CAMPAIGN: The Unburning (D&D5e)

[BMR]

"Ah, but my dear, I am no mere citizen. I, the Count Kailyn Kandel, represent the newly formed Guild of Arcane Firefighters. If you would be so kind, could you accompany me to your headquarters? I am organizing something with the nobles of the city, and as it involves our two organizations I would wish to meet with your group in order to better facilitate things. And of course, seeing as how our two respective groups will be working closely together, what say the two of us get to know each other more along the way?"

[Idontknow]

Equally shocked but trying to keep calm. Ebald turns to Evangeline.

"We need to get out of here. I hate turning tail and fleeing before the job is done, but this... This just isn't normal."

[Master K]

"Then...by all means, sir..." Evangeline says, with charm hidden beneath her genuine concern. She grabs Ebald's arm tightly.

"...Lead the way."

[Bob the Hamster]

Ebald and Evangeline

With Evangeline hanging on to Ebald's arm, they retreat away from the sizzling fire, dripping water, swirling smoke, falling sand and general confusion of the fifth floor.

Down the stairs to the fourth floor where they arrive just in time to see...

Cece and Petrol

Cece stomps the floor for emphasis

d20+dex = 4 + 3 = Fail!

The already-weakened floorboards break under Cece's feet, and she falls through, rather less gracefully than she did the last time this happened

d20+dex = 6 + 3 = Fail!

Cece takes 1 damage

Cece lands hard in the 3rd floor hallway.

Zargorina seems totally unconcerned by this development, and she shifts her attention to Petrol, and gives him the reply that she was about to give to Cece. "Oh, I imagine the landlord is out drinking, or getting in fights. 10 to 1 odds say he doesn't even know his building is on fire yet!"

Caldon

Caldon hears the crash as Cece lands on the hallway floor just above him.

Down below him, Caldon can see three Guild Executioners running up the stairs from the first floor.

The first one is very obviously a dwarf, from his build, and the way his beard sticks out from underneath his mask. The second seems to be a very muscular woman. She takes up so much of the stairwell that Caldon can't even get a good look a the third one behind her.

"Evacuate the building!" bellows the one in the lead.

Sharn

d20 + INT + proficiency = 18 + 0 + 2 = 21 = Success!

As Sharn retracts the bucket and makes her retreat to the stairs, she gets a good look at the sandstorm centered over the burning building.

It doesn't extend very far into the sky, and seems very localized. She is certain that it is an arcane spell of some kind, but not one that she knows personally. The sand does seem to be helping to smother some of the fire.

In the stairwell, Sharn sees the dragonborn man she glimpsed in the apartment a few moments ago. "Hey!" he shouts. as she passes him.

Sharn can see that the stairwell below is crowded with other residents of this non-burning building, some are carrying belongings, getting a head start on their own evacuations.

Normin

Normin leaves the fighting men to each other, and retreats back down to the first floor and out the door.

Someone out by the street shouts "You there! Come here, quick!"

Normin can see a Guild Executioner by the street. From their build and voice Normin is sure this is not the same Executioner who he saw chase the Orc down the alley earlier.

Kailyn

It seems to Kailyn that he can see the flash of smiling teeth through the mask's mouth-hole.

"Arcane Firefighters, Huh?" she replies. "You have that under control already?" she points towards the smoke-and-steam coming from the poor quarter.

"I'm on duty right now, but if you want to speak with a Senior Executioner, you can go to our Guild Headquarters at 49 Purple Carrot Road. The gates are always open."

You know where Purple Carrot Road starts in Marketday, and leads towards the middle of Granary Hill. You thought that part of Granary Hill was all gravel-manicured yards and white picket fences.

[Master K]

"My word, that woman needs to be more careful. That's her second floor she's fallen through." Evangeline muses.

"You two may want to take our lead and get out of here." Evangeline says to Petrol and Zargonia. "There's...sand pouring down through the upstairs."

[Newbie Newtype]

At this point in time, Normin doesn't think he can continue further back and forths. As much as he would like to give the Executioner time, it may be better the Executioner gives his. He yells, "You as well! There's need of a mediator for a brawl just up the stairs! A dwarf and a.. Just hurry! There's little time."

[Mogri]

"Don't need to tell me twice," Caldon murmurs. When the stairs clear, he makes his escape.

[Spoonweaver]

"Official Fire Brigade business!" Sharn shouts heading down the stairs. She mage hands the bucket out, pouring water on the crowd of people. "Make a path!" She shouts while pushing and shoving her way through the wet crowd.

[RMSephy]

"Out drinking, huh? Good grief, I think I could use a drink after this. I-in any case, I think we should follow the.. um, Fire lady's lead and go watch the flames from the outside." The sound of the general chaos of the upper floors is starting to unnerve Petrol, and after peeking in the hole to check that Cece is okay, he would start making his way down via the stairs.

[BMR]

Kailyn waves his hand through the air, as if brushing the sight of the plume of smoke away. "I'm sure my comrades have it under control, they're a competent bunch. They do what they can, and I do what only I can. As the old saying which I just invented now goes, 'As dogs bark and cats meow, we must each of us play to our strengths in the here and now.' But enough of my babbling, I don't suppose I could convince you to escort a fellow servant of the city to your headquarters? Our groups will need to work together, we could get you appointed as a senior liaison or some such, certainly a prestigious position."

[Gizmog]

Cece curses loudly, and then softer as her voice gets farther from the hole and closer to the stairs. "The 'ell weeth eet!" she shouts and stomps back towards the outside world.

[Bob the Hamster]

Normin

The Executioner beckons, and a second Executioner joins them this one has a distinctly avian appearance, with the hooked tip of a beak protruding from their long mask, and bare clawed feet rather than the usual boots. Both of them hurry towards the door that Normin just exited. "Thank you, citizen!" says the first. "Get to safety!"

On the street, Normin can see one more Executioner, a very small person, gnome or halfling sized, standing in front of the building and staring up at the standstorm. The crowd behind him also seems to be paying attention mostly to the spectacle at the top of the building.

Caldon

The three Executioner's in the stairwell get out of Caldon's way and proceed upward, although the last one, a shockingly skinny person with black hollow eyes on their mask gives him a curious glance.

When he gets outside, a small Executioner is standing directly in front of the door, looking up. Caldon can see his bare neck under the mask. The man is holding a blank scroll in his hand. "It worked!... It worked!" he murmurs.

Cece, Ebald, Evangeline, Petrol

On the stairs, the four firefighters pass the three Executioners. "Is there anyone else up there?" they ask.

"Check for yourselves, you masked Boars!" Zargorina snaps at them as she hurries to follow Cece. The huge goliath Executioner growls at this, but she does not rise to the bait with a reply.

The firefighters exit the building not far behind Caldon.

Sharn

People shriek in surprise as Sharn douses them. She is able to push past them and out onto the street.

She sees Normin nearby. She sees the small Executioner in front of the building, and she sees the crowd.

She sees first Caldon, and the others emerge from the front door.

None of them seem to notice her yet-- except for the nearby people in the crowd, who mostly notice the bucket, rather than Sharn herself.

Kailyn

Even with the mask, her smile is unmistakable. From the tone of her voice, Kailyn can tell that the Executioner Delphi is pleased by this conversation.

"I'm on duty, and I can't leave my post" she says firmly, "and you don't need an escort, just walk in."

She puts her hand on Kailyn's shoulder, close to his neck.

"... but where will I find you after 10pm when my shift ends?" A lovely eyelash winks through the mask's eyehole.

[Spoonweaver]

Sharn keeps the bucket a good 10ft above the crowd, to keep it away from any grabby hands. "These people would run off with this bucket and leave this building to burn down if they could," she said out loud.
"One side!" demanded Sharn as she marched towards the building on the other side, dosing those in here path with water, whomever they might be. "Official fire brigade business!"
Sharn imagined something better coming out of the bucket, like fire. "That would show them," she said slightly quieter then her shouted demands. "Make a path!"

[Sazae]

Arcadia could feel the crowd easily getting out of hand but she was just one person. She watched Sharn run around like a mad woman which only seemed to rile the crowd even more. If the building started to collapse, Arcadia knew that everyone was way too close.

"Listen!" She shouted as loudly as possible "Everyone needs to step back and regain some sort of order here!"

[Newbie Newtype]

Even with Sharn's gambit, it was seemingly not enough to salvage the building. Normin was especially ill prepared, preoccupied with trying to fortify the headquarters which put him and the fire resistant cloak at a distance and the sheer coincidence of a flaming building on the same evening as their training which he had spent spell power to complete.

With even re-entering the building out of the question now, all Normin can do is watch and wait for the others to escape. With his head lifted his hat falls back, but even then only the small sized executioner would be able to see his face.

"Hrm, a last ditch effort to quell the flames, it seems," he murmurs, seeing that sand up high tries to suffocate the fire.