Kess freezes in place at the sudden clunking noise, immediately going into a semi-crouched position to lower her visual profile, hands resting on the grips of both Moonpetal and her scimitar to draw them at a moment's notice. The sudden vocal curiosity by the orcs hadn't helped matters where her nerves were concerned, and it took every ounce of willpower she had not to give away her position with a squeak or a jerky movement.
Had she been careless? Had they find her???
Kess swept her gaze around in the flickering firelight interplaying with shadow, and allowed herself to breathe a small, silent breath of relief. No, none of them seemed particularly interested in her chosen hiding place, a rather sizable laurel bush that could easily pass as a small tree... but they were looking about for something. And it didn't take her long to figure what - or rather, who that could reasonably be.
Lumen... please don't let them find him...! I can't even see him right now, she thought to herself, a bit of anxiety beginning to creep into her chest. If they found her bard friend out here, alone and exposed, well... Kess didn't know if she could get to him in time.
The orcs at the fire pit continue to look around for another minute, but not seeing anything out of the ordinary, they eventually turn back to and continue their low voiced conversations. They apparently didn't notice the misplaced axe either.
(Another Slight of Hand check if you want to try and remove the axe again.)
Lumen and Kess both freeze in place until the orcs seem to lose interest and turn their attention back to the fire. After a few moments, Lumen, still invisible, reaches back down and carefully wraps his fingers around the axe once again. Then, moving ever so slowly, he carefully picks it back up and begins walking back towards the edge of the camp.
Need an additional stealth check from Lumen for this move.
Although Kess cannot see Lumen, she can see the axe levitate slowly off of the ground, seemingly all by itself, and then being to move slowly towards the edge of the orc camp. The orc weapon passes about fifteen feet away from her and continues floating into the thicker brush, where it stops and then slowly settles down onto the ground, now hidden from view, just like the other two axes that she saw do the same thing a few moments ago. Glancing over towards the orcs at the fire, they appear to be none the wiser.
Is Lumen back near where his friends are? Has it been long enough that Vesper would have cast her message spell?
Lumen would want to whisperedly check in with the group and update them on the unarmed portion of the orcish war party, if he's able to.
Has he been able to spot anyone else hiding? Are the numbers identical to what he saw when he confronted them? And has the spellcaster done anything? What's she up to? Is she alone?
Chrys sits still in the brush, desperately ignoring the itch on her nose as she keeps her grip on the handle of her weapons loose and ready. A bead of sweat trickles past her eye, but she blinks once and ignores it, eyes trained on the orc camp.
Seeing that Lumen has indeed finished his task of hiding the three axes, Kess retreats and creeps back out of the camp and returns to the position where Chrys, Vesper and Nym are. A few moments later, Lumen also arrives back with the rest of you, still invisible. Yes, Vesper had checked in once, but given the tenuous situation, the best that Lumen could safely muster was a brief whisper of "everything ok."
During his scouting mission, he saw that it was indeed ten orcs total, same as he saw earlier: three currently on guard, three sleeping, and two at the fire with the chief and the chain-shirted female who had been challenging the chief's ideas earlier in the day. From what you can tell, she doesn't appear to be a shaman or spellcaster, but her armor indicates that she has greater stature than the other eight.
"Okay... that was surprisingly intense," Kess would say in a hushed whisper as she crept back upon her companions, gently tapping Vesper on the shoulder to let them all know where she was before coming back into their little "pie hole of stealth", finally allowing the tightness in her chest to collapse and allow herself to breathe. And yet, for all of that, felt a bit of a strange rush of excitement. "Is everyone here? Lumen???"
Chrys nods with a look of approval. "Good job there. Now... if we can take out the guards without anyone noticin', then this'll be more like a fair fight than a suicide mission. Can any o' ya make things real quiet-like with yer magics?" she asks. "Barrin' that, we can try t'make them animal sounds ta lure the guards out an get 'em on their own, then storm the camp afterwards. Any o' ya got better ideas 'bout dealin' with 'em?" The question is obviously sincere, and not sarcastic.
Does Lumen have any experience about the kind of thing that would draw out orc camp guards without drawing suspicion? Certain types of prey? Passing travelers? Magic? He quietly relays any ideas along that front to the group, and advocates for one last try to perhaps start a fight between the orcs at the campfire. Whispering an insult in the voice of one directed at another. Pushing a stick being used as a poker into the face from one to another. Throwing one’s dirty bowl into the gut of another. He doesn’t want to become visible by attacking anyone but he thinks about any kind of deception he can try to get them fighting each other physically and then helping the better side finish the worse side. He asks if anyone has suggestions or problems with that.
Lumen knows that above all other living creatures, orcs absolutely loathe elves, with dwaves being a close second, and that seeing or hearing one or more of those creatures would certainly draw the attention of the orc guards. However, it's not certain whether they would leave their position to give chase or retreat to alert and fortify the rest of the camp. Magical lights would probably be a good diversion, as well.
Regarding the matter of trying to provoke an instigation between orcs at the campfire, anything that doesn't count as an "attack" would allow him to remain invisible.
Watching Lumen vanish from view invisibly and then Kess creep after him, Nym felt herself tense. Praying silently to Eilistraee for their safety the entire time until they returned and letting out a breath of relief. As they discussed what to do now that the sleeping three didn't have weapons, the drow pipped up quietly, "I don't have any sort of silencing spell, but I can try and put at least one of the awake orcs to sleep. That might alert the other though. But if we can time it right and take the one awake one before they can wake the others.... Then we might be able to end them while they slumber. If that isn't a good idea, then we could try to use our minor magic like dancing lights and the like to distract the ones on guard away from the sleeping ones. Something not too threatening like passing travelers because they might try and wake everyone up to be ready. And I'm not sure that trying to get them to fight each other will work or not. Without being able to understand them and know their dynamic..." She shrugs, deferring to Lumen.
Lumen whispers that he does know orcish, that he spoke it before Common. So he will give it a try while the rest of the group prepares to try the external distraction gambit. He says he will call out should things go wrong, but the goal is to either spook them or take them out.
Kess freezes in place at the sudden clunking noise, immediately going into a semi-crouched position to lower her visual profile, hands resting on the grips of both Moonpetal and her scimitar to draw them at a moment's notice. The sudden vocal curiosity by the orcs hadn't helped matters where her nerves were concerned, and it took every ounce of willpower she had not to give away her position with a squeak or a jerky movement.
Had she been careless? Had they find her???
Kess swept her gaze around in the flickering firelight interplaying with shadow, and allowed herself to breathe a small, silent breath of relief. No, none of them seemed particularly interested in her chosen hiding place, a rather sizable laurel bush that could easily pass as a small tree... but they were looking about for something. And it didn't take her long to figure what - or rather, who that could reasonably be.
Lumen... please don't let them find him...! I can't even see him right now, she thought to herself, a bit of anxiety beginning to creep into her chest. If they found her bard friend out here, alone and exposed, well... Kess didn't know if she could get to him in time.
The orcs at the fire pit continue to look around for another minute, but not seeing anything out of the ordinary, they eventually turn back to and continue their low voiced conversations. They apparently didn't notice the misplaced axe either.
(Another Slight of Hand check if you want to try and remove the axe again.)
Of course he'll try again!
Sleight of hand: 19
Lumen and Kess both freeze in place until the orcs seem to lose interest and turn their attention back to the fire. After a few moments, Lumen, still invisible, reaches back down and carefully wraps his fingers around the axe once again. Then, moving ever so slowly, he carefully picks it back up and begins walking back towards the edge of the camp.
Need an additional stealth check from Lumen for this move.
Chrys watches with bated breath, squinting her eyes, and ready to make some kind of noise to distract the orcs should Lumen be discovered.
Stealth: 24
Kess, unable to see Lumen, waits for any sign to fall back.
Although Kess cannot see Lumen, she can see the axe levitate slowly off of the ground, seemingly all by itself, and then being to move slowly towards the edge of the orc camp. The orc weapon passes about fifteen feet away from her and continues floating into the thicker brush, where it stops and then slowly settles down onto the ground, now hidden from view, just like the other two axes that she saw do the same thing a few moments ago. Glancing over towards the orcs at the fire, they appear to be none the wiser.
Using that as her chance, Kess moves to sneak away back to where her companions are.
Is Lumen back near where his friends are? Has it been long enough that Vesper would have cast her message spell?
Lumen would want to whisperedly check in with the group and update them on the unarmed portion of the orcish war party, if he's able to.
Has he been able to spot anyone else hiding? Are the numbers identical to what he saw when he confronted them? And has the spellcaster done anything? What's she up to? Is she alone?
Chrys sits still in the brush, desperately ignoring the itch on her nose as she keeps her grip on the handle of her weapons loose and ready. A bead of sweat trickles past her eye, but she blinks once and ignores it, eyes trained on the orc camp.
Seeing that Lumen has indeed finished his task of hiding the three axes, Kess retreats and creeps back out of the camp and returns to the position where Chrys, Vesper and Nym are. A few moments later, Lumen also arrives back with the rest of you, still invisible. Yes, Vesper had checked in once, but given the tenuous situation, the best that Lumen could safely muster was a brief whisper of "everything ok."
During his scouting mission, he saw that it was indeed ten orcs total, same as he saw earlier: three currently on guard, three sleeping, and two at the fire with the chief and the chain-shirted female who had been challenging the chief's ideas earlier in the day. From what you can tell, she doesn't appear to be a shaman or spellcaster, but her armor indicates that she has greater stature than the other eight.
"Okay... that was surprisingly intense," Kess would say in a hushed whisper as she crept back upon her companions, gently tapping Vesper on the shoulder to let them all know where she was before coming back into their little "pie hole of stealth", finally allowing the tightness in her chest to collapse and allow herself to breathe. And yet, for all of that, felt a bit of a strange rush of excitement. "Is everyone here? Lumen???"
Chrys nods with a look of approval. "Good job there. Now... if we can take out the guards without anyone noticin', then this'll be more like a fair fight than a suicide mission. Can any o' ya make things real quiet-like with yer magics?" she asks. "Barrin' that, we can try t'make them animal sounds ta lure the guards out an get 'em on their own, then storm the camp afterwards. Any o' ya got better ideas 'bout dealin' with 'em?" The question is obviously sincere, and not sarcastic.
Does Lumen have any experience about the kind of thing that would draw out orc camp guards without drawing suspicion? Certain types of prey? Passing travelers? Magic? He quietly relays any ideas along that front to the group, and advocates for one last try to perhaps start a fight between the orcs at the campfire. Whispering an insult in the voice of one directed at another. Pushing a stick being used as a poker into the face from one to another. Throwing one’s dirty bowl into the gut of another. He doesn’t want to become visible by attacking anyone but he thinks about any kind of deception he can try to get them fighting each other physically and then helping the better side finish the worse side. He asks if anyone has suggestions or problems with that.
Lumen knows that above all other living creatures, orcs absolutely loathe elves, with dwaves being a close second, and that seeing or hearing one or more of those creatures would certainly draw the attention of the orc guards. However, it's not certain whether they would leave their position to give chase or retreat to alert and fortify the rest of the camp. Magical lights would probably be a good diversion, as well.
Regarding the matter of trying to provoke an instigation between orcs at the campfire, anything that doesn't count as an "attack" would allow him to remain invisible.
"Lumen," Chrys whispers, seeing him thinking. "D'ya want some caltrops? I'm sure ya could think o' somethin' interestin' ta do with 'em."
Watching Lumen vanish from view invisibly and then Kess creep after him, Nym felt herself tense. Praying silently to Eilistraee for their safety the entire time until they returned and letting out a breath of relief. As they discussed what to do now that the sleeping three didn't have weapons, the drow pipped up quietly, "I don't have any sort of silencing spell, but I can try and put at least one of the awake orcs to sleep. That might alert the other though. But if we can time it right and take the one awake one before they can wake the others.... Then we might be able to end them while they slumber. If that isn't a good idea, then we could try to use our minor magic like dancing lights and the like to distract the ones on guard away from the sleeping ones. Something not too threatening like passing travelers because they might try and wake everyone up to be ready. And I'm not sure that trying to get them to fight each other will work or not. Without being able to understand them and know their dynamic..." She shrugs, deferring to Lumen.
Nym Durnodel - Aspiring Heroes of Faerûn // Danica Amastacia - Red Dead Annihilation
Lumen whispers that he does know orcish, that he spoke it before Common. So he will give it a try while the rest of the group prepares to try the external distraction gambit. He says he will call out should things go wrong, but the goal is to either spook them or take them out.
Chrys nods and gets into position a little further from the camp, readying herself to jump on whatever guard might be lured out her way.
(literally, readying an action to grapple any hostile orc coming her way)