Yes Sir!
Turning to the others as he puts his sword back on his back and tightens his breastplate straps.
I will meet you all back here at sunset. I will see what I can find out about Captain Hardbrow from the worgen and the church.
Drax heads off to the beast pens and worgen areas first.
After that he heads to the church and asks around.
coming across a grunt who is shining his boots, you ask him about the Captain and he has this to say, after looking left and right to make sure he isn't heard: "The Cap'n is the most paranoid bastard I ever seen. He sleeps in his armor, and makes his men pull 1/2 guard even here! I'd be careful asking too many questions about him."
Ragar visits the smiths, striking up friendly conversation about armorsmithing. He goes into plate vs. chains, scale vs. linked, the viability of obsidian, and after warming them up a bit he asks who the Captain goes to for his armor.
Similar to others, Kurat follows advice from Urgosh and heads out to try and gather some information. Being painfully aware that he is not really used to communication, he tries to opt for a different approach, hoping that his knowledge of soldiering routines, coupled with some money spent on drinks (or an offer for a swig from his flask, which contained some potent forest fruiy brandy), would help get him somewhere...or something. He goes first to goblinoid areas (I'm assuming other hobgoblins are there), and then moves to smaller tribes area, before returning to the meeting points (Area marked A on map).
Finally, while leaving and then later returning to the officers area, he relies on his honed senses and his intimate knowledge of army practices to both determine the location of targeted tent (Flag) and potential approaches that might work (position of guards, their patterns, potential dead angles/avenues of approach and alike).
Urgosh will look for the woman that brough him to the captain tent's when he was in the waiting line and ask her where is the Tent of Captain Hardbrow
once it has been pointed to him he will show it to greith and let him pick a nice observation post for his surveillance
The smiths will talk with Ragar if he's willing to help work on armor (which I assume he is). As you're working, they will tell you the following:
"Captain Hardbrow is onna those fancy magic types. He don't wear no armor, and I seen him moving his hands about and making stuff fly into his recruits to prove a point."
While most people won't talk to you (and it seems that your social....inability isn't helping here), you might have the chance to overhear some people talking about Captain Hardbrow, or Captain Dub-Bane. Go ahead and roll me perception. As far as your knowledge of being a "volunteer" soldier of Aeon goes, this camp is completely disorganized. It lacks the standardization that marks the camps of the legions.
Captain Hardbrow's tent is the one that I mentioned in the area description as being next to Greel's. You can see that there is not currently a flag flying at his tent. Feel free to give me a profession (Soldier) to see if you know what that means.
I forgot to mention this earlier, but as you approach the travelling shrine, you see that Kathandrax is outside, holding a sermon on the dangers of listening to false gods. As he talks, you find yourself being drawn into the emotion of his speech, shouting out at the appropriate times and feeling both your pride in the convocation and your hatred of Aeon growing. Until you finish your first mission, you will find that you add an additional +1 bonus when using aid other checks for people in the convocation.
While in the church camp Drax also checks in with the clergy to let them know he is in the camp.
see the tab I added for you Drax.
Based on what I head from the grunt I ask about the rest if the captains if there is time before sunset. At the church I also check and see if any of the captains regularly come to pray.
There is currently no one standing outside the tent, and you can give me perception and stealth (if you wish to be sneaky) as you move your way around the tent.
While there are a couple of captains who do come to the church on a regular basis, most do not.
you overhear a couple of grunts talking about Greel:
"Can you believe they pulled Greel out of retirement? this must be something serious." "Did you see his arm? I wonder where he got it? It must be expensive, which makes sense, of course." "I'm surprised that he would agree to come join the army, considering what he said to Kathandrax last time they met."
Not the worst idea. Sometimes lady luck is good to you, but she doesn't like to be pushed around.
It looks like I am coming up dry. I will head back to the meeting place and see if the others had better luck.
After overhearing that last tidbit, Kurat heads back to the meeting place to hook up with others and exchange information. I sure do hope others were of better luck than I
"Shhh! Be more quiet, long beard!"
Greith keeps his steps light and moves with ease. To Urgosh, it seems as though he were born solely to move this freely and out of sight.
As the two of you make your way around the tent (no one jumps out and says "aha! gotcha!"), you each hear the sound of something big moving around inside the tent. let me know if you wanna try and peek inside and I'll let you know what you see.
Greith will move closer to the tent and look for a tear or rip to spy through.
no rips (the canvas of the tent seems new, but the poles have obvious marks of use), but you could certainly drop prone and lift up a back piece of canvas if you wanted to. Just let me know if only one of you or both of you wish to do so.
"Watch Greith's back, will you, stout one? He will garner more information from inside."
Greith will TOTALLY! drop prone and lift up the tent.
assuming you wish to do as he asks Urgosh, I'll tell Greith what he sees, then let him share that info with you (preferably in a spoiler tab, as the rest of the group doesn't know what's going on yet, and it'll be....fun for them to find out).
Greith drops the tent flap almost as quickly as he lifted it.
As your eyes adjust to the gloom inside the tent, you learn two facts about Captain Hardbrow: 1) he likes nice things: his tent is filled with intricately carved depictions of mazes, in a variety of materials and mediums (there are paintings of mazes, tiny three dimensional mazes made of gold, and standing open on a bookstand is a book whose pages appear to (from what you can see) have letters or characters which form a moving maze when viewed from afar).
the other, more pertinent fact you've learned is that he takes his security very seriously. The big thing that you heard moving around in here appears to be some sort of Megafauna, which looks kind of like a dinosaur except that it has multiple heads, and it's skin is colored a deep silver hue).
Urgosh will stand watch and provide cover for the hobgoblin, making sure no one is spotting them.
"Let's leave, Greith doesn't want to stay around here longer than he has to. Shall we find the others?"
On their way out of this area to meet with their squad mates, Greith gives Urgosh the accounting of what he saw.
As you arrive back at Captain Dub-Bane's tent, you see that Meera is outside, "standing" on one hand by having it placed palm down on the ground and then wrapping her legs around her arm in a manner that looks downright....uncomfortable. As you get closer, you can hear Greel's distinct voice yelling at someone: "What do you mean he 'assigned someone to me?' Who does he think he is?" there is a reply that is muffled by the canvas of the tent, then Greel says "Fine. go tell your Captain....actually, I don't care what you tell him. Just leave."
The tent flap slaps open and a rather beefy looking minotaur goes running from Greel's tent as if the devil himself nipped at his heels.
Striding from the tent, Greel screams "Sargeant! go to the signup lines and get a goblin named Gidley. He's going to be joining our motley little crew, courtesy of The esteemed Captain Hardbrow. Jackass."
Jumping as if she had been slapped, Meera takes off at a dead sprint (which is like a cheetah sprinting, only much faster).
Ragar sits down with a grunt. "Captain is a magic user. He doesn't wear mundane armor, it's magical in nature."
Gidgey was waiting, his eyes level with the waists of most of the others in line. Absent mindedly checking if they had anything of value on them, nothing that he could see. He then hears his name and shrinks back for a second. Just a reflex, doesn't sound like anyone he knows. He pops out from his spot in line, so that he could actually be scene.
"Gidgey here, reporting for duty!" Trying to shout as loud as his feeble voice could carry.
Meera pauses for a moment in thought then says "Good enough! come with me Gidgey!" then goes speeding off into the crowd. After a good 300' of not having you keep up with her, she comes back, picks you up and sets you on her muscular shoulders, and is off again. You have a near fall a few times due to her speed, and at one point she has to toss you physically into the air to avoid a low overhang building. Before you can splat against the ground, Meera runs up the side of the building on the other side of the overhang, catches you one handed, and then replaces you on her shoulders without breaking her....impressive stride. Skidding to a stop, she unceremoniously drops you at the feet of a group of people who appear to be new recruits that are talking amongst themselves, before yelling "Got him!" at the tent you are near the opening to.
tent is guarded by a big dino dog looking and the flag isn't inside currently. Or at least we didn't see it
Gidgey was about to thank the woman for picking him up, until she started whipping him all over the place. He was not used to this much motion and it was making him feel sick. When she finally dropped him, he glared up at her. Reminded him of back home. Gidgey looks up at the new recruits.
"What's going on here?"
Greith looks the little goblin up and down.
"Our first mission is to take Captain Hardbrow's tent flag without anyone knowing. Try to keep up, Greeny."
He returns his attention to the circle of recruits.
"Greith didn't see the flag in the tent either. All Greith could see was many, many of those...Urgosh, what did you tell Greith those patterns were called? Mazes?"
"Unless, you don't think one of those is the flag in hiding, do you?
All I learned was that Hardbrow is paranoid about security and keeps a guard even in the middle of the encampment. I also learned he doesn't visit the church with any regularity.
"I'm affraid I did not learn much. Not that I really expected much" - Kurat shuffles his feet uncomfortably, before continuing - "For some reason, Captain Hardbrow is also called Captain Dub-Bane. No idea why. Could not find out anything else on our mission, but I did pick up a few more tidbits, here and there."
Glancing around to make sure that no one else outside of his new team is around, he whispers in a low voice: "First of all, it is rather obvious that this is a "volunteer" camp and not the camp of the legion. Too many chaos around, it's very disorganized. It lacks rules, routines, procedures. As much as we all dislike those, that's what a good army has. And we do not have it...at the moment, at least."
"Second thing is..." - hobgoblin hesitates for a few more moments, raises his head to make sure Captain Greel is not there, and then decides to continue - "Greel was pulled from his retirement for this. Should be a loaded retrement since he was able to afford a very expensive replacement arm. And it seems he had a fallout of a sorts, a fracas with Kathandrax last time they met."
"Now I have to admit, I know nothing of those mazes and pratterns, even less about dino dogs. If you want me I can try and knock him out, if need be, but that's about it. Or we throw a cat in there...maybe even more cats than one?" - Kurat adds with a sly wink.
Ragar frowns. "Well if tha flag ain't there than the entire mission is a wash. No point in all this plannin' if it's not even there ta take. We need ta find it."
Greeny? Gidgey looked down at his hands. Took him a second to make the connection. He looked back up and listened to the others talking about what they knew of the mission.
"If you want I could try sneaking in and finding it. I tend to get unnoticed by others frequently." Gidgey piped in
The Dino dog would just make minced meat of you even if you are sneaky. Alright Greith, take Gadget here with you and rotate surveillance on the tent for the day. Drax try to find out more about that falling out between Kathandrax and our captain, then meet up with them and rotate surveillance. Kurat and ragar try to find out the past victories and other tidbits of info about our target: what is his specialty in warfare, troops victories etc..
I will head back to the traveling church for vespers and see what I can learn. We learned a few things today that might be helpful for our planning. Hardbrow doesn't leave a guard surrounding his tent when he is not in it and he leaves his tent at least sometimes during the day. While he does leave his pet in the tent as a security precaution we don't know of his flag is there or with Hardbrow. I am no soldier but it would make sense to have your banner man carry your flag while you were out and about so you could be found while training for inspecting your troops. Tonight's watch will tell us if that is the case.
If I know I share it with the team.
Then I head back to the traveling church to see if I can learning anything about Greel.
Or about Hardbrow's banner man.
As you are debating the plan to complete your first mission, You notice a group of minotaurs headed your way, Lead by the largest minotaur that you've ever seen. He is easily over 10' in height, and must weigh in the neighborhood of 400 lbs. He is wearing a breastplate made of mithril that appears to be sized for him, and he is carrying a massive greataxe (which is so large that he shouldn't even be able to wield it, but he appears to do so without issue).
Following the massive minotaur come the rest of his contingent. while each looks physically fit, they all look exhausted, as if they've been running long distances or fighting for extended periods of time. They are managing, however, to march with a great deal of military precision.
The leader calls for a halt, and they lock move to attention. After leaving them there for an uncomfortable moment, he dismisses them and moves inside his tent.
There is one minotaur that doesn't go away however; He's the one that is carrying the Minotaur's banner, which is a large flag mounted on a longspear. the flag is white, and depicts a maze which has a massive bull's horn bursting out of the center. The flagbearer takes up the position outside the tent that would normally be reserved for guards.
Kurat takes a long inspecting look at the dwarf (Ragar), and then responds in a very pessimistic manner: "Not sure which one of the two of us should get that info for you. Don't think we're really suited to the task, but OK."
His further musing on the subject were luckuly interrupted by the arrival of minotaur detachment. Now, that is something we can definatelly work on
He spends some time watching the flag-bearer, trying to discern any pattern they might exploit, before going back to the camp to search for one or two of the exhausted minotaurs. He was hoping that if he offer to buy them a drink maybe they might regale Ragar and him with some war story, from which they might glean some valuable info. Of course some flattering would help, especially since this was obviously the truth - compared to other volunteers, this (minotaur) outfit was clearly superb.
"Is that the flag we are looking for? Why dont't you tell him their are some pretty lady minotaurs who stopped by and you'll can hold his spot? I'm sure one of you could pass as a she-beast." Gidgey snickered quietly
Stay quiet we are here to observe what he does with the flag. Our mission is to steal it without people recognizing us.
I might be able to help figure out what the guard beast is tomorrow after some prayer. I am not sure how important that will be if the bannerman keeps the flag. Maybe some fog would help use cover the theft if anyone can thing of how to knock out the flag bearer. Either way I think we should have someone watch the tent tonight to see what the nightly routine is and I will need some rest and prayer beforehand. I will return to the church for vespers.
If no-one calls him back he heads off as planned above.
yes for now we observe what happens with the flag and the bannermen.
This young minotaur is perceptive, maintaining situational awareness even though it's obvious that he's as exhausted as the rest of the troops that just left; His head is held high, even though his entire body has sagged. He is wearing what at first looks like a breastplate
He's also wearing a silver cloak pin, but you are too far away to read the name or rank.