Elspeth nods, "Thanks, Breena. That'll make things much easier. Yes, I think it'll make more sense if you talked to them first, Soar, I'm no good with lies, so I'll untie the prisoners. I'd be able to charm the guards, so I'll be watching if there's any mishaps, but if we're lucky there won't be any."
((I'm assuming the guards are currently facing the prisoners?))
"You head out first, and I'll wait here until the guards stop paying attention to the prisoners."She continues, and places a hand on Soar's shoulder, casting guidance on her friend. "Stay safe, and don't take any risks. Breena, if the plan sounds fine to you we'll be in charge of releasing the prisoners, so be ready.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
I'll wait for you up top, says Breena. She scuttles back around the side, avoiding the direction the guards are looking, and clambers up the side of the hollow:
One of the guards looks around, just as Breena disappears over the top of the cliff side, about twenty-five feet up above the ground. He sniffs and looks back to his companion, resuming their conversation. A moment later, a rope quietly slithers down the side of the cliff.
The rope is about twenty feet from the prison area. During this time, you have got a better look at the stakes, and can see clearly that there are twelve prisoners in total.
(The prisoners will be able to climb up the rope without making an Athletics check provided they are not under intense time pressure and they have help from each other and from the party. They are in poor condition, at least some of them, so it's likely that many will fail to climb the rope otherwise.)
(The guards are not actually facing the prisoners, at this moment.)
Soar looks at Elspeth. "Ready? Thank you for your guidance -- it's always done me wonders. See you on top of the cliff, and good luck. We can do this!"
She heads off into the darkness, looping around toward the main road and then heads back, heading toward the guards. She glances up and mutters a silent apology to Kelemvor. She takes out the flask of oil and dabs a drop on her wrist, wondering if it smells like a really strong proof liquor. She then approaches, singing quietly to herself.
"Praise Tiamat,"she says to the guards, stumbling a bit, and grinning from ear to ear. She begins telling a long, convoluted, drunken, entertaining tale about how Tored and Kanner and a few others who they thought had fallen or been taken in Greenest just made it back to camp, with a whole case of some of the finest libations the monastery had been hiding away. She does her best to engage them with small tidbits of information about the exciting adventure they'd had, with close calls and heroics worthy of the dragon queen, pulling them in with her story, gesticulating wildly, appearing to draw in close but really only getting within 15 feet. She's telling bawdy jokes and trying to be overly, drunkenly, friendly. She keeps pointing backwards and hinting that there is more to be had. The goal in this long story is to give Elspeth time to start freeing prisoners so they can begin freeing other prisoners.
(Guessing there will be rolls! Here are some vanilla d20s: 1217163 and a d4 for guidance: 2)(I hope it's okay that I didn't immediately do verbatim prose for this -- Soar's more charismatic than I am!)
(Okay, so I'll take that as an initial Deception of 17, followed by Performance rolls of 20, 19 and 6.)
Elspeth moves over to the prisoners. You can now see them more clearly; there are exactly four humans, two half-elves, four gnomes and a kobold. They all look pretty beat up and exhausted, and they don't notice you at first, but one or two notice you as you approach. They say nothing, and just watch as you begin to release them.
Elspeth, make a Stealth check to until the prisoners without being noticed. Which group will you untie first, the half-elves, the humans, the gnomes or the kobold? Are you doing anything else as you attempt this?
Elspeth, still keeping a close eye on Soar and the guards she is speaking to, takes her dagger out keeping her movements slow and silent to avoid detection. She presses one finger to her lips, to communicate the need for silence to the prisoners.
((Is it easy to tell who is the strongest/least exhausted out of the prisoners? If so, Elspeth begins by cutting their ropes, else, she begins cutting the bindings of whoever is closest to her.))
As she is releasing the prisoners, Elspeth is still keeping an eye on the guards, ready to cast charm person on a guard if any of them turn around.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
It's not easy to tell who are the strongest and least exhausted prisoners, but it would be either one of the half-elves, one of the humans, or the kobold. 1
The nearest of these is the half-elf. Elspeth sneaks over towards him and manages to cut the ropes that tie him to the stake. He looks at her unhappily, and shakes his head. No, take the other but leave me, I must continue my mission here. Now that you are closer, he seems a stronger and more capable fighter than most, but he's weaker than you initially thought, and seems exhausted and badly beaten.
Guards' perception: 1
Luckily, the guards are distracted by Soar's story and performance; they do not pick up on the conversation, and the half-elf seems reluctant to go with you. Thank you for braving this place; please, let me help you release the others before you go. He moves over and starts untying the gnomes.
Elspeth flashes a brief, reassuring smile at the gnomes before moving over to the human, using her dagger to cut through their bindings as she looks back at the half-elf. "You can't stay here, they could kill you."She hisses, her voice barely above a whisper as she continues her task of freeing the prisoners. "Please, you need to come with us. Whatever the problem is, you can tell us once we're out of danger."
Elspeth, you move over to the rest of the prisoners. The half-elf glances warily at the guards, still paying attention to Soar. There is much to be learned about these people. The danger to the Sword Coast is great, the half-elf continues. Make a Persuasion check.
You begin to untie the humans. Three seem to be dressed as farmers or other labourers, and you recognise their dress from Greenest; they are frightened, in shock, but as soon as they are released they hug each other and look around, terrified of what may come for them. The fourth is dressed somewhat different, wearing armour, and is sobbing faintly as you untie. him.
Klein, would you like to introduce your character please.
Nate's tear-filled eyes widen as he notices what he thinks is a tiefling untie him. He was previously in a daze, drifting in and out of a half-sleep as he pondered how these 'dragon lovers' might kill him. And then all of a sudden he sees a tiefling untie him and some of the other prisoners. She seems to be talking to the Elf Leosin that he had been talking to as well... that was reassuring. Could this be the escape that Leosin was mentioning?
He notices someone else as well distracting the guards, but can't quite make that person out. Looks human though? Maybe? He's quite shocked by all of this, and you can tell he's been crying for awhile now. He looks exhausted, dirty and he also smells terrible. He manages to speak in between sobs, being as quiet as he can:
"Who... who are you? Thank you... can you get me out of here? Who are you? What is all of this? Oh god what if the guards come back!"
Nate's getting a little louder now. He is becoming frantic, and starts to rub the red marks on his wrists where he was tied up. "How the hell do we get out of here!"
OOC: Hi everyone and thanks for having me in your game! It seems to be very exciting so far and I am looking forward to adding to the story. A super brief overview of Nate (Nathaniel Rose), and more of this will come out during roleplay in the game, but he is a troubled young human who's been through a dark childhood. He has some adventuring experience (not much), and was travelling south when he was captured by a small group of thug mercenaries.
When you look closer upon Nate, you see a tall slender pretty regular looking typical human, although a closer look indicates a fit build with many noticible scars. He looks young for a human. He’s dressed in leather armour clothed with a black, now soiled robe. Dark short hair.
Sorry, I meant to add a brief physical description but I forgot!
Elspeth frowns, twisting her head to look at the man. "We were here to gather some information too, but you can't stay here alone. What do you think they'll do to you if they find all their prisoners gone?"
She turns around to address the man she'd just freed, mouth twisted into an anxious smile as her eyes darts towards the guards to confirm they're still not looking this way.
"Don't worry about it."She murmurs quietly, trying to soothe the panicked man before someone heard the conversation. "We have a plan, but you have to stay still and stay quiet." She put an emphasis on quiet, pausing as she continues to cut through the ropes of the nearest prisoner to her to place what she hoped was a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder. "Stay calm, and we'll all get out of here."
((ooc: welcome, Klein! Hope you enjoy being part of our group, we're glad to have you with us!))
(OOC: well if you were going to roll a 1, convincing the guy who doesn't want to go is lower on the priority list than making a noise the guards hear)
While this is going on and Soar's in the middle of her performance, does she see or hear any of this? She knows enough not to look behind them -- she's getting very deep into her story, but since her perspective is the opposite of the guards', does she have a second or two to notice the progress of the jailbreaking?
What is she seeing now that she's a bit closer to the guards? Human? Tired? Well-armed? Bored? How much light is that torch casting?
Elspeth, the half-elf seems determined to remain. You are brave, he whispers, there is no doubt. But there is so much I can learn here. You move on to the remaining prisoners.
Soar, you can see two human guards, a little tired and bored but not enough to diminish their fighting ability. The light is a standard torch, it provides around twenty feet radius of decent light and a further twenty feet of dim light. Your attention is focused on them, and you don't see much of Elspeth's progress other than that she is nearby. As you continue your story, one of the guards, increasingly restless, glances over his shoulder and his eyes go wide.
Given the situation at hand, Nate feels oddly calmed when the Tiefling reassures and advises him to keep quiet while this goes down. He whispers "Ok, I understand, thank you again" He anxiously waits silently as she cuts the last of the prisoners free.
Nate doesn't fully hear the conversation between the Tiefling and Leosin, but inside he's thinking good, the less people getting out of here, the better our chances.He's still frantic inside and not thinking rationally. He hasn't since he's been captured. He glances over at the other one who seems to be helping in this escape (who he now sees she is an elf of some kind) and now can't believe his eyes when he sees a guard notice the group. At this point, he mentally prepares to die as he gets ready to defend himself perhaps one last time.
Sorry, I forgot to mention that Nate, after being freed, would've instinctively looked around to see if he could see any animals around. Possibly a guard dog(s) or something else?
(Nate can do that as an action on his turn, but things are moving too fast now for him to look around before combat gets underway, if combat is indeed where we're headed...)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Soar initiative: 4
Welp, this will be fun. Have the guards done anything during Soar's storytelling to give her a sense of whether they've been buying what she's selling? Suspicious? Entertained?
Elspeth nods, "Thanks, Breena. That'll make things much easier. Yes, I think it'll make more sense if you talked to them first, Soar, I'm no good with lies, so I'll untie the prisoners. I'd be able to charm the guards, so I'll be watching if there's any mishaps, but if we're lucky there won't be any."
((I'm assuming the guards are currently facing the prisoners?))
"You head out first, and I'll wait here until the guards stop paying attention to the prisoners." She continues, and places a hand on Soar's shoulder, casting guidance on her friend. "Stay safe, and don't take any risks. Breena, if the plan sounds fine to you we'll be in charge of releasing the prisoners, so be ready.
I'll wait for you up top, says Breena. She scuttles back around the side, avoiding the direction the guards are looking, and clambers up the side of the hollow:
Athletics 10
She struggles as she climbs, losing her footing more than once, and she tries to keep the noise down and not attract attention:
Stealth 21
One of the guards looks around, just as Breena disappears over the top of the cliff side, about twenty-five feet up above the ground. He sniffs and looks back to his companion, resuming their conversation. A moment later, a rope quietly slithers down the side of the cliff.
The rope is about twenty feet from the prison area. During this time, you have got a better look at the stakes, and can see clearly that there are twelve prisoners in total.
(The prisoners will be able to climb up the rope without making an Athletics check provided they are not under intense time pressure and they have help from each other and from the party. They are in poor condition, at least some of them, so it's likely that many will fail to climb the rope otherwise.)
(The guards are not actually facing the prisoners, at this moment.)
Soar looks at Elspeth. "Ready? Thank you for your guidance -- it's always done me wonders. See you on top of the cliff, and good luck. We can do this!"
She heads off into the darkness, looping around toward the main road and then heads back, heading toward the guards. She glances up and mutters a silent apology to Kelemvor. She takes out the flask of oil and dabs a drop on her wrist, wondering if it smells like a really strong proof liquor. She then approaches, singing quietly to herself.
"Praise Tiamat," she says to the guards, stumbling a bit, and grinning from ear to ear. She begins telling a long, convoluted, drunken, entertaining tale about how Tored and Kanner and a few others who they thought had fallen or been taken in Greenest just made it back to camp, with a whole case of some of the finest libations the monastery had been hiding away. She does her best to engage them with small tidbits of information about the exciting adventure they'd had, with close calls and heroics worthy of the dragon queen, pulling them in with her story, gesticulating wildly, appearing to draw in close but really only getting within 15 feet. She's telling bawdy jokes and trying to be overly, drunkenly, friendly. She keeps pointing backwards and hinting that there is more to be had. The goal in this long story is to give Elspeth time to start freeing prisoners so they can begin freeing other prisoners.
(Guessing there will be rolls! Here are some vanilla d20s: 12 17 16 3 and a d4 for guidance: 2)(I hope it's okay that I didn't immediately do verbatim prose for this -- Soar's more charismatic than I am!)
(Okay, so I'll take that as an initial Deception of 17, followed by Performance rolls of 20, 19 and 6.)
Elspeth moves over to the prisoners. You can now see them more clearly; there are exactly four humans, two half-elves, four gnomes and a kobold. They all look pretty beat up and exhausted, and they don't notice you at first, but one or two notice you as you approach. They say nothing, and just watch as you begin to release them.
Elspeth, make a Stealth check to until the prisoners without being noticed. Which group will you untie first, the half-elves, the humans, the gnomes or the kobold? Are you doing anything else as you attempt this?
Stealth: 8
Elspeth, still keeping a close eye on Soar and the guards she is speaking to, takes her dagger out keeping her movements slow and silent to avoid detection. She presses one finger to her lips, to communicate the need for silence to the prisoners.
((Is it easy to tell who is the strongest/least exhausted out of the prisoners? If so, Elspeth begins by cutting their ropes, else, she begins cutting the bindings of whoever is closest to her.))
As she is releasing the prisoners, Elspeth is still keeping an eye on the guards, ready to cast charm person on a guard if any of them turn around.
It's not easy to tell who are the strongest and least exhausted prisoners, but it would be either one of the half-elves, one of the humans, or the kobold. 1
1
The nearest of these is the half-elf. Elspeth sneaks over towards him and manages to cut the ropes that tie him to the stake. He looks at her unhappily, and shakes his head. No, take the other but leave me, I must continue my mission here. Now that you are closer, he seems a stronger and more capable fighter than most, but he's weaker than you initially thought, and seems exhausted and badly beaten.
Guards' perception: 1
Luckily, the guards are distracted by Soar's story and performance; they do not pick up on the conversation, and the half-elf seems reluctant to go with you. Thank you for braving this place; please, let me help you release the others before you go. He moves over and starts untying the gnomes.
Stealth 15
He releases them, whispering words of reassurance in their ears, and they look at Elspeth with confusion and hope.
Soar's performance continues. Elspeth, who would you like to untie next?
Elspeth flashes a brief, reassuring smile at the gnomes before moving over to the human, using her dagger to cut through their bindings as she looks back at the half-elf. "You can't stay here, they could kill you." She hisses, her voice barely above a whisper as she continues her task of freeing the prisoners. "Please, you need to come with us. Whatever the problem is, you can tell us once we're out of danger."
Elspeth, you move over to the rest of the prisoners. The half-elf glances warily at the guards, still paying attention to Soar. There is much to be learned about these people. The danger to the Sword Coast is great, the half-elf continues. Make a Persuasion check.
You begin to untie the humans. Three seem to be dressed as farmers or other labourers, and you recognise their dress from Greenest; they are frightened, in shock, but as soon as they are released they hug each other and look around, terrified of what may come for them. The fourth is dressed somewhat different, wearing armour, and is sobbing faintly as you untie. him.
Klein, would you like to introduce your character please.
Nate's tear-filled eyes widen as he notices what he thinks is a tiefling untie him. He was previously in a daze, drifting in and out of a half-sleep as he pondered how these 'dragon lovers' might kill him. And then all of a sudden he sees a tiefling untie him and some of the other prisoners. She seems to be talking to the Elf Leosin that he had been talking to as well... that was reassuring. Could this be the escape that Leosin was mentioning?
He notices someone else as well distracting the guards, but can't quite make that person out. Looks human though? Maybe? He's quite shocked by all of this, and you can tell he's been crying for awhile now. He looks exhausted, dirty and he also smells terrible. He manages to speak in between sobs, being as quiet as he can:
"Who... who are you? Thank you... can you get me out of here? Who are you? What is all of this? Oh god what if the guards come back!"
Nate's getting a little louder now. He is becoming frantic, and starts to rub the red marks on his wrists where he was tied up. "How the hell do we get out of here!"
OOC: Hi everyone and thanks for having me in your game! It seems to be very exciting so far and I am looking forward to adding to the story. A super brief overview of Nate (Nathaniel Rose), and more of this will come out during roleplay in the game, but he is a troubled young human who's been through a dark childhood. He has some adventuring experience (not much), and was travelling south when he was captured by a small group of thug mercenaries.
When you look closer upon Nate, you see a tall slender pretty regular looking typical human, although a closer look indicates a fit build with many noticible scars. He looks young for a human. He’s dressed in leather armour clothed with a black, now soiled robe. Dark short hair.
Sorry, I meant to add a brief physical description but I forgot!
OOC: Welcome aboard, I hope to shower you with the graces of Bahamut 😂
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
"Ive heard it both ways."
(OOC: welcome Klein! I am sure Soar will love to meet Nate when she has the chance, and her optimism will annoy him a bit.)
Persuasion: 1
Elspeth frowns, twisting her head to look at the man. "We were here to gather some information too, but you can't stay here alone. What do you think they'll do to you if they find all their prisoners gone?"
She turns around to address the man she'd just freed, mouth twisted into an anxious smile as her eyes darts towards the guards to confirm they're still not looking this way.
"Don't worry about it." She murmurs quietly, trying to soothe the panicked man before someone heard the conversation. "We have a plan, but you have to stay still and stay quiet." She put an emphasis on quiet, pausing as she continues to cut through the ropes of the nearest prisoner to her to place what she hoped was a reassuring hand on the man's shoulder. "Stay calm, and we'll all get out of here."
((ooc: welcome, Klein! Hope you enjoy being part of our group, we're glad to have you with us!))
(OOC: well if you were going to roll a 1, convincing the guy who doesn't want to go is lower on the priority list than making a noise the guards hear)
While this is going on and Soar's in the middle of her performance, does she see or hear any of this? She knows enough not to look behind them -- she's getting very deep into her story, but since her perspective is the opposite of the guards', does she have a second or two to notice the progress of the jailbreaking?
What is she seeing now that she's a bit closer to the guards? Human? Tired? Well-armed? Bored? How much light is that torch casting?
Elspeth, the half-elf seems determined to remain. You are brave, he whispers, there is no doubt. But there is so much I can learn here. You move on to the remaining prisoners.
Soar, you can see two human guards, a little tired and bored but not enough to diminish their fighting ability. The light is a standard torch, it provides around twenty feet radius of decent light and a further twenty feet of dim light. Your attention is focused on them, and you don't see much of Elspeth's progress other than that she is nearby. As you continue your story, one of the guards, increasingly restless, glances over his shoulder and his eyes go wide.
Everyone roll initiative please.
18 13 5 20
Given the situation at hand, Nate feels oddly calmed when the Tiefling reassures and advises him to keep quiet while this goes down. He whispers "Ok, I understand, thank you again" He anxiously waits silently as she cuts the last of the prisoners free.
Nate doesn't fully hear the conversation between the Tiefling and Leosin, but inside he's thinking good, the less people getting out of here, the better our chances. He's still frantic inside and not thinking rationally. He hasn't since he's been captured. He glances over at the other one who seems to be helping in this escape (who he now sees she is an elf of some kind) and now can't believe his eyes when he sees a guard notice the group. At this point, he mentally prepares to die as he gets ready to defend himself perhaps one last time.
Initiative (disadvantage, exhausted): 17
OOC: Thanks everyone!
Sorry, I forgot to mention that Nate, after being freed, would've instinctively looked around to see if he could see any animals around. Possibly a guard dog(s) or something else?
(Nate can do that as an action on his turn, but things are moving too fast now for him to look around before combat gets underway, if combat is indeed where we're headed...)
Soar initiative: 4
Welp, this will be fun. Have the guards done anything during Soar's storytelling to give her a sense of whether they've been buying what she's selling? Suspicious? Entertained?