Tyranny of Dragons

[I genuinely love this group's skill checks :D ]

Fjordix keeps close to Arliden while he's tracking, both to make sure if there is an ambush he can help defend, but also to lend his eyes where he can. (Perception: 20, or if you'd rather grant the help action t Arliden, my perception is only +1)

Rex’ll also carefully watch for anything... unusual. Perception: 5

“You guys ever just take the time to see how nice nature is...” Rex is in his own little world.

Examining the path, Arliden and Fjordix see that it’s impossible to determine the raiders’ numbers precisely, but there were a lot of them, and they were a mix of humans, kobolds, and trained reptiles. They can tell, however, that many of the beasts’ footprints are deeper on the retreat than they were on the approach march.

The trail turns and leads south for about twelve miles, to a more rugged region where steep-sided, rocky plateaus replace the gently rolling hills. The land between the plateaus is largely flat, broken only by outcroppings and wandering streams in steep-sided gullies. The plateaus jut fifty to one hundred feet above their surroundings and look difficult to climb except where rock falls and subsidence created natural ramps. The crumbling sides of the plateaus are dotted with caves and tumbled boulder fields.

As you get closer to the plateaus, everyone can see smoke from what could be a cooking fire a few miles away. 

"Do we want to head towards the fire? Or do we want to head somewhere off to the side."

Novot slows. "So we've found them."  She looks toward the (multiple) brains of the outfit. "What now? Should we try Rex's disguise thing and try and find the monk?"

"We could try getting closer or looping around or something. But," she adds, trying to come off nonchalantly but really just looking embarrassed, "I have a bad habit of effing things up when I try to be sneaky. So I can't really help with sneaking in - or even getting too close."

“Now, I’m not the best when it comes to tactics, but what if one of you put on these robes,” Rex pulls out some cultist robes, “and I disguised myself. Then, we can walk into the camp while the others keep a good distance away from us?”

I’m down. We aren’t too bad at talking our way through stuff and it would be good to at least find out where our friend is, and we clearly can’t fight an entire camp.

So....anything you think I should know before we go do this?

Rex raises a brow, “Yeah. Keep your head down and if you need to sing something, make a spectacle of it. The cult wouldn’t dream of interrupting a praise to the queen and the showier, the better. If they ask, stick to your guns.” And hands Arliden the cloak.

"Good luck you two." She looks at everyone else. "And what will we be doing while you infiltrate?"

“That, I’m not sure of. Kinda up to you I guess? Like I said, tactics aren’t really my thing.”

Maybe there will be a place where we can scope out the camp as we get closer? 

 In the meantime, Rex, can you fill me in on some name?  What is the queen’s name? Or do they just referred to her as our queen? And what is their stance on Io?

Rex looks at Arliden with surprise and chuckles, “Huh, guess not everyone’s familiar with dragon culture. ‘The Queen’ is Tiamat, the dragon goddess of all chromatic dragons and a generally greedy tyrant. She’s also the reason they all act like megalomaniacs. My Queen, Our Lady, The Queen are all fine and dandy titles for her. And given that a black Dragonborn has been running their forces into the ground while proclaiming Io’s name... I’d guess that they aren’t too hot on him right now. Oh yeah, and Frulam is the name of the... I dunno, Bishop of this chapter? So if they ask, now you know. Don’t make them ask.”

“Ya, I was hoping you wouldn’t say Tiamat. I’ve heard of her and was really hoping you weren’t going to say Tiamat.”

“Frulam is a new name though. I’ll keep that one in mind.”

Upon hearing Tiamat's name, Novot unconsciously lets out a snarl before catching herself and shutting up.

As the party gets closer to the smoke, you can tell that it is definitely from a cooking fire. Everyone gets close enough that they can see where the fire is, but still be far enough away that they won't be seen by anyone at the campsite. Rex and Arliden don the cult robes and approach. The camp is set up in a low spot between surrounding hills, where tall boulders have rolled into a loose jumble. In fact, the surroundings offer no protection while making it easier for enemies to sneak up on the site. You're close enough that you can see that there are 4 humans and 8 kobolds. 

If you're attempting to be stealthy, now would be the time to roll stealth checks.

[EDIT: If there's still info you'd like to hash out before approaching the camp, feel free. Just didn't want to hold up the story if everyone was waiting on me.]

[Is it possible for us non-stealthy people to loop WAY around and wait behind the boulders? If needs a skill check: Stealth = 15 ]

[EDIT: Yup, that's about right]

[Just wanted to make it clear that I’m actually using Disguise Self to look like a normal human cultist]

Rex is just going to walk straight into the camp with Arliden like he is supposed to be there. He’s just walking silently and confidently unless someone asks him what he’s doing. He’ll start looking around for where their keeping prisoners or anything of the sort, [Investigation: 11]. [If Deception is also needed: 23, 22 if with advantage cause disguise]

[Edit: If I throw this imaginary dice away, do you think that it will lift the curse???]

I'm with Rex; we're both doing that walk where you look like you belong and you know exactly where you're going while looking straight ahead and not really making eye contact with anyone. Once we're inside the outer perimeter I'll start taking glances around for the prisoners.

Just let me know what rolls you'd like me to make. 

[OOC: Dude, you need to ritualistically bathe your digital D20's in whisky or something LOL]

[Normally I'd say put them in a box and shame them, but I don't know where you'd begin doing that with the digitals. Maybe some html tables...]