Dies the Fire

With advantage on stealth: 24 (thank you its hard to be a giant red headed man hiding)

Quote from GKnightBC >>

"Shall we open the gates?" Thomas asks from his unseen state.

OOC - How is the opening mechanism operated? Can I open it with the invisible Mage Hand?

 The gate mechanism has two guards and is a big wheel, so no Mage Hand. Combat will be as normal.

Max will sneak as well 14 The infiltration people have closed undetected on the gate guards. You get a surprise round to see if you can take them out before they raise the alarm.

Max

Osso

Sarah

Thomas

Initiative: 3

On Osso's turn he would gently put the book he has been reading in his bag, lay his glasses down somewhere he thinks they won't get broke, and lower his head willing himself into a rage.  Osso then charges the closest guard with spittle dripping from his lip and a mad smile on his face.  

Attack: Attack: 14 Damage: 13

Sarah raises her bow and fires, willing that the guards go down with little fuss.

Attack: 19 Damage: 7

Initiative: 20

Max

Initiative 11

Attack 21 Damage 6

He holds his action and if anyone is still standing then action surge for another attack

Thomas sneaks over to the gate wheel and, while the others are engaged in the combat, sees if it can be started moving open without breaking his invisibility. If it can, he will start to open the gate, fast if it is noisy or slower if it is silent. The important part is that he doesn't lose his invisibility while he does this. Once it's open, he will jam it for later destruction. If not, he will attack one of the guards from behind. Gamliel, ever helpful, will swoop down to distract one of the guards to give advantage to Sarah's attacks.

Attack: 23 Damage: 11

Stealth after attack to slip into the darkness for his next strike. 23

 OOC- Sorry, forgot init. 17

Surprise

18 Sarah sneak shoots a guard for 7 damage
17 Thomas attacks and kills Sarah's target
4 Max as Sarah's target is dead Gamliel helps Max, who missed, 9 - still missed
3 Osso hits for 13

Max takes his held action 7 and misses again

Guard Initiative 2

Everyone goes again before the Guard acts. Lets call him dead

Sarah breathed a sigh of relief when the guards fell without calling out an alert.

"Otto, Max, see if you can get the gates open.  Then do your best to make sure it can't be used to close them again.  With that done... we should consider destroying the heliograph.  It would take us from the battle to take the castle but it could stop a bid for reinforcements.  Perhaps our animal friends might be able to tell us how well it's guarded.  The elevation might give us a good vantage to shoot from during the battle, too."

Aleister quietly chomps at the bit, thinking I do hope this doesn't end up like a bunch of toilet nuggets flowing across my breakfast.

Thomas helps Max open the gate quickly, then destroys the mechanism with his help in such a way that it can't easily be repaired. 

OOC not sure what check to use for this one. He has thieve's tools prof, so that may help. 

Jam gate gears - 5

After the gate is dealt with, he says to Sarah "I can send Gamliel up there to check it out. If there's a fire there, we'll need to put it out and then destroy the helio. We should clear a tower with George's group, and get to it. "

As the gates open, George rises from his belly and into a crouch, 'Move - secure the gate, jam the gears and hold the portal at all cost.' his voice pitched low to be heard but not carry.

The Mayor's Own move as one, the fluid dance of an elite team of killers.  Half move to the front of the gate, shields up and blades out - the other half keep their bows strung, arrows at the ready and drift into position to shoot over the shield wall. 

Osso gathers his glasses and wills himself to calm down.   He waits for his next task to be told to him.

The troops (how many?) are in the castle and the gate mechanism has been jammed.

Now to make this simple for me ;-) we'll split the invading troops into squads to clear the castle. One to the barracks for the off duty troops. One to clear the walls and disable the heliograph and one to deal with the officers and noncoms (the most dangerous people here). Pick one for your group and the other two goes to your troops.

100 Troops led by the Marines in the Vanguard.

Seems to me we should tackle the officers and NCO's ourselves.  We can send The Mayors Own to tackle the Heliograph and walls while the Marine led troops take down the Barracks.

Sounds good.  The Heliograph can be put out immediately with Prestidigitation] before being destroyed.

Yes, the PCs will take on the Officers is a great plan. Thomas will recast Invisibility on himself in preparation, and have Gamliel do fly over to find the likely leaders. Are we keeping them alive?

The room marked 'Household Apartments' is the officer and noncom barracks. There's a sentry outside the door. Also note that there are stairs up to a tower at the back, there are a couple of troopers up there.

Sarah and the others begin to sneak into the house hold apartments, taking care to help each other, ready to take out the guards.

Stealth 15

Perception 23

Surprise Attack: 20 Damage: 9

Initiative: 19

OOC:  Re: are we keeping them alive.  Tie up until we win the battle and then interrogate before deciding.  PPA makes my skin crawl but...