Psionic Anti-Crime Squad: Mind Over Manner [IC]

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leolin returns with her blue uniform and spiked armor. She made a few hasty alterations before donning it. The new tunic looks loose, like it was tailored for a rain barrel, and is tucked into her already over-sized collar and gauntlets.

"Well, I could probably block off one of the alleys on my own. I wonder if I should just guard it with my polearm, or charge in and start kicking their own barrels at them..." She tilts her head as she examines the map. "Huh. Why is the middle of their hideout just sitting in the dark like that? It can't be helpful for conducting business."

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Ian looks like some medieval wizard with the blue cloak and mask. His beard has been combed out a bit but is still somewhat messy.
"A good observation and plan Mister Lucky, but I'm afraid Miss Leolin is correct. This is rather suspicious. I would imagine there are some people inside of the buildings that we have not accounted for. Some of them may even have doors in the back. As for my abilities-"
The tarp he had brought with him begins to shiver and floats above Lucky before it flies just over his head and back into Ian's hands.
"Unless you believe a ghost did that to you, I'm pretty sure that explains what I can do. Move things."
Ian seems somewhat intrigued as to Echo's arrival. Although not very well acquainted with him, he recalls Echo being somewhat in the same line of work as Leolin.
"Hello there. What brings you here?"

[Cespenar]

Anton replies to Leolin's question. "Probably because they were alerted."

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Ian frowns a bit.
"Well that complicates matters. I would suggest planning for there to be a trap laid for us. If I were planning a trap, I would ambush anyone dumb enough to enter the large opening via the buildings to the side. The guards outside could easily be bait."
He then turns to no one in particular and voices his next question.
"Is there any way of telling if they are inside? If so, we could turn this on them yet again. Keep the trap from springing and make an ambush of our own. Then we would only have to fight on a few fronts instead of all of them."

[Cespenar]

Anton chimes in from the side to Ian's comment.

"If there are openings into the buildings, you should expect the gang to use them as potential escape routes instead of traps. Take into account their current state. Their leader just escaped from the Watch's cells. They should be more on the defensive and flighty side instead of turning alleyways into kill zones."

He waves a hand. "Eh, I expect you'll understand their way of thinking more when you got a few jobs under your belt."

Mich grunts impatiently. "The thieves won't wait long for you to make up your mind, by the way. Just take Lucky's plan, divvy up your members to their groups, and go."

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Ian gives a kind smile at the two of them as only an old man could.
"Either way, it would help us trap them and it's better to plan for the worst and be pleasantly surprised. But the young man here is right, we need to hurry. I have some items that will disorient them if we catch them by surprise. Team A and B should take one each to give us an edge. I will take the North side to prevent their escape. I would suggest someone guard the buildings at some point."
He hands Lucky two thunderstones to be distributed between the two teams before he goes off to the side to await the rest of his group.

[Piecemaker]

A moment earlier:

Echo decides that he stayed in the background long enough, and it is time to make his grand entrance. He steps forward, opens his mouth, about to say something, shuts it, and opens it again. Those who are familiar with his antics in the Academy can see that he is trying so hard to suppress his penchant for drama. "Greetings and salutations." he bows. So much for being undramatic. "They told me I missed all the fun." He then nods at Lucky and Ian.
"I will leave the planning to you as I am still a rookie in comparison. I can play with sounds. I could speak like this or this , or like one of the sentries if needed. If we are going to split up according to Lucky's plan, I could silence my group's footsteps to help us sneak up on them."
He pauses for a moment. "Besides that, I could distract them during the fight, but am not much of a heavy hitter myself. If we manage to knock out a sentry, I could try to don his clothes and sneak into their ranks if needed. A warning, though, it has been a while since I tried acting - last time I had my puppet with me, and the audience was more than drunk."

[Blinkbear]

Argus volunteers for team 1, or the other rooftop team.

[Lynam III]

Lucky nods at Leolin. "Yes, you are the strongest of us, and your weapon would give you a definite advantage. It would make sense to have you in the third group to the north, blocking the street."

He watches the tarp flying above his head with obvious annoyance. "Stop kidding around Gramps. You should probably join Leolin in the street. You might suffer a stroke while climbing a ladder or trip over your beard or something."

Lucky nods at Echo. "That will definitely come in handy. Say, why don't you join the first group on the western rooftops to muffle the footsteps? Argus volunteers to be there, so that makes two. We should also give that group our best sneak, so Mimic could also join you. That should be more than enough people to take down a single sentry."

He ponders. "Obsidian and I could take the eastern rooftops. I think it will be the easier of the two, given that the ladder is easy to reach unlike the western rooftops. And if things go south, I can provide enough muscle to prevent the thugs from forcing an escape."

"We should also access the rooftops from the north by placing two ladders where Leolin and Gramps will be waiting. That way we can go down to help them, or they can climb up to aid a group if it becomes necessary."

"Any suggestions?"

Lucky gives a puzzled look at the thunderstones, and hands one over to Argus, keeping the other. "What are these supposed to do old man?"

[Piecemaker]

Echo nods at Lucky. "That works."

He walks besides Argus. "It gets harder to maintain the silence after a couple of minutes. I will start it when we get reasonably close." He glances at everyone else. "Ready when you are."

[Blinkbear]

Argus nods. "Understood." He then bows down to his canine companion and fastens her armor. "Be a good girl, and take care of good old Ian, right?" He then points to Ian and says "Protect." The dog licks his Argus' hand and goes over to Ian and looks at him, eyes full of loyalty.

"Ready when you are. Would you rather want me to fire arrows or stand in front? I'd prefer the first."

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leolin's eyes light up in recognition as Echo approaches, and he in turn would recognize Dire Felicia anywhere. She'd say something about it, but the group's in a bit of a rush right now.

"Oh! Are those Thunderstones?" She opens her mouth to go on about how she's seen them before, but, again, gotta get a move on. "They're basically noisemakers - throw it against a hard surface, and it blows out your hearing if you're too close. Great for disorienting people or scaring off animals."

They reach the point where Leolin has to turn off to find the northern alley. "Alright, so unless you want me to go first, I'll get to the edge of the light and make my entrance as soon as I hear... something. Doc, are you and puppy with me, or are you taking the other alley?"

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

Ian seems genuinely pleased that someone other than himself knows about the thunderstones.
"Miss Leolin is quite correct as to the nature of the thunderstones. As for where I should be, I believe Lucky has decided we should stick together. The other teams should have the other alley covered. My real concern is still any potential backdoors. But we'll see what happens I suppose."
Ian was tired of repeating himself and lets the matter drop about positioning.
Something always goes wrong and I don't like taking chances. But what is there for it if no one will listen? Sometimes I wish I were on one of my old expeditions. Not knowing what to expect kept those people on their toes...

[Piecemaker]

Echo nods at Argus. "You can fire arrows, I don't mind taking the lead." He does mind a bit. He had all this training but this is his first actual assignment, and the thought of close combat with the criminals scares him quite a bit. But he cannot act scared around his team mates, especially not after he bailed on the previous assignment. He takes out his sap and readies his other hand close to his pistol.

When his team is ready to move, Echo leads the way until they are around a two minutes walk away from the sentry. He then slows down to careful steps, and begins the silencing act. He gestures his teammates to keep moving - he needs to hear the footsteps to be able to suppress the noise. He cannot control what he cannot hear.

This is quite different from how he used his talent during his acting days. Using the control power to suppress noise is pretty much the opposite of what he did back then. And it required much more finesse. He tried to remember his training. The hardest part of doing this, his mentor's words echoed in his thoughts, is that you have to listen. At that time, Echo wasn't used to listening anything beside himself. He focuses first on his own footsteps. After listening for a second, he switches to Argus's, and then finally, Mimic's. Footsteps were relatively easy, they sound more or less the same. Next he focuses on subtler things that come along footsteps, the faint clink coming from his pouch, or the sap's sheath rubbing against his armor. One by one, he tries to take note of every sound that was made as the group took steps.

Then he has to put everything together. He focuses on the blending of all these sounds from different sources, and imagines the result as a single, abstract entity. Then he muffles the sound until he cannot hear anything anymore. At this part he cannot help but imagine smothering some poor fellow using a pillow. This isn't healthy, he thinks.

[Piecemaker]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Control Sound to muffle footsteps.

Rolls:
Move silently: (1d20+10)[23]
Listen: (1d20+6)[11]
Initiative: (1d20+2)[5]

[Blinkbear]

Argus follows Echo.

Spoiler: OOC: Rolls

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Listen: (1d20+9)[11] not including the +2 bonus from the knowledge
Move Silently: (1d20+7)[19] not including the bonus from Echo!
Initiative: (1d20+2)[9]

[neriractor]

Jacob nods, the a smile hidden under the mask, he looks at echo, he gets a few vague memories of him in the academy as he nods again in approval "lead us then"

He grabs his kukri, moving side by side with echo and hiding in the shadows, his skin color changes to imitate the wall behind him and keeps changing as they move, as he moves he hits a small stone and is astonished as it doesn´t make any sound tanks to eccho, he whispers to the rest of the group "we´ll be up there in no time, just don´t don´t any attention to ourselves" He wonders if they can even hear that trough Echo´s sound barrier.

Spoiler: actions

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chameleon to hiding better (once they see us I mean, doesn´t really make a difference while blind)

Move silently: (1d20+7)[19] not counting Echo´s bonus
listen: (1d20+2)[4]
initiative: (1d20+2)[22]

[Lynam III]

Lucky:

[spoilers]
Listen: (1d20+1)[3] (+2 bonus included)
Move silently: (1d20+4)[5]
Initiative: (1d20+4)[15]
[/spoilers]

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

Leolin leads a wolf and an old guy around the corner to the Northern alley.

"Well, I guess this is our mark," she whispers. "...were we supposed to do something with that tarp?"

Spoiler

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I guess I should roll initiative, huh?

(1d20)[10]+1

[Cespenar]

Mimic, Echo and Argus, through a mixture of sound manipulation and actual skill, manage to close up as close as possible to where they think the roof sentry is at, even though they can't see or hear him right now.

Lucky, however, miscalculates on one step, and a hard, scraping sound emanates from his feet. Couple seconds later, Lucky can hear the cocking of a crossbow and a tentative voice from close by, "Who is there?"

As a reply to that, a voice from deeper down: "Jon, what is it?" "I'm listening, shh."

Despite these back-and-forths, Lucky still has trouble pinpointing the sentry. He doesn't seem to have much time left to act, though.

Meanwhile, Leolin, Ian, and the dog stand comfortably in the darkness. Leolin can feel the dog giving her ankle a brief sniff, but it keeps otherwise silent.

[Lynam III]

Lucky doesn't dare make any other motion, trying to stay hidden as long as possible wherever he is. Even though the thugs might eventually find him, the other group might strike before they do so. At least that's what Lucky is repeating to himself in his mind, along with a long list of colorful curses.

[Cespenar]

Lucky stays still, but the sound wasn't something the sentry can easily shake off. Some light shuffling later, a stray pebble flies from the darkness and onto Lucky.

Argus and Echo can hear the thieves' mumblings, and realize that Lucky or Obsidian may have made a sound.

The pebble... hits Lucky despite his precognition and bounces back onto the ground. Listening to the sound, the sentry takes a shocked breath and gives his call.

"Guys, we got company!"

Spoiler: OOC

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Attack - (1d20+3)[16]

Lucky loses his dex bonus to AC, plus an additional -2 penalty due to blindness.

Map:


Initiative:
Ian
Mimic
Lucky
Leolin
Erwan
Thieves
Argus, Dog?
Echo
Obsidian

[Tsunamiatunzen1]

"If you wouldn't mind, it could be handy to use the tarp as a net of sorts. I'm not sure if I'll be strong enough to-"
Then the alarm sounds out and Ian's old exploring instincts snap him to attention like a puppet that has suddenly had all of its strings pulled taut.
Still remembering that he was to remain undetected, he puts his hand out to hold Leolin and the dog at bay as he manifests his most draining power.
Don't like using this one, hard to recover from this.
He focuses his sight on the guard he can see and his sight narrows to only his chosen foe. Invisible forces as strong as a physical blow pummel them rapidly in the intent to subdue, not wound.

Spoiler: Mechanics

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Ian is still in the darkness so he should still be hidden. If not, here's a Hide check. Spending 3 PP to manifest Concussion Blast.
Hide: (1d20+5)[8]
Concussion Blast damage: (1d6+4)[5]

[Piecemaker]

Upon hearing the noise, Echo stops in his place, gesturing his teammates to do the same. He then stops focusing on suppressing the footsteps and walks forward slowly towards east. Hopefully the distraction caused from the other side will let his team maintain the element of surprise.

If he stumbles upon the sentry at the west side of the roof, he will immediately use his power to stop him from shouting. If not, he will position himself near the yard with the intent of shooting at the enemies below.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move east. Ready action: Control Sound if Echo encounters a sentry on the roof.

[Lynam III]

Lucky quickly moves around, trying to find the person who threw the stone. His rapier and short sword are drawn. He will attack the person if he finds him.

Spoiler

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Lucky first moves 15 feet (double cost due to darkness) which is marked in red. If he fails to find anyone, he will move 15 feet further as indicated by green.

If Lucky finds the person within the first 15 feet, he will attack with his rapier. If he finds the person within the second 15 feet, he will stop and say "He's here" loud enough for Obsidian to hear, though not louder.

[Lynam III]

[spoiler]
Rolls in case they are necessary:
Combat Expertise 2
To hit: (1d20+7)[19]
Damage: (1d8)[3]+(1d6)[1]+5
Miss chance due to darkness: (1d100)[64]
[spoiler]

[neriractor]

Jacob crawls across the roof, searching for one of the guards Argus had pinpointed, guiding himself by sound and whatever light the guard may carry he positions himself as close to the target as possible and attacks with his kukri, trying to pummel the head of the criminal and holding its mouth to keep him/her from screaming

Spoiler: OOC

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I´m going to move at half speed to avoid any penalties to move silently, trying to get close to the criminal closer to the alley, the attack will be non-lethal and a sneak attack if possible, if it can´t be non-lethal I´l make it non-lethal and not use sneak attack.

attack: [roll]1d20+4[/roll] (counting the -2 for no-lethal damage)
damage: [roll]1d4[/roll]
sneak attack: [roll]1d6[/roll] (in case it applies)

[Dr.Gunsforhands]

"There's our cue!"

Spoiler

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BURST!
CHARGE!
JUMP! (1d20)[18] + 8 = 26

Grab Attack! (1d20)[5] + 7 +2 = 14 (can't rage yet, too busy using dash power) (...surprisingly likely to hit since it's a touch attack.)

Grapple Check? (1d20)[3] + 11 = 14 (more likely to fail... but, if she can start the grapple proper, she can drop her weapon to maintain it. Unless the guard is knocked out already just from the initial damage, in which case I don't even know where the weapon has to be at that point.)

Grapple damage??? (1d6)[4] lethal + (1d3)[3]+4 Nonlethal = 4 lethal, 7 nonlethal

Leolin rapidly charges down the alley and vaults over the guard's cover to tackle her. The sheer weirdness of someone doing this despite holding a perfectly serviceable polearm likely takes the guard by surprise. That said, while the idea of pinning someone's neck under the stick looked cool in Leolin's head, it might not help her grappling efforts as much as she hoped.

"Hey, Doc! Could you move that light over here?"

[Cespenar]

Ian smacks the thug with his telekinesis, but the man seems more chastised than actually hurt. He turns around, looks up, down and front, searching but failing to see anyone.

Jacob stumbles in the dark and almost bumps into the western roof sentry, but manages to score a hefty hit with the hilt of his kukri to the man's temples.

Lucky stumbles in the dark as well, but his preternatural senses let him skewer the silhouette he encounters right the second he notices him.

Leolin charges, vaults over the crates and rams the shaft of her polearm onto the thug's neck, pushing him against the wall. "Whut..?"

A voice calls down from below the level of the roofs. "Are they on the roofs? How many are there?"

"Got one here!" shout the guys Lucky and Jacob damaged in opposite roofs in similar, panicked voices. "Get some light up there! They gonna snipe us like birds!"

Someone lights a torch from below, and throws it above. The torch falls near Echo's feet, illuminating the rooftop. Echo is not quick enough to silence the scout, and he also realizes that he'd make a good target if he looks down the roof now.

The thug Leolin attacks pushes the polearm aside with a grunt, gets two hands on his heavy club and tries a heavy overhead swing. The blow catches Leolin on the shoulders, but her strengthened muscles reduces the hit to a graze.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Map to update soon.

OpposedGrapple - (1d20+1)[15] - The thug succeeds!

Leolin is dealt 2 lethal, 2 nonlethal damage (after her armor).

Initiative:
Ian
Mimic
Lucky
Leolin
Erwan
Thieves
Argus, Dog?
Echo
Obsidian

[Piecemaker]

Realizing it is too late to silence the scout or take a sniping position at the rooftop, Echo grabs the torch in his footsteps, and moves back towards the (western) sentry that he heard grunting after Mimic's hit. He intends to knock the sentry out with the sap.

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Move & attack western sentry:
Attack: (1d20)[5]+5 (masterwork sap and melee attack bonus)
Base damage: (1d6)[2]
Sneak attack damage if applicable: (2d6)[8]

(not including any penalties due to circumstance etc.)