"An excellent point, Sienna. I think you have it."
To Nethan
"I guess that depends just how many there are. Assuming there are no more than say, a dozen? Yeah, I could probably live long enough for you all to jump in and attack, between my increased size and my wand of healing. If there are more than that, than it is certainly much more risky. Granted, Elise seems to have come up with a good plan, so we should certainly try that first."
"I ain't got much powder on me and there ain't enough in my cartridges to make it worth prying them open. If we can head back to the base camp I'll be able to throw some together. Two or three kegs worth should cause a right mess down there," Flynt said considering the logistics of such an attack.
"Sounds good to me. What will we be doing after throwing the kegs in, assuming that some of the creatures live? Obviously there are many factors that could influence this, such as how many survive, but it still seems like something we should figure out ahead of time."
Nethan thinks to himself, "Elise's idea, I mentioned it before her?!", then looks to Jeremiah, "Do we have time to cook up a keg or more? And Flynt do you need any coin to cover the costs?"
"I can get in there and back Tsadok up pretty quickly."
"I'll need a good chunk of cash to convince the soldiers to part with their supplies on this scale. It'll be about a hundred gold per barrel."
"Hmm - brilliant tactics. Dreyyn - I believe the undead are to harry and delay, slowing down intruders long enough for the behemoth to attack. You have the best knowledge of tactics I know - do you agree?"
"Flynt, how long would it take you to craft such a thing?"
"A little less than an hour for a keg's worth. Trust me, Al, I got good at improvising black powder the hard way," Luther says with a grin, likely the first time any, save Elise or maybe Tsadok, has seen such an obviously cheerful expression on his face.
Elise can't help but laugh at Flynts expression - in her eyes he looked like a child promised a visit to a candystore.
"I knew you would approve of this plan !"
Nethan becomes even more anxious with the gun powder idea, "Flynt, can you make the kegs time delayed so the Well Guardians are busy chasing loud explosions, bright fires, and perhaps what is left of their body parts instead of us? I am not sure of the effectiveness of this distraction tactic but at least it should reduce the number we need to either avoid or destroy?"
Calathar, relaxed now that Amelia has returned, listens to the Wile E. Coyote-like plans and remains silent. He fights boredom by imagining a fight between himself and one of the Guardians.
"Nethan - I don't think we are in the realm of distraction anymore ... we are heading straight for wanton destruction!"
Nethan grins, "While some of the guardians will be blasted to bits, unless we blast the whole entire area, it is statistically impossible to kill them all. That is, if the explosions will send their body parts flying and their numbers are not automatically regenerated. So while some will be obliterated, it is more of a distraction than an end all. Then again, we can create a small explosion that creates noise and a fire to first draw them in. And then have a much larger secondary explosion that wipes them out or seriously damages them. Again, hopefully the well or whatever magic is in place does not automatically restore the guardian's numbers."
"That's why we lure them to their deaths! First we collect them at a predetermined spot - they didn't seem that bright so a bell or something should work. When they get attracted and lumped together we let Flynt work his magic - then we clean up the pieces and stragglers."
Nethan nods his head in agreement, "Sounds good to me, I am in. Flynt, How much do I owe you to help cover the costs of the powder, time delay, and other materials? Hopefully the fire created by the blast will kill those struck by it and blown to pieces just in case they have some sort of magical regeneration."
"I can rig a fuse easy enough but I'm going to need about two hundred in raw materials. C'mon, we can walk and talk."
Tsadok follows along with what everyone else is saying, but he doesn't say anything else.
Nethan follows Flynt, "Ok, that is about 25 gps a piece. Once we arrive at the gun powder making location, we can all give you 25 gps to cover the costs."
[i]There is always something new. Whenever I begin to think my immortality has jaded me, that I have seen everything, something comes up."[/b]
"Flynt I have some gold I can contribute - Even if the plan doesn't work it sounds like it would be worth it for the spectacle."
Tsadok hands Flynt 25 gold pieces.
As he does so, he says "Here's my share. Be careful making that stuff, wouldn't want you to get hurt from your own ammunition."
Calathar hands over the requested 25 gold crowns without question.
Dreyyn also coughs up 25 gp, pouring over half the contents of a small pouch out into his hand before handing it over.
"Hmm - brilliant tactics. Dreyyn - I believe the undead are to harry and delay, slowing down intruders long enough for the behemoth to attack. You have the best knowledge of tactics I know - do you agree?"
"Harry, delay stronger intruders and outright bar weaker ones. I don't know if the behemoth sleeps, but undead make passable 24/7 guards. I am sure we can wipe them away so we can focus on the behemoth."
Elise puts down her backpack and scours it for money. A few moments later she produces the required amount. My pack may be thin on money - but I doubt I'll need any in the well anyway. Besides, the amount of supplies stuffed inside the heavy pack has an reassuring effect on her.
"Here is my share Flynt" she winks "Try to not spend it all in one place mister!"
Nethan nods and whispers back to Amelia when the other party members are not paying any attention to them, While they are walking and in the back of the group, Nethan takes his back pack off, reaches into a bag, and withdraws 50 gps from it. He places his backpack back on his back and again when people are not looking, he slips Amelia 25 gold pieces.
Then Nethan catches up with Flynt, "Here you go, here is my 25 gold pieces to cover the costs. And I agree with Al, even if it does not work, it will be a spectacle to watch."
So the group returns to the camp to craft their explosives, they ask the folk there for supplies and the like. The quartermaster parts with his wares quite readily for the gold you give him. Likely that gold will just be used to restock on the next boat.
The stronger of the group bring back the explosives readying them on the hill.
Flynt works as quickly as he can while staying safe. Some tools he had to improvise but the actual process was relatively simple. Thankfully, the spread of alchemy meant that he did not have to go to the source for some of the ingredients. After claiming a tent and forbidding anyone carrying certain kinds of metal within, he set to work grinding and mixing until he had three kegs of black powder and some fuses to go with them.
Back at the hill, he prepped one of the fuses carefully.
"This thing will have a kill zone of about twenty feet around it. They won't be ash but they will be little chunks. Who's placing it? I need to run them through some powder safety."
"I'm pretty fast, even in armor. But I have no protections from fire."
"I would also be willing to do it, but, just like Dreyyn, I have no protection from fire. To be honest, it may be in our best interest to have us both go down there, in case something goes wrong, so that one of us isn't left surrounded by themselves."
"I would hazard to guess that we want the gunpowder installed safely - and quiet. I don't think we want to attract any of those undead before we have cleared the blast zone. Can't we just roll them down a slope or something?"
Elise looks around, searching for a suitable point of elevation that would allow them to roll the kegs into the mist.
"If it must be carried in, I agree with Tsadok. In case there is interference, one of us could defend the other during set-up."
Nethan looks at the armored volunteers and shudders, "Perhaps it is I who should go with Flynt, and perhaps Amelia and/or Al if they want to go? All of you armored types sound like mobile dinner bells and chimes. Besides, scholarly engineering knowledge can assist Flynt in setting up the explosives for maximum effectiveness. If we run into problems that we cannot handle, we will run back to the group. Maybe as a second deployment method, we should roll them downhill in barrels that can take a beating and place fuses on the ends? If we do this, make the fuses shorter because the noise of the barrel rolling down hill may attract a group and we don't want them to destroy before it goes off, and the same with the second barrel. And as a backup, perhaps Flynt or someone with a bow or crossbow can shoot the gun powder with a bullet trick shot we see from time to time at gatherings or flaming arrows?"
"I'm fine with the front line or the reserve force. Whatever is decided."
"I'm not overly fast," admits Calathar. "I'll be in the reserve force."