The Summit Road Campaign Thread

The information contains the following:

• 8925 is in the elan quarters of the Dar. A secret entrance is detailed on a floor map of the central fortress.
• Guard rotations are carefully notated.
• The best routes in and out of the Dar have been specified, as well as the areas heaviest or lightest on guards.
• A picture of 8925:

Vishal spent the trip doing his usual, keeping everyone's mood up with performance and silly antics. The entire time laughing and trying to get the others to laugh along with him. Every night he would do his training though, adding his Mentor's new regiment in, training his movements until they became second nature. Once the information has been retrieved Vishal turns to  everyone and says, "Alright. Let's make a rock hard plan for this." 

Druhdaar nods at Taran.

" That's your cue, kid. " the big druid says gruffly, but his eyes are warm and encouraging. " You go ahead. I got yer back. "

"M-Me?" Taran asks surprised, "I-I, well, um, th-there is-isn't m-m-much I c-can add... Th-The other t-t-team h-has m-m-mapped our r-r-route to the ad-administrative area. W-We c-c-can st-still use our g-g-guard uniforms, m-myself as an Air s-soldier, V-Vishal an-and you as F-Fire soldiers, R-River as a St-stone soldier and C-Caelius as a W-Water s-s-soldier." Taran looks back down at the notes, confirming, "Th-They s-s-say the b-b-best time to in-infiltrate is s-s-supper. S-So w-w-we plan to arrive at the ad-administrative are th-then. L-Looking f-f-for someone to t-t-talk to about p-p-paperwork, if th-they g-g-get suspicious. S-Something n-not qu-quite pr-proper, but un-understandable. L-L-Like l-l-leave t-t-to v-v-visit a d-d-dying m-mentor? Th-Then w-w-we g-g-get inside... f-f-find her, and, um, well, it w-w-would be s-s-safest to silence her, b-b-bind and g-g-gag her and k-kidnap her fr-from the c-city. W-We can us-use some of th-these other p-paths out and o-once w-w-we are out of the c-c-city we sh-should be s-s-safe as l-long as w-w-we silence h-her b-before d-dinner and c-c-can keep ahead of pursuit..."

"D-Does th-that s-s-sound l-like wh-what you were th-thinking, V-Vishal?" Taran asks looking over at the Kalashtar

“The hardest part is going to be getting her out of the City without others noticing. Waking around with a gagged individual isn’t exactly safe. Plus I’m unsure exactly how my own Quori will react to this. As you’ve seen I could have negative effects and well.....when me and Quori are on the same side and share a passion for something well....the results are explosive. The only thing I can think of to get her out bound and gagged safely is accusing her of being against the Inspired. Of being a rebel. We can even have the proof right here if need be.” Vishal replies 

Druhdaar shakes his boulder-sized head, some of his remaining dreadlocks thrashing the air around the shaved sides of his pate as he huffs:

" Won't do. What if they decide to take her away from us then ? Too risky. "

He seems to ponder for a moment before muttering to himself:

" Best whack her over the head and pretend to be taking her to the infirmary or sumthin... That way, no questions, no fuss. "

“It’s the same risk if we’re taking her to the infirmary. They may still want to take her from us. When we were gathering information on the last mission most common people thought I was testing them for loyalty. We can use that. They won’t question if this person is disloyal because it makes them look disloyal too.”

The druid shrugs. " Suit yourselves, but if anything gets outta hand don't count on me to run. " He squares himself and frowns. " Damn tired of run-and-hide, is what. "

“Druhdaar. You can’t take a whole city by yourself. If things go south we’re running. In fact I’m counting on you to turn into a horse or something equally as fast. Carry the Elan and Kaori out. The rest of us can run and hide and sneak out.” Vishal replies with a smile as he says, “If we get caught you have the best chance of getting away quickly with your shapeshifting. In fact you’re probably the best person to see things to the end if everything goes south.“

"Why me? ... I can...fight...now." Kaori seems genuinely confused.

“Because it’s not about fighting. It’s about being sneaky which is hard to do in your armor now. And since you can fight better now Druhdaar I’m sure would greatly appreciate your assistance in case it’s just you two and Elan and something goes wrong.” Vishal answers 

Kaori looks over at Druhdaar, still a bit apprehensive even after their mindscape conversation. She coos softly.

Druhdaar looks like he's about to stare Kaori down... but instead the loner druid gives the small kenku a wink and - for the first time since she's known him - a roguish, sly smile.

" You and me, Bird : let's give them so-called Inspired something to get inspired  about, whatcha say ? "

 Taran puts a comforting hand on River's shoulder, "I-It wi-will be okay, Miss Kaori." he says, "I-If anything too b-b-bad happens, y-you can just fly away. Y-You w-w-wouldn't e-even need to r-r-ride on Mister Dr-Druhdaar's back."

She squawks in confusion but nods.

“Alrighty. Sounds like we got a good escape plan. Let’s go and do this.” Vishal replies with a grin deciding to give Druhdaar a classic butt slap as it’s been far too long and the grumpy Druid is for once not being so grumpy. 

River goes to Vishal's side, nuzzling her cold helmet under his hand.

Vishal notices and says, “Oh....I....can you remove your helmet? Then I can give you head pats.” He replies as he attempts to give River head pats but the helmet gets in the way. 

She quickly unstraps her helmet and takes it off.

Smiling Vishal happily gives River as many head pats as he can while her helmet is off.