World of Greyhawk: Company of the Grey Chain

Xanrym and Syllen - The priest will reply, "If you do this for us, you will be granted an audience with Warduke, and he may fulfil something you desire with no questions asked. Do we take it then you are completing this job for us?" Xanrym looks around and sees 10 priests make up the bulk of The Horned Society cohort, with a equal  number of acolytes serving them.

Coriana and Theldrin - The Wolf-Sisters sigh to one another, "More politics. Have we not had enough of this in Greyhawk trying to get them to come to our aid, sounds like the Baklunish are even worse. Maybe we need an envoy or something to ask the Baklunish to work out their differences and come to our aid."

If there isn't anything else you want to achieve with these groups, I believe the next part of your plan was to have one group get Captian Ironsmile to lower the ship while another casts Feather Fall on Alaric and his scribe. You are fast approaching Critwal, so your timing will need to be fairly tight. Which of you will achieve each task?

Well, Khessa will be the one casting Feather Fall so she will be with Alaric.

Xanrym and Coriana will probably do the talking with Shuro. But Xanrym must setup his deception before... he wants to simulate Alaric's assassination, it seems - and he still did not explain how to the Company.

I have returned

On hold to see who's doing what for this next part of your plan.

Yes... unfortunately Ben had warned that he would be less present - but I have no idea how he planned to trick the Horned by pretending to assassinate Alaric...

(OOC: Since I have to be very brief...

He had a couple of ideas about how to do that:

Option 1.  Xanrym casts Silent Image to make it look like we're stabbing Alaric before tossing him overboard.  Maybe have someone else use Fog Cloud to make a "cloud" to obscure the view of Alaric and Clayton after they go over the side of the ship so that the Horned Society doesn't see them drifting slowly and safely to the ground.  (Or maybe we just claim that we used [spels]Featherfall[/spells] because we wanted Alaric to be identifiable when he's found with a dagger in him vs. what would happen on impact from that high up.)

Option 2.  We fake the stabbing of Alaric.  Maybe even using a real dagger to carefully to "stab" Alaric.  Clayton grabs onto Alaric but is pulled over the side of the ship, and they both fall...for real.  We use a combination of (Coriana) Invisibility and (Theldrin) [Tooltip Not Found] on Khessa to let her jump over the side of the ship with them.  That way, she can cast [Tooltip Not Found] on Alaric and Clayton when they get closer to the ground without being seen, and then she can fly back up to the ship.  That way, it really looks like they're falling if the Horned Society watches them go over the side of the ship.  (My only question here is whether Khessa would have enough fly speed to catch back up with the ship after she casts [spells]Featherfall[/spell] on Alaric.)  Note that this option wouldn't even require us to get the captain to fly lower.

)

Hearing of the encounter with the Horneds and how the bard plans to deceive them, Khessa observes: "Perhaps the plan involving invisibility and flight is more elaborate—and more resource-consuming—but also safer... The one involving the illusion could fail, if one of the Horneds were to observe closely." [[OOC: A creature that takes a Study action to examine the image can determine that it is an illusion with a successful Intelligence (Investigation) check against your spell save DC. ]]

"What do you think?" the blonde arcane warrior also asks the others. "I, if the flight speed granted by Theldrin's spell can allow me to return aboard, would lean toward the more elaborate solution." But she also awaits her companions' considerations...

"In fact," the tall adventures muses "if we could trick the Horneds this way, perhaps we could borrow their token without a fight. Although we still have to find a way to steal the letter the Greens want."

"The biggest wrinkle is the invisibility, any spell cast by the invisible person breaks it.  You'd either have to fly back to the ship visibly, or I'd have to hold on to you when you fly out and recast invisibility on both of us. I'm willing, but it is crazy. I think you could cast feather fall on me as well as Alaric, so in the worst case and I fall because I wasn't able to cast the spell and hold on, I'd reach the ground safely."

(OOC: Guess it mostly depends on how fast the ship is moving, if the plan would work or not.  We do have as options: Greater Invisibility and a potion of Haste if we felt like we needed them and want to spend the resources.)

Khessa admits: "You're right, Coriana... The invisibility would wear off as soon as I cast Feather Fall—and if I returned to the visible ship, it might raise a lot of questions. And keeping you with me to restore the invisibility could be very problematic. Perhaps, then, we should fall back on the illusion... After all, the Horned might not be so suspicious as to study the scene carefully—if Xanrym was as convincing as he usually is, they might already be convinced enough of his intentions to believe the illusion without question. Or it could be that, even by studying the scene, they fail to notice the illusion."

Alright, so what Spellcasters do you need to be with Alaric, and who's going to talk with Captian Ironsmile?

(OOC: Greater Invisibility would solve the problem of the spell wearing off if casting Feather Fall, though I think the illusion may still be the better way to go)

OK, so I'd say:
- Xanrym and Coriana go to Shuro (because they're the most convincing)
And on their way back to Shuro, they could call the Horned to witness the assassination.

Everyone else is with Alaric.
- Khessa, because she has to cast Feather Fall (I wouldn't try to disguise it, but I'd go with Xanrym's explanation, which is that otherwise the fall would have made Alaric unrecognizable).
- Whoever casts the illusion, for obvious reasons.
- The others should be more useful near Alaric to stage the fight/assassination, rather than talking to Shuro.

Xanrym and Coriana - You meet back up after your separate missions to have a talk with Captian Ironsmile, who you find in the Stateroom sitting tall and quiet. She waits, not asking any question of you, or your reason for being here.

Everyone else - You find Alaric and Clayton waiting for you to the south end of the ship. They are both dressed in their travelling gear and packs, Alaric looks over the edge of the ship at the shoreline down below, "Very good, very good. Cutting it fine but it seems they are arriving right as we need to make our descent. We'll be in Critwal this evening enjoying a fine wine and good company... finally."

Khessa pats Alaric enthusiastically on the shoulder and explains: "Indeed! There's just one small addition we need to make to the shared plan. We need to pretend to kill you, probably while the Horned Society bad guys enjoy the scene. Because you see, we found out they want you dead... they would have killed you on arrival. Instead, we'll pretend to kill you for them (an illusion will take care of that; you just react as if it were real) and throw you overboard—whereupon I'll slow your fall with magic."

"Everything will go as we already planned," the blonde arcane warrior assures "just keep 'playing dead' until you touch land. At that point, no one will see you anymore, those who want you dead will believe they've already killed you and will leave you alone—at least for a while—and you'll go enjoy the wine and good company you deserve!"

Theldrin stands near Alaric, with his back towards the Horned Society priests or anyone else who might be on deck watching.  He gives the diplomat a reassuring nod and wink, as he says in a low tone, "Don't worry my friend, we've got your back."

Let's get a DC 15 Persuasion check with Advantage from either Khessa or Theldrin

Persuasion: 14

Alaric looks at you all, horror on his face, "There will be no stabbing, pretend or otherwise. You obviously don't understand how these things usually work, let me explain. When you make a deal, you can't then re-negotiate when it's time to fulfill your end of the bargain. For example, I have made arrangements for you to get the Crown Token, but only after you get me off this ship, as we agreed. I thank you for letting me know of the hostility toward me, but I'll not be playing along with your game. Now please, cast your magic and let's be done with this." He claps his hand at this, and looks at you expectantly. 

(OOC: aargh, that was a 15 before, thanks forum dice roller)