moriarty, and Jack carefully climbed down the ladder.
The next floor down was a long corridor with a ladder going down on the
far end. In the middle of the corridor on both sides were large metal
vault-like doors. The party could see a small amount of water leaking
out from the edges of both doors. Near the doors were two panels that
were locked up. The party went past the doors to the ladder and Karabela
jumped down again. The next floor down had windows all around so the
party discovered they were in a tower and still at least a couple
stories up. This level had some more guards in it who were surprised to
see Karabela jump down. The entire level of the tower was one large room
with another hole with a ladder going to the level below. The guards
here weren't armed and started running to some crates that had various
weapons in them. Karabela charged while Dave jumped down followed by
Zergiot and Moriarty. The party was able to kill most of the guards
before they were able to arm themselves, Dave bodily grabbing a guard
and beating others to death with the body. Jack sent his rats to attack
some of the guards which helped to distract them. Zergiot and Karabela
placed themselves in front of the crate to keep as many of the guards
from grabbing weapons as they could but some guards did manage to get
some bows first. Being blocked from weapons and seeing his comrades get
slaughtered one of the guards started making his way to the way down,
presumably to call for help. Karabela blocked his way and eventually the
party killed all the guards with none escaping. The weapons were of the
same quality as the party already had so no one armed themselves any
differently with the weapons here except Moriarty who was able to equip
himself with a bow. Looking out the windows the party was able to see
that the tower was in the middle of a military fort.
Karabela and Zergiot went back up the tower to see what was in the level
above the one where the cells were. Climbing up they went out an
entryway and found they were on a walkway that went around the edge of
the top of the tower and up to the very top. At the very top of the
tower they saw someone scanning the surrounding countryside with a
spyglass. Karabela and Zergiot snuck up to capture the lookout but
although he was looking for distant enemies and paying no attention to
anything close to him he happened to spot Karabela and Zergiot anyways.
He immediately pulled out some sort of strange stone (a palantir) and
spoke into it "The prisoners have escaped, I repeat the prisoners are
free".
Zergiot and Karabela managed to throw the lookout off the tower. However
the alarm had been raised and the party saw the entire army rushing out
of all the buildings in the fort and make their way to the tower. The
communication stone the lookout had was dropped and not fallen off the
tower so Zergiot claimed it for himself.
While Karabela and Zergiot were checking out the top level of the tower
Moriarty, Dave and Jack investigated the panels on the level below the
cells. Unable to unlock them properly they tried smashing the locks
which they successfully did without damaging the panels themselves.
However by the time they did this they got the warning from Karabela and
Zergiot that guards were coming.
As the party reached the level two levels below the cells again they saw
a group of guards, apparently stationed on the level below, climbing up
the ladder. Dave and Zergiot rushed ahead to fight them. Seeing they had
things under control Karabela ran over to the ladder going down and
jumped down it. He landed right in the middle of another squad of guards
that had been working their way up. He saw dozens of guards swarming
into this level of the tower and realized they had no hope of fighting
their way down the tower. He climbed his way up the ladder, the guards
tried to grab him and drag him back but he managed to kick them away as
he climbed up. Once up the party convinced Dave to grab a table and use
it to cover the trap door down and sit on it. The party could hear the
guards trying to move the table but didn't have the leverage to move the
table with Dave's weight on it. While the party considered their options
they started noticing grappling hooks and ladders being put on the
ladders and looking down saw what appeared to be most of the military
force of the base surrounding the tower. The party put one of the crates
on the table to use as a weight instead of Dave so he would be free to
fight. The party tried knocking away the ladders and hooks but there
were so many windows the party couldn't knock them away fast enough and
some guards started getting into that level of the tower with them. The
party fought their way back to the ladder up and went up to the previous
level. As the last members of the party went up the ladder they noticed
some of the guards working to unblock the trap door.
The level with the panels and doors was more defensible as there were
only two ways in but they were still trapped. The party decided to have
Dave rip open one of the doors to wash the guards away. Everyone but
Dave held onto the ladder going up, Dave strained and struggled and
finally managed to rip one of the giant doors of it's hinges. A massive
torrent of water came pouring out. Jack lost his grip on the ladder and
washed away. Dave was also washed away but with a heroic effort managed
to swim up the waterfall going down the sides of the tower from the
flood of water and make it back to the level where everyone else was.
Flipping one of the switches the party heard a gurgling noise from
behind the door that wasn't ripped off and then it opened on it's own.
Looking down they saw a large drainage pipe for the rainwater cisterns
behind the these doors. The pipe went down a little ways and the
straightened out. The party convinced Dave to jump into the pipe which
he did head first. The party heard him start to yell "Wheee!" but then
heard Dave yell out in terror as the pipe turned down and he fell down
until no one could hear him anymore. Knowing there weren't any other
good escape options at this point Zergiot and Moriarty went back up to
the cells and grabbed a pad to try and cushion the fall and then jumped
down the pipe after Dave. Again they slid down the bend, encountered the
drop and fell into the darkness. Karabela went to the other cistern that
Dave had ripped the door off of. Since it had never been opened with a
panel it still had water in the drainage pipe. Knowing he didn't need to
eat or breathe and deciding that the water would safely slow his fall he
jumped down into the other pipe.