The group crept up to the gates of the keep. Etienne easily guided them around the edges of the pit that had been discovered earlier. The gates had been closed by someone--or something. Still, the keep stood in silence and darkness.
"Kaileer," Jana asked quietly about the zombie still in the pit, "can you kill that thing with your spear?"
"Yes," the ranger answered with a whisper, "but it not be quiet."
"Hmmm....." muttered Aloysius. "I suspect they may be expecting our return, although mayhap not this soon. Can anyone tell if the tower be occupied? Mayhap 'twould be best if we entered as we did afore?"
"If we do that," Jana pointed out, "we can't get right back out the same way. Remember all the trouble that caused last time?"
Arachne sighed softly. "Where shall we go tonight?" she whispered, very softly. "Jana?"
"Hell if I know," Jana muttered. After a moment, she said thoughtfully, "Hey, Arachne, you can turn into a bird, right? Can you fly over, open the gate a little for us, then still be able to do that glowy door thingie?"
Aloysius looked at Jana, then at Arachne, then back to Jana. "But.....Arachne?" he said, turning to the gnome once more, "didst thou not say that thou couldst open thy portals twice?"
"Aye," said Aloysius in a concurring voice. "If that would concerve thy strength, small one, mayhap that would be wise." He thought for a moment and a perplexed look ame across his face. "'Twould be better than announcing our arrival with the blue portal. But......" the mage blused slightly as those who could see might later attest, "art thou, er.....tall 'enow to reach the bar on the gate, sma-, er....Arachne?"
"In any event, let us do SOMETHING. Otherwise, this rain shall be the end of us all."
"You don't want to wait for me to try turning into a bird," Arachne whispered. "That takes too long. It would also pretty much wear me out again. I said before that I should be good for two passages through my glowing doors: Once to get in and once to get out. (I'm a little better rested now than I was by the time before when I brought everyone inside the keep.) So where should I aim for? There's the awful room, I know that pretty well. There's the room I hid in -- which is likely to be housing any surviving dogs or live, resting bad guys by now. There's the courtyard, which we discussed already. Those are really your choices because those are the places I've been to and can visualize safely. My recommendation is the awful room again -- provided that the blind people can patiently wait for the sighted to guide them. Unless you think that door can be locked?" Arachne added unhappily.
"Hmmmm.....", muttered Aloysius as he shook his head. "The possibility of that door being locked had not occurred to me. Howe'er, why would they do so since they know not how we entered afore? In any event, I have another possible option. Kaileer didst mention afore that he found a trail on the far side of the keep. Mayhap there be a concealed entrance of some sort over there. It may be worth a look. Kaileer could check it out quickly since he knows where the trail is."
"If we must use Arachne's door, I would advocate for a return to the room we used previously."
"I would vote for the room where you hid or on top of this lookout tower if you could manage it. Can't you just walk through this gate and open it or would that take too much of your strength?" Blacky whispered "Wherever we go let Etienne and me go first."
"Etienne and Kaileer first," Jana suggested. "They can see, at least somewhat. And let's just go. If Kaileer goes off looking for another way in by himself, we won't know if he got caught or what, and if we all traipse over there, we'll certainly get caught."
"I not go first." the ranger said, "Blacky have armor and big axe, I have leather and bow. If Blacky swing axe and not can see, I not want be in front him."
Aloysius wiped some rain off of his brow. "Blacky and Etienne then, followed by Janathell and Kaileer. Lasiar, myself, and Arachne shall follow. The tower may not be large enow' to contain us all, so let us proceed to the same room as afore." The mage sniffled a little bit as he hugged his arms to his torso. "Let us proceed afore we all be bedridden with cold."
"I'm not getting any undisputed instruction," Arachne sighed in her continued whisper. "So here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to place the other end of the portal in the courtyard roughly at the base of the tower. If there is someone up in the tower standing a watch, the base of it is one of the hardest places to see, certes the hardest part of the courtyard to notice. I will point the door toward the middle of the courtyard so that hopefully there won't be obstacles in front of you when you emerge from it. So, when you do emerge from the door, please keep going forward so that people behind don't crash into you. (If you're last through and not good at darkness, then please don't keep going.)
"I'm going to use the courtyard instead of the awful room because that room was pretty awful, it's likely still littered with mushed zombie, it'll be even darker than the courtyard, and it's possible that the door might be secured in some way. They don't know how we turned up in there, but they do know that we showed up, so they might lock or block the door somehow just out of prudence. If they troubled to close the gate, who knows what other trouble they might've gone to?" "It's tiring for me to hold open the doorway, so I'm not going to open it until you've decided what order to get through. I can do two trips if we're organized, but not if we stand around the opened portal saying 'After you.'"
"Yes, yes, yes," implored Aloysius quietly. "As a whole, we aren't a stealthy group, so they'll learn of our return sooner or later. Eric and Etienne first, then Janathell and Kaileer, then Lasiar and myself, then Arachne." He shook his head in confusion. "Methinks I have repeated myself.......oh well." He went back and stood next to Lasiar, daggers drawn, and waited for something to happen.
Arachne opened her glowing doorway and slowly the party went through, Etienne, Blacky, Kaileer, Jana, Lasiar, Aloysius, and finally Arachne herself. Everyone stepped through into the northeast corner of the courtyard, which was both dark and quiet. There were no exceptionally loud noises this time around.
Aloysius didn't move, but whispered to those in front of him. "The east door......that would seem to be a reasonable place to start." He stood in the rain and tried to listen intently for any odd noises.
"Just get me somewhere where there's some light." Blacky said holding his axe ready for combat.
Etienne looked around a bit, "We should go in pairs. One pair moves while the others watch and cover them. We can move first, while Kaileer covers us with his bow. Once we're there, we can do the same for the others."
Kaileer silently nodded his approval of the strategy and fitted an arrow to his bowstring.
Aloysius placed his hand on Lasiar's shoulder and waited until it was their turn to move to the east door.
