"What?! They-... They got Laz?" Elery clutches her chest, and is deeply shocked by the announcement. Seeing the party's reaction makes her even more surprised, but she shakes her head and tries to rationalize it. "We can't allow him to stay there... I don't think we should even consider a frontal assault, at our current situation... Maybe sneaking in, but then again, I personally don't have that much potential on me to realize a feat such as that..."

"Didn't the cat man say he was good at that kind of thing?" Neona says gesturing toward Khinssra. Luna whines and Neona pats her snout gently.

So I see your options to get to Lazarus as:
- Attack the manor head on
- Attempt to sneak into the manor and find him
- Scout the manor and try find his location before making a move
- Something else not listed that I didn’t think of

The first three will be contest rolls to tell us what happens. I’ll lay out whichever you choose and will call out the primary roller (highest ability/skill modifier).

What do you guys do?

"I could trry to sneak in and learrn his location and trry to brreak him out yes... " says the tabaxi " But this kind of mission is rrisky and if I get caught we should have a second plan to get us frree. Ourr little rrebellion hasn't enough fighterrs to allow us to lose two of them." 

(I initially thought that the double Rs were an accident, and noticing that it was purposefully making a "cat accent" made me laugh. Also, I just noticed that Khinsrra name also has a double R, although I don't think that was intentional?)

"Right! A plan, we need a plan..." Elery ponders for a few minutes, holding her head in worried thought, as she's desperate to find a way to get Lazarus out the quickest way possible. "I'm actually not that good with plans, that doesn't mean I'm bad at it neither, but... Oh, I know! If we have a way to track Khinsrra, a second attempt at sneaking in would be a lot easier, and more likely to succeed. If I remember well, Tristan wasn't that bad at sneaking himself, was he?"

(I'm back to using bolded because the light blue might make it harder to read against the white background, and bolding it is a sure way to mitigate it.)

Tristan

"I doubt I'm as good as our friend here but I've been known to sneak around from time to time,  I don't like the idea of sending anyone into that place alone.  I wonder if we could convince a few guards to lend us their uniforms to make things a bit easier." Tristan muses " I'd also like to get a look at this witch, and see if she could be an ally, I have a feeling about her"

OOC: have we seen enough guards to think using their uniforms would be viable to help sneak around?  I mean are their enough of them that they wouldn't all know each other by sight, and are any of them tabaxi?

"Forr what I saw " says Khinsrra to Tristan " she doesn't seem as a potential ally. She sharres her bed with Blackwood..." 

( Yeah that was totally intentional... both the double rr for that 'cat accent' and in his name... glad you like it ;) ) 

"I too agree that the witch is not someone we should trust... Convincing guards also seem like a hard task, most of them are loyal, dedicated members of Lord Blackwood's own army, and you still need to remember that among this town, we're all wanted, they think we are criminals." Elery responds looking disappointed in the situation, but she soon goes out of it. "But we can't just give up hope... I do think it's difficult to find a group of non-loyal guards, but the chance is there, so we could try."

"As much as I hate all of this waiting and watching others suffer..." Neona says, a grim look on her face, "attacking the manor head on seems ill advised at this juncture. We should sneak in and try to rescue him. If Elery thinks the guards won't be persuaded with words..." Neona smirks a little bit, "there's more than one way to skin a..." she looks Khinsrra over, "er... to 'encourage' compliance."

Tristan

"perhaps I wasn't clear, I wasn't speaking of convincing the guards with words, I was speaking of "convincing" the guards with actions and leaving their bodies someplace they wouldn't be found too quickly, as for the witch, I still think that could be a lead, many a powerful man has forced a woman to unwillingly share his  bed."

The tabaxi smile is confident

"If any guarrd is able to see me... I am confident I could take him beforre he could shout the alarrm. I must advice haste in this matterr... the morre time ourr ally is held captive, higherr the cnaches that they torrturre him in orrder to obtain ourr location..." 

(Sorry guys. Got sick last few days.)

There are quite a few guards at the manor, but if they saw different faces, they’d get suspicious. Done right, though, it could improve chances to slip into the manor unnoticed.

So, everyone agrees that attacking head on is a bad idea. Stealth seems to be the preferred method.

I can’t seem to open all the characters at the moment to check, but I’m pretty confident that Khinsrra has the best stealth score. So, he’ll be the primary roller here.

Roll for stealth, +2 for attempting to use guard uniforms. You will be working together, I assume. To me, this includes other members of the party creating distractions or attempting to go with Khinsrra. So, the roll will be made with advantage.

The DC is 15. If you pass, you make it into the cellar with Lazarus undetected. If you fail, you’ll be detected and the guards will attempt to arrest you.

( Ok... let's do this! Lazarus, hold on buddy! here we come!! )

Stealth: 11 

Edit: HAHAHAHA Typical.

Neona is sure this is her fault somehow but is smiling on the inside because she really wants to kick some Blackwood butt.

Everyone but Lazarus:

You pick your time and head for the Manor. Seva tells you she plans to keep a few friends at a safe distance from the manor should you need them.

At first, all’s well. You’re able to enter the grounds without issue. Moving past the patrols and sentries is easy enough. It’s when you try to subdue two guards on patrol to take their uniforms you run into issues.

You are not able to knock them out and they bolt for the main house crying, “To arms!” In response, four guards pour out of the manor garden entrance and sprint toward you.

What do you do?

Lazarus:

Cassia stops and listens. You both hear the cry for arms. She swears under her breath.

She shakes her head. “How could he know I was down here!? I was careful! You might be on your own, stranger. I’m sorry.”

What do you do?

(is it safe to assume my natural 1 caused me to fail to read the parchment?)

(what am i tied to the chair with? rope?)

Lazarus will try to break free of the bonds.

(let me know if i need to roll a strength check or something.)

Neona's first instinct is to charge in to kill one of the guards, but she thinks the better of it and swings up onto the saddle on Luna's back.

"This might be an opportunity in disguise, the bulk of us could try to hold the guards while a smaller team splinters off to retrieve your missing friend. Let's find a better position to hold our ground, if only for a moment, to buy some time."

She looks around to see if there is a likely spot.

Lazarus:

My god. I forgot about your roll to read it. Yes you, can read part of it. The parchment is wrapped around and old leather scroll. The parchment is in common. Scrawled on it are notes on deciphering the leather scroll.

The leather scroll is in Draconic, but even if you speak the language, you won’t know what it says. They’re magical in nature and require some kind of deciphering.

Cassia had cut your bonds and slapped a knife in your hands.

What are you doing?

Lazarus will leave the room, and try to find the exit to where ever he is kept.

Tristan

Tristan will look around to see if any more guards appear to be coming,  and for a quick way out.

Perception:15

If we're not in initiative yet and I can do something else.

In a loud voice He'll say "Three minutes 23 seconds, not bad but you boys will have to do better if you're to protect the Lord,   We will try again in the future, keep your guard up, Dangerous people around."

Deception 7

I know it's a long shot but why not?