Chapter 5: Occupied
And, just like that, the Five becomes Four.
The remaining companions, and Shim, are left to contemplate the significance of the dwarf druid's abrupt, unexpected departure from the adventuring party. Gronk, in particular, seems stunned by Ulfgar's sudden exit. There is one small consolation: Ulfgar's left the Bag of Holding behind.
The party doesn't have too much time to dwell on their loss. Jurvis arrives shortly, bearing news.
"The Redcloaks have shut down the fish market, torn down a few stalls, split some skulls, and made a bunch of arrests. Someone's pissed 'em well off."
The Five, or Four, rather, have been inside Fire Watch keep on at least two occasions, but they were never given the grand tour. As a former watchmen, Jurvis is intimately familiar with the building's layout.
"So, the keep is five stories tall. The main stair enters here, on the second floor [OOC: first floor in Europe]. That's the kitchens and the common room/mess hall. The ground floor, below that, is one big storeroom. The third floor is the cell block where prisoners are kept. The fourth floor is another dormitory for the keep's garrison. Commander Overmark's private quarters and offices are on the top floor. Course, the albino's moved in, that son-of-a-bitch.
"These three towers," he explains, pointing at the northwest, northeast, and southeast towers, "contain spiral staircases connecting all of the different floors. Actually, I take that back- the cell block can only be accessed by the southeast stair. This one [the southwest tower] contains all of the keep's garderobes. There's one main vertical shaft dropping straight down the middle of the whole tower, right down into the sewers, and the privies are offset on each level, each feeding into the main shaft with smaller, angled shafts of their own.
"The way the guards are organized has changed a bit since the Bloodforged took over. They've been beefing up security lately. There are usually two guards on duty in the cell block at all times, but there could be more, on account of the current prison population. There are at least six men at the front gate. They keep the portcullis lowered most of the time now.
"I don't know how you plan on gettin' yourselves in. I can get y'all Firewatch cloaks, if that'll help. Anything else I can do, I'll try.
"Oh, and all the foreign diplomatic types, they're stayin' at the Mermaid's Tale, in the Harbor Ward, under heavy Bloodforged guard, of course. Most of 'em have their own bodyguards too."
Shim's been listening quietly the whole time. He speaks up.
"The privy shaft's prolly gonna be pretty slick. The main shaft's straight up and down you say?" he asks Jurvis. "Vertical. Right. OK. I can probably shimmy up as far as the second floor, maybe higher. It'll be tricky, that's for sure."
*OOC: I'm not real happy with this layout so I might make some changes.
Your Turn.
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This message was last edited by the GM at 01:46, Sat 23 July 2016.