Turn 51 -- Scouting the Keep

Beleg looks at the collapsed figure of Lyntern at his feet, "Well, this certainly changes everything, doesn't it?" He then kneels to inspect the young lord, placing his hands on the various wounds covering the boys body and trying to heal them as best as possible. After healing the wounds, Beleg rather roughly pulls Lyntern to a sitting position, "And now, young man, it is time for you to tell us why you are here and if your father is aware of this. Come on, speak up!"

Dain frowns at Lyntern but it actually appears that he is holding back a grin, "What are you doing here boy? In any case you should thank the gods that you aren't in an orcish cookpot. I thought you had more head up on your shoulders." Looking intently at the keep, Dain sighs, "We may all end up in a cookpot before the day is done. Let's be on with it." With a shiver, he pulls his cloak tightly around his body.

Lyntern looks at the large paladin and the young mage with a confused look upon his face before answering, "Well, I told you that I would meet back up with you in the Thornwood. I've been trying to find you for about two days now." Lyntern then looks at Dain, "Of course my father doesn't know. He wouldn't have let me go running out of the keep without an armed escort. I killed some orcs on the way here!" he then adds excitedly. "Well, I think I did anyway. I ran into a couple a day ago and they attacked me. I hit one of them but then the other one came after me. I lost my sword and then took off running. I finally lost them a few hours later but I also lost my sword and my backpack." He frowns as the excitement from his first real encounter fades from the result. "But now I'm back with you guys!"

Talimar grinds his teeth in frustration as Lyntern tells his tale. "Beleg, thank you for tending to his wounds. Ras, Kre, Kersath and Kuiper, why don't you four circle the area looking for signs of life in the area as well as tracks or paths." Talimar seems a little uncomfortable ordering the veteran ranger around but the party must take action. "The kidnappers cannot move around entirely by magic. The rest of us should stay here, there may have been someone following the boy." So saying, Talimar strings his bow ready and makes sure that his sword is free in its sheath.

"Aye, and while your at it, look for a back door," adds Dain. "I don't think there will be a welcome party to meet us at the entrance."

"And after we deal with the outside of the keep, I'll keep watch out here while you all play inside," Gnore frowns in the direction of the whelp boy and draws his bastard sword. He then moves to get a better view of scanning the surroundings as Talimar said in hopes of finding Lyntern's pursuers, if any.

Inwardly and outwardly groaning at the sight of the boy, Kre follows Talimar's orders and grins at the chance to see the veteran ranger, Kuiper in action and maybe even learn a few things. Speaking quietly to himself and Ras, "I'll do anything to get away from the brat...." and a little louder, "...no offence meant your Lordship, but WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING HERE? DIDN'T YOUR DADDY EVER TEACH YOU TO LISTEN TO YOUR ELDERS?!" Fuming, Kre stalks off to search the area.

Lyntern scowls deeply at Kre's back as the thief storms off, "Of course he did, but we had a deal. We would meet back up here in the Thornwood." This last he says to Beleg.

"I don't believe that was the meat of our agreement. But now is not the time or place to discuss deals. Now we must deal with the situation at hand."

Desiring to be alone with his thoughts before heading into the keep, Randor moves off away from the rest of the group and finds a suitable spot in the forest where he sits down to pray to Tyr. Ortho also quietly excuses himself from the others and process into the woods a few feet to meditate and prepare himself for battle while the others scout about. The others can hear the dwarven priest casting a minor spell while he is 'meditating'. Not happy with the condition of the yellowed plant life, Garth nervously fingers his holy symbol. As the rest of the party tends to and is interrogating Lyntern, he begins to walk around the perimeter of the group. He seems to be searching for something. His free hand falls to his mace as he draws it from his belt. Something seems to be preying on his mind. Those who are near him hear him utter, "Somethin' dern unnatural here. I'm not liking it one bit." Back at the heart of the 'camp', Druckner pulls a bolt from his quiver and snaps it into his crossbow. He then moves to a position still within the cover of the trees but one that he can still look upon the keep.

What the dwarf sees before him is like any of a number of other small keeps throughout the realms. The stone walls rise to a height of about 15 feet with a watchtower that rises to about 30 feet. There are no windows or arrow slits in the walls although he can see some on the keep itself. He does not see any movement along the walls.

After perhaps an hour or so of quietly and slowly scouting the area, Kre, Kersath, Ras and Kuiper return to the main group.

"The entire area is booby-trapped," says Kuiper with a look of concern on his face. "Both pit traps and spear traps. I was only able to find them and move around them by tracking the movements of the men from the keep. From the traffic in and out of there, there must be a lot of them. They tried to hide their tracks though."

Kersath takes up the description of the area from that point, "The clearing gets no closer than about a hundred feet at the closest point. There's only one entrance and that's through the wooden gate at the north side. The walls appear to be scalable although I doubt we could all do that and be quiet about it. We can navigate around the traps now though. We didn't notice any sign of movement."

Talimar listens to the report closely before asking for any suggestions as to how to get into the keep as quietly as possible.

"Let's just bang the front gate down and charge in!" answers Lyntern boldly. "Can anyone loan me a sword by the way?"