Clayton Stone's page

(Like... Cheryl? Cheryl. Sure.)

Alright, well, Clayton's going to get go ahead and get the apprentices safely outside of the walls either way, but if he's got enough earth glide time left to get in and out reliably once more, he might still be in the cage whenever the denizens of Damning manage to batter down his wall. If there's time, he'll regroup with the rest of the group and ask their opinion. Do we want to leave the bandits to abandon town or deal with this on their own, wait around nearby to see what happens at moonrise, make ourselves known before then, or just set ourselves up as the sacrifices and see if we're a little harder to eat? (Clayton probably favors remaining hidden nearby and possibly swooping in if something large and rock-deserving shows up or if more innocent-ish sacrifices get brought out, but he's still 50/50 on whether this settlement should even be allowed to continue existing, so he'll defer to the group.)

Clayton feels that he might need a few minutes to explain the situation to the apprentices, and wouldn't want to rush an introduction to Karlus, as the boy sounds like a decent sort and there's certainly no reason to be rude to him. For this reason, he's going to use Earth Glide to glide directly beneath the cage, but paying careful attention to the radius of his blindsense, which should allow him to detect an antimagic field as an opaque blank cutting into his awareness, which he's rather afraid of after the lich and which has the potential to really ruin his plan, so he's keeping his eyes are open for one, so to speak. (If he encounters such a thing, he'll immediately retreat to consider other options. I figure he'd be more wary of one than usual for the simple reason that their apprentices have not been able to escape.)

Once beneath the cage, he's going to use Wall Of Stone to completely enclose the wooden cage within a stone box that should rise suddenly from the ground on all sides and then clap shut overhead, with a few small slits in the roof for air just in case there's a delay, and only once the cage is enclosed and the apprentices shielded from prying eyes outside that Clayton will pop out of the ground in a relaxed lotus position right in the cage with the apprentices, and with a Light orison cast on a pebble in his hand just for their sake.

As the stone cube (rectangle? cone?) will be there until someone manages to break it down into rubble (doable, but probably not easy or quick) Clayton will have a calm chat with the apprentices first, just to make sure there's not more to the situation than he's aware of and that escape is indeed the best plan. If nothing too surprising is revealed that would change his mind, he should have enough time to prep them for the dive and shouldn't have to work too hard to convince them, with the possible exception of Karlus, unless their motivations are somewhat different than he'd expect due to new information or being drugged or some such. He's also going to take the opportunity to see if any of them seem in some way other than themselves, or acting suspicious, or, you know, anything other than generally traumatized.

If there are no hiccups (a very un-Clayton turn of events) and the apprentices don't say anything that make him think they shouldn't escape just yet, then whenever the denizens of Damning manage to break into this stone cube that has suddenly enveloped their captives, they should find a wooden cage with five figures slumped in it as if dead. Only upon actually getting a decent look would they notice that their captives have been transformed by some dark and powerful magic into scarecrows.

Perception: 1d20 + 15 ⇒ (2) + 15 = 17 (to see if anything "looks" different about the apprentices)
Sense Motive: 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (1) + 6 = 7 (to see if anything sounds different about the apprentices)
Diplomacy: 1d20 + 22 ⇒ (13) + 22 = 35 (to quickly convince them to tell him everything and to be cool about being spirited away through the ground)

Are Lucas and Thym outside of the wall at this point, or inside?

If the basic layout and the location of the apprentices is communicated to Clayton, he'll ask a few additional details. Namely, approximately how far is it from the timber prison to the town wall? (And how far is the drop-off from the base of the wall to the ground beyond the hill?)

Clayton will ask permission whenever plausible to do so swiftly, but before leaving the vicinity of Nugget Scorner he will have gathered five scarecrows (though just the human shapes themselves, leaving whatever stakes or branches prop them up) and stuffed them into his bag of holding, which I'm assuming is possible without keeping too close an eye on the bag's capacity (250 cubic feet) given its extradimensional properties and the fact that the scarecrows don't have bones and don't need to breathe. (If it's not, he'll trade a scarecrow's volume of potatoes and give them to the villagers as payment.) If there's as much earthwork in this town as he's been led to believe, he wonders if it may be possible to rescue the hostages without having to spill any blood at all.

But then, Clayton's always wanted his own ziggurat, so he's not terribly opposed to a less pacifistic approach after the apprentices are safe.

Anybody else can go first, and do let me know if there's any reason he shouldn't do this or is needed for something else, but if there's no other plan coming together, Clayton's going to beeline to the wall (waiting for patrols to pass or heading for a spot without a guard nearby if there's a security force, of course) and Earth Glide under to start looking for the apprentices (he should be able to detect them without surfacing if he burrows within 30 feet of them, but would surface on the other side if there was a place to do so undetected to save use of the ability for later, and would start at intuitive places first rather than simply going in a grid or anything). He can bring other people with him, but each one divides the total amount of time he can glide for, so he'd prefer to save it for the prisoners themselves if everybody else can find their own way in.

Clayton has simply given his geology class the week off and warned that his absence may be extended by circumstances beyond his control, but that he will resume deducting points for truancy the moment he returns and that it is the individual responsibility of every student he has to stay vigilant, along with an admittedly half-hearted attempt to compare this to always being on the lookout for imminent earthquakes or volcanic eruptions or something. He's left half a dozen sealed vials of his own blood with three different local clerics with the usual instructions to please resurrect him if he hasn't returned by three staggered dates the following year (long enough in the future to be well after the adventure concludes if something kills him in the course thereof) or if the church receives word of his death from a reputable source.

He has no other loose ends in town and is ready and eager to depart; he worries after the kids, as he refers to all of the low level adventurers whether they're younger than him or not. It rankles a few but is mostly considered endearing.

Clayton, still lacking functioning eyes of any sort, finds nothing whatsoever unusual about Lucas' appearance and, suspecting nothing amiss, is simply pleased that he'll be coming along.

Clayton arrives nearly half an hour later than he'd intended to, his heavy footfalls echoing down the street as the thick marble soles of the latest addition to his long-disused ceramic armor bludgeon the boardwalk's planks near to splintering. His habit of stowing dangerous objects in the living earth to keep them out of the hands of novices had backfired somewhat, and he had spent the full afternoon during which he'd intended to prepare enough food for the journey instead digging around for his full collection of armaments scattered haphazardly beneath Galbraith Mountain; he has instead simply upended half a barrel of assorted unwashed tubers into his bag of holding and resolved to pretend that was all he wanted for the road.

The bandit fortress town of Damning's existence so close to Hammingbell has rankled him for some time, now, and Clayton has long thought that its fortification and geographic position along the old Baker's Road would serve the town far better as a base camp for adventurers and expeditions further east than as the haven for outlaws it currently was, if ever there was momentum enough to scour the current residents. Now, with the apparent kidnapping of his half-loved lab assistant and her companions, he cursed himself for not acting sooner.

Noting Thym's presence by familiar smell of herbs and the little man's distinctive lack of weight on the floorboards, Clayton beelines for the space next to him and leans lightly against the bar, fearful of damaging or breaking a stool in his armor. It is apparent that he's antsy and would like to leave as soon as possible, although upon noting that they're the only two yet present, he does take the time to sheepishly ask Jess if they have enough extra bar snacks this week for him to purchase a full jar for the road.

Hrrrrrrrrm!