Section Unicorn spends the rest of the day herb collecting and napping in preparation for going into the tower under cover of darkness. From the river below, Ivar leads the way up a small cliff using the sticky gloves, then up the side of the tower from the ledge atop the cliff. The others follow with varying degrees of success, some getting a bit banged up as they are basically hauled up the tower by Ivar.
On the roof, the trapdoor proves to be open, and they go from there into the top floor without incident, avoiding the (possibly trapped?) ladder. The upper floor proves to have some bunks and some storage in one large room. Examining the area finds a letter... which, when examined in some moonlight, turns out to be in very bad Daran:
Dear Mum:
We're going on woods patrol. I might not be able
to write for a while.
Yesterday a skunk got into
They don't know what to make of this, but copy it anyway with a copy slate. The bunks do not seem to have been slept in recently. Creeping down to the floor below, they hear some orcs talking and decide to wait for them to quiet down, which takes hours. During that time, snooping about in the dark finds a dirty sock and determines that the supplies may be human in origin (later examination of some hardtack in daylight reveals that it is stamped with the Imperial supply seal).
The orcs eventually quiet down, and the team goes down to penetrate the elf woman's study... only to find the door barred from the inside. Since they have no good way of opening that without dropping the bar on the floor and making a clatter, they retreat upstairs again and determine to wait out the next day to see if she leaves. If not, they'll do something more drastic the next night.
Midday the next day the elf decides to go out with some orcs, and they swing into action. Gaius guards their retreat, and the others head into the unbarred study. They examine the notes on the top of the desk (about pinecones), the baskets of pinecones, and then Baba decides to go through the desk... pricking herself on the needles embedded below the handle. Opiates! she thinks as she loses consciousness. Inside the drawer is a wooden box, and before Lucia can stop him Ivar has opened it, determined that anything so trapped must be worth having.
It turns out that inside the box is a horrible loud shrieking noise, produced by a little arcanological horn.
At this point everything goes pear-shaped. Orcs rush into the tower from the walls, and there are enough of them that Ivar is overwhelmed and thumped unconscious with the butt of their spears. Gaius is able to haul Baba up to the next floor, but is overcome himself when he returns to try to rescue Lucia... who after all this sensibly accepts the orcs' demands to surrender. [Well... after locking herself in the study and fireballing them a little. :) --AH] Strangely, no one is seriously hurt barring concussions. The orcs put a bag over Lucia's head and haul her, and the others, down to the tower cellar to be tied to rings in the wall.
They're left there for long enough for Baba to come around, still a bit woozy, and then Gaius and Ivar are awakened by being doused. The elf woman then proceeds to interrogate them about who they are working for. They mostly play along at breaking rather than breaking for real, trying to draw the interrogation somewhere where they can give out false information plausibly. She loses patience though, and the orcs drag Gaius (by far the most flippant) outside for some breaking. His screams are enough to break Lucia, but she is saved by Ivar, who takes this moment to wrench the metal ring right out of the wall and take their captor captive.
At this point the orcs from outside rush in, along with Jotol from Group 23 and a strangely unhurt Gaius. Jotol explains that this has all been a test, and they manage to get Ivar to let go of the woman... who turns out to be Aria Phasia Jen in disguise, also from the Group, and not an elf at all.
"What about the tinker, was he part of the test? He seems to be some sort of half-elf." ask our heroes. He was not part of the test... although capturing him will do for a final question.