Trusting his bond with his cousin, Dambreth strikes at the Harpy she's assaulted.
Okay, Hawke, I'll rule that as part of your partial success, you avoid Olivius' dagger slash. Here's your ugly choice:
You can either make contact with the harpy and enter a grapple, but take damage, 1 piercing, from her claws
OR
Grab hold of the harpy, but her thrashing and squirming cause you to drop your battleaxe to the courtyard below.
Meanwhile, Sinathel swoops past the fleeing Agatha and slashes across her neck, her deceptively strong talons causing deep and bleeding wounds. This distracts her in her flight, causing her motions to wobble and become awkward. The slow, flapping harpy is an easy target for Dembrath, whose arrow goes precisely where he wants it to - her wing pinions. Screeching in pain, the harpy falls to earth with a thud. Nice shot!
The mental hold on Olivius is released even as he struggles against it, due to Hawke's grappling distracting her concentration.
Hawke would hear the sound of metal hitting the ground as his greataxe clatters to the courtyard below. Luckily for him, he still had the steel knuckles he had chosen to borrow from the monk outside.
Hawke will start attacking the harpy he has hold of in hopes of subduing it or at least keeping it distracted long enough for the others to take it out.
After a wild swing, Hawke continues to try and keep his hold on the bloody bird woman...
Seeing Hawke have trouble reigning in his catch, Olivius looses his last dagger.
Seeing Hawke have trouble reigning in his catch, Olivius looses his last dagger.
Which is joined by an arrow loosed from Dambreth's bow.
The harpy hen has a brief struggle with Hawke that concludes with her buffeting him with her wings and knocking his grip loose. She hovers in midair and gloats at him for a moment, "Don't try to get fresh with me again, stupid boy!" but as she's distracted, Dambreth's arrow and Olivius' dagger fly together and kill her outright. She's silenced in the middle of the word "Bo-..." and she gurgles. She's dead before she hits the ground.
Hawke, take damage from falling - into the courtyard, Sinathel. You land not far off from where Agatha landed. Judging by the angle of her neck, she did not fall well. Hawke, your greataxe landed in some hedgerows and it will take several minutes to fish it out.
Those of you on the walkway can hear activity of some kind - what sounds like multiple heavy objects being dragged across the floor at once - through the heavy wooden door that the monk carrying Sinathel's spear ran through. What do you do?
Not aware of what is going on up above, Hawke will move to loot the bodies.
- What should I be on the lookout for?
- What here is useful or valuable to me?
- What here is not what it appears to be?
Hawke will gather up the valuables. In his eyes the monks currently owed them. Not only had they managed to subdue some of their comrades, they had also managed to remove a few of these pesky Harpies for them as well.
Once finishe he would go about retrieving his great axe from the hedges. Just maybe it had helped trim them a bit considering they sorely needed it.
Sinathel attempts to heft Hawke aloft to soften his fall, but her strong talon gets hooked in his armor and she's unable to extricate herself. With a "hoot!" of dismay, the druid is hurled into the overgrown bushes of the courtyard, right next to Hawke's greataxe, and stuck. Take damage, Sinathel.
Those of you on the walkway hear the grinding sounds from beyond the door continue for a few more moments, then abruptly cease. It's suddenly silent in the courtyard. What do you do?
"Ho-ho-hoo! hoo! hoo!" She struggled against the bush as she landed, both in agitation and in pain.
'So much for trying to be nice and help. Look where it got me!'
Hawke will extricate the druid from the bush before going about collecting up the valuables and his great axe.
"Thanks for trying," he would say simply as he helps the druid free herself.
"Hoo" Sinathel gives Hawke a hoo of thanks, taking a moment to realign her feathers before taking flight to land on a perch higher off the ground.
Hawke will finish by retrieving as many of Olivius' throwing knives as he can.
You're able to collect all of Olivius' throwing knives. Silence reigns in the monastery courtyard.
Olivius, now out of ranged options, hurries over to the door and finds himself a place to hide. It'll probably be behind the door as it opens.
Rapier still in hand, he will try to observe what comes out before jumping in and going shankity-shank.
Olivius, you note that the door you're crouching next to opens outward from you, into the room beyond. It looks to be constructed from heavy hardwoods and reinforced with iron.
Dambreth looks down into the courtyard and pantomimes opening the outer gate to let Scram into the courtyard. He then hurries back to where he climbed up the outer wall and gives a low whistle to alert the cougar.
Scram obediently runs through the outer gate, which is barred from the inside, and easily opened by either Hawke or Sinathel in elf form. The door need only be opened the barest amount before Scram pushes the rest of the way in. The beast is letting out a constant, rumbling noise somewhere between a purr and a growl - the effect sings directly to the deepest primal fear areas of both man and elves. Even Sinathel, with her deep understanding of the natural world in general and Scram in particular, can't resist a small, involuntary shudder at the sound. The shudder is born of equal parts fear and respect for the powerful creature. Scram is not a beast to be trifled with.
Olivius casts about himself. The monastery appears to be built from granite quarried from the mountain itself, which would make sense. The natural stoneworkings are worn from the centuries this place has stood, even though the door looks to be a relatively recent addition. You see alcoves all along the walls, where statues reside for contemplation by visitors and inhabitants alike. The statues themselves occupy most of the alcoves, but an enterprising thief like yourself could avoid casual detection by hiding in one of them. The two nearest alcoves are flanking the door about 2 feet to either side.
Olivius -- enterprising, professional thief that he is -- tucks himself away behind one of the statues. Things are about to get dicey up on the ramparts, and Olivius prefers to get out of this with all body parts intact.
After gathering the throwing knives, Hawke opens the door to be spooked by the damn house cat as he opens the front doors. After regathering his wits, he'll make his way back up to the others and handing Olivius' knives over to him.
Dambreth grabs his cougar friend with both hands and turns his head back and forth checking for any sign of injury. He then gives him a hearty hug. "Ready to hunt some harpies, Scram? Let me know if you hear any."
Once Hawke clambers up the stairs axe in hand, Dambreth whispers "we should move quickly before our foes can organize themselves."
You find the stairs easily enough to go to the upper catwalks. The thief was just selecting an alcove when you arrive to give him his knives, or else you doubtless would not have been able to see him. :P
-Posted with Wayfinder
"So what is the situation up here," Hawke would inquire as he returns the throwing knives.
Olivius points to the door. Something, probably something angry, this way comes.
You wait for a few moments...but the door remains closed. It seems whatever the harpies have planned, they're waiting for you to make the first move...
Olivius curses quietly to himself. I hate Initiating... He slides from his hiding place like a shadow detaching from the shade and asks Sinathel in a whisper, Can you turn into anything that can scout that room? A mouse, perhaps? They could have any number of nasty things in there, and I hate dying.
Turning his attention to Sinathel as well, Hawke will inquire, "Or did you by chance spot another way in while you were flying about?"
As he waits for a response, Hawke will go about trying to retrieve his gold.
Fortunately, there aren't any cracks in the catwalk, so you're able to retrieve all of your coins without any trouble. Overhead, the sky is a sickly blue, with streaks of yellow. You think to yourself that it's been years since you've seen a regular old blue sky, without that extra technicolor nonsense. Sages say it's a by-product of the rampant chaos of the magic elsewhere in the world.
Sinathel turns just her head to look at Olivius. "Hoo." Before she flies up and retrieves the Grappling hook the others had used to cross over, before she began the transformation back to her elven self. Her limbs and body elongated, before the feathers melted together, shrank, and some even reformed to create her fingers once again, talons became feet with toes. The her gear reappeared, and her bright feathers stood out against her brown and grey toned skin. Her skin went from being covered in a pattern and the color of the owls feathers to her natural skin tone. "There are windows, but most are high and narrow."
"Then it seems coming in through here might be our only real option. Shall I cut it down?"
Olivius thinks he will never stop being amazed at Druids and their transformations. He winds the grappling hook and stows it back in his pack. So there are no windows into this room or any hint of what may be behind these doors?
His mind starts to race, trying to account for what was likely from a flying species of ugly hags.
[dice=Spout lore on traps and possible ambushes, +1 if this counts as "illegal activities]2d6+1[/dice]
Olivius, you know little of harpies, beyond legends of their creativity in the name of cruelty. They tend to be singleminded and have a flock mentality, and aren't known for being an especially perceptive race.
"Maybe Olivius should lead the way as he's most likely to be able to find traps," and has no respect for nature, the thief... Dambreth suggests.
Olivius nods, doing his best to hide rampant aprehension. He moves to the door and double checks that everyone is ready to save his sorry butt if things to sideways before sneaking in.
What should I be on the lookout for?
What here is useful or valuable to me?
What here is not what it appears to be?
Hold 3
Spend one: Is there a trap here and if so, what activates it?
Si-Yi stands with his sword drawn while looking into the other room through the open door, ready to rush in and severely hurt anyone who tries to harm the second-smartest member of the group. (The smartest being the elven barbarian himself, of course)
For now, we'll say Olivius is listening closely at the door, maybe sliding a mirror underneath or something thiefy like that.
What should I be on the lookout for?
Harpies and their monk slaves are the obvious answer, but you heard stone scraping against stone earlier. Something big was being moved...or was moving...earlier. Keep alert for that.
Is there a trap here and if so, what activates it?
Yes, there is a trap. Your eyes widen as you see what's on the other side of the door and aimed at it - a ballista??? Its triggering mechanism is tied to the door opening, upon which the opener would receive a nasty surprise in the form of an enormous javelin through their chest.
What here is useful or valuable to me?
You can think of a tool from your adventurer's kit that is uniquely suited for disabling hair triggers that are awkward to access. You need to spend 1 charge of your adventuring gear to get it, but if you do you get a long device not unlike a coat hanger that you can use to disable the trap on the door.
What here is not what it appears to be?
You can tell that the ballista is not the only trap in the room beyond.
Olivius rummages in his pack after peeking under the door. Don't touch it. There's a balista in there aimed for the door, and there's evidence of more traps besides. I didn't see any Harpies or monks standing in the open, so an ambush isn't out of the question either. Give me a moment.
He produces a long, telescoping hook and scissor like device that would get funny looks if seen anywhere other than thieves den. The thing positively screams "breaking and entering". He slides it under the door and attempts to disengage the rope from the handle without triggering the trap.
Partial success, ok. Ugly choice time.
As you work the telescoping device under the narrow opening beneath the door, everything seems to be working as planned at first. It's going where you want it to go, everything is functioning normally.
However, your pupils instantly shrink 300x in fear when you hear the dreaded snip sound. You have two options:
1. Preserve your thieves' tool so that you can use it for additional traps. Downside: the ballista fires. You'll need a Defy Danger roll to avoid taking 1d10 damage, and the door will be completely destroyed.
2. You successfully disable the trap, allowing for safe entry into the room beyond. Downside: you have to force it at the end in order to make it work, and you strain the delicate instrument beyond functionality. Your tool is bent, and will be less effective going forward - take -1 ongoing to disable traps with it.