Failure

It's obvious, when the party catches it's breath, that the castle has been abandoned by it's defenders. The party has failed in it's task of rescuing the slave prisoners - they were held in the building to the South. Upon inspection, this is full of cages and evidence of people kept in the minimal possible comfort is plentiful. The corpses of three elven slaves serve as testament to the brutality of the garrison.

Faced with a gung-ho party tearing through their ranks, the defenders of the castle, led by an obviously intelligent mage, decided to cut their losses and abandon their posts; better to live to fight another day, at a time and a place of their choosing.

Sadly, they took the highly-valued slaves with them, as well as the best treasure in the castle and the high-value personnel. Stealth tactics, although higher-risk, would have almost certainly resulted in more long-term rewards for the party.

Shayla & Githraniel were able to intercept a small Orc party retreating on Worgs - but in the face of overwhelming odds retreated to the safety of the river - where they laid low for a cold night as Orc war-bands tried, unsuccessfully, to flush them out. Amazingly, Vildar's horse survived as well - the Orc raiders simply saw that it was lame and decided it wasn't worth wasting an arrow on.

Sireen made herself scarce whilst you were fighting the Gorilladon and, despite searching the grounds of the castle, is nowhere to be found.

The prisoners you rescued from the basement of the barracks have also survived. They are extremely grateful to the party for aiding them and offer to help the party run the castle, "after all, we have no-where else to go, and it is fitting that some good should be created from this foul place".

Garguth in the chapel is nursing his wounds and sporting a fine new axe.