(OOC:

@valeskah - Nice!  Shatter will probably be very effective against the Lornlings.  I also wouldn't scoff at Fireball: the Lornlings may scamper out of the way, but it seemed like Bavlorna had very poor DEX saves.  Fireball may be a good way to start or -- eventually -- finish the fight with a bang!

@snievan - Yeah, Spirit Guardians is fantastic!  The 10 min duration means that you could get it started before we enter the fight with Bavlorna.  Hm...I wonder whether we can speed-run Bavlorna's entire hut in 10 mins without stumbling into a trap?  It might be hard to maintain concentration on anything if you're facing 6 attacks / round from a couple of Lornlings, but I think that they had < 20 HP.  Just entering the AoE or starting her turn there may be enough to kill a Lornling if she fails her saving throw.  Let's just hope that the DM doesn't go another stream of unusually high saving throw rolls!

)

(OOC: @Weathervision - I think that we're ready.  I'll ask a question later in the OOC thread before finalizing Valrieth's spell selection, but I should be able to finish that up before our first big encounter.)

Valrieth looks happy that these relative strangers are so supportive!  She feels somewhat embarrassed at her own fear of facing Bavlorna and the Lornlings again.  She says, "You're both ever so brave!  You must be heroes of great renown in your home land!  I thank the Stars that led me to you in the moment of my greatest need yesterday.  I will face the hag once more if you will go with me back to her hut in Downfall."

Val uses what she remembers from her two trips to Bavlorna's hut and her proficiency with Cartographer's Tools to draw a map of Bavlorna's hut in her notebook.  That way, they will hopefully be able to move through Bavlorna's lair quickly.  She warns them about the Will-o-Wisp that guards Bavlorna's bedroom.  She explains the L-shaped hallway and the "mouse-door" under the cabinet in Bavlorna's sitting room.  She gives them the password "balderdash" for the hidden door behind the mirror to the L-shaped hallway, and she mentions the "spittlespew."  She hasn't learned what that's a password for.  She says, "I don't know whether Bavlorna will wait for us in her sitting room with all of her Lornlings to protect her or whether she will send the vicious little things to harry us as we move through the house."  As she looks at her little map, a thought occurs to her.  "We may even have trouble getting into Bavlorna's hut.  The first time I was there, there were no stairs, and we used Finley's magic rope to climb up to the balcony and pick the locked door.  The second time, there was a stair, but it had magical wards.  We were able to climb up to this trapdoor in the room with the pool, but I think that we had to pick that lock, too."

Val asks whether Zylo and Iali want to try pretending that they are bounty hunters who captured Val and are taking her back to Bavlorna for their "wish."  That may help them get past the bullywugs -- at least the ones who did not see them together yesterday -- and maybe Bavlorna would let them bring Val right into her sitting room if she thought that they were there to deliver Val.

If they want to do it that way, then Val assumes that they'll just go to the first bullywug guards they find in Downfall and ask for directions to Bavlorna's hut to "deliver" Val.  They just need to figure out a way to make it look like Val is a prisoner while allowing her the freedom to act when she needs to.  (Or Val could burn 1 use of Wild Shape to turn into an animal for up to 3 hours.  That way, the bullywugs won't realize that she is with Iali and Zylo.)

If they do not want to do it that way, then Val will assume that they'll just be making a straightforward assault on Bavlorna's home.  She will wait until they're close to Downfall (about 10 minutes from walking into the map of Downfall) and then use [Tooltip Not Found] to help the three of them avoid noice as they find a boat and make their way into Bavlorna's hut.

Iali casts Mage Armor to augment her protections and then turns to Val. "Taking you as a supposed captive might make our job easier, as long as Zylo agrees. I do not have any spells that can mimic ropes binding you -- do you have such a thing at your disposal? Otherwise, perhaps we can loop some real rope around your wrists and stand obvious guard over you, and you can drop the rope when needed."

"Well, I'm not very good at lying to be honest, as long as Iali can do the talking there, I could be the silent, uh, muscle so to speak." Zylo taps his chin with a claw, "We'd need a passcode of some kind if things start going wrong to know when we should start the fight. Something innocuous but not something we'd say in the conversation, like tabernacle! Or, get her, I don't know." He shrugs.

Valrieth giggles, "Yes, tabernacle is fine.  I don't think that will come up in the conversation naturally!"

Val will try to help Zylo "pretend" tie her hands, directing him as well as she can based on all of the practice she has had with ropes since adventuring in Prismeer: "They should be tight enough to be believable but easy enough for me to slip out of the ropes if needed."  Once they pretend-bind Val's hands, she's ready to hike back toward Downfall with them.

(OOC: I guess we'd need a Survival check from Zylo for tying the bit of rope believably but not too tight.  Val would offer Guidance too, but I guess Zylo may prefer to pray to his own god for that.)

Zylo nods, "tabernacle.." and looks to the swamplands around them. "Let's see, can't be too hard to find our way back the way we came!" (Survival: 15)

Zylo, please roll survival DC 14 for believable tied hands

"I'm pretty good at this.." Zylo mutters as he tries to make the ropes look good around her hands. (Survival: 20)

(Nice roll) 

Val is now believably bound and the party hikes back to Downfall.

Where do you plan to enter Downfall? 

By the guard tower or somewhere else? 

"I think we should go a different way in than near that guard tower since we spooked that one. Maybe we can come in through the east, you think?" Zylo suggests as they get closer.

"Good point, Zylo" Valrieth says.  "And we'll need a boat to get out to Bavlorna's hut.  If we could approach from the east near Octavian's toadstool patch (D14), that would be ideal.  We could try to take a boat at the docks.  Of course, the boats are more likely to be tied up on the north side, near the Sunken Palace (D11), but it seems like that's where we'd run into the most bullywugs.  If we cannot get around to the southeast or even to the south (by D17), maybe we should just head back to the docks by the balloon mooring (D2).  That's not too close to the tower (D19), and I think that we avoided notice of the other guards yesterday.  If they don't believe your story about taking me to the hag, we'll just have to scare them off so that we can take one of the boats."  

Val has only ever approached Downfall from the west, so she's not sure how hard it is to navigate the waters around the village. 

• If possible, she'd start at D14 and then check the docks north of there for a boat.
• If they cannot get around to that side of Downfall, she'd be willing to approach near D17 (from the south), and then head around the southeast side of the village since she knows that area well.
• Otherwise, she'd like to approach from the west, along that spit of land between D1 and D3.  

Iali nods in approval at Zylo's fake bindings.

At the discussion of how to approach Bavlorna, she shrugs. "I agree that we should avoid the guard tower, in case that snivelling creature is still frightened of their own shadow. Apart from that, you two are better at navigation than I. I am content to follow your direction."

"Excellent, it's a boon that you know your way around here." Zylo adds with a nod, "Let us go that way then."

The party approaches Downfall from the Southeast and arrive at the large toadstool patch. Looking to the north you see the dock here has not boats as they are tied to the docks to the north by the Sunken Palace.

From this position you do not see any Bullywugs nearby.

What do you do?

Valrieth looks back and forth (to the north and to the west), her ears stiff and alert and her nose twitching as she sniffs the air.  Assuming that she doesn't see anything hiding nearby or anyone coming from a distance, she takes a moment to talk to the others.  Perception: 19

Val swallows hard as she settles her nerves.  "Well, we need a way to get across to Bavlorna's hut," she says, thinking practically. "We could try to take a boat from the docks by the Sunken Palace (D11).  Maybe I could untie one from this side of the water via telekinesis?  I'm not sure whether I could untie it from that distance, but it might be worth a try.  Otherwise, one of us might have to fly or swim across to get the boat.  That might be dangerous because there are probably a lot of bullywugs at the palace.  Or we could try walking back past the guard tower (D19) to the docks at the west side of Downfall (D2).  There might be a boat there, but we'd be walking past a few bullywug huts and at least two guarded locations (D2 and D19) if we go that way."

Val thinks that trying to get a boat from the Sunken Palace is probably safer, but she'd like to hear what the others think.

"A long as I don't have to swim, I'm ok with this. If there are no guards, then one of us could grab that boat by whatever means we can muster. I'd rather not move past too many buildings that will give us more chance of being spotted, especially if no one is nearby." Zylo glances about as he speaks. "I do not have a magical way to bring the boat closer, but are you willing to spend that energy before we are to fight with this monstrosity?"

Iali looks thoughtful. "If you try your telekinesis as our first attempt, as a backup I can fly over to collect a boat. It means I am unable to use my wings again until tomorrow, but better we reach the hag rather than not."

"Ooh!  Yes, your pretty wings," Valrieth says.  "Thank you, Iali, but we might need your flight to get us up into the hag's hut, so we'll try to get the boat without them.  I may have some other tricks up my sleeve that could help."

Quote from Weathervision >>

What do you do?

Zylo and Iali will have to escort Valrieth to the little pier just north of the giant toadstool patch (D14).  Now that we're in Downfall, we need to preserve the appearance that she is their prisoner.  Val wouldn't bother too much with stealth since sneaking around wouldn't make sense if Zylo and Iali were really here to turn Val in.

The telekinetc powers that Val manifested after she survived her first encounter with Bavlorna a week ago give her the ability to cast Mage Hand without verbal or somatic components, and you can make the spectral hand invisible.  Once she gets out onto the little pier over the water, the boats on the north shore by the Sunken Palace should be within the 30-ft range.  She's hoping to find a boat that she can untie and then somehow get over to their side of the water.

"Oh!" Zylo feels like he came up with a good idea as Val uses her magic, "Maybe I could tie my mace to my rope and get it into the boat and hope it catches on something if you have trouble with that." He seems proud of his idea and digs around his backpack looking for his rope and starts to tie it together.