Tales of Crimson Darkness II

[whiteflash]

"That sounds like rather a long wait. If it weren't for the fact that I want to keep all my spells for the speech, and didn't prepare much in the way of theft spells to begin with, I'd probably suggest we go handle one of those thefts we wanted to take care of."

"But maybe we should at least steal some lunch. Nothing fancy. We'll just hit a soft target that sells something edible."

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky "not a problem"

Snagazod the Sneaky leaves and comes back after a couple minutes with some meat and vegetables on a stick and a clay mug of prune juice.

It is boring waiting....but, eventually, hours later, you do start to see orc gather in the big open couartyard next to the side of the temple as if they are waiting for something....

[whiteflash]

"Thank you." Hissra takes his share of the offered meal and eats it gratefully.

Hours later, he sees the orcs assemble.

"That looks promising."

Hissra looks around for Graatch without casting See Invisibility, figuring that Graatch might not have made himself invisible yet (assuming that he can at all), and might just be counting on nobody looking closely at the temple walls.

[Darth Ultron]

The assembled group looks to be all orcs, of all different types. You don't see anything anywhere around the stands out.

After a couple more minutes several clerics come out of the temple doorway, and across the courtyard. One Orc male, dressed in fancy robes, walks to the middle....

Snagazod the Sneaky "That him..."

[whiteflash]

The assembled group looks to be all orcs, of all different types. You don't see anything anywhere around the stands out.

After a couple more minutes several clerics come out of the temple doorway, and across the courtyard. One Orc male, dressed in fancy robes, walks to the middle....

Snagazod the Sneaky "That him..."

"Then Graatch should be there soon if he isn't already."

Are we still standing in an alleyway outside the courtyard? If so, there would probably be blind spots where Graatch could be standing that would let him see Tlukkah, but wouldn't let us see Graatch.

Either way, Hissra takes one last look around to see if he can finally see Graatch before he starts trying to come up with a new plan.

[Darth Ultron]

Aley way across from the court yard.

There are plenty of blind spots. Plus the whole area is filled with orcs and a couple goblins, so it is very crowded. No one stands out, except the temple clerics in their fancy outfits.

And no one has a sign that says ''Graatch".

Snagazod the Sneaky "Maybe he indivisible? He not orc right? Maybe? Me see no ones with wings? Heys, if I become use my boots, does I get to see others that are indivisible too?"

[whiteflash]

Aley way across from the court yard.

There are plenty of blind spots. Plus the whole area is filled with orcs and a couple goblins, so it is very crowded. No one stands out, except the temple clerics in their fancy outfits.

And no one has a sign that says ''Graatch".

Snagazod the Sneaky "Maybe he indivisible? He not orc right? Maybe? Me see no ones with wings? Heys, if I become use my boots, does I get to see others that are indivisible too?"

"He's probably not an orc, no. He's probably some small, flying creature. And yeah, he could very well be invisible. I might need to use that spell I have to see invisible creatures."

Hissra is about to say that the boots probably don't let Snagazod see invisible creatures, then he hesitates. "I... hm."

I assume he wants to know if being invisible lets him see invisible creatures, and I'm pretty sure it doesn't work like that. But are boots that grant both Invisibility and See Invisibility possible? And if the boots did grant that power, would Hissra have sensed both Divination and Illusion in them when he scanned them?

[Darth Ultron]

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Of course it is possible. Custom magic items can be made.

Though, also, such magic would be detected.

[whiteflash]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Thanks.

"Well, being invisible doesn't grant you the ability to see other invisible creatures. Now, an item that turns you invisible can be modified so that it grants you invisibility and the ability to see other creatures, but if those boots did that I'd have caught that there was a Divination effect on them when I scanned them."

"One thing we can do... I can turn myself invisible, and cast the spell that lets me see invisible creatures. Or I could cast it on you, since you probably have better eyes. Then we can walk into the orcish congregation and look. You'll blend in, and I just won't be noticed."

"But that might not be the single best plan..."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

A while ago, you said that ordinary bats have Scent and Echolocation. Would a dire bat have those same abilities? And would a fiendish dire bat be able to understand Infernal, like all the other Fiendish creatures I've summoned?

[Darth Ultron]

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Yes and Yes.

Snagazod the Sneaky "Well, me better at spots, but you better at magic."

[whiteflash]

Spoiler: ooc

Show

Yes and Yes.

Snagazod the Sneaky "Well, me better at spots, but you better at magic."

"There's that. If he's got any brains at all he's probably well outside of sword/axe/fist range."

"One possibility that occurred to me, though, was to use a summoning spell. I could conjure a dire bat and direct it to hunt down a flying creature that's concealing itself nearby and watching the speech. If we summon it close enough to the temple, it should have time to reach Graatch, and finding him won't be a trouble for a bat. The only difficulty would be what we do next if the dire bat isn't enough."


While he's speaking Hissra looks out at the crowd, to see how many clerics seem to be in it and what the non-clerics seem to be armed with. For that matter, can he hear what Tlukkah is saying?

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky "Um, carful, me thinks the temple has no magic alarms. "


The only obvious clerics are the ones around Tlukkah, most of the crowd looks to be non cleric types. Just about everyone you see in the crowd is armed, just about everyone has at least one axe...but you also see plenty of clubs and daggers.

After a couple more minutes Tlukkah gets up on a flat rock and starts to speak: "Strength! Strength is all! When the gods of the lesser races tooks our homes it was Strength that won us! We are Strong! "

[whiteflash]

"Wait, but if there's abjurations warning the priests if someone uses magic... that would mean Graatch either has to be outside the temple, or has to be visible. Wouldn't it?"

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky "Well, you he magic guy. But me know temples are magic. Unholy evil ground. And things like you break a window, and magic bells ring."

[whiteflash]

"Hm. Well, we don't necessarily need to break a window. So if that's what the alarm is set to catch, we might be okay. And I'm not sure unholy ground would be a problem for either of us in and of itself. But unholy ground sometimes has other defenses cast into the spell that makes it unholy, and those defenses might effect us... and magical alarms aren't one of them, as far as I know, which means we'd be looking at some other defense."

Hissra gulps nervously. "I just remembered that one of the effects a cleric can cast into unholy ground cancels invisibility. If the temple is enchanted with that effect, any invisible bat we send after Graatch will be caught instantly, and so will we if we try using invisibility to sneak in there ourselves. But you might not draw a second glance as long as you don't appear out of nowhere, and unless that defense is cast selectively it'll effect Graatch too. Maybe you should go in there and look around? Carefully, of course. Get out of there if anything goes wrong."

While this is going on Hissra keeps one ear pointed towards Tlukkah in case there's anything relevant in the sermon.

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky "Magic is hard."


*Snagazod looks around carefully*

"Wait! Look what me sees!" Snagzod points to a tree at the edge of the courtyard.....where a small gray skinned, winged humanoid sits on a tree branch..partly hidden in the branches and leaves.

No other orcs around, even the orcs standing under and around the tree seem to see the humanoid...though most eyes are looking at Tlukkah.

[whiteflash]

Hissra smiles. "I see him."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

All right, one option is to kill Graatch as fast as I can and then immediately sprint away from the orcish lynch mob. Another is to get that lynch mob to accomplish my goal for me. The second one is more to my taste, but comes with the disadvantage that I can't take Graatch's body for my own use... although Kabhsenuf Tantawi probably bewitched Graatch to make his body useless to me anyway. Still the lynch mob might fail, since Graatch has wings, and then things get interesting.

How many trees are there in the courtyard? If Hissra casts Ghost Sound to conjure a loud voice, are there few enough trees that the voice Hissra conjured could easily point out the tree just by giving verbal directions?

And is the tree closer to where Tlukkah's congregation is congregating, or to where Hissra and Snagazod are standing?

[Darth Ultron]

The courtyard has a total of eleven trees, spaced around in a chaotic pattern.

Graatch's tree is in the middle, right in line with Tlukkah.

Snagazod the Sneaky "Me ready, what we do?"

[whiteflash]

"That tree is a bit closer to the brutal orcish cleric and his congregation than I'm comfortable getting. Maybe the smart way to handle this would be for me to cast Ghost Sound to conjure a voice that tells Tlukkah he's being spied on and where to find the spy, then for us to wait here and see what happens? If Graatch flees, we follow and finish him. If he dies, we wait to see if the body melts the way Yuuta Mori's did. If it does, we just sneak away. If it doesn't, we wait to see whether there's any way we can get our hands on it, and make sure we're ready to sneak away at any time."

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky "Me thinks bunch of angry attacking orcs is bad. We is should get him.

You knows...me thinks he can't go in the temple...he'd set off alarms. So he must wait around outside, right?

And once all the talking is over we cans get him."

[whiteflash]

"... Huh. You're right. That would work. And without the Temple of Gruumsh even realizing anything had happened at all, if we did it right. And we'd be the ones with access to his corpse (assuming it's still usable...)"

Hissra's smile widens. "Yeah. Let's do that."

[Darth Ultron]

It takes two long hours, but eventually Tlukkah stops speaking and the crowd breaks up and the clerics go back inside the temple.

Graatch lounges on his branch, watching Tlukkah. No one looks at the tree.

As Tlukkah enters the temple....Graatch wiggles his wings and fades away from sight!

[whiteflash]

"Well, it's not like we didn't see that coming."

He turns to Snagazod. "Okay, you're the one who saw where he was hiding, and I still have two spells that I can aim well enough just knowing his location. Maybe I should cast my See Invisibility spell on you? But we need to decide fairly quickly."

Spoiler: OOC

Show

(1d20+5)[20] for Knowledge: Planes to try to figure out if there's any sort of mephit that can turn itself invisible as a racial ability, rather than requiring class levels, a magic item, or whatever else.

[Darth Ultron]

Spoiler: Ooc

Show

There is no mephit that can turn invisible as a racial ability that you know of

Snagazod the Sneaky "Um, me not sure. Is we just gonna kill hims? Or you want to catch him? "

[whiteflash]

Spoiler: OOC

Show

Thanks.

"I'd assumed we were going to kill him. I'm not sure what else we can do. We don't have the resources to watch him, if we slip up he could well kill us, and anyway the only interrogation I'd trust him not to lie in would be a postmortem interrogation at the Temple of Shargaas..."

Hissra stops. "There might be another way. We might be able to turn him against Kabhsenuf Tantawi. There was a mephit who... hm, did I already tell you the story? How a mephit named Foppo and a goblin named Nuxd Boneeater and I killed a woman for Kabhsenuf, and he betrayed us, nearly killed me, and killed my two teammates? Well, if he knew and liked Foppo, we might be able to persuade him to seek revenge. If not... well, we might still be able to turn him, given how his master rewards loyal service, but it gets harder."

"Anyway, since capturing him is off the table, who gets the See Invisibility?"

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky "Well, guess you don't have two spells.

Well, you the magic guy...you know about magic. "

[whiteflash]

"Yeah. I should probably do that next time. I'm just not used to having a partner."

"Anyway, you have better eyes, and he might hide again. I should probably cast it on you."

(If Snagazod doesn't protest then Hissra just goes ahead and does that, then asks "Is he still here?")

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod the Sneaky nods "Yup, me sees him. He moved over to that tree...on that low branch right there."

[whiteflash]

OOC: Is Snagazod pointing to a tree inside the temple courtyard? And are there any orcs still inside the courtyard?

[Darth Ultron]

Snagazod points to a tree on the side of the countyard, closer to the temple...right in line with the temple door that leads to the courtyard.

There are six orcs in the whole courtyard wandering about.