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yeah your stealth is better than mine, and i could give you a reduce person to get you even smaller for the bonus.
I figured we'd all go check out the tunnel after i peep the skematics. but if Loran and Temperance want to scout it out, go for it. Victor can set a base camp by the boat in the wilderness half a day away? or do you want something closer.
though good to pick out our servant disguises ahead of time. I'll go back to the inn as an ugly looking suli trader/Dragon hunter. its about as human as i can look with the circlet. figure with a dwarf dragon hunter, we'll just pass through for the one night. , get in early and
On mentioning a letter, Victor open his spellbook about midway. You see that unlike most spellbooks, this one is mostly filled with prose. With a quick glance as he riffles through a handful of loose pages stuffed into the bindings, you see mentions of both the captains' and wife's names and a few explicit sex acts. He snaps the book shut as he pulls out a beautifully and painstakingly scribed letter.
Uh, yea, I can make one of those letters. Um, oh, look at that, I happen to have one right here. Important to be prepared, right?
Ash snags the letter and looks it over, Victor looks sheepish at first, then starts whispering as he looks over Ash's shoulder while he reads:
Do you think they'll fight each other? That would be so hoo--[cough]good. That would be really, um, good. Yes, then there would be 2 fewer captains. Really disrupt morale. I should probably keep watch at their meetup and make sure they both show. Yea. That would be good.
You may not have noticed, but I tend to have a slight temper where a calmer hand may be needed to fiddle with mechanical machinations. If we run into anything particularly daunting I am happy to loan you my handy dandy Skely Key here to assist in the task. It has opened opportunities for me.
Never heard of the skeleton key in PF before. It's a clever device and a cool mechanic. It has a +10 DD, you use it instead of your own bonus (NOT added to), and can only roll once on a lock. It either works or it doesn't. So for simple locks, it may work (the key matches) or not. For complex locks it almost certainly won't work (max is a DC30). In theory, different skeleton keys would get separate rolls...so you could have a belt of 20 skele keys and just keep trying them hoping to find a match. And you get a bonus level in the NPC class "janitor".
Yup. Was picturing dc 10.
With the letter delivered, you stand back and spy on the appointed tryst. While they are in the middle of the second act described in victors letter, Mott returns to find Zack Eddarly with Kaitlyn, and is furious. He immediately takes off his gauntlet, bashes the man across the face with the gauntlet, and kicks him out.
Meanwhile, at the inn, the schematics are nabbed and copied while the dwarves are drinking boisterously downstairs. It's a very detailed map of the keep, and survey of the structure.
Fireday, the next morning, Mott and Eddarly meet in a field not far from Aldencross, a few onlookers gathered. they duel. Zack slays Mott in a heated duel. And then turns himself in as the local constable is there to arrest him for dueling to the death, a capital offense. Zack is clamped in irons, as Kaitlyn watches her husband bleed out, and her paramour dragged away to prison and possibly worse.
From a slight distance, disguised as a servant, I offer those around me a new treat I invented called Kernels of Corn of which I have Popped. It's simple really, I just place a few kernels in my hand and moment later a slight popping is heard and a tasty snack arrives. I'm still working on the name. I offer some to Victor as I toss a couple in my mouth,
I think we found your talent Victor, well done. Do tell me, how many other wonderfully delicious stories do you have in there?
looking to his "spellbook"
I'm 100% for that plan. Let's go take a look. If we get caught, we can just be a pair of lovers sneaking away for a quickie.
What do you need from me as far as checks?
You follow the tunnel down, on an on you go, leading Temperance through the darkness. After about 20 minutes, you come to a wall. Searching around, you manage to open it up from the tunnel side, and find yourselves in a storeroom of some sort. Looking around, you see a vast stockpile of what appear to be rations, several thousand days worth of iron rations, alongside barrels of potable water and other provisions. There seems to be a light yew cask with gold filigree and some elven writing proclaiming a summer wine. Some faint traces of honey and raspberry.
You make note of the door from this side, as it seems just as hard to detect as the one in the Lord's Dalliance Inn.
Above you, the ceiling vaults to the center, where it looks like there is a trap door leading up, and a ladder, with a pulley up by the top of the trap door. You quietly climb the ladder and listen at the trap door.
Above you , you hear nothing beyond the trap door.
There are sconces on the wall where torches could be lit, but it doesn't seem like the torches see any regular use.
and to be honest, if we can poison/make all these supplies unusable, when the assault comes, if they try to hole up in the castle, they'll be very unprepared.
Schematics of Watchtower Balentyne
Ash and Neji have secured the schematics before Temperance and Loran go in that night to explore, but the dwarven vault is not listed on the schematics, so you don't know where it will connect with the keep. once you open the trapdoor and explore, you'll know where it fits in. its not really that suspenseful =P
Let's see if we can get further and see where this leads.
I will change my illusion to be that of a servant then listen at the door, if it sounds clear I'll peek through the trap door. If that's clear, and looks like a place a servant could be, I'll get out.
to listen to see
peeking up, you find an empty forge. A circular room, with small vents out to the east. On racks there appear to be weapons. Halberds, long swords, as well as breastplate armor and heavy steel shields. There's an exit, and stairs up.
The forge is number 2 on the map, the vault is number 1. The vault is indeed on thevsurvey, sorry. The secret passageway is not.
I will quickly go into the forge and see if I can get a rough count of the weapon stores and equipment (armor/ammunition). I think we should try to get an idea of how to break the forge if we need to, then I'll head back down.
Let's get an idea of all their supplies here, then head back to the others. With this knowledge and access we can more easily sabotage this place he whispers to Temperence.
For examining the forge for places to sabotage.
Fireday morning, after the duel, everyone gathers back at camp in the woods, taking a break from various tasks, and discusses whats been learned. the detailed copy of the map is poured over and examined, loran and temperance's brief excursion to the tunnel is debriefed, and two captains have been dealt with. One is dead, the other has been taken to the watchtower in chains. The travelling troupe is expected to pass through town today, on their way in to the keep to start setting up for their show next week.
Victor, group meeting, have to discuss next steps. We need to get into that keep and wreak some havoc. Come on, Victor...
With no response, Temperance tries to peek her head into his tent to tell him to get his act together, but finds it well sealed. Victor scurries around after hearing her and tells her to bugger off, so Tempy gives up.
Right, so the wizard is too busy doing, whatever he does, after the duel this morning. Looks like we're on our own. So last night while we were in the keep, Loran and I learned the following...
Tempy gives a brief rundown of what she learned (which is nothing more than what Loran learned, but she likes to talk).
They have a lot of supplies. Even if we struggle with the gate, it would be nice if we can steal or destroy them so they can't endure a siege. Ash, how can we optimally ruin their rations with what we have? Water? The arsenic? Fire? Just removing them from the keep to give to our allies or steal or destroy later?
I don't think we can sabotage their forge, but we could steal their extra weapons. That could be noisy though.
Do we have a good idea from all our intel how much the storage we found comprises the total storage? Like if they were cut off from the town and other supplies how much food would they have and would they be able to properly equip their troops if all of this goods in this storage were inaccessible? If they can easily subsist without them, probably not worth our time, but if it would hamper them, I'm in favor or wiping them out as part of our siege.
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OOC: Didn't we already decide on a poisoning plan, for the day of the week where all of the guards eat in one place? There's a lot of back-threads that I don't want to troll through, but I thought that's what we were using the arsenic for....
I'm thinking that we should start our attacks in the tower. Time is running short, and it's of the utmost importance that we take down the key people. I was actually thinking we should just camp out in the secret passage. Nobody except the innkeeper seems to be able to find it... So if we kill him, or even disable the door from the inside, we have the entire length of the passage to hide out in.
We have all of the food that we could need. We can monitor the rest of the keep the best from here (making excursions disguised as servants or whomever).
We can sneak out at night time or whenever makes sense with the guard schedule (which we know), make guerrilla strikes, then retreat to heal up / recover in the store room & passage.
I'm thinking for the armor and weapons we craft or buy something like Rusting Powder or even itching powder. We sprinkle either on all them usable items and let them do the work. As for the rations I recommend something like a insomnia powder, or hallucinogenic mushrooms or brain mold spores. That should make a fighting force very entertaining indeed.
I agree with Forsythe, now is the time for action. The fools will soon be in town to distracted and place those at ease with their tales. Although, if this troupe contains a masterful bard, it may be best that they too meet their demise. The last thing we need is that bard inspiring those we hope to shaken.
Um, aren't we till a few days before the earliest day we can attack? We're at Fireday, Neth 29 (the duel was that morning) and the earliest Sakkarot will be ready is 2 weeks from Neth 19 which is Kuthona 3, which is next Toilday.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1sHtLhHzfu5q7rFHZ1zto8gg5Q2XuKg999ZY1X1s dChc/edit
Then we have 2 weeks to open the door before Sakkarot loses control of his horde. We should aim to strike at the earlier end of that if we can, but not before then. We want an army of bugbears pouring across that bridge as soon as we lower the gate, not chaos today and then have to hold the keep for 4 days waiting.
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Right, but I don't imagine that our attacks are going to be an all-at-once thing. We're talking high level fighters and casters... We need to peck away at them slowly over time. Take on the Magister one day, then rest for a day or two / observe the response / etc.
There's no way we would successfully do all of the high-level PCs in a short time span.
Clarity on my end...Again, I don't think we should attack in the classic sense, but we should start our work on sabotaging. This will take some time, I assume, and if done correctly will not be noticed till they are attacked. You are correct on timing...I misread the calendar and thought we had a week. I recommend we take this week to gather materials to sabotage, such as those I recommended above.
Direct and noticeable actions, such as poisoning the food supply or directly attacking troops should be done days before the horde arrives. Destroying armor and weapons and poisoning rations can be done this week.
Section 9, looks perfect to disable a majority of the troops if we can rig a way of barring the three doors. Even better if we can trap them in there with a fire.
Lastly I think we can explore the place further and I still think it would be a really go idea to assassinate or otherwise remove the traveling bard and their "heroic tale".
I think we're still a little fuzzy on those specifics. Are just going to open the door and let the horde in, fighting as little as possible to accomplish that goal? Or are we going to assassinate all the leadership (ooc: high level NPCs) and then it's trivial to open the doors?
The advantage to assassination is we get to keep their stuff and we reduce the likelihood of getting jumped by the big goodies while at some critical gate-opening juncture.
The advantage to just opening the gates and minimizing combat is I think it's less dangerous. We may be able to just kill some guards, open the gate, jam/destroy the mechanism for re-closing it, then calling the horde in to do our dirty work.
[b]Picking them off one-by-one also has the disadvantage of putting them on high alert after our first action unless we get particularly clever and manage to keep disguising our machinations. We may be able to hide if the whole guard is trying to find us, but even in the secret passage we may get tracked down and overwhelmed.
My vote: do as many non-obvious destabilizing things as possible. Then do things like poisoning and burning rations/trapping troops, then after Sak's horde is waiting outside, we pick off a key figure or two (the mage, the paladin), and make a beeline for the gate, kill anyone guarding it and open it wide.
Now maybe we can get clever and divert the goodies onto some false lead. If they try to overwhelm the "invaders" and it turns out they have the wrong people, then maybe we can prolong the sabotage. Who would be likely culprits? Bugbears disguised as humans, dwarves, citizens of the town (unfortunately they seem really boring, no outcast group we can pin it on), random humans they don't recognize? All valid options.
But if we can't find a scapegoat, then I think our best bet is to execute our various poisoning plans, then wait until the horde arrives, assassinate a key figure or two and open the gate.
I think we are all on the same page since we are all repeating the same plan with the exception of new side objectives.
I had assumed we were working to make certain the bridge pathway blockers were kept open for the horde to invade, first and foremost. Everything else we do only helps the chances of the horde succeeding, such as taking out high levels, ruining supplies, secondary damage to the hold as a whole, ruining communication, etc. Now, in order to accomplish objective one is via sabotage or assassinations, that is what we need to decide first.
Although Neji is all for mass violence and confusion, we are but a small crew and should not bite off more than we can chew. My PC will vote for subterfuge and sabotage as the risk to assassinations waking the whole hive is too risky. The last thing we need right now is any degree of alert or a bird being sent north. We want them to be surprised that a horde is coming and by that point I don’t think they will have time for scape goats. They will assume this is another sacking by the wilds only to fail against the protection of the gate when suddenly all that protects them fails. At that point it will be far to much of a fire-drill to worry about who did it.
So by my reckoning we can do a few things now:
- Hunt down/make any hallucinogens to spike the rations with. We could use some of our poison or "burn" the rations, but I think driving them crazy is funnier.
- Hunt down/make rust or itching power for the arms and armor. I don’t think we can move, hide or destroy it, plus using powder allows it to sit there as if nothing happened.
- Investigate deeper into the hold, perhaps get some surveillance on the high levels and see if they have a weakness we can exploit to possibly assassinate later on. Like I said before, I think there is a nice weakness in that all the rank and file sleep in one room with three doors all on the same hallway. Sealing these doors alone, let alone sabotage to the men on the other side, would be very valuable.
-Poisoning, we have the gear, I suspect poisoning their chow is best done a day or two before the attack to best take advantage of the fighting force being fatigued? When and where can we best poison the grub?
-Outside of servants, can we move around the hold freely? Do the guards wear full plate and helmets? Are the monks? Something to hide identities easily as you scurry from one place to another.
- Take the dwarf schematics and plan what we can and can not get to to actually sabotage. Is the bridge always down and the porticles always up? If so, they would be easier to sabotage if they are only closed when under attack. Are they gear driven, chains, rope, weighted suspension, other?
-What are the guard schedules at key places. When are they lax?
-Investigate this troupe that comes into town and eventually the hold. (There is your suspicious scapegoats if I ever saw one. They were out in the wilds, came into town and next thing we know we are under attack? Weird.).
Once we know all this, and perhaps a bit more we can plan timing for next week and leading up to the big attack.
some of the things can be addressed w/ character knowledge and what you've learned already.
So by my reckoning we can do a few things now:
- Hunt down/make any hallucinogens to spike the rations with. We could use some of our poison or "burn" the rations, but I think driving them crazy is funnier.
- Hunt down/make rust or itching power for the arms and armor. I don’t think we can move, hide or destroy it, plus using powder allows it to sit there as if nothing happened.
-Outside of servants, can we move around the hold freely? Do the guards wear full plate and helmets? Are the monks? Something to hide identities easily as you scurry from one place to another.
- Take the dwarf schematics and plan what we can and can not get to to actually sabotage. Is the bridge always down and the porticles always up? If so, they would be easier to sabotage if they are only closed when under attack. Are they gear driven, chains, rope, weighted suspension, other?
-What are the guard schedules at key places. When are they lax?
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I had assumed we were working to make certain the bridge pathway blockers were kept open for the horde to invade, first and foremost. Everything else we do only helps the chances of the horde succeeding, such as taking out high levels, ruining supplies, secondary damage to the hold as a whole, ruining communication, etc.
I think we're definitely off-sync here. Yes, opening the gates is going to be vital. But if there's a high-level wizard standing on top of the battlement lobbing fireballs into our horde, we're boned.
And if the lord of the keep is alive to rally troops and charge into battle, we are also boned.
I think it's just as important that we kill these important high-level NPCs and destroy communication (the Rookery). If there are no high level NPCs and no communications with the outside, then the fortress is basically helpless.
Forage: Yeah, I knew it would be easy (Wisdom 8), and survival isn't my strong point but I'll attempt to aid those with skill.
Hide in sight: Well, we knew they all knew each other, but I was hoping they wore full helmets and plate. Oh well, I guess there is still the possibility of the monks.
Schematics: Yep, we need to investigate to answer that one.'
Posts: Yeah I remember that, but are they super alert all the time or is the crew that works the 1 AM to 6 AM shift kinda lax while playing cards all night. Again we wouldn't know without investigating, but that was more what I was after.
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Also:
-Poisoning, we have the gear, I suspect poisoning their chow is best done a day or two before the attack to best take advantage of the fighting force being fatigued? When and where can we best poison the grub?
I think we got that info at some point... Monday (?) (sorry, Moonsday or whatever) when all of the guards eat the same food. It's like a "group lunch" type deal from someone in town IIRC. The other times, they eat in shifts and any poisoning would be noticed before the next shift comes on.
I think we're definitely off-sync here. Yes, opening the gates is going to be vital. But if there's a high-level wizard standing on top of the battlement lobbing fireballs into our horde, we're boned.
Yeah, I agree, I was only saying we should work on items which MAY be able to be to prep or set up without anyone noticing for a a week ro two (pending investigation) then when the attack day get closer we work on riskier items which may raise alarm such as killing higher ups and rookeries. I'm all for boss fights, I just think we can plan our to-dos to cover quieter options first.
Or we could tie her up and poison the soup in front of her while disguised like someone from this traveling caravan and babbling about some nonsensical evil plan. Hold her in her basement or out in the woods somewhere until we let her escape and run to tell everyone the caravan is evil...
I wasn't thinking we'd put her in the tunnels. Just poison the food in front of her, tie her up and gag her in her basement, deliver the food disguised as her, then when she gets free she'll get help and blame the caravan.
Is the traveling caravan in town yet? I hear no objections to the plan, so whenever I have a chance, I'll lay it out in more detail.
If the caravan is still not here, hopefully it will arrive before the Moonday stew.
Ok, then, here's what we're going to do. a few of us will head back into town using our previous disguises (Loran and I were some young couple, I believe? the others I'm not as sure about) and go to spend as much time with the caravan as possible. Flirty, young, excited by the adventure of a caravan, etc, etc. Goal there is to learn as much as we can in a short time about the membership, namely who would make a good sinister villain (probably the head, but maybe someone else), who would make good accomplices, and then watch them enough to convincingly portray them.
After learning a bit about the caravan, I and an accomplice or few will sneak into the old lady's house at night on Sunday and knock her out (or, if she doesn't start the stew until morning, we'll come by and visit soon after she does...I want the stew to be convincing). Tie her up, gag her, etc. Then wake her up and have her watch as we poison the stew. Tell her some story about being an old enemy of the town and particularly not a big fan of her (some past wrong that she's surely forgotten..if she says she did nothing I'll get mad that she doesn't even remember). I want to kill some soldiers and make it look like she's at fault so that she'll be thrown in jail and will suffer as I have suffered. I'll cackle a lot about my masterful plan and brag about how her demise is upon her, sins revisited, etc. I'll point out my accomplices (who also look like caravaners) and say we've all been waiting to bring about her demise. Play it up good. Also, make a point to mention more than once that the paladins will never believe her because once I've completed my horrible deed I'll go back to my caravan job and they'll be none the wiser. Even if she somehow convinces the guards to investigate me, I have been subjected to magical lie detection before and have the strength of will to pass any test. So now matter how they quiz me, I'll always just lie and say that I am an innocent caravan manager.
After the soup has been poisoned, I'll take it to the castle and deliver it to the soldiers. At least one of us should stay with the old lady to make sure she stays tied up. After the stew has been delivered, I'll make my excuses and then get out of there as quickly as I can and switch to another disguise. At about that point, the accomplice will stop guarding her and give her a chance to "escape". She'll tell the guards, they'll almost certainly believe her over this sketchy caravan guy, and then chaos will ensue as the caravan gets hunted down (hopefully fights back or hides) and trials and tribulations progress.
Infiltrating yourselves back into the town, you learn that Ye Merry Men arrived Fireday afternoon, and are set up in the Watchtower for their show Starday evening, where they've been given access for a day to the chamber where they'll be performing, to set up their stage and practice.
William Marcus Marlowe, the so called Bard of Barrington, stops by the Dalliance in the evening , promoting his show, The Fall of Amberlyn, a rousing tale of how love and greed brought down a great city state. He kind of reminds you all of William Shatner.
Some townsfolk do plan to get tickets and see the show, but its expensive. The show, it seems, is mostly for the guards and the Lord at the Watchtower, though the troupe does play up that they'll be performing next in two weeks to the south, and may do a smaller performance in a town a week south of here.
The rest of the troup drops by for drinks that evening after setting up the stage, eager for a drink, and you have chances to observe Marie Janoset, the leading lady opposite Willaim Marlowe, and the rest of the supporting cast of six other actors, and some stagehands.
Unless you'd like to do something, the rest of Fireday night passes uneventfully.