GM Rednal's Jade Regent (Inactive)

Game Master Rednal

Aleksson broke his reverie and bowed. "Noble spirit, thank you for what you've shared. What else do you know of the Five Storms oni? If what you say is true, then chasing the Shadows will put us in their striking distance."

"Shutai, Taka. I am ready to move forward when you are."

At Shutai's question, the helmet shook back and forth. "I have only learned what I could overhear - which, regretfully, is not much. As for the oni, if they could be here, they would be - the Frozen Shadows are naught but what little power they can project this far."

Shutai nodded. "Then we shall have to make a late-night visit to the Rime Runners Guildhall and take a look to see what secrets they keep. Not my favorite solution, but not an unexpected one either."

She glanced at the others. "I'm not especially good at sneaking, but I can make myself look like another and force a pair of people to not notice me even I walked up to them and took the documents from there hand."

"With preparation I can make us invisible, but they may have wards in place. Stealth is the best approach but it would be foolish if we were not prepared to fight our way out. This action will be declaring open war, but they have already done so by sending an assassin. I am fine with this and wish to find the blade and be done with this town."

"I have an eye for wards and a quiet step. Let me take point when we move."

There was still a bit of time if you wanted to grab any supplies before heading over to the Guild hall - not enough to leisurely search forever, but you could probably pick up at least a few tools (for improving stealth, say?) if you looked.

Shutai made sure to get some rope. Other than extensive training and potent magic she couldn't think of much else to make her better at sneaking.

"The last hours have been eventful. I would suggest we rest before heading there. I have spent many of my magical resources. If things go well then I don't expect a fight, but things rarely go well."

Aleksson agreed and set out to purchase some lighter armor before returning to rest for the night.

Purchasing mwk studded leather. Will also be leaving some gear behind when we set out to negate my ACP.

The helmet flashed slightly at that. "I don't recommend waiting." the angel said. "You are seeking to rescue a man, yes? The longer you wait, the more likely it is that something will go wrong."

Sure. Still buying the armor and dropping off some gear. :-)

"The helmet has a point. They toyed with us at the boat. They know what we want. Though if they have a trap set either way it would still be best to prepare ourselves. I could go either way on this as it does him no good if we die while trying to save him, but if we wait his life may be in jeopardy."

"I don't want to the man to die." Aleksson said, mincing no words.

"Nor I. Innocent life should always be preserved." the helmet said devoutly.

"I am ready to go now," Shutai observed. Rushing in might be unwise, but sometimes risk was required.

Taka nods.

"Then its decided. We move. Let us go then."

Aleksson nodded, ready to move.

Fortunately, you knew exactly where the Rimerunners Guild was, given that you'd already been there. This late, there were no external guards, but the occasional flashes of light suggested that there were definitely patrols on the inside of the building. There were two (locked) doors on the eastern side of the building, the main doors on the northern side, and windows on every face, on both the first and second floors.

Shutai looked to the others with a whispered, "Climbing up will be noisy. I think one of the doors on the East or a ground floor window is our best bet."

"Whatever you suggest, I have no expertise here or great ability to sneak about."

"Let's try the east doors." Aleksson quietly lead them towards the door and checked for any traps or alarms placed on the door and its lock. He let Shutai and Taka give it a look over as well before trying the lock.

Stealth: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (13) + 11 = 24
Perception (Trapfinding): 1d20 + 12 + 2 ⇒ (16) + 12 + 2 = 30

One of the eastern doors is close to the 'main' chunk of the building, the other is on an extended wing area. Which would you like to examine?

Hmm, extended wing sounds good to me. Though if anyone has a good rationale for doing main, I'm not personally picky.

Hopefully we're not trying to enter the barracks...but yeah, that works for me.

Sounds good. Sorry for the holiday delay. Was not at home or in front of a computer.

The door was - unsurprisingly - locked. You were definitely going to have to work it a little to get inside, and hopefully nobody would happen across you while you were doing it...

DC 25 Disable Device. Or you can try to break it at the same DC. XD Or get creative if you can?

"Are either of you skilled in such things. Locks are beyond me without a key. This is the north. Perhaps the chimney is big enough for us to fit in? That could be our point of entrance."

Shutai nodded, using her picks to try and pop the door lock.

Disable Device: 1d20 + 14 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 14 + 2 = 18

But apparently she wasn't going to do so this time.

"I will try." He said simply as Shutai fumbled with her tools.

Disable Device: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (18) + 15 = 33

The lock pops silently, and he cracked the door to peer inside.

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (4) + 12 = 16

Cracking open the door - Aleksson having rather more success than Shutai - you found yourselves looking into a long hall. Nobody was there at the moment. Several doors branched off on either side, and you also saw what looked like a staircase most of the way down.

Map.

Taka steps in taking the lead.

"I will use my ability to smell for recent people. We should investigate away from the strong smells to start as those would be more common area's agreed?"

Survival/scent: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (13) + 18 = 31
Perception: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (11) + 18 = 29

Do the stairs go up or down? I assume up

Shutai waved her hand. "It depends on how secret they keep such paperwork," she murmured softly. It seemed most likely it would be in, or near, the private office of whoever ran this branch.

Shutai scanned the area for magic, in case there were magical traps as part of the defences. Or a magical safe.

Aleksson had no useful way to help guide their next move, and waited to see what the others learned.

Stairs go up. XD The place has two floors.

As Taka sniffed, he immediately got a massive series of scents. Quite a few people came through this hallway on a regular basis - and it smelled like some of them had passed through quite recently. Shutai didn't immediately detect any magic - although, given the nature of this place, they'd probably inserted lead between the walls to foil magical divination anyway.

Shutai nodded up, suggesting they head upstairs. Offices were more likely to be up there, she suspected.

Taka informed the others of what he discerned. He agreed to head up stairs and took the lead.

That busy time of year...

Aleksson continued forth with the others.

1d20 ⇒ 17

Heading upstairs, the immediate area looks clear. There's a door immediately to your right, and another door to the east, behind the stair area. The closer door looks like it sees far more use.

Shutai moved to the closer door, listening for any potential sounds and take a look through the keyhole of a crack if she could find one. Her Darkvision should allow her to see most of the room. She also used Detect Magic, just in case.

Perception + Detect Magic: 1d20 + 8 ⇒ (3) + 8 = 11

Perception: 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (14) + 12 = 26
Aleksson likewise listened at the oft-used door, and kept an cast eye down the hall.

Taka takes a listen as well and more importantly a smell trying to discern if the room is occupied.

Perception: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (14) + 18 = 32
Survival: 1d20 + 18 ⇒ (18) + 18 = 36

There was no simple keyhole, but you did hear someone moving around inside it. After a few moments, you heard them walking right towards the door.

Aleksson drew his starknife and inched backwards. He might be able to sneak away unnoticed yet... but it wasn't likely the others could. And he had no better ideas to take the man out quickly and quietly.

Waving to the others to hide, Shutai moved away, but prepared to cast Hidden Presence if it looked like whoever was in the room spotted her.

It's a DC 19 Will Save if they might spot Shutai. Failure means he will not notice her if she Pantsed them.

In a hallway free of cover or anything to hide behind Taka stared blankly at Shutai. Wasting not a moment he quietly drew his sword and held it at the ready as well seeing what Aleksson was planning. Also spell casting is loud and noticeable.

The door opened, and...

Really, it probably wasn't a surprise to see the guard on the other side.

Init (Guard): 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (2) + 2 = 4
Init (Aleksson): 1d20 + 5 ⇒ (6) + 5 = 11
Init (Shutai): 1d20 + 4 ⇒ (17) + 4 = 21
Init (Taka): 1d20 + 10 ⇒ (16) + 10 = 26

You were all more-prepared than he was, though, after many boring and routine days of guard duty.

(You were also aware of the fact that you had a celestial watching you... from one of your bags, to be precise.)

Mentally swearing, Shutai switched her spell to Hold Person instead, hoping the others could then disable him with a minimum of noise.

A DC 19 Will Save please, of be a Held Person.

Waiting on results of spell. Here is question though. My playgroup could never find and answer we decided yes you could, but can you CDG a held person for non lethal. You know like a pommel smash to knock them out, but still get the auto crit because of them being helpless.

Will also wait. But hey that's an interesting question. Not that it carries much weight, but my take is that it seems like you should be able to. Like you can crit with a non-lethal weapon, and coup de grace doesn't state that you must be TRYING to kill the creature, so everything lines up. The finicky part is does the creature still need to save vs. dying? RAW, that seems to be yes.

CdG's requirements are using an appropriate weapon and having a helpless opponent. Nothing in the text excludes weapons that do nonlethal damage, and certainly, you can crit with nonlethal damage. I see no reason why that shouldn't work. ...Also, as a GM, I like to encourage creative solutions, and part of that means not insisting everything has to be murder when there's no rules support for that interpretation. XD

Will: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (6) + 2 = 8

And that's a hard nope on his save. ^^