Shane P Michael Wittman AC20, T16, FF15 (ucdodge) HP43/43 Me+9(4), R+9, CMB+7, CMD+18 Sunday May 31st, 2015 5:36:42 PM I think we should scout the place out and see what we are dealing with first. If I were a rat or thief I would have an escape route, maybe split the party and have one group waiting at the escape route and the other assaulting. in any case the lay of the land will effect the geometer of the battle. I'd like to try and get the women and the children out before we hit them. If there is one thing if learned in this life it's that it sucks to be a hostage.
Nikolai (JonathanT) AC 20 Tch 20 Ffted 17 HP 38/38 CMD 22/24(Grapple) Sunday May 31st, 2015 11:48:07 PM
Nikolai oversees the destruction of the sea trolls, glad to learn that they don't regenerate like their land cousins. He looks into the deep waters and wonders what treasure horde they've accumulated and sighs.
"I wish we could compensate the families of these sailors, but if they had any treasure, it will stay put for a long time."
Nikolai smiled inwardly as Pru's reputation grows when Hope mentions how the other female recruits think of her. His own mother was a formidable mage, but she was sent off with a battalion and never came back to the Citadel. Mixed in with many other mages, reputations are harder to garner. But here at the Citadel where most of the inhabitants are recruits, a reputation can stick easier. Of course Nikolai would rather such attention not be upon himself. He has no desire to have a cadre of recruits hanging around him all the time.
With the sailors healed or buried at sea the ship underway again, talk goes back to what plan to use once they arrive. A frontal assault is mentioned, a days' rest and some scouting is also mentioned.
"With the hat, each one of us can make a pass by the warehouse and study it some without raising suspicion so a scouting trip is a good idea. We can locate any obvious exits. I'd rather not just barge in, but gain entrance by subterfuge pretending to be Helmbane with Jasper wearing the hat. Once inside we try to find out where the families are being kept then let loose with all we got. Our group is too small to split up, unfortunately, otherwise having a couple enter through the back door would be a good idea too. But such places probably have traps against such a thing. Best we stick together."
There is still time before they need to choose a plan and the layout of the warehouse may give them some other option.
"At least for now, lets plan on a scouting trip. Tinker likes such things. Wearing the hat can try to get close and look for some means of stealthy entry we might try at night. Perhaps cut a section of roof of and go in that way. Just won't know anything until we get a look at it."
If the group agrees then, they'll first look for a decent inn to 'camp' out at, then start their scouting trips. Each one who wants, dons the hat, taking on some different look, then passing by the warehouse as best they can without raising suspicion.
AC 24 Touch 11 FF 23 CMD 18 HP(56) 51/51 Jasper Steelfist (David Feest) d8=2 ; d8=2 ; Monday June 1st, 2015 12:18:07 AM
Jasper overhears Prudence's response to Hope. His demeanor is light when he answers her question, but his face is serious.
"Lass, you don't seem to understand what they see in you. I belonged to this army for a long time, a long time ago. I know a few things about how they view recruits, and I have seen the file on your unit. Let me explain what they see, and why it inspires them." "Almost to a man, your unit was created to fail. You were an untrained farm girl, with no instinct to fight or kill anything. The halfling ranger you had never saw an order he couldn't find a way around. The cleric in your original group was stoned out of his mind half the time. Even when he knew where he was, he didn't have any martial training or inclination to gain any. Tinker is a dwarf, that has no roots as a dwarf. With no sense of who he is, they saw little to motivate him to accomplish much. Your halfling marksman was a crack shot, but a little more than slightly insane. Nikolai was from an old Fist family, and the paladin was the right kind of recruit to pass muster, but other than that, the double fist was put together to fail out elements that the command structure saw as weak."
"What the other women in the Fist see in you, and admire is that none of you let the command structure be right. You all did well on your individual written tests because you all knew how to think and act on your best hunch. The ones that fail that test are the ones that look at the question and say, 'but we were never taught that' and give up. Your double fist knew they were on the edge of failing out and applied themselves. So what if you don't know the answer? You know that putting SOMETHING down means you have a chance to be correct. So you guess at a few, and drive home the answers on the questions you know."
"Then after that showing they decided to test you in the field, thinking that surely you would fail at that. You were far from a homogenous unit. You were all different and all fought in a different manner. The thing they didn't count on was that you had everything to lose if you failed, which meant that failing was not an option. You blended your various styles together and made a great showing. Then there was the stealth test. Fist doctrine would have made you leave your loud heavy hitters behind and only use your stealthy assets. Instead, you used those without skill at stealth to distract your opponents and screen your stealthers, to great effect. Every time your should have failed, you came out on top."
"Why do they look at you as a shining example? Because against every wager to the contrary, a simple farm girl like you has not only managed to beat the odds, but to make the top of the scuttlebutt list while doing it. Do you think it is a coincidence that your success at holding off the gnolls at Hornfowl boils down to a tale near the end of the fight where you, a skinny farm girl not only stood tall and delivered when it was needed, but are credited with saving most of your fist by refusing to pass out or die like mst mages would have after being used as a chew toy by a massive hyena? Instead the tale goes that you kept burning the beast until IT fell over dead."
"Most soldiers don't want any kind of fragile mage in their unit because they feel they will have to risk their lives to keep that mage alive. Today, as if to add to your growing legend, you kept your entire Fist alive by putting you magic between us and those trolls. I'm old, and about as agile as a three legged cow. Dodging those trolls was going to do nothing to save my hide. But a quick bit o' magic and a touch from you, and I lived to be able to help save a couple of those sailors. You are the stuff of legends to those girls who are used to seeing a girl like Hope in the Fist, not a woman spell slinger. Maybe if some of those girls start believing in themselves because they have you as an example, then more competent women will join the Fist, and things like what Helmbane was originally reprimanded for won't happen."
"That's why you need to be the inspiration that you already are. Hope is proof herself that not only a man can fire a bow with speed accuracy and enough force to drive nails with the arrows. Soldiers expect that kind of strength from their shield mates. The kind of strength, fortitude and toughness you show every time you fight and return not only alive, but figuring prominently in your whole Fist returning alive makes those soldiers think it might not be so bad to have a mage in their Fist." Let them look up to you. Let them reach to be as good as they can be with you as an insperation. The Fist only grows stronger with idols like you to look up to."
Jasper heals himself and Pru since the plan seems to be to wait until tomorrow.
Jasper heals 5 hp Pru heals 5 hp
Notes Spells prepared: Light, Detect Magic, Purify Food and Drink, Detect Poison, CLW(domain), Bless, Entropic Shield, Shield of Faith, CMW(domain), Enthrall, Calm emotion 3/3 channel energy used ( 2d6 healing per use) 0/6 rebuke death used 0/6 calming touch used
AC 15+6 T15 F10 CMD 19 (23 Bull Rush or Trip); HP 42/42 "Tinker" (SteveK) Monday June 1st, 2015 6:53:08 AM
Tinker shakes his head and smiles. The older dwarf is a good companion (after a rocky start between them), and his heart is definitely in the right place, but he CAN talk your ears off. Tinker thinks a moment. Kind of like home with a family of gnomes", he murmurs before looking at Prudence.
"And why shouldn't women AND men look up to you, Bean Pole? You are a true and trusted battlemate." Tinker doesn't say any more because for him, that settles the matter right there.
Shane P Michael Wittman AC20, T16, FF15 (ucdodge) HP43/43 Me+9(4), R+9, CMB+7, CMD+18 Monday June 1st, 2015 10:46:41 AM
Michael listens to the old dwarf speak, thinks about his words, the contributions Pru has made and his personal experience with Pru. He then pats her on her lower back, smiles up at her and nods affirmative.
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