Jericho and Tippy move silently to the stable, while Sarela and Windi wait near the inn. The breeze has picked up and it is a little windy. As you approach, you catch the waft of smoke as Roscoe is smoking a pipe and appears to be standing guard near the entrance to the stables. You duck into the shadows on the side of the barn, out of his line of sight. You are perhaps 20' from the entrance but have no cover between you and Roscoe. You can faintly hear a horse neighing inside the stable and Tippy swears it sounds as the horse he heard before.
”Why would the horse still be making the same sound?”Tippy whispers. ”Maybe this is crazy, but what if the horse is an illusion of some kind? Who in their right mind would approach a wild stallion freaking in a stall? Nobody would even investigate. We need to find a back entrance to the stable. We need a distraction, and I think I have an idea.”
Tippy quietly makes his way back to the girls.
”Can we use you two as a distraction? Pretend you have some sort of Saranrae moon ritual or something?”
Sarela gives the halfling a look of pure confusion. "Um...Tippy...Sarenrae is the goddess of the sun, not the moon, and Iomedae is the goddess of valor and justice. For us to tell him a we have some sort of moon ritual and have it be believable, we would need a priest of Desna. We can maybe talk him into stepping away with us to join us in a prayer of some kind. Windi, what do you think?"
"If I didn't need to be with the horse to attempt to calm it I would come up with a distraction, but I think I am the only one who can attempt to calm it, and even that might not work." Windi says
Tippy explains his theory that the horse is fake.
”When I was there before, I tried to play it a soothing tune on my flute. I know I’m not a virtuoso by any means, but the horse never reacted one bit to my playing.”
Jericho sneaks back to the inn with Tippy. "Maybe I'm the savage of the group, but he is a mute. If we just rush in and knock him out, there's not much he can do to alert the others." Jericho seems to favor the direct approach and not have time for deception, but he will listen to the rest.
Tippy shakes his head. ”Despite all the appearances, these folks could be what they say they are, and then we’ve assaulted a citizen, who has already lost so much, while wearing the uniforms of our own military. Perhaps the simplest distraction is the best. Windi and Sarela come out in the open with a story about needing a breath of fresh night air. Make no movement towards going inside the stables, just start a conversation and lead him away a bit. Jer and I will go around back and sneak inside.”
Sarela considers a moment, then says, "I believe we can do this. Let's go, Windi."
Quickly praying to Iomedae for guidance, Moving towards the stable, Sarela smiles at Roscoe and says, "Don't mind us, Roscoe. We wanted to get a bit of fresh air. Would you mind standing watch with us?"
"It is a nice night tonight," Windi says approaching the boy. "I hope that we are not intruding on you tonight."
Tippy waits for Roscoe’s attention to be focused on the girls, then he dashes from shadow to shadow until he’s at the back of the stables.
Jericho follows the halfling's plan:
Roscoe is clearly fixated by the beautiful "humans" who approach him, as he stands at the entrance to the barn. He quickly shakes his head vehemently "no" to Windi's question and his eyebrows perk up, as he signals that he wants to hear more from the women. Windi and Sarela can also hear the faint neighing of a horse inside. Meanwhile, Tippy and Jericho circle the barn and after careful inspection, find a loose board, perhaps due to a horse's hooves, where they can sneak inside. Jericho is less silent than the halfling but both sneak into one of the empty stables inside the barn without alerting Roscoe.
Tippy and Jericho are now both inside the barn and your low-light vision clearly aids you in the rather dark setting, illuminated only my moonlight sneaking in through the windows and the open door. 15' north of you, you see Roscoe facing away from you clearly entertained by the ladies. The stables remain empty as before and Tippy sees the disgruntled horse making the same noises as before.
The pair move toward the noisy horse. At the entrance, Roscoe pauses his admiration, as if he heard something inside, but then brushes it off and continues to hear the women's tales.
Inside, as Jericho makes his way toward the horse following Tippy's ninja-like silence, his keen eyesight picks up a glint of metal from one of the nearby stables. As he inspects it, he finds an iron holy symbol of Torag lying on the ground, partially obscured by dust and straw. Meanwhile, Tippy reaches the noisy horse.
Jericho shows Tippy the holy symbol he found and then studies the horse. He whispers to the halfling, "This can't be natural...there is no variation in tone and the sounds are redundant. C'mere boy, let me see if I can calm you down." Jericho reaches to touch the horse, trying to disbelieve what he is seeing with his eyes.
Despite being and more and more sure that his guess was right, Tippy just can’t make himself not see the horse.
Jericho moves his hand toward the horse's mane and all his instincts from his years in the wild tell him this creature is not natural and this is confirmed, as he passes his hands right through the creature's head and he realizes it is an illusion. In fact, he can now see the aura of phantasm around the outline of the horse. And as the half-elf wonders why there would be an illusion of a horse in this particular stable, he investigates the stall and his keen eyes examine the trough at the southeast corner of this stall and discovers it sits atop a hay-covered trap door! The door opens outward.
Tippy will examine the door for traps, though he can’t find magical ones (no trap finding).
"How long have you worked for the sisters?" Windi asks, you can use your fingers for years. "Are they good people, many underestimate women, but I certainly don't" She shivers a bit and pulls he cloak tighter, careful not to let her wrapped scimitar fall.
Roscoe smiles and puts up 4 fingers and nods his head yes in response to the question. He mimes closing his eyes and sleeping.
Jericho also gives the door a look for traps.
He stops the halfling before he opens the door and whispers, "Are we going down alone? What about the girls?"
”Lets just see whether this is a cellar or a tunnel complex before we call the girls,” Tippy says. He draws a dagger with one hand and pulls on the door’s hands with the other.
"Old soldier's habits. We get so used to being up for part of the night to stand watch we wake up in the middle of the night and can't get back to sleep. We thought a little night air might help us to get back to sleep. What about you? What keeps you awake?"
Windi nods at Sarela's explanation.
The ranger and the halfling fail to notice the tripwire cleverly attached to the handle until it is too late. Tippy opens the the door and releases a cascade of debris and rocks from the ceiling on top of himself and Jericho!
Windi, Sarela, and Roscoe hear the ruckus by the release of the trap and possibly screams of pain, as the mute's eyes light up as he realizes what it is. He quickly turns from the women, drawing his mace with intentions of going back inside the barn....
”Look out!” he calls, shoving Jericho aside just before taking the brunt of damage on himself.
Blood runs down his face from several scalp lacerations.
"Roscoe, wait! Let me send a scout in who can detect the presence of evil! These may be demons!"
Sarela begins summoning a celestial eagle.
Windi steps forward and tightens her grip on her scimitar. "What are those boys doing in there," She wonders to her self. She puts a hand on Roscoe's shoulder "She's right. We are solders Let us check it out first."
Roscoe ignores Windi's attempts at Diplomacy as he flinches in pain at Windi's grip and for a second, she sees with her DV the remnants of old scars on his shoulder. She can also see the fear in the mute's eyes as he grips his mace stronger and tries to move around Windi to get a closer look inside. With her Sense Motive, Windi can tell the way Roscoe is reacting, there are severe consequences if he allows someone inside the barn.
Jericho curses himself for not seeing the trap, as some of the debris lands on his shoulder. As he grimaces in pain and stretches his shoulder, he sees Tippy take the full brunt and bleed profusely from his head. "Hold still, you may have a concussion."
Windi steps in front of the mute. "What is in the Barn Roscoe? Why can't we go in? What are you guarding?" She says with anger in her eyes. "He seems innocent" She thinks. "But I suddenly don't trust him. Something is not adding up"
Even in just her night cloths and a cloak Windi is a dominating presence and will use her strength and size to keep the man back, at least until Sarela is done casting.
The mute's eyes widen in fear at Windi's domineering and unearthly appearance. He starts sweating and looks back at the inn, as if looking for help, and then back at Windi and then runs off toward the inn in fear.
As he turns to flee Windi releases her hold on her scimitar and attempts to grab his arm to prevent him from alerting the sisters.
”Time for that later. Roscoe may be mute but he isn’t deaf. Look under the door!”
As he turns to flee Windi releases her hold on her scimitar and attempts to grab his arm to prevent him from alerting the sisters.
When Roscoe feels someone start to grab his arm, he reflexively swings the mace in his hand at the aasimar, but misses! Windi grapples him!
Tippy pulled the door open before the trap went off. You now see that a wooden ladder descends from above into this cluttered and dimly lit L-shaped room. Crates and bits of furniture are stacked against brick walls and oaken doors lie to the east and south.
Tippy peers down into the strange cellar. If he sees nobody, he jumps down (assuming it isn’t more than ten feet down. If it is more, he climbs down to within 10 feet, then jumps he rest of the way).
That actually hits Windi doesn't have her armor or shield... Which in hindsight wasnt the best idea but I'm just trying to be honest. And the damage is taken off taken off of my grapple check. At least it was a 25. Also Windi is a human.
Sarela's eagle appears next to Roscoe and screams in his face to intimidate him.
Sarela herself pulls out her longsword and steps into Roscoe's path to the Inn, and tries to knock Roscoe's mace away.
That actually hits Windi doesn't have her armor or shield... Which in hindsight wasnt the best idea but I'm just trying to be honest. And the damage is taken off taken off of my grapple check. At least it was a 25. Also Windi is a human.
Sarela's eagle terrifies the grappled Roscoe (he is shaken) and Sarela moves in and easily disarms him, since grappled characters cannot take AoOs. The fight seems to go out of Roscoe when he is disarmed and he soils himself.
A bleeding Tippy jumps down into the cellar and sees it is empty and has two exits to the east and south.
Tippy moves to listen at the east door and carefully look for traps.
Perception take 20 for a 24.
"Grab my sword I'm moving him inside." Windi, wrestling with Roscoe, shuffles into the barn.
”Windi, let’s bring Roscoe with us to go see what Tippy and Jericho found,” Sarela says, retrieving his mace.
While Tippy takes 2 minutes listening at the door, Jericho takes the ladder down and looks for tracks, ignoring the halfling ones, to see what kinds of humanoids they may be dealing with.
Jericho sees mainly human-sized tracks in the cellar leading to both doors. Tippy is concentrating for 2 minutes at the door. Meanwhile, Roscoe has stopped struggling so there is no need for further grapple checks. If you have rope, you can tie him up.
Windi enters the barn with the now docile Roscoe and looks around for signs of the men or the horse. She also trades back cloaks with Sarela and takes up her sword.
"Tippy, Jericho, what in the world was that noise" she asks "and where in the name or Saranrae are you?"
If Tippy doesn’t find any traps or hear anything threatening on the other side fof the the door, he will open it if he can.
Open lock, take 20 for 28.