Erik Soong's Call of the Netherdeep

"Nivi, wait! Why don’t you believe him? Do you really think he’d try anything funny with his friends lying there with their heads blown open?"

Morgan steps in, gently but firmly taking her by the arm and placing himself between her and the cutthroat. He throws her a quick, subtle wink.

"Come with me for a moment. We need to talk."

He winks again. He tries to guiding her away, outside... somewhere the cutthroat can’t hear them.

Quote from Tybard >>

 

Anyone perceptive would notice her fingers waggle strangely and at length, in view of the bound man out of the corner of his eye.  Thieves' Cant:

"Desu, eh?  If she's in charge, it's to kill someone.  You know it and I know it.  So who?  Who does the Clasp, or maybe, the demons, want gone?  Damn fiends fight the Aurora Watch every day.  Putting one watchman in the dirt does nothing.  Put their LEADER in the dirt..."

 (OOC: I want to try to see if Frekor notices. Would I use his passive perception or a roll?)

DM: Your Passive Perception is really high. You would notice the strange signing.

Frekor:  (OOC: I want to try to see if Frekor notices. Would I use his passive perception or a roll?)

DM:  DM: Your Passive Perception is really high. You would notice the strange signing.

Definitely.  While Nivi is not being blatant about it, nor is she going to any lengths to hide the Thieves' Cant hand-talk.  It was to put the Clasp guy off guard.

Morgan:  "Nivi, wait! Why don’t you believe him? Do you really think he’d try anything funny with his friends lying there with their heads blown open?"

Morgan steps in, gently but firmly taking her by the arm and placing himself between her and the cutthroat. He throws her a quick, subtle wink.

"Come with me for a moment. We need to talk."

He winks again. He tries to guiding her away, outside... somewhere the cutthroat can’t hear them.

Nivi lets herself be guided outside, calling back in a low voice.  "Keep that gag on him, yeah?"

Once back in the corridor, she looks around and sighs.  "Might be I'm the criminal, but that wink ought to be against the law," she mutters.

Shaking her head, she continues.  "Look, Morgan."  He's the only one of the group who has actually given Nivi their name, and she uses it for the first time.  (She would go on even if others like Frekor join her, or Randa who is already outside, though she'd want someone still in the room with the captive.)

"If you haven't got it that I'm ex-Clasp by now, then you're even goofier than you look.  So.  Ex-Clasp.  Know the Cant.  The hand-talk.  Back in Tal'Dorei, used to know of that Desu he name-dropped.  Assassin.  Never missed a hit.  Best I'd heard of.  Better than me for sure," she allows.

"Not sure who thought the Clasp's best Blade would make a good Spireling.  But if she's here, it's to put someone down.  Now, don't know what the Clasp's getting out of this deal, but the demons battle the Aurora Watch every day.  Who's their highest value target for a hit in Bazzoxan?"

"Seemed obvious.  The Taskhand.  Unless you all know some other enemy of demons more valuable round here?  So I watched his face as I made the connection using the hand-talk and I saw the smirk.  Gone in a second, but it was there, sure as the shit all around us.  He's bloody looking forward to it."

Nivi looks Morgan in the eyes.  "But what did he actually tell you out loud after you asked him not to lie?"  She roughly mimics the orc's voice.  "'Our business? Pretty uninteresting stuff, really. Help them a bit and they help us...'"

"Yeah right.  'Uninteresting stuff.'  If he actually wanted to work with us?  He'd tell us about assassinating the Taskhand being the job.  Or hint at something big.  And the Imp exploding heads with a snap?  All the more reason he won't betray 'em.  They have a deal.  He'd betray US."

She sighs again.  "Makes me wonder.  Might be better to head back up and out to warn the Taskhand.  Never met the guy, but you all know him, right?  I know you met him once at least.  He trusts you?  Only, any precautions he takes might not work against Desu.  She's too good.  Got to end it down here."

"I can compel him to tell the truth," Sky says with sudden assurance, and loudly enough for all to hear.  "If he resists the spell, we know he is not to be trusted.  And the spell will not allow him to speak lies if he is still on the side of evil.  But genuine repentance should be given a chance -- with verification."  He holds the halberd blade up near the orc's face.

"But whatever we do, I'd like to move on to our next combat quickly, so I can make the most of the spells I've already cast."

Morgan shrugs, lowering his voice.
"Sometimes we have to do what we have to do. I understand that. As for their targets... I don't know. I'm sure they're targeting the clerics who make the holy water that the soldiers use to fight the demons..."

He makes a gesture to Sky, to join them as well.
"I’m goofy and even dumber but..." 

With a quick flourish, he produces a purple potion from his pocket.
"But I’m even better at playing dumb. The cutthroat offered to take us to them, right? Let him try his worst…"

He holds out the vial to Nivi.
"Potion of mind reading. Picked it up in a particularly disgusting cave a while ago. Feels like the right moment to use it. My idea? Let him think he’s outsmarting us... while we know exactly what he is preparing for us."

He offers the potion again, flashing his best easy smile. 
"What do you think?"

Nivi looks from Morgan to Sky back to Morgan.  She knows even less about potions of mind reading than she does about zones of truth.

"Bloody glad no one ever used either of those on me," she mutters.  "Do what you you need, both of you.  Be aware, though, yeah?  I told him I'd end him back there.  Kind of still think I should.  But I won't.  Just know, second you take that gag off?  He can yell out to his friends that we're coming."

OOC: We already know where they are. 

As Sky channels holy power through himself, he becomes acutely aware that there is one fiend on the other side of that door. He also notices a fiend 60ft to the west, three south and slightly west from his position, and three more beneath him. Below, as well, there is desecrated ground. The stench of evil burns his mind’s eye like fresh cut onions. Sky also can sense that Morgan’s bat is a fiend.

Jacaranda listened in as best she could catching less than half of the various conversations taking place, she was impressed by the new folks and the boys blade work though.....somewhat less so by the current state of things.

She kept her eyes focused down tunnel but in truth she was more than a little distracted by what was happening in the room.

Hopefully Ylis would fill her in on whatever decision was reached soon......

After Ylis gives her signals to the party she shakes her head and whispers, “Morgan is trying to Morgan the guy.”

She knows Randa will recall the previous episode with the blinded bandit and the consequences of such.

Quote from Wysperra >>

After Ylis gives her signals to the party she shakes her head and whispers, “Morgan is trying to Morgan the guy.”

She knows Randa will recall the previous episode with the blinded bandit and the consequences of such.

 Frekor doesn't know the "joke" soe he just raises one eyebrow in confusion.

-Well, whatever that means, I don't think whe need to take him with us. For now the area is fairly simple, we just need to clear each room we come across. I know it'll take time but we need to be throrough.- says trying to settle the matter quickly before any surprises could happen.

-Besides, he only says that he'll help us because he got beat. If we'd lost, he wouldn't change sides. Someone like him will try anything to survive long enough to find the best moment to stab us in the back, figuratively and literally.- adds in more of a nonchalant manner.

Morgan shrugs, starting to get used to Ylis' rants when people don't do things her way.

He passes by Nivi.
"It's nothing complicated, don't worry. It's not rocket magic."

He opens the potion with his teeth and spits the cork into a pocket.
"You open it, you drink it, and you wait."

He frowns for a moment.
"Or at least, that's what the instructions say..."

He winks and gulps down the vial.
"Mmm... gross."

He heads back inside the room and kneels in front of the cutthroat. He gives him a flick on the forehead without removing the gag.
"And now you tell me exactly where to find this Spireling Desu, right?"

OOC: First, he uses *Detect Thoughts* at a surface level. If that's not enough, he'll try to go deeper (WIS save DC 13, according to Potion of Mind Reading).

This silly kid actually thinks I'm going to tell him where she is? Must have mercury lining the inside of that hat. The moment I can convince them to let me out of here, I am going to give him a Syngorian necktie (translated: Columbian necktie). Alright, time to try to convince him to lead me out of here. 

The orc urgently mumbles through the gag again, trying to make it seem like he really needs to tell you something important. 

Morgan dives deeper (the orc failed the save). He can see the most direct path to take to get a message to Spireling Desu and where it leads... down below, where she was last seen overseeing some demonic ritual that the orc tries to not think about because of how unsettling it was to witness. His thoughts immediately turn to rage at having had his mind violated. His struggle against his bindings suddenly becomes more incensed and real.

You little rat! You’re dead!

DM: Below is what Morgan can see in his mind's eye.

Level 1

Level 2

Morgan shakes his head and rises to his feet.

Without a word, he raises a hand toward the wall. A faint shimmer forms as he casts Minor Illusion, recreating the map he glimpsed in the cutthroat’s mind for the others to see.

He glances at the orc one last time.
"I really tried. ‘He who makes his bed’…"

He trails off, shaking his head, then steps aside and gestures to the other.
"He’s all yours."

OOC: Morgan explains that, for the next 10 minutes or so, he can sense the presence of thinking creatures (unless they are shielded by sufficiently thick walls).

Sky waits to see if someone is going to dispatch the orc.

"Shall we get underway, then?" 

Morgan doesn't have to ask twice.  Almost before the words are out of his mouth, Nivi snaps causally as the Imp had with the the fingers of her off-hand as her rapier drives in through the orc's eye in a flash of pale green energy.

If necessary, Booming Blade with Rapier to hit restrained target with Elven Accuracy:  23
Damage:  8 (base) + 8 (sneak attack) = 16 piercing + 2 thunder from Booming Blade = 18 total

She quickly cleans her blade and unties her rope to put back in her pack.  She takes a long last look at the Minor Illusion map to fix it in her head.

"Let's go.  Same plan as before?  Tracker on the right, me on the left, scouting ahead, beeline to where Desu is?"

IF agreed, Nivi casts Blade Ward and takes the lead on the left side, Shiv on her shoulder, scouting along the most direct path shown by the map.

Nivi's Stealth:  28
Nivi's Perception at disadvantage with 60' darkvision ahead into the darkness past Ylis' light:  17
Shiv's Perception at disadvantage with 120' darkvision ahead into the darkness past Ylis' light:  16

Ylis nods at the change in direction and the plan is still the same. Inspect the side passages to see if they are clear then continue down the hall. 

OOC: Going to presume the marching order is the same.

Jacaranda nods to herself as things go as she suspected they would then takes up position on the right hand side in the middle of the trio.

Stealth- 21

Perception- 20

Nivi jams her rapier into the eye of the orc, who until his final moment, glares defiantly at her. His good eye rolls back into his head and he stills.

As the Ylis leaves the room to join Randa and check the tunnels for the all clear, the five bodies begin to spasm and change.

Muscles swell, tissue rearranges, bones snap and reform, all in a squelching discordant orchestra of bodies changing. In moments, the party is surrounded by what appears to be demons. Their eyes are immediately drawn to the mortal flesh before them.

DM: Roll Initiative.

Morgan's initiative: 15 (with advantage from Tides of Chaos)