CH. 12: Testing Grounds

[HorizonsDream]

"I did grow up here," Kendra says. "But I don't know the market place as well as I should. I need to know of alleyways that lead to dead ends, and things like that."

[Chris1234]

"Good work! If you want, I'll try and pull this one so you can twonk it without you getting bitten. Although everything I'm trying today doesn't seem to be going too well," Shima commented.
Shima adjusted his grip to one handed on the spear so as to use his shield again and then advanced on the spider, trying to tease it further into the room so that Ne-Chanz might have the opportunity to attack it from the rear.

[Haahque]

Despite haahqae's best efforts, the lock that he picked would not become un-picked. He would love to stay and fix it, it would just look a lot cleaner, but it's not all that useful for his triumphant exit of the building. His potion doesn't last forever, and he doesn't feel like lingering here until the dragon wakes or a guard passes by, so he looked for a way down again. A secret passage would be good, a window would suffice. He'd rather not have to go back through all those locked doors again.

[TristenC]

With them? Something in the sewer. No, he didn't look burned but he had goop and filth everywhere like he'd swum in the muck or something... He comes back to the more relevant topic. Not sure where to find the girls, but I'm sure I've seen them around. I might just check the common rooms around, I really don't have any solid leads. I could swear I saw them at the steel tankard once, but I can't really remember. I'm going to do some searching around today but if either of us do find them I'm not sure how to proceed... they probably won't admit it and have almost certainly hidden their haul... he shakes his head, what do you think, any ideas?

[JadedDM]

Haahqae (Old Fort, Tower Level 9)
Haahqae doesn't see any secret passages, but there are windows. They are currently closed, but opening them up on this side won't provide any difficulty. He'll then have to climb down to the ground from there.

Kendra Greylock (Market Street)
"Dead ends? There really aren't any," says the old man. "The buildings are spaced out enough that there's no need for dead-ends, except maybe up against the city walls."

[HorizonsDream]

"Thanks," Kendra says. She doesn't seem too happy about that information as that means if there is an attack, the attacker could run pretty much anywhere in the city. "I look forward to seeing the two of you at the parade," she says, and then walks off to map out the parade route.

[djhyland]

"Finding them is the first step, I think," Arulia says. "We can figure out what to do about them after we know where they're hiding. I doubt that we can convince them to give the money back, at least not by ourselves. But if we can catch them somewhere they can't escape and we have all of us that they stole from--especially the minotaur!--maybe they'll have a change of heart." She holds up a hand to forestall any protest at the implications. "I don't want it to come to violence, but the threat might be enough. But however we might convince them, we can't do it until we find them."

[spyguy1503]

Ne-Chanz agrees, the rush of battle making him gloss over the fact that Felran is on the ground. He skirts the side of the room, flanking the spider.

[Haahque]

Haahqae might be a little bit small, frail and weak to be climbing down one of the tallest buildings in the city from a window near the top of the building down to the ground, however in his typical fashion, where he can’t succeed with normal means, Haahqae turns to his superior intelligence to think himself out of a situation. In this case he picked up a number of tips and tricks about how to climb from a book he read. A spellbook, but that’s just a technicality. The tips and tricks work, at least so far as he knows.

Haahqae makes his way over to a window, casts spider climb on himself, opens the window, climbs outside, closes the window and climbs to the ground.

If Haahqae should get to the ground alive and without significant difficulty, he’ll make his way to the market and look for shops where he can spend all of the steel that he just earned on the spell component for find familiar (I believe this is incense and herbs, so I imagine he could find them in non-magical related shops).

[JadedDM]

Haahqae (Old Fort, Courtyard)
Haahqae removes his shoes and puts them in his pack. Then he casts a spell, and starts to slowly descend the wall of the tower. When he reaches the courtyard, he looks around. The place is still on high alert and several soldiers, including his escort, are still looking for him. The gate is closed. There are stairs leading up to the ramparts on the wall, which is 30 feet high.

(Haahqae casts Spider Climb and descends the tower.)

Kendra Greylock (Market Street)
Kendra begins slowly mapping out the street she now lives on, taking note of where everything is.

(OOC: Here is the map, for your reference.)

Felran, Ne-Chanz and Shima (North Haven Sewers)
Shima waves his arms and bangs his spearhead against his shield, getting the spider's attention. It moves toward him and bites at him, but the dwarf holds it back with his shield. Shima then counterattacks, jabbing the spider with his spear and getting splattered in ichor for his efforts. Ne-Chanz takes the opportunity to come up behind the spider, but he is unable to get through its chitinous body with his blades.

Initiative
Ne-Chanz (1d10+5): 5+5 = 10
Shima (1d10+5): 4+5 = 9
Giant Spider 01 (1d10+6): 3+6 = 9

Round 5!

Giant Spider 01 bites at Shima in leather armor (+1 hit) while wielding a masterwork buckler (-2 hit) [TN 12] (1d20-1): 10-1 = 9, miss.
Shima stabs at Giant Spider 01 with his spear [TN 14] (1d20): 14, hit for (1d8): 8 damage. Giant Spider 01 is now critically wounded.
Ne-Chanz moves behind Giant Spider 01 and slashes his primary long sword at it from behind (+2 hit) with great skill (+1 hit/+2 dmg) [TN 13] (1d20+3): 8+3 = 11, miss. He then slashes his secondary long sword at it from behind (+2 hit) with great skill (+1 hit/+2 dmg) while off-balance (-2 hit) [TN 13] (1d20+1): 5+1 = 6, miss.

(OOC: Actions for Round 6?)

[HorizonsDream]

Kendra moves on to the next section of the city that the parade will move through, hoping to run into more people along the way.

[TristenC]

I think we should ask around with some inns and taverns about them, giving both descriptions since we still don't know if they are the trappers. he says. I'll check the haven arms, steel tankard, Hapee Ogre and high hand. It might be better if you could check some of the nicer places in town where a goblin might stand out too much. Where should we compare notes? Are you open here each day with the way business is?

[spyguy1503]

Ne-Chanz grits his teeth and goes for an all-out attack. Time was of the essence now that the weakest member of the party was in the spider's eye.

[Chris1234]

Presuming that one bite from this spider could end him, Shima decides not to parry but to gamble all on he and Ne-Chanz (ok most likely the latter) being able to put down the spider before it does the same to him.
The dwarf calls out, "Reorx, may this find Your Favour!" and tries a one-handed spear strike at the oversized arachnid all the while trying to keep the buckler between him and the looming fangs.

[Haahque]

Haahqae doesn’t know what drove him to choose the church, but he was no huge fan of the organization and he wanted someone that could be blamed that wasn’t him in case the army ever learned that they had been alleviated of a few steel. It turned out that the latrine didn’t exit to outside the keep, so his alibi was a little weaker then he would have wished, so instead Haahqae will have to come up with another reason he went missing. Probably gnomish technology. In the meantime, if the draconian have someone else to blame, Haahqae might not shoot to the top of the most suspected list.

Thus, Haahqae finds a nice little corner in the courtyard and casts a conjuration cantrip to create a small wooden symbol of Takhisis hung on a simple string, as if used as a necklace or bracelet. (Whatever Haahqae’s seen priests wearing). However, he’ll create the rope in a broken state, as if it had been pulled off his wrist or neck as if it had gotten caught on something while he was being chased.

With this new acquisition, Haahqae will try and climb the wall and observe the patrol paths, with the hope of finding a break in the patrol to give him the maximum possible time to make his escape. Once he thinks he has an opportunity, he’ll start with trying to get the Takhisis necklace caught on the corner of one of the crenellations, then he’ll tie a releasable knot in a loop in his rope, which he’ll fit around that same crenellation. He’ll climb down and pull the rope to release the knot and retrieve the rope.

Or, at least that’s the plan, it’s a lot of planning, and the best laid plans of gophers and gnomes oft go awry.