Redelia's Ironfang Invasion (Inactive)

Game Master Redelia

Dripple knows sometimes prisoners don't get enough water "Anybody being thirsty? Have a drink of fresh cold water! Dehyration is the #3 killer of prisoners after all. Just behind execution, interrogation oopsies, and ahead of disease and eaten by rats."

Xakroo is amazed to find the humans...but he quickly becomes confused once he sees the hobgoblin in the cage. You guys try to get them out, I'll keep an eye out for anyone coming, he whispers, settling himself with Zarvak to make sure they won't get walked in on.

Xakroo Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (2) + 14 = 16
Zarvak Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (19) + 6 = 25

All of the prisoners, including the hobbogobbo, gratefully accept a drink of cool water from Dripple.

The hobbogobbo explains that he is being punished for messing up a diplomatic mission. He refused the romantic advances of the leader of a band of harpies they are trying to recruit to aid the Legion, and she is furious, and so his leader is trying to decide what to do with him. Probably something horrible, to make the harpies happy again.

The cages appear to have rather ordinary locks.

Xakroo and his little buddy do not see anything of concern yet.

Who is a lockpicker? Unlock the locks.

Alaka tries to unlock one herself since she is impatient:

Disable Device: 1d20 + 3 ⇒ (14) + 3 = 17

When she hears the hobgoblin's story she tells him We have a hobgoblin back at our camp. His name is Harik and he is learning to be good. We could rescue you and you guys could be friends, if you want.

The hobbogobbo looks curiously at Alaka. "I'll try anything, rather than have to mate with one of those..." and his words trail off into a shudder.

"Yes, you come with us... be free and be good... be friends with Harik, hoomans and us. Must rescue hoomans here too."

Xakroo's face contorted to pure confusion hearing of the hobgoblin joining their ranks. He returned to the party, leaving Zarvak on watch.

Alright hobgoblin, you can come with us. But don't even think about trying anything funny.

Zarvak Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (18) + 6 = 24

Trinket waits in hiding with her shortbow in hand, ready to shoot any enemies who might notice her pals and their Heroic Rescue!

The hobbogobbo seems anxious to prove that he wants to help you. He points to where a ring of keys is hidden under a bush back behind you.

One of the men's face lights up when Sorah's name is mentioned. He is obviously too ill and injured to say much, though.

Xakroo looks over to the bush, and heads over, looking for the ring of keys.

Xakroo Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (6) + 14 = 20

Kwiazy walks over to the man who reacted to Sorah's name...He talks to him quietly and calmly, tho inside he is excited and hopeful. He thinks carefully about his words, and his speech is a bit halting, but he takes care with his vocabulary and syntax: "We come to ... rescue all hoomans, but Sorah ... send us special to find father person. She very special send us to rescue. Be you Sorah father?" He very carefully smiles at the man, lips tight together to not bare his teeth. "We want save all. There be more than you..." he pauses to count the humans on his fingers... ...five in cages, yes? Where be others?"

Alaka sees that Sorah's father is hurt, and she smacks her head.

Oh! I forgot again. I am always using Sarenrae's fire, sometimes I forget to use her healing. Here you go.

She channels to heal.

Channel: 4d6 ⇒ (4, 5, 6, 5) = 20

The prisoners all look relieved and less beat up with water and healing. The one Kwiazy is talking to nods. "I should have expected that little scamp to manage to recruit unexpected heroes to come find me..." he reflects fondly.

Alaka gets one of the cages open, and Xakroo finds a ring of keys.

There is no sign of anyone approaching from the hobbogobbo camp.

"Trinket says we be heroes. We only try to be good... do good things. Help people. Now we help Sorah and Sorah-father. Sorah-father have name?"

Kwiazy turns to Xakroo and motions him to hurry with the keys and release the prisoners.

"We need free prisoners and find others... free all, yes?"

Xakroo heads over to unlock the cages, while Zarvak keeps a look out. We have to hurry, the archer growled under his breath, We have no idea how long it'll be before a hobgoblin comes around.

Trinket continues to keep watch, ready to shoot any Villainous Hobgoblins!

Alaka helps the prisoners get lined up and ready to go behind Trinket as they get released from the cages.

Are there more people to save, or is this everybody?

"I am Tiran. We are the only ones left."

was that Sorah's father that gave his name?

"Well, Tiran, if you are only ones left, we need get you out of here and back to your people. We take you to them. Come, quickly but quietly."

Xakroo went back with Zarvak to see if the coast is clear. For all our sake, I hope you can all sneak around quietly

Xakroo Perception: 1d20 + 14 ⇒ (5) + 14 = 19
Zarvak Perception: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (7) + 6 = 13

"Dripple is not always the greatest rememberer. We have anything else to do here? It would be good to take down a leader or steal something important. Rescuing the prisoners is good, but it won't do a lot to make sure these hobogobo jerks can't do something bad again..."

He walks up to ask the hobogobo-in-redemption "What can we mess up here to mess them up the most?"

Alaka's eyes get big.

Oooh... should we set a fire?

Xakroo was about to reply on what a bad idea that would be...until his eyes light up over that very idea. Alaka, you are a genius! Xakroo chuckled, restraining himself from a full belly laugh, If one of us can stay behind to start the fire and make sure the hobgoblins get distracted, we might have a chance of getting everyone out.

The hobgoblin gets a grin on his face. "If you really want to ruin the Legion's mission here, get me away from here. We were sent to convince the harpies to aid the Legion, but they became angry when I refused their leader. If I disappear, the Legion can't hurt me to make the harpies happy."

"I can help with that," Jynnjun puts in, "if I wrap you in shadows there's some magic which can disguise you. Um, don't let harpies see you, it might be kind of unpredictable what they see. Alaka, if you're staying behind to distract the guards you want the disguise too? I could make a distraction if you're not doing that I guess."

With that she starts the casting of a long spell. Shroud of innocuity, it'll take 2 castings. The duration is an hour/level, casting time is a minute, so there's plenty of overlap.

Sure, the shadows sound helpful says Alaka, not really knowing exactly what was going to happen, but liking the idea of being able to make some fire to help with something good.

Alaka looks around her, trying to plan a fire strategy. She notes where there are flames already, like torches, campfires, or cookfires, since she can call flames to her, and then she sizes up the tents and buildings trying to figure out what is the most flammable. This was going to be lots of fun.

Perception: 1d20 + 20 ⇒ (9) + 20 = 29

"Wonderful!" Trinket exclaims. "May the burny Flames of Heroism burn Villainy to the ground!" She lets out a giggle. "Light 'em up, Alaka, Princess of the Hero Flames! It's destiny!"

Kwiazy, personally thrilled at the idea of all the burningness about to happen, concentrates on getting prisoners away from the camp as quickly and quietly as possible. He does pause long enough for the spell on the hobgoblin to be cast and his appearance altered... then guides them off into the wilderness away from the camp. "Come, come... we get away from this bad place, yes?"

"Maybe I go with Kwiazy to make sure they don't get too burned..."

Good idea, Xakroo nods at Kwiazy and Dripple, [/b]I'll go along with you guys as well. You'll need someone to take out a hobgoblin from afar should they see us.[/b]

Trinket stays to help Alaka light everything on fire. Being backlit by fires and explosions as you slowly and dramatically walk away was VERY heroic!

Of course, she isn't very good at setting fires...

Trinket turns her travellers any-tool into an iron sconce and stuffs some leaves and sticks in it so it works like a makeshift torch. Sort of. When it looks nice and flammable she holds it out to Alaka.

"Light me!"

Alaka takes a real torch out of her quiver of torches and gives it to Trinket instead, lighting it with a spark spell and smiling.

Thanks for the help, Trinket. Fire is fun, isn't it?

Do you want us to just storyline this part, or map it out?

You successfully start the edge of the hobgoblin camp on fire without being seen, and then you escape, together with the slaves you helped escape and your new hobgoblin friend.

Kwiazy helps lead the rescuees away from the camp, and when everyone is back together again, he turns to the others and muses aloud as they walk along, "Anyone else wonder why that was so easy? No lookouts. No guards. No scouts. No traps. No alarms. No enemies at all. Where were they all? I have a bad feeling about this."

"We're Heroes! Luck is on our side, Kwiazy!"

Xakroo was smiling to himself, glad that things went so easily...until Kwiazy brought up a good point. You're...right. That was too easy. he turned to the hobgoblin and asked, You think they were expecting someone to come in?

Hey you guys, stop being all negative. We saved Sora's father! We got to start a really big fire! Those are good things. Maybe Sarenrae was just watching out for us today, like always. We're ALWAYS lucky, right Trinket?

There have been lookouts and guards, you guys have just done very well on the stealth checks. I'm letting you have the advantage of your races here, since your races will be a disadvantage later.

Now that you're out of the camp, having left chaos behind you, with the rescued slaves and a possibly-on-a-path-to-redemption hobbogobbo, what now?

Xakroo looks back at the camp in the distance-lots of smoke, and still some red glows from the fires that have yet to be put out. After a small chuckle, he looked to Tiran and asked him, Ready to surprise your daughter, sir?

Trinket nods wisely. "That's right! We're meant to win! It's hard for villains to beat that."

Trinket spends the journey regaling the survivors with the many deeds of Trinket Sparkleplume, Hero Extraordinaire, and her Amazing Hero Friends.

Perform (Oratory): 1d20 + 12 ⇒ (13) + 12 = 25

Petrahk had flown off a bit to fly aerial cover for the team, but rejoins the group after the antics at the camp while keeping an eye out for patrols or other groups on the move from her airborne perspective.

"Not that we've saved some prisoners heroically or whatever, but how are we going to keep them safe when the hobgoblins come back looking for them? How are we going to keep this entire place safe from a really angry army camp?" she finally whispers via Message.

Despite his recent ordeal, Tiran grins at the idea.

through the message spell "I don't know... but that's a very good question... perhaps we can get them to relocate further from the camp... if not, maybe we have to go back after the big father-daughter reunion and just eliminate that camp."

Xakroo nodded, That may be the best option...The town is way too close to a hobgoblin camp. Even if they won't be looking for slaves, they'll take their anger out on the townsfolk.

Alaka seems disappointed that everyone thinks they haven't done enough.

If their camp is burned down, won't they go home?

Trinket considers this. "It depends on their 'Degree of Villainy' and 'Stubbornness Score.' All Villains have that, you know. If they're SUPER Villain-y or Stubborn they might come back and hurt the villagers. If they're less Villain-y or Stubborn they'll return to their bosses and report. Unless they're Cowardly Villains. Then they'll run away so they don't get in trouble from their boss. And then, once the Boss finds out, their actions will depend on their 'Degree of Villainy' and 'Stubbornness Score.' It's all very complex, you know."

Trinket nods wisely, her flamboyant hat wiggling all over her head.

Wow. I didn't even know those things existed. ... Do we have scores too?

Trinket nods. "Oh, yes. You've got very high 'Burnination'. That's very rare." Trinket grins.

Alaka catches on and smiles.

Oh, I get it. And you are high on Hero-osity, right?