Arabesu's Eyes of the Lich Queen - IC

[Vertexx69]

Hightower crouches down gathering a handful of grass/leaves/dirt to clean off the majority of the blood from his hands. Taking in the information that the druid has brought them, he stares out at the jungle for a moment. "I'm all for as much stealth as possible. We have nowhere near the bodies to take on a possible army of lizardfolk, especially if its those bigguns, the blackscales. But as for the captive, if he comes to before we have done our job, he can give us away at the most inopportune moment possible. And remember that he isn't some innocent creature, he tried to kill us all without being provoked." spot: (1d20+5=18)

OOC-The thing about a game world to remember is that you have to leave the 21st century morality at the door (even though torture is still being performed EVERY day by our own government, on our own citizens.) These are savage worlds where even the priests wear armor and beat things to death with heavy metal objects. I am a descent person but that wouldn't stop me from ripping someone limb from limb if they hurt a member of my family intentionally.

 

[moritheil]

"Hightower makes a point regarding the necessity of our situation," adds Rosa. "We can't take him. The real question is, can we dispose of him in a way that aids our cause? For example, in some tribal cultures a dead soldier is simply looted and left behind, but a living one is protected and cared for. In this case leaving him to be found would be in our ultimate interest as well as an act of mercy.

"The benefit would be tying up a few other lizardfolk in carrying him; the downside would be that they would know we are here and they would know anything he could tell them. So originally during the interrogation I thought I could maybe trick him somehow, but he woke up before I had figured out how to do it."

 

[renau1g]

Fenwick will relate to the group what Hoppy's informed him and send his familiar to check out the other camp. Seeing Hightower and Rosa discussing the prisoner still Fenwick will pipe in "I'm not thinking we can just kill him, at least like this, it just wouldn't be right. If it was unavoidable, fine, but this would be murder. I say we have to tie him up and leave him be.". He's very adamant that he won't stand by and watch a coup de grace on the helpless prisoner.

 

[Arabesu]

It took about ten minutes for Hoppy to survey the poison dusk camp and return, so you expect the same amount of time for the Blackscale camp. Hoppy is away inspecting the blackscale camp when your empathic connection grows tense: Hoppy is afraid and anxious as if nervous.

At about the same time, most of you (OOC DC 10 spot at your distance) see a Blackscale leave the camp. He moves to the road leading up to the temple, at a spot equidistant between the two camps. He stops and begins talking to someone nearby, presumably hidden. Although you can feel his rumbling voice in your chest, he is much too far away for you to make out what he is saying. Then you notice a poison dusk stand from the grass in front of him and they have a heated argument. The poison dusk makes a motion in your direction and continues to argue. The blackscale seems to laugh but then becomes angry by something said by the poison dusk. The blackscale gives a rude gesture and puts a hand on the butt of this greatclub leaning against his hip. The poisondusk seems to give one last protest and then melds back into the grass. The blackscale stalks back to his camp, irritation plain on his face.

Hoppy soon returns. He conveys to fenwick most of the above but also relates that there are three blackscales in the western camp. Two were outside sunning themselves on rocks and he didn't see the other until after the above exchange is concluded at which point they began conversing. The third had apparently been inside one of the huts. As he was departing he noticed that the blackscales who were previously un-armored, are now beginning to don poor-quality hide armor and collect their weapons. Although they didn't look like they were particularly rushed, it did look like they were making preparations for war and that it would take five or ten minutes at their current rate before they are "ready."

He also notes that there is a large cage at the southwest side of the blackscale clearing. A creature that smells strongly of poop and blood resides inside. He was too terrified to get close enough to look through the closely spaced bamboo bars to find out what the creature was. It seemed constrained by the cage, at least for the moment. He caught a glimpse of a pile of chains near the front of the barred cage, but could not surmise their purpose.

 

[renau1g]

Fenwick picks Hoppy up and strokes him lovingly, whispering in their secret language "My greatest thanks old friend, I know that was hard for you. Once we're back in the city, I'll make sure you're rewarded well."

Turning back to the others, Fenwick relates the events proceeding at the various camps ahead. "It seems that stealth is no longer an option, as they appear to have spotted us. Shall we proceed with the Hightower-ing approach?"

 

[Arabesu]

OOC sorry, I didn't mean to imply that stealth was fully out of the question. The poison-dusk pointed more or less in your general direction, but not right at you. You suspect that the poison-dusks may have heard the earlier alarm but apparently not all of the blackscales did. Ultimately they will probably investigate what happened to the patrol and the blackscale they sent earlier, but it appears they may finish their lounging about first. From body language, the poison-dusks seem diligent, vigorous and disciplined, while the blackscales in the camp seem lazy and indifferent.

 

[moritheil]

Rosa considers the situation. "Hmm, it appears that they know we're out here but they don't know exactly where . . . and they are sending out scouts to pinpoint us. Otherwise I think they'd mobilize their big muscle instead of sending more scouts. We had better get moving."

She indicates the camp. "We'll have to deal with the encampment somehow. Even if all they are doing there is making more poison arrows, I really don't think any of us would enjoy being shot with those. If it's their little war factory, we may as well shut it down while we have the chance.

"Do you think sending the injured person walking back to them would serve to gather them in close together? I could try blinding them all if we can fit them in one small area. Of course, we'd need to keep the gag on somehow so he doesn't start yelling from far off . . . meaning we'd have to keep his arms bound, too."

 

[Vertexx69]

The goliath rubs his stoney chin a moment longer, "Well the lizard is unconscious at the moment and it could take a while to rouse him. From what the little bunny said I think we only have a couple minutes before they have prepared themselves for combat." He looks to Rosa with a shrug.

 

[renau1g]

"Hmmm...I wish I had some illusion spells ready. I'll remember that for next time. Rosa, maybe you can use your inborn ability to create a phantom sound to create a diversion?" Fenwick says after routing through his bag quickly.

 

[moritheil]

"Hmm. You're right. Okay, new plan: I sneak in and divert them, then we hit them quick before they figure out what's going on." Rosa pauses and smiles at Fenwick. "There's no guarantee I'll get clear in time, so try not to bathe the area in fire or anything."