Escape from / Assault of ... the Slavers Temple

[Straither]

Memorial Garden Cemetery: Crypt

13.30pm:
Illuminatio: dimmed lanterns and minor sunlight through stained glass window.

Conditions: the only ongoing condition will be Brick's partial deafness due to Ear-Seekers.

Temple Random response: (every two turns) Crypt siege. vs 1 [1d6]=3 [1d6]=3 [1d6]=6Temple Random response: (every two turns) Crypt siege. vs 1 [1d6]=6 [1d6]=3 [1d6]=6Temple Random response: (every two turns) Crypt siege. vs 1 [1d6]=5 [1d6]=3 [1d6]=4Temple Random response: (every two turns) Crypt siege. vs 1 [1d6]=1 [1d6]=6 [1d6]=3

Potion of Healing to Elwita [2d4+2]=5+2=7Potion of Healing [2d4+2]=2+2=4Potion of Healing [2d4+2]=3+2=5

The three potions of healing are shared out, Elwita refusing to consume all the healing draughts as others also have needs and roles to play. I have updated the potion use in the tally below.

Amazingly, the Orc guard of the Temple are happy enough to besiege the Crypt for almost three hours before they determine to approach and announce some parlay. The guards on the walls of the cemetery number up to a dozen crossbowmen with a Sgt type figure barking watch orders. At all times, at least a quartet of guards have weapons loaded and levelled at the Crypt entrance door.

Memorial Gardens: random allotment 1-3 vs cemetery intruders [1d6]=6

Edel can see all of this courtesy of Pallas, the little Screech Owl so at home in the high boughs of a nearby tree. With his ability to turn head almost 270° in rotation, he can have a good view of the gardens and any intrusion towards the Crypt itself, forewarning you of some encounter.

During those three hours, the Wizard Locked coffer still holds secure, after much banging, those guards below have withdrawn from the immediate vicinity though no doubt lie in wait in the passages. Three hours is a good rest but not enough to cover any period of spell replenishment. So another quiet period is needed before prayers and study can be made.

After three hours, the double doors at the top of the cemetery open and a number of Orcs enter, flanking a robed figure. The guards look nervously about as if expecting trouble to assail them from the undergrowth but only breeze blown leaves stir and a pack of jet black Squirrels chatter and squeak in objection, baring large teeth and a feral demeanour. A few scattered nuts and treats seem to pacify them. A couple of the Orcs bear a litter stretcher and they go to the slain weasel garden whose body has been dragged off the path where he was killed by some entangling roots and nibbles upon by giant Ants. They pick his remain up very unceremoniously, throw a blanket over him and exit. The other Orcs approach the Crypt and using a simply cone to amplify his voice, the robed figure requests those inside the Crypt to surrender.

"Come, give yourselves over. You are proud infiltrators, the cream of the crop. But are cornered and cannot make it out alive if you fight. Gruumsh is merciful to those who now the knee."

You get a usual diatribe of unconvincing mercy, that you will be treated well and sold off to prime markets where your talents and skills might buy you freedom and fortune over the current sentence of death in struggling to escape. "No one has ever escaped alive!" is the discouraging mantra.

In a further effort to flag your spirits, one guard approaches with a pike which he plants in the ground before the door. Upon the pike head is impaled the unmistakable form of Goran's head.


Olleg: 16/33hp
Brick: 18/18hp
Mortar: 10/10hp
Vennar: 17/19hp.
Galadria 16/17hp
Durrant: 7/7hp
Edel: 11/11hp (14/14hp with Pallas the Owl:
3/3hp)
Elwita: 12/54hp.
Jacupo: 7/15hp
Rogger: 10/10hp.

Spells available
Mortar: DM & RM, any 0/4 x 1st, 1/3 x 2nd
Durrant: any 0/4 x 1st, 0/3 x 2nd
Edel: RM, any 0/4 x 1st, 1/3 x 2nd

Galadria: DE cantrip, any 0/4 x 1st, 0/2 x 2nd lvl
Vennar: DE cantrip, any 1/4 x 1st, 1/3 x 2nd lvl

Jacupo: DE cantrip, any 0/4 x 1st lvl, 1/2 x 2nd
Rogger: DE cantrip, any 0/2 x 1st.

Next Actions everyone please how do you wish to respond?

[Rex]

Brick

Brick remains silent but anybody looking his way can tell he is very angry, on the verge of losing it angry.

[Edeldhur]

Edel

The silence from his companions was deafening to Edel... "Well" - he whispered, rubbing his temples - "Observing the exterior through the eyes of Pallas, something feels 'off' with this garden" - he began - "And the orcs do not seem crazy at ease in here either... Not sure if we can use it to our advantage, but maybe it simply means they will not bring a big contingent to bear on our heads from that direction, for whatever it is worth" - the Elf added - "I can spot about twelve orcs patrolling the walls with crossbows, plus the several other ones who just came in, probably to protect the robed one speaking"

"If anyone here is good with words, now is not the moment to be shy" - he continued whispering - "We need to buy time. I am not sure we can win a confrontation at the moment, but if we have time to rest things might be different" - and looked around - "Anyone? Or shall I?"

Come on, you Charismatic beautiful people!

[OGRE MAGE]

Mortar notices that Brick is getting angry. The enemy won't like him when he's angry. "If this goes poorly, feel free to charge them," He whispers to the group.

The tiny Gnome lights up an incense stick and begins waving it over his head as he casts his last bit of magic towards the group of orcs, centering it upon the robed figure and avoiding the squirrels at all cost. (Casting Hypnotic Pattern)

"I have no intention of dying in here. Please let me live! I like my head where it is!!! Sell me off to the highest bidder! I would make a great harem tender for any wealthy masters!"

The glowing stick produces a colorful swirling pattern in the air in front of the orcs, making it hard for them to look away from it. (hopefully)

[Straither]

Memorial Garden Cemetery: Crypt

13.35pm:
Illumination inside: dimmed lanterns and minor sunlight through stained glass window.
outside: bright sunlight.

Conditions: the only ongoing condition will be Brick's partial deafness due to Ear-Seekers.

The party do not meekly surrender. Despite promises that 'a life in chains is still a life', with a hope of eventual freedom to those who please master or mistress; the group respond defiantly.

Mortar opens the door and from the porch see Illustrations thread for pic of crypt door, he casts the last of his mesmerising magics.

Invoking vibrant and dazzling colours to whirl as hypnotic firework patterns, he beguiles the Gruumsh priest, his one-eye glazed in awe and amazement as he succumbs to the array. Half the Orc guard with him are similarly beguiled.
The other half are more wily, perhaps through previous experiences with the cemetery phantasms. Seeing companions hypnotised and in danger, each of the three grab a colleague and in 'fireman's lift' style, carry them as over-the-shoulder burdens out of the danger zone that encompasses the top end of the Memorial Gardens. The lone figure remaining is the pike guard who stands gibbering beside the impaled head of Goran.

Elwita makes her own dash, striding out of the crypt under a barrage of crossbow bolts, she beheads the guard in unceremonious fashion.

There were a quartet of Orc guards stationed on the Temple walls that had sights trained upon the door. Three target the dwarf without success but the fourth is able to pinpoint the gnome. Mortar gets hit by the expertly loosed bolt and it breaks his concentration to keep the spell running. -3hp.

Elwita comes running back through the door as the Orcs stationed upon the walls rally for any breakout attempt. She shuts the door behind her almost at the same time as those Orcs carrying colleagues leave through the double doors at the top of the garden.

Once more, the cemetery becomes eerily and oppressively silent, the only sound being feral Dire Squirrels munching on the decapitated guard's nuts and one scurrying up the pike to pluck a succulent eyeball from Goran.

Orcs: spell save vs Hypnotic Pattern: guards 17+ [1d20]=14[1d20]=20[1d20]=17[1d20]=7[1d20]=20[1d20]=15 Acolyte 15+ [1d20]=6Orcs: light crossbow bolts [1d20]=1 [1d6+1]=6+1=7 [1d20]=11 [1d6+1]=1+1=2 [1d20]=11 [1d6+1]=2+1=3Orcs: light crossbow bolts [1d20]=20 [1d6+1]=2+1=3

Memorial Gardens: random allotment 1-3 vs cemetery intruders [1d6]=6

In the aftermath of the brief encounter, what do you do next?

Olleg: 16/33hp
Brick: 18/18hp
Mortar: 7/10hp
Vennar: 17/19hp.
Galadria 16/17hp
Durrant: 7/7hp
Edel: 11/11hp (14/14hp with Pallas the Owl:
3/3hp)
Elwita: 12/54hp.
Jacupo: 7/15hp
Rogger: 10/10hp.

Spells available
Mortar: DM & RM, any 0/4 x 1st, 0/3 x 2nd
Durrant: any 0/4 x 1st, 0/3 x 2nd
Edel: RM, any 0/4 x 1st, 1/3 x 2nd

Galadria: DE cantrip, any 0/4 x 1st, 0/2 x 2nd lvl
Vennar: DE cantrip, any 1/4 x 1st, 1/3 x 2nd lvl

Jacupo: DE cantrip, any 0/4 x 1st lvl, 1/2 x 2nd
Rogger: DE cantrip, any 0/2 x 1st.

next actions please

[Edeldhur]

Edel

"Well, at least I guess that scared some of them off" - Edel shrugged, after the initial shock of Mortar's outburst.

@Straither: Is there any way to lock the crypt door from our end (by this I mean a lock and key, or a bar, or something)?

[Straither]

Is there any way to lock the crypt door from our end

no. The paralysed guards had a key which Goran took .... Durrant has used all his Wizard Lock spells and needs to study to regain it.

[Edeldhur]

Edel

Is there any way to lock the crypt door from our end

no. The paralysed guards had a key which Goran took .... Durrant has used all his Wizard Lock spells and needs to study to regain it.

Understood.

"Anyone has any spikes or anything else which might help us jam this door?" - he asked the others - "If we stay and rest, it would be good to prevent them from simply barging through the door"

[Rex]

Brick

"Sorry Mortar, I just gave away my potion of healing."

To Edel, "There is a pike just outside the door you could use to wedge the door shut with."

[Edeldhur]

Edel

"Unfortunately if I step outside, I will be dead on the spot" - Edel pointed out, remembering the several guards on watch all around the crypt.

[Rex]

Brick

"Oh yeah, that might be a problem if you aren't very fast about it."

[OGRE MAGE]

Mortar stands there dumbfounded that his spell worked so poorly against these despicably weak adversaries.

"That usually turns out much better. I must be losing my touch in this shithole."

Looking around unsure what to try next, the Gnome decides to have a closer look at this area, since it will likely be the final resting place for each of them.

"My Illusion magic is now spent until we can get some sleep, so if anyone has an idea how we are going to get out of here, now's a good time to let us in on it."

"Anyone see where that bastard Blodgett ran off to? I'd bet he's in on this BS since he basically got us all trapped in here. Next time.....we stick with MY idea!!!"

He moves over to Elwita, who was reportedly once the conniving halflings companion. "What have you got to say about that, my nearest kinsmen? Did you trust the thief when you adventured together? Why would he pull such a stunt like this on us? And on you?"

If there are no other legitimate suggestions, Mortar will cast his Detect Magic spell and search around the area, in case there is something hidden they might have missed.