Volta grins at Uraisa glad to be noticed, "Thanks, Uraisa, it's the crate with the markings alright. Looks large and heavy though, I'll need the ropes to the crane to attach to the handles here. Quick would be good as well because these planks won't hold long; they're about to break."
His smile fades and he looks a little anxious. What have I gotten myself into?
Volta balances delicately near the crate waiting for the ropes or hook to the crane to be brought or tossed to him. He sees Uraisa look at the crate speculatively with obvious wheels turning in her head.
Uraisa is thinking of something, wonder if she has a spell?
"What's on your mind, Uraisa?"
"Give me a second, Volta. I can cast a couple spells that should be able to push the crate away from the hole, if I can just get into a good position, without bringing this whole place down around us."
Uraisa: you can find a safe location to stand, no problem. Please note your spell is a very violent and chaotic effect. A large cannon ball of water. Keep that in mind as you make plans.
Volta: To safly attach the crane hook to the crate, you would need an intermeadiatary object. Like a net, or some extra ropes spaning to the handles first. It can be done without, but you would kow the less secure, the better chanches of it twisting, sliding etc.
Both of your plans have merit. The more vaiables in play, the more luck plays a chance. The more exact and precise the mechanics used, the better the odd get.
Details and degree of risk are up to you and your party.
Good luck pathinders . . .
"On second thought, I could blast the crate to safety with a gusher of water, I hope, but it would no doubt wet the 'books and papers' we have been sent to retrieve. I could still try it, but I doubt that would be the best solution."
"I have around a hundred feet of rope, if that would help." Robertus sets his Polearm on his back as he goes through his pack, pulling out a couple coils of hemp rope. He takes a moment to observe the situation, then ties a bowline in both ends of one of the coils, to act as easy hooks onto the crane. "Would this help at all? Robertus holds up the knots on both ends to sort of demonstrate what he is talking about.
Professor Diggans looks at the apparatus with a critical eye. Perhaps it would help if we were simply able to grab it and bring it down. First grapple it over and then simply reach up and take it down. With that he walks over to the Robertus and touches him on the arm while murmuring some words. Robertus abruptly doubles in size and his strength increases as well. He is now approximately 12 feet tall with a long reach and should be able to retrieve the box once it is brought over closer.
Volta listens to Uraisa's thoughts and seems even more nervous. "Yeah let's keep water blasts towards me as a last idea." Robertus gives his idea. "Robert, that's about the idea I had. Tie ropes to these loops on the crate, better to net it course but I don't think we have the time. Can you guys get the crane ready and toss me some rope to tie on?" Robertus grows large, Volta's eyes follow. "Er, all right then should be easier to get me the rope and for me to tie to the crate; can you tie the other end to the crane after giving me the other end?"
Volta glances at the water, swallows a gulp and looks over appealingly to the large Robert.
Aryllan looks around toward the crane. She gets the idea of what Volta is trying to do. Good thinking Volta. Uraisa let's use the water works as a final option. Aryllan tries to start pulling the crane toward Volta. Baladur a little help if you please. The beer will still be there when we leave, if the whole warehouse does not collapse . The gnome draws Aryllan's attention away from the crane as he stands next to Robertus and finishes mumbling his final words. Robertus is now 12 foot tall. not sure what will happen when that spell wears off. Aryllan continues to try to drag the crane towards Volta.
Robertus takes a moment, tossing pne end of the now large hemp rope carefully over to the precariously balanced Volta. "Loop that through the loops and toss it back over." Robertus feeds Volta enough of the line so Volta can toss the end of the rope back. When Volta returns the rope, Robertus puts the loops of the bowlines onto the hook of the crane.
Then Robertus waits for the opportunity to pull the crate to more stable ground.
"Thanks, for that rope." Hope this works. Volta ties the rope, double looping it, threading through both handles, so that if it shrinks it won't fall off them. If it holds for just half a minute it would be enough. Volta carefully sets up for a long leap to safety either onto, bouncing off, or away from the crate, depending on what happens.
roll #1
roll #2
roll #3
roll #4
roll #5
take whatever you need and apply the modifiers. Thanks.
Well... bad,ok,bad,ok,great. I see a watery future for Volta.
Everyone seem to be busying themselves with various parts of the task.
Aryllan maneuvers the crane hook above the crate and Volta. Her skill at opperating the block and tackle however, falls short. Need a DC 12 untrained, or DC 8 with any realsted skill. Three successes in a row to lower, lift, place on firm flooring)
Robertus is now double tall, double strong and double in weight. He's staying away from the edge. With Diggans help he is able to fashion a rope sling to attach to the crate. Throwing it to Volta is no problem.
Volta however, was not so good at catching, so it went into the water 15 feet below.
Pulling it back and rethrowing it, Volta redemmed himself with a great carch. After a bit of fumbling, he secured it to the crate.
Now, someone need to opperate the crane hook to lower it to Volta. (see DC's above)
Volta need to attach it (No DC needed), then keep from falling into the water or breakig plank as it is hoisted. (Varing DC as to what action you declare. State you actions and what skills, if any, you are using, plus a roll)
Volta reaches for the the thrown rope but drops his hands for balance as the boards creak alarmingly. The rope goes into the water. Volta raises his hands and shrugs carefully saying, "The boards are very unstable, we have just one chance at this, or it's a swimming crate." After Robertus hauls back the rope and tosses it again Volta holding his legs very steady, catches the rope. He then ties it to the handles as described above.
Volta carefully judges the quality of the roping and the strength of the crate to determine the chances of success; the stability of the boards, trying to determine in which order the boards will spring or break, with that knowledge he will bounce off the boards as a spring board or if snapping, bounce off the suspending crate, doing a twisting flip, followed ideally with several forward flips to stable ground, if it starts to go wrong abort to simple somersaults and if that doesn't work he ends up in the drink.
Perception To see about problems.
Acrobatics To survive this in style.
Aryllan seeing everything else is in place except the crane attempts to get the crane lowered.
Lower crane :
Not doing so well, Professor a little help with all that great engineering knowledge you have, if you please.
Knowing her limits and not wanting to push the limits of the floor or send Volta or the crate into the water below, she waits for assistance.
Professor Diggans smiles and cracks his knuckles and says Well let me see my dear. He looks at it again and says Well it's a standard three point pulley driven shore crane. If we adjust the boompoint 25 degrees downward and 20 degrees leeward we should be able to swing the crate over without putting undue stress on the guy lines or prime pulley. He stands back and looks at you as if that just explained everything.
The professors skills are greater than the minimum needed for opporating the crane. He is able to softly land it on the deck.
The rescued crate holds a smaller mahogany box inside, which contains five books and a few loose sheets of paper in a leather folder. The titles and subjects seem completely unrelated to each other: Practical Thaumaturgy In Accordance with Creation, Geographic Anomalies of the Inner Sea, Under Kaer Maga: A Trial and Travel, Physiology of Dragons: An Illustrated Reference, Lost Sarusan. The leather folder contains cargo manifestos, warehouse inventories, and other financial logs from a dozen different merchant houses and trade guilds. The crate also contains 10 sets of masterwork thieves' tools, three flasks of alchemist's fire, a flask of acid, a dozen jars of various inks, a footprint book, adamantine weapon blanch, three bags of powder, a deck of marked cards, and two sets of average loaded dice.
"Wow, what a haul," Uraisa says, gazing longingly at the jars of inks. "Karela did say we could have everything that wasn't a book or one of the papers in the folder."
"Was it his to give though?" Robertus takes a moment to look through the crate. "Some of these logs and manifests have to be almost priceless to these houses. I would prefer not to be caught with them, especially with whatever those bags of powder are."
Alright Pathfinders. No time for celebrating. You can almost hear Venture Captain Ambrus Valsin yelling "Daylights burning. You've two more tasks to compleate".
Who's taking the lead on getting the group back on task?
Also, will someone please go and check on Baladur. He has been suspiciously quite since "guarding" the new beer acquisition. Mmmmm.
"Alright, let's empty out the crate, and take everything with us. We can inventory and decide what to do with everything at the end of the day. We still have two more tasks, if you remember. How about we visit Chelish Paracountess Zarta Dralneen next, and retrieve the item she has on loan from the Vaults. We can scoot over to the estate in the Ivy District and pick it up. That sounds simple enough, right?"
I agree with Uraisa, we should deal with this stuff later. Let's get the last two tasks done and then deal with the rest of these items when we have time to see what is actually here.
Hey Baladur, did you drown in the Ale or are you unconsioius from drinking to much of it?
Aryllan looks at Robertus then to the Professor. How long will the "spell" last? Is it actually a spell or something else? Robertus, How do you feel?
Volta great job with the create! Very impressive skills.
She moves back to the coffins and retrieves her arrows from the fight with the rats. And looks around to see if the dog is still there. To Delta, Nice job fighting the Rats. Glad you were here.
Aryllan heads for the door.
Volta lands on solid ground, dusts himself off, and walks over the the crate to see what comes out. He looks over at Uraisa and Robertus discussing the morality of the taking of the stuff. He pipes up,"Grab first, ask questions later was Mom's motto; we can always fix it later, if the stuff belongs to someone else." When Aryllan praises him, Volta brightens and says "Oh, that's how I grew up, Mom was always practising, you know, walking on tightropes and jumping over things, all the time, so I did it with her for as long as I can remember. Just got to remember to plan the way out of fire and back into the pan ... well, you know what I mean .... Thanks Aryllan ... and everyone. Good job on the rats, I'll need the warriors and ... and... warcats to keep alive when other rats, of all kinds show up."
Volta looks at Uraisa when she suggest going to the Paracountess, shrugging he says, "It should be simple but I think we're being sent less as a polite reminder and more as 'Hello, time to cough it up', but maybe you can talk her into a quick turnover."
He follows Aryllan but peeks out the door to see if anyone is watching them from outside.
Perception
Gathering up the various items and stowing them away only takes a few moments. Please list among your possessions any items you may personally be carrying.
Volta's observations upon exiting do not reveal any unusual persons or lurkers in the sparse foot traffic around this area. His keen eye does however notice a new addition to pier post closest to the road. There appears to be a tiny flower left there. Approaching cautiously, it revelas itself to be a fresh, small rose bud yet un-bloomed, delicately tied to the post by a single strand of wavy red hair. It was not there upon your arrival.
The sun is now full up midday. Warming rays beat down from above, causing a mild sweat when moving at even a casual pace.
Making your way to the Ivy District is straight forward and uneventful. Arriving at Paracountess Zarta Dralneen’s townhouse—one of several homes the
noblewoman keeps around Absalom—you come upon a magnificent gothic structure three stories in height. The ebon lacquered double doors wrought with gleaming silver fixtures greet you, a prickly brass cone hanging from a chain serving as the door chime. Moments after ringing it, a servant in loose casual attire opens the door, greeting the Pathfinders as if expected.
Aryllan turns and faces the servant who opened the door. Good Afternoon, we were sent to meet with Paracountess Zarta Dralneen.
Aryllan studies the servant to see if she senses anything out of the ordinary when she presents them.
The servants eyes barley acknowledge Aryllan. Silently he turns, and begins leading the group deep into the manor.
Uraisa helps herself to a few of the items in the crate. She safely stows the financial logs and manifestos in a separate bag from the other items. She also claims one of the flasks of alchemist's fire, and stows the inks securely with the other drawing materials she has on her person already.
She nods as Aryllan greets the servant. Hopefully this will go quickly and uneventfully.
[/QUOTE="Uraisa Ellsworth"]
Aryllan does not take anything from the crate.
Robertus simply nods, grabbing the adamantine weapon blanch and stores it in a pocket where it will be easy for him to get in case he might need it in a hurry. He also grabs the small crate, as per there job, but otherwise leaves the rest of the contents in the crate alone.
He follows with the rest of the group, only taking a moment to drop off the parcel with Karela before he loses the rest of the group. He stays with the rest of the group, but more toward the back this time.
Volta takes the masterwork tools of the expert in mechanical longevity trade(all ten, unless someone wants some). He'll take one alchemical fire and the cards and dice. Volta says, "Aryllan this book looks to be for a forester, maybe you use can use it?" He hands the book over if she takes it or keeps it if not. If the book is heavy enough to slow him down, he'll ask Robertus if he can carry it for a while. "These other items are interesting, maybe the masters of spells, may want them, or even tell us what they are." Volta follows along, when they get to the estate he looks it over, assessing how he would get in/out to liberate the item, if the Paracountess should prove uncooperative.
Perception
Led through well-appointed sitting rooms, ballrooms, and a grand stairway granting a view of an elaborate study, your group finally arrives on the third floor of the house, at the door of Zarta's personal study, which lies beyond her bedroom. Knocking upon the door and announcing his presence, the servant opens the darkly stained wooden door. A large intricate carpet dominates the marble floor in this sitting room. A chaise sits along the north wall and a desk spans the southeast corner, its chair positioned with its back to the southwest corner of the room. Three comfortable chairs are positioned around a small, low circular table.
Sitting in the chair behind the desk, Paracountess Zarta dralneen. She regards you all with a wry smile, putting away a few papers before standing to address the hopeful Pathfinders.
Volta enters the study with the others but does not take a chair letting anybody elses take the lead. He looks over the room to see if there is anything not obvious about or in it. When the paracountess makes her pitch he will watch to see her sincerity.
Perception
Sense Motive
Aryllan remains standing, and bows as she would to anyone of the court. Good afternoon Paracountess.
Aryllan then waits for the Paracountess to address them.
Volta intently looks the room over. Out of the corner of his eye - awe, it's nothing - but in the nook there- nope, that normal - ohh look at - awe, never never mind. If there is something not visiable to the casual observer, Volta does not see it.
Aryllan's greeting is meet with even less enthusiasm by the paracountess that by her servent. Putting away a few papers before standing to address the hopeful Pathfinders.
Aldor, you are dismissed. Close the door behind you and attend to your other tasks.
She then turns her attention to the group.
It's always so incredibly adorable when I see a fresh-faced batch of Pathfinders. I mean, look at you scrumptious little teacakes. I could eat each and every one of you up. Well, maybe not you. Zarta points to Baladur. I assume this isn't a pleasure visit since most of you are terribly overdressed for that manner of occasion, so that must mean you are here for that trinket Valsin has been nagging me about. Seems I can't get that man around these parts anymore, she gestures, sliding her hand down her body and widening the gesture to sweep out and across the room as if her home were a secondary thought. On the good side, he always sends me all the precious new recruits.
Uraisa smiles sheepishly, hopefully playing into the woman's preconceived ideas about the youth of the group. "You are correct, madame. We are here to retrieve that item, if it wouldn't trouble you very much. We can then be out of your hair, and let you get back to your busy goings on."
Diplomacy
However, just as Uraisa gets the words out, she attempts to take a seat, still being respectful and smiling at the woman, but sits a bit short, crashing to the ground as she missed the seat completely.
Thinking to herself, Aryllan buts on her best practiced smile, Not sure if it is just me or all elves are meet this way in this household. Aryllan looks are her boots remembering the way "Auntie" had held at her.
Aryllan defers again to Uraisa and Robertus for this encounter and takes a step back toward Baladur.
Listening to the Paracountess ramblings - she again smiles at the "Fresh-faced batch of Pathfinders" comment. No wonder Valsin does not want to come here. Aryllan muses to herself.
Sense motive:
The Paracountess gives an almost imperceivable sigh at Uraisa's "Cotillion" skills.
She continues. As the paracountess talks, a cacophony of booms and crashes sounds from beyond the room’s west door. She sometimes pauses at an extended eruption of these noises before continuing with the conversation.
Many think we in Cheliax serve and worship devils, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, we use the creatures for their power. They serve us and we sculpt their power in our own interests. The world must come to terms with the order of things. People need to know their place and operate accordingly. It is the only way to make order from this world. Too many people stretch too far beyond their station, making waves and eroding the true order.
Pulling herself up off the ground, Uraiasa tries to continue. "I understand a bit about summoning creatures myself, nothing like you do, of course. I know how taxing it is, so we would be happy to grab the item from you, and get out of your hair. I'm sure you have many more pressing matters than dealing with inexperienced aspiring Pathfinders like ourselves."
Diplomacy minus whatever the DM decides from the previous total failure, lol.
Robertus seems content to keep eyes and ears open, mouth shut for the time being. Better to let the Paracountess think they are naive...they might be able to pull an Auntie on them.
Volta's dislike of what the Paracountess stands for causes him to not put aside all preconceptions and just tell what her motives really are; so he doesn't get a good read on her.
What a load of self-deluded garbage, just come out and say 'Might is right' and be done with it. The commotion interrupts what he was about to say and he turns his attention on the sounds.
Perception
Observing Robertus and Volta puzzling out the sounds cause, the Paracountess says
How yummy. Two alpha males protecting their comrades. Grrrrrrrrrrrr. Motioning twords the closed door. It's simply that one of my servants is greatly misbehaving. You're going to have to deal with it in order to get the trinket. She goes over to the desk in her study, opening a drawer and drawing out an exquisite silver letter opener shaped like a dagger. You might need this to get it to submit she offers with a sly grin to Robertus. Very yummy indeed.
"Two questions. What type of creature is the misbehaving servant? What exactly does it have to do with the trinket we are to return?"
Sorry sorry sorry. I'm at the end of a three week jury sitting on a murder case. I am just mentally and emotionally fried when I get home, plus all the RL issues that need dealing with.
I was posting during our lunch breaks on the trial, but since going to deliberating, we are not allowed an outside lunch or Internet access.
Today should be the last day. Then it's back to normal.
Paracountess Zarta Dralnne *IMAGE*
Paracountess Office*MAP*.
Addressing Uraisa;
The “trinket” Ambrus Valsin sent you fresh baked and tasty Pathfinders to retrieve is a seven-lock iron case. I myself was trying to bypass the protections. I advise you, my buff lovelies, not trying to tamper with the case when bringing it back to the Grand Lodge. The box is magically warded with abjuration magic intermingled with strong evocation magic, in addition to the seven masterwork locks. Trust me, I've well versed in locks . . and restraints.
As to my servent. I suggest you ask him any questions directly. I can't spoil all your fun, now can I *grin*. Aldor will be waiting in the hall to see you out.
She turns to leave. Pauses at the door to pass a lingering eye over each of you. Grins and departs.
You are now alone in the office. The cacophony of sounds continues from the west doors.
What do you do?
Robertus turns to the rest of the group and shrugs. Using his guisarme much like a walking staff (as it is rather difficult to put away), walks over to the west doors and attempts to open them.
"OK, that's a lady that's not nice. Well, a lock-box I can do, given time, but Mystic Wards may add a bit too much adventure. We will have to see what we can do, after the servant is dealt with."
As curious as a cat and twice as wary, Volta moves quietly behind Robertus and looks at the door he is trying to open.
Perception +1 if there is a trap on the door.
Volta waits to see if the door opens or needs his special assistance.
Uraisa averts her gaze from the Paracountess as she swept out of the office. "What a perv..." she mutters to no one in particular.
"How are we going to deal with this servant making a ruckus out there? I doubt we will be able to talk it down, so maybe the swords should be out for this one."