While the two grey cloaks are watching this outburst and distracted, Carl sees the ploy start to unfold and thinks of two things to help, quickly. He wordlessly instructs Squirt to stand and move to his battle axe and grab it if it is dropped. The second is directed toward the guard that Hildigrim is engaging, attempting to grapple. As it happens, Carl throws his arms up in exasperation and says Scheissa! to him, the verbal component in a language this fellow has probably never heard, a power word that he read about long ago to distract and scramble his noggin, and hopefully aid Hildigrim in his grapple.
OOC: The guards have won the initiative but thanks to Hildigrim and Auriel's display, they are surprised for the first round of combat.
I don't have a digital version of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, so even though it's an amazing description, I can't see what Carlthuzad is trying to do via that tooltip.
I'll type up a full resolution of the first round of combat once I have clarification on Carl's action and once we have Hex's action. For now, Auriel's strike will hit the first guard (but not knock him out) and Hildigrim's grapple attempt fails.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
As everyone begins to make their move and Hildigrim and Carl go to handle the other guard, Hex slips behind the guard Auriel strikes, unsheathes her scimitar and whips the hilt towards his head, hoping to knock him unconscious.
"Agh!" the guard still holding Carl's battleaxe grabs his head, feeling the sharp pain of Carlthuzad's magic. Hildigrim ducks beneath his legs, but the burly man shakes the rogue off of him with ease, launching the halfling off of the ship and into the cold waters of the Moonsea. Immediately, his breath is sucked out of him like a punch from the chill temperature.
Auriel's punch staggers the other guard; hobbling and dazed, he drops his crossbow in favor of his scimitar, but punches out at nothing in particular, seeing double and paying no attention to Hex as her hilt closes in, smashing the man's temple and crumpling him unconscious. "What the hells, Rathene!?!" his companion shouts, hefting Carl's battleaxe as if to charge.
Round 2 Order: Bandits Players <=====
Placement: All combatants are within movement range of one another. This includes Hildigrim, who is in the water but able to climb back aboard the ship with his movement. He has gained one level of exhaustion from the water's temperature.
Health: One guard is unconscious but stable. The other guard is lightly wounded.
Seeing one of the guards already knocked out, Auriel simply turns to the other one, hoping another punch will knock him out as well and end the fight quickly.
With his unseen servant waiting to pick up the battle axe if it is dropped, Carl focuses on the remaining conscious guard. He sees Auriel strike out, and he waits to see if that has the desired effect, if not (held action), he will use mind sliver again, trying to stun or knock out the man. He moves his positioning to the center of the boat, getting low and trying to help with stability of the boat.
As his head breaks the water’s surface, Hildigrim gasps — a sharp inhale, half from the desperate need for air, half from the icy shock of the Moonsea. Memories surge through his mind, recalling half a dozen times he’s ended up in these waters. This time of year, they usually avoid going in for good reason.
Fighting against the sluggishness creeping into his limbs, the halfling launches himself at the side of the boat. His muscles protest, stiffening from the cold, but he forces his way up and over, hauling himself onto the deck. His teeth chatter as he takes in the scene — one of the guards is already down. It seems he was the only unlucky one.
Shaking off the last of the shock, the Watcher draws one of his daggers and swiftly drives the hilt into the side of the remaining guard’s knees, aiming to drop him fast.
The ship rocks violently as Auriel lurches across the deck with Hex. The remaining conscious guard leans with the tilt of the boat, ducking aside of Hex's strike but stumbles into Auriel's fist just as Hildigrim reemerges from the Moonsea, buckling the man's knees. Though Carlthuzad's spell seems to have no effect, the hard wood of the deck of the ship certainly does when the guard's head strikes it on the way down, knocking him unconscious.
Shortly after, Carl's battleaxe lifts itself off of the deck, hovering in midair as it gently returns to the dwarf's hands.
Area Description:
The longship's mainsail is tightly furled, but its lines are set for a quick cast off. The longship is 8 feet at the beam and 60 feet in length. On the ship's single deck are rations, kegs of ale, and a small armory of swords, spears, arrows, and longbows. Among the supplies are a half dozen thick gray cloaks.
OOC: Each character has received 12 XP for defeating the guards, and inspiration for doing so in non-lethal fashion.
Still preoccupied with his soaking, freezing clothes, Hildigrim nearly misses the moment Carl’s weapon lifts into the air and sails back into the dwarf’s hands. His eyes linger on the magic-user, thoughts racing as he considers the possible ways that particular trick might have been accomplished. But now isn’t the time for distractions.
Shaking off the chill, he pulls a coil of rope from his pack and begins preparing it. "Let’s sit them up, side by side. I think I can bind their hands, arms, and legs with the same length of rope." He jerks his chin toward the pile of robes. "See if you can cut or tear some strips from one of those for gags. Last thing we need is them calling out if they wake up before we’re back."
As he works, his gaze flickers around the deck, taking in the state of the group. His hands still move over the rope, measuring and planning, but his voice carries an undertone of concern. "Everyone all right?"
When the fight is over, Auriel shakes out his hands and massages his knuckles. Unused to fistfighting, he can already feel them aching.
He blinks in surprise when Carl's axe flies into his hands. "Tell me that was your invisible friend handing you the axe?"he asks.
As Hildigrim begins tying up the two guards, Auriel takes one of their cloaks and rips it into strips, fashioning a pair of gags to keep them silent when they wake. Then, glancing at the pile of cloaks, he grabs one for himself and hands others to Hex and Carl. The last, he drapes over Hildigrim’s shoulders. "I think we’re all fine. But what about you? You must be freezing. Try to shake off as much water as you can with this cloak, then you can toss it and grab a dry one from this guard." Auriel pauses, scratches his hair, and then adds, "Uhmm. Sorry for insulting you, by the way."
Looking over the stash of supplies scattered across the ship, the eladrin mutters, "These rations will come in handy. And if we can take some of these weapons, we could sell them when we return to Phlan. Though I think I’ll keep a spear—might be useful."
Finally, he returns to their ship and gets their weapons back, handing each to their owner, and as he holds his halberd he asks the group, "You ready to get to the caves?"
Hex sheathes her scimitar as the last guard goes down. "That went pretty well. Nice improv, you two."
She nods as Hildigrim gives out instructions and helps set up the two guards in a place they wouldn't be so easily seen from anyone who may pass by. When Auriel offers a cloak, she takes it but doesn't wear it. "I think my current face will be enough for now but if the magic fades, I put it on." She happily takes her weapons back from the paladin and pops up the hood of her cloak, ready to head into the caves. "Not what I'm used to but, I'll go in first. Hopefully they won't attack us on sight if they see Rathene."
Carl chuckles, saying “Yeah, that was ole Squirt, I told him to keep an eye on my axe and hand it to me once that feller dropped it or was distracted. I think I’ll grab a ration or two for my pack and one of these gray cloaks - thank you Auriel - I think we all should grab one of those. Might help our ruse..” Carl goes about helping to tie up the two bandits. Then he sits and pulls the cloak tight around himself, trying to hide his other gear. He gingerly puts his battle axe hooked onto his pack before securing his cloak. “Hope we were quiet enough. Seems to be enough noise here with the waves to hide us thus far.”
OOC: Added enough rations to each character's inventory for a tenday of supplies. Added a spear to Auriel's inventory and a gray cloak to each character's inventory.
While looking through the supplies onboard the longship, with the guards now sitting side by side and bound and gagged, finds a scroll case tucked among the rations and kegs. Inside is a letter, well protected from the damp air:
Hildigrim takes the cloak handed to him and starts rubbing it against his soaked clothes, trying to chase away the worst of the dampness. He flashes Auriel a grin. "Glad you caught on quickly. Impressive punch."
Glancing over at Carl, he raises a hopeful eyebrow. "You wouldn’t happen to know any magic that could dry my clothes, would you?"
He listens as the note is read. "The Grey Patriots, the Welcomers, the Zhentarim, and the Black Fist. And, of course, the rival gang led by the dragonborn. We've got quite the knot to untangle."
Once he’s got a dry cloak draped over his shoulders, Hildigrim shifts his focus back to the task at hand. "I’m worried about showing up in camp armed. The guards were ordered to disarm us." He pauses, considering their options. "I suppose we could say we found them napping and didn’t bother waking them."
As the Zhentarim are mentioned in the note, Hex's attention is immediately piqued and she goes to grab the note from whoever found it. "If you don't mind, I'd like to keep this." She reads over it a few times with a frown on her face before stuffing it into a pocket.
She nods in agreement at Hildigrim. "The cloaks might be enough to hide our weapons underneath. Worked with these two at least." She nods towards the direction of the two knocked out guard before glancing at Carl's batteaxe. "Okay, well maybe not all our weapons. My longbow and your axe are pretty big. I guess blaming the guards' incompetence works just as well, then." She shrugs before going to shuffle the sheathes of her shortsword and scimitar so that they are mostly hidden under her cloak. Her longbow and quiver are still slung over the top of her cloak for easy access.
Once everyone is ready to go, Hex hops off the ship and waits for everyone to join before leading the party into the caves. Though she still had Rathene's face on, she tried to keep as quiet as she could to avoid bringing any unnecessary attention to the party.
(OOC: I'm going to assume Auriel found the letter, since he was the one rummaging though the cloaks and weapons.)
"There’s no way I’ll be able to hide a halberd that’s almost as tall as I am,"Auriel says. "For now, let’s enter the caves and see how we fare. If everyone else in camp is unarmed, I may have to leave it behind. I don’t relish the idea, there’s only so much I can do with my fists."Thinking on this, Auriel grabs a shorter weapon from the pile, as it should be easier to conceal. (@barty: can I get a shortsword or something like that?)
When the discussion turns to the letter, he muses, "Welcomers, Zhentarim, Zhentilar... I’m not sure I know much about them. The Welcomers, nothing at all. The Zhentarim—I’ve heard of them. Are they a criminal band?"
When Hex asks for the letter, Auriel doesn’t hand it over immediately. Instead, he regards her with curiosity. "Why do you want to keep it?"
Hex looks slightly surprised when Auriel doesn't hand over the note but quickly masks it with a look of nonchalance and shrugs. "Ah, the Welcomers and I don't exactly have a good relationship. Just some minor stuff that happened a bit before the two of us met. I have some contacts in Phlan so I was thinking I could use this as a way to finally get the Black Fists to do something about them. Or at least maybe get the general public to hate them more. Wishful thinking, probably, but might as well try."
Auriel holds the letter in his hand, close enough that he could pass it to Hex with ease, yet he doesn’t. He tilts his head slightly, his thoughts drifting back to when she whispered something to Rathene. Once again, he wonders what she had needed to say in secrecy, and whether it has anything to do with the contacts she just mentioned. (OOC: Insight check 13)
The eladrin lingers for a few moments, weighing the letter in his hand. In the end, he hands it to her. Something tells him there’s more to her words than she lets on, but he simply says, "Must have been more than minor if you need the general public to hate them." Auriel leaves the remark hanging, not pressing for an answer—he likely hasn’t earned Hex’s trust enough to get one.
Hildigrim moves when he can as well, slipping through the legs of the other guard and leaping up in an attempt to grapple him from behind.
While the two grey cloaks are watching this outburst and distracted, Carl sees the ploy start to unfold and thinks of two things to help, quickly. He wordlessly instructs Squirt to stand and move to his battle axe and grab it if it is dropped. The second is directed toward the guard that Hildigrim is engaging, attempting to grapple. As it happens, Carl throws his arms up in exasperation and says Scheissa! to him, the verbal component in a language this fellow has probably never heard, a power word that he read about long ago to distract and scramble his noggin, and hopefully aid Hildigrim in his grapple.
OOC: The guards have won the initiative but thanks to Hildigrim and Auriel's display, they are surprised for the first round of combat.
I don't have a digital version of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, so even though it's an amazing description, I can't see what Carlthuzad is trying to do via that tooltip.
I'll type up a full resolution of the first round of combat once I have clarification on Carl's action and once we have Hex's action. For now, Auriel's strike will hit the first guard (but not knock him out) and Hildigrim's grapple attempt fails.
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
As everyone begins to make their move and Hildigrim and Carl go to handle the other guard, Hex slips behind the guard Auriel strikes, unsheathes her scimitar and whips the hilt towards his head, hoping to knock him unconscious.
Scimitar Attack: 23 Damage: 9
"Agh!" the guard still holding Carl's battleaxe grabs his head, feeling the sharp pain of Carlthuzad's magic. Hildigrim ducks beneath his legs, but the burly man shakes the rogue off of him with ease, launching the halfling off of the ship and into the cold waters of the Moonsea. Immediately, his breath is sucked out of him like a punch from the chill temperature.
Auriel's punch staggers the other guard; hobbling and dazed, he drops his crossbow in favor of his scimitar, but punches out at nothing in particular, seeing double and paying no attention to Hex as her hilt closes in, smashing the man's temple and crumpling him unconscious. "What the hells, Rathene!?!" his companion shouts, hefting Carl's battleaxe as if to charge.
Round 2 Order:
Bandits
Players <=====
Placement:
All combatants are within movement range of one another.
This includes Hildigrim, who is in the water but able to climb back aboard the ship with his movement. He has gained one level of exhaustion from the water's temperature.
Health:
One guard is unconscious but stable.
The other guard is lightly wounded.
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
Seeing one of the guards already knocked out, Auriel simply turns to the other one, hoping another punch will knock him out as well and end the fight quickly.
Unarmed strike: 17 / Damage: 5
Diving deep to the surface ♫ Nessa | Saxa | Auriel | Chase | Shenua | Arren | Lyra
Successfully knocking out the guard, Hex moves to follow up Auriel's strike again and whips the hilt of her scimitar at the remaining guard.
Scimitar Attack: 14 Damage: 9
With his unseen servant waiting to pick up the battle axe if it is dropped, Carl focuses on the remaining conscious guard. He sees Auriel strike out, and he waits to see if that has the desired effect, if not (held action), he will use mind sliver again, trying to stun or knock out the man. He moves his positioning to the center of the boat, getting low and trying to help with stability of the boat.
As his head breaks the water’s surface, Hildigrim gasps — a sharp inhale, half from the desperate need for air, half from the icy shock of the Moonsea. Memories surge through his mind, recalling half a dozen times he’s ended up in these waters. This time of year, they usually avoid going in for good reason.
Fighting against the sluggishness creeping into his limbs, the halfling launches himself at the side of the boat. His muscles protest, stiffening from the cold, but he forces his way up and over, hauling himself onto the deck. His teeth chatter as he takes in the scene — one of the guards is already down. It seems he was the only unlucky one.
Shaking off the last of the shock, the Watcher draws one of his daggers and swiftly drives the hilt into the side of the remaining guard’s knees, aiming to drop him fast.
Attack: 13 - Damage: 7 - Sneak attack (if applicable): 5
The ship rocks violently as Auriel lurches across the deck with Hex. The remaining conscious guard leans with the tilt of the boat, ducking aside of Hex's strike but stumbles into Auriel's fist just as Hildigrim reemerges from the Moonsea, buckling the man's knees. Though Carlthuzad's spell seems to have no effect, the hard wood of the deck of the ship certainly does when the guard's head strikes it on the way down, knocking him unconscious.
Shortly after, Carl's battleaxe lifts itself off of the deck, hovering in midair as it gently returns to the dwarf's hands.
Area Description:
OOC: Each character has received 12 XP for defeating the guards, and inspiration for doing so in non-lethal fashion.
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
Still preoccupied with his soaking, freezing clothes, Hildigrim nearly misses the moment Carl’s weapon lifts into the air and sails back into the dwarf’s hands. His eyes linger on the magic-user, thoughts racing as he considers the possible ways that particular trick might have been accomplished. But now isn’t the time for distractions.
Shaking off the chill, he pulls a coil of rope from his pack and begins preparing it. "Let’s sit them up, side by side. I think I can bind their hands, arms, and legs with the same length of rope." He jerks his chin toward the pile of robes. "See if you can cut or tear some strips from one of those for gags. Last thing we need is them calling out if they wake up before we’re back."
As he works, his gaze flickers around the deck, taking in the state of the group. His hands still move over the rope, measuring and planning, but his voice carries an undertone of concern. "Everyone all right?"
When the fight is over, Auriel shakes out his hands and massages his knuckles. Unused to fistfighting, he can already feel them aching.
He blinks in surprise when Carl's axe flies into his hands. "Tell me that was your invisible friend handing you the axe?" he asks.
As Hildigrim begins tying up the two guards, Auriel takes one of their cloaks and rips it into strips, fashioning a pair of gags to keep them silent when they wake. Then, glancing at the pile of cloaks, he grabs one for himself and hands others to Hex and Carl. The last, he drapes over Hildigrim’s shoulders. "I think we’re all fine. But what about you? You must be freezing. Try to shake off as much water as you can with this cloak, then you can toss it and grab a dry one from this guard." Auriel pauses, scratches his hair, and then adds, "Uhmm. Sorry for insulting you, by the way."
Looking over the stash of supplies scattered across the ship, the eladrin mutters, "These rations will come in handy. And if we can take some of these weapons, we could sell them when we return to Phlan. Though I think I’ll keep a spear—might be useful."
Finally, he returns to their ship and gets their weapons back, handing each to their owner, and as he holds his halberd he asks the group, "You ready to get to the caves?"
Diving deep to the surface ♫ Nessa | Saxa | Auriel | Chase | Shenua | Arren | Lyra
Hex sheathes her scimitar as the last guard goes down. "That went pretty well. Nice improv, you two."
She nods as Hildigrim gives out instructions and helps set up the two guards in a place they wouldn't be so easily seen from anyone who may pass by. When Auriel offers a cloak, she takes it but doesn't wear it. "I think my current face will be enough for now but if the magic fades, I put it on." She happily takes her weapons back from the paladin and pops up the hood of her cloak, ready to head into the caves. "Not what I'm used to but, I'll go in first. Hopefully they won't attack us on sight if they see Rathene."
Carl chuckles, saying “Yeah, that was ole Squirt, I told him to keep an eye on my axe and hand it to me once that feller dropped it or was distracted. I think I’ll grab a ration or two for my pack and one of these gray cloaks - thank you Auriel - I think we all should grab one of those. Might help our ruse..” Carl goes about helping to tie up the two bandits. Then he sits and pulls the cloak tight around himself, trying to hide his other gear. He gingerly puts his battle axe hooked onto his pack before securing his cloak. “Hope we were quiet enough. Seems to be enough noise here with the waves to hide us thus far.”
OOC: Added enough rations to each character's inventory for a tenday of supplies. Added a spear to Auriel's inventory and a gray cloak to each character's inventory.
While looking through the supplies onboard the longship, with the guards now sitting side by side and bound and gagged, finds a scroll case tucked among the rations and kegs. Inside is a letter, well protected from the damp air:
See my profile for all my PbP threads!
Hildigrim takes the cloak handed to him and starts rubbing it against his soaked clothes, trying to chase away the worst of the dampness. He flashes Auriel a grin. "Glad you caught on quickly. Impressive punch."
Glancing over at Carl, he raises a hopeful eyebrow. "You wouldn’t happen to know any magic that could dry my clothes, would you?"
He listens as the note is read. "The Grey Patriots, the Welcomers, the Zhentarim, and the Black Fist. And, of course, the rival gang led by the dragonborn. We've got quite the knot to untangle."
Once he’s got a dry cloak draped over his shoulders, Hildigrim shifts his focus back to the task at hand. "I’m worried about showing up in camp armed. The guards were ordered to disarm us." He pauses, considering their options. "I suppose we could say we found them napping and didn’t bother waking them."
As the Zhentarim are mentioned in the note, Hex's attention is immediately piqued and she goes to grab the note from whoever found it. "If you don't mind, I'd like to keep this." She reads over it a few times with a frown on her face before stuffing it into a pocket.
She nods in agreement at Hildigrim. "The cloaks might be enough to hide our weapons underneath. Worked with these two at least." She nods towards the direction of the two knocked out guard before glancing at Carl's batteaxe. "Okay, well maybe not all our weapons. My longbow and your axe are pretty big. I guess blaming the guards' incompetence works just as well, then." She shrugs before going to shuffle the sheathes of her shortsword and scimitar so that they are mostly hidden under her cloak. Her longbow and quiver are still slung over the top of her cloak for easy access.
Once everyone is ready to go, Hex hops off the ship and waits for everyone to join before leading the party into the caves. Though she still had Rathene's face on, she tried to keep as quiet as she could to avoid bringing any unnecessary attention to the party.
(OOC: I'm going to assume Auriel found the letter, since he was the one rummaging though the cloaks and weapons.)
"There’s no way I’ll be able to hide a halberd that’s almost as tall as I am," Auriel says. "For now, let’s enter the caves and see how we fare. If everyone else in camp is unarmed, I may have to leave it behind. I don’t relish the idea, there’s only so much I can do with my fists." Thinking on this, Auriel grabs a shorter weapon from the pile, as it should be easier to conceal. (@barty: can I get a shortsword or something like that?)
When the discussion turns to the letter, he muses, "Welcomers, Zhentarim, Zhentilar... I’m not sure I know much about them. The Welcomers, nothing at all. The Zhentarim—I’ve heard of them. Are they a criminal band?"
When Hex asks for the letter, Auriel doesn’t hand it over immediately. Instead, he regards her with curiosity. "Why do you want to keep it?"
Diving deep to the surface ♫ Nessa | Saxa | Auriel | Chase | Shenua | Arren | Lyra
Hex looks slightly surprised when Auriel doesn't hand over the note but quickly masks it with a look of nonchalance and shrugs. "Ah, the Welcomers and I don't exactly have a good relationship. Just some minor stuff that happened a bit before the two of us met. I have some contacts in Phlan so I was thinking I could use this as a way to finally get the Black Fists to do something about them. Or at least maybe get the general public to hate them more. Wishful thinking, probably, but might as well try."
Auriel holds the letter in his hand, close enough that he could pass it to Hex with ease, yet he doesn’t. He tilts his head slightly, his thoughts drifting back to when she whispered something to Rathene. Once again, he wonders what she had needed to say in secrecy, and whether it has anything to do with the contacts she just mentioned. (OOC: Insight check 13)
The eladrin lingers for a few moments, weighing the letter in his hand. In the end, he hands it to her. Something tells him there’s more to her words than she lets on, but he simply says, "Must have been more than minor if you need the general public to hate them." Auriel leaves the remark hanging, not pressing for an answer—he likely hasn’t earned Hex’s trust enough to get one.
Diving deep to the surface ♫ Nessa | Saxa | Auriel | Chase | Shenua | Arren | Lyra