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A good suggetion Sir Casta, I believe that night combat suits us far more then our adversaries
Ambush them as they camp. Pit Traps, Grease spells. Traps at their point of extry. Alexandr offers. We have the capability to appear as what we are not as we strike at them, this is to be considered as well. Should we attack at night, stringing ropes on their way back may well knock out a soldier fortunate enough to escape us.
Agreed, I find heists/infiltations are probably hardest to do play by post, since nobody wants to pull the trigger, and you are missing the information from other people looking or talking at/to you when you do something.
I think nobody really wants to pull the trigger (which is a common thing for infiltration missions). Straight ambushing outlying parties is probably still best practice, and nothing gets things unstuck as quickly as a little fight. Imho.
Having the patrol disappear is good, sneaking in as guard is risky, guards will know each other, and we are unlikely to even get their names. Alexandr muses.
Do we have any means of creating auditory hallucinations? Have some of the Lastwall soldiers in the bar hear the Dwarfs singing drinking songs that are rude to humans, a fight breaks out, and we socially manipulate things into a breakdown of business relations? Alexandr proposes.
I am still up.
Does any of us have the spell auditory hallucination? Its great for stirring up some trouble.
Alexandr, looking like a pretty average mercenary, approaches the dwarfs in a friendly manner.
Sorry for he slow posting pace.
After relocating most of his money in a compartment on the inside of his breastplate, leaving only a smaller amount on his "moneybag", Alexandr seeks out the dwarfs.
Alexandr hits a bar, chugging some booze, listening to some tales, venturing only generic things on his own. In particular, how much are local soldiers b+~+&ing, how paid are they, anyone having beef with anyone else? Does he spot gambling, Gambling debts are a possible hook after all.
Clearly, the long term solution is a Coffin inside a devastator Golem.
Are you reading my mind mylady?
Alexandr gives the area they are in a good glance over, checking for overall burnability, defensiveness, or possible covered approaches a storming army may utilize.
Visibility from northern approaches at X feet, moderate amount of cover, terrains suitability for trenchworks questionable on account of inundation. He dictates, then pauses mentally. Investigate possibiliy of collapsing parts of the wall works by creatively transferring subterrain inundation beneath the actual walls.
I wonder if there is a temple of Gorum, it is a god whose tenets I have never violated, and adherence to whom I can claim as part of my "Beerfiend" cover identity. Can I actually ask about that without looking like a fool?
He otherwise moves towards the "nice inns and shops be here" area.
The most circuitous way our mission has taken so far, I would be unsurprised if certain enquiries, at some point, may neccessiate a hopefull brief intermezzo in this den of vice
My preference would be the Auld'rey, perhaps we can find some information, as well as possible business contacts, in its enviroments. A frontier town such as this should typically have some mercenary contracts available.
Understood Alexandr acknowldges.
How about reasonable half truth? We were searching for lost lore on curing vampirism, ran into a bunch of Dagon worshipping Boggards, killed their leader in a duel after which the other Boggards offered to mend their ways, providing us with handy directions to an evil looking castle He looks at Ryzzntyg Knowing that there are some Desna worshipping Boggards in the area, and knowing that getting turned into a Boggard would seriously reduce my chances with the ladies, I graciously opted to give them the opportunity to do just that. We could drop that we did give the castle a one over, but the Iomedeans relics were in place, and we werent dumb enough to mess with them, so nothing was actually there? Alex offers.
Eh, not exactly a specialist on religious matters but...
So, Saerenrae is basically about redemption, which means that you take an evil doer, set him on fire, and then keep him on fire until he pledges to no longer do evil. Supposedly it works vs people with neither self worth nor fire resistance. He pauses
The actually cool thing is that her daughter Lady Shamira the ardent dream did some fun stuff. Like, turning up one day in Lady Nocticulas bedchambers, and thats like, not a place where you can easily get to uninvited, ending up as her consort and second in command after a couple of weeks of pleasure, and incinerating an army of supposedly fire immune devils, oh, she also killed a rival by farting a fireball at him. But dont tell that to an actual Saerenrite. She also throws excellent parties, although its not as if they would be particularly survivable for me at my current level. Now he appears to actually know what he is talking about.
Ahh, backstories Alexandr pauses, thinking.
Spoiler:
He turns to Stanislav Stanislav, let me propose the following identity for you: You are Vyacheslav Romandanovsky, scion of a once mighty Ustalavian house fallen into a degree of troubles. Perturbed by your native nations practices, you have struck out as a rather well resourced adventurer. Your aim is to free your most beloved from the curse of Vampirism, which incidentally requires to find a cure for it. And even more incidentally, gives you a completely righteous reason to gobble up any Vampire Lore. Turning towards Cori
Looking at Casta,
Then at Vinnick
Alexandr looks longest at Rhyzzntig, clearly struggling with a plausible cover identity for her.
As to myself, I am Rorek "Beerfiend" Stygvarson. Half Orc, Half Kellid, full drunkard and known for my great ability to disappear booze in my immidiate vicinity. Hired muscle with no sense of self preservation is a valueable assets in Sir Vyacheslavs travels!
Perhaps we all just use mundane means to change our haircolor? He adresses the entire group.
A cover that is close to the truth could work best, we are adventurers, here to unload some loot and see if we "accidentaly" solved any outstanding bounty hunting quests.
The primitives have a rather intelligent priest that succesfully used me to ursurp his tribes leadership position, it was cunningly done of him, although not against our interest as he would be one of our first vasalls. I do not believe that any in our party are very interested in micromanaging a tribe of Boggards, some things are best delegated. Alexandr shares his opinion on the Boggard priest, admitting that he got manipulated. There are two Daemons, both of them individually somewhat more powerfull then myself, and thus not a threat to you. There is also a shadowy creature of unknown to me nature, we believe to have come to an understanding with both it and the Daemons.
There is some recruiting potential, but nothing that would join before we would show our might, in an umambigious and undisputable way. Its leaderships alignment is similar to my own, and those of the shopkeepers that are not slated
I joined at level 5, Urban Bloodrager 4 Fracured mind 1
Note to self, make sure to procure some performance enchancers Alexandr thinks at Coris statement. Hmm, Litheria flowers may be cheaper and less risky, but I definitly need to be more powerful before dating some of my assassin guilds colleagues My thanks for your genorosity Lord Cardinal Alexandr gives a polite but not to deep bow. As expected, the towns leaders where noncommittal to the thought of switching overlords, but will fall in line with the wind should fire axe prevail over his current foes. They will yield to the strongest, while abstaining from hostilies as much as they can. The town is currently cash strapped, and highly uncertain of its future, and not a cost efficient locale to productively sell some of our newly acquired assets. Have you met the charming inhabitants of our new home yet? I certainly hope they did not dare to disrespect your authority, Lord Cardinal. Alexandr speaks as he tries to envision a possible clash between Hexxor and Vexxor vs the Cardinal in his mind, and decides the outcome would be 2 less Daemons and a slightly annoyed Lord Cardinal.
Fully agreed!
Half Orc Urban Bloodrager/ Fractured mind dip here. Mechanically speaking, character level 5, Diplomacy (vs humanoids) 12 above character level, can currently be increased to 16 above character level via burst of insight (+21), bluff 9 above character level, I do not have a circlet of persuasion or a charisma heaband yet. Smattering of knowledge skills to assist actually competent party members, existing stealh.
It is a bit harder to diplomatize that well with a Barb rather then a Bloodrager, but Bloodragers can be really nuts in social situations without paying that much of an opportunity cost.
Alexandr guys eyes of the eagle for 2.5K cash.
Perhaps a more expanded deal could be considered? Alexandr says as he pays the list price of 2.5K for the eyes of the eagle. We do quite frequently come across unusual items, which can often be unsuitable to us directly. If we can come to a long term agreement, then something like us offering them to you first could certainly be arranged for these item.
Sure good Sir, I shall be back then. He walks out utterly pokerfaced.
Alexandr enters Kemmlers shop (which is to my understanding a different shop) then the one the scene is taking place. Greetings, I heard you had some eyes of the eagle in your inventory?
I am fairly certain that immidiate actions can be used on your turn. Rulebook: However, unlike a swift action, an immediate action can be performed at any time—even if it’s not your turn. The wording is pretty clear that you can use immidiate actions on your own turn (can be performed at any time), it of course consumes your swift action slot if you do so. Immidiate action is more desireable then swift action, because you can, but not have to, use it out of turn. I wasnt actually aware that it could be used for out of turn movement in this case, could be really useful to get Stannis in position for AoO shenanigians as well. Less good on Cori because Antipaladin swift actions are pretty contested, still a potent option. Alex is a Bloodrager, there are some Bloodrager builds that make use of swifts, but these are often primalists, or some specific bloodlines with "activate as a swift" rage powers. The most likely use of swift actions at low levels will be casting cheetah sprint, at higher levels, Raging Brutality is a thing of course.
My thanks, and of course I am just an adventurer of no consequence whatsorever. Alexandr bids his leave with a friendly wink, before heading to Kemler's Goods.
Interesting, I though Fire Axe to be about as strong at least as the Empty Hand hmmm. Is he going for the "win great victory over the foe of all Orc-Hood, Lastwall, to steal Empty Hand Coalition members" play.
Which naturally opens possibilities to you should you assess the situation, powerwise, between the Fire Axe and the Empty Hand to be changing in the former favor. As a wholly plausibly deniable show of our friendly intentions, we are providing some cash infusions into your towns economy, which would look exactly like adventurers buying things to anyone uninvolved. With this, I would take my leave to join in the "welcome cash infusion" activity, you would not by chance know if and where Stagger proof boots or Eyes of the eagle could be found in your charming town?
Alexandr makes the neccessary move to ask for an informal audience. On the assumption that it is granted, he would ask for one with few if any witnesses, freely offering to disarm himself if they have security concerns.
Spoiler:
. Greetings Good Sirs, I am Alexandr, and you likely know of me, and my association to my ally Fire Axe from your own spies. Alexandr pauses. Letting the daze from his burst wash off. As such, lets us not beat around the bush, I know of your economic troubles owing the the cleft heads greed, and would be quite interested in knowing exactly how much they demand. There are possiblities of different overlords, one of them more distant and thus less intrusive, another more well, urbane, and appreciative of things other then gold or slaves, that could surface for your community in the near future. Of course, this has to be worthwhile and both alternatives would consider themselfs less greedy then the cleft heads. We do not of course, expect you to throw in your lot with our organization before showing that we are more then equal of the Cleft Heads in terms of violence. In the meantime, we are already providing your community with a nice little and completely deniable cash infusion, as we are clearly just simple adventurers buying things in your community. He rolls his eyes with a chuckle.
Sense motive roll, GM only do not read: Alexandr is pretty arrogant and will assume they cannot succesfully lie to him if this sense motive fails, I will not read this spoiler myself.
Alexandr makes polite and discrete inquiries on how to arrange an informal meeting with the towns leadership.
Dont worry, I do not intend to start any duels my friends He reassures his allies. In a quite moment out of earshot. Dear Lady Coriandrinne, Sir Stanislav, your presence at a possible informal parley with the towns leadership would be most welcome. I intend to find out how much they owe the orcs currently not beholden to fire axe, to ease their eventual vasallisation to either ourselfs or fireaxe, I am a half orc myself, but the presence of you two would go a long way to make vasallizsation to fire axe, or to us, seem far more attractive compared to
Always ready for villainy.
Get better! May your sense of taste be unimpeded!
Alexandr would certainly share this information after the 2 hours, I think everyone in the away team is currently on their own exploring? All plots are of course totally optional :). I think finding out how much the cleft heads want without committing to aiding the town is reasonable and well "nice to know".
Fully on board with only carrying 20% with us. Possibly offer a "loan" to freetown leadership?
Plotting time! Several possible risk reward options: extremely low risk and quite low reward:
Find out how much Cleft heads were demanding, inform Fire Axe of that, giving him an easy way to "outbid" the cleft heads and weakening the "not our orcs" hold on the region. low risk some reward:
After figuring out exactly how much the Cleft Heads demanded (should be easy), We very politely introduce ourselfs to local leadership as "totally not in Fire Axes employ" wink wink nudge nudge, while informing them that Fire Axe has become rather civilized and frighteningly effective, in terms of organization, logistics etc. and may well accept tribute, including in information and manufactored goods, rather then just slaves or gold. If Freedom town refuses to pay the Cleft heads, the cleft heads, who are allies of our foes, will march on Freedom town, and probably be sitting ducks for Fire Axe. Taking out a threat in his flank should please Fireaxe, and likely not tarnish the "big timer" much. Given how Orcs work, if the majority of the Cleft head leadership are killed, the rest may well join he victorious fire axes. High risk high reward: Take out cleft head leadership on behalf of Fire Axe, swelling his numbers. Puts us in a really strong position of claiming Freetown as our own, no real idea if this is within our capability. Like, a major Orc tribe is probably endowed with a chieftain that would best any of us in a duel. Unless we cheat like hell
How interesting! Alexandr thinks, a plan forming in his head.
Long term, Freedom town will either be under our or under Fireaxes rule, is Fireaxe pragmatic enough to tolerate them?
I do not think it to be an unreasonable request to ask for "authority" over Freedom town from fireaxe after he won the initial battle, given that the land currently belongs to White hairs allies of the cleft head. Plots are rapidly forming in Alexandrs head.
All of the interesting deities exclusively help those who help themselfs friend Alexandr says as he moves of the barge. He promptly begins to avail himself of the local rumor mill, being everybit the adventuring merc he is.
Hmmph, probably prudent to sent some tribute to Fire Axe? With an attached note that you are just harmless humans, and will sent tribute to whoever wins? Alexandr speaks as if discussing different ways of not getting wet if it rains.
Alex, being a penny pincher and never missing a chance to show off, pays 5 copper for himself and his comrades (Cori and who else?).
Alexandr obviosly joins the freetown traveling group, to the surprise of most likely no one. Greetings good Sir He adresses the pipe smoking man. We seek passage, let us speak about the price. Lol Nat 1! |