THREE HUNDRED SIXTY ONE
(I/C)
Brendon wiped the sweat off his face and turned to Abraxas. “Doc, can you lift Wyn a bit higher? I need to get the vault key from his bag.”
“Si. Rapido, por favor.” He wrapped both hands under the elf’s chest from behind and arched back, picking him up higher. The Scout snagged the key ring from within and finding the Vault key, located the hidden lock and opened the secret door, the entire party making their way within. The sound of the assault on the throne room door was continuing as well as the rasping sound of the dragon dragging itself through the hall, howling invectives at the party.
“Well, isn’t this a downer,” Lannis complained, rooting through his bag and quickly dropping most of his coin here with the other items he had left earlier. “I plan on outrunning any of you if the Blessed Jabberwocky gives chase, so drop em if you gots em.”
Abraxas nodded, “Sounds like the wyrm, Corharft is on the move. If we wait for him to get to the Throne Room door, we should be able to move unimpededly con mucho speed. Let's put down as much weight as we can. Let's vamonos!"
The group decided it was a good idea and for the most part, they dropped off extra items from their bags, filling up the loose areas of the vault with their gear. “Want me to take some stuff off of, swampthing?” Lannis asked Wyn. “Lie there unmoving if the answer is yes. Alrighty then! I do have good ideas, you are right. Let me help you out there.”
As the Magic User was stripping extra coin and goods from the elf, Lyra frowned at him and asked, “ Er, Lannis? Why are you taking to Wyn? He’s unconscious.”
The Magic User looked down, frowning. “Didn’t he reply? Also, something about the potion? Maybe you didn't hear it over that ringing.” He rubbed his ear and then a second time. “I hope those guys out there can't hear it."
“Potion,” she snapped her fingers. “Great idea.”
“Yes,” Lannis said, “I do have good ideas…wait. Didn’t I just have this conversation?”
“Shhh,” she motioned to him, “I think you took one too many blows to the noggin this week.” Lyra withdrew one of the 3 Recall potions from Wyn’s back and stepped into the secret hall from the Vault. “In case something goes horribly wrong, I can get back here and open the door.” She popped the top and tilted the contents back, drinking it down. She then took the vial and placed it in her pouch, cinching it tight. “Ok, right as rain.”
Dumping his Banded mail and then hundred of coins, Abraxas was reshuffling the contents of his backpack, pulling out a healing potion and tossing it to Kovid. “Senor Christmas, for you.”
“Ah! Thanks, Abraxas,” Kovid popped that top and drank it down, sighing happily (Heal Potion 1d6: Yellow 4 – Heal 4!!) as more of his many hurts faded a bit. “All good.” He looked down at his Hammer and sighed, noting that it was coated with a layer of tarnish. “We’ll have to clean these again,” he noted, seeing all 4 of the Goddess weapons were affected. “It’s alright, just going to take time, and that time is NOT now.”
He cocked his head, it sounded like the dragon might have reached the throne room doors as we didn’t hear dragging sounds anymore, but the voices were very loud even muffled through the stone. “We chancing getting out of here and making for the pool?” he asked.
The Fighter nodded, lifting the elf up and draping one arm around his back. "Si! Rapido, Rapido, amigos. Necessitamos move mas rapido.”
“Yesss,” Lyra hissed with glee, “and we can clean the bandages.” She looked around, “If this place is inaccessible to us, we will also need to find a safe place to stay the night. Don’t doubt they will be looking for us.”
Something HEAVY slammed into the throne doors, the woods creaking under the impact. There were cheers from the hobgoblins and then the impact sounded again. Back in the secret hall, Kovid hoisted Wyn’s other side the help the Fighter and the two of them started walking south. “South through the summoning room, into the garden and down the fireplace works for me.” He nodded back at Brendon who had shut and locked the Vault door then headed for the front of the party. “Remember in the garden to stick close to the north and west walls all the way around to the Fireplace and hatch.”
The Throne Room doors burst open and we could hear the dragon’s voice and roaring minions much louder through the thick stone walls. There was the sound of inrushing air…
And then with the roar of a hurricane and the howl of a dozen trumpets, the Dragon Corfard released his flaming breath into the Ispan’s throne room, hoping to immolate us if we were there, and the Crystal.
“Holy…fuck.”
Even through the stones the mortar proceeded to heat up and steam in the air and the hallway jumped almost 15, 20 degrees as the dragon continued to fire off his breath weapon to the tune of almost 20 seconds, shaking the walls, floor, and ceiling of the castle, raining dust and grit about us as we huddled by the south door and Brendon managed to get it open at last. “Go, go, go, get the fuck going go,” he waved the group along, skipping into the summoning room and beelining for the south door. “Big Brain, shut it behind us, ok?”
“Holy…fuck!” Lannis repeated. “Holy…fuck.” Mechanically, he closed the secret door and laid his back against it.
“WHERE ARE YOU!!!” came the dragons’ cry, echoing throughout the halls.
“Holy…fuck.” The wizard repeated. “I don’t think I’ll answer that call. Most likely spam. Yeah. Not going to reply.”
The Summoning room smelled of wet ash as evidenced by the sodden mess of the orc’s bedroom from the flames we had lit before. Someone had extinguished it in the past but outside of policing the bodies, had left the wet woods and sodden burned bedding where it had lay.
The Scout was sure the south door was clear and we opened it, heading into the short hall. The two fighters kept Wyn up between them as we arrived at the last door to the western hall. Not even an hour ago there were hobgoblins patrolling within but now (>Hear Noise, Red 86), Brendon couldn’t hear anything beyond it. “No screwing around,” he said. “I’ll open the two doors, Lyra, you go first, lead them to the fireplace, I’ll close everything behind us. We need speed, luck, and silence people. So go, go, go.” He opened the door and looked into the hall in both directions.
Clear.
Going to the Garden door, he pushed it open and it was as we had seen before, very overgrown with green weeds and thorny bushes, visibility limited to maybe 30’. Some white stone paths had been in the floor but they were mostly overgrown. Lyra led the party east along the wall, staying clear of the dirt and plants, Kovid, Abraxas and Wyn were next, then Lannis, and finally Brendon.
Stepping into the very large fireplace, Brendon looked down and saw that his pins were still in place and unbent. Smiling he pulled them out and handed his larger coil of rope to Abraxas. “Doc, tied it around the elf in a way that he doesn’t die. I’ll go down first, make sure it’s all good, than you lower him. Once I’ve got him, you tie this end off up here, and all of you come down fast.”
“What about the rope, Bombadil?” the Fighter asked.
“I’ll climb back up and untie it, then come down. Of any of us, it’s what I do.”
“Hurry,” Kovid frowned. “We don’t know how long Corfard is going to be expressing his anger at the Throne Room.”
“See you below.” Brendon shuffled himself into the open grating, then using the rope (no roll, using rope), he dropped himself down, across the slope, and to the bottom, coming out into the Dining Room. He looked around (it was dark) and saw nothing. (WMC: Red/Black 2) But more importantly, it was still and silent. “Ok,” he whispered back up the flue.
Wyn had been roped under the arms and around his back. Taking the slack elf, Kovid fed him feet first into the flue, while Abraxas let the rope out slowly hand over hand. “Carefully,” he said, “Carefully.” Once Wyn was all the way through, the two of them let the rope and elf go down with whatever care they could (<Str check, Blue 16).
“I hope you spun him so he wasn’t face first,” Lannis asked the dwarf. “Otherwise he’s going to have a bad case of ‘chimney rash’ when he wakes up.”
We heard the sound of the Dragon ROARING in seeming agony and then another roiling long cycle of screaming breath weapon tearing into the Throne Room. “You know what? I have no desire to see what he’s doing in there.”
“You and me both, Big Brain.”
At the bottom, Brendon untied Wyn from the rope and laid the elf to the side of the chimney, while Abraxas tied the rope to the top of the grating. “You go, Senor Lemmywinks,” he clapped the wizard on the shoulder.
“Ok, ok, ok.” As the sound of the dragon’s howl faded again, he muttered once more, “Holy…fuck.” Then grabbing the rope, he worked himself down the flue (<Dex Climb +4 rope (can’t fail), Pink 16) with relative ease, ending up at the bottom. “Shit it’s as dark as Lyra’s sex appeal in here.”
“I can hear that,” she whispered from above.
“Oh yeah, no lantern down there.” Kovid swung himself over. “Let me go next, I can see in the dark,” and he made his way down the hole and climbed (<Dex Climb +4 rope, Yellow 12) his way, feet slipping once or twice, but made it to the bottom and looked around. To his infravision, nothing was out of place and he looked up the flue and whispered, “Ok, Lass. Come on.”
Lyra gave Abraxas a wan smile and the Cleric climbed down the rope to the first floor (<Dex Climb +4 rope, White 5), joining the rest of the party. “I’m here,” she announced.
Abraxas went last, Lantern tied to his belt, he made his way with care down the rope (<Dex Climb +4 rope, Blue 7), until he and the welcome light made it to the base of the chimney. “Whew.” He sighed.
Brendon took his place and the Scout climbed the rope back up to the garden area where he untied the rope here and let it slither back down below. He could feel a strange vibration to the stones and then it stopped and restarted. Then continued. He nodded and said, “The dragon is crawling his way through the halls again.” He slid the grate back in place and then reached up through it and pushed the pins back through the holes. He then climbed down freehand (<Climb, Red 30) and was once more with the group in the Dining Room.
Wyn was just waking up at this point, helped to his feet by the Fighter, looking around with bleary eyes and a pale expression. “I feel…vera vera tired.” He tried to stretch and let out a groan. “And vera vera sore.” Flexing his hands he stood up, bracing himself against the wall and steadied himself. “Fill me in and let me know what happened.”
“It was horrible,” Kovid said, helmet off and using his cap then wiped the fireplace ash off his face.
“I said Holy…fuck, a lot!” Lannis added.
Time now is Day 8, 2:46 PM
(OOC)
Ok – 1st floor. What’s the plan, and how are we doing it?
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