I think we're ruling out option 3 too soon. If we can get on to the wall (ideally right from the warden's tower) and look over the side to see if there's a path outside the wall, it's quite feasible. We have Grumblejack and Felrin lower everyone down with the rope, we climb down the rope, so no one is making hard climb checks, and we spend minimal time on the wall where we might be observed. Then we make our way around the wall in the dark, and we have the full height of the wall to mask any sounds we make, so only a spectacularly blown stealth check would be heard by the guards when we're directly below the position on the wall - and taking 10 should address that.
If folks still think option 3 is unworkable, then I'd support option 2. Option 1 will get us killed.
To clarify....
There is no way to access the top of the wall from the Warden's Tower.
The wall walkway kind of circles the tower on the outside. You could access it from the roof of the tower but that way was blocked off at the stairwell if you remember.
You could use the window in the veil to access the top of the wall from the Wardens bedroom however if it was placed correctly.
Grumblejack could squeeze through the window if given a few minutes. Or quickly if the window was greased.
You could also try accessing the wall from one of the other towers, but you haven't been there yet so you would not know for sure.
You could also just go back to the main prison area and wait for shift change and take out another group or two of guards there. When the guardhouse replacements don't show up on time. However they may choose to sound the alarm if no replacements show up at shift change.
Looks like two votes for each of options 1, 2, and 3 - Erevan, the casting vote is all yours :)
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Oh, forgot to mention that the Doctor still has access to 10 minutes each of blend and disguise self; I'm sure we can come up with some use for a member of our party to hide in plain sight, or appear as, say, the dearly departed Warden or Blackerly, for instance.
Also, if we take the suggestion of waiting for them to come to us, that might allow enough time for me to brew a mutagen, which would be pretty brutal indeed...
I think I would go with option 2 as the most likely to work out in our favor. Option 3 would probably require a bit too many skill checks for my liking, at least if we want all of us to escape and in one piece at that. Option 1, though very cool if we could do it, is probably more likely to kill us...
Great, I'm down for option 2. And if we find a wagon along the way, maybe we can turn the plan into Sneak Out in the Firewood Wagon. And if sneaking fails, we can always use the wagon to try to take off down the causeway and get away.
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Option 1 is my preference. As I have noted, there are towers on the walls and they appear to be slightly higher than the parapets. Thus, we could hide behind one and then ambush the guards when they climb up/down from the top of the tower.
We should be able to tell how hard it is to pass these towers by how the motion of the lantern changes when the guards pass them.
Also, if we were to attack from atop/beside the top of the Warden's tower, it would put us behind the main keep from the gatehouse/other patrol. This would make our attack more concealed, and hopefully give us time to take over their route without any notable disturbance.
So, with some re-considering, it's
Option 1: Tkaara, Grumblejack
Option 2: Erevan, Etna, Felrin, Ottakar
Even if I went for option 1, option 2 would still be the winner.
Let's do this! Back through the kitchen (possibly via the garden) and then out through the double doors?
If someone would write be out exactly how the plan will be carried out I can move the game along and we can get out of here.....
lol
Or at least to the next combat sequence......
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To respond to DMA’s request, here’s what I think option 2 looks like:
- Go back down the warden’s tower and back into the main building through the kitchen door (near spot on map labeled 5a).
- Go back through building and come out double doors on north side (maybe peek out doors and look around for a wagon first)
- Pick a door on the gatehouse and go through it. Options include:
o Main double doors (into 3a) – closer and with an obvious exit, but clearly set up to be a kill zone, as Tkaara said
o Door into (into 3b) – looks safer, not immediately clear that there’s an exit to the outside from there
o Door into 7 – looks like where they’d keep the dogs, probably a bad idea – but good to know if we’re going to try to poison/drug them
- Fight/kill/run (die?)
Feel free to edit/revise/etc., then let’s get out of this place!
I'd add the following things to Felrin's plan:
-let's make sure to pick the map from the wizard's office and some meat in the kitchen!
-If possible, skip the dog if they are sleeping and enter in 3b: from there, we'll climb up the ladder and kill the group on the top
-After they are dealt with, exit trough the main gates: rember that the green dots are the rowing guards, so there isn't actually a group guarding the gate at the ground floor. (The group we'll kill would have probably have been responsible for that, keeping watch on the rocky road with a bullseye lantern or something like that.)
-Go down the road, deal with the causeway group, and then freedom! :D
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If we are planning on attacking the guards in the gatehouse, remember, it is much easier to attack from above, rather than trying to rush out through a trap door while climbing a latter. From the walls, it looks as though we can get up on top of the gatehouse. Not sure what the access is like from within the gatehouse.
Per Tkaara’s suggestion, I’d be fine with going along the wall to the west (climbing up via the first tower west of the warden’s tower), instead of through the kitchen. That lets us take a peek over the wall to see what options we might have outside, and possibly take out a group of guards, and come at the gatehouse from the top. This assumes there’s an entry point into the western side of the gatehouse from the wall – it seems like there should be, but it’s not indicated on the map.
Ok, taking the views into account, I think option 2 looks like this:
- Pick up map from warden's office.
- Ottakar scouts the garden for anything useful, using his blend extract.
- Go along the wall to the west (climbing up via the first tower west of the warden’s tower).
- Go into gatehouse from the top and work down, killing anyone who gets in the way.
- Open outer doors, down causeway, kill more guards.
- Profit! Freedom!
Any other revisions?
Nope, that looks solid! Ready to kill some guards and leave this place!
It rocks and it rolls, Hecate! Thanks for keeping us moving.
Right, posted to get things moving again, hopefully. Forget this wretched tower, there's an entire Kingdom waiting for us to burn it to the ground! Let's go, ladies and gentlemen!
Ii will be out of town all weekend visiting my sister. I do not know if I will be able to post until Monday. Just thought I would give everyone a heads up.
BTW, Felrin, you're probably right; but Hecate is Lawful to a fault and so I RP'd it accordingly.
Also, I'd forgotten about the alchemy lab; I hate to leave another resource behind, but I don't see how we carry it. Should have memorised Ant Haul...
BTW, Felrin, you're probably right; but Hecate is Lawful to a fault and so I RP'd it accordingly.
Nicely done, I must say.
And we're on! Woohooo!
Felrin's the only one currently in the gatehouse, right? Does each of us need a Stealth roll to follow along?
Guys? D:
Anyone following needs to make a stealth roll. He is not in the gatehouse, he is in the first tower to the west.
Oh dear, Stealth definitely not my strong point (Fly and Invisibility should negate that later on)...
EDIT: OK, I didn't realise it was quite that bad... Sorry guys. Hecate will be useful at some point, promise!
No worries Hecate: if it wasn't you, I would have probably been the one to fumble the Stealth roll. D:
What should we do now? Is it better for me, Tkaara, the Doctor, and Grumblejack to sprint into the tower and hope for a good stealth roll, or wait until the guards check the area and sneak when they are no longer here?
?! We're relying on the Doctor's Charisma now? And I thought my having to roll Stealth was harsh ;)
Still, at least he gets a +5; we may yet escape!
?! We're relying on the Doctor's Charisma now? And I thought my having to roll Stealth was harsh ;)
Now we only need a Constitution check from Tkaara, a Knowledge(Nobility) check from Grumblejack, a Perform(Sailor Swearing) by Erevan and a Craft(Porn Mag for old wizards) check by me and we're golden. :P
Oh, for a folio re-roll...
Well, assuming we do get out of here, no one will be able to say we did it the easy way!
Please bare with me at the moment. I am trying to get a project out the door that is under a deadline which has left little time for posting.
DMA is deciding if things will turn bad or really bad. D:
Prepare the Grease!
I think he's just been facepalming repeatedly: "I have all these wonderful plans for killing them off, elaborate plans, devious plans, personalised plans - and they can't even get out of the #### prison?!"
*Pokes campaign with a stick*
*Pokes campaign with a stick*
*Watches with interest as Etna is devoured by enraged (unidentified) Devil-beast. Takes copious notes*
D:
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So, while we wait for our esteemed DM to return to us, how about a bit of discussion regarding character archetype and development goals?
For instance: The Doctor, as he has so quickly come to be called, is an expy of Jekyll/Hyde (obviously), but with the added twist that his Jekyll aspect has more than a hint of Dr. Frankenstein to his personality, and his Hyde will be a straight-up Wolfman. This is one of the main reasons I skipped on the otherwise wonderfully done lycanthrope feats that DMA designed at the beginning of the campaign; I have no desire for him to be an actual werewolf, nor ever take on the full aspect of one, but rather want to be a full-blown Hollywood Monster. That said, I was sorely tempted to take them anyway just because of how cool it would be to get regeneration. :D
While it might be neat to eventually try my hand at crafting a Monster of my own, I am not sure I will be going that route. As of right now, I plan to mostly build him as a straight combat role with some utility extracts on the side. For the most part, his feats will probably all focus on maximizing damage in hand-to-hand combat, maybe some grappling to help deal with spellcasters. I am a bit worried about how I will handle encounters necessitating ranged combat; he'll probably never evolve beyond a simple sling in that arena.
Any advice? Questions? Comments? What are your inspirations/aspirations for your characters? I look forward to continuing to craft this amazing story with you all!
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Tkaara is destined to be a complete control freak, if I can play her right. She will be able to hold her own and defend well in combat, but this is not her forte. Her real power will be in her magic, which should scale well.
On the negative side, she rather enjoys substances to open her mind. Thus, the party will have to make sure that it is working with the woman, and not the drugs, at any given time.
As far as builds go, she will go straight oracle, I doubt she will dip anywhere. Her feats are going to be dumped into the Vampire fears. Essentially, think of her, rather than having the drugs turn her into an emaciated freak, it is instead the vampiric transformation. In the end, she will be a gaunt, yet starkly beautiful nightmare. Think of any model out there who is beautiful, and then when you see them modeling swimwear, the first thing you notice is that every bone in her body, ribs, cheekbones, etc, can be easily seen. (Not that she would ever be seen in swimwear since she will end up being a creature of the night.
Great idea and a clever use of our time (but then, I'd expect nothing less from the Doctor!).
My plan for Hecate was and is a Breaking Bad idea (Walter White -> Heisenberg). I always thought that the fascinating question there was the extent to which Heisenberg had always been present in Walt, and was just waiting for the right moment to surface. It was the sheer desperation of circumstance (plus the pride aspect) that drove Walt to become a villain. So, too, with Hecate: she's basically the good (model) student who made some bad choices. Anywhere else but Talingarde, she'd probably have been disciplined, maybe expelled, but nothing more.
Not really enough to tip her over to desperation, then. But she's also weak: not physically weak (strength is a perfect dump stat for full casters: they're unarmoured and don't tend to lug much in the way of weaponry), but clumsy - she's really, really vulnerable in mêlée. Most wizards have reasonable Dex - Hecate does not. And she knows it.
So, she's caught, branded, imprisoned and has to break out past a bunch of armed guards, with insufficient magic; and even if they escape, she knows she'll never be safe. Her only way out is power, access to magic that others don't - won't - use. That's ultimately what will make her cross the moral event horizon.
As far as advancement goes, Hecate is into summoning: from level 3 she'll be summoning evil monsters as a standard, rather than a full-round, action. Flanking partners, disposable tanks, battlefield control - all will be hers to provide. Plus Crafting - Doc, it sounds like you might want a Quick Runners Shirt to close the distance with those pesky archers asap.
Ultimate goal though is to take the Diabolist PrC and bind things into service. Powerful things, things you can't get from the Summon Monster list. Cornugons, Gylous, and their ilk.
I would be interested in some advice, though (if you've read this far!) - I was going to go Diabolist from level 10 onwards, i.e. once I can cast Lesser Planar Binding. However, Doug Muir wrote a fantastic guide and recommended taking it from level 6, that is, using a scroll of Lesser Planar Binding at level 5 and going Wizard 5/Diabolist 1 at 6th level. It has a lot to commend it, like the imp companion, which at level 6 is something to be reckoned with.
What do you guys think? The main drawback I can see is that I lose a hell of a lot of free spells, which means I either have to kill a shed load of wizards and take their books, or spend a fortune on scrolls and research.
Thoughts?
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T'Kaara: I'm pretty sure I've known that girl. Heck, I'm pretty sure I've dated that girl! :P
Hecate: Ooh, Walter White, awesome inspiration! I can't wait to see how that works out! It will be wonderful seeing the dark, pitiless being she will become and contrasting with the current, non-evil-seeming, almost cute and pitiable girl she is now.
As for the mechanics, that honestly depends on how much loot we acquire. If we can afford that scroll, then I say go for it: cool RP stuff like an imp flitting about and encouraging us to go even more darkside is what makes games great! Then get that one spell, blood transcription, I think it is called, so you can learn spells by drinking the blood of your fallen spellcasting enemies... :D
My mechanics problem is almost the opposite. IIRC, I can qualify for the Master Chymist prestige class as early as level 9, but mechanically it would be best to put it off to level 11, due to getting pounce at level 10 if I stick straight Alchemist. Mechanically, it is no contest; pounce is one of the best abilities in the game for a melee combatant. RP-wise, though, I don't really have much character growth to do until my alter ego shows up, so I'd like to get that going ASAP. Oh for some teleportation magic IRL so we could get together and move this campaign a bit faster! :P
Character wise, Etna is hellbent (oh, puns!) on taking her revenge on her mother: you all look like capable fellows, so she will probably try to obtain your cooperation in her vengeance plan. Just don't sign anything :P
The circumstances of her imprisonment, and the state in which Brandescar (a place that is supposed to be one of the best prison in Talingrade) is in convinced her that Talingrade needs a change in management: in this case, us. She will try to make that happen by setting in place a ridiculously elaborate law system when the time comes, all with a Social Darwinist attitude that will get worse and worse as we go on.
Build wise, I'm becoming a fiend! More than the fact that it will eat most of my feats, I'm worried that red hair on red skin will look terrible. :P
For the spell selection, I'll have to strike a balance between general "goodstuff" spells (mostly trying to focus on battlefield control, to capitalize on Etna's sky-high bonus to initiative) and spells that work well with the whole wish thing. I'd appreciate input in these, as they would have to be both spells that scale well with augmented CL, and that could be reasonably twisted from common wishes/literal interpretation of things people say: there are hundreds and hundreds of spells, and going over the ones that are usually "less useful" to see if there are cool combos is taking forever.
Plus, at level 7 I'm getting an ability to make people cough up their most inner desires: if that isn't useful for blackmail, I don't know what is. :P
@The Doctor: Couldn't you go 9th level Chymist, then come back to Alchemist for Pounce, and then max the PrC? Best of both worlds!
@Hecate: Are you planning to take all of the levels of Diabolist? I don't think it's that big of a deal (you mostly need the summon spells, and me and Tkaara can cover the basis until you pick up other ones), but spells known will still likely be a problem: yeah, there is blood transcription, but I don't see Hecate as the type to
DRINK THE BLOOD OF HER ENEMIES
RIP OUT THEIR STILL BEATING HEARTS
*ELECTRIC GUITAR SOLO*
*DEATH METAL GROWL*
A-hem
Anyway, I say go for it as soon as you can! Summon a Lemure, threw it the photos we'll take back form Sir Balin, and you're golden. :P
@Etna: yes, much jealousy at your insanely high initiative! As for wishcrafting/battlefield control, there's offensive spells like Create Pit ("don't you wish you weren't here?") or defensive things like Wind Wall ("I wish we had some protection from their arrows")
@Tkaara & Etna: on the subject of protection, one or both of you might have to split the useful Abjuration spells (protection from good/evil, resist energy, dimensional anchor) as they will take 2 spell slots for me to memorise*
@Doctor: good comments, but I can't think of anything right now other than "how can you, a bipedal, get pounce just from being a 10th level Alchemist?" Please advise this poor sap, as it's doing my head in.
*"But Hecate," you're probably thinking, "aren't you going Diabolist/planar binding? Isn't magic circle against evil a prime spell for that?" Well yes it is, and so is dimensional anchor, but a high level, fully-optimised wizard is a game-breaking disaster, so...
Felrin is angry. He's been hiding and watching, studying (and loathing) the people of Talingarde for a century, stifling his rage. And he's angry. He would like nothing more than to just kill people for a while, but he is wise enough to understand that such an approach will bring momentary satisfaction but not really change anything. Like Etna (and all of us, really), he's convinced of the need for a top-to-bottom change in how things work in Talingarde. He's also quite firm in his belief that he has only made it this far because Asmodeus has protected him, in exchange for a promise that Felrin will do all he can to bring Talingarde under Asmodeus' dominion. And the fact that Asmodeus won't be very kind if Felrin doesn't fulfill his end of the deal is an additional spur to be sure he succeeds.
At the moment he doesn't have a clear sense of how to achieve these goals, but he will continue to look to Asmodeus for guidance, confident that the Dark Prince will answer. In fact, all signs so far - the success of their escape so far, for example - confirm for him that Asmodeus is already doing so, leading him in the first steps toward toppling the Mitrans. And if Felrin gets to rip out some Mitran throats along the way, all the better.
Mechanically, I will have to address the question that my claw attacks will become relatively less awesome as we get to higher levels - suggestions on feats, magic items, etc. would be welcome.