Just a few miles east of the outskirts of Gheradescci County, the Bellflower Network has prepared for their assault and have found your caravan.
Figuring Aman's orders regarding guard duty shifts was still good, half of the twelve remaining guards are on duty the same time as Yaos and Red Wing.
And under the cover of invisibility the Halflings get into position.
I am going to post here as the attack won't take place till Wednesday and it gives the other 2 players a chance to have a say. And if they do a mess won't be made on the in game thread. Wednesday will mean nearly 48 hours from now, yes?
For myself, I see no reason to have changed the guards orders or our watch shifts.
Unfortunately neither Yaos nor Red Wing can see invisible things. Yaos has Glitterdust, but it won't help with initial surprise. I guess I will have to hope for good rolls.
Today is Tues in the states, so more like 24hrs.
Theoretically, I could have See Invisibility as it's a 2nd level Inquisitor spell, but I am doubtful Magnius would know it.
Ray, were we able to piece together a rough guesstimate of when the ambush would be? If we could have determined a few days span when it would likely take place, I do have some precautions I would take, including casting some spells.
I'm fine with having the same watch cycle as before.
Short of a Commune spell which gives you CL number of Yes/No questions I don't think you could figure out when the Halflings are attacking.
And even then, I don't know that even a Commune would help -- mostly because the Halflings themselves aren't exactly sure.
Metagame: They know the caravan is on its way. They know they can't be too close to Westcrown when they attack. They know they don't want to shadow the caravan lest they get caught.
....They're putting themselves in 'what they guess' is the best position and then using their own divination magic to prepare. Then, once they find the caravan, will teleport (or run if their guess as to where is close enough) and get ready / finalize their plan-of-attack -- and execute it.
I'm really excited to see how you guys are going to handle this.
Will you kill them in Francesco Phandros' defense?
Will you side with the Halflings?
Will you play-it-by-ear and decide in the flow of battle whose side you're on?
This should get interesting.
....Hmmm, I'm at home looking for my stats for Arlo and the other Halflings and they're not jumping out at me through my various D&D stacks of notes and such. If I don't find them I'll make new ones and that will take me another day. (But in about 10 minutes I'm going bowling with my buddies so it'll have to wait.)
Hey DM Ray:- Have fun bowling. For this I have a soundtrack.
I'm really excited to see how you guys are going to handle this.
Will you kill them in Francesco Phandros' defense?
Will you side with the Halflings?
Will you play-it-by-ear and decide in the flow of battle whose side you're on?
This should get interesting.
I posted on this question a while ago. I looked at our planning back when the campaign kicked off. What I posted was:-
"The plan we decided upon was to await the attack of the Belflower Agents and make sure it succeeds I believe. That will mean we want to kill everyone in Phandros's caravan except us I would think.
Then, courtesy of Magnius's expedition to bribe the people taking messages back to his Dad to go to his wife to be instead, we claim to be loyal retainers who were nearly killed in his defense.
Just making sure we are all working from the same script, it is a while since this was planned."
I'm thinking we need to try and wipe them all out, Phandros and the halfings included. But, we need to try and do it in such a way as to deplete the resources of the Bellflower Network agents as much as possible.
I also think we need to set the halflings free at some point, in the midst of all this, but unsure if doing so would help us at all.
Hmmm.
I think if we are going to side with the Bellflower Agents we are going to have to help them liberate the halfling slaves. That is the whole reason they exist and are attacking the caravan in the first place. If we want to kill off the halfling slaves we are going to have to fight the Bellflower Agents as well. They run the slaves out of Cheliax, so unless they get caught again the chances of our little secret getting out is minute.
To that end, the quicker we can make it clear we are on their side the better.
Our story- we have another agenda, none of their business. Alfred is naturally sympathetic to their cause and suggested we go about it like this.
I see the biggest problem being the Bellflower Agents are normally CG. And our plan involves the mass slaughter of innocents. Maybe we can arrange for that to happen after they have left. Maybe.
Thoughts?
Ok, so we know the ambush is gonna happen, right? We just don't know when/where.
And Yaos made some good points above.
Here's what I'm thinking:
As we're aware an ambush is going to happen, and we want to use it to our advantage, I say we have come up with a signal(a code word or something), that once the attack comes, we put into play a plan we can up with prior:
Alfred, as the halfling in our group, frees the prisoners. I'm going to guess that one of the named NPCs had the keys to their wagon cage. On the serious off chance that Phandros is somehow in possession of the keys, I can try and convince him to give me the keys prior. As a Hellknight, I am clearly the best person to be in charge of our prisoners. (Hopefully, Ray will allow this).
Phandros is the only one who actually needs to die. However, if any of the guards are not at least friendly, and preferably helpful to us, then I would ask that I get a chance to have fixed that via diplomacy.
Basically, all we want to do is assist the Bellflowers in rescuing the halflings, then making sure Phandros is dead, and as many of guards as possible are either fully on our side, or dead too.
Excellent ideas regarding having Alfred release the halfling slaves and a code word. How about "surprise attack"?
On the key, this is the first time it has been discussed and likely the first time anyone has thought of it. I strongly suspect it was among the possessions of the retainers that died in the fight earlier.
I think we should ask DM Ray about the key and how he wants to handle it. We might have found it and have it, it could have been given to Phandros or just maybe one of the guards or even forgotten about and still be on the body and left behind.
On killing everyone, well what is the point of being evil if you can't? Seriously, our story is that Phandros and his retainers all died when the Bellflower Agents attacked. We tried to defend him but were outmatched and had to flee.
What really happened is that Phandros's retainers found out what we were up to, tried to kill us, failed we killed them and a lot of his soldiers and rangers. Then we helped the Bellflower Agents free the halflings and kill Phaedros.
These two tales are radically and obviously different. I would think the soldiers were from Phandros's house, which means they will return to the house. The artisans and craftsmen may well be too.
Somebody will talk. Out of loyalty, for reward or just talk about what happened. If it gets back to Phandros's house we will have powerful enemies, if it reaches his bride to be it will spoil our whole plan. Mass slaughter it is.
That is how I see it.
I am for killing off everyone in Phandros' caravan, for two reasons:
1) No witnesses left that any respectable Chelaxian would believe
2) It allows us to paint the Bell Flower network as more monstrous than their Chaotic Goodness would allow. I mean, if they wanted to free the slaves why did they have to kill everyone, especially after they won and we were forced to flee and the rest of the men surrendered?
Also, if we can't get the key I have a +16 Disable device so given time I can open the lock unless its made by the gods.
Red Wing has disable device at +25.
It is pointless to try to keep your eidolon combat capable if you are playing a master summoner. It is OK for a couple of levels, but then is just impossible. So Red Wing does skills.
Most interested in seeing how this plays out.
I am rebuilding the Bellfower Agents now as I apparently misplaced them from a few months ago.
Yikes,
Yaos just took 30 damage in the Surprise Round. Luckily it was a Halfling longbow crit and not a medium-sized longbow crit!
Yikes indeed.
And I think that is some strange usage of the word "luckily" of which I am unaware.
Then I proceed to roll a 1 on my initiative roll.
I really should not have got out of bed this morning. :(
"It is to your luck" that it was a Halfling bow.
How do you use "Luckily"?
Couldn't find this being brought up before here, but I would suggest that DM Ray rolls initiative for us from now on. It speeds up game play and helps things flow more smoothly
A good idea imho.
Especially the way I rolled initiative last time.
I'm not a fan of rolling Initiative for PCs. I'll do it when a PC is mia for a day or so but, with my slow pace for posting, I don't think it will hurt us for smoothness.
I can do it in the future, though, if I'm outvoted.
I don't much care either way. How about a wait and see approach? We all got our rolls up pretty quickly after you asked. Yaos was I believe two hours later, with mine being 4. If there was a much longer delay with from each of us, on a regular basis, then yea, roll for us.
A much better suggestion would be for each of us to post up our round's action with initiative. Yes, things could change, but it's still better than having to then wait again for you to post.
Again, playing it by ear is my suggestion. Things will be different after my three guys go at the top of Round 1.
I think posting in Discussion ideas and plans-of-attack and concerns and such is a very good idea. I have no qualm about PCs suggesting strategies -- as long as there's nothing judgmental and it's presented as opinion -- and voicing concerns or brilliancies.
I don't have any Metagame problem with that -- your PCs have probably spent much of the last four days talking about what-ifs and contingencies and such. Your PCs are experienced and wizened adventurers -- more so perhaps than any individual Player. I think it makes sense to talk about tactics out-of-game, and assume that the PCs have already had similar conversations and have a thorough fluency with each other's combat style and ability and philosophy. One could argue that, with an all-too-familiar wink or nod, your PCs communicate effective tactics with each other in combat.
So it looks like there's one guard left in the bushes using the bathroom, all the others got cloud killed. So that leaves the three of us, Phandros' and the guard.
My suggestion is that we fall back to the slave wagon where we release the slaves, maybe killing the guard in the bushes if we can. While we do this we should shout for Phandros to come out so that he becomes a prime target for the Bell Flowers at the front of the caravan.
Other than that I think the plan needs to be more 'survive the attack' than 'kill Phandros'. The guys not going anywhere on his own so we can simply live and kill him after.
Works for me, especially because they might kill Phandros for us.
Other than that I think the plan needs to be more 'survive the attack' than 'kill Phandros'.
I agree absolutely. Me already having lost 30 HPs and may well lose more before I get to do anything.
I think someone should try telling these Bellflower Agents that we are on their side before they make more progress towards killing the lot of us. Freeing the slaves is a good idea too.
I plan going invisible and hiding. I am a bit close to dying for comfort.
If the Bellflower Agents don't listen to us and we have to fight them I can start summoning things right, left and center.
On Phandros, I just want the Bellflower Agents to take the blame for killing him. I would rather off the whiny irritating twerp myself in a particularly agonising and disgusting manner. I guess that is not important.
Apologies for such a long delay, almost a whole week. Things have been so busy that I have not gotten to The Boards at all (and have let slip all three PbPs I'm in.)
@ Alfred Ensbridge,
Avarin Littlehat is at the bottom of Rd 1. On your turn you made your way over their; on his turn he made his attempt. The Color Spray goes off and you are on the edge of its AoE.
If you find it quick enough you can Edit your post.
Sorry about these continued delays. I'm getting here as often as I'm able.
@ Alfred Ensbridge
As it's been an hour since you posted the 2nd Rd Disable Device check (and thus can't be edited) -- I'm going to go ahead and rule that that roll, a 16, is your Will Save from the Color Spray.
And as the DC is 16, unless your Will Save is -1 or worse, you succeed on the Save.
On your Initiative you can attempt to Disable the (now un-magicked) lock if you so choose.
DM Ray- According to his tag line Alfred has a +10 will save, made it easy. At least something is going right.
I need to know how far away these Bellflower Agents are from Yaos, and if they are all on one side of the caravan I am in [invisible now].
I have in mind to do 2 things next action, one is to move out of the caravan and get under it. The second is, if combat has not broken out, use my Summon Monster SLA to conjure some monsters somewhere they won't be noticed, in case it does. I want to know if that appears feasible.
Now, to this bunch of inconveniently intelligent halflings, I will make some KS Local checks.
Arlo Yellowknuckle
Avalia Greenheart
Arnam Goodkin
'Freedom'
Amina
Avarin Littlehat
Does that tell me anything useful?
Are all our enemies halflings? I thought we had a mix of races, or did I make that up?
You are correct. The Cleric of Iomedae, Amina, is a Half-Elf. I purposely gave the Halflings two names and the Half-Elf one name. I dunno if that actually makes the NPCs more easily identifiable,.... (Freedom also has only one name, you know, the bear that just killed the guard peeing in the bushes.)
A big part of me is hoping that one of you, at least, will roll those Knowledge Locals so that I can say "Avarin Littlehat the Magus; Arlo Yellowknuckle the Slayer; Arnam Goodkin the Hunter"; etc. But we'll see.
EDIT:
Wait! Hey, no looking at their Classes without the checks!
(Harrumph, at least they still have to roll the check to get Class Levels.)
Well, looks like this is going okay, even if I did mess up my initiative a bit.
I also just noticed my Bard has no knowledge(local) skill ranks. Talk about major oversight. Gonna fix that next level haha
A big part of me is hoping that one of you, at least, will roll those Knowledge Locals so that I can say "Avarin Littlehat the Magus; Arlo Yellowknuckle the Slayer; Arnam Goodkin the Hunter"; etc. But we'll see.
Is the site playing tricks, which it has been recently, or are you having a moment of blindness, here is my last post from discussion.
Edit- When I copied it it did the rolls again. I put the original totals after the new roll.
DM Ray- According to his tag line Alfred has a +10 will save, made it easy. At least something is going right.
I need to know how far away these Bellflower Agents are from Yaos, and if they are all on one side of the caravan I am in [invisible now].
I have in mind to do 2 things next action, one is to move out of the caravan and get under it. The second is, if combat has not broken out, use my Summon Monster SLA to conjure some monsters somewhere they won't be noticed, in case it does. I want to know if that appears feasible.
Now, to this bunch of inconveniently intelligent halflings, I will make some KS Local checks.
Arlo Yellowknuckle 20
Avalia Greenheart 14
Arnam Goodkin 14
'Freedom' 17
Amina 9
Avarin Littlehat 9
Does that tell me anything useful?
Ok, so no humans, bummer. Thankfully, I can make Knowledge checks untrained.
Arlo
Avalia
Arnam
Freedom
Amnia
Avarin
Damn! And that's without ranks!
Also, two nat 20s!!
I think we have to do some extremely fancy talking to be able to implement our plan.
If they want to find out if we are good or evil to see if they can trust us, when we show up evil...
I think we are going to have to fight.
@ Magnius,
Half Elves count as both Humans and Elves for Racial shenanigans. So Amina the Half-Elf Cleric of Iomedae counts as Human.
.
@ Yaos,
Last night I looked and saw that you posted your Knowledge rolls a couple hours before I posted my blurb. Either I missed your post, somehow, or like you said, the Boards were a little bonkers. (I was having website problems in my PbPs yesterday, too.) Your numbers are good. (RAW, the base DC is 10+CR for basic info and for every 5 points above that you get an extra bit of info.) So your rolls will get you the info you're looking for.
I'll post the Initiative roll here real quick with that info so you can decide your 2nd Round actions.
Alfred Ensbridge will have successfully unlocked the lock when his turn comes up. Poor guy always seems to post a bit too early and has to decide whether to do something else. (Or maybe that's just brilliant.) But I think he's probably just a smidgen impatient or frustrated that it takes me so long to get to the Boards recently.
In any case, @ Alfred Ensbridge, if Magnius & Yaos decide to fight you can do something other than unlock the lock.
Yaos has not decided to fight. Yaos thinks we are about to be given no choice.
Notes:
It is Magnius' turn. His dialog was good and made the Halflings pause.
I realized I forgot to post Amina's 1st Rd turn -- she had a Readied Action that was not triggered.
I also forgot to add another +2 to Damage against Francesco Phandros. He is still unconscious and bleeding out.
I got a nasty suspicion that when the prayer brings information about our alignment they are going to decide we need to be exterminated. Well, I am at least planning for the worst. Perhaps some excellent diplomacy from my fellows can turn things around.
I am hoping my actions will speak louder than words.
I have to determine whether Amina would have actually prepared Detect Evil or not. ....How often do PCs actually prepare that?....
That is good news DM Ray. I had assumed that when her leader asked her to pray for info on our alignment, she could. Does not follow. And detect evil isn't close to the most commonly memorised spell.
Hey Alfred- Is it an alignment violation for you to be freeing slaves? You are depriving their owners of their rightful property in violation of the law. :P
Eh maybe. I forgot to fine tune a code for him and have just now been reminded of it. Once I make it his behavior will have a consistent backing to show his Lawfulness.
If it turns out I can not make a code to fit, or that it becomes a source of conflict too often then I will revel in Alfred's slow fall to TN, then CN, then eventually CE.
I would posit that slavery is an evil act and that fighting it is good. I would understand an argument that indentured servitude is not necessarily evil -- but would postulate that in Cheliax, well, these Halflings are decidedly not indentured servents.
Were Alfred Ensbridge LE instead of LN it 'might' be a fun thing with which to wrestle, as it may be for the LE PCs, to free another's lawfully owned slaves.
I wasn't worried about the G-E axis. Releasing these slaves is purely self serving which would nullify the goodness of the act in my opinion.
It's more of a L-C question at this point in my eyes, which I always find to be more interesting anyway.