Before the Rise of Tiamat

[JustinCase]

Grimnir nods, not daring to speak in fear of being discovered by the enemy. He cannot confront anyone right now; his injuries make him slow and vulnerable.

Shrugging, he motions for the others to sit tight until the group has left. Meanwhile, he is studying the cultists' interaction for clues about their respective status and perhaps intent. Working on a ship tends to make one alert to hierarchy and ways in which conflicts are settled.

OOC: Sorry, weekends are often my offline days. Particularly on a beautifully sunny day such as yesterday! Social distancing in my own garden works just fine. Making an Insight check on the cultists: insight: 1D20+6 = [11]+6 = 17 As soon as the enemy are gone, Grimnir will suggest dressing up in the cultists' outfit so they can move about more easily.

 

[Envisioner]

Grimnir is able to suss out that the cultists are a rather disorganized lot, seemingly members of disparate factions which have recently been dragooned together into a single force, but are by no means a well-oiled machine as of yet. There are definitely plenty of vulnerabilities in their command structure which could be exploited, although it'll be a trifle challenging given that nearly all of the membership are apparently humans, elves, or dragonborn (with various hybrids including the occasional half-orc); you've seen only one or two dwarves and not a single halfling (or gnome). So while you could mug a cultist for their black armor, or an acolyte for their purple robes, either would be radically ill-fitting, particularly if Grimir tried to wear it over his existing armor (which is infinitely better, apart from the impairment to stealth).

(I'm assuming you're all whispering among each other, counting on the wind and the distant din of ransacking and shouted commands to cover up any noise you generate; the contingent onsite is mostly sticking to where the unconscious trio were found, and none of them seems to be paying much attention to the area where you are at the moment. The house behind you has already been very obviously looted and torched, so they don't seem interested in searching its grounds any further.)

 

[gnarlygninja]

"We could sneak around the backside of this house and try to run along behind the row of houses to the temple," Lyle suggests. "I think I'd look a bit too much like a child in his father's robes if I tried wearing any of their clothing." Lyle thinks for a moment, trying to remember how closely his suggested method would get them to the temple.

OOC: Not sure it's necessary but here's an int check to remember. CoyoteCode Dice Roller

 

[gargoyleking]

Mornok smirked at lyle for a moment. "Ye c'd prolly pass fer one o' them dragon rats wit' a bit o' work, from a distance may'aps. But fer' us, it'd be about impossible."

He glances back at the trio of cultists and frowns. "When that lot wakes up they'll 'ave our descriptions. We'd best not tarry long, that or find a way t' silence th' lot."

 

[JustinCase]

Grimnir nods as he points towards the house Lyle mentioned.

"Let's go," he whispers, slowly moving out of the bushes trying to be silent and unseen.

 

[Envisioner]

The battered trio manages to sneak through to a house across from the temple of Chauntea; they have several close calls, but manage to avoid being spotted. When they arrive at the rustic but decent-sized sanctuary, they immediately see that the intruders have done some damage; there are small fires burning around the church's outside, but the fieldstone structure itself seems only to have suffered basically cosmetic damage thus far. However, the squarish building is absolutely swarming with cultists and kobolds; a large number are grouped around the barricaded front door, another smaller group is clustered around the back, and a host of mostly kobolds, led by three men who are holding the leashes of two of the dragon-dog things that you saw earlier, is patrolling a circuit around the temple, chanting some sort of religious litany and capering or gesticulating, while the drakes sniff at the air and howl intermittently.

 

[gnarlygninja]

"Any ideas? Best I can come up with is waiting til the patrol is on the opposite side of the church and trying to take out the group at the backdoor, their chanting and all that battering should cover most of the noise if we're fast enough." Lyle glances down at his own bruises and at the others. "I'm not sure we're up to that though."

 

[Envisioner]

As if in answer to your words, the circling group comes around from the front of the church and passes those gathered at the back. "Here, what's taking you laggards so long to burn through this door?" barks a melodious female voice, probably an elf from the sound of it (though her language use is hardly typical of any elf you've met). A particularly weaselly-looking kobold squeaks in response, "Wood not will burning for good! Us keep break our fire-sticks before theys can get through." "IDIOTS! TRY THIS!" shouts a second member of the procession, and he pulls out an incendiary-like device (Mornok recognizes the technology as Dwarven immediately, and in fact the speaker could easily be a dwarf from the shape of him, though atypically tall for the race). Tossing the spike-shaped object toward the unseen rear of the building, he is rewarded with a big "boom" and a huge gout of thick black smoke, which quickly spreads and blankets the entire area in a gray haze. The bomber laughs and yanks on the choke-chain to urge his drake forward; the kobold members of the mobile group twirl and leap and jabber in excitement at the detonation, while those who were around the door can be glimpsed cringing and covering their heads just before it explodes, and then scramble to recover their tools before they are fully obscured from view. The patrol then moves on again, vanishing into the cloud and presumably continuing on with their route. Assuming they keep their previous movement rate, they will likely take about five full combat rounds to make it back here, giving you a fair amount of time to use the smoke as cover and sneak up on the door guards.

 

[JustinCase]

"That's our cue," Grimnir says with a smile as he moves forward, taking advantage of the smoke to remain unseen, hoping to get the villagers out of the temple.

With the singlemindedness of a true dwarf, the priest rushes towards where he suspects the wood is most easily opened to let out those inside, if necessary with the help of his hammer. If he is detected, he ignores any cultists and kobolds until his current goal is completed.

 

[gnarlygninja]

"That was convenient. Let's hope our luck can hold out a little while longer." Lyle grips his shortsword and a dagger, then moves forward into the smog.

OOC: CoyoteCode Dice Roller stealth roll