Something Wicked This Way Comes (Inactive)

Game Master Fanguar

The sallow faced wretch endorses Vank's words with a hacking laugh;

"Hah! Most ironic. Unvitting puppetz in und pantomimisch of our dezign..."

Albrέkt downs a mouthful of the slick wine and blood infusion he has taken to drinking;

"Vunderbar."

Albrέkt will forgo any of the melee weapons and armour from the loot. The Full Plate would require too much reworking which is unlikely to be achieved anytime soon without drawing too much attention? He will however consider the bow - given that Ember has shown appreciation for it :)

Xanos chuckled. "An amusing idea, to be sure. If Captain Mott and his wife were in the audience that could be a very interesting performance."

Ember stops to think at the suggestion, smiling at the deviousness of the situation, but then her smile vanishes and she says.

”No, maybe not. It largely depends on who will be attending. If something like that happened in my Fathers presence, I’m sure he would ruthlessly and efficiently quell any attempt to disrupt his minions.” she seems disgusted to admit but finally says ”We don’t know what manner of commander Lord Havelyn is, only that he seems to be well loved by everyone. He might be able to control the cuckold before anything happens. Do we know who will be attending to this performace?”

"Unsure, but could we not send letters of invitation to those we wanted in attendance?"

”Maybe, yes. But we do not know what this presentation is meat for. Is it something arranged by the innkeeper to attract new customers? Maybe the Mayor? Speaking about that who is the mayor of this blasted town?” she after some consideration.

The tall wretch downs another draught of his bloodwine, smiling through bloody teeth as his listens to the group's thoughts:

Herr Catesby kan arrange und performanz by zhese troubadours, perhapz posing as und neu sponzor who vished zhem to rekount und sinneslust tale of Two Kaptains..."

"Der rest of Das Knotten can azzume der roles aus schpoiled viziting nobelz who vish to vitness zhuch und play..."'

Albrέkt looks to the fellow members of The Knot with a jaundiced eye, words dripping with irony:

"Acting as schpoiled, selbst wichtig individuals vill be diffikult for you all I am sure..."

The town doesn't have a mayor. It's just a counsel of merchants that answer to Lord Haverlin in the keep. The play is just for the soldiers in the keep, almost everyone in there will be gathered in the keep's great hall to watch the performance. Being surrounded by everyone, including his superior, would probably prevent Mott from doing anything rash. While adultery is illegal under Mitan law, so is dueling. Anywho, great RP.

Vank shrugs at the other's complaints "You asked for public, maybe we could invite select members of the community to a private event of some sort"

[ Ooc ] Just a quick reminder that I'm traveling for the next 2 weeks, the next 3 days are likely to be hard for me to post at all. Merry Christmas all. [/ooc]

Kaynen continues to drum his fingers to some rhythm only known to him.

"Well, what we certainly don't want is to simply turn the journal over and have the captain's wife simply be taken into custody for adultery. For all we know, this is a relief to the captain as he's had suspicions for some time and it strengthens his resolve to his job..."

Kaynen tilts his head, considering the discussion thus far.

"I'm certainly in favor of roping in our performers and laying the foundation of some sort of performance that allows our captain's emotions to get the best of him... there's certain over a dozen classic performances involving affairs I'm sure we could encourage our visitors to present..."

If the performance is just for the keep's forces then I strongly suggest we also provide refreshments in the form of spiked Mama Giuseppe's stew? The play may not take place on a Monday - but surely the old crone could be convinced to supply a special batch for the play's hungry audience... We just need to spike it...

Not everything needs to happen in the same event and not all high value targets will be attending the performance. You really can't chain pull all the encounters in the keep. I would recommend that you target objectives outside of the keep, such as Captain Mott, or the Dwarven engineers, before taking out isolated targets in the keep. Once you are ready to have then army attack, that is when you want to disable as many troops as possible, say by poisoning the stew, because that's when you need to fire off the signal and try to open the gate to the keep.

Things that go bump... Waiting for the collective brains of our operation to chip in..

In the interest of just keeping us moving, I'm going to just force this along a bit

After some discussion you decide to anonmously send a letter and the diary to Captain Mott. It doesn't take long to hear about the outcome. The following evening the common room in abuzz with the news of the duel that took place between Captains Mott and Eddarly. The fight happened at dawn and Captain Mott was slain. Eddarly is now in irons in the keep and is to be sent to Brandescar under a guard.

You have now eliminated all three captains.

I'm still here, but with Haruk being new, and not sure of all the plans and moving parts, he's staying quiet for now.

"Elegant in it's simplicity." Xanos said after hearing the results of their diary project. "We are nearing ready for a more direct approach. Has the keep been mapped yet?"

"The dwarves don't seem to interact with anyone much, we could probably slaughter them in their sleep after their day of drinking. Impersonate a group of them claiming the rest left for more supplies, or some religious death in the family or something. Or we could just sneak in steal or copy the map. Either is fine with me." Vank looks to the others.

"Given their isolationist natures and the Mitran penchant for humanocentricism, the dwarves might make useful patsies. If we can steal a map we could also plant evidence of other crimes at the same time."

"Locking up the entire lot of stubborn dwarves and questioning them one at a time would certainly put a strain on the garrison. Anything drawing their attention is a good thing."

"My recommendation is that we steal the map and something else we could leave behind in the tower. At the same time we plant evidence in the dwarven rooms that would be revealed in a search. Then we attack the rookery and leave behind evidence that it was committed by dwarves. We do all this in the same night."

Kaynen pushes his hair back and smiles, his agreement clear in his demeanor.

"Tackling the dwarves next is a splendid idea... although, tackling a dwarf could prove difficult..."

Kaynen waves his hand.

"Center of gravity and all."

Albrέkt stoops, looking quizzically at his dandified comrade;

"Der Zwerg vill drop like all ze others ja? Death fällen all."

"What about the poisoned food?" Ember asks since no one seems to remember it.
"Kaynen, you offered to take care of that."

"That should be our last step before our assault on the main keep. Poisoning them now would tip our hand, revealing that there is a force actively working against them rather than just a string of bad luck."

"Isn't this enough? We dispatched the captains, we should attack the fort. Destroy the rookery and proceed with killing the lord." she says impatient.
”There’s no more need to wait. If we can poison then, I say we attack and finish this.”

"I would caution against sacking the fort the same night we destroy the rookery. Poisoning them tonight before we sack the destroy would be good though, especially if we can frame the dwarves for that as well."

"My concern with trying to sack the rookery and take the gatehouse in the same night is that I may run out of arcane preparations. Also, we do not know that the bugbear horde would be able to move quickly enough to respond. If we burn the rookery, the bugbears will see the smoke and prepare to move."

"For me at least, spreading our work over two nights would be preferable to one."

Stealing a map, poisoning the food, sacking the rookery and attacking the fort all in one night seems like it might be biting off more than we can chew.

"The fire isn't the agreed signal." He deserves the fate that awaits him if that ‘thing’ cannot follow his own plan. The scorn in her voice is palpable.

Narrowing her eyes, she looks at the so called great mage, proudly displaying his weakness for everyone to see ”If your command over the arcane is weak as you state, train yourself to be useful in some other way.”
She couldn’t understand how he father could choose such flawed and weak pawns.

”How you plan to divide the attack over two nights? Once we enter the fort using the secret passage in the Inn, our disguise here and our only way to enter the fort are gone. Or do you plan to challenge the gates head on the following night?” she asks sarcastically.

"I did not say it was the signal. I said it would alert them." Xanos said with an arched brow. "A fire in the rookery would forewarn the bugbears. Do you have such faith in them that you think they would be here within moments of the signal being sent? We have been weeks without any communications to them. What do you think a bugbear's attention span is?"

"My command of the arcane is weak. I have already stated this. I am not the sorcerer I once was. I am, however, the only one you have."

"In what way would our disguises be compromised? Once the rookery is sacked and the dwarves framed, we would be able to enter through the front gates of the fortress the next night."

As emphasis, Xanos used his Circlet of Disguise to make himself look like a soldier.

"I plan for the worst case scenario, but I still plan for success. Should we manage to destroy the rookery without a fight, taking the rest of the fortress is feasible. Even preferable, as the remaining officers will be gone at the performance."

"In the event of a fight in the rookery, we will have a much more difficult time fighting our way to the gatehouse."

Albrέkt eyes the interplay betwixt the two knot-comrades with interest.

At the concluding comment from the mage the lank brute places a heavy, cold hand on Xanos' shoulder and nods knowingly with a rictus smile;

"Ja. Fraulin Thorn's bite izt worse zan her bark Herr Xanos... but your vurds have shteel..."

For the record I have no idea what Albrέkt is meaning... this stuff just flows when I'm tired lol

"Either way we need the map before we can plan a proper attack on the keep. I suspect that once we have the map and time to plan taking out the rookery and the rest of the keep in one night won't be a problem I suspect. The problem being that the dwarves will discover it missing. Framing them for a crime is one solution but there are probably others if we think about it."

"That said the poisoned stew will probably take a couple of hours to reach its maximum toll on the soldiers that might will be enough time to plan the attack."

Kaynen drums his fingers on the table.

"I feel some sort of divine guidance leading us here... and the map is certainly where we're being pulled.

He maintains the drumming, more rapidly building rhythm, seeming to almost be distracted by recreating some Taldan ballad before he suddenly stops.

"A map does not take long to copy. A hang-over... welllll, those sometimes can take a whole day... or more."

Kaynen smiles.

"Didn't we just come into a lot of coin? Perhaps tonight's libations will be on us?"

Albrέkt cracks a broken toothed grin at Kaynen;

"Ve vill imbibe... Ve vill drink ourzelves und toast der impending tranzition from zhis life unto death for all..."

Kaynen inches a few steps away from Albrekt and smiles, only slightly slipping in his cocksure demeanor.

"Yes... of course, Albrekt. But not all of 've' will want to drink too much lest we lose our wits."

He looks to the others for aid in placation of the group's anti-paladin and his insatiable hunger to inflict death.

So the plan sounds like some of you will distract the dwarves while others break into their rooms to find and copy their schematics correct? If so, Drinking Contest time!! Just to put a little challenge into what amounts a few skill checks, who will challenge the dwarven forman to a drinking competition? The longer you last, the more time you have to find and copy the map.
Also who is doing the skulking? I'll do the rolls, but just want to know who's skill checks to use.

No skulking for Albrέkt. He's more the imbibing type... whose up for a sinking a few pints with the dwarves?

So the plan sounds like some of you will distract the dwarves while others break into their rooms to find and copy their schematics correct? If so, Drinking Contest time!! Just to put a little challenge into what amounts a few skill checks, who will challenge the dwarven forman to a drinking competition? The longer you last, the more time you have to find and copy the map. Also who is doing the skulking? I'll do the rolls, but just want to know who's skill checks to use.

I think that would be Xanos. He is the only one with Linguistic skill, so he'll be the fasted one making a copy of the map, and he can use invisibility maybe to compensate the no stealth skill. Also, about the drinking competition, Ember will not willingly participate. It’s humiliating, at least in her eyes to get as lowly as a dwarf and challenge you into a drinking competition. But I’m sure she is convincible enough. Also, what a drinking competition entails? CON checks or Fort Checks?

While Haruk won't actually take part in the drinking contest, he will be there for 'morale support'. Figure I can use corrupting touch, to give him a -2 penalty. Then, if we have somebody who can detect evil, he'll radiate as an evil outsider. Which could be another route we take to cause trouble/distraction.

Xanos has a servicable stealth skil. +5 isnt bad. I'll definitely be the one copying the map. I'll want one or two others with me to plant evidence and keep an eye out while we work.

Kaynen will operate in the common room, seizing upon the dwarves' passions by drinking songs that they all know, and keeping them constantly engaged, pushing them for just a little bit more fun than they can handle tonight...

Know Local - dwarven songs: 1d20 + 11 ⇒ (15) + 11 = 26

"You there? Do you know The Feast of the Five King's Mountain?"

Kaynen breaks into song, hoping the dwarves' join in...

Perform (sing): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (6) + 6 = 12

... perhaps delivering an average performance so that the stout folk will "show him how it's really done".

"My dear friends, I know the words, but I fear I may not have perfected the delivery"

Sounds like it's me and Vank then. And Ember if she decides to come sneaking instead of watching the drinking.

@Xanos: Ja take der fun polizei... I mean Fraulin Thorn withz you ;)

@Xanos: Ja take der fun polizei... I mean Fraulin Thorn withz you ;)

I have no idea what this word 'Fraulin' means. I hope it is something intensely disrespectful.

Haha. Alas tis just a way of saying Mistress or Miss..

Vank will do the competition if no one else will. He not one for drinking on duty (which he always is) so hasn't had much practice but he isn't about let the team down. Warning though he is likely to slip in goblin when drunk.

As long as you take someone who can open locks and someone with a decent perception you should be fine. For the contest, I'll be using Dwarven fire ale, DC20 fort saves each round, if you fail you take 1d2 Con "damage". When you reach 0 Con you black out. More than one PC can enter the contest and you'll be going up against the Foreman of the work crew.

Ember has the best Perception in the party, as well the highest Fort save. I would company Xanos, unless you guys want otherwise.

Sounds good. Let's do it.

Albrέkt could be our main drinker... he's dying so 10 CON will hardly keep up with the dwarves pace, however Fort +7 so he'll last a few rounds in at the least... Live a little and die a little more :)

Ready for the drinking contest Albrέkt assumes the skin of a tall ruddy faced Northman.

He grins maliciously and bows:

"Mein friendz... I am known as Bani Odenkirk... Der name Bani meanz "slayer of..." und Odenkirk is oft courz our oldt friend... Quite fitting Ja?"

Vank will stand over Albrekt, dressed as he has been since arriving as a stocky and heavily tanned human mercenary. He will pick out one of dwarves and starts to slowly and systemically annoy him (stare at him and them make a snaeeing but unheard remark to Albekt, generally dismissive and deriding without yet giving him an excuses to make it physical). Vanks plan is have a back up if Albrekt doesn't last long, to have someone to challenge to another drink competition who will want to accept so that he doesn't have to resort to a bar fight.

Kaynen continues to perform like he's nothing more than a traveling bard, occasionally working to stir up extra drinking on the parts of all dwarves not actively engaged in the contest.

He almost seems to be another person given the good humored jests he keeps making in his efforts to "befriend" the demi-humans.

"Ohhh... *chuckles* You're not going to let him drink that without you right?"

"Who wants another shot? Ohhhh, I know you do!"

"What? He did what? Oh, let's drink to that!"

"Ouch, that's tough. You know what'd help? Another drink!"

The big Northman takes his place at the table and grins at the dour dwarves;

"I hear tell zhat der dverg can outdrink us men of der Nord Ja? Let us test zhis minn friendsch! "

He beckons over a bar maid or the innkeep himself, and places a pouch of coin upon the table;

"INNKEEP! Coin for der ale... Keep the draughtz kommen Ja!"

This takes place once the actual competition and drinking has started

Haruk, disguised as a road weary traveler, stumbles 'drunkenly' past the foreman, and trips, landing on the ground hard. As he does so his arms flails wildly, hitting the dwarf as he fails to keep his balance.

1d20 + 15 ⇒ (7) + 15 = 22 Bluff to disguise touch attack

1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21 Corrupting Touch, the foreman is shaken for 2 rounds.

Trying to stand up, the 'drunk' grabs the foreman's leg, attempting to gain some support.

1d20 + 1 ⇒ (20) + 1 = 21 Corrupting Touch again, for a total of four rounds shaken.