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-----Here, Seth’s face turns pale and a fearful look grows in his eyes. "Woder told me about some followers of the Dark that have been nearby in the woods the past night. No doubt they know we are here and Woder expects them to appear tonight. There are five of them and they are very powerful. Not only do they possess magic, but they themselves casts spells."
-----Turning toward Gimplefwick, Seth says, "I hope your plan works and you know I’m with you but it sounds like these beings may not ride in on horses."
-----Seth’s eyes grow very large and he looks at Kazel. "Kazel, these people know you. Woder said specifically they were looking for the butcher’s daughter."
-----As he looks around at everyone, Seth nervously says, "It may not be safe here. We may do just as well to get out of here before nightfall." He pauses and glances about trying to make sure the echo of his voice did not carry far into the room.
-----It is only after a few moments of careful consideration, that Sol speaks quietly, "Good work Seth. Okay, I realize that tonight is going to be nothing short of dangerous, but we can't afford to let them get the gem working. At any cost. Once that Darkness gem is set, this place would be nearly impossible to take."
-----He squints in thought for a moment more before saying, "I'm not overly surprised the Dark knows we're here. Not after last night's watch on the castle...when it went silent. I guess that was them." He pauses, then adds, "All spellcasters, huh? That's going to make things interesting. Looks like ye've got yer work cut out fer ye, Sarah. The rest o' us? I say we take 'em down hard and fast. Give 'em no chance t'cast on their own. I know they're expecting us, but that doesn't change the situation that much."
-----"Hey Kaz, if they are actually after ye, ye could...if ye'd like, take refuge wi' Zan. Or even Voruna." Sol offers. He is obviously wondering why they'd want the 'butcher's daughter'.
-----Kazel's eyebrows twitch slightly when she hears mentioning of her father. She looks quietly at Woder thinking unknown thoughts and doesn't seem to hear Sol's offer. Finally she glances up at Sol. "Is that what you think best for me?" she says in a calm voice. "I can handle myself a little better than that."
-----As if the whole matter has been settled, Kazel then turns to Seth. "Say, Seth, how long are we going to keep Woder like this? It has to end somehow and he's not getting away this time if I can help it."
-----Seth seems to flinch and raise his eyebrows at Kazel’s question. He tells her, "Well, . . uhm . . I guess the charm could last maybe a few weeks." He then looks at Sarah as if to verify his answer.
-----"Don't count on it." Sarah cautions. Turning to Sol she says. "If we know where we need to go next then we have no further use for him." She lets it sit at that and then begins to talk strategy.
-----The Dread Pirate looks disgusted at all his carefully laid ambush plans going to waste, but begins to look thoughtful at the mention of all the invaders being spellcasters, "Arrrr, now Seth didn't exactly say that these beings were human or humanoid. As a matter of fact he seemed to broadly skirt that issue. And we don't have Slappy the Demon-Killer with us anymore. If pressed, I say we make a fight of it, but instead of trying to defend the walls, we concentrate our efforts in here. That could work very well for us, but the main problem is that we won't be able to escape if we find ourselves seriously outmatched by these invaders. The other problem is our prisoners. I imagine it would be fairly simple fer any talented mage to slip in here and free 'em all. That'd prove to be a nasty thorn in our collective backside. Especially if we were already engaged with a group of mages. As a matter of fact, if it were meself, I'd make it a point to free those prisoners before or during the fight to really muck it up fer us.
-----Sarah nods, thinking the same thing. "So maybe we should make sure all our prisoners are in the same place. Or somewhere they can't escape from."
-----Gimplefwick looks momentarily more vicious than usual, "But we can turn that against them. It'd be ruthless, but we kill all the prisoners, leave 'em tied up with one or two of us in the middle of 'em, with our hands behind our backs, so as we look like fellow prisoners. When whoever comes to free 'em bursts in, we jump 'em by surprise afore they know their fellows are dead. We clean 'em up after we kill 'em, place 'em in a dark corner, and have our false prisoners make noises like a prisoner, it should be quite a surprise for our visitors. We can place a couple of 'em about hall to look as if they are on guard as well. They might soak up some spells for us if they look especially life-like. We can take some twine and tie weapons to their hands and lean 'em against walls. We'll take a couple more corpses and put 'em in our bedrolls. Make 'em look like they're sleepin. That should make some obvious targets fer our midnight visitors."
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