Action Thread (Year 1153, Day 107) KEEPERS & CLAN

[Stirling]

Phaeus

. "Okay in the morning I am going to the West Wing and see the alligator can be driven off or slain. Then take whatever is useful in the room. I spy several chests and cabinets through the keyhole that might hold trinkets and stuff. Anyone brave or foolish enough to wants to come can meet me after morning sausages in the wing corridor."

He makes a decision on enlarging the camp.

[NJWilliam]

Ulrich

Upon hearing Phaeus’s plan for the next day, Sebastian’s brows raise. “Alligator? I can help locate it, but I ask that you let me see if we can reach an understanding with it first. If it knows we aren’t a threat it could be a great advantage.”

Sebastian will pray for and memorize invisibility to animals, and when they set out will use locate animals to locate the alligator, and once located, cast invisibility and speak with animals to cautiously get within earshot of the reptile and converse.

[Rex]

Aari

"Agreed, if we can befriend the alligator it is an excellent moat guardian."

[Dram]

Grakluse peaked through the door into room #17. You were able to see the old cots and chests from the abandoned barracks, together with the tangle of beams collapsed from the upper level. An area that might be a nest was visible, but the creature appeared to be in the moat at this time.

Grakluse happy to see new faces,almost forgets to ask Father Haldrian if he knows what lives within the old barracks area.
Father Haldrian when I was searching the keep. I found what appears to a barracks area. It appears something is living in there already.

[Rex]

Aari

"Interesting Grakluse, maybe I should search it as well?"

[Stirling]

Phaeus

"Not sure we need all the covert arcane works. It is just in the room next door. It uses the ruin to bask in the sun during the midday. It might have laid some eggs in the rubble and decades of dirt. I think so as that it why it lairs nearby, otherwise it acts as a rather sharp toothed log floating the moat, chomping on toad and trollkin leftovers.

Shall we?"

The rogue tries to pick the lock of the door. It appears the rusty lock doesn't give to his skeleton keys.
Phaeus open locks vs 33% [1d100] = 45

"I was hoping to move in silently and not alert it. Damn, looks like we may have to kick the door or scramble into the room from the breach in the outer wall."

[kruk]

Fergie

The fighter joins Phaeus's exploration group hunting the alligator and exploring the keep, ready to assist in attacking anything that threatens the group.

[Bluetongue]

Bogarde

Sees the rogue struggle with the old lock. Perhaps a more 'agricultural' approach is required. When Phaeus shakes his head and moves aside, the templar will try kicking the door open.

Bogarde kicks open door. [1d6] = 6

The door doesn't budge an inch. "Perhaps fallen beams block it or maybe, it was a barracks room after all. The men who fought here may have barricaded themselves in before the outer wall was breached?" He offers an explanation to his failed attempt.

Unless someone else tries to barrel themselves into the door, it looks like we scramble over the parapet rubble and go into the room that way.

[Rex]

Aari

Aari will climb over the wall and see if he can open the door from the other side.

[Dram]

Grakluse-You think that is wise going in alone? Especially if she youngins in there. He gets a spell ready in case Aari still decides to climb over the wall.

[Rex]

Aari

"Who knows. A life in the wilderness has toughened me up more than most so I am probably the best choice."

Continues to climb over.

[atpollard]

Year 1153, Day 107: 4:00 PM [Old Barracks (#17)]

Father Hadrian sits with Thelor (the old wolf) in the corridor between the Great Hall (#6) and the Old Barracks (#17) and converses quietly. Thelor says that the Pack has no relationship with the Flight. The Hawks rule the air and the Wolves rule the ground. One has nothing to do with the other. The Pack hunts small game at the edge of the forest … squirrels and rabbits. Deeper into the forest the Pack hunts bear, giant beetles, boar, deer, antelope, moose, giant stag, Trollkin. Before the Clan came, they hunted rats in the halls, but Alpha said the corridors were now off limits because of the Children of Mielikki. When questioned about Thelor's relationship with the pack, he is just part of the pack. Father Hadrian learns that the Pack has a complex, shallow social hierarchy with the Alpha Male and Female (the breeding pair) at the top followed by the Beta Male and Female (ready to step into leadership if needed) and an Omega at the bottom of the pack. Everyone in between is just part of the Pack with a very fluid position in the hierarchy.


Aari the Ranger scrambled down the rubble from the parapet into the old Barracks (#17) through the collapsed outer wall. He threaded his way carefully through the “pixie stix” tangle of beams that crisscrossed the room and supported the unstable remains of the second floor above you. Reaching the double doors, he found they opened into the room but had beams braced against them that disappeared through the sagging ceiling.

[clang, clang, clang] Several sharp blows from the pommel of his dagger allowed the Ranger to pop the pins from the hinges. The doors could still not swing open, but with a loud crash, they fell into the room and formed a ramp those outside the doors could climb over to scramble into the room. As each person placed their weight on a door, beams throughout the room groaned and popped, sending a light dusting of plaster raining down.

The noise from the room attracts the attention of the large, prehistoric predator from the moat that occasionally calls it home. The Alligator can be heard showly scraping its way up the rocks towards the room from the moat.

Who enters the room?
Who leaves the room?
Do you intend to battle the alligator?

[Bluetongue]

Bogarde

The brutish half orc is not keen on sharing facilities with the reptile and as it approaches the room from the moat, he tries to discourage its entry with a mighty hack.

Bogarde: halberd melee [1d20+1] = 3+1 = 4 dam [1d10+3] = 10+3 = 13

[Rex]

Aari

Aari readies his bow.

"If that thing knocks you into the moat your gonna know it."

[NJWilliam]

Year 1153, Day 107: 4:00 PM [Old Barracks (#17)]
The Alligator can be heard showly scraping its way up the rocks towards the room from the moat.

Who enters the room?
Who leaves the room?
Do you intend to battle the alligator?

Sebastian

Sebastian does not intend to battle the alligator.

Sebastian will take advantage of his small frame and thread through the pixie-sticks of beams that probably constrict movement of the larger folk. Since the room has been breached he will not cast Invisibility to Animals as discussed the night before, but keeps some mistletoe ready in his hand if he needs to. He does cast Speak with Animals,

3 segment cast time, 4 round duration

and speaks loudly in alligator

“I want to talk about a good deal for us both, stay under the beams.”

When he sees the large half-orc trying to move in a martial fashion through the pixie-sticks, he exclaims in orcish

”Hold!”

and then in common, “Wait, I am speaking its language.” and then in alligator

“I told the large one with an axe to wait.”

Sebastian meanwhile looks for a spot crisscrossed so with the beams that it would provide obstacles to the snapping jaws of the alligator, should it come to that.

[Stirling]

Phaeus

"Good idea. You pair keep the gator and his teeth chattering over there while I search the bunks over here."

I will open the most obvious cupboards and cabinets, basically ransacking the place, pooling the swag in the middle of the room and picking out the useful trinkets and stashing any coins or saleable gems and jewellery.

Anything resembling a strong box or locked chest we can drag to open in a safer environment.

[Dram]

Grakluse holds his spell at the Giant Alligator when Sebestian Said "Hold". All I got is 2 spells. Should I put it to sleep or ready magic missile? My sleep spell may not work on the old gator.

[Bluetongue]

Bogarde

Misses hacking at the gator, hoping the beasts bite also chews thin air.

He preps a second strike, manoeuvring under the caved in ceiling to stab at the creature if it attacks but holds back momentarily as the druid intones some verbal ripostes to negotiate the creatures exit from the ruin.

[atpollard]

Year 1153, Day 107: 4:01 PM [Courtyard]

[Round 1]
Bogarde’s swing missed the Gator but struck one of the beams running diagonally through the room. The blow reverberated throughout the tangle of beams causing half a dozen to shift position and a large plank to fall and pierce one of the old beds … sending a cloud of dust into the air.

Phaeus and Grakluse had slipped into the room and were making their way along the wall in opposite directions. The Elf looking for a line of sight to cast a spell and the Rogue searching for anything that might be useful.

Sebastian slowly threaded his way through the tangle of beams towards the creature and Aari stood on the door allowing him to shoot down on the creature if necessary.

Sebastian exchanged a few words with the Gator and the party, quickly discovering that this would be both easier and harder than he had expected. The creature was a dumb as a rock, holding no particular malice or ambition, it just operated on pure instinct. It was always hungry and it always wanted to eat and it was lazy, so it wanted an easy meal. It had no formal language, more of a primitive pseudo-language of one-word concepts: “food”, “danger”, “female”, etc. Just throwing some meat outside would probably get it to go outside and eat the meat. Sebastian finds he can also communicate by concentrating on simple mental images (like the Gator swimming across the moat). You saw a mental image of one of the Trollkin from the Gator’s POV and sensed ‘FOOD’ and ‘SAD’ as the Frogs ate it.

Phaeus crawled over a beam to access a chest and the beam shifted an inch causing several other beams in the ceiling to groan, but none moved or fell. Inside the chest you discovered some mildewed clothing, some rotted leather boots and a metal knife rusted solid with its sheath. From the way items in the chest are thrown around, someone may have already searched it.

Grakluse ducked under several beams and stepping on a pile of debris on the floor caused some ceiling plaster to fall near him. It posed no danger, but covered him in white dust.

[Bluetongue]

Bogarde

"Ha! This room seems about to collapse. Best grab what goods you can from the lockers or bunks, the above ceiling is unstable and digging you out may be difficult."

The half-orc uses his trade masonry skills to assess obvious damage. The dust and debris shifting with every action makes me think the longer we stay here the more likely the roof falls in. If the room is presently unusable until rebuilt, I am happy to leave.

He will leave Sebastian to his animal bonding and assist Phaeus or whoever to grab any chests or strongboxes left unlooted.