Back at the tavern, Temmie is helping clean Shireling of the goblin blood with a bath. Thokk is drinking and tries to persuade the guard to join him however he is intent on keeping an eye on all of the party members. After many futile attempts to get information out of him, Xanaphina finally arrives and the group prepares to follow the guard to the barracks. As they step out into the street another patrol of guards has arrived to help escort the motley crew. Shireling readies his crossbow as they walk to the barracks getting the guards attention. This however is a distraction while Xanaphina quickly flashes the map to the party. Once they arrive, they are greeted by the captain and he invites them into the building. Their weapons are requested and all but the rogue's are begrudgingly handed over. The tiefling skillfully pulls out his rapier and hands it to the guards while also rotating his belt so the rest of his daggers and boomerang are hidden beneath his cloak. They look around the room and realize there is only one way in or out of this building and it is through the barred and locked door they just entered. Inside they see more guards, in total there were 2 posted at the entrance and another 6 inside, along with the captain and the lieutenant.
"Please follow me," the captain motions them through the dining hall back to a long conference room before they reach a hall of cells. From the last cell, they can hear a voice yelling in a strange and ancient language. Thokk gets excited and tries to hurry past all the guards down the hall but is stopped. He yells down the hall in the same foreign language causing the prisoner to cease his commotion. A moment or two passes and a deep voice yells, "I want to talk to him" "Who?" "The captain. I want to talk to the captain." The captain brings the lieutenant over and gives him some instructions and then motions the rest of the party into the conference room. The captain moves to the head of the table facing the door, Temmie runs down and sits directly on his right, Thokk sits across from the captain at the other end of the long table and Shireling pulls out a chair for Xanaphina a few down on the left hand side and then sits on her left using his tail to try to pull her chair a little closer. The rest of the guards except one go back to the dining hall and they close the door.
The lieutenant looks up from the fumbling keys in his hand as he struggles to pick the right one to open the cell. Inside of it, there is a large dragonborn. He is a copper color almost 6'6" and basically 300 lbs of pure scales and muscles. He asks, "Where did the captain go? I heard a door. I want to speak to the captain." "He told me you were too much trouble to continue to hold here, he wants me to take a patrol and escort you to the edge of the town and have you leave. We don't have enough evidence to make anything stick so we just need you to go." "On the one condition, that I speak with the captain first." "He is in the middle of an interrogation so I will only give you a few seconds but only if you come quietly." "Fine." The dragonborn turns and gathers his cloak from the corner, "I will need my book back. Where did you take it?" "I have it with me and will return it to you if you come quietly at the edge of the town." The dragonborn with his back still to the lieutenant grins as he puts on his cloak.
"For the last time, I don't want to hear any more lies. No more from you," the captain points to the halfling. "And nothing from you. I remember you from the tavern," he says as he looks at the tiefling. "You have been been quiet the whole time," speaking at the elf. "What about you, half-orc? Let's start with your name. Maybe we will eventually get to the truth." "Thokk." "What do you do?" "I am a monk from the order of the Drunken God of Brawling." "Explains your gear at least... What can you tell..." There is a knock and the guard pushes the door open slightly and says loudly, "The prisoner wanted to say one last thing before we escort him out of the town, sir. I told him to be quick." The dragonborn sticks his head through the door and talks in a deep harsh tongue that no one except the Thokk recognizes as draconic, "What are you in for?" Thokk replies in kind, "There will be bloodshed soon." The captain waves them away not understanding anything but suspicious to the purpose of the intrusion, "What did he say?" "He asked what we did." "And?" "I told him that we killed a man." The whole party looks at Thokk stunned.
"You see I normally am a drunken brawler and I go looking for a fight. The men and creatures that I destroy are fighters and brawlers too. The blacksmith however was not. It haunts me to think of him naked, tied to the tree, swinging that axe at him. It felt like splitting a new pine stump. Sticking inside his head and the blood oozing out like sap from wood. It's hard to know what I should feel in that moment..." The captain interrupts him, "So you were one that killed him? Why?" The monk looked up from his hands and down the table into the eyes of the captain and began to recount the tale of the blacksmith's blight.
As the dragonborn neared the door to the barracks, he took a moment to look around. There were 6 guards in this room, filled with tables, the kitchen just off to the side, he saw some locks on the door that led to the cells but outside of that there were only a few other people that were coming and going that he had noticed since he had been held here. As they reached the door and the bolts and locks came off, he readied a spell to perform as soon as he was motioned through the open doorway. The lieutenant approached him from behind and beckoned him through. The dragonborn wizard spoke the incantation in just a few short words and in a moment vanished from view causing all the guards nearby to draw their swords and yell for everyone to be on their guard. Both doors were slammed shut and immediately locked and one of the standing guards outside ran to the manor for reinforcements. Grabbing their swords, spears, and shields the remaining guards spread out in formation near the front door preparing to sweep the room until they found the dragonborn. Appearing in the center of the room, he reappeared as he was reciting another spell. Suddenly a thick cold mist appeared in the air as the natural water vapor began to thicken obstructing the guards view. "Alright men. Be on your guard, he is a large creature so he should be easy to find. Keep an ear out and move forward carefully. Stay together. This will be over quick."
The commotion from the dining hall was loud enough and the monk had told the captain everything he needed to know. The captain stands and leans forward with both hands on the table, "I am going to put you all in prison for being the accomplices and murderers of the blacksmith. We will have to interrogate your other tiefling friend that is playing the part currently of our local blacksmith and figure out what to do with her. You will all be tried and most likely executed before the lord's son arrives home. Do you have anything more to say for yourselves?" "I don't plan on dying today!" yells Shireling as his whole party springs into action. The first thing that occurs is the rogue pulls his hidden boomerang out and throws it around the elf at the captain. The spinning weapons grazes his companion and as the tiefling rolls across the table he hears the captain yell out in pain as it slashes his shoulder. However the elf upset with how closely she is to being cut returns the favor and hurls an axe at the tiefling purposefully missing him. The halfling isn't so lucky because after being attacked the captain swings his sword at the closest target and nearly cuts Temmie in two. Bleeding, he runs beneath the table to cover so he can heal and prepare an attack. Thokk decides he is going to try to pin the captain to the wall using the long table. He bellows out a drunken roar and is able to move the table but not by much. Frustrated, he too tries to rush around to attack. The other guard moves up to assist the captain shield at the ready.
Back in the dining hall, the guards not knowing where to look continue advancing slowly. Like a cat stalking its quarry they move however little did they know that the predator was about to become the prey. The lieutenant had been cursed in the confusion and was being stalked. He was deaf and blind and was struggling to find his friends or foe. His companions sensing his confusion prepared for the unexpected and out of the darkness came a soft voice saying, "It's time for you to die." The wizard appeared next to the lieutenant blade in hand, stuffing it up through the man's throat. As he fell to the floor bleeding the killer again fled into the darkness. One man rushes to the fallen officer's aid and the rest regroup and continue to press forward.
Temmie recognizes that Shireling is without his boomerang and focuses on it. He reaches out with magic and an invisible hand retrieves the boomerang and returns it to him. The rogue is shocked but relieved that he is once again armed. Without his rapier, he dashes forward using the boomerang as a dagger this time, once again slashing the captain but the blade injures him in the process. The other guard again moves to assist and the rogue disengages. An arrow flies from the elf's direction and is deflected off the waiting shield. Thokk decides to charge the pair and leaps over the table however, he is not as athletic or acrobatic in his drunken state and his foot catches an edge and falls right at the captain's feet. Seizing the opportunity, the captain stabs down into the half-orc's leg burying the weapon deep into the bone. Thokk screams out in pain but grabs the weapon.
Now that the barracks is in complete chaos, there is a druid near the cells that sees kitchen staff rush past him back to the bunker. He hears yelling from the dining hall and the sound of steel on steel from the conference room. He quickly runs to the cells. One of the prisoners comes to the bars and they begin to converse, "Karr, why are you here?" "I came to free you but clearly now is not the right time. How did you get put in here?" "The captain of the guard had me arrested. I got caught so I have no excuse. He may still have the keys on him! I saw him go into the conference room over there!" The druid leaves his friend after assuring him he would do his best to survive and runs to the locked door. Unable to break it open, he begins casting a spell on the door. There is an explosion of sound near his open hand damaging the door but not breaking it. He repeats it again with more damage. Again, a third time - finally, it blasts off its hinges and flies into the room.
Not liking his odds of fighting 5 armed guards alone, the wizard raced to the locked door leading to the cells. Deciding he didn't have any other choice, he uses his dragon breath shooting acid at the lock melting it completely. Instead of rushing through it, he casts another spell and this time a shimmer falls across the wizard as he transforms into a guard. Moving back around and meeting one unsuspecting and nervous soldier, he persuades him to move forward and shows him the lock saying that the prisoner must of fled deeper into the cells. They venture forward while the other three guards continue to creep on. The last guard realizes that there is really nothing he can do to save the dying lieutenant and moves on to follow his friends.
"We've got company!" yells Shireling as he dashes forward to stab the nearest guard from the shadows. He jumps back as the rest of the party adjust their gaze and Xanaphina her aim. She looses two arrows at once at the injured guard, burying them deep into his eye sockets. To their surprise, the other guard fades away and the wizard reappears, says something in draconic and begins to loot the guard's body. "He said that there are four more coming. We should charge them now!" interprets Thokk for the rest of the party. The bear starts to hurtle forward and Thokk chases after it. As they get to the doorway, three guards enter into their view. Combining their shields they absorb the charge of the lumbering bear and prod it with their spears and swords injuring it. Thokk mounts the beast and with a large swig of his keg breathes fire in their faces roasting the middle guard. The survivors yell to the trailing guard still making his way through the dining hall to go back and get reinforcements. The bear roars and with Thokk on top its body, they barrel after the guard running to the entrance.
Meanwhile, Temmie realizing he has an opportunity to escape quickly runs to the captain's body and begins looting it. "Hey! I almost died for that! Come here!" yells the tiefling. Temmie b-lines for the open doorway and nearly makes it dodging a swing from the two guards alive and still standing. Shireling loots the rest of the captain's body finding two rings - one gold signet ring and another plain silvery ring and pockets both of them. Xanaphina takes careful aim and timing her arrow just right let's it fly past the little halfling into one of the guards as Temmie desperately stabs the door frame mistakenly with his rapier. If he wasn't about to die, it would have been funny. Upset to find all the gold gone, Shireling turns and hurls his boomerang at the thief, missing the halfling but hitting one of the guards instead.
From the other room, the bear lets out a huge roar and tramples the running guard. Turning he reels back and begins to maul the poor man. Thokk hops off the bear, realizing that there is nothing left to do runs all the way back to the other guards. He runs up behind the closest and once again wraps his arms around the guard and does another suplex like he had performed on the captain with the same result. Temmie immediately disappears behind Thokk and is gone. Shireling runs forward again in pursuit. The remaining guard turns and runs down the hallway past the cells. Shireling takes his boomerang from the corpse by the door and expertly pins it into the back of the fleeing guard, dropping him instantly. With that, the barracks is silent.
The party catches their breath and begins to check the bodies for more loot and weapons. They examine the armor to see if any of it is at all usable. Then they start to realize that they just got saved by a half-elf druid that changed into a bear and a dragonborn wizard plus their bard has completely vanished and is gone! Before they can do introductions, there is pounding on the front door. And they all realize that the soldier reinforcements must have finally arrived. "Quick! Go check for other exits! You go to the kitchen and you go check the back! I saw people run that way before!" "Hey! What is the status in there? Are we coming in or are you coming out? How many are still alive?" The party splits and the rogue runs to the door with the elf, trying to come up with a plan. "All of this because of a stupid blacksmith," Shireling mutters under his breath.
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