Platform Games

6 DECEMBER 3460

Once again, the night was without incident and all start to emerge from their tents around dawn. The spellcasters make their preparations for the day while the warriors apply their armor and check their weapons once again, knowing that they will almost definitely be needed before the day is through.

The squires, meanwhile, set to the task of providing breakfast for them all and they sit around the campfire awaiting the return of Jihan from his scouting mission. As dawn breaks while they are eating breakfast, the temperature starts to heat up a little, taking it a few more degrees above freezing than of late. As a result, the snow is now starting to melt a little in places.

It gets to 10.00 and there is still no sign of the elf, and they are starting to get a little worried about him when the elf stealthily appears between the tents. His expression neutral, he comes up amongst them and crouches next to the fire in order to warm himself:

"I spent the whole night watching the guards, waiting to see it they would change their shift," he explains. "I spent a lot of time trying to see if I could see any of the guards in the Lab, but could see little except for the flickering of torches. Once it became light, I could see that they had just one guard walking around the battlements keeping a lookout. I never saw where the other nine were."

"As for those on the platform, they also did not stir throughout the night and so they are obviously very well trained. They were very well hidden indeed and I'm not sure that I would have been able to spot them were in not for the fact that I knew where to look for them. The platform that they are sitting on is made of wood that is lashed together with rope. It was supported by a couple of boughs. I think that taking out the platform might not be a bad idea. The fall would probably not kill them, as it is only 12' above the ground with a soft landing into the ferns and bracken below, but it would certainly make it a great deal easier to get at them as well as disorientating them totally."

"Throughout the night, there was no activity to speak of, but then, a little before dawn, they changed guard. The first sign of it came when I heard the cry of a raven coming from the platform. A few minutes later I could see five guards emerging from the laboratory, making their way down to the boat on the jetty. They untied it and then used the chain in order to haul themselves across the lake to the opposite jetty. Upon reaching it, they all disembarked and waited to be met by the others on the platform. Once the relief guards were across, the guards on the platform came down from the tree and made their way towards the jetty, taking great care to cover their tracks as they went. After chatting with the relief force for a couple of minutes, the first group of guards took the ferry back over to the island, while the relief guards carefully climbed up onto the platform. I would say that the whole changeover took a little over 15 minutes from the raven's cry to the guards' being back inside the laboratory."

Gronk appears disturbed at Jihan's news:

"Me 'inks we oughtta be forgettin' 'bout 'em guards. Either 'ey be religeous nuts or 'ey be mercenaries. Spent some time as a merc meself, I did. Ain't da lot ya wanna be messin' with 'less ya gots no choice. 'eir mean an' know all kinds o' nasty tricks. Iffin ya be plannin' on tryin' ta take 'em out when alls ten be 'ere ya can count me out. I'd rather be at da mercy o' a Witchfinder 'an ten mercs who ain't killed nothin' lately."

Bennett nods at Gronk:

"I also think we will get pretty bloody trying to engage these fellows in the trees. They seem a capable lot, and they outnumber us. Why not magically take them out?"

Gronk turns to look at Fae:

"Meanin' no disrespect ta ya little lady."

"Me thinks walkin' us over with 'em boots sounds like da best plan."

"Yes, but as I 'ear the magess, only ONE can use th'boots at a time. It'll take forever t'get us all across," Kokal says. "An' a bigger concern is, once we're there, there's only one way out I see -- d'any of ye want t'be trapped in tha' germ factory?"

"Any rate, t'me buildin' a boat is right out o'th' question. We'll need the cart fer the freed captives, as my bet is they won' be up fer much walkin' ... or runnin'.... very far. An' we're too far from th'water t'build somethin' from scratch an' carry it t'a launch spot wit'out bein' seen by th' guards. An' they'll be lookin', 'cause th' Nemotz're a paranoid bunch."

At this, Oldrich stops whistling and takes a slug from a bottle of whisky that he managed to blag off Blanka before setting out on the journey:

"Why don't you, like, move upstream or something, man?" he asks the Padre. "Ain't nobody saying that you've gotta stay here to build your boat."

"Why don't you like, move a mile or two upstream and then just .. . like .. . float?"

From the glazed expression upon his face, floating seems to be what the bard's brain is doing at the moment.

"I thin' our best plan is t'get a better reconnaissance o' th' fortress wit th' purpose o' gettin out th' captives as quick an' quiet as we can, using the talents o' th' magess an' the priestess," Kokal says definitively. "Sounds like tha' can be done right under the scums' noses wit'out too much risk. Meantime, those o'us 'o can't turn invisible or walk on water can use guerilla tactics t'take out th'guards outside th'place an' secure th'escape route. We less talented folks need somethin' t'do, after all!"

Bennett looks at Yaz:

"You have a wood warp and thorn spell handy? We could do this deal right now, I think."

Yaz shakes his head sadly in response:

"Sorry man. It's a good plan that you had there, but the problem is casting the Spike Growth. Y'see I'm thinking that it's the getting onto the island and into the Lab that's going to be the trickiest part of the operation, so I asked Prirodna to bless me with a spell that allows me to give three of us the ability to walk on water and the blessing to mould stone instead. I think that shooting them full of arrows while they are entangled should do the trick. No problem."

Bennett nods:

"I just liked the image of falling into the spiked pit. This way isn't as much fun, but it'll work."

He smiles and shrugs his shoulders.

"Much as it'd be a fine thin' t'wipe the pestilence fr' th' face o' th' land, I don' know tha' we've got th' right opportunity t'do it today," Kokal says. "Let's just concentrate on doin' what we set out t'do -- rescuin' yer friends."

"And leave behind any others the Nemotz have 'collected'?" Jihan asks. "A number that could be a dozen or more perhaps? Getting in will be hard enough, but getting out carrying a dozen people is going to be very hard with priests of filth and their cronies around. I will not go back on my words to Blanka, but at the same time, I will not leave another brother or sister sick and dying if I can possibly help it."

The Padre looks to be literally biting his tongue in anger as Jihan suggests he would intentionally leave innocent people in the hands of the Nemotz.

"I'm sure that we have the resources among all of us to wipe these bastards out, even if we have to go about it with a one on one basis," Jihan continues.

"Really, now?" Kokal says coldly. "An' 'ow many d'ye thin' are in there? The Nemotz're 'bout th' most despised lot in Bohavia, an' they know it too. Why d'ye thin' the built that island th' thin' is on an' their guard posts're so well-manned an' hid?"

"I'd not be shocked t'find us facin' five times our number in there an' 'round 'ere, ogres an' all. I thin' th'magess is right tha' we need t'fcus gettin' th'prisoners out -- ALL of 'em -- as discreet as we can an' get 'em 'way from this vile place. THIS is what we came 'ere t'do. We need a bigger force if we're t'wipe out th' whole lot o' th' vermin."

Xavier smiles grimly at the Padre:

"Fear not freund, der only worry ve have is how ve shall bury all der bastards afterwards. Dat's what mein commander said at the battle of Mikhailov Ford. Thirty Boyars and one hundred Rus Goblin spearmen tried to force the crossing. Twenty Teutonic Knights and forty men at arms held the bastards of until reinforced. AND dat vas vithout any magical support. Der river ran red for days, as this one may. I am ready to rid these vermin from dis earth. I shall do all that is necessary to free those innocents within."

Still not convinced, Jihan interjects at this point:

"I'll agree with you there, Padre," the elf says with a nod, "it won't be easy, and we won't have the advantage of numbers, but the thing that worries me is that, if we don't do something about the priests, they're just going to high tail it out of here and carry on their despicable work somewhere else. Getting the prisoners out will alert them that their secret has been uncovered, especially if we can't do it without alerting ANY of the guards. Nemotz scum are a paranoid lot, and any sign that they've been found out will turn them on their tails. Then we'd have to worry about hunting them across the country, and that'd be just one more worry on our ever growing list. I.. I just can't abide by letting beasts like this carry on killing, maiming and poisoning the souls of innocent people. Even if I have to sit by the shore after the compound is set on fire and pick off every last flaming one who tries to escape... Such.. perverters of the joy and right of living must be stopped, before they can get away to cause more hurt. We aren't invincible, but when we work together, and we are careful, we can tackle many bad things..."

"I'm sorry if I've offended your sense of honor, Padre," the elf continues with an apologetic nod towards the priest, "but in things like this I sometimes get... irrational."

Jihan's eyes burn almost with a fervor as he discusses dealing with the priests of disease, as if they've offended him or his sensibilities personally.

"S'alright, comrade," Kokal says, much calmer, "I jus' don' want us t'get in over our 'eads 'ere. M'mind keeps goin' back t'th' slaughtered Foot in th' Square like a warnin' o' what c'n 'appen if we bite off more n' we c'n chew, no matter 'ow nobly. An' we 'ad a hell of a lot more firepower an' access t'escape routes than we're goin' t'ave in tha' damned place ... e'en tho' fro' what th' charmed priest says we'll be facin' nearly equal numbers of foes as were in th' square."

"But I'll not leave anyone t'rot in th'Nemotz poxy 'ands jus' t'save meself some sufferin, an' if y'all decide t'dive in an' we 'ave t'kill every last one o' th'scum, then I'll do m'part."

Yaz finally loses his patience:

"For f***'s sake!" he says, flailing his arms about. "How the f*** do you guys know what it's like in there? None of US know... Unless maybe you have experience in there yourself... Perhaps there's something you wish to tell us?"

Yaz peers at the Padre aggressively.

"I already tol' ye ... th' damned priest tha' got charmed inta thinkin' 'e was our great frien' after th' las' fight wit these vermin tol' us 'ow many of 'is poxy kin' were in their 'ole," Kokal calmly says, meeting Yaz's stare.

"Try payin' 'tention."

"An' I also been tellin' ye all along tha' I know 'ese scum an' what they're likely t'do -- an' y'all been ignorin' tha' too. In ye case, m'warnin's prob'ly jus' can' penetrate th' fog o' tha' crap ye always smokin' an' drownin' ye sensibilities in, so I can' be too surprised."

"I been payin' attention well enough," Yaz replies, stepping toward him to place his nose only a few inches from Kokal's.

He is clearly not calm, and his voice growls as much as it can, despite its timbre being on the high side:

"And what you found out was numbers. And you think that tells you what it's like inside that place?!? F***, man, what YOU bin smokin'?"

Yaz horks up a good looger and shoots it into the trees with practiced skill, then turns in exasperation, takes two strides away, and turns to face the Padre again.

"Good one!" Gronk comments.

"And you're right, Koke, I been treating you all wrong so far."

The druid gets down on his knees and genuflects before him repeatedly, face in the dirt:

"Oh Padre, forgive me... I have not held you in the center of my world. Your wise counsel I have ignored, your warnings I have left unheeded."

He stops and looks up, then rises to his knees.

"Yea, verily, strike me down, for it shall be my fate for ignoring you so long."

Yaz jumps back up to his feet.

"F***," he states, then spits and walks away, or tries to.

Gronk chuckles as Yaz speaks to Kokal, not being one for formalities himself.

Kokal regards Yaz' theatrics with a mixture of embarrassment and amusement. As the druid walks away, the priest mutters:

"Y'are forgiven. An' don' tempt me."

"So we're going in to save some kid and her dad," Yaz continues. "What, do you think they're just sitting on the edge of the place, waiting for us to come pick them up? F*** no! We're gonna have to chop some necks to get to them, and that's all the better as far as I'm concerned."

"We've all 'greed on THIS all 'long," Kokal growls. "Tha' ain't nothin' we're fightin' 'bout -- an' th' fight's over now an'way. Try n' keep up, will ye?"

Yaz pushes the sides of his head together with both hands:

"I don't understand you guys!"

He throws his arms in the air again in futility:

"So how 'bout we stop debating shit we don't know about yet and just f***ing do it!"

"However," Jihan continues, "Perhaps we could kill two birds with one stone in that we can make it priority one to rescue the prisoners, as you've said, but then torch the place right after. This'll make it harder for us to get out easily, but it'll keep the Nemotz scum off of our backs until we get the innocents to safety. I've got those ten flasks of oil..."

"If it is necessary to split up the party to deal with the guards on shore and infiltrate the base, it's going to be next to impossible for us smaller types to lug the captives out of there... Perhaps charming the guards would be best for this, just so that we can all stick together to get the job on the inside done. We still need to know more about the inside of the building though, so some interior scouting would be a very good thing," he says, nodding his head to Fae's offer. "I don't think that this'll be an easy in and out with Mirek and Zuzana in tow, though, regardless."

"So then ye agree wit' me 'at this should be th'first step," Kokal says with mild exasperation. "Good, as it don' make any sense fer us t'be sittin out 'ere guessin' 'bout what we're facin' an' 'o we're savin' when we could fin' out fer sure."

The Padre then turns to speak directly to ... Faewen'il:

"Far be it fro' me t'presume t'tell ye 'ow best t'use ye talents, magess," he says. "But 'ould ye be goin' alone? Bein' invisible an' silent is well, but t'won't shield ye fro' the sick air 'round those vermin. 'Ave ye any way t' protect yeself fro' tha', 'less ye fall ill an' 'ave no one there t'elp ye?"

Without saying a further word and refusing to answer the Padre's questions, Faewen'il gets up and walks to her horse, which she mounts. Xavier, without being asked, walks over to Faewen'il and holds the head of the horse as she mounts.

He whispers quietly to her:

"Vill you be alright, fraulein? Vithout der burden of armor, I am quiet as ye are. If yer feel der need, I vill protect your back. You mean much to me, and I vill not see you harmed"

Fae looks down at Xavier, the smoldering glare she had been wearing all morning dimming in her eyes as she speaks back to him:

"I will be fine. I donna have tha spell ready tha will make both o us invisible prepared. I ha yet ta endanger parsons travelin with me an I am na about ta start now."

"Dat is alright then, fraulein," the Saxon replies. "I shall keep my eye out for your return. Rodengast's speed1"

Xavier waves as she departs and then returns to the others.

Fae then took the reins in her hands and urged her impressive mount onward into the forest around them.

As she goes, Yaz stares after her, incredulously. He turns to Jihan open-mouthed, then gestures with his hands as if to say:

'Why the hell is she going instead of you? Say something!'

The druid laughs nastily:

"She's crazy. She's lost it! Who does she think she is, Prirodna Herself? F***! She doesn't know the first thing about sneaking!"

Yaz shrugs, knowing there's nothing he can do:

"She's not coming back, I'll bet. It'll teach her a lesson, anyway."

Yaz is growing more and more impatient with the delays, and without some action soon, looks to be getting nastier.

Will rebuts:

"I know. I have read of the atrocities that these priests commit. It was one of the most difficult and stomach wrenching of all my studies at the library in my youth."

Will restates his former sentence:

"I intend for the charade to be bloodless only on our side. Justice demands that all those engaged in such evil activities be put to death."

"I can sneak with the best of them on the outside, but getting inside that building and roaming around unnoticed, not to mention getting through doors and the like, is something that takes me a lot more time than a few quick words of enchantment, brother," the elf responds, gazing towards the complex.

His thoughts appear to drift further away for a moment, and he utters some small elven curse beneath his breath, muttering "Pompous indeed..." at the end of it while turning an eye back in the direction of Pardubitze.

Knowing that the eight mile round trip to the island and back is going to take her a fair number of hours, even while mounted, the rest of them have little to do during the time that she is gone other than to continue to discuss various ways of getting onto the island as well as checking their equipment.

Noon comes and goes without any sign of the magess and they come to the realization that it is unlikely that they will be able to start their action against the guards before dusk. The squires prepare lunch for them all and they sit and eat quietly, listening to the stillness of the forest around them.

At around 2.00, the stillness is broken by the quiet sound of a horse being ridden towards them. They look up to see Faewen'il rising through the trees towards them. She dismounts upon coming into the small clearing that they have set up camp in and then ties her horse to a tree before coming close to the fire in order to warm herself up.

They all look up at her hopefully.

"So how did it go?" Winnacer asks.

Faewen'il takes a deep breath and proceeds to tell them about results of her trip:

"I be usin Sylva's boots to be walkin over the lake to get to tha island. I be comin from the north an so there were nae problem in getting onto tha island without bein seen, as I be usin the spell o invisibility."

"The sides o tha island be quite steep, but it nae be a problem to walk up it. I walked around tha sides to tha south an walked along the path from the jetty up to tha entrance o the laboratory."

"I be climbin a 20' long set of stairs which lead up to tha farst area which be standin 10' above the island. The stone walls be extendin outward to either side of the stairs. Resting on pedestals at tha stairs bottom be twin, cowled granite skulls tha seemed to be starin at me as I approached the laboratory. Tha first courtyard be clean and containin nothing. A 10' square tunnel be runnin underneath the wall toward tha inner courtyard."

"I then be walkin under tha tunnel into the inner courtyard. It be much like the outer courtyard. In tha tunnel that links the two there be a portcullis, meanin that tha inner courtyard can be sealed from tha outside. Tha area be lit by torches. There be a 20' wide, 10' high tunnel, which be leadin northward to a pair of great double doors. These doors, carved and beaten from brass, depict scenes of huddled masses cowering before a great hooded, robed figure. Tha people shown on the doors are covered in bandages, and many are missing limbs. Some also carry crutches and walking staves. The doors I be detectin magick upon, which either means they be trapped or magickally locked. I be thinkin it be the latter."

"Surroundin' tha two courtyards an atop the tunnel be walls. Tha wall be 30' above the earthen mound and is topped by battlements on both sides, facin both out to tha island an also into tha courtyard. Tha wall be manned by ten guards, who be all equipped with a longsword, longbow, chainmail and shield."

"As I nae be havin' tha spell that makes me into a ghost, I could nae open tha door an so I came back tha way I came."

Having said her piece, Faewen'il took a mug of hot tea proffered to her by Milan and sat drinking it while looking into the fire.

Will sits back and waits for comments to begin as to how to go about this. No one else has any, however.

Winnacer turns to Yaz:

"The plan that you had for entangling them while they are silenced and then shooting them full of arrows seems a fine one to me. Let's do it."

"We may as well move out of here immediately," adds the young Lord. "By the time that we get close to the island, it will nearly be dusk and we need to ensure that we take the guards out at the start of their shift in order to have as much time as possible to deal with their colleagues who are guarding the Lab."

All nod in agreement and start to ready their weapons and other materials. Then, they say their farewells to the two squires and Oldrich, who is lying semi-conscious in the wagon, and then head off cautiously towards the Lab.

Rather than risking taking the trail, they make their way through the forest taking their time to ensure that they travel there as quietly as possible. During their journey, they see nothing larger than a rabbit or squirrel and hear nothing save for the sound of the wind in the trees. As the sun starts to set, Jihan stops them all from his position at the head of the line:

"We're only half a mile from the first set of guards now," the elf says. "I think that it's best if you remain here for a bit while I go and see if I can see the changing of the guard. I'll be back once they have made the change."

They watch as the elf silently jogs away from them, soon disappearing from view as he skulks through the forest. They then all sit down and wait for the elf's return.

Jihan reappears about an hour later, approaching them by surprise in the twilight of the woods:

"All seems to be going to plan," Jihan reports. "They used the same routine as before and changed the guards around half an hour ago."

"Good," Winnacer says, nodding his head. "I suggest that we leave it for an hour until it gets totally dark and the guards start to get bored from their inactivity."

They wait for the best part of an hour, starting to get a little bored from their inactivity. Finally, as the last rays of sunlight disappear behind the horizon, leaving the forest totally black, Winnacer rises:

"Very well, it is time for us to begin."

The rest of them all rise up from the ground and follow Jihan in the direction of the guards' position. Jihan takes them forwards agonizingly slowly, as he realizes that the majority of them have not the practice at moving unheard as he and Will have. It takes another half an hour before Jihan stops in his tracks and beckons them all to come closer to him:

"The platform is in that tree over there," he says pointing to a large beech tree some 100 yards away, just visible through the forest.

"We should approach to within 50 yards so that we are within the best range for our bows."

He then turns to Aneira:

"Have you the silencing spell ready, sister?" Jihan asks her.

Aneira nods in agreement.

"And you the entangling spell, brother?" he asks Yaz.

"Sure thing," the druid responds.

"And which of us have missile weapons?" Jihan continues.

Bennett, Winnacer, Will and Jihan all indicate that they have short bows, Xavier has his light crossbow and Gronk a heavy crossbow. Yaz has his trusty sling, 'Cyclops Killer'.

"I'm usually usin' m'hand axe f'throwin'" the Padre says. "But I needs t'be close up t'em t'use it."

"That could be too risky," Jihan says, shaking his head. "I think that we should be able to launch enough missiles at them without needing to take that risk."

The Padre just nods, obviously a little frustrated at not being able to participate in the exercise, but understanding the reasons why. He stays back along with Faewen'il, who is keeping her spells in reserve for the more tricky exercise of taking out the ten guards on the island.

"My silencing spell lasts for 12 minutes," Aneira says.

"My entanglement spell last for ten," Yaz adds, "so we have plenty of time before both spells expire."

"I don't foresee a problem," Jihan replies. "Ten minutes should be more than sufficient in order to pepper them with arrows. Just remember to keep one of them alive for questioning."

When everyone is ready, the group slowly advances towards the guards on the platform, each of them getting into the optimum positions for their weapons, while keeping as far away from the platform as possible.

Once she sees that everyone is in position, Aneira start to utter an incantation before gesturing towards the platform. In the stillness of the forest, it is impossible to tell whether or not the spell has been effective. Assuming that it was, Yaz takes some of his holy ganja and starts to utter and gesticulate towards the platform.

As he finishes, the boughs and branches of the beech tree that the guards are sat in take on a life of their own and start to twist around them, binding them all securely. One of the guards, however, seems to be able to fight off the effects of the entanglement and is slowly trying to ready his longbow. You can see that the guards are panicking a great deal, but no sounds emerge, proving that Aneira's silencing spell was effective after all.

Seeing one of them fighting off the effects of the spell, all of those with missile weapons target him first of all. Winnacer manages to hit the guard twice with his shortbow, although the damage is minimal. Will makes one of his shots hit, and the damage is severe. Gronk manages to hit him with a good shot from his heavy crossbow, and the guard is definitely in trouble now. Bennett's shots with 'Smoked Goblin' both fail to connect, but Jihan's aim is true and he takes the guard out with two well-aimed shots. Xavier aims for one of the others with his light crossbow, but it misses by a narrow margin. Yaz rushes forward in order to get close enough to have a good chance of taking out the others with 'Cyclops Killer'.

With the four remaining guards all totally incapacitated, it is like shooting fish in a barrel now.

Winnacer's next two shots miss all of the guards and Will only manages to graize one with one of his shots. Gronk's next shot is well on target, however, and manages to pin the guard's shoulder to the trunk of the tree:

"That be the one to be keepin' alive for questionin'," the dwarf says excitedly. "Let's kill all of the others."

Gronk is obviously delighted with his handiwork and mumbles something in dwarven to Thunder as he reloads his heavy crossbow.

Bennett has only slightly better luck with his second volley and only manages to graize one of the guards with one of his arrows. Jihan has slightly better luck and inflicts some decent damage upon another on the guards. Xavier and Yaz are both out of luck, however, as both of them miss their targets by a wide margin.

Throughout the massacre, Bennett is not his usual combat thrilled self:

"This is too much like execution. Necessary, yeah, but not too exciting."

Nonetheless, an opportunity to work on his archery is needed.

Winnacer's roll of luck with his bow continues and he manages to kill off one of the guards and injures another of them. Bennett finally finds his form and hits the same guard with both of his shots, leaving him clinging on to life by a hair's breadth. Gronk's run of luck finishes, as he misses both remaining guards. Jihan's luck continues, however, as he finishes off the guard injured by Bennett and injures the last unharmed guard. Xavier, yet again, manages to miss with his light crossbow, leaving Yaz to finish off the last of the guards with a well-aimed bullet to the skull from 'Cyclops Killer'.

All of the guards are now dead, except for the one pinned to the tree by Gronk's quarrel.

"Excellent," Jihan says, obviously delighted at seeing almost every one of his shots hitting the enemy rather than himself or other members of the party.

"Let's get that injured one down from the tree so that we can question him at our leisure."

The elf then turns to Yaz:

"Can you get rid of that entanglement spell now, brother?"

"Sure," the druid responds and casts his hands towards the beech tree once more. The branches of the tree subside, letting the guards fall silently to the floor of the platform apart from the one that is pinned to the trunk.

While the others get closer, still covering the remaining guard with their bows, Jihan clenches Langzhan between his teeth and then climbs the tree with catlike grace. The guard who is pinned to the tree is panicking, but the silencing spell is still in effect and so no sounds emanate from him. Coming up behind him, Jihan presses Langzhan to the guard's throat and draws the forefinger of his other hand across his throat to indicate what will happen to the guard if he tries to resist. This seems to do the trick and the guard immediately stops struggling.

Not wanting to take any chances, Jihan takes one of the straps from his battle harness and gags the man with it. Jihan then cuts the guard loose from the arrow, by hacking away the stem with a blow from Langzhan. The elf then presses the blade of the long knife against the man's back and indicates to him that the guard should get out of the tree.

The guard descends the tree and is met by the rest of the party, who are aiming their missile weapons at him. Then, wanting to be a safe distance away from the island, they usher the guard away from the island so that there is no danger of his sounding the alarm to the others on the island.

Once safely out of earshot of the island, Jihan takes the gag off the guard, but still keeps Langzhan in his hand. Jihan then takes up a watch position facing across the river towards the Nemotz compound. He prepares a few arrows by judiciously sticking them into the ground before him and hefts Weitbeissen, not liking how the arms of the bows were creaking in the cold earlier on.

Winnacer speaks to the rest of them:

"Well, that part of the exercise went very well. However, I fear that this was the easy part, as we still have to take out the ten guards watching the entrance to the temple. Luckily we now have until dawn tomorrow before they realize that the guards on the platform have been taken out."

"Anyway, first things first," the LawBringer continues. "Let us see what the guard has to say for himself. He might be able to give us some new information that we can work on."

Out of earshot of the guard, Winnacer whispers to Faewen'il:

"Could you use the amulet to check that the guard is answering the questions truthfully?"

Before Faewen'il has chance to reply, however, Will interrupts:

"There's no need. Let me use my charming abilities upon him and then we can save us all unnecessary time and aggravation."

The bard then walks up to the guard and starts to strum a mystical chord upon his lute. He strums away for a short while and then looks on as the guard turns to him and smiles:

"Excellent," Will replies, seeing that the guard is now under his influence.

He then speaks to his new friend:

"My colleague has a few questions to ask you. That wouldn't be a problem now, would it?"

The guard smiles and shakes his head:

"No problem at all, mate," the guard responds. "Any friend of yours is a friend of mine."

"What is the exact schedule of the guards?" Winnacer starts. "Where else are guards located?"

"We take it in turns to man the platform," the guard responds. "None of us likes it very much as it's boring work, but beggars can't be choosers. There are just two shifts, a day shift and a night shift. We change shifts at dusk and dawn."

"Twelve hours sat up a bleeding tree," he adds, shaking his head.

"As well as the platform shift, there's wall duty. There's always ten on the wall guarding the entrance to the temple. They change shifts at midday and midnight. There's always 15 of us on duty and 15 of us off. When we're off duty, we stay in our quarters in the west of the building."

"What is the layout of the Temple?" the LawBringer adds. "How many levels?"

The guard shrugs in response:

"I dunno," he says. "We ain't allowed nowhere other than the top level. I know that the main temple is underneath it. What else there is down there, I don't know and I don't want to know."

"Upstairs is just accommodation and the main entrance to the temple. The guards have accommodation to the west and the acolytes and junior priests to the east. We guards aren't allowed in their part of the building either though."

"Where are the prisoners?" continues the young Lord. "How many people have been taken captive?"

"I've only been here for six weeks," the guard replies. "We all work two months on, two months off, although most of the guards can't stand the place and so don't want to come back here again any more. The pay's as good as you can get in our line of work, but the working conditions are terrible."

"I reckon that I must have seen twenty or thirty prisoners come through here in that time. They take them downstairs and that's the last we see of them."

"What types of experiments have taken place inside?" Winnacer asks next. "What exactly are they working on?"

The guards shakes his head once more:

"I don't know and I don't want to know," he replies. "It don't pay to ask too many questions of the priests. Martyn, now he was asking a lot of questions. He got eaten alive by maggots from the inside he did."

The guard shudders at the memory.

"Horrible it was. I keeps me mouth shut and earns me pay. That's all."

"Are there any other ways off the island?" the LawBringer asks next. "Any other boats within the facility?"

"One boat's all they need," the guard replies. "I guess that you could swim it though, at a pinch. It'd be a bit bloody chilly at this time of the year, but it ain't even a hundred yards to the shore."

"How many priests work within the walls?" the young Lord continues. "How many GermSpreaders are there? Who is in charge of operations here? Where are they located within?"

"I dunno for sure," the guard responds with another shrug. "The acolytes and priests keep away from us most of the time, which I'm glad for. I reckon that there must be about eight acolytes and two junior priests that I've seen. There's just one GermSpreader that I knows of and he's the one who tells us what to do, apart from our boss, Lieutenant Dohnal, who works as his henchmen. I've seen another couple of GermSpreaders coming and going, but they seem to be out collecting prisoners, not based at the temple."

"The big boss of all is High Priest Spalek. Only seen him twice when talking to the Nyemetz visitors. Nasty piece of work he is. Luckily he spends nearly all of his time downstairs, so we don't see much of him."

"Are you guards expecting any groups to come to the Temple within the next week?" Winnacer asks next.

The guard shrugs once more:

"You better ask the Lieutenant or the GermSpreader. I don't know anything like that."

"What sorts of magics are upon the front doors?" the young Lord adds. "What sorts of prophyaxis do the guards use to protect them from the diseases within the Temple?"

"I don't know much about magic," the guard says. "I know that the main door is kept shut by it. Only the Lieutenant and the GermSpreader know how to get through it, so one of them has to accompany us whenever we go through them to get out to the platform. They mumble some words and then pull on the brass rings to get in, but I don't know what exactly it is that they say, as they don't let us get too close to them when they're saying it."

"As for keeping diseases at bay, the acolytes come and check us over at least once a week and cast some spells on us if any of us are getting sick. It's a good job that they do as well, because I'm usually feeling under the weather at the end of each week with one thing or another."

"How many men in total are within the compound?" Winnacer asks.

The guard shrugs yet again:

"I already told you, didn't I. There's always five guards on the platform, ten guards on the walls, fifteen guards off duty, the top brass of the GermSpreader, the Lieutenant and three sargeants, eight acolytes, two junior priests and the High Priest. That's all that I know of, unless there's more folk downstairs who don't come up very often."

"What do you know of the Nemotz connections to the Nyemetz?" Winnacer finishes.

"Not much," the guard replies. "One of their brass turned up a few weeks back to meet with the High Priest. Don't know what they talked about."

While Winnacer interrogates the guard, Bennett stands near him, growling and smiling, but realizes in this case the threat isn't all that necessary. He is not particularly interested in executing this fellow once the questioning is done, Sylva's farewell still leaving a foul taste in his mouth.

While Winnacer and Will question the captured guards, Xavier wanders back to the platform to examine the fallen sentries to find one of similar build to him. Finding one, he removes his chain shirt, briefly examines it for wear and tear and any sign of disease, but finds none. Happy with his inspection he puts the chainmail on over his gambeson before walking back to join the others.

Upon adjusting the unfamiliar suit, tightening this buckle and that, he then glares humorously at his comrades:

"Vell, yer didnt expect me to walk around naked did yer! This vill do the job until the craftsman reshapes dat plate for me."

Winnacer pauses after asking his final question and takes the rest of the party out of earshot from the guard:

"Well that's all of the questions that I have for him, unless any of you have anything else you would like to ask him."

Will turns to Fae:

"Was he faking or telling the truth? If he is truly under my influence, then I can ask him to deliver an urgent message for me to the far side of the world."

Fae sighs and brings her hand up to her amulet, giving the guard a bored expression as she searches through his surface thoughts to determine whether or not he was truly charmed.

As the guard looks around him, Fae nods:

"He be under your control. Everythin he be sayin is true. He's jus a guard who be doin his job an not likin it very much."

"We need to decide what to do with him now," Winacer finishes. "Has anyone got any suggestions?"