Monsters save the world (Inactive)

Game Master caster4life

The goblin begins walking back toward her companions, stepping around the traps and giving you all a wide berth while keeping her saps out. "Are you saying you want this dragon gone? If so, why don't you help us fight him?"

The orc looks at Gorthug and grunts in confusion. "Why skeleton make orc hand?" he asks the cleric, who replies "He was probably an orc in life. Strange that he remembers... poor soul..."

"We will provide you aid. Giving you the lay of the land, possibly access through the secret entrance so you don't have to go through all of the protections in these caves." Xeria comments while she tends Ripper's wounds.

Heal: 1d20 + 2 ⇒ (11) + 2 = 13

”Launch Bob be very weak, very weak. Dragon is too big for Launch Bob to jump on dragon head, so what would Launch Bob do? Throw small rocks? No no no. Launch Bob is not great warrior, and friends are small and not great warriors. We just stay here, and enjoy living and try not to get near dragon or his massive pile of gold and magic items that he be very proud of.”

The wizard shakes her head at Bob. "Take a look at our toughest fighter. You're not so weak. And your rocks made quite the impression..." she rubs her bruised shoulder. "Tell me more about this dragon. How big is it? Have you seen its breath? Describe it in detail to me."

She's going to try a knowledge check to know Cinder's stats, age range, etc. It's up to you how honest you will be with her.

"Big like horse. Dumb... like horse. Mean like... mean horse." Snowball struggles to think of non-horse comparisons, and scratches the back of her neck with her left hind foot.
She adds hesitantly "stronger than horse."

Tina describes Cinder verbally, and warns them "Step back, and be not afraid" as she conjures a visual facsimile of Cinder, which breathes illusory fire, and shows off its phantom claws and teeth.

Silent image to bring up an image of Cinder, assuming it can fit in 4x 10 ft cubes. Do I remember you mentioning that he's a Young Red, so I can better describe? Or is that my imagination?

K(Arcana) to assess Cinder's abilities: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (5) + 7 = 12
Int to remember Cinder accurately for image: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (18) + 7 = 25

I did say he's a young adult red.

The wizard raises her index finger "Ah yes. You clearly describe a young adult red dragon. A very dangerous foe. His breath alone could end us all in one great gout. Not an enemy to attack head on, even with ample reinforcements." She nods with a slight, hesitant smile toward Snowball. "Indeed they can be as bad as... mean horses..." The cleric nods to the wizard. "I think she's telling us the truth." But then the undine turns to the monsters, his hands on his hips. "But that doesn't mean you won't betray us first chance you get. Promise you won't attack or desert us!"

Either say you will attack or desert, say you won't and stick to it, or bluff and keep your options open.

Xeria, in an uncommon moment of emotion and weakness, tells the truth as she worries and tends to Ripper, "We want it gone as much as anyone else. If you promise you won't turn on us when the deed is done, I will promise to keep my part. And that means don't go back and tell others about us so we have to defend ourselves constantly."

With a tear in her eye, "For us, this is our only home."

At long last Gorthug spoke to his orcish counterpart. Orcish”Do they ever shut up?” He continued staring, trying to size him up. Was this a runt who had fled his tribe? A warrior who escaped after failing to challenge a chieftain? What could have brought him to such company?

"Launch Bob no fight dragon! Welllll..... okay, Launch Bob hide in back around corner and throw rocks at dragon."

he is telling the truth. that's my gameplan.

The hulking orc looks back at Gorthug and shruks. Orcish: "I do not care if I fight a skeleton or a dragon, either will fall."

Can I get a couple more party members to weigh in on this?

Snowball rotates her head one way and then the other in thought.
"Want Snowball help? Snowball want some shiny. If Snowball can have shiny... Snowball can help. Snowball can ice. Cinder no like ice."

that's a help until at least Cinder is gone xD

The adventurers look at each other quietly for a moment, then nod firmly. "Alright, we'll help you fight this dragon and split the treasure half and half" the tiefling wizard declares. "That will be more than fair. But the difficulty is what plan we will adopt. From what you describe, one blast from this creature could incapacitate all of us, letting it kill us at leisure. Now if we could catch him sleeping..." the female in long robes ponders.

"Yes, yes, sleeping makes things not pay attention. Launch Bob knows this because he has seen things sleep before!"

Bob's input is deemed quite useful by all...or at least by Bob.

Having been on some sort of mental vacation for the entirety of the excitement, Cindy perks up on hearing about sleep.

"Sleeping? I can help you quite a lot if we could get him while he's sleeping..."

She looks blankly around at the group, trying to figure out why there are all of a sudden so many more people in the room.

YAY! ACTUALLY REALLY REALLY BACK NOW! ALL DRAMAS ARE COMPLETED!!!

"If we want to catch him asleep, we'll need to make sure we can all keep quiet while moving. And we may have to worry about other denizens of the dungeon alerting him--the goblins, for example."

OrcishWe are to fight the dragon? Good. Freedom from the dragon or freedom from the curse.” Gorthug stated, before going back to waiting for the soft-skins to finish talking.

Tina hears Goldslip's concerns, "Indeed. We need to distract the goblins. Then again, if we can just draw Cinder into Lucian's study, we could bring these adventurers through the back door. If we monstrous folk are on the other side of him, then he would start off caught in our crossfire."

"No cross-fire. Ice better." Snowball comments, not really thinking about how to waste Cinder's first breath of fire (or anything even remotely strategic).

The adventurers look with some confusion at Bob, who states that things sleep, and Snowball, who seems to be on her own page entirely. The goblin pipes up "But can you move quietly? I know that I can but I'm worried about some of you..." She eyes Gorthug in particular. "Besides, do you even know when this dragon sleeps? How will we know it's time?"

"We show you where he sleeps and you peak around corner. Good?"

Most of us can move as quietly as we would like. Perhaps we have an initial group move into position, and silently signal the rest?"

Cindy suddenly begins to move again and looks at the goblin. "If we find him asleep I can make his dreams do things. It might help set up your attack." Having said her part, she looks back forward and returns to her silent stasis with one quick shot.

"And yes, I can be quiet." is her last comment before fully returning to the silence of a doll.

Cindy doesn't like these people.

Xeria will watch the negotiations, but is more worried about Ripper than anything else.

The cleric shakes his head. "No we aren't sneaking toward the dragon until you can tell us that he is asleep. And I shouldn't even try to sneak up on the dragon, even when he is asleep. I am not particularly quiet or stealthy. You tell us when he is asleep then the stealthy ones will sneak into position. But this silent signal sounds good. How will you do that? And what is the deal with these other goblins? How are you going to approach that?" The adventurers make it quite plain they are not going to approach a juvenile red dragon without a very solid plan.

"Launch Bob can do silent signal! Launch Bob talks to brains! Think what you want to say, Launch Bob sends out message to all the brains!"

"I think catching him asleep would be nice, but requires too many things that could go wrong. I suggest we wait until he's in Lucian's chambers, or lure him in, and then our visitors can come in through the back door. Not much stealth needed there. Then Cinder is surrounded.

Optimally, we would have some way to immobilize him. Does anybody know anything about collapsing a ceiling?"

The tiefling shrugs. "I know a bit about collapsing structures but this cave seems pretty solid. We'd need some heavy firepower to bring it down." The cleric eyes Piedmontina's tiny form and retorts "So if we surround him while he's awake. Are you going to be on the side that gets roasted to death?" The undine man of the cloth shakes his head. "No. I don't see any reason to attack that beast while it is awake."

The barbarian grins at Bob. "Silent signal good. Talk brains."

"Yes, fire bad. Is magic for no-fire? I think mama knew..." Snowball trails off, slumping to the ground as she remembers Lucian.

Bob quivers in laughter as the barbarian specifically addresses him. Finally, Bob has found his equal in intelligence, not an easy thing to do. He speaks directly to the barb. "BRAINS! Hee hee hee."

The cleric nods to Snowball "Well I can provide some protection to one or two of us from the dragon's fire but we will still be damaged by it and could quickly die."

We can get a couple resist energies cast.

The goblin speaks up "So how about us sneaky ones go see if the dragon's asleep?"

Tina, who is still invisible, offers "Good thinking, shorty. I can go find him, and figure out what he's up to." She finishes off a little flask, and it appears in mid air as she tosses it over her shoulder, before going off quietly in search of Cinder.

Stealth: 1d20 + 35 ⇒ (2) + 35 = 37ignoring invisibility bonus because of Blindsense

Tina and the goblin head off to visit Cinder. They very quietly poke their head around the corner into his lair. Cinder is awake and bellows "Have you come to pay homage to me, my goblin servant!?" The goblin looks to Tina for ideas.

Tina floats into the room, and makes herself visible. "Ah, good afternoon, master Cinder. I merely wish to inform you that one of Lucian's goblin scouts have returned. I do not know if she informed you, but she sent a few goblins out occasionally to investigate rumors of treasure or acquire supplies with which she did not want to burden herself. Now that you are master of Last Hill, I suppose that this goblin's report of treasure in the orklands would best belong to you? If you wish the scout to make their own report, I can show them in, else I can pass along the summary they gave me. As always, your wishes are my commands, master."

bluff: 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (10) + 7 = 17

Cinder would have to roll negatives on a d20 to believe that bluff...

Cinder squints his eyes at Tina and growls deeply. "What are you playing at? Why have you tried to lie to me!?" Black smoke begins curling up from his flared nostrils. He turns to the goblin. "Slave! Tell me what is going on here!" The goblin yelps in surprise and darts back around the corner, running as fast as she can. Cinder roars and walks right up to Tina's face. "Why are you lying and why are my goblins disobeying!?"

Lying to him will not be easy so you might need to be very creative...

Meanwhile, the monsters and adventurers stand around uneasily near the entrance to the cave. The wizard strokes her chin and states "So, who thinks they are stealthy enough to sneak up on a sleeping dragon? And who isn't? What should we do with those who aren't very quiet?" She cocks her head, thinking. "Or we could try to find a scroll of silence in town. I could cast that on us to help us all try to get in quietly."

Cinder has blindsense but would be sleeping and Snowball and I already discussed in PMs that I'm not going to rule blindsense as "immune to stealth" in this game. I think I would let silence grant a +15 to stealth but give him a +5 to perception thanks to blindsense. Given that effective +10 bonus, who thinks they can reliably sneak up on a sleeping juvenile red dragon?

Bob has a 20 in stealth. He could probably do it if he gets another +10.

"Launch Bob is sneaky. Launch Bob is quiet. Launch Bob is many great things including great."

Xeria has a +20 Stealth as well and the dragon appears to have a +18 perception. With the +10/+5 that leaves a +7 differential. Not too bad.

Where are the hobbits with invisibility rings when you need them?

"I apologize, master Cinder. I acted as a vizier, of sorts to Lucian, taking responsibility for the daily upkeep of the cave, permitting her to focus on more important matters. The goblins are uncertain that you will be as benevolent a master as Lucian was.

Tina is Very sneaky. If there's a person limit on silence, she won't need it

What about Ripper? Stealth team or no?

Tina, I suppose that is partially true, maybe?

Cinder eyes Tina narrowly. "Well get those goblins in line. Tell them that if they have any doubts, they can come complain to me directly. Or I'll come deal with them. Now get out of here!" Cinder growls and yawns slightly.

Who else wants to be on stealth team?

As you command, master, Tina shouts as she flies away quickly.

What room was Cinder in?

With a base +13 to stealth, Snowball probably shouldn't be on the stealth team. Unless burrowing in is easy to coordinate >:3

Back with the others, Snowball waits impatiently. "Snowball want meat." she says as she alternates between scratching herself and pacing.

Lucian's chamber/study.

I'll let you guys work out your own math and risk/reward analysis for who should be on the stealth team. It would be great for Gorthug to get an attack against a sleeping Cinder, for example, but he's not that stealthy. Leaving him out could mean you all get killed because Cinder doesn't take enough damage/debuff in the surprise round. Including him could mean you all get killed because Cinder hears him and wakes up too soon. *shrug*

The adventurers also look confused as you debate about plans and it seems unclear which members will do what. The wizard speaks up "If it helps, I can cast another spell or two to help with the sneaking."

Ripper is currently unconscious with stabilized negative hp. She's more on the disabled team :D

I believe Goldslip can deal with that for you. Perhaps ask her IC.

"Oh! Oh! Bob is ever so smart, Bob is ever so good at things like planning dragon murder. Old master, master so smart and so good, old master would bring monsters out of thin air. Tina do that too. You wizard and you Tina pop monster out of thin air right next to dragon and then all of them at same time cut off dragon head."

Anyone who can, summons monsters right next to dragon and does simultaneous Coup De Grace while the entire party waits around the corner.

Orcish”I tire of this half-life. And I tire of this incessant planning. Do any have the power to make me invisible? I will remove the head from the dragon while it sleeps. And if I fail? I cannot bring myself to care. I feel nothing. No air fills my lungs, no heart beats in my chest. Better to be destroyed in war than to slowly rot into nothing.” Gorthug hissed, his voice but a pale echo of what it was in life.

”And if I fail, then the fey creature can appear and apprehend me. It will keep you in the beast’s favor. Perhaps even allow you the honor of guarding it while it sleeps so that you may try again.”

Totally forgot Goldslip's healing doesn't stop :D I'm still thinking in terms of CLW.

Xeria, kneeling down by the injured Ripper, looks up at Goldslip and trying to hold back tears asks, "Please Goldslip, can you help her? I don't know what I'd do if she died."

"Oh, no!" Goldslip gasps. "Of course, I'll help. I'm sorry she was so injured."

Goldslip deactivates her life link on Gorthug, and activates it on Ripper.

Then she translates Gorthug's statements into Common. "Gorthug wants to cut off the dragon's head while it sleeps. Do we have the means to allow him to approach without waking Cinder?"