Against the Cult: Party at the Mill (1.1)

I'll assume that Quest went through the inner door, following Klak.

Yes, shortest distance between two points, and all that.

ROUND FIVE

Above the groans of the injured archer, Durren and Sara distinctly hear footsteps above them in what must be an attic.

The dusty miller nods and coughs. "Yes, I'm Keb...who...who are you? Where's Shalla?" He looks around, panicked. Aanbo firmly leads him to the door. "No! What have you done? He'll kill her!"

Thacogygax ducks through the door, taking cover behind the wall, only his long reptile-like blue snout sticking into the mill room, looking down the stairs. He is the first to see a group of rough-looking characters hustling up the stairs. Calling upon the might of a polar storm once again, the alien blasts the first of them with frost.

The man seems alarmed, but bulls through the frost, pounding up the stairs. He crashes into Klak, several men behind him. They are armed with staves. The first man attempts to shove Klak backwards so the rest of them can finish coming upstairs.
Klak should make an Athletics or Acrobatics check.

Upstairs, thug 12, with the arrow in his shoulder, drops his bow and screams "I give up! Don't kill me, please!" Ogbar's intimidation has worked (and if it hadn't, Sara and Durren probably would have). Durren seems to want to interrogate the thug; Ogbar's turn.

Searching for the best hiding place, Xana has ducked behind the stairs leading up in the mill room (where Thug 6 had hidden before).

- Aanbo (moving Keb)
- Thacogygax (cast Frostbite as readied action)
- Everyone in the basement (coming upstairs: in progress)
- the wounded archer upstairs (thug 12: surrendered)
- Xana (seeking cover)
- Ogbar (upstairs)
- Klak (at the head of the stairs, in melee)
- Durren (upstairs, turn submitted)
- Quest (turn submitted: gathering his will to perform another brain-melting mind thrust)
- Sara

ROUND FIVE, continued

The man (called Ove) bulling his way up the narrow stairs attempts to smash the little dwarf back from the top of the stairs, and is surprised to find that he is pushing on a mountain. Ove rebounds, and one of the men behind (called Uncle) attempts to smack Klak with his staff. Uncle smacks Klak in the head with a two-handed swing with reach past Ove's shoulder.
Klak takes 3 HP damage.

Ogbar, grinning with bloody teeth, manages to keep himself from killing the surrendered thug. Hopeful that there is more fighting, the berserker rushes downstairs again. He flings a handaxe, and Ove slaps it out of the air. Ogbar comes to a stop behind the Mountain, Klak.

Klak has been content to stand, impassively, as men attempted to move him, by pushing him and by beating him with sticks. Now he clears his throat and slashes into the crowded stairway, chopping a huge gash in Ove's chest. Ove look down, appalled, and falls into two pieces, slicking the stairs with blood. The remaining men on the stairway - Uncle and the others - yell with dismay, adding their voices to the constant gibbering of the insane man who wasn't quite drained to death by Hadar earlier.

Upstairs, Durren thanks Sara, sheathes his sword, and advances on the injured archer to question him. The archer, white showing all around his irises, answers him: "I'm...my name is Soo. I'm with Black. We-we came to take the mill, from the miller. Black thought it would be a good base..."

"SHUT UP, SOO!" a muffled voice yells through the floorboards above Sara and Durren. Soo's mouth snaps shut immediately.

Durren sees a ladder on the floor and considers what to do next.

ROUND FIVE, continued

Sara's turn, which will be resolved after Quest rolls his attack and damage on Uncle.

Uncle reels as the spear of Quest's mind pierces his thoughts, but he does not fall.

ROUND FIVE, continued
The ladder is about 12' long, clearly intended to go through the small trap door in the ceiling and extend into the room beyond for a couple of feet. Now, however, the ladder is lying on the floor. Apparently it was thrown down before the trap door was shut. Whoever is up there was probably in a big hurry, since whoever it is didn't pull the ladder up. Either one of you can place the ladder this turn, if you wish, or if you work together, one could set the ladder and the other could climb it. The ladder can be set to near vertical, in order to try pushing up the trapdoor, or it can be leaned up against the wall near the trap door at a shallower angle, so that someone could climb it and come up under the trap door.

Please clarify your actions, given this more detail.