When Mina tells the two rouges not to doubt themselves, Akyan simply shrugs and continues to the washroom. Because of this, he misses Mina's explanation of her brother's whereabouts.
Once finished cleaning himself up, he makes his way to his quarters to get some rest, then heads back to the common room a short while before the dwarves arrive.
After listening to Spar's opinion of Team 3's actions, Akyan relaxes a bit. It was good to know that team 2 considered them to have been acceptable. However, his mood remains grim. He watches Kyrsa pull Mina off to the side, but doesn't think much of it. His attention shifts to Tamryn as the wood elf asks about striking the serpents den.
"I'll go with you." He says, "I'd like to finish what we started. If possible, we might consider having Lyndaran or myself infiltrate the gang alongside you. While I'm not sure if this is possible, I don't think it's wise for you to do it alone. If we can get two of us in, it will be easier to get us both out if something goes wrong."
Turning to Tamryn she says, "You will not go alone. I too am eager to finish what we started." She pauses, "However, I do see an advantage to having fewer of us there. If you intend to simply scout out the area, avoiding any contact with the enemy if possible, this should be substantially less risky then what you and Akyan attempted at the last warehouse. At least... assuming you are successful in avoiding detection."
"Still, it would be best if you had backup with you. The last thing we need is for you and Akyan to end up trapped inside HQ without reinforcements."
Plot hints/clarifications/significant spoilers for players, but not required reading.:
So, harking back to post #1060, Lady Dannihyr's instructions were to:
Inform the Seven Serpents cartel that their caravan had been attacked by raiders from the south and that there were no survivors
go to the HQ and "set fire to the building". So not necessarily "burn it to the ground", although she probably wouldn't mind that outcome, either.
continue to pose as loyal members of the Serpent cartel.
Return to Torelli, the consigliere of House Dannihyr, without being followed, and bring with you the thumb-rings of three Serpent mid-level leaders ("capos"), "thumbs still attached".
So, proceed as you wish, but there is no mandate to "kill everyone" at the HQ. 1 and 3 might be difficult to accomplish now that Aeric has escaped, but if he hasn't made it back to HQ yet, you might still be able to preserve your cover (I wonder where else he might have gone to heal and grieve, especially if he is worried about assassination attempts from other Serpents?). And, as Tamryn suggested, any valuable intelligence you provide to Torelli/Mallika might be compensatory for a blown cover, as long as you are not traced back to the Dannihyr cartel.
So, you have approximately 24 hours left before you are scheduled to leave for the New Farm. If you choose to meditate now, you will have 20 hours.
The dwarves might be available for assistance or causing a distraction later, after they finish a long rest which they are just now beginning. Annika's recent adventure aside, however, they are not skilled at stealth or subterfuge. Full-on frontal assault is where they shine.
I haven't really named a "boss" of the Seven Serpents. They are so named because they are ruled by a council of seven particularly dastardly villains which have yet to spring forth from the frontal cortex of the DM. I suppose if you get that far, I will do some fast NPC creation, but these would not be ordinary enemies. These would be targets for much later in the campaign, maybe level 12 or something like that.
Check out the campaign page from time to time for bulletin-board silliness.
Jhaartael says, "I am willing to join. However I need a long rest to regain my full ability to control the weave. At the moment, I can probably light a fire from 10 feet away and I have some extra flasks of oil. Other than that, I would mostly be watch and archery cover."
Mina thinks for a moment, then pipes up, "I'm not sure that headquarters is our biggest threat right now. I think we would want to pool our resources and try and find Aeric before he sounds the alert. Too bad the dwarves are already down as I would have liked to ask them where he might have gone, seeing we are new to this town. Any ideas? Or am I out of line here?"
Jhaartaelponders Mina's assertion. His thumb below his lower lip, he taps his nose twice with his index finger and then adroitly fishes a vial from a pocket.
He hands the vial, which clearly contains a small amount of blood, to Mina. "I collected some of this at the warehouse when it appeared that one of the leaders had escaped us. I had thought that perhaps one of us might have a means to use it for tracking. Myself, I have not acquired a spell which can do such, but I do recall others speaking of such possibilities."
Tamryn is lost in thought for a moment. He says, “I think I know where Aeric is. He lost someone he loves. He can’t go to the place of her death; we’ve made that too dangerous for him. He might go to where he met her, the ship Nightmare, in dry dock somewhere at the port. If we can get there before the Serpents do, we may be able to finish him. But we would want to leave now, without rest, and we likely won’t have an opportunity to observe the Serpents’ HQ before tonight. It is a risk.”
Mina takes the vial from Jhaatael and holds it up to the light pondering. "Thank you for this, but I currently do not have a way to track anyone through this means. If I ever do, I will let you know." and she hands the vial back to the wizard.
Listening to Tamryn, she nods. "That makes sense to me. I am, however, able to track him if we can get to an area to pick up his tracks. Shall we put it to a vote? I vote for heading to the docks to find this ship. The Nightmare, sounds exciting."
Favored Enemy: You have advantage on Survival checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on INT checks to recall information about them.
Akyan nods, "Well, that's the best lead we've got other than just going strait to the serpents hq. Though if he isn't there, we may have to forgo this mission. We will loose a lot of time if this turns out to be a wild goose chase."
Jhaartael takes the vial back and swiftly conceals it again in his clothes. "Of course." He says as he bows his head and retreats slightly.
He remains silent throughout the remainder of the conversation, sensing as it progresses that he will be accompanying them all shortly more as lookout and cover.
(So, it sounds like the consensus is to leave now to search for the Nightmare, yes? If you look at the map on the campaign page (enlargeable link below it), there are actually several dock districts. You can proceed to the nearest, the Southern Docks, and make inquiries, or you can search the area around the last warehouse for tracks, although it seems likely that the sewers may have obscured any spoor left behind. )
If you choose to go to the Southern docks and ask around about the Nightmare:
It will use up approximately one hour of time, but you do finally find someone who tells you of some old rotting ships tied up to abandoned wharfs in Slime Bay. Another 30 minutes is spent traveling there, and scouting out the various abandoned vessels. You do locate the berth of the Nightmare, a formerly grand ship which has fallen on hard times, and seems in desperate need of serious repair before it could travel the open waters again. The current time is 3pm.
If you choose to return to the warehouse and search for a trail:
Instead of wasting your time in the sewer muck, you wisely choose to examine a three-block radius around the warehouse for other possible sewer entrances/exits. Mina may roll Survival with her bonuses, DC 16 to pick up a trail for Aeric. This trail will lead to the Slime District, where you find some abandoned ships tied up to rotting piers, the Nightmare among them. If the Survival check succeeds, the current time is 2:30 pm. If it fails, you revert to the other option, and the current time is 4 pm.
"Akyan has a point," Kyrsa says. "But I would hate to split up again, so we've got to choose one or the other. If you wish to go to the docks, we could...or we could go back to the warehouse to try and pick up a trail. If we don't stop Aeric, it is possible that our mission at HQ is already to risky to try. If we do stop him, then there is hope yet."
She pauses, "I think checking the docks would be our best option."
"Either we are here to check that timetable and can check if he is your brother, either that timetable is changed as you pointed " he says acknowledging Kyrsa's suggestion " or we are not ack in time, we can track and find him. He is a serpent, and leader of a group, it shouldn't hard to find him now that we now what we should be looking for. We will find him, sooner or later. "he tries to reassure Mina.
He seems to share Spar's opinion about their performance. Even if they could had taken down Aeric at the first try would have been better. It seems that they still had a chance.
"I will go with you too. " he confirms " I do think it is a good idea to look for Aeric and then go to that building. " he tries to make another joke, but then again his grim tone of voice fails him "You already know that I am up for that burning those places down plan... but before that I do think that checking his old ship is a good idea. If he thinks the other Serpents had turned against him he would try to recover before make any movement. We have nothing to lose to check it. And I do think it is better to be all together. If any of us find him we will have more chances to eliminate him if we are together. "
At the dry docks:
"Could we use your winged friend as lookout? Even if we manage to board the ship unnoticed he could decide to go out and we can miss him. " he stops and thinks "If the ship is on land as this one is... it is still correct to say board? or we just go up?"
As the group heads out from the safe house, Jhaartael holds out his arm and in a silent flutter Artaquetië comes from the other room and perches on his arm.
At the docks, Jhaartael nods to Lyndaran and passing a silent thought to his familiar, raises his arm as the raven takes flight; wheeling in lazy circles above.
"He will let us know." says the wizard as he walks away to take up a position of watch with his bow opposite the side Artaquetië is surveying.
Once they find the Nightmare's berth, Tamryn carefully examines the ship, looking for possible entrypoints and exits, signs of habitation, and potential traps.
Investigation: 17 (passive is 23; I'm not sure what is useful here)
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Mina follows the group to the docks, trying to not draw attention to herself as they go. She remembers the dwarves words of caution and she keeps her eyes peeled to see if anyone is paying particular interest in any of the elves as they walk towards the Nightmare.
Perception 22
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(Trying to put this in order of events.)
When Mina tells the two rouges not to doubt themselves, Akyan simply shrugs and continues to the washroom. Because of this, he misses Mina's explanation of her brother's whereabouts.
Once finished cleaning himself up, he makes his way to his quarters to get some rest, then heads back to the common room a short while before the dwarves arrive.
After listening to Spar's opinion of Team 3's actions, Akyan relaxes a bit. It was good to know that team 2 considered them to have been acceptable. However, his mood remains grim. He watches Kyrsa pull Mina off to the side, but doesn't think much of it. His attention shifts to Tamryn as the wood elf asks about striking the serpents den.
"I'll go with you." He says, "I'd like to finish what we started. If possible, we might consider having Lyndaran or myself infiltrate the gang alongside you. While I'm not sure if this is possible, I don't think it's wise for you to do it alone. If we can get two of us in, it will be easier to get us both out if something goes wrong."
Kyrsa nods to Mina, "Alright then."
Turning to Tamryn she says, "You will not go alone. I too am eager to finish what we started." She pauses, "However, I do see an advantage to having fewer of us there. If you intend to simply scout out the area, avoiding any contact with the enemy if possible, this should be substantially less risky then what you and Akyan attempted at the last warehouse. At least... assuming you are successful in avoiding detection."
"Still, it would be best if you had backup with you. The last thing we need is for you and Akyan to end up trapped inside HQ without reinforcements."
Plot hints/clarifications/significant spoilers for players, but not required reading.:
So, harking back to post #1060, Lady Dannihyr's instructions were to:
So, proceed as you wish, but there is no mandate to "kill everyone" at the HQ. 1 and 3 might be difficult to accomplish now that Aeric has escaped, but if he hasn't made it back to HQ yet, you might still be able to preserve your cover (I wonder where else he might have gone to heal and grieve, especially if he is worried about assassination attempts from other Serpents?). And, as Tamryn suggested, any valuable intelligence you provide to Torelli/Mallika might be compensatory for a blown cover, as long as you are not traced back to the Dannihyr cartel.
So, you have approximately 24 hours left before you are scheduled to leave for the New Farm. If you choose to meditate now, you will have 20 hours.
More hints:
Jhaartael says, "I am willing to join. However I need a long rest to regain my full ability to control the weave. At the moment, I can probably light a fire from 10 feet away and I have some extra flasks of oil. Other than that, I would mostly be watch and archery cover."
Eryndor - Red Dead Annihilation | GM - Volo's Trade Franchise - PF2e Adventures set in the Forgotten Realms
Mina thinks for a moment, then pipes up, "I'm not sure that headquarters is our biggest threat right now. I think we would want to pool our resources and try and find Aeric before he sounds the alert. Too bad the dwarves are already down as I would have liked to ask them where he might have gone, seeing we are new to this town. Any ideas? Or am I out of line here?"
Jhaartael ponders Mina's assertion. His thumb below his lower lip, he taps his nose twice with his index finger and then adroitly fishes a vial from a pocket.
He hands the vial, which clearly contains a small amount of blood, to Mina. "I collected some of this at the warehouse when it appeared that one of the leaders had escaped us. I had thought that perhaps one of us might have a means to use it for tracking. Myself, I have not acquired a spell which can do such, but I do recall others speaking of such possibilities."
Eryndor - Red Dead Annihilation | GM - Volo's Trade Franchise - PF2e Adventures set in the Forgotten Realms
Tamryn is lost in thought for a moment. He says, “I think I know where Aeric is. He lost someone he loves. He can’t go to the place of her death; we’ve made that too dangerous for him. He might go to where he met her, the ship Nightmare, in dry dock somewhere at the port. If we can get there before the Serpents do, we may be able to finish him. But we would want to leave now, without rest, and we likely won’t have an opportunity to observe the Serpents’ HQ before tonight. It is a risk.”
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Mina takes the vial from Jhaatael and holds it up to the light pondering. "Thank you for this, but I currently do not have a way to track anyone through this means. If I ever do, I will let you know." and she hands the vial back to the wizard.
Listening to Tamryn, she nods. "That makes sense to me. I am, however, able to track him if we can get to an area to pick up his tracks. Shall we put it to a vote? I vote for heading to the docks to find this ship. The Nightmare, sounds exciting."
Favored Enemy: You have advantage on Survival checks to track your favored enemies, as well as on INT checks to recall information about them.
Akyan nods, "Well, that's the best lead we've got other than just going strait to the serpents hq. Though if he isn't there, we may have to forgo this mission. We will loose a lot of time if this turns out to be a wild goose chase."
Jhaartael takes the vial back and swiftly conceals it again in his clothes. "Of course." He says as he bows his head and retreats slightly.
He remains silent throughout the remainder of the conversation, sensing as it progresses that he will be accompanying them all shortly more as lookout and cover.
Eryndor - Red Dead Annihilation | GM - Volo's Trade Franchise - PF2e Adventures set in the Forgotten Realms
(So, it sounds like the consensus is to leave now to search for the Nightmare, yes? If you look at the map on the campaign page (enlargeable link below it), there are actually several dock districts. You can proceed to the nearest, the Southern Docks, and make inquiries, or you can search the area around the last warehouse for tracks, although it seems likely that the sewers may have obscured any spoor left behind. )
If you choose to go to the Southern docks and ask around about the Nightmare:
It will use up approximately one hour of time, but you do finally find someone who tells you of some old rotting ships tied up to abandoned wharfs in Slime Bay. Another 30 minutes is spent traveling there, and scouting out the various abandoned vessels. You do locate the berth of the Nightmare, a formerly grand ship which has fallen on hard times, and seems in desperate need of serious repair before it could travel the open waters again. The current time is 3pm.
If you choose to return to the warehouse and search for a trail:
Instead of wasting your time in the sewer muck, you wisely choose to examine a three-block radius around the warehouse for other possible sewer entrances/exits. Mina may roll Survival with her bonuses, DC 16 to pick up a trail for Aeric. This trail will lead to the Slime District, where you find some abandoned ships tied up to rotting piers, the Nightmare among them. If the Survival check succeeds, the current time is 2:30 pm. If it fails, you revert to the other option, and the current time is 4 pm.
Or you are free to come up with more options.
The Slime District
The Nightmare
"Akyan has a point," Kyrsa says. "But I would hate to split up again, so we've got to choose one or the other. If you wish to go to the docks, we could...or we could go back to the warehouse to try and pick up a trail. If we don't stop Aeric, it is possible that our mission at HQ is already to risky to try. If we do stop him, then there is hope yet."
She pauses, "I think checking the docks would be our best option."
Before they depart:
Lyndaran hears Mina's concerns about her brother.
"Either we are here to check that timetable and can check if he is your brother, either that timetable is changed as you pointed " he says acknowledging Kyrsa's suggestion " or we are not ack in time, we can track and find him. He is a serpent, and leader of a group, it shouldn't hard to find him now that we now what we should be looking for. We will find him, sooner or later. " he tries to reassure Mina.
He seems to share Spar's opinion about their performance. Even if they could had taken down Aeric at the first try would have been better. It seems that they still had a chance.
"I will go with you too. " he confirms " I do think it is a good idea to look for Aeric and then go to that building. " he tries to make another joke, but then again his grim tone of voice fails him "You already know that I am up for that burning those places down plan... but before that I do think that checking his old ship is a good idea. If he thinks the other Serpents had turned against him he would try to recover before make any movement. We have nothing to lose to check it. And I do think it is better to be all together. If any of us find him we will have more chances to eliminate him if we are together. "
At the dry docks:
"Could we use your winged friend as lookout? Even if we manage to board the ship unnoticed he could decide to go out and we can miss him. " he stops and thinks "If the ship is on land as this one is... it is still correct to say board? or we just go up?"
PbP Character: A few ;)
Before they set out to the docks, Akyan grabs his hat, then once again uses it to appear human.
"That sounds like a good idea to me." He replies to Lyndaran.
As the group heads out from the safe house, Jhaartael holds out his arm and in a silent flutter Artaquetië comes from the other room and perches on his arm.
At the docks, Jhaartael nods to Lyndaran and passing a silent thought to his familiar, raises his arm as the raven takes flight; wheeling in lazy circles above.
"He will let us know." says the wizard as he walks away to take up a position of watch with his bow opposite the side Artaquetië is surveying.
Eryndor - Red Dead Annihilation | GM - Volo's Trade Franchise - PF2e Adventures set in the Forgotten Realms
Once they find the Nightmare's berth, Tamryn carefully examines the ship, looking for possible entrypoints and exits, signs of habitation, and potential traps.
Investigation: 17 (passive is 23; I'm not sure what is useful here)
Tamryn - lvl 4 Wood Elf Rogue - Circle of Light Campaign || Drusilla - lvl 1 Half-Elf Ranger - Sleeping Gods || Grrzark - lvl 1 Goblin Barbarian - Danger at Darkshelf Quarry || DM - LTG - Curse of Strahd
Mina follows the group to the docks, trying to not draw attention to herself as they go. She remembers the dwarves words of caution and she keeps her eyes peeled to see if anyone is paying particular interest in any of the elves as they walk towards the Nightmare.
Perception 22