“So what’s the plan?” Hisvild asked, glancing at the kids and trying to ignore Ingrid’s cries on the other side of the doorway.
“That’s what we’re going to figure out,” Darius replied. The Fighter pointed to Vulwulf and said, “Want to help us spell it all out?”
“Honestly, shouldn’t we just punch something in the face?” The druid asked. “I feel that winging it and maximum violence is most likely the best direction we could go in.”
The party all disagreed. “Those that fail to plan, plan to fail.”
Shim pointed at the kids and asked, “Want me to Prestar…prestinger…prestigretche…Damn it, do the gnome snap the fingers thing to clean them?”
“You’d only get about half,” Thalin noted. “And dat would leave a big ring of dirt all over.”
“Oh for the love of Frigga,” Darius was going to drag a barrel of water over when Hisvild stopped him.
“That’s all the water we have left. And don’t take it the wrong way, but if your plan goes poorly…”
“Good guess,” Eoghan muttered.
Hisvild continued, not hearing the Ranger’s comment, “then we’re going to need that water.”
“Understood.”
“I can make more,” Vulwulf offered, and taking out a 2 gallon bucket, called on Idun to form a spring which burst from the ground, allowing the druid to fill the bucket from it three times, adding it to the water barrel, and then using the last 2 gallons to stay in the bucket. From there, soap was given out and Hisvild directed the kids to get cleaned, older kids first then the younger ones.
While all this was going on, we also cut up some cheese store we had, handing it out as everyone got clean, trying to ignore Ingrid’s fading cries on the other side of the door. From there we began to figure out a plan on getting out of here. Shim kept the kids occupied with a few games of “duck duck goose.”
Hisvild knew where the crack in the back of the wall was that went through the 10’ and emerged on the other side, but it was too small for him, in fact it was too small for 3 of the kids as well (the half-orcish kids that were about 9). Plus sending them through the crack alone and unattended to emerge in the Open Market seemed like a terrible idea. Shim volunteered to go with them, and then worked on cutting up his leather thongs into a dozen 3’ piece to help tie the other 11 kids together when he was going to take them.
Hisvild needed to lead us to the crack to show Shim where it was, so that was part of the plan. We would then most likely run back for the fence line with the Blue Flowers Orphanage and try to get a ladder from the supply shed here to cross in that way. But we’d have to hold off Stavern and the other 3 Practicals while doing so. So we were boiling the plan down, separating it into manageable pieces with which we could then make decision as we went along. Could we plan for all the variables? No, but we could try to account for the obvious ones.
The lynchpin was the first part – the blast door here in the basement. Could we open the door through a variety of spell use that Vulwulf was hoping to accomplish, and do it without setting off the alarm? Everything else came from that point – whether it was successful or not and whether it triggered the alarm or not. Shim cast Mage armor on Hisvild, the 3 kids that were going to go with him, and what he deemed the 3 kids that were going to be at the back of the “train” that he was going to lead to the wall and through it. The half-orc was doing a great job in identifying what the plan was and that we were hoping to fire it off sometime shortly after midnight.
Ingrid’s wails had devolved over time to just some low moans and whimpering gasps. When Hisvild’s alarm spell triggered 1 ping, and then a second, the group grew silent as Stavern the dwarven Practical and most likely another came down the hall and then came down the stairs. The dwarf was still hoping to entreat Hisvild to just open the door. He promised that they were going to get in some time. The Underthane was coming. His actions were needlessly hurting Ingrid and the others here. It sounded like the Practicals had hurt (not killed) others here in the Sunrise Rabbits in hopes to getting the Taskmaster to open the door.
But it was here, while he was waxing long, that Tidra grew tired of his prattling and made an offhand disparaging comment.
“Excuse me, Hisvild,” Stavern asked with measured slowness and artificial calm, “Is there someone else in there with you?”
“Umm…”
“Speak up, dear. You are there. Do you have a name?”
The party was staring at Tidra, mouths agape, eyes wide. Thalin put his head in his hands. Vulwulf was staring at his plans scratched out painstakingly in the grit on the floor and slowly wiped one foot over them, smearing them away. Darius might have been whispering, “what the fuck?”
Tidra, realizing that maybe she might have made a mistake, thought quickly and decided not to supply her real name. “Sandra,” she replied.
“Sandra, huh? Well, you got IN there, didn’t you?” There was a grunt and a wail as Ingrid was most likely lifted off the ground. “Take her away,” Stavern whispered to another Practical with him. “So it’s safe to assume you are planning on getting OUT of there, isn’t it?” He paused and then said, “Hisvild? This is on you. You better hope no kids get hurt. Because I’m going to hurt someone.” He then marched back up the stairs very fast and went somewhere, voice calling out to the other Practicals.
“Wow.” The party looked over at the Half-orc Fighter who was rubbing her chin. “Sandra, huh? She really fucked this up.”
“This is why I don’t like plans,” Vulwulf said, swinging his staff around and glancing at the blast door.
“We needed to plan,” Darius said.
“All our plans end up with, fuck it, let’s just fight,” the druid retorted.
“Not all of them,” Shim offered, bringing his line of kids together. “Besides, this is on Sandra. Let’s make sure that she’s the one to blame.”
The alarm on the door binged a few times and we heard Stavern call out, “Damn you, Hisvild! I want those kids!” We then heard a body fall and the scent of oil grew very strong. Some whimpering followed and then some crying, a fearful voice begged, “no” and then the dwarf commanded, “Light him up.”
“RRRAAAHH!!!!” someone shrieked and cried out on the other side of the door up the stairs into the Orphanage as they were set ablaze.
“This is on you!”
Eoghan had his bow out, pointing at the blast door. “No more time, Let’s go.”
“Wasn’t that one of our plans?” Shim asked
“Pretty sure setting someone on fire at the stairs didn’t make the list,” Darius commented, sling out and bullet loaded.
Hisvild unlocked the door and it sent out a chiming throughout the building, and we could hear more calls on the other side of the door as Stavern called out, “They’re making a run for it!”
The group gathered together and we could hear a Practical on the other side of the blast door calling to them. “I see what you did,” he shouted, “Chain is open! Come on!” Shim and Thalin both cast a fast spell, summoning a Barbaric Elf armed with a pair of sickles and then a troglodyte.
“Oh gods! The smell! Open the door!” Amidst the reek of vomitous decaying fish coming from the Trog, Hisvild shook his head and twisted the door open.
Tidra fired her crossbow a split instant before the Practical shot his. He took a bolt and ignored it, the Elf got knocked on his ass. And then a follow-up shot when, Tidra shooting the door and the Practical then knocking another person down. The screaming in the Temple was heartrending as whoever it was was burned alive. And Thalin could see fire, fed by creeping oil, making its way under the door. “My friends! We need to go!”
“Roadblock here,” Darius pointed to the armored dwarf as Eoghan fired at it. Twice. Both shots having little effect. “I think we need to rethink our plan a bit,” the Fighter slung a bullet as the party made to advance. Vulwulf called to Idun to enchant his staff into a Shillelagh.
The Practical continued to shoot into the room and Shim and Hisvild kept their line of children back. The reek of the Trog was terrible and we did what we could to close to the Practical, who was methodical as he picked his targets across the room. Arrows and bolts and slings flew and his heavy plate deflected most of the possible damage aside. Shim and Thalin had their summoned monsters push closer, getting to melee range. Meanwhile the fire continued to spread, getting into the chamber. The kids were frantic and we had to dislodge the dwarf. Eoghan was shooting arrows at a terrific pace, grumbling at the dwarf’s ablative armor.
“Idun,” Vulwulf pointed back to the fire and called on his goddess, “Let’s use that to our benefit. Animate Fire!” And the flames rose up into a 4’ simulacrum of a burning version of Vulwulf. It moaned wildly and ran on tottering burning legs in the party’s direction.
“Well…that’s new!” Tidra watched it run closer, before taking aim again and firing another volley of bolts. The dwarf was getting wounded at this point and had backed up to the stairs. Swapping to his hand axe, he climbed up the stairs backwards, holding the elf and troglodyte easily at bay. Plus in his position, he held the high ground, choked the narrow exit, and prevented the group from engaging him at more than one at a time.
“We’ve got to shake him,” Darius called out, swapping places at the front door and letting sling bullets soar. “If another Practical comes, they’ll just rain crossbow bolts down on us.”
“Working on it,” Shim called out. He pointed to the Elf, “You, Get up there. Get him out of the way!” The Trog and elf were fighting up the stairs, cutting and slashing. Eoghan took advantage of the shift in battle and drew back, letting an arrow fly.
Straight into the back of the elf, punching into its head, and killing it outright (fumble, critical hit friend, triple damage, d6+1, 7 x 3 = 21 damage).
“What the fuck man!?!” Shim called out as the Practical smashed his axe down and slew the trog. The fire elemental had gotten into the fight at this point and also took an axe blow but not before singing the dwarf.
Wrapping his sling around his wrist, Darius pulled his shield into place and bitched, “I fucking HATE doing what I’m about to do.” And then he ran into the stairwell and holding the shield over his head, tried to buffet, rush, and shove his way past the dwarf. The two of the struggled in the stairwell under the billco doors and Darius could hear another Practical running up, calling out, “Hold them! Hold them!”
“Idun! Let’s raise the temperature a bit on that dwarf. Heat Metal!” Vulwulf’s spell went off and the Practical began to grunt as his armor started to grow warm, really warm.
And then hot.
“We’re not going to make it!” Darius growled as his shield was stomped upon and kicked hard. “Can’t that go any faster?”
Shim had dragged his line of kids closer and then called out another spell, shooting it into the air past the fighter and Practical. And a 280’ lb, 6’ tall, giant toad appeared, landing with a hard thud. “Grrrrooooakk!” Its tongue flashed out and wrapped around the practical, dragging him back a few feet and then bit him.
“Toad!”
Darius burst up as the other Practical arrived, shooting him at point blank before the toad turned to engage him. The heat metal was getting smoking hot and the dwarf was hurting, taking some damage. He threw himself away from the fight and rolled into the snow, making his armor hiss and pop, forcing him to constantly turn in the cold slush to avoid taking any further major damage.
We hit the stairs hard, climbing up to join the fight. Thalin called out another spell and an armored hobgoblin appeared, joining the toad in the fight against the new Practical. Eoghan kept up a withering barrage of arrow fire where he could and Tidra alternated between her dagger and crossbow. At one point she took out her rope and went to try and truss up the dwarf with the smoking armor but the two of them ended up wrestling on the ground, more hit points slowly frittering away. Vulwulf joined the melee and Darius kept moving back every couple of seconds to send another pair of sling bullets to smash against the Practical.
The one on the ground had finally dropped his hand axes and slumped over exhausted. “That’s it,” he moaned, “I’m done.” He was bleeding horribly, bruised and battered, a lesser being would have been dead and it appeared that he would be of little use in the near future. This allowed the party to redouble their efforts on the last Practical. Somewhere we suspected that the last two Practicals, Stavern and the female dwarf, had just run out the front door and were running around to try and join the fight. “Get them up here!” Thalin called down to Hisvild and Shim, the two of them herding the line of kids to the stairs and up them.
The last Practical tried hard, and Vulwulf, Tidra, and Darius were taking the brunt of the attacks after the Hobgoblin had been slain. “Hooray!” Shim called out as it ‘popped’. “I fucking hate Hobs.” But a well placed series of final sling bullets had the dwarf choking and then falling over, hands raised and signaling his defeat. “Thor’s Balls!” he swore, “there was NO way we suspected we’d have to face anything like you guys.” He looked over at the other Practical who was also trying to catch his breath, “Don’t have to like you, but you have our respect.”
“Let’s go!” Hisvild started to run the kids off and the party followed, Thalin leading with his bow out. “I’ll get you to the back wall, show you where the crack is, and then what’s the plan?”
“Shed? Ladder, maybe?” Darius pointed ahead. “Let’s go. Go people!” The party started to run off coming to the back end of the complex when the other two Practicals had finally turned the corner and yelled out for us to “Stop!” They lifted their crossbows and intended to fire. Darius pulled out the Molotov cocktail he had made from the flask of oil and looked back. “Someone light this! I’ll sling it at them!”
The party struggled to get the oil lit as they ran on, flint and steel flashing. But the Practicals did fire…and both bolts hit. Striking Vulfulf and Eoghan! The Ranger was struck full on in the chest…but the bolt only slightly penetrated his armor (Critical, triple damage…rolled a 1 x 3 = 3 damage!). “Damn I thought I was a goner!”
The oil lit and Darius at extreme 220’ range, used every trick he knew to generate range, lift, and trajectory, and let the flask of oil fly at the charging dwarves. It sailed up, tumbling end over end as it did, striking the apex before tilting over and then finally…striking Stavern in the chest and covering the dwarf in burning oil.
“Hell of a shot, kid. That was one in a million.”
“Stow it, Han,” Darius turned and ran on. “They shot first. Let’s get out of here.” They ran off into the snow after the line of kids, looking back and watching behind them as they hit the wall. Hisvild pointed out the crack (we would never have found it on our own), and it was indeed narrow and small. Shim went first, coaxing the kids to stay linked up and to follow him. He was given curt instruction to not let them out of his sight and to get them through the Bazaar and eventually to Sergeant Barrim at the Wall Guard.
“We need to go, now!” Vulwulf called back and the party then turned and ran north along the east side of the Orphanage, watching west to see if the dwarves would arrive. We were running on, Thalin taking the lead. “I’ll acid splash the front gate,” the spellsword called back. “No time for the ladder. Let’s just get to the street.” He put on a burst of speed, feet flying below him. As we ran, we could hear the dwarven Practicals slowly gaining ground. Eoghan was the first to find himself breathing hard, panting as he ran. He pushed on and ignored the growing burn in his lungs. Tidra was plodding along, heavy footfalls hitting as she tried to go faster but her armor and arms were heavy enough. Even Vulfulf was running slow, the half-orcish druid had taken numerous painful wounds during the fight.
We turned around to the front and pressed on the speed to make the gate.
Shim had led the kids through the crack, slow and patient, promising to help them out. “Candy! That’ll help you guys! Come on, almost there!” Once on the other side, he quickly took stock of where he was and noted the kids were all cold and shivering badly. He took off the thongs and told them to hold hands and stay together. He led them through the back of the bazaar until he found someone selling second hand blankets. The heavyset merchant was surprised at the gnome and his passel of kids and had his wife get a half dozen blankets together (2 kids per) where they were wrapped around the freezing children. The fast talking glib gnome managed to escape much of the follow-up questions and got the kids out of the area and the wondering questions, making for the street.
Where the city watch was located. And they stopped him, taking him and the kids immediately to see Sergeant Valad, especially when he produced the writ we had for this adventure.
Thalin had hit the gate first, and fired off a bust of acid at the lock. It steamed and smoked and he had to wait for the acid to finish its job before he could line up another one. Meanwhile the group was right there and the 2 Practicals turned the corner and fired again, this time barely 150’ behind, hoping to stop the group. Thalin’s second spell weakened the internal lock enough to break it open and the party, Hisvild, and the three older kids, all hit the street and then proceeded to head off to the west, looking behind them nervously as Stavern and the other Practical got to the gate with a slow jog. The dwarf rubbed his chin and gave the group a begrudging nod, before closing the gate and then wrapping the chain around it again. The other Practical took out a new lock and locked the gate as some people in the street were wondering what was going on.
“I have a feeling that whoever is left in the Orphanage is about to have a terrible day,” Darius mumbled. Trying to ignore his numerous hurts and juggling his seriously depleted sling bullet bag he sighed. “Let’s go.”
Shim had a brief but pointed conversation with Sergeant Valad, the Half-Ogre in charge of this area of the watch. He convinced him of the kids’ origin and that they were heading off to the Wall Guard and West Gate to meet up with Sergeant Barrim. Deciding to be a part of this, the Half-Ogre had a 6 count of his city guards go with the gnome and the 11 children, heading off to see this matter moved forward and find out what was exactly going on.
12 rounds of combat, 9 rounds of chase/flee/pursuit. You guys did over 110 damage to 2 boss level dwarves, and they did over 90 damage to you guys including summoned dudes. But, you did it, you got the kids out. Now let’s see what happens. Either this Saturday or the next will finish this short adventure.
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