Tark's Council of Thieves: Nobles without a House (Inactive)

Game Master Tark the Ork

"By carriage? That means no more sewers. I am eager to face these fools in the wide open instead of the cramped corridors.

But we are outnumbered nearly two-to-one. Have you given thought on how to pry him from their grasp, Janiven?"

"The bad news is the little feud of jurisdiction is over ant the Order of the Rack have a hold of Arael. They'll be transporting him to Citadel Rivad this afternoon by carriage escorted by ten armigers."

Pollux dangling the torbel's necklace for Castor to bat asks, "So tell me traitor lady why is Mr. Arael more important than ten grandchildren?"

"Janiven, do you know what route this carriage will take? Is there some place that we might ambush it?" Caldazar's holy symbol on his necklace is in plain view.

"Are we outnumbered, Tok? Perhaps we could find some assistance from some of the others, at the least we can see what their limitations are."
Merax thinks to himself... They could be decoys or fodder.

I am in for an ambush as well. I have a powerful urge for some mayhem this fine morning.

"Ermalos, Sclavo - what weapons have you that are useable? Do any of you have training?"

Janiven smiles at the groups eagerness.

"Arael, Pollux, is the leader of this little bunch of misfits. We could go on for a bit without him but..." She pauses as sadness crosses her face. "We wouldn't last. We need him."

She unfurls a large map that appaears to be the road between Citadel Rivad and Westcrown. It's relatively showing a bridge crossing a relatively active creek and patches of trees too far from the road to use as ambush points.

"I'm not planning on a fair fight. And I'm not planning on letting the others fight either. At least not directly. The bastards are arrogant, they won't expect us to come at them on the road to their own fortress.

I'll takethe inexperienced ones and lead off with an ambush ahead of the main group to draw the mounted units towards us and away from the main group. The roads little traveled so we'll have time to set up some clatrops along the road and disrupt the horses. The specialists."
She waves a hand towards the group. "In the meantime will ambush the main group. They'll have one full blown hellknight with them. HE shouldn't be too much of a threat if you're careful but he won't go down without a fight."

She sits back and crosses her arms.

"The only question is where we want to set up our ambush. We can do it practically anywhere without much trouble. The bridge is an option but that limits our movement as well as there's. Would be better if we had more archers but..." She pauses.

"One more thing. Don't make this a bloodbath. I want this to be as embarrassing as possible to them. I want them to be so shamed to have been beaten by us that they're hurled out of the citadel right on their brown stained noses. Keep as many alive as possible, let as many run as you can." She grins wickedly a bit of mischievousness poking through her fatigued and dirty exterior. "I want to give those brats every bit the training exercise they've ever asked for. In the end we'll look clean and they'll be covered in muck and shame."

Mulling Janiven's words, Caldazar adds "I agree that we should seek to avoid death where we can, but our primary goal should be releasing Arael from their clutches. If we pull too many punches that may be in jeopardy"

"I will attempt to show some restraint though I make no promises. I assure you that they will not show us the same courtesy. I vote the bridge over the open road. Less visibilty and easier for us to get close to their carriage."

"I can show restraint, Janiven. But if I am the only one who can determine the lethality of my attacks, I will be hardpressed to be motivated to do so. Surely we need not be as gentle with the Hellknight.

"As for the others, I would hope that we can keep them out of harm's way and direct conflict. Will your plan afford them that, Janiven?"

Mr. Ruttle looks up from his ledger. "Aha! A simple reorganization of obligation this way, and I've reestablished my working relationship with Scabadar! Excellent!"

Looking up at the gathered he adds, "Just an imp dedicated to locking doors and things. Calls himself the god of rusty hinges. He should be useful when we need a quick getaway."

Contemplating the possibilities, he adds, "Are you sure that the bridge is preferable in this case? Perhaps if we plan escape routes down the sides by way of ladders. But I would imagine that freedom of movement will be more a boon for us than for them in this particular situation."

"Sould we not simply kill the children like we did in the sewers?
"The living can see can......remember....." Pollux seems lost in thought for a moment.

Castor ceases play and looks at Pollux with what you swear is concern. The large rat scampers closer and bites pollux on the lower arm. You see blood.

Pollux resumes as if there had been no gap in his speech.
"...and what they see thay will tell. We will be known. We will be in demand."

Janiven shakes her head at Pollux. "No. Too much blood and we'll have a different problem. We'll have the bastards turning the whole city upside down to find us. And there's some kinds of attention we definitely don't need. Still, if you have no choice." She shrugs. "There funeral. The difference between the sewers and this is we didn't have the choice in the sewers."

"There are always choices, they just hardly ever mater."

"If we want to be seen we will need to not be ourselves."

"...."

"Castor wants to be a Pirate King."

".....'

"Or a princess."

"How do we know he is in a carriage? Or this carriage? Is it a special carriage"

"Aye, so we go at them hard and fast - if they run we let them, but if they stay we put them down. If we have time and inclination when the deed is done, we can check on the fallen and try to keep them from Pharasma's boneyard." setting his jaw and adopting an intransigent tone.

Janiven nods at Caldazar. "Exactly. I think the others decided on red armbands to mark us. If you hae any helms or hoods that can cover your face I'd suggest using them Don't want to be recognized if we can help it."

Hrmmmm so no further debate as to the location of the ambush?

"Might be risky taking them at the bridge, we'd have to be sure we got ourselves on the right side of it when the action starts" pondering the issue.

"I was thinking of some of us underneath the bridge while the rest hide in the trees along the road, friend Caldazar."

"As for luring the riders away, what would work better than am injured armiger surrounded by mounted brigands, I will play the armiger. I did take a suit of their armor when we were in the sewers. That should get the carriage to stop at least, while their riders chase after our riders. The rest of you can charge from the treeline when I get them to stop."

"I'm not much for strategy. Just point me to the enemy and I will disable or dismantle him."

Turning to the group of untrained "children," Tok asks, "Do any of you care to spar a bit? Perhaps one of you lot have some fight in you."

"Don't want to be recognized if we can help it."

"See Castor! We get to be a princess after all!"

Pollux immediately begins twisting scraps of fabric into surprisingly well made if crude hooded masks. Mending cantrip

Later

Turning to the group of untrained "children," Tok asks, "Do any of you care to spar a bit? Perhaps one of you lot have some fight in you."

Pollux leaps up at the suggestion. He answers Tok in a gleeful voice.

"I have some fight in me, and I've been beaten by professionals to I could give you pointers once I come to!"

It looks as if a pair were willing to give Tok ago. But Pollux's manic cheerfulness shies them away.

Caldazar considers Merax's suggestion before shrugging his shoulders and nodding "Sounds as good a plan as any."

Tok is taken aback by Pollux's offer. "On second thought, perhaps we should train after our task is complete. I would hate for any of us to be damaged by our own hands when we will likely receive some damage from the Hellknights."

Mr. Ruttle nods. "Good, let's do that. We have an armiger, what else will we need? A mount, perhaps? Do we have enough weapons? Rope for ladders at the bridge?"

Mr. Ruttle nods. "Good, let's do that. We have an armiger, what else will we need? A mount, perhaps? Do we have enough weapons? Rope for ladders at the bridge?"

And I was just about to ask. Where's Sclivian?

"I don't think we need that much deception in this case. I was going to take the rest and lure them forward with an "ambush" of sorts. That would draw some of them away from the carriage long enough for you to free Arael and run."

"I'd like to be up close to the carriage... My faith should help to sever any bonds holding Arael"

Turning back to the strategy discussion and away from Pollux, Tok says, "I too would like to be as near the carriage as possible. I don't want to be late to the skirmish because of my size."

Sclivian's with everyone else... what do you mean by "where"?

Sclivian's with everyone else... what do you mean by "where"?

As in you haven't posted since Thursday. :P

Pollux continues to listen to the conversation and make hoods.

Some of the hoods are quite ornate. One has two peaks another sports a pair of fishhooks on the jawline and another is in quite fetching parti-color.

"I don't want to be late to the skirmish because of my size."

Pollux is not going there but I want you to know that it was physically painful to pass up that straight line.

Ha! I appreciate your restraint.

Unless there is further desire to talk strategy ima go ahead and move on.

Unless there is further desire to talk strategy ima go ahead and move on.

[ooc]Other than my question about the carriage I am good to go.[ooc]

TarkXT wrote:

Unless there is further desire to talk strategy ima go ahead and move on.

Other than my question about the carriage I am good to go.[ooc]

[ooc]Ah

The carriage they have has a small arbalest on top of it. So watch for that. Other than that it's a typical prisoner carrigae locked from the outside. Pretty sure the keys will be on the hellknight.

Ready to move on.

Ready to rock.

We're with the Tik-man

Tok prepares his shurikens, wraps his scarf around his neck and nods towards Ruttle.

I'm ready, too.

Okie dokie if you have any kind of shopping you need to do go ahead and do so now. Janiven will met you at the south gate of the city with horses borrowed from Gorvio's father who is a stablemaster.

Merax is ready as well.

The Map

Choose where you want to go on the map. Try to give me a good estimate on where you want to be as a group. Try to stay close at it'll be damn difficult to make this work over maptools/pbp if you spread out too far. Don't think that'll be an issue with such a melee oriented group. The badguys will be coming from the north. Janiven will be taking the group down into the south somewhat off the map.

Wow, that's a different setup than what I expected.

Sclivian heads to the market to purchase 100' of rope and a fishing net. With the rope, he ties one end to the tree to the southeast of the bridge, and runs it in the dirt to the tree to the southwest of the bridge. The fishing net is draped over the rope where it crosses the road and is similarly lightly covered with dirt to camouflage it.

To help with this, he swaps out Read Magic for the day, and replaces it with Prestidigitation.

Caldazar will lay in hiding under the bridge? - assuming we aim to stop the carriage on it. That will help hide him as he isn't the stealthiest of fellows.

assuming we will go with my plan, I'll be on the bridge dressed as an Armiger. I assume Janiven and Co. will pretend to harrass me on the bridge.

assuming we will go with my plan, I'll be on the bridge dressed as an Armiger. I assume Janiven and Co. will pretend to harrass me on the bridge.

Think they were going with the plan of pretending to be bandits and ambushing them from further down the road to draw a number of them away to make the group youll face smaller. You can still dress as an armiger to confuse them though.

Tok will conceal himself in the bush just south of the bridge. Do you want me to do a stealth check?

Pollux will be under the bridge with Caldazar.

Pollux will be thinking about trolls and goats. He wonders if he shouls send Castor out first and then follow with Caldazar bringing up the rear to keep faith to the story.

Pollux will cast guidence and resistance on himself, and keep them up as they expire.

Under the bridge. Before the dying starts.

"Mr. Caldazar sir, I could do things to you that might help for a while. They don't hurt, well one does a little but it's a lot of fun so that doesn't count. Do I have your freely granted permission?

Marking the 24 hour mark.

Alrighty got a bit of work to do will get this blender of hilarity going on smoothie once I get it done later tonight.