Adventurers' Guild Team Adder IC

[Lord_Asmodeus]

Ioth scowls at the woman, however he is content to let others do the talking, and he likewise readies his crossbow, sizing up the men (or women) on the roof.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Quinn runs back to the gate, but quickly calls back,

Quinn

"It's locked! I can't get out!

There is no response to the adventurers' shouts into the house, and all you see through the door is a dim hallway lit by flickers of firelight.

[Zyks]

Vlax calls back to Quinn"Then get back here lad!

Vlax isn't happy about the kid being with them, but it doesn't seem like we have a choice.

Why would the gate be locked? How did it get locked? THis is seeming more and more like a trap.

Well theres no reply, looks like words didn't work

"You lot can stand out here if you want, but I'm going in, I want to hear whats going on."

Vlax strides confidently into the building.

[DavidByron]

Someone behind us?

Do you see anything back there, Ioth?

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Spot looking for trouble back towards the gate - (1d20-2)[8]

Quinn, are you sure it's locked? Calm down and try it again.
Hang on; I'm coming.

Matthew will start to calmly walk back towards the gate.

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Although he might not get there I guess, depending on the result of the spot check and what other people / NPCs are saying and doing. I assume Matthew would have been one of the PCs nearer the gate anyway, given his cautiousness and lack of fighter or sneak skills.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Quinn is standing at the gate, struggling with it. Matthew begins to walk towards Quinn while Vlax begins to enter the front door of the long house. The rest of the adventurers are between Vlax and Quinn. Suddenly there is a rustling sound and the adventurers realize that the two or three shapes seen by Ioth were not the only people on the roof. Over a dozen crossbowmen now stand with weapons raised, their outlines dim against the night sky, lining the low wall on the roof. One of them near the adventurers speaks:

Crossbowman
"Leave the boy. As soon as you're all inside, we'll open the gate and let him go free. I promise you'll come to no harm in the house. We have no desire for any violence to occur here in Bridgeport."

[Bribri]

Fin was debating seeing if he could simply kick the gate down, or if it would be better to just go into the house as the crossbow-men revealed themselves making his choice for him. Did they have a chance of beating that many? Maybe, but the risk of someone being killed, or all of them being killed with THAT may bolts heading their way wasn't something Fin was going to take, particularly with Quinn still out in the open. "Don't think we got much choice..." He said simply, heading into the house, having to hunch over a bit to fit through the halfling sized door.

[Lord_Asmodeus]

Ioth scowled, looking around, trying to see if he could discern any features on the new crossbowman, he kept his crossbow lowered, but ready, and edged toward the door, grumbling to himself draconic about jabbing the next guy who jumped out at him with the business end of his spear, and he smiled cruelly at this thought.

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Spot (1d20+2)[16]

[hyperfreak497]

Matthias walks back to the boy at the gate (assuming he isn't stopped) and takes Quinn by the shoulders. "It's going to be fine," he says. "I want you to go straight back to the dung guildhall and tell them everything that's happened."

With that (or if stopped), Matthias turns and walks through the open front door, stooping to fit through.

[DavidByron]

Ignoring the crossbowman's comment Matthew walks on to the gate. If Quinn and Matthias are there and nobody is there to stop them, he'll get Quinn over the gate (perhaps with Matthias' help) and then climb over the gate himself, possibly with the help of Matthias or Quinn.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

As Matthew heads back towards the gate, one roof guard lets loose a bolt... apparently not at Matthew, but instead impacting perilously close to Quinn.

Crossbowman
"I told you just go inside and we'll let the boy go. Otherwise all of these guards have orders to shoot the boy the moment any fighting starts."

[DavidByron]

Well no fighting has started, so I guess their orders are not to shoot still, we have maybe a few more seconds of them not knowing how to react....

Continue to help Quinn over the gate, offering no rebuttal to the crossbowman, not even to recognise the challenge was heard.

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I'm not sure how long it takes to flip the kid over the gate with two of us giving him a boost. I suspect it could happen within a combat round. At any rate if we go any further playing this out it would be very useful to know distances from the house to the gate and where everyone else is, where any other cover is. Is the crossbowman having to shout to be heard? It's a tough shot over long distance at night when Quinn is behind us to hit the kid. Where exactly are the light sources for the crossbowman to shoot by (is it still "the only light on the hill comes from two peat lamps atop the gate pillars"? Is it possible to run off to the side into the dark and climb over the wall instead (for Matthew - I assume Quinn is basically almost over the gate by now). Also the people who decided to head to the house may not have got there yet or if they have may want to know what they see inside before deciding how to react.

How is the gate locked and is it as easy to climb as I am thinking? How about the wall?

Matthew is ready to cast Silent Image to cover the escape.

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This is where some illusion rules issues come into play. Under rare circumstances you don't get a saving throw and this is possibly one of them. You have to be able to interact with or inspect the illusion to get a save but if Matthew creates a visual barrier between him and the crossbowmen and a long way from them, they may have almost no ability to tell if the wall or cloud of mist or whatever is real or not since they are a long way from it at night. Similarly for example Matthew suspects that the other dozen crossbowmen on the roof might be illusions too, but he has no way to test this theory. He can hardly see them as more than shadows and he can't interact with them. It's not good enough to say to himself "it's an illusion" and see if it just goes away.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

The adventurers at the door pause to look back at the commotion behind them.

Matthew and Matthias boost Quinn up at the gate, but Quinn hesitates at the intricate prongs of metal in his way. Instead of going over the gate, Quinn boulders sideways an arm's length and over the stone wall, which is only six feet high. Just as he does so, flames a foot high leap up along the top of the wall, snaking toward Quinn. Matthew and Matthias can hear him jump, land on the other side, and scramble to his feet running before the flames reach the spot where he had climbed over. Looking back they see the flames illuminating a piece of wall which extends from the house to the main wall that runs along the perimeter. This is where the other characters saw the flames originate from - shooting along the top of the wall starting at the house and eventually burning along the entire perimeter. The two men are brightly illuminated as a target by the flames, while the guards on the roof remain somewhat hidden by the darkness.

[Crossbowman]
"I see you prefer the difficult way, even though we would have let the boy go. Still, your behavior gives me a good explanation for my superiors if your party dies tonight. Men, if any one of these fools make a move other than walking into the house, kill those men!

Fifteen index fingers curl slightly as the roof guards take up the slack on their crossbow triggers, aiming fifteen sharp steel points straight at Matthew and Matthias' hearts.

[hyperfreak497]

Pressing himself up against the wall, Matthias slowly creeps toward Matthew. "Want to cooperate now?"

[DavidByron]

Since Matthew was expecting another long speech from the crossbowman before he could change the orders of his troops and had readied a spell I assume he can cast it while the blow hard is still trying to impress us with his diplomacy?

Matthew casts an illusion of a thick cloud of fog, somewhat similar to a smoke stick or what he imagines the low level wizard spell can create -- no need to do anything flashy like a wall of fire. It should be large enough to prevent the people on the roof from seeing anything around the gate or the wall near the gate.

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Area of effect is 50'x10'x10' fog thick enough to not see through / full concealment / no LOS. Positioned just about 10' in front of the wall so the area the crossbowmen would have to guess we were in to shoot blind would be 20' x 50' or 40 different 5'x5' squares. Alternatively they could guess we were climbing the wall / on the wall and shoot at any of 10 5' sections of wall at about the 6' height. If they guess the right rough location then there's a 50% concealment miss chance and finally they have to roll a to hit with the -2 distance penalty and possibly an additional -4 penalty for cover (eg if Matthew was standing directly behind Matthias) or being hunkered down on the ground.

Then he hits the dirt expecting a volley of crossbow bolts!

Quietly to Matthias:
Yeah how about you give me a leg up. That oil on the wall will burn itself out any second now.

[Bribri]

"The hell are they doing..." Fin mutters to himself as he looks back. At the very least Quinn got away, but these guys mean business. Fin can't just run out and get himself filled with bolts pointlessly! Who would take care of the young'ins then? Still a lot of this didn't make sense. Why the hell did they have THAT many guys waiting for them? What are the stakes here?

He shook his head, right now that didn't matter, as Matthews Fog started to appear he sighed kicking the side of the house hard "Put the bloody bolts down! You said you didn't want bloodshed in Bridgeport so how about ya start acting like it! Fin wish he could do more. But there wasn't much else. A sling against that many crossbows was nothing, his best hope was that Matthews Fog was enough to give them the cover they'll need if they ignored him. "Now I'll go Talk to your Damned Mistress. But That AIN'T going to happen if you decided to pull a trigger. I can tell the rest whatever she's got'a say if they need to hear it"

Without much hesitation he moved into the house now (or as fast as he could in a home made for halfings) if, and when he sees our good lady Fins first response is mostly an angry one. "The lot of you would of bolted is already if you wanted us dead. Call your Blasted Goons on the roof off NOW, and tell me what the hell you want to say. And don't get started huffing over a raised voice, I got plenty of reason for it."

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Roll a diplomacy for me if I need it. Though I'd much rather keep that 20 From earlier hahaha.

[Zyks]

Vlax shouts out to the guards "This is ridiculous! All this just to see some old woman! He turns and heads into the building with his axe draw, intent on finding the woman and finding out what all this is about.

[ubersquid]

"Are you so eager to take up the final journey? And how do you think this will work out with two people running away while the others are still at the door?"

Berwin has been silent all the way since they left the dungcarters guildhouse. His hoarse voice is directed towards Matthias and Matthew, who just disappeared behind a thick cloud of mist.

He leans his pick against the house and slowly backs up, with his hands raised, peeking up the roof.

"I am am sure all of this will yield a rather interesting explanation, considering the effort that was made to trap us here and I am much inclined to hear it from this side of the world."

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Peeking up the roof, Berwin casts Detect Evil

[DavidByron]

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offline for about 30 hours.
I'm not sure what time there is for this speech but it could be said after the escapees get over the wall, or while they are ducking and diving crossbow bolts waiting for the best chance to jump the wall. eg between volleys.

Hushed voice:
Matthias, I don't think they were going to let Quinn go. The woman perhaps, but not that crossbow guy. They probably didn't want him running back to the guild to get reinforcements. Now their plans might have to change. They might be going to move out before the cavalry arrives. I don't trust that Quinn to get everyone roused up and down here quickly so one of us has to go for help and the other should stick around to shadow these guys in case they run off. It looks like they may have captured the others ... hard to see from here (Uh... that fog cloud is an illusion by the way - you knew that right? you can see through it) if they have been captured and the enemy runs off and takes them, we'll need someone following them stealthily.... that seems more your department than mine.

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I've been moving slow almost round by round because clearly the escape is an opposed action, and these guys have a few tricks. However if nothing new turns up -- and they probably would have used anything else to stop Quinn escaping -- it looks like the last obstacle (the wall) is going to be trivial to get past.

It looks like a DC 10 climb skill check even if the wall was 20 foot high let alone six. In fact you could just pull yourself up, plus there's two of them. Since they are not in combat they can just "take ten" if they just keep a cool head. Oil normally burns for just two rounds although they could probably just step past it since it is not burning on the top of the gate or at the end of the wall tight close to the gate presumably. Matthew has to concentrate on maintaining the spell but climbing is only a move action not a std action and even if he takes damage (eg from a lucky hit with a bolt) Matthew can take ten on concentrate to automatically pass (unless the damage actually knocks him out of course).

Sorry for going over that at length ... I guess I am a little surprised at how it worked out ... The next action for Matthew and perhaps Matthias is just "climb over the wall".

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Vlax moves into the house and is lost to view by its dark interior. A few poorly-aimed crossbow bolts are loosed at the illusionary fog and clatter harmlessly against the stone wall before the spokesman on the roof raises a hand. The crossbowmen reload, waiting for instructions. The spokesman stares at Fin furiously but looks hesitant and unsure, saying nothing.

(For Vlax only)

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The interior of the house is very dark and you find yourself having to struggle through the hallway as you push through...pine trees??? Vlax realizes there is no floor, but the ground covered with pine straw, and he is surrounded by tightly spaced pine trees. Through the pine needles behind him (where he came through the doorway) he sees only darkness. He can not tell if there are any walls, but through the pine needles above him he glimpses a starlit sky, and he can just make out a clearing in the trees ahead of him where there is a bonfire.

[Zyks]

Weird thinks Vlax, looking around himself. Of course this could all be illusions, like Matthew does, but anyhow...

He moves toward the bonfire, but not quite into its light, watching.

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Spot check into the clearing (1d20+2)[16]

Also Being a dwarf I have darkvision (60ft), just incase that helps me see, unless its magic darkness.

[Lord_Asmodeus]

Ioth, who had been edging his way toward the door, finally ducks in after Vlax.

[Bribri]

The spokesman stares at Fin furiously but looks hesitant and unsure, saying nothing.

Fin, wasn't going to add anymore words to that, just returning the glare back up at the spokesman both eyes open, hands at his side but clenched. His point made either way, as if he was was saying 'You KNOW I'm right' as he stared up, before finally heading forward into the house (unless he decides to shoot more anyway!)

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Berwin detects no evil.

[ubersquid]

Berwins face relaxes a for a moment. He slowly returns to the house and straps his pick on his side again. He now stands next to the doorway, watching the fog for a sign of Matthias and Matthew and waits for them to either run off, return to the house or get hurt.

[DavidByron]

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We have a split party for the moment. I will wait for a response by Hyperfreak or the DM to the "Matt and Matt" scene before posting again. I was the last to post in that "scene".

The rest of you OTOH shouldn't wait for either hyperfreak or me. Neither group knows what the other is up to.

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Vlax' spot check:

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Sitting and reclining around the fire are a half dozen small humanoid creatures, about 3 1/2 feet tall, with ugly, exaggerated features. Some of them talk quietly to each other or smoke pipes, and they wear leather armor and have various weapons and shields about them. A deer carcass, partially and crudely butchered, lies on the ground near the fire, and Vlax can see the gleam of firelight reflected on a few bones scattered around the creatures.

EDIT: The flames on the wall sputter and die down.

[hyperfreak497]

"Let's get the hell out of here," Matthias gasps as he sees the bolts clatter next to him. "I'll give you a boost, then follow you out."

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Aid another to Matthew: "Climb" - (1d20+1)[5]

After Matthew gets over: "Climb" - (1d20+1)[8]

[DavidByron]

Matthew calmly climbs over the wall with Matthias' help to steady him, maintaining the illusion as he goes, careful to avoid what's left of the hot oil.

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taking ten on the climb = 10

Trying to keep alert for a change:
Spot, looking around - (1d20-2)[3]
Listen - (1d20-1)[13]

Seeing Matthias goof up following him he whispers.
Just take it easy. Try again. Forget about the crossbowmen. The leader has raised his arm to tell them to stop shooting for some reason.

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This last is said in case Matthias can't see through the fog.

Matthias should make a DC 15 Will save with +4 bonus to see through the illusion. Or possibly a normal save followed by the save at +4 if he figured the fog was an illusion before Matthew told him.

[Lord_Asmodeus]

Ioth stalks in nervously, switching to his darkvision in the low-light setting, and sidles up next to Vlax trying to discern what he's staring at.

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Spot (1d20+2)[15] Search (1d20+3)[14]

[Bonecrusher Doc]

Ioth identifies the creatures - goblins!

Matthew and Matthias manage to get to the far side of the wall, albeit somewhat clumsily, with a few banged shins and singed fingers in the hot oil. As they catch their breath on the other side, they look around and see that Quinn is already gone.