ATTACK!
All grows quiet after Riccoco's run. An hour or so passes as the night grows darker and the lanterns burn on. Suddenly a whistle splits the night. Trees crack and fall over with thundering crashes! In the glow of the lanterns, a vast bulk emerges from the forest west of the Adala road. Once a deezel, now some gargantuan parody, it snorts and paws the ground, digging up holes big enough for a man to lie in. Twenty feet high at the shoulder with thick folds of rough thick-furred hide, it looks like an juggernaut of death. A massive shaggy head shakes, horns eight feet long each clear themselves of tree limbs and vines.
With a bellowing roar it lowers its head and charges directly for the gate!
"Hold your arrows for the riders!" shouts Mako. You can clearly see numerous small figures clinging to its back. They have shields, some military, some of strips of tough bark. They are crouched low and do not appear until the animal lowers its head.
Arrows whistle toward the riven on its back. A few screams are heard as twisted folk clutch at protruding shafts and fall. One is trampled into paste beneath the hooves of the behemoth.
"Ballistas, now!" shouts the Commander.
THRUMM! FOOSH! go the ballistas, releasing five foot shafts with metal heads. The ballista over the gate scores a direct hit, burying itself deep into the creature's neck. It tries to stop, but the inertia is too much. With a shuddering CRA-CRASH! the megadeezel plows into the reinforced portcullis. The entire gate shakes. Some stone work cracks and falls, but the structure stands. The metal portcullis is bent and the thick wooden doors are cracked down half their length, but the gate remains.
At this same moment, the riven crouching on its back leap! Propelled by the force of the megadeezel, they rocket to the height of the gate. Some overshoot and land with a thud on the far side and lie silent. One falls short and is crushed between the juggernaut and the gate. Four gain the top of the gatehouse.
OK, here is where our heroes are:
Beka, you are at tower 4 to the west of the gate.
Faliol, so are you. You have wrapped your leg and it seems to be OK, but you are -1" to movement and will need to make a DEX roll to perform any movement other than straight running on even ground.
Celeste, You are on Tower 5, to the east of the gate
Riccoco, so are you.
Each tower has another two soldiers. There were four atop the gate as well, two ballista crew and two archers. From your position, you can see they are already in pitched battle. Mako is one of them. The lanterns atop the gate were smashed when the megadeezel hit, and the best light up there comes from a spreading pool of burning oil.
The gate has a door on the west that leads to the winch. The door on the east leads to the briefing room. You are not sure if these two rooms connect. Each side has a flight of stairs that leads from the wall to the roof of the gatehouse.
The map has been updated to show more detail on the gate, and the gate ballista has been re-sized to scale.