CF - Volo's Adventurers' Guild - PbP Campaign

"Rubbish Banjo, if your brilliant plan should not work out quite as expected you can count on us to come in and save you my friend." Serena says, leaning down and giving the gnome a kiss on the cheek for good luck. "Alright, let's do this Tresvar." She says to the mighty dragonborn, ready to help her to get that door open.

"OK.  Get the door open and then fall back into ambush positions on the hallway.  I will try to lure the oaf out..." he continues to whisper.  He then draws his wand and casts disguise self, taking the appearance of one of those Orcs they fought earlier (not the one-eyed orc, one of the other two).  He then gathers as many gold coins as he can fit into a hand and prepares to turn on the charm....

((Boting Tresvar ))

Tresvar and Serena lay their hands quietly upon the door. They exchange an anxious glance as they both inhale. Then with concerted effort, they attempt to open the heavy door - ready to dash out of Banjo's way as soon as the door is open.

Tresvar check with advantage: 26

Several things happen seemingly at once: 

The mighty Tresvar, aided by Serena, makes easy work of the otherwise unwieldy door.

The two step quickly to the shadows as Banjo, in the guise of a female orc acolyte of the Eye of Gruumsh, steps forward.

Beyond the door lies a small chamber covered in poorly cured animal hides and illuminated by smoking torches in bronze sconces. The smell is indescribable. A monstrous creature about ten feet in height steps forward, a massive axe in one hand. Two huge wolves strain at chains held closely in its other hand.

It bellows in irritation, "What you doing here?!?" as the wolves sniff, snarl and bark at the tunnel from which Banjo emerges. Then to the wolves, the creature says, "Something there?"

“Treasure…” Banjo grunts in his best attempt at what a Orcish lady might sound like.  “Adventurers plundered the horde of the dragon in the depths, and thought to sneak past us with their spoils.  We killed them, the fools.  There are such riches!”  He purposes let’s most of the good coins spill out of his hand onto the floor.  “You must see this to believe it!”  He then turns and heads back out the door, not waiting for a reply.

Deception:  13

The creature, momentarily befuddled by the sight of gold, becomes irritated at the orc running off, and releasing the chain holding the wolves, he bellows, "You no run away with my gold! . Vak! Thrag! Get her!"

The wolves run out with the creature behind:

Initiative:

Vak: 18

Thrag: 21

Great Ulfe: 16

Banjo: 20

Serena: 21

Tresvar: 18

Livia: 16

Araynia: 12

Initiative Order: Araynia -> Serena -> Livia -> Thrag -> Vak -> Great Ulfe -> Banjo -> Tresvar

Araynia mutters, "Nice try Banjo, but let's not let this one out of his room.", drawing her bow and releasing aimed at the creature framed in the doorway.

Attack: 7 Damage: 9

The arrow bounces harmlessly off the stone ceiling before the door.

ORDER Serena -> Livia -> Thrag -> Vak -> Great Ulfe -> Banjo -> Tresvar -> Araynia

"Here they come" Serena says quickly to Tresvar in front of her. She backs off and swiftly curses the creature (Hex, dex, Thrag) before unleashing a beam of crackling green force towards it. Eldritch blast: 28 Force: 10 Necrotic: 6

(Extra crit damage 5 + 4 )

Quote from Oberon99 >>

(Extra crit damage 3 + 1 )

 ((Sweet!))

Thrag stops in his tracks, buffeted by the energy blast. He yelps in shock and pain.

Thrag is badly hurt.

(Thanks for botting! )

Quote from Tesservett >>

(Thanks for botting! )

 ((np. Glad the rolls came out in your favor. Seems to have unloosed something however!))

Though the two wolves running towards them are scary, the 10' tall creature with its colossal axe is far more intimidating. Moreover, given that he just spoke in a language she understood, it must mean that it could understand her too, which means Livia could do more to stop it from harming anyone.

"Wait!" She calls, though her weak voice fails to overcome the noises the wounded wolf makes. Livia then raises her hand to touch her necklace, and its pink topaz glows for a moment. Then, when she speaks, her words are magically empowered, stronger in volume and sound very compelling. "Stop, fighting will only get you killed, or gravely injured at least. If you leave this area, go north and never return, we'll have no reason to harm you!" Though the suggestion would be nothing more than a naive request in anyone else's words, with Livia's magic, it actually sounds like a reasonable course of action that might even be preferable. 

Casting Suggestion targeting Great Ulfe. Shall it fail a DC 14 Wisdom saving throw, it will need to follow the course of action she suggested for the next eight hours, or until Livia's concentration breaks or if any of the group damages him.

11

The creature shoulders slump limply mid-stride as Livia's words wash over it. 

It steps forward, roughly pushing the wolves to the side, "No. No. We go."  and continues pushing past the party as it walks away down the tunnel, presumably to begin a new life somewhere far away. 

The wolves, abandoned by their brutal master, but following the instinct of pack loyalty make a couple last yaps and follow the creature away.

((Awesome use of Suggestion at a clutch moment!))

Serena stands incredulous as the creature walks away in the tunnel followed by it's pet wolves, but then she realizes what kind of charming magic Livia just used. "Brilliant Livia, that was brilliant." She says and hugs her briefly. "So what now? Perhaps we could convince the orcs to follow it north?" She says with a smile, then quickly scanning through the creature's lair in search for valuables.
Investigation: 6

"I... no." Livia's voice, again as weak as always, is now spoken slowly as she makes long pauses between sentences, focusing little on speaking. "I... need to make sure the magic persists. It might not be gone forever, truly... I've never really tested how long I can hold it, a few hours was my longest attempt... and only on a single person." Most importantly, she wondered whether the creature will choose to return once the effect of the magic weakens. If so, she had done nothing more than delay the fight, and maybe even ruin their chance. 

"Well, the longer north that creature walks the longer it will take for it to get back. Maybe it will even decide it can't return as it would have to regain command over these orcses that it just have abandoned." Serena says in an encouraging tone as she searches the lair for anything of interest.

Serena finds two large chests along the south wall of the room formerly inhabited by the creature and wolves. They are unlocked, as the creature seemingly trusted itself as sufficient protection, or maybe it could not be bothered with the complexity of locks.

Within one chests she finds 440 gold pieces, 1,600 silver pieces.

In the other she finds a potion and gorgeous rapier.

The potion is separated into brown, silver, and gray layers resembling bands of stone. Shaking the bottle fails to mix the colors.