World of Greyhawk: Company of the Grey Chain

Khessa was not concealing her cast - she was justifying it (see her post, pretending to cast it so that the corpses are recognizable as they land)

Sorry yes, how about a Deception Check for Khessa then.

 Lol! Not very much better, but still something... let's try!
Deception: 10
Tactical Mind, if needed: 9

Wouldn't be the first time Coriana stabbbed someone and tossed them off a ship. She pretends to stab Alaric as he is getting dumped.

Perforrmance: (With advantage from a luck point) 11 Bardic 3 Tactical Mind 4

Coriana uses Heroic Inspiration. got a 16.(Game Log)  That's 20 Performance, 23 with bardic.

Theldrin discreetly keeps an awareness as to the priests' location, watching out of the corner of his eye and listening intently once the ruse has begun.  He will move into a position to impede their progress towards taking a closer look if any of them attempt to do so, while seeming to be backing away from the action.

Perception: 15 (in game log)

Until Alaric is out-of-range, Xanrym adjusts his illusion to include Alaric himself, making it look like he's unconscious and bleeding out as he drifts downward under the influence of Feather Fall. 

But then Xanrym realizes that it's not very believable that Alaric fell from the ship with one of Coriana's daggers in his back if she isn't missing any daggers.  He moves close beside Coriana, patting her on the back in congratulations while saying with a loud, laughing voice, "Good job!  He didn't even see it coming!"  While he does that, he flicks his cloak out to obscure the space between them as he removes a one of her daggers from its sheath.  Then he conceals it on his person.
Sleight of Hand: 21 (in game log)

Xanrym tries to reinforce the deception about the reason for the Feather Fall, saying, "It doesn't send much of a message if Alaric splatters all over the ground when he lands.  That was quick work, Khessa!  You really are the 'total package': brawn, beauty, and a quick wit!"  

Movement: Move to the Company, next to Coriana
Action: Steal and conceal one of Coriana's daggers
Bonus Action: Grant bardic inspiration to Khessa

Concentration: Silent Image

Bardic Inspiration:
  Coriana (since post #6850) <== it looks like a successful Performance check even without using the inspiration
  Khessa (since post #6867)
  Once within the next 1 hour, when the you fail a D20 Test, you can use the bardic inspiration to roll 1d8 and add the number rolled to the d20, possibly turning failure into a success.
  If you use the bardic inspiration, but the D20 Test still fails, you keep the inspiration die because of Xanrym's Unfailing Inspiration.

The ship descends as Syllen's flames lick over the ship, causing a general feeling of distraction around the deck.

Coriana steps forward and tries to pull a knife to 'stab' Alaric, but she feels compelled to leave it in it's sheath. She's able to limply pull out the blade, but when she goes to pretend to knife him a cold fury wells up from somewhere not within her own heart. This otherworldly rage bids her to plunge the knife deep in the diplomat's chest, but by the strength of her own will, she let's the knife slip up her sleeve at the last instant. When the hand pulls away, though, Xanrym's illusion appears: the hilt buried in Alaric's chest. As Alaric drops off the side, and Clayton too, Khessa's spell is noticed by the Horned Society priests, who Theldrin hears mumbling to themselves about a ruse. The head priest walks right up to Coriana to demand to check her knife belt, but she's already palmed it off to Xanrym.

Successes: 5 Failures: 1

(You need one more success, and I'll open it up to anyone who wants to give something a try. Does someone say something to the Horned Society priest? How did the scribe Clayton get thrown off the ship? Anyone try to further distract the Broken Crown? Was there something else happening that aided your plan?)

[[ OOC: If applicable, Khessa will try to exploit her Athletics+6 to make everything more believable: while Coriana stabs Alaric, she grabs Clayton and throws him from the ship in a dramatic display of brute force. If not, just ignore the post. ]]

As Coriana stabs Alaric, Khessa grabs Clayton, lifts him over his head, laughing, and throws him from the ship in a theatrical display of brute force: "And with that, all the garbage is out!"

Athletics: 26
Tactical Mind, if needed: 7

Quote from Painted_Beyond >>

Athletics: 8
Tactical Mind, if needed: 4

Well, nothing you can do against double unluck. Someone else will have to close this matter.

(OOC: @Painted_Beyond - you didn't want to try to roll her bardic inspiration (1d8) to see whether that helps this check pass?  8+4 = 12.  Depending on the DC, the bardic inspiration might inspire her to success.  And with Unfailing Inspiration, there's no reason not to try! 🙂)

Syllen will use Cosmic Omen to help Khessa giving her a +5 to Khessa's Athletics Roll.

I really forgot Khessa had Bardic Inspiration!

Rolling... 7

Great! Thanks to Xanrym and Syllen, Khessa's attempt should be a success 😀

While the Horned Society were suspicious of Khessa’s spell, they seem to decide her performance with the scribe was proof enough that you’d done your job. They go back to their room, muttering still, but convinced enough the job is done.

The Broken Crown, while distracted, know that the Shieldlanders are gone. Darcy walks up to you and says, “Look, I reckon we might just let that one go. Alaric was a bastard, as I’ve learned first hand, so no one’s going to miss him. As for the Green Cloaks, leave them to us. Ironsmile said to leave off for a day for you to do whatever you need to do, but you can just continue to wait. They’ll be gone by morning as well.”

Everyone leaves you alone, and you have the choice of where to go on the ship.

Khessa congratulates her fellow adventurers and pats each on the shoulder as she leads them to Alaric's cabin to retrieve his token: "That's quite an accomplishment... We now have Alaric's token, and we should be able to obtain the Horned token, thanks to the charade resulting from our excellent teamwork."

"All that remains is for us to obtain the Greens' token..." the blonde arcane warrior reminds her. "For that, we need the Horneds' letter. Do you have any idea where they're keeping it? Perhaps one of us could steal it invisibly, if we knew where it was..."

"Nice work everyone," Theldrin says with a grin.  He adds as a reminder, "If needed we do have the potion of Clairvoyance we could use to spy on the priests, to see if we could determine the letter's location."

Khessa smiles brightly at the war wizard, approvingly: "I couldn't imagine a better time to use it! Use it now, Theldrin! With your usual attention to detail, I'm sure you'll spot some clues as to where the letter might be. Time is precious, considering the knights will soon have to abandon ship—if only to avoid being attacked by Shuro's mercenaries."

[[ OOC: @DM: Meanwhile, any problems retrieving Alaric's token? Are we finding it where he said? ]]

"Of course, we'd be limited by the ten minute duration..." Theldrin muses out loud as he rubs his beard. "So I'm not sure that gives us enough time."