Kroth Stonegrinder opened his eyes as he awoke and found himself in a damp and musty room. He was chained to the wall by both wrists, but he had enough slack that he could sit, or as he had started out almost lying down. He tried to focus his eyes, which was a challenge both because of the dim light and nasty bump on the back of his head – he noticed that the remains of the previous occupant of this cell was visible on the floor. The floor was cold and moist. He could tell by the flickering light that just outside his iron cell door there was torch, most likely hanging on the wall. The walls appeared to unremarkable, with only one other item of note, a small window (also with iron bars) was on the wall to his left. As his senses came back to him, he was able to hear two male voices speaking somewhere outside his cell.
The first voice was deep in tone, but slow in pace. It was saying “… is great for you that you are going to joining the front. After all these years in secret, I was ready to get out, see the world and make my mark.”
A second voice, which was not as deep, but carried an air of inner peace said, “I am sure you will get your chance. I am going to head home for my last night there. I will be back tomorrow for my last shift giving out this slop and then right after that I will be heading down to the docks, boarding the Black Sapphire and head out to Garheim to be part of the occupying force. See you tomorrow.”
While he was working on a plan, the second guard opened the cell door and said, “Here is your food slave. It is the leftovers from the pig trough – I hope you enjoy. Ha Ha!” With that he slid a bowl of some form of gruel along the stone floor. He walked out of the room and then locked the door.
After that Kroth could hear footsteps moving away from him and walking on creaking wooden boards. Kroth knew that his window to escape had been set.
After the guard had left, Kroth pulled the chains as far as he could to see if he could see anything out the window. All that he could see was a stone shaft leading up. The shaft must have been only for air supply because there was no light and the tube was less than a foot across. Kroth was hanging on the bars trying to look up the shaft when he noticed that one of the bar had the slightest amount of ability to be rotated. Kroth started to work the bar clockwise and then counterclockwise – repeating the process over and over again. After several hours of working the window bar, Kroth was able to free one of the bars. He stuck the bar through two of the links in the chains that were holding him to the wall and rotated around and around so that his chains would twist and twist. As Kroth continued to twist the chain, it came down to a battle of strength between the chains on the wall and the bar from the window. Luckily for Kroth, the victor was his iron bar and the chain links started to separate. He worked it enough that he was able to unhook himself from the wall. Kroth hid the iron bar within reach at the corner of the cell floor and cell wall. He worked so that he could disconnect the chains from the wall, but hoped that a check from the guard would not reveal the work that he had done.
It seemed like no time at all, but finally he heard the guard with the food making fun of other prisoners somewhere nearby. As quietly as he could, Kroth disconnected the chains from the wall and grabbed the iron bar. He moved to the corner of the cell and hid in the shadows. While he waited he rolled the remaining chain around his wrist creating a make-shift bracer. Soon the guard opened the door, obviously consumed with joy about his transfer – he did not notice Kroth was not where he should have been until iron bar came down on his neck, just below his helmet. With the guard unconscious, he found a key and unlocked the manacles on his wrists. Kroth quickly changed clothes with the guard and put the manacles on his wrists and then wrapped the chains around the guard, using the lock from the door to secure them. As a final step, he gagged the guard and started out the cell. From his years of military service it was not hard to know how a guard should behave. In a short amount of time, Kroth found himself down at the docks and boarding the Black Sapphire, getting a ride back home…
Each of the shots individually can be seen in Flickr
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