The Ranch House | A Thora Silentblade tale

It was nearly full dark by the time they reached the outskirts of the ranch. The clouds shifted across the face of the moon, cutting the little light from the sky above. Out here, there were so many stars to take in you could spend a lifetime counting ’em and still not finish. But Thora didn’t have time for stargazing right now, because a little revenge was about to be served.

The little kobold with them pointed ahead into the darkness at a few large, looming shapes, explaining that they were some sort of barracks or guest houses. Tossing a nod over to the elf riding next to him in the back of the cart, Thora silently jumped down to the firm dirt ground of the trail. The wagon came to a stop.

“Wait here, a moment, give us a chance to check these out”, Thora whispered to Duanne, who sat up front with their captive. The plan had been to gas the guards while they rested in their barracks and with any luck one of these was the target. Munch seemed to think the kobolds would be in the building to their left, so Zearach and Thora made their way in the shadows to the other structure.

Quietly advancing on the back of the building, doing their best not to disturb the silence around them, the two found a window set high on the back wall. Palms out, Thora boosted the elf up while keeping a watch. The grounds were quite open, not offering much in the way of cover to advance on the main ranch house. They might need a distraction to get close.

The light step of the elf was gone from Thora’s hands as quickly as it had stepped up. Zearach had seen something. This building wasn’t a barracks, like they thought, and there would be no guards carousing in here. There seemed to be some sort of jail cell and somebody was lying in wait in the ceiling.

Thora smiled at the excitement in the ranger’s voice. You could tell he was about to enjoy himself and Thora found it endearing. The two of them circled around the building to take some sort of cover on approach and then Zearach took over while Thora again took watch outside. Up until now, there hadn’t been much noise from the kobold quarters that Thora was leaning against. Thora could hear quiet talking from inside the jail cell, but not enough to make out the details. With any luck, Zearach would make it quick.

Sure enough, the archer was back in the alley between the two buildings after a short moment, seemingly unsure about what to do next. To Thora’s amazement, Zearach relayed that none other than Debbie Deen, the sheriff of Wilted Gulch, was in the cell right now! Wasn’t she supposed to be dead? The dwarf agreed that it would make sense to free the sheriff, if for no other reason than to get every ounce of help possible.

When Zearach returned, however, it was obvious that the sheriff had not fared well in her last encounter with the Cavendish crew. She had a heavy limp, and a strong thirst for revenge. That was something Thora understood well. Thora slung Deen over a shoulder and the three of them slunk back to the cart to report to the others. While Deen’s legs thumped against Thora’s torso, Thora couldn’t help but wonder if there might have been an easier way. Hopefully this effort would be worth it!

Breaking and entering

After a hushed conversation back at the wagon, the crew agreed to their plan of approach. The wagon would continue forward, providing a delayed distraction. Munch would convince the kobolds to provide a distraction near the barn. In the meantime, Zearach and Thora would advance through the field under the cover of darkness and attempt to smoke out the guards in the main house. It sounded like a fool-proof plan. What could possibly go wrong?

It didn’t take long for Thora to find out. While the elf strode noiselessly ahead through the field, Thora must have stepped on every possible branch, twig, cactus, and dingo trap along the way. The darkness helped with obscuring the sight of the pair of them, but it wouldn’t take much for somebody to notice that ruckus. Sure enough, Thora caught sight of the light of the rooftop watch swinging towards them. Thora attempted to pick up the pace while Zearach took advantage of the distraction to try to take out the guard from a distance. The elf must have been successful, because even though Thora was certain that Zearach had missed wildly, all that the dwarf could see clearly was the light tumbling to the ground below and a heavy thud as the guard impacted with the ground below. That was certainly fortunate!

Focused solely on the task at hand, Thora’s eyes darted back and forth, looking for movement, sliding along as quietly as possible towards the outhouses at the back of the ranch house. This part of the plan was going to be tricky as the ranch residents had set up some lights in this area. There was no guarantee that somebody might not already be out here, or looking out a window. Praying for good luck and keeping to the shadows as best as possible, Thora slid behind the latrines, wondering when the last time was that somebody had cleaned them out. Trying not to gag loudly, Thora pushed on towards the back doors of the ranch house.

There was no way to know which would be the right one to enter. Both exits seemed to be used fairly frequently and a quick listen at the doors didn’t turn up anything helpful. It was time to just make a choice and get it done. Flicking a finger back and forth between the doors, Thora finally settled on finding out what was behind door number two! Getting the pipe ready in one hand, the rogue’s hand reached for the door handle and grasped it softly. Quietly swinging the door open about a hands-width, Thora tossed the pipe through the doorway, sending it clattering down the hallway. Pressing the door shut, Thora turned and braced against the door to keep it closed.

There was no expected ‘pop’ and ‘hiss’ of the pipe bomb letting loose its cargo. Nothing. Just a shout of surprise followed by a body pushing against the door.

Remember to press the button first

Thora’s shoulders sagged at the realization that the device had not been activated first. The element of surprise was gone, but Thora wasn’t out of ideas yet. With someone still pushing on the door, Thora quickly took advantage of a distraction in the hallway to slip through the other door and into a secondary hallway. With any luck, the others had reached the front of the house by now, but Thora’s part of the plan had failed. There might still be a chance to recover, if Thora could move quickly enough.

Through the door, Thora could hear a few of the men talking about the strange occurrence of the door being temporarily stuck, and at least one voice whistling its way towards the outhouses. Slipping away down the hall, the dwarf’s squat frame moved quietly into a sleeping quarters that joined the two halls. Through the door, Thora could see a man picking up the device from the floor and examining it. Moving as quietly as possible, Thora advanced upon them from behind but it was too late… they had figured it out.

“Gas attack!!” shouted the bandit, loud enough for half of Rhime to hear.

Damn it.

Shedding caution, Thora charged up behind the man and thrust a short sword up under his rib cage, taking advantage of the element of surprise. Quickly scanning about, there was no sign of the others, but Thora appeared to be in some sort of foyer with a large stair case blocking some of the view. Through the railings, the dwarf could see a group of men abruptly stop their carousing and begin scrambling to their feet. It was about to get very real in here in a moment.

Suddenly, through the front door, a cloud of fog began filling the hallway, obscuring Thora’s vision of the men. To the right, in what must have been a kitchen, a smash was heard as a window broke. Then, making an abrupt entrance, the dragonborn bard burst into the fog and began stabbing at the shadowy shapes. Thora was fairly certain the bard had said “Boo.”

This was just the distraction that was needed!

Picking up the canister of poison from the floor, Thora remembered to activate the device first and then tossed it towards the area filled with fog. The bard seemed less than pleased to be caught in the midst of the gas attack, but Thora could only shrug. They had enough to deal with right now as the chaos begun to unfold.

Thora barely had time to spin and attempt a parry as a bandit came rushing from the hallway right at the dwarf. Leaping over the banister onto the steps above, Thora tried to take advantage of the high ground, but the bandit was more skilled than expected. Taking a blade to the flank, and noticing another figure coming from the office, the situation was not favouring the rogue’s preferred ambush tactics. Beating a hasty retreat to the upper levels, Thora scanned around, trying to find something that could help.

At the top of the stairs the floorplan opened up. A window was nearby, and based on memory of the directions Thora had taken, was likely overhanging the back exits of the ranch house. All around the dwarf was a large library, which was interesting given the seemingly crime-focused ways of the Cavendish organization. If anyone came in pursuit there would be plenty of places for Thora to hide, but none particularly large enough to fool most for long. Returning to the top of the stairs, Thora took in the scene below.

The elf had just exited the kitchen and was facing off against a larger man, possibly Cavendish himself. There was no sign of the other bandits, perhaps Zearach had taken care of them? In any case, the one they were likely after seemed ready for the picking! Pulling a knitting needle out, Thora flicked it expertly across the room, striking the man in the back of his head. Caught in a crossfire between the dwarf and the elf, the man panicked and began running for the door, hoping to escape. Thora briefly wondered if the man was feeling the fear that those poor would-be heroes had felt as they fell unconscious at the meeting, choking down poison gas. That would have been fitting. Thora was not about to let this man escape the ranch house.

Running to the window, Thora crouched up on the sill, waiting for the man to come out the exit. There would be no quarter. No stay of the hand. Poised in the dark, ready to pounce, the dwarf felt the rhythmic thumping beat of a heart in battle for the first time in a long while.

The door never opened, though.

Instead, a loud thud came from the hallway below as the elf’s bow sent the man to an early, but not uncalled for, demise. Sheriff Deen would be happy when they gave her the news!

The dwarf cast one last look up through the window, taking in the stars. The night air was just the right temperature and Thora could hear a coyote howling somewhere in the distance. It was damn near picturesque.