Immersive Ink

"Woman," says Helmut urgently, "Have you rope?"

If any is forthcoming, he will use it to reach the inner courtyard over the wall. If not, he will bend his back to make way through it. He is in no mood now for time wasting.

"Woman did I hear you say Sir Helmut, as a knight templar I take your name calling as but a jest, my name be 'Ashtad' and I am no commoner, let it be know. I was raised by the elves and have a high birth", comments Ashtad.

"Now about that rope, no I do not appear to have one Helmut. How about you Valorn can we use your rope to get beyond this wall?" asks Ashtad.

heartless wrote:"Woman did I hear you say Sir Helmut, as a knight templar I take your name calling as but a jest, my name be 'Ashtad' and I am no commoner, let it be know. I was raised by the elves and have a high birth", comments Ashtad.

Helmut grunts in response, pausing in his rock shifting for a moment, "If I am curt with you, it's because time is a factor. And I am no knight Ashtad. I am a Tine of Seyal. I know not of these 'knights templar' of which you speak, and if you would be called truly then perhaps you could offer others the same courtesy."

He grunts again and goes back to combing the wall for a way through, "Elves...ha! Faeries, sprites and nymphs."

"Helmut you are a jolly fellow I see, you are right time is short I will help also to clear away a gap so we all may past. Valorn we need your strength here to help widen the gap to enter the abbey", says Ashtad. Ashtad sets to work to help clear a gap into the abbey.

Good toil is done moving rubble, made all the more laborious by the lack of proper tools. However, it takes only a quarter hour to enlarge one of the more promising gaps to the extent that a man wearing mail and carrying a pack can slip though to dangle by his arm from an exposed timber, and then drop the remaining foot or so to the ground floor within the damaged wall.

And so entry to the abbey is--unannounced, and most unceremoniously--attained. For the three, at least. The gaggle of camp followers remain (as best as anyone is aware) outside the front door.

Helmut, Ashtad, and Valorn have entered the abbey proper.

They find themselves is what appears to be a disused galley or kitchen. Adjacent to the abbey's outer wall are two small wood-fired oven and an open fireplace with a largish cook pot suspected over it. All are long cold. The narrowing, blackened chimney funnels over all three rise into the wall structure and must presumably vent outside.

Opposite are workbenches under dirty windows that overlook the interior courtyard of the abbey, the view being obstructed by a clutter of suspended pots and pans that hang above the benches. At one end of the room are doors to a pantry which hang open, and display the pillaged interior. At the other end is a door into the next room, and a servery.

What next?

Helmut moves cautiously to the windows and finds a clear spot through which to survey the courtyard within.

Moving the jangle of pots and pans apart, Helmut is able to peer through the grubby glass and into the courtyard. It's empty of life, as he saw from above. The burned gardens lie wrecked in the foreground, and across the courtyard hulks the broken and defaced chapel...

Satisfied that nothing is creeping up on them just yet, Helmut removes to the door to the next room, listening for a moment before opening it.

Helmet moves across the kitchen to the servery where he listens a moment at the door. There is naught to be heard, so he pulls the door open. Beyond, as expected, is a littered dining hall. It comprises two plain, benches long enough to seat about a dozen each. The plain is in a disheveled state with stools cast down, cups, plates, and food scraps left everywhere; vermin scurry for cover the moment Helmet opens the door.

There is no reason to think the good Sisters would leave the place in such a state. Logic dictates it must have been left so by others.

Entry is via a windowed door from the courtyard, outside.