The Wilderness

Round 2 Summary

Lady Luck doesn't seem to be with the party as they engage these two enemies. Runeson takes a small jab from one gnoll, but his armor stops the spear before it can dig too deeply (Runeson takes 4 dmg). Stella finishes off that gnoll with a well-placed shot, and it slumps off the dock and into the water.

Meanwhile, Dieter runs his gnoll through. The ugly creature accepts the blow and pulls Dieter closer, then rams its spear up, the jagged tip tearing through his armor (Dieter takes 15 dmg). With frightening strength, the gnoll lifts Dieter off his feet and brings the young fighter up to its slavering, too-quiet jaws, even with Dieter's sword still buried in its middle. But by this point of his adventuring career, Dieter has been through worse. He keeps the grip on his blade and, with a determined grunt that no one can hear, he twists the weapon hard just before those terrible jaws can close down on his face. The gnoll shudders as it dies, dropping Dieter back to the wooden planks with a soundless thud.

Sheemish follows Stella’s cue and helps move/kick the bodies off the dock.

With a whistle to Stitch, the tiny contraption zips in for a quick look into the doorway the gnolls left open.

As the party decides how to proceed, Stitch zips through the doorway and into a long hall with walls of stone. There's a door on the left, a door on the right, and then another door on the left. There are no gnolls in sight.

A silent plea to whichever deity had jurisdiction to overly large loincloths, Sheemish reaches inside a pouch in Ug’s long lost clothing hoping for some type of aid in their mission.

As Sheemish puts his hand inside the holy relic, he feels something hard. Made of wood. He pulls it out. And keeps pulling. And pulling. From out of the pocket comes a 24-foot wooden ladder.

Sheemish stairs at the ladder in awe. what in the Ug! and then with calm determination and reverence who am I to judge the mechanisms of the universe, The loincloth must have given this to me for a reason, I must put my trust in fate

Stitch might not be of use in the corridor, but maybe she could help find a different way.

Sheemish looks up at the gloomy fortress and begins tapping his gauntlets in code to stitch.

Not many windows can be seen here from the docks, but atop the wall is a small guard tower that overlooks the area. It's presumably unoccupied, as no alarm has sounded. The ladder can reach one of the tower's arrow slits, but the opening is only a few inches wide. Still, by the condition of the tower's weathered exterior Sheemish thinks that he can remove some loose stones and mortar around the arrow slit. It would take a few minutes, and certainly be noisy, but he's sure he can make an opening large enough for the party to pass through into an upper section of the castle.

Curious and trusting in the loincloth, Sheemish props the ladder up to small window slot.

"Im not running away or trying to endanger anyone," he says with a wink to the others, "but it might be easier sneaking in from a forgotten entrance than a commonly used one. I’m at least going to check it out.

Sheemish ascends and begins removing rubble.

Sheemish finds the ladder to be well-made and quite sturdy for having been found in a goliath barbarian's loincloth after having spent who knows how much time in there. He works quickly and carefully to widen the arrow slit, but there's a fair amount of chipping involved, and the sound echoes faintly off the castle walls...

Aiwë hears a door open from the corridor. A few moments later a surprisingly fat gnoll wearing an apron stained with... who knows what steps out into the sea air. The gnoll doesn't even have time to look around before Aiwë strikes!Gnoll Cook
AC 12
HP: 6

The cook falls face-first onto the wooden planks, soundly defeated.

The soft noise of rubble being moved softly meshes with that of the sounds of night and sea spray as Sheemish gets lost in the work. Now all blacksmith work is loud, often it takes delicacy and finesse. The young blacksmiths instincts take over and what is left is a wide opening with loose debri carefully set aside for easy passage. Sheemish tucks a rock from the rubble into a pocket as a small souvenir.

Sheemish's work is expertly done. In just a few minutes' time the way is clear, and no more gnolls have appeared from the hallway below.

With an unimpeded view into the tower, Sheemish finds a room covered in dust. The furnishings are few; a table that's somehow still standing, and two chairs that are not. On the far wall hang a couple of mundane bows that almost certainly no longer function properly. To one side of the room is a staircase that runs down, and on the other side is a door barely hanging on its hinges, beyond which seems to be a rampart atop the castle's wall.

But something shiny catches the artificer's eye... On the table is a small pile of coins.

Sheemish pockets the coins (not in the loincloth) and then inches out to the ramparts. Maybe he or Stitch could get a better view of the courtyard below? He also takes mental measurements on if the ladder could make its way through the new entrance and through the door to the ramparts) it might’ve better where it is as an emergency exit, but could be useful to get to wherever the prisoner pit might be.