don't forget the other captain is interviewing Seren and Nahia at the moment. Only big name left would be the magister...bum bum bum.
True, but also remember that we might end up having to fight through the Dwarves as well to get to the basement.
I say we see where this leads, but if it goes badly, resisting arrest might be a viable idea.
The action planned for today, as marked before is:
"Take out any opportune targets that won't raise suspicion. Likely Magister is best option, as he's been known to spend multiple days locked in his workshop, people should still be sick from poison so further deaths to guards may not be to surprising."
How are you pulling this off?
Tell me so we can move foward.
Rip and tear!
Well the tower is on alert now, but the important people have likely been up all night, so they're going to be tired.
They have the dwarves in custody, so further attacks aren't likely to seem to come from them. We might need another patsy at some point (Troost?)
The magister wasn't with the interrogation team, and if he's of high enough level to be a real threat to us, he will be capable of scrying. If I had a Mage on my side who could do that, I would have him watching the suspects immediately after an interrogation to see if they give themselves away (that's why Rose is still in character).
So for the moment we need to run out the clock on potential magical observation. We also need to be careful around the innkeep. He'll be reporting back.
So here is what I'm thinking-
Rose is a good enough actress that she can pretend to be pretty much anyone in the party (even Mysty if I use alter self to change size). With some trickery, Rose can use the Disguise circlet (and maybe some help from Troost as an NPC) to make it seem like the party stays in the Inn all day.
The rest of the group could then slip away under the guise of other people, meet up elsewhere, and assassinate the magister.
If we do it right we could get away with it in broad daylight and have a perfect cover story.
If we are worried about Scrying... then I would be far more worried about how long the dwarves will be in custody before they start looking for new suspects.
Scrying is a 4th level wizard spell, you'd need to be a pretty high level wizard to pull that off for any length of time at all and actually be able to scry on more then one target (cause it's only 1min/level). Zone of truth however is second level cleric spell (meaning any 3rd level cleric can prepare it). The dwarves don't have anything to hide I'm guessing, so unlikely to try and beat the will save to not be affected...It may quickly become apparent that they aren't at fault for what happened regardless of evidence.
1.Find info about attack
2.Mysty,Seren,Hound,Nahlia head out as hit-sqaud while Rose distracts at inn.
daylight is iffy because they are no doubt patroling more vigorously.
Concerns for hit-squad that we'll need to find solutions for....
1) anyone dies at this point and the dwarves are off completely scot-free, and we're very much in the limelight. How do we further implicate them? Releasing them may not even work, as they're likely to just sit in cell. Possibly find way to leave Cell key in "hidden" place near prison (if they do in fact get imprisoned).
2) Did the Captain's investigate everyone in town? Why did they come directly to the Inn? Agree with Mysty and Hound that we should figure this out.
3) Who is the next priority target? and is it wise to leave the one person that has a solid grasp of the Tower layout at the Inn? I would vote for either the Father, Lord, or Captain to go down next and leave Fausto/Troost at Inn instead of Rose. The magister doesn't seem to play nice with people and I think we need to cut off the heads of the watchtower, should create some panic and discord as they figure out what to do.
The thing is, Rose can make it look like the whole party is at the Inn all day (or at least while anyone is being murdered). I don't think anyone else can do that. I would love to go with you guys, but I think having a solid alibi is pretty important at this point.
Nahia, how are you with illusions? Do witches do Silent Image or Audible Glamour?
If I ditch my armor, I can get a fair stealth score going
@Rose, Witches are more about Enchantments, Divinations, and Conjurings. Even for the illusions/transmutations that they do have, I don't have them in my familiar currently anyway.
I also have not been putting points in disguise. It just hasn't really been Nahia's way until recently, and even then the circlet is doing more of that than anything.
- - - - -
As for the next target, I'm still thinking we should focus on the Magister. The fact that he is a loner just means that he might not be missed for the day or two we need to make our next strike against the leadership. Also, attack spells really hurt at this level, and getting the surprise on him seems like a good idea.
My second vote is for the Lord or Captain, whichever is easier. If we can get them down to one leadership figure, there is no way that the soldiers will still be kept in line and morale staying up. That should make any further assaults more successful.
I'm not really worried about the Father. He doesn't command the soldiers, and while he may provide healing and support, we are trying not to leave people alive anyway, so I don't mind saving him for last.
Guess it's up to me to try to pretend to be everyone. :)
Acceptable
Well Hound has limited knowledge of the situation due to being a late arrival and not knowing the layout. Rose's plan of staying at the inn and using the hat of disguise is sound, while the rest of us get to the magister. They way there is known, correct?
|
We move to the tower after twelve tonight. Ultra care on the approach. Slip into the tower and find the mage, kill him then if it is still quiet find either the last captain or the priest.
Nahia, do you have invisibility? Or anyone else? That could be very useful.
We should also kill any guards we encounter. Quietly if possible.
No poison bombs (lol)
problems
it is likely that the area where the tunnel exits will be guarded. These guards must be ended quietly, sleep + coup de grace. The greatest difficulty is if the storage basement guarded. That will mean we that if we retreat again, we cannot use it again as they will know for certain that is the entry room. But we may be lucky.
It is possible if we go after the mage we will be cut off from retreat.
Nope, no invisibility on my list.
Agreed on being quiet, and that securing our escape route (if possible) is probably a great idea.
I'll add that, if possible, we maybe should find and kill the Dwarves and drag their bodies somewhere. Make it look like they died trying to escape. Just a thought.
Sounds like a plan anyways. Hopefully this one doesn't explode in quite so epic a fashion on us
I'm ok with the fortress exploding in an epic fashion as long as we aren't inside. : )
Sounds like a good plan.
I agree that the tunnel is probably guarded now, and if we just kill the guards there it will probably be blocked completely.
Alarm is a first level spell that is hard for anyone but a rogue to detect. We should assume their wizard is canny and helpful. Mysty, you're going to need to search the whole tunnel. (If I were trying to catch people using that tunnel I'd put an alarm spell at the tower entrance, somewhere in the middle, and the inn).
If we can find where the dwarves are locked up we can disguise ourselves as guards, take a few of them out, lead/drag them to the tunnel entrance and make it look like they and the guards killed each other. (Great idea Nahia)
Last thought- Horns. Guards with horns are priority one.
Ya I was thinking about those horns... It may be worthwhile to pick up at least one scroll of silence. Not exactly cheap at 150 GP a pop, but they could be invaluable if we run into a situation like the rookery again.
Also just as another option that we haven't considered... Timeon's family... How much would a mother love her son? Enough to take blame for a crime she didn't commit if it starts looking really bleak? For those that don't know, Timeon was the squire of a knight we killed back at the Cardinal's place, and apparently he's from here. We were trying to convert him to Asmodeus' way and currently he resides with Fire-axe and the bugbear army.
Smash horns first, check.
Just how known is the tunnel and how long is it? Probably just checking the area where we entered the tower is fine.
For the horns, one thing we could do is use Fausto or Sourat as a distraction. Have one of them waiting outside of the keep, and if he hears a horn blow, he could blow the one we have. That way we might be able to confuse or divide them enough to escape.
And while we should be careful (and scanning the hall with detect magic), I'm not totally convinced that the trap door and passage will have been found. It hasn't been used in so many years, and it seemed like no one knew of it. Though maybe the Dwarves actually did.
Anyway, it's our best shot right now. And if we remove the Magister then there should be little to no one left to set an Alarm to begin with.
ya plus don't forget it took an insane perception check to find. In fact if I recall correctly, we only found it because of a take 20 roll. How likely are the guards to be searching with that amount of detail, plus still have the necessary skills to even see it then
Not to mention it is easy to foil alarm if we are willing to lay low. If we find it in the tunnel (again, detect magic), then we back away and just drop a rat in there. The animal will set it off and thus waste the spell. Do it enough and they will recognize the spell is 'useless'.
I'd be more worried about an alarm set in the forge room, that we wouldn't be able to see and that would be set off when the trap door opened. But hey, we're kind of boned in a situation like that anyway.
...
Well, maybe not. Again, if it is audible, drop and rat in the room and high tail it out of there. If it is mental, either the Magister has to use a horn or already be in contact with various guards, and then come check it out.
So there is at least the chance that we aren't boned in that situation. : )
Heck, if we can use it to lure the magister down to check things out, and they determine it was a rat we might be able to take the magister out too. That would be fantastic.
Hey and hello!
Sorry for the delay.
Had a hard day, and tomorrow will be worse. :(
Things have suddenly pilled at work and university.
I'll try my best to update tomorrow, but please be patient with me.
@Rose, tell me the mechanics of your 'one-in-all-party-diguise'
@Others, Just to check, you'll enter the tunnel again and attack the keep?
Sounds like we will go attack the Magister.
So we'll be all stealthy like? Just checking before I don my leather armor
@Hound, We need to keep the guards quiet, but I'm not sure that the quieter armor is necessary. If we can make it in without alerting the guards, we can disguise ourselves again. Still, it couldn't hurt. Up to you I say.
@DM Aku, Yeah, we'll go through the tunnel again. I'll be scanning the whole thing with detect magic. Also, I'd ask Andros to sniff out if anyone else has been in the tunnel recently. He should be familiar with all of our scents and he was with us when we went through last time. Hound could probably do the same.
Any chance we could catch a rat before hand? If it helps, I can use both my charm and slumber hexes on animals.
Snag a cat from the innkeeper? Rats are probably in short supply
Pretty simple really. Use disguise to look like someone else. Use bluff to impersonate their manoriams. Make a brief appearance downstairs, head back up again. Change roles. Go down as someone else. Do this a few times throughout the day, frequent enough that it would be impossible for anyone seen at the inn to be anywhere else.
The rest of the party helps by pretending to be other people all day, anytime they are out of their rooms.
The exception to that is when someone makes an appearance down stairs with Rose (as herself or someone else) so that it isn't ever suspicious that only one member of the party is ever downstairs at a time.
Or course, this only works during the day. the whole point is moot if we are planning another middle of the night raid.
It saddens me to resume the game, when there's lots of possibility for role play, due to what just happened (the attack on the tower, the soldiers response and so on). But then again, it's unfair to hold up the game because only Seren and Nahia seem to really enjoy those kinds of 'let's talk RP scenes'.
I know that everyone has his play style and I’m not saying that you are wrong. Far from it. I’ve seen some great players in the few months I’ve been in these boards.
However, if I may be so bold to suggest, why don’t you try a more player-to-player interaction, aside from the standard player-to-DM interaction? :)
@Seren
You can change you Alignment to NE if you want to. Of course you can keep going as LE for as long as you want, for RP purposes.
I liked how you played the change; it was subtle and very well done, and after Seren last answer to Nahia, I see no real reason to keep her as Lawful anymore.
Just a reminder though; CE is a banned alignment. :)
ya never planned to go CE. NE was always the alignment of choice. thank you, I feel like it fits Seren better then the LE alignment.
Before Troost goes, I'd really like to talk him out of those Sleeves of Many Garments. I can trade for them, or just convince him it would be helpful to the cause. Or just sleep with him. He already has a crush on her and Rose isn't above resorting to that.
Would you be willing to let Troost part with them?
Nops.
:)
Edit: I mean, he is not willing, for several reasons.
You can always forcefully take from him.
don't forget that Nahia can make one for 100 GP. Should be easily doable one of these nights, and I'm sure it would be a reasonable request. I love my sleeves.
@Seren, you beat me to it.
I was just about to say that Nahia would probably need half one hour to make one of those. :D
Well, technically, the whole '8/4' hour work day thing is set in stone for magic items. But if it wasn't, then I could churn one of those out in 16 minutes with a good roll by Andros, 24 without. : )
Also, while I'll skip it now since we just met, and this might not be the time for it, from a player perspective, is anyone going to get upset if Nahia requests 60% of the cost to make an item? Basically, the cost of materials and a small bit of extra to cover scrolls and booze and the like?
That's still a bargain.
Rose has enough gold on her. How much do you need?
Since we have a day to kill and no real plans, can Nahia work on that before we head out for tonight's raid?
Yeah, I was waiting to hear from you before I posted my actions.
For now, until this mission is over, we'll go for cost. Later, Nahia will discuss about needing to cover other supplies as well. Besides, I want to make sure everyone else is still ok with it first.
So, 100 gold and you'll have it in 4 hour plus prep time.
I have no issue with it. Seems reasonable. Also not that we have the funds now, but I also picked up Craft magic arms and armor, so we can start creating some armor truly in Asmodeus' image without the daunting task of trying to find it in a store somewhere.
Ok, I'm docking 100 from my cash and I'll buy you some drinks if we live through the night.
I'm happy to help with extra supplies. Having well stocked casters is the fastest way to winning fights.
Yeah Seren, at some point we might have to trade services. : )
And Rose, I'm glad to hear you say that! I've just seen some people get very offended at the concept.
I have just found it helpful because there are lots of scrolls (and some potions) that (especially later) it would be helpful to keep around for emergencies (like scrolls of deathward, teleport, stone to flesh, and phasedoor). But these tend to be expensive and don't really help my own viability as a caster, and some parties tend to not like to dip into the party funds for an item that only the caster can use easily.
I don't care who can use it, when you suddenly find yourself Petrified, or Blinded, you really need a handy scroll or potion to fix it.
We need to get Seren a once a day item of Blood Money. Maybe a ceremonial knife or something.
That would let her raise minions much cheaper, as long as she was willing to spend an extra round to do it.
At low levels, necromancy is expensive. >.<
lol ya it a bit expensive but what I really want is a way for a skeleton to use our circlet of disguise... and to put it on my mad martin skeleton. oh the fun that could be had when Mad Martin re-appears in the watchtower.
speaking on this. Aku the spell I learned at lvl. 5... what kind of bonus is it? Just curious to what it stacks with.