I have some rope as well. I say we tie them all up, hands and feet, rouse them and walk them to the city. If I remember right it isn't far and who knows what else is out here.
Let's get these brigands to the cells before the one that escaped brings more. We can get information out of him then.
Song of Rest: You and each ally spending a healing surge gets +4 hp
Spending two surges to bring me to 28/29HP 8/10 surges left.
Is the fleeing bandit still within range of my bow? Since the day is almost done I thought I might try out my daily on him
If you are firing off the shot after tying up the beserker and healing him (that will wake him up).
Since we are sort of out of combat I'll let you adjust the order and targets of your actions Erdan.
Depending on which action you make the perception check and attack roll for seeing and shooting the bandit, the DC for perception will be higher.
He should still be in range as he ran then entered stealth which means half his movement speed. But you also had to move next to the beserker to heal him so I'm going to say the bandit is concealed by the trees, in stealth, and the diminished light is making the shadows easier to hide in.
So -4 to your Attack Roll, as a half elf you have low-light vision so no penalty to perception check. DC 19
EDIT: After considering it some more we will stay with the character creation as it is.
Encounter 1: The Bandits who had eyes bigger than their clubs
A furious battle which saw Jamie and Zellan brought back from the brink of death in the middle of combat. The enemies fought desperately, criminals with no other form of work available to them. They chose the wrong party to attack, or did they? As they fell they cried out saying they knew secrets about "the dragon". The corpse of the deer has been scattered by the fight, desecrated. Any secrets it my have held, it would now keep with it as it decomposed.
BATTLE COMPLETE!
Total Encounter XP value: 725 Everyone Gains: 145 XP
He is some distance into the forest, crouching low, nursing his wounds and favoring the leg that got struck by the arrow. The arrow still sits in his leg, he is trying to flee far away before he tends to his injuries.
Erdan smiles at the Prince, "One moment my lord". Twisting around Erdan raises his bow and quickly fires one arrow high into the air, as the arrow crests over the top of the trees it arcs down and catches the lone bandit by surprise! The arrow skewers the bandits good leg pinning him to the forest ground. Picking up his arrows in the surrounding area Erdan gives a slight grin "I'll go grab the one who almost got away" as he walks towards the last bandit Erdan reattaches the arrowheads to the arrows that he used to knockout the other bad guys. Erdan smiles as he presses his forehead against his bow and thanks the ancestors for granting him his abilities. After giving thanks he begins to pull out a length of rope to tie up the bandit.
Erdan smiles at the Prince, "One moment my lord". Twisting around Erdan raises his bow and quickly fires one arrow high into the air, as the arrow crests over the top of the trees it arcs down and catches the lone bandit by surprise! The arrow skewers the bandits good leg pinning him to the forest ground. Picking up his arrows in the surrounding area Erdan gives a slight grin "I'll go grab the one who almost got away" as he walks towards the last bandit Erdan reattaches the arrowheads to the arrows that he used to knockout the other bad guys. Erdan smiles as he presses his forehead against his bow and thanks the ancestors for granting him his abilities. After giving thanks he begins to pull out a length of rope to tie up the bandit.
So the day is drawing to a close. You have gathered quite a bit of information over the course of the day. Plus you encounter a group of bandits.
As soon as you guys decide how to tie them up, you can start heading back. Let me know whether you are waking them up or carrying them
I am going to try and design a skill challenge type encounter to extract information from the bandits. Also just a heads up in-game tomorrow, the city and the king will be expecting a group of adventurers to leave the city to head out and rescue the princess.
There will be some XP for the time you spent gathering information, I'll wait till you guys decide on a course of action then depending on what that course of action is I'll give everyone XP, I expect it to be the same for everyone, maybe a bit of a bonus for Erdan for his finding the deer corpse.
I suggest we tie the hands together chain gang style. Keep Zellen and Jamie close, one in front leading them, one in back to keep them moving, I'll keep a good 5 squares off to one side, with Otter on the other. The prince should be hanging back a little bit. It provides the fastest way to move them, and after we search the bodies to make sure there are no hidden blades if anyone of them want to run for it they have to get past all of us and all we have to do is knock down one guy and anybody running instantly has massive dead weight.
I concur. Erdan use your perception to search them. "What do your elven eyes see?" :P
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mightyjongyoSour CrrmEast Bay, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
Chain gang sounds fine to me. I was thinking Zellan should do the leading and Jamie should do the prodding, since I have the lowest movement - if by chance someone breaks free, it would be easier for Jamie to catch them than Zellan.
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3cl1ps3I will build a labyrinth to house the cheeseRegistered Userregular
Also I don't think we need to worry about them moving too fast, or getting away. Although I can see you wants to use a daily, after all mine worked out amazingly well!
Then Willam will walk next to the prisoners and talk to them trying to get a feeling for which ones are sociopathic killers that enjoy preying on the weak and which ones are normally honest folk who fell on hard times.
"I understand how difficult it can be to find honest work. How important it is to feel pride in a job done well. If you can show me you criminal days are over, and help us in our mission, I could introduce you to a man who leads a band of caravan guards. Someone with your experience could be valuable to them. You could make an honest wage, see the world.
Think about it as we walk, the cells are no place for honest folk"
I apologize for the lack of updates, I had a huge thing written up and then I lost it. It completely demoralized me so I decided to not rewrite it, and now im heading off to a lord of the rings movie marathon, I swear I'll get something up after that. Again I'm extremely sorry
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mightyjongyoSour CrrmEast Bay, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
It's cool, I would be pretty demoralized if that happened to me too.
((Alkey42’s diplomacy roll gives a +2 to first roll of the skill challenge in extracting information from the bandits. It also means they don’t attempt to escape.))
Sorry it took so long, Feel free to add personal reflection, conversation or whatever on the trip.
The bandits walked in silence, tied together and after hearing the persuasive speech from William, they offer little resistance. You surround the walking bandits, a firm word every so often keeps your prisoners moving. You reach the road leading back to the city as the moon rises into the sky, competing with the sun for dominance of the sky. It is a magical time of day where night and day are blurred together. Birds sing evening songs and owls hoot their songs of waking. The last few squirrels scurry through the trees and along the ground the first nocturnal predators begin to prowl.
Zellan, Willam, Jamie, and Otter note that at two points during the walk to the city, everyone of the bandits looked to the beserker and he then shook his head slightly. They were looking to their leader for a sign that they should attempt to escape. Erdan was too busy scanning the woods for threats. Once he thought he saw the swirl of a dark green cloak, but he blinked and all that he could see was a handful of leaves swirling in the wind and settling softly onto the ground.
The gates came into view. Two city guards stand on either side of the gate. Their eyes peer into the distance, as soon they spy the group one of the guards starts towards them with a shout.
“HELLO!! Prince William!! We were starting to get worried that you met something ill, you weren’t planning to chase after the princess this evening were you?”
The guard is probably the same one that watched them leave, the fact that he is new to his duties is should be enough to excuse his informal emotional outburst. Obviously being a Prince doesn’t lend itself to moving about unnoticed. He slows when he sees that they have prisoners. His eyes go wide.
“Did you defeat them without suffering any casualties?”
Quickly he calls for two other guards who come from the guard house, on still remains by the gate, but with the arrival of trained soldiers, any thought of fleeing is extinguished from the minds of the outnumbered bandits. The guards await orders from the party.
"We are quite alright goodman. We were attacked but have the situation under control. These men have an appointment with the King's Justice".
Ok guys what do we do from here?
William is a stand up guy, he doesn't intimidate very well, and takes offense to torture. But he is not above judging somebody justly for their crimes and carrying out the punishment with his own hand.
I don't think we should leave our prisoners alone in the dungeon with the general population. But I don't want to split up the party.
Bratr: Wouldn't a city as enlightened as the crystal kingdom employ rituals in it's justice system? (I forget the name of it but I think there is a divine ritual that prevents lies from being spoken). Or is that too high magic for the setting?
We could get information out of them here at the gatehouse.
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mightyjongyoSour CrrmEast Bay, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
"I say we get what we can out of these brigands, as soon as we can, so we can get back on the road again."
Zellan is okay with anything, as long as we aren't standing still for too long. But, diplomacy would still be preferred over torture.
I think we should at least get them to somewhere secure so we can get whatever information they might have. What we do with them after we have what we want, we can figure out later.
The way I am looking at it, diplomacy is forging agreements and smoothing things over. But for a, tell us what you know or face the executioner's axe, or hard labor, etc is intimidation.
If we can use a diplomacy check though William has it in spades.
I guess I feel like I need some setting information. Does the crystal kingdom do capital punishment? Or hard labor? What is the typical punishment for banditry? Who decides guilt or innocence?
Sorry, I am online and working on it, but think fairy tales and medieval ages, I mean it is not unheard of for heads to be lost over treason and murder, but for something like highway men it will probably be several days in the damp dark cells followed by hard labour before being kicked out of the city after a couple weeks.
Repeat offenders may be imprisoned for longer, possible the king will deem it justice for them to loose a hand.
There is not really a trial, the accused and the accuser come before the king and a few of his advisers. The king's word is law. Being a time of peace the current king is a bit more gracious and lenient than what I described, but only if he feels they don't deserve a full sentence.
The ritual to detect lies is a level 6 ritual according to the book I have, that puts it out of range of pretty much anyone in Crystal Kingdom. Zellan might know someone who could pull it off, but you would also have to locate the instructions for the ritual as well. It is not something commonly used in other words.
EDIT: If you want to search through the actual law of the land for something specific give me either a knowledge check or go talk to one of the King's advisers.
The kind of criminal that the bandits are wouldn't usually even get an audience with the King, they are the type that just get tossed in jail by the guards.
The guards take charge of the prisoners. The young guard who had rushed out first takes the bandits' weapons.
"We will place their belongings in the armory, if you wish to keep any of it you have first claim to it. We will move this scum to the prison. Um.. your highness, did you actually wish this rabble brought before the king?"
He was very hesitent on that last part, carefully as if saying he hadnt understood what the prince had meant.
"I'm sure your word is more than enough to convict them on"
He shifted from foot to foot as if ready to flee, fearing that he might anger a member of the royalty. Instead he got clipped in the back of the head by one of the more experienced guards.
"Don't question your instructions, Come on."
Then he turned to WIlliam and made a deep bow.
"I am sorry, your highness, he is a new recruit, thinks too much of himself, your highness."
The guards begin to march of towards the city, leading the bandits between them. The young recruit has to adjust his helmet as they move. He manages a stumbled half bow to William.
While William was being questioned by the young guard, the other guards talked to the other members of the party. One guard recognized Erdan as the Archery Instructor.
"Practice finally paid of eh?"
The man had a scar across his cheek and his left eye was permanently half closed, he was one of the few guards who had actually seen combat, probably in much the same way as party just had.
I'm leaving now, but in case it isn't clear I'm trying to get people involved. I hope everyone else can join in on these discussions. Also you don't need me to walk about the city. I'll hop in to add information about the city or to be the NPC's.
If you guys decide to question the prisoners, just instruct the guards and they'll listen.
You can also talk to the King about what you've found out. Go prepare travel bundles, attempt to get horses, etc.
You can even split the party if neccassary.
EDIT: More after I return from Grouse (yes again)
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mightyjongyoSour CrrmEast Bay, CaliforniaRegistered Userregular
edited August 2010
Zellan tries to remember if he had heard of any ritual or spell from others in his Order that might help them extract information, but ends up drawing a huge blank.
1d20+5 = 6. sad roll is sad. Orokos likes to give me 1's.
"I would be surprised if these brigands have anything of worth on them, I think I'll pass on their belongings."
"Guards, has anything else out of the ordinary happened since we left the city? I know it has been a mere few hours, but perhaps..."
I don't want to let them out of my sight before we get something out of them. If they know something important, then I would think they would meet the business end of a shiv in the clink.
"Stand fast Capitan. Me and my companions here need to speak with these men before we part ways. If I can commandeer your gatehouse for a time. You can await us outside and see that we are not interrupted."
I just realized that these bandits didn't recognize the Prince in the fight. So all this your highness stuff should be throwing them off. I think dropping the bomb on them should be fun. The Prince can introduce everybody, saving himself for last, then let it sink in that penalties for assaulting royalty are a bit higher than what they had in their head on the forced march here. If you are going to assist with the information extraction, follow into the gatehouse, the rest of the PCs can follow other leads if you have any.
Erdan smiles at the guard, "Yes as it turns out my father may have known a thing or two about the subject...but then again you don't train the army for such a long time if you don't. I know every soldier takes at the very least a basic archery class, and since I have yet to teach my first batch you must have studied under him. How did you find his teaching and knowledge?" Looking around Erdan leans close to the Prince and whispers, "My lord, perhaps it would be best if we separated them into different rooms for questioning. I believe the big one is the leader and the others will draw strength from him."
I say we separate all of them, put each in their own cell. It would probably be best to actually start with the leader, find out what he is willing to say. Then go to the others, then back to the leader. The best skills for this are diplomacy and bluff. Shouldn't need to intimidate.
"If I may venture a suggestion? I have the means to magically silence whatever room we use for questioning. Then we can be sure that absolutely no word gets to the others."
Posts
Zellan attempts to help Erdan secure and stabilize the two guards, but is still a little winded from the battle to concentrate.
heal: 1d20+7 = 16
You'd think with a +7 it'd turn out a little better =P.
Also just in case, spending a surge to be at 25/29 HP.
Let's get these brigands to the cells before the one that escaped brings more. We can get information out of him then.
Song of Rest: You and each ally spending a healing surge gets +4 hp
Spending two surges to bring me to 28/29HP 8/10 surges left.
If you are firing off the shot after tying up the beserker and healing him (that will wake him up).
Since we are sort of out of combat I'll let you adjust the order and targets of your actions Erdan.
Depending on which action you make the perception check and attack roll for seeing and shooting the bandit, the DC for perception will be higher.
He should still be in range as he ran then entered stealth which means half his movement speed. But you also had to move next to the beserker to heal him so I'm going to say the bandit is concealed by the trees, in stealth, and the diminished light is making the shadows easier to hide in.
So -4 to your Attack Roll, as a half elf you have low-light vision so no penalty to perception check. DC 19
EDIT: After considering it some more we will stay with the character creation as it is.
A furious battle which saw Jamie and Zellan brought back from the brink of death in the middle of combat. The enemies fought desperately, criminals with no other form of work available to them. They chose the wrong party to attack, or did they? As they fell they cried out saying they knew secrets about "the dragon". The corpse of the deer has been scattered by the fight, desecrated. Any secrets it my have held, it would now keep with it as it decomposed.
BATTLE COMPLETE!
Total Encounter XP value: 725
Everyone Gains: 145 XP
Once you tell me where he is I'll post what Erdan will do
Pulling the attack to knockout and not kill:
Hunter's Bear Trap: 1d20+9-4 = 16 vs Bandit AC Hit! 19 damage
Hunter's Quarry: 1d8 = 8
Closest hit all battle
As soon as you guys decide how to tie them up, you can start heading back. Let me know whether you are waking them up or carrying them
I am going to try and design a skill challenge type encounter to extract information from the bandits. Also just a heads up in-game tomorrow, the city and the king will be expecting a group of adventurers to leave the city to head out and rescue the princess.
There will be some XP for the time you spent gathering information, I'll wait till you guys decide on a course of action then depending on what that course of action is I'll give everyone XP, I expect it to be the same for everyone, maybe a bit of a bonus for Erdan for his finding the deer corpse.
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Perception: 1d20+13 = 23
Also I don't think we need to worry about them moving too fast, or getting away. Although I can see you wants to use a daily, after all mine worked out amazingly well!
Insight = 22
If any are or used to be honest folk:
"I understand how difficult it can be to find honest work. How important it is to feel pride in a job done well. If you can show me you criminal days are over, and help us in our mission, I could introduce you to a man who leads a band of caravan guards. Someone with your experience could be valuable to them. You could make an honest wage, see the world.
Think about it as we walk, the cells are no place for honest folk"
Diplomacy = 19
Soften them up for the interrogation in town.
Otherwise Ready! for whatever is next.
Prince William Lancaster
let's do iiit
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Sorry it took so long, Feel free to add personal reflection, conversation or whatever on the trip.
The bandits walked in silence, tied together and after hearing the persuasive speech from William, they offer little resistance. You surround the walking bandits, a firm word every so often keeps your prisoners moving. You reach the road leading back to the city as the moon rises into the sky, competing with the sun for dominance of the sky. It is a magical time of day where night and day are blurred together. Birds sing evening songs and owls hoot their songs of waking. The last few squirrels scurry through the trees and along the ground the first nocturnal predators begin to prowl.
Zellan, Willam, Jamie, and Otter note that at two points during the walk to the city, everyone of the bandits looked to the beserker and he then shook his head slightly. They were looking to their leader for a sign that they should attempt to escape. Erdan was too busy scanning the woods for threats. Once he thought he saw the swirl of a dark green cloak, but he blinked and all that he could see was a handful of leaves swirling in the wind and settling softly onto the ground.
The gates came into view. Two city guards stand on either side of the gate. Their eyes peer into the distance, as soon they spy the group one of the guards starts towards them with a shout.
“HELLO!! Prince William!! We were starting to get worried that you met something ill, you weren’t planning to chase after the princess this evening were you?”
The guard is probably the same one that watched them leave, the fact that he is new to his duties is should be enough to excuse his informal emotional outburst. Obviously being a Prince doesn’t lend itself to moving about unnoticed. He slows when he sees that they have prisoners. His eyes go wide.
“Did you defeat them without suffering any casualties?”
Quickly he calls for two other guards who come from the guard house, on still remains by the gate, but with the arrival of trained soldiers, any thought of fleeing is extinguished from the minds of the outnumbered bandits. The guards await orders from the party.
Ok guys what do we do from here?
William is a stand up guy, he doesn't intimidate very well, and takes offense to torture. But he is not above judging somebody justly for their crimes and carrying out the punishment with his own hand.
I don't think we should leave our prisoners alone in the dungeon with the general population. But I don't want to split up the party.
Bratr: Wouldn't a city as enlightened as the crystal kingdom employ rituals in it's justice system? (I forget the name of it but I think there is a divine ritual that prevents lies from being spoken). Or is that too high magic for the setting?
We could get information out of them here at the gatehouse.
Zellan is okay with anything, as long as we aren't standing still for too long. But, diplomacy would still be preferred over torture.
I think we should at least get them to somewhere secure so we can get whatever information they might have. What we do with them after we have what we want, we can figure out later.
If we can use a diplomacy check though William has it in spades.
I guess I feel like I need some setting information. Does the crystal kingdom do capital punishment? Or hard labor? What is the typical punishment for banditry? Who decides guilt or innocence?
Repeat offenders may be imprisoned for longer, possible the king will deem it justice for them to loose a hand.
There is not really a trial, the accused and the accuser come before the king and a few of his advisers. The king's word is law. Being a time of peace the current king is a bit more gracious and lenient than what I described, but only if he feels they don't deserve a full sentence.
The ritual to detect lies is a level 6 ritual according to the book I have, that puts it out of range of pretty much anyone in Crystal Kingdom. Zellan might know someone who could pull it off, but you would also have to locate the instructions for the ritual as well. It is not something commonly used in other words.
EDIT: If you want to search through the actual law of the land for something specific give me either a knowledge check or go talk to one of the King's advisers.
The kind of criminal that the bandits are wouldn't usually even get an audience with the King, they are the type that just get tossed in jail by the guards.
"We will place their belongings in the armory, if you wish to keep any of it you have first claim to it. We will move this scum to the prison. Um.. your highness, did you actually wish this rabble brought before the king?"
He was very hesitent on that last part, carefully as if saying he hadnt understood what the prince had meant.
"I'm sure your word is more than enough to convict them on"
He shifted from foot to foot as if ready to flee, fearing that he might anger a member of the royalty. Instead he got clipped in the back of the head by one of the more experienced guards.
"Don't question your instructions, Come on."
Then he turned to WIlliam and made a deep bow.
"I am sorry, your highness, he is a new recruit, thinks too much of himself, your highness."
The guards begin to march of towards the city, leading the bandits between them. The young recruit has to adjust his helmet as they move. He manages a stumbled half bow to William.
"Practice finally paid of eh?"
The man had a scar across his cheek and his left eye was permanently half closed, he was one of the few guards who had actually seen combat, probably in much the same way as party just had.
I'm leaving now, but in case it isn't clear I'm trying to get people involved. I hope everyone else can join in on these discussions. Also you don't need me to walk about the city. I'll hop in to add information about the city or to be the NPC's.
If you guys decide to question the prisoners, just instruct the guards and they'll listen.
You can also talk to the King about what you've found out. Go prepare travel bundles, attempt to get horses, etc.
You can even split the party if neccassary.
EDIT: More after I return from Grouse (yes again)
1d20+5 = 6. sad roll is sad. Orokos likes to give me 1's.
"I would be surprised if these brigands have anything of worth on them, I think I'll pass on their belongings."
"Guards, has anything else out of the ordinary happened since we left the city? I know it has been a mere few hours, but perhaps..."
"Stand fast Capitan. Me and my companions here need to speak with these men before we part ways. If I can commandeer your gatehouse for a time. You can await us outside and see that we are not interrupted."
I just realized that these bandits didn't recognize the Prince in the fight. So all this your highness stuff should be throwing them off. I think dropping the bomb on them should be fun. The Prince can introduce everybody, saving himself for last, then let it sink in that penalties for assaulting royalty are a bit higher than what they had in their head on the forced march here. If you are going to assist with the information extraction, follow into the gatehouse, the rest of the PCs can follow other leads if you have any.
Who should we start with? I say we save the leader for last.
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