Zilean's Revenge (Part 4)

Rolf isn't sure what they're mixing, but he does recognize some of the purple liquid from before, in one of the flasks.

As he creeps in to investigate, Zilean appears to have finished with his "project".

"Right, let's try this batch..."

He inserts a beaker full of some orange-white liquid into one of the alchemical devices. The liquid is then sucked out of the beaker, through the tubing, and into the box. As the liquid goes out of sight, the box shakes a bit more, before "calming" again.

Zilean then picks up a small hand-mirror, which appears to have a scrying enchantment.

"Hmmm... Looks good... Actually, I think I need an 'objective' eye for this. Take a look and tell me what you think.", he says, showing the mirror to the Drow.

He responds with a look of disgust and mild retching, which then escalates into him running off to vomit to the side.

"Excellent, progress is being made! You better clean that up, by the way.", he states, setting the mirror aside and starting to mix up a new batch of... Something.

Skitter responds to the team:
"If it's prisoners you're looking for, I did see a bunch of people being treated like dirt, at the west side. And who knows who or what they keep in that pit..."

---

Three minutes left on the invisibility.

Jeraylia nods at Zthulan. "Sounds like a plan. The problem of getting over there arises, however." She lifts a hand to her chin thoughtfully. "Here's an idea. I think I can take out the crossbowman from here. That leaves what I assume are four unfriendlies down by the gate. Disguised in your robes, you two could take them by surprise before they even knew what hit them." She shrugs. "Alternatively, you could use your robes to just make your way over to the west side and start something there. What do you think? It's not perfectly laid out, but the time of opportunity is trickling away."

"Priorities, you two." Horizon growls as he finally approaches them. "And priority one, is as follows- I'm no good getting in another scrap in my condition. These guys have the most irritating tendency of fighting back. I need to recuperate a little bit." he hesitates to say the next part. "... I could do with some aid, magic or otherwise, if either of you would care to oblige. After that, we can go kill everyone else. Speaking of everyone else, where is everyone else?" His question is semi answered, when Rolf's telepathic message reaches them. "Yeah no shit he knows, the whole camp knows. It wasn't exactly a secret once he screamed at everyone about it two minutes ago." This is spoken aloud, and hopefully telepathically as well. Still unsure how that works.

Nodding towards Horizon, Zthulan begins quickly patching Horizon up.  As the shaman works his magic he continues the conversation.  It would be safest for Skitter to be the distraction, since he can disengage and escape them the easiest correct?  That leaves us three to make our way to the west and spring them out.


Healing: 17 + 13 (Expert) = 30

"See, this is why I'm the bard. Smart thinking, kiddo," she thought, giving him a friendly nudge in the ribs with her elbow. "Think you can handle that, Skitter?"

---

Might still have to take out the crossbowman, though.

Zthulan's healing magic manages to decently patch up Horizon (full hp).

Broken Logic wrote:"See, this is why I'm the bard. Smart thinking, kiddo," she thought, giving him a friendly nudge in the ribs with her elbow. "Think you can handle that, Skitter?"

"What, risk getting bludgeoned to death and pierced by bolts for a distraction? Not a maneuver I'd normally assign to myself, but it does seem I'm your best bet for it... You owe me, by the way."

Skitter Acrobatics:

Skitter climbs down the building he was perched on, and approaches the south side as discreetly as he can. He then makes a quick run for it, taking his crossbow and firing it at the guard peering over the wall. His shot misses, but it certainly grabs his attention.

"Intruder!"

A few of the workers at the south side abandon their work to go into a chase, whilst the guard on the platform picks up his crossbows and fires a bolt in retaliation.

Skitter Acrobatics:

Skitter dodges fairly easily, and begins running for cover, preparing to use his shadow abilities to slip out. The crossbow-armed guard quickly starts reloading before he can get out of range.

---

Skitter's distracting them now, and will use a teleport charge to get to safety. He's relatively safe from the chasers, but not from the crossbow-guard...

"Let's take out that Crossbowman and make haste to the prisoners"  Gripping onto his spear, Zthulan slinks his way to the distracted guard.

---

Roll:

Jeraylia slides out her bow and strings it before dropping to one knee. Drawing an arrow as she descends, she quickly sights it a little above the crossbowman, and, within the space of a breath, looses it.

---

Mechanics check?(thinking some sort of precision check): nat 20  (20 + 8mechanics).

We still posting screenshots of 20's? Cause it's kind of ridiculous.

Fine, you don't need to make screenshots. Just don't cheat. I'm torn between having the aiming be mechanics (physics) and acrobatics (aim), or possibly athletics (grip and how far you can pull the string). Another alternative is flat precision, with athletics/acrobatics acting as "assist bonuses" to that roll.

---

Cultist roll:

As Zthulan slinks right next to the platform, he accidentally kicks over a bucket (why is that even there?!) right underneath the platform. He somehow completely fails to notice, much to his surprise.

As Jeraylia lets loose her arrow, the cultist turns sideways to reload, and ends up facing her. The arrow lands straight into his chest, leaving him only to gawk at his wound, as he falls over and down, off the platform... and right onto the pointy top of Zthulans spear (once again, much to his surprise).

"Subtle," Horizon remarks as he walks up alongside Jeraylia. "But it's behoove you to get a disguise, and you'd probably do better with one that doesn't have a huge bloodstain and hole through the torso." He keeps walking, catching up to Zthulan and helps him remove the corpse from his weapon. "Can I just say, noble as this cause is, there isn't going to be a lot we can do to help these supposed hostages. There's a reason they got caught in the first place, and just setting them loose to try and storm the gates and escape probably wont end well for them. Our efforts could probably be put to better use somewhere else, especially since our wizard is on his own in the lion's den."

Freezing in fear after tipping the bucket, Zthulan waits a few seconds before sighing in relief. As he begins walking again the cultist's body impales itself on his spear. Surprising a yelp he quickly lets the spear fall to the side so he can easily slide the corpse off.

Jeraylia speaks a quick, but solemn, prayer over the corpse.
"May your soul find rest and forgiveness, you stupid fool." She turns to the others. "Rolf's doing fine for now, and unless you want to go knocking on the lich's front door, I don't think we've much chance of entering his lair. Lest you are set upon that deed, or have another alternative, the clearest course of action is to provide a distraction. That might draw Zilean out, or at least his attention."

---

What can I/we tell about the two slave workers now that we're closer? I'm wondering if we do go with setting free the civilians, whether we could get these two to run back to base for a small set of reinforcements to escort any who manage to make it out of the camp and back into the city proper. Course, that brings up how to make the barracks believe the two aren't spies/infiltrators.

"That's what I was trying to do before the dumb wizard ran in there alone. If we do it like this, you're just drawing his attention to all the slaves and prisoners who are about to escape. I can't imagine that'll go well for them. Unless you're suggesting we use that as the diversion to cover us while we set about breaking stuff and then slipping out." Horizon was being sarcastic, but then thought. "Actually, that might be the best course of action." He starts walking again towards where the prisoners are being kept, and stops. "But you still need a disguise, or keep out of sight."

"I think work with this, gimme a sec," Jeraylia says, gingerly manipulating the robe off the dead cultist. With a tinderbox, she lit the candle she found on the previous cultist and knelt down. Whipping out a needle and thread, she begins making large, hasty stitches, enough to simply close the gap. Then, she withdrew a bottle of black ink out of a pocket and tipped it onto the robe, over the blood. "Need to remember to restock," she mumbled. Next, she withdrew a pile of bandages and bunched them into the wooden bucket, lighting the middle with the candle. She placed the bucket next to the shack. After a second thought, she wistfully withdrew a book named 'The Drow that wouldn't say no: Volume 2: When no means yes.' "I'll find it, later," she said, and dropped it into now burning pile. Finally, she pulled on the the ink-spashed robe and stood up. She looked over to the knocked out cultist and rolled her eyes. With slight annoyance, she dragged him over to the outer palisade, and pulled out his mouth gag. He was still unconscious. Tasks finished, she said, "Alright, let's go."

---

Stitching:25(17+8mechanics)
Perception:21 (12+9perception)

With nimble fingers, Jeraylia manages to do a fairly quick job of the stitching, repairing the robe in ten seconds (give or take).

Looking at the two workers, Jeraylia sees that they both have a metallic slave-collar on their necks, and are chained together on a fairly long chain. One of them looks pretty severely wounded, if the blood on his ragged clothing is any indication, and is standing still, staring outside the walls, presumably at the distracted workers. The other, similarly dressed, but merely damp from sweat rather than bloody, is crouched over his portion of the chain and trying to break it apart with a small chopping axe. She also notices a few discarded purple robes - most likely left behind to avoid them getting in the way of sweat-inducing labor.

The flame from the bucket starts to spread onto the shack, and quickly starts scaring away the shadows that provided cover up until now.

---

Right, where is everyone, location wise, now? Near the shack/inside its (about to be gone) shadowed parts, or near the downed crossbow guard (which is near the workers of the unfinished section, and next to the south gate)?

In Rolf's mind, there were three main objectives: get a sample of the new fluid Zilean was making, get a hold of his handheld scrying mirror, and get the heck out of the tent. However, the first two objectives would require actions that would most likely get Zilean's attention. Of course, perhaps in "creating an exit", he might open up possibilities.

First, he hid under the table and tried to magically create a replica of the handheld mirror Zilean had been using. It wasn't perfect, but if an opportunity presented itself, it might be useful.

Magical Tricks:

Second, he crawled over to the table leg closest to where the Drow had run off and altered it so that the bottom half was almost separated from the top, with just enough remaining so that a distinct *crack* would sound once it toppled over.

Magical Tricks:

After that, all that remained was crawl back the way he came and use his telekinetic magic to hold the table leg in place until the Drow came back to the table. It wasn't exactly "nice" to essentially murder him by proxy, but the Drow had chosen his side, and Rolf needed an escape route.

Stealth:

Horizon approaches the two workers from behind. "You know, there are better places to try breaking out than out in the open where anyone can see you."

---

Expecting a reaction of some kind, probably hostile- ready to parry the hatchet.

"...Yeah, well." Horizon leans down and pulls the groveler up to a standing position. "Congratulations, slave, your impudence shall be overlooked. You've been reassigned, and maiming you, much as it would thrill me, would probably not go down well just yet. So, take your dead walking companion," he turns the man and points towards Zthul and Jeraylia, "and go see them for your next assignment. Do it fast enough and they probably won't even hurt you... wait!" He lets the man take a step before stopping him. "Feed you to what, exactly?"

---

Intimidation, so he'll do what I say without question, and also answer me.
Persuasion: 19+12+5(FK Intimidation)= 36

Hissing in annoyance towards Horizon, Zthulan steps forward."Thank you for potentially scaring him to death more than he already is Horizon."  Muttering to himself the shaman heads over to the wounded worker and pulls out a waterskin.  "I am not going to harm you, only heal.  Jeraylia, please try and convince them our intentions, you're much better at communication can I can ever hope to achieve."

---

Persuasion to Prove Zthulan's and Jeraylia's Intentions to Help:

Water Magic / Shaman Power Go!:

"Feed you to what, exactly?"

Shivering, the terrified human points to the figure he is chained to. Looking at him closer, it appears Horizon's statement is correct - his wounds are fatal, and he is a member of the walking dead - a fairly strong looking one at that. It takes note of the happenings around it, including Horizon, but ignores him - most likely due to his rather commanding and intimidating tone.

Zthulan's attempts at straightening out the situation doubly backfire - the worker doesn't trust his noble intentions and he actively struggles against Zthulan's attempts at helping him. This makes the zombie takes note of him, groan, and lunge to attack!

---

Zthulan, roll athletics or acrobatics vs the zombie (to see if "surprise round" stuff applies), and initiative. Horizon can roll initiative as well, if he wants to join into the combat. Jeraylia will have to wait till the first round is over to join, but may do persuasion stuff (see OOC post). Worker counts as both an ally and enemy for targeting purposes.

Zombie athletics
4 + 12 = 16

Zombie initiative
d20 = Nat1

Worker initiative
d20 = 6

"Play nice with the prisoner's, Horizon," Jeryalia said, backhanding his arm in a gentle admonition as she stepped past. She places a restraining hand on the slave's shoulder, but squeezes it reassuringly.  "Look," she asserts calmly but definitively. "We're the good guys. We'll try to get you free, so trust us. Chin up." She cupped her other hand to the chin of the slave, and lifted it up to get a look at the collar. She largely ignores Zthulan being attacked by the Zombie, and, instead, focuses on inspecting the collar. "Horizon, be a dear, and help out our darling medic."

---

Persuation Roll to calm the slave after the fact: 20(4 +  14 persuasion + 2 Zthulan assist)
Mechanics Roll to check/pick the chain: 24 (16+8mechanics ). It doesn't look like it's magically enchanted, does it?

Also, if I wait a round or two, the chain problem will fix itself when Horizon lops off the zombie's head. And then I'll make a witty little comment.

Also, also initiative (d20): 15