Old Ways IC II

[MeanMrsMustard]

Alanna, like Nathros, is eager to get into the action. She'll walk alongside the dwarf all the way to Bloody Bill's.

[Roland St. Jude]

The streets of Threshold are bustling in the early afternoon. Bloody Bill's is apparently popular with the dockside lunch crowd. Stevedores and sailors nearly fill the place, and they munch away happily, pausing to look as the armored group enters and approaches the bar. The bartender sits perched on a stool behind the bar, apparently in between pouring pints. No one is seated at the bar and no one fights in the ring. Barmaids shuffle through the crowd delivering food.

The barkeep leans in conspiratorially. "We have a deal, then?"

[Matthew]

Nathros gives Alanna a wink as they jostle along; on reaching the bar, he stands guard on the door, waiting for Ashala to deal with the thieves.

[Nevaera]

ASH

Ash responded (back at the Bor's household) that she'd rather go first even if there's traps. She's well armored for whatever they may throw at her.

---

At Bloody Bill's, she'll go straight to the bartender and respond immediately to his question at a volume comfortable for mainly just him to hear, "Yes.
"We have no interest in hiring any extra men, but we agree to your terms. So long as your information is correct and helpful, we will be true to our end.
"You have my word that you will receive your portion and we will not stand in your way of procuring the location after we're done there.
"Though my personal word only counts if I survive, the rest of the my group are on board with this as well."

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Artanis winced at Ash's choice of words but remained silent, still lost in his own torment.

[Roland St. Jude]

"Deal," he says as he leans in further. "The Fangs are holed up in the large low-sittin' sailing ship, River Rose. The head of the snake is one they call Viper. He'll be below like always. I'm not sure he's ever left the boat. No one knows what he looks like. He's probably down to a dozen men or so now, maybe less, but the ones on the boat are his best ones, unless he's sent some of them out to kill you heroes. But you'd probably know by now was that the case. So maybe a dozen amulet-wearing lieutenants, maybe less.

There'll be one in the crow's nest and usually a couple on the deck. Watch out for the big guy, the Viper's first mate, ugly brute of a man from what we seen.

We'll be watching during and after, so any filching the loot will be noticed. Not that you heroes would ever do such a thing." He grins kindly.

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Artanis, upon hearing the location, came back to his usual self.

"Shall we make the attack now? Or shall we wait? An attack now would give them less time to prepare. However, waiting will allow us to see their patrol routes and maybe use cover of darkness."

After listening to the answers, he asked another tactical question.

"Shall we make a big ruckus and hope the local authorities help us? Or shall we perform this quietly and stealthily? In any case I shall guard Alanna with my life... Unless she doth wish otherwise."

[Nevaera]

ASH

Ash nods in thanks to the Barkeep, "We'll begin preparing immediately. If you require, I can inform you or send a messenger when we're about to make our move."

To her group, "Let's take our plans somewhere quieter with less ears to pry." Then she'll head out the door with them, so long as no one has any unfinished business here still.

Outside, she'll tell them they should head back to Bost's or just find a quiet place outside of town to discuss. That way, no one could see them at a tavern or something and give the Fangs a heads up. If no one objects, she'll lead them to whichever option is closer, then everyone can discuss the plan.

---

When it comes to planning, she'll make a few suggestions for everyone to consider while she yet in her head sorts out what she thinks might be best, "Perhaps a way to lure some away from the fight ahead of time would be ideal. Maybe we could also get a bunch of archers to rain arrows down on them as we initiate our attack, so long as we're allowed to attack first since they're the Fangs. We should also be sure our information is likely correct and make sure, if they have any prisoners, that they are not put in danger as well."

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Artanis voiced his plan of attack.

"We should definitely take the man in the crow's nest first. I can deal with him. Meanwhile, I think that Talsarios should cast a Sleep spell on the crew that are on deck."

He then frowned deeply.

"Giving the Thieve's Guild a whole ship explains their relatively low price for the information. Although..."

He smirked a little at his next comment.

"They never said anything about being careful with the hideout. So we cannot be held responsible for any damage."

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

"Should we wear leather armor while we do this?"

"Anyone wearing metal armor who falls overboard will sink and drown."

[Nevaera]

ASH

Ash's eyes widen (she's removed her helmet for discussion) when she hears Brandon's concern of sinking. She clears her throat, "Good point. But I'll be significantly less effective in that scenario so I'll have to take my chances. Maybe the enchantment on my armor will make it easier to swim in... and if it's docked close enough, I should just be able to walk along the bottom to get to the shore... in theory.

"It's up to you guys what you want to do with this issue in mind, but perhaps we could start with the sleep spell followed by a volley of arrows for those that don't go down. Magic should be a first resort to spare as many of our lives as possible, though it'd be good to hold an ace up our sleeves when we fight the Viper.

"Also, there may be value in considering if there's a way to take out the Viper first, before letting on to our all out attack. If he goes down, the rest will surely submit easier.

"Any suggestions?"

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Bran suggests, "Ash, if you want to test it, there's a pond not far from here where you can try swimming in magic armor."

"Mom's shield is easy; I can just let it go. It'll sink to the bottom, but I won't drown from using it."

Bran shakes his head in a negative. He has no suggestions for taking out the Viper.

"We don't even know what he looks like. If we shout for them to surrender the Viper, they'd just send up some underling who says he's the Viper."

[Koren n'Rhys]

"If the Fangs truly are down to a dozen or so men, then our chances of success do seem to be improving, though I'm sure our friend at Bill's is right. The toughest of them will still be there."

At the comment about the armor, Mycah adds, "I never thought of that! We won't want anyone wearing heavy plate mail and drowning. An initial volley of arrows and magic seems smart. Your Sleep spell should take out the sentries. What do you have up your sleeves for the Viper though?"

[Roland St. Jude]

There were two traditional riverboats in the docks as well as a host of small fishing ships. The only true sailing ship, sitting low in the water as the barkeep said, is anchored out in the river, near its center and slightly downriver from the docks. This much was visible mostly from outside Bloody Bill's, and from another perspective on the trail leading south out of town toward Bost's manor, which is the first truly empty place the party finds to discuss their plan of attack.

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Artanis spoke up to address a problem that he decided they needed to address now.

"Another point is... does anyone know where to find this ship? It could be out of port right now for all we know. If we ask around for it, that might attract unwanted attention."

[Altair_the_Vexed]

"Is it not that ship there, on the river? Can you not read its name from here? I thought elves had good eyes." Talsarios points at the sailing ship.

[Matthew]

"Like most who find themselves with such a choice, I have more fear of being skewered than I have of drowning."

[MeanMrsMustard]

Alanna shudders slightly. "Gonna have to agree with Nathros on that count… but I'm not sure how much I wanna take this off. I know that, higher risk of drowning or not, I still feel a lot safer with a nice suit of metal."
She raps her knuckles against her breastplate for emphasis.

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Artanis looked at the ship and just shrugged.

"I have not spent much time around ships. So I have little knowledge which ships are classified as official sailing ships."

He then glared at the offending ship and pulled out his hammer and pitons.

"If I had known that this would be a problem, I would have prepared my Floating Disc to carry you while I kept my armor off. As it is, I think we'll have to rely on these and some rope. These pitons should hold anyone wearing heavy armor... so long as they are securely fastened."

[Nevaera]

ASH

"So the armor issue is settled.

"Now that I'm thinking a little more on our approach, we may need to hire a vessel just to reach the ship. Perhaps Lord Bost would have something we can rent.

"If we make our way there by boat, then we'll be at a disadvantage to attack at the start and the volley of arrows idea is out. I could probably distract them a while as everyone ascends the to the deck if I go first. Magical armor an' all... should make me pretty difficult to hurt, unless one of them gets a lucky hit between the links.

"If we do it that way, it'd still be difficult to get ropes up that'd stay. Maybe nightfall would be a more ideal approach in case they're drinking or something and not paying much attention to those that approach. I imagine their atmosphere would be very similar to Bloody Bill's last night, but without any hesitation to stab or gut us.

"Anyways, we'll also need to sort out the order we reach the ship's deck in."

[Altair_the_Vexed]

"Well, I can easily drop a Sleep spell on the ship, and I've learned it twice today, so I can catch some of the reinforcements too," Talsarios says, looking pleased with himself. "Best I do that just at the moment our attack is to begin, eh?
"Now the other thing is, I can use my Wand of Magic Missiles to shoot the watch in the crow's nest. You see, he'd have good cover up there from our conventional arrows, so the unerring Magic Missile may serve best. Between Artanis and my wand - assuming you learned the Magic Missile spell today, old chap - we should be able to make sort work of him.
"Of course, I'm open to other suggestions - I'm an anthropologist, not a scholar of skirmish tactics".

Spoiler

Show

Somehow, one can hear the italics when Talsarios speaks...

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor


Bran looks uncomfortable as he suggests, "What do y'all think about fire arrows?"

"Like, tie oil-soaked rags to arrows and set the rags on fire, then loose the arrows at the boat?"

"Once the boat is burning, they're bound to be easier to handle."

"My main concern is whether they might have slaves or captives on board. People who we shouldn't set on fire."

[Koren n'Rhys]

"That is probably a really good idea, Bran. I'll bet they'd flee that boat like, what's the saying? Rats off a sinking ship? Problem is, it'd make the Guild pretty mad. I don't like the idea of handing that ship to them, but we've already seen how much trouble having a group of enemies like that can be." He gestures towards Artanis to illustrate his point.

"What if we hire a few smaller boats and come at them from more than one direction? That would make the arrow volley idea more likely to work."

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor

Bran scratches his head.

"Maybe I wasn't paying attention closely enough, but why would setting fire to the Viper's boat make the Guild mad?"

[Koren n'Rhys]

"Part of the agreement was that the Guild gets the hideout once we take out the Viper. Well, the boat IS the hideout. If we burn and sink it, they won't be very happy with us."

[Frivolous]

Brandon Bor


Bran chews on a thumbnail.

"Did we agree to leave the hideout in good condition? I can't remember."

[MeanMrsMustard]

"I don't think we ever actually did… but do we really want to be known on the streets as a bunch of sneaks who always try to push everyone down by only following the exact words of our promises? I think we should try our best to keep the boat in good condition."

[Nevaera]

ASH

Ash nods in agreement with Alanna.
"We shouldn't be putting the ship in that kind of peril as we'll likely be just as endangered by the situation as them."

"Each water vessel would require a pilot and that's a bit more man power than we can probably muster, plus they'd be in danger almost as much as the rest of us. No, though I thought that'd be a preferable approach, it's still not plausible.

"I'm loving the magic plans. They sound pretty sure. It'd be best to use them as soon as possible.

"Now, what are our full assets - besides raw strength and numbers, two sleep spells, and a magic missile wand? I am going to be extremely hard to hit, followed likely by either Brandon or Nathros. Alanna can heal, but to what extent and how many times? Artanis, what spells have you today? Is everyone feeling well and healed from last night, or should we stop by the temple before leaving? We need to be at our best and we need to use everything we have to it's fullest potential."

[MeanMrsMustard]

"I can cast a healing spell three times and I packed my first aid kit, which has a couple of potions. If we need extra weapon-users, I've got a mace and a sling. I'm not taking off my armor, though, unless I absolutely have to."
She emphasizes certain words by fingering her holy symbol, patting her armor, and thumping her mace into her hand.

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Artanis glared a little at Talsarios, somewhat insulted.

"For your information, I ALWAYS prepare at least one Magic Arrow as a contingency plan."

He then addressed Ash.

"I currently have two Magic Arrows, I was expecting an assault, not towing someone in the water. If you need my Floating Disc that I used to carry Mycah when we first met-"

Artanis returned Mycah's glance.

"-then you shall have to wait until I can prepare it."