(The tents are about 30 feet from the poles. It's now night - there's almost no-one up, at least not in this camp. Most tent flaps are closed, suggesting that the occupants are inside and sleeping, and you see very few lights. In the dead of night, sound would carry, and the sound of battle or any cry of alarm would likely wake the mercenaries up, but many sounds would be ignored. Knocking the guards out would be risky, unless you have magical means to do so.)
Breena frowns, looking around while trying not to look suspicious and draw attention. I don't believe my animal friends can help much. They can distract the guards, but you I or Elspeth could do as much. The problem comes when we start releasing prisoners or moving them.
Jalt, time passes in the night, as you remain near the cart. The oxen are quiet, and you feel that you are well hidden. Okkie has left, and all you hear is the noise of nature around you, the occasional owl, a creature scurrying past. You see dimly, but can just about make out the looming shape of the raider camp raised high above you. The lights at the top of the rock are far fewer now, as the guards try to see clearly in the dark. Are you doing anything? Will you sleep, or stay awake?
Jalt would remain awake. Having been near the brink of death not that long ago, he is of the mantra... I'll sleep when I die. He just tries to be vigilant in case Okkie comes back or if there are noises of despair.
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Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
Soar, Breena and Elspeth, as you are watching and considering your next move, you see a lone guard approaching from the main road. From where you are hiding, it's unlikely you will be seen. He's headed towards the prisoners and carrying something over his shoulder.
Can we see what he's carrying? Big or little? Moving or not? Perception: 14
And I assume we're close to the cliff walls -- what do we see around us along the walls? Are they very sheer? Any pathways up? Any caves or holes near us? And what do we see of the place where the prisoners are held? Is there a fence? How big around is it? Are the guards in the middle of it? Is there any light at all, or just starlight?
"Breena, maybe your animal friends can cause a distraction over there, between the tents and the guards, to get them to look away, while we sneak over and get close to the prisoners and try to untie them? Elspeth, maybe as a last resort, you could create another bonfire way over there, on the other side of that tent so we stay in the dark, but the guards start focusing on that? Or some loud noise or something? Or maybe there's a way to make it hard for the guards to see us over here. Any spells we could try? Might be time for you to de-spider yourself..."
You can see that it's small, about the size of a halfling or gnome. It is moving, yes.
You are not right next to the cliff walls, but not far. They are about the same as the rest of the camp, they are not very sheer but you know that once you climb up them, there will be a large drop, over a hundred feet, on the other side. There are no paths leading up, but there are enough handholds here that it would not be a difficult climb.
There are no caves in this particular area, no. The two guards are carrying a torch; the one approaching has no light with them. There's mostly starlight, enough to see clearly, if not very far, with your darkvision. There's no fence around the area where the prisoners are, but it is next to the mercenary camp.
I could start a fire, I suppose, Breena nods. They might fall for it. I don't... wait a minute.
You both wait a moment, as you are listening to the newly-approached guard talking to his fellows. Some dragon-dog they found trying to sneak in. Tie it up. They'll probably want to take it as fresh food tomorrow, you know. One of the guards laughs and grabs the creature, takes it to one of the stakes, and secures it. You can now see more clearly that it's a kobold.
Elspeth, upon Soar's shoulder, gives a small nod and begins crawling down to the ground and shifts back to herself, making an effort to remain concealed. She squints at the guards, thinking for a while before she speaks in a hushed whisper.
"If you and Breena can rescue the prisoners, I can cause a distraction somewhere far away or at least keep the guards from noticing you. Do you think it would be suspicious if I call down fog to conceal their vision? Or I can start a fire, maybe burn down a tent. Then you and Breena can untie the prisoners and find a way to leave unseen and regroup with Jalt. I'm a little worried about what would happen after disturbing the camp, though. What if they realize the prisoners are gone and send out search parties? There's still guards around, even if most of them are asleep."
"We'd need a specific plan, you're right," Soar whispers. "Seems sneaking out with prisoners is a recipe for entering captivity. Disturbed camp or no. And it seems pretty likely we'd disturb the camp. We could try walking down the cliff wall a bit away from these tents and find a good place to climb up out of the way. It would at least give us time and space to figure out a way out. Anyone see a better escape option?"
She smiles, ruefully. "So two choices. we can try to bluff and sneak our way back out solo, which, if we're being honest, we might not be so lucky this time. But it's an option. We've accomplished what we were supposed to accomplish and we're no good having learned more about all this if we can't get back. So we could try that as the first option. The second option, with prisoners, is a better payoff, but we have to find a way to give us and them a good chance to get out. Elspeth, seems like you're the main event here, since your magic always works better than my magic. We could get close to the prisoners, ready to spring them. We start cutting them loose and giving them daggers to help free them all. If they don't see or hear us, amazing. But if the best case scenario doesn't happen, we'll have to quietly and quickly take them down. Or we could up the ante and distract them: Elspeth lights a bonfire on the other side of one of those tents over there, hopefully taking their eyes away; Breena's animal friends start causing a ruckus over in the camp with the big tent; Elspeth charms a guard here who notices us and convinces him we're just moving the prisoners per normal orders."
Is the third guard who brought the kobold still there or did he take off? Soar keeps watching the guard with the torch and the shadows around him. Whispering more, she beams. "Then the hard part. Leaving by climbing up maybe won't work if they're not able to climb or if there's no good route or if they notice us and start shooting at easy targets. Or we try to sneak through in the darkness. Or we all scatter and hope some of us get out. I'm not good at imagining worst-case scenarios, but in this case, it's hard to envision best-case scenarios. I wish Jalt were here. He'd know what to do. As long as that big scary dragon guy didn't challenge him again to a duel. What do you say, should we try getting the prisoners out? Does someone have a better idea? My head hurts."
The third guard has moved off, headed back down the main road towards the other camps or the gate. The other two guards remain, having tied the kobold to a stake, smacked it around a little, laughed, and then returned to where they were originally standing.
Soar, Breena thinks over what you've said. A fire, perhaps. I like that option. I think the tents look like they would go up pretty well, with some proper preparation. Yeah, I wish Jalt were here too. Most people here take us for mercs or cultists, because of what we're wearing or just because we walk around like we're supposed to be here. She trails off, and looks to Elspeth.
(Elspeth's wildshape will disappear in a couple of minutes.)
Elspeth shifts to a more comfortable standing position, slightly tense as she listens to Soar . “Right, I agree that we should check out the cliff face first. They seem easy to climb from here but if we can mark out our path a little without being spotted then so much the better. Breena, did you manage to see how the prisoners conditions are? Would they be able to move up the slope?
Not many people are around at this point in time, if we can stop these two guards from alerting the camp for ten, twenty minutes we should have a much better chance of escaping with the prisoners. I’d advocate for a stealthier approach first, try to release the prisoners without those two guards,"She nodded in the direction of the two guards,"notice. Maybe I can pretend to be a cultist carrying a message from the camp, find a way to talk to one privately. I could charm one of them, but if they realize the entire ruse would be up. Of course, we can always try knocking them out, but we would only get one chance at silencing them.
If stealth doesn't work, setting some of the tents on fire sounds like a fine idea. Perhaps the large tent that I’d scouted. Their leader, or a leader of theirs of some sort seems to reside there so perhaps it’ll confuse them a little more, or destroy some of their records if we're lucky. Once we rescue the prisoners and get them moving I'll call up fog to conceal our path in the back. I think I’ll pass as one of them if I walk around camp, or else I’ll wildshape and escape if they notice me, so I can stay back and hold them up as you escape if necessary."
Soar agrees that checking out the cliff for the best close route up to safety is good for a first step. "Why don't you take a look, Breena? Don't go far, and don't take more than a few minutes! But if we have a better route up, this might work. While you do, Elspeth and I will get closer to the cliff wall here and keep an eye on the guards to see how often they look at the prisoners, and if the prisoners themselves are doing anything interesting. When you get back, we can start with Elspeth trying to distract them by walking up and pretending to be carrying a message from camp. Or I can, and Elspeth and you can sneak around behind and start freeing prisoners and getting ready to charm one of them while I get close to try to quietly drop them. When would we want to consider lighting a tent on fire? The fog cloud to cover our escape sounds like a perfect idea! Your idea to hold them up and then wildshape away sounds like a good one. I was just trying to be most useful as I'm not very good at sneaking but I can talk my way out of things, usually. but I'd also be happy to sneak around and untie prisoners. What do you say, Breena?"
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
(OOC: Yes, sorry, hopefully my brain will start to work today)
Breena looks thoughtful. Yes, I can go check the cliff. Once we get up on top of the cliff, I'm not sure how we will get down to the outside. I don't have all that much rope, but maybe we could find more. Let me go take a look at least.
She moves off to inspect the cliff near the prisoners, but avoiding the attention of the guards.
As Breena circles the area, one of the guards moves towards her, and she backs away. They have a short conversation, which you cannot hear, but the guard does not follow her as she moves away, around, and then returns to talk to you.
I didn't get as close as I wanted, but I think I saw enough. I don't think it will be too hard to climb the cliffs, but best we get some rope and climbing gear, especially if we're leading prisoners - we don't know what condition they'll be in. She looks in her backpack. I have 30 feet of rope - enough to get us up to the top. But getting down the far side, if we go that way - that's a hundred feet at least.
"I just have some rope, but no climbing gear. Elspeth do you have rope? One of us should climb up quietly and tie off a guide rope to make escape easier. I feel like climbing down 100 feet on the other side will still be easier than sneaking a bunch of people out the way we came. Plus we could also just hide up there and lay low for a bit and find the best way down."
Soar will slowly head closer to the cliff wall closest to the prisoners' area, and observe the guards for a few more minutes, and see if there's any kind of routine. "So, let's get moving. We can do this. The longer we talk, the more dangerous this gets. Elspeth, are you going to walk up to the guards with a fake message first to distract them, or am I? I'm pretty good at talking my way through things, but not very good with sneaking. Maybe you stick close and be ready to charm the other one if things go south. It'd be really good to be able to take out the torch so they can't see well. Then the plan is for the two not talking to the guards to sneak over to the prisoners and start untying them while the guards are distracted. And if things go really south, bonfire on the other side of that tent to distract other people. Does that work?"
(OOC: I'm trying to move things along but not bulldoze everyone -- would love to get out of Talkland :) Soar would try to get consensus and have a boundless faith that the path they chose will work out well, so that's part of the deliberative approach here.)
I think... I see something. She darts away, moving quietly in the shadows, and returns carrying three large coils of rope. I... hope these are enough. And strong enough. We need to find somewhere I can work. She follows Soar to the cliff wall, kneels down and starts cutting rope into loops. We can use these to descend. It will be a little safer; I want to get as many prisoners out as I can. She also ties the ropes, and her own, into one long rope that looks long enough to descend from the clifftop to the ground below.
Soar, you are observing the guards. There is a routine; they basically stand where they are, occasionally spitting at a nearby prisoner, and they mostly focus on their own conversation. They're not exactly highly vigilant, but then you do notice one of the prisoners make a noise, and the guard hears it instantly, turns his head, and says Shut it.
"Breena! You are amazing! Do you want to climb up with the rope here and tie it at the top so it'll be easy to ascend with the escapees? Then when we're all up, we pull it up after us, and take it to where we want to come down. And Elspeth, do you want to talk to the guards or should I? Either way, we could use some of that guidance you have every once in a while."
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(The tents are about 30 feet from the poles. It's now night - there's almost no-one up, at least not in this camp. Most tent flaps are closed, suggesting that the occupants are inside and sleeping, and you see very few lights. In the dead of night, sound would carry, and the sound of battle or any cry of alarm would likely wake the mercenaries up, but many sounds would be ignored. Knocking the guards out would be risky, unless you have magical means to do so.)
Breena frowns, looking around while trying not to look suspicious and draw attention. I don't believe my animal friends can help much. They can distract the guards, but you I or Elspeth could do as much. The problem comes when we start releasing prisoners or moving them.
Jalt, time passes in the night, as you remain near the cart. The oxen are quiet, and you feel that you are well hidden. Okkie has left, and all you hear is the noise of nature around you, the occasional owl, a creature scurrying past. You see dimly, but can just about make out the looming shape of the raider camp raised high above you. The lights at the top of the rock are far fewer now, as the guards try to see clearly in the dark. Are you doing anything? Will you sleep, or stay awake?
(Roughly what time of night would you say it is?)
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
"Ive heard it both ways."
It's still not too late, perhaps an hour after sunset.
Jalt would remain awake. Having been near the brink of death not that long ago, he is of the mantra... I'll sleep when I die. He just tries to be vigilant in case Okkie comes back or if there are noises of despair.
Hoard of the Dragon Queen - Jalt Rhogar - Dragonborn Cleric (9)
"Ive heard it both ways."
2
Soar, Breena and Elspeth, as you are watching and considering your next move, you see a lone guard approaching from the main road. From where you are hiding, it's unlikely you will be seen. He's headed towards the prisoners and carrying something over his shoulder.
Can we see what he's carrying? Big or little? Moving or not? Perception: 14
And I assume we're close to the cliff walls -- what do we see around us along the walls? Are they very sheer? Any pathways up? Any caves or holes near us? And what do we see of the place where the prisoners are held? Is there a fence? How big around is it? Are the guards in the middle of it? Is there any light at all, or just starlight?
"Breena, maybe your animal friends can cause a distraction over there, between the tents and the guards, to get them to look away, while we sneak over and get close to the prisoners and try to untie them? Elspeth, maybe as a last resort, you could create another bonfire way over there, on the other side of that tent so we stay in the dark, but the guards start focusing on that? Or some loud noise or something? Or maybe there's a way to make it hard for the guards to see us over here. Any spells we could try? Might be time for you to de-spider yourself..."
You can see that it's small, about the size of a halfling or gnome. It is moving, yes.
You are not right next to the cliff walls, but not far. They are about the same as the rest of the camp, they are not very sheer but you know that once you climb up them, there will be a large drop, over a hundred feet, on the other side. There are no paths leading up, but there are enough handholds here that it would not be a difficult climb.
There are no caves in this particular area, no. The two guards are carrying a torch; the one approaching has no light with them. There's mostly starlight, enough to see clearly, if not very far, with your darkvision. There's no fence around the area where the prisoners are, but it is next to the mercenary camp.
I could start a fire, I suppose, Breena nods. They might fall for it. I don't... wait a minute.
You both wait a moment, as you are listening to the newly-approached guard talking to his fellows. Some dragon-dog they found trying to sneak in. Tie it up. They'll probably want to take it as fresh food tomorrow, you know. One of the guards laughs and grabs the creature, takes it to one of the stakes, and secures it. You can now see more clearly that it's a kobold.
Soar finds herself looking at the spider on her shoulder.
Elspeth, upon Soar's shoulder, gives a small nod and begins crawling down to the ground and shifts back to herself, making an effort to remain concealed. She squints at the guards, thinking for a while before she speaks in a hushed whisper.
"If you and Breena can rescue the prisoners, I can cause a distraction somewhere far away or at least keep the guards from noticing you. Do you think it would be suspicious if I call down fog to conceal their vision? Or I can start a fire, maybe burn down a tent. Then you and Breena can untie the prisoners and find a way to leave unseen and regroup with Jalt. I'm a little worried about what would happen after disturbing the camp, though. What if they realize the prisoners are gone and send out search parties? There's still guards around, even if most of them are asleep."
"We'd need a specific plan, you're right," Soar whispers. "Seems sneaking out with prisoners is a recipe for entering captivity. Disturbed camp or no. And it seems pretty likely we'd disturb the camp. We could try walking down the cliff wall a bit away from these tents and find a good place to climb up out of the way. It would at least give us time and space to figure out a way out. Anyone see a better escape option?"
She smiles, ruefully. "So two choices. we can try to bluff and sneak our way back out solo, which, if we're being honest, we might not be so lucky this time. But it's an option. We've accomplished what we were supposed to accomplish and we're no good having learned more about all this if we can't get back. So we could try that as the first option. The second option, with prisoners, is a better payoff, but we have to find a way to give us and them a good chance to get out. Elspeth, seems like you're the main event here, since your magic always works better than my magic. We could get close to the prisoners, ready to spring them. We start cutting them loose and giving them daggers to help free them all. If they don't see or hear us, amazing. But if the best case scenario doesn't happen, we'll have to quietly and quickly take them down. Or we could up the ante and distract them: Elspeth lights a bonfire on the other side of one of those tents over there, hopefully taking their eyes away; Breena's animal friends start causing a ruckus over in the camp with the big tent; Elspeth charms a guard here who notices us and convinces him we're just moving the prisoners per normal orders."
Is the third guard who brought the kobold still there or did he take off? Soar keeps watching the guard with the torch and the shadows around him. Whispering more, she beams. "Then the hard part. Leaving by climbing up maybe won't work if they're not able to climb or if there's no good route or if they notice us and start shooting at easy targets. Or we try to sneak through in the darkness. Or we all scatter and hope some of us get out. I'm not good at imagining worst-case scenarios, but in this case, it's hard to envision best-case scenarios. I wish Jalt were here. He'd know what to do. As long as that big scary dragon guy didn't challenge him again to a duel. What do you say, should we try getting the prisoners out? Does someone have a better idea? My head hurts."
The third guard has moved off, headed back down the main road towards the other camps or the gate. The other two guards remain, having tied the kobold to a stake, smacked it around a little, laughed, and then returned to where they were originally standing.
Soar, Breena thinks over what you've said. A fire, perhaps. I like that option. I think the tents look like they would go up pretty well, with some proper preparation. Yeah, I wish Jalt were here too. Most people here take us for mercs or cultists, because of what we're wearing or just because we walk around like we're supposed to be here. She trails off, and looks to Elspeth.
(Elspeth's wildshape will disappear in a couple of minutes.)
(OOC: Steve in #931 Elspeth wildshifted back and spoke...)
Elspeth shifts to a more comfortable standing position, slightly tense as she listens to Soar . “Right, I agree that we should check out the cliff face first. They seem easy to climb from here but if we can mark out our path a little without being spotted then so much the better. Breena, did you manage to see how the prisoners conditions are? Would they be able to move up the slope?
Not many people are around at this point in time, if we can stop these two guards from alerting the camp for ten, twenty minutes we should have a much better chance of escaping with the prisoners. I’d advocate for a stealthier approach first, try to release the prisoners without those two guards," She nodded in the direction of the two guards, "notice. Maybe I can pretend to be a cultist carrying a message from the camp, find a way to talk to one privately. I could charm one of them, but if they realize the entire ruse would be up. Of course, we can always try knocking them out, but we would only get one chance at silencing them.
If stealth doesn't work, setting some of the tents on fire sounds like a fine idea. Perhaps the large tent that I’d scouted. Their leader, or a leader of theirs of some sort seems to reside there so perhaps it’ll confuse them a little more, or destroy some of their records if we're lucky. Once we rescue the prisoners and get them moving I'll call up fog to conceal our path in the back. I think I’ll pass as one of them if I walk around camp, or else I’ll wildshape and escape if they notice me, so I can stay back and hold them up as you escape if necessary."
Soar agrees that checking out the cliff for the best close route up to safety is good for a first step. "Why don't you take a look, Breena? Don't go far, and don't take more than a few minutes! But if we have a better route up, this might work. While you do, Elspeth and I will get closer to the cliff wall here and keep an eye on the guards to see how often they look at the prisoners, and if the prisoners themselves are doing anything interesting. When you get back, we can start with Elspeth trying to distract them by walking up and pretending to be carrying a message from camp. Or I can, and Elspeth and you can sneak around behind and start freeing prisoners and getting ready to charm one of them while I get close to try to quietly drop them. When would we want to consider lighting a tent on fire? The fog cloud to cover our escape sounds like a perfect idea! Your idea to hold them up and then wildshape away sounds like a good one. I was just trying to be most useful as I'm not very good at sneaking but I can talk my way out of things, usually. but I'd also be happy to sneak around and untie prisoners. What do you say, Breena?"
(OOC: Yes, sorry, hopefully my brain will start to work today)
Breena looks thoughtful. Yes, I can go check the cliff. Once we get up on top of the cliff, I'm not sure how we will get down to the outside. I don't have all that much rope, but maybe we could find more. Let me go take a look at least.
She moves off to inspect the cliff near the prisoners, but avoiding the attention of the guards.
Stealth 19
Perception 24
As Breena circles the area, one of the guards moves towards her, and she backs away. They have a short conversation, which you cannot hear, but the guard does not follow her as she moves away, around, and then returns to talk to you.
I didn't get as close as I wanted, but I think I saw enough. I don't think it will be too hard to climb the cliffs, but best we get some rope and climbing gear, especially if we're leading prisoners - we don't know what condition they'll be in. She looks in her backpack. I have 30 feet of rope - enough to get us up to the top. But getting down the far side, if we go that way - that's a hundred feet at least.
"I just have some rope, but no climbing gear. Elspeth do you have rope? One of us should climb up quietly and tie off a guide rope to make escape easier. I feel like climbing down 100 feet on the other side will still be easier than sneaking a bunch of people out the way we came. Plus we could also just hide up there and lay low for a bit and find the best way down."
Soar will slowly head closer to the cliff wall closest to the prisoners' area, and observe the guards for a few more minutes, and see if there's any kind of routine. "So, let's get moving. We can do this. The longer we talk, the more dangerous this gets. Elspeth, are you going to walk up to the guards with a fake message first to distract them, or am I? I'm pretty good at talking my way through things, but not very good with sneaking. Maybe you stick close and be ready to charm the other one if things go south. It'd be really good to be able to take out the torch so they can't see well. Then the plan is for the two not talking to the guards to sneak over to the prisoners and start untying them while the guards are distracted. And if things go really south, bonfire on the other side of that tent to distract other people. Does that work?"
(OOC: I'm trying to move things along but not bulldoze everyone -- would love to get out of Talkland :) Soar would try to get consensus and have a boundless faith that the path they chose will work out well, so that's part of the deliberative approach here.)
Breena looks around: Investigation 12
I think... I see something. She darts away, moving quietly in the shadows, and returns carrying three large coils of rope. I... hope these are enough. And strong enough. We need to find somewhere I can work. She follows Soar to the cliff wall, kneels down and starts cutting rope into loops. We can use these to descend. It will be a little safer; I want to get as many prisoners out as I can. She also ties the ropes, and her own, into one long rope that looks long enough to descend from the clifftop to the ground below.
Soar, you are observing the guards. There is a routine; they basically stand where they are, occasionally spitting at a nearby prisoner, and they mostly focus on their own conversation. They're not exactly highly vigilant, but then you do notice one of the prisoners make a noise, and the guard hears it instantly, turns his head, and says Shut it.
"Breena! You are amazing! Do you want to climb up with the rope here and tie it at the top so it'll be easy to ascend with the escapees? Then when we're all up, we pull it up after us, and take it to where we want to come down. And Elspeth, do you want to talk to the guards or should I? Either way, we could use some of that guidance you have every once in a while."