Upon realizing what the hat is and what it can do, Zeds ponders its usage and reluctantly considers how best to take advantage of it. He first discusses it with Ixsas quietly, away from the new additions, to get his thoughts. Ixsas himself is a new addition but not the newest kid on the block...
"If we use the hat to disguise one of us as Dralmorrer we wouldn't need to rely on his cooperation at all," Zeds points out to Ixsas. "If they thought one of us were him we may be able to walk around this place like we own it. The big problem I see is the voice. Maybe not all of them but a lot of them know his voice. I can do some voices... Pull off a fake accent, adopt a younger or older sounding tone... But I'm not so great at the totally copying someone's actual voice. But what I saw her do down at the door? It was magic... Literally. She just copied his voice no problem with whatever spell she did. If she could do that while also looking like him? I'm a bit hesitant to give up such an item to someone we just met but..."
Assuming Ixsas agrees with his thought process, Zeds would then bring up the idea to Seraphina herself. He would share much the same thought process but also add "Assuming you think you could pull them both off in unison, I guess. I don't know your limits or anything but if you could in effect "become" him that may save us a whole lot of trouble in this castle... and out."
The young blonde selûnite listens attentively with an amused smile to the rogue's suggestion. She was following the tenets of her mistress to the best of her ability but she was certainly not above the use of trickery to accomplish the objectives of her mission. "I would need to use magic to project Dralmorrer's voice, it won't stand to any closer scrutiny I'm afraid, but I like how you think Zeds. If you really do think I should try to make use of your magical hat then I will certainly do so. I can assure you that you will have it back once we have finished what we came for." Seraphina says with a bright smile.
(If she is given the het she would attune to it during the short rest. She would still follow the others to examine the rest of the tower before deciding on what to do next.)
Thrax hisses at the raven, his forked tongue undulating in a serpentine fashion between his formidably sharp teeth.
"The tiliskub. What else do you use the tiliskub for?" Thrax asks the captive commander, tilting his scaly head in the direction of one of the floorboards as his big toe knocks against it.
"Hrmgh. What do you keep down here?" A monstrous smile widens across his face with a taunting, smug satisfaction as he kneels down. The dragonborn peels back the rug, his reptilian third-eyelids blinking slowly as he studies the interlocking patten of the planks. A moment later, he attempts to pry the hollow-sounding floorboard free. "Secrets. Are these the secrets of Dralmorrer?"
Strength: 16 ((If another roll on top of the perception check earlier is required to check for traps, please let me know! :) ))
Upon realizing what the hat is and what it can do, Zeds ponders its usage and reluctantly considers how best to take advantage of it. He first discusses it with Ixsas quietly, away from the new additions, to get his thoughts. Ixsas himself is a new addition but not the newest kid on the block...
((OOC: TLDR; Ixsas approves of this plan. The rest is mostly role play for the sake of helping the new players get to know Ixsas better.))
As Zeds explains the hat and his idea, a smile spreads across Ixsas's dark, scaled face. His teeth look very white (and pointy!) compared to the dusky-black scales. Ixsas agrees enthusiastically with Zeds's plan! He had been worried about having to fight their way to the caverns under the castle. He especially likes that Zeds's plan means that they wouldn't need to rely on Dralmorrer's good faith, which was one of Ixsas's primary concerns. Ixsas trusts Seraphina when she says that Dralmorrer has not lied to them, but he expects that Dralmorrer is just biding his time and waiting for a moment when he can betray the party with minimal risk to himself. "The sooner we're rid of him, the better," Ixsas says to Zeds, away from Dralmorrer's hearing.
Ixsas is not good at deception or even persuasion himself. Otherwise, he would have suggested that he use the hat in combination with Dralmorrer's armor, which he now wears. Ever since Ixsas joined Faelsin's caravan two weeks ago, Zeds has impressed him with his ability to bluff or charm his way through the world.
(Background. Growing up isolated in an austere temple under the strict guidance of the Pillars of Flame, Flamebrothers, and other high-ranking members of his religion, Ixsas had mostly thought of all those outside his temple as vile heretics. Ixsas is not even great at having "regular" conversations: the other initiates of Kossuth at the temple avoided him, viewing him with suspicion because of his obvious Yuan-Ti heritage. Ixsas excelled by being zealous and clever, but he never learned a more subtle way of persuading people than standing on the temple steps and SHOUTING about the power of the Fire Lord and his preeminence among the gods. Thankfully, most people in this part of the Sword Coast see his foreign dress and hear his accent and just attribute any awkwardness to his foreign customs.)
Regarding the newcomers, Ixsas trusts his intuition and the Light of Kossuth to guide him on this mission. (After all, he has only known Zeds and Krackle for a couple of weeks at this point!) He shows no concern about trusting Seraphina and Thrax. Sensing some hesitation on Zeds's side, Ixsas reassures Zeds in the only way he knows how, "Have faith! I believe that the Fire Lord sent us these 'Friends of Fire' just when we needed them."
Ixsas explains what seems obvious to him: "Just as we lost Serge, Kossuth sent us a dragonborn warrior who walked right through Krackle's bonfire unharmed! And just when Dralmorrer and his bodyguards were about to capture or kill me, Kossuth sent us a healer who can also strike down our enemies with what she calls 'Moonfire'." By Ixsas's way of thinking, Kossuth's hand is clear in recent events! He wonders how else would Zeds explain it. He says with a confidence born of faith, "We can trust them. And with their help, we will finally put a stop to the Cult's plans."
Thrax reaches in to pull the chests out, but stops himself at the last second. "Hrmgh. Traps. Did you leave traps here, Dralmorrer?" He growls, studying the odd arrangement of chests, connected together. Golden eyes flit from side to side as he lowers his draconid head, trying to get a better view of the containers.
"Found something. Come and see, saviours." The dragonborn barks down to the others on the floor below, deciding he probably needs some help after all.
"No line of sight. What does that mean?" The gargantuan barbarian ponders aloud. "Magic tiliskub?"
Perhaps unwisely, Thrax reaches into the recessed space before his new companions arrive. Although he harboured no illusions about the malevolence of the cult nor the honesty of a commander of the Cult of the Dragon, the dragonborn wasn't the brightest coin in the hoard.
Thraxinthos dips his claw into the small cubby-hole that had been concealed beneath the floorboards and withdraws the linked chests, opening them one by one.
"Found something. Come and see, saviours." The dragonborn barks down to the others on the floor below, deciding he probably needs some help after all.
Zeds instinctively cringes a bit when he initially hears the Dragonborn shouting down from above worried about who else might hear... But quickly decides to head up and see just what they found. It didn't sound like a panicked call so he doesn't run up, but he doesn't dawdle either...
(For funsies I will do a die roll to see how many chests he may open before Zeds arrives? Assuming opening one doesn't delay him significantly from opening the next... Dice rolls not yet available for this section. )
((Got Dice Rolls Unavailable so rolled on character sheet... Apparently Zeds is way slow in responding 'cause I rolled a 6))
Thrax
with 18 perception you notice one of the floorboards under the rug sounds hollow.
Upon realizing what the hat is and what it can do, Zeds ponders its usage and reluctantly considers how best to take advantage of it. He first discusses it with Ixsas quietly, away from the new additions, to get his thoughts. Ixsas himself is a new addition but not the newest kid on the block...
"If we use the hat to disguise one of us as Dralmorrer we wouldn't need to rely on his cooperation at all," Zeds points out to Ixsas. "If they thought one of us were him we may be able to walk around this place like we own it. The big problem I see is the voice. Maybe not all of them but a lot of them know his voice. I can do some voices... Pull off a fake accent, adopt a younger or older sounding tone... But I'm not so great at the totally copying someone's actual voice. But what I saw her do down at the door? It was magic... Literally. She just copied his voice no problem with whatever spell she did. If she could do that while also looking like him? I'm a bit hesitant to give up such an item to someone we just met but..."
Assuming Ixsas agrees with his thought process, Zeds would then bring up the idea to Seraphina herself. He would share much the same thought process but also add "Assuming you think you could pull them both off in unison, I guess. I don't know your limits or anything but if you could in effect "become" him that may save us a whole lot of trouble in this castle... and out."
The young blonde selûnite listens attentively with an amused smile to the rogue's suggestion. She was following the tenets of her mistress to the best of her ability but she was certainly not above the use of trickery to accomplish the objectives of her mission. "I would need to use magic to project Dralmorrer's voice, it won't stand to any closer scrutiny I'm afraid, but I like how you think Zeds. If you really do think I should try to make use of your magical hat then I will certainly do so. I can assure you that you will have it back once we have finished what we came for." Seraphina says with a bright smile.
(If she is given the het she would attune to it during the short rest. She would still follow the others to examine the rest of the tower before deciding on what to do next.)
Thrax hisses at the raven, his forked tongue undulating in a serpentine fashion between his formidably sharp teeth.
"The tiliskub. What else do you use the tiliskub for?" Thrax asks the captive commander, tilting his scaly head in the direction of one of the floorboards as his big toe knocks against it.
"Hrmgh. What do you keep down here?" A monstrous smile widens across his face with a taunting, smug satisfaction as he kneels down. The dragonborn peels back the rug, his reptilian third-eyelids blinking slowly as he studies the interlocking patten of the planks. A moment later, he attempts to pry the hollow-sounding floorboard free. "Secrets. Are these the secrets of Dralmorrer?"
Strength: 16
((If another roll on top of the perception check earlier is required to check for traps, please let me know! :) ))
((OOC: From the Short Rest, before exploring the tower.))
((OOC: TLDR; Ixsas approves of this plan. The rest is mostly role play for the sake of helping the new players get to know Ixsas better.))
As Zeds explains the hat and his idea, a smile spreads across Ixsas's dark, scaled face. His teeth look very white (and pointy!) compared to the dusky-black scales. Ixsas agrees enthusiastically with Zeds's plan! He had been worried about having to fight their way to the caverns under the castle. He especially likes that Zeds's plan means that they wouldn't need to rely on Dralmorrer's good faith, which was one of Ixsas's primary concerns. Ixsas trusts Seraphina when she says that Dralmorrer has not lied to them, but he expects that Dralmorrer is just biding his time and waiting for a moment when he can betray the party with minimal risk to himself. "The sooner we're rid of him, the better," Ixsas says to Zeds, away from Dralmorrer's hearing.
Ixsas is not good at deception or even persuasion himself. Otherwise, he would have suggested that he use the hat in combination with Dralmorrer's armor, which he now wears. Ever since Ixsas joined Faelsin's caravan two weeks ago, Zeds has impressed him with his ability to bluff or charm his way through the world.
(Background. Growing up isolated in an austere temple under the strict guidance of the Pillars of Flame, Flamebrothers, and other high-ranking members of his religion, Ixsas had mostly thought of all those outside his temple as vile heretics. Ixsas is not even great at having "regular" conversations: the other initiates of Kossuth at the temple avoided him, viewing him with suspicion because of his obvious Yuan-Ti heritage. Ixsas excelled by being zealous and clever, but he never learned a more subtle way of persuading people than standing on the temple steps and SHOUTING about the power of the Fire Lord and his preeminence among the gods. Thankfully, most people in this part of the Sword Coast see his foreign dress and hear his accent and just attribute any awkwardness to his foreign customs.)
Regarding the newcomers, Ixsas trusts his intuition and the Light of Kossuth to guide him on this mission. (After all, he has only known Zeds and Krackle for a couple of weeks at this point!) He shows no concern about trusting Seraphina and Thrax. Sensing some hesitation on Zeds's side, Ixsas reassures Zeds in the only way he knows how, "Have faith! I believe that the Fire Lord sent us these 'Friends of Fire' just when we needed them."
Ixsas explains what seems obvious to him: "Just as we lost Serge, Kossuth sent us a dragonborn warrior who walked right through Krackle's bonfire unharmed! And just when Dralmorrer and his bodyguards were about to capture or kill me, Kossuth sent us a healer who can also strike down our enemies with what she calls 'Moonfire'." By Ixsas's way of thinking, Kossuth's hand is clear in recent events! He wonders how else would Zeds explain it. He says with a confidence born of faith, "We can trust them. And with their help, we will finally put a stop to the Cult's plans."
Thrax easily peels off the floorboard revealing small chests linked together by chains like an unclasped pearl necklace.
In total there are 6 small chests.
What do you do?
Dralmorrer huffs and says, "The telescope is used to see anything within miles of the telescope. Line of sight is not necessarily needed"
Thrax reaches in to pull the chests out, but stops himself at the last second. "Hrmgh. Traps. Did you leave traps here, Dralmorrer?" He growls, studying the odd arrangement of chests, connected together. Golden eyes flit from side to side as he lowers his draconid head, trying to get a better view of the containers.
"Found something. Come and see, saviours." The dragonborn barks down to the others on the floor below, deciding he probably needs some help after all.
"No line of sight. What does that mean?" The gargantuan barbarian ponders aloud. "Magic tiliskub?"
Investigation: 16
"Yes, the telescope is magical. There are no traps on the chests." says Dralmorrer.
Perhaps unwisely, Thrax reaches into the recessed space before his new companions arrive. Although he harboured no illusions about the malevolence of the cult nor the honesty of a commander of the Cult of the Dragon, the dragonborn wasn't the brightest coin in the hoard.
Thraxinthos dips his claw into the small cubby-hole that had been concealed beneath the floorboards and withdraws the linked chests, opening them one by one.
Zeds instinctively cringes a bit when he initially hears the Dragonborn shouting down from above worried about who else might hear... But quickly decides to head up and see just what they found. It didn't sound like a panicked call so he doesn't run up, but he doesn't dawdle either...
(For funsies I will do a die roll to see how many chests he may open before Zeds arrives? Assuming opening one doesn't delay him significantly from opening the next...
Dice rolls not yet available for this section.)((Got Dice Rolls Unavailable so rolled on character sheet... Apparently Zeds is way slow in responding 'cause I rolled a 6))