Storming the Castle

Episode mount in progress--Archivist.

Game Date: 05 Mar 2011
Present: Cindy, Kim, Maer, Andy, and Jim

Wednesday, September 11, 1867
Under the Chapel on island of Lake Bled
After midnight

We pause to lick our wounds and Josephine has to use all her powers of persuasion to convince the Dwarves, Kristoff and Giert, to carry the music box back to the boat and thence to the Castle when we leave. The party debates how to recompense the Dwarves from whose purse--the English Crown's or Flora's Dashwood inheritance.

We find the entrance to an underground cavern or passage and investigate the possibility it might lead to the castle on the oppposite shore. Josephine uses all her persuasion again to gets Kristoff to check it. She accompanies him into the cavern while his partner waits with the music box. He whistles and claps and determines it's 1000 feet long, going due west, and it's about 200 feet wide. It took a lot of work to make. "You can park a town down here," he says. It's not a little cold and not a little dank, down here. There is also dimly glimpsed overhead a wooden peaked ceiling and a system of joists that will allow it to open upward. Perhaps to dump the lake upon those below?

The Dwarves prefer land travel over water. We take the passage.

Beignet is able to see two guards in the passage coming toward us from the opposite direction. They are speaking in German. Beignet informs the rest of the party that he will light them up with magical Gas Light and we will shoot them. Katherine shoots first and hits the guard most in front, then Bertie. Bertie's aimed for the guard's partner but his shot misses him by a whisker. However, a miss is as good as a mile. Flora squeezes off a shot which finds its way into the foremost guard and Josephine's goes wide. The guard goes down pretty hard, alive but in a world of hurt. Han's shot hits the guard as well, inflicting yet more damage. Both guards are wearing heavy jackets, affording them some measure of protection.

The remaining guard is not pleased at all with this turn of events. His displeaure is short-lived however. Beignet snaps off two gunshots that put him on the cavern floor, dead. The wounded guard scrambles away, yelling the alarm. Katherine shoots but misses. Flora's shot goes wide as well. Josephine squeezes off a shot next and hits him as he runs. He staggers and falls.

Our party moves on and Josephine takes a moment to check the guards' bodies. The last to fall is still breathing, so she ties his hands behind him and gags him to prevent him sound the alarm or ambush us from behind. She has no time to do anything for his wounds and with a stab of her conscience, she moves on to catch up with her party.

Ahead, Katherine, Ezekiel and one of the Dwarves hears something coming for us ... from the air.

Ezekiel is touched by the Host and to those from beyond the Pale, he glows with a delicious light. Four blue-skinned flying imps dive down from above and attack him with Asagi spears. He dodges but he takes a spear. Ezekiel stagges but manages to pull it out. Bertie also suffers from the imps' tender mercies, taking a palpable hit as well. The spear is stuck inside him. The imp pauses to retrieve it ... or push it further into him. Beignet is attacked next and the Hobbit suffers wounds. Hans is hit by the last of the imps, but luckily it's a glancing blow. Good news for him, since of all the members of our party, Hans is the most injured and has little room to spare.

We scramble to close ranks, preparing for the next pass.

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