Chapter 6, Scene 2: Shan Mountain

[crueldespot]

Jiangu!, Chapter 6, Scene 2:28 Dawn in the Magical Inn

The heroes are awakened before dawn by the horrible tumoult of the evil spirits as they return to the palace. The loud unearthly noise is terrifying in the darkness, but a little more bearable than it was the previous night when they heard it for the first time.

Soon after, dawn breaks. Takeshi and Gizerak say their morning prayers and ask their respective patron dieties for the power to cast the spells they need to accomplish their plan.

It is still morning twilight as they leave the inn.



OOC: OK, time for you to narrate the execution of you plan. State what you attempt to do one set of actions (action by each person) at a time, so that I can respond with the outcome and possible NPC reaction.

[Boomlaor]

Takeshi smiles at the rest of the group as he rises from his prayers.

"My spider climb spell will last about two thirds of an hour. Shall I cast it here before we leave the inn to save time out there in the view of any guards?"

As he listens to their responses, he makes a series of intricate gestures and incantations over the prisoners' heads, fulfilling his end of Nimdor's bluff, finishing by smearing a bit of dust on the back of each of their necks.

ooc:

bluff is untrained, so cha check -1
spells prepared
0th: detect magic, mending, light, read magic, flare
1st: magic fang, shillelagh, produce flame, produce flame
2nd: Spider Climb, Spider Climb, Spider Climb

[Black Plauge]

Once the prisoners are taken care of, Fugen waits until the party is no longer in their presence before responding to Takeshi and indicating that unless the casting of the spell takes some time, then they were probably better off waiting a bit to make sure that they had as much of the duration of the spell available to them when they needed it, just in case.

[crueldespot]

Jiangu!, Chapter 6, Scene 2:29 Approaching the Palace

Takeshi's bogus ceremony is quite convincing. Nimdor almost wonders if Takeshi actually knew a spell matching the one he threatened.

Once they have left the prisoners in the abandoned inn, the heroes move up the road towards the palace. Soon they approach the bend in the road beyond which the gate will come into view, where they know the gatekeepers will be able to see them as well.




OOC
2:29 bluffs and sense motives (1d20=19, 1d20=2, 1d20=16, 1d20=16, 1d20=13, 1d20=13)

Horses left in the inn, I presume?

[Black Plauge]

Holding the group up before the bend, Fugen looks over the terrain to either side of the road to see if they can stay out of sight of the gate if they started their plan here.

[OOC: As much as I don't like leaving our mounts and prisoners in the same place, yes we left the mounts in the inn. The mounts would be in the inn's stables, and would have the proper feed etc laid out for them should they be on their own for a few days. Any mounts that know Guard or Defend would have been instructed with that trick (with another mount being the target for Defend), while those that don't would have simply been instructed to Stay.]

[crueldespot]

Jiangu!, Chapter 6, Scene 2:30 Sheer Drop Off

There is no terrain on either side of the road per se. On the right is a nearly vertical cliff up, and on the left is a sheer drop off into the upper atmoshere, with low clouds obscuring some of the terrain features below them.




OOC:
(picture carried forward from page 2 of this thread) The PCs are at about 1700 North/zero East on this map- a little over three "squares" (600 ft) from the entrance. If they get any closer, the curve of the mountain will no longer shield them and they will be visible to the gate.

[Black Plauge]

Signing, Fugen indicates that he thinks this is the place to start climbing the walls.

[Linklegacy77]

"I noticed this before, there is no approach up to the castle which has cover. Alternatives are to create our own cover, wait for the weather to oblige us, or find a different path. I don't think it will be foggy when we need it to."

[crueldespot]

Jiangu!, Chapter 6, Scene 2:31 Fugen Calculates

From their present location, the cliff to their right rises twenty feet. The cliff was created when engineers built the road by carving out a level space. Above the cliff, the mountain slopes upward at a 45 degree angle to the base of the palace walls. The mountain rises about 200 feet while crossing a horizontal distance of 200 feet to the base of the wall.

Fugen calculates...

If they were to begin their ascent here, then the heroes would become visible from anyone on the gatehouse battlements once they rose above the cliff which is concealing them. Using the spider climb spell, they would be exposed for about 45 seconds as they climbed the slope, then another thirty seconds as they ascended the palace wall.

[Black Plauge]

Straight up will leave us exposed for a little over a minute... How about some lateral movement to put distance between us and the gate first.

Looking at the cliff and the mountian slope above it back down along the road they just climbed, Fugen tries to figure out how far back down the road they would need to go to use the curve of the palace walls to block the gates line of sight to them as they climbed and how long of a climb that would result in.

[crueldespot]

They determine that the north gate tower would not have a line of sight on them if they climbed at the south end of the west tower. The corner of the west tower and curve of the mountain would block the view. They would need to start climbing from about 400 feet south (downhill) from the Magical Inn.

Of course, this would only block the view from the gatehouse. If someone were observing from the west tower, or the west side of the south gate tower...then they could be seen clearly.




OOC: Start of ascent 800 North / 650 West

[Boomlaor]

Takeshi evaluates their situation.

"I think here is as good a spot as any. Shorter climb at least."

With that brief comment, he casts spider climb three times.

"This will last about two thirds of an hour."

[Black Plauge]

Having thought about the options, Fugen reluctantly agrees with Takeshi. There was no real way to ensure they were unobserved, so making the climb as quickly as possible was the next best thing.

Grimacing in disgust at the act of swallowing a spider when Takeshi casts the spell on him, Fugen almost decides to refuse the spell. Almost. Trying to force himself to forget what he just did, Fugen takes the rope and starts using it to tie the larger members of the group together, paying special attention to the knots which connect Termix to everyone else since his levitation spell will leave him unable to move laterally. He also ties one lead each to Kierna, Flarrgj, and himself for the Gizerak, Takeshi, and Nimdor, but holds off on tying them to the small folk until Termix has cast the spells on them that will shrink them. Even though they would be riding on Termix, the rope would make sure that they didn't fall too far should something happen during the climb.

[crueldespot]

End of Scene 2. The adventure continues in Chapter 6, Scene 3: The Imperial Palace