Krackle shrugs and looks to Zeds. "yeah.. I mean I think A kobold driving a giant lizard with a man dressed like one of those cultists sitting nearby would probably fit in pretty well.... Ixsas and Serge could hide inside the carrage with the egg... If things go south Ixsas and I can start throwing fireballs around and we can try to mix in with the cultists in the chaos."

     Zeds looks a bit skeptical but shrugs.  "If nobody has any better suggestions?" he asks hopefully but resigned.  

     "Ok, but remember, I don't speak dragon speak or anything.  Goblin and Dwarvish are the only other things I know so unless they are speaking Common you're going to have to explain why you're the one doing the talking..."  Zeds hoped they spoke Draconic, he didn't know if he could bluff his way through this himself...

"Works for me," Serge says, climbing inside the wagon.  

He pokes his head back out, noticing Zeds' lack of enthusiasm for the plan.  "Hey, don't worry about it.  I don't think it will work, either."  Then he climbs back inside and prepares for the worst.

Quote from Weathervision >>

Lizardfolk that can be seen   11
Bullywugs that can be seen   7

((OOC: Not as bad as I thought, but like Zeds said, that's only the number currently visible visible. There appear to be 14 bullywug huts in area-4 and 5 lizardfolk buildings in area-3.  If there are even 1 extra creature in each building, that would be a total of 21 bullywugs and 16 lizardfolk.))

Ixsas also looks doubtful.  He says, "Eleven lizardfolk!  And that's just the ones whom we can currently see.  Plus all of the bullywugs. It could work, but it would be critical to avoid a fight before we get into the castle.  I do not think that we will succeed if it turns into a fight.  Just 6 lizardfolk proved to be a difficult fight last night in the tunnel.  I believe that Krackle and I would be able to blast our way through these outside the castle, but then we'd be at the castle with who-knows-how-many inside.  If we have to fight there too, we would be starting the fight against the cult leaders already injured and tired from the first fight to get into the castle."

Ixsas is willing to go along with the group, but he'd like to find a plan that has a "failure mode" that's less catastrophic than having to kill all of these bullywugs and lizardfolk themselves just to make it to into the castle.  He knows that the others are ready to get going, but he suggests that they have time to do more reconnaissance before anyone from Carnath House could reach the castle.

Various ideas that might be an alternative to Krackle's plan or that might work in conjunction with it:

• Ixsas points out that the lizardfolk and bullywugs are both helping the cultists, but they don't seem to intermingle: the bullywugs are in area-4, and the lizardfolk are in area-3 and area-2.  So, perhaps they're both allies of the dragon cult but not actually allies with each other.  He says, "If we could find a way to start them fighting against each other, then they'd do part of the work of killing the guards for us."  Some observation might reveal a point of friction between the groups.
• Or if it looks like there's a lot of bad blood among them, maybe Krackle + stealth + Message would be enough to start arguments and fighting between the two groups?
• If Zeds or Krackle could sneak close enough without being seen, maybe they could identify bullywugs or lizardfolk who speak Common.  (Unless they speak each others' languages, then they must be communicating with each other in Common or Draconic, right?)  Ixsas reiterates one of his other ideas, "If we could find one of the lizardfolk who can understand Common, I could try to put him under a long-term Suggestion.  If that works, we'd have a reliable ally to answer some questions and help get us into the castle without a fight.  And if we could do that with the lizardfolk on its own, we would only have one lizardfolk to kill if the plan goes badly."
• Or maybe the party just needs a big distraction to prevent the bullywugs and lizardfolk from uniting against the party.  Perhaps if they could startle the giant lizards and release them from the pen in area-2, the lizardfolk and bullywug guards would be too busy trying to catch and calm the giant lizards to question a dragon-masked man and a kobold riding up in a carriage pulled by a giant lizard.

It's somewhat expensive to do, but if the party needs additional reassurance about the viability of the chosen plan, Ixsas could also use Augury just before they're about to try it to get a sense whether what they're doing is likely to succeed.

((Personally I am not a fan of Augury...  To me it just kind of puts a DM on the spot when they don't really know how a thing is going to turn out to begin with but *shrug*))

     "Every moment we spend scouting and spying is a moment our cover could be blown when we're unprepared for such an encounter.  I'm not against it, exactly, I just think we need know that risk.  I could certainly stealth around and try to listen to what languages they are speaking but if we're caught before we set up our disguise then it'll definitely be a battle.  Of course it is possible we already faced the fighters of the group and the rest are more civilian types," Zeds points out.  "Of course it's also possible they're already missed and everyone will be on high alert and suspicious no matter what..."

     "A distraction is easy enough, we start something on fire off to one side and let them rush to it...  But strange cultists with an egg visiting at the same time as a fire?  I know I wouldn't buy that coincidence..."

((I'm fine with scouting more to try to find a Common speaker...  Though I think one bad stealth roll will blow up in our face.  Still, if we wanna go that route that's fine...))

Quote from Kaemgen>>

     "A distraction is easy enough, we start something on fire off to one side and let them rush to it...  But strange cultists with an egg visiting at the same time as a fire?  I know I wouldn't buy that coincidence..."

"Yes, good point," Ixsas says.  "I was thinking more that we start the distraction and then ride up shortly thereafter.  You don't have to mention the egg, just that you were sent here by Bog Luck or that other cultist who ran their caravan.  As we approach, just act like a cultist who expects to be obeyed: order them to get the fire under control or whatever."

((I'm fine with scouting more to try to find a Common speaker...  Though I think one bad stealth roll will blow up in our face.  Still, if we wanna go that route that's fine...))

Ixsas (deadpan delivery): "True, true.  Of course, if Zeds gets caught and taken for questioning, that could be a fast way to get one of us into the castle."

Ixsas realizes that he's been so focused on the immediate problem, he's lost track of their goal.  He asks, "Since Serge and I joined you, we've just been following the stolen goods to see where it leads.  What is our goal now?  Are we just trying to find out where they're sending that treasure next?  Or do you mean defeat the cultists here and 'take' this castle?  Or, now that we've found a local base of the cult, are we trying to discover the cult's plans?"  Perhaps the answer to that question will shape their approach here.

Ixsas says that he is also prepared to give Kossuth's inspiration to help us avoid mistakes and misfortune.  "Kossuth light will fill you and guide your way: it will help you find the Way, though it be narrow with Death and Darkness on either side."  He's not sure whether it's better to plan on stealth for that or persuasion/deception.  Once we make our way into the castle, do we plan to sneak away, or would we try to keep the "we're dragon cult members" ruse going for as long as possible?

((OOC: It'll be most useful if Ixsas can pick a skill that the group can keep using for a full hour and doesn't have to switch to concentrating on something else before Enhance Ability's duration elapses.

Thinking about it, I like boosting someone's CHA checks (see spoiler for details) since we could keep using that all the way into the castle as long as Ixsas doesn't need to use Suggestion or Faerie Fire, etc.  That will last long enough to get the party into the castle and hopefully past the initial guards inside.  Once we're inside the castle, we could try to get out of sight, overpower a few guards, and start a raid from the inside.  Or just start sneaking around to find whatever we need.

))

Serge pokes his head back out from inside the carriage.  "I can't speak for the rest of you, but my goal is to find out who is leading this cult and bring the whole lot of them to final justice... either at the end of a magistrate's rope, or the end of my sword."

     "I mean ideally, yeah," Zeds says in agreement with Serge.  "But smaller scale, do what I can to stop their sacking of small defenseless cities like Greenest at least.  Doing it all ourselves may be a bit much to hope for but maybe we can at least find information the bigger organizations can act on?"

Krackle listens a to his companions talk for a bit, nodding along and rubbing his scaley chin. "remember zeds hiw the mercenaries and cultists were working together at the camp where we found this egg... do you think that they would believe that we were the only survivors from the cave where they were raising the black dragon eggs... We managed to escape with the only remaining egg and convinced a couple of mercenaries to accompany us back here..." He suggests. "They wouldnt expect all the mercenaries to speak draconic... and I do speak draconc and in a pinch could use my message spell to translate to you.."

     Zeds considers.  "It could be worth a try.  No knowing if these outside tribes would know anything about that but you should be able to fake enough to get them to at least let us pass, right?"

Quote from Wreckzors >>

Krackle ...
do you think that they would believe that we were the only survivors from the cave where they were raising the black dragon eggs

Ixsas likes this plan better than trying to convince the bullywugs and cultists that the lizardfolk are trying to steal the egg.  "After all," he says, "I've never seen a carriage drawn by a giant lizard before.  A dragon-masked man and a kobold with a dragon egg riding up with such a carriage...I think that they will believe you."  

With the new plan, Ixsas believes that even if they're suspicious, the guards will let them into the castle.  But who is going to do the talking?  Zeds or Krackle?  Ixsas could cast Enhance Ability on both of them, but that would be more taxing (i.e., a 3rd-level spell slot).  He would rather focus on one of them and save his strength for the eventually battle against the cultists that he sees coming.

((They're about equally as persuasive but Zeds is better at deception.  Though personally I think they would be helping one another sell the story so depending on DM ruling may already get advantage on charisma checks to sell the story?  But maybe not, different DMs allow Help to be used differently so *shrug*))

Quote from Kaemgen >>

((They're about equally as persuasive but Zeds is better at deception.  Though personally I think they would be helping one another sell the story so depending on DM ruling may already get advantage on charisma checks to sell the story?  But maybe not, different DMs allow Help to be used differently so *shrug*))

((OOC: Fair.  We'll see what @Weathervision says.  If they cannot benefit from help for the CHA checks, or if the help is only one-way: Zeds can give Krackle advantage, but if Zeds has to make a check, Krackle cannot also help him, then Ixsas will cast Enhance Ability on one of them before he gets in the carriage to ride into the castle.  If they already have advantage, then he'll just use Guidance to give an extra boost to the first check they have to make.))

I would think that Zeds would be telling the story and that krackle would be helping sell it. I get the feeling that the kobolds were kind of lesser cultists... they didn't seem to be in charge so I would think that Zeds would be considered higher ranking...

     "Let's do this then," Zeds says with a shrug.  He's not sure of his ability to pull this off but they can't just sit here planning until they're caught.  "Everyone take position and we'll head in and see what happens..."

     Zeds climbs onto the bench in front but lets Krackle take the reins.  He himself dons the Dragon Mask and repositions the two curved daggers he got at the same time into a position where they're a bit more visible.

Krackle pulls his hood over his head and gives the egg strapped to his chest a gentle pat before taking the reigns and preparing to head towards the front gates. His goal is to drive the carriage as though he has nothing to hide...

As Zeds has the dragon mask on, I will say he has advantage so Ixsas can cast guidance on him. 

The carriage moves forward, and it gets a few looks from the bullywugs and lizardfolk. One of the lizardfolk working at the pen looks to Krackle Jr. and begins counting the number of giant lizards as if she might know Krackle Jr. The giant lizard caretaker walks alongside the carriage taking a closer look at Krackle Jr. Then he looks to Zeds and says in a thick accent "Where did you find my giant lizard? I though he was lost in battle?" 

The carriage is halfway to the front of the castle. 

     "We liberated the beast from a mercenary band, along with a dragon egg they had stolen," Zeds says doing his best to sound bored and indifferent.  "If the lizard is yours it'll be returned to you after the egg is safely seen to."  Zeds then gives Krackle a little hand gesture indicating for them to continue onward.

Performance:  9
Deception: 17

((OOC: Don't forget that Zeds has Guidance from Ixsas and can add a d4 to one skill check in the 1-minute duration.))