Inside the tavern, Sirius looks around the room sensing the tension. Turning back to the barkeeper, he asks: "Do you know someone by the last name of Trollbane? We're looking for them." Disappointed by the absence of ale and a room, Sirius walks out of the tavern with his companions.
"No ale and now we have to go to that very possibly haunted fort, this day is not coming up Sirius." Improvising a hitching post from a stick he hammers into the ground, Sirius ties Bouncer to it, taking his equipment with him. He takes out a little flag with the emblem of his noble house of Barwin and ties it to the end of his spear and starts walking towards the castle. With a flick of the wand, he activates Detect magic, if he senses nothing alarming within the aura, he walks all the way to the gate and activates his divine sense. "Please reveal the true nature of this place Tyr."
Roark raises his eyebrows as Sirius speaks the name. There are a few surprised looks by the other patrons. The innkeep responds with a slightly more relaxed tone of voice: "Yeah. She's the keeper of the hounds in the caer. Old as stone, that one. Goes by the name of Hethyl."
Bouncer, tied to the post, watches you depart in the direction of the keep, shaking some snow out of his feathers.
As you head up to the keep, its twenty feet high walls loom large and oppressive. The torchlight visible through the arrow slits of the gatehouse is disturbed by movement as someone steps forward to look down on you. A man, the form and face obscured by thick winter clothing, shouts down:
"You there! What is your business?"
Perhaps seeing Sirius' improvised flag, the guard adds: "Speaker Crannoc Siever is too sick to entertain guests!”
Sirius reaches out with his senses for magic. He sees that the guard who spoke, although his face is obscured, is wearing an amulet that radiates protective magic.
Tyrs blessing tells him much the same, and more. He sees a cold blackness radiating from the figure. The amulet is not just imbued with power, but has been desecrated by a force unknown.There is darkness somewhere within the keep too, that much is sure, but the location is out of the paladins grasp. A whiff of a sulfuric odour is enough to give Sirius a clear sign: devilish magic is about.
[ Marlede wants to try to discern any deception using insight: 13 ]
Responding to the guard, she yells "Well it's a good thing we have healers in our group, then! Now open up! Tell the speaker Marlede is here to see him!"
The putrid smell of all of the darkness and evil make Sirius flinch and immediately close his divine sense. Quietly, so that the guard can't hear him, he speaks to his companions. "Tread very carefully my friends. There's great darkness and devilish powers within the fort. The guard seems to be magical as well."
Sirius yells more loudly so the guard can hear as well. "As my friend here said, we can help you!"
Marlede nods at Sirius and remains silent, waiting for the guard to respond or for the others to act. If what Sirius says is accurate, and she trusts him, then she can't risk alerting the guards of our suspicion.
Back at the tavern, Perrin looks up sharply at Aubreen when he mentions the fort could be haunted. Great. He wanted nothing more than to break into a haunted fort and drive out a bunch of ghosts. What a wonderful way to spend the evening.
At the gates of the keep, Perrin keep shuffling from foot to foot nervously, casting suspicious looks at just about everything. When Sirius says there's dark magic afoot, Perrin finds himself turning around and takes a step back towards the rest of the town before he realizes what he was doing. Sheepishly, he turns back and holds his ground, though he noticeably lingers much closer to the rest of the group.
The guard shouts back in response to Marlede and Sirius: “Speaker Crannoc Siever has no need for your heathen rituals! He is being cared for already!” His tone is impatient.
It's fairly clear at this point to Marlede (and, due to passive Insight, Perrin and Aubreen too), that the guard wants to turn you away, regardless of the validity of the reason given. There are no threats made, but you can't be sure who else is looking at you through the arrow slits.
The walls are 20 feet high, the sloped roofs go up to 30 feet.
The general layout looks like this. There are four guard towers, a gate house and one main building. The guard towers, the gate house and the building are roofed, the battlements connecting them are not. From outside you can identify the roofed sections (dark blue) and the open sections (light blue). The arrow slits are about 4 inches wide.
HEATHEN!? I OUGHT TO SHOOT HIS TONGUE OFF RIGHT NOW!
But that isn't her response. No. It's obvious that whoever that is doesn't want us to see the speaker. Civilians driving us to visit the caer, and guards refusing to let visitors inside. It's obvious that we're needed inside. With a poker face, Marlede turns to the others and speaks in a tone the guard won't hear her.
"What are we doing, guys? It's obvious that something sinister is at play here. The townspeople are silently asking for our aid, and I turn my back on them. We could try to sneak inside once it becomes darker."
She gestures to a grappling hook hanging from her backpack. Then glances at the Axebeaks.
"And we need a place to leave our mounts. We could try one more time at the tavern, or stable them inside the abandoned building. I doubt anyone is going to pay attention to it."
[Persuasion: 10] After Sirius asks his question, there is a long pause. The shadows obscuring the light from within the guard house move, as if conversing. They're keeping their voices low, no sound is to be heard except for the wind howling through the parapets.
Then, the guard steps forward once more, calling down: "Too bad! Hethyl is not to be disturbed, according to her own wishes!"
It's already dark by this point, the dim light of the day having come and gone during your travels here. The watchtowers and the gatehouse are illuminated by torchlight, sending flickering shadows around whenever someone within moves.
Only one of the watch towers is being patrolled at a time, the guards within moving on to the next along the battlements every few minutes. The walls are old but sturdy, consisting of large stone blocks that don't provide good foot- and handholds, looking exceedingly hard to climb without some sort of aid.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Aubreen nods to the group. his head tilting slightly towards the town. Taking a couple strides away, his voice lower than the wind. "There is something fishy, and its not the chowdah" He nods his head when the others speak, or a grunt of acceptance, and a tssk of understanding. "Perhaps we head back to the Tavern, Bouncer is already secured there. Stable the beasts and return. The Guards are on patrol, we climb the wall behind them, ambush on their way back from the circuit." Aubreen will watch the guards as they descend the road to the Tavern. Paying attention to how many walk together, the pattern and timing of their passage. (Perception: 18 )
Another ambush, it seems every struggle is confronted by subterfuge, back stabbing as it were. Not a very Righteous way to go. Was it the influence of Marlede, she was Lethal to be sure, and driven. He looks to the bird amongst them, the enigmatic nearly silent creature, noticing Perrin turn at the thought of the Undead. He was the least understood, what was his motive? His thoughts on most things a mystery. Yet Aubreen was glad to have him nearby. Sirius, his need for recognition confuses the Half-elf. Perhaps never having it he simply didn't understand the significance.
"Those walls look difficult, I think I could climb them with rope however. The guards? are they part of the play or just supporting crew? Until we are forced otherwise I think we should tread cautiously. I will not kill the innocent." He intentionally doesn't look on his companions with that last statement. Even if they didn't agree, he can at least pretend they did, for now.
Perrin nods at Aubreen’s suggestion, though he points to himself and repeats, “Climb.” As the group heads back to the tavern, he elaborates with several hand gestures that he could become a spider, climb the wall, and then hold some rope at the top for the others to climb up on. He figured that would probably be the easiest way into the keep.
Whist the others take care of their axebeaks, Perrin finds himself back outside, looking up at the starry sky with a contemplative expression. His eyes follow the weaving veil of the aurora conjured by the Frostmaiden as he thinks of their upcoming task. Breaking into the keep wasn’t going to be easy, especially if it was haunted. A part of him just wanted to stay behind, but he wasn’t going to abandon his friends. After a few moments of contemplation, he comes back and finds the others, feeling ready as he’ll ever be to sneak into the keep.
Aubreen learns that two of the guards always stay in the gatehouse. Two more walk together from tower to tower, staying in each tower for a few minutes. When walking along the battlements between towers, their steps are hurried and their hands in front of their faces. Inside the towers, they rarely stand still. Not an unusual behaviour, considering the arrow slits might protect against wind, but not the cold. His years of experience have taught Aubreen that these people are probably only a fraction of the guards inside the keep. If they kept this watch up around the clock, they would be doing frequent shift changes and spend most of the time indoors.
You arrive back at the tavern, where Bouncer had been tied up. The bird busied himself by rummaging in the snow with its beak, a fruitless search.
Marlede will follow Sirius and Aubreen's lead and secures Phantom, leaving a blanket over him to keep warm. She takes what she can carry, the backpack, and her quiver. She looks at Aubreen as he suggests ambushing the guards and says:
"We're going to fight them no matter what. But let's all make sure we're inside the Caer when we do. And I agree with you, Aubreen. They're innocent until proven guilty. Just knock them unconscious if possible."
Marlede looked bloodthirsty when you all first saw her fight monsters like the Harpies and Maud, but she seems keen on preserving the lives of the guards.
"I have a grappling hook for us to climb over the wall using rope. And I know Perrin could carry one of us while transformed into a giant spider. Our goal is to investigate what's going on inside the Caer and stop any crimes that are being committed."
Aubreen offers his own thoughts on the matter. "I would rather save the magic until it is truly necessary. When Mundane efforts may be just as fruitful." He looks to the Perrin, "Are you ablle to climb a rope? Can we toss it over the ramparts near one of the towers. After the guards have moved on of course, then take them by surprise when they loop back around?"
"I could use the crystal to teleport us in but I think Aubreen is right. There's a lot of guards there and things could get really bad really quickly. The teleport might be the only safe way to get out." Sirius takes a moment to think. "What if right after a shift change, Perrin turns into a spider and Marlede rides him to on top of the wall. Then you could drop down a rope for us to climb. If we're careful, we can knock out the patrolling guards before they know what hit 'em. Then we do the same to the ones guarding the gatehouse." Sirius looks around for approval from the group. "If we do it right after a shift change, we have the most time before anyone notices."
Marlede will tie the grappling hook to her 25ft long rope. That should be enough to get us up the wall.
She agrees that magic should be the last resort, if possible. But she knows that without Perrin, any chance of stealthily infiltrating the Caer is out of the question.
So she will make her way up to Perrin again.
"Let's just go ask Perrin if he's able to help us up using this." She gestures to the rope and grappling hook. "We'll need his magic again if we're going to sneak inside. Otherwise, all the guards will be on top of us."
Once she reaches Perrin, she'll say "Perrin, can you cover us with the same veil you summoned before? I have a rope you can use to get us up. So you can just wedge it between something sturdy. But wait for the guards to pass, first."
She holds the rope with the grappling hook in front of Perrin and waits for his response.
Perrin nods before taking a moment to concentrate. A few seconds later, the darkness of the night seems to swirl around the group, clinging to them like a second layer of clothing. Barely discernible, Perrin then shifts into a giant spider, barely a whisper of sound escaping him. In the darkness and near total silence, it looked quite unsettling. In his new form, he lowers himself close to the ground, and invitation for Marlene to climb aboard. It was weird to have someone riding him like some common pack horse, but unless he wanted to carry her with his sharp and rather venomous fangs, riding would have to do.
Marlede will oblige and carefully climbs on top of Spider Perrin. After channeling primal energy, she'll whisper to him "There. Now we'll be able to talk. I'll wedge the grappling hook for Aubreen and Sirius if you get me up to that empty watchtower."
[ Marlede will use the information Aubreen gathered to direct Perrin to the watchtower most likely to be empty during that shift. If there's any rolls involved, I'm okay with you rolling it, DM. And I'm assuming we all move along with Perrin's veil. ]
Aubreen tightens his winter coat, using the straps to pull it taut. Pulling the hood up and trying to ensure his armor is as silent and unseen in the light as possible. Watching the spider scale the wall he checks his weapons and waits for the rope to drop. Whispering to Sirius "We should move into the tower, extinguish the lights"
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Inside the tavern, Sirius looks around the room sensing the tension. Turning back to the barkeeper, he asks: "Do you know someone by the last name of Trollbane? We're looking for them." Disappointed by the absence of ale and a room, Sirius walks out of the tavern with his companions.
"No ale and now we have to go to that very possibly haunted fort, this day is not coming up Sirius." Improvising a hitching post from a stick he hammers into the ground, Sirius ties Bouncer to it, taking his equipment with him. He takes out a little flag with the emblem of his noble house of Barwin and ties it to the end of his spear and starts walking towards the castle. With a flick of the wand, he activates Detect magic, if he senses nothing alarming within the aura, he walks all the way to the gate and activates his divine sense. "Please reveal the true nature of this place Tyr."
Roark raises his eyebrows as Sirius speaks the name. There are a few surprised looks by the other patrons.
The innkeep responds with a slightly more relaxed tone of voice: "Yeah. She's the keeper of the hounds in the caer. Old as stone, that one. Goes by the name of Hethyl."
Bouncer, tied to the post, watches you depart in the direction of the keep, shaking some snow out of his feathers.
As you head up to the keep, its twenty feet high walls loom large and oppressive. The torchlight visible through the arrow slits of the gatehouse is disturbed by movement as someone steps forward to look down on you. A man, the form and face obscured by thick winter clothing, shouts down:
"You there! What is your business?"
Perhaps seeing Sirius' improvised flag, the guard adds: "Speaker Crannoc Siever is too sick to entertain guests!”
Sirius reaches out with his senses for magic. He sees that the guard who spoke, although his face is obscured, is wearing an amulet that radiates protective magic.
Tyrs blessing tells him much the same, and more. He sees a cold blackness radiating from the figure. The amulet is not just imbued with power, but has been desecrated by a force unknown.There is darkness somewhere within the keep too, that much is sure, but the location is out of the paladins grasp. A whiff of a sulfuric odour is enough to give Sirius a clear sign: devilish magic is about.
[ Marlede wants to try to discern any deception using insight: 13 ]
Responding to the guard, she yells "Well it's a good thing we have healers in our group, then! Now open up! Tell the speaker Marlede is here to see him!"
Currently DMing:
The putrid smell of all of the darkness and evil make Sirius flinch and immediately close his divine sense. Quietly, so that the guard can't hear him, he speaks to his companions. "Tread very carefully my friends. There's great darkness and devilish powers within the fort. The guard seems to be magical as well."
Sirius yells more loudly so the guard can hear as well. "As my friend here said, we can help you!"
Marlede nods at Sirius and remains silent, waiting for the guard to respond or for the others to act. If what Sirius says is accurate, and she trusts him, then she can't risk alerting the guards of our suspicion.
[ How tall are the walls, DM? ]
Currently DMing:
Back at the tavern, Perrin looks up sharply at Aubreen when he mentions the fort could be haunted. Great. He wanted nothing more than to break into a haunted fort and drive out a bunch of ghosts. What a wonderful way to spend the evening.
At the gates of the keep, Perrin keep shuffling from foot to foot nervously, casting suspicious looks at just about everything. When Sirius says there's dark magic afoot, Perrin finds himself turning around and takes a step back towards the rest of the town before he realizes what he was doing. Sheepishly, he turns back and holds his ground, though he noticeably lingers much closer to the rest of the group.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
The guard shouts back in response to Marlede and Sirius: “Speaker Crannoc Siever has no need for your heathen rituals! He is being cared for already!” His tone is impatient.
It's fairly clear at this point to Marlede (and, due to passive Insight, Perrin and Aubreen too), that the guard wants to turn you away, regardless of the validity of the reason given. There are no threats made, but you can't be sure who else is looking at you through the arrow slits.
The walls are 20 feet high, the sloped roofs go up to 30 feet.
The general layout looks like this. There are four guard towers, a gate house and one main building. The guard towers, the gate house and the building are roofed, the battlements connecting them are not. From outside you can identify the roofed sections (dark blue) and the open sections (light blue). The arrow slits are about 4 inches wide.
HEATHEN!? I OUGHT TO SHOOT HIS TONGUE OFF RIGHT NOW!
But that isn't her response. No. It's obvious that whoever that is doesn't want us to see the speaker. Civilians driving us to visit the caer, and guards refusing to let visitors inside. It's obvious that we're needed inside. With a poker face, Marlede turns to the others and speaks in a tone the guard won't hear her.
"What are we doing, guys? It's obvious that something sinister is at play here. The townspeople are silently asking for our aid, and I turn my back on them. We could try to sneak inside once it becomes darker."
She gestures to a grappling hook hanging from her backpack. Then glances at the Axebeaks.
"And we need a place to leave our mounts. We could try one more time at the tavern, or stable them inside the abandoned building. I doubt anyone is going to pay attention to it."
Currently DMing:
”Could we at least talk to Hethyl? Her sister was worried about her.” Sirius yells back to the guard.
[Persuasion: 10] After Sirius asks his question, there is a long pause. The shadows obscuring the light from within the guard house move, as if conversing. They're keeping their voices low, no sound is to be heard except for the wind howling through the parapets.
Then, the guard steps forward once more, calling down: "Too bad! Hethyl is not to be disturbed, according to her own wishes!"
It's already dark by this point, the dim light of the day having come and gone during your travels here. The watchtowers and the gatehouse are illuminated by torchlight, sending flickering shadows around whenever someone within moves.
Only one of the watch towers is being patrolled at a time, the guards within moving on to the next along the battlements every few minutes. The walls are old but sturdy, consisting of large stone blocks that don't provide good foot- and handholds, looking exceedingly hard to climb without some sort of aid.
Aubreen nods to the group. his head tilting slightly towards the town. Taking a couple strides away, his voice lower than the wind. "There is something fishy, and its not the chowdah" He nods his head when the others speak, or a grunt of acceptance, and a tssk of understanding. "Perhaps we head back to the Tavern, Bouncer is already secured there. Stable the beasts and return. The Guards are on patrol, we climb the wall behind them, ambush on their way back from the circuit." Aubreen will watch the guards as they descend the road to the Tavern. Paying attention to how many walk together, the pattern and timing of their passage. (Perception: 18 )
Another ambush, it seems every struggle is confronted by subterfuge, back stabbing as it were. Not a very Righteous way to go. Was it the influence of Marlede, she was Lethal to be sure, and driven. He looks to the bird amongst them, the enigmatic nearly silent creature, noticing Perrin turn at the thought of the Undead. He was the least understood, what was his motive? His thoughts on most things a mystery. Yet Aubreen was glad to have him nearby. Sirius, his need for recognition confuses the Half-elf. Perhaps never having it he simply didn't understand the significance.
"Those walls look difficult, I think I could climb them with rope however. The guards? are they part of the play or just supporting crew? Until we are forced otherwise I think we should tread cautiously. I will not kill the innocent." He intentionally doesn't look on his companions with that last statement. Even if they didn't agree, he can at least pretend they did, for now.
Perrin nods at Aubreen’s suggestion, though he points to himself and repeats, “Climb.” As the group heads back to the tavern, he elaborates with several hand gestures that he could become a spider, climb the wall, and then hold some rope at the top for the others to climb up on. He figured that would probably be the easiest way into the keep.
Whist the others take care of their axebeaks, Perrin finds himself back outside, looking up at the starry sky with a contemplative expression. His eyes follow the weaving veil of the aurora conjured by the Frostmaiden as he thinks of their upcoming task. Breaking into the keep wasn’t going to be easy, especially if it was haunted. A part of him just wanted to stay behind, but he wasn’t going to abandon his friends. After a few moments of contemplation, he comes back and finds the others, feeling ready as he’ll ever be to sneak into the keep.
((Took a few minutes to swap around spells))
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
Aubreen learns that two of the guards always stay in the gatehouse. Two more walk together from tower to tower, staying in each tower for a few minutes. When walking along the battlements between towers, their steps are hurried and their hands in front of their faces. Inside the towers, they rarely stand still. Not an unusual behaviour, considering the arrow slits might protect against wind, but not the cold. His years of experience have taught Aubreen that these people are probably only a fraction of the guards inside the keep. If they kept this watch up around the clock, they would be doing frequent shift changes and spend most of the time indoors.
You arrive back at the tavern, where Bouncer had been tied up. The bird busied himself by rummaging in the snow with its beak, a fruitless search.
Marlede will follow Sirius and Aubreen's lead and secures Phantom, leaving a blanket over him to keep warm. She takes what she can carry, the backpack, and her quiver. She looks at Aubreen as he suggests ambushing the guards and says:
"We're going to fight them no matter what. But let's all make sure we're inside the Caer when we do. And I agree with you, Aubreen. They're innocent until proven guilty. Just knock them unconscious if possible."
Marlede looked bloodthirsty when you all first saw her fight monsters like the Harpies and Maud, but she seems keen on preserving the lives of the guards.
"I have a grappling hook for us to climb over the wall using rope. And I know Perrin could carry one of us while transformed into a giant spider. Our goal is to investigate what's going on inside the Caer and stop any crimes that are being committed."
Currently DMing:
Aubreen offers his own thoughts on the matter. "I would rather save the magic until it is truly necessary. When Mundane efforts may be just as fruitful." He looks to the Perrin, "Are you ablle to climb a rope? Can we toss it over the ramparts near one of the towers. After the guards have moved on of course, then take them by surprise when they loop back around?"
"I could use the crystal to teleport us in but I think Aubreen is right. There's a lot of guards there and things could get really bad really quickly. The teleport might be the only safe way to get out." Sirius takes a moment to think. "What if right after a shift change, Perrin turns into a spider and Marlede rides him to on top of the wall. Then you could drop down a rope for us to climb. If we're careful, we can knock out the patrolling guards before they know what hit 'em. Then we do the same to the ones guarding the gatehouse." Sirius looks around for approval from the group. "If we do it right after a shift change, we have the most time before anyone notices."
Marlede will tie the grappling hook to her 25ft long rope. That should be enough to get us up the wall.
She agrees that magic should be the last resort, if possible. But she knows that without Perrin, any chance of stealthily infiltrating the Caer is out of the question.
So she will make her way up to Perrin again.
"Let's just go ask Perrin if he's able to help us up using this." She gestures to the rope and grappling hook. "We'll need his magic again if we're going to sneak inside. Otherwise, all the guards will be on top of us."
Once she reaches Perrin, she'll say "Perrin, can you cover us with the same veil you summoned before? I have a rope you can use to get us up. So you can just wedge it between something sturdy. But wait for the guards to pass, first."
She holds the rope with the grappling hook in front of Perrin and waits for his response.
Currently DMing:
Perrin nods before taking a moment to concentrate. A few seconds later, the darkness of the night seems to swirl around the group, clinging to them like a second layer of clothing. Barely discernible, Perrin then shifts into a giant spider, barely a whisper of sound escaping him. In the darkness and near total silence, it looked quite unsettling. In his new form, he lowers himself close to the ground, and invitation for Marlene to climb aboard. It was weird to have someone riding him like some common pack horse, but unless he wanted to carry her with his sharp and rather venomous fangs, riding would have to do.
DM- Azalin's Doom
DM- Surviving the Unsurvivable
Marlede will oblige and carefully climbs on top of Spider Perrin. After channeling primal energy, she'll whisper to him "There. Now we'll be able to talk. I'll wedge the grappling hook for Aubreen and Sirius if you get me up to that empty watchtower."
[ Marlede will use the information Aubreen gathered to direct Perrin to the watchtower most likely to be empty during that shift. If there's any rolls involved, I'm okay with you rolling it, DM. And I'm assuming we all move along with Perrin's veil. ]
Currently DMing:
Aubreen tightens his winter coat, using the straps to pull it taut. Pulling the hood up and trying to ensure his armor is as silent and unseen in the light as possible. Watching the spider scale the wall he checks his weapons and waits for the rope to drop. Whispering to Sirius "We should move into the tower, extinguish the lights"