Against the Cult: Party at the Mill (1.1)

Xana and Quest have come up the stairs, interacting with Durren at the top of the ladder, still struggling to push the trapdoor in the ceiling open. Meanwhile, Sara has moved to hurriedly whisper with the injured thug/archer in the next room.

END OF ROUND SIX



(Edited to provide necessary detail about the trap door!)

ROUND SEVEN

- Aanbo
- Thacogygax
- in the attic
- Xana
- Ogbar
- Klak
- Durren
- Quest
- Sara
- Morgren

Just to give the people on the first floor a sense of where they are, too:

The person in the attic is actively trying to keep the trap door shut, and Durren is still trying to figure out how to get sufficient leverage from atop the ladder. But there may be only one person up there with a hostage, and forcing him to keep occupied with the door is probably keeping him from doing anything to her.

(Note: I apologize for not fleshing this out before. There was an opposed skill check. Durren rolled a STR check, and I asked for a second and treated them as one roll with disadvantage (from your position pushing upward from a ladder); the thug's roll beat Durren's second, lower roll.)

Sure, you just move down the initiative list to when you do take your action.

ROUND SEVEN

Aanbo calls out about the hostage, Shalla, and beckons to the carnivorous cleric, Morgran to come tend to Keb, the injured assistant to the miller.

Thacogygax pensively ascends the stairway to the ground floor again, and all the men cowering on the stairs relax a little.

The person in the attic calls out right above Durren, but apparently in response to Quest: "Amicably? What about my friends? Would you say you've treated them amicably? Everyone back out of the mill now, or the girl gets it! And what's more..."

Just then, the rest of what he's yelling through the floor is drowned out, as a searing jet of flame cast by Xana screams through the air...and scorches a hole in the boards next to Durren's head and the trap door. There is a girlish scream, though whether it comes from the man or from Shalla, no one knows.

Ogbar grins horribly with a mouthful of bloody teeth at the thoroughly cowed men on the stairs, who quail even further. One of them faints and is caught by his friend.

Sara, meanwhile, has dragged the table over to the eastern wall as quietly as she could and is climbing out of the window. Funny, the water wheel always looks so peaceful and gentle, when viewed from a distance...
(Sara is in the process of climbing out; I will resolve the rest of the action later this turn in initiative order)

- Aanbo (tending Keb)
- Thacogygax (horrors of war)
- in the attic (yelling imprecations/screaming)
- Xana (shot the ceiling)
- Ogbar (scared some peasants)
- Klak
- Durren (deferring action)
- Quest
- Sara (climbing out the window)
- Morgren

ROUND SEVEN, CONTINUED

Klak frowns at the surrendered men of low character on the stairs, who seem likely to have been local thugs recruited into this gang, and tells them to stay put. They strain to stand as still as possible.

Quest continues to chat in elvish while communicating his ability to melt minds to Durren and the others upstairs.

Out the window, Sara steps lightly on the ponderously rolling water wheel...and the mass of the giant machine launches her upward more violently than she'd expected, flying up onto the roof.
Sara, roll another acrobatics check to turn the fall onto the roof into a controlled roll.

Aanbo watches Morgran until he disappears upstairs. The dwarven cleric steps past Xana as she casts her eldritch blast and casts Guidance on Durren.

Durren is up, as well as Quest.