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With the last of the attackers surrendering and begging for mercy Valeria relaxed slightly, though she still kept an eye out for any further trouble as they questioned him. That she wasn't talking left her more free to observe the man's reactions to the conversation as well.
Valeria realized quickly the man was hesitant because he didn't believe they would let him go and decided to step in and give him a little push as she said, "You should trust them because they don't turn me away for my past. I used to be a paladin of Shelyn who fell from grace when the Wound nearly escaped control, I was taken by demons, made their plaything, and only escaped when Nocticula ascended to godhood and one of her loyal succubi redeemed herself with her new goddess and saved me from an eternity as a plaything of the harem. The abyss has tainted my very soul, a foul miasma of evil that any good person can sense, but they still trust me, they keep their word, you can trust them too."
St. John stays in the back ready and lets the more diplomatic members of the group speak.
The man stares at Valeria for a long moment before he mumbles, "Well I can tell you a few things. There's a war elephant in the canvaransarai's courtyard, a surly b#!%$&d called Grimtusk, he always had a temper but ever since he got separated from is mate Orlanda he's been a terror. He might look big and slow but he ain't! The stables just off the courtyard have sixteen heavy cavalry horses. There's barracks north and south with at least two dozen men. The officers have their own mess and barracks and then there's Commander Staubel's brother and sister in law Jondus and Fathrie. Jondus has a huge hammer and Fathrie is wicked with her bow."
He looks at you and says, "When you hook up with your army, you're irregular scouts for an army right? Well anyway you're going to have a hell of a fight."
"We are ready to fight" Lope remarks following the last statement of the traitor "Now, if you have any honor left, I do recommend you change sides and fight for the royal family, true heirs of Taldor, or just step aside of this war and go away to your own doings"
Lope point on the opposite direction of the fort "Now, I want you to take some miles on that direction before you have any thoughts of going give the alarm to the fort"
The man runs in the direction Lope pointed only looking back once.
Triphylla resists the urge to run the man down and murder him in cold blood. The urge was getting stronger, but she still had the ability to calm herself.
She does not retract her claws but she allows the rage to ebb, and a feeling of exhaustion settles over her.
"That was exhilarating. Lions and Elephants, oh my! This place is prepared for a full scale invasion. What are we to do?"
She looks to the more experienced fighters in the group for ideas.
"Yeah, very exotic. I wonder where they got them from" Lope examines his arms where he got very but bleeding cuts "They were dangerous those ones... I think I will need some healing. How are you all faring?"
"I think we need to rest and recover a bit. Then we can follow the plan again. Try to approach and attack from a blind spot of the fortress"
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With the obvious need get everyone healed up for the next part of this fight Valeria pulled out the healing wand she kept forgetting she had and started using it starting with Lope.
She then turned to Estini and did the same thing.
Then Valeria used the wand on St John to finish the healing off.
With that done she put the wand away and aid, "There, that should do it."
The sylph shows Valeria his gratitude with a simple nod. While the pain is gone, it still echoes through, and instinctively, Esinti refrains from doing those things that would've hurt like hell only a minute ago. "Exhilarating? That's one way to put it. I'm ready to push on when you are."
"Unless we intend to walk to the front gate and introduce ourselves, we should have a plan." Triphylla checks her daily inventory of extracts. "I have one more dose of Invisibility that is good for five minutes. I could scout the fortress but would need to know what exactly to look for, and there's no guarantee I can get in or out. I can also make myself tiny and less likely to be discovered. We'll have to get closer, but I expect they have sentries looking for anything approaching. We're in a tough spot and the odds are not in our favor. A targeted assassination might work if we have a single objective, perhaps with a distraction."
Her body changes as the effects of the mutagen wear off. "I also need an hour to brew another dose of honey badger Triphylla. I'm not nearly as competent in a fight without it, but I also appreciate the need to act quickly, and I worry that the guard might get restless if the scouts don't check in."
With no one expressing concern, Triphylla takes her traveling alchemy kit from her backpack and promptly sets to work on a new mutagen dose.
"Or do we chance the alarm and wait until nightfall, then sneak in as a group? We're only looking for evidence that may implicate Earl Yonder. Everything else could wait."
She mulls it over and then adds, "Unless we're feeling frisky."
"U, thanks Valeria, it feels much better now" Lope moves his arms a bit, making sure he is at full stamina for what is to come.
"I was thinking the first part of the plan is to get closer" the Aldori points towards the structure "Once we have a better understanding of the different structures, we can plan how we do sneak in. Get an advantage. Find the correspondence. Take Staubel to justice or to the ditch"
St. John scowls at the man as he prepares to leave and barks at him "You have any other useful information so I hold her back when she wants to run her down?" as he points to Triphylla.
St. John then smiles and nods to the man after he lets them know about the morale and drinking problems and bids him "Have a nice day."
Once the man is well out of earshot St. John says "Maybe we should wait until 3 or 4 in the morning and sneak in and get what we are after."
"That would give me time to brew a new batch of extracts, including another invisibility."
"I am fine to wait if you think it can give us an advantage" Lope accepts with a nod "It also means we will have to do with the light of the stars, because approaching with light sources would ruin the surprise"
Time passes and day turns to early evening, it's pleasant enough for now out in the Taldan wilderness. The clouds start turning pink at the horizon suggesting you're in for a good sunset.
Lope stands up looking at the sun filtering its light by the clouds "Seems the time to act is approaching. Any last thing you think we need to have into account?"
The Aldori seems ready whenever the rest of the party is ready.
St. John looks at the clouds and then stats "Looks pretty but looks are deceiving. Looks like we might get rain in a few hours. We should find some shelter or make some. If it continues all night it will be good cover for us."
Time passed and soon you deemed it dark enough to make your approach. Ypu nervously watched the angry clouds. The rain held off for longer than you expected but started heavily with no warning and steadily got worse until it was a torrential downpour. There really wasn't much in the way of shelter beyond the caravanserai itself. The one blessing was that nobody was likely to be outside and nobody would hear your approach. The downsides where many, it was cold, slippery, wet and near pitch black.
Miserable and wet you approach the Tallgrasses caravanserai. If it was daylight you would have seen a sprawling structure made of smooth gray stone. A strange mixture of Taldan and Qadiran styles, the building bears several arches, a large dome between two balconied upper levels, and an encircling covered porch. Several small wiry, miserable horses are hitched to the porch posts.
"No guards in sight, and no light but the storm" a flash of a smile breaks through Lope's soaked features "Feels like an opening act waiting for a bold entrance"
He gestures toward the structure shadowed edges "Shall we slip in and steal the spotlight? The storm is bothering but gives us an advantage here, I think"
He draws a hand along Gloria's hilt, steadying his breath "I propose we avoid the horses for now, as they might raise the alarm. I bet Staubel is in the finest structure here"
Lope scans the area trying to guess, but otherwise just proposes to start by the north-east.
St. John stumbles around in the dark for a while and finally says "I'm going to need some sort of light to see in this. Nothing too bright if we can manage it. Anyone got any ideas?"
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Triphylla listens to Lope's logical assertion and adds, "I followed our prisoner for a few minutes when he left to make sure he didn't double back around. Then just to be sure I ran up behind him and scared him so bad he emptied his bowels. He admitted that Commander Staubel has a room on the western side of the Caravanserai, which should help us."
To St. John she responds: "I have 3 sunrods. They'll give us more light than we need and are unbothered by the conditions. We can even wrap them up to reduce the light as they create no heat."
To demonstrate, she takes one of the sunrods from her pack, the ignites it and quickly drops a sock over it.
"I also have Silence Dust and any manner of distraction, including more fireworks. I suppose one possible plan would be for me to setup a fireworks show on the east side of the Caravanserai to lure the guards, although that would certainly raise the alarm. The rest of you could then raid the western building and deal with the Commander."
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St. John smiles as Triphylla brings some light and says "THank you. Now I won't trip and end up on my face. If the goal is to find evidence then it might be best to not have a distraction unless we need to get Staubel out of his room. Slipping in quietly and maybe invisibly might be best."
"Makes sense," Triphylla replies to St. John. "I can scout out a little ahead of the group."
She lights a sunrod for herself and slips it into her other sock while shielding it with her hand against the direction of the fortress. She proceeds toward the westernmost building and looks up for sentries and also ways to get inside or places where the wall can possibly be climbed.
Ignoring the driving rain, Triphylla sneaks into the caravanserai's wide open courtyard. A sudden flash of lightning reveals the caravanserai in all it's faded glory. To the east and west, she can see the balconied upper stories of the caravanserai. Dominating the center of the courtyard is a fearsome looking war elephant, which must be grimtusk - he appears to be asleep in spite of the storm. Behind him is a stable containing many hobbled horses.
To Triphylla's left however is a covered porch which leads within. It has a door, but you can't tell if its locked without getting closer.
As there are no signs of trouble besides the sleeping elephant, Triphylla quietly ascends the stair to check if the door is in some way rigged to alarm when opened.
Once she is able to peek inside, if the coast is clear she will wave the others up. If there is trouble inside she'll return to the group and let them know what she sees.
Lope eyes the covered porch where Triphylla disappeared, and draws Gloria into his hand "We should get ready, this can turn into an all-in assault at any moment"
Accordingly, he produces the wand of mage armor and covers himself by the magic protection.
Silent as a mouse, Triphylla crept into the caravanserai building. She found a corridor that snaked around the edge of the building, with several closed doors and stairs at the northern end. She heard soft snoring coming from one of the rooms, before retreating back outside.
Triphylla slinks back to the rest of the group. "The perimeter is clear. I heard snoring from the south section of the building. My guess is that is a barracks full of sleeping guards. We should be able to simply avoid it. Follow me, and stay quiet. Resist any urges you have to pet the elephant." She's talking to herself on that last bit.
Before the group begins to move toward the fortress, Triphylla adds, "I have 3 uses of Silence Dust you can put on your feet. Please use it if you think you might need it. I also have one Invisibility extract that's safe for others to use. If you're really not confident, you can also use one of my extracts of Cat's Grace. I have two."
St. John takes the offered dust and sprinkles it on his feet. "Here goes nothing!" he says as he tries to move silently.
Triphylla realizes instantly that St. John is not a master of stealth. None of them are.
Wait," she says. "This isn't going to work. If that elephant wakes up we're going to have to fight our way in. I'll use one of the doses of Silence dust next to the elephant to hopefully make it less likely to stir as we pass."
Triphylla moves ahead and drops the dust by the elephant, expecting that the nature of the dust will mask the sound of deploying it.
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Triphylla uses a sachet of a special alchemical powder that creates a weird cloud that masks even the heavy rain! Most of you manage to get inside without but Valeria slipped and almost fell before catching herself on the door which slammed into the door fame. Your hearts where in your throats as the huge elephant twitched and stirred before rolling over and falling back to sleep.
<--- LUCKY
"After you!" Lope casts vanish to have an edge at the task at hand. Then tries to bypass the guards and sets himself ready to ambush them if they do wake up.
After she's deployed all of her silence dust, Triphylla takes a moment to admire the war elephant. Even laying down it's the biggest creature she's ever seen, by a lot. How would she possibly fight such a thing? Tickle its feet?
She advances with the group to lead the procession and then guides them past the noisy sleeping chamber and to the next pathway leading up.
Triphylla sneaks upstairs and finds a windy corridor that leads to a smaller northern and larger southern room. From where she is, Triphylla can hear the rain hammering down on the roof.
"Let's try this way," Triphylla says to the others. The storm would mask their movement so long as they didn't drip on anyone sleeping inside.
She approaches the first doorway and tests it for a lock. If it doesn't open she quietly extracts her kit and sets to work.
The door is indeed locked, but the lock only has three pins and Triphylla easily coaxes it open. The first thing she noticed on opening it a crack was a sharp reptilian reek. The next moment the room was momentarily thrown into sharp relief by lightning. Triphylla could see a large room in which much of the eastern wall is gone, with only a low railing to prevent anyone from falling into the courtyard below. The west side of the room contains bedding made of dead grass and torn tablecloths. Curled up un the middle of this is the long sleek form of a creature that screams dragon! It twitches fretfully in it's sleep, perhaps dreaming of the hunt.
Map updated.
Triphylla freezes as soon as she spots the drake. Well of course they have a dragon! Lions, elephants, and dragons - oh my!
As quietly as she can she closes the door, leaving it unlocked. She takes a deep breath and exhales slowly, calming her nerves. The lightning storm isn't helping matters with her sense of alarm, but at least it masks her scent and sound. She hadn't used the silence dust on herself, and now she was regretting not making more of it when she had the chance.
While her compatriots are waiting downstairs she moves around the corner and checks the next room.
Triphylla closely inspects the lock on the next door and notices feint candlelight through the keyhole. Through the keyhole she can vaguely see a stern looking woman, with dark hair and tanned skin writing at a bureaux. She appears to be wearing armor of some kind, but Triphylla doesn't get a clear enough view to see much more than her head and shoulders.
Having done her job and not raised a ruckus, Triphylla returns to the base floor where the others are waiting.
"You might not believe this, but right above us is a frickin' dragon. Maybe we can feed the elephant to it. I didn't get a good look at the room it was in - if was sitting on top of a hoard of gold or the like. It's sleeping right now, but since none of us can fly...
"And in the other room is a woman, not sleeping. Storm must be keeping her up. My mom was like that - could never sleep during storms. Haven't checked these main floor rooms yet."
"She must be the Commander! We have to storm her by surprise. The problem is with that dragon. Good job Triphylla" Lope thinks about it for a second "Do you think you can lock the dragon? We don't want it to come to the alarm "
A dragon? The thought of facing off against one of those mythical creatures energizes Esinti, but what would be even better is if they didn't have to fight it at all. "Do any of us have access to magic that could negate all sound? Being invisible would be great, but perhaps utter silence will serve us better against Staubel ... keeps her from sounding the alarm and all that. "
Triphylla smiles at Lope. "I'm flattered you think I can lock up a dragon by myself. I don't know how I'd manage it. Best if we just avoid it, and not raise the alarm. And to that point, Esinti, the silence dust was all I had and it's warn off by now. I think there's a good chance the storm is loud enough to mask our movements even if we're not quiet about it, like just a few minutes ago. But once we get to the Commander's office we'll be forced to confront her directly. I do have one dose of invisibility that any of us could use."
While the group plans their action, Triphylla drinks her extracts of Shield, Cat's Grace, Heightened Awareness, and Expeditious Retreat, and also swallows a Blood-Boiling Pill and drinks her mutagen, growing fangs and claws.
"Worst case scenario, we give the potions to those who struggle to stay undetected, and you and I, Trip, simply sneak. And just in case I get spotted ... "
Esinti focuses and commands his armor to change appearance. In a matter of seconds, his outfit transforms into that worn by the soldiers, minus the armor. "Sadly, it only does clothes, not armor."
"Ah, if Diana was here she would know how to deal with the dragon. For now, I think we just try to avoid it as I have no silence"