Navior's Serpent's Skull

Game Master Navior

"I don't know what we can offer him that'll let Jask go." Lorenz whispers. "Maybe we can find a quiet way inside and sneak up to him."

Then he turns his attention back to the figure on the roof. "What do you want in return for Jask's life? Surely we can come to a reasonable agreement!" Even Lorenz doesn't think that the man is remotely rational, but figures it's better to try and talk him down while Urza works out how to get into the compound.

"That's going too far, Douena!" Makoa growls. "In case you two haven't noticed, they want us. If we go in there angry at each other and they do attack us, we are done for!"

"For a pair of 'civilized' people, you two sure don't act like it."

The man on the roof looks down at the group. "That's them!" he yells, pointing. "They are the ones who are in league with this man. They are agents of the Chelaxians. They seek to enslave the people of this land, the rightful inhabitants, and plunder their resources and treasures! What do we want? We want them out of Sargava! We want them on a ship back to Cheliax along with their masters, the baron and his cronies! Only then will the people be free!"

I'll have a map up soon so you can see the basic layout of the situation.

"I want out of Sargava, too!" Douena protests indignantly. "I've been trying to leave for days! This whole thing is a misunderstanding. There's no reason for anyone to die over it!"

Lorenz rubs his forehead. First people were calling them the Freedman Brotherhood and now this fellow was calling them agents of the Cheliaxians. He didn't even know what that was supposed to mean.

"Like she said, we're getting ready to leave. The only reason we're here is because you kidnapped him! Let him go and we'll leave right now!" He points to Jask.

"I claim no birthright to any country! Release your hostages now!"

"These people lie!" the man cries. "Listen how some of them call instantly for our deaths! They are agents of Cheliax and will murder or enslave you all if given the chance!"

Map Added -- Note that there are lots of other people crowded around on the street level, even though I haven't added them on the map.

Lorenz drops back toward the others and lowers his voice. "I don't think he's going to listen to what we have to say. Any ideas for how we can get to Jask without him knowing about it?"

"These people lie!" the man cries. "Listen how some of them call instantly for our deaths!"

Douena shoots an angry glance at Urza. "This isn't a pirate ship or a cannibal-infested island," she hisses. "You can't talk like that in a city. We totally want to give in to your demands," she calls up to the cloaked man imploringly, "if you'll only tell us what they are. Can't we come in and talk about this?"

"The answer is obvious," Pezock says uncharacteristically quietly. "Some of you keep him talking, while I sneak up behind him and slit his throat."

Douena shoots an angry glance at Urza. "This isn't a pirate ship or a cannibal-infested island," she hisses. "You can't talk like that in a city. We totally want to give in to your demands," she calls up to the cloaked man imploringly, "if you'll only tell us what they are. Can't we come in and talk about this?"

"We can talk about it from here!" the man replies. "Let the people hear your lies! Let them judge for themselves! If any of you attempt to come inside, I will kill this man!"

Sense Motive 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (18) + 2 = 20 Well, there's a good roll she won't have for Diplomacy or anything else important now. :P

"No, Pezock, he has to have friends up there watching; it's too dangerous, for you and Jask," she whispers. "He's not bluffing. What do you want me to lie about?" she wonders aloud. "You won't even tell us what you want us to do! We're already told you, we're ready to take Jask and leave. What else do you want?"

Sense Motive: 1d20 ⇒ 14

"She's right! Tell us what we need to do and we'll do it. We're not trying to lie, we just want to help!"

"I know all about your plan to leave," the man sneers. He addresses the crowd as a whole. "They plan to take a pile of slaves to plunder a new, rich mine they've discovered! They will take the riches dug out by your labours to fund more such slave-trade endeavours!" He redirects his comments to the party again. "No, our demands are that you sail back to Cheliax, and you take Baron Utilinus, Lady Madrona, and all the other Cheliaxian cronies with you."

Lorenz swallows uncomfortably and turns back to the others. "Um, I don't think we're going to be able to get the Baron to return to Cheliax."

"Can he even see us?" Douena asks. "None of us are Chelaxian!" She starts to introduce the group to the crowd. "Mahjik here is from Vudra-land. Makoa and Urza are half-orcs, and I don't think even the half that's not orc is Chelaxian. Pezock is a tengu from Ilsmagordy, so you know he's not an oppressor. I'm a gnome from Varisia. Lorenz, is from Andoran, where they revolted against Cheliax. Slaves who escape from Cheliax go to Andoran to be free. And Jask up there," she points him out, "he's a Mwangi, from here. He's not on the side of the Chelaxians. He was a political prisoner being sent back to Cheliax in chains, and we freed him! We're on your side!" She looks around hopefully. Diplomacy to sway the crowd 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (7) + 7 = 14 Ironically, that would be an 18 Bluffing; she'd be better off telling them lies. :P "I've never even seen the Baron or any of those other people. We were rescued after being shipwrecked on an island, and we've only even been here for a week or so! We don't have cronies. Who is telling you these things?" she asks the cloaked man. "They're not true!"

*sigh* Considered a bluff accepting his demands, but no matter how high I rolled, I couldn't see him just talking Douena's word for it that we'd go get all the Chelaxians on a boat right away and letting Jask go with us.

"You realize that if we were the heartless, devil-worshiping, slave-trading, wealth-exploiters that you suggest we are," Mahjik calls up, "then we wouldn't give a damn about the hostage; we'd kill the lot of you for your impertinence, make an example of one or two random tribes, then proceed on our business-as-usual plans. If we felt the hostage was important enough, we'd resurrect him afterwards with the money we'd have exploited from the land and its people." Mahjik shakes his head, then points to Douena, "She can explain it properly, but we're working with the Pathfinders to rediscover a lost city. If I understand it correctly, the truths we will uncover will bring evidence to the mighty history of this continent and its role in bringing civilization as we know it to the world at large."

Diplomacy 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (20) - 1 = 19

"Douena's right! We don't keep slaves! Half the people I know would kill me for even thinking about it! Anyone who works with us gets an equal share, if we don't outright pay them!"

"He and his men are but puppets meant to deterr us or distract us. They make demands we can not comply with which leaves us but one course of action. I'll wait until you are willing to admit that or the crowd forces my hand."

For Diplomacy checks, I'll consider the highest individual roll to be the base roll and any other rolls to be Aid Another rolls. So you stand at a 21 at the moment (19 from Mahjik +2 from Douena).

"They have a point," a Mwangi man in the crowd calls out. "They are made up of people the Chelaxians oppress. Why would they help the oppressors?" Several of the Chelaxians in the crowd boo, hiss, and yell at the Mwangi to be quiet.

"Have you never heard of collaborators?" the cloaked man on the roof says. He points to Jask. "That is what this man is! That's what these people are! We have it from a very good source that they are agents of Cheliax! Do not believe their lies otherwise!"

"But who is that source? How do you know they're not the liars?" Lorenz shouts back.

Forgot Diplomacy Check to aid another earlier: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (4) + 1 = 5
*sigh* Never mind.

"That's right," Douena adds to the crowd. "We're standing here in front of you defending ourselves! Is his 'source' honorable enough to do the same with a man's life at stake? Or will he hide behind rumors?"

Content to let the more 'diplomatic' people talk, Makoa glances around. If someone was working against them then they might be here, watching.

Perception:1d20 + 8 ⇒ (20) + 8 = 28
Sense Motive(if needed):1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

The man on the roof laughs slightly. "You expect me to give up our source? A person who is doing great things for the prize of freedom? Why? So you can kill him? Silence his words so your masters' rule goes unquestioned?"

The Mwangi man who spoke out before shakes his head. "How can we know your source speaks truth if we do not know who your source is?"

"How do we know these people speak truth?" a woman, also Mwangi, in the crowd responds, indicating the party. "We do not know them. That man could be right about them!"

"We do not even know that man!" the first man retorts. "How do we know he even has a source? Maybe he makes it all up!"

"You should just all go back to work where you belong," a Chelaxian man yells. "You're just giving scum like the Brotherhood fodder!"

Angry words start passing back and forth among the crowd.

Lorenz turns to the crowd. "My name is Lorenz Aeryson! As my friend says, I'm from Andoran, far across the sea. I mean no harm to those who do not raise their hand against me. Even now, with an innocent beneath the dagger of this stranger," he points to the cloaked man, "I do not raise a weapon against him!" He holds both hands over his head, palms out so they can see the truth of his words. "Instead, I and my friends offer words of peace while this other threatens with his blade!"

"So I ask you all: Whose words hold more weight with you? One who comes forward to speak with open hands, or the one who raises a blade against the defenseless? Which does your experience teach you to trust?"

Perform Oratory: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4

Damn these dice! As a result, edit to add:

Lorenz is proud of his little speech and display, but a lot of the effect is lost as the crowd shouts at each other and he is bumped and jostled throughout, twice getting his toes crushed as people step on him.

Douena rolls her eyes in agony at Lorenz's labored performance, sounding like the elementary school speeches on Founder's Day back in Whistledown. "Keep them talking," she whispers to him and Mahjik. "While he's playing to the crowd, he's not killing Jask. Pezock, that way," she nods him to the south. "Just scouting,," she insists. "We meet at the back if we can make it all the way around or back here if we can't. Looking for a way in, or up." She uses the bickering crowd as a distraction to slip up against the wall of the Whaling Company out of Jask's captor's sight and starts moving around it to the north. Stealth 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (9) + 14 = 23 Perception to examine the building 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (10) + 11 = 21 Is the roof, in fact, flat or sloped?

Urza watches Douena and Pezock leave. He worries that this situation is going to fracture his newfound family.
How far away is he from Urza?

How far away is he from Urza?

Good question. How high is this roof?

The cloaked man is 30 ft up on a flat roof. The building is made of brick and rises 10 ft above the brick walls that surround the rest of the compound.

Pezock Stealth: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (16) + 12 = 28
Cloaked Man Perception: 1d20 + 8 - 3 ⇒ (17) + 8 - 3 = 22

Pezock slips through the crowd to the south while Douena heads north. The man on the roof, distracted by the crowd doesn't seem to notice, at least not for the moment. He continues to yell down to the crowd, trying to gain their support for his cause.

Douena makes her way along the stone wall. The building that the man is on is the only one that rises above the 20 ft high wall that surrounds the complex. At the south side (top of the map), she passes the main entrance. The door is not surprisingly closed. There are also a couple of windows to either side of the door, but curtains have been drawn across them from the inside.

The wall continues all the way along the east side of the complex until it reaches the beach. At this point, a small section of wall juts out eastwards along the beach. Peering around the edge of the wall here, Douena can see that the wall also continues in the other direction along the beachfront all the way to the west side of the complex. However, there is an arched opening halfway along, through which she can see the tail of a massive whale and a small portion of the complex grounds. There, she can see a man with a crossbow seated on a barrel about 50 ft away from her. He's watching the waterfront.

Douena Stealth: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (1) + 12 = 13
Man Perception: 1d20 + 1 - 5 ⇒ (5) + 1 - 5 = 1

The man seems completely oblivious of her presence.

Map Updated

Okay, I've still got nothing. There's all kind of ways to take out a lone sentry without him sounding the alarm -- silence, hold person, sleep -- but we've got none of them. The quickest way up there is to climb the wall, but that would take 4 rounds to try to do quietly, and even assuming he didn't hear us climbing, there's no concealment to use Stealth on the roof so he'd still kill Jask before we could get to him. I have no clue what to do. All of our options stink.

With a crowd of people shouting beyond the walls, I'm not sure that one sentry is going to be able to attract the attention of the cloaked dude, especially when he's on the roof shouting his own manifesto. I agree that Douena can't take him out alone but if Urza's there he might be able to.

Lorenz continues to shout over the cries of the crowd, calling entreaties up to the cloaked man. "Surely we can work things out for the betterment of all! I have no sway with the baron who probably doesn't have a clue who I am, but let me help!"

Is Jask maybe able to throw himself off the roof? We could bluff(pass secret message) to suggest that to him.

"Wise man conceals darkness within him, if he doesn't wish for others to be exposed to it," Mahjik tries to pander to the man on the roof and calm the slowly escalating bickering. "If he doesn't want to reveal his source, that is his right. But it doesn't help us resolve this."

Diplomacy 1d20 - 1 ⇒ (1) - 1 = 0

Seeing that bad roll, I figured it was time for a "wise man" saying :P

Then Douena will come back and tell where the entrance is and let Urza go in and kill everyone, but she's not going to be a part of it. Douena doesn't want anyone dead. These aren't cannibals or monsters or undead or people actively attacking us in the wilderness. They're human beings in a civilized community who, while tragically misled and misinformed, are standing up against an oppressive government that Douena hates almost as much as they do. If we slaughter our way through them, what makes us any better than the guy threatening Jask? She doesn't want him dead, either; she wants him to understand that we're on his side and he's making a terrible mistake. Going in and slaughtering people just cements in the mind of the crowd that he's right about us and makes him a martyr and Jask an oppressor.

Lorenz continues to shout over the cries of the crowd, calling entreaties up to the cloaked man. "Surely we can work things out for the betterment of all! I have no sway with the baron who probably doesn't have a clue who I am, but let me help!"

"You'll speak to the baron?" the man calls back down.

"You'll speak to the baron?" the man calls back down.

"Absolutely! If that what it takes to get you to let that poor innocent man go, I'll go right to the palace and speak to him!"

Lorenz shouts back up, though he worries that this will only land him in a dungeon. He hopes that the others are having some luck.

Hey, I'm just suggesting alternatives. I never said that Urza had to slaughter the guy. What about Color Spray? My only real point is, the situation isn't impossible until we try other options and none of them work. Douena's perspective makes sense (especially since she hates the government) but right now all I'm concerned about is getting Jask off the roof.

"Well, at last we're starting to get somewhere!" the man calls back down. "I'll let your friend go after you've spoken to the baron and told him our grievances, and after I see you, your friends, the baron, and his cronies board a ship headed back to Cheliax. But I guarantee you, he will not be harmed as long as you don't do anything stupid!"

"Even if they do work for the government," the Mwangi man who spoke out earlier says, "there's no way the baron will agree to that!"

The man on the roof looks flustered as several others in the crowd murmur their agreement with Mwangi man. "Well...fine!" he says. "As long as these people talk to the baron, abandon their mining plans and leave the city! If they do at least that much, I'll let this man go!"

In answer to Mahjik's earlier question, Jask is close enough to the edge that there is a chance he could throw himself off before the man could react (basically, he would either need a surprise round or would have to win initiative). However, it's a 30 ft drop to the ground.

Lorenz is encouraged by the way things are going. "We don't have any mining plans, I assure you. Mining is the last thing we're interested in doing. And we'll be out of town by first light tomorrow, if you return that man to us. I'll go to talk to the baron myself, right now, but what do you need from me to prove that I've done it? What do I do to get the man back to us?"

He looks around for any of the guards. "Can you get me in to see the Baron?"

"Get him to write a note and seal it with his personal seal!" the man calls down. "He doesn't have to agree to our demands, just acknowledge that he's listened to them!"

Lorenz finds that the pair of guards who stopped the group earlier have followed them up here. They look at each other with questioning looks. "Well, I don't know about that," the first one says. "The baron might be seen as giving in to the demands of terrorists. Lady Madrona wouldn't like that."

Quietly Mahjik suggests to Douena, "It's looking like it'll calm down, but if things escalate - can you use your magic or skills to let Jask know he can try to throw himself off the building. It's a pretty nasty fall - but we can mend that much easier than a dead Jask."

Used her message earlier to try to mend fences with Gelik without causing a public scene. Can try a Bluff vs. DC 20 1d20 + 9 ⇒ (19) + 9 = 28 Do we want him to try it now or wait and see if Lorenz can come back with an official-looking note? That roll ought to be good enough for a fairly complex message.

Lorenz looks at the guards. "Well, I have to try. Can you lead the way? It'll be faster that way."

He turns to look back at the man on the roof. "I'll return as soon as possible!"

The guards look at each other and shrug. "I suppose it can't harm to show him to the palace gate," the second one says.

"Yeah, I suppose not," the first agrees. "At least he looks normal." He turns to Lorenz. "You'll probably just be turned away, but come on then. Follow us." They turn to the road and start heading south.

On top of the building, the cloaked man nods in satisfaction. "At last we see real progress!" he yells down to the crowd. "The baron may not listen to us fully yet, but he will know who we are and he will know that we are not happy!"

It will be a little while before Lorenz returns. Does anyone want to do anything in the meantime?

I posted earlier today. I guess it didn't take.
[b]"I'm pretty sure I can hit him from here. I might even be able to do it with Jask in front of him if it comes to that. My worry, though, is if he has friends about.[/ooc]
I don't have Color Spray any more. I gave it up for Burning Hands