yes, good idea
Stealth, take ten, a total of 14
Nodding, Messer tried to sneak along too.
The party skulks through the deserted streets of the occupied town. Sticking to the alleys and shadows, you manage to avoid any attention as you make your way towards the inner harbour. Eventually the western harbour gate comes into view.
From the shelter of a nearby alley, you survey the situation. The gate is illuminated by a gas lamp, and though it stands open, you can see that a bored looking guard leaning against the stonework stands between you and your destination.
Ducking back behind cover, Preach whispered to the other constables, "Seems we either need a distraction or a way to take him out silently."
Without thinking he'd drawn the twins, with a shake of his head he re-holstered them, quiet they were not!
Bryn estimates the distance to the guard, "If it's just the one, I can probably hit him with the blowgun and sleep poison".
Alexandra looks about on the ground a moment and picks up a good sized rock. ”There is always the ild tried and true way to distract someone. At least get them to go in a direction we want.” she mentioned to the others in a whispered tone from the shadows.
"Either works for me. Drawing him away will be less noticeable than a sleeping guard, but putting someone to sleep with a poison dart is just so much cooler." Juliet's eyes glint in the shadows as she imagines the scene in her head, the action sequence playing out like one of Von Dammned's very best stage plays.
"Both have risks, but I'm not suited for either," Messer added apologetically. His magic was very limited, sadly, and he didn't know a spell to deal with this anyway. It was something he was going to have to look into.
Adam nodded at Alexandra's idea and asked Juliet, "That thing you did with Mathilde has got me thinking, if we where to throw a rock to distract the guard do you think Mathilde could lead him on a merry chase?"
Juliet smiles. "Mathilde could lead him on a chase, but only for 50 feet from me. We're tied together, like a watchdog and its post."
"She's not bound by our natural laws though, so she could move back through walls towards us. He'd be likely to keep going."
Well we need to do something, so let's go with Juliet's plan, but keep the blowdart as a plan b. And yes, the blowdart is cooler, but riskier
Mathilde moves forward, putting her wispy, flickering self as close to the guard as possible, and as far from the party as she can . Juliet nods, mouthing the word ready.
Juliet's phantom draws the guard's attention. He steps out a bit from from beneath the gate, weapon gripped tightly, and calls out, "Who goes there?"
Alex looks to the others and not seeing much action she gives a shrug and then says quietly to Juliet, "Can you have Mathilde disappear, into a wall or just not be within sight when I say. We can mess with the guy if you can keep this up for a short bit and perhaps draw him closer for a bit of sleepy time"
The woman readies her rock to hit the wall opposite direction of the spirit, "Ready... now." She waits a moment for the spirit to disappear and throws the rock...
Juliet nods and her face goes slightly slack, as if her concentration is elsewhere.
Mathilde's form flickers for just and instant, and the woman fades through the nearest wall, appearing again a few seconds later closer to the party and obscured from the guard's view.
Preach fingers the hilts of his guns wishing he had someway to contribute quietly. Quietly wasn't in the twins nature did he though with a wry smile.
Messer watched, hopeful that they'd resolve this without violence, but the fingers of the iron hand gained and lost during the last war flexed as he hoped, showing his clear uncertainly of the situation.
Bryn moves with the rest of the group, directing folks to move as needed along the wall.
Looking to Juliet in a very hushed tone now, "And if Mathilde could make another appeearance, not from the same spot she was at... maybe we scare this guy... or get him far enough away so we can get through."
Nodding, Juliet goes slack again, her mouth moving silently as she carries on a conversation with her phantom.
Matilda flickers, appears, disappears, slides through solid objects and otherwise does various spooky stuff. Thoroughly unnerved, the guard takes off with a panicky wail, bolting to the west towards one of the outer gates, where other of his fellows are surely on duty.
Taking advantage of distraction, the party hustles through the gate, moving towards the harbor proper. From the waterfront, you can easily get on top of the sea wall and make your way to the lighthouse.
Surveying the scene, you see that sea wall is lit with gas lamps evenly spaced every 60ft . Also, unlike the part of the fortress you just passed through, you can see that this area is heavily guarded, with multiple rebels patrolling along the sea wall between you and the lighthouse.
Preach nods with satisfaction as Mathilde does her thing. Under his breath he breathed, "Remarkable..." before ending in a sharp sigh as he noted the heavily guarded sea wall. Sneaking past seemed nigh impossible.
Scratching his chin, he thought furiously, "I don't fancy fighting my way through that lot. Either we'd need to bluff our way past or have one hell of a distraction."
"Mmmmm" Preach grunted appreciatively when Alexandra mentioned swimming, "Did we get that wand of Monkey Fish in the end? Alternatively I wonder if we couldn't 'borrow' a small boat although I'm no sailor..."
"Boat won't work," Messer murmured, "We'd be seen too easily. We need to get to the lighthouse and drop the seagate, as I understand it. Once it's open the forces from outside can attack, right? That was the other officers mission. But once the seagate is opening there's no way these guys aren't going to notice, and we'll need to hold it until it either can't be re-raised or there's no point." He sighed. "I think we need a big distraction to move these guys, and keep them moved for a while."
A fire? Or a riot? Of course, we would need people for that last one.
"While possible, it would be difficult to cross that," she motions to partially lit walkway to the lighthouse, "Much ground unnoticed."
Alex continued in soft voice, "Swimming to the lighthouse, appeared to be another option. If we had more waterbreathing potions or scrolls even better as we would be underwater as well."
Alsah thinks
Maybe we are overthinking this. Why not pretend to be the local forces. After all, they don't know we are here, and from the look of things, they aren't expecting an attack. We look like Risans because that's what we are.
She smiles
All we need is to find out how they greet each other, code words or such. They are a sizable force. They won't know each other by sight.
"It's not impossible," Messer agreed, but with clear doubts. "A code phrase is most likely to be the biggest drawback, and we'll need to hide any guns. And my arm." It was a magic device, not a technological one, and frankly Messer didn't really under how the thing had come to be attached - but a metal arm looked like Danor tech.
Keep your cloak over it. And guns...well pistols are easy enough
"We should grab the uniforms of one of the patrols first," suggests Bryn.
Preach shrugged, "Alsah's right we are Risuri and they likely won't know everyone by sight. Uniforms would be helpful if we tried to bluff our way through and reason to go there. Perhaps a fake mission from their command - expanding patrols or some such. Then there's the small matter of getting the uniforms without killing anyone or raising a general alarm." He patted the hilts of his pistols, "These things are too noisy if we're trying to be subtle, at least out in the open unless one of you casts a spell from one of those silence scrolls on me. Actually that sounds like a viable approach, ambush them under the effect of a silence and knock them out pronto and nobody's the wiser at least for a while."
Alex looks to the others and in whispers, "We should avoid fighting if we can. The unpredictability of evens leaves to many outcomes to account for."
"We do not have a a lot of time. If we are going to stroll across and act like we belong, let us have our storey down the best we can before heading across. And whomever is best at speaking, should do so as well." the woman comments, "Do not get me wrong a would prefer a stealthier approach, another swim is not going to hurt us, but if we do this do it with some thought."
Preach shrugged, "Alsah's right we are Risuri and they likely won't know everyone by sight. Uniforms would be helpful if we tried to bluff our way through and reason to go there. Perhaps a fake mission from their command - expanding patrols or some such. Then there's the small matter of getting the uniforms without killing anyone or raising a general alarm." He patted the hilts of his pistols, "These things are too noisy if we're trying to be subtle, at least out in the open unless one of you casts a spell from one of those silence scrolls on me. Actually that sounds like a viable approach, ambush them under the effect of a silence and knock them out pronto and nobody's the wiser at least for a while."
"I was thinking the same. We can leave them tied up so that they are found in the morning, which will be long enough for us to finish our mission."
Then let's find some disguises. I have some scrolls of webbolt and sleep that will help
Preach nodded to Alsah, those scrolls sounded like they'd be very helpful.
After Alexandra spoke, Preach added "I'm not averse to a stealthy approach, however if we do decide to bluff our way in we need a story like Alexandra says. Assuming we're in guard uniforms my proposal would be we're performing a routine inspection. What do you think, could this work?"