Rollohi-ep23-script

 Prelim meta setup 

Why is Solace this far west? Does he believe he missed Eikpe who must have doubled back? Yes. 

Has he simply been able to call on these lay brothers on route? No. He specially summoned them? No and this was part of his journey, accounting for a good 90% of it. 

Do their skiils include the magical? Yes but scrolls only. 

Number of lay brothers in total? 18. 

Level? All level 1. 

Has Eikpe crossed a secular noble? No and the person she crossed needs to keep it secret. 

So Solace cannot afford to let it be widely known who he is hunting, and he has made a mistake, looking back, in revealing as much as he did to Ingle. 

Is Ingle on a hit list? Yes and his comrades. 

So is that why Solace is here? 

Yes. 

 

Do any of the lay brothers have the vaguest idea what their targets look like? Yes but in very generic terms, focusing on "eight adventurers among which are 2 halflings an elf and a dwarf. The humans include a cleric of the heavenly eye." 

=======================actual script begins===== 

23.1 Brother Solace comes to Great Vine

It is the morning of day 3, waning crescent, and Brother Solace (rides? No but horse drawn so a carriage or wagon) arrives at the northeast gate of Great Vine. 

 

He is accompanied by all his lay brothers, for they have had word of his arrival with small escort and the remainder, waiting for him in town, rides out the short way east to give Solace the escort he wants. 

How heavily armored is an acolyte? AC2! As a leader, Solace is level 2 with 8hp. His miracle is Cause Fear.  

Does Solace brief them immediately? No and, he's tired from the wagon and wants to breakfast and rest first.  

They go to 

1,2,3 the town's council  

4,5 the town upper square 

6 the temple of his faith 

3, the council forum. From there it's 3 hours before they begin fanning out.  

Do they have actual intelligence on the group? 3 no but a fair indication the party was headed north along the Arvyx hills 

 

23.2 Solace: Eryn

So not long after they get to the mid market (where the foodstalls and fun is) Solace comes face to face with Eryn and as we've seen, botches the meeting and fails to question her as to Ingle's whereabouts. His men either do not notice or assume Solace knows what he is about. But, just in case it becomes relevant for retainer loyalty purposes, I'm going to ask, do some of the lay brothers realize Solace has embarrassed himself? Yes. Their attitude will accordingly drop if a loyalty test arises. 

 

Now that Solace has seen Eryn depart, the obvious next step is to have her followed. Does he head over to the nearest thug and say "quick! Follow that woman!" Yes and joins in the pursuit.  

 

But she took steps to use Evasion. That moves it to an Evasion contest in which Eryn is very much the weaker party. It's a d20 check, low score of up to 3 means she did evade, 4 or 5 I'll have to check, 6 or higher I'd say no. Here we go: 17 oh, Eryn was followed for sure. 

 

Now it's a WIS check to assume she might send a message, and I'll make it disadvantage because the obvious assumption is that all of the party are in the Guild Hall. 09 and 14, he fails. 

 

And now that he "knows" his quarry is in the Guild Hall, Br Solace moves to the murder plan. 

 

Bearing in mind the reason behind all this requires discretion, Solace needs to come up with a convincing strategy to bring the party out, take them away out of town, and murder them. He needs a stooge. Does he know one here? No. 

 

Or, he could psychologically pressure the Guild to send the party out. That will take a long time, but he has 4 hours to spare. He organizes the lay brothers and they spread around the Hall, including watching for rear escapes.  

Is the hall standalone or adjoining? Standalone.  

Reaction test from the Guild before any character move: 10, laissez Faire. 

Hours tick by. Outside, Ingle and Umbert work themselves right around and onto high ground, where on the very top of the hill rises a Pele tower for firewatch and defense. 

 

With a view over the top square, they wait. 

23.3 We need help

 

Meanwhile the six inside conduct a debate.  

Ciedpod want to slip away, even in town streets they back themselves. Pod, playing strategic, offers to fetch the remuda.  

Xantu is the opposite: his superstition insists that slipping away will bring ill fortune! 

Kylie is no longer euphoric, and agrees that a fade out should work. 

Jack would prefer to get the Thieves Guild involved but feels that might make them look weak and in any case that would mean two sets of devious maneuvers. 

All eyes turn to Eryn. On a 6 she attempts to rally the Guild. On a 1 she goes along with the "just slip away" but all numbers in between will involve extra details and distractions or magic item use. 3. Ok that's a distraction during which the whole party slip away to the ostlery. 

CHA vs CHA for Eryn v Xantu. Eryn rolls 02, Xantu 20 

 

How long will the party take to organize a distraction? (On a 5 or 6 they just wait and hope) 4, they are prepared to discuss options for half the day. 

23.4 the Great Escape

 

Up in the tower Ingle and Umbert have the same type of debate, but with much less pressure. Neither is prepared to believe Solace means any actual harm, and neither is personally in danger. They talk over various plans, buy food, and sit tight waiting for night. Ingle glances up at the blazing late-day sun and wonders at the heat. There is a black thunderhead gathering to the north-west. "That might mean something" he says. 

 

In the square a young slightly drunken merrymaker whirls his wineskin arpund to the playing of a bard's lute. He flares the skin at a lay brother and yells out with the old in with the new! 

The lay brother,  thug name Kale, pushes the youth, who staggers and falls over the duenNa with the young women coming back from getting dressed in their festival best. The youth, hot and embarrassed, leaps up and throws a clumsy punch at Kale who sways aside and smashes the kid down with a back-hander. He sludes his cudgel from his belt and growls "who dares the wrath of my order? 

Up on the Pele tower Ingle is watching a growing storm but Umbert makes a nat1 and brings the clerics attention round. "I think we should move" 

Jeers and thrown lees and spoiled grapes shower the thugs. Four come running from the north side of the Hall, three from the south  and together with Solace and his six there, only 5 round the far side are actually watching 

"Begone! Disperse!" The crowd gives back, unwilling to brave a robed acolyte. One of the thugs, Kale, laughs and makes a rush at a cart that threatened to be used as a ram. His shove hurls its frail gaffer back violently.  Immediately a black-browed, black-chinned master runs in from the sidelines and delivers a coward punch to the unsuspecting Kale. He falls and his head strikes the cobbles with a loud crump.  

"Murder!" Solace yells and points to the master, who pales. "Arrest him!" But the crowd, previously inclined to disperse with curses and more hurled rubbish, is now ready for blood. "Get them!!"He raises his hand to drive the ringleader away with Cause Fear... 

At the same moment lightning strikes!  

... and Solace must make a SV v Spells to avoid lightning. He rolls 19 and takes all 15 damage. The adjacent pair of brothers are hit for half damage (7) and both make the SV being left with 1hp each. 

Even before the thunder, the rain and hail blast down. 

 

Ingle and Umbert, fighting sopping robes, reach the rear of the Hall. Umbert points his Wand. The five brothers each make SV v Wands and one makes it.  

In the combat, the lay brother does not necessarily know where the attack came from, and there is a 50-50 chance that the other six party members emerge. 

Round 1: inits. Characters 6 thug 5.  

Ingle runs in quietly and strikes the thug on the head, using one HD to adjust the baton strike so it does damage. "I was going to try Charm Person" Umbert grumbles and walks in brandishing his staff.  The armored brother snarls and lashes back, landing a similar buffet. 

Chance: no. 

Round 2; inits characters 4, thug 2.  

Umbert swings and crits! The thug drops. 

Ingle is left gaping in shock. Chance: yes! 

 

23.5 Exeunt stage left

As the streets wash clean the party makes the march down and collects its mounts. It leaves for the east gate.  

 

Have the town guards at the gate caught up with the gossip? Yes.  

"This changes nothing" Ingle insists. "In fact staying risks being arrested" 

 

Does Pod make a scene, no. 

 

Do they stay heading north? No but once clear east, ride around the end slope of the ridgez and turn north for Opal.