Session 10

## Synopsis

A daring attack puts everyone's lives in danger.

## Plot

The rest of the party stands in shock and stare at the reunited couple. Revan looks to Cedric, who merely watches, a thin smile on his face. Jalfein invites everyone into his conference chamber, where he offers them food, water, and warm clothes. He apologizes for his comrades' lack of discretion, and excuses himself and Vicora from them. Vicora looks back at Cedric one last time before she is led away.

Everyone sits in silence, voraciously consuming the food in front of them. Draven finally breaks the quiet, asking what they were going to next. Before anyone can answer, Jalfein reenters the room, flanked by several guards. Everyone instinctively reaches for their weapons, though they soon realize that they were taken away several minutes ago. Jalfein asks them to remain calm, and that he thanks them dearly for his wife's return, giving Cedric a particularly warm look. Cedric just gives him a nod, and asks about her condition.

Jalfein and the group go through the motions, but Jalfein is somewhat reluctant to tell them about the status of the rebellion. He is understandably paranoid, but comes up with an idea for them to prove themselves. He plans on assaulting a nearby Kydelian-held strategic point known as "Fort Ironsides". If they would help him to take it, then he will allow him to be privy to his plans.

And so, Cedric, Revan, Draven, Christine, Jalfein, and six of his his best soldiers head off into the countryside. Jalfein splits up the group: Cedric and Revan are to cause a distraction at the front gates, while Christine and Jalfein will scale a nearby cliff-side in order to infiltrate the fort's inner levels. Meanwhile, Draven and Jalfein's men would attempt to scale the walls while the guards are being distracted, after which they could lower the drawbridge. Christine wonders why exactly it is necessary for Jalfein and her to go so far out of their way to infiltrate the castle, but she does not question his orders, and they go on their way.

Revan and Cedric approach the fort, and the two exchange humorous discourse as to how they should cause a distraction. Unfortunately, they speak a bit too loudly, and the guards at the gate hear them. The duo, to their credit, do manage to adapt to this situation quite quickly, and begin to argue like an old married couple over the nature of coconuts. The guardsmen are immensely amused and the ruse works perfectly. Soon, their laughter is replaced by choking sounds, and their bodies are tossed out onto the ground in front of the two. Revan grimaces, but Cedric is overcome with elation that it actually worked. Soon, the gate is raised, and they enter.

Meanwhile, Christine and Jalfein are scaling the cliff, which Christine accomplishes with extreme ease (by turning into a bird). Jalfein climbs to the top, impressed by her abilities. He tells her that her skills will make this a great deal easier, and gives her a tightrope to attach to the parallel tower nearby. She attaches it, and the two make their way into the fortress. Christine asks why all of this subterfuge was necessary, as there was already the diversion at the gate. Jalfein informs her that he was made aware through intercepting communications that there was a weapon in the fortress that might help his cause in the civil war, and he is pretty sure that it is somewhere in this tower.

The two head down the spiral staircase, careful to be as quiet as possible. Unfortunately, they spot two guardsmen at the bottom of the stairs, with no possible way of passing by. Jalfein whispers to Christine that they need to take them out at the same time, and he pulls out a hand crossbow. Christine pulls out her own crossbow, and the two take aim...

And both miss. The guardsmen immediately draw their blades and call out, and soon two more guards rush into the room. Jalfein curses, and tells Christine to run back up the stairs. The two retreat up the stairs, closely followed by four guardsmen. Jalfein tells Christine to keep running, and he turns to face his pursuers, drawing a pair of blades as he did so. The first man in line was surprised to see him turn around, and is unable to respond to Jalfein's slash in time. Jalfein proceeds to push the soldier right behind him down the spiral staircase, and he lands with a sickening crash down at the bottom. Christine stops running, and loads another bolt on her crossbow, ready to assist.

Jalfein jumps down the staircase, thrusting out his short sword at the next pair of guardsmen. They are taken aback by this drastic movement, but Jalfein gets his sword caught in one of the soldiers and his arm breaks with a shattering crack. Using his left arm, he thrusts the one man down the stairs as well, but the other prepares to execute him. Suddenly, a bolt finds its way into the elf's chest, and the soldier went tumbling down the stairs. Jalfein thanks Christine for her help, and the two head their way down the stairs together.

Once they reach the bottom, Christine notices that one of the soldiers is still alive. She looks to see if Jalfein has noticed, puts her finger to her lips, and then continues on her way. The two enter into the storeroom, where Jalfein does some searching around. He discovers a gauntlet, which he happily exclaims to Christine will help the war to be won.

Meanwhile, outside, Revan and Cedric rush into the fort, swords drawn. They are faced with half a dozen soldiers in the courtyard, who are alarmed and unready. Cedric and Revan stand back to back, parrying and thrusting with their blades and protecting one another from assault. Cedric manages to dispatch two of the soldiers through skillful swordplay, and Revan disarms another. The two manage to convince the three left standing that they are completely out of their league, and they surrender. More soldiers pour out of the fort, and the two prepare to continue the combat. Four of their drow companions soon arrive, however, and the remaining soldiers are convinced that they are terribly outnumbered (which they aren't). After just a few moments, they have successfully captured just under a dozen prisoners without a single casualty.

Christine and Jalfein emerge as well from the main keep, and the group meets back up. Suddenly, a voice rings out through the courtyard; it's the fort's commander, who says that he has seized several drow prisoners and he plans on executing them unless his own prisoners are released. Christine, thinking quickly, transforms into a raven and flies into the room next to the commander's one. She looks inside, and notices that there are in fact no prisoners being held. She accidentally knocks over a candle, and the room is quickly set ablaze. Unable to escape from the window, she heads out through the hallway, where several soldiers attempt to stop her.

They cannot.

Christine tells Jalfein that the elves are bluffing, and Jalfein tells them so. He also tells them that they have set the fort on fire, and that if the soldiers wanted to live, they might as well surrender. The commander considers it for a few moments, and then decides to just screw it and surrenders. Draven runs back up to the group, his chest heaving, and he reports that he and another drow just took on a couple of men that tried to escape. They now have them tied up as well. Christine reenters the tower with Draven and the two pull the wounded soldier Christine noticed from before back out before he burned or choked to death.

When all was said and done, the drow captured twenty-seven soldiers, and slew eight. One of the drow was killed, and four others (including Jalfein) were wounded. The party suffered no injuries, and feel pretty dang good about themselves. The elvish soldiers feel pretty bad about themselves when they see that they surrendered to a group a third their size, and act pretty dejected on the way back.

Before they reach the location of the secret base, Jalfein announces that he is sorry, but that due to reasons of security and logistics, they cannot leave all of the elvish soldiers alive; they may only take in three. Before anything else can be said, Christine immediately jumps in and states her case for them, that they were nothing but soldiers following orders. Jalfein states that he agrees with her, but that they're already struggling to feed their own, and that twenty-seven extra mouths to feed might be disastrous. Revan joins with Christine, and states that to stoop so low as to kill unarmed and surrendered soldiers would render the rebellion just as bad as the oppressors that they fight against. Jalfein ponders this for a moment, and then he caves into the demands of the party. He blindfolds the rest of the prisoners, and they are led into the fort.

Once they arrive, the party is treated to a warm welcome from the rest of the drow, and they have a much needed rest.

(October 13th-14th)

Davids' Rating: 9.0