[Nub is definitely happy with that if Nate is OK with the risk (I believe it was initially Nub's "very bad and dangerous plan" to begin with), he just didn't want Nate to be risking facing whatever is under the trapdoor by himself. The theme song The Trap Door kid's TV show comes to mind.]
So the plan now is to sneak into the strong room and investigate the trapdoor, I think?
The main outstanding questions are:
Do it now (afternoon, before sunset) or after dark? Do it before or after meeting the alleged thief? What's the distraction that allows the sneakier folk to get into the strong room? Who's going into the strong room? Jamna? Nate? Others?
1. After dark, but well before midnight
2. Before. I feel we should resolve this IF Nate gets back in time.
3. Nate will likely have to jump on Soar just like the first time so Soar can distract the guards, talk to them or something, so Arachnate can jump off her.
4. Just Nate
Nate grabs something from Soar so she can track him. "Ok... let's do this. But I really think we should meet this thief after... depending on what we find of course."
"Yes, that should work. I'll say I got cold feet. Even if they don't like it, I should get close enough to the door that Nate can get there. It's usually ajar anyways so there's nothing preventing Nate from just going through. Nate, if something goes wrong, you can turn back and shift again and get out."
(OOC: Spiders' speed is 20 ft per round, so even if it doesn't dash, his spider form could get there solo without Soar. She could even just pause nearby and chat with Jalt near the entrance to the outer warehouse while ArachNate jumps off, if that's necessary.)
"Now, my teachers always said to imagine the things that could obviously go wrong when making a plan. If Nate encounters the things that hiss under there, he can shift back to spider form and escape on the ceiling, or just hide until they pass. Same for if Bog or the cultists get suspicious and go look. I should be able to track you through almost anything. So I'm not seeing many risks. What am I missing?"
(Is that a good reading of the locate object spell? Unless he's hiding behind lead, Soar should be able to track him up to 1000 feet away? She's been practicing recently.)
Soar will also reach out to her elk steed and flag that they might be headed into the mere, and not to stray too far.
[I don't want to be a party-pooper, and it is just probably Nub being overly cautious, but he thought it was too risky to ask someone else to do. That said, Nate seems ok with it, so Nub would defer to Nate's judgement
I'll go through what I think the outcomes could be (including what I see as the problems/risks) OOC:
1. I'm guessing when Nate is shifted Soar wouldn't be able to track the item - I could be wrong, but I believe items shift into his form.
That means that unless Nate drops the item and turns into a creature that can pick it up after he is shifted, Soar would only be able to track him when he is not shifted.
2. I believe Nate said he can shift twice. That means he either shifts to spider (shift 1), gets into the locked room and unshifts to move crates and open the trapdoor then goes through the trapdoor in human form and stays like that OR opens the trapdoor, drops the item being tracked and shifts into a creature that is better at stealthing but which can also carry the item (shift 2).
3. With either 0 or 1 shift left, he then moves along until finding the exit or the 12 Tarrasques having a party down there (or the giant snake/basilisk/lizardman/whatever that made the hissing sound).
If it is the exit, all has gone well and we win Trapdoor TM.
If it is a foe, he may be able to defeat it/them and move to the exit (yay, win), get killed (boo, loss) or hide from it (draw) and stealth past (yay, win) or go back to the trapdoor.
4. If he reaches a dead end instead OR comes across something he cannot deal with or sneak past, and he then manages to get back to the trapdoor undetected he either: has 0 shifts left and needs to drop his second shift form to open and/or close the trapdoor and shift the crates back and then is stuck in the room in human form (boo, loss); or he has 1 shift left and can escape the room again (yay, small win).
5. Lead is this spell's Kryptonite and Nate won't know if we are successfully tracking him.
Again, if Nate is comfortable with this, that is not an issue. It was just Nub went through in his head and identified the above and thought the risk to reward ratio meant it was not something he was going to try and convince someone else to do solo. Nub tries to explain the risks he can see, though his very low charisma might mean that he is not very convincing.]
Yeah agree that Soar can't track the item when shifted.
I was thinking:
shift to spider to get in and to the trap door
shift to human form to move boxes and open door, walk into passageway to the end, and with locate object working, tracked by party looking for exit point, leaving the passageway at the end
shift back to spider or other creature small enough to get under door, should he see something he doesn't want to tangle with or be seen by, and then either hide/crawl to the other exit point, or crawl along ceiling back to still-open trap door to return
Shifting to spider/other creature a second time would tell Soar that something went wrong and to either look around for exit point or return to roadhouse for support.
If it's just a room and not a passageway, either he's alone and finds what's in there, or there's someone/something in there and he can shift right back to spider and escape. Though I suspect it's not a dead-end room, and more of a passage or tunnel or something.
All very good points Nub! This seems small-bore but it's a big decision point in the story and we tend to be deliberate adventurers.
Soar hands over her signal whistle from her adventuring gear pack, which should work for Nub's concerns, and potentially be helpful in case we're trying to find each other in the dark in the mere.
You wait. It's an hour after sunset. Most of the inhabitants of the Roadhouse are in the kitchens, eating their evening meal, but you are not joining them tonight.
Nate wildshapes into a small spider, same as before, and leaves the room. He climbs down to the ground floor, and crosses the yard. The guard is on duty, bored and staring off into nothing; he has no reason even to think of a spider as an threat, so there's no stealth roll to make. Nate enters the warehouse, and then the strong room. There doesn't appear to be anyone here.
Nate, I assume you're reverting to human form? Please confirm, and also make a Perception check.
This post has potentially manipulated dice roll results.
Yes, since Nate was able to creep into the warehouse and strong room without any help from Soar, he'd then morph back into Nate form.
I'm really sorry, just unclear on the object. Was it the whistle that Soar gave before Nate left, or is it a flute which is in this strong room that Nate needs to now find?
Ok, it's the whistle, since I totally overlooked this new problem. So Nate has the whistle on him right now.
Ok... Arachnate must have a good-ish idea of where the door is, and must've been like right beside it when Nate morphed back. Would you allow some type of check that would have Nate try and fumble around with the crate that is on the trap door, move it, and then open the door, all while just using his sense of touch and then likely at least a little getting used to the dark?
If not, Nate will light up a torch, for a moment or two, to see exactly where the trap door is, then snuf it and try the above process again. He will retry and keep the torch lit longer each time until he's able to figure out how to open the trapdoor.
Sorry, he wouldn't light an entire torch. He'd rip a piece of cloth off his robe, or somewhere, and light it. And keep it lit while he moves the crate, opens the door.
Nate would remember well enough where the trapdoor is that he could find it without too much trouble.
You find the trapdoor with the crate on top of it. You try to move it, but you can't for some reason. You push, and it moves slightly, but in a strange way. It takes a moment, but you realise that the crate has been nailed to the trapdoor, and will lift when it opens. You lift it, and get the sense in the darkness that there is now a hole before you. You smell the intrusion of air from below. You can't see though.
Are you going to light a torch at this point? The improvised cloth thing you described above would be quite difficult, I think.
Yes, since there is no light coming from the hole and seemingly no sounds (right?) Nate will light that torch to take a look at what is down there, if there is a ladder, what he sees etc. Can he hear anything from the hole?
There are stone steps leading down; rather makeshift ones, and clearly leading into a tunnel rather than a room. No, he can't hear anything coming from the hole.
Ok, Nate will head down a few steps, then shut the trap door behind him. He'd have to put the torch down on one of the steps if need be to shut the trap door. He will then continue down the stairs and into the tunnel, with the torch lit, now scared shitless and wondering why the hell he agreed to this.
Nate, you enter the tunnel and start to walk down it, torch lit. It's damp, it's a little chilly, and it's headed west and under the Mere. You see lots of fungus growing on the tunnel walls, and hear the occasional drip of water. How long are you going to continue?
Nate looks at the whistle. hope you are tracking me
Nate will continue down the tunnel, basically until he sees anything of interest, and/or until it ends. He will be on edge, constantly checking behind him and trying to get a sense of any potential threats as he slowly continues, torch in hand. He'd cast pass without trace at this moment as well as he continues.
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[Nub is definitely happy with that if Nate is OK with the risk (I believe it was initially Nub's "very bad and dangerous plan" to begin with), he just didn't want Nate to be risking facing whatever is under the trapdoor by himself. The theme song The Trap Door kid's TV show comes to mind.]
1. After dark, but well before midnight
2. Before. I feel we should resolve this IF Nate gets back in time.
3. Nate will likely have to jump on Soar just like the first time so Soar can distract the guards, talk to them or something, so Arachnate can jump off her.
4. Just Nate
Nate grabs something from Soar so she can track him. "Ok... let's do this. But I really think we should meet this thief after... depending on what we find of course."
Nate is ready.
[Given Nate seems to be ok with the risk, then it seems like we have most of the plan sorted.]
Nub suggests "Maybe it is time that Soar asks to retrieve her item?"
"Yes, that should work. I'll say I got cold feet. Even if they don't like it, I should get close enough to the door that Nate can get there. It's usually ajar anyways so there's nothing preventing Nate from just going through. Nate, if something goes wrong, you can turn back and shift again and get out."
(OOC: Spiders' speed is 20 ft per round, so even if it doesn't dash, his spider form could get there solo without Soar. She could even just pause nearby and chat with Jalt near the entrance to the outer warehouse while ArachNate jumps off, if that's necessary.)
"Now, my teachers always said to imagine the things that could obviously go wrong when making a plan. If Nate encounters the things that hiss under there, he can shift back to spider form and escape on the ceiling, or just hide until they pass. Same for if Bog or the cultists get suspicious and go look. I should be able to track you through almost anything. So I'm not seeing many risks. What am I missing?"
(Is that a good reading of the locate object spell? Unless he's hiding behind lead, Soar should be able to track him up to 1000 feet away? She's been practicing recently.)
Soar will also reach out to her elk steed and flag that they might be headed into the mere, and not to stray too far.
[I don't want to be a party-pooper, and it is just probably Nub being overly cautious, but he thought it was too risky to ask someone else to do. That said, Nate seems ok with it, so Nub would defer to Nate's judgement
I'll go through what I think the outcomes could be (including what I see as the problems/risks) OOC:
1. I'm guessing when Nate is shifted Soar wouldn't be able to track the item - I could be wrong, but I believe items shift into his form.
That means that unless Nate drops the item and turns into a creature that can pick it up after he is shifted, Soar would only be able to track him when he is not shifted.
2. I believe Nate said he can shift twice. That means he either shifts to spider (shift 1), gets into the locked room and unshifts to move crates and open the trapdoor then goes through the trapdoor in human form and stays like that OR opens the trapdoor, drops the item being tracked and shifts into a creature that is better at stealthing but which can also carry the item (shift 2).
3. With either 0 or 1 shift left, he then moves along until finding the exit or the 12 Tarrasques having a party down there (or the giant snake/basilisk/lizardman/whatever that made the hissing sound).
If it is the exit, all has gone well and we win Trapdoor TM.
If it is a foe, he may be able to defeat it/them and move to the exit (yay, win), get killed (boo, loss) or hide from it (draw) and stealth past (yay, win) or go back to the trapdoor.
4. If he reaches a dead end instead OR comes across something he cannot deal with or sneak past, and he then manages to get back to the trapdoor undetected he either: has 0 shifts left and needs to drop his second shift form to open and/or close the trapdoor and shift the crates back and then is stuck in the room in human form (boo, loss); or he has 1 shift left and can escape the room again (yay, small win).
5. Lead is this spell's Kryptonite and Nate won't know if we are successfully tracking him.
Again, if Nate is comfortable with this, that is not an issue. It was just Nub went through in his head and identified the above and thought the risk to reward ratio meant it was not something he was going to try and convince someone else to do solo. Nub tries to explain the risks he can see, though his very low charisma might mean that he is not very convincing.]
Yeah agree that Soar can't track the item when shifted.
I was thinking:
Shifting to spider/other creature a second time would tell Soar that something went wrong and to either look around for exit point or return to roadhouse for support.
If it's just a room and not a passageway, either he's alone and finds what's in there, or there's someone/something in there and he can shift right back to spider and escape. Though I suspect it's not a dead-end room, and more of a passage or tunnel or something.
All very good points Nub! This seems small-bore but it's a big decision point in the story and we tend to be deliberate adventurers.
Soar hands over her signal whistle from her adventuring gear pack, which should work for Nub's concerns, and potentially be helpful in case we're trying to find each other in the dark in the mere.
[As a player I really want to find out, so if Nate is on board, we are good to go.
I also don't have to worry about my little-goody-two-shoes Tortle feeling bad, because he voiced his concerns.]
Waiting for Nate to confirm, then we'll shift forward in time to just after sunset, and get going. :)
Nate is ready! He’s likely over confident with this but yep he’s onside. just to confirm, soars object is a flute and it’s in the strong room, right?
You wait. It's an hour after sunset. Most of the inhabitants of the Roadhouse are in the kitchens, eating their evening meal, but you are not joining them tonight.
Nate wildshapes into a small spider, same as before, and leaves the room. He climbs down to the ground floor, and crosses the yard. The guard is on duty, bored and staring off into nothing; he has no reason even to think of a spider as an threat, so there's no stealth roll to make. Nate enters the warehouse, and then the strong room. There doesn't appear to be anyone here.
Nate, I assume you're reverting to human form? Please confirm, and also make a Perception check.
Yes, since Nate was able to creep into the warehouse and strong room without any help from Soar, he'd then morph back into Nate form.
I'm really sorry, just unclear on the object. Was it the whistle that Soar gave before Nate left, or is it a flute which is in this strong room that Nate needs to now find?
Perception 11
It's up to you if it's the flulte or the whistle.
Nate reverts back to human form and this room is pitch black. What are you doing for light?
Ok, it's the whistle, since I totally overlooked this new problem. So Nate has the whistle on him right now.
Ok... Arachnate must have a good-ish idea of where the door is, and must've been like right beside it when Nate morphed back. Would you allow some type of check that would have Nate try and fumble around with the crate that is on the trap door, move it, and then open the door, all while just using his sense of touch and then likely at least a little getting used to the dark?
If not, Nate will light up a torch, for a moment or two, to see exactly where the trap door is, then snuf it and try the above process again. He will retry and keep the torch lit longer each time until he's able to figure out how to open the trapdoor.
Sorry, he wouldn't light an entire torch. He'd rip a piece of cloth off his robe, or somewhere, and light it. And keep it lit while he moves the crate, opens the door.
Nate would remember well enough where the trapdoor is that he could find it without too much trouble.
You find the trapdoor with the crate on top of it. You try to move it, but you can't for some reason. You push, and it moves slightly, but in a strange way. It takes a moment, but you realise that the crate has been nailed to the trapdoor, and will lift when it opens. You lift it, and get the sense in the darkness that there is now a hole before you. You smell the intrusion of air from below. You can't see though.
Are you going to light a torch at this point? The improvised cloth thing you described above would be quite difficult, I think.
OK great.
Yes, since there is no light coming from the hole and seemingly no sounds (right?) Nate will light that torch to take a look at what is down there, if there is a ladder, what he sees etc. Can he hear anything from the hole?
There are stone steps leading down; rather makeshift ones, and clearly leading into a tunnel rather than a room. No, he can't hear anything coming from the hole.
Ok, Nate will head down a few steps, then shut the trap door behind him. He'd have to put the torch down on one of the steps if need be to shut the trap door. He will then continue down the stairs and into the tunnel, with the torch lit, now scared shitless and wondering why the hell he agreed to this.
Nate, you enter the tunnel and start to walk down it, torch lit. It's damp, it's a little chilly, and it's headed west and under the Mere. You see lots of fungus growing on the tunnel walls, and hear the occasional drip of water. How long are you going to continue?
Nate looks at the whistle. hope you are tracking me
Nate will continue down the tunnel, basically until he sees anything of interest, and/or until it ends. He will be on edge, constantly checking behind him and trying to get a sense of any potential threats as he slowly continues, torch in hand. He'd cast pass without trace at this moment as well as he continues.