Drax Adaaryn |
Drax will continue to use the disguise he used in the tavern as well. He will put together a separate disguise of an armored Xeph.
Vrog Skyreaver |
Called the City of Six Hills, Aeon sits in a valley surrounded by a ring of large hills. The city proper has 6 gates in the outermost walls, which each open into a separate district controlled by one of the ruling families of Aeon. Taking in the size of the city from one of the hills that surround it, those of you that are more tactically minded realize that the city is in a solid tactical position: the have natural barriers that can restrict travel, and there are small outposts that further ring the hills surrounding the city. each manned by a small contingent of legionnaires, resplendent in their lorica, tower shields, and gladii.
Having past the checkpoints and surmounted the large hill that you now find yourselves upon, you get an idea of exactly why previous battles between the convocation and Aeon have not ended well when Aeon is defending themselves in their city. The 60' high outer walls have guards which patrol them diligently, alert for any attempt to cross surrepticiously. there are odd-looking towers set into the walls every 500' that appear to be made of glass, although an opaque kind that prevents those outside from peering in. The city has a diameter of roughly 20 miles, measuring from the outer walls of one side to the other. When viewed from above, the city resembles a spoke, with multiple internal walls that radiate outward from the Protectorate building (the protectorate being the name given to the beings who head the government of Aeon).
Making your way through one of the gates into the city, you can see that the gate itself has a massive crest above it: the head of a raven with an eye that radiates lavender light. There is a tense moment when you present your cover story as a group of mercenaries who have just completed a scouting mission into "horde" lands (the horde being the slang term that the citizens of Aeon use to describe the Convocation, appearantly). You should not figure out where you are and how to get to where you need to be, as you see fit. Both the captain and meera will peel off from the group, Captain Greel explaining that there is something else that they need to take care of, and that they will meet you at the rally point (which Greel had earlier set as the crest of the hill that you first viewed Aeon on) and then they will depart.
So, what's the plan from here?
Urgosh The Minotaur |
The plan is for the moment the following. The scouting group will do what it does best, for the next 24h go and put the warehouse under your careful surveillance. Take Gadget with you. The other group will fan out, in pairs, in the area where the warehouse is located. Our job is to know the streets in that area like of our hands, and observe the patterns of the local militia, armed patrols. We meet on every hour + 5 min at this fountain over here during the day time. and at this inn "The fortune Dancer" in the evening. Each group send 1 different member each time to meet with me. My group will meet after a few hours for info and see what we do next. Is that ok with you all?
Drax Adaaryn |
I thought the warehouse was in the Maenad islands somewhere. I will proceed assuming I was mistaken.
That plan works for me.
Vrog Skyreaver |
awesome, it didn't post my post from last night.
1d4 ⇒ 2
It takes you about two hours, but you manage to find the warehouse where you believe Taurok is being held. Like most of the warehouses around it, this building is 3 stories with no windows. It has loading doors sized for a wagon facing the road, as well as a smaller, human-sized door.
Chak-Chak: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (15) + 8 = 231d20 + 8 ⇒ (1) + 8 = 9
Urgosh: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 261d20 + 10 ⇒ (2) + 10 = 12
Gidgey: 1d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 201d20 + 1 ⇒ (19) + 1 = 20
Drax: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (9) + 3 = 121d20 + 7 ⇒ (6) + 7 = 13
Kurat: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 251d20 + 2 ⇒ (15) + 2 = 17
Greith: 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (5) + 10 = 151d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13
You see that there are no appearant guards, but watching the building for a bit, you see multiple people go in and out through the human-sized door.
You notice that several of the people on the street are actually guards, as they are paying undue attention to anyone who stops in front of the building for too long.
for purposes of this situation, I'm assuming that you guys are finding an out of the way spot that isn't occupied to watch the building for a while.
Vrog Skyreaver |
one detail which could be important that I mentioned in my initial brief but didn't cover in my description (ggrrrrr forums) is that this area of the mercantile district is on the docks, and the reason for the height of most buildings is that they have their own interior dock with which to offload cargo. This area is run by House Colgar, and are marked with the seal above the large wagon doors: a Wagon wheel where the spokes are made of swords.
Drax Adaaryn |
Drax will continue to wander the surrounding streets keeping an eye open for any rooftop access points or good hiding spots as he builds a mental map of the area. He reports into the tavern per schedule.
Kurat |
Similar to Drax, Kurat will continue to wander around, but since there are obviously guards which were paying attention, Kurat was not interested so much into scouting the warehouse as much as into finding and providing their team with a potential escape route.
How much guards posing as civilians there are (an estimate at least)? 5-6 or more? Also, can we spot someone on the roof maybe, or one of the surrounding roofs?
Vrog Skyreaver |
After spending a day watching the warehouse, you realize that there are 15 total guards, broken down into 3 5-man shifts. The warehouses on either side of your target warehouse are the same size, as are the ones across from it (which do not have interior docks). All the warehouses bear the mark of House Colgar.
As the raven flies ahead, once it crests the building's roof, it will fly back down and tell Chak-Chak that there are 4 large humans on the roof. There also appears to be a trapdoor that leads down up there too.
Urgosh The Minotaur |
ok so here is the plan: We infiltrate by the rooftops. Greith, invisible if needed, goes in and silently kills the sentry. Gadget goes with him and Gliterdust any sentry that is about to sound the alarm if he sees gretih makes his kill. Kurat as the same time, while invisible kills a second sentry. His they have been noticed from the other rooftop everyone shoots at that sentry if it isn't glitterdusted. If Needed Chack will cast a Silence Spell on his raven that will fly near the remaining sentry in order to prevent any screaming or alarm. This will by the rooftop group and other 6 seconds to dispose of the that last person.
Then we all move and open the trap door leading down. Using both the silence spell and possibly a new invisibility gretih will move inside the structure with us following until we find our target. We efficiently kill any that try to stop us. Without raising the alarm if possible. New order will be given as the situation moves. Is that plan ok for everyone?
Drax Adaaryn |
The plan sounds good. One question. How are we to access the warehouse rooftop? With out alerting any of the guards at this or any other warehouse?
Are the adjoining warehouse abutting? If there is a gap how big is it? Where is the ladder or other roof access we will use to get up to any nearby roof?
Kurat |
"So we climb up (or some of us fly) while invisible, right? Then once we are at the rooftop, we eliminate the guards as quickly and silently as possible and then proceed to infiltrate from above? Sounds good. But, what do you say if we can use the Chak Chak's raven for a more detailed surveillance? Maybe there's some special way to open the trapdoor, or some password, or some alarm switch and alike - we have a bit of time now, let us not risk it."
Chak-Chak Aiko |
"Do you want a better look at the water entrance? I can cast a spell that lets me move through water like an otter. Coupled with invisibility, I should be able to check that out, maybe get a peek inside?"
Knowledge Arcana DC 17
Urgosh The Minotaur |
We the second wave come in from the rooftop. with a rope and ladder if needed. This idea behind this is that the guard on the ground/street do not see us as move to the target rooftop. The strike team using stealth and invisibility can choose to approach how ever they like. I am not sure that the raven can tell us anything about the trap door Kurat especially if the guards are still there. Once we have clear the rooftop guards we can examine the trap door and Greith can open it for us.
he turns over Sure Chuck a little extra information doesn't hurt anyway
Drax Adaaryn |
In bear form (40' speed, no armor check penalty) Drax has a 35% failure rate (+7 vs DC 15) on that jump assuming the roof provides solid footing with no obstructions (like barrier walls). Assuming that is about average that gives us an 18% chance of success of getting everyone across the gap. I think we should not plan on jumping. If I understand the layout correctly there are dead end alleys on either side of the warehouse. I don't think we can count on the guards out front letting us wander in there unless we are invisible.
@Gidgey do you have enough spells/day to make at least the less stealthy of us invisible?
Drax Adaaryn |
Perhaps I misunderstood the plan. I thought we were all going in from the roof.
Watching the guards change will tell us quite a bit about how the door is protected, do the guards knock to be let in? Use a key? Some sort of password?
Urgosh The Minotaur |
plan is: Stealth team goes on the rooftop and kill the sentries. combat team stays hidden on other rooftop and assist with ranged weapon. Once all rooftop sentries have been killed Combat team goes on warehouse rooftop and we all go in trough that door. Invisibility is needed only for those in stealth team that need it like Gadget. Combat team doesn't needed it when crossing over as the sentries will be dead.
We strike just before dawn where we can use our darkvision advantage
Drax Adaaryn |
OK we seem to be talking past each other. 1) How do we reach the first rooftop. 2) How do we go from one rooftop to another. As of right now we have no way of doing either one (except for Greith)
Urgosh The Minotaur |
1st rooftop is easy as no one is paying attention to that building. The raven fly up with a grappling hook tied to a knotted rope. Them we climb up. 2) Greith while invisible jump to the other rooftop. With his Str he can carry on his back a small creature: Gadget. Surpise round Greith kill a sentry. Round 1 Greith kills an other sentry. Gadget glitterdust / burning hands one or 2 target. We fire from the other rooftop and finish the remaining 2. 2) Pull a ladder across both rooftop or 2 grappling hook with knotted rope and proceed to cross. If we do this silently we should have no probleme since we are doing this at night relying on our darkvision while the regular sentry do not.
Vrog Skyreaver |
The alleyways on either side of the building probably lead to the water, but no one has checked that yet. I would also point out that spellcasting has to be at a normal tone of voice, so the guards would at least have a chance to hear it, and even if the guards on the ground don't hear the spellcasting, some of the spells you've suggested so far would have fairly visible effects. I'm not saying it's a bad plan, just pointing some things out.
Drax Adaaryn |
@vrog Has our surveillance told us anything about the adjoining buildings? Are they guarded?
Drax will pause for a few moments to prepare silence in his empty 2nd lvl spell slot before returning to his assigned surveillance activities.