(Erudisia, can you also roll Stealth & Acrobatics?)
(Bell, please roll a Constitution or Athletics check to see how you’re doing in the water. What’s your plan, now that your distraction is almost played out?)
Bell is water soaked and half dazed at the number of hands that 'suddenly' appear to help her out of the stream.
{game log} Constitution Check: 11
Shivering. Embarassed. A little tipsy (she did grab a few too many passing drinks!) Freezing.
"I am so sorry. I was moving aside as people were running past and -- suddenly I am in the water getting swept downstream! Thank goodness you were all there to save me from going over the waterfall."
HUGE sneeze which she blots with the dinner jacket someone had thrown over her shoulders.
"I need to.... I really should let my friend.... oh dear. I hope I didn't cause a big fuss." She blushes from head to toe... which just about everyone can track as it happens.
A younger man pushes between the paired dagger-eyes of the women and the overflowing bellies of their husbands in their embroidered vests and licentious gazes.
“Here,” his gentle but firm voice coaxes. He extends an arm and with surprising strength pulls Bell from the water. A handsome man in his 20s, with a trimmed beard and satiny collar-length brown-bronze hair stands before the wet wizard. His eye are blue and deep as the sea at sunset, but his gaze is not on the details of Bell’s form revealed by her clinging gown. Rather, concern dimples his brow. “Take my coat.” He does not wait for an answer but drapes it respectfully over her shoulders.
“Come, sit by the hearth. Its flames will warm you. Move. Aside,” he demands in a flat tone of two snickering women in perfect makeup, amber jewels dangling like raindrops from the edges of their head scarfs.
Bell looks at this dashing 'rescuer' with the largest doe eyes. (after all, she is not wearing her glasses and water dripping down her face... this is fine.)
"Thank you, kind sir. It happened so fast and then so many people trying to drag me from the waters; I am at a loss." She clutches the coat tightly about her as he directs her to the warming fire. "I'm afraid I have ruined your coat. Once I am dry and home, I can pay to replace it."
Meredith and Erudisia both squeeze through the security door in the wake of the guards passing in the opposite direction. Far from stealthy, they would be obvious to anyone watching. But with all eyes on Bell or rushing to witness fisticuffs in the tournament room, neither of our heroes clocks anyone clocking them. Not until they pass through the door, that is. For as soon as the door closes behind them and they enter the security hallway, another tiefling guard comes wheeling from an adjoining hallway on the left some 20’ ahead of you, stopping there, in front of a door on the right wall. Surprise flattens to blasé and nonplused.
“This area is for staff only. Turn around ladies, ye been drinking too many cat-o-nines cocktails.”
60’ away, at the end of the hall (40’ behind the guard), another security mirror hangs on the wall like a wide-open crystal eye.
Erudisia walks closer to the Tiefling guard imperiously, taking no heed of his instructions, no more to her than a whisper on a summer breeze.
As she reaches 30 feet from him, and so a reasonable distance for her usual speaking voice, she instructs the mistaken guard.
“We are agents of the power that your master serves. There are irregularities in the casino’s accounts and its due tithes. Say no more and escort us into the Casino’s vault.” And she casts Suggestion. Wisdom Save: 13.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
(Tiefling guard WIS save: 7)
The guard takes a long moment to grasp what is happening, or rather, what Erudisia wants him to think is happening. The spell lies dormant as a loop of rope waiting for a false step as he tries to reconcile the warlock’s words. He seems wary at first, but a light of understanding seems to flash, he visibly recoils at the thought of the master’s master… and Erudisia springs her trap. The tiefling’s mind gives over to the fey wishes of the Moonshae Lady… so long as she herself doesn’t misstep and ask too much.
“The… vault?…,” he says, in a daze. “I am under orders to allow no one to it. No one… My employer is just over here down the hall… talk to him, why don’t you?…” Erudisia knows that it is only a matter of time before he succumbs. She need only keep shining a light down the path, he will follow… (Please roll Persuade with advantage to see how long the coaxing takes.)
“Oh, this? There’s no need at all, it’s only water,” the man says, reassuringly. A dark lock of hair droops over one eye and he absently pushes it back out of his face with a calloused but well-formed hand. His sea-blue eyes search out Bell’s but they haven’t time to linger.
A crash from the tournament area draws both Bell and the man’s attention, and raised voices follow the crash. Several casino patrons slam into each other as some flee from the blind bend that leads into the tournament room while, simultaneously, thrill seekers rush in the opposite direction to see what is happening.
“That ogre has someone on the ceiling!,” a voice yells, drawing more spectators.
“That ogre has a name,” Little One’s voice calls from around the bend, calmly.
“This way,” says Bell’s savior, who shields her from rushing casino patrons who bump and jostle, until the relative quiet of the hearth is reached.
He glances quickly at Bell, checking her condition. “You must be freezing. Sit here.” He shoves a chair in front of the hearth. “Are you frightened? Don’t worry, I think it’s just a… a brawl, you know. No one will raise a hand against you, I’m sure. But… do you want to leave?,” he asks.
Contrary to what I posted above, Bell is the only person who saw Erudisia and Meredith pass through the security doors.
Bellsnuggles into the cushions of the chair and tries to look lost but not addled. She sighs as she feels the hearth's heat reach her. "This is ... nice. Thank you.... ? I apolgize -- I never introduced myself or heard your name. I am Bell W... er... Bell Wyverncrest. I came with some friends to watch the tournament play. Again, thank you for rescuing me before I went over the falls. Or got mobbed by the onlookers."
It doesn’t take long. The guard is already half-convinced. Erudisia, following her hunch that the owner of the casino counts some hellish power as an ally, shores up her advantage, and soon the man’s trapped mind spins in the air, directionless lest she says which way is north. She does.
“Well… yeh, right… okay, the vault. Yes… it’s this way…,” the tiefling falters, grasping for purchase in reality but finding none. He begins to walk back the way he came, gesturing for you to follow him. The crystal eye of the security mirror continues to reflect your image in miniature from the end of the hallway until you turn the corner after him. At that juncture, Meredith hears a crackling roar, soft, annoyed, from beyond the closed door on the opposite side of the hallway. Its sound diminishes as she follows the guard through the door to the left into another hallway.
The new hallways has doors on either side. A tiefling waiter is standing in the door to the left, panting and speaking quickly to excited voices inside. “...And then, sez Demi, the bird-man pulls something outta his pocket, and then, the big ogre-guy at the same table sez, ‘Youz cheatin!,’ just like last week except last week the guy were drunk, and this time the ogre ain’t but he’s just mad, and he makes a fist, like so, and then… Oh, ‘ello, Nephthus,” he notices the guard approaching and also, cocking his head, notices Erudisia and Meredith. “Where you going to?”
“Vault,” says the guard, turning to the door on the right. The talkative tiefling stands, staring…
The guard otherwise ignores the tiefling and opens the opposite door, looking over his shoulder to be sure you’re following.
“Matters of security, audit and the vault are not your business. Your eyes should not linger, waiter. Temptation rarely leads to satisfaction, where Quentin Togglepocket is involved. Get back to work. Nephthus, no more chitter chatter, lead on.”
Her eyes do not linger on the staring waiter and her stride does not break. In every regard her body language says that she is utterly comfortable in her right to be there.
Bellsnuggles into the cushions of the chair and tries to look lost but not addled. She sighs as she feels the hearth's heat reach her. "This is ... nice. Thank you.... ? I apolgize -- I never introduced myself or heard your name. I am Bell W... er... Bell Wyverncrest. I came with some friends to watch the tournament play. Again, thank you for rescuing me before I went over the falls. Or got mobbed by the onlookers."
“I am pleased to meet you, milady Wyverncrest. I’m Jersey. Jersey… Grantersonchick.” He winces as a whooshing intake of breath from the crowd precedes a thudding crash from the tournament room followed by yells of excitement. “Umm… from Neverwinter. What brings you to Baldur’s Gate? Or are you only here for the casino?” On one finger you notice a signet ring. He is finely dressed, although his posture is more like a townsman than that of a noble scion. His coat smells, not unpleasantly, of moss, horses, leather, and of him.
“I hadn’t planned to… to stay so late,” he says, his eyes locking on a clock cuckooing behind the bar. He looks at Bell again, who is starting to dry this close to the warming hearth. “You’re looking better every minute. This place... has its advantages.” A smile, humble and genuine.
(The dice know the story beats we need, not the ones we want!)
Erudisia and Meredith
The one called Nephthus does not linger, and the waiter does nothing to halt your passage, eyes lowering quickly in deference to Erudisia’s dismissive tone, learned at an early age in the Odewright halls. Into the next room Nephthus, Meredith and Erudisia pass. It is only as the door clicks shut behind them that the thought flashes through Erudisia’s mind that the waiter had been only too quick to obey…
But there is no time to consider this. More guards are here. It is the central security room, a quick glance is sure to reveal. Mirrors line one wall, but they do not throw your image back. Rather, they seem to be paired with those magical reflecting surfaces set throughout the casino, and from here, in their comfortable chairs, guards watch the goings on. Three are gathered in front of a mirror which shows a full-out brawl in the tournament room, security guards and casino patrons alike exchange blows in the moving image.
“Oh!,” says one of the guards, evenly, “that’s gotta hurt!”
“My money’s on the ogre,” the second guard answers, munching on a crispy snack.
“Outnumbered. It’ll be Karron all the way, OHO!,” all three shout, watching another punch land.
They don’t even look up when Nephthus enters, but when Erudisia and Meredith follow, two of them turn.
“Hey….,” one says, warily, to Nephthus, who barely glances at him, not breaking stride, as Nephthus crosses the room to a heavy door reinforced with iron bands. He opens it with his security pass card. “This way,” he says.
“He’s been charmed!,” shouts one of the guards, who takes a professional interest in arcana, intuiting brightly. “Get them!!” All three draw weapons.
Meredith & Erudisia, please roll initiative. You may take your turn if you beat a 17.
You are situated like so:
(White numbers are guards. Blue letters are you two.)
“These guards must be the source of the discrepancies. Thieves, who know Quentin is only all to close to discovering their deception!” Erudisia shouts to Meredith. “Protect the guard! Nephthus, get us through!”
She casts Eldritch Blast at the closest guard (number 3).
(Erudisia, can you also roll Stealth & Acrobatics?)
(Bell, please roll a Constitution or Athletics check to see how you’re doing in the water. What’s your plan, now that your distraction is almost played out?)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell is water soaked and half dazed at the number of hands that 'suddenly' appear to help her out of the stream.
{game log} Constitution Check: 11
Shivering. Embarassed. A little tipsy (she did grab a few too many passing drinks!) Freezing.
"I am so sorry. I was moving aside as people were running past and -- suddenly I am in the water getting swept downstream! Thank goodness you were all there to save me from going over the waterfall."
HUGE sneeze which she blots with the dinner jacket someone had thrown over her shoulders.
"I need to.... I really should let my friend.... oh dear. I hope I didn't cause a big fuss." She blushes from head to toe... which just about everyone can track as it happens.
Acrobatics: 17
Stealth: 7!
A younger man pushes between the paired dagger-eyes of the women and the overflowing bellies of their husbands in their embroidered vests and licentious gazes.
“Here,” his gentle but firm voice coaxes. He extends an arm and with surprising strength pulls Bell from the water. A handsome man in his 20s, with a trimmed beard and satiny collar-length brown-bronze hair stands before the wet wizard. His eye are blue and deep as the sea at sunset, but his gaze is not on the details of Bell’s form revealed by her clinging gown. Rather, concern dimples his brow. “Take my coat.” He does not wait for an answer but drapes it respectfully over her shoulders.
“Come, sit by the hearth. Its flames will warm you. Move. Aside,” he demands in a flat tone of two snickering women in perfect makeup, amber jewels dangling like raindrops from the edges of their head scarfs.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell looks at this dashing 'rescuer' with the largest doe eyes. (after all, she is not wearing her glasses and water dripping down her face... this is fine.)
"Thank you, kind sir. It happened so fast and then so many people trying to drag me from the waters; I am at a loss." She clutches the coat tightly about her as he directs her to the warming fire. "I'm afraid I have ruined your coat. Once I am dry and home, I can pay to replace it."
Meredith and Erudisia both squeeze through the security door in the wake of the guards passing in the opposite direction. Far from stealthy, they would be obvious to anyone watching. But with all eyes on Bell or rushing to witness fisticuffs in the tournament room, neither of our heroes clocks anyone clocking them. Not until they pass through the door, that is. For as soon as the door closes behind them and they enter the security hallway, another tiefling guard comes wheeling from an adjoining hallway on the left some 20’ ahead of you, stopping there, in front of a door on the right wall. Surprise flattens to blasé and nonplused.
“This area is for staff only. Turn around ladies, ye been drinking too many cat-o-nines cocktails.”
60’ away, at the end of the hall (40’ behind the guard), another security mirror hangs on the wall like a wide-open crystal eye.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Erudisia walks closer to the Tiefling guard imperiously, taking no heed of his instructions, no more to her than a whisper on a summer breeze.
As she reaches 30 feet from him, and so a reasonable distance for her usual speaking voice, she instructs the mistaken guard.
“We are agents of the power that your master serves. There are irregularities in the casino’s accounts and its due tithes. Say no more and escort us into the Casino’s vault.” And she casts Suggestion. Wisdom Save: 13.
(Tiefling guard WIS save: 7)
The guard takes a long moment to grasp what is happening, or rather, what Erudisia wants him to think is happening. The spell lies dormant as a loop of rope waiting for a false step as he tries to reconcile the warlock’s words. He seems wary at first, but a light of understanding seems to flash, he visibly recoils at the thought of the master’s master… and Erudisia springs her trap. The tiefling’s mind gives over to the fey wishes of the Moonshae Lady… so long as she herself doesn’t misstep and ask too much.
“The… vault?…,” he says, in a daze. “I am under orders to allow no one to it. No one… My employer is just over here down the hall… talk to him, why don’t you?…” Erudisia knows that it is only a matter of time before he succumbs. She need only keep shining a light down the path, he will follow… (Please roll Persuade with advantage to see how long the coaxing takes.)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Bell
“Oh, this? There’s no need at all, it’s only water,” the man says, reassuringly. A dark lock of hair droops over one eye and he absently pushes it back out of his face with a calloused but well-formed hand. His sea-blue eyes search out Bell’s but they haven’t time to linger.
A crash from the tournament area draws both Bell and the man’s attention, and raised voices follow the crash. Several casino patrons slam into each other as some flee from the blind bend that leads into the tournament room while, simultaneously, thrill seekers rush in the opposite direction to see what is happening.
“That ogre has someone on the ceiling!,” a voice yells, drawing more spectators.
“That ogre has a name,” Little One’s voice calls from around the bend, calmly.
“This way,” says Bell’s savior, who shields her from rushing casino patrons who bump and jostle, until the relative quiet of the hearth is reached.
He glances quickly at Bell, checking her condition. “You must be freezing. Sit here.” He shoves a chair in front of the hearth. “Are you frightened? Don’t worry, I think it’s just a… a brawl, you know. No one will raise a hand against you, I’m sure. But… do you want to leave?,” he asks.
Contrary to what I posted above, Bell is the only person who saw Erudisia and Meredith pass through the security doors.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Meredith moved up next to Erudisia and fixed the man with a withering glare.
( Help Action. + there's Bardic Inspiration there if Erudisia needs).
Perception: Double 6 on advantage for 11! >:(
3 bardic inspiration
(14 total)
“Your master permits our entry.”
Bell snuggles into the cushions of the chair and tries to look lost but not addled. She sighs as she feels the hearth's heat reach her. "This is ... nice. Thank you.... ? I apolgize -- I never introduced myself or heard your name. I am Bell W... er... Bell Wyverncrest. I came with some friends to watch the tournament play. Again, thank you for rescuing me before I went over the falls. Or got mobbed by the onlookers."
Erudisia and Meredith
It doesn’t take long. The guard is already half-convinced. Erudisia, following her hunch that the owner of the casino counts some hellish power as an ally, shores up her advantage, and soon the man’s trapped mind spins in the air, directionless lest she says which way is north. She does.
“Well… yeh, right… okay, the vault. Yes… it’s this way…,” the tiefling falters, grasping for purchase in reality but finding none. He begins to walk back the way he came, gesturing for you to follow him. The crystal eye of the security mirror continues to reflect your image in miniature from the end of the hallway until you turn the corner after him. At that juncture, Meredith hears a crackling roar, soft, annoyed, from beyond the closed door on the opposite side of the hallway. Its sound diminishes as she follows the guard through the door to the left into another hallway.
The new hallways has doors on either side. A tiefling waiter is standing in the door to the left, panting and speaking quickly to excited voices inside. “...And then, sez Demi, the bird-man pulls something outta his pocket, and then, the big ogre-guy at the same table sez, ‘Youz cheatin!,’ just like last week except last week the guy were drunk, and this time the ogre ain’t but he’s just mad, and he makes a fist, like so, and then… Oh, ‘ello, Nephthus,” he notices the guard approaching and also, cocking his head, notices Erudisia and Meredith. “Where you going to?”
“Vault,” says the guard, turning to the door on the right. The talkative tiefling stands, staring…
The guard otherwise ignores the tiefling and opens the opposite door, looking over his shoulder to be sure you’re following.
(Here is an updated map.)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
“Matters of security, audit and the vault are not your business. Your eyes should not linger, waiter. Temptation rarely leads to satisfaction, where Quentin Togglepocket is involved. Get back to work. Nephthus, no more chitter chatter, lead on.”
Her eyes do not linger on the staring waiter and her stride does not break. In every regard her body language says that she is utterly comfortable in her right to be there.
(1am is an odd hour to be conducting an audit, the waiter might think. Please roll Deception :)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
NAT 1.
(The dice know the story beats we need, not the ones we want!)
“I am pleased to meet you, milady Wyverncrest. I’m Jersey. Jersey… Grantersonchick.” He winces as a whooshing intake of breath from the crowd precedes a thudding crash from the tournament room followed by yells of excitement. “Umm… from Neverwinter. What brings you to Baldur’s Gate? Or are you only here for the casino?” On one finger you notice a signet ring. He is finely dressed, although his posture is more like a townsman than that of a noble scion. His coat smells, not unpleasantly, of moss, horses, leather, and of him.
“I hadn’t planned to… to stay so late,” he says, his eyes locking on a clock cuckooing behind the bar. He looks at Bell again, who is starting to dry this close to the warming hearth. “You’re looking better every minute. This place... has its advantages.” A smile, humble and genuine.
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Erudisia and Meredith
The one called Nephthus does not linger, and the waiter does nothing to halt your passage, eyes lowering quickly in deference to Erudisia’s dismissive tone, learned at an early age in the Odewright halls. Into the next room Nephthus, Meredith and Erudisia pass. It is only as the door clicks shut behind them that the thought flashes through Erudisia’s mind that the waiter had been only too quick to obey…
But there is no time to consider this. More guards are here. It is the central security room, a quick glance is sure to reveal. Mirrors line one wall, but they do not throw your image back. Rather, they seem to be paired with those magical reflecting surfaces set throughout the casino, and from here, in their comfortable chairs, guards watch the goings on. Three are gathered in front of a mirror which shows a full-out brawl in the tournament room, security guards and casino patrons alike exchange blows in the moving image.
“Oh!,” says one of the guards, evenly, “that’s gotta hurt!”
“My money’s on the ogre,” the second guard answers, munching on a crispy snack.
“Outnumbered. It’ll be Karron all the way, OHO!,” all three shout, watching another punch land.
They don’t even look up when Nephthus enters, but when Erudisia and Meredith follow, two of them turn.
“Hey….,” one says, warily, to Nephthus, who barely glances at him, not breaking stride, as Nephthus crosses the room to a heavy door reinforced with iron bands. He opens it with his security pass card. “This way,” he says.
“He’s been charmed!,” shouts one of the guards, who takes a professional interest in arcana, intuiting brightly. “Get them!!” All three draw weapons.
Meredith & Erudisia, please roll initiative. You may take your turn if you beat a 17.
You are situated like so:
(White numbers are guards. Blue letters are you two.)
DM for Candlekeep Mysteries // Dev Hornd in Curious Critters // Eclipse Faraway in Gallows Dancer
Erudisia Initiative: … 17
“These guards must be the source of the discrepancies. Thieves, who know Quentin is only all to close to discovering their deception!” Erudisia shouts to Meredith. “Protect the guard! Nephthus, get us through!”
She casts Eldritch Blast at the closest guard (number 3).
Attack: 12 Damage: 6 force, 2 thunder.