#scamos

Orisk Ironfist wakes to the smell of decay and unwashed bodies.  His head is throbbing; his face is pressed into the rough hewn wooden floor. He sat up and surveyed the room around him. The cell is small, with wooden bars, but no windows; only a murder hole in the ceiling.  There’s a cot in one corner, and bucket in the other, along with several sharp shards of stone.  He needs the attention of the guards, so he uses the sharpest looking shard to saw into his leg. The wound is deep enough to bleed, but not deep enough to cause any real damage.

He calls out to one of the guards for help, but the single man that comes to his aid scoffs at his superficial and obviously self-inflicted injury.  As the guard turns to head back down the latter into the lower levels of the Blackpool Prison, Orsik (who is a small man – even for a dwarf) slides through the bars of his cell, and is free.  He sneaks carefully up behind the guard, on the second or third rung of the ladder leading downwards, and kicks him forcefully.  The guard falls, and Orsik doesn’t move again until he hears an echoing thud and a splash.

Out of the corner of his eye, Orisk notices an elderly man even smaller than he is slip nimbly through the rather widely space bars of his own cell.  Whoever had designed the prison had not had gnomes in mind.  He approaches the large hole in the center of the room, looking back and forth between it and Orsik’s face.

“I suppose I should thank you,” he says, “for taking out the guard.  I was just waiting for him to leave so that I could get out.”

Orsik grunts in return.  

The gnome sticks out his arm to shake the dwarf’s hand.  “Eldon. Eldon Ningle, though I go by Tock.” Tock had a slight tremble in his hand, shifting eyes, and his head twitched to the side like he had a subtle form of turrets.  Orsik’s overall impression of the gnome was that he wasn’t quite totally present, ‘upstairs’.

Orsik shook his hand and gave him his own name.   As they looked back down to the ladder to inspect it, they heard a crunch like that of breaking wood.  They turn and see a tall human man, who then turned and crashed through the bars of the only remaining occupied cell.  From the last cell emerged a strikingly handsome young tiefling man.  

The four gather around the large hole in the center of the room, looking back and forth between each other before the human finally spoke up.  “Well, what are we going to do?”

Orsik picks up a still mostly intact bar from Marben’s cell, slapping it twice against his own hand to test that it wouldn’t break under pressure.  “Well, I’d suggest we arm ourselves, and start to look for a way out.”

Tock, the human, and the tiefling all found cell bars they would use as primitive clubs and then the party descended into the lower levels of the prison.

At the bottom of the ladder they found a large iron door, which was unfortunately locked.  They also found a stagnant pool of sewage next to a grate that seemed to lead into the city sewer system.  Lying in the pool was the guard, who was fortunately dead.  Orisk searched the body of the guard, retrieving from it a small purse of gold and a short-sword.  Eldon searched the corpse as well, taking particular interest in the pockets of the dead guard’s coat, and finding a small pocket watch.

The old gnome grinned widely, and then set to dismantling the watch into parts that could be used to pick the lock of the large iron door.  Orsik watched him carefully; skeptical about whether or not Tock could actually use the antique to help them escape.  

The human man suddenly again spoke up, “I think we should split up, two and two.  Gives us a better chance of us finding a safe way out of this place.”

Orsik nodded.  “That sounds like a fine idea,” trailing off, imploring the young man for his name.

“Marben,” the human said.  “My name is Marben.”

“Well, Marben,” Orsik said, “You and I will take the sewer path.  Tock and the tiefling will stay here and try to unlock that door.”

The tiefling scoffed.  Orsik narrowed his eyes at him.  “Do you have a problem, tiefling?”

“No, sir, I would just be eternally grateful if you referred to me by my name and not as ‘the tiefling’ as if it leaves a bad taste in your mouth,” he said, the phrase dripping with sarcasm and content. “It is Scamos.”

“Well, fine, Scamos,” Orsik answered, turning back to Marben.  “Tock and Scamos will stay here and try to unlock the door.”

Scamos hmphed and crossed his arms, still dissatisfied.  Tock set to work with his macgyvered lock picks, and Marben and Orsik slid through the bars of the grate leading to the sewers, down a sharp incline.  Orsik shortly thereafter lost his footing, sliding down the slippery slope into the basin below with a loud splash.  He kicks at something biting him on the leg as Marben pulls him out of the rank water, and the two look around until they find a grate that they suspect leads to the tributary of the Avonmore River that runs through the center of Blackpool, and the outside world.

Meanwhile, Tock is able to open the door with surprising ease, and he and Scamos, as stealthily as they can, make their way through the door into the room beyond.  There are four armed guards who the pair cannot escape without notice. Scamos rushes in to fight, but Tock recedes into the shadows.  

Scamos manages to gore two of the four to death with his makeshift club before Orsik and Marben, returning to inform their companions of a possible escape round, come through the door, weapons drawn, and finish of the remaining guards.  Orsik with a smooth decapitation, and Marben with a stab through the back of the neck (and the aid of a small gnome gnawing on his ankles). 

They find a large chest in the center of the room, which they presume holds their belongings. They are correct in assuming so, however, there is a fifth set of armor within as well.  Tock beings to speak up and ask who it might belong to when they hear another crash upstairs among the cells.  They return the room with the ladder that leads back upstairs.  Scamos looks up the ladder, and sees the face of a devilishly handsome young man.  He says: “Hello, all.  My name is Vlad, and your entire party will earn my unending loyalty if you are willing to aide in my escape.”  They party agrees to accept Vlad, as if they have much choice, and they all don their gear and head for the escape grate. 

Orsik runs headfirst down the slope, sliding on his stomach down into the basin he’d been in before.  The rest follow him carefully down the incline, careful not to slip and fall into the pungent water below.  Tock looks through the grate and says, “Why, that’s the spillway.  That leads directly to the center of Blackpool.”

Marben pulls Orsik from the water once again, and the group continue carefully along the stone walkway leading around the edges of the room.  Orsik again goes spilling into the water when he steps on a loose piece of stone and the floor beneath him crumbles from under his feet.  Vlad pulls him from the water this time,  seeming already to be fed up with the dwarf’s antics and attitude.

Luckily for the group, Tock has several climbing pegs that they can use to cross the gap without issue.  Before they can cross their makeshift bridge however, they are attacked by the cryptworms which had been biting Orsik under the water.  The group battles the pests with ease, Orsik flamboyantly jumping onto the back of one and cutting a gash behind it’s head with one of his axes.

When they make it to the grate, Tock attempts to swim under it, into the spillway, but the current and the cryptworms still in the water are too much for the small, elderly man.  Vlad, preferring to use his brawn over his brains, simply beats a larger hole in the grate with his war-hammer and the party waltzes out of the prison easily.

Tock snipes worms for samples while the others wash the repulsive sewage from their clothes and gear.  They mutually decide to head up to the town, where the group discovers and Inn and Tavern aptly named Spillside.  Scamos makes himself comfortable upon entry, strumming his lute, and earning a few coins along with the favor of the Innkeeper, a dwarven woman named Gerda.

Tock retires for the night under a bed in an already occupied room, while Orsik makes several attempts to woo the lovely Gerda.  The tactless dwarf makes many graphic comments about the size of his member, to which Gerda responds: “Those who claim to carry a great sword most often only posses a dagger.”  In an effort to prove her wrong, he drapes his sizable package over the bar, receiving a fork straight through as punishment.  Marben and Vlad watch the scene unfold with amusement, throwing back ale after ale in fierce competition to see who could drink the other under the table first. 

The group rents rooms from the night, Scamos receiving his for free for his musical delight.  In the morning, Orsik wakes to a sealed letter on his bedside table, signed by the leader of a local thieves guild.

Meanwhile, Tock displays great aptitude for acrobatics for such and elderly gnome, deftly stealing a very valuable gem from a local magic shop and a clock from the room he’d stayed in the night before. 

The party sets out to find the leader of the local guild, headed towards a specific location mentioned in the letter Orsik received.  When they arrive, there is only a petite woman, her face covered with a black veil.  She gives them simple instructions: go to this place, retrieve this golden tablet engraved with the image of an ancient Dwarf Lord.  She offers them gold to keep themselves, and with which to bribe the guards of Blackpool to forget their crimes.