"Well if we can't talk to it then there is no reason to keep it alive."
Masamune takes his blade and quickly attempts to end the creature's life.
Masamune makes short work of the dire corby. That makes 3 dire corbies fewer within the castle, which does not seem to have been alerted to the short altercation nearby. It is still about midday.
This close to the castle, you can see a small amount of activity along the wall parapet. Two dire corbies "patrol" the wall - which is to say, you can see them occasionally walking about, singly, looking here and there, pitching a few broken stones off the walk, and otherwise idly spending a boring time. They do not appear to be particularly vigilant.
You can also see that the front gate is ajar.
Piper sighs as the dire corby dies. He looks at the patrols of the castle. He narrows his eyes and his forehead scrunches in thought. It's obvious he's trying to think things through. 'Let's see... three dead corbies, meaning that we have a time frame before they're expected back. Two corbies are patrolling the wall. Plus we have an unknown amount of forces inside and a possible harpy. The front gate is open... I could use my magic. But, I need to get in close or have a clear shot. Maybe...' He looks at Alara, a thought coming to mind.
Alara eyes the corbies on the wall, then the front gate. She appears to be very focused.
Let's see... I could use some of my ki to get inside without being noticed, but that's going to leave the problem of the rest of the team not being stealthy or quick enough to get in without being seen by the watchers. Maybe I can make a distraction once I get inside...
She notices Piper's look and arches an eyebrow. "Got something, Piper-kun?"
Piper nods. He signs: 'Maybe. I was thinking that you could sneak in and take them by surprise. But... that would put you by yourself. So, I was thinking that... I could sneak in with you and help take them out. Put them to sleep, maybe?'
Pointing a finger at both Alara and Piper, Rawnie utters a quick few magic words before whispering.
Piper looks at Rawnie and smiles sheepishly, red in embarrassment. He writes: 'Sorry about that, Rawnie. We were thinking about Alara sneaking in and taking out the patrols. I was thinking about joining her to provide support.' He scratches his chin in thought. He writes: 'Maybe your spell could help, Rawnie. If we keep the message link between us open, you can inform us of the situation from outside.' He looks to the others and writes: 'Maybe we can get some help from Spivey through her magic.'
"Agreed, being able to warn you if there is a patrol coming your way out you being able to let us know if things go south without causing the entire castle to come down around us would be a great boon." Rawnie nods in agreement.
Piper nods and looks to Alara.
Alara blushes a little when Rawnie interjects on her conversation with Piper, but listens as she casts her communication spell on the two of them.
"Sounds good."
Piper smiles and writes: 'Then, let's go!'
Masamune waits for the two to start approaching while keeping his weapons ready for any signs of trouble.
The dire corbies atop the parapet mosey about their patrols. They seem pretty bored with their duty.
Alara eyes the patrols with caution before closing her eyes and focusing.
"忍アート：サイレントステップ." She whispers, feeling her ki flow into her limbs. She opens her eyes and darts for the gates, hoping to make it inside before one of the patrol notices her...
Alara's dash to the gate seems to be accomplished with nobody noticing. Beyond the outer gate, is a gatehouse room with a packed dirt floor and numerous wooden support beams for the stone ceiling overhead. The gate she passed through is significantly rusted, as is a second gate ahead that allows access into a courtyard. In two places, wooden ladders lead to trapdoors in the ceilings, most likely affording access to the parapet above.
The castle is a fairly squat affair with its curtain walls standing a relatively modest 15 feet tall. The medium range of the sleep spell would enable you to target the dire corby closest to the gate from the cover where you are now (assuming you've gotten as close the castle as you can via the foliage on the left side of the road). Daze's short range would require you to cross the road's open ground - though there is plenty of foliage on the other side that would let you get very close to the wall.
Piper looks up to the dire corby guarding the gate. Instead of playing his flute, he gestures his hands and points at the corby. The creature feels a tad sluggish as the spell takes over.
The dire corby hits the flagstones of the parapet, sound asleep.
Happy with his work, Piper sneaks out to join Alara. When he arrives, he signs: 'I knocked out the one guarding the gate with my sleep spell.'
Alara's eyes light up and she smiles. 'Great. Great job, Piper.' She gives him a quick peck on the cheek before whispering into thin air, courtesy of Rawnie's spell.
"Corby by the gates is sleeping. Go for it."
"Alara says that the Corby by the gates is sleeping." Rawnie informs the others as she receives the message.
"If these things are causing Ameiko harm...why is it still breathing?" Ash says quietly as he prepares to follow the rest.
Piper smiles as Alara kisses his cheek. Sticking to the shadows, Piper looks around the grounds of the ruined castle.
"Are we even sure that these are the creatures causing Ameiko harm? They could simply be interested in keeping their home safe."
The inner ironwork gate offers a clear view of the courtyard and keep.
The barren courtyard of hard-packed earth contains clumps of tough-looking weeds, furrows in the ground as if made by taloned feet, and chalky white mounds about the size of human heads. They look suspiciously like bird droppings.
The main doors of the keep across from the gate stand closed and appear largely sturdy, if vandalized with gouges and spatters of gunk.
The courtyard extends off to the right and out of view, but Piper hears vigorous sounds coming from that direction. Grunts, thuds, and thwacks can be heard - perhaps a fight? If so, there is no sound of ringing steel. But maybe a brawl...
"While I don't think the creatures are causing Ameiko any harm whatever is causing her harm is in the castle, and from what Spivey told us the bird men are cruel and eat people. Also, we can't communicate with the bird men so we really only have the choice of clearing them out of here to help out Ameiko."
Piper cringes seeing at the piles of droppings. His brow raises at the sounds of brawling. He looks to Alara and signs: 'Okay. There is a courtyard that's not well maintained. The main doors are fairly sturdy. There's a lot of... bird droppings all over the place. Also, I hear the sounds of what I assume to be a brawl coming from the right.'
Alara winces and starts signing again. 'Eww.'
She looks around and signs again. 'Think we should clear out the right side first?'
Piper nods at Alara's suggestion. He signs: 'How should we get through this gate without the guards hearing it? I would think that the gate wold make some noise.'
Piper slowly heads for one of the ladders for the trapdoors. He looks to Alara and signs: 'Let's head up to the ramparts and take out the guards. Then the others can get closer.' He waits for Alara to go first.
Alara nods and starts climbing up the right ladder as quietly as she can.
The trapdoor leads to a small chamber at the top of a small watchtower standing over the gatehouse. Another ladder leads upward from here to another, badly weathered trapdoor (presumably to the top of the short tower). Debris lays scattered about - broken up crates, old torches, broken arrows.
Alara notices, amid the debris, old stains that might be blood, suggesting that the presence of some of this debris may be the result of significant violence.
The door stands ajar, leading out onto the parapet over the gatehouse.
Piper watches Alara climbs up the ladder. He then heads up the left ladder as quietly as he can.
Alara winces as she eyes the bloodstains, but then shakes her head and refocuses.
She creeps outside and starts approaching the sleeping corby...
...draws her nunchaku, and tries to kill it as it sleeps.
The dire corby dies quietly. The other dire corby on the parapet, now all the way across the courtyard, seems to have noticed absolutely nothing.
Alara's new position offers her a view down into the noisy part of the courtyard. There she sees plenty of old debris (broken benches and masonry) but much of it cleared from the center of the area where two heavy-set and muscular humanoids wrestle. Each is covered in bruises and relatively minor wounds as well as ugly deformities. The combat they're locked in doesn't seem to be to the death, but it still seems pretty vigorous and harsh.
They seem, by appearance, to be akin to the ogres you fought on the journey from Sandpoint to Brinewall.
Piper steps out and looks around, seeing the dead corby. He steps closer to Alara.
Seeing the ogre like creatures fighting, Piper's brow raises and he racks his brain for information.
Piper suspects the creatures wrestling down in the courtyard may be ogrekin - a term that sometimes comes up in stories associated with ogres. But he can recall little specific about them.
That said, as Piper skulks to Alara's position, one of the hefty creatures glances in his general direction - but takes no further notice as his fighting companion throws some dirt in his eyes.
Alara releases a breath she didn't realize she was holding as Piper makes it to her position without being spotted... she thinks.
'Now what? Think you can put them to sleep, too?' She signs.
Piper sighs in relief at the fact that he managed to sneak by and wasn't spotted. Looking to Alara, he signs: 'Those are ogrekin. Similar to ogres. As for knocking them out, I wouldn't try on them, they haven't noticed us. And I only have one more use of a level one spell. Let's see if we can take out the other corby on the wall.'
Alara nods and starts heading over to sneak up on the corby. She stays as far beneath the ramparts as she can, hoping to avoid being seen...
The dire corby starts ambling back along the parapet as Alara skulks forward (at surprising speed thanks to her ninja tricks). The birdman is oblivious to her closing in on him for most of the route until, just as they both reach the top of one of the guard towers, he spies her! His beak gapes open in astonishment for a moment before he starts to react.
Initiatives
From his vantage point, Piper sees the situation unfold, and is ready to act! Moreover, that bird man doesn't seem to have noticed the sneaky bard.