Eris doesn't appear suited to either mission, so will likely attempt to infiltrate the records after first updating everyone on what she has learnt.
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On the other hand (perhaps not surprisingly, as resident skill monkey) Mama could alternately take 10 on Know (Geo) to find Kulvayne's Lament in one try. She could aid +4 someone in finding the actual tunnel in one hour (e.g. aiding Red's +11 Perception finds it in one hour).
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The part that seems toughest, frankly, is the opposed stealth checks vs some unknown perception once the team finds the Tunnel. That makes me think that mission might make sense to be only the stealthiest of us. I’m not sure what buffs y’all can do (and for how long) but assuming no buffs, Myra’s 16 and Bess’s 14 (+4 & the ability to hide without cover, for up to 30 minutes with a Blend extract) are a good bit better than the rest of the party. (Kidd has +10 (or +11 if it’s hilly), Red has +10, and Kage has +8).
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All that makes me think maybe Myra and Bess might be the best choices for finding and investigating the tunnel.
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In the end though, I'll happily go on either mission.
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Incidentally, I agree with Eris that realistically anyone lacking the skills should decline to go on either mission (and again, like her idea of an alternate bluff/disguise mission for her at the hall of record).
You can help someone achieve success on a skill check by making the same kind of skill check in a cooperative effort. If you roll a 10 or higher on your check, the character you're helping gets a +2 bonus on his or her check. (You can't take 10 on a skill check to aid another.)...
Mama wakes before the dawn and sets about in the kitchen, preparing some muffins for her fellow Mantises. When Myra rises, she leaves a note with the muffins that says 'Stay Safe' and then the two halflings take off in search of the tunnel.
Due to her expert sense of geography, Mama leads them to the general area in just two hours, at which point she focuses her effort on assisting the younger halfling in searching for the redoubt itself.
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Even with Mama's assistance, it takes Myra a while to find the redoubt. The place is well hidden, and there is a lot of ground to cover. Eventually the halfling assassins' sharp eyes pick out the structure.
After locating the spire of rock known as Kulvayne's Lament, the two halflings then start a search pattern to locate the redoubt. In the first hour, they creep through a particularly dense tangle of forest.
Suddenly, a large mass of vines rises up and lashes out at them.
The first vine flails out at Bess but misjudges her height and just misses.
Myra curses as part of the forest animates to kill her and Mama. "Not today, viney," she quips. Yamyra tumbles over to the vine and leaps onto it, trying to restrain all the vines.
Mama steps behind Myra and lashes out with her whip, attempting to whip any vines away from her fellow assassin.
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Even though Bess's whip cracks several times to aid the halfling grappler, the plant creature's large size and two ropey tentacles manage to reverse her hold and constricts her airways.
Yamyra ignores the fact that she's being choked and tries to regain control of the grapple.
Ugh! That thing seems to be able to outchoke our star choker...time to switch tactics!
"Myra, this thing isn't our target -- it's a shambling mound, slower than us but I think much tougher -- try to get away and we can outrun it!"
...and (in order to protect against it charging us) we'll need to retreat in a direction that it can't charge, e.g. over a patch of difficult terrain (fallen log) or around a 'corner' of thickets
I'll use those roles to give:
1: still +4 to CMB to Myra
2: Kage +4 to hit with his first blow
3: Kage +4 to AC
Earlier from his tiny attic room, Kage watched Mama Bess and Yamyra set off on their scouting mission. For some time he paced back and fourth before mattering, "This is useless I'm more taught than a coiled spring, I have to do something."
Out of habit he hastily donned a disguise from some secondhand Shepard's clothes he'd bought. It wouldn't pass close inspection but it would work at a distance, probably.
Kage left the city by a circuitous route, with the beginnings of a plan, 'I'll keep an eye on them, in case things go sour. I know roughly where they are going, it should be easy for me to find them.'
Kage soon found a suitable vantage point, behind a gnarled tree on a low rise, and settled down to watch (taking 10 or even 20 on the stealth check).
Half an hour later, Kage is still scanning the horizon thinking, 'Ok this is not so easy, they could be anywhere.'
An hour later Kage's ears prick up, hearing a distant thrashing in the bushes. 'What's that? I'd better go see.'
Kage attempts to set off stealthily, but he'd been sitting still for so long that his left leg had gone to sleep and he nosily snapped a branch. An oath escapes his mouth and he inwardly cringes thinking, 'Master Brinn would thrash me black and blue for being so careless.'
Abandoning stealth Kage decides to get there and puts on a burst of speed only to see Yamyra dangling upside down, chocking from an animated vine while Mana Bess desperately tries to free her. Kage takes a moment to study the strange opponent and decides to try and free her, but the plant has a stubborn grip on her.
With a practiced air of busyness designed to deflect inquiry, you move past the guards and into the stacks. A few folks glance you're way, even get a stammered, I- I thought you had left for the day? but ultimately they shrug and go about their business.
I really should have asked others what they would have recomended I roll knowledge for, but I think rolling knowledge on the Citadel and the hellknights that gain access there would be good starting points.
I guess I'll start off with one Knowledge check before making a flurry just in case they get a circumstance bonus against repeated Perception checks or something.
Yamyra realizes she has no chance here, and tumbles back from the plant creature. She curses up a storm in halfling as she turns to flee into the forest. "Let's go," she hisses angrily.
The plant monster flails wildly after the halflings as they plunge into the woods. Kage similarly retreats and leaves the animate vegetation to brood about the meal that got away.
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A short while later, after a diligent search, the assassins are able to locate a squat, bunker-like construction built into the side of a deep ravine. Large boulders, sides worn smooth by millennia of erosion, ring the structure and affords it the same protection as a curtain wall while also blending it in with its surroundings.
Basically, the longer you work there will be an accumulating bonus to the perception checks. You've got a long time, but eventually your disguise would finally come under scrutiny.
Frustrated at the slower pace of her research, Eris tries again.
Seeing the bunker, Mama whispers, "We made it! Kage, I'm glad you decided to follow along.
"For this next step, let's consider our options before moving in. For myself, I have extracts which will let me hide in plain sight for up to a half hour at a time, and one that'll let me run at twice my normal speed for a few minutes, if I have to.
"Between those two, perhaps I should take a look by myself first? Or perhaps Myra and I go together? In either case, Kage, I'm sure we'll appreciate your eyes and ears on the ground out here in case we get in over our heads again."
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As the trio plan their approach Kage mentions, "I have been touched with the talent which let's me pass completely unseen for a short duration. This may come in handy if we need a close inspection."
Once the secondary plans are hashed out, and Kiddrik is assigned to following Paravicar Wren, the Taldan youth does his best to get a decent night’s sleep. It doesn’t go so well, and he finds himself moving through the pre-dawn streets of Egorian … on his way to what he believes to be the best location to catch the Paravicar’s activities for the day.
He tries to stifle a yawn as he waits in an alley's shadows ... watching where he suspects the mark will start her day.
The rest of the day is spent on the woman’s trail, remaining as unobtrusive as possible in the city’s streets as he edges his way closer and closer to her retinue and dealings. Unfortunately, the woman’s bodyguards aren’t as lousy at their job as he’d hoped, and he finds it difficult to stay close enough to her as he’d like. While the day is far from wasted, Kiddrik chafes at the information he feels he’s missed out on.
"I have no magic, but it's not often that I am seen. Let us approach by stealth and see what we discover," Yamyra replies to Mama Bess.
Mama Bess says to Kage, "You're pretty quiet for a big folk, and clearly handy to have around if things get ugly. What do you think about this?: We all approach quietly and carefully, 15 feet apart. If all three of us are spotted...we'll decide together whether to flee or fight. If only Kage is spotted, he'll vanish and Myra and I can see if we are able to make further progress. Sound good?"
Mama drinks the first of her two extracts of Blend. Then, moving slowly, she follows Myra.
"Your plan is sound. I will take the right flank and vanish if needed."
As Kage cautiously approaches, he thinks 'Master Brinn is wrong, it is good to have family. I would not be able to do this mission on my own.'
For hours, you scour through the various records, reaching a frustrating crescendo of dead-ends and information already gleaned from other sources until finally, you locate a survey of the remains of the prior citadel that stood and was later destroyed during the Chelaxian civil war. You find that much of the lower levels had remained intact even though the above-ground structure was reduced to rubble. This gives you a pretty good map of the old basement and subbasements of the structure, at least prior to the new citadel's construction.
Eris, you receive frequent looks, including a couple of close inquiries during your searches. But thankfully, you are able to deflect scrutiny for the time being.
Umm, the watch seems quite alert, and you see where a team of hunters are dispatched -- complete with hounds -- in your direction. (The hounds are silenced, too. Cruel, I know, but these are fictional.)
The paravicar is a forceful woman, severe but captivating nonetheless. She has a number of attendants and several devoted bodyguards about her at all times. For the first few hours, she has a meal brought in as she meets with a few Egorian nobles and talk business. One local historian is presented before her rather roughly and he falls, crying, prostrated before her. She speaks to him words you cannot hear, but his demeanor changes almost instantly and he listens to her words intently. Soon he leaves with a renewed fervor with stacks of notes.
Later, she visits the marketplace and peruses a shop that specializes in wands and other charged items. From the marketplace, she visits a sage's shop for a short while. After she leaves, her servants exit with large armfuls of scrolls and documents along with the sage himself, clasped in irons.
Her last stop is at a brewery and tavern on the outskirts of Thorntown called the Quail's Quest. She lingers for nearly a half hour, then leaves, returning to the Crown of Dis. The minstrel troupe had apparently rented out one of the halls in the hotel, and was putting on a show of The Nightingale Rebellion's Folly, which depicts the rather spectacular defeat of a Wiscrani uprising.
Kage quickly uses the hand signals to say, "I'll lead them away."
Kage makes a show of noisily getting up and darting to a copse of trees away from the other two, making it look like he's been spooked. He turns briefly to check they are following before plunging deeper into the woods.
Once he's taken the patrol some distance away, he tries to loose them. Ideally running along a stream if available or climbing up one tree and swinging to another (to break the scent trail). If they get truly close he will turn invisible (+20 stealth or +40 if motionless) and use his swift runner's shirt and sprint to put some distance between them, going in a direction 90degrees to his original direction.
Mama signs < OK > to Kage and then watches to see the guards' reactions.
If they show any sign of seeing the halflings as well, she'll take off right behind Kage.
If they don't, she'll hold a hand out to still Myra, and watch to see if they all follow Kage.
Four humans in light armor with their hounds make a swift approach to the spots where you were hiding. Two of them move in the direction toward Kage, while the other two search the immediate area for the others.
They initially cannot find the halflings, but their hounds seem to be tugging and signaling to their handlers.
Meanwhile, Kage, the others try to follow.
They seem to lose sight of the slayer, but the dogs put their noses to the ground.
One of the hounds seems confounded by Kage's efforts to hide his tracks, but the other hound unerringly turns and follows Kage's trail despite his efforts to lose them.
Hearing the pursuing hounds, Kage darts into the shadows and risks a glance over his shoulder.
The hounds are too close for comfort, the lead hound seems unfazed by his tricks.
Realizing they are tracking him by scent Kage quickly scans the vicinity for a stream or some other way of disguising his scent.
With no way to evade the hounds, Kage realises he needs to kill them, and possibly their masters. He ducks behind a tree, draws his swords, and stops waiting for the lead hound.
Next round Kage will either finish off the first hound or attack the other one.
If the dogs are dead, Kage will try to stealth and watch what the two guards do.
Kage is able to find a stream feeding into the deep ravine where the redoubt is located.
One of the hounds turns its master up the stream while the other is turned the other way.
Kage's vanishing trick confounds the sole pursuer.