D&D 5E hafrogman's Hoard of the Dragon Queen (full)

[kuey1975]

Carad has silent image which he can still cast twice. So possible to do the fire idea. However even if we create the illusory fire the roving group will wonder where the south group went. Also illusory fire has no heat and that might make them suspicious when they are walking by especially if it is a large enough bonfire to cover the door.

But if we need to flee Carad can create illusory smoke to mask our flight.

I'm for either attacking the front or back so as to quickly open up an escape route for those trapped inside. If things go south for us at least they still stand a chance if running, especially if we hold off the enemy. As such I'm leaning towards the back group as there's a direct route for them to the river creek back to the keep which is probably safer for them than through the town.

 

[kuey1975]

[MENTION=15132]Steve Gorak[/MENTION] Carad is down by 11 HP so the good berries would be great!

 

[Spartain104]

Venn has prestidigitation. Which can have three effects at once. I can work with any illusion or even make noises to draw some away

 

[kuey1975]

Hmmm... I can't remember what spell resources we have, but what about:

1) Kill the back group. Cast an illusion of a successfully set fire and maintain it.
2) Go through the church, wait for the patrol to pass. Open the door and kill the battering ram crew.
3) IF the illusion of the fire is still up, the patrol may run back around to the front to attack, at which point we mad dash with the refugees to the woods to the south?

Granted, I don't know if we have a Silent Image spell available or if we could pull off maintaining concentration on it through the fight at the front.

To add on to my previous post, instead of creating illusion of a bonfire, Carad could create an illusion of billowing thick smoke of up to 15ft x 15ft blocking the doorway. The current 6 are already making lots of that, so the roving team won't find it suspicious that there's even more smoke. Moreover, they could be fooled into thinking that the 6 of the raiders are inside the smoke and hence not visible. We could buffer that with minor illusions and prestidigitation to create sounds of the 6 inside the smoke. Even if they choose to investigate, they would take a few minutes, which would hopefully be enough time to take out the battering ram group.

 

[Forged Fury]

So, one for A, one for B.

Personally, I think we take B first, then A. B is the smallest group and the description said they were distracted, so we can probably get surprise. If we also roll good initiative, it's possible that we could take the group out really quickly.

The timing of the illusion stuff could be challenging, but it really depends on how much time it takes us to get in the church. We still don't know how many people are even inside the church or what the layout is, which may also complicate matters, but I think overall it's our best option.

Let's take Option B (The Rear Door) and see from there, unless [MENTION=15132]Steve Gorak[/MENTION] or [MENTION=6800191]Spartain104[/MENTION] have additional input.
[MENTION=8858]hafrogman[/MENTION] What's the closest we can get to the back of the church and still be in the treeline?

 

[Spartain104]

Venn would be fine with B. He can throw some blasts in from a distance and should others come he can distract them.

 

[hafrogman]

[MENTION=8858]hafrogman[/MENTION] What's the closest we can get to the back of the church and still be in the treeline?

The closest would over on the southwest corner, staying behind the wall and getting within 20 ft of that corner or so. But the group swung to the east side, so that's quite a ways away now. There's the smaller bush and tree that were used by Hunter and Scree, but otherwise you're looking at being 50 ft or so from the back.

 

[Forged Fury]

I think time is of the essence and I'm not sure risking moving back to the other position and possibly drawing their attention is worth it. Morgan and Hunter would have disadvantage on the attack but if we get surprise and are unseen, that should net out to a normal attack. Jeni, Venn, and Carad should all have advantage on their attacks if we surprise them and are unseen when we attack...

Now that I think about it, with the way surprise works, we could possibly get within the javelin's range if we move and then throw

 

[kuey1975]

Yes, I think for surprise, you can still take your full range of activities, i.e. in this case Morgan and Hunter could move 30ft then throw the javelin within range, so no disadvantage. Yes, let's go for it!

 

[hafrogman]

I feel I would be remiss as a DM if I did not point out this nugget from the IC thread:

A small force is gathered around a back entrance to the temple (south), and appears to be trying to set fire to the structure. They are not having much luck and have only succeeded in creating a large amount of smoke, which would make it easy to sneak up on them and gain access to the temple inside.[/ooc]

So getting in range of them without being seen isn't going to be an issue. But picking them all off at range within all that smoke might be trickier.