Game Thread

Sephoni seems a bit pre-occupied, but manages to smile and say "Thank you for coming. And thank you for your help and protection..." She looks about to say more when a round of labor pains hit and she clearly focuses on controlling the pain rather than anything else around her.

The midwife, Sandra, steps close and coaxes her -- pausing only momentarily to verbally shoo you all away. "See to yourselves," she says. Clearly indicating her preference that the room -- large though it may be -- no longer houses the 7 people who are not participating in the birth.

Reojk and Dikaios wander about the keep and talk to those they find here. All they run across seem all to happy to let each of the godlings (whether or not they know this about themselves) have free run of the keep and defer to their judgement or insight when provided.

Largely, the keep is split into the following areas:

The Outer Walls of the keep are arranged in nearly a pentagonal shape. One side of the wall is set against Corso's much taller and thicker wall (that wall is 30' thick and 50 ' high versus the keep's walls that are about 6' thick and 20' tall). A path runs along the top of the keep wall, accessible via narrow stone stairs here and there throughout the interior side of the walls. Although the wall provides some excellent visibility, there does not appear to be anyone stationed here.

The Outer Gate is what you came through with Dershan. It's manned by two of the toughs who have attached themselves to Dershan -- recognizing him as the leader of their burgeoning.. cult or whatever. The gate is old and not in great repair, but looks like it will withstand casual assault.

The yard of the keep is wide, open and empty. As with the walls, there doesn't seem to be anyone with the job of paying any particular attention to it.

The well is located between the keep and the Outer Gate and it provides fresh water to the keep to this day. Reojk is suspicious that there's more to the well than meets the eye as he passes it by.

The outbuildings of the keep are mostly empty. In a few there are various supplies -- tarps, lumber, some tools and wire. But casual inspection doesn't identify anything of particular interest in these buildings other than the fact they exist -- and have those items on hand.

The keep itself is a collection of rooms in disrepair with functioning front doors and the door to the birthing chamber. All other doors in the keep have long since come off their hinges. Stairs lead up to a set of iron rungs that give access -- as a ladder -- to a hatch from the keep hall that opens onto the slate-tiled roof.

Dershan looks at Reojk and nods at his suggests. "Those are all wise suggestions, Divine One. Where would you suggest we reinforce these choke points? Who are we choking?"

"Oh! Yes, that all makes sense." Dershan nods. He calls over one of the thugs and (poorly) translates Reojk's thoughts to him. The thug nods and begins to gather help and material to see what he can pull together. Once the thug is gone Dershan follows up on the prior request, "As to the well -- it likely also connects to Corso's sewer system. Though why it does that precisely, I don't know... The water isn't foul, so perhaps it has some sort of overflow into the sewer system?"

He shrugs. These things are not for him to worry about.

"As to the little beasties. Yes they were short -- about this high," his hand is about 3-4 feet off the ground. "There were five of them. Swarming about all ugly as can be. Mostly we beat on them with clubs or knives or whatnot. I'm not sure if they're afraid of anything."

You both find that those gathered here don't even had a basic eye towards common sense defense of the keep. At Reojk's suggestion they do start to do some makeshift repairs or augmentation of doors or gates or whatnot. Confused by whether or not to put a tarp over the well, they do so anyway. Someone finds a board or two and puts it on top of the tarp for good measure and then weights them down with a rusty length of chain.

Those designated to perform lookout duty shrug and head tither...The day lingers on as you prepare -- and you get the feeling that things may yet get interesting.