Hell inside of Hell

1:00 A.M - Day 1, Desnus 25, 3042 AP (After Peace)

We’ve been waiting six hours now. Vix’thra was rabid that we use one of the guards for his sick and twisted purposes. We are all getting itchy. We’ve locked ourselves in the core cell block and positioned ourselves in the best way we can. 

A rustle of chain shirts and clanking swords is heard. Oh no, the change of guard. Vix’thra has two hours left of his ritual. We’ll have to handle this without him. 

“Where the hell are the 2nd shifters?” said one of the guards.

“You know where they are, probably drunk as skunks passed out in the cell block.” the other said.

Ritual complete.

We heard a knock at the door and they asked if we were ok, presumably referring to the previous guards. Since one of the previous shifts was a woman Kallista attempted to bluff them. 

“Oh nothing is wrong, we’ve just locked ourselves in and the keys don’t seem to be working from this side.” She said.

In the interrogation room Maldrake hid in the darkness with the door ajar. He unleashed a murderous command spell causing the guard with the horn to attempt and attack against the other and missed.  Luckily for Maldrake the guard on the receiving in passed it off as drunkenness and quickly forgot about it due to Kallista’s rouse. 

Kallista posing as the female guard bluffed the guards to stand back so we can try and open the door with a bit of force. Foolish as they were, the guards put away their weapons and the signal horn in preparation to help. 

Damn 'ittle 'uns.

Silently, Grumblejack is signaled to get ready to charge the door, Kallista is to his right wielding a long sword. Stixx readies himself to mix a bomb to throw. Maldrake has the other long sword and a sadistic smile indicating he is ready to let loose another vicious bite attack from the darkness in the outside chamber.  Stryder now equipped with a simple longbow stand at attention closer to the back cells with aim centered on the door. 

The door swung open and the shocked look in the dazed eyes of the guards is all we needed to know to make this another win for us. Or so we thought. Stryder began with an arrow to the shoulder of initial horn blower. Maldrake jumped from the door and landed a bite to the side of the same guard’s neck. To finish the job in swift fashion Grumblejack missed with a slam, but Kallisa ended him quickly with a magic missile. 

The final guard, clearly outnumbered withdrew from combat and rushed down stairs. Grumblejack and Kallista gave chase. Maldrake took a dangerous chance and jumped down the nearby active chimney.  Sadly for Maldrake his climb skills are not grand and he tumbled right into a pile of hot ashes to meet four lowly servants prepping food for the next shift.  

With horn in hand and signal being blown by this last runaway guard, we knew with in only minute reinforcements were bound to arrive. We thought this would be no problem unfortunately for us, the stairs end right outside of Sgt. Blackery’s quarters. Within 30 seconds he was up and out ready to go and cut Grumblejack off and two other guards at the far end of the Great Hallway had bows readied.  

Kallista in action.

Kallista enlarged herself to pair up with Grumblejack. The two guards in the hallway let loose two arrows into Grumblejack’s chest. He dropped briefly to one knee but reached to attack Tomas Blackerly and stuck him with an immense blow. Tomas however made a critical error and lost grips with his sword and instead struck his inner thigh causing a major bleed. Tomas returned with a sword thrust through the half-ogre’s shoulder dropping him to the floor.  

I want to where the horn as a hat.

Thanks to Maldrake’s daring move he entered the same hall way from another area and struck the runaway guard with another bite attack killing him instantly.  While Tomas was charging toward Kallista, Stixx and Styder were making their way down the stairs to the same hall way. Maldrake went after the guards with bows swinging his longsword at them with fury. 

Kallista first took to range combat with Tomas and missed twice. She switched to the long sword to take to melee. By this point Tomas was well ready to fight. They traded a couple blows.Stixx attempted another bomb launch but missed and did nothing. Tomas struck down the little goblin in one swift shunt of his sword. Unfortunetly for Tomas, Stryder is a keen shot and dropped him with a pinpoint shot through the neck.  Maldrake lunged at the closest bower and struck with a long sword and bite attack and dropped him fast. 

Stryder launched an arrow at the other and wounded him quite badly, and thus he began to run screaming in pain. Maldrake started to run after him.  Kallista who was badly injured began a full run as well. The runaway guard did manage to escape to the court yard where two more incoming guards were intercepting him as well as a guard dog. Kallista was the first to go against the guard dog in front. She missed and it finished her off with relative ease. 

 It was Stryder who barely was in range for his longbow put an arrow through the guard dog while Maldrake finished it off via flanking. The reinforcement guards closed in on Maldrake. Maldrake unleashed another thrust and bite and removed one of the newly arriving guards. 

..........

Maldrake took an arrow to the back and a precise sword strike through the gut and he went down.  Stryder put an arrow through the skull of the runaway guard and the new guard was closing in on Stryder with a sword. Stryder shot, hit and the guard returned a blow to his rib cage. Stryder sidestepped and shot again, hit again. The guard took another swing and Stryder ducked and stepped back one final time. He was on death’s door, one more hit and he would have been down as well. In his favor, the arrow hit the guard in the side and down he went. 

Stryder, matted with blood from mane to tail, observed the carnage quietly. His newly found escapees were down. The hall way was soaked with blood. Tomas, five guards, and a dog were dead.  The servants stuck their heads out of the mess hall into the hall way to see this scene. Stryder looked at them with a blank stare. With bow already cocked and ready to fire, the servants as they did with Maldrake surrendered and begged for their life. 

Please have mercy!

I beg of you!

With no calculation or care, he shot and dropped the first one. The other servants pleaded for mercy and Stryder only saw them as obstacles to alert more guards and downed another. The third servant started to back away and Stryder dropped him. The fourth managed to run back to the kitchen. Stryder slowly followed and busted down kitchen door. Calmly raised his bow and struck down the helpless servant as he was praying in the back of the head.