Jalt, you sit a moment as your visitor gets comfortable.  Got a friend who lost his way, says the small creature as it takes the jerky.  It's now close enough that you can see it's a kobold.  Now he finds himself up there, and I've no idea how to get him out.  I won't pretend to join up, and I won't leave him, so here I am.  So what's your story?

Elspeth, please make a Stealth check as a spider.  Also, what are you doing at the moment?

Insight to see if he's telling the truth: 17

Jalt, you hear the strain and worry in the kobold's voice, and suspect he is telling the truth.

Well Jalt looks to the kobold. I have three friends up there. And right now I'm not even sure if they're ok, if they're even alive. He pauses for a second. That group of mercenaries attacked a town where we were. He looks to the kobold. Was your friend a part of that?

Stealth check: 14

Elspeth is doing her best to stay hidden on Soar's shoulder, doing her best to keep herself hidden without impacting her field of view. She's listening intently to all conversations currently happening between Soar, Breena, and the raiders, but she hasn't seen anything yet that she feels needs to be investigated further.

((I'm assuming that as a spider Elspeth can't do much except for listening in as a spider, and I don't want to move too far away from the group. If Elspeth wanted to look around, could I make a perception check or is she too small to see far?))

Perception on the second group: 14

Soar will find a perch near the road that's close enough to the campfire that she might still be able to hear things, and bend down on one knee to rustle through her pack, muttering quietly at some of its contents, with small gestures to Breena, with a few more-audible curses thrown in. Just trying to seem like a grumpy cultist who's lost some of their things in the dark and taking a load off. What she's really doing is listening in to the conversations around the campfire. This lasts, with reaffirming looks to Breena, for less than a minute, and then she'll nod and start off again, to try to get closer to the main camp. The mercenaries are interesting, and it's good to know their numbers and general state, but the mission is to find out more about why the cult is attacking and what their plans are, so she'll focus more on that.

Jalt, the kobold replies softly.  I think he was.  I don't know what they tell them.  Kotto used to listen to me, he was a good person.  Then he started listening to these... people with their talk of dragons, and then one day he was just gone.  I'm sorry your town got attacked.  I pray that Kotto hasn't... no, I won't believe that.  He sighs.  There are dozens, maybe hundreds of them.  I can't think of any way to help.

Elspeth, as a spider your options are limited, but you can still hear pretty well and see with darkvision up to 30 feet.  You would most likely be able to enter unnoticed anywhere that Soar and Breena judged too dangerous.  You can absolutely make a perception check to see something that doesn't involve looking more than 30 feet away in the darkness.

Soar, you don't manage to hear anything much.  There's some snoring from the nearest tent, with its flap closed.  No-one pays attention to you as you fiddle with your pack.

With your perception, you can see no-one really sitting around except at the campfire, where there are three distinct groups.  One group of four is sitting, rather glumly, on the ground and playing dice or cards; this group unusually has two women and two men, all human; you've noticed that most of the mercenaries you've seen so far are men.  Another group of three - an elf, a half-elf and a tiefling, are sitting and talking as they are checking over their weapons.  A third group is made up of two people only, a dwarf and a human, both male, who appear to be extremely drunk; occasionally you hear a snatch of a song.

You would estimate that there are around thirty tents here, with about sixty mercenaries.

Soar and Breena start to move closer to the campfire.  Will you approach one of the groups, or do something else?

And your name friend? I am Rhogar of Clan Jalt. He slowly extends his hand to the kobold. I know that you don't wish to join them but I think you'd be able to walk into that camp and move freely if you were to pretend too. You could try to find and talk to your friend, maybe find my friends. Jalt leans in a little closer.  Bahamut as my witness, we could help each other brother. 

Soar is afraid that the efficient-looking elves and half-elves might notice her better if she gets close enough for her features to be seen in the dark, so she approaches the first group at the campfire, kneeling down with a tired-sounding grunt and warming her palms as she looks into the fire. She looks over at the four, and nods perfunctorily. "Long week, and boy am I tired. Hope you had more luck than we did in town. We missed the better part of a day, straggling late with a group of kobolds if you can believe it. What have I missed? Anything interesting?" and she'll nod over to the main camp. "They say what the plans are next? Being uninformed makes me nervous."

She'll wait for an answer, and if they're gruff back, she'll just nod again, stand up with a grunt, and move along to the main camp. If they are helpful, she'll smile in thanks, and flip a few coins at them with a nod, before standing up and moving along to the main camp. If asked, she'll say her name is Rhoare.

She'll be looking for a good place to stop and look unobtrusive near an official-looking tent so that Spiderspeth can go scout.

Assuming Elspeth can see everything Soar is able to see by the fire, once Soar finds a shadow somewhere she is going to climb down and towards the half-elf, elf and tiefling in an indirect manner - sticking to the shadows where she's able, and will try to find a small nook covered in shadows where she wouldn't be easy to spot while still being within earshot. 

Otherwise, she's going to crawl, once again, sticking to the shadows, towards the tents near the center of the camp and attempt to enter the first tent she reaches discreetly - not through the entrance if possible, relying on her small size.

Stealth if necessary: 10

Soar, the women look at you suspiciously as you sit down, but one of the men only scowls and spits into the fire.  The other man says:  At least you got to go.  We drew the short straw and had to stay here, protecting the camp.  He glares at the drunkards sitting some way off.  One of the women pipes up: Never mind him, we're happy to serve and we're well paid to do any job that's asked.  The others nod, but not very enthusiastically. 

5

I'm sure they'll tell you before they tell us, the other woman says.  I don't know, but I reckon this area's been pretty much cleaned out, with Greenest the last tasty apple.  We'll be moving on soon.  North, I bet. 

East, I'd say, the second man adds. 

Yeah, like you'd know which way east is, replies the woman.  You struggle to find your boots in the morning.  The banter seems good-natured.

20

Elspeth, you approach the three.  They are busy looking after their equipment, but they're still having a quiet conversation, with lots of pauses.  As you are moving, one leans over, picks up a torch, lights it and sticks it into the ground, giving decent light in the immediate vicinity.

...got a good hit on the bastard, that's all I'm saying.  Cyanwrath's not invincible, any more than the rest of us.

Well, the bloody fool still went down pretty quick.  You heard him talking about his god - he's lucky Cyanwrath didn't have his head off.

Will you stop saying that bloody name?  I don't want any of those bastards taking it the wrong way.  You know what he is.

I'm not scared...

You bloody well should be.  I... Tempus's teeth, look at that bloody spider over there.  That's a big'un.  

I'm sick of this bloody camp.  There's more rats here than before.  Time to move on I say.

Well, I'm sure Mondath will come to you for advice any day now...

Though the men have spotted you, they clearly didn't think it was worth doing anything, nor were they particularly interested in a spider.  You move on, and enter a tent.

Make a Perception check.

Jalt, the kobold waits a moment before answering, as if the words are hard to say.  Bahamut watches us all, but he won't fix our problems for us.  At least, that's what I was taught.  Okkie, my name's Okkie.  I'm... not a priest, not really, but a follower of Bahamut.  Maybe I try to talk to people on his behalf, show them a better way when I can.  I guess I'm not that good at it, but I'm not giving up any time soon.  And if my friend caught me up there, he nods towards the camp though you can barely see it, he'd probably turn me in.  We had... words... the last time we met.  I told him what I thought of his plans, and he told me what to do with my thoughts, and well, that was that.  

Oh, by the way, and you hear him move a little, a rat or something dropped this by you a while ago.  I think it was trying to give it to you.  He hands you a small piece of paper.  Get a lot of mail from rats, do you?

Jalt nods at Okkie. So then what do you intend to do, brother? He takes the piece of paper from him. You'd be surprised to find out that I do get a lot of mail from woodland creatures. He chuckles as he starts to read the letter. "... we're ok...... meet for lunch." He looks to Okkie. It seems my friends are ok. So I suppose I don't have to try a full on assault. But I feel like my hands are tied. Looks back away and into the sky. I think your friend misses you and probably got caught up in the moment. I see that you haven't given up on him. 

Soar gives a friendly-but-rueful half-smile to the group, and nods tiredly. "Protecting the camp is important, but I understand." She dips a hand into a pocket and flips four silver coins, one by one, at each of them. "We weren't nearly as lucky as others, but I appreciate you staying back here, even if others might not. Thanks for the news, too. Here's a bit of the wealth -- I won't tell if you won't. Sweeten the pot there maybe?"

She lets out a big tired groan as she stands up again and says, "gotta get going over there" her eyes going to the main camp with a bit of an eye roll. "Stay warm out here, neighbors."

As she moves out into the darkness, she'll try to go slowly by where she sees Spiderspeth, and slow down enough to pace the arachnid, and pausing to let her climb up to her shoulder. She doesn't want anyone to see if she can help it. (Soar wouldn't know what the spider had seen or heard, but would know that Elspeth had run off to another group and assumedly had tracked the directly, roughly?)

She looks to Breena, grimaces a bit, and begins walking to the main camp, in the manner she's seen others approach, looking for any bigger gatherings to hide in a crowd, off to the side. 

(At this point, what's the total estimate they've found for kobolds and mercenaries?)

Soar, the four mercenaries look at you in confusion, and don't reply as you make your farewells.  As you leave, you hear them whispering furiously behind you.  You can make a Perception check if you wish to try to hear what they are saying. 

Breena, if you approached with Soar you can also talk to the four, or if you prefer you can have stayed away or done something else.

There's no sign of Elspeth yet; we'll pause while we resolve what happens to her inside the tent.

Breena would have gone toward the Dwarf and the man and, if she knew the song, started to sing along. 

Perception: 17

Breena, you do recognise the song; it's called 'The Whistler's Tale' and it's a story about a traveller and his misadventures while travelling through Neverwinter Wood.  It's popular across the Sword Coast.  Make a Performance check as you join in.

The man and dwarf look up hazily as you join them;  Hey, friend, come sit down.  None these other bastards give a damn, but...  The man seems quite incoherent as he trails off.  The dwarf says, We're drinking to our friends, lost in Greenest.  Kanner, stupid bastard.  And Tored, mean son of a *****, but the best chief I ever knew.  Killed by some damn peasants in some no-name town.  Here's to 'em.  He raises a tankard of foul-smelling ale, and his friend does the same, then remembers that you don't have a drink, and finds a tankard nearby, pours half his own drink into it, and offers it to you.