The Undying Dragons - Campaign Thread

Avaria watches Jan and Ethel head to the other cavern.  She begrudgingly gets out of the pool and shakes off.  Setting her rapier into the pile with the rest, she looks to Haguur, "Think it might be worth hiding all this stuff in the spider cave?  Just in case?  Or do the guards never come back here?"

Then she follows the others to find out who these visitors are, but hangs to the back by the wall, hoping they won't notice she's wet.

When you look into the cavern you can see light; a lantern casts flickering shadows on the dark walls.

Xanthe, stands quietly with her arms wrapped around herself, protectively, looking towards the door and the holder of the lantern.

Two hooded figures, one holding a hooded lantern, walk further into the cavern. A hobgoblin guard can be made out in the shadows by the doorway.

The flickering light finally reaches your group. When it does, the hooded figures stop momentarily. They put their heads together, perhaps whispering; but you hear nothing. They then quickly cover the ground, reaching you before you come too far into the cavern.

"Not here," a familiar man's voice says. "Too many eyes. Back in there."

The one without the lantern gestures into the cavern you just came from.

"A gentleman caller.  And at this hour."

"Scandalous."

((Is Jan able to place the familiar man's voice? That would greatly influence her willingness to go along with their request.))

Marrin stays back in the shadows between the caverns. She isn't planning on moving and ruining their chances to accommodate this person's paranoia.

She'll gesture towards the goblin cavern and say,

"Safer over there. The orcs aren't terribly welcoming."

Persuasion: 10

Trying to place the voice... is that Dodds?  She realizes where they are about to head at the same time Marrin speaks up.

Avaria walks over to help her friend, shakes herself again so that water goes everywhere, "yeah, they just tried to drown me for entering their cave without permission."

Marrin makes a gesture towards Ava's dripping state, and emphasizes her point,

"Safer for everyone."

Advantage roll: 9

“You’re as terrible a liar as you are at taking a dive in a fight,” the man says to Avaria.

He gestures at his companion to hold the lantern up closer to his face; the unmistakeable Harry Dodds grin peaks out from under the hood.

”Now stop screwing around and go back in there. We don’t have much time. And those goblins would sell us out for an extra half ration of food.”

Dodds smiles at Jisthelek.

”He ain’t wrong,” The goblin admits.

"Who the fork is this?", Jan asks Ava.

"Not lying, also who ever said I was going to take a dive?"

She looks to the lantern holder as she waves them past,

"And who might you be? Oh, and don't say I didn't warn you if the orcs kill you."

Avaria smiles, "Why it's my good friend Mr. Dodds.  As for taking a dive, I told you I've never done that before.  I tried... but then well, rage took over and yeah."  she shrugs.

She steps aside as Marrin waves them through, wondering how fast Haguur is and what development this means.

"Time for what?"

"Time until the shift change in the guard post." Dodds says.

Harry Dodds slips past and into the orc cavern with the rest of you close behind.

Haguur stands ready, a short sword in hand, with the other orcs fanned out in support on his flanks. Dodds stops when he sees the orcs.

Finally Dodds nods and smiles at Haguur.

“I got your message. Sounds like this is as good an opportunity as we’re going to get.” Dodds says to Haguur.

The orc nods and lowers his sword, but he doesn’t take his eyes off the still hooded figure holding the lantern.

Harry then turns to the group.

“So, I’m hoping you’ve had enough of the hospitality here and are ready to leave,” Dodds says. “I can help but there’s a catch.”

Harry Dodds looks over to the figure with the hood and shrugs.

“You need to take us with you,” he says then gestures to the hooded figure. “No more secrets my dear.”

The figure steps forward and takes Dodds hand, pulling back the hood at the same time.

The flickering lantern light catches the tussle of bright red hair first and then the unmistakable face of Gertrude Hargrove.

Avaria follows the two into the orc cavern, wondering how this was going to play out and is stunned when Dodds said he got Haguurs message.  She looks back and forth from one to the other, wondering what trick was coming up next.  But after a moment she realizes, she should have known.

"My dear?"  Avaria looks at the chicken lady and smirks, "What's your plan Dodds?  We'd like to hear that before we agree on anything."

Jan gives a bark of laughter before recalling the need for some amount of secrecy, stifling her chortles behind a hand, the absurdity of their situation leading her to need to sit down for a bit.

Ethel remains silent.

Quietly, she is impressed with Haguur.  She chides herself for failing to anticipate that the Orc would be running his own escape plan.  Perhaps the party should count themselves lucky he didn't decide to cut them out of it.  

Of Dodds and Gertrude, she takes them at face value.  Had Dodds come alone, she would be more suspicious that he was running some con on them.  But Gertrude seemed neither cruel nor cunning enough to mastermind such a thing, and she doubts very much that Dodds or the other Hargroves would use Gertrude as an integral part of some double-cross scheme to root out escapees.

Things moved faster and faster.  Too fast for her liking, but it couldn't be helped now.

While the others talked, she will try to get Jisthelek's attention.

DM:

Marrin gives Haguur a nod of appreciation before looking both Dodds and then Trudy over carefully while they provide their answers.

Dodds looks thoughtful for a moment then gives Gertrude’s hand a squeeze. She looks at him, and even in the flickering light of the lantern you can tell there’s affection here.

“Well, why the lot of you want out is a given. Who wants to be a prisoner?” Harry Dodds begins. “But a prisoner can take on different forms. Gertie’s been saddled with a right shite family that she doesn’t fit in with. And her brother’s starting to really scare her. And me? Well, I’ve made too many bad gambles in business and even if I went on a winning streak to end all winning streaks I’ll never be able to buy my way out from under the Hargroves.”

He takes a breath and looks around the cavern.

“The missus, Gillian Hargrove, is hosting a soiree tomorrow night. She likes to pretend she’s a sophisticate. The top ship captain’s will be there as well as a few unusual business associates,” Dodds says.

He looks over at Gertrude. She nods.

“Mum will want um, well, will er want, lots of serving staff on hand and she um, she, she makes me to pick the best prisoners for that,” Gertrude says. “She has a few, um, prisoners, who, she, uh, likes, who I’ll have to pick, but I’ll be able to um, well, um, probably get three of you in as staff.”

Dodds pulls her in and puts his arm around her shoulder.

“It’s okay, Gertie. This is it.” Dodds adds then he continues on. “They always have extra guards up in the main hallways for these things. Show of power and all that, which means the guard post will be short staffed. Two guards at most.”

He fishes something out of his pocket and holds it up. Metal glints in the light.

“This is a duplicate key for the first door out of the caverns,” Dodds says. “So you can get that far with no issue. But either the ones top side will have to sneak away and somehow get through the back door into the guard post to let the rest of you through, or you need to find a way to get through that door from this side. Once in there you’ve got access to more weapons and armor Once out, you may have to fight your way upstairs but the captains won’t be with their ships and your favourite grocery will be making a generous donation of drink to the crews who can’t join the party. We can get a ship.”

Gertie nestles against Dodds but looks around the group.

“Before, um, before, before we head back, I, er, need to know who to pick for the party.” She says.

Dodds then adds “and do you think you can get into that room? Haguur and his crew are ready to fight tooth and nail once that door’s open.”

Haguur grunts his agreement.

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Ethel, Jisthelek listens intently when you describe the lab and then just shakes his head.

“That lot is going to be best used as a bunch of screaming toddlers running around causing chaos and plenty of distractions. I’ll see if I can get a couple who might actual recognize a book to make a pass that way but it’ll be fifty-fifty if they can keep it together long enough to get there.”

Avaria looks at the two of them, wondering if they were trying to trick them or if they were lying about anything.  But then, hey even if they were, she didn't have much to lose.  

"So let me get this straight.  You're giving us a key that will get us out of this area into the hallway and then we have a door to the guards post to contend with?  Whether its from this end or from the ones upstairs to try and open that door.  In the guards post, there is more weapons and armor.."  she waves her arm over to the pile they have accumulated, "though we aren't doing half bad in that respect.  What about Jan's ring, Marrin's lute and Ethel's walking stick?"

"And then once we are there, we may have to fight our way to the ships, correct?  And do we know which ship we'll meet you on?  I'm not putting down the plan, I think it's very feasible, just making sure I understand it?"

"As for who to go upstairs.. it sounds like we'll all be together once real fighting starts at least.  Will there be guards at the second door that the ones in the cavern here will have to contend with?  If so, I can stay here, otherwise I'll volunteer to parade around if need be."

It goes against her natural tendencies to just trust the pair, but even if it's some sort of deeper ploy, it's the closest they've come to good news, as bizarre as it has been presented.

"Marrin, I think you and I've got a decent shot at getting from the party back down here with whoever the third is...", Jan remarks, trusting the other woman to get the intent of her words., "but I think I might also have the best shot at bypassing the doors down here. My ring would certainly simplify things, but I assume those items are kept in the arena prep area?"

Ethel nods solemnly to Jisthelek.  Its a lot to ask.  Probably too much.  But there could be knowledge she needs down there.  The alternative, trying to get in and out of that lab herself, with her physical limitations, while all the moving parts of an escape attempt were in play....

She turns back to Dodds and Gertrude.  "And what of the arena?  Will we also have to contend with more brawls and sport throughout the day tomorrow, wasting spells and vigor that could be better used during the self-extraction?"