The party was fortunate enough to not draw any more attention towards themselves from the town left behind them. The hill around the keep was too open for them to avoid the attention of the one person, who reacted as soon as the group had stepped onto the hill. They hastily picked up a shield off the dirt and set it between themselves and the approaching people. Even with the added obstacle, now that they were closer they could see better who the person might be. The person flicked something around their neck and rose up from the ground, dragging one of the bodies up with them. Cuth reacted first, waving his functioning arm before Ashkar and Orchid. "Don't!" he yelled. "Do you see his tabard? They are one of the guard!"
This, in turn, called a response from the presumed guard, who lowered their shield a bit, looked at who was yelling and then relaxed their shield arm fully. "Impeccable timing! They were going to shut the gate completely after this one man rescue mission!" the guard yelled back as they gently set the other person they had previously lifted up back onto the ground, only to throw his shield onto his back and lift them back up again, now using both hands. "Come with me, and we'll get in just fine!" he added as he resumed slowly moving towards the main gate.
At the gate, two more people with heavy crossbows stood guard, letting everyone else inside before them and finally rushing in as the gatekeepers closed, barred and barricaded the gate, all of which was accompanied by a metallic clank from the outside. The barricading resumed on the background as a higher ranking officer checked in the newcomers. "Corporal Shadekoc, this has to be the biggest single person rescue mission haul I've ever seen", they remarked before getting to the serious business: "But let's see what exactly washed in from that hell out there... Ah, the remaining Swift household, wonderful, wonderful... the rest will finally stop bugging the castellan, glad to see you made it alive. Then you... who were you again? Oh wait, got to beee... yes, here. The Raineris. Who did you catch, corporal? ..."
The guards shared a few words, mostly names that spoke nothing to any of the adventurers. It gave them time to take a look around, however. The place had an ample amount of light from multiple sources, mostly oil lanterns with the occasional candle, no torches to be seen. The old keep seemed well kept and the walls around them would likely hold against the assault they had seen thus far. A group of raiders would not likely bother trying to break in. After a moment, the guard captain turned to them. "And that leaves you people. I presume I have you to thank for saving some of our good people, so it would be good to have you in my books. Please. Names and occupations", he requested.
Lurking Krog