Cleanup Crew IC

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

The company of the tiefling wizard is welcome, nonetheless.

"It's rarely a bad thing to have another set of eyes and ears along, not to mention another brain to pick and bounce ideas off of," she says.

Talking to people is clearly not Sirachoé's native element, either, but she puts some thought into it and gets lucky.

[IamL]

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You find that he was burning homes, extorting people and businesses, summoning vile monsters and using them to loot trade carts and block off important roads, then collecting a 'trade safety tax,' amongst other stereotypical thug activity.

[Reyne]

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Is it possible to narrow the information down? Was he personally conducting these activities by himself? E.g., when looting trade carts, does he accompany the summoned monsters, or is he safely ensconced in his stronghold (and in the latter case, how would they know he was behind it?) Does he loot most trade carts that don't pay the tax, or only some, or what?

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

"Hmm, seems this wizard has a certain organized crime angle, and not just a 'burn it down' kind of guy," she muses, tousling her tight, blue braids as they bounce in her own breeze. "We can probably assume that he'll have other complex plans, like preparing some kind of escape route or contingency of some kind. Surprise sounds like our best bet. If he's targeting businesses and such, perhaps we can try to lure him into approaching us with the intent to extort us. If we catch him or his flunkies in business-as-usual mode, instead of on-guard, we'll have an advantage."

"What do you think, Elyna?" she asks, subtly condescending, possibly looking to gauge the tiefling's intellect by her answer.

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Obviously feel free to wait for clarification from IamL before making your character's reply to Sirachoé.

[Reyne]

Elyna raises an eyebrow and frowns at the air genasi woman's tone before giving her musing response. She speaks quietly in Auran to Sirachoe, in an attempt to avoid eavesdroppers.

"By definition, one cannot be a wizard of any significance without having a keen intellect and a strong dedication to study. Catching him off guard seems reasonable, but it must be considered that if he approaches a business preparing for extortion, he's likely already prepared for possible defiance or resistance. He may have summoned creatures at hand, arcane protections ready, and the like. It may be more effective to ambush him somehow after he's just finished extorting another, using his summoned creatures in an attack. In that case, he will have already expended much of his magical might for the day, and his vile monsters will have returned to the planes from whence they came, while we will come in fresh and prepared.

Another factor that needs to be carefully considered is that of visibility. If we confront him in a relatively public space, assuming we succeed, our identities and names will quickly become known. Any future wizards we target will be on their guard against us, and may indeed choose to band together and strike first. Hence, I think it's of the strongest importance that we choose to guard our identities carefully for now, or else we shall fail when it comes to more difficult tasks. Disguises may work, though they would be cumbersome. For the same reason, we should keep the nature of our task as secret as possible. If possible, disguise our actions as that of an angered rival. If they know that they are being specifically targeted, much of our advantage will be lost. Though all of this, of course, presupposes that we will succeed against Klort first."

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

Eyes glittering, a smile steals across her face as she listens to Elyna.

I think we'll get on just fine.

"So, if we should ambush Umuga right after he extorts someone else, who do we use as bait?"

[Reyne]

Elyna pauses a bit, surprised at just how quickly Sirachoe ceded the point to her. Despite her original noble upbringing, she's very uncomfortable with the idea of being in a position of leadership, of responsibility.

"Ummm....", she says, stammering a bit before the competent planner part of her mind takes over: "I guess the first question is if we want to attack him in his stronghold (assuming he has one), or out in the open. The first carries a much greater prospect of risk, but also of reward - he's much more unlikely to have latent defenses there, if caught off guard, and it will also enable us to keep our privacy much better. In addition, it'd give us a much better chance of clouding the motives behind our attack - even if disguised, out in the open we'd still be revealing our number, our general sizes, and our styles of combat. So ideally, we'd want to somehow discover his stronghold, sneak in, and attack in the middle of the night. Catching him asleep would be hard to pull off, but at least he'd be unprepared and have expended much of his arcane strength for the day. Afterwards, we could disguise our attack - perhaps that a rival wizard grew annoyed with his work, scour his hideout of anything valuable, and leave.

The most difficult parts of this plan would be to discover his stronghold, and the sneaking in. I think I could probably manage the scouting part, but it would be difficult, and depends on if he has any henchmen (or henchwomen) assisting him in his tasks. I'm not familiar enough with your skills and those of our other companions to be able to appraise the feasibility of infiltration.

But if you have any better ideas, feel free to voice them of course. Your thoughts?"

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

"Well, assuming we did opt to attack Umuga in his stronghold, I would be comfortable with scouting. Unless he has a very large contingent or truly capable retainers, I can handle myself. Few things are more fun than a surprise attack," she smiles, interlacing her fingers and stretching her arms high above her head, back arched. "And I have techniques that can pretty reliably take out even tough opponents in one shot. A disguise spell or invisibility would certainly help, and I'm fast enough to be able to move quietly and still cover territory efficiently. I can scale walls and Jump with excellent proficiency, and even once the invisibility or similar magical concealment is gone, I can hide quite well."

"I think it won't be too hard. If we can get a quick entry without having to bash our way through legions of minions, we'll probably be fine."

[IamL]

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Is it possible to narrow the information down? Was he personally conducting these activities by himself? E.g., when looting trade carts, does he accompany the summoned monsters, or is he safely ensconced in his stronghold (and in the latter case, how would they know he was behind it?) Does he loot most trade carts that don't pay the tax, or only some, or what?

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He loots virtually all trade carts that don't pay the 'tax,' and leaves his crest, a stylized Omega, wherever he strikes. Sometimes he accompanies his minions on raids, sometimes he doesn't.

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

"Well, I suppose we should purchase some potions and then head out to Torsdok," she says, still distracted by thoughts of the recently acquired intelligence on the enemy.

[Yas392]

During the onset of carousel, Mika mostly digs onto the rice. The delicious aroma urges her to fill her stomach with more and more until she is satisfied. Lighting a conversation between her new found companions, she inputs her opinion freely as long as the topic is without men. Just the word men instils her with dread so she tries to forget about it when facing the male elf. There's a lot of yes and no and she never felt so gay in her life before. She even talk to the owner of the tavern and tease him for being too subtle with the airhead woman (which he might have blush redder, if her eyes assume correctly).

After a lengthy night, as do her companions evoke the privacies among themselves she does so only using a split second to trek unseen onto the wilderness. When she arrives next morning, she already did her routine and is carrying a boulder strapped to her back, unknowingly landing onto the middle of a discussion between Elyna and Sirachoe.

Morning girls, had a nice night?

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

"Relatively uneventful, compared to the events of yesterday," Sirachoé replies. "Hopefully things will get interesting again once we figure out how to corner our quarry."

[Reyne]

Elyna pauses from the discussion with Sirachoe. "Well, I just went to bed early so nothing really out of the ordinary. This morning, Sirachoé and I gathered some information on our quarry, which we were just discussing now.

As a sidenote", she continues, directing her attention at Wakaba and Mika, "I'm not quite sure if this is the time to bring it up, but as we're a partnership of equals, I'd appreciate it if the two of you could contribute with any ideas you have as well.

The same would go for Terjon and Metisse, if they join us again. Though Terjon has been awfully quiet and absent thus far - he did say he would rise with the sun today, but perhaps he overslept? And Metisse appears to have vanished; hopefully she'll be joining us again. But if we are to function at a peak as a group, it's necessary for all of us to contribute to the endeavor with our equal abilities and minds."

[Arokh]

Terjon of Northwall

Being awoken by the shimmer of the sun of his face, Terjon stretches, and rises from his bed.
Clearly, this must be the light of the first sun falling through the window of the inn, just as with the mountain monastery.

Opening his eyes reveals to him the emptiness of the dormitory, except a few fast-asleep drunkards, snoring away their last nights booze on their benches and beds.
Obviously, the sun does not reach a ground floor window in a huge city quite as easily as it does reach the top of a quiet and lonely mountain.
While this matter was clearly something to meditate about, clearing and ordering ones mind whilst pondering the deeper meaning of this, the foremost meaning was quite clear:
He had overslept. By at least half a day, by the looks of it.

Catapulting out of bed, his lean frame coiling like a spring, our Terjon makes haste to inquire regarding the whereabouts of his newly found (and apparently easily misplaced) companions,
rushing in the approximate direction the innkeeper provides him with.

After an uncomfortably disoriented hurry through the city, in no way facilitated by the gargantuan market, Terjon spots the counterfeits of the crew, and brings himself to a halt.
Inhaling and exhaling quietly for a moment, contemplating the litany of composure, he then makes his way to approach them.

He performs a deep bow, clutching his hands in front of his head,
and begins to speak, without disrupting his bow.

"Greetings, and my most humble apologies. I have lost control of myself, and overslept, leaving our mission at peril.
I humbly beg your pardon. It will not happen again, I swear on my ears.
Allow me to beseech you all to hep my in anointing for my sin, so that I may once again walk amongst you without shame."

Remaining bowed for a few moments longer, Terjon straightens up.

"May I please ask you all to let me in on your current progress?"

[OOC] I'll catch up on what happened on my own, Terjon just needs to know from someone[/OOC]

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

Rolling her eyes slightly at the late appearance of the man named Terjon, Sirachoé updates him on the matter of information on the tactics and actions of the enemy.

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Hi, Arokh. We actually are still eating breakfast, from what I recall. It's getting to be a bit of a long breakfast, to be sure, and Terjon can certainly still have overslept a couple hours longer than he intended, but we only spent 30 minutes I think doing the Gather Info. So it's not such a clumsy entrance after all.

Sirachoé withholds nothing from the male monk, save her earlier realization on the nature of the group's employer. Everything else is spread around the whole group.

"What say you on the matter of strategy, Terjon?"

[IamL]

You all hear the sounds of a fight being started outside.

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

The woman's eyes flash, as though illuminated by a sudden stroke of lightning, he breeze-blown hair flaring as she practically vaults out of her chair, making a beeline for the door.

"I make it a policy to never miss a good brawl," she calls over her shoulder with a wink.

[Reyne]

Elyna pauses in surprise at the sounds, and Sirachoe's reactions. Given her focus on the quest they had just been assigned, the most powerful spells she'd prepared were those of divination and dispelling, perfect for hunting down a wayward mage, but far less so for a brawl or fight.

The smart thing to do would be to stay in the room and let her more... physical companions evaluate any threats. Especially since she had almost no way of disabling an attacker besides her trusty crossbow... not the best of weapons for a bog-standard tavern brawl! But Elyna was always a bit too loyal to others for her own good. "Wait a moment," she cries out, rushing out of the room to join Sirachoe.

[Yas392]

Mika is originally outside, speaking to both via window due to the proportion of her boulder size. Sirachoe rushes out, pumps her veins to adrenaline.

Count me in girlfriend.

[IamL]

As you move your way outside, you see a large brawl ensuing, between two or three cloaked figures and about half a dozen merchants and their hirelings, about a dozen or so.

[Reyne]

Elyna pauses as she looks around the room, trying to figure out just what's going on

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Spot checks to try and discern what sort of brawl it is (e.g. stereotypical tavern brawl without any weapons more lethal than a chair), and any information about the cloaked figures

Elyna: (1d20+3)[23]
Misty: (1d20+4)[12]

[Yas392]

Mika survey the scene with keen interest. Now that's my kind of thing. She calms herself to spot the head honcho of this mess before joining it.

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Spot (Take 20) - 20+2=22

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

Forcing breath into her unbreatheing body, Sirachoé drinks in the taste of battle.

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Knowledge(local) as a free action- +17 + 4(luck)= (1d20+21)[38]
Jump check to move into the midst of the action- +23 + 4(luck)= (1d20+27)[34]

Need to know the results of the Knowledge Devotion to calculate attack bonuses.

[Phelix-Mu]

Sirachoé

She lands with a mighty bellow, and unleashes a furious rain of blows all about her.

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Free action to drop Rabbit Outruns Fox, swift action to raise Panther Prowls the Night.

She attacks all about her in a 10' radius burst (Ten Foot Punch) while using Flurry of Blows to deal nonlethal damage. All within 10' of her landing spot must make a Reflex save DC 21 vs each attack, success means the target only takes half damage. Not clear if this use of the kata requires an attack roll, here they are just in case. Note, it's only so high for humanoids, -5 to damage for everyone else. If no attack roll is necessary (like normal for AoEs) then no critical chance, and ignore those rolls.

Atk1: (1d20+17)[30]
Atk2: (1d20+16)[23]
Atk3: (1d20+16)[34]
Atk4: (1d20+16)[17]
Atk5: (1d20+16)[17]
Atk6: (1d20+16)[28]
Atk7: (1d20+16)[34]

Confirm1: (1d20+17)[36]
Confirm2: (1d20+16)[28]
Confirm3: (1d20+16)[23]
Confirm4: (1d20+16)[28]
Confirm5: (1d20+16)[28]
Confirm6: (1d20+16)[19]
Confirm7: (1d20+16)[28]

Dmg1: (1d8+12)[18]
Dmg2: (1d8+12)[17]
Dmg3: (1d8+12)[14]
Dmg4: (1d8+12)[17]
Dmg5: (1d8+12)[20]
Dmg6: (1d8+12)[15]
Dmg7: (1d8+12)[19]

IfCrit1: (2d8+24)[33]
IfCrit2: (2d8+24)[33]
IfCrit3: (2d8+24)[29]
IfCrit4: (2d8+24)[29]
IfCrit5: (2d8+24)[36]
IfCrit6: (2d8+24)[34]
IfCrit7: (2d8+24)[36]

"Any who wish to fight must first defeat me," she yells loudly, eyes daring those about her to make a move.

EDIT:

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She still has a move action available, but I'd like to see the effectiveness of her attack before judging whether it necessary to take further actions.

[Yas392]

((OOC: ouch, dem high rolls))

[tonberryking]

So, instead of coming back from a light jog and having an out of continuity conversation, Wakaba returns from her morning exercise to find that now her damn breakfast is getting delayed. There's a big huge fight outside the backdoor she intended to sneak in through!

She cannot see them, but the voices of her comrades comes from the other side of the fracas, and thinking them involved somehow, the doberman girl quite literally leaps into action. Maybe this'll take the fight out of them as she let out a light cry.

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Got a running start, so it's time to kick off my combat with a charge and a flying kick to the closest slob:
(1d20+13)[25] Jump check (I need one of those, right?)
(1d20+10)[21] Attack
(1d10+6)[8] (Sub-dual) Damage
(1d12)[9] MORE (sub-dual) Damage

Oh no, are you alright girls??

[IamL]

Phelix-Mu: The first strike, sent at the first cloaked figure, is dodged, though he has a difficult time doing so, and he takes no damage. The second cloaked figure is not quite so lucky, and, blinded by the sun and the sand the first one stirred up, she is slammed hard in the face with a haymaker to the gut, though she is able to shake it off. You then struck in a backthrusting kick, then a straight punch towards two mercenaries, whose eyes roll back as they fall unconscious. The third cloaked figure steps forward slightly, uncertain of what to do, and he is the unfortunate target of another back thrusting kick, this time to the groin. He doubles over in pain.
You then dart over to three other mercenaries and hit them with a fast combination of blows, a jab to the first one's face, a straight punch to the second one's gut, and a front snap kick to the third one's groin. They all fall to the ground, unconscious.
TK: your strike slams a mercenary in the back of the head, snapping his neck and ending his life.

[tonberryking]

The closest cloaked figure. Also, plase deduct 4 from Wakaba's attack as she instigated it and wasn't attacked first. Her flaw, and all.

[Yas392]

While in observation, she prepares herself, her features lengthen out to match the ferocity of the great cats. Then, surprise to jealousy.

Air-head, I am not letting you hog all the action.

Mika leaps into the middle of the scuffle, relishing the taste of it. She hooks punches to the nearest mercenaries, letting out a prideful roar. Her mantle glows brightly as she reaches out for one of them that she hit to try to pin and smash onto the ground.

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Before Battle: Panther Prowls the Night (Pounce), Fanning the Flames (5 Sonic to whoever she touches), Ten foot punch.
Jump - (1d20+9)[25]
Attack - (1d20+15)[21]
Attack - (1d20+15)[32]
Attack - (1d20+15)[22]
Attack - (1d20+15)[34]
Attack - (1d20+15)[18]
Attack - (1d20+15)[30]
Damage - (1d8+7)[15]
Damage - (1d8+7)[15]
Damage - (1d8+7)[12]
Damage - (1d8+7)[10]
Damage - (1d8+7)[11]
Damage - (1d8+7)[11]
Grapple - (1d20+24)[33]

[Reyne]

Elyna just stands there, slightly in shock, not quite knowing what to do. Umm, why oh why are we fighting? Is it just me, or are my newfound 'companions' apparently all violent maniacs whose response to anything is 'charge in and beat people up'?