Uphill Battle

[Brian]

The former thralls had already followed Tom's orders well.  Everything edible has been rounded up, wrapped in torn-up bedding, and each of the red-skinned men has a satchel over their shoulders with what food was lying around and available.  Most are also armed, either with sabers, or with cudgels -- they seem to have no interest in muskets whatsoever, though there is a keg of powder in the main room at the bottom of the stairs.  It's about two feet tall, and a foot and a half around, currently sealed.

All of them except for three have cloaks, none of them have shoes.

"Where we going?" Seven asks, sounding a tiny bit frightened.

[Carthrat]

Grabbing the musket and the rock (the flail can stay where it is, it's kind of creepy, and Tom has a sneaking suspicion he's more likely to hurt himself than anyone else with it), Tom doesn't think long before answering-

"Away from them," he responds. "We'll head out in the opposite direction to where they're coming from and move as quick as we can. Phil, you think we can hide this thing-" he gestures at the barrel-

"-near the entrance they're approaching? If I find a good spot, I'll be able to shoot it when they get here, and that'll solve a few of our problems, I think."

[Dracos]

Dracos grabbed a saber as well, considering his request.  "Nothing comes to mind.  Let's just take it with us and run.  We can shoot at them as we go.  If we can get to cover, I would bet significantly on our group versus theirs, and frankly, we'd have to be entirely too close for such.  Unless we do it by candle.."

Dracos continue to ramble out a hacknye solution while the others were getting out, grabbing nearby oil and spreading it over much the entryway, pouring thick line of gunpowder down leading from it to what he thought was a support column (or at least near the front door), basically leaving an exceedingly dangerous fire/explosion hazard behind before very carefully getting a candle and placing it precariously set to get knocked down into the oil on the opening of the front door.  He then fled with all speed to the other exit, chasing after his companions with the fear born from "I have no fuckin' idea what I'm really doing!"

Dracos

[Brian]

Phil leads Tom and the others out the back door, where the house has an expansive yard.  There's a corral for horses, but the gate's hanging open, and it's empty at the moment.  Beyond the yard is a thin woods, though judging by the higher trees in the distance, it thickens.

The yard has a nice lawn, probably well-tended.  Whoever took care of it left a scythe by the corral gate, lying on the ground.  Past the lawn, the woodsy area is filled with twigs and leaves ... looks like the trees are primarily oak, here.

Tom is glad to find out that the soles of his feet are too tough to cause discomfort on the rocks hiding beneath the leaves of the forest floor.  Especially since he couldn't find shoes in his size.

[Dracos]

"I always wished scythes were as good as random games tended to make them out to be.  They're really not that much fun outside plant cutting," Dracos yammered while maintaining his run.   "To the trees, everyone."

OOC:
Shifting 10 influence to bring across a point of speed.

[Carthrat]

"Focus, Phil. Less game, more running," responds Tom, hightailing it towards the woods.

[Brian]

In short order, the safety of the woods (such as they are) is reached.  Behind the group is a menacing plume of smoke, though there wasn't any satisfying 'boom'.  Maybe the powder keg just wasn't big enough?  Either way, with no sun in this land, it's going to be very easy to get lost.  No one is especially good at not leaving footprints, but there are supplies, everyone's armed, and the land seems to be rising as the group presses on.

Shortly -- maybe a mile into the trees -- the land turns much more sharply uphill to the right.  To the left, the land seems level, though through the trees it looks like it begins to drop.

[Carthrat]

"Seven," states Tom, calling the group to a half for a moment.

"Can you tell me anything about the lay of the land? I think our best bet is to head towards the gate, but-" he shrugs helplessly- "I don't really know about any other places to go."

[Dracos]

"You had a map, Tom.  Give me it for a bit?"

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"When did I tell you tha- er, never mind. Anyway, yeah, there were a couple from the library, but I had no idea where I was on them, I guess you might make better use of them."

Digging around in his own satchel, Tom hands a couple of the relevant books to Phil.

[Dracos]

"Mmm," Dracos turns to the maps, crossreferencing landmarks he knows of such as the paths, crossroads, creak, house and forest to get a good idea where they are on it and which would be the best route towards intercepting one of the roads heading to the gate.

Dracos

[Brian]

One of the maps actually seems to be of the area.  It's got 'Darby' listed, at least, so that's something.  Tracing it back to the crossroads gives Phil a reasonably good idea of where he started out, and where poor deceased Master Vladimere lived -- a few miles along the road would have taken Tom and Phil to another village.  There's no actual compass on the map, but if the writing is oriented correctly, then Phil was heading to the left -- which might as well be considered 'West'.

Further in that direction, past something labeled 'Edging Garrison', is the grasslands Phil heard mentioned.  On the map, it's marked, 'savages: BEWARE!'.

The gates are both on the map -- probably a week to the Windhurst gate.  A week and a half to the Anabara gate.  The Anabara gate has another garrison near it, and between the Windhurst gate and the present location is the High Church, which also has a garrison.

Judging by the map, the hill that Phil and Tom are facing is a pretty notable feature in an otherwise mostly flat valley.  It might offer a decent vantage ... if you didn't already have a map.

"Always used the roads before," Seven says with a helpless, apologetic shrug.

[Carthrat]

While Phil inspects the map, Tom digs out the papers of the unfortunate man who was deceased *before* he got there, and has a more detailed read of the things.

[Dracos]

"Well, we have to keep moving.  We should probably head along the woods, towards the winderst gate," Dracos considered, pointing out while he was so the various routes he's taken and where  their chasers likely were to Tom so that he could also intelligently consider where to go.

Dracos

[Carthrat]

"Anabara? We should head in that direction," replies Tom, thoughtfully.

"I think that's where Nathan is. The papers I read- not these ones-" he waves the foremans notes for effect- "mentioned that he was some kind of traveller from thereabouts. They tried to capture him, but apparently didn't.. so I'd figure he's found a way back home."