Mindartis looks up at the pipe up, "Well... this is going to be fun," he grunts.

Del expands his pole of collapsing to probe ahead and provide some extra balance. He'll ask F-Bomb to fly up invisible and let us know when the coast is clear. Maybe you could stand on Lord Mindartis' shoulders, Little Sister? And helping with Mage Hand get a rope set up for us bigs (in this crowd Del and M are finally in the same size fraction) to climb up. He says a prayer for the success of this crazy-butt idea - working together, is this a Acrobatics 26

“I can teleport us down, if we can afford to wait a day I could also make the chimney bigger.” Quentin tells him quietly 

Elwin nodded. "Teleporting in should be enough. We can always force our way out if needed." He tilted his head toward the chimney, trying to see if the voices were still nearby, and to make out what was being argued if they were. (( If needed, Perception Check: 15 ))

 11  21

Flitterbug flies up into the drain, and soon comes back. "There's an empty room up there!" she says. "There's a grating covering the hole at the top, but it's too heavy for me to lift." 

To get below the drain, Mindartis will have to walk down the steps into the dark, filthy water. (Does he agree? How tall is he? It is likely to be just slightly over his head.)

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Fortunately, the second Perception roll was not needed: Elwin heard them screeching at each other perfectly clearly.  As you have heard before, hags form covens of three because any more tend to fight among themselves, and from the voices below, you'd have to say that was indeed a fact. There are frequently hags yelling at the same time, but you can make out a lot of the discussion.

"Where is that blasted hyena? These blocks were meant to be taken days ago!"

"Deadline is coming up. If it's not finished by tomorrow, they'll have to delay the ritual till the next half moon."

"Do you think we have enough?"

"How should I know?  Depends what they've got from everyone else."

"Well OUR heads will be the ones on the block if they come up short, I'll bet your bloomers."

"Bet your own bloomers! We're not the ones to blame. It's YOU uglies slowing us down." 

"US?!  Weren't YOU in charge of the pirates? They're barely sending us a trickle of kiddies."

"Bah, if they go any faster, your Barleymen won't be able to keep up."

"Not our fault! We keep running out of sugar. And why do our blocks keep disappearing? Especially when SHE is on watch duty."

"I can't help it, I love the way they slide down when they're all sugar-coated."

(Sound of a slap) "Greedy pig! If you're going to steal, eat them BEFORE they've been processed!"

(Sound of a brawl) "Watch out! Don't damage the blocks! Annie'll skin us all if we're a block short of quota!"

Hearing the racket below, Elwin, as quietly as he could, summoned his glaive to his hand, and cast a defensive spell. Then, so as to let Quentin know where he was, he placed his hand on the wizard's shoulder, giving him a worried look as he did.

It was true that he had suggested waiting earlier, but with some of the kids being in immediate danger now, he was conflicted; his gut response was to attack straightaway, while they were squabbling, with the element of surprise. But he also didn't know if they could take that many hags, and dying would just mean the kids all died as well.

From the look he gave Quentin, he was clearly deferring to him as to exactly when they should teleport in.

((Mindartis is almost 7 feet, and heck ya he's gonna do it.))

Remember that ring of water-walking, Sister Raven is carrying unused because you did not want it? That'd'a been helpful Del says unhelpfully. Between FB and Mage Hand we should be able to tie off a rope to give us guidance through the dark, filthy water, and poke with the pole to avoid unseen obstacles. 

"No time to worry about that now," Mindartis says, "if you're going to prove as anal as Quentin, just get on my shoulders."

I don't mind the dip Del says as he follows M into the water along the guide rope Just it'd be easier to reach. But like you say, water under the bridge. We've got rope and magic and giant killers. And our expert guide Del adds to Meio You know - they don't ever get to be pirates. We'll be rescuing them'uns from bad stuff

(Assuming Raven is just hanging out and keeping an eye on the ship.  Let me know if I need to do anything else...)

((she already found very interesting info about the pirate boss going to the council same as we were planning, can't wait for us to actually hear what we read))

Quote from skuk >>

((she already found very interesting info about the pirate boss going to the council same as we were planning, can't wait for us to actually hear what we read))

 (Yep already saw that, just wanted to make sure there was nothign else needed from Raven there.)

((Raven's good, the docks are pretty quiet, at least for now. If you get bored, you can opt to rejoin the party and tell them what you learned. If you want a break from posting, you can stay there and keep watch.))

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Mindartis wades down into the murk with Meio on his shoulders, and is soon standing under the drain grate. His height keeps his nose and mouth above the water, but just barely. Del feels the water out for obstacles with his pole, and finds none.  Casting Mage Hand, he sends the spectral hand up the drain, and is able to move the heavy metal grating aside, with Flitterbug's assistance.

The pixie flies back down and tells you, I don't see anything that looks like it would be good to tie a rope to, except the doorknob, and that seems pretty rusty. It might break."

Meio suggests, "Maybe if you tie the rope to that pole and send it back up there."

Del and Mindartis, please roll perception. :)

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Elwin and Quentin teleport from the roof to the top of the stacked sugar cubes. It's an eerie sight.  The blocks are almost clear, so you can see down through several stacked rows, piles of embedded people. Not only elvish street urchins, either, there are elves of all ages, gnomes, pixies, sprites, goblins, humans, halflings, even a section of ogre children, probably from the village you visited. The room is huge, and almost filled with the blocks. There must be hundreds stacked here, maybe thousands. You can hear the hags off in the distance.  They have now started bad-mouthing Raninon Greyelf, who they say used to be a pirate and still likes pirates too much, and is spending too much time aboard the ships instead of here, attending to his work.

What do you do?  (And probably roll for stealth.)

(( Elwin's Stealth Check: 9 ))

Perception: 7

(Oh......I didn’t want to teleport in yet, I was hoping to cast some of my own buffs first (Mage Armor) and try and contact Del with Message.) 

((pick the two characters that don't have a grappling hook between them - but yeah))

I wonder if there is anything to notice, Del thinks to himself Perception 18

After we've probed our way to beneath the hole, Del takes Meio's suggestion, tying the rope to the pole so the pole can span the opening with rope hanging down. That should hold Meio's weight, then with her help Del (who is very far from 7 feet, and slight) can get up and between us we can brace enough for our largest friend

"If we had a way to get me to fly," Mindartis says, "I could probably just hold onto the rope and bring you all up."

Quote from JacWalke >>

(Oh......I didn’t want to teleport in yet, I was hoping to cast some of my own buffs first (Mage Armor) and try and contact Del with Message.) 

 (Okay, you can ret-con that in!)