No Hero's Welcome - IC

[Ion]

__________________________________________________
Lieutenant Conrad Tensen of the Fifth Cyran Infantry
[SIZE=-2]Human Warrior 1 / Cleric 1 stats[/SIZE]

[imagel]http://homepage.usask.ca/~rad764/dnd/Tensen-avatar.jpg[/imagel]

"With luck we will see tomorrow in Cyre!"



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Conrad listens closely to Baraka's report, and Novhilion's advice about the ropes. "It may be that the creature arriving stealthily by sky coach in the middle of the night has perfectly legitimate reasons that have nothing to do with us. On the other hand, it could be the last warrior himself who realized he left one piece of damning evidence behind and is returning to remove it from the scene. We can't afford not to know what he's up to."

The Lieutenant inches towards the corner of the alley and takes a quick peek into the street. "I think you plan is worth a shot Novhilion. If Caron can pinch the knife off that guard while he's buys, it would save us all kinds of trouble. My vote is to try it."

 

[frostrune]

Baraka:
[sblock]
From your point of view only the front of the warehouse is visible. The stable is right between the shop and the warehouse. The shop and stable are about one story lower than the warehouse. With a little climbing, you could get onto the shop and via its roof reach the side of the warehouse.
Also, right across the house there are several cranes. One or two of them might be close enough to get across with a decent jump, but you have to climb at least 20 feet ('though the ropes and chains attached to the cranes make that pretty easy).
[/sblock]

mhd:
[sblock]So where did the creature descend? The far side of the warehouse from us? I am seriously considering a climb and run across the rooftops to follow this thing. What are the approximate DCs so I can weigh my chances?[/sblock]

 

[mhd]

Baraka:
[sblock]
In crude ASCII art, the Roof looks something like this: /\|
The straight facade is hiding the sloping roof. Right behind this straight wall, the skycoach is parked. The figure went straight down behind the wall, so there's probably a window or another possible entrance.

If you want to climb on the shop, run towards the warehouse and get atop of that, it'll be a DC 15 climb check, followed by a DC 17 balance (DC 12 if not running), then another DC 15 climb or jump to reach the target. Running on the roof of the shop is loud enough to potentially disturb the guard.

Another possible entrance would be a crane coming out of this side of the warehouse, but the door behind it seems to be barred. This would entail two climb DC 15 checks -- plus the appropriate strength or Open Doors roll when you actually want to get in.
[/sblock]

 

[frostrune]

"There may be other ways in", Baraka counters, "possibly windows or vents in the warehouse roof. That creature probably ain't got one of those special knives. He landed on the roof for a reason I figure."

"Before you rile up the guard send that pretty pigeon to do a flyby on the warehouse roof. I'm betting there's an entrance... I think the gnoll left his aircart there too."

 

[Nazhkandrias]

Novhilion glares at Baraka, his tone becoming slightly cross. "Indeed, there may be other ways in, but do you really think it wise to go charging into an unknown building, occupied by one or possibly more unknown creatures, with little or no backup? If there is a vent or a window, I doubt that more than one of us could go in at a time. And I truly doubt that you would have the element of surprise in that situation. All of that jumping around would surely alert this newcomer to our presence! By going in my way, at least the group would stay together and fairly quiet. No fuss made, no blood lost."

The frustration leaves Novhilion's tone of voice, and he calms down a bit. "Still, a quick scouting of the warehouse might be wise. We don't know who this newcomer is, and even a quick description might be crucial to our success. No more than a quick survey, however, as I'm not certain how much longer the guard will be, ah, occupied. Afterwards, I am afraid that I must insist that we attempt my method." Nohilion's eyes narrow, and his voice becomes indignant. "But you may wish to consider showing a little more respect towards this 'pigeon'. I doubt that either of us will be doing you many favors otherwise."

Novhilion looks to Caron and holds out his arm. The raven shuffles down his arm to his wrist, and flaps his wings excitedly. <Well, my friend, are you prepared and at the ready?> Caron flutters his wings again. <Always.> Caron takes off and soars towards the warehouse roof.

[sblock=For mhd]Okay, Caron is flying towards the warehouse. Does he see the creature, or did the creature go inside? If the creature did go inside, does he see any open vents or windows that he can go into? Finally, if he does get in, what does he see? Caron's Hide modifier is +10, his Move Silently modifier is +2, and his Spot modifier is +5. Hide and Move Silently are probably unnecessary, though, since nobody is likely to immediately attack or even notice a bird, right? Still, if the need arises, those are the modifiers. After he sees something (or if he sees nothing), he'll head back to me and report.[/sblock]

[sblock=For Baraka]Sorry if Novhilion seems a little snobbish, he is an Elven Wizard of noble blood, a recipe for arrogance if there ever was one! He's a neat freak, a tactician, and one for subtlety. Bit of a contrast with Baraka, eh? I'm interested in seeing how that will develop.[/sblock]

 

[mhd]

For Caron:
[sblock]
As Caron gets closer to the roof of the warehouse, he notices the sweet smell of blood. Landing on top of the roof's outer wall, his eyes scan the scene before him. There's a rather large elemental vehicle hovering over the roof itself, oblong in shape and rather flat, obviously more used to carrying goods than passengers. In the back there's a small platform with a few glowing crystals. Atopf of this platform is a small body. The dead halflings eyes stare unseeingly at the night sky. Delicious looking eyes, really can't beat halflings in that regard....
With two quick hops Caron lands on the aircart and then on the roof besides it, staring down its slope. And yes, there's a rather large skylight here, its covering slats ripped off and placed to one side. Fluttering to the skylights edge, Caron looks down. There's almost no light in the warehouse and he's certainly no owl. He can detect a few simple shapes, the faint smell of dried blood -- and a rather loud grating at the right side of the house. Someone's pulling a large, metallic object across stone. With a loud clang it lands on the floor, and a little bit of light comes through an opening on the side. A large shape objstructs the light now and much quicker than before, the iron plate is put back into place. The two shapes have a brief discussion.
"Took you long enough!" barks the smaller one.
"'ry, boss. 'ad to duck a gang, as you told me.", a basso voice echoes across the warehouse, regretfully.
"Yeah, yeah, no time for that. Wouldn't want a survivor to remember your ugly mug."
"Ahhh, boss..."
"Now stop whining, you overgrown, fur-less chamberpot. We've got work to do. Get all the metal round here to the wooden platform in the middle where I can pull it up with the crane. Hurry! Don't know whether our dear departed friend had some special arrangements with the guard..."

The large shape now lumbers towards the spot where the skylight illuminates the floor below. 9 foot tall, hunched over, black skin, black clothing. Looking around hungrily.
Caron spreads his wings, catches the wind and is gone from the roof.

OOC: Now, the next part depends on whether Caron gets back straight from this scene or tries to spy on the guard first. Just tell me what he did and read the next block if he's not returning immediately.
[/sblock]
For Caron, pt. II
[sblock]
Circling down, you land silently on the door to the stable, standing right next to the blade of a worn halberd. There's a magelight glowing down there, filling the stable with bluish light. On a dirty blanket, a naked, hairy man is recovering from a particularly disgusting mammalian mating. One of his hands 'round the shoulders of a naked doxy, the other around the straps of his guard's bag he's snoring loudly. Deftly the right arm of the harlot is moving towards that bag, trying to eel her way out of the embrace just enough to get to its clasp. Just as she's about to open it, she nods, like she's just remebered something. Quickly she checks her surrounding, until she finally gazes upon Caron. Surprised and afraid, she clings to the breast of the snoring beast now, watching the door with a suspicious squint.
[/sblock]

 

[Nazhkandrias]

[sblock=For mhd]I’d say that Caron would save a little time (given the urgency of the situation) and go straight to the guard to see what’s up. After being noticed, however, he would immediately leave, acting as much like a normal bird as he possibly can. He’d then report back to me.[/sblock]
Caron realizes that he has been noticed by the harlot and has little to no chance of snatching anything now. Frustrated, he silently lifts off and flies back to Novhilion. As quickly as he can, he recounts everything that he saw, from the dead Halfling to the two in the warehouse to the awakened harlot. <I couldn’t get the key. She was awake and she noticed me, but she tried to get something out of the guard’s bag.> Novhilion bites his lip in frustration as he recounts what Caron has told him as quickly as he can to the rest of the party. “It would seem that we have a dead Halfling on a skycoach, two murderers in the warehouse, one of them quite large and beast-like, who are going to be leaving soon, and an awakened harlot in the stable. I don’t believe that we can snatch the key, and time is of the essence.” Novhilion gives a begrudging look to Baraka. “We may have to embrace the less subtle approach.”

Novhilion turns to the others, addressing them in a grim, flat tone of voice. “We can’t afford to be seen by the guard, and I doubt that the two in the warehouse would hesitate to end all of our lives as soon as they see us. The way I see it, we have three options. One, we could attempt Baraka’s plan, but it might alert the two in the warehouse to our presence, and I’m not certain that all of us would be able to reach the roof. Two, we could incapacitate the guard and the harlot and snatch the key, but we would have to do it without either one of them noticing, lest we run afoul of the law and find ourselves locked up for a long, long time. Still, the harlot might be willing to cooperate. She doesn’t appear to be terribly fond of the guard.”

A cunning gleam enters Novhilion’s eyes as he gestures towards the roof of the warehouse. “The third option, and my personal favorite, is that one of us might be able to get onto the roof and commandeer said skycoach, allowing all of us to easily access the roof, thus ensuring that we are all together as we face the threats within.” Novhilion turns to Conrad, and smiles. “Any objections, Lieutenant Tensen?”
[sblock=For Everyone]My, oh my, do I love elaborate plans. So many theatrics, so little time! [/sblock]

 

[frostrune]

Baraka looks eagerly at the Lt. He shifts his pack adjusting its weight. His nostrils flare and he appears ready to pounch.

mhd:
[sblock] Can Baraka take 10 on his climb, jump, and balance checks? If so, I can make it over the roof and up the wall without incident +6 all skills. The question is, can he oprate the skycoach? [/sblock]

 

[Ion]

__________________________________________________
Lieutenant Conrad Tensen of the Fifth Cyran Infantry
[SIZE=-2]Human Warrior 1 / Cleric 1 stats[/SIZE]

[imagel]http://homepage.usask.ca/~rad764/dnd/Tensen-avatar.jpg[/imagel]

"With luck we will see tomorrow in Cyre!"



__________________________________________________

Conrad does a few quick stretches, getting ready for a little bit of action. "I like option three. Let's borrow their skycoach, it will get us all on the roof, and cut off their line of retreat."

 

[frostrune]

Baraka grins wolfishly. He likes option three as well.

"One of you magic-types get near the edge of the warehouse. When I get to the roof I'll drop a rope for ya. I doubt I can fly that thing."
Without further delay he bounds off for the attached shop.

[sblock] He plans to sneak by the 'lovers' and climb to the roof of the attached shop. Cross that roof then climb the last bit to the roof of the warehouse. His move silently, Hide, climb, and jump are all +6; balance +4. He will take 10 on the climbs and jumps if he can. [/sblock]