A Monk, a Wizard, and a Swordmage Walk into a Fallcrest; a 4e Story Now game

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 2 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal: Convince the kid-bandits to abandon their track of ruthless violence and present them a new course.
1/6 Successes/1 Failures/1 Hard DC Available/2 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Arcana

There is a collective gasp and exchange of whispers from the collected children/adolescence at the mention of Alvi...that he may yet live?

STARN

* The less raw and more experienced tiefling girl on the other hand, sensing a ruse and deploying one of her own, indulges the young (like herself) mage-apprentice. "Fastormel? What could possibly draw you into a fool-mission to that infernal ruin?"

Starn's next step leads to the feeling of a snag at his shin and the sound of a flexing tripwire.

The tiefling cocks her head and smiles as Starn takes in the simple yet effective perimeter trap around the inner encampment of gardens and small field.

"Blastpatch," she says and then makes a ka-boom pantomime. "Gotta protect our garden. Lots of critters out here. Critters of all kinds..."

VORN

* The young sneak that melded into the shadows and is quickly taking to one of the crags to climb up is impressive. They've taken advantage of the now-darkened ruins-hideout to lose Vorn's visual tail of them for a moment.

---

@AbdulAlhazred , @Grendel_Khan

The complication for Starn is 1 x Healing Surge worth of damage due to adrenaline dump at the increased stakes of the situation. If this goes to combat, you're carrying that Healing Surge damage into it.

You (or Lief) have the lovely problem of dealing with this Blastpatch perimeter that you're in the middle of setting off if you make another move at all without disarming it. If this goes off, you're taking another Healing Surge worth of damage (which means if we go to combat, Starn starts Bloodied).

What's the move? I'm deploying my HARD DC for the conflict on this obstacle!

@hawkeyefan

What do you do? If the kid gets to you, they'll have the upper hand in a melee grapple with that shiv. You'll have little choice but to get violent in that situation. MEDIUM DC.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

LIEF, still in the shadows, pulls his thieves' tools and gets to work. He moves quickly, looking to Starn, than tracing an imaginary line around the perimeter, and finally nearer to the shifter. He sees a speck of moonlight quivering low to the ground. Lief pinches the wire a gloved hand, and snips it with short shears, before letting it go slack.

------------------------------------------
Intent: Disarm the trap before it goes off.

Secondary: Perception. r(19)+13 = 32 vs Easy DC (13). Success.

Primary: Thievery w/+2 for SS and +2 for thieves' tools. r(15)+9+2+2 = 28 vs. Hard DC (26). Success.
------------------------------------------

Lief needs to let Starn know he's clear. How to do that without giving himself away?

Can't be done. He clocks the layout of the knife-wielding children, and charts a path between them. The weapons in their hands have his teeth bared—another reminder that he's among little killers. So what if there's fear in their eyes. Aren't the fallen always scared? Always stabbing and murdering because they're panicked at a world they don't understand, or can't accept.

Not like him.

He moves, feet gliding across the ravine floor, dodging rocks and children, realizing they'll hear him soon enough but hoping he can marry stealth and speed enough to hit the mark. He smells their terror as he slips past the bandits', and uses his momentum to drive a forearm behind the tiefling's neck. Standing behind her, Lief lays a clawed hand at her throat.

"You are not in control here," he says, loud enough for the rest to hear. "And you're alive because we say so."

The tiefling raises her hands.

------------------------------------------
Intent: Take their leader hostage to give us leverage for backing the kid-bandits down.

Primary: Stealth. r(11)+18 = 29 vs Medium DC (18). Success.
------------------------------------------

---

Complexity 2 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal: Convince the kid-bandits to abandon their track of ruthless violence and present them a new course.
3/6 Successes/1 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Arcana, Thievery, Stealth

 

[hawkeyefan]

Vorn scans the crags to locate the young bandit before he can get close enough to become a problem. His eyes take a moment to adjust now that the lights have been snuffed, but before too long, he sees the lad moving amidst the rocks, scrambling up a patch of vines.

He sees a line of darkness near the outstretched hand of the bandit. A crease in the rocks. Perfect. He lets loose.

The arrow wedges itself into the crease in the rock. Vorn watches with satisfaction as the bandit's reaching hand recoils.

"I didn't have to miss, boy," he says. "You're good... but I'm better. Don't move."

__
Intent: To locate the climbing gang member before he can get close enough to become an issue.

Primary: Perception. r(16) + 12 = 28 vs. Medium DC 18. SUCCESS.
__

Complexity 2 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal: Convince the kid-bandits to abandon their track of ruthless violence and present them a new course.
4/6 Successes/1 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/1 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Arcana, Thievery, Stealth, Perception

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Starn laughs, and says "Blastpatch eh? Let's have a look at your handiwork, shall we?" He picks up the patch with his mage hand and examines it.

Dungeoneering vs Easy DC as a Secondary Skill use roll 14 +9, Success. +2 bonus is available for the next check

Starn casually tosses the blastpatch at exactly the point which causes one of the rotten walls of the structure to collapse on the children's storage area, burying much of their supplies under a couple tons of rubble.

"Oops! One should be careful when deploying such devices in such an unstable structure! Wouldn't you rather learn how to make one with sovereign glue? Much safer!"

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

As the stunned children look on Starn continues with his monologue. "Bandits cannot be tolerated, and we swore an oath to end them! So, if there is a bandit in this place, his life is forfeit. Those on the other hand who serve the Gods, they are worthy of redemption, as was written in the ancient Concordat of Nerath. Step forward those who would serve!

Religion, DC 18, roll is 20 +15 +2 = 37. Success.

Something in Starn's appeal hits the mark. The children remember the way old man Miller told them life is a series of choices, right and wrong. All they lack now is that last bit of assurance.

Complexity 2 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal: Convince the kid-bandits to abandon their track of ruthless violence and present them a new course.
5/6 Successes/1 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Arcana, Thievery, Stealth, Religion

 

[Manbearcat]

Complexity 2 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal: Convince the kid-bandits to abandon their track of ruthless violence and present them a new course.
5/6 Successes/1 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/1 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Arcana, Thievery, Stealth, Perception, Religion

The children look utterly torn between Starn's entreatment, the terror of the wild-looking shifter menacing Nyx (the Tiefling), and the typically unflapping Tiefling actually looking frightened.

One of the youngest of the children steps forward, shock of brown hair mussed up, tunic and breeches utterly unwashed like their face. Their eyes brim with tears as their shiv falls from their emptying hand and sticks in the dirt.

"...do...do the Gods really care fer us? Can...can we go back home?"

Nyx inhales a shallow breath as Lief's claws prickle her neck. "Jessie," the mid-adolescent Tiefling says calmly and lovingly to the young boy. "We've talked about this. Our only home is here. With each other. No one up there (eyes go skyward) or down here cares about us...'cept us. This world won't let us be. You know that."

She regards all the kids.

"We all know that."

The camp is quiet as somewhere in the distance a wolf howls. The baying is returned in kind.

---

MEDIUM DC

 

[Grendel_Khan]

LIEF listens to Nyx. Behind the bluster, he can tell—still a child. Abandoned and bereft. He smells the acrid bite of fear, but her voice is hollow, like a baby calling from down a well.

He sees her and the rest of the child bandits for what they are: corpses to be, dead kids walking, more casualties of this fallen world.

It's too late for him. But maybe he can save them.

Lief draws away from her neck. He plucks the knife she'd dropped, hands it to Nyx, and gets on his knees before her.

"Over there, off the road where you left him, I saved Alvi's life. I used these hands, and this healer's bag, to do it. We saved him from the creatures stalking him, then gave him to Johan to take back—Johan who was about to be lynched for what you did!" he suddenly yells, looking around at the rest of the children. "The noose was around his neck. But I saw he was innocent, and spoke up for him."

He focuses on Nyx now. "We came here to save the rest of you. Because if we don't? You're going to die, one by one by one. Oh you'll cry as each one dies, you'll pay tribute and tell stories and act like little soldiers at war, but then you'll die anyway. What else can you do? As bandits? As scum? As nothing? As killlers?!"

Lief grabs Nyx's wrist and puts her knife to his neck. "So listen to us when we tell you there's a place you can live, that we know people who know what Kamroth was like, and want to fix what he broke. Give this up and be children for a little longer. Or," he says, looking at her, his shifter eyes wide and shining in the moonlight, "be a killer." He lets go of her wrist. "Kill me!"

------------------------------------------
Intent: Act on his hunch that these bandits are still children, and want more than anything to be somewhere they actually feel safe.

Primary: Insight, using Advantage to step Medium DC down to Easy DC. r(11)+10 = 21 vs Easy DC (13). Success.
------------------------------------------

Nyx presses the blade to Lief's flesh. Jessie's in her line of sight, though, watching her. They're all watching her.

The shifter, too, clearly insane. Teeth bared like a madman. Like he wants the knife.

She puts it back in her belt. Laughs and gives Lief a light shove. "You better not be lying. Or you'll have Jessie to deal with." She winks at the boy and pretends to scratch her nose, brushing away a tear.

---

Complexity 2 SC, Level 10 (DCs 13/18/26)
Goal: Convince the kid-bandits to abandon their track of ruthless violence and present them a new course.
6/6 Successes/1 Failures/0 Hard DC Available/0 Secondary Skills Available/0 Advantages Available/Primary Skills Exhausted: Arcana, Diplomacy, Thievery, Stealth, Perception, Religion, Insight

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Starn recruits a few of the kids to go with him back up to collect Nimozaran, and bring back the lookouts and laborers that were knocked out. He'll take their measure and learn some names. It might come in handy some day.
They find the old wizard scrawling strange symbols and diagrams on one of the sheer rock faces of the gully near where Starn left him a bit ago. He gets the kids to take Nimozaran back down to the old fort, saying "Take him down and give him a bit of food and water. Don't mind his mutterings, he's not going to hurt anyone."

As the others head back, Starn turns to look at the markings again, and swears they've moved while he wasn't watching them a minute ago. He carefully averts his vision, and indeed there almost seems to be some subtle motion he can detect out of the corner of his eye, but it's hard to tell. Perhaps it is just that he isn't able to see the things correctly when he looks right at them! Disturbed, he turns back and follows the others. He's tired and wants to make camp.

 

[Grendel_Khan]

As the children pack up what little they can salvage, Nyx approaches Vorn. He's the least unsettling of this crew of supposed saviors—or at least seems the most stable.

"The Raven's Roost Bandits are going to come like vultures for what we—" she resists the urge to roll her eyes, "you know. Corellian, their leader, has a long memory. They're on their way here, probably. They'll try to track us down wherever we go."

Lief appears next to her. "Here." He presses a coin pouch into her hands. "Wherever you wind up, pay someone like him" he nods toward Starn, "to protect what you have. Doesn't matter what they actually do, just what these bandits think they can do. You won't be worth the risk anymore."

His social battery long since depleted, Lief steps away before Nyx can respond, leaving her to look back at Vorn, a little stunned.

Next on his spending tour, Lief passes some coins to Starn. "Please do what you did, again, to hide our tracks. I'm sick of fighting and bandits tonight. We can head into the wild, there, off the Trade Road, to watch for when Johan comes back."

------------------------------------------
1) Being the flexible priest of Sehanine that he is, Ressilmae has advised Johan to bring the children to his temple. He will secret them away under pretense so they will not see judgement from any parties.There are land auctions for Kamroth's siezed state that are going on currently. The temple has enough funds for exactly this kind of endeavor so he'll purchase a farm in outlying Fallcrest for them.

By spending a total of 340 gp (1/10th the kid-bandits' level) Lief and Vorn will keep them out of @Manbearcat 's crosshairs for future consequences or complications, such as Raven's Roost Bandits attacking their new farm steading.

2) We're also spending 10 gp for Starn to use Traveler's Camouflage to disguise our tracks as we head back to the Trade Road and Camp 1 where this whole thing went down.

So a total of 175 gp each for Lief and Vorn.
------------------------------------------

 

[AbdulAlhazred]

Starn casts Travelers Camouflage again, covering the entire party, and then wearily packs up and prepares to leave. During a spare moment he tells Nyx to keep up her studies and makes sure she's aware he will see that she gets some training.