Heroes, Inc., Day 1: Mysterious Strangers

Here is the opening thread. I've decided that instead of having you float around at the beginning a bit, I'll go right to plot. Good Luck.

Heroes, Inc, Day 1: Mysterious Strangers

Start Group 1. Fin, Crimson, Frost, Alethia
Start Group 2. Shando, Dyria, Zephyr
Start Group 3. Murdock, Kaarlo

Group 1: Purple Lady Festhall, Adventurers Quarter, 715pm

The large, thee-story wooden building is packed with guests celebrating Waukeentde. Live performers clad in gold attire entertain the crowd and lead dances, adventurers and merchants tell tails of their greatest windfalls, and an extra waitstaff is on hand to keep the food and ale coming. Fin, Arundel, Alethia, and Timrin are together at a table, and notice an especially strange and especially ornately-decorated party of five enter the Festhall. They are covered head to toe with gold, ivory, and ebony, their armor adorned with these materials and numerous items hanging from them. Many such items bear what some of you recognize to be Mulhorandi lettering and holy symbols, especially animal heads, most disturbingly often jackels and crocodiles. Crowds quickly gather to inquire about these strangers, and they seem to be working the room in your direction.

Start Group 2: Your job guarding Peregion is at the moment not all that difficult. He is at a party at the mansion of fellow-Paladin-of-Tyr Texter, and for the most part you are expected only to mingle with the bluebloods and then do battle only if a disturbance comes up. Suddenly a man in a military uniform runs in and whispers something to Peregion. He calls all of you over to him, and says "So much for parties. Several red warships have been spotted at sea by one of our skyknights, and they are header our way. We need to get to the harbor."

Start Group 3: Peregion is rather over-protective of his daughter, and tonight you are that overprotection. She rides in a carriage with a warded and armored inner compartment, drawn by two horses. Pairs of city guard go ahead and behind of the carriage to clear the way and check for trouble, while Murdoch and Kaarlo walk/fly next to the carriage. They are currently traveling on the cliffride, the road overlooking the ocean. Quite suddenly, a large creature rises from below the cliff, hovering. A large, red, dragon-like creature with a stinger on its tail lets out an ear-splitting roar and blasts the carriage with a cone of fiery death, and a humanoid creature jumps off onto the land, waves his hand, and the area around the carriage bursts into flame as well. The horses and the driver are killed, the carriage moves forward a bit, flips on its side, slides some more, and comes to rest. The radius of the blasts are small, so neither of you are harmed. It seems that the interior of the carriage was protected from the fire.

The man who was riding the dragon-like creature is about six feet tall and clad in fine brown leather, a black robe and a large, wide-brimmed black hat. The hand that he had waved in his spellcasting crackles with purplish-black energy, and he has a sword sheathed at his side. Slowly and wordlessly, he starts walking towards the carriage. You cannot see his face, which is obscured by his hat.

DM_Matt said:

They are covered head to toe with gold, ivory, and ebony, their armor adorned with these materials and numerous items hanging from them. Many such items bear what some of you recognize to be Mulhorandi lettering and holy symbols, especially animal heads, most disturbingly often jackels and crocodiles. Crowds quickly gather to inquire about these strangers, and they seem to be working the room in your direction.

Click to expand...

OOC: Do Knowledge: Religion (Arundel +11), Knowledge: History (Arundel +8), Knowledge: Local (Fin +11) or Sense Motive (Fin +15) provide any points of interest about the newcomers?

Arundel's habit is to cast Commune With City (Races of Destiny) each day to pick up major news items.

If anything seems disturbing about the five Mulhorandi, he'll make an excuse to find a quiet spot to cast Omen of Peril (Complete Divine) - 84% chance, two rolls, for a hint about the relatively safety or peril of the next hour or so. /OOC

Your job guarding Peregion is at the moment not all that difficult. He is at a party at the mansion of fellow-Paladin-of-Tyr Texter, and for the most part you are expected only to mingle with the bluebloods and then do battle only if a disturbance comes up. Suddenly a man in a military uniform runs in and whispers something to Peregion. He calls all of you over to him, and says "So much for parties. Several red warships have been spotted at sea by one of our skyknights, and they are header our way. We need to get to the harbor."

Click to expand...

Dyria had remained quiet and circumspect for most of the evening. She appeared to be dressed in a simple green tunic with her shield on her back and her whips at her side, though any potential assassins would have been surprised to discover that the tunic was actually a suit of mithril full plate in a cunning disguise.

Most of her mingling so far had consisted of occasionally grabbing something to eat from the banquet tables, and avoiding conversations with the various nobles present.

"Sounds fine by me," replied Dyria, after Peregion stated what they were going to do. "What's a red ship?"

Crimson (Female 'Human' Psion) AC:24 HPs: 66 PPs: 181

Crimson lounged . . . enjoying the festival. People were laughing and having a good time, therefore, she was having a good time as well. She was off-duty, or as off-duty as one could be with the Hidden Shield. With Alethia, Timrun, Fin and Arundel as well in attendance, and at her table . . . the shields had a good attendance . . . just in case something would happen. There were a lot of important and semi-important . . . even self-important . . . people at these celebrations. Doing well and helping others was one way of getting their name out there. In that regard, Crimson's eyes darted to the entrance as the five entered and strode toward them. Sensing the importance of this development, Crimson concentrated a moment, her eyes downcast for the moment, were glowing . . . then it quickly faded.

Crimson looked at the quintet as the approached, looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Looks like we have some interesting company approaching . . . ," Crimson commented.

OOC: Manifest True Seeing. Knowledge Religion (+8) to determine the significance of the jackal and croc heads. Current powers active (only daily and permanent): Inertial Armor (13 pps +10 armor, invisible), tongues, and darkvision . . . and true seeing

Kaarlo Koskinen Elf Rogue

OOC: To set up simple plans of contingency. These plans would be discussed before every guard mission. Seeing how we are not begginers this would be SOP. Plans would be discussed on placement of each other and where to scan for trouble. I also assume plans would be worked out if assiassans visited her father.


I would have worked out with Murdock, that if the carrage was overturned, I would disgusise myself (ring of cameleon) as the daughter and have a red ribbon in my hair. The daughter would be instructed that no matter what happens, stay inside and to be quiet. Also she will be given a black ribbon to wear. This is to help murdock distinguish who is the decoy & who is real.

As to my location before the attack, I would be running along side the carriage.
Lastly I have never used boots of speed. I assume I can attack 60 feet away and have my full attack bonus.

Quickly I would have drawn my rapier (+20/15(+1 haste) 1d6+3 15-20/x2) as I checked on the carrige than activated the disguise. Keeping the rapier hidden from view I would be standing like I was dazed maybe moaning as well.

When the man is within 60 feet I activate my boots of speed and attack him with as many attacks as I can. Hopefully murdock's attacks will allow me to use my sneak attack damage (7d6).

Init +10
AC 23 Armor is spell resitance 19 (+1 haste)
Fort 13
Reflex 20 (+Evasion)
Will 13

Dressed in simple garb, similar to what the servents were wearing, Shando spent the evening shadowing Lord Piergeron. He repeatedly scanned the crowd around him, keeping an eye out for someone not quite acting like the typical party goers. He was pleasently disappointed that nothing had happened..yet. Upon the news that something was up in the harbor and the need to get to the Dock Ward, Shando turns to Peigeron, bows and speaks:

"My lord, I understand and respect your need to lead from the front, but given the unusual nature of events of the last few days, isn't it wiser to find a safer place to observe the ships from and let a trusted lieutenant deal with the intial contact with these unusal ships? You have asked us to see to your safety and that is what I would suggest at this time. Where you lead, we follow, but I feel that my suggestion is keeping with the charge that you have given us."

Hawkeye

Hypersmurf said:

OOC: Do Knowledge: Religion (Arundel +11), Knowledge: History (Arundel +8), Knowledge: Local (Fin +11) or Sense Motive (Fin +15) provide any points of interest about the newcomers?

Arundel's habit is to cast Commune With City (Races of Destiny) each day to pick up major news items.

If anything seems disturbing about the five Mulhorandi, he'll make an excuse to find a quiet spot to cast Omen of Peril (Complete Divine) - 84% chance, two rolls, for a hint about the relatively safety or peril of the next hour or so. /OOC

Click to expand...

Things you find out:

1. The animal head symbols are the holy symbols of the Mulhorandi gods Sobek and Anubis. Sobek is a CE river god and Anubis is an LE lord of the underworld-type death god.

2. While their loot is Mulhorandi, they are too light-skinned to be Mulhorandi themselves. They may be local in origin.

3. The next hour holds a chance of some very serious danger, but on the other hand it might go rather safely.

Falkus said:

Dyria had remained quiet and circumspect for most of the evening. She appeared to be dressed in a simple green tunic with her shield on her back and her whips at her side, though any potential assassins would have been surprised to discover that the tunic was actually a suit of mithril full plate in a cunning disguise.

Most of her mingling so far had consisted of occasionally grabbing something to eat from the banquet tables, and avoiding conversations with the various nobles present.

"Sounds fine by me," replied Dyria, after Peregion stated what they were going to do. "What's a red ship?"

Click to expand...

"We'll be able to find out more when we get to the harbor, but apparently one of our skynights on patrol spotted several large ships with red hulls and sails in the distance. They had some flying units of their own in front of them, however, so he returned to the city rather than try to get closer"

Keia said:

Crimson lounged . . . enjoying the festival. People were laughing and having a good time, therefore, she was having a good time as well. She was off-duty, or as off-duty as one could be with the Hidden Shield. With Alethia, Timrun, Fin and Arundel as well in attendance, and at her table . . . the shields had a good attendance . . . just in case something would happen. There were a lot of important and semi-important . . . even self-important . . . people at these celebrations. Doing well and helping others was one way of getting their name out there. In that regard, Crimson's eyes darted to the entrance as the five entered and strode toward them. Sensing the importance of this development, Crimson concentrated a moment, her eyes downcast for the moment, were glowing . . . then it quickly faded.

Crimson looked at the quintet as the approached, looking for anything out of the ordinary. "Looks like we have some interesting company approaching . . . ," Crimson commented.

OOC: Manifest True Seeing. Knowledge Religion (+8) to determine the significance of the jackal and croc heads. Current powers active (only daily and permanent): Inertial Armor (13 pps +10 armor, invisible), tongues, and darkvision . . . and true seeing

Click to expand...

True Seeing produces interesting results. The strangers appear old. Extremely old. Not undead, but so withered and aged that it seems improbable that they are alive.

Hawkeye said:

Dressed in simple garb, similar to what the servents were wearing, Shando spent the evening shadowing Lord Piergeron. He repeatedly scanned the crowd around him, keeping an eye out for someone not quite acting like the typical party goers. He was pleasently disappointed that nothing had happened..yet. Upon the news that something was up in the harbor and the need to get to the Dock Ward, Shando turns to Peigeron, bows and speaks:

"My lord, I understand and respect your need to lead from the front, but given the unusual nature of events of the last few days, isn't it wiser to find a safer place to observe the ships from and let a trusted lieutenant deal with the intial contact with these unusal ships? You have asked us to see to your safety and that is what I would suggest at this time. Where you lead, we follow, but I feel that my suggestion is keeping with the charge that you have given us."

Hawkeye

Click to expand...

"I only intend to go to our naval base just south of the commercial portion of the harbor...I do not plan to handle the ships alone, but I must organize the response. and confer with the commanders there."