In the end, it is up to you to decide whether you're still getting any fun out of this. If the answer to that question is 'yes, I am', I am most down with going on and we will see how things work out! :)
I don't like the idea of putting any extra stress on your shoulders.
"Thank you, Affyria, and yes, please do take your time now that we still have that luxury. Let us be vigilant, for there might be guards coming to see what all the ruckus is about."
Asturu then wipes away what he can and groans, knowing the effort is in vain.
"Sheets!" The literal literary curses as he swats at the pests with his rapier and an angry clenched fist, wrapping up their predicament with one single word.
Ah, right. I've played with a DM for years who wasn't a fan of taking 20 on things like Disable Device. Somehow that's properly ingrained into my system.
Asturu purses his lips and swallows down some expletives when the door resists yet another attempt at being opened. He then rolls his eyes at Timo. "I think I could crack this one if only I got a minute or two to properly fiddle with the lock's innards. Do you think you could grant me that time, Timo?"
Gently, Asturu pushes himself to the front and kneels at the iron door. A leather folio is retrieved from his pack. He rolls it out on the floor, revealing the many tools tucked inside this not quite-legal accessory pack of his. "Ah, let's see... "
Disable Device vs Locked Door:1d20 + 10 + 1d6 ⇒ (17) + 10 + (2) = 29 Used 1 inspiration
Asturu wants those books. Those keys might come to use as well, but I don't know if we need any of the other stuff?
Uneasily, Asturu stands behind Daidalos and listens to the exchange between the guard and his devil-tongued companion. How easy it would be to point at something behind the guard and, when the man turns around, step up and snap his neck. Woe me for these wicked thoughts I'm having.
And then he smirked, seemingly for no reason whatsoever.
"Solid thinking. It makes me think of an old military theorist whose works the church deemed .. impure. Isolate. Corner. Envelop. Destroy. Indeed, good sir, indeed." Asturu then rolls his shoulders and sighs, hoping to vent some of the stress after that rather - admittedly - close call.
I take it no one has a Silence spell or scroll? It sadly isn't on the alchemist spell list.
Guardsman Asturu tries hard, very hard, to ignore everything that's going on around him. Equal parts disgust and worry float about on his face while he stonewalls both the guards and the Father and his pet project, staring at the wall in front of him.
The aristocratic writer figures his companions have the situation under control and, so, leaves the room. Once outside, he will pretend to knock on the priest's door if any soldiers come in to check out what's going on.
Asturu will roam to the halllway (14) and close the door behind him if possible. If enemies come in, he'll beg them closer and request all of them to help him check out what's going on inside. Also, did you use a d10 to roll initiative? Magical :D
Asturu stands next to Daidalos and watches the carnage unfold. "I suppose we all have different appetites ..." reflects the writer as the anti-paladin and brawler feast on the violence.
"Let's stick to the plan and keep things simple. It's hard to stupid up simple, but easy to stupid up the complex and intricate while under pressure."
Shame we didn't come up with it before going into the fort. I do think it is best to keep things simple and keep on moving on, because the more time passes, the bigger the chance someone catches wind of what's going on.
Asturu can pop a Bull's Strength potion and, with STR 22 and unarmed combat proficiency, go in and snap a few necks. He also is somewhat stealthy, so there's that. I don't think we got any stealth sneak attackers, right?
"Are any of you capable to sense the wicked aura of the holy? It might be worth doing so, just in case we happen to stumble into a hallowed chapel and ... well, I'm sure some of us might catch fire."
A 'Detect Good' might be our most useful tool in avoiding the holy grounds. I'm pretty sure that that would set off the alarm in one way or another.
Hrm, I seem to be on the tail end of our current posting rate. Sorry for not giving a ton of input as to what to do, but I don't want to end a decision cycle with fresh input that might cause that cycle to repeat itself. I'll try to check the thread before bedtime more often so I can post a bit more in the earlier phases of our ingame discussions =P
Asturu agrees with the sentiment of taking out the clerics first."Most men and women will falter when they know they walk without their Gods."
As long as don't start leaving behind a trail of bodies, our disguises should give us relative freedom to move about. Don't forget though: the chapel (afaik?) is consecrated/hallowed and we might not be able to enter .. or, if we do, might be forced to do battle at a terrible disadvantage. What I'm trying to say is, we might have to lure the high(?) priest out so we can fight him in a way that won't get us killed automatically.
It is folly to think we can somehow kill some odd sixty men in their sleep. It is probably best to move on, and while we take out strategic targets, come up with a more logical plan for dealing with them. Depending on the number of doors that lead in/out of the barracks, and the ventilation of the room, there's the option of using smoke to choke 'em all - for example.
Anyways, the clerics would be a solid option to strike at first.
Dressed like a lowly guard, Asturu follows his companions. The one distinguishing fact about him is the healer's satchel that's slung over one shoulder, hanging against his hip.
Disguise:1d20 + 13 ⇒ (8) + 13 = 21
Apologies. Easter weekend was somewhat more busy than expected.
And that's a solid bit of unsolicited advice! Clearly this shouldn't be Asturu, because with his CHA of 8 and zero people skills that will be like putting the dog behind the wheel.
When the car is already going over a 100 miles an hour.
It should be relatively easy to come up with an excuse as to why we're inside (assuming we disguise as soldiers) what with all the chaos. 'Patrol from another region, called here to aid and assist' or 'Captain WhoDied was going to receive us' or whatever you have. That way we can find our footing within the place and, in a pinch, offer a reasonable alibi when someone catches us out.
It seems the time is right to assault the keep. I feel like we're taking an enormous gamble, but then I suppose that's the entire idea of this apparent folly. A small group of people assaulting a fort that's inhabited by a professional group of soldiers ... what could go wrong ;)
I say we throw any and all immediate investigations/leads we can still pursue on a pile, to see if we should act on any of them, or if we should move on to attacking the keep.
HP: +11 (8 base, +2 Con, +1 favorite class bonus)
+1 BAB
+1 REF & +1 WILL
Ability score increase +1 STR
Class Skills: 9 (6 Class, 2 INT, 1 Human)
+1 Perception
+1 Disable Device
+1 Stealth
+1 Intimidate
+1 Sense Motive
+1 Acrobatics
+1 Acrobatics
+1 Acrobatics
+1 Climb
Background Skills: 2
+1 Sleight of Hand
+1 Craft Alchemy
Class Feature
Passive bonus to Alchemy skill to create alchemical items goes from +3 to +4
Passive bonus to Disable Disable and Perception with regards to traps goes from +1 to +2
+1 lvl2 extract a day (and +1 from INT bonus for a total of +2)
New extracts known: Bull’s Strength
Studied Combat (Ex) With a keen eye and calculating mind, an investigator can assess the mettle of his opponent to take advantage of gaps in talent and training. At 4th level, an investigator can use a move action to study a single enemy that he can see. Upon doing so, he adds 1/2 his investigator level as an insight bonus on melee attack rolls and as a bonus on damage rolls against the creature. This effect lasts for a number of rounds equal to his Intelligence modifier (minimum 1) or until he deals damage with a studied strike, whichever comes first. The bonus on damage rolls is precision damage, and is not multiplied on a critical hit. An investigator can only have one target of studied combat at a time, and once a creature has become the target of an investigator’s studied combat, he cannot become the target of the same investigator’s studied combat again for 24 hours unless the investigator expends one use of inspiration when taking the move action to use this ability.
Studied Strike (Ex) At 4th level, an investigator can choose to make a studied strike against the target of his studied combat as a free action, upon successfully hitting his studied target with a melee attack, to deal additional damage. The damage is 1d6 at 4th level, and increases by 1d6 for every 2 levels thereafter (to a maximum of 9d6 at 20th level). The damage of studied strike is precision damage and is not multiplied on a critical hit; creatures that are immune to sneak attacks are also immune to studied strike. If the investigator’s attack used a weapon that deals nonlethal damage (like a sap, whip, or an unarmed strike), he may choose to have the additional damage from studied strike be nonlethal damage instead of lethal damage. If the investigator chose to make an attack with a lethal weapon instead deal nonlethal damage (with the usual –4 penalty), the studied strike damage may also deal nonlethal damage. The investigator must be able to see the target well enough to pick out a vital spot and must be able to reach such a spot. An investigator cannot use studied strike against a creature with concealment.
Swift Alchemy (Ex) At 4th level, an investigator can create alchemical items with astounding speed. It takes an investigator half the normal amount of time to create alchemical items. He can also apply poison to a weapon as a move action instead of a standard action.
Possible distractions: 1) giving away a round of drinks to the people present to wash away the bad aftertaste of that awful duel 2) speaking ill of either captain's honor and, so, cause a ruckus 3) everything else. The first is an easy way to get people all riled up and excited and to get their attention for a minute or so. I'd say that's the safest way to go.
"You ready, Dai? Let's hope my fingers haven't grown fat from all this lazying about we've done here." For the first time in ages Asturu is a little bit nervous. Fighting people is one thing, but having someone rely on your rather mediocre lockpicking skills - oh, he remembers how good Price was at it - means one could only fail himself. The worst kind of failure, that is.
Stealth:1d20 + 1d6 + 8 ⇒ (9) + (3) + 8 = 20 Disable Device:1d20 + 1d6 + 11 ⇒ (15) + (2) + 11 = 28 I pre-emptively rolled both stealth and disable device to, if the story continues and evolves, make sure the lack of rolls ain't holding us back.
Damn, that escalated quickly. Well, the quick outcome of the duel might've frozen Daidalos and Asturu in their tracks as I doubt they got much further than the scouting part of their infiltration mission in this little time?
If not, I'm fine with 'moving' on to their sidequest of getting to ze Dwarf's chambers.
Back in 3.5 you could grab an elemental domain and enslave/control an elemental as a cleric. Ha, if you had multiple elemental domains you could even have more of 'em. Theoretically. Not that it was OP or terribly useful, but still.
Also, Kiffex has one amazing stealth modifier. I'm envious.
Asturu addresses Daidalos's inquiry into who has any skill at lockpicks. "I'm, eh, somewhat accomplished in fiddling about with locks. Honesty compels me to admit I'm nowhere near Price's level, but ordinary locks and mechanics should be no problem. Tougher ones might prove to be an issue."
But that's just one of many things they need to talk about. The affair. The wine cellar. Today's tasks. The list seemed never-ending. "About the affair: we could approach it from another angle altogether. Why not lure him out with some blackmail? We can then, if we play it right, frame miss Mott as being the perpetrator. Motive? Eddarly refused to leave his wife for her and wanted to call it quits. Documents and lovers notes are easily forged..." said Asturu with a rare smile. Such devious social experiments reminded him of his youth. In a good way.
The glum writer opens his mouth to chime in, but inadvertently yawns instead. He blinks away the sleep and continues"We should discuss this further in the morning. However, before sleep washes this thought away, let me share the first thought I had upon hearing this: we can poison the wine. Goodnight."
I figure we can 'reset' till morning and take it from there so it doesn't become a narrative mess ;)
It sure as hell wasn't a fun flu xD on the flip side, I won't have to watch my diet the coming months because of the weight I lost.
As for the chapel being so holy no evildoers can enter it: a knowledge religion or spellcraft check might help deduce whether or not that's because of an especially powerful consecrate (hallow?) spell? :)
The hulking feral form of Asturu squats down and eyes the severely injured soldier as he talks to Daidalos. In his mind, Asturu is trying to figure out how to surprise the soldier so that he neither see nor feel his end.
Thinning out the garrison is one way to get closer to achieving our objective. Besides, they might send out a patrol to go looking for these lads and in that brief window of time (days? maybe a week or more?) the garrison will be missing even more men and women. In that sense, we've already created a window of opportunity for ourselves by killing this patrol. Let's say we hear they send out a search party to this area, what if we (after the search party left) give some fake info about having seen these guys somewhere else? So they might send out a second search party?
You could even go one step further and have us use our circles to imitate the young captain and some of his soldiers as we raid and threaten a village, caravan or whatever you have.
I think what we really need is to cut the cord on how we want to take the keep. We're creating avenues of opportunity, let's use them :) thinning out the garrison and having them send men and women out on whatever mission means our task of securing the keep will be a whole lot easier.
