River's Campaign

[RushingRiver]

The trio comes to a sudden halt at the opening to a shadowy alleyway. Here, the ground is uneven. It is slightly slanted to the left. Gaelen studies his surroundings; tall buildings loom over him, casting dark shadows into the narrow passage. A large green dumpster stands about a dozen feet from him, with bulging black plastic bags propped up against it. The alley is rather long, with a single sewer grate in the center. About every 20 feet (on the right side) is a new door. There are three doors.

Gaelen notices a sudden movement from behind the dumpster. A couple bare green-tinted toes inch further behind it, out of sight.

 

[Experienced Optimist]

Slowing to a stop, Gaelen let himself take in the details of the alley, noting each possible hiding spot amongst the uneven shapes and shadows. Just as he was going to accept that the goblin had gotten away from them, the barest movement caught his attention. Immediately his right hand went to his dagger, while he raised a finger to his lips with the free one towards Swats and Therion.

Without a word, he pointed to the spot where he’d seen the toes inch out of sight. Then, looking towards Swats, nodded up towards the rooftops. Perhaps if she could get up and over to the other side of the alley without the goblin noticing, they could pin it in before it had a chance to sprint off on them again.

With his eyes steady on the hiding spot, and after giving Swats a head start to get into position, Gaelen inched forwards carefully towards the goblin, before suddenly lunging at the spot in an attempt to snag and pin down their runaway.

Rolls:
Stealth to sneak up on goblin friend (Ignore that second roll, I clicked the wrong thing)
15 + 7 = 22

Strength (In case they do manage to get to the goblin without spooking it first)
5 + 1 = 6 (You’re pathetic Gaelen)

 

[Thanny]

- Swats-at-Light-a-Lot -

Swats felt very silly, grabbing at a brick rather superbly while it was levitating unexpectantly in an alleyway. Must have been some tear in the Weave or something similar, or maybe the brick was sentient and adored hovering four feet above the ground, very much like the cat Khoshekh in Night Vale, wherever that was. This was not something she knew of, and so she puzzled over this.

When Gaelen briefly offered his insight on tactical maneuvering, Swats nodded in agreement and attempted to scale the rooftop. Getting a running start, she performed a high jump, barely grabbing onto the edge of the rooftop and pulling herself further up. This was quite the difficult situation for someone with low strength, but she managed thanks to Gaelen's given headstart. Given the goblin knew of their position at the entry and hid, she figured that did not need stealth at the moment. There she remained for the moment, tuckered from all of the clambering, before carefully approaching from the rooftop and keeping an eye on the elf as he surged forward. She fell from the roof on the other side of the dumpster, hopefully blocking off the entrance.

Acrobatics roll: 16 + 2 = 18 (Thank you, dice! Mwah, mwah.)

 

[Shadeofshade]

RushingRiver Thanny Experienced Optimist

This was getting them nowhere, Therion could barely see a thing besides Gaelen and Swats and shortly realised he would need to…”Why is Gaelen telling us to be quiet?” He thought. He saw Gaelen make a motion towards something that Therion could barely make out. “Why? Did Gaelen see something? By Diancecht, who cares. He clearly saw something and I didn’t. Let’s see if I can be of some help.” He thought. Nodding once, Therion then took up a position by the entrance of the dark alley so he could at least see and prepared to do a grapple for if it came his way.

 

[RushingRiver]

With the group positioning to block each entrance, Gaelen creeps up from behind the dumpster and lunges out to grab hold of the goblin, just as Swats hops down from the roof. Gaelen, so focused on their escapee, that he failed to notice the rotten banana peel on the ground, stumbling and bashing the goblin up against the wall. The goblin yanks out a dagger from his pocket and stabs Gaelen in the side (3 damage) before jumping straight into the dumpster beside him. He quickly burrows under the trash until he is no longer visible.

 

[DreamingBlackbird]

A grin began curving up Andryn's lips. "I see we're on the same page with this one!" she remarks, taking a few more steps farther from the house and urging the half-elf to do the same. She knew full well that the others had trusted them to stay put, to avoid capture in case the initial plan failed--but Andryn realized that she wasn't good at that. She'd spent half of her life moving about, and she wasn't about to stop now. Sighing, the tiefling takes out a sheet of paper and an ink pen from her pack--essentials of a bartender, she'd argue--and begins writing out a message for Gaelen and the others.

Spoiler: Letter

Gaelen, Swats, Therion,

We're heading to a tavern called The Brewing Brown to get more information, especially regarding this goblin note. You'll find us there, we'll be taking the same route to and fro, so you'll hopefully come across us if we leave the tavern either way. Sorry for not following through with the original plan. We had to do something aside from twiddling our thumbs. Stay safe.

Andryn rereads the letter again for a moment, before putting the pen back down on the paper to add two more bits of information: a general map with directions to the Brewing Brown, and the writings on the goblin note. Hopefully the three names on the letter would understand. Gaelen, Swats, and Therion were risking their lives--it only seemed fair to even it out, right? Fair and stupid, perhaps, but still fair.

She places the paper directly on the floor in front of the entrance, pinning it down with some of the house's rubble. Hopefully it was easy enough to spot for anyone who would fully enter the house, but unseen to those merely passing by.

"Alright, let's go," she says, crouching and setting foot on the town proper as quietly as she could. Hopefully Orryna and her plate mail were faring just as much as she was, maybe even better. Andryn already had a few backup plans in her head should the guards catch them, but she preferred if they didn't. In her experiences, plans could only last so much, and succeed so little.


Items used:
Sheet of paper (1)
An ink pen

Rolls:
Stealth: 16 + 2 = 18

(just lemme know if I need to roll for another check or something RushingRiver )
clarinetti

 

[Thanny]

- Swats-at-Light-a-Lot -
RushingRiver Shadeofshade Experienced Optimist

Swats, seeing her acrobatics come to an end, let loose a smile, but the smile ended when she realised that Gaelen got stabbed by the goblin upon a failed grab. Filthy creature, she thought, wrinkling her short nose on her short muzzle in anger. Hiding in the trash after stabbing someone. Even if I was startled, I wouldn't reach for a weapon and flee into an enclosed area. He's either dim or not thinking straight.

"Therion, Swats has got this. Take care of Gaelen," she called out to her fellows, then eyeing the dumpster holding the goblin. "Goblin! Swats wishes you no harm, but wants question answered. If he runs further, he one might get hurt, so please answer honestly. Did he set fire to a building today, Swats wonders?"

Persuasion check: 17 + 2 = 19

 

[Shadeofshade]

RushingRiver Thanny Experienced Optimist

This was getting bad, Gaelen had just been stabbed and the one who they were trying to get had just dived into a dumpster. Swats told Therion what he needed to do and he was not going to argue. Therion came up to Gaelen and began casting his LV1 Cure Wounds spell (Gaelen heals for 10 HP = 7 from roll + 3 from Spell Wisdom Modifier). Small as the wound may have been, it still pierced the skin and that was all that was needed for him to cast a spell. "In the name of Diancecht, may your wound be healed and your health recovered."

Spell Slots

LV 1
1/2

 

[RushingRiver]

At Swats' gentle words, the goblin's head popped out from under the garbage. "If you truly meant no harm, you shouldn't have followed me around at midnight," he said dryly, raising his eyebrows slightly. "And no. I didn't set fire to Bok's Bar, and I don't know who did" he snapped, before ducking back under, rustling around in the garbage before falling silent.

 

[Thanny]

- Swats-at-Light-a-Lot -

"Then Swats will ask for any information goblin can provide later. A note was written in goblin, we know that much, but no one can read it. Swats has four gold and six silver in Swats' purse. It is the goblin's . . . if he finds out names." She looked at her companions, hoping that Gaelen would not resent her for trying to hire the person who stabbed him, or that Therion would not begrudge the idea of potentially more healing to do. It was missing something, though. A profitable secondary objective for the goblin if he could not achieve the jackpot. An idea clicked within her brain, and she looked back up to where the goblin would be. "Swats can give a gold piece if he will read the note to us, and if goblin cannot find out everything Swats will give one gold piece for every juicy detail Swats find valuable. Do not worry. Swats is very sensible . . . even knows good meetup place."

She held her head up high, trying her best to seem presentable to her "friend" in the trash.

"If there is an accord, Swats will leave after providing the meetup location or head out together now, provided others not try to stab goblin back." She tossed a cowing look at the others, trying to assure that they will be agreeable even after this stabbing.

 

[RushingRiver]

Not a sound came from the dumpster. Not even a squeak from the little mouse that scurried out from underneath.