Crimson Sands of Time

(I'm failing to understand the environment Piccolo is in. By any means that is sneaky, (STEALTH: 27) Piccolo will move toward the entrance. She has Cunning action Disengage to avoid AOO, she has feystep to teleport 30 feet, she has stealth to be super sneaky, she could even cast minor illusion and look like a giant snake. Basically, whatever makes sense that does not trigger attacks from the creatures she has spotted and gets her closer to Granny.)

(ooc: are any of the creatures taking up a guard position for granny?)

Quote from Brian_Avery >>

"Beware the snakes!" Trisk warns everyone.

 This tells me Trisk is there with Picollo, who climbed out a window, scaled the log, entered a second story eondow, dealt with a sick kid, snuck past some guards and back out the other side of the log, down the stairs and into the pumpkin patch. That triggers the snakes. They are the security system. You're busted. But they're not attacking you they're challenging you. If yoi can hide in a pumpkin patch, you can try to hide, bit they're going to find you. Running might work.  It will 100% sound a full alarm though.

Anyone dealing with Cradlefall tbe dragon or the witch is inside. Trisk called out regarding the snakes, so I assume he is with her.

Quote from Brian_Avery >>

(ooc: are any of the creatures taking up a guard position for granny?)

Trisk is nowhere near Granny so he doesn't know, but she's not being overtly threatening despite the fact you decided to wander through her house and disturbed tbe children in the workshop and put her pet in a cage. She's actually offering you work. I led with the unicorn horn since the group asked about it. She's looking for it, herself. If you talk to her she'll tell you her sister Bavlorna lost it.

She did call loudly for chairs, though. Otherwise jts just her and Cradlefall, (now a dragonfly lookong thing) in the room.

(Piccolo will try to recall what she knows of Granny Nightshade, or of a powerful feywild being that has that as a nickname. If she knows anything she would like to assess if what she knows is the being is a positive influence on the fey wild or one that wishes it harm.

She will also use her piccolo to communicate with the two snakes, (An image of her carefully tending to the garden and feeding the snakes) (Telepathic communication...picture a snake charmer: Persuasion: 26), she will also try to reason with the mound, projecting a picture that she lived with several mounds for over a century in a dark place, and they helped take care of her and were her friends. If all else fails she will either charm the snakes or come up with another option. She also keeps an eye on Trisk to make sure nothing attacks him.

Uriel:

”A unicorn horn, you say,” says Uriel, “And your sister lost it?  Perhaps while traveling or maybe at home?  Please tell us where she lives and we can ask her where she last had it.”

Trisk will take the Dodge action.

"I hope they like music."

“perhaps we could help you” 

Quote from Scott_R_Simmons >>

Uriel:

”A unicorn horn, you say,” says Uriel, “And your sister lost it?  Perhaps while traveling or maybe at home?  Please tell us where she lives and we can ask her where she last had it.”

 "She says its was in her caukdr9n, but she swears it was stolen. I can't euke it our, but knowing Bavlorna, it's a coin toss at best." Skabatha replies. She takes a moment to reach behind her hack with one hand and wind the turning key protruding from her back.

>Picollo has probably surmised that granny Nightshade is skabatha Nightshade, rhe hag she met in the castle earlier. Their relatively recent role in the shift of power in Prismeer is murky, but murder still is rhe question of whether Pismeer is better off with the status quo or the old guard, and better for whom, if not yourself. if it's the latter, then how can Zybilna be restored to her throne and should she be?<

The shambling mound tells Picollo that the creature must obey the hag until its stolen root is returned to it. 

The snakes just tell Picollo "We won't be swayed by your sweet words, trespasser. You may look like a child, but I sense you are something else!"

<in point of fact, if picollo were an actual child, the conditions for the snakes to emerge would be unmet. The fact that they're here tells them you aren't a child.>

(Are the snakes and mound attacking piccolo and Trisk or are they just guarding?)

The snakes are not inclined ro attack they're "guard dogs" not attack dogs.  The mound is compelled ro serve the hag, it confesses (I'm ruling Picollo's special Telepathy makes it possible for her to understand it) with that in mind, it will attack you as that is kind of its job, so if yiu want to use the persuasion you rolled on the mound, it's fine and a success. But that would come withe the understanding that youre going to help him end his indentured service. The snakes are basically just living alarms. If they weren't alive they would have just rung by now. Most of the system is here to alert rather than directly deal with things.  I would say treat the snakes as you would an old fashioned fire alarm or alarm clock, like a bell with a clanger. Hard to dissuade, easy to stop.

Piccolo plays a bit more music (To the Mound: a visual of her trying to find its root and return it to the mound. Again, a visual of a mound in the doomvault working in symbiotic relationship with the trapped Piccolo.)

To the snakes: she shakes her head and plays some music that sounds very rhymic and trance-like, a snake charm: Animal Friendship level 2 on both snakes: Wisdom save 21.

She will then grab Trisk and move out of the garden.

Trisk lets Piccolo pull him away from danger.

"You're right we can probably outrun it!"

Trisk will move and Dash unless he ends up in melee, then he will Disengage and move.

The spell fails as the snakes call loudly for help and rush to the stairs, but do not follow Picollo as she ascends. The guards arrive to confront the girl and the wizard. One stays with them while the other runs toward the pig pen. "Stop, lass. Hands off that animal!" Philomena, meanwhile grabs hold of a piglet and starts to run off. 

<snakes are awakened with an INT 10, Animal Friendship explicitly states this.>

The five scarecrows start screaming in unison, a loud bellowing holler. Though each has its own voice, the screams of shock or terror all convey similar urgency, loud enough fir everyone in Loomlurch to hear. 

Within the workshop, Skabatha looks off through the window  to the garden where the scarecrows are and says "D'oh, what is it, now!?" Opening the door to the garden, she sees Picollo and Trisk as they alight the stairs and watches as Philomena absconds with the piglet. At this, the rotating key in her back comes to a dead stop.  She howls a dark word in an arcane tongue and from the plant beds in the garden just outside the workshop, eight mounds of dirt stir and from each arises a skeleton.

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I've got Picollo and Trisk on the stairs heading back into the dorm above the room beyond the workshop, Skabatha blocking the door between the workshop and the garden and the snakes and 1 soldier at the bottom if the stairs with another following Philomena into the west woods. The rear of the group is in the workshop with Skabatha and Cradlefall. 

@everyone: What do you want to do?

Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?

Uriel:

Uriel will move up to the hag and try to wind up her winding key, saying, "No need for this to become a fight unless you make it so."

Athletics check if needed to operate the key:  14