Wesh grins back and says, “We’ll see about that. Yes, a nice game of Dwarven darts sounds good.”
Barnabus laughs. "Bellam, bring us eight pints!" To Torbin, he says, "Loser pays for the drinks!"
Bellam brings 8 pints of ale. As he sets them down, he whispers to you, "Good luck." Barnabus pulls out a coin and says, "Call it in the air," before flipping the coin up into the air.
"Fair enough," Wesh says to Barnabus in regards to the loser's burden.
He looks at the first set of 8 pints, not at all concerned. He may be lacking in many ways, but Wesh has never lacked for a strong stomach.
As the coin flips in the air, Wesh calls out, "Heads."
1=Heads, 2=Tails
The coin flips through the air. Barnabus catches it, slaps it down on the back of his other hand, revealing the Talirean Crest - tails. "My go first, then," he chortles, grabbing 4 pints and chugging each one.
He easily downs each of them and then, showing no effects, picks up his three darts and fires each one at the board.
All 3 hit the board, 2 in the outer ring and one in the middle ring.
Barnabus looks somewhat disappointed at his aim, but turns to Wesh and says, "Let's see how well you drink, human."
Wesh watches as Barnabus downs the pints and throws his darts. He does his best to maintain a neutral expression. While he's confident in his liquor-holding abilities, he knows the same can be said for the average dwarf.
When it's his turn, Wesh downs the pints as quick as he can before throwing some darts of his own.
Wesh is pleased with his drinking, but disappointed with his aim. Even without impairment, this might not be easy.
Barnabus is impressed as Wesh downs his four ales - he clearly didn't expect the human to be able to keep up like that.
Wesh's first dart throw elicits a chorus of laughter from the Dwarves, as he throws the dart well wide of the mark. The other two both strike the middle ring, tying Barnabus's score and silencing the laughter.
Bellam brings the next round of ale, and Barnabus grabs his 4 and starts drinking.
Barnabus downs his 4 ales, then grabs the darts and tosses them. The first hits the middle ring, but both of his other ones miss the board.
You can tell he might be a little affected by the drinking.
Barnabus gets an angry look on his face at the tosses, and gruffly says, "Well, human, let's see if you can get lucky again."
Wesh ignores the dwarves' reactions and downs his next four ales. They don't go down as easily as the last ones.
His aim is a bit better than his constitution this time around.
Hel pauses her involvement in her conversation as she watches Sir Gallen be rebuffed; her eyebrows lift incrementally as Wesh's far more brusque approach works. I guess sometimes hitting them in the face with a hammer is the right approach, she half-teases her companions.
The downing of drinks doesn't interest her, but the target practice with the tiny thrown 'arrows' does, and she gestures a pause in her conversation whenever each of the contestants stands to throw his trio of darts. After the second round of throws by both, Hel asides to the man who told her about the 'singing statues', "I couldn't hold the alcohol, but I'd love to try the target practice. With my bow," she adds with a cool smile, "at a hundred feet, not with darts at ten."
Wesh starts to feel the effects of the ale, but his throws are quite good, with all three hitting the dart board, two in the inner ring.
Barnabus glares at the darts, then turns to the next round of pints Bellam brought over and starts drinking. "You're a lucky one, human. Now I'll show you how it's truly done."
Standing from the table after his drinks, Barnabus sways slightly, grabs the three darts, and hurls them angrily in the direction of the dart board. All of them hit the wall around it, and Barnabus begins cursing in Dwarven.
The other Dwarves are looking a little worried about their boss.
Wesh, pleased with his performance thus far, continues to the next round.
Still feeling mostly himself, Wesh smiles to the dwarves after downing his last drink. Then he gets to throwing...
...with mixed results.
Wesh's first dart strikes the outer ring, but his second hits the bullseye. Barnabus seems to be taking on a reddish hue. The third dart missing the board is a little better.
Bellam brings the next round of drinks, and hurries away before anything else happens. Barnabus wordlessly grabs his tankards and starts drinking.
Barnabus slams the last tankard down, grabs the darts and throws. The first one nearly hits another patron, the second lands in the inner ring, and the third hits the post the dart board is on.
One of the Dwarves says something to Barnabus in Dwarven, and he replies.
"Boss, maybe you should stop. Seems like this guy's got a pretty good lead."
"Shut up! No human's gonna best a Dwarf at drinking!"
Wesh does his best not to show his amusement at Barnabus's failings. It seems not all dwarves can hold their liquor.
Feeling little more than a slight buzz in his head, Wesh downs his pints and throws his darts. This game seems rather easy at the moment.
Barnabus angrily grabs the next set of tankards before Bellam can even set them down and starts drinking.
After the second one, Barnabus falls to the ground, unconscious.
The Dwarves look from their unconscious leader, to Wesh, back to him, then one says, "Ye may not be a Dwarf, but ye can drink. We might have ta make you an honorary Dwarf. Can ye grow a beard, lad?"
Two of the other Dwarves pick up Barnabus and begin carrying him up the stairs to his room.
Lutor nods in approval at Wesh.
Well done to you, and your liver.
Jack raises his drink in salute to Torbin.
Wesh frowns as Barnabus falls to the ground. He had hoped the dwarf would at least last another round or two. Perhaps the race wasn't as stout as they would have others believe.
The fighter smiles at the question. "Perhaps. But that takes time. Hopefully my performance here will suffice for now."
Hel smiles, quick and brief, at the victorious and the fallen. Good job, she 'tells' Wesh, then returns to her conversation on other, less profane topics ...
The Dwarf says, "Well, either way, ye're welcome ta drink with us anytime."
"I'll keep that in mind," Wesh says with a smile. He gives the dwarves a polite nod before taking his leave and returning to the rest of the group.
As you prepare to go to bed, you hear a tapping at the window of your room. Looking, you see a raven flapping outside, knocking on the window with its beak.
Perhaps some of us should get some rest, head to bed early so we can explore that passage during the night.
Knowing Tiadora Cole gets up and approaches the window. He detects alignment first to see if it could be something shapeshifted. He then looks to see if a message is attached to the foot. After all that he will open the window to allow it in to see if it has anything to say.
Lutor is fine with rest.
Cole doesn't see any message tied to the foot, and the raven doesn't detect as any alignment. After several seconds of examination, during which the raven seems to look at him in annoyance, he opens the window and it flies in, landing on the bed, before saying, "About time, too. It's kind of cold out there, if you haven't noticed, and hovering like that can be tiring." The raven then changes into Faila, who appears to be wearing a miniature iron circlet on her head.
Not yet, Sir Gallen -- not so soon, Hel advises. Let's let them send the prisoner off to Branderscar, and give them a bit of time to fall back into the normal rhythm of things.
-----------------------
Up in the room, Hel opens her mouth to speak, but by the time she does, Cole is already muttering his blasphemies. She tilts her head, knowing exactly what he'll find -- that the raven won't radiate any particular aura (though as time goes on, as a messenger of Asmodeus Faila will undoubtedly detect as lawful and evil) -- but she sits on the bed and waits with faintly contemptuous amusement until he opens the window and her familiar flaps in and lands next to her.
"Sorry about that," she tells the reptile, scooping it into her lap and holding it close to her in order to lend her own body heat. "I didn't direct my comments to him, so he may not have been paying attention when I noted at breakfast that you'd be out and about in disguise. You're here, though -- something of interest happening?"
"Yeah, that raven keeper is a few eggs short of a nest. First of all, he knew I wasn't one of his ravens. Apparently they all have names. Second, he speaks to his ravens like they're people, and no one even comes to visit this guy except when servants bring him food. He just sits up in the rookery, talking with them. They don't answer him with anything beyond a "Caw", but he acts like it's real conversation. He smells funny, too, and sleeps on a pallet in the rookery."
Fixing you with a stare, Faila says, "He also shooed me away once he realized I wasn't one of his and once he saw I didn't have a message for the keep. Didn't want me 'upsetting his birds'."
Cole smiles now realizing the bird as Hel's familiar.
"Does he sleep? If we begin to disrupt things there we will want to take care of the rookery sooner rather than later. If he gets a message out calling for aid it could change things."
"This rookery is certainly one to render helpless. Where does he take his meals from?"
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Hel exchanges a glance with Faila, then shakes her head. "The sooner disrupted, the sooner replaced," says the woman. "He has a pallet, he's alive, so he sleeps -- one way or another. Thank you for the information, Faila. Any movement on a prison cart for their guest?"
"No, I didn't see one, but it looks like they'll definitely leave by way of the gate facing the town. The only two exits I saw were the one over the bridge going north, and the gate facing town."
Faila cocks her head to the side. "You know, the way he's basically isolated all alone up there, he'd probably be easy to take out if you made a big enough distraction somewhere else. Course, you'd need to get into the keep unseen, which might be more challenging, but maybe the Bugbear attack would be sufficient to distract everyone."
Lutor do you know the sleep spell. He might resist it but I doubt his birds will... help prevent them from raising the alarm as we move in if it's at night. If they already slumber it should help us avoid rousing them.
"We need to check the path. With the layout of this town I would bet it leads to the keep. I couldn't imagine where else it may go. If we can somehow single a guard out assuming we can get into the keep I could disguise myself as the guard and do some recon from the inside and set some distractions. I think we should try and poison the food served first if we can. Do any of us have knowledge of nature or alchemy to know how or what to poison the food with?"
"No, but I know where to get that and several other useful spells for the cost of page and inks. Any objection to me spending the required funds?"
If it gets us closer to successfully sacking the town, I say do it, Lutor. We need to give this town as many problems as we can before our allies attack.
Hel quietly sighs, one hand lifting from warming her familiar to press, then rub, between her eyebrows. "If we haven't taken care of him by then," she tells Faila, "we're in big trouble. I just don't think," and here she looks severely at Cole, "that now is the time to do it. Information, husband James -- information first. We know practically nothing, and scouting out the passage this ... soon ..."
That far-away look is in her eyes once again, and her voice trails off as her mind puts a few thoughts together. "The risk is discovery," she says in her low conversational murmur. "To minimize the risk, establish a control, a brake, upon the critical point or points. You've the experience as a soldier, and it turns out that out of his armor, Sir Gallen walks almost as quietly as you. A tripline, a silent messenger ... an investigator. Yes, all right, if you want to do it, we can do it tonight -- you, me, and Sir Gallen, while Lutor and Wesh get sleep. Faila," she tells the rhamphorhynchus, scooping it out of her lap and setting it on the bed, "stay here."
We need, she states to the others, to be prepared for the prison cart to leave, to watch which way it might go, but some scouting is also possible. Lutor, Wesh, we need you to get some sleep so you can be ready in the morning. Sir Gallen, you, Cole, and I will slip downstairs, find the secret door again, and memorize how it opens from both sides. Cole, you'll then scout down the passageway, perhaps into the keep a little if it seems you can do so without risk. Sir Gallen, you'll come back upstairs to the common room, within sight and earshot of the stairs leading up here. I'm going to be up here with my door cracked a little, on the watch for any activity up here; if Barhold or someone moves into the hallway here, I'll step out and distract them, talking loud enough for you to hear. If I do, Gallen, you get yourself downstairs and on the other side of that secret door, wait for me to open it up.
Cole, if the place is graveyard-quiet and you're confident you can move around, keep your distance, and not be called out, perhaps you might scout out the location of the prison cells -- in case this drags on and we need to rescue our damsel in distress. And if you're supremely confident ... I don't know. Talk to the prison guards, maybe talk to her if you can get in there, find out if SHE knows when she's being shipped off.
Lutor, I'm good with you acquiring what will help; keep track of what you spend and I think we can reimburse you for at least some of it. I think you have sufficient monies, but let me know if you don't. Still, we leave the rookery alone otherwise; we make plans, because the sooner we start screwing with them, the harder it's going to be to blow a hole in their defenses. You don't start a fire one straw at a time, you spread a trail of oil around to get the place prepared, and THEN you drop the match so that everything goes up as close to at once as possible.
Thoughts, problems, ideas, suggestions? She looks expectantly at the others.
Cole nods and agree's ready to scout out the tunnel.
I've actually modified one of the scripted events, which does have an associated rumor (you haven't heard yet), to be the transport the prisoner to Branderscar event.
That being said, I thought this part of the game would move a little quicker, so I didn't change anything else. In retrospect, I should have given you that rumor by swapping it with another one. So, here's what I'm going to do. For in-game tonight, we'll do the passage exploration. Tomorrow in-game, a prison cart will arrive, and I'll give you a chance to see it, and during rumor gathering tomorrow night, you'll get the necessary rumor regardless of whether or not you roll the correct number.
In addition, I suggest that you use both the morning and the afternoon tomorrow to Gather Information on specific rumors you have already discovered. Some may be false information, and some may be true but have more information that could aid you. It's important that you start winnowing down what you need to know. Specify the rumor number, make the check, and I'll give you the results.
"I will swap spells with the good shopkeep, after a fine night's sleep. If I have time remaining afterwards, I will also pursue rumours. Though frankly I think I am better suited to focus on acquiring spells. Thus, I will bid you good luck and good night."
Cole leaves his armor in the room.
Jack slips downstairs with James to execute the first part of the plan.
Cole and Hel easily slip out and down the stairs, but a loose floorboard squeaks under Gallen's foot. Freezing, he waits to see if anyone noticed. After a couple moments, when no one pokes their head out, he continues his way down to the basement.
Once down the stairs, Hel, easily remembers where the secret passage was, but it still takes a moment to move a set of shelves out of the way and find the catch - a slightly different color stone that must be pressed in. Silently, the secret door swings into a dark passage leading off in the direction of the Watchtower. The switch to open the secret passage from the inside is easily found - it appears the builders didn't feel the need to disguise it at all.
The passage and triggers located, Hel quietly returns to her room, while Gallen posts up in the Common Room, and Cole begins heading down the passage.
After about 15 minutes or so, you arrive at the end of the secret passage - a stone wall, with a switch to open the door at this end of the passage. What do you do?
Barefooted, Hel returns carefully up the stairs, avoiding the side where she thinks Sir Gallen's squeaky board was, and returning to the room she shares with Cole to prepare for 'waking up' if needed.
Going full on recon mode. Cole cast invisibility before using the switch. He will pay attention to the duration making sure he has time to return as he scouts ahead.
Casting his spell, Cole throws the switch to open the door. It swings inward, revealing a dark room. Thanks to his curse improving his night sight, the lack of light poses no impediment to him. The room is filled with crates, and barrels, and there are several unlit torches on the wall. In the center of the ceiling is a trap door, with a ladder leading up to it.
Cole knows there was no vault like this in his Watch Wall fort.
The vault appears to be of Dwarven construction, and is likely quite sturdy.
Lutor plans to allow copies of his 4x 1st level spells and 3x 2nd level spells in exchange for spells learned from this list, in the order below. The idea is to not draw attention to sleep as a big priority for him. "Protection from Evil" and "Life Pact" are clearly innocuous. After that, Sleep should appear the last resort of a man forced to violence. ;)
Protection from evil 1
Life pact 2
Sleep 1 <----
Blur 2
Cat's Grace 2
Comprehend languages 1
Unseen Servant 1
Mount 1
Any objections/comments?
Cole studies the area and calls on some fiendish guidance.
How long have those dwarves been here could they have built this and why? I don't remember any such hold while here. Better see what's above.
Cole doesn't pay much mind to what's in the room as this may be how they access the keep from here on out. He spends hit time investigating the trap door and seeing if it opens from this side.
Carefully examining the wall, you find the stone that can be depressed to open the secret door from this side just as your invisibility rubs out.
Cole realizing his spell is about to expire cast it again so that he can have a few more minutes to look at the trap door going into the keep.