Doug M's Way of the Wicked (Inactive)

Game Master Douglas Muir 406

very slight eyeroll.

Fine. I was just trying to bring a little romance in this action/comedy/Bref's biography.

Is there anywhere Jax can explore further that does not include opening doors within eyesight of the guards or that are obviously barracks with sleeping soldiers?

Is there any means or way of going to a different part of the fort? A separate level or perhaps outside of this immediate area?

As far as you can see, no. Everything involves going through a closed door and / or into a room with someone snoring in it.

There's one exception: the doors at the far end of the bridge, like the doors at this end, are slightly ajar. So Jax could slip alone into the gatehouse if he wanted to.

I vote he check out the gate house and find any mechanism to operate the gate or any other defenses.

Okay. Since nobody has objected, let's do that.

Jax moves invisibly across the bridge, then the drawbridge. As he does so, he notices something: there are actually two bridges. The second bridge is 30' above this one and 10' to the north. It's much smaller -- it looks like no more than one man could walk abreast. The second bridge goes from the main bulk of the Tower over to the second floor of the gatehouse.

Peering through the doors, Jax sees the interior hall of the gatehouse. It's a bare empty space, 30' x 20'. On the opposite side is a large, nasty looking portcullis. It's made of heavy, rusted iron bars with vicious looking spikes on them, so that even a small creature trying to wiggle through would get torn up badly. Certainly nothing bigger than a goblin could even consider it.

The portcullis is lowered. Beyond it begins the trail that leads into the mountains and the Northern Wild. Somewhere up that trail, perhaps just a mile or two away, Sakkarot's scouts are waiting.

Otherwise, the hall seems completely uninteresting, just a dark empty space surrounded by bare stone. Staring at it for a while, though, Jax begins to appreciate certain finer points. There are three gratings in the ceiling above, obviously designed to have something unpleasant poured through them. On either side are arrow slits. (It's a bit like the entrance to dear old Branderscar, actually. Except much bigger and more solid and nasty looking.)

After a few moments the military effectiveness of the design becomes obvious. There are no doors to the rest of the gatehouse; the only ways out of this hall are through the portcullis to the outside and the door to the bridge behind you. Only tiny creatures who can fly or stick to walls can move through the arrow slits or the murder holes above you. So, attackers swarm in... but there is no way to access the rest of the gatehouse. The portcullis can clang shut on one side, the drawbridge rise up on the other, and they're trapped. (Presumably the mechanisms for these things are elsewhere in the gatehouse.)

So, in order to disable the drawbridge and/or the portcullis, you need to get inside the gatehouse. And the only ways to do that are (1) somehow become tiny in order to fit through those holes; or (2) climb up 50' of very sheer, damp, algae-slicked stonework to get from the bridge to the top of the gatehouse, with a 100' drop into a gorge of sharp rocks and fast-moving water beneath you; or (3)somehow access that second, higher bridge.

It's possible that Jax may be muttering a curse under his breath at this point.

Hey, remember that "Bridge of Death" story from a little while back? Now it makes sense to you. The commander let the portcullis up and the drawbridge down, and the stupid ogres charged right through the gatehouse and onto the bridge to bash down the main gate of the tower. Then he ordered the drawbridge up and the portcullis down. The ogres on the bridge were cut to pieces by concentrated archery raining down from the gatehouse, the tower walls, and the little upper bridge; the ones trapped inside the gatehouse suffered much the same fate.

Yet another use for an air elemental. Take a rope up so that the top of the gatehouse can be accessed.

Just for clarification. Does it appear that the drawbridge is operated from the gatehouse? Or from the fort proper?

Lastly, does the narrow upper bridge have some sort of break? Drawbridge? Portcullis? Gates?

another reason for Xen to join the guard...

"I hear a raven arrived at the rookery last night!" "Well, ravens come and go. Mad Martin is always -- " "No, no, I mean a raven with a message. And they say the message went straight to Commander Havelyn. I bet it carried important news!" "Huh. Well, maybe."

Did we find out what important news this was?

another reason for Xen to join the guard...

Supposedly girls like a man in uniform. Me, I like men with their own forts.

Goblin have farts. Goblin make lots of farts for witchy witch!

Yet another use for an air elemental. Take a rope up so that the top of the gatehouse can be accessed.

Mm.

How could you tell that? I mean, you would think that the operating mechanism would be near the things being operated, but... maybe they're on some sort of magical remote control, or something. Who knows?

(If only you had a party member with military experience. Or, I don't know, someone who had skills or knowledge relevant to engineering or architecture.)

Lastly, does the narrow upper bridge have some sort of break? Drawbridge? Portcullis? Gates?

Not that you can see.

(If only you had a party member with military experience. Or, I don't know, someone who had skills or knowledge relevant to engineering or architecture.)

Edmin, of course.

And his friends the dwarves.

Well: does Jax want to continue exploring? There doesn't really seem to be anywhere further to explore without either opening a door or climbing something.

Let's have Jax look for one more piece of information or carefully look at a room then have him return and link up with us then quietly head back to the inn after taking some items we can use.

Xen makes a trip out to meet mama kolo, once again looking like someone else, again wearing his persona of the man who wants to join the guard.

1d20 + 11 ⇒ (8) + 11 = 19 diplo to make her friendlier, than I imagine she alrady is

Hello Mother Kolo! I have been hearing so much about you and your wonderful stew of late that I had to come out and meet you! I have been spending time with the guardsmen and thought maybe I could talk you into a favor. It is not a big deal for you I promise but would be huge for others.

Let's have Jax look for one more piece of information or carefully look at a room

Er... which piece of information or room in particular would that be?

Did we find out what important news this was?

Why no. No, we did not.

Some notes

Cуровую зиму wrote:

In her guise as an older cat loving woman, Cуровую will attempt to determine where she can locate the 'famous' Mama Kolo and how she can get to meet her in person. Perhaps where the culinary master has interests in.

Oh, everyone knows Mama Kolo -- she's easy to find. She runs a small eating house that serves hearty food and plenty of it. She's getting on in years, but she still makes a point of preparing her wonderful stew herself, once per month.

1d20+11 diplo to make her friendlier, than I imagine she alrady is

That just barely makes it. Okay, she's friendly, though not yet helpful.

Hello Mother Kolo! I have been hearing so much about you and your wonderful stew of late that I had to come out and meet you! I have been spending time with the guardsmen and thought maybe I could talk you into a favor. It is not a big deal for you I promise but would be huge for others.

"Yes? Whatever would that be? Talk fast, young man, I'm busy."

Cуровую зиму wrote:

Did we find out what important news this was?

Why no. No, we did not.

Xen do you want to try your hand at this?

1d20 + 8 ⇒ (14) + 8 = 22 bluff because it is a load of crap
1d20 + 11 ⇒ (12) + 11 = 23 diplo to make this seem reasonable

Yes ma'am. I have heard about when you're stews and I have also heard how much several of the men adore it. However, I shouldn't be doing this, but a couple of the men are going to miss the next stew, for various reasons, and ______ the cleric...cant recall his name atm is going to miss it as well. I as hoping that maybe we could arrange for a second surprise stew, so those that are going to be crushed will have a chance.

He takes a quick breath Of course I would cover the costs, whatever it may be. It would just be a special treat for everyone...ok ok I will fess up. He tries to hide his face. I am hoping to join the guard and I wanted to do something nice for them so they might be more willing to let me join them. But they really do love the stew and...and...now I am rambling. But do you think we could do one around ________ fill in the date that we actually want them to get poisoned

Xen can't do everything at once! Shame I didn't land another nat 20

Wait, wait! Wait please! Two stew days? That may raise an eyebrow, or a hundred! Maybe just move up the dates, for a reason, even pay her 20 gold for the 'inconvenience', I wanted to say because of a special occasion, or because there was a celebration of sorts.

We would have discussed this with Xen the night before you speak to her anyways. Let's use a more plausible solution.

Can we rephrase your request?

Xen you can also Disguise yourself to look like an officer once we give you the proper gear.

Yes ma'am. I have heard about you're famed stews and I have also heard how much several of the men adore it. However, but a couple of the men are going to miss the next stew, they are on a patrol you see. I as hoping that maybe we could arrange for the stew to be made a week later, I even have some wine coming in the day or two before.

In fact the new date will coincide with the Sergeant Barhold's promotion, please keep this a secret as we don't want to spoil this great surprise!

Simple.

that is up to DMDM honestly at this point I would prefer to just go with it. I am getting bored waiting for us to settle on an idea.

We tell Mama Kolo in the Disguise of Lieutenant Ivan St. Austell-in-the-Moor, the Sergeant Barhold is going to be given a special promotion, and that we are scheduling the stew for this special date. He can not know the real reason for the change of date because its his surprise after all. This is all very hush hush for a special man who has served his nation for well over a decade.

Also here is 20 gp for your troubles ma'am.

I am getting bored waiting for us to settle on an idea.

We would have spoken to Xen and planned it out before he went to Mama Kolo.

Why don't you help run Jax then, your better at roleplaying sneaking then the rest of us.

ok gonna be honest and try not to sound snarky.. Can I play my character? We said it needed to be done so I made an attempt. I don't want to rehash everyhting everytime. If I made the wrong call then it will be the wrong call. We need to move on.

No that's fine I just meant we need help with Jax right now while were trying to tie up the scouting. Just give suggestions.

Grumpy! ;)

Xen has a very busy day ahead of him the day of the play.

Lots of posting in one geez. You guys have been busy today.

Jax will return since the limit on Invisibility is likely to be up soon and he doesn't want to get caught anywhere near guards when it is.

Via Message We've done enough scouting for today. We know we have to access a second bridge. Let's get going.

The next day, Jax will attend the play. We're really over thinking a lot of this. Look how easy it was to get into the fort and explore half of it already. Between taking out a Captain on patrol, poisoning the enemies and opening the gate we will be fine.

We had planned to scout out tomorrow, so we can have someone stocked with invisibility spells and go for it.

Look how easy it was to get into the fort and explore half of it already. Between taking out a Captain on patrol, poisoning the enemies and opening the gate we will be fine.

Somewhere far away in the Balkans, your DM is smiling.

Extra stew?!? But Mama Kolo has always provided her stew on the new moon. It's tradition...

[roll roll]

Unfortunately, bringing in the stew has to be arranged with the Fort's authorities; they set up a special table, the mess hall shuts down that day, soldiers are relieved from their post so they can go have stew... it's actually a pretty big deal. So, it would be impossible to pull this off unless the Tower's leadership was already on board with it.

Mama Kolo's stew is a fixed date that everyone expects and plans around. You can do various things to the stew and to her, but you can't change the date.

On the plus side, kindly old Mama Kolo thinks you are adorable. She gives you a bowl of onion soup right now, on the house! It's not her famous stew -- she brews that up special. But it is actually really good soup. Seriously. The onions were fresh, it has that layer of melted cheese on top with the toast and all... This woman could cook in the capital.

Xen was frustrated with the fixed date, but he feels much better now: the rich, delicious soup makes it impossible to stay upset. He looks at Mama with real affection. I could have sold you for a hundred gold, easy, back in the day. Good cooks always command a premium price...

Okay, who wants to attend the play? Jax, and I assume Zimu will as well. Anyone else?

Upon consideration: I think Jax, Zimu, Xen and perhaps the Judge would attend. (Note that the Judge's disguise as a half-elf makes him slightly distinctive. Jax, meanwhile, is already well known in the town as the "painter fellow", eccentric and not very good but harmless.)

Dren I think would be blankly disinterested except from a purely tactical point of view, and the rest of you have that covered. Edmin can attend if he wants to, but my default assumption is that he doesn't because a frivolous entertainment hosted by the former best friend he now hates with a passion is probably not his idea of a good time.

I believe Dren, and possibly one or two others were going to scout the rest of the place while the play was going on. Not sure though.

On another thought-- "Unfortunately, bringing in the stew has to be arranged with the Fort's authorities; they set up a special table, the mess hall shuts down that day, soldiers are relieved from their post so they can go have stew... it's actually a pretty big deal. So, it would be impossible to pull this off unless the Tower's leadership was already on board with it."

Thanks DM. This would be a perfect day to do more scouting if we need to!

Somewhere far away in the Balkans, your DM is smiling.

That's because your with your beautiful children and its a sunny day right? Right?

As we leave the armory Cуровую pick up these times and ask for the others to help carry them

Cуровую shopping list

She will also recast Alarm as they leave the secret door to see if anyone uses the door in the next hours.

Lost a long post! :(

Cуровую will cast See Invisibility before retuning to the inn. She will search for unseen things in the storage room and the main inn. Like a hidden halfling bard.

Cуровую will give the items to those NOT staying at the Lord's Dalliance because there is a snooping innkeeper and its best that he not find the wine and disguises.

She will ask Jax to join her and head to meet Xen as planned.

She will give two wines to Xen to use to get in further with the actors or to see as he see's fit, then she will ask Xen to Inspire Competence.

Cуровую will use Knowledge Nobility and use the cardinal's book and Inspire Competence to 1d20 + 8 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 8 + 2 + 2 = 28 find the proper way to create formal documents of introduction and a suitable persona
Cуровую can easily assume given her features. Indicated before she is looking for a Female Noble, well connected, very keen on the arcane and the Triple Empire.

With that knowledge she will use Linguistics to forge letters of introduction and credentials as well as instructions of assistance, again with Xen's aid and she will cast Fox's Cunning with her bonded item as she puts pen to paper

Linguistics for forgery 1d20 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 8 + 4 + 2 + 2 = 35 DM if there are any bonuses for the Knowledge Nobility roll please adjust

The letters will be addressed to the magister and the head cleric. details to follow because I lost my post

Okay, who wants to attend the play? Jax, and I assume Zimu will as well. Anyone else?

Morsum could scout again during the play while keeping in contact with the Judge. Before the play start Morsum and the scouts would be already by the secret door to make best use of the time. I had thought Jax and Dren were going to support as well. Those of us who will go we will not attend as a group of course.

The Judge

Clothes, tabard, helmet for use as disguise from the fort, possible armor

Edmin

Helmet, armor, shield, battle standard, tabard, or anything else with the emblem on it. Battle axe with emblem.

Xen

Tabard, manacles, wine (two bottles one premium and another decent one)

Cуровую

Wine (three bottles of the premium wine)

Xen

Tabard and possible clothing to wear over armor to make him look like an officer

You can find clothes in the officers' rooms. As noted, two of the officers live in the town, but they keep spare outfits and uniforms in their rooms. So, you can get the following:

-- Two sets of clothes
-- as much armor as you like
-- helmets and shields
-- one set of manacles
-- wine

You cannot find a battleaxe, a battle standard (unless you want to try lifting one from the Great Hall -- but the sentries might notice) or tabards (nobody keeps cloth tabards in an armory; they'd be a fire hazard and would get soiled from the soot).

NOTE: some of this stuff may be missed. The wine, presumably not -- innkeeper Barhold has been pilfering for a while now -- but as to the other stuff, questions arise. Will the folks in the armory notice if the count of shields and helmets is off? If they do, what conclusion will they draw? Do Mott and Edderly visit their empty rooms very often, and if so, will they notice missing outfits?

The Judge will attend the play. After all, he is the representative of some southern eccentric noble. Where better to meet and greet with the local artisans than at a play.

Morsum will be staged and ready to go downstairs as early as possible. I do not know whether I can summon him behind the door the basement. I know the way well at this point, but am not sure whether I need line of sight for where he appears. Morsum can do the scouting by himself with direction from the Judge. Others can go, but while the castle is going to be full of spectators, it is also an hour when there are likely to be many guards and soldiers awake. I do not want Jax or Xen or Dren to be caught snooping during the early evening.

Xen will attend and watch as his soldier wanna beepersona.

DM and Xen please read two posts back because I lost my first post and it took nearly an hour to get back on the game thread.

Here it is

Lost a long post! :(

Cуровую will cast See Invisibility before retuning to the inn. She will search for unseen things in the storage room and the main inn. Like a hidden halfling bard.

Cуровую will give the items to those NOT staying at the Lord's Dalliance because there is a snooping innkeeper and its best that he not find the wine and disguises.

She will ask Jax to join her and head to meet Xen as planned.

She will give two wines to Xen to use to get in further with the actors or to see as he see's fit, then she will ask Xen to Inspire Competence.

Cуровую will use Knowledge Nobility and use the cardinal's book and Inspire Competence to 1d20 + 8 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 8 + 2 + 2 = 28 find the proper way to create formal documents of introduction and a suitable persona Cуровую can easily assume given her features. Indicated before she is looking for a Female Noble, well connected, very keen on the arcane and the Triple Empire.

With that knowledge she will use Linguistics to forge letters of introduction and credentials as well as instructions of assistance, again with Xen's aid and she will cast Fox's Cunning with her bonded item as she puts pen to paper

Linguistics for forgery 1d20 + 8 + 4 + 2 + 2 ⇒ (19) + 8 + 4 + 2 + 2 = 35 DM if there are any bonuses for the Knowledge Nobility roll please adjust

The letters will be addressed to the magister and the head cleric. details to follow because I lost my post

Jax please either roll assist with the documents or to find our any discrepancies.

Xen please feel free to do the same.

She will give the letters to either Jax or Xen and in the morning Cуровую will cast Mount well away from the eyes of the fort and ask either Jax or Xen to deliver the letters to the magister and the head cleric in the disguise of the noble blooded but snobbish Lieutenant.

Jax do you want to duplicate love letters between Mrs. Mott and the young captain so we can start planting them during the next scouting trip?

You can find clothes in the officers' rooms.

NOTE: some of this stuff may be missed. The wine, presumably not -- innkeeper Barhold has been pilfering for a while now -- but as to the other stuff, questions arise. Will the folks in the armory notice if the count of shields and helmets is off? If they do, what conclusion will they draw? Do Mott and Edderly visit their empty rooms very often, and if so, will they notice missing outfits?

Mott seems like a stickler so we are definitely not touching anything in his room.

Edderly seems like preoccupied with Mrs. Mott, we could chance taking one outfit from him. Even that can be done later if we don't want to chance it now.

In the armory we are taking very limited amounts, one shield, one sword, one armor, two helmets at most. Most were items to cover the groups own equipment.

Hopefully who's to say they were not taken as extra weapons for the patrol?