05. "Reaching the Fort" (RP)

DM:

The party stands at the edge of the thick forest as the late afternoon light begins to fade. Away below and before them stretches a wide valley, it's lush green grasses interrupted here and there by several small stands of trees, really more like very small forests themselves. At the end of this valley lies the ruin of Fort Boulder, which has seemingly been restored to much of its former strength, and is apparently inhabited not by the expected goblins, but by a large force of kobolds.

The small, reptilian creatures can just barely be seen walking along the high wall of the fort at this distance, but it seems obvious that they are keeping a wary eye out for any dangers approaching from the valley.

The fort is tantalizingly close, mere hours away. The question is, though: how will you reach it unseen with its multitude of wary, armed guards?

AMdG

Rubicon stroked his chin still, assessing the situation. "Hmmmm... well, we still have that summon I mentioned earlier. If possible, we could use it to perform reconnaisance around the camp." Cubert gurgled slightly. "I'm... honestly not entirely sure how long it would last, but you can't always find the answer without a little experimenting!"

"Aye. I think Ruby has the right o' it. I'd send Rune out but he cannae go far from me." Liar scanned the area, trying to determine the best route to the fort. "Didnae someone say somethin' about a hidden entrance?"

Ithilwen sits quietly, listening to the others talk back and forth but not understanding a single word.

Instead, the mysterious elven woman tilts her head slightly as she watches a handful of brightly colored butterflies flutter and dance about in the field before her. She smiles and, standing quickly to her feet, sprints out into the field, calling out fond greetings to the butterflies as she wades through the waist-high, waving grasses.

"Oy!" Liar calls out to Ithilwen in elven. "Get ye back here, gel! Ye'll be seen!"

Not wasting time, Liar brings out Rune, appearing in a flash of light on his shoulder. "Get 'er back 'ere, Rune!" And the mechanical dragonfly zooms out to the elf and grinds its gears at her in irritation.

If Ithilwen notices the familiar, she shows no signs. Instead, she spreads her arms and spins about, laughing and calling out to the butterflies in elven. Her aura--which had previously been the pale, star-spangled silver glow of night--flares and begins to shine brighter than the fading afternoon sun.

Dahkore raises his voice in elven, but does not yell. "Ithilwen! You will get us all killed, and you will never get to see your friends in the sky again if you do not come here this INSTANT!" His fatherly tones are very apparent as he speaks.

Ithilwen stops her spinning and lets her arms drop to her sides. She stares at Dahkore with her head tilted for a moment, then looks at the butterflies around her, and then turns her attention up to the slowly-darkening sky.

After a moment of thought, she sighs and nods, drifting back through the high waving grass toward her allies.

DM:

I'm going to roll a percentage to see whether or not the lookouts on the wall of the fort noticed Ithilwen's light before she returned to the woodline.

The kobolds are very far off, and even though she was glowing brightly it is still daytime, so the glow would not be as obvious as it would if it were at night.

I say... 70/30 odds. If the roll is 70 or higher, then the kobolds saw her. If lower than 70, then they didn't notice a thing.

The member 'Arius' has done the following action : Rolls

#1 'd10 (Percentile)' :


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#2 'd10' :

DM:

Lucky...

Carry on.

AMdG

Relieved that the situation has been saved for the meantime, he turns back to the group. "Now, let's just wait until nightfall, and then we should be able to go to the next outcropping of trees."

Turning to the elf, he asks in elven, "Are you able to go back to your moon shine? It will show up less in the dark then your current lighting will."

Ithilwen nods.

In elven she says, "I can do it, but I need some rest first..." She yawns and climbs up onto Dahkore, sprawling across his back and falling asleep.

"Okay, good." he says to the rest of the group. "She is going to sleep for a bit so she can go back to the lower moon glow. Should give us some time to rest ourselves, if needed, and finalize our plan."

"I dinnae have much more to offer then just wait 'til nightfall. I migh' be too tired to think." Liar plops down on the grass and Rune lands on his head.

"Hmmm, waiting until nightfall would help increase our chances of success... very well!" With that, Rubicon sits on the ground with his legs crossed, cubert on his shoulder. Just staring straight ahead. Literally, unless spoken to or given a task, he would sit like this for hours, unmoving. He did not understand the concept of boredom. "..."

"Well, let's start to think about what our options are, then, while we wait." The gryphon lays himself on the ground, paying attention to not jostle the sleeping elf. His face takes the expression of one who has had to hash many battle plans in his time, the brow furrowed in thought.

"Rubicon can conjure that snake of his to look up ahead. This certainly gets us closer, with more information, without giving ourselves away. The drawback is that the distance between the fort and here is too great to cover completely with the snake, so we will likely lose sight before it gives us more information.

"Speckled all along side this hillside between us and them are stands of trees that can keep us hidden. We would be best to move at night, going from one to one as fast as possible. We have seen though, that our companion here can be a bit...difficult to manage. If someone has a cloak that they can spare while we travel, and we can convince her to wear it, it might give us some additional stealth.

"Now, before I get to the fort itself, does anyone have any suggestions beyond those already tabled? I know that we have briefly touched our plans, but I want to be absolutely sure that we are all on the same page. Any insight at this point could prove extraordinarily useful. You have to forgive me, the forces I usually travel with don't have to worry about walking." He smirks.

Kai starts as Dahkore speaks of tactics, drawing her eyes away from the fort and her thoughts away from her own internal strategizing. The woman had worked alone for many years, and was unaccustomed to working with a group of people, or accounting for them in her plans. After a moment's pause, she slowly comes to kneel next to Dahkore, her eyes roaming the tree-spangled expanse before them.

“Once again, I would suggest that we stick together,” she advises. “They already know that we’re here, and separated, we could easily be picked off one by one with no one the wiser. If their scouting parties extend over a day’s journey from the walls, then it’s a fair bet they have troops stationed between us and the fort as well.”

Pausing a moment, the warrior takes stock of the surrounding countryside once more before continuing. “I believe your plan to move from grove to grove by cover of darkness is sound, and I suppose your elven friend can use my cloak; I believe her need is greater at the moment. Also, I can see well in the dark, though I’m not terribly skilled at picking up the more subtle signs where something - or someone - might be hidden. Have you any suggestions as to what to look for?”

* * *

(OOC: Basically, Kai is not trained in Perception, and she’s asking Dahkore to teach her a little of what he knows in the same manner that he taught Sigil to speak elven, if possible.)

Dahkore nods at Kai. "I appreciate your willingness to help, Lady Kai. I just hope that we might be able to convince her to wear it!" He looks back at the naked maiden before proceeding. "I agree, we must stick together, or their numbers will surely overtake us all individually. And you are right to assume that their patrols are probably quite close. As for what you should look for..."

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OOC: What do I need to do to teach you? lol

Liar snores softly to himself. Rune, however, is paying close attention.

The minotaur coughs slightly, then speaks up. "If you are all going to rest before the attack, that's fine. I'll still be awake, I'm too alert to catch any sleep at the moment." he has been doing some stretching exercises to increase his limber, in preparation for battle. He then sits down and gets out his sharpening stone, and begins to start sharpening his blade, Occasionally darting up from his work to survey the surroundings when he hears anything moving.

DM: 5-6 hours passed in-game between the time that our tabletop session ended and the time that this thread started, so there's no need to rest now (unless that's what you'd prefer to do).

OOC: Or we could just be killing time, throwing whatever posts we can up, until the DM moves us along.